Yarn Wreath

I've had the hardest time finding some way I like to dress up this yarn wreath I started. I was just playing around with it a couple of days ago and made it up into a Valentine's Day wreath with a boa of Hazel's and some scrapbook paper. So that'll dress up the door for a couple of weeks, but after that, it's back to the drawing board. It might wind up under my bed. We'll see.
Also, I think my front door is not awesome for wreath hanging. All that address-label/huge doorbell box business really detracts from the overall balance of it. Ug. Wreaths on pinterest are always hung on gorgeous front doors. Where's mine? Oh well. Work with what you've got.

Feather Wreath

I made a wreath for Hazel's room out of a feather boa. It is absurdly girly, and she is in love with it. She requested that I hang it somewhere she can reach it so she can touch it and bury her face in its softness. We'll see how long it lasts before it's completely weather-worn! ps. I can't wait to get a phone that takes better pictures!

Crafts, etc

Pinterest inspired me to get a little creative with some of my Christmas presents this year. It was tons of fun for me to shop at craft stores and try to make something beautiful. I'll have to get more into projects this year.

Behold, the dry-erase marker calendars I made for Emily and Doug, and Scott and Caprice:

The initial wall-hanging for my 70's style lovin' sister Kathryn:
And the wreath I made for my mom:I've been v-e-r-y slowly working on a yarn wreath for my dining area. The covered section in the photo took 20 minutes, folks! Is there something I should know about more efficiently making a yarn wreath? I am wrapping a water weenie! Ha ha. I got it all covered, then decided it was too skinny to be so wide, so I unwrapped the whole thing, cut out a five or six inch chunk, and am about halfway done wrapping it again. Sigh. I'm still not sure how I'll adorn it when I'm done. It's not top priority right now.

In other news, Todd and I have a tradition of buying a new game every year for New Year's Eve. We trade off whose turn it is to pick it out, and go into extensive research trying to find something we'll love. It's been tricky, but rewarding, looking for games that are fun to play with just two players. This year Todd bought Ticket to Ride. We played it four times in a row. Other successful games from past years include Carcassonne and Mr. Jack. Check them out!

Todd's Birthday

Todd's birthday is the day after Christmas. Every year for as long as I have known him, we have been with his family on his birthday and I haven't ever made him a cake or really had a chance to spoil him.

This year was different. I rocked it for his birthday. Not only did I make him his ultimate favorite treat, raspberry dessert, as his birthday cake, but I got him the gift of his dreams: a glass blowing class.
Todd's been interested in glass blowing for years. Every time we see a spot that does it, he wants to look. When Todd came back from Afghanistan, we rendezvoused in a hotel decorated with blown glass art. When we went to Italy, we took a day trip over to Murano to see all the glass works. So when the idea of taking a class ourselves came to me way back in October, it was a stroke of genius. I've been privately gloating for months just waiting for this.

We took the class last weekend, while my mom would be here and could watch the kiddos, and when kiddo #2 would for sure be outta me. A man named Doug runs a little glass blowing shop in Half Moon Bay and offers classes. The one we took gave us the chance to make one of three items: a paperweight, a heart, or a pumpkin. We both chose the pumpkin.

And now, a few pictures. First, we dipped a long metal pole into this furnace of molten glass. We gathered up the glass on the tip of the pole like we were picking up honey with a spoon, turning it around and around as we carefully lifted it out.
Then we put it inside a super hot oven while we kept turning it in circles to help it keep a round shape.
This process was repeated a few times, and occasionally we had to roll our glass along a slab of steel, which helped the glass to cool as it shaped.
To color the class, we'd dip it in for fresh "honey," then roll it in colored powder while it was super hot, followed by the oven to bake it all in.
And sometimes we'd sit down and roll it back and forth, too, as it cooled. We added a few layers to it, giving our pumpkins a cool double look, where you can see a more solid piece inside a clearer piece.
We got the pumpkin shape by pressing the hot glass into a mold.
Doug added the stem on while we were sitting and rolling it, then we pulled it up with a metal tool to give it some shape.
Doug took the pumpkin off the pole by hitting it sharply. Then he went over the whole thing with a blow torch to smooth out any sharp spots.
They had to sit in another furnace or kiln for a day to cool off gradually so that the glass wouldn't break. We went to pick them up yesterday and had a beach day while we were there, which I will blog about next. Mine is the green one, and Todd's is blue.

Project Complete

Ah. It's so nice to know what you're going to name your baby before they're born. It certainly makes it easier to get ahead on projects. Look what I just finished:Hazel's name letters weren't done until two months after she was born.

Looking at these, I feel relieved. I wasn't sure how to take a craft and make it masculine, but I definitely didn't want Jack to have girly letters. I think it turned out well. Phew.

He and Hazel will be sharing a room. It's slowly metamorphosing into a room for a girl and a boy to share. When we moved Hazel to a big girl bed, she got a green polka dot comforter. Dots are girly, but green is good for all. We're getting there. I think it's just going to have to be okay that there are pink things in there, as well as blue. Here's Jack's small segment of the room:He's going to be in a bassinet in mine and Todd's room for the first little while. By little while, I hope I mean just a few weeks. I do not sleep well sharing a room with a wee one. We"ll have to take it a day at a time, though, and see how all four of us adjust.

Meanwhile, I'm dilated to a two, but hoping to make it til January before Jack's born. We'd like to keep him spaced a little bit from Christmas. So, watch, he'll be born on Christmas Day, right? We'll see.

Easy Baby Book

When Hazel was born, Todd's sister Laura gave me one of the best gifts ever thought of - a beautiful and simple, ready-to-fill baby book. It had a cover page with Hazel's name on it, and then each two-page spread after that was dedicated to one of the first twelve months of Hazel's life. Laura had already done all the cutesy paper/sticker/doo-hickey decorating and had it all ready to go so that all I had to do each month was print out one 5x7 picture of Hazel and fill in a 3x5 card with sweet details of Hazel highlights. It was so easy for me to stay up to date, despite being a tired and sometimes sad single mom with a husband overseas and a baby with a clubfoot that required so much attention. I am so thankful for that gift! It was all done a month or two after Hazel's first birthday, and now she loves to look through the "Hazel Book."
Another great thing about this baby book being so simple, is that it's completely do-able with the follow-up children. I just finished making Jack's. (I knew it had to happen before he comes for it to remain an "easy" project.) Not counting the time I spent shopping for supplies, I spent a grand total of about 4 hours putting the book together. Now it's ready to go when he gets here, and I know I'll be able to keep a record of at least the first year of his life. ;) I had to spread the news because I think these baby books are revolutionary!

Great Day

Nana (my mom) is here visiting for a week and a half, and really only had three things on her agenda:
1. Bond with Hazel as much as possible,
2. Help Todd and me in any way she can, and
3. See the beach.

So we took a jaunt down to our favorite beach spot, Manresa, today. Hazel dug in the sand, fell in love with seaweed pods, cheered for surfers, and walked as far away as she thought she could get away with, and then would run back and fling herself into my arms.
My mom oogled over the way the sand felt on her feet and the sound of the waves crashing, wondered what type of bird that was that dived straight down to snatch fish out of the ocean, and rolled up her jeans and let the waves wash over her up to her knees. I wished I didn't have a tired toddler so I could let her stay there all day. My mom is a woman who needs to live closer to the beach. She said on the drive home that the waves had been calling to her to come swim.

Mom's face as she came back from standing in the crashing waves. Priceless.

I was floored that Hazel didn't fall asleep on the drive home, nor did she settle down for a nap during an entire hour spent in her room afterwards. This is the first day in her entire life Hazel hasn't taken a nap at all, and come on, people, you need one after playing at the beach! The sun, water, and wind take a toll on your energy. In order to occupy her without taking her outside and getting stranded with a tired girl who whined and begged her pregnant mom to carry her, I got out a project I've been wanting to do with her for a while now.

Hazel's latest hobby is to gather "treasures" when we're outside. She comes back each time with leaves, acorns, rocks, pine boughs, seeds, snail shells, sticks, and more. I've been saving them in a gallon-size ziplock bag for a day just such as today.
We made a collage on contact paper. I taped one piece down to the table with painter's tape and let her lay out her assortment in whatever manner suited her fancy. Then I covered the whole thing with another sheet of contact paper to hold it all together.
It was super fun and easy to do, and Hazel loved looking through several weeks worth of her treasure hunting. The sad part is the contact paper was not as sticky as I would have liked, so things are still moving around quite a bit. It's definitely going to be displayed short-term, rather than becoming a lifetime memorabilia. Still, I recommend it, especially while it's fall and there's so many interesting things on the ground outside to collect!

Putting Bunny to sleep instead of smiling at the camera.

This Week's Project

This week I've been working on some picture frames to hang in Hazel's bedroom. I started with three wood frames we were no longer using and painted them using leftover paint from her bedroom wall in Utah. They needed three coats (especially the yellow one). I did one coat a day, to give the brushes time to dry after being washed. That was the longest step.
I matted them using a receiving blanket with a pattern I love. One blanket was big enough for all three frames. I measured using the backing, not the width of the entire frame. First I ironed the blanket so it would be smooth when it went in.
Then I layed the cardboard backings on it and cut the fabric around them. I left enough fabric to pull up behind each (I checked to make sure that wouldn't be too thick to fit, first.
Then I pulled up each edge one at a time and taped it on, simple as that! I tugged it really tight to make sure it would look smooth. I even tucked in the corners and just taped them in place, bulky fabric and all. I did cut down the fabric at the spots where you hang them.
Then I put them in the frames, just so. I haven't ordered my prints yet, so I didn't bother to put in the glass, but you get the idea.
When I place the pictures in them, they'll look something like this:
I'm pretty excited about it! And to think, the only cost of this project is the picture developing. Everything else I used was just sitting around the house, begging to be used.