St. Paddy's Day decor

Bringing some St. Paddy's day cheer to Hank's room

Shamrock decorated closet doors (to replace the hearts)

A rainbow mobile (so easy to make - just cut half circles 1/2" or so progressively bigger size with the center cut out to form an arch. The pieces were then thread on a piece of clear thread and weighted down with an old arcade token)

Love putting this stuff up sneakily at night in order to hear Hank wake up the next morning saying whhhooa - look at that!

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Favorite of the day: Will try to do a few of these ideas tomorrow if I don't run out of time!

Working on: Wreath

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Paper pizzas

I'm sure by now many of you have heard of muffin tin meals. Such a fun concept, and have been meaning to do this for the Hankster with real food.

In the mean time, we have been having fun with a paper version of the muffin tin concept - to decorate a pizza! This idea was copied from a counting project Hank did at school using numbered mushrooms. I took it a step further to come up with 12 toppings (to fill the muffin tin) that Hank could use to glue on his own personal pizza.

(This was an activity from yesterday with makeup pics taken today. I didn't want to subject you to another week of looking at my filthy shower until I remembered to shoot some action pics...)

The shapes are kind of hokey (a pig face to represent ham, and orange triangles to represent cheese - come on!), but this is the kind of stuff Hank loves. He has enjoyed assembling his own custom pizzas. Heavy on the olives - same as he likes his real pizza.

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Favorite of the day: Too busy to do much surfing

Working on: A new wreath

Happy V-Day!

Here are a few highlights from our day ~

Dad (actually one of our guests, Uncle Jimmy, first, then dada) woke up to a shower filled with fun sayings a la How Does She. This gift was supposed to come with a clean shower, too, and I left a note to that effect. Loove the shower crayons as a gift idea, and scored a few sets on clearance at Target for $2.50 to stash away for gifts.

Hank woke up to a "heart attack" with mama made paper hearts adorning his closet doors. Little does he know that his dad gave his mom's apartment a heart attack many years ago, and some nice young lady "spotted" (same idea but with circles) his dad's house years before that.

Then we exchanged gifts - mama received chocolate and a book light for her Kindle, Hank enjoyed his robot and the chocolate that came with it, and dada received

a comic book. Scud #5 to be exact. Scud came into the picture again after a long hiatus, with BT reading an entry on Reddit about a recent issue of Communitywhere the case members played AD&D 2e, which is an old school version ofDungeons & Dragons that BT may or may not play on occasion (but, if he admits to playing, he would want me to clarify he plays an edition even older than this one. Not that anyone is admitting to anything.) So anyway, when they are telling the back story of a character called "Fat Neil," there is a scene with falling comic books. One of them is an issue of Scud: The Disposable Assassin - a rather obscure comic written by Rob Schrab who is friends with Dan Harmon - writer/executive producer for Community. Somehow these guys are linked to Parks and Recreation, which is one of my fave shows. Did you get all that? Our Venn diagram of interests has few overlaps. I'll take 'em.

When BT and I were dating, we frequented many comic book stores. I never knew what he was into at any given time (just that he liked Marvel - NOT DC) and what his mission was, but mine was always to look in the used comics bins for Scud #5. It is a rare comic, but not too pricey. Why? Because not many people have it on their radar. It is was a fun read if I recall correctly, and I liked the graphics. At any rate, though I vowed many years ago not to turn to Ebay to find Scud #5, I finally broke down and did just that. Mission complete.

On the way to school, Hank and Mama stopped at Krispy Kreme for mini sprinkle donuts for ourselves and Hank's teachers. We then brought our classroom Valentines to school

made using robot wind up toys from the Target party section (I stash wind up toys in my purse to pull out when we are at a restaurant and need a distraction), Smarties, and the bags are closed with pages from a notepad from the Target dollar section.

Mama then went to work with her free Valentines from Krispy Kreme (each good for one free donut - score!) and these

made using the Family Fun tutorial (I couldn't find Big Red so I made paper sleeves for the gum to keep the wings from getting pulled down by the rubber band) and the perfect addition - these flags from giverslog.

We had dinner at home with our guests, and realized Hank gets severe diaper rash when he eats too much sugar. Would it be wrong to tell him that he is allergic to sugar when he is inclined to eat too much crap as he gets older?

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Favorite of the day: Just liked reading about people sharing the love

Working on: I didn't even get the dishes done!

Hey there Little Red Riding Hood

We had a birthday party today - a 3rd birthday for a little Valentine baby. I decided to make her a Little Red Riding Hood cape (using this tutorial - modified to use ribbons for ties)

Have you seen these cute story book Playdough sets?

I am kind of in love with them. Of course, there is a red Riding Hood set, but distracted mama grabbed the Three Little Pigs set by accident (doh - I just saw the wolf). No matter - still made for a cute gift in a Little Red Riding Hood-esque basket.

Our countdown is complete - we are looking forward to V-day tomorrow!

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Favorite of the day: Next year's treats?

Working on: Making tri-tip that doesn't suck

Another small room update

for the little guy. Still in transition to a big boy room, but have updated a few more elements (see previous update here)

We did do the "bookshelves" as promised. They are spice shelves from Ikea (Bekvam) as seen on Ohdeedoh. This is such a great idea!! Fit really well in a narrow space, and actually hold a lot of books (I added books selectively for the pic, but usually they are filled with 8-10 books each!) Books have been toppled from the shelves, but so far the shelves have not been used as a ladder. Pshew.

Another swap out was to replace a monkey-faced rack with this handmade version. I bought the wood cut off etsy, then mounted it on a piece of wood with routed edges from Michaels. I painted wooden door knobs to add to the bottom. I decided to leave the rest of the piece unpainted for now.

The last thing to change out will be the crib for a bed. I know this is a transition many parents dread, but we are really really dreading it. Hank is sooo super strong-willed. Some nights when I am watching him flailing around in his crib, banging his head, or screaming at the top of his lungs, that back in the old days they may have thought he was possessed. If somebody sold me a magic elixir, I would probably would have bought it. But, other nights we find the proper compromise between what he wants and what we need (a break!), and things go much more smoothly. In any case, trying to hold off on the bed as long as we can!

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Favorite of the day: BT wishes I would make these for Monday

Working on: Valentines

His heart goes beep beep beep

Here is part of Hank's present for Valentine's Day

A robot made using one of Ms. Hillary's excellent patterns (the complimentary pattern to Space Boy). I had a lot of fun putting together the fabrics, and designing the control panel

I have a stash of robot printed fabric on hand, but didn't want to go overboard using it. Some can be found on the control panel, and I used a piece on his back, just 'cause it was so cute and matched the colors I chose for the rest of the robot.

Robots are also going to come into play for the Valentine greetings Hank is giving away! On the hunt for any cute robot inspired V-day greetings - have you seen any?

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Favorite of the day: Ipod Valentine greetings

Working on: Cleaning and relaxing

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Still wary as we begin my Chinese Zodiac year, the Year of the Rabbit (I wore red pjs last night!), but that's no reason to be stingy on the first day of the Lunar New Year.

I left little envelopes (see all the cute Chinese Zodiac animals - gotta love the Japanese dollar store!) with a Year of the Rabbit scratcher lottery ticket (holiday coordinated scratchers - gotta love the California lottery!) plus a fortune cookie on the desk of all the employees in the office. Most of the staff are at a conference this week, so we don't know yet if anybody won big.

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Favorite of the day: The basics

Working on: Domo arrigato, Mr. Roboto

The fabric that wouldn't diiiiiiieee

I picked up this fabric thrifting several years ago.

It was about a yard and a half total, and seemed like it would have many possibilities. I loved it, then liked it - enough so that I was still willing to use it and get rid of it, versus donating it back to the thrift store.

You saw a small piece of this fabric used here

(Sarah posted pics of Sammi's room today and it is gorgeous, just like Sammi herself!)

A project you did not see since I fell off the blog wagon around Christmas was this pillow. It was a gift for the littlest Bluebird girl's birthday, made using the fabric sewn over a pillow form and the rest of the red yarn from the Christmas gift pompoms knit into a cover. The pillow was adorned with crocheted flowers from Ikea (Lusy). In hindsight, I wish I had just given Lizzie the flowers to sew on herself, as she is old enough to do such things now.

I have cut up the fabric so many times intending to make different projects that I ended up with a bunch of long strips and random squares - not very helpful. The final project for the fabric that would not die ended up being this wreath

made by tying strips of the fabric around a styrofoam wreath form, adding one of these paper mache hearts, and a cute sticker from a dear friend.

One small scrap is left - I can live with that.

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Favorite of the day: Heidi rocks my world again

Working on: All robot, all the time

A countdown

to Valentine's Day

(akin to the paper chain used as a countdown at Christmas)

Heart shapes were hand cut the old fashioned way, by folding a sheet of paper in half, and, still folded in half, cutting out the center. I then cut through the edge of each heart, linked them all together, and used tape to cover the place where they were cut. When you go to string them together, you will see a handy dandy loop is formed where two hearts link together, so you can run your string through at that point.

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Favorite of the day: 65 cent chili burgers at Tommy's!

Working on: A robot