Earth Day

Nope, we didn’t do anything to “celebrate” Earth Day (April 22nd, people!) Erm, I was sick. And pregnant. And tired. And …..

But, lookee here!

How pretty is that? See, I had good intentions. And I do think that being mindful of our environment everyday is more important than one big gesture once a year (unless your gesture is planting a forest or something. If that’s the case, grand gestures are super awesome!)

So, my job is to foster mindfulness in the Turtle. And, um, it’s one of those things that I sometimes wish I never started. Picture yourself, on the beach, laden down with stuff, pregnant, tired, ready to go when you hear a shout of “MOM! Trash!” and off goes your 3 year old, haring over the dunes after a piece of rubbish some eejit left on the beach. And you have to give chase. Then you get “Here Mom, you carry it.” As if you have as many arms as an octopus.

Then there’s his obsession with ‘cycling (recycling to you and me). EVERYTHING has to be examined for the recycling symbol. And woe betide anyone who tries to throw away any ‘cycling. I bought some new flip flops the other day. Apparently they can be recycled. I was very lucky they weren’t recycled before I put them on my feet.

Enthusiasm like this is something to be fostered and celebrated even if it can be annoying. With it, there may be hope for our planet’s future.

Everyday is Earth day.

 

(p.s. The pattern for the tree comes from here)

Tags: craft, embroidery, Random thoughts

The craft room

I’m a bit f of a haphazard crafter. I grab whatever I need to complete a project, then abandon it willy nilly, somewhere on the floor. I can never find anything. The clear ruler is the bane of my life. I can never, ever, ever, EVER find it. This is what my craft room usually looks like:

Please note the big pile of clothes for recycling. I may be a bit over ambitious.

But a day to myself, a drill and a new bookcase to put together and, it’s transformed! Well, a bit.  By the way, having an uneven floor and being too pregnant to move the bookshelf is more than a bit frustrating.

After

The recycle pile is trimmed and sorted! Joy!

It’s much easier to work now that I have space. And can find things! So I have been busy beautifying my space:

I love being up there now.

The Hubby said “Wow! It’s like a real room.” High praise indeed.

Tags: crafts, Random thoughts

Mini Pinterest addict

I, like a lot of people I know, seem to have become addicted to Pinterest. What can I say? Pretty pictures are pretty.
The Turtle seems to have become a bit addicted too though. He crawls up beside me and says “We need to make this and this and this. Please Mammy. Please.” He has a good eye that boy. That’s how I ended up making these:

The bear, of course is “Captain Barnacles”, he of Octonauts fame. Slightly adapted from this pattern.

And the yellow fella is a Sneetch. The Sneetches is a wonderful book by Dr. Seuss. Here’s the pattern so you can make it yourself. You know you want to!

Tags: crafts, crochet, Random thoughts

Thankful

Me: “I taught him how to put on his shoes today.”

Hubby: “He’s getting so big … he’ll be four soon.”

Me: “If we were in Ireland he’d be starting school in September.”

H: “I’m not ready for that.”

Thank goodness!

I’m not ready either.

Honestly, I think if we were in Ireland, I would be so ready. But we’re lucky enough to live in a place where it’s sunny 98% of the time. There are loads of things for us to do. And we’re members of almost everything, the zoo, aquariums, museums, state parks, everything. It’s cheaper than preschool

Still, it’s awesome that we’re on the same page. About this and so many other parenting things. (Even if it is as I suspect and it’s merely a matter of me having strongly held opinions about things that he hasn’t thought about and him gamely jumping on board my crazy ship.)

 

So, the Turtle still comes into our bed at night. Almost every night. On the nights that he doesn’t, this is what happens:

Me, (around 5am) eyes pop open, something feels wrong. Whisper: “Where is he?”

H: “He must be still sleeping … Will I go and check if he’s ok?”

Me: “No, that’s ok.” (Phew, I’m not a weirdo for considering the very same thing!)

 

And the new addition? There is no question that s/he will be in our room for at least a year. And I won’t be the only one staring at a sleeping baby at ridiculous o’clock, watching them breathe.

 

Yep, I’m thankful. Thankful for the shared madness.

Tags: parenting, Random thoughts

Dum de dum…

Attic 24′s teeny tiny flowers

And her teeny tiny hearts.

And some stars from A Foothill Home Companion.

Now adorning my craft room wall. The effort to inject colour continues. And is bringing me great joy.

I think I need to make more. Maybe birds and butterflies and um….

Just need to wait for Walmart to get in some more canvases!!

(The canvases are 8x 10, and I realise now that I should have taken a picture to show scale. They really are teeny tiny, and lovely!)

Tags: crafts, crochet, Random thoughts

Colour me inspired!

I love Lucy over on Attic 24. I want her to adopt me, so that I can live in her lovely attic and drown in all of the lovely colouredyness. (Lovely, lovely, lovely!)

Our house is a bit bland. I’m slowly trying to inject some colour. I figure the craft room is a good place to start. If I like being in there, maybe I’ll keep it a bit tidier. Or something. At the moment every time I go in there I leave it looking as though a tornado has hit it. If I prettify it, maybe I’ll keep it tidy. That is the theory.

Down to business. Look. Look. Look.

Colourful storage jars. One for knitting needles, one for crochet hooks and one still empty for the moment. ♥♥♥

And for the wall:

Lucy’s teeny tiny flowers. On canvas, naturally. The vase is simply cut out of a fat quarter and glued on (spray adhesive is awesome!) Happy, happy, joy, joy. I have a few more flowers that may or may not adorn a suitable twig/branch in the not too distant future. I just can’t decide if I can pull off twigs. We’ll see.

Tags: crafts, crochet, Random thoughts

Finally finished!

I have been working on these projects for what seems like years. It has, however, only been months.What can I say? I’m easily distracted.

I decided I didn’t like that shade of yellow when I already had one of the squares done. And I couldn’t back out. I do like the purple and green though. I just wish the yellow had a bit more “oomph”. Still, it’ll hardly matter when it’s covered in baby poop and puke

And look at the back:

Styling green jersey! Plenty of “oomph”!! Here’s the pattern. Choose your colours carefully!

And then there’s this:

Cute! And currently adorning my craft room wall. This is the reason why I started embroidering canvases. The fabric is too light. And a complete pain to work with. So it was abandoned. For a while. But the “I started so I’ll finish” mentality kicked in. That and the fact that my craft room is a bit dreary. Colour is the thing!

More colour coming soon!

Tags: crafts, crochet, embroidery, Random thoughts