Shark Quilt

Megan, my friend - you are a genius. All it took was the click of a very obvious tab, and my problem was solved. Thank you.

I don't have anything in particular to say. My life is consumed with potty training Rose. It was pretty horrible convincing her to sit on the potty, but once she did and had success, she decided it wasn't so bad after all. We're still in the beginning, so I'm not pushing my luck. Basically, we've been camped out in the dining room (where there are hard floors).

But I really wanted to share some pictures of a quilt I made my baby nephew for Christmas. His parents are water-loving people, so I went with that. The day after I finished it, I shipped it off to TX. But I did remember to take a few photos so I could remember it. Anyway, here it is:



No new projects on the horizon right now. I'm just trying to "get my house in order" as you might say. A very January thing to do.

Blogging woes

My blog is misbehaving, or at least Blogger is. When I try to upload a picture, I can't see the picture, just the code. I don't know why or how to fix it. I'm going to have Ryan take a look at it but if nothing can be done, I might be shutting down this blog. I'm not a good writer and rarely have anything very interesting to say - without pictures, it's not much. So I'll try to fix the problem and let you know how it goes.

by the way

Sorry if my blog posts look squished and weird. I'm still trying to get my computer to cooperate. I'm using a new browser which should help - but until that kicks in - it looks awful.

Days

Lately:

have spent the last two days with a quilt in my lap, hoping to be done today

saw a mouse in the garage - can't figure out where it's living, but it did clean the PB off the traps

need to start cooking again - real cooking

just realized Christmas is in less than two weeks - lots to do

starting to get excited to have the kids home for the break

am on a perpetual elf hat hunt - checked 6 stores with no luck - my elf may just be hatless in the upcoming school play

almost had flowers delivered to me yesterday - only to catch the delivery guy getting back into his truck, the flowers were for someone on the next street named Dawn - oh well

had a better day with my 3-year-old yesterday - only 11 1/2 more months to go...

One of those days

Clarie snapped this picture of Rose, being Rose

Today was one of those days I do not wish to repeat. Actually, most of my day was OK really. It was this evening...when it all went to pot. I love my dear daughter, I really do, but I'm at my wits end. Having Rose around when I'm trying to run errands or do anything important really is like have some sort of personal gremlin, sent to torture me. I thought things would get better since the twos were so awful, but that proved to be wrong. Three-year-olds are crazy. That's all I can say and keep thing polite.

Hiccups

Rose ready for a walk with Dad

(the puzzle pieces are in her backpack, but she insisted on carrying the empty puzzle box in her hand)

It seems to be getting darker earlier and earlier around here. I don't really mind it. I'm just grateful for portable heaters, fleece vests, wool socks and lap blankets. After living in places with cold winters for almost half my life, my preference scale is starting to tip towards places with cold winters over hot summers. Luckily here is St. Louis, we get the best of both worlds. But every time I go to Texas in the summer, I melt.

Life continues on as normal here, despite a few small hiccups (my antique spice rack falling off the wall - which was loaded with spices) or large hiccups (like my dryer kicking the bucket). But with good friends to help out, we just keep sailing through.

I would be lost without my friends.

Toasty

Pictures of my baking center, as promised. I have plans to add some shelves on the wall above to store my baking supplies in jars, but it'll have to wait for awhile. And one day, when I get beautiful mixing bowls, etc, they will go on the shelves below. It takes time to know what I want there. I love love love having this extra working room. Such a blessing!

So I killed the toaster the other day. I dropped it. When I told Ryan, who was still in bed at the time, he asked "That's what I heard?!" I dropped it nice and hard; almost on Claire's feet.

Being toast people, I thought I had better get out there and get us a new toaster and quick! I wanted to get a better one, but when it came down to it, I got the exact same kind, even though I kind of hated our toaster. It had 10 settings, but if the dial accidentally was turned up to 3, a piece of charcoal would eventually pop out. Which made me think, what would happen at lets say, setting 6? An inferno? What about setting 10!? A mushroom cloud maybe?

Maybe I should have spent the extra $20 for the primo toaster (primo according to Target...) so I wouldn't have to babysit my toast anymore. But maybe, just maybe, the maker of my red chrome Oster toaster will have gotten the settings toned down sometime in the last 6 years since I bought the original. I did notice that this new red chrome Oster toaster only has 6 settings...

And that brings me to the movie, "The Brave Little Toaster". Any of you remember that? I loved watching it on TV as a kid, but when I checked it out from the library to watch with my kids, I found it to be really weird and disturbing. My kids didn't like it at all...so what was wrong with me when I was a kid?