The Busy Book! It Is Done!

I have a lot of pictures of things I made for people this Christmas, but those people read this blog (or so I've been led to believe), so those will have to come after Christmas. But, once again, I felt it was okay to spoil the surprise as to what I'me getting Josephine since she can't read yet. So, I give to you, THE BUSY BOOK!

Please enjoy my braggy photos. It was a labor of love (so I hope she likes it!)

 Matching shapes

Whales and fish that move back and forth through the water 

A lion with a shaggy mane 

Flowers that can be buttoned and unbuttoned and put into the pot/pocket 

Lace curtains hanging over the window 

Barn doors open to reveal stalls and pig and cow finger puppets

I am SO glad I got the idea to make this back in October, because it ended up taking a MONTH to make. Sometimes that was because I was being meticulous, other times it was because I needed something and had to wait until the next day (or longer) to get back to the craft store, and a few times because I had to take a break when I got all frazzled in the brain.

But it is done. DONE! I don't have a tutorial for you, but I can give you the basic rundown:

After you choose your designs, 

1. Cut things out

2. Sew to felt

3. Sew pages together with embroidery floss, using a blanket stitch

4. Put grommets on pages

5. Put rings through grommets

Wow, when you put it that way, it sounds easy. :)

(One last photo for Pinterest purposes.)

AND Here We Go Again With the Crazies

My kid is sick. SHIT. 

Okay, okay, we are actually SO VERY lucky that Josephine is healthy in general these days. In fact, I seriously cannot remember the last time she was sick. I can't even remember the last time she had a runny nose. I couldn't even find her saline nose spray right away because it had been so long since we'd used it.

I thought a new outfit might help with the sickies:

Eh. Still not feeling so great, mom. But she looks SO CUTE, even with the snotty nose.

But then Yo Gabba Gabba! came on. This led to dancing around the house:

And showing off her belly button (she's pretty big on showing kids her belly button these days):

Of course, that tired her out and she spent the next half hour with her head on my lap, but if she can muster the energy for some dancy-dance, I think we'll make it.

And, this cold (virus?) is a little easier than the last because she can blow her nose. Of course, it would be nice if she ONLY did it when I was holding a tissue up to her nose and not just at any given moment. :)

Unfortunately, every little cold also takes me back to the time when Josephine was sick and no one knew why. Yes, we obviously have it MUCH better than many people; it "only" took two months to discover the problem, and then we were able to fix it. And although those two months were excruciating and heart-breaking, they really were only two months. She got better, and now she is healthy and happy. 

I know there are millions of kids who are not so lucky, and I would never put our issues on par with theirs, but there are also millions of kids who don't have to go through two months of agony because her doctors couldn't discover a simple problem, and I have such tremendous guilt over all of it. Why didn't I take her to different doctors? Why didn't I discover the problem myself? Why did I let her go through all of that and let her get the point that she had to be hospitalized and ... oh my god, the hospital. I try really hard not to remember the details of the visit. Tubes, an IV that took an hour of poking to start, starving her for 24 hours to "restart" her stomach lining ...

Again, I know many children go through much worse, but considering how simple the solution was to our problem, I should have been able to discover it much sooner and save her from all those terrors. 

Many people have given me excellent advice on what I need to do to forgive myself and move on from all of that, but I really feel like it was my fault that the first few months of her life were filled with pain. That's something I don't see myself getting over anytime soon, and any little sniffle takes me right back there. 

Aside from all of that damage, I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but every little sickness sends me to that place -- that place where I realize there are oh-so-many things I cannot control and there are so so many things that are going to hurt my little girl, and there is nothing I can do about many (most) of those things.

For (a very weird) example, Jeremy and I are REALLY over renting, and we have been looking at houses and looking at neighborhoods and researching schools and all of that jazz. It is S-L-O-W, to say the least. Yesterday, while driving home from doing errands, Josephine and I drove past one of the houses we looked at recently, and since it is in one of the neighborhoods we don't know much about yet, I couldn't help but play one of the (many, ridiculous, constant) possible future scenarios in my head: We live in that house, and Josephine is in school, and tells a classmate where she lives, and that brat says something about her living on the wrong side of town.

Tangent: In school we once had to do this whole big project about our hometown and get in groups and make up songs and blah blah blah, and one group got up and sang their song, and one of the lines was "Although everything north of the tracks goes downhill." Guess who lived north of the train tracks? Yeah. Me. And seriously, this town was like10 blocks by 4 blocks, and only two of the blocks were north of the tracks, and there was actually NO "bad" part of town. To be fair, there was some less-than-lovely homes North of the track and WEST of main street, but EAST of main street (MY neighborhood) was LOVELY, and even the not-so-lovely homes were PRETTY nice. Instead of being like, "Whatever, they're fools," I was SO EMBARRASSED. I was crushed beyond belief, and was CERTAIN that all four of those people were staring right at me when they sang the song, and were talking about me when they wrote it. 

It was a stupid thing to get upset about, but that didn't stop me from feeling upset. And I imagined some brat kid saying something like to Josephine, and my stomach started churning.

If I stopped and thought about it, I could think of plenty of appropriate responses to the situation, but my first instinct was cuddle Josephine until she falls into a blissful slumber and then hunt down that child and punch him in the face. INappropriate. But this is how my mind works. And I'm sure I'm not alone in that either. I have a feeling there are plenty of other moms who are normally non-violent and logical who also imagine punching kids. PLEASE tell me there are other people who feel like this.

AND ... this all came from Josephine being a little sick. I weep for my future if this is how crazy I have become since becoming a mother.

If you have any sort of compassion, I would adore a comment telling me you can commiserate. :)

This is why they invented cameras in cell phones

You're driving along, driving along, singing "Old MacDonald" for the TEN THOUSANDTH time, headed to the Hobb Lobb to buy more felt (SHUT UP), when you spot THIS:

You might be thinking, oh, that's a strange-looking toy cat. Guess what? That is a cat that was once alive and now is stuffed. And it LIVES IN THE BACK WINDOW OF HER CAR.

I wonder why the ears are down like that. Did she want to remember her cat how he was when pissed and hissing? Or is the taxidermy job old and the ears are just fading? SO MANY QUESTIONS.

My only wish is that I had followed her to her destination, waited for her to leave the car, and gotten super-close to get a better picture. 

I need to re-examine my priorities.

But so does she.




For your piece of mind (mom) -- I was stopped at a stop light while taking the picture, and she turned right on red and snuck away.

What Can I Say? It Seems I Have a Thing for Funny Redheads OR Funny Stuff My Husband Says, Vol. XVIII

SCENE: WE'RE WATCHING CONAN, AND A WOMAN IN THE AUDIENCE GETS TO HUG HIM AND THEN PROMPTLY LOSES HER MIND. JEREMY STARTS MAKING FUN OF HER.


Jeremy: Oh my god, I gotta pause this. Did you see her FACE? 
Veronica: Well, I'd be the same way.
Jeremy: What? 
Veronica: Yeah. If I met Conan, I might jump up on him and never let go.
Jeremy: Oh really?
Veronica: Yeah, I'd say, "Please come home with us! We love you!"
Jeremy:  You'd get sick of him.
Veronica: How could you say that?
Jeremy: You got sick of me, and I'm just as funny as he is. Funnier, actually. *saunters out of room with smug look on his face*

2011 Holiday Giving Guide, Vol. III: Why Didn't I Think of That? Edition

I know I am a geek, but by god, I know there are plenty more geeks out there. Nothing gets my geek juices flowing like finding a little ditty that will make my life easier or cooler in some way that I hadn't even considered before. 

Okay, that sounded vague. How about I just show you what I'm talking about, okay?

Pot Clip, $4

I have a little spoon rest on my stove, but then THAT has to be cleaned too, and come on, there has to be something simple to keep me from getting everything dirty. Here it is, and only $4. A nice little stocking-stuffer!

Scrap Trap Bin and Scraper, $11.99

Here's something else that would make my cooking much easier. Especially since I have approximately 10 inches of counter space, so where I chop the vegetables is where I have to do  EVERYTHING else.

Cool Beans Ice Cube Tray, $7.62

I went a little crazy for iced coffee last summer, and I think these would be the perfect addition. Freeze some coffee in the trays, and BAM -- cold coffee without having to brew extra-strong coffee of end up with watered-down coffee. Yes, you could do the same with regular ice cube trays, but these are adorable AND I usually need something visual to remind me to prep things like this.

Slip-on Pour Spout, $4.95

I know a ton of people who would love this little contraption. No matter what I do, I always end up making a mess and/or cursing when draining fat while cooking. Also a nice cheap stocking-stuffer.

Observer Window Bird feeder, $9.56

When I was little, I had a clear bird feeder like this that stuck to a window, and it was the BEST. I had it on my bedroom window and loved watching the birds come and go. I can only imagine how much Josephine and MoJo would love this! Cats and kids aren't the only ones who love watching birds, and I think this is a great inexpensive gift for any nature-lover.

Window Nest Box Birdhouse, $24.95

Same thing here -- can you imagine a little kid watching a mother bird build her nest and keep her eggs warm? ADORABLE.

Waterproof Notepad, $12.95

PLEASE tell me I am not the only person who comes up with amazing ideas in the shower. Seriously, my best ideas come while driving and in the shower. This little notepad will likely be loved by many of your friends who are geeky like me and fear losing fantastic ideas.

Super Scrabble (Extended Play), $39.99

Speaking of geeks: this Scrabble board has extra spaces, extra tiles, and extra bonuses. YESSSSSSSSS. We are gonna need one of these in the Dimick household.

The Complete Paintings of the Louvre, $45.00

Now, if you happen to have classy, cultured friends who either have been to the Louvre and loved it or have always wished they could go: a hardcover book with photos of every single painting. Crazy. (also crazy: this is $40 cheaper on Amazon than anywhere else I found it online)

Digital Photo Keeper, $58.48

This little baby holds 8,000 digital photos. Sure, there are multiple ways to back up your digital photos, but this one is tiny and certainly easier to store than a stack of CDs.

If you have any other "Why didn't I think of that?" type gifts to add to the list, leave them in the comments! I would love to see them!

Happy shopping! I still have a lot to do, so quit telling me on facebook that you are all done. You know who you are.