Thursday, July 29, 2010

Fight or flight ...

Or plan?

You know how there's a survival instinct? And people are supposed to have either fight or flight?

Well, today, I hereby propose a third survival instinct -- plan.

When faced with a crisis, especially when I am in charge, I have realized that I remain surprisingly calm.

I haven't a clue where this comes from... because I can panic and freeze like nobody's business. We're talking full on, deer in the headlights, panic.

But if I'm the lone adult or solo, I remain unfazed.

Case in point, yesterday:
It's 90 degrees.
I pull up to the house with Ben.
I can hear the dogs barking.
Brian has left for work.
And I have friends coming over in 45 minutes.
...and I am locked out.

Yep. Locked out of my own house.

Did you notice it's 90 degrees and I have friends coming over? In 45 minutes!

Yep.

So my brain goes into over drive -- immediately formulating plans A, B, C, D
* call brian
* check the garage, there's water in there. so get a drink for ben.
* check the windows. no, they are all locked b/c your brain went into overdrive last week when you left for Cleveland and you had to check every single one. (moron!)
* don't bend the frames! just pop out the screens b/c you know how to replace them. (the tool is in the junk drawer on the left -- it's the plastic one. you should have paid the extra $0.79 cents for the wooden one, but that's water under the bridge now.)
* the one window by the kitchen table gets steamy -- must have a bad seal, right? try that one.
* get ben, bring him in to the back yard. check for dog poop. careful.
* (wait! why did my hydrangeas change color? too much rain? I need to move those.)
* bubbles! thank goodness i left them on the porch. Here, Ben! Bubbles!
* is that? it is! the window above the kitchen sink is open!
* pull the screen... seriously!? it won't pull out?! ... get a rock, scrape the screen. pull the screen out. (don't worry, you have more screen in the garage by the step. and it's, like $4.44 a roll at Lowe's. don't stress.)
* ok, got the screen out. now.. just... hoist! just hoist!
* plan B... wait, what are we on now, like plan f?
focus, Sy, focus.
* get the chair and just hoist...
* OMG, when will this be over!?!?!
* Ok, right foot in the window and right arm in the window. and... yes ben, mommy's ok. just keep blowing bubble. keep blowing bubbles!
* aaaaand we're in!
* oh wait! i'm in the sink. I'm in the sink!
* Now I'm in! woo hoo!
Ben! We're home!

Phew! That was A LOT! I'm exhausted just reading through it agin.

Now, for plan Q -- give a spare key to the neighbors!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Yeah for starting projects again!

Despite the fact we have a fancy schmancy camera...
And despite the fact that the battery was fully charged the night I picked up this little gem...
I managed to take only a cell phone camera picture of my newest edition:
Meet Lily
(pronounced Lee-lee, with a Russian accent because that's the name of the super nice Russian lady who sold her on Craigslist. )
And even though the thought of adjusting her to my actual measurements was UBER scary, it wasn't that bad. Although, I did have to stuff her bra. :)
Right now, I've pinned some fabric to her based on an idea I have for a dress... stay tuned!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Grilled cheese, tomato soup and strawberries dipped in ketchup

That's what Ben had for dinner Tuesday night.

Yep.

You read that right.

Strawberries dipped in ketchup!

*Sigh*

At least he ate the strawberries, right?Right.

Friday, July 23, 2010

Robot T-shirts

I am in L-O-V-E with freezer paper stencils.
Did you hear that? El-Oh-VEE-EE!
It's easy to do and the result looks very professional.
This post about easy wall art includes a getting started tutorial and this fantabulous blogger (who started my crafting obsession, by the way) has a great tutorial here about it.
So here are some pics and additional tips for the customized tees I made for Ben's 2nd birthday party.
First, I visited IStockPhoto.com for inspiration. Quick Google image searches can serve you well also.
I printed the pics on to regular paper, then traced them on to freezer paper. (You can also cut your freezer paper to 8 1/2 X 11 and print directly on the non-shiny side, if you like.) The trimming is the most tedious part of the process -- so the simpler your design the better.
To get the colors I wanted, I mixed up regular old acrylic paint with this stuff called "fabric medium." It magically transforms your acrylic paint to fabric paint and is AWESOME. You don't need very much of the "fabric medium" (the medium costs MAYBE $5, and I bought my paint on a late night Meijer run, I think. It was also uber-cheap.)
Iron your stencil on, paint and dry like so:


Once everything is dry (usually overnight -- thus the crappy lighting here. I think I was doing this at, like, 10 p.m.) iron right on top of the dried paint to heat set it. (This is important! It softens the paint a little and make the look totally profesh!)

Then, dress up your toddler:

Or yourself and your hubby!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Dogs, cats, trees and mold

Yep. That's what my little guy's allergic to.
I know, trees is odd. But it's true.

More importantly though: dogs. Umm... yeah. We have two of those.

And I love love love them to bits.They were our babies before we had a little human of our own.And they're still big babies...

Exhibit 1: Porter


Exhibit 2: Caity



So... what are we gonna do?


Well, after a lengthy phone call with the nurse practitioner, it was determined that Ben would have to be on medication (Singular and Zyrtec, if you're curious) dogs or not. And as much as I hate to pump my 2 year old full of medication, his allergies are mild.


So... we'll let our pups live out their (spoiled rotten) lives... and [INSERT SUPER SAD FACE HERE] we'll never have dogs again. :(


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Spotty, but still here

Hi friends!

I haven't run off to Tahiti, but I've been MIA because I've been working on a project nearly every night and it's taking up a TON of my time.

I can't share what it is yet (no, I'm not preggo... I wish, though!) but when I spill the beans, you will totally get it. So, thanks for being patient.

In the mean time, I'm going to be sharing more adventures and more completed projects with fewer tutorials. (Of course if you see something that you're just dying to see a step-by-step of, let me know!)