Archive for September, 2008

“Who are the people in your neighborhood. In your neighborhood. In your neighborhood. Who are the people in your neighborhood. It’s the people that you meet, when you’re walking down the street. It’s the people that you meet each day.” For some reason, when I play, yes I play, with Little People I sing this song in my head. Maybe it’s because when I was little and had these very same people, Sesame Street was always on.

Speaking of the street, has anyone noticed PBS’ new programming line-up? Where did Sesame Street go in the morning? It was a staple around here. Now I just have to record it and play it during breakfast. You can’t have cheerios without Sesame Street.

We have quite a few people in our neighborhood as you can see in the basket. All the usual suspects are there. The swing, the mommy, the baby, the highchair, the trike. The firetruck. The race car driver.

I began a process about a year ago of weeding out the new Little People that had made their way into the house. Out with the new, in with the old. Seems to be a theme around here.

I have scoured yard sales, thrift stores and estate sales for the past year. I was able to find an assortment of people and animals, the house, barn and school house (complete with all magnetic letters). All of the pieces that I had as a child but that have disappeared over the years. Every time I find another little bag of people my heart skips a beat. I do a little dance on the inside. Quickly scoop up my find and hold onto it as tightly as I can.

Fortunately, my kiddos treasure these Little People just as much as I do. They are kept in the living room, not stashed in the closet, and played with all of the time. We set up the house. Rearrange the living spaces. Get the kids into the school. Load up the camp van with unlikely suspects and play all day long. Sometimes even, Makena brings her princesses in for a visit and Keegan brings his Star Wars characters. And I… well I just like to decorate the spaces.

It’s a family affair.

What has it been? Three weeks? Oh yes… about that. So my lovely Mac died. In the middle of picture uploads I got a blank screen. With a question mark. Flashing. Called tech support and they told me that since my warranty was up, they could charge me $60 to give me advice. I said, ‘thanks but no thanks.’ There are plans to get it fixed. But in the meantime I dug out my dinosaur of a Dell from the depths of my closet to use. Not a Mac. But it works. So I’m happy.

Goggles were on clearance at Target. Hehehe… The kids, in their pajamas, set up their chairs to watch daddy change his tire. And of course they had to wear their new goggles.

So what have we been up to for the past three weeks? Well… I was baptized! Woohoo! My sister Alison had her baby girl. We survived Hurricane Ike. Without a drop of rain. Makena has been loving school. She was even the ‘line leader.’ Oh yes, that’s a big deal in pre-school! Keegan has been snotty/wheezy so the nebulizer has been out and running.

Today both of the kids are sick and we’re laying low. Maybe I’ll do some laundry. Maybe not. Glad to be back friends. I hope to catch up with everyone as soon as I can. I miss your blogs and your friendship.

I’ve had a few projects on the brain lately that I finally completed this weekend.  Oh how I love three day weekends.

This pillow that I had seen in this book.  It is not a crafty/pattern book.  It’s more of a lifestyle book.  How to really live at home.  I have gotten several ideas for decorating and simplifying in this book.  I used some of my favorite fabric and linen.  My first time working with linen and I have to say that I love it.  I struggled forever trying to do an invisible stitch and just finally gave up.  I couldn’t quite ever make the knot big enough to not pull right through the linen.  And if you haven’t picked up a copy of this book yet, you really should.  It’s one of my favorites.

I also made some cafe curtains for my kitchen window.

Adds a spash of color to the kitchen and ties in the red from the rest of the house. I’ve been wanting to add some orangey-red (official name) to this space and it just feels right.

For my birthday I was given this sweet mixed media art piece by a wonderful friend.  She’s a scrap booking genius and has started making and will soon be selling her work.  I’ll keep you all posted on this.  She has an etsy shop in the works.  The quote above the owl says “The art of being wise is knowing what to over look.” Wise words.  Very wise indeed.  Sarah and I were talking about our knee jerk reaction to situations.  A constant work in progress for me.  This sweet picture will remind me of that everyday.