Right now I have a plethora of ideas bobbing around in my head. I do this every year this time – level seven craft-o-rama. Luckily, I married a very kind man who says, “Hey Babe, can I take you out and buy you a craft supply?” and will even go into Michaels with me so long as we have a quick task. (He doesn’t so much go in for browsing, but I can’t complain!) Some of  my ideas are great, most of them are ridiculous, and all of them are totally unnecessary. Well, brace yourselves, because the floodgates are about to burst, and I am going to share them with you! I have been having camera to computer trouble so up until now you have been spared. So there it is, I warned you.

I just re-organized my cookbooks, and it reminds me how much I love them! I have always loved to read, but the story grip which once was my friend has become a bit of an enemy. It just isn’t a good idea to stay up until three in the morning toiling over a Russian novel anymore! So this is what I read now – and knitting books. This is my little collection, and I definitely am only beginning, so don’t make any cold remarks about how pitiful it looks! But I want to hear what your favorite cookbooks are, and why. I’ll start:

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So here is another one of my hot “no skills needed” mothering tips (much like the cardboard box, but less work and no scissors). Yesterday was cold and dark and rainy and so were my little people. We were having the kind of morning where the kids lay sort of draped on the edge of things and claim to be physically unable to take of their pj’s. Lots of weak knees and hair in our eyes. So here’s what we did Read More

I know what you are thinking: “Has it come to this – has she really started decorating the paper towel roller?” The answer is no, and yes. This was originally intended as the first in a set of napkin rings for Christmas. A sort of yarny tribute to bolo ties. However, the pom-poms were a little huge for napkins, so this will probably end up sealing a gift bag or something. In the meantime it is true that I am letting it linger on the paper towels because I like it – guilty as charged.

But the real reason I am letting you see this is that I just feel compelled to give it up to Clover, the makers of the all new pom-pom maker. I mean, pom-poms have never been hard to make, but has it ever been fun? I will answer that myself – no, it has been tedious. I am just so pleased that we live in a country where baseline pom-pom making devices are no longer going to cut it. Somewhere, someone (and probably a board-room of someones) addressed this need. They said to one another, “Why are we letting people make half hearted pom-poms on their fingers? We must help them to make large and fluffy and fabulous pom- poms with very little work.”

So all I’m saying is you should rush out to your local Michael’s and support this great work. They come in lots of sizes, all the way up to 4 1/2″ diameter. And seriously, with the holidays coming, let no surface remain unpom-pommed. I am sure my house will be positively littered with them, because my girls are already addicted, to say nothing of myself.

 Here are my little Dutchgirls (both in real life and pretend!) As you can see, we really go in for scary costumes!

And here are our little twin- bobs, funnier than ever. And in case you were wondering due to our inspecific clothing, Chloe is on the left, Titus on the right.

So, happy Trick or Reformation to you and yours!

This was one of those fun unplanned projects that go a long way toward filling up the tanks of your local ballerinas. We are working on scissor skills, so I let her lay into a catalog with some and Elmer’s glue it like there was no tomorrow! The end result was pretty wacked out of scale but still fun. Daphne assisted by cutting bitlets of paper and dumping about a tablespoon of glue onto them while saying things like “that’s probly enough, huh?”  It was. The above picture was taken before she cut the toes off of her tights.