Etsy

So, I think we can all agree that the crafting gene missed me by a mile. My attempts at crafting are well-documented and many an anonymous commenter has been deleted when musing about my efforts! (Though they did make me laugh with some of THEIR creativity.) Anyway - one rainy day, sitting in my work room, surrounded by all the materials of craft projects gone by - I realized that with all the forlorn fabric swatches and embroidery thread and craft glue and scrapbooking materials galore, I might be able to come up with a few wooden miniature dolls for Thumbelina. I painted her cousin a small dollhouse around Christmas time, and Thumbelina was so possessive of it that I ultimately made one for her, too. But, she needed a few dolls to play with inside of it. So, I set to work and came up with something like this…

I’ve made several variations of these little wooden girls, but this particular type is Thumbelina’s most favorite and what I’ve decided to try selling (!) at Etsy. (I know, I laughed at myself too when I even considered such a bizarre notion - me, selling handmade items! Ha!) But.. this idea came about when brainstorming about my $1000 challenge.

What is my $1000 challenge? Basically I found myself lusting after a particularly fantastic lens for my Nikon camera and the only way I could even CONSIDER buying such an expensive present for myself would be to earn the money. And no, it doesn’t actually cost a thousand dollars, but it’s such a nice, round number that I’m going with it. But once I started thinking about spending money on something so frivolous, other (more practical) things came to mind. Because yes, there are far more necessary things to consider spending money on. Like, this house. And the green living room that haunts me. Or Thumbelina’s speech therapy. Or a trip for our fifth year anniversary…. oh wait, that isn’t practical. But alas, the tornado has set us back quite a bit (but not in any suffering sort of way) and I’ve found myself wondering what small ways I can contribute to our household income. Can I earn a thousand dollars - and if I can, what is stopping me from earning more? We are so blessed with Topher’s job, and yet I think if there is a way I can help our family by doing something I love to do - and do anyway, regardless - then, yay! And if no one buys my little dolls… well, I’ll survive. Plus, Thumbelina will have a new army of her beloved girls.

Now, I have this issue with perfectionism that I hide really well most of the time, but when it comes to creating… I struggle. Because I want it to be perfect. Everything from the dolls, the photos, the Etsy site, etc. But perfection eludes me and always will, so these last few days of plotting and planning and executing this little project have been a good lesson in humility. The picture icons, for instance, drove me craaazy… I didn’t know they crop photos from standard size to square. But, I rolled with it and didn’t rush out and take more pictures… I just told myself that next time, if there is a next time, I’ll take that into consideration when I shoot other items. When I took the photos, I tried timing it at just before sunset - which was great - for, um, the first shot. And then the rest get darker, which irritated me, but… again, I rolled with it. I’m doing this because I LIKE it and not because I want to torture myself with an abstract idea of perfection, right? Um, sure. And as for the dolls… well, I adored making them, and no, they aren’t perfect, but they are handmade with much love.

So, I’m unveiling my Etsy site! With the caveat that it is most definitely still under construction, and only five items are listed… with many more to come. Enjoy looking! Here is a peek:

The banner, which I’ll probably change, because I realize it’s a little hard to read - but, I was so excited (after multiple trial and error attempts) when I learned how to actually MAKE a banner that I was merely content to finally have something to display! (It’s definitely easier to look at full-size, but this will do.)

More wooden girls…

(Yes, this next one was the “just before sunset” shot.)

I should say that I have other ideas besides just listing my little dolls, but… baby steps!

And now, I am off to bed.

trashbags are genius

We made Valentine’s day cards for our little friends today. Thumbelina is interested in simple wooden puzzles lately, so I thought it might be fun and fitting for her to paint a few heart-shaped puzzles and send those as off as her token of love. But apparently acrylic paint isn’t very friendly with cardboard and tends to get somewhat gluey. It still works, you just have to carefully break apart the puzzle pieces so as to not destroy them. But I can’t decide if I should quickly whip up new cards or go ahead and send them anyway, since… Thumbelina worked so hard on them. But wouldn’t it be sad if a little kiddo opened a card, thought he had a tiny puzzle to break apart and put back together again, but then the entire thing collapsed on him? I’m probably over-thinking this.

Princess Thumbelina chose this sophisticated tiara from the clearance section at Michaels. She wanted to take home an entire assortment, but I knew better then to let that happen. Whenever she has several choices of the same item, she wants to wear each of them simultaneously - and insists that I wave my mommy-magic-wand to make such impossibilities a reality.

Life is much simpler with only one tiara.

anything to avoid the laundry

With all the sickness around here, I’ve been bored. It’s not like I don’t have anything to do - plenty of cooking and cleaning continue to beckon me. But neither of those sound very appealing at the moment. Since I haven’t quite figured out my sewing machine yet, I decided to make a few miniature wooden dolls for Thumbelina’s dollhouse.

Okay, time to go do something productive. Maybe. It’s such a beautiful day outside… maybe Thumbelina will be up for a walk when she wakes up from her nap.

I have the N.W.A.’s “express yourself” song in my head.

Our kitchen table is becoming a faded mural of non-washable markers. I keep thinking I’ve finally removed every last offending culprit from our collection of kuh-yees (aka, “cullies”) but they keep finding their way back into Thumbelina’s fat little hand. Whenever I return from putting laundry away or getting myself a drink of water, invariably a new color has soaked into the blonde wooden table. Someone told me that nail polish remover works in taking the stain out, but alas - all it did was remove the finish from the table.

Today, however, Thumbelina was more interested in a pile of pom-poms then a handful of markers.

She was so serious about examining and sorting them!

Thumbelina helped me make two (recycled-materials) Valentine’s Day mailboxes for she and Topher. I’m planning on keeping the boxes beside my bed and dropping a note into each, every night, until Valentine’s Day arrives. Then they can both open their mailboxes and be wowed with the sheer monstrosity of love from their biggest admirer, ever! Woo…

Topher and I used to have a Gratitude journal we kept together, early in our marriage, about each other and it really set the tone for our days. We were ready to notice and appreciate the small acts of kindness from one another and then remark about them in our journaling. I’m hoping that purposefully reflecting on why I adore these two little peas in a pod so much will inspire even more love to pour forth from me and into our relationships. Love begets love.

Tonight when Topher came home from work, I noticed the house was unusually quiet. I went in search of he and Thumbelina and came across them ‘having a chat’ in her room.

I love how they strike the same pose in the midst of conversation. So cute.

just an ordinary day

Pay no attention, I’m merely documenting that dinner was ready and on the table at 6:00pm tonight.

I love how Thumbelina looks slightly dazed, as if contemplating the absurdity of a meal being on the table. (She’s wearing a Halloween sweatshirt, by the way. Yes, we like to celebrate seasonal holidays throughout the year at our house…)

Recently I’ve been slacking on the dinner front, since Topher has been working late and I’m less than inspired when the evening drags on and the only other person in the house would prefer to simply nurse and snack on Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies. But, tonight Topher was home in time for dinner and even Thumbelina managed to devour her portion of lasagna. She’s been an eating machine, today - a bowl of cereal with whole milk, a piece of whole wheat toast, a slice of homemade banana bread, a bowl of blueberries, half an apple, a few carrot sticks, an entire banana, a vanilla yogurt and then finally dinner. She’s never eaten that much in her life, trust me! I think she’s in the midst of a growth spurt, so I’m wondering if she’ll get even taller or start filling out more. She just hit 22lbs (with a full diaper on) and will turn two in March.

Today was a great day. Thumbelina and I did some organizing and decluttering, baked banana bread (finally) and spent lots of time reading together and playing. She is turning into a very serious Betty Crocker. Whenever I get the mixing bowls out, she immediately reaches for the smallest and asks me for a ‘poon. She dumps her own concoction together, mixing and measuring and stirring. Decorative sprinkles seem to be an integral part of most of Thumbelina’s recipes. Cleaning the kitchen is probably her favorite part of the entire baking ‘experience.’ I sweep, and Thumbelina patiently waits for her turn to ‘mop.’ We have a mop we’ve never actually used (…not that I don’t mop the floors) with the plastic still on it, so after I’ve gotten the remains of our project swept away - she dashes all over the kitchen floor, ‘mopping’ with a fervor I can’t quite fathom.

Some of Thumbelina’s latest words are beginning to replace my own. Like, she calls crayons, “cullies.” For some reason I find this to be ridiculously adorable and I invent any reason to bring up the word crayon. We’ve had several conversations about cullies today. She also calls birds, “cheeps” (I think because we told her they say, “chirp, chirp!”) - so we stood for quite awhile at the window today looking for cheeps. I also lurve the way she whispers certain words and will pause in the middle of her boisterous jargon to barely breathe out a word, like the holy name of Barney. Or “g’dnight” when she starts worrying it might be naptime soon. “Light” seems rather sacred to her, too - the word is always whispered. She likes to take my thumb and lead me around the house while pointing out all the “yights.”

My sewing machine arrived! Yay. Topher is putting it together and then this weekend I’ll spend some time figuring out the basics, I hope. (I’m not very naturally crafty.) I have finally found the perfect use for plenty of ugly bedding that my MIL pushed on us after we got married. I think I’ll just practice on that fabric until I have some idea of what I’m doing and then I’ll pick out a few projects to explore.

Topher’s great ideas: an ipod and smoothie

My enterprising husband woke up yesterday and told me he had an errand to run. I didn’t pay much attention until the phrase “free ipod shuffle” came out of his mouth. What did you say? I asked. He explained that a bank down the street was gifting new ipods away to anyone opening up a checking account. And that he just called and they still had two available. I gasped.

Some of you may recall my unfortunate catastrophe a few months ago involving my washing machine and the tragically departed original ipod shuffle. Yes, the one I so devotedly used for every workout, walk and otherwise tedious task. It got stuck in a pocket of my shorts during laundry time and alas, never soulfully greeted me with repeated renditions of my favorite tunes, ever again.

We all piled in the car despite the snowy afternoon and drove the short distance to a bank I’d never heard of before. No matter. Topher went in, and fifteen minutes later came out bearing my new baby. The dearly departed was silver. My new one is pink! Yay! I love pink. She’s perfect!

Topher has been quite the thoughtful gift-giver this Christmas. He got me a new, 8ft long ‘project table’ so I can keep better track of what I’m doing. (The kitchen table was beginning to lose all sense of purpose.) He lugged the entire 70lb wooden utility table up to our third bedroom and put it together against the back wall, then helped me move all of my project ’stuff’ into the room. Voila! A place to do my thing. He also bought me a new rotary cutter and cutting board, which was quite thoughtful of him. Plus a digital picture frame so I can immediately see all my pictures upon taking them (which is a very sweet complement to the new camera).

Speaking of Topher, he’s addicted me to smoothies as of lately. I could never really get into the commercialized smoothie shops and therefore always thought I must not have a taste for smoothies. Wrong! How wrong I was. Apparently I just don’t like the fake sugary taste of chemically-enhanced smoothies. Lately we’ve been throwing frozen fruit into the blender at home and creating an assortment of yummy concoctions. It appears that our little creations are so good that they’ve even managed to turn Topher off of his former Robeks addiction. Today we made a mango-cherry-peach-with a wee bit of orange juice smoothie:

Doesn’t just looking at it make you want to slurp it right up? I’m oddly discovering that I fit into the bizarre stereotype of people who crave cold snacks in winter time. Do I eat ice cream during the sweltering heat of July? No. But give me sub-zero temperatures and a little light snow on the ground and suddenly I’m thinking of TCBY. Strange, very strange.

We’re expecting 3-6 inches of snow tonight. Which means I strategically made my way to Target earlier this evening and stocked up on diapers, wipes and random grocery items. Winter only started just this week and yet I’m already sick of it. I think this is the first year where I’m genuinely annoyed at the freezing temperatures and cooped up feelings. Maybe it’s the difference between having a 9 month old last Christmas and dealing with a speech-delayed almost-two-year-old this year. She is easily frustrated with the mundane and not being able to get outside or drive somewhere is tough on both of us. Maybe winter will pass with only a few snowstorms, but it seems like we’ve had plenty already.

toys! and a Yo Baby facial

Topher went to pick up some of Thumbelina’s Christmas presents today from our Haba toys co-op among the local parenting group. I pounced upon the box as soon as he returned home (amidst snow and freezing rain). Three items I ordered won’t be shipping until January, but here is what we have so far:

Plus, a bunch of completely adorable individualized playfood items, but I’ll stop boring everyone but myself. I love toys!

I made my niece a dollhouse for her early December birthday, which she still hasn’t received and Thumbelina has been secretly using whenever I’m distracted elsewhere. I plan on making her a version of the same thing, but much cuter! Everything is always more adorable the second time around when it comes to my gimpy craft efforts. I got this idea from Angry Chicken.

Here’s my version for Ella:

Of the bendy dolls I made for Ella, Thumbelina has picked out her favorite. The others have been ignored, so I hesitate to post pictures of them since… clearly something must be amiss with the cast-offs!

And, in case anyone has ever wondered what an after-dinner snack looks like at our house…

Plus! A glimpse of the resulting bath afterwards.