brookaloo

sweet!

I recently had a birthday of unimportant numberage, is that a word, um no, no matter, it's not a milestone or anything like that. Getting older does not bother me, but i do enjoy hearing my children tell people that i'm 21 when they are asked how old their mommy is. like that's believable. It's been awhile since i've been carded, so i feel that 21 is no longer an achievable look for me.
i did score some super sweet gifts this year. i'm not one to tell shawn or the girls what i want for any particular holiday or birthday, but this year i cut to the chase, my parents asked what i wanted and i gave them a choice between Reprodepot and Knitpicks gift certificates, they choice well. my sister took my well planned and oh so obvious hint and visited Mitsuwa Market and bought me several sets of Re-Ment sets.
here are some kind of crappy pictures, but what can you do

She also got me these magazines and book

Retro Crafts has some really fun projects, not so much the ones like the glitter covered soda bottles, but most are pretty cute. am i the only person who hates glitter?

Shawn got me a dollhouse. We needed a project that we could do together. most nights it's him doing his dorkhammer, me watching tv and knitting or reading, we sometimes play cards or watch a movie, but cards usually end in me with some kind of temper tantrum, and he likes wierd artsy movies and i want to watch dumb action movies. Now we can equally piss eachother off while working on the dollhouse!

it was an awesome birthday, and i love my family and friends for all their awesomeness as well.
Lastly, I love how i have been looking for this pair of pants for Lily for about a month now maybe longer. So this morning I go up in her bed, looking for yet another lost object to find this pile of clothes stuffed in various crevices of her bed.

the dog just happened to be laying there, but you can see, in comparison that is a large pile! @#$$^&!!! oh that other crap in the background, that's just the normal everyday crap that i have to walk through in their room. i like the random box that they use for stuff animal storage, i mean we have actual containers, but for some reason they think a torn up dirty cardboard box is better. so much for cute storage.

a lotta lotta saturdays

many of our saturdays are spent at the dollar movie. shawn is taking a class and is gone all day, which leaves me to find stuff for the girls and i to do. in the summer it means parks, walks, pool, pretty much all day outside. but it's more of a challenge in the winter. so today we decided to check out Dexter's Pioneer Days Craft Sale. I had read about it on arborweb which is a great site for finding out local stuff to do.
I've been seeing alot of people making pretzels lately. i had never tried before, but am a sucker for that pretzel bread at Trader Joes, so thought I would give it a try. This recipe is one I found on allrecipes

they were yummy, but lacked that really great buttery mall pretzel taste. so i think we'll have to try another recipe.
oh, and i totally wish i never would of seen the post on weewonderfuls for Re-ment ahh, i just want to go nuts.

so sweet, and tiny and too bad there is no where around here to buy them.

dress making

I had been without a sewing machine for a few weeks. My pedal went kerplunk all of a sudden, and shawn couldn't figure out what was up, so i had to take it in. I take my machine to Leabuse Sewing Center for repairs and tune ups. It also has fabric, but not really anything I'm too crazy about. Next door is Flying Sheep Yarn, which is ok, I'm not crazy about any of our local yarn shops. I LOVE Threadbear in Lansing even though I've only been there once. It is my dream of a yarn shop, with dogs, comfy couches, coffee, and so much yarn.
Back to my machine, well I ended up having a few more extra repairs done since it hadn't been serviced in 10 years, as well as a good cleaning. When I went to pick it up, the woman brought it out and I said that's not my machine. I didn't recognize it! It was so clean! Well now she sews like a dream. No more clickety clackety sounds or breaking thread.
The first thing I made was this dress for chloe from a retro kid's pattern.

It was supposed to be for chloe, but it turned out HUGE. The pattern said size 8, but I tried it on and it fit just fine, and then chloe tried it on, and it fit her too. So we decided we could share it. I'll wear it as a tunic, and she'll wear it as a dress. Actually, I don't know if I would wear this. I'm defining what my style is, i think i'm in sort of a fashion rut, or lack there of fashion rut, and i think it's time i give the tunic a rest even though I love the new dresses from Jovovich-Hawk and those are mostly hippish tunics. crap, what am i saying, i have no style...i just bought 4 of the same shirt at H&M, 4!! at least i don't wear mommy jeans.

happy springy thoughts

i'm putting happy spring thoughts into the world today. i can either dwell on the fact that it is going to snow again tomorrow, or pull myself up by my mary jane straps and get busy spring cleaning. yep, i'm in full spring mode here. this is just the beginning friends. you all know me right, i'm a happy go lucky kind of girl, so let's turn that soggy icy mess out there into some funville ok? so join me in the celebration of what is to come.....i swear to you spring is right around the corner. please don't kill me.

little spring clean'n ladybug birdy wreath....to get you in the mood. pom-poms, not as easy as i remember them being.

mac people live here.
shawn really needs to finish painting that door.

back to regularly scheduled programming....

this time of year i have to remind myself that towards the end of March last year i was hanging laundry on the line in my back yard. it's true. i get the blues, and it's all the weathers fault. it really has nothing to do with the fact that my 9 year old went ape shit on me this weekend at Ikea, or that my entire tax refund went to pay off debt. I think they need counselors at Ikea because every time I go there I see either couples arguing or parents snapping at their kids. If someone could just step in and say, "hey, what's up, can I help? what's really going on here?" a mediator of some sort. but honestly, it's all the weather's fault.
what i've been making...i got inspired by this at the Purl Bee. I have a gazillion circular needles, i never pass a pair up at the thrift store, and they are all tangled and i don't know what is what.

I recycled an old binder that we had laying around and bought 25 plastic inserts at Staples for $5. I put more than one set of needles per insert because I have so many. I still need to go back and put the lengths on the tabs, but it feels SO GOOD to have them organized.

I also took some photos of finished projects to add to my Ravelry page. I don't have a lot of finished project pictures, I always give stuff away before I take the picture. Currently I'm working on the little devil pants in Stitch and Bitch Nation for my friend Randy's new baby. Never mind that I started them 2 years ago for another baby, this time I am near completion.
I got the girls this adorable book the other day. "The Girls' Best Book of Knitting, Sewing, and Embroidery" by Virgina Desmoulins.

there are really great ideas, like sampler cards to help teach embroidery patterns

little monsters

easy doll clothes

we haven't had time to make anything yet, but this week we are trying out hands at the monsters. i have a bag of spare socks all ready to go.