Monday, April 27, 2009

What's been keeping me busy lately...

I mentioned this before, but I signed up to participate in a crafting swap on Craftster.org. I had to make or embellish 10 onesies or shirts for my partner & I get 10 in exchange. I've been dying to post pictures of what I've been working on, but wanted to wait until my partner got her package so it would be a surprise, just in case she was stalking my blog. She got the package I sent today so now I can reveal...

My swap partner has 2-year-old twins, a boy & a girl, & a baby girl due in July so I made 3 shirts for each of the twins & 4 onesies for the baby. I wanted to send a couple of extras too, so I made a drawstring backpack for each of the twins. For the baby, I sent a bow barrette (the only thing I didn't make), a pair of tiny leg warmers, and a completely disfigured owl stuffed toy that makes a crinkly sound.

This is all 10 of the onesies/shirts together.


These are the shirts & backpack for her daughter. The green one has a branch with leaves on the back too. The jelly one matches the peanut butter one for the boy (my partner mentioned she liked "twin" clothes), and I just love how the dandelion one came out. I was sure it was going to be a total failure!

These are the boy's shirts. He likes skulls, so I did a reverse applique on the blue shirt; it's cool because as it gets washed more the shirt material around the skull will curl a bit & make it look a little tougher & boyish.

And here's the stuff for the baby. The pink wings are on the back of the onesie; the front is plain. They were AWFUL to make & sew on the onesie & I almost gave up, but I like how it turned out.

My partner's package to me is in the mail so I should be getting it in a couple days - I can't wait! She's making stuff for Cooper & the new baby & I'll be sure to post pictures when I get it.
Oooohhh.. and now that the swap is over, I just might be offering some of these designs in my Etsy shop!

Brookfield Zoo... again

Cooper was pretty sick Friday, but feeling a lot better Saturday so we went to Brookfield Zoo. We were smart enough to by a yearly family pass this year so we'll probably be spending a lot of time there. I was really happy with some of the pictures we got.




Congratulations!

Congratulations to my friend Kelly & her husband Ryan on their new baby! Kelly started her blog, The Ben Show, when they were adopting her son Ben from Vietnam, and now they've welcomed a new baby son, Sam, home. Congratulations Kelly, Ryan, Ben, & Sam!

Thursday, April 23, 2009

New Children's Museum with the family

Cooper & I met Grandma & Grandpa, Dayna, Zak, & Caycee at the Kidworks Children's Museum in Frankfort and had lots of fun. I think we'll definitely return.

Cooper taking a ride with Grandpa. That's an impression of Cooper's face & body on the lower right side


Caycee & Cooper loved the slide. They're not so good at taking turns, but don't mind sharing.


Cooper exploring the light table.

Zoo trip with Dad

John took Cooper to the zoo over the weekend so I could have some time to myself. It sure looks like they had fun.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Easter

We spent Easter weekend with Grandma & Grandpa at their house. Their town holds an Easter egg hunt on Saturday so we headed over to the park and were surrounded by kids, parents, Easter baskets, & colorful Easter eggs. Unfortunately, we were about 5 minutes too late for Cooper's age group so he didn't get to hunt for eggs. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind & was happy walking around the park with his basket.

We also visited with some of Grandma & Grandpa's friends & Cooper got a cookie, which he held onto for about half an hour before taking a bite.

We walked through the park again & Cooper found a walking stick.

We even colored Easter eggs. Cooper was fascinated... by his puffs. Not so interested in the eggs. We got a couple of "Oooh"s, but they may have just been because we kept saying "oooh".

On Easter we went back toward the city for a giant breakfast with the whole family. Zak & Caycee were there & Cooper had tons of fun. It always seems like I don't manage to get the camera out when the three of them are together... I wonder why that is.

Then it was off to Granny Smith & Fred's for Easter dinner. Cooper enjoyed watching YouTube videos with John. Don't worry, that's just cherry jello on his collar.

Visiting with Granny Smith & Fred

Hanging out at Granny Smith's & Fred's house...

Yummy cookie


Sitting with Fred


A kiss for Granny Smith

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Secret onesies, free food, & a hip hop toddler

Yikes, it's been a busy week.

I'm kind of obsessed with the website Craftster.org. It's a site with message boards so people can ask for advice on crafts they're working on and so people can show off crafts they've made. I love looking at the really cool children's clothes people make. Anyway, since I'm not quite busy enough (ha, ha), I signed myself up for a crafter's swap on the site. I'm making 10 onesies/shirts to exchange with someone who is doing the same for me. I've made some pretty good progress so far, especially because my mom came over & took Cooper out for a few hours this week, so I have 3 done already & I'd really like to post pictures of them, but I'll have to wait until the end of the month. We send them to our partners by the end of April & I don't want to spoil the surprise (in case she's checking out my blog), so I'll have to wait until she gets them.

Another website I frequent, SheKnows.com, was recently looking for volunteers to review products. I volunteered and was chosen as a "VIP reviewer". I assumed they'd send a diaper or a dryer sheet or something, like the normal samples you get in the mail, but the UPS man knocked on our door with a big box filled with Wild Organic food! This is most of it, but Cooper's done a pretty good job of demolishing the applesauce & animal crackers so a lot of those were gone by the time I got around to taking the picture. The best part is that the letter with the food says this is the "lunch" package & within a month or so I should also expect to receive a "dinner" package & "snack" package. Sweet! You can't beat free organic food.

We wrapped up the week with a party. John called Friday afternoon to ask me to bring Cooper out to his work so we could go to his court partner's party that evening. Oh, and it had a theme - "gangster rap". I only had a couple hours and "gangster rap" is a bit difficult on short notice for a toddler, so I went with more of an "old school rap/hip-hop" thing. I was pretty happy with the outcome.

In case you can't really see in the picture, that's a toy cell phone in his hand (with matching pager on his pocket), play money hanging out of his other pocket, and a Flavor-Flav style giant clock necklace (made out of felt I sewed together & wrote on with permanent marker and attached to Cooper's nursing necklace). Cooper, as always, was the life of the party.

Interesting note (especially for the grandmas reading this): I was exploring my Feedjit the other day & discovered that someone found my page by doing a search for "Blogger nudist grandma". So, if you're a grandma & considering becoming a nudist & blogging about it, someone out there is interested. The scary part is that on a different day, someone linked to my blog by searching for "grandma and grandpa nudist". It's difficult to tell, but it appears to be from a different location as the first search. I find this troubling a bit because, 1. someone's searching for nudist grandparents, 2. it's likely not one person, but more than one (because of the different locations), and most troubling of all, 3. both those searches link to my blog! Yikes. Weird.