The reality of life around here

This is what I look like approximately 1 million times a day! Take a closer look in case you missed it

And did you notice that it was in my hair too? How does that happen? Oh, and take my word for it, that was a mild one. I spared you from seeing the worst. I was so optimistic that after Creed's doctor quadrupled his reflux medication life would be getting so much better around here. I had visions of long naps that would give me some free-time before 11 p.m. and laundry that smelled fresh for more than three minutes. Ya, not so much! We will be visiting another doctor tomorrow, but I'm not feeling too much hope for our poor little guy.

I did have a chance to experiment with glitter today though. I picked up two types, an extra-fine red glitter and a course muted pink glitter that looks a little like antique glass glitter. The extra fine glitter was a lot easier to work with, but harder to clean up. I just tried it on the simplest doors possible because I didn't know how it would turn out. What do you think? To glitter or not to glitter?

Think crafty thoughts

So I know that I've mentioned it before, but I have this goal every year to try a new thing for every year that I've been alive, and since my birthday is approaching at the end of the month, I've been reviewing my list for the year to make sure that I reach 26 new things.

Last month I taught a lesson in church on lifelong learning and I had everyone list things that they would like to learn and then I asked what efforts they were making to actually learn new things. My list consisted of some boring things like learning to budget and organize my home and a lot of crafty things like learning to screen print, and paint with acrylics. After spending so much time setting up shop on etsy.com I can't help but want to learn so many crafty things, and at the top of my list is needle felting. Just after I had Creed, I was watching Martha Stewart and saw this tutorial with Jenny Docherty, and I was in awe. I'd never even heard on needle felting. Jenny has an etsy shop and a web site where you can check out more of her work, but here are a few pictures from her blog.

And speaking of shops on etsy that sell adorable needle felted items, check out Lauren Alane's shop of needle felted birds. I bet after seeing Ralph and his friends, you're going to want to learn to needle felt too! Isn't he adorable?

There must be some stores around town that sell roving and other needle felting supplies, but I haven't found any of them yet. There are plenty of places to buy them online, but I'd like to have some human contact that I can ask questions if I run into trouble and I'd like to be able to browse and see things in person. Does anyone else ever hesitate to buy things online or am I becoming an old lady?

Now if only Creed would start regularly napping so I could have some time to craft and write. I probably shouldn't pick up anything new until I work on some of the projects I have waiting for me, like the fabric set aside for aprons or the covers for the quiet book pages I made, or the onsies that I want to tackle for Creed, or the blank canvases I have laying around, or the fabric for that tree quilt that I told you that I wanted to make, or the glass pebbles to make magnets, and the fairy doors ready and waiting to be painted . . .

I did finish a fairy door today that I'm absolutely in love with.

Doesn't it look cute in Creed's room? I think if it doesn't sell quickly I'm going to be tempted to pull it out of the shop to keep it for myself.

I know this entry is wandering, but as long as I'm talking about etsy, I want to share a few more shop that I love. Betz White is the queen of felting old sweaters and creating amazing things from them (another thing I'd like to try). I love these cupcake pincushions!

She also has her own web site and blog and she was on Martha Stewart doing a tutorial on how to make her teacup pin cushions, which you can see here. I can't wait for her book with felting projects to come to stores soon!

I'm also in love with every single thing BeeBee Mod makes! Don't you think every baby should have a cute onsie like this?

And a hoodie like this!

And speaking of baby clothes, Quilt Baby has some incredibly fun onsies too (and don't miss all of her modern baby bedding). I especially heart this giraffe onesie!

And if you wanted to have the best dressed baby, you would also need some shoes from DiddleDumpling. If I had a girl I would alreaady own these sweet birdie shoes!

There's so much more on Etsy, that I'd like to spotlight, but I will have to save it for another time. For now I'll leave you with a totally different shop from the rest that I've shown you, Kezzaroo. She specializes in making tiny 3 inch felt figures of characters from tv and movies and they are hilarious! You'll have to look through her sold items if you have a chance, but here are a couple for your viewing pleasure. Who doesn't need a Little Chuck Norris?

Or Nacho Libre?

Or Larry's favorite, Mr. T

Or my favorite, Hulk Hogan, singer of our friend Ben's favorite ballad, "I used to tear my shirt, but then you tore my heart!"

Is there a flood?

It seems I can't post these days without adding some adorable pictures of Creed, and I don't want this blog to turn into all "look how cute this baby is!" posts, but . . . LOOK HOW CUTE THIS BABY IS. How can I resist? And besides, we have to keep the grandmas happy with lots of pictures!

And on a totally random sidenote, for years I complained to Larry that he was wearing his pants too high so every once in awhile he would hike his pants up as high as possible and dance around just to mock me (which he found hilarious and once made my dad laugh so hard that he passed out). Now look what he keeps doing just to drive me crazy.

Ugh! Creed seems to think it's funny too.

A few more reasons that Larry rocks . . .

Well, first of all he's been putting up with our kitchen table looking like this more often than not. I have a craft space to make a mess in the library upstairs, but there's not a lot of room for Creed to play up there, and it's cooler downstairs so inevitably my mess gravitates downstairs and Larry has not complained once!Second, after Larry left for work, I discovered this in a cupboard today.
I heart chocolate covered pretzels!!!!!

And to top it off I found this in the freezer with another note for me.

Four Months old!

Ok, I know he's been four months old for at least a week, but I just got around to taking these pictures this morning because who can resist him in these cute Pajamas?

Keeping busy

We're finding plenty to keep us busy around here.

Fairy doors in progress

Playing with cupcakes
And of course this little guy (don't let him fool you, he looks so innocent, but he's becoming quite the impressive biter!)

Cute Kids

Where have I been? Busy! Gosh!

Larry and I ran a Pinewood derby for grown-ups at church (ok, Larry ran it, and I held Creed and was coated in spit-up)

Then between house guests and babysitting this is what dinner looked like at our house Friday night . . .

Babies galore!!!!

And speaking of babies. Creed's still working on getting his tongue to allow him to swallow rice cereal.

And Creed seems to have perfected the art of flirting. I sold my first fairy door to my friend Nikki so Creed had a chance to play with Audrey, and they held hands completely on their own! Here they are shocked at being caught in the act. So cute!
I swear that this kid is getting cuter by the day!

Once Upon A Time Design

So do you remember that box on my porch that marked the beginning of a new project? Well, I'm finally ready to tell you about it!

First a little back-story. When I was little the Cleaning Fairy used to visit our home. She would leave treats if she found our house was clean, and she would leave notes telling us she was a little disappointed if she stopped by when the house was dirty and she said she would be back soon to give us a second chance to get some treats so we would hurry to clean things up.

I think those memories are part of why I was so enchanted when Candice showed me Jonathon Wright's Urban Fairy site. Jonathon lives in an old house in Michigan and as he was remodeling his home, he kept "discovering" fairy doors. Apparently fairy doors are an Irish tradition, but usually they are much more rustic and you find them in gardens. Jonathon discovered "urban" fairies in their home. He has two little girls who loved the tiny doors. He went all out and even designed some little rooms in his walls and fireplace with tiny armchairs and staircases inside. So cute! You have to check them out if you have time.

The old section of downtown Ann Arbor wasn't doing too well, and Jonathon wanted to help so he started installing fairy doors at businesses around town and now people go to visit all of them. His doors are so ornate and amazing so of course I wanted one, but he doesn't sell them, and I couldn't find cool fairy doors like his ANYWHERE. So what's a girl to do? Make her own of course and then make some extras to share the fun.

I just opened my own etsy shop. I still need to make a few adjustments to the shop, but I'm so happy with how the doors have turned out so far. Here are pictures of a few of the doors.

I think it would be so fun if different kinds of fairies lived in each home. You could have a library fairy who leaves books for different special occasions, or a travel fairy that lives you tickets and travel plans. A movie fairy that brings you different movies to watchor a junk food fairy that leaves behind treats. What kind of fairy would you want at your house?

Solid

Creed had a doctor's appointment today, which meant he got a lot of shots, but he also got permission from his doctor to try his first solid food! Here's Larry feeding him Rice Cereal for the first time.

He loved being in his high chair for the first time, and this picture pretty much sums up what he thought about the Rice Cereal.
And here's a video clip of Mr. Creed from this evening. If you played it over and over about fifty times, you might have an idea of how long he'll continue what he's doing.

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Lovely weekend

We had a nice relaxed weekend, but we did manage to make it to a farmer's market on our way to visit the Erney family. I picked up these gorgeous sunflowers.And Larry found . . .
an onion. Uh . . . yum!