At the mercy of the computer...

My 365 project over on flickr is probably going to end up being "426" by the time the year is over. Several days have more than one picture because I either forgot where I left off or I typed the wrong date in the tag...and did you know that if you change a tag, it will change all your pictures with that tag? I couldn't understand why I had six pictures from February 15. Ugh. I will not let silly things like this frustrate me. I will continue to take pictures; tags be damned!

And blogger has been reversing the order of my pictures. They're all in a nice chronological order, and then they magically appear on the blog in reverse. I didn't want to tell the story in reverse, but moving the pictures around has become difficult lately. More silliness. So today we're going to go backwards. Rants over.

Caitlin has two birthday parties this weekend. These are "new" girls, meaning she hasn't been invited to their parties before, so neither has received a birthday bag from Caitlin. I have to take pictures of these things so I can keep track from year to year. It's getting difficult with the girls in the neighborhood, because she's invited to their parties every year. I have to keep mixing it up!

These girls are getting bags, a book inside (still have to buy one book), braided barrettes (thank you, Meredith for the idea), and a braided headband.

I found the how-to for these through Crunchy Peas. It really only takes maybe ten minutes to make. I think they're super cute. I do worry that they look a little "homemade" (and not in the good sense) because the ends of the fabric strips are a little frayed. I just ripped the fabric to make the strips, although I did press them before braiding. It is very satisfying to rip fabric!

Edited to add: Okay, here's a link to the headband tutorial right here.

Bobby's "coupon" for this month was to make a pillowcase with Mama. We went to the fabric store on Tuesday. He chose these flames for one side and the skull and crossbones for the other. I even let him work the sewing machine pedal while I "steered" the fabric. Honestly, that was hard for me. I do not share my toys well (or at all), but that's not fair to the kids, is it? If they see me having so much fun with the sewing machine, shouldn't I at least let them try it to see if it's something they'd like to do? Yes, yes I should. Deep breaths. Monthly hormonal swings do not help with the sharing. Anyway, he had a blast, and he loves sleeping on his pillowcase that he made.

And finally, earlier in the week I wore this color combo. I don't think it's anything I'd ever choose to put together by myself, but I ended up really liking it.

I got the idea from my socks!

I wish you all a happy weekend!

Easing in

We are all easing back into our weekly routines. Not all of our regular activites are resuming this week, and that's a good thing, because the kids are having a tough time getting back into the day-long groove. The homework hour has been challenging--lots of meltdowns and distractions. Today the girls have dance, and I'm looking forward to breaking up the afternoon a little. I'm also looking forward to tonight's broccoli soup, but I may be the only one who is.

All the decorations have come down, and parts of the house feel naked. I put up fall decorations in September, so it really has been several months since the house was "normal." I like it though. It feels like a clean slate.

I want to thank all of you for your sweet and encouraging comments to my last post. I treasure them--and by all means, if you see something that I've done and you want to do it or put your own spin on it, please go right ahead! And one of these days, I'd love to have a real-life bloggy meet-up. Maybe I should put that on my "bucket list." You know, if I ever get around to making one of those.

In between the holiday madness, I decided it was time to knit another hat for myself. A hat that I would actually wear. The other hats I've made for myself are more of a beanie style--not the most flattering for me. So here is Felicity (free on ravelry). I used up some of the gray wool from my Mr. Greenjeans sweater. It's....okay. I'm just going to keep telling myself that I am cool and hip enough to wear this hat. It is keeping my ears warm, so mission accomplished.



But my neck is still freezing! So I'm cooking up something for this last ball of alpaca. Hopefully I'll have this done soon because standing outside the elementary school in the bitter wind is getting old real fast. I keep adding a layer every day, and every day it seems to get colder.
As a final note, Molly posted a tutorial on how to customize your blog header. I am very excited about this--I recycled a picture from last year to make the new blog header, but now that I know how to do it, I'm going to have lots of fun with this!

Stay warm, everyone!

And Happy New Year to You, Too!

Last night we let the kids stay up to watch the ball drop. The kids donned their glasses and their pajamas and got ready to party. We played some fortune-telling games and Apples to Apples Kids. We tuned in to Dick Clark. Bobby fell asleep on the couch some time after ten, but the girls made it all the way to midnight.
In the morning (or late morning--we all tried to sleep in), I made buttermilk biscuits (and bacon and eggs, but the kids were most excited about the biscuits). We went bowling and grocery shopping--loads of fun! Now the kids are ready for naps.

The mailman brought me some goodies to read over the weekend. This will give me something to do while the bowl games run non-stop.

And it's a new year...so naturally I think about resolutions. I don't really have any beyond the usual--try to be more patient, try to eat better, try to improve at meal planning. One special project I'm going to try this year is a 365 picture project. I feel pretty confident that I can take a picture a day--it's the uploading to flickr on a daily basis that I'm more likely to fall short on. Since this is my challenge, I'm making the rules! I'll take a picture daily, but if I'm only able to upload to flickr a couple of times a week, that's okay. The whole point of the exercise will still be satisfied. And maybe my photography skills will improve!

The kids go back to school on Monday, and I want to enjoy these remaining days together. I'm sure I'll be back here after my post-holiday cleaning frenzy early next week.