– but money isn’t everything

My girls heard a commercial on the radio the other night for some Big Box toy store. The announcer said something about how you could find everything you needed for the holidays at this particular store and my youngest shot right back with, “Well, thats a lie!”

So, we asked her what she meant by that.  She explained that a toy store could have lots of things we might want but nothing that we really needed. A toy store didn’t have our family, or food, or a home, or love and that meant that saying they had everything we needed was a big fat lie.

If you asked my girls what the best gifts are they will tell you anything handmade is better because it was made with love and it was made just for the person who gets it.  Its not a rote response, they do still truly believe this, as do my husband and I, and we hope that they can continue to hold onto that into their adulthood.

Now, they are kids, and of course they want toys and gadgets and holiday frippery,  hell so do I,  but they continue to ask each year for gifts that we can make for them and we are happy to oblige. Last weekend I was able to get Saeb’s new bathrobe, nightgown and slippers done, Re’s slippers are finished and her bathrobe and nightie are cut out, I should be able to sew them together later this week. Today I started on their new hat and mitten sets. Here is the cuff of Re’s mitten

I breaks my heart sometimes to know that we can’t give the girls everything that they ask for or even everything we’d like for them to have but I know that they do have everything they need to grow into the beautiful, wonderful women they will become.

I’m gonna keep chuggin along on holiday gifts, I still have SO much to do!

I hope you can all find some peace and quiet this hectic season to appreciate getting what you need and truly enjoy getting what you want.

Toots

– and you were laughing along

We had several mini projects/distractions over the summer. Early in August friends of ours were raising Monarch caterpillars – they do this every year – this year it was crazy! They have a friend who also raises them and he was going to be out of time when all the chrysalises were ready to hatch.

So, our crazy friends took over 200, amazingly jewel like, jade and gold chrysalises and hung them all over their mantlepice, bookcases and anything else with an edge.

We were lucky enough to come home with 4. We hung them outside so the butterflies would be able to fly free when they were ready and we waited.  

2 days later some began to lose their jade color and they seemed to darken to black until we realized that the shell had actually become clear and the dark color we were seeing was the butterfly itself, ready to emerge. It was all pretty cool.

It was really cool to see them climb out of their little sleeping bags, their wings all crumpled up and short and their bodies short and fat as well, and to watch them slowly pump all the extra fluid from their bodies out into their wings.

They each took about 24 hours from hatching to fluttering away and we had 4 females. The males have a little black spot on their back set of wings and none of ours had that.

Hope you had a couple fluttery moments of excitement and new beginnings this summer! For more info on Monarchs you can go here. Enjoy.

Toots

– Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!

Sorry, I sorta dissappeared on ya there for awhile

I’ll try to catch you up in small installments.

I made (and am teaching) crochet socks this fall.

I made (and am teaching {and am selling the pattern for[ Rav link]}) awesome slippers.

I got AWESOME mugs! See Malea, they DO match my kitchen. 

Really so much happened in the last 2 months its still kind of a blur. Just wanted to pop something up to let you know that I’m still here. More soon.

toots