The Craft Cupboard That Devoured My House

Pregnancy hormones have kicked in and turned me from a relatively normal, rational person (OK, that's a bit of a stretch, I'll admit) into a Crazy Person Who Must Organize. Please note the capital letters. Why having a baby means I have to clean out and organize the entire house, I can't quite tell you, except that my friend Kat pointed out that afterward, I won't have time to clean or organize anything again for at least a couple of years. So I decided yesterday evening to clean out the Craft Cupboard. Again, note the capital letters.

After Chris and I got together, he was annoyed at the fact that I had weird, deep shelves in the end of my hall. They were far too deep for bookshelves (although that's what I using them for at the time) and we have a linen closet in the bathroom, so their original purpose remains a mystery. But since they annoyed him, he built cabinet doors for them, and the Craft Cupboard was born. For seven-odd years since, random items that have no other home have gradually accumulated there. My Scrapbook Habit lives there, as do my patterns, buttons, beads, glue, ribbon, glitter, fun foam and any other bit of leftover or clearanced something-or-other that I thought might be useful. Here I should note that my fabric lives with my mother. That is not, as you might think, so that Chris doesn't find out about it and die of the shock of my combined accumulated yarn and fabric stashes. I'm sure I have other reasons. I'll get back to you on that.

Anyway, the Craft Cupboard somehow managed to avoid detection during the Great Clean-out prior to Timothy's birth, so why I thought I could clean it out in one evening is a great mystery. Even greater than why my fabric lives with my mom. I spent six hours in there last night. That is how long it took for me to get one shelf cleared and organized, and to be able to find my bed again. Because when I opened those handy cabinet doors, the Craft Cupboard devoured my house. My entire house. No room was safe. We're still hoping the missing cats turn up before it digests them.

All this leaves me wondering...is there a 12-step program for multi-crafters? Should I seek professional help? If I should disappear, you'll all have this blog to witness what will have happened to me. My craft habit will have eaten me alive!

Horror Story

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved all creatures great and small...all creatures, that is, except possums. For her, possums were the epitome of horror. They were ginormous rats, R.O.U.S.es, even. And so she lived in peace, without any possums.

One day she ventured forth in the snow to take out the trash. In the driveway next to her yard she could see an animal. It moved oddly and appeared to be injured. So of course she approached to see if she could help. Only it wasn't an animal. It was a POSSUM. In broad daylight, a possum! Eeeeek!

So she ran for her life and called her husband at work and announced they were moving. And her husband was amused and told her the possum would not hurt her. Eventually, she worked up the nerve to follow the possum, along with her sidekick, Dynamite the cat. Thanks to a fantastic zoom lens, she got a glimpse of the possum.

If you look very carefully between the gate and the bottom of the house, you will see a little curl. That is a possum tail. ::runs away screaming in terror::

OK, I'm back. Anyway, the girl now lives in constant terror of possum attack. Especially since her dog has started spending his days trying to dig under the shed in the backyard, or sitting and growling menacingly at whatever is under it. And she is afraid to go out to dump the compost, which is behind the shed, or to let her children play outside.

The End...for now.

Let us hope this horror story doesn't have a sequal.

One of these things is not like the others?

What does this very random grouping of photos have in common, you might ask. Believe it or not, they DO have something in common. All of these photos are ones I've promised various people I'd post. All but one. This first one. I just thought it was cute.

So, for Emmms, here's the advent calendar my mom made us. I couldn't get a closer one to come out clearly, but you get the idea! You could make one, I'm sure of it!

Next, here's a four leaf clover I found right before Christmas, while I was out cleaning the bunny cages. Luck of the Irish and all that.

Mom, here's the picture of the boys in their Christmas jammie pants. They're already asking if I'm making teeny pants for the baby next Christmas to match all theirs!

Here are the icicles from the snow storm(s). Pretty ironic when you can't take down your icicle lights due to icicles!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE my new camera? Timothy's class forced bulbs at school, and when I started to take a picture, my camera automatically went to flower setting. SO COOL!

Heather, here's a picture of how the Librarian is getting along with the rest of his furry family. Clearly, Miss Mouse has accepted him.

Last but not least, here's a bump picture for everyone who has asked that I post one. It was taken today, at 16 weeks. I know it's not much of a bump. Believe me, it feels a lot bigger than it looks!

Belated holiday pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting the pictures from last month. The good news is that now I not only know how to use the new camera (more or less) but I also know how to rotate pictures from my laptop. We'll all hope this means more consistent blogs.

Right before Christmas, we went downtown with our friends Javier and Sonia and tried out the ice skating rink. We picked a great night. The outside temp was in the low 50s, and we didn't freeze waiting in line for our skates! Here we are with the giant tree.

Chris figured out the timer on the camera! Group shot!

Javi and Chris put on their skates...

While Timothy waits, semi-patiently.

So here's where the score stood: Gabe and I are experienced ice skaters. Chris admits to having skated a few times in childhood, and later recalled that he stopped because he wasn't very good at it. Javier, Sonia and Timothy had never skated before.

Here are the boys, ready for action.

Javier and Sonia, on the ice. They look like pros, don't they?

Timothy wasn't doing so well skating with Chris. It turned out he needed a little direction. Once I told him to move his feet one at a time and not at the same time, he did a very good job skating. It was still exhausting, trying to keep him upright.

Gabe was much easier to skate with. We had an arrangement. If he fell, I was letting go of his hand to avoid going down with him. If I fell, I was going to try to land on him to cushion my fall. Luckily, we didn't have to test this arrangement.

Everyone but Gabe and me gave up before too long. It was pretty crowded and I didn't blame them.

The lights were really pretty.

Downtown lights and Christmas lights!

One last shot of the pretty blue trees

And of course, the giant Nutcracker!

We had a really good time and will probably go again next year, if they set up the rink again. But if we do, I think I'll make Chris bring a few pillows to strap on him for padding!

Some projects and a funny

I know, it's been too long between posts again. This time I have a good excuse. Growing a real, live human is hard work. This one seems to be taking my few remaining brain cells, too. So you'll have to bear with me!

Anyway, here are some projects I worked on for Christmas. Mom had a great pattern for little zippered bags and we managed to whip out quite a few. I gave one to each of the boys' teachers, which is five altogether!

This one was my favorite, and not just because it had my initial!

Here they are, all together! They were fun to make and I can't wait to make more. I might have accidentally started three quilts in the meantime. Might. Have I mentioned that being pregnant makes me want to do everything at once despite the fact that I have no energy?

Now, for the funny. Timothy and Moses the cat have a weird sibling rivalry thing going on. I regularly have to mediate arguments between them. Moses is always saying insulting things, according to Timothy, and Timothy is mean and won't let Moses eat off his plate. At least, that's what they each tell me. But that's in the daytime hours. Night is different. Clearly.

Yes, we were trying to give the cats their flea prevention and couldn't find Moses. It turns out that all those evenings he was missing (read: not tormenting the other cats), he was curled up with Timothy. Timothy claims Moses keeps the bad dreams away. Moses just knows Timothy has the warmest room in the house!