my very own gnome child

Apparently, unexpected things happen
when you combine the foaminess of christmas hat from Grammy
& the roundness of a baby head....

I always wanted my own little gnome baby!

click here to look at one of my favorite books ever...

http://www.amazon.com/Gnomes-Wil-Huygen/dp/0810909650

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

I woke up at 7 o'clock this morning & looked outside to find mounds of fluffy snow & more quietly falling. Now, I live in Minnesota, so quietly falling snow (and for it to stay in one place long enough to make a fluffy mound) is a rarity. Usually the wind is blowing like crazy.

I was in line at the post office the other morning, happily mailing out my Christmas packages on time (it is the season for miracles after all) and struck up a typical Minnesota conversation with an older gentleman... after exchanging pleasantries we moved on to talk about the weather. Yes it's a cold one all right but it's nice because there's no wind... "oh for sure...I just can't get used to the wind." I told him. "oh?" he asks... "I'm not from here," I said, " I'm from Alaska." His brow furrowed & he cocked his head to one side & said "Doesn't the wind blow in Alaska?!" I laughed (just a little) and said "Well, of course, but not like it does here." "Hmmm...that's strange, I wonder why not." He pondered. I told him that it was the mountains... the wind blows up & over so you don't get too much if you're in the valley on the other side. "well I'll be darned." he said.
He must've lived here his whole life.

anyways, Josh is sleeping in today, enjoying the first morning of his month long lay-off...
the baby is sleeping...
the drama-ridden, beleaguered teenaged daughter is sleeping...
even the dog is sleeping...

And I am awake.
Awake on this cold, beautiful, un-windy, snow mound-y wonderful winter morning.
A gift, it seems, from the spirit of Christmas past for a homesick girl longing for the winters of her youth.

life is good.

*WARNING*
gratuitous, super-sweet
baby bathtime cuteness!

This post is for my mom.
That's her in the pic above giving Lars a bath while she was here helping after he was born.
He was so tiny...
His head really wasn't alot bigger than that faucet in the background.
He was 3 weeks early because Josh & I have a blood group compatibility issue similar to Rh....
but that's another story.


and
this
is him now

what a chunker butt!
He's almost to big for the sink bath anymore...
*sigh*
it just goes way too fast.
pretty soon he'll be running around in jeans & gettin' dirty.
(but that'll be fun too!)

My super-fun new pots my Mom gave me for Christmas.
They came yesterday & I was so stoked I took them all out & lined them all up on the counter, each with its little lid on...
Orangey, shiny, stainless steel happiness!
Yay!

even Josh was excited...he made an egg sandwich for supper last night just so he could try one out!

A bunch of origami birds I made on Saturday...
I am going to make a mobile out of these for my friend Katie...
I made a little one for the babys room & she loved it.

More Lars!

In this one you can see the color of his eyes really well... they are the most interesting blue/olive brown color. never thought something could be blue & brown at the same time...people comment on his eyes all the time. Sometimes they are bright blue sometimes they are a little more "brown" but this is how they usually look.

Lars showing Momma his "feets"

had to get one of us together...

Lars must've agreed cuz I got a big schmooch! complete with face grab & drool...
... I love my job!

A fun thing I did the other day with the left over paints from one of Sam's projects....
{first i just stamped her paper plate full of paints down on the paper for a Rorschach-test-style inkblot
then I filled it in with various stamps...including one made of bubble wrap}
*note that it is almost as long as my dining room table is wide.

you can see the colors & the texture of the paint way better in this shot.

Birthday card for bff Kate...

I made it clear because this funky owl paper was so pretty on the other side.

this is the back of the card...
I figured she could set it on her dresser or something & look at it from both sides...
"discover the beauty unique to today" is what it says in the medallion

Just some close-ups of the card...

Bob is my little brother but he is bigger than me...

birthday card for my "baby" brother

Loved the splatter technique from Tim Holtz...
it's just plain water dropped onto the inked background &
left for 10-15 seconds & then blotted up...
it leaves a cool water spot effect.

Neat little odds & ends from my stash...the gear in the middle really moves.
Also note the fabulous copper paint I used...
it is so fantastically shiny.

This is Lars just waking up from his nap...

he doesn't realize I'm in the room...

...oh...hey, there's Mama.

My fabulous butter dish Josh & I got up in Fargo.

The brown bag of goodness.
I brought this bag home one fine day about, oh, 4 or 5 years ago.
It arrived home with high hopes & even higher aspirations...
and for 4 or 5 years now I have occasionally pulled it out
and looked longingly at its contents,
sighed
and put it back on the shelf.


Until today!




Ah... the alpaca fibers from the oft-remembered trip to the alpaca open house with Josh...
*sigh!*
Now THAT was a glorious day!
Not only did Josh go with me to an event that he had no desire to attend
(just for me)
He indulged me & let me buy this fiber so I could handspin some yarn...
knowing full well that this day, 4 or 5 years hence, would come and see the fibers yet unspun.
Yes, sometimes Josh is my personal saint.

So...anyways...
fueled by the much more recent accomplishment of,
dare I say, superb homemade oatmeal raisin cookies....
the desire to try my hand at the age old technique of wet felting...
the impetus of a very limited Christmas fund
AND
the complete brain gap that comes when I try to think of something
(anything)
to give the afore-mentioned teenaged daughter for Christmas,
the gears begin to turn...



*the imagination runs wild with possibilities*

Argh..the joys of being the mother of a teenage daughter...

This is the kind of emotional torture I get from my daughter, who is 14...( & a half omg!)
AND who has a boyfriend whom I intensely dislike...

Note the "wet eye" on the little chibi*
and the wagging tail...
and the begging paws...
Sami knows I have a particular weakness for the chibi race...
especially the sad ones
...nothing that cute should be sad.
So this, I declare as emotional blackmail!
She fights dirty I tell you...dirty.

*(basically anything small & extremely cute..Lars is sometimes referred to as a chibi)