Baby Steps

I am nearly finished with a Christmas present that I am making for Wesley.  I am excited with how it is turning out!  I am making him a mosquito netting canopy to go over his bed.  Colleen has one for her bed, "Santa" brought it to her for Christmas in 2007, she was 4 years old then and "Santa" gave her a room makeover, complete with Castle bed.  Long time readers may remember that one.  Shawn and I pulled it off between about 1am and 4 am, it was one of our crazier undertakings, but it worked out great.  :D

 

Wesley is 4 years old now himself, but a room makeover would be premature at this point.  He still loves Lightning McQueen and his blue race car bed.  He also loves Colleen's bed canopy.  I looked around a little online to see if there were ones targeted to boys.  I found one that was camoflauge colored, but it didn't fit the theme of his room at all.  I decided to make him one. 

 

I bought a plain and simple white mosquito net canopy from overstock.com.  It was cheap, $19 including shipping.  I also bought a couple of yards of black and white checkered fabric and some Heat n Bond tape (because I can't sew).  I already had a Lightning McQueen window valance in the same fabric has his curtains, I forget what I paid for it, but I know it wasn't much.  I also have an old Christmas ornament that is broken that I plan to use different parts of to embellish the canopy.  I have also used about half a spool each of blue and red ribbon that I already had in my stash.  All told, cost of materials is about $30 to $35.  This is half the cost of Colleen's store bought canopy.  And if I do say so myself, Wesley's is nicer.

 

So far I have cut the checkered fabric into strips, hemmed them and used the Heat n Bond tape to secure them to the two opening edges of the canopy to give them definition.  I have fed the blue and red ribbons through the curtain rod pocket of the valance and safety pinned the valace to the round hoop of the canopy.  Then I pulled the ribbons tight and tied them in a bow, which made the valance gather around the canopy hoop.  Next, I am going to take a needle and thread and tack the valance to the hoop.  I may not be able to sew, but I can do that much.  Last, I am going to attach the ornament pieces to it.  This part I am still iffy on.  I'm not sure where I am going to put them or how I am going to attach them.  The good news is that I still have a few weeks until Christmas to figure it out.

 

I have the canopy hidden up in my room.  I didn't think about writing this post until after it was already packed away, so I don't have pictures to post at this time.  I will take some photos next time I get it out to work on it.

 

Yay!  Christmas is less than a month away!  :D

 

Love, Jen

 

This quote from Mother Teresa inspires me.  I find that it is easy for me to act this way towards children, I need to work on applying it to my interactions with peers and elders.

 

Love, Jen

...for the adorable-ness contained in this post!

 

Today was the Thanksgiving Feast at Wesley's preschool.  The children sang us several cute songs, then we went to the big room and had "Friendship Salad" and Pumpkin Bread.  The 2s and 3s classes made us butter from scratch.  The texture was different and it was very sweet, so of course I loved it!

 

Colleen came with me because her school has half days all week to allow for teacher conferences and because of the Thanksgiving holiday.  We sat with the family of Wesley's best friend and we all had a terrific time!

 

Love, Jen

 

 

Wesley is second from the right, bottom row, blue plaid shirt.  He got a big kick out of his pilgrim hat.  His best friend is the little girl sitting to the right of him, talking to the teacher.

 

 

 

By this point in the day, Coco's "knee" socks had migrated into "shin" socks.  LOL

 

 

 

In this picture Colleen is showing off the space from the tooth she lost on Friday afternoon.  It was her 2nd lost tooth and it is *really* lost, she dropped it in the car and we haven't found it yet!  Wesley's smile in this picture looks EXACTLY like Shawn's mom's smile. 

 

 

 

This just in: Shawn is playing Lodi Dodi on his computer and we are both cracking up remembering how he used to torture me by singing snippets from it.  "Don't cry, dry your eye, here comes your mom with those two little guys".  I don't remember why it drives me crazy, maybe it was because he sang it SO DANG-GONE MUCH, now whenever we hear it I have to make a big production over not wanting to hear it and he makes a big deal out of singing it to me.  And now you all know one of our inside jokes!

I'm not sure what to write, the words aren't coming to me on this one, but it is too important an occasion not to mention it in a forum I use to chronical my life.

 

Mrs. J has known me my whole life, and my dad for most of his.  She lived next door to my dad's parents while he was growing up.  After my grandfather passed away, we moved into the house and she saw my three sisters and I grow up as well.

 

Every Halloween she had a little bag of candy made up for each of us, it always made me feel special to get it.

 

She always bought something from our school fundraisers.

 

Her house was always so clean and tidy.

 

She had a special "rec room" in her basement with a sign over it that said the names of her and her husband. 

 

I grew up and moved away and kept in touch by writing letters.  We became pen pals.  I sent her pictures of my kids every time I had them taken, which was usually once a month in the beginning.  She always wrote a nice long letter back to me.  I never had to look up her address, I knew it by heart.  One day she moved away to live with her daughter, I memorized the new address because it felt weird having to looking it up.  Then she and her daughter had a falling out and she moved in with her grandson and his wife.  I didn't memorize that address and for some reason that isn't sitting well with me right now.

 

In one of her letters she told me to call her by her first name and I found that I couldn't, it just didn't seem respectful to me.  Every so often she would remind me to call her by her first name and she always signed her letters back to me with her first name.  Looking back, I wonder if this was her way of honoring our friendship, specifically, the relationship we forged upon my adulthood.  I think of her fondly when the students at my kids' schools call me by my last name. 

 

I haven't seen her since Colleen was an infant.  I haven't had a letter from her since she got sick.  I had advance warning that her time on earth was waning, and yet hearing the news of her passing was still a shock.  Her time of illness was relatively short, and I hope she didn't have to suffer the indignities that cancer often imposes.

 

She lived a long and full life.  It was a life that had it's fair share of both ups and downs, she quickly reported the downs and celebrated the ups at legnth.  I admire that about her.  She was lucky enough to know her great grandson and boy was she proud of him.

 

I am glad to have known her; having her for a neighbor is one of my cherished childhood memories.  My heart hurts knowing that I will never receive another letter from her. 

 

You will be missed, Mrs. J, and you will always be fondly remembered.

 

Love, Jen

 

Mrs J and Colleen, Christmas 2003

This one's for mom, Hi Mom!

 

A few weeks ago I got Colleen a new bed, in part because she was getting too tall for the toddler bed, in part because my sister is coming out soon to visit and I need a decent place for her to sleep.  Since the crib is going in Colleen's room, it made sense.

 

I knew I wanted an eyelet bedskirt but WHEW are they pricey.  I found one on eBay that was listed at 99cents for a full sized bedskirt, two pillow shams and a pillow case.  Shipping was just over $11, when it was all said and done I paid $12-something.  I got it so cheap because it was ecru instead of white and the pictures didn't do it justice.  Actually, when I got it, I was unimpressed.  It looked dingy and old instead of "ecru".  At first I thought "maybe I'll bleach it", but then I decided to dye it.  I got the dye at Michael's yesterday and got myself good and intimidated by reading up on tips for doing a good job.  This afternoon I told myself "now or never" because I figured if I waited too long it would just get put on my mental "to do" list and I'd never quite get around to doing it.  I decided that it wasn't a big deal if it didn't turn out good, the set was cheap and I could always bleach it later.

 

Well, let me tell you that using powdered RIT dye couldn't be easier.  I used a 5 gallon bucket in the kitchen sink and did the pillow cases first, then changed the water and did the bed skirt.  It went fast, the dye didn't stain a thing except the fabric and the color turned out great.

 

And here is Coco's new bed!  The two eyelet pillows along the back of the bed were dyed, along with the pillow in the front of the stack of 3 at the "head" of the bed.

 

The Ballerina quilt was another eBay find, along with a lavedar floral quilt that isn't in the picture.  The daybed is Craigslist, of course.  :D

 

Mom, I hope you like it.  Becky, it is really comfortable!

 

Love, Jen