Crafty Crafty

Sometimes I get project ideas in my head before I completely wake up in the morning. I'll be in the middle of a perfectly ridiculous dream and have the nagging urge to make finger puppets (or some other equally random thing). This morning it was a place mat. The very first thought in my mind was, "I have to make Bijou a place setting place mat." Why? Not sure. But before I could even get breakfast, I'd planned, traced, cut and sewn a very cute felt place mat for my Bijou. I'm still getting the hang of this whole sewing machine thing, but it's not bad for a first try. Besides, three year olds tend to not have a particularly critical eye. She thinks it's fabulous (despite what her facial expression may convey in the picture!).

Oranges anyone?

I just had to post this. I came into the kitchen the other day to find Bijou all dressed in orange and attempting to juggle two oranges. I guess if you're not into spontaneous monochromatic moments, then this probably isn't so awesome to you. But me? It was the highlight of my morning!

New Ventures and Nutcrackers

The last few weeks have been a challenge around here. But they say it's always darkest just before the dawn, right? So we're staying optimistic! The small shop on the square that sells baby accessories and baked goods (mentioned in a previous post) wants to carry my hats and shoes! SO, I've been sewing up a storm this past week. I am still sewing mostly by hand because 2 layers of felted wool and 2 layers of fleece is just too thick for the machine. We are starting out with just a couple of each item to see how well they do, but that's a step in a good direction. Hopefully I will complete everything over the next few days once the madness of the Nutcracker is over!

Today is the final performance of the Nutcracker. Opening night was yesterday and it was a LONG day. I had to get the girls to the theater by 10:15am. From 10:30 until 12:30 they had spacing rehearsal then 30 minutes for lunch. Bijou wants so badly to be in ballet now, but she was forced to hang out back stage and watch.

(But, check out her fabulous use of colors and patterns in yesterday's outfit. I think she was very cute.) From 1 until 4ish there was dress rehearsal. I did come home during that and we all got a nap before the girls' dinner break. We took the girls for pizza before their big debut on the Ford Center stage. By 7pm the theater was a buzz of guests, parents and grandparents with bouquets of roses for little ballerinas.

The girls did beautifully! We are very proud. It was almost 10pm before we made it back home. It's always jarring to see my kids all made up for performances. They on the other hand love it. They will someday rebel and be VERY girly girls, I'm sure.

Despite my ungirliness, there's nothing I love more than freshly washes, oiled and twisted locks. Check out Ashni's freshed up ballet bun. She looks like a whole new person with her hair done.

This morning I made them their favorite breakfast - cinnamon biscuits! We head to theater around 1:30 to get them all made up and dressed for the 3 o'clock performance today. Technically we are not supposed to take photos during the performance and yesterday I followed the rules and only got a few pictures during dress rehearsal, but today I'm feeling rebellious. So there WILL be pictures from today's show!

Today's Bijou-ism

We were riding in the van today and a flock of birds was flying over the airport runway. They were circling and swooping all together. Bijou was amazed.

Bijou: Mommy, look at the birds.

Me: I see.

Bijou: They are flying all together. They are beautiful. And they are all friends.

I thought it was sweet that she thought that they were beautiful.

Sweater slippers, shortbreads and small business plans

The weather has taken a nose dive around here. Thanksgiving weekend was beautiful. We could not have asked for better weather. This week, they are predicting snow. SNOW! It's cold out there. It's also a little chilly in our house too. I promised the girls that I would make them all slippers to warm their icy toes (which they love to put on unsuspecting parts of my body throughout the day). The thought of hand sewing slippers for everyone was rather daunting. So instead, I figured I would take this opportunity to teach the girls some basic stitches and let them make their own pair of slippers. Jena is working diligently on her first pair. Ashni has MUCH less patience for things that take longer than 5 minutes, so she may be wearing socks this winter. I guess 2 is too young to let loose with a needle, so I did make a pair for Bijou. I love recycling secondhand sweaters into slippers, baby shoes, hats and toys. We found a great grey lambswool sweater at Goodwill. So far it has been used to make a pair of legwarmers for Ashni for ballet, Jena is using part for her slippers and the rest has been used for Bijou's slippers. There's still enough material left to make.....something, but I don't know what yet. I finished Bijou's slippers last night and she's had warm toes all morning.

A couple of days ago, I got a hankering for lemon. Lemon something...I wasn't sure what yet. Then I remembered how much I love shortbread cookies and lemonade in the summer and thought, what if I could combine the two of those (I also enjoy lemon cookies). So I whipped out my shortbread cookie recipe and rummaged around the fridge until I found a lemon and a lime. I grated some lemon and some lime zest and added it to the shortbread dough. The I made a lemon - lime icing to put on top. GREATEST THING EVER! We've made about three dozen over the last couple of days.

Now, my mother (who is always trying to come up with business ideas for me), has decided that I need to start a business that sells baby accessories, lemon shortbread and buttermilk biscuits. HA! That's like those place where you can get a haircut, your car washed and a slab of ribs all at the same time. As I was relaying that idea to my cousin (who was partaking in one of the lemon shortbread cookies) she reminded me of a little shop here on the square that does indeed sell baby accessories and baked goods! Go figure. So today, I will be packaging up some cookies, pulling out some of my stock of baby accessories and trucking down to the square to see if she's interested. I will also be going to get a sewing machine! YAY! Happy early birthday to me! Thanks mom.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Even though we do not celebrate Christmas, December is still my favorite time of the year. There's a sort of electricity and warmth in the air, dispite the cold, wet Mississippi winter. We awoke yesterday to the first frost of the season. Our front yard sparkled for about 20 minutes until the sun came out completely. Then it all melted, but for children raised in the tropics, 20 minutes of sparkly grass is still amazing. Just wait until they get a half hour of snow.

December is also the month that Bijou turns three and three day later, I turn 31. I feel like I should have reached some sort of milestone at thirty, but I didn't. Did I miss something? Maybe 31 will bring something different. But I digress....
I can hardly believe that my little Bijou will be three, although I can barely remember life before her. She has grown into a very, very smart and feisty little girl. Most days we all adore her, other days we attempt to find the receipt so that we can return her to the hospital and get a quieter model. All the same, we love her dearly and are excited to celebrate another year of life with her.

I have decided that I will do big parties for the girls for their 4th through 10th birthdays. Not that that means I will be doing less parties, because I have four children and someone is going to fall between the age of four and ten for the next ten years. Anyway, Bijou will be three years old on the 27th. We will do something small with maybe a friend or two. My plan is to make a mini cake for us to share (so that there aren't any leftovers for me to sneak and eat while kids are asleep) and let her choose what we make for breakfast(or dinner, I haven't decided). Knowing Bijou, she'll ask for biscuits because that's what she's asked for every morning since I started making them.
Along with breakfast and cake, she will be getting a hand sewn birthday crown. Over the years I have made a few birthday crowns for the kiddos. There's no rhyme or reason to when or for whom I make one, but this year, Bijou asked for a crown. Usually I am a procrastinator and will wait until the day before a birthday to start making the crown. This year, I went against the norm and made the crown early. I haven't let her see it yet, as I want it to be a surprise.

Back to life...

We are finally back to a regular week around here. Everyone is in good health, all of our guests have returned to their rightful homes and school has resumed. Unfortunately, after almost two full weeks of no school (thanks to illness and holidays) getting back into the swing of things is like pulling teeth (with tweezers!).


I decided to take yesterday to assess where we are academically. In hind sight, it would have been better to do that after everyone's brain had recharged from the extended vacation. But, we all know what they say about hind sight. Anyway, after a slow start and much frustration on my part, I know what we need to spend a little more time on and what area the girls are very strong in. Reading has always been an important factor in teaching the children and they continue to read well above their grade level. Math is also very important. We tend to struggle a bit with various aspects of math. One of the reasons we school 12 months out of the year is because my children tend to forget things if they are not regularly revisited. Math is a subject where things have to be revisited VERY often so that they stick. Assessing their math progress would have probably been easier if I'd done it at the end of the week instead of the beginning, but they both seem to be performing at grade level. I would like to see them work more independently in math, but everyone has to work at their own pace. I'm sure that they will improve with time.


I have also decided that I would like the girls to start reading some biographies. It's female pilot week in our house. Jena will be reading about Amelia Erhart and Ashni will read about Bessie Coleman. Next week, they will switch.


We are still discussing Mesopotamia in history. Yesterday the girls tried their had at cuneiform writing. We shaped sticks into our stylus and used play dough as our clay tablets. Today, we discussed the Code of Hammurabi and built a ziggurat from blocks. I would like to do an ancient Mesopotamian style feast when we get to the end of our lessons. We will see how that works out and what recipes I may be able to find.