Crafting for Christmas

Kyle's family does a Secret Santa every year for Christmas. And it's a lot of fun.

Except that I haven't been in the family for..2? 3 years? I don't know them well enough to really shop for them, and Kyle's just not good at it. I don't know why. He has some good ideas sometimes but..pretty much, it's up to me.

So when his cousin's boyfriend showed up at the Thanksgiving shindig with a bearded beanie, I had an idea.

I've been wanting to try making a dead fish hat for..a long time. Ever since I found the pattern a good 4 years ago. I just never had the perfect time to make it.

The time is NOW.

I honestly don't want to give it up.

If anything, it's a great conversation piece, yes?

His girlfriend says he'll love it, so I'm going off her word.

But if he doesn't love it, I'll gladly take it back and wear it.

It came. She went.

It finally happened.



There's no turning back now.

She was ready to go.

She's at school.
Gabe's becoming more and more independent and wants me less.
Riah and Dot are in Arkansas.
Jesus. I don't know what to do with myself.

On the upside, no tears were shed from anyone.

Disappearing. I've been busy.

Holy crap, this summer as FLOWN by. It feels like I've been running consistently. Whew.
But here's just a couple things that have happened.

First, I FINALLY got to repaint this lamp that we got for free.



Still not sure how I'm feeling about it, but I'll figure it out eventually. I hope.

Me, Kyle, Amanda, Selena, and Gabey went to the Zoo in St. Louis.

My favorite exhibit?

PENGINS.
And yes, it's "pengins". I can't say "penguins" correctly.

Seriously, they were the best thing about the zoo.

Especially the fact that their building was SO much cooler than the 100+ F heat we had.
Gabe was in love with the anaconda.

He tried to hug and kiss it through the glass, all the while having the snake following his every movement. Gabey even had an audience, laughing away. He made it a point to tell everyone "HI!" and then "BYEEE!" while blowing them kisses.

The hippos were pretty cool, too.

Luckily for the kids and Amanda, the zoo had a huge waterfall thing to play in.

I stayed away, but I used one of their misters and stood in front of one of their big fans.

OH. And then today?
Today this happened.

We still need to give it a name.
Hell, we need to find out for sure if it's a male or female. >.<

June Photo Challenge - Day 14

June 14 - Someone You Love

Oh, my dear husband.
He deals with so much craft crap.
I love him so much.

June Photo Challenge - Day 7

Day 7 - High Angle

If you couldn't tell, getting a high angle shot is pretty difficult for us short folk. However, I was able to climb ontop of the loveseat and capture the homo sapien male species in his natural habitat.

Thanks, Kyle.

The Girls' Room.

Do you remember that segment on The Amanda Show? It was one of my favorites.

If you don't, then please sit still while I try to steal your youth.

Anywho.

I've done a fair bit of random decorating in Selena's room. There's flowers and butterflies on the walls, there's a completely redone dresser, but we still have some things to do. It's really coming together.

We haven't done anything in Riah's and Dot's room, as horrible as that is.
Honestly, the paint on the walls sufficed for a good while. It's not just a flat one color wall.

The photos are a bit crummy, I know, but you get the general idea. The doors need some work, and that vent on the wall needs to be painted, but all in all it's pretty good alone. Lately, though, I've been trying to come up with ideas to spruce it up. My main goal is to make the rooms easy for the kids to grow with and into, so we aren't doing renovations all the time.

I started with something easy. A bookcase.

I had some problems with putting the backing on, because I'm a perfectionist, so Kyle and Gabey stepped up to the job.

And there's only one spot where they didn't hit the nail right. :)

So, it's slow progress, but it's a start, right? Soon the house will be more homey, right?

Maybe I'm not cut out for this, but I'm hoping my crafting will get be through.