Monday, September 15, 2008

ready for fall...




inspired by my friend amy's success last year with presenting handmade Christmas gifts to everyone in her family, i thought i would give it a shot this year. mind you, this is from someone who can't draw a stick figure to save my life. but i have discovered that i can have a creative outlet, i can be a somewhat nonoffensive artist, without having to draw a thing! 

the picture at the top of the post is what my living room looked like yesterday after working all afternoon to tear strips for a rag rug i will hopefully make before Christmas. again, i have NO idea what i'm doing--all i have area some really awesome instructions from amy. even long distance, she is a great teacher, but i still have my doubts that this thing will turn out looking like my 5-year-old son made it. alas, i will trudge on despite my self-doubting...

so last night as we were settling in to watch "be kind, rewind," the above picture is what i saw: marley thinks he is a cat. this means he picks the highest, most cushiony spot in the room on which to lay and he settles in there. so last night this meant my piles of rags. i wish i had a video to share of him  actually picking the right spot. it was like goldilocks and the 3 bears: he laid on the first pile and decided it was too hard; then he laid on the 2nd pile and decided it was too soft; then he nestled himself snugly into the 3rd pile (notice his nose is burrowed into the side of the pile) and decided it was JUST RIGHT. and he promptly passed out for the duration of the movie...

i worked and worked and worked on turning these strips into a ball. one thing i have discovered about myself during this crafting self-discovery is that i work very S.L.O.W.L.Y. so i worked throughout the movie on just one pile of rags, and i didn't even get all the way done: 

this ball is already gigantic, and look how many strips i still have left to add to it! so i'm already thinking i might have enough strips to make one big rug and two smaller ones.

i wish everything wasn't so girly and pink. normally i wouldn't be saying this, but i just feel like when i look at the ball of fabric it's too cottage-y for me, if you know what i mean. but then again, it's not for me...and i think the person it's for will really like it (that is, if it doesn't turn out to look like aedan made it...).

in other news, this weekend we just hung out and spent family time together. i'm trying to get into a routine where i only work during the day while the kids are at school. this is really hard, especially because i still put pressure on myself to try to turn jobs around really quickly--but i'm trying to stop doing this and just hope for the best. :) 

i'll leave you with one final photo that, besides me being in the picture (somehow i seem to be the one taking all the pictures, which means i'm almost never in them!), pretty much sums up how we spent the weekend:

you have to notice that the kids are still in their jammies, gillian's holding a book, rhys is plotting how to GET the book from gillian and subsequently dissolve it with his magically powerful saliva, marley's thinking "why are you making me sit here for a photo shoot?" aedan's making funny faces and trying to figure out how to be the center of attention, and everyone's sitting on rick's lap. see, i told you: pretty much sums up life around here! :)

have a great week everyone!



1 comment:

Amelia Plum said...

i love the photo at the bottom. everyone looks so happy and comfy