And The Winner Is

Thanks to all responded wanting the flash cards.  The winner of the card set  is Anofferingofhope picked at random from Little E's brio block box.  Please email us at darwinsmommies at g mail dot com and let us know where to send them.  For all of you who didn't win email us and I will send the file your way!  In the past few days E has really been enjoying her cards and picked up the B card and said Bee yesterday.  I know my child is a genius!

Crafty Christmas

Well now that the holiday is complete I can post pictures of all our handiwork. I must say that I was pretty busy this year making gifts big and small for people. I am still in love with felt and I think that things turned out pretty well.

My first projects were for my secret Santa from my preemie message board. I made a felted wool wreath ornament for the mom and a stocking toy for her daughter.

I decided to branch out with my felt crafts and felt some sweaters from good will. I went and picked up three wool sweaters (a red one, a grey one and a red and grey fair isle) and washed them in hot water and dried them on high. This causes the sweater to shrink and the wool fibers to link together. Once this is done you can cut the sweaters and the fabric does not fray. It is pretty cool.To make the wreath you cut out about 60-70 1.5 inch square pieces of felted sweater and use a needle and thread to string them together. After they are all strung you pull the two ends together to make a circle tie it off and attach a bow. It is super easy and they turn out really nice. I made two with just one arm of each sweater. I ended up giving felt to my mother and still have tons left over.

I went back to my felt roots for the stocking toy creating something like my cornucopia with a Christmas theme. I found patterns for a stocking online and modified it for my use. I then made a few small toys to put in the stocking. Some I found patterns on and others I designed myself (I bet you can tell which ones!) I think it is pretty cute. I hope that little L enjoyed playing with it.

Shazam and I also worked on some gifts for Little E. We designed a set of ABC flash cards for E. I made them in power point using clip art and we had them printed at the local copy shop four slides to a page and then each card was laminated. They are really cute and E loves playing with them. She keeps handing me the cards to tell her what the picture is. 

 Due to a snafu with the copy shop we actually got four sets of them (thankfully they only made me pay for one!) If you are interested in receiving one as a little gift from Darwin's mommies make a comment on the post and I will pick someone at random. If you would like the ppt file to print your own let me know.

We decided to go for it and make a felt farm set from a pattern I bought from Etsy.  Of course I procrastinated and we made the whole thing the week before Christmas.  We ended up not making the fence that was in the design but I think it is just fine.  It took 3-4 hour work sessions each night last week for Shazam and I to finish the set.  We finished around 10 pm on Christmas Eve.  It was worth it though.  It turned out great. 

This was one of those times that I was glad I am married to someone who is crafty and can sew.  I must say that not only did we finish the project we didn't bicker at all which tends to happen when we are trying to finish a project of some kind.  Shazam and my minds work in very different ways and this can cause some conflict when we need to complete a task.  Anyway Little E spent some time playing with her farm before we went off to our family celebrations and I am sure it will get lots of attention if the weeks to come.  Little E is super sick today and hasn't been playing with much today.  Poor little girl is a stuffy mess...again.

5 days and oh so much to do!

I am so far behind on my crafting/christmas tasks. I don't know what I was thinking. We have 5 nights (including Christmas Eve) to finish the Barn. I have cut out all the pieces of the pattern (which are many). Now we have to cut out all the felt and cardboard and sew, sew and sew. Thank goodness Shazam is done with her sememster and her field placement. I need her to be working on this during the daylight hours while E is at daycare. I have even considered employing some child labor at school with some of my for crafty students. On top of the farm we still need to finish picking up E's stocking gifts, get stocking gifts for my Mother, Father, and get gifts for my neice and nephews. Shazam will be having a busy week.

I have so much to blog about. Like the fact that E has started to walk! I also need to blog about the other craft projects that I have completed for this holiday season. But just have not had time. If only I didn't have to work and could craft full time!

Well I have to go work on my farm. Hope all is well with you all.

It is begining to look a little bit like Christmas!

Sunday we were all finally feeling better enough to go for an outing. I hadn't left the house since Thursday morning so I was very happy to get out of the house. A local farm was having a Christmas open house so we headed over in the afternoon after Shazam got back from the library. The open house was nice and held in their greenhouses so it was super pretty with a forest of poinsettias and wonderful light. I got some great eggnog and gingerbread and then we traumatized E by having her sit with Santa. Our normally social baby hates Santa. I know this is normal but E likes everyone and willingly goes with new people all the time. She was smiling and making friends the whole time we were there until she spotted Santa. It went downhill pretty quickly. We scooped her up and went and got a tree. Perhaps next year she will get the Santa gift connection and cut the dude some slack!

At home we broke out the decorations and put the tree up. E wasn't very excited about the tree but was into the lights. I think we did a pretty good job picking out a pretty tree. We have not had one in two years and I love coming home to a house smelling of Christmas tree. So far we have been able to distract E from pulling all the ornaments off the tree by providing her with a basket of plastic ornaments under the tree. We will see how long that lasts. I may be posting next week with pictures of our tree hanging out in the back yard!

A Real Post

So now that I am feeling human again here is what has been happening the past few weeks.



Thanksgiving weekend was spent for the most part away from the Internet at the farm my father grew up on in VT/NY (it is right on the border). Since it is such a long drive we decided to leave Wednesday night and stay overnight in Woodstock. We tried to stay at a couple of the inns we have stayed at before but we found out that most of the inns don't take kids! I know they probably break up the romantic moments and all but boy did it put a little crimp in our plans. So we ended up having to tough it out at The Woodstock Inn. I was afraid TWI was going to be stuffy but was pleasantly surprised by the modern decor and the wonderful food. Oh you Rockefellers you know how to do it up. After check in we popped in a few shops and picked up some odds and ends. We didn't make it to our favorite art gallery which is probably best for our bank accounts as I saw some new Sabra Fields in the window and we have a "problem" passing them by. We had a nice dinner at the inn's restaurant and then headed up to our room where we tucked Little E in her pack and play behind the wing back chairs. We watched tv on the computer in our fluffy bed and drifted off to a lovely sleep. We would have woken rested and in fabulous moods if the little lady decided to sleep through the night. Little E had a cold and seemed to be cutting all 4 of her molars at once. No fun. Little E was up for the day at 5 am and I felt it was my duty not to let my child wake up the entire inn so down to the lobby we went. I kind of wish I had brought my camera because the front desk had a bell to call for service the size of a large dinner plate. It was awesome! Little E had some breakfast and explored the first floor of the hotel. We played some chess in the Library, looked in the window of the gift shop, and played on the couches around the fireplace. It hadn't been lit for the day and the hearth had been swept clean from the day before but it was still kicking out heat. It is pretty amazing and they stoke it with 4 foot logs. We greeted the NYtimes delivery man and generally had a nice time even though it was really early. I must say I was very happy to see the nice woman come set up the coffee in the library. After coffee with the other early risers I returned to our room got E bundled up and in the becco for a quick trip around the sleepy town. We had a nice time looking into the shops and saying hi to the many dogs that were out for their morning constitutional. I spent the rest of my time in Woodstock eating (breakfast and lunch) and napping. We reluctantly got back in the car and drove to the farm. I would have loved to stay longer but family called. All in all it was a nice visit. Most of the VT family had not met Ella yet so it was a nice coming out for her. We had a great meal and E did really well for being in a house with about 20 strangers picking her up and passing her around. We had planned on staying over only one night but an ice storm held us up and we stayed until Saturday. We drove to Shazam's parent's house were we had a nice visit with my bil, bil's girlfriend, nephew and ils. We left Sunday but not without leaving the gift of bad colds with both grandparents and her Aunt. Little E's cold is on the mend but I fear that the NH crew is still fighting its effects.



If you are thinking that is wasn't very nice of Little E to make one side of the family sick and not the other stay tuned. I think the in laws lucked out in this whole episode.

Santa Fail

So I owe you a real post sometime in the near future but we have all been struck down with the stomach bug from hell and have not been up to blogging, consuming solid foods, or sitting upright in a few days. We did feel well enough to go and get a tree today at a local farm. They had santa and free eggnog so I thought what the heck why don't we get a photo of Little E and Jolly Old St Nick. Well all did not go as planned. The most friendly child on the planet freaked the heck out. We may be starting therapy next week.

They are in!

Our pro photos are in and well of course I think E looks super cute! Check them out!

http://www.strutphotography.com/Ella/