Gerbils, Spring, Repurposing & Other Randomness

Here's Gordon in his plastic ball. He has the run of the house in this thing. Yesterday Amelia told me I am Gordon's grandma! OUCH! :)
Oh, I have a tip for all the future gerbil owners out there: Use a dab of petroleum jelly on the tip of the water bottle and this will prevent lots of leakage. I cleaned that cage twice and even bought another bottle before someone shared this gem with me....
***

Spring is here. I think it will rain most of the week, but that's okay. I am glad to see winter is over. Now we can start planning the garden. We are more than doubling it this year.
***

This was a crib skirt! What a waste! I took it apart and made pillows. The kids really like them.
***

Miles is sad his sister is at school. He is handling it better this week. He doesn't want to play. He said he wanted "alone time."
***
And finally....

I love these old metal hot plates...but, they are heavy. So, I've started hanging them up in easy to grab places. And I discovered they are....

magnetic! Sweet! Now I can stick a recipe there without getting it all dirty!

Have a great week!
~Karen

I'm not dead yet!

We got a new dryer. The directions have sat on the counter for about a week or so. Kevin pointed this part out, and told me to just read this part and I'd be okay. Oh my....

Scrappy Yarn Project

I always have little balls of scrappy yarn around. It's rarely enough for an entire project. So, without a plan I decided to make a blanket using all the scrappy yarn. As you can see there is no specific color scheme. It really is about using all that yarn. Now I have about 100 more rows to go....and then we will have a nice sofa throw. The pattern I used is for a dishcloth, and it is here. I took that pattern and made it bigger.

Is it Friday yet? I am tired!
~Karen

Crafting & Preschool

Miles has been having nightmares lately. Did I mention they occur around 3 am? Yeah. So, we have tried everything from reasoning with him to books that deal with this topic. Nothing has worked. SO, I borrowed an idea from fiction books...Meet the invisibility cloak:
One side is a soft cotton, while the other side is flannel.

The idea of a cloak that makes you invisible is an old one. I told Moe the blanket will say "bye bye" to nightmares. For some reason, it worked. He sleeps in his bed, and doesn't come in ours at 3 am. He is quite pleased that I made it especially for him. It makes me happy to see it being treasured.
***
I FINALLY finished the rug.

I am pleased with it. I am more pleased to be done! I think I will go back to smaller ones. Kevin calculated how many stitches it took. I don't want to know. I know it took tooooo many!
***
Mimi started preschool today, and she loved it. She said she enjoyed her time away from Moe and me. :) I think she was ready for the break. I was surprised how hard it was on Moe. He cried for his sister, and talked about how much he missed her. When we picked her up he hugged her three times. It was sweet. He told her it was horrible without her. I guess I am not much fun? I will try harder tomorrow!

Have a great week!
~Karen

The Rug

Slowly it is coming along. I think it will be beautiful when finished, but right now I am annoyed with how long it is taking. I have learned many tips...the hard way..from this experience.
Now no piece of fabric is safe from me. Everything I see I think of cutting up!
Have a great weekend!
~Karen

Kids...Momma Got You a Drinking Game!

Jenga? Really?

(By, the way...my favorite one is upside down. It says "I shot" instead of "1 shot." Talk about making momma proud and putting that good college education to work....)

This is the best one:

I had this game in the garage for a year or so. I picked it up at a yard sale for 25 cents.
Funny, huh? Thankfully a dry eraser took all the writing off.

~Karen

Moe is learning how to dress himself. He always manages to put his pants on backwards. He doesn't like me making any changes, so often we will run errands with his zipper on his butt. Oh well. At least he has on pants.
***
Our Goodwill only carries one kind of Barbie...the naked kind. Seriously. I've never seen a dressed one there. I make her spend her own money on these things. I am mean like that.

Ralphie bit one of the hands off. We say she was surfing and ran into a shark.

She is supposed to be "Skipper" the tween. I don't know many tweens with hot pink hair. Mimi thinks all barbie dolls are beautiful. *SIGH*

Off to cook dinner. Hope everyone is having a great week!
~Karen