the vigorous suck

not that it hasn’t rained in weeks,

eluet — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:51:14 +0000

but after receiving about 11 drops of rain, I find myself compulsively checking out the radar. Refresh, refresh, nothing happening, nothing coming. It’s a bit like it was Christmas, and Santa ate one of your cookies and forgot to leave the gifts. Bitter pill to swallow.

somewhere, someone in marketing is smiling

eluet — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 20:04:39 +0000

One solid week of answering questions about cars (“Hey, have you ever seen a purple Prius?” “Mom, why don’t you say the ‘t’ in ‘Chevrolet’?” “Who do we know who drives a Jetta?”) found me creating this document today:

I’m sure the quality would make my graphic design friends shudder (feel free to create me a better one), but I am hoping that putting this on a clipboard and giving little w. a pen to tally up the cars he sees will buy me an hour or two of peace while we are driving. We shall see…

what can’t you do with a little tape?

eluet — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 22:40:51 +0000

It has been a very, very long time since I’ve sat down to this blog largely due to a complete absence of naptimes over here and a desire to try to be crafty/actually finish books for my book club (Finished a truly excellent book this morning for last night’s book club, btw).

This picture, however, pretty much sums up what we’ve been up to over here:

For those of you who have not seen this device in person, this box (marked “fragile” of course) contains about 30 pieces of balled up paper. We have chosen to use the highly secure method of affixing the box to the wall with painter’s tape. Then, we sneakily try to lure Daddy to stand (ok, “crouch” is more like it) under the box so that it will rain paperwads on his head. Truly hilarious fun created by some truly ridiculous children.

love is in the air

eluet — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 20:32:11 +0000

Or, at the very least, dangling from our ceiling. I finally took down the Christmas garland this morning (funny how you never see the things that are right in front of you) and put my little hearts up in its place.

I’ve been on a campaign to use up my collection of felt scraps, and stitching up these little guys finally put a dent in my stockpile.

On a related note, my kids have apparently been silently suffering from the Halloween-Thanksgiving-Christmas blues and are placing an inordinate amount of importance on Valentine’s Day. So much so that we had to repurpose an activity from last year and make an ~~Advent~~ Countdown Calendar for Valentine’s Day. And still, no chocolates are to be found.

why my shoulder hurts

eluet — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:22:19 +0000

I had a few extra minutes today, so I decided to dump out my bag and see what was hidden inside. I share my list with you:

1 knife
2 forks
1 spoon
wristwatch
hairbrush
empty hand sanitizer
whistle
matches
candles
travel Cranium game
lotion
metal cup
wallet
2 water bottles
daily calendar
coupon folder
small spiral notebook
letter from w’s school
scribbled on communion cards from church pew (ought to donate to the church’s paper goods fund)
pair of mittens
handful of lint-covered almonds
3 grape jolly ranchers (hate that flavor)
blue plastic bracelet
flamingo drink stirrer
small puzzle
container of almonds (lint-free)
clementine
cell phone
ipod with headphones
ipod shuffle
set of keys
wikistick glob
pink plastic dolphin
hairclip
tiny magnifying glass
tie-dyed wristband
11 silly bands
plastic snake
pink eraser
building block toy
flamingo card
ymca ID card
2 toys r us loyalty cards
2 copy cards
2 band aids
5 lip balms
empty altoids tin
hershey miniature bar
15 pens
2 sharpies
1 highlighter
6 pencils

Can you match my list? Just try!

seriously durham county public library?

eluet — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 02:09:47 +0000

Dear Book Intake Person,

Was there not enough blank space on the page for your sticker? Are you trying to deny me even the most cursory details of the author’s biography? Do you just do this because you can? I do appreciate, however, your constancy in absurd sticker placement.

Keep up the dubious work,

A Durham County Citizen

owlies everywhere

eluet — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:53:35 +0000

These little owlies are enough to turn me into a squirrel and go skittering into the backyard to look for acorns. Too cute!

up next: the letterpress

eluet — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:48:05 +0000

Our newest favorite crafty past time comes to us courtesy of Aunt D. On a piece of lightweight foam, the kids etch/scratch/indent a drawing–aliens, silly faces, flowers, rainstorms were favorite subjects over here.

Then, we ink the foam piece (note to self: put down newspaper on the floor for this part. What was I thinking?) and slap it down on a piece of paper. Woo hoo! We’re a printmaking machine, and we’ve got some pretty cool pieces of art to boot.

ice day #2

eluet — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 02:45:42 +0000

Or really “Day of No Ice.” Regardless, there was surprising calm at our house as the kids created their giant watercolor masterpiece together. Happily. In perfect harmony.

Apparently this painting depicts robots (turn yourself sideways), and there might be some intergalactic ray gun fighting. I’m not sure; it was hard to tell with all of the giggling going on.

Biggest problem right now though is what to do with this creation. Our gallery’s wall space is becoming increasingly crowded.

bye bye little buddies

eluet — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:30:14 +0000

This Christmas my goal was to start working through my backlog of wool felt before I started buying some new colors. Mission partially accomplished, I suppose. Here’s where some of my supplies went:

My owl friends:

As quick as I made an owl, my kids absconded with them to hang over their bunkbeds. Sneaks. Much thanks to this adorable tutorial for its help and inspiration.

Magnetic bookmarks:

My mom made some for her volunteer buddies, so I took her concept and ran with it. Since I was making goodies for kids and for teachers, my bookmarks became a little more, uh, manic than my mom’s. The robot/alien ones were definitely the most fun to make as well as the best of use of random tiny felt scraps.

Time now to go place another felt order…