Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Swallowed Up

Ever feel like work just opened up and swallowed you whole?

Just curious.

I'll be back.

*Dreams of a week at the beach next week are all that are keeping me going.*

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

An Epic Fail and Some Total Cuteness

Remember this? Well, I DID finish them, but I never got pictures of them in use. See, we went to Tuscaloosa (where I attended college at the University of Alabama) this weekend. My mother-in-law (Granna) made these awesome elephant costumes for T and her first cousin, Carly. (Big Al - an elephant - is the mascot of the U of A.)


Anyway, it was supposed to rain, and these costumes don't allow for shoes and are cloth on the bottom. I was scared of the girls getting soaking, freezing feet walking around, so through conversations with both my mother and mother-in-law, I decided to fashion some "rain boots" (or "sun boots" as T calls them) for the elephants.

It didn't rain. Which meant the boots never got put on. Which means no pictures of the boots. But we did have a BLAST! We got to walk the campus, do some tailgating, see some old friends, and even get some pictures made with Big Al. And Bama won the game! Roll Tide Roll!





Even Little Al gets Tuckered out. ;-)
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Crafty Critter - A Guessing Game

My brain's a little tied-up on something un-bloggable today, so instead of bearing my soul (or my stupidity) to you guys, I thought I'd give you a hint at my project for the day. I'll put pictures up Monday to show you the finished project and tell you what these really are. :)



Any guesses?


Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

My Little Bookworm

Imissed the beginning (and most thorough) of the reading, but...

I caught Tucker reading this book to herself. There's quite a bit of nonsense, but an amazing amount of it is pretty accurate. I'm putting the actual text below the video. Did I mention how adorable I think my child is?!?




A funny thing happened on Sesame Street one Easter, not long ago.
Bees were buzzing and birds were singing.
The flowers were starting to grow.

Elmo woke up and yawned and said, "It's a beautiful, sunny day!"
Then he went to put on his slippers -- and one of them hopped away.
As Ernie was reading the paper, something furry hopped over the funnies.
When Bert went to start the spring cleaning, the closet was chock-full of bunnies!

Grover was playing baseball. A rabbit was under his cap.
Henry was coloring Easter eggs. A bunny leaped into his lap!

While zoe was planting her garden, she found bunnies filling her shed.
As Cookie was looking for jellybeans, he found bunny rabbits instead.

Where had these bunnies come from? Nobody really knew.
Oscar found three in his trash can! What was a grouch to do?

Hoots was playing his saxophone when out of it popped a bunny.
As Prairie Dawn ate her cereal, a rabbit knocked over the honey!

"What's goign on?" people shouted. "It's becoming a funny habbit.
Everytime we turn around, we find a bunny rabbit!"
Big Bird rounded the corner. Here's what they heard him say --
"Has anyone seen my bunnies? They seem to have run away!"

He sat on the stoop and said sadly, "They were all in this basket I made!
They must've jumped out of this hole here. Who will hop in the Easter parade?"
Then he noticed his friends holding bunnies, so he handed each one a hat.
"Let's all go and march together!" he said
And everyone did just that!

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Embarassment for the Lord

Last year, right around Christmas, Crazy Aunt asked me to come sing at her church (where the Uncle married to Crazy Aunt is the Minister of Music) as a birthday present to her. We had it all set up and then the church had something else booked on that day and it had to get cancelled.

So a few weeks ago, she called and asked if I would sing for her Sunday (the one that just passed). She wanted me to sing "Breath of Heaven", a song from Mary's perspective on the journey to Bethlehem. It's a beautiful song, one of my standards, and holds so much more meaning to me now that I have carried a child and understand how powerful it is even WITHOUT knowing it's God's son.

The weekend was made even more special by my cousin Brian and his lovely wife, Maegan and my Munner and Mama being there (along with Crazy Aunt's family that LIVES at her house). We all were there overnight Saturday, so we talked, goofed off, played dominoes and just enjoyed each other (and then there was the post-church Thanksgiving meal Crazy Aunt that was AMAZING). It was a wonderful weekend.

But the hubs is the Minister of Music at our church, so he's not able to travel with me on Sundays, usually, and I don't like to take Tucker (for her comfort) to a nursery in a new church where she knows no one. That meant her sitting with me during service, which is usually not a big deal. She stays relatively quiet and is pretty easy to entertain.

It also meant her sitting with any one of a group of relatives that she adores while I sang - her Nana, Munner, Tooter Booter (my baby cousin who is now almost 13), Brian, or Maegan. No problem, right?

Nope. Not. Gonna. Happen.

Even when I rehearsed with the mic pre-service, she demanded she stand by me and hold onto my leg.

I decided, again, this really wasn't a problem. It's a song about a mother, and I am one, so no issue. And my child is SHY in front of groups of people. No way she'd do any of her "performing" or hamming it up in this situation. She'll probably just hide behind my legs with a death grip the entire song.

(Anyone catching the foreshadowing here? If not, you've never spent much time with a 2 year old.)

About 2 sentences into the song, she began walking in circles around my legs (and the mic stand). By the time I got to the second verse, she was running in circles around my legs. By the chorus, she was sprinting from one end of the pulpit area (stage) back to me, slamming into my legs.

(I keep on singing, figuring it's what I'm here to do and maybe people in the back who can't see her can still worship through the song. My biggest fear is that she will run off the steps at the front of the stage and hurt herself, but I'm counting on the myriad of family members sitting within a yard or two to prevent this from happening as I can only watch her from the corner of my eye.)

Somewhere during the second chorus, she slammed into my legs so hard during one of her sprints, she knocked the microphone off the stand and I barely caught it as it went flying to the ground.

At this point, she was close enough for me to grab something other than her hair, so I lunged for her hand and held it, thinking, "NOW I've got it under control. It'll be fine now."

Ha.

She took the opportunity to go limp, thus swinging from my hand around my body and falling below me. Which was funny. To her. Thus she tried to repeat it over and over.

Yep, folks, that's what you call embarassment for the Lord.

Apparently, there's video. Some guy with a camera from the church said, "I don't have the beginning because I don't usually video in church, but when she started acting up, I knew I had to get it."

Awesome. (I promise I'll share when I get it.)

The preacher, who, incidentally is the father of THESE guys, was sweet and said that although he was sure it wasn't my vision for the song, it was God's vision; that there was nothing more appropriate and special than having my "breath of Heaven" dancing around me while I sang that song.

I cried at this point. I'm not sure if it was of embarassment, hilarity, or the sweet words he said. It was probably some combination of all three.

Ain't being a parent grand?!?

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Closeout Prices!!!

*That MIGHT be a big tongue-in-cheek*
tee-hee

But seriously, I have inventory left from a fair I did. The following dresses are available and ready to ship. I only took a picture of one size, but the sizes I have ready are listed underneath.
All dresses have a $5 shipping charge (but that's flat-rate, so if you order 3, same shipping amount as 1).
Buy any 2 and you save $5
*Also, I can make you any of these styles in any color/size you'd like, even fabrics you don't see here.*
Please remember that the width of a pillowcase dress is the same in all sizes, so if your child is larger than the one you want, but you think she'd wear it as a shirt over jeans or leggings, a smaller size would be great! (They're REALLY cute worn this way, by the way.)


Holly Dress with Fabric Ribbon
$20
Sizes:
6-9 months
12 months
18 months




Green Floral Dress
*Comes with Red and White ribbons for versatility*
(Both for Christmas, just white for year-round)
$20
Sizes:
6-9 month
4T


Christmas Ornaments Apron Ruffle Dress
$35
Sizes:
2T/3T


Autumn Flowers Dress with Ruffle Bottom
$25
Sizes:
7/8


Halloween Blocks with Ruffle Neck
$25
Sizes:
6-9 Months
3T


Vintage Witch Dress
$20
Sizes:
5/6


Corduroy Dress with Ball Fringe
*Orange, Aqua, Lime Green, and Pink dots on Cream*
$25
Sizes:
18 months
2T/3T



"Double, Double Toil and Trouble" Halloween Dress with Ruffle Neck
$25
Sizes:
4T


Corduroy Dress with Lace Trim
*Comes with both red and orange ribbons for versatility*
$20
Sizes:
4T
5/6



Comment or email me if you're interested!
Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Headbands for Sale

These cute headbands can be made in any color combination and size you wish. The ones shown below are ready to ship.
1 Flower - $5
2 Flowers - $6
Buy any (2) 1 flower for $9 and any (2) 2 flowers for $10!
(plus $2 shipping on any order)
Toddler Sizes
elastic headband
Older child/Adult sizes
elastic headband






Older child/adult sizes
Firm headband



Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie

Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Lovey

It's possible that through my many picture-postings of my child, you might have noticed a pattern. Just in case, I'll illustrate and see if you can pick it out.



Did you find the commonality? That's right. It's Bear. Now, we hadn't ever picked some item to be T's lovey. In fact, she didn't have one for so long that I wondered if she ever would have one (and after reading some article saying they were a sign of a developmentally healthy baby - one who was correctly coping with separation from parents, I freaked for a short while over her lack of one). Then one day, suddenly, this little pink bear (and I, thankfully, remember from whom the bear came) became a necessity in our daily world. Bear goes everywhere... well, everywhere but daycare. He's our last find before going to bed and our first find each morning. His tag gets sucked on. His nose gets bitten, and he's WAY too frequently used as a tissue. (And he gets regular baths.)

And during my attempts to come up with some brilliant costume for Halloween - one that was clever, precious, and that T would care about - my Mom said, "Why couldn't she be Bear?"

BRILLIANT!!!

I quickly replied with, "You can make it, right?" ;-) tee-hee

Possibly the cutest thing ever. For weeks, she would tell anyone who asked, "I BEAR Halloween." Fuzzy pink fur, pink satin ribbon, tag, tail, and all!



Her very first house to Trick or Treat

They didn't have candy but thought she was so cute (and we know them), they got her an apple, thinking it was a disappointment to her. She immediately shoved her bucket and bear into my hands and took a big bite. Precious!




*We discovered Dum-Dums...and that blue ones are our favorite!*

Love & Shipoopies,
Leslie