all buttoned up.

Go Forth and Rent a Bouncy House (or Castle)

And then stand back and watch their little minds blow.

At one point Sam was screaming, "it's like a dream! But it's actually happening!" I was in the house and heard him through the window and caught myself tearing up. It is silly (I know), but these days it has been achingly hard to make that child happy for any length of time. And it wasn't even his birthday. Normally we don't go crazy over parties and prefer to have friends get together rather than putting on a whole thing, but this year I decided to do both. Besides, it usually turns into a thing anyway. The cost of rental was reasonable-- cheap really, considering we were celebrating two birthdays at once, had multiple ages present, and I didn't have to do anything else but bring out the food and make sure the boys knew that at some point the people were going to come and take it away.

I was the best money I've ever spent on something temporary.

I'm always trying to hunt down good party food, especially because the boys don't do dairy and we usually have a lot of grown-ups present. We have done baked potato bar, a bread party, and different versions of Brunch. The party was at 3 pm, so we went with mini bagels (with pb, jam, cream cheese, turkey or tomatoes), various and sundry finger foods, muffins, and cupcakes with ganache and sprinkles (Ina Garten's recipe subbing out the dairy). Who wants to eat when there's a bouncy house? This was take and run crazy food, which worked great for everyone.

The weather was beautiful, which was kind of amazing in itself. There were a few sweet gifts (we say no gifts usually, but sometimes we get ignored. That's totally cool) and lots of people that care about them. We saved our family gifts for each of the boys actual birthdays. Those will be slow days with pancakes for dinner and lots of "you're three now!!" affirmations.

It was a such a happy day. Paul wondered how we could rent one of those things every weekend. I would be thrilled with fitting it in monthly.

Desk Sized Modern Crosses

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to try and sew quilts for friends this year. This is the third (the second was given prior to documenting) and is going in my Top Five Things I Like Right Now list. The list also includes the aforementioned flannel sheets, roasted almonds and my fruit guy. These are some of my all-time favourite prints all put together.

The pattern comes from Susan Beal's Modern Log Cabin Quilting, and is one I will be making again. The blocks. My version measure up approximately 40" by 52" which is about the size I thought might be appropriate for someone who needs something to cover up their legs when they are sitting at their desk all day. Paul works a desk job and he told me lots of people have small quilts they use when the A/C gets too crazy. Sometimes they even walk around with them wrapped around themselves like a towel. Maybe just on casual Fridays?

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I used a mix of scraps for the crosses-- mostly Liberty Tana Lawn, a few Japanese prints, and some printed voile and lawn. The background is all Kona cotton in Snow. It is backed in one of my favorite voile prints from Anna Maria Horner (it feels like silk and I wish I had a bunch more) and bound in a stripe from Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley line. I am so happy it is done!

We are celebrating the boys birthdays a little early this year as Grammie and Grandpa are in town this weekend. I'm pretty sure there will be mini bagels and Tah-Dah! A Bouncy House. We are about to get all jumpy up in here.

 

 

Today! Today is Good. The Jury is Out on Tomorrow.

October is generally a great, good month. We got married 11 years ago this month, August turns 4 in two weeks and then just a bit later Manny turns 3. I switched out the sheets for flannel and I'm working on my last box of tomatoes. Apple time! My camera is back! Soccer is almost over! I am baking every day trying to stave off turning on the furnace!

On the other side, I've been battling a foul mood. No reason. Just, you know, EVERYTHING.

I don't have time for bad moods, general malaise, and for staying in bed too long thinking about things that I do not have/situations I cannot change/people I do not understand. The boys don't have time for this and I have crap to do. We have crap to do. I wonder how much I can blame on being pregnant? Probably not that much.

My bedroom sewing space is going away in the next couple of months and being moved to our as-yet-unfinished basement. I've been working to clear away unfinished projects and gifts, and to narrow down my lists. I need me some narrow lists. I also need a finished basement. (This puts us as an impasse, obviously.)

Buoying myself:

• Those boys. Those boys be crazy. I love them. The littlest is almost diaper free and I am stoked. We are stuck on the pee part of things, though. It is very interesting.
• Sweet Potato biscuits. I keep a baked sweet potato in the fridge and ready to go so that I can put them on the table at least once a week. Those boys are also picky, but they can be fooled into eating food accompanied-by-biscuit.
• Paul and I went to a live taping of Live Wire the other night and it was so worth the whole babysitter/look presentable/leaving the house rigmarole. If you're local and looking for a sweet night out where you don't actually have to do anything but sit on your ass and laugh, people watch, and maybe learn something, then get tickets! It's pretty dang fun. (Plus, Typhoon and Phil Rosenthal are going to be at the next one.)
• Little Quinoa Cakes. I am making the ones from Super Natural Every Day. Melissa also has a recipe that I am ready to try (and it's dairy free!) once I stock up on mushrooms.

Oh! One more thing. You know that fantastic feeling where you go into watching a movie with extremely low expectations and then find yourself being super into it? Win Win totally qualifies.

I am going to try to put my yelly voice away for the rest of the month.