Long time, No Post

Combed my hair with a
brush from Papa.

Well, it's been a relaxing few days at home, with hectic moments here and there .. as I begin to transition back to "life in Indiana" .. a stage my dear, sweet, loving husband has taken to quite well, giving me space when he knows I need it, and supporting me or loving up on me when appropriate as well ... how he knows the difference is magical to me, since I still have a hard time knowing if I want space or affection ... hahah =)  We've worked like a team to tidy up our little abode, which always seems cluttered and grungy compared to our parents' homes when we visit.  I can't wait to move out of our apartment to do more binging & purging of our home - I've got a laundry basket heaping with donations for the goodwill / salvation army / st vincent depaul thrift stores at the moment.  I'm about ready to go through T's closet to make up our package for the Women's Care Center, as well.  After tidying the freezer (yes, we went so far as to reorganize the freezer), I am finally ready to contact the milk bank again, as well! Hahah

Get it out of my house and into someone's who needs it.


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Marge - 50's Repo's

Gisela likes "French Roosters" ;-)

Mom's always loved
blue and yellow

Now that Christmas has passed, I can share about all of my holiday sewing / crafting!  I spent a large part of late Nov. thru early Dec. making gifts for the women in my lives - Marge, Gisela, Mom, Amanda and Kathy!  The idea came to me shortly after reassembling my sewing space. I was looking for quick and easy projects to make during T's nap times .. and for some reason the idea of pot holders came to mind .. and to create a gift, I decided to make some embellished hand towels, as well.  It was a ton of fun picking out 5 sets of fabric (4 different fabrics to each set) ... being as fabric selection seems to be my favorite part next to completing a project ... but when it came to embellishing hand towels ... I was at a loss. I was quickly rescued by a blog post that had the best idea for a quick hang-tie-addition to a kitchen or bathroom towel (ps. i adore this blog for many reasons). Not only was it feminine, but it was easy, attractive, and quick.  Once we settle into our next home (perhaps permanent? although not likely) I'll have to choose some fabrics for us!  I hope you enjoy these photos of the gifts I made for Margaret, Gisela and Mom ... I somehow completely forgot to snap pictures of the kitchen sets I made for Kathy and Amanda ...

Another gift I made was for our nephew Clark. I had posted about it awhile back with a few hints. Of course, I managed to wrap it up with out taking a picture ... awe man!  I was able to pull together my resources to make him a very trendy little t-shirt with a Spider Man tie ..!  I hope he likes it ... I thought it would be darling under a hoodie or sweater this winter, although I hear from my sister's boyfriend it was 45 degrees F. in MN today ... =) Practically T-shirt weather in itself.

Thomas acquired a new gift over Christmas!  He actually received some hefty Target gift cards from Kathy and Amanda that helped us make a giant purchase we were wary of a few months back ... after scouring Once Upon a Child like a nutt, I decided a decent exersaucer / jumparoo was out of the question for us ... but we indulged our desires (much like we did with the ritzy baby swing, now in the loving hands of our youngest nephew, Silas and his Mum Gisela) and bought a jumparoo.  Here's a video from T's first few moments enjoying his new "toys" ... he's really enjoyed it for exercise, calisthenics as Ry calls it .. hahah .. as well as for a little upright aid in pushing out a new solid-food-induced deuce .. poor little guy .. He's enjoyed new foods like pureed sweet potato, butternut squash, peas, etc. and soft solids of banana and avocado .. much more than he's enjoyed the poos that come along with them ...

Here are some links to some jarred baked goods I gave to Kathy and Amanda. I'm eager to try them out, myself and I've heard reports that the bread is tasty!

I renamed them with festive holiday names, and made labels using Word's Christmas themed pictures.  I think the names were Mrs. Claus' Favorite Quickbread and Rudolph's Christmas Cookies ... The labels were cute! Had I been thinking, I'd have saved them in my e-mail ... but I did not!

Quick Bread in a Bottle

Cowboy/Cowgirl Cookies

The recipes sounded delicious ... I especially liked the idea of adding oatmeal to a quick bread!


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Ryan saw progress toward a goal of his today with an electronic publication containing information on "December Computer Resource Usage Stats" as he put it ... There is a cluster of computers in the form of CPU cores within a server that is used by over 100 Notre Dame researchers from every field - math, engineering, biology, physics, chemistry, computer science - and this fall it became his goal to "dominate the server" with his research once he began a new project ... and well, his time came!  As you can see below, he was the top user of December.  Ironic, considering we were in Minnesota for half of the month. ;-) Atta boy. Now on to that New Years Resolution of yours ;-)