The dog ate my camera

Okay, so I actually do realize that I ended my last post with "I promise to do better" and then proceeded to post nothing for almost two weeks. But I have an excuse! Really!

Actually I have several. First of all, I was in the home stretch of detoxing and not feeling particularly crafty, but then that went away and I got hyper and productive and basically too busy a-makin' stuff to sit down and take pictures. And then when I realized that I hadn't posted in too long I resolved to do a massive photo-shoot but then...I couldn't find my camera! I looked high and low and tried like mad to figure out where I could have put it. I suspected Malcolm immediately. You see, my youngest is a total klepto--anything small and not-nailed-down ends up in his pockets--or in his "stash" as we call it (the stash has been searched for but never found; after weeks of searching for the tv remote or the computer mouse he'll walk into the room and hand it over as nonchalantly as a toddler can to the bewilderment of us all). Well anyway, after an hour of looking I called my husband to give him the bad news: yet another electronic object disappeared into the black hole of Malcolm's cache. But then he told me he'd taken it--he put it in his backpack before he went hunting and it's been in his truck this whole time. Well it's been four days and I keep forgetting to get it out of his truck. It's like a recurring brainfart. As soon as he's away I think, "Dangit! I forgot again!" and as soon as he comes home I'm up to my eyeballs in dinner and getting the kids fed and kitchen cleaned and jammies on that the camera is the last thing on my mind. 

*sigh*

I'm hoping that by taking the time to acquit myself of the crime of negligence I will imprint the need to get the camera out of the stinkin' truck tonight. 

Wish me luck.

welllll...hellllloooooo

I have been so busy lately that I feel like I don't know whether I'm coming or going. I would love to say that all the busyness is sewing related but alas. Allow me to sum up the last month for you with handy dandy bullets, would you?

• Epic fail vacation
• Husband going out of town while starving myself intentionally
• Kids getting majorly behind with homeschooling and the consequential catching up
• Kids joining Cub Scouts
• My husband and I both being coerced into asked to help leadership of said scouts
• Christmas sewing (yay)
• Piecing and quilting my oldest's first quilt made by mom
• Trying to figure out what is left to eat when you can't have dairy, eggs, gluten, coffee, soy, condiments...etc....
• You'd really be surprised how much effort figuring that out takes
• Pool deck scrubbing
• Bathroom painting
• Feverish hacking snotting child caretaking
• Harry Potter costume planning
• Garden extending

I really could go on. But I won't. 

With all this craziness (added on top of everyday craziness) I haven't felt much like blogging. And honestly I feel like 90% of what I'm in the middle of sewing is stuff I either can't take pictures of for fear of spoiling things, or it's just half-finished because I ran out of supplies. But I do have a few things to show you. Like this little clutch I'm totally in love with:

And this little mug rug I made for a friend:

 

I'll leave you with this: a promise to try to do better with this blogging thing, and a picture of my baby conked out with a fever because it's just so dang cute. Until it wakes up.

ain't no sunshine when he's gone...but there is dressing up

So. About that lack of blogging.

I have an excuse. Really. TWO excuses that are interrelated actually. It's stupendous. You're gonna like it. Ready?

I'm starving. 

Well okay not to death or anything. My doctor recommended I do a liver detox (I hate the way that sounds, like I'm some sick junkie laying off the smack for awhile or something) so this week I've only been allowed to drink these horrible baby-formula smelling shakes, and one type of organic vegetable a day. It actually hasn't been that bad (I'm on day five now so the food withdrawal is pretty much over) but let's just say it's left me less that excited about life. Add to that the fact that my man has been out of town all week, my homeschooled (i.e., home all the time giving me no break ever EVER EVER!!) children are in their best brat modes, and you have a recipe for grumpy brain-fogged Jenn. I miss my husband. I want food. Etc.

I have, however, been sewing. Strangely I can still do that even though I can't concentrate on anything else, or make sense verbally, or function as a responsible, dinner-cooking adult. It's like sewing is one of those autonomic functions that require no actual thinking for me. Awesome, eh? One of the things I made this week is this tunic.

I used Simplicity pattern 2363 to make a long dress. Then I put it on. ICK. Oh my. All that peanut butter brown fabric in a shapeless sack on my big-busted not-slim body was absolutely atrocious. So I chopped it off and made it a tunic. Oh and I had to take the sleeves in as well because with arms at my sides they stuck straight out and looked hilarious. Anyway, I like the way it came out even if what I really wanted was a dress, and it's not the most flattering shape on me. It's comfy. So that's a bonus. 

I also started my son's Christmas quilt, finished hand-stitching my niece's stuffed bat, and made a few other odds and ends that can't really be photographed just yet.

We also had some friends over on Saturday and spent a little time carving pumpkins and roasting pumpkin seeds and watching old movies, which was nice. Mines the one about to barf over there. My oldest made one with one with multiple personalities on the left, so there were a variety of faces to choose from. Ha.

And now onto the next bit of, um... dorkiness.

Something about being at home alone with no real motivation to do anything productive makes me want to dress up. Y'know. Try weird makeup. Try on strange combinations of clothing. I was doing a little research for a dress-up party I'm going to next month, and one youtube video led to another, and, well...I got the wild hair to try a little 40's style hairdo and makeup. And then take pictures of it. And then put it on here just because I nearly never have pics of myself on here. So here you go with some grown up silliness:

Oh my. The urge to delete those is nearly unbearable, but what the heck.

Hope you all are having a good week, and enjoying eating food.