Perfect Happiness

My dog. Perfectly happy. With mud.

Teddy thinks she's HI-larious.

The Theoretical Farmer

Let me introduce you to Farmer Teddy.


See how he strides boldly around the homestead, clucking at chickens and staring down goats with a steely eye?
You don't?
You see him clinging to his mama like a monkey baby?
Umm. Yah.

So. That's Teddy and me at one of our favorite places in Toronto, Riverdale farm. It's a tiny city farm with a few deliciously spoilt animals and a completely charming donkey. I've taken Teddy a bunch since he was about 5 weeks old, and he is a huge fan. In theory.
Two weeks ago he spent THREE DAYS campaigning hard to be taken to the farm. Like this,
"FARM? Sheep sheep sheep sheep COWS eating. GOATS? Eating. Piggies? What Piggies doooo-ing? Sheeeeeeep? BAAAAA mooooo BAHHHHHHH. Chickens? Farm?"
Non stop. From the second his eyes opened in the morning. All day. Until Wednesday, when we could finally go.
There are new babies at the farm, lambs and a platoon of piglets and a broody adolescent calf, and adorably naughty goat babies (kids?). Which means noisy.
And noisy is now apparently scary.
And to be fair Barry White Sheep is a little un-nerving. I guess this is her first lamb and she's not too thrilled with all the humans getting all up in her babies (sheep) grill. So she bleats admonishingly in the deepest voice ever. Seriously, Barry has nothing on this girl. BLLLLLLLLLLAHHH. huh, com'on baby. BLAAAAAAAAAH!
One bleat from her and Teddy was climbing my leg like a spider monkey.
"down? down? down?"
"Teddy do you mean UP?"
"UPPPPPP!" And this is as far away as he got the whole time we were there.


You'd think he'd be over it. But Thursday morning....
"FARM? Sheep sheep sheep sheep NOISY SHEEP. Cows?....."

I made a swimsuit! Out of swimsuit stuff! For swimming!

Where did the week go? Oh wait I know this one! A swimsuit and no napping. THAT'S where the week went.
I made a swimsuit! Out of swimsuit stuff! That I bought new but I figure is exempt from the pledge because A'ly at least I didn't buy a swimsuit. and B'ly aren't swim togs exempt anyway? In my head they are.

See, I go dunk myself in chlorine for an hour and pretend to be a mermaid work out at least 5 times a week.
Which is hard on swimsuits. I get through a basic (kind of badly fitting) $40 Roots swimsuit every two months (if I'm lucky and careful).
I figured there had to be a way to make my own, so I read up a bit. Got scared of how complex it sounded. Prevaricated for a while.
Then on Monday I manned up; I bribed the bear with cookies and raced to the fabric store. I picked out something that felt the same weight and had the same kind of stretch as my current suit (THANK YOU Erin for posting your leggings mishap on WR I never would have thought of matching the stretchiness otherwise.)
I got some of that weird bandagey-feeling swimsuit lining stuff too. and some binding.

Then I traced out a pattern using my current suit as a rough guide. Left it a night. Played around with tiny scraps of the fabric to see how it sewed (I don't have any fancy feet or anything).
Took a deep breath, cut the pattern pieces and sewed.
And you guys.

I have no idea what I was so afraid of.
It was ridiculously easy. Like, if-you've-got-thumbs-you-can-do-it easy. And now I have a swimsuit that fits me perfectly. Something I've never been able to say before.
It's not perfect, but it is definitely good enough to wear and it was a huge learning experience. I'm already planning some tweaks for the next 2 or 3.
Anyway, here's the outcome. On a hanger. Because frankly there's not a power in the 'verse could convince me to post a picture of myself in swimwear on the internets.

The back:


and the front:
It's not terribly exciting, lots of coverage for the throwing myself about, and fairly supportive ( I didn't feel up to a built-in shelf thing and it's pretty much a moot point 'cause I strap the girls down in a sports bra under my swimsuit anyway - oh hey, TMI).

If you were thinking of giving this a go then I would say TOTALLY DO! It's so much easier than it feels like it's going to be. And, hit me up in the comments if you would like some rank-amateurish help!

Chickens and Code and SQUEEEE!

Three silly things, to tie up loose ends.
Firstly of all the chicken thing went GREAT. Really great. It was delish and we're totally not bored of chicken. And it worked! It made me think about how we eat and more importantly (it turned out), how we shop; and I have menus planned for this week and the week after.
Were we on budget? Maybe? I'm too lazy to do the maths thing.
But the budget wasn't really the issue. I tried things that I would never have otherwise. And who knew that ginger was so cheap? Not me.
And weirdly, the time from "man-I'm-hungry" to dinner-on-plates was way shorter and more satisfying. My sweetie has been lobbying hard to have Chicken Piccadillo again ("I could eat this twice a week. For ever").
So I've changed my mind, I'm TOTALLY doing that again.

The other thing was code. As in HTML. As in the mices inside the computer that make my blog work. I gave myself 3 columns. And you guys, it was SUPER easy. I used the info from here and here. The awesome R W deserves snaps and air kissies for making me less dumb and writing DOOFUS PROOF instructions.
Then I used Somewhat Simple's tute* on making a grabbable button to build a button for my chum James' band. See in the corner? The music's great and if you want a BDB button too then you can grab one from here (my grubby test coding page).
And lastly of all, my place mat tute just got featured on Ohdeedoh! Squeeee!

Ok. So that's that. Hope your Monday was awesome. or at least not sucky.
x

it's in the jeans

The backstory...
Yesterday I was trying on jeans in Banana Republic. I know, I know that doesn't sound too WR pledge-worthy but my jeans have crossed the line from a "they're a little loose" to "weird and slidey down in public".
Now, Banana Republic is normally out of my price range but Old Navy and Gap jeans are ALWAYS 2 inches too short. ALWAYS. Which sucks. And Levi's hate me.

Anyway. I picked up a pair of my cut (boot-cut like always, one size down from usual, but they're just changed their sizing to SUPER ARBITRARY ) and trotted to the fitting room.
Popped them on, was pleased with the length. Then I did them up. And my heart sank. They BARELY covered my bum. Barely. And the front was worse. Like a deep breath away from indecency worse.
I wailed under my breath "dude-what-the-hell?-All-I-want-is-a-pair-of-jeans-that-come-past-my-butt.".
I found the sales chap. "Um, got anything with a higher rise?"
He pursed his perfectly chapsticked lips and pondered.
"Well we do have the trouser cut. They're more... "classic". But we're out of stock in this location"
I opened and shut my mouth. Thanked him politely. Found my sweetie.

"MOMJEANSMOMJEANSMOMJEANSmyfutureismomjeanswithawaistTHIShigh".
Sniff.
To which my sweetie replied
"Uh?"
"All-I-want-is-a-pair-of-jeans-that-cover-my-bum-crack-but-they-changed-them-and-now-my-future-is-MOMJEANSMOMJEANSMOMJEANS".
Lip wobble.

My poor sweetie had the look of a man beaten by an unsolvable problem, but he rallied.
"How about we go to the bookshop?"
He's so awesome.

A new book however didn't solve the jeans thing.
Then something from WR floated to the surface of my mind. Erin from Howl posted a tute about about fixing her jeans, and that it was easy. So I fished out a pair of grubby jeans from laundry basket (which is a bit gross but I wanted to get them when they had that stretched-out-from-being-worn thing going on. I whipped the beltloops off. And took them in an inch on either side. Straight down the whole length of the leg; as close to the side seam as possible.
And voila. New jeans.
I feel ridiculously, disproportionately happy about them. The pair I did first are a bit... deconstructed? or maybe distressed? At anyway I fell over while I was wearing them and made a hole in the knee, which is special brand of undignified. So I added a bit MORE distressing to them to make it look like I did it on purpose. I used a spot of sand paper and a cheese grater; under instruction from my sweetie who was an 80's kid and knows all about distressed jeans (acid wash anyone?). This is them now:

101!

Eeeei!
You guys! That last one was my hundredth post. I knew it was coming up but I didn't realise until just this morning. It's made me cheerfully introspective, and in the mood for a recap.
Since my very first post I have.

• Learnt a little about HTML (I have three columns now! and I can make a grabbable button... and yet Microsoft still haven't called.)
• Met (well internet met) some folks. Who are lovely. And awesome. And for whom I am crossing fingers and waving flags and offering imaginary cookies. (only less crazy than that sounds)
  
• Sewed a bunch of stuff.
• conquered my fear o' meddling with vintage.
  
• Been totally inspired by other folks' blogs and Wardrobe Refashion (what a brilliant kick in the sewing pants that has been)
• Had an outlet for the kind of boo-hoo for me, or YAY for me! stuff that everyday life is made of. (and gotten unexpected support and kindness. Thanks. x)
• Recorded some stuff that I might have otherwise forgotten.
• Written out some stuff that. hurt. like. pulling. teeth. but left me lighter after it was done.
  

And there's been other life stuff happening too.

• My bear has turned into practically a big kid right before my eyes.
• I've made some pretty big lifestyle changes. As in, exercise and less pie. And lost 48lbs because of it.
• My sweetie and I hit our 13 year anniversary of being sweeties. 13! I am super proud of us.
• Gotten a new niece! Who is delicious, and whom I can't wait to meet.
  

So thanks for sticking around to listen to the stuff. You guys are a big part of what makes this fun.
xxx

I'm going to call this one Marvin

I was mooching around the Anthro website the other day and noticed something that hadn't occurred to me before. It wasn't that their footwear this season is a little on the MEH side (though it totally is), it was that almost every item on there has a name. And often they're kind of abstract. and purty.

Hello Fragrant Valley dress and Clinging Blossoms cardi I'm talking to you... Wait, what's that? You love me too and you want to come and live at my house? SIGH.

So, I wondered if maybe I should start naming my clothes. Would I feel better if the peanut butter encrusted shirt I'm wearing right now was the "Furled Blossom Blouse"?
Well maybe. So with that in mind, let me introduce you to the April Showers cardigan.

and here's the detail shot:


And a pin. (it's not quite finished, I thought I had hooks and eyes in my stash, but nope.)
I didn't take a before picture because I actually started messing with this cardi AGES ago. It's a really soft merino cotton mix and it think I might have "liberated" it from my Ma at some point. It used to have longer sleeves. But they weren't quite long enough for my simian-style arms. So I hacked them off and hemmed them with two rows of straight stitching. Then I ignored it for 8 months or so.
Last week it finally got fished out of the basket. It was missing a few buttons, which is why it was in the basket in the first place. Instead of replacing the missing buttons I whipped all of them off. The I stuck on some costume drama (Persuasion from 2007. Dude. So awesome) and hand sewed some beads. The beads were actually leftovers from the dollar store card making kit I used for the bear's party invitations. Yay for things that justify my hoarding impulse!
My big problem was randomness, my brand of crazy likes PERFECT SYMMETRY AT ALL TIMES. So deliberate randomness is a bit twitch inducing. I also think that the cloud could be bigger (and I do have Northanger Abbey to watch).
Hooks and eyes will go on when I get them tomorrow. It's Friday so I can spend hours in the fabric shop sans baby. So. Exciting. (Wait, does this mean I need to get out more?)

Burd. Roasted.

I don't do a lot of talking about food around here. Mostly because I come from a family of folks who can REALLY cook. I do OK. But in comparison I'm like the simple cousin that no-one talks about. (Hey, did you know the Kennedy's had one of those? It's a brutal story)
So, I'm no so muchly with the chow/cookery blogging, but this is an experiment that just happens to involve food, so I though I'd have at it and record how it goes. The deal is... (Imagine I'm saying this in movie preview voice over if you will)

ONE chicken. Five Meals. $25.
He was a chicken with a mission. The mission was Dinner.

The idea is not my own, it comes from the awesome (and funny) Kristen of
Cheap Healthy Good. The rules are: $25 for EVERYTHING. Five meals for at least two people. Use up what you already have. No repeats. Healthy. Which should be simple as I'm stealing Kristen's delicious-looking menu WHOLESALE. Left to my own devices we'd be eating dry sammiches. For 5 nights.

Now, you might be wondering why I would bother doing this; our food budget, while not Lobster-stuffed-with-Tacos extravagant usually stretches to more than 25 clams. A fact that I am completely, bone-deep grateful for.
Our real problem is waste, we throw away a scandalous amount of food. What happens is we shop for dinner the night of, don't keep an eyeball on what we have and drop $30 every time we even go PAST the supermarket. It really bothers me and all that it would take to fix it is a bit more thought and planning.
So yesterday afternoon I went and scored me a chicken. A big one. Then roasted it like this.
It was DELICIOUS. Really yum. And there was lemony gravy and taters, practically deep fried in chickeny goodness. Yum? Yup. Healthy? Ah... moving swiftly on.

Tonight should even things out though, I made a salad. No wait, I can do better than that... I made a baby spinach leaf and thinly shaved carrot salad with chunks of lemon chicken dressed in a sweet/sharp ginger vinaigrette. It was OK, just for me though as my sweetie is out with the chaps from work, celebrating the big green P.

Now I don't expect to be doing this chicken thing more than once, I LOVE roasted burd and I have no wish to overkill it and wind up hating it. What I'm hoping for a bit of a kick in the pants in how I think about food, and waste and planning. So wish me luck?

Hey, as an aside, what set me off on this 1 burd, many dinners tangent was a post by Chris over at ManMade. Chris Is a fellow Curblier and ManMade is good stuff, kind of like a Boy's Own Guide To Being More Awesome. Most of it is applicable to those of us with ovaries too. You should have a peek.

NOW! Here's a completely unrelated picture of my kid in a cravat! That I put him in and made him wear ALL DAY. Because he is too little to run away from home yet.

Mamas and birthdays and a freshly hatched one!

Firstly of all Belated Happy Mama's Day wishes for the parts of the world that did that on Sunday. And birthday squishies to The Auntie Sarah. and BRAND SPANKING NEW birthday wishes to my new Niece! Squeeee!
My sweetie is an Uncle! To a lovely pink squishy! Eeeei!
Freshly hatched babies! Eep!
And the kind that wears RUFFLES! oooou!

Yup not cruising past this anytime soon.
At any rate. M and C, we're both wishing you all the joy in the world. And sending hugs and kissies to your lovely new person.

The Brownie Bakin' Apron

When I posted about Ali's apron a few days ago, I asked if anyone would be interested in a tute, in fact I was all "ANYONE? ANYONE? Was that a YES? Oh. You were just coughing? Well that's good enough for me!". (Thanks heaps Kuka! x)
So here it is.
The Brownie Bakin' Apron.
So called because I got brownie batter on it before I could get a picture of it clean. 'Cause I'm classy like that.


It's a bit... silly. But it was super simple and gratifying to make. Especially as I used a bodged version of Creative Little Daisy's bias maker to make the waistband.
Which is... dun dun duhhhhhn...

Step ONE - making the waistband.
First take your measurements at the spot where you like to wear your apron. If you're going for a double-wrap, tie-at-the-front waistband then double your measurement and add at least 2 and a half feet for a BIG bow. If you're tieing your apron in back then just add your bow allowance to your waist measurement.
And that's all the maths you need to do. The rest you can wing.

So my waistband measurement for this apron was about 2 and a half yards. (Anybody found to be extrapolating my waist measurement from this will be issued a sound beating and sent home.)
The next step is to decide how thick you want your waistband to be. Anything over about two and a half inches gets bunched in the back if you're doing a cross-over-tie-in-front waistband. The Brownie Baking Apron has a band of 1.5".

Now, I I happened to have some long strips of white cotton leftover from the stinking rotten blasted duvet project so I didn't have to piece together the length of the waistband. I just cut out the width I needed which was roughly 5" (3" for the band 2-ish" for the seam allowances)
Then I made an oversized, NON bias, binding. With a cocktail stirrer. And the iron.
See...

I pinned the cocktail stirrer to our ironing board. The pins are 'sactly 3 inches apart.

Then I fed one end of my 2 and a half yard x 4 inch strip through the contraption. Right to left.


And ironed...
The I folded in half again and ironed some more...

And BWALA! Acres of waistband in no time at all.Which leads us to ...

Step TWO - the skirt.
This skirt used to be pants. Jammie pants. GIANT jammie pants (they fit 47 lbs ago). If you're using a regular, rectangular width of fabric the you can ignore the next little bit. Perhaps have a nice cup of tea?
But if you happen to have some jammie pants that have expressed an interest in apronhood then this is what I did:
Cut the leggies off,
opened them out,

Sew them together to form an skirt/rectangle shape,


Next thing to do is hem the sides and the bottom. I used some store bought bias binding on the bottom hem. Then I folded over the sides twice, ironed and pinned them.


Then it was time for pleats (you could do gathers if you're feeling ruffly)


I figured my pleats by eye and they're a bit squiffy on account of trying to hide the seam that is dead center of the skirt.
Once you've got your pleats arranged, ironed and pinned you can whip around all three (or four if you've skipped the binding on the bottom hem) edges of you skirt.
It might look a bit like this.


Which leads us to...
Step THREE - jam it all together.
You'll need to find the center of your waist band. Fold it in half and mark it with chalk or a pin or something. Then the center of your skirt, same deal. Then line up the center marks and jam the skirt between the waist band. Like this:


Pin it in place then...
Top stitch the whole way along your waist band. Maybe going back and forth a few times where the skirt meets the waistband for extra small child/monkey swinging from your apron proofiness.
And you're DONE!

I added the leftover pink binding to the waistband 'cause I thought it looked a little plain without. Then made brownies with my bear and got the apron filthy.
x

Game Changers...

I might be that last person in the world to have hear about this but... did you know you can make your own bias binding in a super easy way? Without a thingie? For free?
Dude. Game Changer.

You absolutely MUST check out this tute from Creative Little Daisy. GENIUS. I almost called my ma at 4 AM to tell her about it.
I have already hacked the idea a bit and used it to make a waistband for ANOTHER apron. The tutorial is on it's way, but here's the teaser...



I found the binding tute via the fabulous Snickerdoodle, who has just recently posted on filled cupcakes. As in cupcakes with gooey deliciousness in the middle. Which might also be a game changer in the sense of, "cancel my appointments and call a tent maker, we're gonna need some bigger pants over here". Maybe.

Anyway, what I'm saying is Steph has a really good eye for interesting and awesome stuff. And you should go take a peek.
x

Who doesn't love...

...placemats you can colour in? Surely the answer is NOBODY!
My washable, reusable version of the family restaurant staple is up now over at weebabystuff.

And I'm fairly happy with how they turned out. The next version will totally be on a floppy silicone cookie sheet liner and may feature dinosaurs. Or dog in clothes. Or pin-up girls. Or tattoos. Or ferrets. Or Andy Wharhol's kids book illustrations. Or ferrets.
What I'm saying is there are POSSIBILITIES here people!

Now I'm bona fide*!

Some of my favorite milestones are the COMPLETELY ridiculous ones. The ones that confirm me as a parent in a really silly way. Like the first time I said "You'll take someone's eye out with that!" I think I even meant it. I had to stop and laugh at myself.

Well today I got another one of those. Teddy decided that his finger, (his delicious grabby little toddler paw finger. Man I could put his hands in tiny pies.... but I digress) that his finger was "OWWIE".
Now owwie can also mean "owl" in Teddy speak. So I kind of went "uh?".

Teddy managed to restrain himself from rolling his eyes, and just held his finger up for a "kissie?". I gave his owwie a kissie and he nodded then went back to racing around. I have been grinning like a lunatic ever since.
I am a mama.
A mama with medicinal kissies.
* Random Oh Brother Quotes = fun times.

Aprons Aplenty

Today was my chum Ali's birthday. This is funny, beautiful, zombie walking, deliciously quirky, baker-of-mind-blowing-desserts, Ali. Everyone in this house ADORES her.
I wanted to make her a something. And the something I decided on was an apron, for a few reasons;

• I've just made one for myself and am kind of in love with it.
• Ali bakes, and her baking is to be warmly encouraged. (What? You were expecting an UNSELFISH reason?)

I happened to have a spot of fabric in my stash in her signature colours Black, White and Red.


The fabric started life about 15 years ago as a little dress. That I wore MAYBE three times, and the last time was at least a decade ago.
I have no idea why it has moved with us 3 times (once internationally!) but it has. Maybe it was always hoping to be an apron.
The red is leftover from another version of Vogue V8615 that I made. (It turned out REALLY badly, but that's for another post).
I also used three tiny heart shaped buttons that I might have compulsively bought about a year ago, with no set project in mind.
Here's how it turned out:


And this is what it looks like on (bearing in mind that Ali is MUCH slimmer than me)


I'm being sneaky! Shhhh!
The skirt part is pleated at the top and the straps are long enough to cross in back and tie in front. The little buttons are placed pretty randomly in the center of the flowers, just for because. Here's what they look like:


I wrapped it up in brown paper and red ribbon and left it on her door when I knew she would be out (See, sneaky!). She says she likes. I hope she's not weirded out by it's ancient, refashioned origins.

Wow this is a LONG, picture-heavy post. So, lastly here's the apron I made for myself a few days ago. My mama bought me the fabric as a giftie last week, so while it's not technically stash, I didn't exactly buy it either.

It's literally two rectangles and a few pleats, but if anybody is interested I could throw together a tutorial.
x

The Birthday Bear

Here's what the bear got up to on his birthday...


But NEVER FEAR... dun dun DAHHHH... Monkeys V's Robots is a GO for Saturday 20th. Come hell or high water. I can't wait to show you guys the STUFF. (I have a squillion cupcake flags all ready to go and banners and bunting and yadda yadda yadda!)

Hey, stupid hats aside; the sight of my sweetie's hands on the bear's funny little almost-bald head just makes my heart chirp like a happy bird. I really am a lucky.

It's a little big...

I re-upped for another two months of Wardrobe Refashioning. The last round was SUPER fun and it went so quickly that I barely made a dent in my stash. Now I'm a haggard vetran to the refashioning scene, I'm loving the rush of new blood from the rookie refashioners too. Wait... "rush of new blood" sounds creepy. What I'm saying is noobs = YAY!
Moving swiftly on...

I loves me a sweater dress. Yay for getting dressed in one brainless step. And being snoogly.
So when my mama picked me up this sweater/coat fellow (on sale at Monsoon before Christmas. Le sigh. I love Monsoon. ) I knew what I was going to attempt to turn it into.


It was a little large. My mama had faith that I could fix it. But it's taken me a this long to pluck up the gumption to do it.
I used the same stitch-it-along-the-arms/sides-and-hope-for-the-best technique that I used for this cardi refashion. Then I hand sewed the front opening closed (it's not finished in this picture So I guess that "After" should read "During"):

Here's the back view:

I'm fairly happy with the outcome. It's easy to throw on and it's snoogly. And despite today's awesome weather I suspect we have a bit more winter left in which to wear it. So... yay?

Sympathetic Characters

It was so lovely to have my mama, "GRAMMMMMM-ie" here for a visit. Teddy was thrilled to have an ally so sympathetic to his cause. And she's just plain old fun to be about. She arrived just in time for Teddy's party that wasn't. Held my hand when I took Teddy to the doc's (she was right, it was just a cold and not consumption). Wandered around the ROM with us, agreeing that yes there were BURDS and BEARS. Did some quilt fixings shopping and re-upped my membership to the Fabricland up the road. Babysat Teddy while my sweetie and I saw Avatar (which I loved THIS MUCH) and went to a little hole in the wall restaurant for a sammiches and smooching (best date ever). She also cooked delicious things and made me laugh like a hyena, just like usual.
It was a great visit. Next time I'm going to steal her passport and lock her in the hallway closet. Maybe.

I got the same stinking steaming cold that Teddy had. Which, just yuck. We had to cancel Teddy's party AGAIN. The poor child is going to be in his thirties before he has a second birthday party. We're aiming for next Saturday but I'm not holding my breath as my sweetie is starting to feel a little lousy.

In the mean time I've been making the sodding, blasted, stinking, rotten duvet cover mentioned in the last post. And an apron that I love a ridiculous amount, and hacking another of the pairs of super cheap shoes. and poking through my fabric stash. and producing snot like is was my J.O.B.
Fun times.

Punch Me?

This isn't a real post it's just a quick note to self and a request.
Here's the note to self:
"HEY Erin, how doing? Really? That's awesome. SO uh, I just wanted to mention that some things totally AREN'T WORTH IT"

Blank look

"Like say, making a duvet cover out of a FITTED sheet set. Even if you SUPER love the embroidery on the sheet set and it's filthy filthy DIRT cheap. And it matches everything else in your bedroom. It's STILL not worth it. There will be tears. And swearing. And you're prolly going to shout at your sweetie for no apparent reason. And buttonholes. You HATE buttonholes remember? What I'm saying is IT'S. NOT. WORTH. IT."
There that should do it.
Now the request; if you guys happen to see me eyeballing sheet sets on crazy super cheap sale...
Punch me. Right in the face. Hard as you like. I can take it. And it would still be more fun than sewing this bloody duvet cover.
I'm counting on you.
xxx

P.S. There'll be real posting again soon, promise. xxx

P.P.S. My mama left this afternoon and it has been SO AWESOME having her around. If you happen to have a grammie close by or grandbabies close by will you give her/them a squeeze from me?