Daily Baby - Stash busting, infant approved!

Feels like the last week or so has been a whirlwind.  We have a trip coming up to visit my parents in England.  It's our first plan ride with Owen - an 11 hour one at that.  Needless to say, we're excited to take him, but a little nervous about our very active child being couped up in tin can for that long.  Hopefully he will be his usual charming self and our neighbor passengers will find him delightful before he passes out for the rest of the flight.  One can hope right?

Meanwhile, around the house, we've been having a blast.  While we have our fair share of battery operated toys, it is fair to say that kids and cats like playing with random household items.  Remotes, coasters, tupperware, spoons, cat toys, storage bins etc. are all fair game.  This suggestion is a quick and easy sensory toy for anybody who needs an excuse to get rid of fabric scraps!  I simply took a variety of scraps in different sizes and trimmed them with pinking shears.  I tied some pieces together to make longer strips, and popped them all in an old wipes case.  He took to it right away and loves to remove and inspect the fabric.  As with anything else, he also tries to chew on it, so if that is a risk for your child, don't cut any pieces too small that they could accidentally swallow them.  Time spent?  About 10 minutes (most of which was selecting the fabric).  Total cost?  Pennies.  Now, if only I could get him to put the fabric back in the box rather than leaving it all over the living room...

Daily Deuce - Cat burglar strikes again

It's that time of year again when I am thoroughly involved with my holiday adopt-a-family program at work.  I've been heading up this particular effort for the last 8 years and, while I was totally planning on doing the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day this round, I am suffering a bit of a time crunch.  You should go check it out though - a chance to find some great new blogs to read and possibly win some stuff too!

This weekend, I went shopping with the $570 worth of cash and check donations that I'd harrassed encouraged people to donate at work.  I found some awesome sales so managed to get a ton of gifts for about $450, which means money left over for gift cards. Yay!  [Pictures of the haul to come shortly]. 

Saturday afternoon, husband and I also popped out to get some cat food and a few kitty gifts for the holidays.  I was about to start organizing all the purchases when I hear rustling from under the dining table just to find that Deuce had extracted one of his gifts from among the melee of bags, and was attempting to remove it from the cardboard backing. 

Being the mean mom that I am, I took the toy away from him, stuffed it back in the bag and tucked the bag in among all the others.  Later that evening, the little smart-ass had found the bag with his toys in it again, dragged it across the room, and was once again trying to help himself to a toy.  Gifts and toys everywhere but he still figured out exactly what was his.  The toys are now hiding on the top shelf of the closet (shhh...don't tell him where it is). 

This is not the first time he's helped himself to things that he believes to be his...

- the pincushion he took right out of my hands [see picture]
- the treats he removed from on top of the fridge and ate before depositing the evidence empty bag behind the living room curtain
- the bag of toys he removed from the bathroom cabinet and threw all over the living room
- the hanks of yarn that he tried to sneak out of the room with...in front of me. 

Shameless!

Daily Ramblings - A little retro fun

The most recent update of the Camera 360 app on my phone came with a fancy "retro" setting.  What better to test it with than take a picture of something truly retro?

Remember these?  This photo wasn't taken in the 70s but in my living room about 10 minutes ago!

Turns out you can buy a new version, although this is one of those were you just can't beat the original.  Apparently the new one has batteries, but I remember one of my favorite things was turning the crank.  Sometimes I wouldn't turn it enough and the song would stop playing too soon, but I loved winding it up all over again.  I had the British version of this, so the songs are probably different from the one that was available in the U.S. those many years ago - London Bridge, Camptown Races, Edelweiss...

Such a lovely piece of nostalgia and I'm very thankful to my mother for storing it away all these years.  When I  bought it home from England in my carry on luggage, I watched the guy at the x-ray machine stare at it for a while and tap his co-worker to ask an opinion on what it was, before passing it through.  Glad I tend to pack light because it was totally worth it to bring this home.