Busy much?

It's been pretty quiet lately in my neck of the blogosphere, and I'm sure my faithful readers are wondering why.  So here's a brief overview of life chez littlegreenbums this past week---from our journey to The Cream City last week, up to and including my thwarted attempt at retail therapy this very evening.

See that big yellow truck?  It took two trips in that bad boy to ferry all of our worldly goods from Des Moines to Milwaukee...and I can assure you, we are buried---buried!--- in boxes at the mo'. (Matter of fact, we'll probably remain buried in boxes for quite some time.  My spin bike is at the base of a mountain of empties as we speak---guess who didn't get to ride today, despite her intentions to the contrary?)  Anyway, the kitchen is mostly unpacked, the children are all accounted for, and the rest of it is a disaster of absolutely epic proportions.  (I'm exaggerating.  I sometimes exaggerate when I'm so far beyond exhausted that my hair hurts...)  And did I tell you about the Haven o' Craft?  No?  That's probably because I've only entered it in the past 5 days to add boxes labeled "Art Room" to the teetering piles already contained in its very small walls.  And the dining room table?  Have you seen it?  Me neither...buried. But tomorrow we'll fetch the bookshelves from storage, and then I can put away the forty-some-odd boxes of kids' books, which should improve the obstacle course-like nature of the dining room.  (And the living room.  And a couple of bedrooms, now that you mention it...)

Whenever we pick up and plant ourselves in a new location, the kidlets and I find it helpful to get out of the house and see the sights a bit.  Get our bearings, determine the lay of the proverbial land.  Check out the libraries, the grocery store, the emergency room... (No worries...she's fine.  Just a little bout of nursemaid's elbow.  Can you think of a more amusing way to spend a Sunday evening?  I thought not!)

Right.  So, as a little sanity-boosting measure ---and to replenish the perpetually diminishing supply of lunchbox fare, again---I took my new produce bags out for a spin at the fancy Pick and Save a few miles from the house.  I was over the moon to discover that the store has a nice bulk section, and that my beloved  (and elusive) red lentils were one of the items on offer.  Feeling ever-so-virtuous, I whipped out a produce bag and proceeded to fill 'er up.  After a good meander around the store, I headed for the checkout.  Where I demonstrated, as lentils rained out of my bag, through the wire frame of my shopping cart, and speckled the floor of the checkout aisle, that the mighty drawstring is a fabulous closure for a produce bag---so long as the produce in question is sufficiently bulky to remain in said bag when gravity-provoked.  (This minor glitch was rectified posthaste with a spare (new) hair elastic I just happened to have in my coat pocket, and I'm pleased to report that the lentils and I arrived home without further mishap.  Whew!)

And the winner is...

...the fabulous Make Mine Mid-Century!  I'll be shipping out your set o' produce bags within the week, Carmel, assuming that you email me with your details.

In case you're wondering as to the status of the Boxes Unpacked Tally, I stopped counting at 142.  Lots of those were exciting things like kitchen gear and food (yes, Danielle, I packed food...not leaving 20 cans of tomatoes for the new owners, thank you very much!) and tomorrow, heaven help me, we'll start on the books.  We'll also be bringing home the dryer, thank goodness---I've got more laundry to do than any of you would care to think about, and with temps in the mid-20's, hanging the skivvies to dry outside ranks pretty low on my list of Things to Do.

The house is coming along, but hasn't quite reached "cozy" status in my book.  Actually, my short-term goal is to be able to see the entire dining room floor by Chanukah. You've gotta start somewhere, I always say...

Out of the Box

Milwaukee Skyline
Originally uploaded by lmazing

Oh. My. Goodness Gracious. "Exhausted" does not so much as begin to touch it. I am well and truly knackered, and the going, my friends, is s-l-o-w.

We arrived in our new home on Sunday afternoon, after a delightful (read: 6-and-a-half-hour, vomit-enhanced) roadtrip. The unpacking started as soon as Jess shifted the truck into park, and it hasn't stopped yet.

The sewing machine has been unpacked, and I've staked out a little nook in the basement to serve as Craft Central. (pictures as soon as I can find my camera. And the card reader. And 8 consecutive minutes to sit down and write.)

Don't forget to leave a comment on Friday's post if you'd like to be entered in my super-duper-blogiversary-giveaway!

Happy Blog-Day To Me!

365/45 Happy first birthday, Harriet
Originally uploaded by Crumpet Solo

In celebration of my first year of blogging, (and Jess' and my 16th wedding anniversary, which is also today!) I've decided to have a teeny-tiny little giveaway. One lucky reader will receive a set of the nifty-cool produce bags I'm so gaga over---just leave a comment and you're entered to win! I'll choose the winner a week from today---by which time I hope I'll have internet access in our new home, and will certainly have unearthed the sewing machine, regardless of whether I've unpacked another blessed thing.

Thanks for a gorgeous year of bloggy fun!

Acquisitive.

Sometimes I see something and I just have to have it.  This can happen with items ranging from the sublime to the mundane, and it's not one of my more attractive character traits.  The worst is when it's something I've got to make.  This sort of scenario usually involves some wondrous item I've seen on One Pretty Thing, and the urge to make one of my very own becomes so compelling that I abandon household tasks and small children.  When the moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars, I've got all of the materials on hand and it's just a matter of finding the time to retreat to the Haven o' Craft.  Otherwise, I find myself scrounging in the car seats for wayward pennies, and stealing out at naptime to procure the necessary components, which is never a good scene. (Especially when the baby wakes up before I get home.)

So for weeks I've been coveting these reusable produce bags, which are all over blogland.  (I know.  You were hoping I was after something a little more exotic, huh?  Me too, but you can't choose your compulsions, I guess.)  This afternoon I treated myself to a packing break and cut into the sheer curtains I'd been saving to make the little girls a bride's veil.  (Sorry, kids.)  An hour and a few lengths of bias tape later, I had four of  these puppies.  I used the existing casing for the drawstring, and squared off the bottom corners to make things roomier inside.  (Wouldn't want to crowd the kiwis, you know...)

I'm planning to make a batch of smaller ones to use at the bulk bins---there's a Whole Foods in Milwaukee, and I fully intend to make the most of that happy circumstance.

Speaking of happy circumstances, we're loading the moving truck tomorrow, and heading out of here on Sunday, G-d willing.  So you may see a little less of me for the next few days, but hang in there!  I'll be back...

My Creative Space: Know thyself.

You'd think by now, a few months shy of The Big 4-0,  I'd be a little wiser.  A little more self-aware.  Mature enough to say, "Hey, I can't do that!"  But not so much, really.  I did it again, folks.

When Screamstress posted her seriously cute Kids' Apron Pinafore Tutorial, I was intrigued.  And when I recalled that Chevi needed a smock for Kindergarten anyway, I figured I'd give it a whirl.  My first clue should have been the line that says, "I drafted the pattern myself, getting a rough size by using a singlet of the kids."  First of all, I don't use patterns, let alone draft them.  And frankly, we're singlet-less.  But I figured I could fudge it with one of Shani's jumpers ---that's an American "jumper," not a sweater---which was probably the first of a veritable plethora of mistakes. 


Grabbing a yellow-flowered sheet from the diminishing stash of not-yet-packed fabric, I proceeded to "draft" my pattern---and cut out the pattern pieces for a smock that would have fitted Cerberus like a glove.  I couldn't quite seem to sort out the number of neck holes and armholes I needed to cut, which disturbs me deeply on many levels.  Chucking the mangled sheet into a handy cardboard box, I spent a sulky half hour playing Pathwords and cursing my ineptitude.  Then, in a burst of optimism, I returned to the stash and started from square one.

My second effort was somewhat less pathetic than the first, bearing a vague resemblance to the actual garment I'd intended to sew. (I even managed to put together a pocket after this photo was taken!)  The sizing was a little off---the finished product fits my 11 year old quite nicely---but I figure that its purpose is to protect Chevi's clothes from paint, and I'm guessing that includes her knee socks, too.

Looking for less wonky Creative Spaces?  Check out kootoyoo!

At My House: Flurries!

As I was spinning away in the basement this morning, the increasingly agitated cries of my spawn nearly pulled me off the bike.  Loud as blazes but frustratingly indecipherable, I thought I was hearing shouts of "It's going!"  "What's going?" I wondered to myself, knowing full well that someone would eventually descend to the laundry room to enlighten me.  A moment or two later, Rachmy hurtled down the steps, stopping for a long moment to snicker at the sight of Mommy exerting herself.  "It's snowing!" he chortled, "and Winter has come early!"

By the time I'd dragged my bike-weary body to the living room window, the alleged snow had stopped.  My brood was outside craning their necks to the heavens, but alas!  There was no further precipitation to be seen.

I finally finished up the girls' pillows today---a flurry of excitement on that count!

There's been a flurry of anticipation, a flurry of activity, and a flurry of packing in these parts, as well.  Things are coming along in the moving department, and we're hoping, G-d willing,  to head out of here next weekend.  Greener pastures, here we come!

Blatant Nepotism

Because I'm a sharing, caring kind of gal, I figured I should pass along the link for one of my favorite bloggers.  The delightful Em of Grab Your Wellies  fame not only writes with style and aplomb, but she does the dishes whenever I ask her to.  And sometimes, if I'm lucky, she'll even make her bed.

 

Fruit of My Ulcer

Some people scrub things when they're all stressed out.  Alas, I am not among those efficient elite.  (This woefully sad truth is one that I've heard The Huz lament upon more often than I care to recall.  But what can you do?)  Others, I'm told, hit the gym when the going gets tough.  Not I, my friends.  When the heat is on, you'll find me in the throes of making something.  Root canal on tomorrow's agenda?  Have a dozen fresh-baked blueberry muffins!  Bipolar-Obsessive-Compulsive-possible-homebuyer playing Russian Roulette with your life?  Let's go make some eco-friendly upcycled shopping bags!

So now you know what I did last night.  With the madness surrounding the attempted sale of our home fueling the fires of my neurosis creativity, I cranked out these three little beauties (the bags, not the kids!) in about an hour and a half (including a quick Connect Four break and two trips to the potty with a certain someone who just doesn't trust anyone but Mommy to take her....)  I'd been meaning to make new totes for a ages, having noted that my grocery bag wardrobe needed a little vintage kick in the pants.

As usual, I used Super Eggplant's Tote Bags 101, and as usual, am pleased as punch with the results.  These are super-simple, ultra-addictive, and require no actual measuring.  And in my case, no actual cutting.  Since I was using vintage sheets anyhoo, I went with the old snip-and-rip maneuver and didn't look back.  To further traumatize those of you who Really Sew, I'll let you in on a little secret.  I only used white thread for the whole shebang, because---wait for it!---all of the pretty thread is in a box.  In Milwaukee.   I didn't use a single pin, either...guess where they are?

Lucky for me, I hadn't yet packed the unpicker.   Or the sewing machine oil, as both of those handy implements were called for in the course of the evening's events.  As was a dinner knife, brandished with Scotty-esque finesse---the screwdriver's packed!--- to coax open the top of my trusty machine.

All in all, a good night's work.  And so what if I didn't Clean All The Things?  The checkout girl at Trader Joe's complimented me on my bags this morning, only hours after I'd  snipped those last dangling threads.

My Creative Space: Ouch!

I'm just about through with the pillow covers I'm making for the girls, though I was thrown off track last night by my very first SRI.  Yup, the Sewing Related Injury has reared its ugly presser foot, and my left index finger has been duly Band-Aided and kissed by an assortment of small people.  Luckily, I missed both nail and when I decided to sew through the finger in question, and managed to keep the project blood-free, to boot.

 
Aside from some even-slower-than-ususal typing, I'm holding up pretty well.  I'm a stoic like that.

For some less-gory and more-creative spaces, head over to Kirsty's!

Didn't she ramble?

It's been strange here these past couple of weeks.  When our buyers pulled their little disappearing act, it threw us into stasis--didn't know if we were coming or going.  Trying to keep the house in show-able condition limits what can happen within its walls, and, to be honest, I've been in a bit of a funk.

A recent checkup revealed a spike in my cholesterol level (which is usually quite low) that my doctor attributed to stress.  Yeah, I'll buy that.  She told me to lose some weight and to exercise regularly, since my diet is already pretty clean.  So I finally dragged my lazy bum downstairs to the spin bike that keeps the washer and dryer company, and I'm pleased to report that I've used it every day since.  (My secret weapon?  I only let myself watch Glee while I'm riding! )

Trader Joe's opened its doors here in Des Moines last week, and I took the kids for a shop on Sunday.  (Note to self:  Do not take the kids to TJ's.  Do not shop ANYWHERE on Sunday afternoon.)  We waded   through the throngs of elated Des Moinians that swarmed the aisles, picking up an assortment of groceries that, on later inspection, bore no relation whatsoever to the list I'd prepared.

The littlest loinfruit has taken to dressing herself.  It's a shame you can't see the navy Converse sneakers that "made" the outfit.

At My House: Stitchy

Because, really, what child wouldn't want a personalized pillow to match the placemats her mother made last week?

My Creative Space: Accessorizing

This week, though bereft of potential house-buyers, has yielded all manner of exciting table linens.  First, a stained tablecloth was painstakingly upcycled into a set of "new" damask napkins.

Then, since I'd been well and truly sucked into "turn and topstitch" mode, I  paired a couple of yards of cotton that's been hanging around my stash with a thrifted pink sheet to make some cheery, striped placemats.

Why the sudden urge to make table linens? Well, the vast majority of our existing linens are in boxes.  In Milwaukee.  And we still have to eat...

Check out Kirsty's place for more creative spaces...