Month: November 2010

After having Thursday off I woke up bright and early on Friday morning to walk to dogs and clean the house. I started with vacuuming the foyer, and that was when I killed my vacuum. As it turned out there was a clog of dog hair and tennis ball parts in the hose and it fried the motor. BOO. With all the kids and pets I can’t live without vacuuming this place practically every day so after work we went out to get a new one (I looked into getting the old one repaired but there really aren’t any vacuum repair places downtown), a Dyson ANIMAL vacuum. It’s so amazing! The last time I vacuumed was Wednesday morning and (warning this is gross) this is what I got on the first use:

VOMIT CITY! And that isn’t even from vacuuming the whole house- just the carpeted part of the living room. I was trying to take a picture to illustrate the area that produced all that filth but of course the second I vacuumed up all the pet hair the pets had to get all up in it.

Idiots. I know it looks like Dougal is murdering Georgie but in reality playing with him is her favorite thing.

She laid there flailing all her paws at him while he just stood and watched for a really long time.

Anyway. We did do other stuff this weekend besides dogs- On Saturday I picked up my new boots, yay! and we bought a ton of candy. Here’s my selection of sour fruits and soda bottles.

Later on Sym’s dad came over to pick her up, not just for their regular Saturday Sleepover but because they left this morning for a week in Playa del Carmen (although thankfully not at the hotel that EXPLODED this morning). He had this giant obnoxious backpack on and he knocked a bunch of stuff off my windowsill, including my phone. It busted into a million pieces and although I’m skilled at reassembling it, the screen was dead. Boo. Luckily I have an old one; the screen that broke was actually swapped in from another one because the original screen cracked. I had to put the cracked screen back in until the one I ordered online arrives, so now I’m stuck looking at this:

In real life all those streaks are red, making it look like a murder victim phone. Plus I can’t tell how much battery power I have left.

Also, you may have noticed in the picture of the living room that the birthday decorations we still up on Friday. That’s because Taylor still hadn’t cleaned the bedroom, but after nearly garotting himself on a streamer he finally held up his end of the bargain today. I was taking the crêpe paper down this afternoon when I found this intrepid fellow.

I didn’t want to squish him into the garbage, so I tore that section of streamer out and went to go put it outside. When I opened the door a draft blew him back into the house, so I guess he’s still in here somewhere. Lucky bug, I wouldn’t want to be out there in the cold either!

Room, 81/104; Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives, 82/104: Of Bees and Mist, 83/104

See if you can spot the hidden dog.

Dougal is so very handsome.

Taylor is also handsome but you wouldn’t know it since he insists on making a deformed squink face for pictures. And yes, Symphony’s birthday party decorations are still up, WHAT OF IT? I actually promised Taylor I’d take them down today (the crêpe paper streamers are stretching and hitting everyone over the age of ten in the face), just as soon as he cleans the bedroom.

I was planning on making this a fawn but the idea of sewing spots on something so tiny was too daunting. Overall, though, I think it turned out pretty well, and I’d say my pattern was better than I’d expected!

When I was a kid I subscribed to a teddy bear magazine, but not, like, Toys’R’Us teddy bears, more like artist bears. Yes, I’m aware of how dorky that is. Anyway there was one bear artist whose work was frequently featured who made teeny-tiny miniature bears and I remember reading that she hand-sewed 32 stitches per inch. I think on this deer I got pretty close to that.

Today is a statutory holiday here in BC, and not only do I have the day off from work, I have the day off from almost everything. Sym’s dad picked her up early, Taylor’s gone to bed, even Dougal isn’t here. A whole afternoon to myself? Let’s see what that looks like…

It looks like making a mess of paper and felt, sewing a deer from a rather dubious pattern I came up with and watching season two of Veronica Mars for the eight billionth time (I like to have tv or movies on when I’m sewing). It looks like quiet relaxation, and that’s awesome.

Which is to say, anything. Since my last book post (almost a month ago now!) I’ve read:
• one book
• two magazines
• sixty percent of second book that I should have finished in two days and just have not been able to get through

There are a lot of reason for this- in mid-October I ran out of all the books I had lined up, my pre-Halloween funk of lethargy and sulking, my also-pre-Halloween frenzy of costume making, my post-Halloween frenzy of Sym’s birthday party and gift preparation. Of course, all that is over now and you’d think that before I get into my Christmas frenzy I could get some reading done but NOPE. Yesterday I planned on powering through my current book and finishing it while the kids were having nap, but instead I spent the entire afternoon (and part of the evening) picking a new layout for this blog, changing the fonts and making a fancy header which I didn’t even end up using. Clearly not the best use of my time!

My goal was to read 104 books this year. When I finish my current book (which I’m doing today, NO EXCUSES) that’ll put me at 82, leaving me with 22 books to read in the last 50 days of the year. That’s one book every 2.25 days. Can I do it? Should I do it? Would you do it? I don’t know if I’m going to meet my goal but DANG IT, I’m still going to try.

Seeing how I was mightily pressed for time this year, I didn’t go as all-out with the decorations as I normally do. I put Clay in charge of hanging tissue-paper pompom flowers and crêpe paper streamers and left well enough alone.

The food was simple- sandwiches & veggies, popcorn and cheesy poofs (which were devoured in under 20 minutes) and some pop to drink. I also didn’t plan any birthday party activities and as it turns out, when you have eight 9-year-old girls in the house all they want to do is run around slamming doors, scream, and listen to Lady Gaga. FINE BY ME.

Instead of a cake I stuck candles into a pile of mini-funfetti cupcakes and doughnuts which I dipped in glaze and decorated with pink, blue, purple and yellow sugar and sprinkles.

The reason I had so little time for any party-planning/staging was that I spent all my free time last week working on Sym’s gift. She told me she wanted me to make her something, so I pulled out the patterns from last Christmas’s Sailor Senshi dolls and made her a little Felt Family.

I know, I’m the awesomest mom ever. I actually wanted to make all out pets too but QUELLE SURPRISE I ran out of time. It took me until after midnight on Thursday to finish these! I guess Little Dougal/Kichou/Claire and Georgie will have to go on my “to sew” list, along with Tuxedo Kamen and Sailors Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and Saturn. I swear I’ll make all of these some day!

The rest of the weekend was sort of a blur of shopping, watching movies, piling every blanket onto the couch and eating delicious food I didn’t have to cook. Friday night we had takeout from Cafe Luxy and watched Ponyo. Well, Sym and I watched it, Taylor fell asleep at seven so we sent him to bed!

Saturday afternoon I took Sym out to use the gift cards she got for her birthday and buy a new coat- Taylor tagged along but did his own shopping. After Sym went to her dad’s we watched Dude, Where’s My Car? (I DON’T EVEN KNOW) and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which means we’re all ready for part one of The Deathly Hallows next week! That evening we went out to Society in Yaletown for a late dinner- Taylor had an enormous steak and I had the shake’n’bake chicken. For dessert we shared white chocolate-filled doughnut holes, and the birthday party at the next table shared some cake with us as a thank you for my taking some pictures of their group.

Today we were going to just have a lazy day but ever since September’s Frye boot debacle I’ve had a bee in my bonnet about finding some new fall/winter boots. I looked in a couple of stores while I was out on Saturday but couldn’t find anything a) and really liked and b) was available in my size! So this morning I did some internet research and came up with a couple of options, and decided to go out to Gravity Pope to check out some of my choices irl. I’m happy to report that it was a success and I have FINALLY found my new boots!

Exactly what I was looking for, waterproof, and only $200? SIGN ME UP! Unfortunately they only had my size in brown, but are ordering in a black pair for me.

On the way home we looked in a couple of shops and picked up some miscellaneous stuff, like this beautiful orange Le Creuset kettle (on sale!) and this silly owl from Homewerx for my Christmas tree.

Unfortunately Symphony is at her dad’s this morning and I can’t force her to have her picture taken, so here is one from last week (when I made doughnuts for her class Halloween party) that I think is representative of her overall disposition. And yes, that is me in the first picture with purple hair. Really.

Now for my pre-birthday party to-do list:
-clean the entire house
-buy party food
-prep party food
-make funfetti mini-doughnuts & cupcakes
-make half a dozen more tissue paper pompom flowers
-hang up all the tissue paper pompom flowers and eight miles of green crêpe paper

….. plus have a shower at some point and all this in the next 6 1/2 hours. Taylor and Clay are going to help as well but they won’t get here until one o’clock or so. Surprisingly, no one wanted to take the morning off work to help me clean the house. I know, I’m baffled too.

Symphony had a weird tooth this week. I’m not going to post a picture of it because it’s weird and creepy, but what happened was one of her baby teeth, the root didn’t dissolve completely, so while it was still firmly anchored in her gum, it was also hollowed out, sharp and raggedy where the root had dissolved and full of blood. Yep. Charming. I had her dad take her to the dentist yesterday and they gave her the option of just trying to wiggle it out at home, or having it pulled. In a surprise move (because she is usually a big chicken about the dentist) she opted to have it pulled out. She brought it home in a little pink tooth-shaped box and left it for the Tooth Fairy last night, but unfortunately the Tooth Fairy was very busy sewing birthday presents until midnight and forgot to leave anything. Luckily, Sym figured out that it was because she left the box on her desk, not under her pillow, and hypothesized that maybe, when the kids are napping and I’m watching Veronica Mars, the Tooth Fairy just might be able to sneak into her room. She stashed the box under her pillow and wouldn’t you know it? That wily fairy already snuck in there and left a tiny gift in place of the creepy tooth!

Tonight was Georgie’s last obedience class and she (and I!) did great on her little evaluation. Hooray!