Cute as Button

This is becoming the holiday where I am making a large majority of my gifts for friends and family. (Please do not feel left out if you do not get something I made. I cannot get it all done! I am working on a plan so all will be involved sooner or later...)

But this blog is all about the adorable hair clips I made using 5/8 fabric buttons (which I made) and glued onto clips to make barettes. I want to give these to cousins and Ella's friends. We love these clips here at home.

I also made a clip holder and below is a semi tutorial on how to do it! I stole this idea from Sew Simple. I like the magazine because it takes basic stuff and messes with it- just in the same way I like to. Enjoy and enjoy more creations to come!

Take a piece of felt ( about 10x15) and use a zigzag stich at a large setting to sew a ribbon or yarn down the middle. Sew between the pins so 2" is unattached on either end. Ribbon/yarn will hang over quite a bit.

Flip case over and fold in about 2-3" depending upon size of original. Pin in place. Use a straight stitch and stich around the entire case, catching ribbon in your stitching.

Viola! Fold case in half and tie ribbon. Such a cute little holder for clips. I think this will be so much better to have than clips thrown in a plastic baggy in the bottom of my purse.

Blurry pic of the fabric buttons. I may need to look for a more clear one.

Final clips all lined up. I used E-6000 glue. It smells kinda funny but dries clear and attaches pretty much anything. The button sticks up a bit, but in the hair it looks adorable!

Where Santa Lives

Let me begin by saying I just love this story. I went to pick up Lars from Karin's today and she just couldn't wait to share something with me. She told me that Lars was going to see Santa. I found this interesting but it sounded like something he might say. He apparently is obsessed with some kind of truck with Oscar or Ernie for Christmas too. But the best part was when Karin played along and asked him where Santa lives. Well Lars knew and replied quickly, "Target." Of course! If you know me at all, Target is a regular part of our routines. So it is no surprise that Santa lives there. This is really the only toy place we really go to on a regular basis. I love the idea that Santa lives at Target. I guess he already has a red shirt!

Christmas Songs

Ella received the letter informing about he upcoming holiday presentation at the preschool. I explained that daddy, mommy and Lars will all attend. She was so excited to have a party all about her school. We talked about how she will dress up and have to learn several new songs. She was excited to learn them right away. I could not belive how serious she was. When she woke up in the morning, she wanted to sing them on the way to school. then she asked if they would learn them all at school today. I told her to ask her teacher about htat. I think that should be fun for Joanna her teacher, as she will have several eager faces wanting to learn the new songs- immediately! Fa La La La La!

Sorry Bret...

Major admittance here. I actually forgot our anniversary. The irony (If you can call it that) is we were married on 11-11 so I would never forget, but I did. I knew on the weekend that it was coming and I was even excited. Well, it fell on a Tuesday and I can get in a groove during the week. I had 2 days of meetings in Cedar Rapids, so I had to prepare for them and my mind was going a million different ways. So I forgot the unforgettable date.

Needless to say, we had a great weekend! Brenda took the kids and we went out Friday to the Hilltop. Then Saturday we went to the Purdue football game with friends from Cedar Rapids and Des Moines. It was cold! But nothing we weren't able to keep warm with by dressing with layers and drinking warming beverages. Much thanks to Libbey's mom for the tastiest bloody marys. We had fun at 808 with Ron and his buds. How do they do $1 can of beer? Then I also need to thank Matt and Tracy for the warmest tailgate and the best walking tacos. It was the perfect snack to follow up the game. I jokingly told Bret I wanted nachos at Carlos, so he gave me a hard time all night that I wanted to go to Carlos O'Kelly's for our anniversary dinner. I just wanted nachos!

Bret & Jen - 14 years and still loving life

Herky & Purdue Perry ? fighting over the hammer

Kevin & Bret celebrating a great game and a great time

So we went home to rest and then much later had a fantastic dinner at Givanni's. I have been gong there since before our rehearsal dinner there in 1994 and I will say that I have rarely been disappointed! Bret did think the spinach polenta with my chicken marsala (instead of the usual garlic mashed potatoes) was anarchy. He, of course, had his gnocci- he always does. It was a wonderful evening without kids! I went to get them the following morning and was surprised how much I missed them. It was nice to have time without them and spend time with my dear husband, but I loved having my babies back in my arms!

Election Night Haiku

Bret sits on the couch
Counting as the votes come in
Obama he hopes...

My Chatterbox

Turns out that once a child learns to talk, they never stop! Lars was never a super loud child but he was more action than words. Now, I am rethinking that statement. He loves to talk. He loves to tell me about his day. He loves to tell me about a problem or a story. He loves to make things up- which is always interesting.

The other night, he woke up in the middle of the night (I love daylight savings time) and he proceeded to near cry and tell me that he needed to come to my room to sleep becasue there was a big spider in his room and he could not sleep. I was so exhausted, I did not argue- I just wanted him to go back to sleep. Well- he came to my room then after a short while he wanted to go back to his room. Bret took him back and I heard him retell the entire spider ordeal to Bret, then he went back to bed. Interestingly, in the morning, he retold me the spider story in his super fast, no punctuation, no breath, manner of toddler talking. Do you remember the fast talker guy from the commercials in the 80's for Fed Ex- kinda like that! I swear all his words blend together. I think it is amazing I ever understand him at all!

Some of his favorite garbles:
gardigan-- Backyardigans
Powers- means the Hulk
Ole Macdonald- McDonalds
I will need to think of more...

When he sings "Where is Thumbkin" & "Freres Jacques"- he combines the two. It is some kind of naughty version of "Where is my cock at?" We truly just laugh at him and move on.

Potty Progress

Is this embarrassing enough when Lars is 21?

Just reporting for my own memory and in case you are interested, that I think we are turning some kind of corner in the potty training area. We have totally backed off from the push this summer and he has shown a huge interest in wearing underwear and going on the potty again. Over the past few weeks, he has been content to "poop" in the corner of the living room- much to my disgust. I think he is also reaslizing how much more comfy his underwear are and I also am thinking he really is identifying with being a big boy. I anticipate when he makes the move to Amana he will make another big jump!

Halloween