Friday, November 6

Hello All!!!!

Hope everyone out there is enjoying a fabulous Friday :-) (I am so happy it is Friday, but a little bummed that Dustin has to go to work tomorrow morning - hope that is short!!). Things are going well here. My cough is still hanging on, but getting better every day - maybe by next week it will be completely gone :-) I planned to get Brenna's stocking done yesterday, but ended up loafing around and not getting that done yet (mom - I need you to help explain making bias strips to me - I only have a 1/2 yard of fabric to do it with and want to conserve as much fabric as possible). I searched online yesterday trying to find a gift idea for Brenna's 3 teachers - still not exactly sure to make them... (if anyone has any ideas - feel free to send them to me! I'm thinking a small bag that could hold a cell phone or camera right now). I ended up finding something else for Brenna while I was searching - a method to make hair clips slip free - I'm going to have to give it a try and see how she likes them :-) (I hope it works - I think that would be a great gift to make for some of the other little girls in my life :-)

On Wednesday, Brenna came home from school and wanted to help me with the cleaning - I love her concentration in these pictures (she was having a great time - she did all my laminate and tile floor and was ready to go to the carpet) - I was surprised she didn't have a great big grin when I looked back at the pictures, lol! Brenna hates wearing socks at home and sleeves - I put her in her cute fall clothes for school and the moment we step back in the apartment she wants it all off - no shoes, no socks, and no long sleeves. Anyone know how to get a 3 year old to change her sense of style for winter wardrobe??? At least the shorter hair is easier with her right now - I don't have the request for the ponytail removal immediately upon arriving home.

Dustin has been having long work days right now - wonder if any of those will slow down before we go back to the US for Christmas? I felt bad yesterday evening as I didn't expect Dustin home for dinner and we didn't really have anything to eat in the house when he came home (to be fair - it was 7:45 by the time he came home - who wants to eat that late??). I think he discovered all my peanut butter hiding spots though as there were 2 empty containers on the counter this morning - bummer, lol!! I had much better hiding spots for that stuff in the US.

We have our walk for St. Martin's Day on Wednesday next week (you can read about St. Martin's day here if you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin's_Day - I need to try to get a picture of Brenna's lantern soon (I think I am going to have to look for a book on how to make some of these - maybe bring it home and make one with Brenna each year in the US). Kindergarten will be closed on Monday and Tuesday - so I need to come up with some ideas to fill our mornings - I'm sure that Brenna would love to do some more crafting or baking here at home :-)

The weather was decent yesterday, but we are back to a rainy, dreary day today :-(

Well, I think that is about it for today. Renee - thanks for sending me the picture of my new fabric - I can't wait to see it all when I am back in the US - only a month to go! (I am such a fabric addict - I love buying fabric and thinking about all the possibilities of what I can make (but I don't love cutting into it) - I think I would love just seeing fabric hanging on my wall, lol! I even decided to have Dustin buy me fabric for Christmas this year!) Poor Dustin will have to send me to fabricaholics soon!

Take Care!

Wednesday, November 4

Hope these pictures make you smile or laugh - Brenna sure had fun doing them!

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there!!! I can't believe that I have been "slacking" on my posts so much the last two days! It has been rainy weather here this week, and my cough has been lingering on (anyone have any good tips to get rid of it??). Hopefully, we will get a break in the weather tomorrow. Brenna has had lots of fun walking home with her rain boots and rain coat on (we got the rain umbrella out on Monday too - she loves her rain gear). She was so busy splashing in puddles on Monday that what normally takes 20 minutes to walk home took about 40 minutes :-) (we also did some snail searching - only found some tiny ones though). I love Brenna playing in puddles - she only splashes a tiny bit (she experienced a big splash and water got into her boots - I think that has detered her from splashing too "big" these days, lol) - just kind of stamps her foot a little bit and likes to kick the water more.

Monday afternoon, Brenna had a very, very long nap and then slept horrible that night (bummer) (o.k. - she slept poorly on Sunday night too) - hopefully, we are over that as she slept o.k. last night. She takes after me though - she came into our bed last night and then slept sideways with her feet too me. The dog jumped on board my side too - talk about squished!

While I was on the phone yesterday, Brenna was trying to show me her "new" faces - hope you enjoy seeing them here today! The videos are probably more amusing though - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72quCHVjm-Q , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBPq8Dkvwx0 , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwXwwG1KxG8

Well, that is it for today!

Take Care!

Sunday, November 1

These pictures were taken from our balcony - I will miss all the fall colors I see out my window next fall (it really is a beautiful time of year over here). Blowing everyone kisses from over here :-)

Brenna really liked my necklace - it was from Guatemala :-)

o.k. - I don't love my double ponytail picture of my hair below, but I do love Brenna's smile. My hair is pretty short, but with the humidity today, I decided it would be best to try to get the hair pulled back - I don't think it looked too bad from the front though, lol.

My project from today - a new towel for our friends 1 year old (I will miss this towel - it is soft and fluffy and so thick - anyone who wants to buy me towels for a Christmas gift it would be a wonderful idea, lol)

My project from Friday (sorry, it isn't finished yet - I feel like I am getting part way on lots for projects lately - not a good thing!). Anyway, it will be a new stocking for Brenna - isn't it cute??? I love this fabric - wish I could think of lots of stuff to make out of it (oh, wait, then I would need more of it, lol!) The embroidery on the left is a snowman (doesn't he look like the egger embroideries that I love so much??) There is a santa on the right one and also a tree (the tree is really hard to see as it matches the fabric color - I wanted to try out the quilting look with it). I really want to make one for Dustin and myself too so that we can do stockings over here in Germany on St. Nicholas day.

I love her cheesy grin here as she was "snapping" my picture!

Another beautiful fairy picture :-) We didn't have Halloween trick-or-treating, but that didn't stop us from dressing up :-) She wore the princess dress over to our friends' house today - so cute!

I love this one below - her hair is swinging and you can kind of tell that she was dancing :-)

Hello All!!!

Hope all is well out there! I am finally starting to feel better today (bummer that Brenna "shared" her cold with me - hopefully Dustin won't get it too). Brenna seems to be back to herself - thank goodness that cold is almost over. The cold itself wasn't horrible - but no fun with a sore throat and lingering headache. Anyway, I ended up cancelling my German class for the whole week - first because Brenna was sick and then because I was. Brenna and I stayed inside all week, so it was a great change this weekend to get out of the house (other than dog walking that is). Justice and I got out on some walks - was so nice to get some exercise and stretch my legs.

Anyway, on Friday, I started a new project for Brenna - a Christmas stocking :-) She needs to have one for school this year - I think the one I have started will be so cute when finished (they celebrate St. Nicholas day over here - it is at the beginning of December so Brenna won't miss that over here). I am thinking that I will need to make one for Dustin and me too now though, lol. On Saturday, we drove to France for some grocery "supplies" and also for some needed sewing items. Crazy to drive to another country just to get some items for my kitchen! We all went to the store in th evening and ate "take out" for supper (Dustin's favorite - Gyros). Today, I worked on a embroidery this morning and then spent the afternoon with some friends. Brenna was pretty shy playing today - I think she was somewhat tired too.

I better get busy this week finishing some of my projects - I need to start working on Christmas gifts here very, very soon :-)

Well, Take Care!

PS - Happy 2nd birthday Brayden hope you had a great day!!

Thursday, October 29

I think this Santa is really cute - thinking about putting him on my stocking (maybe even in pink again, lol) - what do you think??

The pictures are small and hard to see here, but they all were posted before from London - I just wanted to show off the snail from Photoshop here :-)

Hello All!!

Hope all is well out there. I believe Brenna is getting over her cold bug here (yeah), but I am just getting started with it (bummer). Let's cross our fingers that Dustin doesn't get it too (at least he didn't get it in London and I didn't get started with it until yesterday). No kindergarten again for Brenna today :-( Hopefully, she will make it tomorrow, although if she doesn't, she should get to see our German teacher (if I am well enough for class) and then play dress up for Halloween over here.

After our paper crafting yesterday, I thought some snail making would be fun today :-) So, I started with a snail embroidery (on a wash cloth for Brenna - she loved her, and she was put in the bathroom right away, lol). I also played with photoshop - didn't realize they had a snail cutout until I was looking at the butterfly one (saying, hmmm- maybe I should have done that yesterday instead of free hand drawing one, lol). Hope you enjoy our projects from today (I also embroidered some Christmas ones - I have some thoughts in my head for stockings to be made this weekend - hope they turn out as cute in real life as they are in my head, lol). (Can you tell that I let Brenna pick the colors for embroidery today - the girl loves pink - definte favorite).

With Dustin away, Brenna and I bought new movies this week - we bought the new Tinkerbell movie and Ice Age (both the 2nd and 3rd one). She loves Ice Age the best of those 3, wonder if it has something to do with the fun movie experience with Papa and Gammy Carpenter - I bet it does :-)

Well, my brain is fried with this cold - I couldn't even help Dustin out with a grocery list today (good thing I don't think we need anything right now). Take Care!

Wednesday, October 28

Hello All!!!

Well, looks like I will be coming down with Brenna's cold - bummer... I have started losing my voice this afternoon and have a sore throat. Although, on the bright side, I think she is getting somewhat better (no fever today - she had one late in the day yesterday).

Brenna and I did arts and crafts this morning - it was a good suggestion from my sister and I had just seen an idea I wanted to try from my friend Heather's blog (although I will put the link for the original blog that she did here - http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/02/weekend-creat-2.html). We spent quite a bit of time doing this stuff this morning (although Brenna got sick of it before I was ready to quit, lol). I think this is a fun idea - only wish I had some paper punches in some of these shapes (this was my free hand drawing of a leaf and then traced onto paper and cut out - ouch - my fingers hurt after all the cutting!). Brenna had alot more paper pieces cut out, but they didn't make it to this afternoon with my clean-up of the table (although I think Brenna threw quiet a few of them out too, lol).

Brenna seems to be feeling better after taking a good nap today - hopefully, we will have a good night sleep tonight and all feel better in the morning. Dustin returns late tonight from England - so glad that he will be home to take Justice out in the morning.

Well, I think that is it for today!

Take Care!

Tuesday, October 27

Hello all!!

Brenna and I worked on drawing faces today - this was all her own drawing - she may become quiet the artist, lol!! Anyway, not sure if it expresses how she is feeling, but I would say it is pretty accurate. She is coughing more today, but no fever again. Brenna gets very upset with the coughing and it does wake her up during the night and at nap time - no fun there. She has her moments where she doesn't act like she is feeling bad, but those were less today than the day before. Hopefully, she can get a good night sleep tonight and no more coughing up junk in the bed (I have had to wash the sheets two days in a row - no fun there). We made a new flannel pillow case today before nap time since her's was still drying - she was pretty excited to have a new one finished :-) (she was very attached to the pink pillow case I made her earlier and would throw fits when it wasn't on her bed - maybe now we can have two to switch between). The new pillow case has purses all over it - very cute for a little girl (sorry no pics today (and all they probably would show is the fabric anyway - not much art in a pillow case, lol)).

Well, gotta go!
Take Care!

Monday, October 26

Hello All!!!

Hope everyone is doing better out there than we are here :-( Brenna seems to be feeling a little better today - just a lot of congestion :-( She had no fever today, but we did take her to the doctor to get checked out (although I was surprised that the nurses didn't even do a temperature on her - just asked the question about fever - then the doctor checked her ears, throat, and lungs). We got some cough medicine though - and that seems to be a good thing for Brenna. She started to take a nap for me today, but with the coughing, she woke herself up and couldn't get back to sleep (poor thing). (She made herself sick with the coughing last night - good thing I was able to get those sheets in the wash this morning - yuck in the middle of the night). My stomach hasn't been great today, but so far neither Dustin or I are sick (please cross your fingers that we don't catch it in the next couple days - Dustin flies to England tonight and I will be doing really poorly if I am sick at home with Brenna tomorrow (and doing all the dog duties too, sigh!) or if he is sick in England - yuck there too!).

Well, that is about it for today!
Take Care!