Eleanor has a bright future as a fashionista. She changes clothes multiple times a day and her combos are a source of never ending humor to me. Sure, I get tired of washing clothes 39750945 times a week but the laugh value that I get from some of her get-ups is worth it. And since I am not a selfish person, I thought I would start sharing the funny with everyone else to enjoy.
So here is what Eleanor wore for the first part of the day:
What we have here is a Sleeping Beauty princess dress (thanks Grammie) paired with some ruffled jeans. Missing from the picture is a pair of bright purple rubber Speedo flip flops that I made her remove befor climbing on the couch.
Next up we have a purple tshirt with hearts (backwards of course) with a pair of black leggings (also backwards). Curious note about the leggings, they are size 6-12 mos. and are supposed to be full length. To complete the look, she is wearing a pair of Harper's socks with lavender trim and black ballet slippers.
So Saturday while going for a walk with the kids, between gasping to catch my breath and wincing at the pain in my knee, I decided that today would be a great day to make
a scarecrow.
No planning ahead of time, no thought as to how I've never made a scarecrow before- just the decision to make.a.scarecrow. So after letting the kids play in the yard with our across-the-road friend Logan for a few minutes, we head off to
Lowes to buy some
winterish flowers (pansies) and 3 bales of hay/straw/whatever the correct term is. Yes, I said 3 bales- in the back of our new, 3 week old van. Had
Justin been here, a heart attack would have ensued but seeing as how he wasn't, the deal was done before he found about it so all is good. Back to having no plan, so we get back home and have no clothes for the scarecrow- we have some old pants of Zachary's but no shirts- this is were Nancy (across the road neighbor and Logan's grandma) swoops in to save the day with some pants and a shirt. Now, you may not know this but to fabricate a scarecrow, you have to actually take apart a bale of the hay/straw/whatever. And while this may seem insignificant, let me say this now, loose piles of hay are like crack to a little kid. You will unable to keep them from jumping, diving, or sliding into the pile. And occasionally they might bury their siblings entirely in hay. But it is worth it when you're all done and can stand back and admire your scarecrow fabrication skills.
And no, I didn't sneak another kid into the herd, the non-Wilson kid is our friend, Logan.
I love to sew. To me, it's very therapeutic and calming for the most part. I love making patterns and altering them to make things in different sizes. I was never the kid that was good in art class but I love to create and make things. So, this week I carved out some time for myself which is damn hard to do and made a super cute bag and a pinafore for Eleanor. I have a feeling that Eleanor might just have a pinafore for every single holiday. It was wicked easy to make and fast to sew together. Anyway, I just wanted to brag and show off because I am in looove with my bag and because pics of Eleanor looking at the camera are as elusive as sightings of the Yeti.
Those 2 straps on the front are short shoulder straps plus it has a long adjustable messenger strap.
Yes, they were each placed specifically and sewn on my hand. I am hoping to get feeling back in my thumb soon. But I love it so it's worth the pain.
Eleanor striking a pose in her Halloween pinafore.
When we first moved to our house back in July 2002, one of the first things we noticed was that the house across the street had a ton of little flags in the ground on the perimeter of the yard. When we soon met our new neighbor, Nancy, we found out the flags were training markers for the underground fence for her dog, Greta. And so began a wonderful relationship between us and our neighbor-dog Greta. Greta is the kind of dog that makes people want to own a dog. She is well trained, nice to children, beautiful, and will tear a person apart should they appear as though they might hurt Nancy. She is the alpha-bitch (as Nancy and I lovingly refer to her) and quite frankly I have always harbored dog envy for a dog like Greta. When she runs, it is like watching a fine thoroughbred horse galloping at the Kentucky Derby. My kids have all grown up around her and love her to the point that Eleanor associates most dogs with Nancy (even naming her favorite toy dog, Nancy). Harper is just getting to know the feeling of Greta's tongue as she licked her little baby toes- Greta has a thing for baby toes. She is just a great freakin' dog. Well, Greta died today. She had lupus and it was slowly eating away at her quality of life. Nancy came home at lunch today to Greta not feeling well (I will spare the details) and when she went to the vet, she had to have her put down. She held her until she fell asleep, then came home to cry into her beer. After getting off of the phone with her, I cried too. Farewell to you Greta, you were truly a giant among dogs and I hope you are enjoying your time galloping in the fields of wildflowers and swimming the ponds of the doggy afterlife.
I found a link to a blog that contains 2 of my favorite things on earth: babies and Barack Obama.
Yes We Can (hold babies) is a blog full of super cute pics of Obama (and one of Biden) taken with children. Having been surrounded by kids 24 hours a day for the past 3.5 years, I can say that they tend to be on the money with reading someone's personality. So while I have tried to keep the politics to a minimum (I have another blog for that)- I thought this was perfect for here because my kids love them some "Arockabama"- now to just figure out to get close enough to him to toss one of my kids on him 'cause I am wicked jealous of those other kids. And if being jealous of a bunch of babies is wrong, man, I don't want to right.
