I’m so sad to have to do this, but I’m afraid toddlerspit is going to have to move to a new location…blog.com just won’t return my emails, and I can’t upload pictures, and…well, there you have it!

Won’t you come join me at my new blog, http://toddlerspit.blogspot.com/?  I have lots to post about this week, so check in over the next few days to see what’s up.  I promise there will be many more parenting hijinks, self-obsessed ramblings, and craft projects.

But maybe no more lego men with penises.  That seemed to trigger this whole mess.

Cuz it’s all about me.

See you over at blogger!

How I’m going to make it for four days without my trusty Janome, I do not know.

Not sure what to expect, but I’ll let you know more when I get back.  See you Monday!

Yes, I hate blog.com, which is constantly going down, changing my settings, and otherwise being annoying.  thanks for your patience.

Gorgeous

GOOFY!

This is pretty much what being five years old is all about, by the way.  When I came outside, Addie was singing, in a very adult, sultry voice, “Oh, baby, why don’t you come near me, you’re the sweetest thing I’ve ever had” (!?!).  Then, in the next minute, she was running around the yard making goofy faces and talking about being Queen of the Butt-Butts.  This back-and-forth is alternately terrifying and hilarious for the parent.  Oh my God, my kid is growing up!  Oh my God, my kid is never going to grow up!  So weird.

In case you were wondering:  yes I did make that dress out of pillowcases.  From the thrift store.  I did.

and yes, it is particularly good for spinning:

Also, I think you’ll appreciate this particular conversation we had on the way to Target yesterday:

“Mama?”

“Yes, Nolie?”

“I have a baby in my tummy?”

“Oh, you do?  Fantastic!  Congratulations!”

“Its name is Crack!”

“Oh, really?  What an interesting name for a baby.”

“It’s going to come out of my BUTT!”

“Ah, yes.  The old Crack baby coming out of the butt trick.  I know it well!”

“Like a poop!”

“Yep.  I get it.  I geeet it.”

BECAUSE none could be more amazing than this hubba hubba right heyah:

I mean, HEllo.

Right?  Right?

But something much more urgent calls.  And that is the fact that, three minutes ago, my doorbell rang and there was my very friendly postal carrier with a package.  For me.  Unbidden.  And inside that package were seven skeins of the yummiest felting wool around, in the most gorgeous, seashore colors of blue and green.  In my head they are already the most beautiful slate-oceanwave-forestmoss gorgeousness.

The person who sent them, nameless here, could not have known that on my desk the last few days was this book, finally put away for a while because logic says one shouldn’t knit wool in summer.  But I’ve been wanting to!  Wanting to knit that giant travel bag!  And then felt it!  Yum.  But I put it away, and promised to buy myself some yarn in the September.  But I didn’t want to put it away, of course.  I wanted to do the knitting.

So, thanks, you lovely emissary of the universe, for this unexpected and thoughtful gift, and for remembering that I loved this book and the projects inside.  Sweet, sweet. 

…should not be allowed to raise children.

And I’ve been making them, let me tell you.  I can see the light, and all.  I can see that I will be a much better crafter/maker/do-er on this machine than I was on the other one, which just limited what I could do in lots of ways, and created so many problems with stitches and the like.  But I’m muddling through figuring it all out right now, still–how the tensioner works, which stitch lengths are happiest with which fabrics and which stitch types, how many reverse stitches I need to do.  All that jazz.

That big old learning curve has led to some pretty funny projects.  I don’t think my Dad is on the blog these days (my mom just had her surgery, which seems to have gone okay.  But I think he’s going to be busy with that for a while).  So I feel comfortable posting his Father’s Day gift here.  He is, after all, the person who bought the Janome for me (facilitated by my brother, smooches, smooches to him).  I got the idea from Etsy and then executed it like a fingerless numbskull.  It really should have been hand-sewn to avoid slippage with the felt squares on the fleece backing, but I was too excited to use the machine, and so I used it, and then the squares on the board ended up all wonky. 

But three things I like:  first, the gray rectangle over the board is actually a pouch stitched to the side seam, and can be flipped over to play.  It holds all the checkers. 

Second, the whole thing folds up into this neat little bundle. 

Handy, eh?  Cute, eh?

And finally, the pieces, which are little pieces of double-layered stitched felt, are adorable.  Like little baseballs.  Or mod candy.  Yum. 

Anyway, I’m not sure how often my Dad plays checkers, but as my other Dad (my biological Dad) says, honey, there’s nothing I need, and plenty I want, but nothing you can afford.  Just send a card.

So, consider this my wonky, stitched card.  There’s big love behind it, and every time I sit down to my machine I think of my Dad.  I’m pretty sure he knows that, and he can kick my butt at Checkers next time I’m home.  Cool.