Queen of the Fair

The Grand Champion Rabbit can see into your soul:Yes, peeps, it was an evening at the Monroe County Fair--we didn't ride any rides, being as we're going back again tomorrow night with my friend Betsy, but we did eat an elephant ear and nachos and a hot dog and a purple snowcone, nurse (at least a couple of us) in the Lactation Station, visit every single animal, look at all the rides and talk about which ones will be ridden tomorrow (um, all of them?), and check out our contest entries over in the Community Building. It was a red-letter day for our family in the Community Building, let me tell you.

Do you think our little prize winner looks proud of herself? Will has no concept of competition, obviously, but she was beside herself to see her work "in the museum, Momma!" She was a tad bittersweet about visiting her award-winning dinosaur collection, however...
...because she hasn't played with them since last Wednesday and she can't have them back until Sunday. Poor little dino-less lamb.

I was no less stoked about having my own work up "in the museum":
My photo of Will in the Exploratorium won a first place and my other two photos won second places; both my stuffed dinosaurs, the faux fur and the felted wool one, won first places in sewing, as did my pillowcase dress, netting me a champion ribbon in the sewing with recycled materials class, and my T-shirt quilt, soldered glass pendant, and felted wool flower pin all won first place, as well:
Some of them also had honor ribbons, as well, but I don't know what those are for--the Monroe County Extension Homemakers can tend to be a little arcane. I am totally going to join them...but do you think you're allowed to have a job AND be a homemaker? Or is it okay if you're a really unsuccessful homemaker, because I don't actually give a flip about cleaning? But I'm so sold on them because at their meetings...they do CRAFTS! Who could not like that? And I bet there's food. I love anyplace with food.

We're going back to the fair again tomorrow, but there will be less self-absorption--

--I swear. I'll actually check out, you know, what other people made, instead of just mooning over my own stuff, which I already know what it looks like.

P.S. I decided on eyes but no mouths for my simple dolls. Freaky, but awesome.

Grandpa Bangle's Toolbox

Seriously, I am still working on stuff. 

Yesterday I finished one awesome idea for my Christmas in July Stashbuster Swap family, and now I'm thinking through another, and I sewed not one, but two felt plates for the kids' play food stash, and today I've been cutting out some felted wool dolls, so simple that I'm conflicted about whether or not I even want to sew button eyes and bead smiles on them. I like really, really simple toys, really plain with really basic forms--as Anne would say, there's so much more scope for imagination that way. And I'm still working on plans for our California trip next week (Hello, San Andreas Fault!) and the kids' birthday party this Saturday (Hello, margaritas both virgin and not!). But in the midst of my busy life, I completely forgot to acknowledge a terrific gift I received several weeks ago.

Matt's last grandpa, Grandpa Bangle, died around Christmastime--he was an awesome guy, just as hopeless as me at Trivial Pursuit, kept trying to escape and give me "privacy" whenever I'd start to breastfeed (I've breastfed at the Louvre, so I'm certainly not squeamish about doing it at the breakfast table), totally sweet not just in that way that all old men end up sweet when their testosterone runs out, but sweet like you knew he'd been a gentle spirit his whole life. 

He was a crafty guy, too--we have a set of wooden reindeer that he made for us not long after Matt and I married. Actually, um, I keep them out all the time, on account of they're cool. 

Grandpa was apparently also into some jewelry-making, setting stones and such, because Grandma Bangle recently sent me Grandpa Bangle's old jewelry-making toolbox.

I cannot even tell you the awesomeness of such a gift. It was a combination of getting to feel nostalgic about Grandpa Bangle, finding some truly cool and useful stuff, and poking around in somebody's old cupboard and getting to prowl through all the artifacts. 

Grandma Bangle sent the toolbox off without even peeping into it, so she didn't actually realize that she was committing a felony by US mail, because pretty much the entire top half of this toolbox was full of little packets and bottles and cans of really old volatile chemicals. You know, fluxes and leaded solders and acids and etches--all the good stuff. 

Once that had been disposed of (A good homeschooling project--How does one dispose of dangerous chemicals?) we were left with this:

 

The gift includes a bunch of files, a stand like the one I use to hold my pendants when I solder, a saw, a bunch of hemostats (which I have always wanted!), a bunch of needlenose pliers (including one just like the one I'd just dropped eight bucks on--darn!--but a bunch just like the ones I don't have any money for--score!), and some beautiful polished stones, turquoise and quartz and some marble and I don't know what else, that Will has taken for her collection (she pores over them constantly like Scrooge McDuck--mental note to check out some books on rock identification to get the learnin' in).

We also found this in the toolbox, which Will has also spent many days walking around holding up to her eye:

  

She says, "Mama, it's magic! It makes things look bigger!" 

Science IS magic!

The best part of the gift, though, was folded up in the very bottom of the toolbox. Look, it's Grandpa Bangle's apron:

And now Matt wears it when he putters around the house, too. Thanks, Grandma Bangle.

The Buying, It Does Not End

Since I'm still tootling away on my Christmas in July Stashbuster swap (a few minutes ago, while labelling the dinosaurs Willow was drawing on thank-you cards in preparation for the girls' birthday bash this coming weekend--pteranodon, apatosaurus, stegosaurus, and triceratops so far--I had the awesomest idea for what I'm going to make for the littlest member of my swap family. Yay!), I have no actual crafting news to share, other than the fact that hand-sewing is not so much my forte, but I can show you yet more stuff that I've thrifted lately, primarily from our yesterday trip to Indy.

One of the nicest things about our little town, along with the farmer's market, the Recycling Center, Pizza Express, and the fact that it's a liberal hotbed in the middle of Indiana, is its distance--about an hour or so--from Indianapolis. That makes spontaneous trips to the Indianapolis Zoo possible. Thus, while at 9:00 am on Saturday we were sitting around in our filthy living room watching the girls pester the foster kittens, anticipating no more to the day than a little housecleaning and yardwork, by noon we were looking through a lighted window for sea lions

and watching a koala sit on its fat butt and munch eucalyptus leaves (Everyone knows that eucalyptus leaves are notoriously non-nutritive, right, and that's why koalas eat all the time? I suggested to Matt that a better food should be offered to koalas, but somehow, he failed to see the incredible insight in that), and sneaking up on the hundreds of these fluttering around in the giant greenhouse and getting splashed in the Splash Zone at the dolphin show (I'm probably alone in this, but whenever Willow and I sit there I have these frightening fantasies that a dolphin will misjudge its leap and land, spine crushed upon impact, right there on the pavement at our feet. Screaming, rioting, etc. to ensue. Am I alone in that?), and just generally looking like this:

As if that wasn't enough, on the way home we stopped by the most hard-core of thrifting experiences, the Goodwill Outlet Store. Stuff is unsorted here, people. Sold by weight. Stored in big blue bins. It's like community dumpster-diving, basically, complete with old potty chairs with dried pee still in them, and pill bottles, and band-aids. Matt and Sydney sat on a couch and fell asleep, but Will and I were in dumpster heaven. She found a bunch of dinosaur shirts and dinosaur books, and I found an 1890 Bible (beautiful, and now a birthday gift for a treasured little cousin), a pillowcase for a dress that is embroidered, I kid you not, like this

a wool sweater hand-knitted in Ecuadorthat is right this second felting in the washing machine and, most awesomely, this: Hell, yes, Will is jumping on the Master of the Universe himself! There's He-Man, and Skeletor, and Castle Greyskull, and Ram Man, and Teela. Obviously this bedspread visited the sanitary cycle in my washing machine bright and early this morning, and no, I'm not conflicted by my love of 80s crap media versus my refusal to allow my girls to experience commercial media. So they won't have any interest in 20-year-old bedspreads printed with pop culture images when they're 32? Whatever, they can buy space ponies or something instead.

Buying and Selling (and Buying)

I try to buy locally, but for all that, I've been indulging a bit in online commerce recently, and of course I quite encourage the online purchase of high-quality handmade fangeek goods from my own online shop, so there you go.

I don't know if you do this, but when I'm preparing to go on vacation with the family, I tend to use that time to buy a bunch of stuff. You know, stuff like the baby wears her really ratty swim trunks that used to be her sister's to the local pool every day, but she certainly can't wear ratty swim trunks on vacation, so let's go shopping! And the girls have tons and tons of art supplies and small toys here at home, but I'd bet they'd behave so much better on an airplane if they had all new art supplies and small toys, so let's go buy some! None of those previous items have yet to be purchased, although they're all on the dream list, but this week I did buy a few extravagances for our upcoming trip.

Although I have successfully made my own mei tai, I found it bulky and awkward. The straps crossed right over my quite substantial breasts, for instance, and although that was nicely supportive, it leaves something to be desired aesthetically, I believe. I just can't get the use out of something if I don't really love it, so I never did wear Sydney in my home-concocted mei tai as much as I would have liked to, and so recently I broke down and bought this awesome mei tai. It's pink with skulls on one side, you see, in case I'm feeling fancy, and plain black on the other side in case I need to blend. The straps are long enough so I can tie them backpack style instead of across or under my breasts, which is comfier on us more ample figures, and it's way trimmer than my bulky old tai. Although mei tais, especially in a back carry, have a learning curve (it takes me a few tries still to get the mei tai pulled up around Syd's back without catching her butt on the top and thus sitting her on it instead of in it, which makes me swear), and although I have a couple of personal preference mods to make on it, such as padding the straps where they sit on my shoulder and the back where it catches Syd's thighs, I love, love, LOVE it. Love it.

This year Willow is old enough to carry her own backpack with her own and Sydney's things inside, toys and snacks and etc., and so I decided to buy the girls and myself some nice, reusable water bottles. I'm not a fan of the whole commercial bottled water concept, nor do I approve of the long-term re-use of an old commercial water bottle for your own water needs. That cheap plastic leaches, which you ought to be able to tell from the way that the really old bottles of really dedicated re-use types look all discolored and yellow-brown. There will be no phthalates in my breastmilk or my kids' bloodstream, I say! That's why, even though I disapprove of the willful misspelling, I bought us some Klean Kanteens. They're food-grade stainless steel, nice and light and non-leaching. The bottle mouths are wide enough to pour ice cubes in, and you can buy sippy spouts for them, but we like sports caps because they're also relatively non-spill. I bought the plain silver 27-ounce for myself, Matt didn't want one, Willow chose the blue 12-ounce for herself, and Sydney chose the pink 12-ounce. Oddly enough, I didn't actually buy these from the Klean Kanteen site, because this Greenfeet site was about twenty dollars cheaper for our order. Weird.

In other news, it's finally time to say goodbye to my Sandman soldered glass pendant, which hung around on my etsy shop for months even though it had tons upon tons of hearts. It will be happily wending its way to its new forever home tomorrow.

If you're wondering why I haven't been showing off my crafting lately, it's because it's a secret! I'm tootling along on my Christmas in July Stashbuster swap on Craftster, set to send out before we leave on vacation, but hopefully I'll finish tootling this weekend and then I have lots of other wacky crafty ideas to try out and post after that.

Growing Like a Tall Tree, Big and Bold

Here's my Willow at four days:
Four weeks:

Four Months:

And, as of today, four years:
Happy Birthday, my baby.

Or Maybe One of These?

Today the other one has a fever, so it's another morning of PBS and the Magic for Kids DVD, uprooting my plans to leave the house for cake mix, ice cream, thrift-store pillowcases, and a photo grey printer cartridge. The Letter of the Day, however, is R, and the Number of the Day is 8.

I've fallen back in love with the other two options for my entry into the Color Class of the photo contest at the Monroe County Fair. Here's one option: It's from the Children's Museum in Indianapolis. I like that it's a self-portrait but since the mirrors are all wonky, my camera isn't pointed straight at myself, and I like the angle of the self-portrait. I also like the two images of Willow within the photo.

This one is Sydney just after she finished nursing. I like the dreamy quality, but it's also pretty grainy.

Which do you think is the best of the three?

Just Like in Little House on the Prairie

My entry for the Creative Class!

The big kid stayed in bed with a fever all morning, watching TV and accompanied by her sister, and yet today I still managed to make an egg breakfast nobody ate, fetch juice and "bunny crackers" and juice and peanut butter sandwiches and juice, ineffectively clean the house, work on the computer, curse at the printer, put a child down for a nap, conduct a large-scale craft project with another child, get into a big argument about the clean-up of said craft project, search every freaking where for tap shoes, get children dressed for dance class, continue argument about craft project clean-up, take children to dance class (even the one who had a fever this morning because I NEEDED A BREAK), work on the computer during dance class, take children home from dance class, take the car to the shop because its brakes are being funky, visit Hobby Lobby for party supplies (icing bags and tips, biiiiiiiig cake pan, candles), have serious conversation with tearful child about how we can't afford to buy her every single party supply in the store for her party (This was huge for me. I seriously want my kid to say, "Wow, Mama! A jump house--that must have cost a fortune! A cake shaped just like a dinosaur--no telling how long it took you to make that! I couldn't ask for anything more!" Instead she's all, "I want a cupcake stand to hold the cupcakes I want! And these purple glittery sprinkles! And these whistles shaped like dogs!" Seriously, what gives?), conclude argument about clean-up of craft project at home (not quite a win, but not quite a loss), melt down from low blood sugar, eat dinner, feel better, go on long bike ride continually harangued by husband because I tend to keep bike in first gear, go home, put kids to bed, collapse.

In other news, the big kid and I are currently being worked up into a complete lather because we have decided to enter stuff into our county fair. It's something that only townies do, but I've been here for eight years now, and it's time. 

Entering the county fair is about as awesome as it gets. There are a million categories, even for kids, and I think that everyone gets a ribbon, and first prize? It's a dollar. Awesome, right? 

So the big kid is entering about a million of the Young Child contests, including jewelry (she beaded a frankly half-hearted necklace but a much better crown), quick bread (is it appropriate for a four-year-old to enter beer bread?), photography (Polaroid film is on our shopping list for tomorrow), collections (hello? Dinosaurs!), and paper art (I have the sweetest fingerpainting with foam heart collage that she did last week during a break from painting the playhouse. Seriously, it rocks). I, too, am entering tons, including recycled art (I'm thinking my favorite fatty steg), sewing for children (pillowcase dress?), holiday ornaments (I made these crazy spiderwebby wire things with black beads while the big kid was throwing beads around the room this afternoon), photography, and whatever else I can come up with before Wednesday (I only found the entry information this week, and not being a townie, on account of they just KNOW things, I practically had to hack into somebody's server to find it). 

I'm making Matt enter, too--he's going to enter some of the comic strips we've drawn into the Sketch category, and tomorrow night he's getting out the Legos to show the big kid, because they have a Lego category both for adults and young children. See? Awesome. 

I've even got my dear friend to come over on Wednesday so we can go over to the fairgrounds all together and I can make her enter these messenger bags and purses she crochets out of plastic bags. Crochets, people. Out of plastic bags.

So my photography entries are pretty much ready, except, you know, that I still have to crop the borders off them and matte them and buy a frame and frame them, but yeah, pretty much ready. 

This is my entry for the Black and White Class:

It's the big kid with a sparkler. I like how abstract it is, how you maybe can't even tell that it's a child with a sparkler. It's just chaotic and beautiful and maybe frightening, just like my life.

Do you enter your county fair? You should.