I didn’t know I was going outside to keep her from falling into the engine.  But I love this picture!

There she was, face in the engine right next to her dad and fingers getting greasier and blacker by the minute.  And she was as happy as could be.  The headlight box took a while to get out (one of the clips was broken and it took a while to wiggle it out) and she was completely entertained “helping” for almost an hour.  And it wasn’t even the kind of helping that isn’t really helping, but is mostly just getting in the way.  She stayed out of Scotts way for the most part.  She just wanted to be right by him.  It was so sweet.

Daddys toolbox was her favorite.  I think she pulled out every single tool and used it to fix something in the car.  Moneky wrench, screwdriver, jammer, chisel…. they all went under the hood for a few minutes before she’d put them in a little stack on the sidewalk next to his box.  When his box was empty she declared the car fixed and was done playing.

She was so completely hilarious banging away under the hood with whichever tool she had in her hand at the moment.  And I was also really glad she didn’t drop anything in there.

We did find a big old screwdriver in there, it was almost 18 inches long.  Who knows  how long it’s been inside the engine.  It wasn’t one of our tools, so it has been in there for at least four years, maybe more.  This car has been in the shop over and over for minor repairs and I was shocked no one found it before now.

It wouldn’t be a car repair without getting under the car to check things out.  And she was more than happy to help out.  It was a great afternoon, and I am so glad I had my camera handy to snap a couple hundred pictures of the whole thing (you’re lucky I only posted six…)

Last night I made some pumpkin spice frozen yogurt.  The recipe still needs a little tweaking but oh my goodness it is delicious.  I’m off to finish off the last of the batch before I settle into a little sewing.

Then I ordered some delicious takeout for lunch, we built a tent out of vintage sheets in the living room and watched a movie in our tent while we had an indoor picnic.

And Creamie has been playing in there all afternoon.  She has every stuffed animal, doll, baby, toy, pillow and lego guy she has all piled inside.  I’m sure the books in her room will be the next guests.

And we are watching movies and having a great old time.  I think we are going to start dinner with dessert and hopefully have an early bedtime.  And then I hope to get back to my sewing machine.

Creamie is wearing a thrifted vintage flannel dress, leggings from Walmart and thrifted red maryjanes.  Also, this pumpkin didn’t make the cut because it was too huge.  According to her.

Just the right size.  She’s been carrying it around everywhere since we brought it home.

We don’t have big plans for the weekend, mostly just enjoy our time together.  I’ll post pictures (I hope!) of Creamie’s Halloween costume on Monday.  It might be my new favorite thing I’ve ever made!  See you soon.

She is wearing a thrifted vintage sweater, white cardigan from aWalmart,  thrifted skinny jeans and her favorite boots I found a few weeks ago for $3 at a thrift store.  She wears those things almost everyday!

If you ask her what her favorite part about the cabin was it was making a fire and eating dinner in front of it.  When we move a wood fireplace is high up on the list of things we don’t think we can live without.

Last night we picked a few boxes of apples from my mom’s neighbors tree.  I think most of the rest of the week will be consumed with making applesauce and apple pie filling to can.  With my little helper at my side it is sure to take 100 times longer than necessary and be a lot messier than usual.  And a lot more fun.  See you soon.  And one day maybe we’ll remember to bring a tripod so we can get at least one picture with all of us together.  But whatever, she’s the cutest one in the family anyway.

This was the deepest snow we found to play in.  We just stopped on the side of a very muddy road and hopped out into a foot of snow in this mountain meadow.  Creamie loved it.  And because the top few inches was pretty crusty, she didn’t sink to her hips and was able to stomp around and make tiny little snowballs.  It was hilarious.

This is Navajo Lake, the same lake in the picture I posted yesterday.  Only this year it was a bit colder.  Actually the highway this lake is off of had to close over the weekend because of an avalanche that took out the road.  Estimated reopening? Between two weeks and next spring.

Most of the young aspen trees (those are the one’s with the yellow leaves) that we passed were all bent over with the weight of the snow.  Ideally, their leaves should fall off before it snows.  Otherwise they hold too much snow on those leaves and the weight will literally snap them in half or pull them out of the ground as they bend over.  It was incredible.

Helping her dad build a snowman.  This was the very first order of business, as soon as we unpacked those little boots.

Yesterday we drove to Cedar Breaks National Monument.  A little sign directs you to a parking lot and a short trail.  Which looks like this.  And then when you get to the edge of that fence?

Beauty.  Pure Amazing Beauty.  The rim of Cedar Breaks is over 10,000 feet, and this rock amphitheater plunges 2,500 feet in amazing rock formations. A photograph just can’t do it justice.  Last year when we went it was not as snowy, but there was a bitterly cold wind.  With that in mind we came prepared this time.  (Also, this year Creamie didn’t have to wear her mittens on her feet due to poor planning on her parents part… ahem.)  But there was no wind, just warm sunshine reflecting on the snow and amazing beauty all around us.

Her preferred vantage point.  HA!  Also, you’ll notice her snowpants are soaked…

It’s because the only thing she really wanted to do was stomp in the puddles.  Over and over and over again.  Then she’d throw little snowballs in there and stomp them again.  I think I took about 200 pictures just trying to time that moment and catch the perfect splash.  Victory!

I built a happy little snowman to watch over the mountain and keep visitors company.  Also, Creamie thinks snowmen are the greatest friends ever.  I’ll share a few more pictures tomorrow and then it’s back to real life.  Halloween is coming up and I’m almost done writing a tutorial for her first Halloween costume.  It is by far my most popular post and I get requests for instructions all the time.  This week!  Yay!

This is a picture from this same vacation a year ago.  This is one of my very favorite of the family traditions I married into.  (The other favorite is my mother in laws tacos.  Hello delicious.)  I’ll share pictures from this trip soon.  I’m sure when I compare them I’ll be shocked at how much she has grown.  Hope your weekend was fantastic, even if it wasn’t a nice long one.

Creamie started taking a dance class with some of her little friends.  It is just once a week, and her teacher is a teenage girl who is earning money to continue her own dance class, which I am thrilled to be supporting.  Watching her dance around is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.  Last week she insisted on wearing Batman with her tutu.  And rainboots.  I found these boots at the thrift store for $3.25 last week and she will hardly take them off to take a bath.  I love it.

We have been busy here at Casa Pinksuedeshoe.  I’ve been working on a lot of projects, unfortunately none of them are for me.   Well, except this raspberry peach pie me and my mom made the other day.  Recipe is still in the testing phase, but holy crap.  This might be the best pie I’ve ever eaten.  And I kind of consider myself a connoisseur of pie.  I’ve also been doing a lot of thrifting.  And I’ve had some amazing luck.  I don’t usually shop for clothes for me at the thrift store, but my sister has converted me.  And I’ve purchased a new fall wardrobe in the past few weeks that I love.  I’ll share pictures soon.

I completely lucked out on Saturday.  I don’t usually go thrifting on saturdays, but since Scott is working 12-16 hours EVERY SINGLE FREAKING DAY  it didn’t actually feel like a Saturday.  And I found this whole stack of vintage Pyrex for $10.  Those two on the bottom are really big, 4 quarts each!  I was so excited!  I’ve also found a lot of new sheets lately.  I finally found the perfect sheet to make this dress.  And it was brand new, still in the package.  Score!  Proper thrifting post soon.  I promise.  I have so many new treasures, I love it!

I made myself a new skirt a bit ago.  I’ve worn it a few times, and I love the color and the fit, but one thing always bugs me.  I didn’t have green serger thread, so I left it white and just hemmed it under.  And when I am standing, it’s totally fine.  No problemo.  But when I walk and my skirt moves and swishes you can see this awful white stripe of serger thread on the inside of the hem.  So I colored it with a sharpie.  Problem solved.  I’m resourceful like that.

Scott’s birthday was on Monday, and Creamie and I met up with him for lunch.  We went to a great Brazillian place and ate as much food as we could hold.  This was dessert.  I don’t remember what it was called, but it’s like a churro that was filled with a creamy pudding and topped with caramel.  Amazing.  We took a good long lunch and it was so nice to talk to him in the middle of the day.  He used to work right next door to our house, so I got to talk to him at lunch everyday.  I miss it.  I can’t wait to move closer so we can do lunch together more often.

I was pretty sure that neither of us would be eating dinner after what we ate for lunch.  And I was right.  And so instead of making a REAL birthday cake, Creamie helped me make him THIS birthday cake.  I did the cutting, and she did the choosing and the gluing.  And she wrote his name up there at the top (the gray “letters” across the top of the page.)  She was so excited to give it to him and sing him Happy Birthday (all by herself)  when he finally came home.  I need to do more crafty projects with her.  She is in heaven with a gluestick and a pair of scissors.

So, to continue this post’s theme of complete and total randomness, here is my newest favorite picture.  Target has vampire teeth in the dollar section.  Thanks to my friend for sharing some with us.  She loves to wear them!

And, one last bit of randomness for your Wednesday, fall is officially here and I can smell winter in the air.  Last Saturday there was snow on the mountains when I woke up.  I can see the leaves up there starting to change color and just in the past week there are a lot of new patches of red and orange.  I have been making a lot of soup and bread, and I can’t wait to wake up to snow!

We’ve lived here for five years, and it was just a few months ago that I ventured out to our city library.  And it is awful.  Dark, dirty and a place where old books go to die.  Thankfully, they have a deal with the neighboring city library and I can go there.  Thankfully.  Anyway, after the first time visiting I realized that I really needed a library bag.  Because there was no way I could carry my stuff, Creamie’s stuff and the books and still chase her and/or drop everything at a moments notice for a potty break.  So, I started looking around my collection to see if I had something that would work.

And I found the perfect bag.  A great big bag made of heavy duty canvas, thick straps the perfect length and a zipper pocket inside for keys, phone, chapstick, handsanitizer, library card, and the printout of the books I need to remember to bring back.  Too bad it was ugly.  A handmedown from my sister, who used to work for a scrapbooking magazine and ended up with boxes of swag.  But I am so not crazy about the logo on the front and the sponsor list on the back.  So I improved it.

See, much much better.  I used some cute fabric and sewed on panels to cover up all the ugly labels and logos.  I just cut a piece to size, pressed the seam allowances to the center and topstitched it in place. The hardest part was getting my sewing machine down inside the bottom of the pockets to stitch across the bottom.  This would be a much easier fix on a messenger style bag.  No trying to fit sewing machines inside small pockets!

Our latest trip to the library was a good one.  I am so glad I brought my camera.  It fit right inside that giant bookbag with plenty of room for the 22 books we brought home.  One day I’m going to max out my library card in number of books brought home.  But I think my bag could still handle it.

I found some of my favorite books from my childhood to bring home to read to Creamie.  I have loved reading her the books my mom read to me, and some of them books my mom read to her littlest sister.  The Flicka, Ricka and Dicka books, Snip, Snap, Snur were always my favorites.  Creamie is in love with the Little Bear stories.  She is particularly interested in his mothers sewing machine. (Cue heart swelling with pride music here.) Most of these books are still a little old for her, but that doesn’t stop her.  Or me.  I am constantly amazed at how much she remembers and understands from books that seem too involved and stories that seem too complicated for a 2 year old.  Yeah, my kid is awesome.

She laid down right here and read books to me for more than a half an hour before she remembered the big park that was outside.  And as soon as we got home, she was ready to read stories again.  It is one of her favorite things to do.  The other night I think we read 15 books in a row before she had her fill.  And that makes me happy.

The past few days she has been requesting one ponytail “like mommy’s one big ponytail.”  She is so sweet sometimes.  I love it.  Though that one ponytail makes her look a lot more grown up to me.  Maybe it’s just me.

Yesterday after school she had a picnic outside with all her new classmates and their parents.  She was beyond excited to show everyone her sandwich, her carrots and her applejuice.  Don’t worry, she didn’t actually eat any of it…

She is having a great time, and I am so glad that she gets to play with my mom for a few hours each day.  She is doing great, particularly for being the youngest kid in her class by at least 6 months.  And some of those kids are more than a year older than her.  But, we probably won’t live close enough next year for it to be feasible (I can’t stand Scott missing so much of Creamie’s life because he is commuting.  We’ll move sometime next year.)  So this is their only shot.

I found her dress and cute red maryjanes at the thrift store for $2 each.  And when some other mom complimented her on her cute dress at the picnic she proudly said “My momma find it at D.I. (my favorite thrift store).  And I got some surprised looks from a few, and some “oh-my-gosh-you-must-be-poor” look from the mom who drove the fanciest car.  And she’s right.  We are poor.  And happy.  And if I can buy a $35 Baby Gap dress for $2 I will.  And Creamie will wear it proudly.  So there.

And since we live close, but not super close, I have been spending the mornings while she is in school spread out on this quilt at the park with a notebook and a pen and trying to get my brain and my ideas all organized.  But I found a picnic table near a power outlet, next week I might take my sewing machine…..  Also, I can’t tell you how happy I am that summer is over.  I’ve been wearing a jacket at the park in the morning and it’s still chilly.  Hello Fall!

I woke up early this morning, about 5:00 while Scott was getting ready to go to work.  And unfortunately  I couldn’t go back to sleep.  With his new job and new commute he gets up at 4:45 am and leaves by 5:15.  He doesn’t get back home until 7:30 or so, and is asleep by 9:00 pm.  Our time together as a family has changed so drastically.  I am still adjusting, Creamie misses her daddy all the time and I am running out of ideas to keep us both occupied for so long without him.  Sigh. The first day of preschool starts in a few hours and I am not quite sure what I’ll do while Creamie is off learning numbers and colors and how to share.  Maybe I’ll take my art journal box and go hang out at the park for a little while.  We’ll see how put together I get in the next two hours…