And I don’t ever need an excuse to use washi tape.  This morning while I was writing this post Creamie asked me if her surprise tomorrow could be more little tapes.  I might have created a washi monster yesterday. Haha!

I don’t remember having an exact start date, we usually made them about a week or a week and a half before Valentines Day.  And we never got candy in our pockets, it was always a not sugary surprise.  This morning Creamie found a little blue car in hers.  Blue is her favorite color and she carries blue things around with her all the time.

Creamie really loves paper crafts.  That girl is the happiest with scissors and glue and her rainbow of crayons.  The other day I found a blue piece of cardstock glued to her wall behind her door.  Yep, glued.  She tried to hang it up with the magnets from the fridge, and when that didn’t work she grabbed her gluestick.  I just left it there, it was too funny to take down, and I don’t know that I want to see what kind of surprise it leaves on the wall…

To make Valentine pockets each person will need two paper plates, and something to stick them together with.  You can staple, or sew them together with yarn, or anything else that will hold those two together.  And then add in whatever else you have. Crayons, glue, scraps of paper, washi tape, glitter, sparkly confetti, paper doilies, and a big pile of cutout hearts.   See, not an exact science, but a really fun project to do with kids.

So we sat at Scott’s desk yesterday afternoon and cut and glued and crayoned (her word not mine) for 45 minutes or so and it was awesome.  I cut out some hearts and a few letter C’s for her to glue on, but the rest of it was all her.  I think she is of the mindset that more is definitely better. I think she would have piled things on there all day, but we had to leave for dinner at grandmas.  But I think that I’ll make Valentines with her again this week.  She had such a good time.

She wrote her name on hers.  She gets all the letters in there, a different order everytime, but they are all in there.  She always sticks her tongue out when she is concentrating.  And writing your name is serious concentrating business.  Also, I love how her little knee is up on the table.  Better leverage that way.

I cut one of Creamie’s paper plates into a heart shape, which you can kind of see in the lower right picture above.  That way you can put stuff in it easily.  Then I used a hole punch to make holes and gave Creamie a piece of yarn on a bobby pin so she could sew the two plates together.

Then I punched two more holes in the top and added another piece of yarn to hang her pocket up on her doorknob.

She was really into the washi tape.  I think I might have to do more projects with these with her.

We both had our game face on.  This gluing is serious stuff you know.  I think the most important part with making these is to let your child do whatever they want with what you have laid out.  And be prepared to wash glue off the table and out of their hair.  I never could have predicted what Creamie’s would look like.   And I think it will be fun to compare this first one to the next years.  And thanks to digital photography I am pretty sure I’ll have pictures of this process every year.

She was so proud of her creation and so excited to show her finished product to her daddy.  And that makes me smile.

And it made her smile too.  Like a lot.  We are totally doing this again next year, and every other year till she decides she’s too old for treats in a paper Valentine pocket.

OK, so  a few days ago we went to pick up my moms tree because she doesn’t have a car big enough to handle a Christmas tree very well.  We stopped by my  favorite tree lot after I picked up Creamie from her dance class.  It was cold, but I came prepared with boots and gloves and and a hat.  I just didn’t come prepared for how adorable she would be flouncing through the rows of trees playing hide and seek.

When we found the right tree she very happily offered to help the tree guy carry it to the car.  She is so helpful.  And I was so thankful that tree guy humored her and let her help him.  See, people really are good at heart.

Today this arrived, an early Christmas present from my Dad.  Mickey’s Christmas Carol was one of my favorite Christmas movies growing up.  I like it about a million times better than the Muppetts version.  It has been a happy afternoon watching this with Creamie.  But now I’m off to make dinner.  Porkchops with Bean and Butternut Chili and homemade cornbread.  Because it’s one of my favorite things ever.

Also, I am really in love with my little reindeer necklace.  It was my souvenir from our trip this fall.  I found it at a teensy little shop in a teensy little town about 100 miles from the nearest grocery store.  But, I did a quick search on etsy for a silver reindeer necklace and there are a few similar ones. It is going to be my new go to holiday item this season I think.  That and this silver stripey shirt.  I got it free with purchase of a dress last Christmas and yesterday was the first time I’ve worn it.   See, I used to be scared of wearing things with stripes… what if no one recognized me?  (Which has happened.  And it was my sister who didn’t recognize me beacuse I was wearing a striped shirt instead of my standard solid color. Which is a post all by itself. Ha!) Be back soon.  And with real photographs.  I swear.  Also, I did an interview over at MessyLa for her blogiversary, go here to check it out.

I’ve mentioned over the past few months that Scott got a new job, is now working crazy hours and is gone a lot more than he was.  What I haven’t so much mentioned is anything about his old job.  He and a few partners owned a civil engineering firm.  It was a wonderful opportunity for a while, but after the housing bubble burst here in the USA things changed.  (Civil Engineering is designing subdivisions,  roadways, pipelines, sewer systems, etc.  All things that are in about as much demand as new subdivisions.  Which lately has been zero.)  Their firm layed off a lot of employees just a few months after Creamie was born in 2009.  That allowed them to keep the company open and still give a few people work on a contract basis, but still save a lot of money in taxes and medical insurance premiums.  They had some good projects.  We were surviving.  Barely.  But making it more or less.

Things went along for better or worse for two years.  We always felt like we were still doing what we were supposed to be doing. We still felt like we were on the right path.  They were working hard.  Constantly trying out new projects and areas.  Solar, Hydro-power, all sorts of awesome new things.  They always had a few good projects in the works the kept us all afloat.  And then this past spring things changed drastically.  Work was scarcer, clients had gone bankrupt or disappeared leaving us with piles of open invoices.  Lots of interest in the new kinds of projects, but no money to fund them.  And everything was hanging (and still is) on one last big project that has been pushed back and postponed for one reason or another for the past 3 years.  (On December 19th cross your fingers for us, we are getting closer to seeing this one become a reality, just a few more hoops to jump… I hope.)  By the beginning of summer we knew we had to look for something else.  Now.  Things quickly got worse at work.  Then worse again.  Who knows how many paychecks we have skipped over the past few years, but this spring and summer were particularly bad.  For the first time ever we knew we had to find something else immediately.  Scott applied for jobs.  Lots of jobs.  Applied for jobs for 8 hours a day.  And we heard nothing.  I cried a lot.  I ate a lot of Oreos.  Standard coping mechanisms.

And then the first of August he finally got an interview.  One interview.  He aced it.  He was hired out of 140 applicants and 11 interviewees in a unanimous board decision.  It was not a moment too soon.  (And perhaps a few moments later than I would have preferred.)  But the Lord works in mysterious ways and looking back we can see that He prepared us for this opportunity for a long time.  Anyway, his new job is awesome.   His coworkers are awesome.  He loves his work.  We have great benefits.  Good insurance, with zero out of pocket premium for us.  I have dental insurance for the first time in my life.  I might get my wisdom teeth out next year! (Yep, all four are hanging out in there hurting and driving me nuts everytime I brush my teeth.)  But the best part?  He goes to work every week and they pay him for that.  Like, hand out paychecks on Fridays and stuff.  But wait, get this, the money is magically already in the bank.  They just stick it right in your account.  It is amazing.  And then two weeks later They. Do. It. Again.  And then again.  It’s a beautiful system.  Really, an amazingly beautiful system.

Anyway, that was four months ago.  And things are better.  So so much better.  But there are still those three-ish years of missed paychecks and bankrupt/dirty-rotten-no-good-corrupt clients to deal with.  And it will take time to be out from under all of that.  This Christmas was looking to be really lean.  Leaner than any other we’ve had in our almost 8 years.  I have enough craft supplies and fabric that Creamie would never know the difference.  She is all set to wake up to a child’s dreamland of handmade toys on Christmas morning.  And Scott and I were OK deciding to forgo gifts this year.  We have each other, we have a warm home, food to eat and clothes to wear.  We have a good job and a lot of faith that all things will eventually work out for our good in the end.  But I knew that there wasn’t any extra money this Christmas.  None, not even for little things.  We got slapped with a $300 HOA fee from our less than awesome condo board a few weeks ago and it had to be paid.  (Everyone under our HOA board jurisdiction had to pay it.  It’s not because we didn’t clean up our patio or had weird crap hung in the windows or anything.)  And there went Christmas.  To the HOA board.  Lame.

I don’t care about the presents, neither does Scott.  What I really want for Christmas is a whole weekend to work in my craft room and sew and make pie.  And like I said, there is enough fabric stacked up in my house that Creamie will have the best handmade Christmas a girl could hope to have.  But what it really meant was that there was no money for a tree this year.  Not even a little one.  I arrived at this conclusion the day before Thanksgiving.  It was horrible.  I cried.  And cried.  And then I opened the pantry and made seventeen pies.  I am not joking.  I tried to pretend it didn’t matter, but by that weekend I was sobbing. A lot. At the smallest thing I’d tear up again.

Creamie has been asking for a Christmas tree since we took it down last Christmas.  That girl has a memory like a steel trap, nothing slips through that little mind of hers.  We looked into a few cut your own tree lots, because they are usually a little less expensive.  And we looked into a few programs to cut a tree from government land, but all the permits were all sold out already.  I even looked at fake trees at thrift stores, but they are almost as much as a cut your own lot.  And I had pretty much come to the conclusion that there would be no Christmas tree with popcorn garland and gingerbread boys in my living room this year.  I thought maybe on Christmas Eve I could convince my favorite tree lot guy (we get our trees from him every year, and have since I was a girl) to let me have whatever he had left and we could decorate it then.  And it would be fine.  And Creamie would love it.  But I would have felt like Christmas was missing at my house for the whole of December.  And that made my heart sick and it made me cry.

And then a small miracle happened.  One that restores my faith in people, faith in Christmas, faith in love and goodwill toward men.  Friday afternoon there was a loud knock on my door.  REALLY loud. And the doorbell at the same time.  I looked out the peephole (because that is what you do when someone pounds on your door) and there was a miracle on the porch.  A big green miracle that brought tears to my eyes and a lump to my throat. Our Christmas was at the door. We have been doorbell ditched with a huge beautiful Christmas tree.

We had to snip off the top to fit it in the house it was so tall.  Creamie saw it and freaked out, screaming in pure joy.  I just stood there and said a silent prayer of thanks.  Even thinking about it now it makes me cry.  We pulled out the Christmas things.  I opened box after box.  I tested lights and mixed up gingerbread boys and made popcorn.  We spent Saturday, Sunday and Monday stringing popcorn and baking cookies into gingerbread ornaments and hanging candy canes and jinglebells on our big beautiful tree. First thing out of Creamie’s mouth every morning is “Can I do some more Christmas things on the tree?”

It takes up a whole corner of the room, and it looks like it is on fire what with the 1600 lights on it.  (I could have used 700 or so more.  I didn’t do any lights on the bottom half on the side facing the wall.)  And everysingle time I look at it I am reminded of how good some people really are.  And how if we pay attention to the feelings and nudges we have we can work miracles in other people’s lives.  I am so grateful for this small miracle in mine.  I know it is “just a Christmas tree.”  But more than that it is a reminder to me of new life.  Of hope.  Of love.  That no matter how hard or crazy or crappy things are right now, that it will change.  We will get through it.  If pine trees can survive the harsh cold winters year after year and stay beautiful and alive surely I can do this right now.  Things really are going to work out.  Somehow.  Things are going to be “OK”, whatever that means.  Christmas is here in our little house.  And thanks to the kindness of our Christmas Angel it is in my heart too.

I made her apron, bloomers and hat and then on Monday afternoon decided she needed a matching candy sack too.  I finished up her bag about 4:00 and then hurried to take pictures before we went trick or treating.  Unfortunately I forgot to put the little polka dots on her face until I was nearly finished.  Bummer.

I tried painting a pair of white tights with green stripes and it was a total failure.  I ordered these stripey tights on Thursday and was beyond ecstatic when they arrived on Monday afternoon.  Yay for $6 expedited shipping! (Of course, that made her tights about $12, more than everything else combined!)

I had to fix her hat one more time before we went trick or treating.  I made this hat about 4 times before I got it to look and fit right.  And after we were done taking pictures I pinned an elastic headband to the inside which kept it on much better.  I sewed one of my bath loofah’s to the inside to keep it all puffy.  And if I hadn’t had to make it four times I would have had time to make a little strawberry pincushion for the very top.

Last year on Halloween it was rainy and cold and just plain awful weather.  This year it was 70 degrees and perfect.  Creamie loved trick or treating, and her bag got so heavy she wouldn’t carry it anymore.   But the only thing she wanted to eat was one dumdum sucker.  Then she told me she’d had enough and she would save the rest for tomorrow.  I don’t know where she comes from sometimes.

I can’t wait to figure out what she is going to be next year!  And maybe I’ll actually make myself a costume for next year too.  I better start in January, or it might not happen. Ha!

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.

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!

We met at the Blue Lemon Cafe to catch up and talk about life and have a little breakfast.  It was a wonderful morning and I really wish she lived closer so we could chat in real life all the time.

I am grateful for the interwebs that introcued us, but it is a sorry replacement for real live conversation and cupcakes.

Ok, so we didn’t have cupcakes.  It was still a little early for that.  But they sure had a lot to choose from if we had been in the market for a cupcake.

Amy did try their sweetroll.  Which considering the frosting on these things is probably pretty close to a cupcake anyway.  Have a lovely weekend, I am off to spend a good long time with my little family.  It has been far too long since we were all well and had time to spend together at the same time.  It’s going to feel like Christmas!

Well, I saw the tudor stripes on that little house and immediately turned around and pulled over. And there was a girl waving a sign that said “Everything 50% off!” And I wondered why these two awesome vintage fisherprice toys were still sitting there!  They were $1.50 each.  And the little bag of random fisherprice people and cars was another 50 cents.

I gave her my $5 bill, told her to keep the change and walked back to the car the happiest momma on earth.  And after I buckled Creamie back into the car I saw their row of kids boots and shoes.  I drove home for a little more cash and came back and bought a pair of winter boots and next summers sandals for a few more bucks.  See, a good morning.

And Creamie thinks it’s a happy morning because she has some fantastic new toys to play with.  She’s been playing with the elevator on the service station for an hour.  She doesnt’ care if the sticker on top is torn, because the bell on the little elevator works and that’s good enough for her.  And me.

I need to look around and find some more fisherprice people and furniture to go in her new house.  If anyone you know has some and is thinking about putting them in next weekends yardsale, please tell them to email me first!  I’m more than happy to pay you for them!

So far the morning is going well.  I have a date with this canister of Clorox wipes for the rest of the afternoon.  They give me the confidence to bring home 30 year old toys picked up off the side of the road.

And I had my camera settings all wrong when I took these pictures.  I”m trying not to shoot everything on automatic.  I’m learning. Slowly.  Have a good weekend! (And seriously, if you have Fisher Price little people you are looking to take to Goodwill or the trash or the yardsale please email me first!)

I’ve been eating peaches all week.  Sunday was peach pie, yesterday was peaches and ice cream and this morning I had a peach smoothie for breakfast.  It was heaven.

I have a lot of work to do.  I’ve got four boxes (which is two bushels) of peaches to wash and slice and put into jars before tomorrow night.  I’m going to be busy.  But I absolutely LOVE having those jars of peaches all winter.  I think I’ll freeze some too so I can make another peach pie.  It was so good me and my mom sat down and finished the whole thing.  I mean, Scott and Creamie had some too.  But some things just don’t keep in the fridge overnight.  Peach pie is one of them.

For my smoothie I put 3 peeled chopped peaches in the blender with some vanilla ice cream, a little milk and a big spoonful of brown sugar. Tomorrow maybe I’ll try adding oatmeal to the mix…. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Except he is going to have a much longer commute.  His commute for the past five years has been really short.  Two years of a whole mile and a half roundtrip each day (including coming home for lunch) and the past two years it has been a whopping 100 yards.  His office is right next door.  I saw him all the time, Creamie saw him all the time, and whever I couldn’t get the TV/Printer/Computer/whatever to work right he’d run home and solve all my problems.  And how his commute will be more than an hour each way.  And he is going to be on a 4 days a week, 10 hour day shift.  Which should mean that we’d have all Friday together, but he’ll still be finishing up some projects at his other job for the next few months and his Friday’s are already booked.

My days are going from him being gone for 8 or 8.5 hours each day to him being gone for 14 hours a day.  And things need to change around here.  Lots of things.  So while I figure it out I’m going to continue my little break.  I might have a few new projects that get finished (I have two new skirts that are finished but all my pictures look awful) or I might just repost a few things from my archives.  I might post some of the Instagram* pics I’ve been taking (I have stayed on top of that 30 day goal!) and I might not post a thing.  I am so grateful for this new opportunity for him, for us.  It is an answer to a lot of prayers.  Hopefully next year we’ll be able to move closer to his work so he doesn’t miss so much of Creamie’s life because he is in the car.  Until then I am trying some new things to make my routine without him more bearable.  And you can bet that means a mandatory naptime for Creamielou.  Which is going to mean getting up (and going to bed) a LOT earlier.  Wish me luck, I”ll be back soon, like in September.  Soonish.

*If you want to follow me on instagram my username is pinksuedeshoe, or you can see all of my ig pics on flickr here.