Brock's quiet book

My friend Amy (Chickenbone Jones) emailed me one day with a link to a quiet book and said it looks like something I could make. I replied that there was no way I'd be spending my time on something like that.

Then, I made one.

A quiet book is a cloth book full of activities for small children. I should take a moment to apologize for my terrible photos. It's a part of reading the Additional Jesus blog. Sorry. Just is.

Brock loves animals, and he quickly learned the pig snort sound. He now makes that sound whenever he sees any kind of animal. Or families.

So I put a pig on the cover. One thing I should admit right now is that I was pretty gung-ho about this project at the outset, but I quickly lost interest. I was also going to applique his name on the front, but ...

The ellipses ... kinda how this project went ... starts off bold and then sorta peters off ...

By the way, as a copy editor, I insist that all ellipses consist of three, and no more than three, dots, and that there is a space on either side of them.

Open the cover, and this is the first page. I made my pages go all the way across and then attached them by putting them wrong-sides together and stitching with a zigzag stitch. Then I used pinking shears to trim them. Once I had my pages, I put them together and stitched down the center. That green in the middle at the bottom is part of the other side of that page, which makes up the last page. I didn't do a very good job of making sure it didn't extend past the center. Oops.

I initially planned to do this in a nicer fashion, but ... ellipsis again ...

This page has balloons. Brock loves balloons. I swear that one time he said balloon, even though he really doesn't say much of anything. These balloons snap on. I used that snap tape that you can buy by the yard and clipped off one at a time. I also added a present with a ribbon he can practice tying. Someday. Not now. Not even close. For the balloon ribbons, I used rickrack and ribbons, and I added a string of pom-poms at top for textile fun.

The bird is pretty simple. I just appliqued a circle on, adding the beak, legs and tail feathers as I got to those parts so that they would be caught inside the stitching. It held the feathers surprisingly well. I took another wad of feathers and sewed them on as a wing. Then I glued a googly eye on with hot glue.

The next page is a pond scene and a robot.

The water has little slits cut out for the puppets to slide into. They are $1 finger puppets I found at Michael's. I glued them to popsicle sticks to make them easier for little hands and keep them from falling out and getting lost. The grass and pond are made of felt and the trees at the top I found in the scrapbooking section at Michael's. The goose is a button.

The big robot is made of felt with little washer things I found in the garage attached here and there. I used wire to make a thingie for them to slide on, and although this might seem a little questionable, I put tons of wire in the back and wound and wound and wound it so that it can't come loose and the washers shouldn't be accessible. I sewed more washers on for eyes and buttons for decorations. The other robot I found at Hobby Lobby. He seems to prefer it to the one I worked really hard on.

The last page is a dinosaur and some grazing sheep.

The dinosaur is padded and has a zipper in his tummy. There are leaves hidden inside, an undigested treasure trove. I was initially going to put little people, but I decided to make him a vegetarian instead because I thought that might be a bit creepy. Plus, although I'm not so good at history, I'm pretty sure people didn't exist when dinos did. And this book is accurate if nothing.

The other side of the page has green felt for the grass, cut with pinking shears. The sheep are also made from felt, but I glued cotton balls on top for texture. I had a little white picket fence from Hobby Lobby that I was going to stitch on so he'd have something to open and close, but it just wasn't working out.

The sun and tree are also made of felt. I put farm animal buttons in the tree instead of fruit. Wouldn't it be fun if you could just go pick a piglet right out of a tree? What if it were ready to eat? Like you just take a bite and it is crispy bacon?

The back of the book is the pig's butt. For the little tail, I bought one of those foam visors at Hobby Lobby for $1. I cut the coil cord off and made a hole and stuck it through.

It was pretty labor intensive. And mine isn't even very good. If you plan to make a quiet book, I recommend using Pinterest to find lots of great ideas and planning your pages in advance. Then go to the craft store with a plan. But also be open to new ideas and keep your eyes peeled (yuck) for cool things you could add in. Also, this won't be as cheap as you're thinking. All those $1 items seem to add up.

Good luck!

Santy Claus

First I was all, "I gotta take Brock to see ol' Santy Claus!"
Then I found out how much it cost to get pictures with Santy Claus. Then I complained on Facebook, like anyone cared. But then someone sent me a link to a Groupon for $11. It was at the mall across town, but worth the savings.

Mark wants everyone to know that he spent a long time styling Brock's hair into a cute little feathered 'do. And even though that would normally not be considered stylish, it's super cute on Brock.

Unfortunately, you can't tell he has cute hair in this picture.

You could tell Santa definitely preferred hugging little Brocky over the horde of fat teens who followed him.

Bobbin organization heaven

These things are awesome! I found them on a blog where someone was selling them on etsy for a small fortune. But I found the same brand elsewhere for much, much cheaper. Just google and you can find them in bulk. They are called Handi-Bobs.

Basically, you snap the bobbin in, secure the end of the thread, if desired, and then snap the whole thing into the end of the thread that matches it. You always have neat bobbins and the bobbin and thread are kept together.

Kitty Egg Crayons

Kitty Egg Crayons are adorable and perfect for chubby hands. Made by Kitty Baby Love on etsy.com, a new eco-friendly soy formula is being developed. The couple who makes them is seeking seed money, and you can check out that campaign here. I would love to get some of these for my son, who is just learning to draw.

25% off burp cloth sets!

There are barfing babies all over the world right now who are soiling mom's shirt. Their faces have nothing soft and luxurious to rest upon. It's not right.

I have a few burp cloth sets in my etsy shop. I'm ready to just clear out my inventory and make space in my tiny storage area.

Everything is 25% off! Enter code BABYLOVE at checkout. Great, inexpensive, cute Christmas gift for a new mom and baby!

Double sided, made of flannel and flannel/cotton chenille. They are soft and absorbent.

If my description doesn't sell you on it, surely my fine photography will! This is what I have left and I won't be making any more. I'm closing up shop (again).

Thanksgiving. I am thankful for this monkey in a boy suit.

Turkey day was Daddyless around here. Mark had to go out of town on business Thursday morning. We had dinner at my mom's with my in-laws joining us.

Brock got GQ with a too-big vest and shirt.

Notice that I combed his hair to the side, but it won't stay that way.

I think that Brock is a robot because he doesn't eat food. I don't even know how he survives.

With his grandmas, my mom above and Mark's below.

At one point, I was telling a story about an automated voice on my answering machine and mimicked it. Boy did Brock think that was hilarious. So we all kept doing it, of course.

Tiny tots gone wild

We had a little playdate Sunday, many of us escaping Sunday football. Mark was out of town, so I had a football-free zone. We made little pizzas and let the kiddos run about.

All of these ladies except one I have known since we were pregnant. Our kids range from 13 months to 20 months.

It looked like a toy explosion.

Olivia has the most lovely lips, if I only could take a proper picture! She is the oldest of the kids.

Emery is a doll. He and his mom always look like fashion plates. He's younger than Brock by 2 months, but is much bigger.

Brock said, "Look at me! Look at me! I'm classy too!" as he nommed on a ball.

Brock loves the ladies. "Hey, baby. They must be missing an angel in heaven ..."

It was a great time catching up with friends and letting the kids have some fun.

Furniture giveaway in Albuquerque, N.M.

I got an email through my blog about a giveaway for children's furniture. It's only for Albuquerque-area residents. Basically, this company works with Costco and sometimes people return brand-new furniture to Costco but they can't really re-sell it. This company, Epoch Design, doesn't want to have to pay to ship it back to them or come pick it up, so sometimes they just do a giveaway.

If you enter, you have to be able to arrange pickup very quickly. Please see their blog post for more details.

Evan Wolfe

This is Evan Wolfe. I know him. He is 9 months old, and he is fighting very hard for his life against a brain tumor. It's malignant and nasty and has already rendered him blind and deaf, hopefully temporarily. But he's a brave little boy and he keeps trying.

It's a rare tumor that's not very treatable. His only real chance was a controversial option of a FDA clinical trial through the Burzynski Clinic in Houston. It's really expensive and not very much of his medical care has been covered by insurance.

If you're a parent, you know you'd do anything to save your child's life. But this family will drown in these medical bills.

That's why I'm trying to make people aware of his story and lead you to a website where you can donate as little as $10. I say that because I'm broke and can't afford to donate to causes very often. If you're broke, you can probably still spare $10. If you're not broke, you can probably spare more. If all you can do is forward his link to someone else, please do. If you can blog about him, even better.

Here is his website.

Please pass the word on. It may save this little angel's life.

Tiny boy in a big Halloween world

Remember how Brock cried about wearing his costume? Well, once he got around all the kids and the fun, he totally didn't care! I had to work Halloween night, but Mark took Brock to Mall-o-Ween at the mall and he had a blast. He looks so tiny wandering around there. He got a lot of attention. I was a bit disappointed in how the wings worked out, but I guess it doesn't matter.

Information on the costume can be found here.