Lucy’s Crafty Thoughts

The latest batch of fresh produce we brought into the house brought some unwanted house guests. Fruit flies. Driving. Me. Nuts! After some googling and a few prototype death traps, I’ve developed a super death trap for these annoying insects. A jar with some red wine vinegar; topped with a cone made out of white paper and tape, topped with plastic wrap cinched with a rubberband and two small holes poked in the top. Guess how many I caught in 24 hours? 20 dead and a few more swarming inside. Can you believe that? And we thought there were like 4 flying around our kitchen. YUCK! Here is the death trap I declared war with:

I also finished knitting a sweater for Little Man to wear this fall using this pattern (I think I should have adjusted the decreases at the shoulder - its a bit tight):

Little Man amazed me once again today. I’ve been saying to DH for the last couple weeks that I have no idea what LM means when he says “Dee Doo”. Well, this morning I figured it out. Its “Thank You”! He wanted me to get him his Jungle Book book and said “peas” (please). I got it and brought it back to the table where he was eating his breakfast and he said “Dee Doo”. The light went off and I said “Thank you?”…”yesh. Dee Doo”. Then after breakfast we were playing and I said “Do you want to put this toy in your car?” He replied with “Yesh” and walked over, took it from me, and said “Dee Doo.”  Melt my heart!!

OK. So shortly after moving to Seattle I got a $100 Simon Mall Giftcard from work. I forget why. I think I was on a team that got a kudos or something. Anyway, in Austin, there are lots of Simon malls to choose from. Not so much in Seattle. So it has sat un-used since December 2006. I pulled it out again for some reason and went to check the balance. Its now worth $77.50 ($2.50 monthly fee taken out for not being used - awesome, eh?). So I went to their website to read more about it and was just about to send to Stepho in Austin to go shopping for me. When… DUH. It says it can be used anywhere a Visa Debit card is accepted. Like any store, not just at a Simon Mall. ARGH! If only I’d bothered to read about the card before dismissing it. So now I get to spend $77.50 somewhere - hoorah!

Also, I love kitchen shears. We use them to open packages of meat, bags of frozen veggies, etc. And every now and then we remember that they can be used for so much more. Like cutting a cheese and turkey quesadilla into toddler-bite-size pieces. Fabulous!

This is pretty slick - I pointed it to some images, picked out a song, it did the rest for me! (It’s a 30 second video clip of, who else, Little Man)

Our routine is that DH takes Little Man to daycare each morning. There is lots of waving and kisses being blown as I stand in the doorway to the garage. LM knows how to say “mommy” and “daddy”. But he says it for more than just us. He points at our cars and says it. He points at wheels and says it. This morning as LM is pointing at DH’s car and saying “Dah-dee”, DH responds with:

“There’s a difference between Daddy and Daddy’s car. Namely, I’m not a car.”

This weekend, DH pointed out that we officially are Seattlites now. We drove to Trader Joes in our Prius to buy some mostly-organic groceries taking our re-usable grocery bags in with us.

Back in 2004, while at home for a visit, I rummaged from my mom’s house a ball of yarn (no label - seems like it might be wool and/or acrylic) and some needles. I decided I was going to learn how to knit again. Found some info online - enough to cast on and refresh my memory. Then I found a pattern online and decided to knit a scarf. Once I realized I had this knitting thing down, I abandoned the ugly green scarf for cooler and more exciting projects (early signs of my Startitis). Anyway, in digging through the box ‘o yarn, I came across this forgotten scarf and decided to knit until I ran out of yarn. Didn’t take too long, and I threw it in the toy box for “play clothes” for Little Man.

ETA (edited to add): I just upgraded my WordPress installation, so hopefully I didn’t break anything here. If you find something broken, let me know I got my nerd code fix in.

Hung Over Little Man:

Just Kidding “You would NOT believe the day I’ve had”

I had so much fun at school today… I’m so tired… but I insisted on a snack… strawberries are my new favorite thing…”

“Zzzzz….”

This morning I decided to go across the street to the ‘bucks and get some coffee. In the mornings they sort of go down the line to start your drink before you actually get to the counter. I just wanted some drip, so I’m standing in line with my travel mug full of coffee waiting until I get to the front to pay. I’m eying the coffee cake as I get closer. OK, I’m at the front now and she starts to ring me up and I’m about to say “and I’d like a piece of the coffee cake” when this arm comes from behind me reaching to the cashier and says “I’ve got hers and I’m having a something-or-other.” Um… I’m speechless and confused. I turn around and the man says it again and smiles. I think I turned back to the cashier and turned around again a few times looking totally confused - I checked my hand to make sure I had my wedding ring on. Then, sensing my confusion, he says “Its just a Tuesday thing I do.” Alrighty then! I said “Thank You very much and have a great day!” And as I walked away I was totally cafuffled and feeling bad that I’m a little annoyed I didn’t get to order my coffee cake and wondered if he would have paid for that too? And “nice” comes off as “weird” when people don’t expect it. Like when you have an infant and someone holds the door for you - it is nice, but not unexpected, ya know?

Mother’s day is my new favorite holiday I got to sleep in, and when i came downstairs, Little Man had made me some coffee and had the following waiting for me on the table:

He had even signed the card himself and was eager to show me his scribbles:

Also, our joint Mother’s/Father’s day gift was finished in time:

It is an oil pastel drawing done by the husband (Zane Mills) of one of the mom’s in my Moms Group. Several of us in the group have commissioned him to do portrait drawings and I just LOVE how it turned out! Here was the original photo we gave him (LM was 11 mos old in this photo and has since gotten a haircut, but this is one of my favorite pictures of him so its what I picked for the drawing):