Spy Kit

Lolly loves to pretend she is a spy. Playing spy involves gathering tiny trinkets into one receptacle and giving them each a purpose.  A slinky can send a message, a notebook has secret spy information in it, etc.

When we were at Brooklyn Charm she fixated on some pendants that were a compass, telescope and magnifying glass.  Her obsession with this helped to solidify an idea I already had forming in my head, which was to surprise her on Christmas morning with a proper spy kit.

Premade, ready-to-buy spy kits would not do, this had to be put together by me.  I turned to amazon and etsy for ideas, and it came together swimmingly.

The best part about it, is that the few days leading up to Christmas, without ANY planting-of-ideas by me, she started fixating on wanting a spy kit, and even came up with the idea of it being in an “attache case” (yes!).  When asked, my husband did NOT know what an attache case was, but I did, and I knew I had already bought her one (double yes!)

When we have Christmas at my Mom’s house, I have everything shipped directly to her.  It is a little risky, and in this case proved such when some of the items I ordered were not quite right.  For example, the attache case was on the small side and flimsy (fail), and the book safe smelled so strongly of mildew that I just could not give that as a gift.  Luckily I have amazon prime, so I quickly ordered a proper attache case and added on the handcuffs that “others bought”.

What is inside a proper spy kit?  A pocketknife made of wood (so that nobody gets hurt), handcuffs, binoculars, telescope, compass, magnifying glass, clear bottle with screw-off lids (for the poison!), a glove with a mustache on the index finger (for a disguise), laser beams (courtesy of my sister who had a few extra), and a spy belt to hold it all in when you are on the go.  That was probably the hardest thing to buy because it is for an adult…but she seemed to love it all the same.

It has been pretty awesome to see my 7 year old carry around a briefcase and slink around the house spying.  It was one of my most favorite gifts of Christmas.  Be on the look out for Agent Evil O, she may be spying on you.

Best Photos of Christmas

I spent our entire school break plus a few days at my Mom’s house this December.  We had such a wonderful time.  I took a bajillion photos, but these are some of my favorites.

I wanted to list some of my favorite parts so that I always remember:

Photobomb Challenge.  We got some good ones.

Accidental matching outfits: Dad and I in buffalo check, Pickle and Mom in Christmas plaid

Lots of plaid. Lots of Christmas Jammies.

Silas discovering the diet coke lights on the kitchen tree a few times–being surprised every time.

Daphne calling Pickle, MAGGIE.  Her little hand motions right by her face when talking to Pickle was repeated over and over again long after she left. D: “Maggie!” me: Her name is Pickle. D: That’s what I said.

Sleep training Pickle-you slept through the night most of the nights.

Eating! Pickle! You learned what eating is all about! It was so fun! Must have been Grammy’s cooking!

Puzzles!

My walker from 1979 for the Pickle

Lots of singing and dancing and gaming

Target with the siblings.

When it was time to take the black coat picture, mom dropped everything and agressively got her black coat and got into position-so funny

Jason and Dad went on two runs each the day they ran together, so funny-so cold!

Dad sitting in his closet since his room was overtaken by grandkids.

The bed being delivered next door!

Introducing the cousins to Animal Jam-sorry Lindsay

Silas’ video. Girls are GROSS!

Mom’s EPIC all-day Christmas Party for the Grands

Finding the red velvet dress my Mom wore in 4th grade and taking Lolly’s picture in it: It’s ITCHY!

Making sugar cookies and cake pops-sweeping the floor multiple times while there-SO MANY SPRINKLES—we needed Chloe (RIP)

Violet passing me a handmade note during church thanking me for her hair and “all the things you have done.”

Mom taking the girls to the church to rehearse their christmas eve number…the girls in excruciating pain trying NOT to sing the song or tell the secret.

Christmas Eve: Trolley Ride was so cozy and epic, that homeowner and her hair, Santaballs made by Linz, the deelicious meal, really good crackers this year, Grammy & the Grammyettes, Daphne singing her little heart out, That VIDEO, Silas as Joseph in the Nativity pageant.  Having all hands on deck to help set up Santa.

Christmas Morning: Unicorn horn, Macbook Air, Spy Kit, Squinkies! T shirts for J: Shut up Legs and 26.2er and FREE Mr. BATES, footsie pj’s, love surprises.

Dad Calling Squinkies, Skankies. A very Skanky Christmas to you all.

Sam: “Another TREE PRESENT!” (he was astonished about the number of BIG GIFTS wrapped under the tree (razor, wii, monitor, kindle etc.), and not from Santa

Courtney crying at her California necklace

Mom and Dad surprising us with their monogrammed GRAMMY and PAPA pj’s.

Handcuffing Mom so she couldn’t do the dishes.

Seeing Les Miz with my honey since his flight was cancelled.

Watching Sam play Password with Lolly as his partner.  Playing games with her and Mom and Dad later when Phoebz went with the big kids to the mall.

Playing I doubt it with a big group–crazy different then one on one with Lolly.

Taking the train downtown to the American Girl Place. Rocking my city skeelz, jumping the queue to get a giant van for all 9 of us (we squished). Seeing coworkers I worked with 15 years ago! Yikes! still there!  Finding another van cab and an awesome Nigerian Mama Cab driver for the way back.

Going back and forth on whether or not to wake up early and go to the yarn sale. Getting the sistahs to go for it. We woke up at crazy early 6ish and had such a fun time adventuring the dark. We shopped forEVER and got some great finds. So glad we sacrificed sleep!

Seeing old college friends and THEIR baby girls.  Going to dinner with old HIGH SCHOOL girlfriends and catching up on their lives.  Time–it’s a crazy thing!

Shooting a music video with Sam, Coco, Jenn and Alex.  It was fun getting dressed up in the dresses Mom has saved for just such a purpose and doing makeup.  Good memories.

New Years Eve: Heading to the North Side to go to Ann Sather, Brimfield (this store is a picture every place you look), Dad’s first cousin twice removed’s statue of Lincoln, The Boring Store, Rudy’s Roundup, Lomography, & transit tees (I wanted this one, I totally should have gotten it.)

Playing cranium that night.  Winning. Gandhi! Gravity!

Watching the ball drop with my girls for the first time.

Knitting lessons with Jenn and Coco.

Fake praying just to see Pickle jump when we all said AMEN at the same time.

Ups and Downs and worries and concerns and loves and feelings and wanting everyone to feel joy and be happy and caring and cuddling and hugging and reading scriptures and praying and dancing and singing and gifting and being.

Christmas with my Family of 5!!!

The girls are wearing pjs that I made for them, and Phoebz has on her earmuffs from Santa. Jason has his FREE MR. BATES tee on that my Mom gave him for Christmas. I have my AWESOME puffy pindot vest on that my parents gave me for Christmas.

Best. Christmas. Ever.

One reason it was, is because these 3 made this video. Which, you MUST watch RIGHT NOW. SO jealous I am not in it.

Epic.

Awesome.

My Bro, his wife and my Sis.

12 Days of Christmas: I Know that My Redeemer Lives

Last Sunday I was standing in church (No, Pickle doesn’t like sitting-can you imagine?) We started to sing the closing hymn: I Know that My Redeemer Lives and I couldn’t make it through.  I sang through my tears but wept with gratitude for the knowledge I have that He Lives.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, he lives, who once was dead.
He lives, my ever-living Head.

He lives to bless me with his love.
He lives to plead for me above.
He lives my hungry soul to feed.
He lives to bless in time of need.

He lives to grant me rich supply.
He lives to guide me with eye.
He lives to comfort me when faint.
He lives to hear my soul’s complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.
He lives to wipe away my tears.
He lives to calm my troubled Heart.
He lives all blessings to Impart.

He lives, my kind, wise heav’nly friend.
He lives and love me to the end
He lives, and while he lives, I’ll sing.
He lives, my Prophet, my Priest and King.

He lives and grants me daily breath.
He lives, and I shall conpuer death.
He lives my mansion to prepare.
He lives to bring me safely there.

He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives”

He lives! All glory to his name!
He lives, my savior, still the same.
Oh, sweet the joy this sentence gives:
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives”

And I know that he was born and that is what we will celebrate tomorrow.

Adoration of the Shepherds” by Gerard van Honthorst,

12 Days of Christmas: Christmas Card

 

I can’t remember when I came up with it, but I think it was this summer because Carrie was around, and when I said: I’m GOING to YARNBOMB my FAMILY…she insisted I ONLY Yarnbomb them from the shoulders up.

She was right and I bombed them.  It was so fun to pick out a few new yarns and to work on each mask for each person.  I didn’t really have a plan, I just created as I went, and I think they turned out so terrific!

I knew I wanted a behind-the-scenes video of the making of the Christmas card, but it then morphed into a “music video” after one Sunday afternoon while the Pickle was sleeping I said to the girls: Let’s WRITE a SONG!  I stole the QR code idea from Carrie’s business cards to share the video link– and my multi-media Christmas card was born!

I wanted to take it ONE step further and add a perforation so that the recipients could tear it in half to have 2 bookmarks, but my printer’s strongly advised me against it.

When Jason saw the card he thought we looked like terrorists, and the use of the word BOMB would send the wrong message, so I ran it by a few strangers and after some discussion added “Confused? http://www.yarnbombing.com”; to the back. I think that will help.

In case you are confused, I got this from Yarn Bombing Los Angeles:

“What is yarn bombing?

“Yarn bombing is a relatively recent form of street art that employs colorful displays of knits or crochet and other fiber material instead of paint in public space.

“Some engage in yarn bombing as a fun and creative way to use up left over yarn, others consider it an urban intervention to personalize otherwise cold and impersonal spaces or to make socio- political statements. Humor is often a major component of yarn bombing, which by its nature embodies contradictory idiosyncrasies within itself.

“In its seemingly odd juxtaposition of knitting and graffiti, often associated with opposing concepts such as female, granny, indoors, domestic, wholesome and soft vs. male, enfant terrible, outdoors, public, underground and edgy, the practice of yarn bombing  redefines both genres. Yarn bombing transforms knitting from a domestic endeavor to public art, recontextualizing both knitting and graffiti, both of which are marginalized creative endeavors that fall outside ‘high art.’

“Like all public art, be it  sanctioned commissions or self-initiated, unauthorized formats, yarn bombing imposes a particular aesthetic onto an environment that may be appreciated by some, but may not appeal to everyone. Yet, yarn bombing is necessarily ephemeral due to its use of materials and perhaps the most environmentally friendly graffiti because it can easily be removed with a pair of scissors and no damage left behind.”

As always, many thanks to my shopper extraordinaire Ms. Lynch.

And if you don’t have a barcode reader and want to see our music video, click here.

 

12 Days of Christmas: Dresses

I love shopstyle.com  You can search for that thing you are looking for that only lies in your imagination.  I had Lolly and Pickle’s dresses and needed one for Phoebz.  I found the one on the right! It was age appropriate, tied the looks together and was CHEAP!

I thought gold accents would be fun this year, so I found some.  The other day we were at the Gap and Phoebe spied a giant bow headband for Pickle.  I don’t usually do bows or headbands, but we both thought this was a must.  After all, she is my present this year.Pickle’s tights have little tiny gold bows on them. I die.

 

Handmade Christmas: Jingle Bell Jog Hat

Today we are “running” the 4 Mile Jingle Bell Jog.  It wouldn’t be the JBJ without our Pickle and she had to be appropriately dressed, so I made her a special Jingle Bell Jog hat.
I used this pattern and Lion Brand’s Martha Glitter Eyelash in garnet and crystal.  Pix on the Jog later….

Handmade Christmas: Garland

Anthropologie always sells felted garland for a bananas amount of money.  I scored some on deep discount at West Elm a few years ago, but I still wanted to make my own.

We started this project in August of 2011 when we quarentined ourselves for a lice-killing afternoon.  It was a great project to pass the time.  I followed advice from 3 different tutorials:

Martha

Hoboken

Purl

The actual making of the balls part is a little labor-intensive. As I was stringing, I’d say only about 5 seemed truly, awesomely felted.  But, the look still works!  This year we decorated a tiny 4-footer with craftyish ornaments….it was fun and it looks cute.

Handmade Christmas: PJ’s

Last summer I found 4 yards of this candy cane stripe fabric at a yarn store in IL for like 5 bucks. I was immediately inspired to make Christmas Jammies for my girls.  I wanted to make gowns, but it was only enough to make pants.  I used a pattern for the bigs and made up my own (with Carrie’s help, duh) for the mini.

I then embellished long-sleeved tee’s I got on old navy for around $2-, but still couldn’t find a tee for pickle.  When Lolly ripped her pair of red cozy pants, I decided to make one!  WHAT?

I used this tutorial from MADE and the t shirt from Courtney’s homecoming (torn apart…sorry everyone who might be mad at that) to make a pattern.  This tee looks so intimidating because of the overlapping flaps-but it’s seriously so easy!  When I started lining up my pattern I realized that the pants had stripes, so I centered them on the front, back and sleeves and used the waistband for my cuffs so that I didn’t have to hem any part of it!

I haven’t finished adding the trim and buttons to the pintucked(!) bib, but here it is!

The Bigs’ are all finished.  See below:

When I was growing up, the tradition was to open Christmas PJ’s on Christmas Eve.  Now that I am the Mom, I have decided getting Christmas PJ’s right after Thanksgiving is the thing to do, so that we can enjoy them the entire month!  I finished them in the NICK of time.