Posts with the tag 'projects'
I like handmade gifts. This week I made two. For my brother Michael I made this cross stitch (from this book). It ended up being a little too small for the frame, but whatever. You can see her website here, but keep in mind that the majority of her designs are full of swears. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Bryan is already busy coming up with phrases he wants me to cross stitch for him to put on his desk (of course with no swears!).
I also made this funny little pocketed creature for my niece Maddie. I have made a few, & I think I may sell them this year @ Gallery Stroll. They are really fun to make.
Tags: birthdays, Hansens, photos, projects, sewing
June 13th, 2010
Parent-teacher conference @ Rees’ school is different than I remember. Not only do they go over his performance & behavior, but they require each student to set a goal to achieve within the next several months. Rees is ahead of the class in reading & math (pretty cool since he’s in a gifted program anyway), so his teacher suggested he do some type of report for the class.
He immediately decided to do an experiment he has seen (many times) on “season two, episode five” (his words) of Blue’s Clues. I didn’t know anything about this show until Bryan read about it in a book recently. When it showed up on Netflix as instantly watchable, we put it in our queue on the Roku, & Rees became a huge fan.
He & Bryan built the cyclone out of two large plastic soda bottles & presented it to Rees’ class. He explains it like this – “The water wants to go down, & the air wants to go up. Without a cyclone, it is like the water & air are taking turns going through one door. With a cyclone, it is like opening another door, so the air & water can each go their way at the same time.”
We REALLY need to make a video of him demonstrating it.
Tags: kids, photos, projects, Rees
November 11th, 2009
I made this quilt for my friend Wendy’s new baby Ellery. I wrote more about it here.
Tags: gifts, photos, projects, sewing
March 15th, 2009
Below are some pictures of Rees getting his Valentimes ready for preschool. They held their party on Feb 12, since they don’t have school on Fridays. Also, a picture of the cookies we made & took to Bryan & his coworkers on Friday.
Bryan & I don’t do much for this “holiday”. I don’t really like the commercialization of it, you know? Like stores & businesses who try to make you feel like you’re a bad person if you don’t spend a lot of money on a gift or expensive date. I gave Bryan the usual – a pair of cotton jammie pants with a silly love-themed print (a tradition started when we were dating). He gave me lots of flowers & a big bag of Mike & Ike. Perfect.
Bonus points of you can spot the cranky toddler in the background (on the naughty mat).
Tags: food, holidays, James, photos, projects, Rees
February 14th, 2009
Fun day today – we ran errands, got lunch, visited Bry @ work for a few minutes, & went to the aquarium. Then Rees went to a birthday party where they went sledding. We went to Bryan’s parents’ house for dinner & play.
Yesterday Rees & I made a present for his birthday friend. You can read about the making of the cute, no-name monster toy here. He loved it & carried it around for hours, so I was a little worried that he wouldn’t give it up. I told him I would make him one too, so he seemed okay with it.
Today, he helped put it in a box & wrap it up. When it was all wrapped, he announced that he needed to “put a note on it that says ‘to Will, from Rees’”. Then he wrote on the present all by himself, without asking for help.
Tags: photos, projects, Rees
February 6th, 2009
Bryan hauled me out into the yard early this morning to show me what he was doing last night while I was at work. The pergola is done! It looks great, too. Next we will make the pergola floor from flagstone. Woo-hoo!
Tags: Bryan, gardening, projects
July 15th, 2008
Rees played well in soccer today. He is not really kicking the ball, but he runs with the other kids and at least pays attention to where the ball is. Except during the second half, when he spent most of the time wrestling and playing “ring around the rosy” with his teammates. Rees was in charge of snacks and brought juice, pretzels, and grapes.
In the evening Jeff, Cashell, Liam, Kegan, and Quinn came over to play. Cashell brought these really good baked spinach-phyllo appetizers. The filling was spinach, some kind of cheese, garlic, and probably something else wrapped into triangles of phyllo. Really good. Bryan made his excellent Superior Hamburgers. He asked me to get some ciabatta rolls when I went to Harmon’s this morning, and when I couldn’t find any, I was concerned that divorce papers might be drawn up when I got home. However, I managed to locate the last four ciabatta rolls they had. Phew.
The five boys (ages four and under) had so much fun getting filthy in the dirt piles out back and playing on the swings and hammock. What will the kids do for entertainment when the dirt piles are gone? And speaking of dirt gone, we’ve decided to fill in the area under the apple tree with “Sof’Fall” playground wood chips and move the toy box and bikes over there. It will be a nice little area and will keep us more organized. Perhaps we’ll tackle that next weekend…
After the kids were hosed down and in bed, we watched Charlie Wilson’s War. I liked what I saw of it. I fell asleep about halfway through.
Tags: food, friends, movies, projects, soccer
July 12th, 2008
This morning Bryan got up early and picked up the rest of the wood he needs to finish the pergola. He also bought a new hammock. Our old hammock made of recycled t-shirts (purchased in Tijuana) finally bit the dust after too much abuse from the neighborhood rugrats.
Afterward we all went swimming at Murray Pool. It was nice to be there with another adult. The two kids have much different swimming preferences. Rees likes to go down the slide a lot and jump into the deep pool, which requires someone to catch him (he wears a life jacket but doesn’t swim yet). Jamie, on the other hand, prefers to stay in the very shallow water where he can just splash around. He gets cranky being held too much in deep water.
Bryan worked on the pergola the rest of the day and hung his new hammock. He teased me about the fact that I could now take naps in the hammock all afternoon (because that’s what he thinks I do while he’s at work – sleep). I then promptly fell asleep in the hammock and he made dinner for everyone. Ha-ha.
Tags: Bryan, gardening, James, projects, Rees, swimming
July 11th, 2008
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