Felted balls everywhere!

Everywhere you look in our house these days, there are tiny colorful felt balls.  On the sofa, on the floor, in the muffin tins, in the fridge.  Happy little wool balls everywhere.


I bought some to make a garland, and perhaps talk myself into tackling this fabulous wreath this year.
I did make some pretty Christmas garlands for the mantels,  but Adelaide fell in love with these delightful little buggers before I made the tree garland.

(See the melon-baller in her hand?)

She puts them in every container she can find, then switches to another container. 

They go in a bowl with some blocks, then get sorted from the blocks.

She makes fuzzy ball soup, fuzzy ball pies, fuzzy ball drinks. 

 (Isn't that the happiest pie you've ever seen?)

(All the while muttering "dots, dots".)

I ordered more for a garland, so she can keep playing with these.  They're so much fun, I don't mind having a whole bunch around. 

My 2 cm felt balls came from this Etsy shop,  since Ornamentea is sold out until, like, June.  You can, of course, also make your own.  I used embroidery floss and a sharp sturdy needle for stringing.  A thimble or needle-nosed pliers could be helpful, too! 

Art Caddy

I have started buying art supplies lately, even though it's still a bit too soon.  (Adelaide eats the tips off the Crayolas like they're breadsticks...).  I am so excited for this part of childhood to start!  So far we've got some crayon rocks and some pretty paper, but I gave an out-loud "AWW" when I came across this art caddy from the Playful Learning store.  Holy moly! Isn't it awesome? And it comes pre-stocked with all that great stuff. What a great idea!

Playful learning has a bunch of other fun things in their shop, and the site itself is a treasure trove of fun ideas.

Living in a pyramid on top of a tower.

Did you see this article about the family that lives in the pyramid on top of the Smith Tower in Seattle?  It's amazing!  What a fun place to grow up. 

Priming the green room

Lest you think I've gone completely Momblog on you, let me assure you that we are, indeed, still working on making the Schmich Schack ship shape. 

For instance, we are finally tackling the other front bedroom, the ugly little sister to our redone guest room turned nursery. It was an "office" for a long time (before the rabbits took over completely) but we never really used it much because, well... I mean look at it:

To be fair, this is a photo snagged from the real estate website waayyy back before we were responsible for this madness.  This is Previous Owner Madness right here.  Though I sympathize with the realtor - it is really hard to get a good photo of this room!  

As you can see, it's mostly the same as when we first moved it, just emptier and dustier.

 

I think it used to be a Thing to paint rooms dark colors like this, but this Spinach color has to go. It's sucking the life right out of this room. 

By the way, eagle eyes will notice that this room, too, has swirly ceilings.   They will be the death of me...

 

Those test paint splotches are funny.  At our housewarming party (back in '07, lordy), my friend Paul made some smartass remark about how "people who have houses" and how testing paints like that is a sure way to jinx your progress and they'd probably be there for years to come.  I told him to shut it at the time, but clearly there was some truth to it.  Touche, friend.

 

So, here we go.  This is one of those projects that is sure to take forever, since I'm mostly squeezing in painting time during Adelaide's weekend naps or when she's watching the Steelers with Ben. But so far I've got the dropcloth taped down, the trim on the windows is done, and one of the walls is primed. Not bad!

PS: Nicole has a great tutorial on painting if you're looking for tips and new tricks. 

Baking with a tiny helper

Making her first pot of tea, standing on a chair, and helping bake... so many firsts on one day! 

This stage of toddlerhood between baby and tantrum-thrower (don't get me wrong, she knows how) is really wonderful - maybe my favorite so far.  Adelaide just wants to learn and experience and get her fingers in everything.  She doesn't want a baby spoon, she wants a real spoon.  We try to accommodate her as often as we can, and in this case that meant accepting the giant flour and egg mess that was made while baking.  It meant a few ice cubes in the teapot.  It meant batter-caked hands...and cheeks...and dress... 

But she's so happy when she's got a task, an important job to do. And I can relate to that.  We can help make that happen, kiddo.