something like this

It might not have made the top of the news hour for all of you, but the Silver Bandits played their final games of the year on Saturday. They did really well, making it all the way to the championship game before coming in second in their most injury-prone game of the season. I know at least three girls hobbled off the field crying, and we lost count of the times we all cringed on the sidelines, saying, “That’s gotta hurt.” Honey ended up being one of the wounded after she tripped over a defender’s foot and then the same foot happened to kick her in the chest. Oops.

Sometimes getting hurt can be such a shock. She was astounded that it hurt so much and that she just couldn’t seem to catch her breath. I was talking to my friend Denise afterwards and she was telling me that she still remembers the first time she got the wind knocked out of her. She said she was playing with her brothers in the basement when it happened, and when she panicked, “I can’t breathe!” her brother just said, “Oh, you just got the wind knocked out of you.” She said, “The WHAT?!?!” with this tone of voice that said, “You knew about this? This happens to people?!?!” It’s absolutely appalling.

And what was Hot Wheels doing during all this drama and commotion? He was curled up in a blanket right alongside the field, fast asleep. People were walking and yelling all around him and he was completely conked out. 

The team was a bit disappointed to lose in the final game, but they had a terrific season. They treated each other with such kindness, too. Any time one of their players got hurt or was having trouble, her teammates would all check in to make sure she was ok. The coaches were a perfect blend of challenge and encouragement and the players all improved individually and as a unit. Plus there was a party on Saturday night at Denise’s house. What more could a team ask?

Well there had to be a thank you for the coaches, of course. A great excuse to make some nice big cookies.

The best part about this recipe is that although it seems to involve surprising amounts of ingredients, it’s really a double batch. So there was plenty left over to roll up and freeze for a rainy day.

At the end, we just put the cookies in bags with a note for each coach. Done.

Last month at the Alameda flea market I came up with a couple of finds. One of them was an old grocery store sign that I put up on our daughter’s bedroom door.

Now everybody knows which room is hers. Just in case you couldn’t tell from the bright pink bathrobe and curtains.

Honey came home the other day and said, “Good news, Mummie! Mr. Frierson would be delighted to come to dinner!”

Right! Fortunately I know who Mr. Frierson is. He’s one of the two terrific PE teachers at the elementary school. When I called him to confirm, I asked if he had any food preferences, and he told me, “Oh just ask your daughter – we went over that at school. She said we’d be having a soup with pasta and chicken… it sounded great to me.” Now if only I could get her to organize Thanksgiving, we’d be in business!

On a different tangent, as I was working on the snowflake fairy dress tonight (just have to hem it now!) I listened to some podcasts from The Moth. If you haven’t come across it yet, The Moth is a storytelling organization in New York. “True stories told onstage without notes” is what they say, and boy do the storytellers deliver. Some of the stories I’ve heard have knocked my socks off. 

One of my hands-down favorites that I heard tonight was a story told by Matthew McGough, titled ‘My First Day with the Yankees.’ I’m making a promise here; even my die-hard, Red Sox-devoted relatives would love this story. I didn’t find the track on their site, but it’s on iTunes. (Turns out he’s written a book, too.) If you’re ever working late on a project I’d recommend it highly. I feel like my kids – just one more story!!

A couple of paper posies for some great friends. One was a little more arty and recycled, the other was pink crepe.

As I was making the crepe paper roses I first thought Boy! These are fun and easy to make! Who knew? 

Then I thought – I know who knew… every person who’s decorated a Fourth of July float, that’s who! These things have to be as old as the hills. It was like ‘discovering’ granny squares.

There are certain catalogs that I just can’t bear to throw away because of the imagery and paper quality. We have a whole collection of stock photo company catalogs that I mine for images when I make cards and luggage tags, and I keep stacks of magazines that use nice heavy paper and great photography. So I’m always thinking about projects for my growing paper collection.

Friday was my lovely friend Satyam’s birthday, and seeing as she’s arty and environmentally focused, I figured a recycled paper bouquet might be right up her alley. It would have been better if I’d had a bit more time to dedicate to it, but I did like how some of the flowers turned out. I think with some effort these could even be wedding bouquets. My daughter got into the game with me and made one of the flowers for the bouquet – we had a great time working together.

In typical fashion, I finished them up just as I was heading out the door, so I just took a couple hasty shots of dubious quality. I do like the contrasting colors and patterns. The big lilly uses a photo of a pink and orange polka-dotted comforter as well as an interior shot of an office space filled with cubicles. I like how they’re nicely abstracted once you cut them up.

Right now my method is a little laborious – I’d love to know how designers at stores like Anthropologie take ideas like this and figure out how to roll them out in quantity. 

We made gingersnaps yesterday, and frankly they were a little melodramatic.

You should have seen the list of demands – the organic sugar, the extra dark molasses, the stark lighting – and they pitched a fit when we didn’t have the right stylist for them. (It was just me, and they were so totally not impressed.)

But even with all their attitude, somehow I couldn’t bring myself to tell them that they really just looked like munchkins.

Saturday night we went to an old-school kegger that was actually a fundraiser for HotWheel’s preschool. The idea came from an elementary school here in town that throws one each year as their fall fundraiser. Everyone wears a college sweatshirt and it’s some serious fun, particularly for people like me who went to art school and skipped that whole part of the college experience. Some of these people know (or at least remember!) how to party. 

This year I was smart and skipped the speed quarters (so out of my league) but I was on a winning boat race team. I thought we didn’t stand a chance, seeing as there were three teams – East Coast, Midwest and West Coast. Midwest?! These are Michigan people and I was sure it would be a rout. But noooooo, East Coast all the way, baby. In retrospect, I realize we won because we were started and anchored by BC alums.

The best part of the night is the dancing, though. It was great – and now we’re all suffering from disco neck, as our friends Amy and Andy put it. Fortunately Sunday was freezing and foggy here, so it was a great excuse to stay in and be cozy and recuperate.

I’m making a child/doll pajama set for a friend of ours who is in the hospital, and I’m hoping to finish them up this week.

How can it possibly be the last week before school starts again?! It’s wrong on so many levels. We’re going to make the most of it, though and play like mad. My kids already have the Monopoly board set up on the dining room table, so I’d better get a move on. My daughter is turning into quite the real estate magnate – I’ve got keep my eye on that girl.

Well it’s been a busy week. We finished up the painting in the garden room, and all the furniture was replanted with a few edits. Here’s her new desk area – I found an old bulletin board in the garage and painted it with her room paints. Ditto with the little drawers from IKEA – just painted and sanded down. Woohoo that was original! But it blends in nicely.

Amazing what a few new curtains will do to perk up a place, too -

I have to say, though, that hemming those sheer curtains nearly did me in (the pink ones, not the white ones). Maybe some of my sewing friends could steer me in the right direction when it comes to that kind of challenge. It doesn’t help that I’ve never been a big fan of the preparation chapter of any big project – pre-washing, swatches, priming, masking, stretching, measuring – even primaries. Time and many lessons in wasted material have forced me into more of a ‘measure twice cut once’ approach, but I’m never happy about it. I didn’t really have time for lots of mistakes with these curtains, so I measured carefully from the bottoms, marked them with pins and cut them on a lined mat with a good metal ruler and my rotary cutter. And they still weren’t straight. Doh!

Thankfully we have a rug in our art room with lines on it, so I stretched the curtains out on the floor and pinned them right to the rug and started over. That was more successful – but what do you do if you don’t have the room or the rug? I suppose I would have had better luck with a marking crayon instead of pins. 

I have so much admiration for people who can deal with very different materials when they’re sewing – those sheer or slippery ones that always seem to cut strangely or get sucked into the foot of the machine as you go. All my sewing experience is trial and error, so I still have a great deal to learn.

And here’s the bureau – my parents came in at the end of the week, and Mum thinks that the pirate boat really completes the look!

I’m sitting at the kitchen table, writing this post with my beautiful neighbor, who is 9. We’re going to tell you about the transformation of my daughter’s bedroom, which is being turned into a garden room this week. The first step was to pick a new color. Ten years ago, when my husband and I bought our home, we painted this particular room a cheery yellow. Now it is leafish, as my neighbor says. 

 Here’s the masking and early cutting-in…

As always, the prep work takes WAY too much time. But we had fun – two solid days of prep and painting, and we had a lovely new green room. Then we thought it would be pretty to paint some leafy shadows on the wall. A little hard to capture with the camera, but here are some attempts:

My friend says that with a little bit of work, it’s getting prettier! She thinks that “transforming it into a beautiful garden room is a great idea,” and that “it does work.” Hooray!

More updates to come… 

Despite having a veritable valentine production agency in our house for the past week – we made over 50 of them between our families, schools and teachers – do you think I have a photo to share? Nope. Someone should fire the production line manager. Oh wait – that’s me. Hm.

So for want of any nice hearts and flowers to share, I thought I’d post a little lego love. 

We’ve been the extremely lucky recipients of a wide assortment of lego – from gift kits to yard sale finds and hand-me-downs. So much so that we have one of those storage ottomans filled with the best collection of lego bits – any random handful can bring up a bunch of standard blocks, plus a fuselage, a window, an astronaut, a knight’s shield, three kinds of wheels and that little grey piece of undetermined lineage. Hours of entertainment.

We had some young friends over on Tuesday, and we decided that as it was Mardi Gras, it would be very wise of us to make some masks. 

Here they are:

Looks like that last mask spilled its wine all over the table before the photo shoot, doesn’t it? You’ve got to keep a close eye on those Mardi Gras masks. They’re party animals.

Everyone had a wonderful time putting these together. They had an even better time when I told them we were having pancakes for dinner!