Winter Wonderland

Winter finally came to Western Washington.  Real winter, with snow and power outages and school cancellations.  This week of winter didn't faze us, though.  We were busy . . .

enjoying a bit of summer at Walt Disney World.  The natives might have thought it was January, but it felt like summer to us.

We rode carpets and monorails,

 boats and space ships.

We explored jungles, tree houses, forts . . .

and a haunted house.  Well, some of us did.

D2 went to sleep instead.

D2 dug DinoLand on the only rainy afternoon of the week.

We met a Blue Man,

an Army Man,

Miss Piggy,

and a troll.

Rollo took D2 on a speeder ride.

The way the Caterpillar drove, Scoot could barely hang on.

We hung out with Dandelionslayer's parents,

his brother, and his sister's family.

It was a magical,

technological,

beautiful week.

Crafty Christmas

I always enjoy creating gifts for loved ones, and this Christmas I was not alone.  Dandelionslayer was reminiscing about a soap-carving project of his childhood, and suddenly all the boys wanted to try it.  Here are the results:  a bear, a whale, an ornament, a tree, and a Viking longboat, ready to be sent to unsuspecting cousins.  I scooped up the shavings to sculpt some snowmen for the grandparents.  It was fun!

I wanted to add some cute washcloths to go with the carvings, but I couldn't find anything suitable at a Popular Retailer.  So I bought some plain ones and added cute initials myself.

These pajamas have a similar story.  I wanted to make the Caterpillar some pajamas that were cute, but not cutesy.  He likes owls, which are popular now.  But I could not find any owl-print flannel in manly colors.  So I used red, and made my own owl to add.  Which suits our little night owl just fine.

I crocheted these hats using the Charleston Cloche pattern.  I'm sorry you can't see the texture.  It was a bit tricky at first, but fun once I'd figured it out.

My inspiration for these silhouette ornaments came from this tutorial, though I went about things a little differently.  I entrusted the silhouette drawing to a professional, Kaya, who did a wonderful job.  Don't they look just like the boys? 

With such lovely silhouette files at my disposal, I had to create something else.  I used them to design matching sweatshirts for the boys.  When Dandelionslayer brought the older three to the hospital to meet D2 for the first time, he helped them compose a welcoming song.  The end of that particular tear-jerker was "Four wonder-brothers we shall be."  They may call themselves, or each other, different names, but I still think they're a wonder.  The shirts are, mostly, too large, so they may never wear them together again, but this band of brothers will stick together.  What a great gift they are!