My weekend

I was so productive this weekend. More than I think I've been since I had the baby.


I attacked the mountain of laundry that has been growing in our hallway for a while.  We're just too busy to keep up with it. Now it's all done. It feels so good to have that out of the way.

I also did a deep cleaning of Babygirl's room: put away all the baby clothes she's outgrown, corralled a bunch of cards that had escaped my efforts to put them in her treasure box, along with her christening bib and booties, arranged all the stufties by her bookcase and made sure her library was neat. I have decided she gets a new book for each holiday and there've been enough of those that she is amassing a nice collection.  Valentine's Day brought her "Love, Splat", which she seemed to enjoy.

I also made this recipe! I must confess, I found it through www.pinterestfail.com, which is usually not a good recommendation for a recipe, but I figured it couldn't be that hard . . . and I used store brand Oreos in case it didn't turn out right. But it did. They are yummy. They are rich and indulgent and not that hard to make, and they taste like chocolate cheesecake. My only tip is keep them small, because thof the richness, and use a spoon to dip the almond bark, it's just a lot easier to deal with.

Today I spent the day watching Season 2 of Downton Abbey.  I got through 7 episodes before it was time to do something else.  Babygirl was at daycare--I thought long and hard about whether or not to keep her home, but it's good to have some consistency to her schedule, and I needed time to get other things done, so she went; I know some people may think me a bad mom for doing that, but I have a clean house and a rested spirit for my day, and that makes me a better mom, at least I think.

I finally managed to finish something today. Two things actually. I finished the above pattern, which I started on 1 January 2012. It gives me immense pleasure to have finished it, although it was supposed to have been done by the end of December.

And I started and finished this little guy:

I'm participating in an ornament SAL, and this month's theme was reindeer. I wasn't sure what pattern to pick, but I found this little guy on Pinterest, and he kind of stole my heart. He looks a lot like Beazer, doesn't he? It's from a French site, but I am not sure which one. I need to finish him up, but he was a fun, cute little stitch that took me maybe 3 hours at most.  What do you think? I may redo him on a t-shirt for Babygirl for Christmas next year, but not sure.

I pulled another UFO out, from my Crazy January starts of 2011, and worked on that a little. It felt so good to get time to work on my stitching. I've missed it, I didn't realize how much. I know there isn't a really good alternative right now; the financial issues I spoke of a few months ago are starting to let up, but we won't be out of the woods til at least the end of the year, and what time isn't taken up with trying to earn money is spent trying to make up for the hours I spend trying to earn a living. But I have a plan and I am going to be a stitcher again, soon. And I will appreciate the gift of time more.

One more picture to share. 

She's in love with her "puppy" now, pesters him incessantly. He puts up with her like a champ. I snapped this last week, the first good picture of them together.  My kids!