28
Oct, 2011

my first flannel friday: mrs. mcmurphy’s pumpkin

a few months ago, one of the librarian bloggers that i follow began a series she called “flannel friday” where she’d post a different flannelboard story each friday.  this caught on quickly and there’s now a wonderful weekly following, a pinterest page and it’s quickly becoming an excellent resource for children’s librarians.  i have a few favorite flannelboard sets that i’ve created recently, so i thought i’d jump on the bandwagon and ride along for a few weeks (possibly not all consecutive weeks, but bear with me).

just in time for halloween, i thought i’d start with my absolute favorite halloween book, mrs. mcmurphy’s pumpkin by rick walton.  i love it because if you’ve got older kids in the audience you can really play up the spooky part and make it rather chilling but if you’ve got a younger crowd you can play up the laughs and read it in a more lighthearted voice and no one gets scared.  plus, it’s got a funny ending.  aaaaaand, it lends itself rather handily to being made into a quick-to-make flannel story.

for my flannel version of this story, i cut out a simple pumpkin shape from orange felt (added a green felt stem) and then cut out all of the face parts in black or orange felt and you add them one “day” at a time as the story continues.

at the end of the story, your pumpkin looks something like this: 

but if you want him to look less scary, just flip the eyes around so that the slant goes the other direction (like in the photo above before i put the eyes on the pumpkin).  the mouth was a little tricky to figure out because the story hinges on the pumpkin not having “teeth” until the last day, but he has a “wicked, wicked grin” on day one.  i’m pretty happy with the grin i finally came up with.

i hope you’ve enjoyed my first flannel friday contribution.  i’d love to hear your experiences if you decide to use this story!  (and for those of you faithful readers who are not children’s librarians, i promise we’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming here on happy stuff for the rest of the week)

Posted in flannel friday, library stuff | 3 Comments
20
Oct, 2011

the scooty bike is fun

Posted in baby stuff, video | 1 Comment
20
Oct, 2011

i found another one!

i finished this one a few weeks ago when my parents were visiting.  can i still count it for kcwc?

before:

after:

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | 2 Comments
18
Oct, 2011

missed kcwc again!

how is it that i always seem to catch the last day of kids clothing week challenge?  that’s it.  i’m going to have to give in and subscribe to elsie marley’s blog at the risk of being too inspired and of my want-to-do list growing exponentially.  sigh.  oddly enough, i actually did sew a piece of clothing last week and i even took pictures of it, i just hadn’t had a chance to post about it yet, so…. better late than never, i say!

i cut a pair of pants out a few weeks ago and this sunday morning i just couldn’t stand not to see them put together any longer, so i dragged my sewing machine down to the dining room (much to mr. happy stuff’s chagrin) so that the happy toddler could play nearby without me worrying about him pulling a hot iron onto his head or jabbing his hand into my pile of pins and in a very short amount of time, i sewed up these awesome pants:

once again, i’ve failed to take a “before” picture, but these were once a pair of hip, funky old navy shorts that i found at my local clothing-by-the-pound thrift outlet.  i liked them so much that i even tried wearing them myself for a day, but in the end, i decided they’d be cuter on my boy, so snip, snip, chop, chop and here ya go.

they are fully lined with a very soft t-shirt (from the same store) that once advertised for a cyclocross event.  i love that the pants are long enough to have the cuffs rolled up because that means he’ll be able to wear them for (hopefully) the whole winter before outgrowing them.  the lining makes them both soft and warm (but makes for a somewhat bulky waistline, not a big deal for a baby).

i used the big butt baby pants pattern again (love that pattern!  will be sad when he’s too big to wear them anymore!) and used rae’s lined pants tutorial.  the happy toddler wore them for a lovely walk in the woods later that day and had no chilly knees.

 

Posted in autumn, baby stuff, crafty stuff | 1 Comment
12
Oct, 2011

expanding my filmmaking focus

a few months ago, a dear friend of mine who had seen all of the videos i’d made of my son asked me if i might be willing to come to her house (she lives a few states over) and make a video of her son.  she had a specific project in mind and i was inspired, so last month i took my first extended baby-free trip since little dude arrived in our lives (3 nights, 4 days!) and flew out to visit her and try my hand at recording someone else’s kid.  when i got home, i began the editing process and after a few back-and-forths and input from some other people and a miraculous donation of soundtrack permissions (after a bit of a runaround from an online music jobber, i just contacted the musician directly, explained the project and he happily agreed to allow us unlimited use of his song), here it is for your enjoyment:

a little bit about liam from Anna Monaghan on Vimeo.

for more details, click here.

p.s. i had a wonderful visit with my friend and both the happy baby and mr. happy stuff survived my absence just fine.

Posted in video | 3 Comments
10
Oct, 2011

lucky find!

i don’t frequently blog about stuff that i’ve bought because i don’t want to ever get caught up in “money makes you happy” sort of ruts, but today’s purchase is much less about spending money and much more about being extremely lucky.  i saw this exact same shirt on a kid in my toddler time about a year ago.  i couldn’t stop looking at it because i thought it was so very, very cute!  after class, i asked his mom where the shirt was from and she said “mini boden” and i went home and googled it and then sighed because a) mini boden is *ahem* a bit pricey and b) the shirt must have been at least one season old because it wasn’t currently available and i didn’t like the current designs quite as much as that stinkin’ cute fox.

ever since then, occasionally, i’ll go on to e-bay and peruse the listings there in the vain hope that i might find that shirt and that it won’t be already bid up sky-high and that it will be in my kid’s size range.  or at least not too small.  so imagine how i felt today when quickly flicking through the racks at my favorite thrift shop while trying to keep an eye on my kid who was riding a scooty tricycle thing around the store and what did i see?  t.h.e. s.h.i.r.t!!!!!!  the very one i’d been looking for!  in the right size!  and for $2.99 (plus 25% off because it’s monday).  i literally gasped, put my hand to my mouth and grabbed the hanger off the rack.  i felt a little light-headed and couldn’t believe my eyes.  i mean, seriously.  what are the odds?  squeeeee!  i’m still so excited that i had to share this story with someone before i’ve even had a chance to get a picture of the boy wearing it.  i’m sure it will show up in a video here sometime…

Posted in baby stuff | 5 Comments
05
Oct, 2011

another video! (this one’s for the die-hard fans)

Posted in baby stuff, video | 1 Comment
04
Oct, 2011

may the force be with you. and bring you a glass of milk, perhaps.

on monday, i was inspired by a friend to try my hand at making graham crackers using the same recipe she’d used.  the happy baby enjoyed helping me (to a point. then he just ate the dough which conveniently, has no eggs, so other than a sugar rush and setting a bad precedent… eh, go ahead dude, eat up.) and experimented with smooshing the dough around and jamming the cookie cutters into the dough, over and over again in not-quite-the-same-spot (not an effective cookie-shaping technique, i’ll add, but good practice and no harm done).  i also decided to finally try out the christmas present i’d gotten for mr. happy stuff last year–star wars cookie cutters!  they’re the great kind with the plunger button that you press down to add imprinted detail on the face of the cookie so it’s not just a silhouette.  they worked surprisingly well and the happy baby got to help push the button down.

the first sheet of graham crackers turned out much more like cookies (soft and chewy), but at least part of the second sheet were closer to crackers (crisp and crunchy).  i think this was because i rolled the second sheet thinner and i also refrigerated the dough for a little while while waiting for the boy to go down for a nap.  they were totally easy to make, but if i do it again, i might try this recipe instead just for comparison’s sake.  i’ll let you know if i ever get around to that & how they turn out.

Posted in autumn, yum | 2 Comments
03
Oct, 2011

apparently september is a really difficult month for me to blog

this weekend, i finally finished the mini-dude.  i got this idea stuck in my head that my boy needs a boy doll made by his mama, so after some experimentation, here’s the final product:

happy baby calls him “baby” and gives him fierce hugs, then grabs him by the leg and flings him across his shoulder, then abandons him when the next shiny thing catches his eye.  but i’m very pleased with the way he turned out (especially his jeans!)

and i’m also glad i can put this project to rest.

until i decide that mini-dude needs a hat.  or a vest.  or some socks and shoes.

 

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | Comments Off on apparently september is a really difficult month for me to blog
05
Sep, 2011

language acquisition is so much fun!

Posted in baby stuff, video | 3 Comments