Craftin’ and Other News

Behold the craft corner.  Honestly, the corner where my computer desk is is getting CROWDED!  All the more reason for us to get this move underway, so I can have a little corner in the downstairs office to move my crafting table.  Between my recent affinity for scrapbooking and a suggestion that I should take up something to keep my hands and mind busy, this seemed like a great spot to get going.  As you can see, my makeshift baby gate (a box containing a real baby gate) is ready to ward off intruders, and my Cricut is out of the box and set up.

So of course, I started in a different direction altogether, that being origami.  I enjoyed origami for a brief period while in college, when something finally clicked and I figured out how to make the paper crane.  I went on a bit of a tear then, and made a bunch of things out of paper, but they are long gone “somewhere” in the great span of stuff that is probably residing at my father’s house in a plastic bin somewhere.  So I decided to take another crack at it recently, knowing that it would indeed keep my mind busy and my hands as well.  I ordered some paper and two books , one called The Practical Illustrated Encyclopedia of Origami and the other called Genuine Origami.  I guess I am an origami purist, I refuse to do any model that involves cutting with scissors, and both these books have plenty of options for cut-less origami.

Here are the models I have done so far:

From left to right, I’ve made a sanbo box, a star box, a crown, a lily, and a balloon.  Not everything is crisp, my corners don’t align perfectly, but I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done.  I am surprised at how much fun I still find it, and how it really does take my mind off things I’d rather not think about!  I get to thinking so hard about what I’m trying to do that there is no room in my brain for anything else.

As for the scrapbooking, I am going to work on a life book for Leah to start, I think I have mentioned this.  It will contain all the information that we have about her birth parents, so that if she has questions in the future, we’ll be able to give her the information she wants.  For that reason, the book will be kept private once that information goes in, but until that point, I will take pictures and share my scrapping creations.  What’s holding me back is that all the paper I bought is pretty thick and my Cricut is not cutting through it.  So now I have to buy a deep cut blade, and then I can get started.  I love that new Michael Buble song, “Haven’t Met You Yet”, so I hope to incorporate some of the lyrics into the book.  It’s really meaningful when you put it into the context of waiting for your adopted child.  :-)  I’ve been gathering all kinds of artifacts from our initial adoption steps, and found some things I’m excited to include, like the parking ticket from the morning she was born—they didn’t make us pay to exit the garage when we finally went home to get to sleep, so I kept the ticket as a souvenir.  Maybe she won’t find that as nerdy cool as I do, but I hope she does :-)

We’ve spent a lot of time outdoors during the past few days of good weather.  Yesterday we went to a park right down the street from our house and spent lunchtime there with friends.  Leah is such a bully!  I bring her toys to play with and she keeps stealing Elizabeth’s toys.  It doesn’t matter how many times we take them away from her either, she just keeps on grabbing them.  Good thing she’s cute, but I just know she’s going to be a “mean girl”.  She’s an only child, so I guess she’s not good at sharing.  Fortunately, Elizabeth doesn’t seem to care a whole lot at the moment, but that will probably change.

We stayed home today—I am determined to get Leah back on schedule and put an end to this nonsense of getting up at 4AM and not taking naps.  We spent a lot of time outdoors, walking over a mile around the neighborhood this morning, and then playing for a couple hours out on the lawn.  She has developed a taste for dead leaves and twigs, despite my assurances that they are not actually ingestible.  She did better with her naps today—90 minutes this morning and 60 this afternoon, a vast improvement over 20 and 45.  Michael and I are writing a little song for her sung to the tune of “Piano Man” by Billy Joel that starts out, “It’s two a.m. on a Saturday, Mom and Dad shuffle in, there’s a bottle sitting next to me, but I’d rather play blocks and make din.”  I’ll post the rest when we get it finished, but suffice it to say, it’s genius.

Lost last night was amazing—I sat there and absolutely sobbed at the ending when Ben finally finds redemption.  I genuinely don’t know what I will do when it’s over.  Every episode is better than the one before.  Today I watched a couple episodes of Billy the Exterminator on A&E, which was entertaining in a Dog the Bounty Hunter sort of way, and I have taken to watching American Pickers and Pawn Stars on the History Channel.  I like to have the TV on for adult noise in the background during nap times, and once in a while I happen upon something amusing.  My FIL turned me onto Pawn Stars, and I have to say, it’s pretty hilarious, especially the old guy.

That’s the news from our little corner of the planet.  More to come as it happens!