the spring chickens have finally hatched

I recently wrote about Elizabeth asking me to sew her a stuffed animal.
Having never sewn a stuffed animal before I wasn't sure how it would turn out.

 It is with a small bit of pride that I present to you...Spring Chicken. 

To give the chicken a little extra wow factor, I attached the above eyes with velcro so Elizabeth can change the eyes whenever she feels the mood is right.
 Just try to image a time when you've seen a chicken with so much sass.

I had fabric left over, so I made Spring Chicken Jr. 

I almost faint over the cuteness of this teeny tiny chicken.

Mama Spring Chicken and her little Spring Chicken Jr. go everywhere together.

You know what they say- birds of a feather flock together.

made with Sew mama Sew pattern

wordless wednesday: wedding edition

All photos by Keri McCarthy

we have very steady Sunday traditions

1. We go to church.

Our church essentials- Bible, Sunday school workbook, gum. 

2. We visit the puppies at the pet store.

3. We stop at Master Cuts so Christopher can get his hair cut in the style dictated by the United States military.

4. We take our picture together.
This is a very new tradition- as in it was started yesterday- so it remains to be seen how long it will last.

oh, the things I teach them

As a babysitter, I take my job very seriously.

I realize that I am caring for the future leaders of this country, those who will power the technology of tomorrow, those who will attempt to improve upon the Oreo. 

But right now, they're just small and adorable little people like Allison, who models headbands for me.

I teach about picking the red tomatoes, not the green.

I introduce the webcam. (Look at her cheeks!)

I unintentionally taught Allison to go around the house waving her arms and saying, "HEY, FLIES!!" because apparently that's what she's sees me do every time she's over.

But perhaps the greatest of my teaching accomplishments is seen below.

I successfully taught a child how to talk into a fan so that her voice changes.
I have reached a new pinnacle in my babysitting career.

rich mouse, poor mouse~ a guest post

The following short story was recently submitted for publication. After a careful overview of her work, the management here at Dandelions and Daffodils, Inc. are pleased to introduce you to the work of Elizabeth Fantasia Stricknine. We welcome her as our first ever guest blogger.  

Mom is determined to be a millionaire. (Don’t ask her, because she’ll deny this fact, but, trust me, it’s true.) If only for the reason that she MAY be able to buy an oven whose door is not falling off , I’d say that’s a pretty worthy aspiration. Especially considering the skyrocketing prices of lettuce...*looks pointedly* It would be nice to be a millionaire and have access to, as I like to put it in an Italian accent( the accent is crucial.) “Lettoochay en bulkque!” =)

I digress ;)  Mom wants to be a millionaire.

With this goal in mind, Mom, The Twin, and I attended a free Rich Dad, Poor Dad seminar at a suave country club. We did not belong. That Monday morning, Mommy had given Twin and I specific instructions to dress appropriately for the occasion. We were to give, for the night at least, the appearance of those desperate for higher learning and to “channel our desire for wealth into actual money-making investment opportunities...”, even if it was propaganda.  Well. For twin, at least, it was propaganda. I just want lettuce.  With all of this in mind, mom dressed quite nicely in her professional, blue-flowered shirt and stretchy black pants. I dressed in, well, let’s just say I wore clothes too restricting to be mentioned here. Twin, unfortunately, wore his track clothes.

After accidentally, and uninvited, we went into the wrong room and experienced three seconds of a stiletto and bow tied “Tom Wright-Democrat For Congress” rally in the next room, we finally found the Rich Dad seminar, which went pretty well. *nods* So well, in fact, that the Mom convinced Andrew to go AGAIN with her to the next one. This one, was at *drum roll* The Hilton Hotel.

A sign at the parking garage said: SECURE ALL VALUEABLES. Well, that left me with nothing to do. But once Mom and I arrived at our second Rich Dad seminar, I occupied myself with wondering why on earth we hadn’t brought our dad…it should have been a requirement. Or at least “Bring a dad, get a seat.” Oh well. Some things are past finding out. 

Once again we listened with rapt attention to the same speaker, same speech, same dialogue… “Speaker: Let me make this reeeeeally clear. [insert complex real estate investment monologue here.] “Does that make sense?” Audience, vehemently nodding heads: “Yeeeeeeeeeeeess.”   Me: Nooooooooo!”  Apparently I missed the memo to take Claritin Clear before attending the seminar…because it did NOT make sense. Speaking of drugs, there was, for REAL, a lady sitting next to me whose name tag said Benadryl. No joke. It said, “Hi, my name is Benadryl-I invest in my future.” Her mother must have been on as many medicines while pregnant as Sarah’s been on lately and just picked one.

Close to the end of the ninety minute session, I got up and went to sit against the silver, embossed wall. I figured that was cooler. Just as I focused my mind back on learning how to RUN my own real estate business, and mouse RAN by me. Yes, a MOUSE. In The Hilton Hotel. Surprises never cease to exist. ;) I considered telling management, but decided they would probably not believe me. So I’m telling you, hoping you will.

All in all, it was a good experience.

And just one question: What do you think the future is in investing in mouse real estate?

maybe next time she'll ask me to make a can of corn

Last night Christopher and I went shopping for a spring chicken.

To be more specific, we went shopping for materials to make a spring chicken out of, but it's much more fun (also the WHAT?? factor is a little higher) to say we went in search of the chicken itself.

I should probably provide a back-story.

Elizabeth contacted me requesting that I make a stuffed animal she can take with her when she goes to school next month. She wants to hold it and think of me. How sweet. I must say I was slightly surprised she came to me for comfort because the last time she was upset and I tried to cheer her up, I offered her a can of corn. The exact words that came out of my mouth were, "DON'T CRY!!! DON'T CRY!!! I'll get you something to make you happy again! Do you want to can of corn?" I have absolutely no reasonable explanation for offering her a canned vegetable other than it was the very first thing that popped into my head. It didn't occur to me until later that she's allergic to corn. Maybe next time I'll go with a can of peas. 

While I do pride myself in being able to create an egg family and turn paper bowls into ipod-holding turtles named Rocky, stuffed animals are slightly outside of my expertise. After being told that Build a Bear was not acceptable, I did a not so quick Google search for 'easy to make stuffed animals'. After weeding through many sites and viewing many unpleasant-looking monster stuffed animals with googly eyes, I narrowed it down to a donkey, a penguin, or an odd looking dog with a cute collar. And then, my friends, then I discovered the Spring Chicken. He has big feet and floppy wings and is just so charming. He's also unique; I doubt anyone else at school will have their very own spring chicken stuffed animal.

So that's how we came to be perusing the aisles of Joann's last night around half past six. (It doesn't hurt that I had no less than six Joann's coupons with my name on them burning a hole in my wallet. I am powerless to resist when I see "40% off any item in the store".) I tried introducing Christopher to the beauty of the fabric section but he was very distracted by dancing to the song on the radio. Not being one who likes causing or being anywhere near a scene, I pretended I didn't know him. ;-) Actually, he was very helpful and found the yellow and white fabric I'll be using for the body. Once we decided on the appropriate fabrics, we headed to the button department to find some eyes for the chicken. Because we're people who enjoy adding a little spice to life, this chicken is not going to have any ordinary eyes. Oh, no! He is going to feature eyes that are, without giving too much away, NOT ROUND.

We're people who believe in going all out when it comes to spring chicken making. 

Sarah & Allison courtesy of YouCam

golf date

Last Saturday night the Great Plague of 2011 had eased up a little and I was feeling well enough to venture out of the house for while. We decided to go miniature golfing to make up for the golf date we missed earlier in the week. Thanks to our rousing game of apartment golf, we were well prepared for 18 holes of miniature goodness.

I like to think I'm an expert at golf because I took golf lessons one summer and I own a set of golf clubs, but in reality my golf skills are nothing to write home about. Whether due to a small amount of golfing skill or just pure luck, no one was more surprised than I when my purple ball rolled into hole 16 after one hit. I was just so proud of myself. In case you're wondering, Christopher did not score a hole-in-one. In case you are further wondering, my final score was better than his. But I certainly not boasting.

I was slightly distracted at certain points in the game because one of the medications I'm on makes me slightly wobbly and I really had no desire to fall into any of the little ponds throughout the course. (I think that's an understandable desire.) I would have hated to return to the hospital for the third time in two weeks all because I fell into a pond and received a head wound. Thankfully we finished the course and evaded any injuries.

I told Christopher to look victorious and this is what he did. 

It's not exactly how I would portray victory, but it is cute. ;)

compared to Jonah, I'm doing ok

My Big Adventure for this weekend was canceled.

Not only was I not well enough to travel, but Julie the automated Amtrak teller called to inform me that the train I was scheduled to travel on has been canceled. So my pretty blue party dress will stay in the closet, the personalized chopsticks I bought for Joy and Colin will have to be mailed, and I won't get to hug my friends at the wedding.  

We had a discussion about why I'm still sick after two weeks even though I keep praying to get better, and why God wanted me to miss the wedding of someone who's like a sister to me. We never came to any real conclusion except that it's just what God decided.

After a (not so) small emotional moment, I decided to think of things I have to be happy about and thankful for.

* By December I'll have two nieces!

* Unlike many people in other countries, I have medications to help me get better. (You know what's pathetic? I'll tell you. When you put your three new prescriptions down on the nightstand next to your current prescriptions and briefly consider holding a meeting wherein you introduce all the medications to each other and ask them to please get along.)
* I saw two rainbows when I left church.

 * Even though Christopher and I had to cancel our miniature golf date night, we were able to play Apartment Golf instead. We turned a bat into a golf club and hit our imaginary balls (mine was purple and his was green) around chairs and beds and into imaginary holes. I won but only because Christopher let me.
* Unlike Jonah, I have not been sitting in the belly of a whale for the last three days. 

I am especially thankful for that last one.

patriotic crafts

Over the last year I'm made quite a collection of patriotic crafts. 

Here are three of my favorites.

1. tissue paper heart

I found this craft when looking a something patriotic to make with Zachary and Molly, but I ended up being the only one to complete the craft. For some reason they thought the pool was more exciting than tissue paper. I just can't see why. ;-)

2. voting book

I LOVE voting. Voting was the #1 reason I looked forward to turning 18! I always take the 'I voted' stickers they hand out and instead of them just laying around collecting dust, I made a voting book to put them in. I think it will be so cool to look back at this book in a few years and see who I voted for! 

3. red,white, and blue cake

I made this cake last July. I was going to make a rainbow cake but didn't have enough pans, so I did red, white, and blue instead. Seeing how it was the 4th of July, those colors were more appropriate than rainbow colors! I used little green Army men and a flag to create Iwo Jima on the top.

a true matchmaker doesn't get (too) disturbed by bumps in the romantic road

The Big Adventure of this weekend is traveling back to my homeland for the wedding of Katie's sister, Joy.

Colin will be there too. He's marrying Joy but as I haven't met him yet (he's from a far-off state known on as Mississippi), he doesn't usually make it into my many comments about the upcoming Big Adventure. Nevertheless, here's a picture of the soon-to-be-in-wedded-bliss couple.

It came out during a late night conversation at Katie's four or five years ago that Joy didn't like me too much when I was younger. That honestly didn't bother me much because frankly, I didn't like her too much either. Neither of us is quite sure WHY we didn't like the other one, but we seem to have formed an unspoken pact of dislike that ended only when we became responsible people with drivers licences and old enough that we could laugh about the days of our youth. 

That dislike never stopped me from planning out Joy's romantic future.

The gentleman handpicked for Joy was none other than my dearly loved but slightly crazy brother Andrew. For a while there (meaning when they were under the age of 13), it looked as if my plan was going to work BEAUTIFULLY. I heard from Joy's very own mouth that she purchased a cheap ring from one of those machines at the store, placed it on the left right finger, and told Andrew a sob story about how she was engaged to Abraham Lincoln but their marriage never came about as he died immediately before the wedding. 

She was trying to make him jealous. 

In fact, I had a master plan in which not only did Andrew and Joy tie the knot, Daniel and Marylynn (Katie's oldest sister) got married as well making Katie and I almost related. It was our goal to have all the same nieces and nephews and attend all the same birthday parties. We could imagine nothing better than our four older siblings getting married. As seems to happen, the plans I make for the love lives of others rarely turn out as imagined. Andrew married Debbie, Daniel married Erika, Joy is marrying Colin, Marylynn has a boyfriend named Ben, and I married Christopher. (That last part has nothing to do with anything, I just felt like letting the world know who I married.) 

In short (or to be honest, after many words), I am SO very excited about this wedding even though Joy is not marrying Andrew. I have been completely prepared for this event for the last month. I have my new blue party dress hanging in the closet, the camera is ready, I am constantly making lists in my head of who I'll see and hug, and I have their gift all ready. I do hate to boast, but I bought them personalized chopsticks which is one of the most highly creative and ultra-unique gift ideas I have ever come up with. 

One more thing before I close- Aaron and Katie's sister Jenny would be perfect together. 

Just sayin'. 

Wordless Wednesday

August 26th, 2011

a message about many medical maladies

Well.

The past ten days have not exactly been a time I will look back on with great excitement and joy. 

To be precise, I am recovering from an infection, allergic reactions to medications given for said infection, e.coli, and a heart rate of 137 which resulted in an eight hour visit to the hospital. It's been a grand-slam of medical maladies.

I would like to introduce six of my new best friends. 

Try not to be jealous.

Christopher has been taking wonderful care of me. He is in charge of dispensing all medications, as well as delivering applesauce, yogurt, juice, and any other get-well necessities. Last night he even took me for a drive at sunset because I was getting a little stir crazy after being inside so long. I think I'll keep him around to take care of me forever and ever. 


Now I must go. I do believe it's Maalox time again.

A Royal Comparison

After all the discussion about our wedding being held on the same day as William and Kate's (perhaps you've heard of them), I thought it would be interesting to compare the similarities between Kate and I on our wedding day.

Similarity #1

We each had six little people walk down the aisle before us- four flower girls and two ring bearers.

Image: Hugo Burnand/Clarence House

Similarity #2

We each married a soldier

Similarity #3

We each have one sister who served as our Maid of Honor.

Of course, things AFTER the wedding are not so similar. After all, only one of us is married to the future king of England and it's not me. 

Then again, my name means princess so I'm royal in my own way.