feelin crafty

Warning:  This post contains mom-boasting.  Look away if you can't take it.  Or, read it and decide you are way more awesome and come away feeling great because your regular efforts blow away my self-proclaimed awesome ones.  I think if I competed in a Mompetition, I would get a green participation ribbon. And I'd be ticked because I would feel like I should have at least gotten a white third place ribbon.  But whatever.

We skipped church this morning.

I made pancakes, threw in a load of laundry, and read the book of James while I drank my coffee.

Doesn't that make me sound awesome?

Wait.....there's more.  I got my craft on today too.  Twice.

Not only am I renegade enough to skip church, domestic enough to do laundry, hip enough to drink coffee, and spiritual enough to read the Bible, I am crafty.

Be jealous, people.  Here's what's up:

Craft #1:  Spirit shirt for Superfrykid's school.
Superfrykid is supposed to wear a school shirt tomorrow.  We do not have one, so she wanted to make one.   I took a $3 red t-shirt from Michael's and used a Sharpie marker to write the name of her school on it. Even though it looks totally homemade and like a kid did it, I think it's pretty cute. Point for me.

I messed up on the "W" and made it an "H", but I don't think you can tell.
Except I just told you, so now you can't stop seeing it.

Craft #2:  Christmas Gift for Superfrykid's Whole Class
I like to try and send in a small Christmas ornament for each kid in Superfrykid's class.  The past couple years, I've been able to find large colored jingle bells pretty cheap.  This year, I found these tiny red Christmas bulbs at Dollar General.  15 OF THEM FOR ONLY $1, PEOPLE!  That's cheap, right?  So I got 2 containers of them and tried to think of a clever little poem to tie on with ribbon.  The school color is red (Remember the red spirit shirt above?  How could you forget it? It was totally awesome.)  So the school color is red, so I figured little red ornaments would be perfect.  Point for me for getting this done BEFORE December 24th and 2 points for me for being thrifty.  Negative 10 points for me for such a corny poem, but who is really keeping score? Here's how they turned out:

$1 for 15 ornaments.  That's a deal.

When you see this little red ornament,
Hope it reminds you of the time we spent
Together in our third grade year,
Memories made, and holiday cheer.
From:  Superfrykid
Mrs. Mriscin's class 2013-2014
Tomahawk Intermediate School

So basically, I made 24 gifts for $2.  That's less than 9 cents per gift.
Beat that, you crazy coupon ladies!

BONUS CRAFT:  I didn't make this today, but I did make it last week, and it's pretty crafty for me.

Metal Star Candle Holder:  $2.99 from Christmas Tree Shop
Pinecone Greenery:  $1 from Dollar General
Candle:  $1 from WalMart

The only drawback is that you can't burn the candle because I'm pretty sure that greenery is probably highly flammable and maybe even toxic.  But you could always get one of those fake candles that are battery operated.  But for $4.99, I won't burn the candle and everyone is happy (and not on fire.)

I should put this away until after Thanksgiving, but I'm too lazy for that.  I could try and get a piece of fall-ish greenery and add to it for now, but then I would have to unwind all of that wire and put the Christmas greenery somewhere I wouldn't forget about.  That's just entirely too much effort.  Christmas in September is where it's at.

Unplug the teapot

My sister and I have this inside joke called "unplug the teapot".

Basically, it means to have someone do something stupid for you that you could easily do yourself.  It began once when my sister was at my house for Christmas or something. I was in the kitchen and she asked if she could help.  I told her to unplug the iced tea maker.  This struck her as comical.  So now, if either of us asks the other to do something, we reply with "would you like me to unplug the teapot as well?"

Today my grandmother, aka "the Don", called me as soon as I got home from work.  She was very flustered and asked me if I could come over and help her.  She said she was trying to make an "impossible pumpkin pie" and the filling must be mixed in a blender.  She apparently does not own a blender, so she borrowed her daughter's blender and was having trouble getting it to work.

Side note:  The Don says when she asked to borrow the blender, my aunt asked what she was going to put in it.  The Don said she should have said "rocks" but that didn't occur to her until later.  Life lesson:  The Don does not like to be questioned.  If she asks for a blender, don't ask what she is putting in it.  

She said she couldn't figure out how to put the blender on the base and had tried all morning to get it to work.  She even called my aunt to see what to do and they were unable to figure it out over the phone.  She thought she was not getting the blender onto the base correctly.

So I drove over to see if I could help.  Immediately.  The Don waits for no one.  Unless you are Superfrydad, who promised to put in a new kitchen sink for her by last Easter.  It's still not done and the Don still seems to think Superfrydad poops gold or something.

Anyway, back to the blender.  I placed the blender jar onto the base, turned it on and hit start.  It worked fine.  The Don said, "Well she told me to hit start, she didn't tell me I had to turn it on first."

Really?

So now, instead of telling my sister to "unplug the teapot", I think I might have to add "turn on my blender".

To my grandmother's credit, the power button did not say "power".  It was just the little picture with a line with a curve under it.  She was afraid to touch any of the other buttons.  Pesky newfangled digital technology!