The Queen's Rambles

I was so worried about this silly scarecrow homework, and then it turned out to be a fun project. Maybe I need to worry more often so I can be proven wrong.

I decided to use fabric as a base (I’ll take a pic when it is complete). Erik loves messing around with my fabric and wants to make a quilt (but won’t actually sit still to get started), so I thought he would like the idea of using fabric. It would be very “us” and would be something I could easily do. I quietly started the project with out him and made the pants, shirt and hat while he was playing a game with his dad. By the time I was ready to glue them on, I had captured his interest and he wanted to know what I was doing. It is hard to trick him, but my most successful strategy usually involves ignoring him.

He willingly gave up his “gaming with daddy” time to do crafting with me. Color me shocked.

I let him go through my fabric and pick out whatever he wanted for the finishing touches. You’d think I’d given him a million bucks, he was so thrilled and proud. He took total ownership of the project and instructed me on how to cut everything. He did the gluing. Truly, I think he knows he is not great at certain crafty things because he doesn’t practice, so he doesn’t even want to try since he won’t be the best.

I think he liked this project because gluing down a piece of fabric has a much bigger payoff than sitting still in a chair and coloring. You cut, you glue, you get something that looks nice without scribbles or barren spots. I totally get it. That’s why I like quilting. I can take already created prettiness and manipulate it into something even better.

Elsa also had some success today. She stayed with a sitter for the first time ever and didn’t even cry. She was a good girl and didn’t harass the sitter’s kids. I am so happy! I was afraid she was going to be a bully for life, but she does listen. You just have to pay attention and catch her before she’s naughty.

My friend came over this afternoon and it was hilarious to see Elsa want to lay down just like the baby. Elsa is soooooo not a baby anymore, as this picture clearly illustrates. Where did that giant toddler come from? My friend’s baby is five months old.

Of course, just a few seconds later Elsa showed her true colors. Don’t worry. No babies were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Isn’t my friend’s baby a little doll? So sweet!

My friend doesn’t know how to do braids and all that. Her mom always took her and her sisters to a hairdresser to get their corn rows, so she’s clueless about the whole thing. She had dreds for the past five years, but she cut them off shortly after her baby was born.

In an effort to learn to braid, she’s been searching the internet for tutorials. One of the sites suggested a fake hairboard made out of yarn and plastic canvas so you can practice without a real head in front of you, so she made one and has been trying out different styles.

I mentioned that I wished I knew how to braid, especially in the herringbone style. Obviously our girls have very different hair textures and will have very different needs as they grow up, but that didn’t stop her from trying to help me out. She, smart woman that she is, went to YouTube to figure out how to do it. She brought her hairboard over so she could teach me and I could practice. I never even thought of using YouTube to learn to style hair, but it’s a great resource. I know you can use YouTube to figure out video games, but real stuff? I’m totally old school. I thought you learned to braid by going over to a girly sleepover and having a make-over. I’m not a girly sleepover kind of gal. Never was. I never learned how to braid.

Not that Elsa’s hair is ready for braiding yet, but now I know what to do when she has longer hair and wants fancy styles. Whoo-hoo! I’ve been kind of worried about it because I know nothing about fixing fancy hair. Maybe I can learn, even though my fingers are awkward and I have no confidence in my fine motor abilities.