Br.

Wow, taking pictures outside was coooooooold! I snapped pretty quickly, but all those bibs seemed to take forever. I think they will be going up on the Hyena Cart on the first, probably right after I put the customs list up, round about 1pm. If that changes, I'll let you know. Here's a sneak peek...



I also managed to snap a picture of Amanda's chocolate monster longies before my fingers froze off:

Snow Days!

Tuesday afternoon we were a frolicking in the crocus patch that had sprung up along our front patch. My left hand has really been acting up so I spent the morning doing taxes and the afternoon at my crafty mama friend Liz's house, hijacking her kitchen table and sewing away on a stack of monster bibs. Sewing with a new machine is weird and there are a couple of wonkers in the pile, so keep your eyes peeled for seconds popping up on Hyena Cart later this week.

Yesterday we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground. No school. Somehow, amidst all of the Star Wars reenactments, LEGO building and whatnot I did manage to meet my goal of finishing the pair of longies I was working on my day's end. I'll post pictures later. I even got a little bit done on my very last pair of board shorts for the month. Woot. If I can finish them by tomorrow I'll actually come in on time for the month, which will be a minor miracle.

Making this goal a little more difficult...another snow day today. I think I saw 2 flakes out there. Kyle has sworn that he will keep henry occupied for part of the day, but he has to go into work this morning (apparently the roads are too dangerous for kids, but just fine for teachers) so I am on Henry duty until he gets home.

The first of the month is coming up fast, so I'm going to repost my customs information:

I open for custom orders via email (info[at]crankypantshome[dot]com) on the first of each month. All you have to do is email me on the first between 10am and 12 noon EST letting me know that you would like to place a custom order. I take as many orders as I can for the month (using a random number generator). It starts all over again each month. I know it is crazy, but it is the only way that works for the time being. Crankypants longies run from $78-90 and shorties from $50-65 depending on measurements and design. I do my very best to complete all custom orders the month the order is taken so, depending where you fall on the list, turnaround time is anywhere between 1-5 weeks. I do ship anywhere in the world for an additional charge depending on destination. I do not currently and do not plan to sell the Crankypants pattern. It is all in my little head and to translate it from Amyspeak into language that is actually understandable would be a chore I am not up to tackling.

If you have any other questions please feel free to email me at info@crankypantshome.com

Also, my first auction is going up over at Hyena Cart at 10 this morning if you are interested.

Oh, and for someone who asked a couple of days ago (sorry for the late reply) the Dr. Seuss stocking will take place over at Venus Vanguard on March 7th at 8pm. If you click that link you will see a bunch of things left over from last month's movie stocking, but by the 7th look for it to be chock full of Seussiness. I am planning on having a pair of super fancy hand dyed organic BFL board shorts, some felted items, and maybe a Wocket or two, we'll see...

A Day in the Life Pt. 4

I forgot about my last installment of "A Day in the Life" until I was too tired to do it, so I figured I'd finish up this morning and get on with my day.

After the boys got home yesterday afternoon I made dinner: gnocci, salad and bread. I even remembered how hard I worked at the gym earlier and didn't polish off the whole baguette. Go me again! Henry even ate a bunch of fresh mozzerella and a handful of gnocci. His eating habits are so bizarre. He refuses to eat french fries, grilled cheese or pb&j, but he loves gnocci and hommus and cous cous.

Oh wait, before that I took and edited pictures of my finished Obama longies.
Stephanie wanted Obama longies but she left all of the details about color and design up to me as long as they weren't too boyish. I decided to just go with the Obama logo to make them a little more subtle and wearable after the campaign is over. I changed the red in the logo to rose to girly them up and match the stripes in the legs.




An after dinner Wii game turned horribly ugly when Kyle tried to turn it off and Henry ended up making some bad choices and ending up in bed with no stories and a talking to about hurting peoples' feelings. He's been going through some emotional growing pains lately and the littlest thing can set him off on a crazy 4 year old tantrum that consists of crazy yelling, flailing (hitting, biting, kicking, etc) and declaring that he will never be anybody's friend ever again. It sucks. The past week he has been doing really well talking about his feelings instead of lashing out physically and bouncing back much quicker, so last night was a backslide. I think I've decided that the Wii needs to go away for a while. He gets all worked up playing and then when it is time to turn it off all of that excited energy comes out sideways.

About a half hour after he went to bed, Henry called me into his room and asked me to lay with him for a little while. I laid down and he said "I really am your best friend". When I thanked him for being so nice he replied "Does that make your feelings all fixed?" and I died of sweetness. I then promptly fell asleep in his bed for 45 minutes until Kyle came in to wake me up and tell me I had to come out because Tim Gunn was on The Daily Show. Tim Gunn + John Stewart = yay! I only stayed up for a few more hours (in which I did manage to meet my goal of finishing the body of the monster longies) and then off to bed!

Now it is another day and I am getting ready to get back to work and try to get some of the things done I didn't accomplish yesterday. I didn't manage to get a hold of the sewing machine guy or squeeze in the fabric cutting I still had to do. Let's jump right in, shall we?

A Day in the Life Pt. 3

I can't believe it, but the gym thing actually worked today. No afternoon coffee for me. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical trainer (5 minutes forward, 5 minutes backward, etc) which is the machine I've found best suits my horrible knees. Then I did upper body: biceps, triceps, chest, back, shoulders and abs. It did give me a bunch of energy even though I know I'll be paying for it tomorrow when I try to get my butt out of bed. My drive to the gym just happened to sync up with the "totally 80s lunch" on a local radio station, which is always nice. As I was driving along I heard the unmistakable dun-dun-dun-da-da-dun-dun of "Ice Ice Baby" and was fully prepared to launch into it. I think I might have even busted out with "Alright stop, collaborate and listen" before I realized it was actually Under Pressure by David Bowie. And I was disappointed. I know! I wanted Vanilla Ice instead of David Bowie! I'll chalk it up to a temporary psychosis induced by wearing my jelly shoes too tight back in 6th grade.

I swung by Earth Fare and got some yummy plum tomatoes, fresh mozzerella and some baby romaine for a salad and a big ole crusty baguette to go with dinner since a meal without bread isn't really worth having (hence my need to go to the gym). My friend Robert was working so it was nice to get to chat. We decided that he is going to take me out on a hot date to see The Spiderwick Chronicles because Kyle isn't interested and Henry is too young for it, I think. I can't wait. We saw Charlie Bartlett this weekend and I wasn't super impressed. It was alright, just kind of meh. I think Robert Downey Jr.'s amazingness made everyone else look kind of amateurish. And they did a few "homages" to Harold and Maude that didn't work for me. If you are going to compare yourself to Harold and Maude you'd better bring it!

The gym is also a great excuse to take a super hot, super long shower and I took full advantage of that today. I even put on real clothes instead of getting back into my usual "yoga pants and tee shirt" uniform. Go me!

I answered another half dozen customer emails, ordered some yarn...OH! My wonderful local yarn dying mama sent me some pictures of the organic BFL she dyed up for me in a custom "Green Eggs" colorway for some super fancy shorts that will go up at the Dr. Seuss stocking next week.





How gorgeous is that??? I can't wait to get my paws and needles on it. I had to actually sit down and make a list of all the things I'd like to make for that stocking. But I'm not going to dish any more until I actually get some of it done, just in case.

I managed to get down to the mouth of the monster longies I'm working on. If I can get a few hours of knitting in after Henry goes to bed I think I can make my goal for the day. WooHoo! I still need to do some fabric cutting-monster teeth and fabric for another little project I'm working on. I'm not sure when I'll squeeze that in, I'm expecting the boys to come home any minute. As soon as the car pulls up to the curb I'll make the switch from work to family and try not to think about what I could be getting done while I'm making dinner and spending time with Henry. I know it sounds awful but one of the things that stinks about working from home is that I don't get that physical sense of leaving work and it always seems to linger in the back of my mind.

They're home!

A Day in the Life Pt. 2

Well, it is almost noon-where morning turns into afternoon and I mentally start counting down the hours until the boys come home. I still have 4 hours, but at this point I can feel the day starting to tick tock away.

This has been a pretty productive morning, thankfully. I finished the waistband on my longies and cut 5 bibs. I got my things ready to ship. Shipping seems like no biggie, but it can be a time suck. For each package I have to log into PayPal, find the original order, type in all the shipping information, print the label, cut the label and tape it onto the packaging, get a hang tag, punch a hole in it, tie scrap yarn to it and put it on the item, get a business card and stickers, stick it all in the envelope and tape it up (I always worry things will get wet or damaged). Luckily I only had two things to ship today so it didn't take too long. While I was doing it I remembered a conversation about shipping label stickers, though, so when I was done I went and ordered some since I need polymailers anyway. While I was at the computer I checked in at all my regular spots and ogled some amazing projects at Ravelry. I returned Tela from WMAG's email, responded to about a dozen customer emails and sent out a mass mailing to my new wait list peeps.

Now I'm going to drag my sorry butt to the gym. I am telling myself that the gym will give me a burst of energy and I won't need to brew an afternoon pot of coffee, which I am trying to cut out of my day (I have convinced myself I am dying of stomach ulcers because I drink too much coffee). I can stop at the post office on the way there and stop at Earth Fare on the way home. Since Kyle is going to be late tonight I think we are going to stick with something I can make for dinner. Translation: something fool proof that can be heated up without me screwing it up completely. We have some gnocci in the fridge that is just the ticket but I need to get some salad stuff and bread to go with it. And if a package of spicy shrimp inari happens to jump into my shopping basket while I'm there I won't complain. We have no food in the house for lunch, blah.

Since it is Monday and the house is in a horrifyingly sorry state from a weekend of use and abuse, I'll probably spend a chunk of the afternoon getting it back together before the boys come home and trash it again. The shelf in the closet that all of our clothes hang from fell down this weekend (taking a big chunk of plaster with it) so that needs some attention. Kyle fixed the shelf, but everything that was in the closet is still in the middle of our bedroom. The living room is covered by a thin layer of LEGOs on pretty much every flat surface. How do you deal with LEGOs? I am glad Henry has started getting really into them because it is his kind of creative and I love to see him being creative. Granted, I wish he was as passionate about cleaning them up as he is scattering them about, and I wish my brother still worked at LEGO so he could hook a sister up, but I'll live.

Okay. Enough babbling. I have to go find my sports bra in a pile of laundry 7 feet high...

A Day in the Life...

I woke up at 6:05 this morning to digital frogs making digital frog noises on the alarm clock. Kyle hit snooze twice before he finally got out of bed and gave me the whole empty bed for a blissful 30 more minutes, until he came back and reminded me that it was indeed a work day.

Every morning (if Henry is still sleeping) I am faced with the decision of getting up with Kyle at 6:30 and having a leisurely cup of coffee and email check before the rush to make it out the door on time starts or staying in bed for those extra 30 minutes. Every morning I choose sleep. This means I have from 7-7:30 to get Henry up, dressed, fed, a lunch made, jacket on and out the door. Since Henry is currently boycotting anything that can be deemed a "smandwich", most of this 30 minutes is spent staring into the refrigerator wondering what the holy heck I can send off with him in his little Spiderman lunch box. I tried sending him an assortment of snacky things that somehow added up to a meal one day, but his teacher sent home the message that he needed some sort of "main dish" like a sandwich. Knowing what they routinely serve for lunch on the rare occasions that I make the poor thing buy hot lunch at school, this made me laugh out loud. But, as we all know, I feel compelled to make a good impression in his teachers (who I truly adore) and so I sit at the open fridge and look for a "main dish". Today I settled on a little Tupperware container of tuna fish, which I think he'll eat. Add in an applesauce, a cheese stick and some pretzels and we have ourselves a lunch. In a little brown bag because the Spiderman lunch box is currently lost somewhere in a pile of "stuff" in the back of Kyle's car and I didn't feel like trying to dig it out. I tell myself that I'll reuse the little brown bag for something else later, but it will probably never make it home from school. This morning Kyle actually got Henry dressed, which is a rarity, and all I had to deal with was sock and jacket duty. I lucked out and Henry was in a cooperative mood. The trick is to tackle him and get him dressed before he is fully awake. If you miss that window, you are in for a 15 minute wrestling match from Hell.

Damn. I just remembered I forgot to send in Henry's tuition check , which was due today. Between that and the tuna fish smell his teachers will have to endure, that good impression just flew out the window.

After the boys leave, it is computer time. I actually told myself that I would get up and go straight to the gym this morning, even though my legs are still on fire from Saturday's work out. Something happened between bed and the computer, though, and it doesn't look like it's going to happen. I'm telling myself I'll go later, but that almost never works. Once I sit down at the computer it is pretty much all over. I have an internet "circut" that I must complete before getting to the day's tasks. I check email and respond to things that require immediate attention. I go to Bloglines and check to see what's new in the 37 blogs I subscribe to. A lot of these are blogs that review kids' gear. I feel compelled to see what is popping up on these sites so I can stay in touch with trends and whatnot. Cool Mom Picks, Working Mothers Against Guilt, Rare Bird Finds, Goodyblog, Cosmotot (which should be running a Crankypants review any day now), IndieBabies to name a handful. A few are friends'. A few are heroes (Ariel Gore, Kimya Dawson, brooklyntweed). A few are crafty (Whip Up, sixoneseven). A few are just because I love them (Post Secret, Parent Hacks, Go Fug Yourself). I check my Bloglines about 5 times a day. I can't help myself. Damn- I forgot that I need to reply to Tela over at Working Moms Against Guilt about an interview/review/giveaway we are going to do in April. I even love that blog and am really looking forward to it, but it slipped out of my sieve brain. Sometimes I wish that I was a natural organizer. Or that I had an assistant. Or something.

After blogs, I start message board checks to keep up with my other crafty mamas, congomates and to make sure there is no Crankypants drama that needs to be addressed. It seems that Suzanne from Goodmamas is taking all the heat off of me right now, drama wise. It is a relief to be out from under the microscope, but since Suzanne is a friend and I know what it's like to be at the center of the hubbub, I feel for her. I feel like I know some of what she is going through, and I know that no one on the other side of the shopping cart and crashed site can understand. Even though she has an amazing sense of humor and sense of self, I know it is insanely stressful. This morning I don't feel like there is anything I need to respond to so I keep my big mouth shut.

Now it is time to assess what I actually need to get done today. I need to photograph a pair of longies I finished last night, and edit them-but Kyle took the camera to work today because he has become the go-to guy for photographing sporting events and there is a baseball game after school today (this will buy me an extra hour of work time this afternoon because he is taking Henry with him). I'll have to put that off until tonight, which means I can't ship those longies until tomorrow. I have to ship another pair of classics which didn't make it into Saturday's mail. I have to make a bib for a customer who has been waiting for a while, but my sewing machine is broken. This means I am going to have to see if I can do some sewing at a friend's house this week, but if I am going to do that I might as well bring over a stack of things to sew, so I need to do all the cutting and prep work for a whole batch before that can happen. I need to get all of that prep work done today. I also need to call the sewing machine guy today to see if I can drop of my broken machine soon. I have two custom orders to finish by week's end. This means I need to finish the first pair by Wednesday if I want to stay on track and I only cast on last night. My goal is to get the body done today and the legs done tomorrow. We'll see. They are 20" waist, 19" rise, so that is a lot of knitting and my fingers have been bothering me lately. I have a new bunch of requests to get on the waiting list that need to be dealt with, so I need to send that mass email. I should probably set up a new email account with an autoresponder just for that and have my web guy put it on the longies page, but I haven't had time to make the list of other site updates that need to happen yet (my home page is still talking about holiday sales, sheesh) so I've been putting it off. Ugh, this list thing is starting to overwhelm me. Best just get to work...

The Rules...

Last night during a program we were watching (Jeopardy, I think) a commercial came on for a movie that involved gunfire. Henry immediately slapped both of his hands over his eyes, turned away from the TV and shouted "I shouldn't be watching thiiiiiiiis!". All of his Valentine's candy (minus what I have stolen after he's in bed) is still sitting in its little empty tissue box after being declared "too sugary and not good for you".

I swear to you, he is only going to keep me around until he can successfully pry small LEGO pieces apart by himself. Other than that, he's pretty much got the parenting thing covered.

Dern You Jar Jar Binks!

So Kyle thought it was high time that Henry experienced some Star Wars magic, having such fond memories of it from when he was a little guy. He rented Episode 1, with the most annoying character in the history of movies: one Jar Jar Binks. But Kyle thought ole Jar Jar would make it more kid-like and less scary. Wrong! Several nights this week Henry has woken up with Star Wars themed nightmares. I spent from about 2 until 7 this morning sleeping on approximately 5% of my small child's small bed while his tiny body occupied the other 95%. Needless to say it was not the most restful night of my life.

I woke up, shuffled him off to school and finished Stacy's navy sabertooth longies.



I have been working my bum off trying to catch up on this short month's long list, but it looks like I'm still probably going to come in a little late. I have 3 pairs left for February, so it will be a race to the finish. One pair are board shorts, I might have a small chance. I think it depends on how well my fingers hold up. When my hands get sore I try to work on other things, but with a busted sewing machine, my options are limited. One thing I will work on is this stack of almostfinished classic longies I have here. Which brings me to the next item of business.

I have here, finished and ready to go:

All Gone! Check back over the next few days, though, I'll be listing more.

I have emailed people on the wait list about them, but the time frame I gave for a reply is up and I really need to get them outta here. Starting in April I will be devoting all in stock to the wait list until everyone has had a chance to get a pair. Until then, I am just going to offer what I have to my faithful readers first, then put them up on HC. They are $70 plus shipping, please be prepared to send payment immediately. Shoot me an email at info@crankypantshome.com if you want a pair and I will delete them as they go. I'll be listing more as I finish them, I think I have 7 pairs in all.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye...

I am sick. Again. One of the down sides of having a kid in school is that they drag home every germ in the greater metropolitan area for the whole family to enjoy. *cough*

In better news, I just got off the phone with Peru (well my Peruvian contact, not the whole actual country) and I have an ETA on my first batch of longies. I should have them on my doorstep by the end of April, which is fabulous news. Most of the hold up is with the yarn, so once that is all worked out there will only be about a 2 week turnaround between batches. He is buying enough yarn up for about 400 pairs (kinda scary) so we should have this kind of lag time again for quite a while.

I also wanted to address the wait list, which has been the most ginormous pain in my booty lately. Some folks have been on it for a loooooooong time and they no longer care about Crankypants, which I completely understand. It has been very frustrating for me to keep emailing folks on the list when I have classics in stock, knowing that there are tons of people who want them, only to receive no reply. So I have decided to put the wait list on the back burner until I can send gigantic mass emails taking orders and am able to actually fill them with longies from Peru. It will be so much less confusing and less frustrating for me. I'm sorry if that makes people angry but I can't do it one at a time anymore, it is just too much. As soon as Peru gets finalized I will whip right through it, I promise.

I do have a small bunch of classic longies sitting here in need of good homes, I will take care of that issue tomorrow, so check back here if you are interested.

Once Upon a Time I was Falling in Love...

Did you guys check out the lunar eclipse last night? Having Total Eclipse of the Heart stuck in my head all night was worth it, the eclipse was awesome. It was really windy here and the strong gusts kept blowing these wispy clouds over the partially eclipsed moon, Thriller style. Wow, I'm really abusing those 80s references, no?

I finished Eden's Great Horned Owl last night. She sent me some pictures to work from and we wanted kind of a cute/funky feel.




I also put the snap closures on my little felted bag and made a matching cozy for my phone, since I am completely paranoid about it getting scratched or dropped or otherwise mangled.




I can't believe it is already Thursday, that is just crazy.

Pttttttttttthhhhhhhhhhh...

That is what my sewing machine said to me when I tried to finish a big batch of bibs on Monday morning. At first I thought it was a tension problem but, after hours of tinkering, it is clear that I will need to actually bring it in to get a tune up. This means no monster bibs for a while. Booooo!

Luckily, my cup runneth over with other work to keep my little fingers busy. I finished Selena's princess monsters (complete with beaded tiara) and finally got a chance to photograph them.




I also whipped up a little hand bag for myself out of Malabrigo (a single ply merino wool kettle dyed in a women's cooperative in Uruguay) in the "Velvet Grapes" colorway. It was going to be a bit bigger, but I didn't feel like going to the laundromat for a top loading washer, so I took my chances in my front loader. It felted like gangbusters and now I have a cute as a button little handbag, which I'm very happy with. I am in love with the tattoo girl patch I got on Etsy and I think it looks great with the colorway of the yarn. I can happily fit my phone, wallet, keys and small note book and pen I insist on carrying everywhere. I haven't decided on closures yet. I have some deep purple resin snaps that would work, but with the wool bag and cotton patch, I'm not sure if resin snaps would ruin the "organic" nature of the project. I do need something to hold the flap shut, though. I'll probably end up going with the snaps, maybe 2 right next to each other on the right hand side to give it an asymmetrical look. We'll see.




I am almost finished with the second leg of Eden's Great Horned Owl longies and hope to have them in the mail sometime tomorrow. I am a little nervous about working up the owl chart, but hopefully I can finish it before the tiny man gets home from school this afternoon.

I hope everyone is having a good morning!

Picture Walk!

This weekend was pretty grey and rainy, but Henry and I managed to get outside for a little picture walk on Saturday. He was very picky about what he'd take pictures of and I think he got some good ones:






I got my hands on the camera for a little bit and snapped a few quick ones while Henry played with his shadow.






It looks like it is brightening up out there so maybe we'll get out again this afternoon. I am anxious for Spring hiking and was so excited to see that lone little crocus poking its head up in our front yard. Hurry up, Spring!

Stuff

I'm not that big of a "stuff" person, but every once in a while something catches my eye.

I just got a sweet little packet from Glasgow, Scotland with a few patches I ordered from Gorjuss Art. They are awesome! I got two different print patches. This one:



I am going to use on a bag for my very own self! I am going to do a grown up messenger style bag with a flap out of Malabrigo in the Velvet Grapes colorway and slap that patch on the flap part.

I also got a few patches made out of this print:



that I am going to use for a super limited run of library bags. I love that print, I think it is so pretty. Books AND striped tights? I'm in!

In other "stuff" news, I am in desperate NEED of these:



They were designed for Converse by Camilla Engman (who rocks my socks) for their contribution to the Bono brainchild (RED) program, which features cool products sold to benefit various AIDS and malaria projects in Africa. They are way out of my price range and the Converse website has to the one of the most annoying sites I've ever been to, but I want them!!!

The Temptation of Adam

Since yesterday was all about luuuuurve, I meant to write about my most favorite love song ever. The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter is one of my favorite albums that came out last year, and it has been on heavy rotation at Crankypants HQ for a while now. As soon as Track 04 starts and I hear the horns come in a la Otis Redding's Try a Little Tenderness, my eyes start to mist over. Every time. Because I know what follows is the sweetest and most wonderful love song-the kind that makes you think 'If someone wrote that for me I'd drop dead on the spot and be perfectly okay with it'. It begins:

If this was the Cold War
We could keep each other warm
I said on the first occasion that I met Marie
We were crawling through the hatch
That was the missile silo door
And I don't think that she really thought that much of me

It is an unlikely set up for The Most Amazing love Song of All Time, but you're going to have to trust me on this one. You can hear it here.

If you had a crappy Valentine's Day and want to hear his equally awesome Traffic-esque break up song Rumors, go here instead...

I've also gotten some Crakypants customer love over the last few days, so I wanted to share with you!




Tomorrow night I am going to the 2nd Annual Brian P.'s Birthday/Karaoke Bash. I have to dress up like a rock start, which is going to be tough. I was thinking of playing it safe (Natalie Merchant) or glaming it up classic style (Joan Jett) but I saw this really cute/ugly green floral skirt at Target yesterday that made me think of Lily Allen, so I think I am going to go that way instead. I got the fishnets, but now I need to find some black boots, and what to wear on top? I don't know, I suck at this stuff. And I don't have bangs. I'll have to figure out some sort of up do thing. Help, fashonistas, help!

Nicole's Cross Eyed Monsters

I finished up Nicole's cross eyes girly monsters this morning. Nicole is getting to be quite the Cranky connoisseur so I hope she likes them! Nicole might enlist me to try to figure out a Cranky skirty pattern for the upcoming Spring/Summer season. We'll see...



When we were in Dallas some of Cindy's friends and I were looking through her yarn basket and we found this gorgeous stuff:



This is all there is and they encouraged me to bring it home and knit it up. It is such a small amount, I have no idea what to make. It seems like a silk blended hand spun of some kind. I might make a couple of cuffs. What do you think?

Bring on the Chocolate!

This morning has already been full of looooooove!

That's sarcasm.

Kyle hit 'off' instead of 'snooze' on the alarm this morning so we slept late and spent all morning running around trying to get everyone ready for school in 10 minutes. Henry has a field trip today ("I don't waaaaaant to go on a field trip!") so I had to find his little preschool shirt so all the kids match when they go see their little play at the library ("I don't waaaaaaaaaaaaant to go to a play!"). Then I had to wrestle my darling little child into his jacket while trying to get him excited about the day's events ("I don't waaaaaaant to get Valentines!") and shove him out the door.

I have given birth to the biggest grump on the planet. They made little Valentines boxes at school out of old tissue boxes. They were all lined up on the counter when I picked him up the other day. Little boxes all painted red and covered liberally with hearts and doily things. Then one little naked tissue box, no paint, no hearts, no doilies and a single word: Henry. Henry who didn't want to paint or decorate his box. Because Henry is a 97 year old curmudgeon trapped in the body of a 4 year old. I am surprised he doesn't yell "That's a CROCK!" at Go, Diego, Go! when something outlandish happens.

To continue the magic of Valentine's Day, here's what I got Kyle:



I know. It's a cast iron skillet and if any of my friends' husbands bought that for them for Valentine's Day I would probably make a snarky comment about "keeping women in the kitchen" and hitting him in the head with it. Except that Kyle has been wanting a cast iron skillet forever. And it's red! Perfect!

Peru Update

For those of your following my fair trade saga...

I just got off the phone with my "Peru guy" (aka Angelo) and it seems that we have hit a small set back. Since they usually use baby alpaca and not wool they had to make a special large yarn order for me, which I knew would add extra time onto the whole process. It turns out the colors we need aren't readily available. So... they are going to dye special batches of super soft Peruvian Highlands wool just to match my colors! Pretty cool, no? We might be looking at a few extra weeks, but I think it will be worth it. I feel all fancy having special yarn made just for me.

Happy (Almost) Valentines!

I say this because I finally go all of Henry's Valentine stuff worked out. Here are the Valentines for all his little class mates. I went with fruit leather again. I just can't bring myself to give them real candy yet, even though I know Henry will bring a bunch home. I don't even have a problem with him eating it. Heck, knowing my weirdo son he'll say "This is junk food, it has too much sugar in it" and not let anyone eat it. He's such a little old man.



His preschool doubles as the Child Development workshop for the high school kids, so the high school kids in the program cycle through doing one on one work with the little ones all day. I bought a couple of bags of little Snickers for them, thinking I'd just chuck them in the office and let them grab one as they left the class. Then his teacher gave me a list of all their names yesterday. Being the freak that I am, I'd feel bad if the other moms gave them all individual Valentines and I didn't. Soooo...I went through our stack of magazines and cut hearts out of all the red pages, addressed them to the "big kids" from Henry and taped the Snickers to them so they can get individually recognized. How dumb is that? Like they care, they just want sugar! It's like a sickness, I tell you.

In happy and heartwarming news, I got a package from The March of Dimes the other day. Apparently the fund raising donation we sent in right before Christmas was big enough to get us into the "President's Club". We got a lapel pin declaring us generous and everything. I would send the pin around to live with each person who donated for a week or something, but that would take a lot of coordinating, so I think I am going to send it to my friend Sarah whose second son was a preemie and who keeps the MOD close to her heart. Sarah, if you're reading this, email me your address, sweet pea.

Also, some of you might remember when I made my first micro-loan to a woman in Sierra Leone via the super duper awesome website Kiva.org. As of Monday half of that loan has been paid back. This means Marima must be having some success, which makes me so happy! I am going o use some of the money from my first Peru sales to make another Kiva loan, so I need to do some more research on my next loanee. If you haven't checked out the website yet, go! The minimum loan is $25. That is such a bargain for all the warm fuzzy world community feelings you'll get if you choose to participate. Pinky swear.

Rooooooaaaaaaaarrrrrr!

Carolyn and her family have been calling her little beastie to be (he's still a wee little bun in the oven) 'baby dragon' for a few months and so she asked if we could do a dragon booty! They are a size medium, so don't expect action shots anytime soon, but she wanted them to fit when the little guy could actually show them off.





I love how the flames came out. I hope the dragon boy likes them, too!

Monday Monday

Let's start with a couple of pictures, shall we?

Yesterday Kyle decided it was time for Henry to learn how to shave.



It was pretty much the cutest thing on the planet and I didn't manage to capture a picture that did it justice. Henry was so proud to be doing something that Daddy does and he talked about it all night. I love my boys!

I finished the first pair of February monster booty longies this weekend! Here you are Valerie. They'll be in the afternoon mail!



The last picture of the day is something I whipped up for Ms. Panda Dawson. Her mama, Kimya, doesn't read this blog so I hope it will be a fun surprise when she opens her package. It is a little red panda bib to match the panda capris I made for her earlier this year. As time goes by and Kimya gets to be more and more of a super duper rock star I continue to be in awe of the way she handles herself. I can't imagine a person out there who deserves success more and I am hoping to see her ROCK the Oscars!



Today is going to be a busy one. The monster-y guest spot I had last week was a success, so I have a lot of shipping to do. For those of you who missed it, there are still a few monster bags sitting there.

The twice annual kids consignment sale spectacular, Wee Trade, is this week as well. This means going through all of Henry's outgrown summer and spring things, tagging each item and putting everything on hangers and whatnot. It is so tedious. Drop off for sellers is tomorrow (holy cow!) so I need to get to that today. The actual sale is the night of Valentine's Day, I don't know whose idea that was. Not like there were any candle lit dinners planned in my house or anything, but still...

Home!

Whew! After a 14 hour day of traveling we are finally home! Once again, I am amazed by my little boy's ability to adjust and go with the flow. He was an absolute trooper yesterday. Note to self" Buy Henry a pony.

As you can imagine, it was a pretty emotional week. Luckily we had 2 little balls of energy bouncing off the walls to make us crack a smile in the most horrid of situations. Cindy would have been so happy to see the boys getting some solid cos' time, since they live so far away and don't get to see each other much. They had a blast playing stick ball in the driveway, wrestling, painting and making goofy faces all week.





After a great night's sleep and a pot of coffee I am ready to get back to work! I am a little embarrassed to admit how ill at ease I was so far away from my customs book and my yarn stash!

Some things going on right now:

* Organic BFL girly monster shorts up for auction at Venus Vanguard

* A whole slew of monster related gear (including a new batch of bibs) going live in about 12 minutes over at K&F Shops.

* For my Santa Cruz folks- keep an eye out for a review in Growing Up in Santa Cruz next month. If anyone is feeling particularly generous, I'd love to get my hands on a copy. Shoot me an email or leave a comment if you'd be willing to send me one and I'll send you a little thank you.

* A big THANKS! to Emily over at The Emily Allyn Blog for her super sweet reviews of our monster longies and Sarah's awesome Nightmare Snatchers.

Dallas Update #2

Well, I thought I would be able to handle work stuff while I was down here but it just isn't happening. I will be devoting my whole Friday to taking care of my February peeps, I'm sorry for the delay. I just haven't been able to get to it like I thought I would.

The boys have been amazing. I can't believe how flexible and willing to go with the flow they are. They have been shuffled between Cindy's house (where they've never been before) to the hotel and all over the place and they've held it together pretty dern well. Henry has been doing a fabulous job of playing with his little cousin Drew, though I can tell the age difference gets to him sometimes. The difference between 2.5 and 4.5 is a pretty big one as far as playing games and taking turns and things, so I'm pretty proud of the patience he's showing. We are lucky that the hotel we're staying at has a pool, so we've been taking afternoon breaks from the house to go back to the hotel and let the boys splash around and get some energy out. We even got a decent nap out of Henry yesterday. I think we might try to take them to an IMAX movie today at the science museum if we can get out of the house. Cindy is sleeping most of the time now, but it is hard to leave anyway, just in case she wakes up.

Tomorrow is going to be the traveling day from Hell. We have to catch a ride to the airport with Kyls' folks because they have the only car, but their flight leaves 2 hours before ours. So we'll get there around 9:30 but our flight won't leave until just after 1:00. Then we have a 3 hour layover in Minneapolis. Why we are flying from Texas to NC via Minneapolis, I have no idea. We don't land in Asheville until after 11pm. Count it up folks, that's 14 hours of traveling with a 4 year old who has been cooped up in a strange house for 5 days. Should be fun.

Friday Henry and Kyle will be back at school and I will be back to work, finally sending invoices and giving my February peeps the lurve and attention they deserve. I even might knock a few folks off of the classic wait list this weekend.

Checking in

We made it to Dallas safe and sound. Thanks to everyone for their patience and well wishes while I'm down here. It has been really difficult, as you can imagine. The whole family is down here and we have been looking through tons of pictures, telling old sories and trying to keep things as light as possible. Cindy is no longer able to get out of bed so I have spent a lot of time in her room holding her hand and just being.

Henry has been doing and amazing job of keeping himself occupied and playing with his little cousin. The hotel has an indoor/outdoor pool, so we took amuch needed swim break yesterday and that held the boys over for the rest of the day.

Uh oh, my battery is about to die. We are heading back over to Cindy's anyway. I'll try to check in again later today.

Thanks again.

Super Fancy, Super Fuzzy Monster Cuff...

Sometimes when I'm feeling kind of blue it helps to make something silly. I have been meaning to make something fun with this fabulous hot pink and yellow striped extra long fur stuff I couldn't pass up a while back, so I jumped on the machine real quick and made this super fancy, super fuzzy monster cuff. There is a layer of black terry on the inside so the rough faux fur backing isn't against the skin and it closes with a resin snap.

Henry was nice enough to do a little photo shoot with me, but I couldn't coax him into decent light. I think they're pretty cute anyway, bad lighting and all.






And a close up:




I don't know why the pictures are so grainy. I'm sure I just messed up a setting on the camera or something, but there is no way I'm getting that kid to model for me again, so you'll just have to get the idea.

Okay. Now I'm really going to go pack. Really.

I'm a Leavin'...yadda yadda

After hearing the bad news yesterday the house was a buzz with phone calls with various family members and plans to be made. We are jumping on a plane to Dallas first thing in the morning to spend some time with Cindy and we'll be back on Thursday. While I'm sure we'll have a lot of down time (anything we cant miss while we're in Dallas?), I'm not really sure what the internet situation will be. I guess it depends on if the hotel has wireless or not. We are lucky enough to have a wonderful cousin who planned her visit with Cindy to coordinate with ours so her 3.5 year old son and Henry can entertain each other while we're there. Thank goodness. I was starting to worry about his mental health being stuck with a bunch of boring adults in a strange place with crazy emotions flying all over the place all week. The little guys don't get to see each other very often so it will be nice for them to get to hang out a bit.

I've spent the day today trying to get things relatively ready to go in my absence. A little extra patience would be happily appreciated should we run into any wonkiness.

I am going to go do one last load of laundry, scrounge up some dinner and start packing. I'll be out of touch all day tomorrow until we land and get settles, so everyone enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks you for all of your well wishes!

Horrible News

Kyle's dad just called to let us know that his little sister Cindy, our favorite aunt, has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor and will be entering hospice tomorrow. She has declined medical intervention and will be spending whatever time is left at home with her amazing husband, Jamie. We may or may not fly down to Dallas to spend some time with her, I'll keep anyone in the middle of an order with me updated as far as any time that I'll be out of communication. Please hold her and Jamie in your thoughts and send peaceful energy their way.

Happy February!

So, my detailed analysis of last night's LOST episode is as follows:



Oh, come on, I'm kidding, let's get down to the nitty gritty, shall we?

Eden H.
Valerie
Amanda S.
Stacy F.
Jennifer

Congrats! I sent out emails to these mamas already so you should have gotten them by now. I'm sorry to everyone who didn't get a spot this month!

But this is going to be a busy month over here at Crankypants World Headquarters so let me give you a heads up about a few things to keep your eyeballs peeled for.

Next week Robin over at Tush Cloth Diapers is doing a newborn stocking to celebrate the birth of her new little one, Ms. Daphne. In addition to a million other cute things, there will be a set featuring a pair of newborn Crankypants Monster Booty longies and a newborn Tush.

Venus Vanguard is having a movie themed stocking on the 7th which I will stock at least one piece in. Think girly hand dyed organic Blue Faced Liecester. Yummmmmm...

The mamas over at K&F Shops are having a monster stocking on the 8th and they have invited me to take part. I'll be doing monster bibs, some pick-your-monster bags and other assorted odds and ends.

Okay. I really would love to stay and wax poetic about the virtues of Sawyer and the gang, but my knitting machine is calling my name and Henry will be home from school before I know it. Suprisingly, the knitting machine and Henry are unmixy things, so it needs to be all packed away safely before he comes bounding in the door.

Have a good Friday everyone!