Just Stuff

There is a chat on Jen Wilson's website tonight at 9 pm EST (that's 8 pm Central Time) for her new line release. I'm excited to see it! We never did get our hands on it early so I'm sorry I don't have any sneak peeks. I have seen the product previews for the beach/surf kit and it's amazing. If you have boys, you won't want to miss this pack. The girl's beach/pool pack is coming out next. I'm not sure if she's releasing everything tonight or one line at a time, since they are supposed to be "day trips". We'll see! BTW, she usually has little contests and gives things away during chats. ;)

I actually cut my first 15 inch long project on the vinyl machine. It went fine but I noticed my machine does not cut the lines on straight fonts, like Times or Arial, very straight. They all end up looking like a handwriting font because of the slightly jagged lines. It's something to note - I'll just use mostly handwriting-style fonts so it's not as noticeable. This vinyl I actually put on a canvas I bought at Hobby Lobby and painted. The matte vinyl was more difficult than I expected to apply to canvas. It eventually went on with lots of burninshing (rubbing) but putting it on the wall, plates, chalk boards, tiles, etc. is much easier. I put Aiden's name in white on the chalkboard part of a bin in his room. It was super fast and looks very cute!

For the Grandmas: It's amazing what different children learn first. While Brian was holding Aiden this morning, he pointed to the lights on the ceiling fan in our bedroom, which were turned off, and mumbled "broken". We laughed and Brian turned it on to show him it worked. I was impressed because previously, he's only been told that toys are broken (read: out of batteries). The number of words he is beginning to understand is amazing.

Then there's the fact that Aiden STILL has not figured out how to ride on any of his three ride-on toys. He pushes them from behind, or in the case of the trike, stands awkwardly off to the side to push. He'll sit on them and let us push him on the toy but he hasn't gotten the idea that he can use his own legs to power the ride-on. Our whole house is tile, he would have a blast riding around on it all day! We'll have to get one of his friends to show him how.

I pulled out the big trunk of dress ups last week when he had a friend over to play. Aiden has never really liked hats but he's been slightly more willing to keep some of the pirate hats on. Almost everything is boy-oriented. There are two pirate sets, two batman capes, one vampire cape, a coon skin cap, cowboy hats, a red devil halloween costume, some santa & elf hats, a ninja set, accessories for everything and weapons for all. (Because what's a pirate without his sword?) There is one silver princess tiara with light purple marabou feather glitter trim and a matching silver star & purple streamer magic wand that I bought for the dress ups, just in case there were girls over to play who didn't want to be a cowboy or ninja. Well, what has been the item du jour this week? The magic wand! Even more hilarious than Aiden walking around with this shimmering princess wand is the fact he genuinely seems to dislike the purple tinsel hanging off of it. He's busied himself removing most of it by hand and by the end of each day, I find these purple bits all over the house. Once the streamers are gone it will just be a plain silver wand with a star on top, perfect for any wizard. We can pair it with the vampire cape and maybe I can run down a wizard hat on Etsy. Oooh! I have all that felt, maybe I could make him one!

Which reminds me, I have a whole list of things I want to learn to make for him. Like a BBQ apron, tool belt, satin superhero cape... I love having a sewing machine! Now if only I could sew a bit better.....