This is a picture of the little katydid that came in with my herbs for my salad and kept hopping on me and waving his antennae around like he was trying to talk. He has nothing to do with the blog post, I just like this photo.

Last night my mom comes into the kitchen and sets a little rock in front of me. "Do you know what this is?" she asks.

I look at it. "Yeah, it's Nettie's little 'watermelon' rock. I mean, it's actually a piece of a glass marble I think, but we call it a rock."

She nods. "It was in my cupcake at the birthday party," she says.

I stare at the rock-marble. Then I stare at her. I remember, fuzzily, that Nettie helped me make some of the white cake batter. "Oh! She helped me make the cupcakes. She must have dropped it in...... Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Well, I didn't know if you could handle it right away," she says. "I didn't want to shake you up."

I consider this a moment. I mean, I am a little horrified and definitely shocked. But I think I could have handled it. I wonder how tenuous my sanity seems to my mom. It's strange that out of all the people at the party, and all the cupcakes (I think I made almost 100), she picked the specially-filled cupcake, and here I'm assuming that my sweet little helper didn't have any other small objects in her hands.

"I think it was God," she says.

I roll my eyes. "Nettie will be glad to have her watermelon rock back. She really likes this one..... Oh, and I'm really glad you didn't break your teeth out or eat glass shards," I say. It's only what any loving daughter would say to her mom after feeding her a half of a marble in a cupcake.

A very small portion of Nettie's rock and tiny thing collection

...

...

An excerpt of a conversation Nettie and I had a few weeks ago:

R: Please take those sprinkles out of your pants.
We don’t put sprinkles in our underwear.

N: We do! We DO put binkles in our underwear!

R: No, I don’t think that’s a good thing to do.
Please take the sprinkles out of your pants.

N: I willn’t! I willn’t take them out! I like them there!

R: But Momma doesn’t like them there. 

N: But I do? I want to put them in there and walk around?

R: No, please give Momma the bottle.

N: I willn’t. I keep these binkles in my pants!
(runs out of the room with the sprinkles in her pants)

end scene

...

...

The world's first pygmy white-tailed deer fawn

Also a few weeks ago at our house. After dinner, Dave is washing dishes and I am picking up the living room.

D: Sweetie, come here!

R: What?

D: Come in here and look at this!

R: What?

D: There's like the tiniest baby deer in the yard!

R: What?

D: There's like the tiniest little fawn I've ever seen out there! You won't even believe this!

R: Where?

D: (pointing) Right out there under the pear tree. The mom must be someplace close. I don't know how it even got there. It looks too tiny to walk.

R: (looking out the window) No way! It's like the size of a kitten! Is that how small they are when they're born? That can't be right!

D: (both looking out window) I don't know. Maybe it's like a dwarf or pygmy or something.

R: Does that happen?

D: I don't know.

R: (going out the front door, standing on the porch) Do you think it's okay?

D: (going out the back door, with the camera) I don't know, I'm going to take a picture. (creeping closer, taking pictures.) What? What the - - (a pause while he puts down the camera) Oh my god! It's D.D.! It's effing D.D! ((D.D. is Nettie's stuffed deer toy.) Bent over double, laughing hysterically)

R: (also starts laughing hysterically, comes out into the yard) Holy crap. We're the biggest idiots in the world.

D: Yep, the biggest.

R: (looking at the camera) You got some good pictures of D.D., though.

end scene

D.D.'s glamour shot

...

We're keepin' it real here, people. Hope you are, too. And remember, sprinkles are a festive topping for tasty treats, not for putting in your underwear.

Have you met Miss Maggie?

It's been a while since I shared a creative project. This is a pattern I came across on Pinterest. "Miss Maggie Rabbit" is the design of Alicia Paulson, of Posie Patterns and Kits to Stitch (aliciapaulson.com), and the pattern is available to purchase as a digital pdf file for $7.00.  She's actually something I made for Nettie's Christmas, but I didn't share her because Net basically had no interest in it. (Note to self: Toddlers are NOT the ideal recipients for detailed handmade gifts that took weeks of arguably tedious work to create. "Handmade" and "one-of-a-kind" mean nothing to them.) Granted, Net has plenty of other dollies and stuffed animals to bash around with, so she can probably be forgiven for not warming up to her rabbit doll right away. 

Even though she's super cute. I mean, look at these little boots. Of course Nettie won't let poor Miss Maggie Rabbit wear her cute little boots, because as she says, "her feet are NOT cold." And she doesn't call her Miss Maggie. It's just Bunny. 

The pattern is very simple to follow, but does take a number of hours to finish, since Miss Maggie is hand-stitched. The pattern suggests using a particular kind of wool blend felt and a particular line of cotton lawn fabric for her dress, but I just used some things I had already. I think she would be cute made of corduroy or velveteen or any other sturdy fabric. 

Hand-sewing is relaxing for me, so I thought this was fun. If you like to work on something in the evenings, this might be a nice little project for you. I'd like to make more "softies" in the future, and having a pattern in my hands for the first one was definitely helpful. It was worth the seven bucks to not have to pull my hair and my seams out trying to make something up. 

I think the boots are my favorite part. I've been trying to figure out if I can somehow make a pair small enough for some of my felted animals. They remind me so much of The Country Bunny's little gold shoes. (The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes, by DuBose Heyward, illustrations by Marjorie Flack. Don't know that one? You should check it out.)

How about you all? Have you been creating or crafting anything fun lately?