The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge at Five Green Acres

I saw the challenge posted last week.   I thought to myself; "no, no, no!  DO NOT TAKE ANOTHER CHALLENGE!  You will only regret it when you accomplish nothing due to general lack of motivation induced by carrying your fourth child and then, your failure will be displayed for all the world to see in blogger land".   But then I saw (and read) Mary Jo's report at the end of week one and it dawned on me The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge posed by Mary Jo over at Five Green Acres goes hand in hand with the biggest challenge that I have going on already so I have decided to take it.  

We have roughly six months until the arrival of our newest member of the family.  During this six months I hope to have rid our home of all the extraneousness items that do not belong here.  I would like to come home from the hospital to a clean and orderly home (for I seriously doubt that there will be any sanity past that once there are four of them and two of us).  The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge is to use what you've got to make what you are going to make.  Well I have a lot of things around here that need to be used or sent to a new home where some one else will use them.

There is the collection of frames in my garage

There are boxes upon boxes of fabric

There are pillow inserts waiting to be covered

There are ugly shelves waiting to be made beautiful

and the list goes on and on and on....

So I am taking this challenge and encouraging you to do so too!  If you haven't already gone to Five Green Acres , I suggest you get your tail over there and check out Mary Jo's great blog and of course you can read all about The Rumpelstiltskin Challenge there.

while unable to create...

Yes, it is true that this baby inside of me is wreaking havoc on all of my plans for January and the many things I had planned to create.  So instead of posting pics of things I am not working on right now, I will share my funny moment on the ride home from Christmas with the grandparents.

It is about 7 or so driving hours from my parents house to mine and this was the first time that we all have taken this ride in the same car so...well, I'll just let you see the pic of all three in the back.

please ignore the not so clean windows and simply note where Yasmeen's shoulders are.  My guess is that we need a new car quick if we are going to fit another child in before the next drive to Mobile, AL.  We do have another car that has more room in back but this is the one that my husband deemed road worthy for this years Christmas trip.  None the less, of all the things that we thought of when we found out we were expecting another child, this seemed to be the most pressing.  It looks like we will be in the market for a minivan in the very near future.  

Yasmeen was a trooper and a great help with the little ones on the ride home.  I think that she is getting the big sis of the year award for 2011!

We did stop for a good long visit at Cracker barrel in Baton Rouge where I discovered that the front porch has giant checkers games and all three kids (no, Evy didn't really know what she was doing) had fun playing the game for a little while.  I'll leave you with some pics of their checkers fun.

Evelyn

Moses

Yasmeen

Happy New Year....and she's back!

So I am finally back to share a few pics of the kids opening some of there hand made gifts.  It took me long enough, I know but the worst of it is that I didn't even get that many shots of the gifts!  I have a stellar excuse this time though really.  After weeks of hunger, nausea, and extreme fatigue I discovered that I am not really in need of meds for manic depression but rather that I am expecting baby number four this coming August!  So I will try to get great pics of the rest of the things that I made and continue to make things but I will do them as I can while I deal with the first trimester and all that it brings to my already crazy hectic life.  

I had to get a tree shot in here so that you could see the wonderful vintage ornaments that my mom and dad have.  I love all the felt ones from the seventies.  My grandmother made them.  I think that the Raggedy Ann and Andy are my favorites this year.

She has worn this a few times already but I have yet to get the camera out when it is actually on her body!  This is the very bias skirt that can be found here at no big dill with a complete tutorial to show you how.  She loves it and for the first time in years, she got compliment after compliment when she wore it to school the first day back after winter holiday!  Yes, this mama was very proud ; )

not the best shot but I promise it is cute in person.  I made this while driving (don't worry, my husband was at the wheel) to see my parents for Christmas.  It goes with the skirt.

and here is my Moses who immediately decided that his little sister didn't really need her car roll or her cars lol.  They played with these a good bit on the long ride home at the end of the week.  If you didn't see my previous post here , these lovely car rolls were not my idea.  I found the tutorial for these here at home made by jill and made six of them for the kids in my family.

So it is late and this is all I have to show for all my hard work right now.  I will come back soon I hope with more pictures of the things I made and gave this Christmas.  Then it's on to the next big thing...Valentines day!