SnowBlind

“Snowblind, can't live without you.  Snowblind, snowblind, snowblind!
I’m reminded of the song by Styx when I look outside when the sun is shining.

“The what is shining?”, you ask.

Yes, the SUN!

We haven’t seen much of it lately, so when it shines, everyone’s mood is lifted and there isn’t so much complaining about this winter that will not end.

Anyway, these photos show why we’re blinded by the sun when it does shine. This is what my backyard looked like at 4:00 in the afternoon on Wednesday:

That snow alongside the sidewalk is 3 or 4 feet deep. The pile at the end of the sidewalk is still as tall as I am.

This is the end of February, and I ache for warmer temps. I want to take Bradley for walks in his stroller. I want to watch the birds and squirrels prepare to nest. I want to see green things peeking out of the ground.

I want SPRING! 

I’ll take the sunshine.

T-shirt crafting

Over the weekend while I was catching up on my blog-reading, I found these easy instructions on Homemaker for decorating t-shirts. It just so happened that Bradley had a plain shirt in his drawer, so yesterday while he napped, Grammy got busy.

I first measured the width of the front of the shirt, then cut the letters of his name out of vinyl using my Cricut. Design Studio made it possible to size the letters so they fit neatly across the entire front of the shirt.

To help with placing the letters, the center of the shirt was marked with a pin. While I just “eyeballed” the letter placement, the pin helped me keep things fairly well centered.

Once the letters were on the shirt, I did rub them pretty hard to make sure they were secure.

The countertop was protected by a plastic trash bag, the shirt in the middle, then I put straight chlorine bleach (Clorox) in a spray bottle and sprayed the entire shirt, front and back. I made sure to spray under the arms so the shirt bleached evenly.

The bleaching started immediately as I sprayed. As soon as the entire shirt was covered, I quickly removed the vinyl letters and tossed it (by itself) in the washer. I did wash it twice to get rid of the bleach smell.

Here’s the finished product. I think Mr. Bradley is pretty happy about his personalized addition to his wardrobe. His mommy loved it and told me, “You know we’ll have to make him one of these for every size he grows into?”. Shouldn’t be a problem.

 

*This technique can be used with lots of other things besides vinyl letters. Anything that can be laid on the shirt and sprayed with bleach will work – stencils, magnets, household tools. Use your imagination.

*One of the tips in the original post I read was to spray the bleach into the air and let it land on the shirt. That would work great for doing this craft outside, but I was hesitant to spray bleach around in the house. I will try it that way, though, once the weather warms up.

Reflections on Rice Cereal

Remember how Bradley started having some rice cereal about a week and a half ago? Jess only gives him some every few days, and he’s beginning to get used to the texture, but the photos Jess took when I fed him on Thursday evening, show that he’s still wondering about this new addition to his diet.

He did get to the point where his mouth opened in anticipation of the spoon, and he even got a bit impatient when I took too long to give him a bite.

Here he is, finished with the food and ready for a taste of thumb. He ate all but the last bite of cereal. Yea!

I Would Give You My Heart

but it’s already been stolen.

By this guy.

Forever.

But try to have a wonderful Valentine’s Day anyway. :o)

 

Love you all!

Hankies

A couple of weeks ago I was cleaning out the closet in Bradley’s room. There are all manner of things stored in there, toys, games, books, Jessi’s high school memorabilia, Nick’s collection of Christmas ornaments, exercise tools, extra pillows, airbed, oh, and clothes. I came across a small cardboard box filled with odds and ends from Grandma Regier’s house. This box was stored in her guest room closet and no one wanted it when we cleaned out her house, so I brought it home, put it away, and promptly forgot about it.

The box held an antique swim dress, a velvet-lined box full of dress shields, some embroidered kitchen towels, a couple of sets of pillowcases, and quite an assortment of old hankies. Jessica was thrilled by the hankies, and we sorted through them, enjoying our new-found treasures. She picked out a few she wanted to keep, and I did likewise. All of them were washed and pressed, then divvied up between all of the Regier cousins. I hope they each enjoy having this small remembrance of Grandma.

As for the ones I kept, I put them in frames and hung them on the bathroom wall:

I love the touch of “vintage” they add to the room. Now I’m gonna have to re-do the bathroom again… :o)

First Cereal

Jess fed Bradley some rice cereal tonight – his first solid food. Here’s what he thought of it:

Sorry the photo is blurry – my camera, argh.

I did get a little bit of video. Oh, and yes, Jess calls him “whiner boy” all the time. With love. :o)

And he did spit up all of the cereal later…