CT has had a pretty bad cold the past two days, and it’s finally hitting me hard today. I had plans to finish some projects (I always have plans right?) Instead were hanging out on the couch in the bedroom, and trying to do as little as possible.
As usual I have to make SOMETHING, even when I’m sick. So I picked up the My Little Pony cross stitch again to pass the time in between cuddling.
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About Three years ago, almost to the date, I started my first quilt. I was 6 months pregnant with CT and I was still optimistic about how much I could finish before she was born. I had these huge plans about sewing some sheets, a crib skirt, an entire closet full of dresses and THIS quilt. Well, my pregnancy got a bit rough really soon after I finished the quilt top, and I could hardly do anything but sit until CT was born.
Fast Forward to this past Tuesday, I was browsing Pinterest and saw a really neat quick quilt that I could finish in one day with supplies I had on hand. I went straight to my sewing room to pick out some fabric. While rummaging through everything I found the quilt top that I had started 3 years ago, along with the batting cut to size and the back piece ready to go. All I needed was some fabric for the binding. Lucky me I always buy extra Kona cotton when its on super sale at Joanns. I had a bunch of pinks to chose from. I had no excuses to hold me back, so I figured “why not?”
It took me the rest of the afternoon and a little bit of time in the evening, but I was able to finish up the quilt, no problem! This made me feel super accomplished and now I’m all ready to make more!!
CT watched me finish most of it, and she knew it was going to be hers the entire time. I washed it last night while she was asleep, and once it was dry we placed it on her bed. She woke up and found it. I swear she actually squealed!! Ha. That is really the best sound the hear after you’ve worked on something for your child, isn’t it?
We have this rule in the house where you can only color in the at the table or on a quilt on the floor. We came up with it by random, but it really has helped eliminate drawing on the wall (unless its the chalkboard wall, which has its own rule). CT keeps a bunch of crayons and some paper in a little Totoro bag I found her, so the second I placed the quilt down to photograph she thought that meant it was time to draw!! She sat there for about an hour.
Well, I’m off to Pinterest to find another project to work on. I feel way more accomplished when I’m working on something new and different. Do any of you have suggestions?
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This past Saturday we headed down to Baltimore (with a detour past Columbia to pick up my little brother) to visit the National Aquarium. We use to go every so often when we lived in the city, before CT showed up. I’ve been talking about how much I wanted to go back for awhile.
We chose a horribly hot day to visit. The walk from the parking garage to the aquarium alone was ridiculous. Then once we got to the ticket line we saw that there was a TWO AND A HALF HOUR WAIT! ugh. We ended up walking around some shops in the Inner Harbor to kill time. After an hour and a half we decided to just sit and wait, CT was already looking tired and the fun stuff was still to come. It was too hot so we ended up upgrading our regular tickets to a year long membership so we could get in right away. It made our trip more expensive than we had planned, but now we can go back during the cooler months.
The first thing we ended up doing was the dolphin show. It was in a cool arena with seats! We needed the rest. Since it was a Saturday, the dolphin show was shorter than usual. We didn’t get to see them do all the cool jumps and such. CT still enjoyed it and is still talking about those dolphins!! She even picked out a stuffed dolphin in the gift shop that she now sleeps with every night.
After the show we headed out into the main part of the aquarium. Oh my was it crazy, there was so many people that CT couldn’t walk without getting trampled over. She had to be carried, pretty much the entire time!! I have been to the Aquarium dozens and dozens of times my entire life and I have never seen it this crazy! I guess as locals my family knew when the best time to go was? When you live outside the city for a certain amount of time, you forget how crazy it can get in the summer. We learned our lesson. There are many awesome exhibits at the national Aquarium, some of the best in the country, and within two hours we got to see FOUR!!
The four we saw were as awesome as I remembered. The jellyfish exhibit was beautiful! I had seen the same exhibit when I visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2008, but it was still neat to see it locally. Plus CT got to see real jellyfish! We have been talking about jellyfish a lot lately.
The sting ray tank was super cool and had a bunch of divers interacting with them. There was also a huge turtle swimming around, CT really liked him (her?).
There is also the entire top floor which is supposed to mimic a rain forest, we saw another turtle and a bunch of birds. That was always my favorite part of every aquarium trip.
The last exhibit was the dark shark tank that you walk down huge ramps to see. CT did not like the sharks, she said they were too scary. That was also about the time that we noticed just how tired she was.
We figured we have a year membership now, so if we missed anything cool, that we could just come back in a couple of months and see it with less people around. Maybe even try a day during the week when the crowd is just a bunch of kids on field trips, not frustrated/tired parents and screaming babies. The funniest and kinda saddest part though, if you ask CT what she saw at the aquarium her first response is “lots of people”, then she says dolphins and turtles.
After the aquarium we decided to drive around since we hadn’t been back to the city in awhile. We drove by the space (just to see what the outside looks like now) and we drove past the first place I lived on my own in Hampden. We also stopped by Atomic Books and Double Dutch (I bought some toys).
It was nice seeing it all, but it reminded me just how much I love living in the country! Baltimore will always have a place in my heart, the city gave me a lot of what I have now, but that doesn’t mean I want to ever live there again. I’m a lot less anxious these days, and I think thats why, haha. (just to be clear, everyone feels different about where is right to live, I’m not bashing city living, it’s just not for my family)
I know I complained a bunch about this trip, but CT didn’t know just how miserable the whole thing was. She loved it all and she really wants to go back. We definitively learned our lesson though, and will plan the rest of our weekend family outings for the fall. The heat and crowds are just too much in the Summer. I still want to visit Port Discovery, the Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo and then of course visit my absolute favorite place, The National Zoo!! So we’ll head to all those come October, or later.
I know I’ve asked this before and got a few awesome responses, but does anyone else have suggestions for places to take a toddler that are super fun?
Pin ItI’ve decided to take this week as a calm week. A week where the only deadlines I have are shipping orders and making lunch! I figured I’d work on some projects that I’ve been meaning to do. Monday I started cleaning my workroom (I hope to have photos once I’m done), and yesterday CT and I sculpted.
I’ve been itching to make some resin figures to paint. It’s been on my to do list for years. Finally a few months ago I decided that I need to stop saying I’m going to do it, and just do it!! My plans got put to the side quite a few times, but yesterday I finally sat down and sculpted. I’m not 100% excited about what I made, but it’s a good start. I finished an entire figure, a little rag doll looking figure to be exact. I’m planning on sanding and sealing the figure today and HOPEFULLY make a mold and a test cast by Friday. Plans always change, but I really hope I can keep to these!!
Usually when I do anything work related CT doesn’t care. Today was different, she was super interested. So I set up a little work area for her to play at too. She never really liked Play-Doh, it always grossed her out. I figured she might go for it this time because I was doing something similar.
She LOVED it!! She actually spent FOUR HOURS playing with one little tub of Play-Doh. Purple to be exact. We only have one color since she never showed interest. She has never, ever, sat for that long to play with anything!! I got a lot finished and she perfected the art of making Play-Doh caterpillars and mustaches. You can even see one of her mustache creations below.
We went by Target last night and picked up a few more colors plus some little Play-Doh ”tools”. CT was really excited when she went to bed last night because her plans for today are to play with PINK, not purple. haha. I wish I could have days where that’s the only thing I need to do!!
Pin ItAs I’ve said before, we are a nerdy household. There is a lot of comic books, comic book clothes, and comic book art everywhere. CT has grown up around this, so of course she likes it all too. She pretends her blankets are capes, she has little people super heroes and if you put her in a comic book shop she can name off about a dozen characters perfectly.
Don’t worry, she also loves princesses, dressing up and everything else girly. CT is a very well rounded toddler.
Her 2nd birthday is coming up soon. Next Sunday to be exact. I really wanted to make her a few of her gifts, something she would actually enjoy and play with. I’ve been thinking about it for awhile actually, and I ended up choosing a cape and shield.
I started with the shield. I wanted to do an actual Captain America’s shield, all red white and blue, but apparently I forgot to buy blue felt. I had a horribly stressful time the last time I went to Joanns (xmas shoppers are CRAZY), So I just said “whatever” and made it Red, White and Pink.
Want to know what the coolest part about this shield is?
It’s form is made with help from a frisbee!!! Yep, I thought of this while picking up CT toys one day. I didn’t know if it would actually work, so I was pleasantly surprised when it did!
Would you like to make your own? I made sure to take photo’s while I was putting this together. So if your interested, keep reading…
Pin ItWelcome!
My name is Jessee.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself before I start rambling on about projects, my shops, my baby, my house and anything else I would like to write about…
First off, I am the sole owner and operator of Art School Dropout, A handmade jewelry and accessories company.
I have been at that for the past 7 Years! To me that number is crazy. I started out doing it as a hobby, but it QUICKLY became my full time job.
For awhile there I was working at keeping my store stocked, I was selling in loads of shops and I was traveling the country selling my wares…
Until two years ago when my husband and I decided to have a baby and the business side of my world slowed down.
Which brings me to the next part about me, I am a Mom to an adorable, and crazy, toddler that we will name “CT”.
She keeps me very busy in every way. She’s a smart little girl who loves books and climbing.
My husband works very long hours, so my “creativity time” is hard to come by.
I hope to use this Blog as an outlet for the things that I make.
So, I figure anything I forgot to mention will just be brought up later, no need to make this post any longer.
