A Little Oompa Love

I love, love, love Oompa!!  I love their products!  I love that there are two local stores!  I love that they play with our daughter when we go shop there!  I love that they don’t mind the mess we make either (we do clean up what we can).  I love their customer service and smiling faces when we walk through the doors!

We recently purchased this made by HABA.

It is a Christmas gift for our daughter.  I have been unpacking everything before wrapping.  I want to check out the quality of the toys (less surprises later) and also make sure no pieces are missing or broken.  Plus, less after Christmas recycling. 

Well, I unpacked this toy one morning last week and was removing all the packaging, or what I thought was packaging (Note:  HABA is a Germany based company.  Most of the box is written in German and it came with no instructions.).  If you lift the lid where the buttons sit, there is a piece of foam underneath the buttons…packaging, or so I thought.  Once I removed it, I realized that it was not part of the packaging, but a very important part of the toy.  Once removed, it is virtually impossible to get back in place and the buttons are not functional once removed.  I was instantly sick to my stomach.  You see, this is a $40 toy.  Something I debated about getting our daughter because of the cost.  (Another side note:  I actually had a 10% off coupon I used and if you spent $50, you received a $10 gift card, so really I paid $26ish for it).  I called Oompa and the customer service rep told me I’d have to speak to a manager on Sunday.  I hauled my unhappy hinny into the store yesterday, only to be told that she could email the company and hopefully get a replacement part for me, but that she couldn’t refund my money.  I left her my information and left feeling a little defeated, but hopeful.  Well, I got a phone call from the Oompa manager before 11:00 a.m. today.  She had wonderful news:  HABA is going to send me a brand new register and a mailing labeling to mail back the non-working register!  Yay!!!  Thank goodness for great service!

Okay, so it was probably my fault, but again, the foam did look like packaging.  I will know this time and not remove it!  I think I may try to figure out something too so that our daughter doesn’t remove it while exploring and playing with the toy as the foam is exposed to little fingers.

I’m so grateful for the great service!  It is one of the stores I have fallen in love with and would be disappointed if I was left with a toy that didn’t work.  I will definitely continue to recommend the store to others and tell them about my experience and how it was resolved. 

Any stores you love? 

 

Traditions

I am really getting more and more into traditions.  I had some growing up, but it was more of where we would go when and not so much what we would do.  For example, it was always a given on Christmas Day that we would go to my Grandma and Grandpa’s house.  I like the idea of knowing where we are going on what day, but I also really like the idea of having fun things to do at home that are a given.  I want my children to grow up remembering these traditions and to want to come home to mom and dad (even when they are older and we are no longer super).  I want to be able to reminisce with them and form lots of special memories.  I really think this helps us all bond too.  As our children get older, we are open to their ideas too!

Here are a few traditions we have already started here:

*  Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas countdowns.  These are really simple!  For Halloween and Christmas it is a long paper chain (black and orange / red and green) to a pumpkin or Christmas tree.  Each day we take off a chain link and count the number of days until the upcoming holiday.  This has also been a good way to get some more practice counting.  For Thanksgiving, I just made a turkey body out of a paper grocery bag and crafted some paper turkey feathers.  Each day we take off a turkey feather and count again.

*  Birthday (for our daughter only, not for us, although a tradition for us is in the works…)  She gets to wear her birthday crown, have whatever she wants to eat (including if she wants birthday cake and ice cream for breakfast), open presents, wears a sewn by mama birthday shirt and do whatever fun activity she would like to do for the day (the last two years we have just picked the zoo for her, but this coming birthday she will pick).  We also hang a mama sewn fabric birthday banner.  We also make sugar cookies cut out into the year (for example, last year was 2 and this year is going to be 3).  (Thanks to my sister for this cute little tradition!)  My husband even got ‘30′ cookies last year!

*Christmas:  We always go to my mom’s on Christmas Eve to eat and open presents.  First thing in the morning we open our stockings, eat breakfast and open presents.  Then, late morning my husband’s side of the family comes over.  We watch the Christmas Story (typically while our daughter has napped as it is on over and over again for 24 hours on TBS I think).  We play cards, open presents, eat lunch and supper, and just enjoy each others company.

*  Christmas tree:  Last year was the first year we ditched our artificial tree for a ‘real’ tree.  I’m so glad we did.  We just went and picked one off the lot.  We will definitely get another ‘real’ tree, but I’m not sure if we will just get one off the lot or cut one down…to be decided.

* Easter:  I cut out paper bunnies and our daughter searches the house for them.  She loves this!  Each year it will get more challenging and fun (for her and us).  She finds her Easter basket and also some mama sewn fabric eggs.  We then head over to my sister-in-law and brother-in-laws house for an Easter lunch and egg hunt.  We had been going to my side of the family for Easter for as long as I can remember, but I have to say we really enjoyed ourselves so much last year that we will now start going to my husband’s side.  (My side has so many gatherings that it is nice for a change of pace.  Plus, it makes my husband happy.  I think he has always felt like his family gets left out of the holidays and I don’t want him to feel like that.)  Leading up to Easter, we also dye Easter eggs.  Last year I made the egg dye and it turned out really good (cheaper too).

*  Valentines Day:  I really want to keep this about love and friends.  Not so much about romantic love, but about loving and being thankful for all the love and support in your life.  We have a special Valentines Day dinner and our daughter gets a few special things (I think last year she got a book or two and some small treats).  My husband and I might exchange a small gift like chocolate or his favorite beer, but no big bouquets of flowers or romantic dinners here.  I also make Valentines Day cookies in the shape of a heart.  Our daughter will be more involved in this process this year.  I also cut out paper hearts for our daughter to find, just like we do at Easter.

*  Oktoberfest:  We just started celebrating the last day of Oktoberfest this year.  My husband is half German and I really want to bring some cultural awareness into our lives.  We just celebrated this year with Oktoberfest beer (for my husband) and a German dinner.  There are some activities that we may try in the future, but this year was just the start.

*  Footprint and Handprint Christmas Ornament:  The daycare our daughter attended her first year made us this cute little fabric ornament using our daughter’s hand and footprints.  I am continuing that.  I have the 2007 one (from daycare) and I made a 2008 one.  I will make the 2009 one sometime in mid-December.  I’m not sure if we will hang these on the tree or if we will do some kind of display.  We will see.

What we want to start implementing:

*  St. Nick’s Day:  I really loved this thought and think it is something easy and fun to implement.  We will leave a pair of shoes out on the night of December 5th and see what St. Nick brings us in the morning.  This is yet another way to celebrate our German (not mine) heritage.

*  Cookies for Santa:  We will be leaving Santa cookies this year too and a glass of milk of course.  Not sure if we will pick a cookie that Santa will have every year or if it will vary…we will see.

*  Advent Calendar:  I found a tutorial last year on a cute little felt advent calendar and sewed it back in September or so.  I have all the presents wrapped and ready to go for this.  Super excited to start this tradition.

*  Thanksgiving ‘What I Am Thankful For Tree’:  We are going to get a medium-sized branch and I’ll cut out construction paper leaves and we will all write down things we are thankful for during the month of November.  Hopefully, we will have a full tree by Thanksgiving.

*  Birthdays:  We will expand the birthday celebrations to my husband and I.  We will get to pick what we want to eat that day (since my birthday is in a week, I plan to pick orange juice, french toast, coq au vin, chocolate cake and ice cream…two flavors) and some place we would like to go.  This year I’m picking the zoo, because they have a free family day and honestly, it is the only way I’m getting my husband to go for a 2 plus hour drive to a zoo that will be crowded.  We will also start watching home movies this year. 

*  Kids Day:  My husband had this tradition growing up.  Somehow he and his two siblings conned their parents into having a Kids Day, because of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.  Kid’s Day was always right before they went back to school in the Fall.  They each got a gift and did something special.  This sounds like fun to me.  I love giving gifts and having something fun to look forward too.  I’m sure we will keep it semi simple.  It would be really great if I could make a special breakfast, lunch and dinner for each of them (or maybe just a special dinner).  I would definitely be a short order cook that day, but with a little planning, I’m sure it would all work out.

*  Giving to needy families.  We would like to start some kind of tradition to give to others.  I’m not sure what this will look like yet.  It could be a toy for Toys for Tots or a blanket for Project Linus or even volunteering somewhere.  We will see, but something I definitely want to instill in my children.

What are some of your traditions?????

Recycled No Sew Tree Skirt And Other Wedding Decoration Reuse

I have been wanting to make a new tree skirt for a while now.  The one we’ve been using for the last few years is a vinyl-like material.  I’m not a big vinyl fan myself and the color I really didn’t care for either.  I’m not one to run out and buy a lot of seasonal stuff, so I’ve just been using the vinyl-like gold one for the last 8-9 years.  It is time for it to move onto another home for sure!

Well, I’ve been trying to go through a lot of my wedding decorations from 3+ years ago and I came up with a solution.  I decided to use the satin piece of fabric that was used on our wedding cake table at our wedding reception.  It is about 5 yards long (if I’m remembering right).  I was going to sew it, but I actually like the look of it more tussled and flowing under the tree.  I’m just going to wrap it around the bottom of the tree and tuck under the ends.  Simple.  Done.

I also have set aside some of the little flowers used as wedding decorations for art projects for our daughter.  I have the tulle set aside in my sewing stash, although I’m not sure what I will eventually use it for.  I’m giving some of the ribbon bows to my mom for holiday decorations.  I’m going to use a few of the satin bows on our tree too.  I’m still left with what to do with some larger rose like fake flowers and also some candle votives that look like wine glasses (sort of).  I would like to keep some of the stuff, but I’m not sure why quite yet.  It is just taking up precious space.  Any crafty ideas of what I can do with the extra stuff?

No Sewing Sunday…

Well, I did not get to sew yesterday, but that is okay.  I had family pictures with my siblings for a surprise 60th birthday present for my mom.  Then, my daughter and I went out to eat and grocery.  Needless to say, it was late by time we got home and no nap occurred.  We ended up eating supper and watching some home video footage of our daughter. 

On that note, I am very grateful to have a sister-in-law so willing to help us.  We do not have a modern computer that had the capabilities of burning the taped mini DV movies unto DVD, but she does, so sister-in-law to the rescue.  She is so sweet and even did some online research for me while I ran to get a last minute firewire (the pamphlet says it is optional and by that they mean…expensive and necessary).  Once we had all the necessary equipment, it took us a good hour to get the right settings on the computer and thus, it was 11 a.m. before we even made any progress.  So much for getting up at the crack of dawn to accomplish stuff.  Anyway, long story short, it takes at least 2 hours to burn each DVD and we have 12 of them to burn.  So far, I’ve gotten 6 done.  If I had the equipment at home, I could very easily be done by now, but no such luck with that.  Good thing sister-in-law is only a 1/2 hour away.  So, I have been busy running back and forth to her house to burn all these DVD’s.  So, I am really looking forward to sewing this coming Sunday. 

I just need to carve out some time to prepare sewing projects between now and Sunday and I will be good to go.  Maybe a week break wasn’t so bad afterall.

My Phone Is A Danger

Check out this link.  You may have to do some clicking to find out where your phone ranks as I did, but it is worth the knowledge.  I always error on the side of caution when it comes to things like this. 

I found out my phone is rank as one of the ten worst for emitting radiation.  Great!  Oh no, I talk on the phone all the time!  I am a talker and this will definitely put a little damper on that.  Not that that is a bad thing…sometimes, I talk too much when I should be doing other things.  We do not have a land line, so that is my only form of verbal communication.  We have only had the phones for about 5 months, so I am semi-stuck with it for at least another 19 months or so.  Ugh!

What am I going to do?  I am going to start using my earpiece more, try not to talk when the signal is low and just not use it as much.  

Check yours out.  I went on the US Cellular website and found a picture of mine and that is how I identified the model number. 

It will be a little quieter around here now, but sometimes silence is just what the doctor ordered.

Fabric and Notions

I finally made a trip to the fabric store to pick up a few things.  I had fun and if I was made of money, I would have had a considerably better time and probably spent the whole day in there. 

Here is what I got today:

I picked up two 1/2 yards of wool felt, one in white and the other in charcoal.  I found a few colors of organic fabric, but only bought a 1/2 yard of the pink.  Also bought a 1/2 yard of the brown corduroy with apples on it.  I needed to buy some ric rac for a felt mail project I’m working on.  Also needed some orange thread for our daughter’s Dora shorts for Halloween.  I couldn’t resist the remanent of the flowery fabric or a yard of the heart and bird fabric.  I thought I needed some snaps and ribbon (not pictured) too.  One can never have too many notions! 

Hope you’re able to go fabric shopping soon too!  It is so much fun!!!

Before Baby Comes To Do List

I have a rather huge to-do-list before this little one arrives in February.  Here are some of the things I feel need to get checked off before he or she arrives and I have no time again.

1)  Front doors:  finish painting and install (of course, no painting for me now)

2)  Cook and freeze meals…probably in late January

3)  Stock up on grocery items we buy a lot of

4)  Transition daughter to her new room

5)  Sew, sew, sew

6)  Trip to the zoo

7)  Finish putting basement back together from some unwelcome water earlier this summer

8)  Convince husband to buy flat screen he’s been wanting for years, have it installed and move various current TV’s all around the house.

9)  Read and blog

10)  Spend a lot of time with my little one…reading, hugging, preparing her, playing, etc.

11)  Make sleep mask for me. 

12)  Print a ton of recipes and meal plan.

13)  Get some homemade gifts sewed for next year when time is more limited at my sewing machine.

14)  Craigslist some odds and ends

15)  Research cloth diapers more and hopefully purchase some

16)  Buy new crib mattress and a twin mattress for our little one

17)  Make felt mail for Christmas present

18)  Make some Boo Boo bags

19)  Read, read, read

20)  Spend time with family and friends

21)  Enjoy time with my hubby

22)  Sleep

23)

New Curtains For The Soon-To-Be New Room

I went to a thrift store the other day and found a curtain that needed a home.  I decided to buy it, just for the fabric.  It is a nice heavy weight cotton fabric.  When I originally purchased it, I didn’t think I’d make it into curtains, but that is what I did. 

I made two panels out of the one huge panel and hung them in our daughter’s soon-to-be new room.  There are blinds in the room already, but they still let in a fair amount of light.  Hopefully, the curtains will diminish the amount of light coming through and make it look a little more homey. 

I, of course, got my husband to hang the curtain rod for me.  He didn’t complain too much, knowing that if he let me hang it he would probably have to redo it in a few months anyway.  I really do try, but somehow, they never hold. 

Anyway, here is what they look like.  I think I did pretty good for my first ever curtain revamp.  They do need something else though.  I’m thinking some pink buttons randomly stitched to the curtains might be nice.  We’ll see though.  Any ideas?

She’s Almost Two

In a few days our daughter will be 2!!!  It is hard to believe that two years have gone by since she joined our family, but also can not remember life before her.

She is smart, caring and kind.  She has better manners than most adults I know.  She is slow to warm up to large crowds, but once she warms up, she is the life of the party.  She has an enormous memory.  She remembers where things are, like a tractor in a field or where Grandma works.  She remembers little details like daddy telling her she could touch an old army tank.  She has an infectious laugh and smile!  She is strong-minded and in to everything.  She likes to bake with me and wants up to see what I am doing on the countertops.  She loves being read to, rocked and played with.  She enjoys watching our neighbors and anything moving in our neighborhood.  She adjusts quickly and is a good listener.  She loves to be chased.  She is really into Dora the Explorer right now.  She has never seen the show, but loves the Dora books and music.  She has been going on the potty for the last few months, but rarely tells us when she has to go.  She can hold it for hours…literally, 5 or more.  She loves her daddy and he loves her tremendously!!  She loves chocolate like me and loves the homemade granola bars we make together.  She enjoys smelling spices and gets into the frig. on a mission to spell spices before I catch her.  She is great at sharing and does well playing with other children.  She really enjoys her Thursday music class that our playgroup hosts.  She likes to talk about Papa’s John Deere tractor and Harley Davidson motorcycle.  She enjoys seeing school buses.  She now will nap other places other than home.  That is great!!  She has a little friend named Katie that she adores and likes to play with.  She likes to play matching games and is very good at them.  She sleeps well at night, but has been an early riser the last few weeks.  She has been adding, “Um” to the beginning of her sentences and she knows it is cute.  She has the cutest little smile and likes to look in the mirror.  She likes to go to Super Target, Whole Foods, Trader Joes, any park, the library, stroller rides, outside, Grandma and Papa’s, Grandma Pat’s and Aunt Tammy’s.  She also likes staying home.  She can climb the ladder to slide and likes to swing on the big girl swings.  She likes to peel bark from the trees and pick dandelions.

She is my little darling and there is so much more about her that is precious.  Love you sweetie!!

Still No Internet

We cancelled our internet service a few weeks ago now.  I have to say I am slightly relieved at the moment.  It was totally stressing me out.  I have been able to use the computer at the public library to check email and read all the fabulous blogs out there, but it is not like having it at home.  I’m actually at my sister’s house right now while she is hard at work.  My little one is eating a snack and loving the new toys and books to play with, so I’ll do a quick update on what we have been up to.  Oh, and we may be cancelling our Direct TV too.  No, we haven’t gone mad.  We are just trying to live more simply and to not be so plugged in.  We want to enjoy each other, plus we are saving money too. 

What we have been up to…

Well, I made a nurses hat for my daughter.  It will either go in her Easter basket, or for her upcoming birthday.  She is totally into playing nurse.  She has a book, ‘Nurse Nancy’ that she loves.  I made it up entirely myself.  I plan to do a tute on it eventually, as I could not find one online that I liked.  Stay tuned.

Also did my first applique.  It turned out pretty good.  I used a hand-me-down shirt that was stained and just used the design to cover up the stains.  It has a tree on it and a bee buzzing down to the tree from the sky.  I really like it and think I did super, especially for my first go at it.  I’ll post that some time too.

I made some really cute fabric covered hair clips for my daughter.  She loves them and likes to wear the red one with the different colored polka dots on.  They only costs about $.37  to make, but do require a little time.  My mom is going to buy some from me for an upcoming gift.  Cool!  I also plan to give some as a gift to my daughter’s little friend for her birthday in April.  She is such a little cutie!

I’ve been busy preparing for my husband’s birthday that falls next week.  He doesn’t want anything.  I did find a bathrobe in green on clearance at Super Target the other day, so he’ll be getting that.  He mentioned it awhile ago, so I hope he still wants it.  I also made him a remote control cozy for the couch.  it has three pockets that hang down and the rest of the fabric slides under the cushion.  Think really large open crayon roll.  I’ll also be making him 3-0 sugar cookies with my sister’s delicious frosting recipe.  Hope he likes it.  We will cap off the day by going out on the town after our daughter is in bed.  Thank goodness for Grandma’s willing to drive 1/2 hour just to sit around our house while our daughter sleeps.  Thanks Ma!

Valentines prep is underway as well.  Our daughter will be receiving a Dora Valentine book this year.  We will also be making heart shaped sugar cookies.  I plan to cut her food into heart shapes on Valentines Day.  We will also do some celebrating through the week, but I’ve got to get my ideas together.  Some things I know we will do are songs and art.

Lots of other stuff, but that is all for now.

Hope you are all well and enjoying February!  I can’t wait till Spring is finally here!