Making Cloth Napkins.

The topic of cloth napkins has popped up 5 or 6 times this week - right as I have been sorting and cutting fabric to refresh my napkin stash! I prefer to use remnants of fabric or garage sale/thrifted fabric for napkins, so that it puts all parts of the fabric to good use.

I usually make separate napkins for the boys - flannel is very soft & absorptive and I always have scraps from making other things. For day to day napkins, I like cotton. For this batch, I had some flannel moose remnants to make another set for the boys, and cotton for the full size napkins.

It is easy. Just cut the fabric to the size you want -


Roll and stitch, tucking corners in as you stitch to keep the corners from being lumpy.


And voila! Napkins.


For the more formal napkins/occasions or when buying fabric just for napkins/table linens, try organic linen or hemp fabric.

3 States. 24 Hours.

Yes, 3 States in 24 Hours. Spur of the moment mini vacation - and it went well!

Thursday noon - My husband decides to take off Friday since none of his team will be in the office. We chat about doing something on Friday for the boys. Perhaps The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, Iowa!

Thursday 1PM - I decide well, maybe we should go NOW and find a hotel and spend the night. I spend 15 minutes online, find a hotel in Galena, Illinois.

Thursday 1:15PM - Husband calls, they have a room, we book it. I run around the house like a crazy person cleaning, packing, loading the car, trying not to forget anything, printing google maps for everything.

Thursday 2:42 PM - We are packed, loaded, and pull out. We drive through SW Wisconsin towards IL/IA.

Thursday 4:45PM - We arrive at our hotel in Galena, IL.

Thursday 5:15PM - We drive to a local pizzeria in the quaint old downtown Galena. Have dinner. Walk Main Street afterwards and find old-fashioned ice cream shop for something cold and yummy. Walk some more, head back to the car.


Thursday 7PM - Back at hotel, dressed and into the pool. Swim almost an hour. Back to room, boys bathed, snacked, pj'd and into bed. We couldn't get a suite since the hotel was booked but for the one room we got, so we just hung out and played gin rummy on the next bed over!

Friday 10AM - The National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. We visit the aquariums - watch the interactive videos about flood plains, dams, agricultural runoff, the dead zone in the gulf - go into the "wet lab" and look at slides of animals and touch mussels and crayfish. Visit the cow-nosed rays, get to touch them. Play outside, and see a few examples of riverboats, barges, steamboats and paddle boats. Very cool stuff.


Friday Noon - Head back to Wisconsin.

Friday 1PM - Stop at Blue Mounds to visit the Cave of the Mounds. Spend a few hours taking a tour underground deep within the caves, without much light, in tight walkways. The boys don't freak out, cry, or scream (we have a few moments, but they are GREAT considering the underground tour was over an hour -eek).


The caves are so interesting, and there is just so much to look at - A got to look UP and see fossils which are so old it is hard to explain it to him. The formations that take 100 years to grow an inch, and yet are MASSIVE. "The Cave was formed within sedimentary rock, a limestone made of compacted seashells. This rock dates back over 400 million years to the Ordovician Period of the earth’s geologic history. Cave of the Mounds itself began to form about a million and a half years ago when the Galena dolomite was still beneath the water table." Very cool stuff. Our guide was a nice and friendly lady full of great history and science facts. I think it was more fun because it was unexpected - A loves aquariums, and knows what he will see (he has visited several, and many of his library books each week are about some sort of sea creature). And he had fun there. BUT, the caves were totally new and he was so apprehensive when we first walked into the dark cavern. But after a few minutes was down on the ground, interested, asking questions, walking in front with the guide, and loving it.

Friday 3:30 - HOME!

What a whirlwind 24 hours. It worked out really well though. We got to visit so many places, the boys were GREAT and seemed to really enjoy the whole trip. A LOVED all of the information - he is a facts kind of kid - and there was just so much to see and learn and think about. Even G was happy and just went with the flow and was happy. Not ONE 2 year old screaming tantrum! I couldn't believe it! What a "day". I cannot believe it is only Friday night!

I have a bunch more pix posted on Flickr.

Parades and Neighbors.

I started this post a week ago, then just never finished it. Here are the pix from our neighborhood parade last weekend!

Last Saturday our neighborhood association held a kids parade with a fire truck and bagpipe player, followed by cool treats at one of our neighborhood parks. The kids can get in the fire truck, meet the fire fighters, have a snack, and play with all of the kids from the neighborhood. It always amazes me how many children there are here! The parade is a fun excuse for the kids to ride in the street and visit with friends, and for parents to chit chat and see neighbors we don't get to see too often...and those we see every day.

A getting ready to ride...he is #3.

This fire fighter has played the bagpipes for our parade for 3 years in a row now. He is awesome!

Lots of friends to see after the parade, and lots of splashing to be done.


G got to sit in the fire truck.

I posted many more pix on Flickr!

Free Audio Stories for Kids.

We found a website which offers free audio stories for kids. They have a decent selection of many of the classic fairy tales, as well as some original stories. They are all read by the same person, and my boys enjoyed her pace and rhythm (and accent). We have only listened to a few thus far - but what I like is that they are all in podcast format and can be downloaded to an iPod, or you can subscribe to the feed and get updates that way. Of course you can also listen on your computer or burn to a cd.

The boys love hearing audio books while we are in the car, so I always am on the lookout for those which are ok for their age group and attention span, and with well over 100 stories in the archives, we can pick and choose. So far we have listened to The Frog Prince and The Three Little Pigs. We have also listened to a few poems, including The Spider and the Fly. They are at Storynory.

Another resource we found is LibriVox. You can search the catalog of public domain stories, which are all read by volunteers, and subscribe to the podcasts. They have a lot of chapters recorded of books for the older set. Visit LibriVox.

Life is a blur of activity.

Whew. What a week, it seems. I think that the last 5 days or so have been a blur. Right now I am writing as I take a break from working on a design project - deadline tonight.

Friday we took G to the hospital for another round of blood work. The technicians also missed the vein the first time, but managed to get the back of his hand in the second try. My husband came too, so at least the drive and the in and out were distracting. The little guy did ok, but boy was he sure angry to see what the deal was when we walked into the room and he realized...heyyyyy, you are going to poke me again!

Saturday our neighborhood association had a parade (posting pix soon) with a fire truck so the boys went. A decorated his bike and rode, and I pulled G in a wagon (his right knee hurts too much to pedal or walk much lately, hence the Dr. visits). After the parade there were snacks and drinks at the gazebos/fountain, and everyone chatted and let the kids visit the firefighters, climb into the truck, and splash around. It was nice - there were easily over 100 people attending, and while I do seem to know many families in our neighborhood, it is always nice to see new faces and all the new babies.

After the fun, we had to come home to get ready for a photographers arrival. Eeek. I do not much enjoy having my photo taken, but the local newspaper is doing an article in the "neighbors" section about the local mom community website I have here in town. It is a great resource, I put a lot of time and energy into it every week, and it is always nice to get the word out. But I don't like having my photo taken. The guy was very nice though, made everyone comfortable, and enjoyed chatting with the boys. We'll see if I look like a poofed blob of a mushroom in the photo or not...

Sunday we went to a new park (new for us, anyway) which was great. LOTS of shade, breezes, walking paths, and in a dense forest right in the middle of town. Who knew? Then a visit to a family friendly cafe in the area I just heard about, a walk around a beautiful neighborhood and then a bbq with my mom over. Then out with all of the kids on the block for bike riding and playing in our carriage lane. One of the dads did a dance for everyone with his sparklers, so it was entertaining for all of the parents too - hee.

I usually work only late at night, when the boys are asleep, but sometimes that just isn't enough time overall (or I don't have enough mental juice left so late in the day). But WHEN do you work when there is so much life going on?

So after all of that, here I am. I have been working in my head for days of course, and have little sketches strewn throughout my stuff, the house, and in my bags. But the actual production of idea into concepts. Well, that is today. So my procrastinating is done, and I must work some more. The good part is getting the multitudes of kisses when the boys see me ... after being away for all of 25 minutes at a time (they must come and "check on me" very, very often). They usually don't let me out of their site if they are awake, so even that amount of time means I get the welcome as though I have been out of the country for weeks - kisses, hugs, talk of every little thing they have done in the last 19 minutes...all sweet and welcome interludes, then back to dad for more fun and games.

Procrastination complete. Hope you all had a nice weekend!