Today Was. . .

Just an Ordinary Day. But it was a day I never want to forget!

Mom was gone all day and so it was just the girls and I all day today. I woke up to a very cool and wet morning - ahhh, so refreshing this time of year. The rain quickly gave way to sun, but the cool temps and the breezes continued throughout the day. We did all of he typical things, bottles, diapers, snacks, and the Disney channel. My Bug was a little fussy today so Monkey was left to entertain herself (with the Disney channel, toys and books) while I tended to her sister. Finally, my Bug drifted off to sleep and then Monkey asked to take her nap. As I tucked her into her big girl bed she gave me the regular daily assignments. . .turn off the light, shut the door all the way. After I turned off the lights and was turning to go out the door, she called me back to her. "I need to say my prayers Amma" she told me. My heart melted! This is a new thing, she has just recently started to go to Sunday School and without prompting has been asking her Mom to pray with her at night before she goes to sleep. But this was the first time she has ever asked me to do it with her. I am ashamed to say that I never think of it when I put her down for a nap. My mind is usually fixed on the things I need to do while she sleeps. So, with my heart so full, I kneeled there next to my 3 year old granddaughter's bed while she folded her hands, closed her eyes and said the simplest prayer "my mommy, my daddy, amma, grandpa, nana, stud, rifle". She was asking God's blessing on us. Then she looked at me and said "you Amma", she wanted me to pray with her and so I did and she sweetly repeated every word I said. After saying Amen, we had to do the little poem with the hand gestures, here's the church, here's the steeple. . . .you know the one. I taught her that a long time ago and she loves to do it. Now it was time for one more kiss and once more to be reminded to shut the door all the way and off to sleep she went. I never want to forget that 3 minutes I spent kneeling on the floor. I have always believed in the power of prayer and have spent a lot of time in my life on my knees praying, but I don't think any of those times were as sweet, as innocent, as powerful as that 3 minutes were to me today! How I would love to have a photo of the two of us in there today.

But here are a couple of sweet photos from the day. . .

This is my bug in her vibrating, musical chair holding onto a rattle and giving me some giggles


After the girls woke up from their naps, Monkey wanted to see her sister and I thought it would be funny to lift her into the crib with my Bug. She looked up at me and said "we're cute Amma, take our picture" who could ignore such a request?
What a great day!!!

Tuesday I wrote about how close Christmas was and how us crafters are needing to get busy with our homemade gifts. Last night I took my own advice and got busy on my stocking stuffers for Christmas Eve at Gary's Mom's house. There are 30+ of us when we are all together and although we draw names for gifts we do put something small in everyone's stockings. That's A LOT of little gifts to come up with. People put all kinds of things in there - nothing big. Someone usually puts a disposable razor in them, some lip balm, lotion, candy and so on. I usually try to make something (surprise, surprise). Something that can easily be duplicated several times (like I did snowman poop bags one year). This year I am taking care of the girls' stockings and making Gary take care of the boys.
So here is what I made for this year. . .


They are homemade facial puffs. I cut out and sewed 55 of these little cuties yesterday. Today I got them bagged up in pairs while the girls napped. I will make a little tag to attach with them soon on my computer (and maybe a little stamping).

In case you were interested I took pictures along the way to show you how to make them if you want to give it a try.

I used a 3" cork coaster that I had lying around as my pattern to cut out my circles. Each little facial puff needs the following:
1 circle of cotton fabric (I used muslin and and broadcloth left over from a quilt)
1 circle of cotton terry fabric
3 circles of cotton flannel
4" of twill

Sandwich the flannel in between the terry and the cotton fabrics


Lay the twill on top of the cotton fabric and sew a 1/2" seam all the way around your sandwhich twice. The twill be a nice handle to hold your facial puff.

Once you have them all sewn up, you cut from the edge up to (but not through) the seam every 1/4 inch. It should look all fringey like the photo above.

After you have all of them fringed, throw them all into the washing machine and then into the dryer (warning: you will have LOTS of lint in your machine if you do a bunch of these). When they are all dry you will need to give them all a little bit of a "hair-cut" to get all of the frayed strings off of them (easy to do while you watch tv)

After their hair-cuts they will look like this and be ready to be used.

They are really soft and cute and are great for eye make-up removal, face cleansers, applying bronzers to you skin, anything really. And they are reusable, just toss them in the wash like you would a wash cloth! Super cool, inexpensive, useful, eco-friendly gift! Give them a try - make them any size or shape you want. If you are a powder user, trade the cotton fabric for a satin, the terry layer for another flannel and the twill for satin ribbon and you will have a beautiful powder puff to put your face powder on with. I always think of my Grandma Peterson when I think of a powder puff. I bought her body powder with a beautiful puff every year for Chistmas when I was a little girl. I wonder if anyone uses those big dishes of fragrant body powder anymore?

Well, I better get ready for bed - teaching tomorrow. I am teaching my "Measure of a Woman" class tomorrow. I wish I had some satin fabric in the house. I would make some of those powder puffs as my door prize for class. It would have fit in perfectly! Oh well. Have a great weekend friends!

Toodles