Welcome February! Stained glass crayon tutorial, this month so far, and a bit of a declaration.

Ella, Gracie and I made these hearts:                       To replace these missing ones from last year.

Le Sigh. But! It did give me the opportunity to do a little tutorial for those who wondered how they are done. There are tons of others online but now you don’t have to google. I live to make your life easier.

1. Use a vegetable peeler NOT a pencil sharpener to get crayon shavings in the appropriate colours.  This is a good tip. You should be really grateful.

2. Use the boring colours to distract your toddler.

3. Get a goodly pile of shavings.

4.Pile them into a pretty heart. Instagram it so that everyone thinks you are terrible artsy. (Very important)

5. Spread the shavings out onto one half of a large piece of wax paper. Fold the other half on top of the shavings.

6.Crudely tear up a paper bag to cover your ironing board. Use the other half of the paper bag to cover the wax paper.

7. Iron it and keep peeking until it looks something like that.

8. Get some pretty twine or string. If you are pretending to be a hipster and/or you intend to instagram your efforts,  it must be bakers twine. Nothing else will do. Cut them to different lengths

9. Cut out the hearts whilst watching something mindless on TV. Poke a tiny hole into the wax paper hearts (I just used the point of my scissors because I’m frankly too lazy to round up any more implements than I absolutely need).   Make your daughter hang them at varying lengths in front of a window.

Yeah, I know, it’s a really complicated/highly skilled project but if you follow these instructions really, really carefully and practice for a few years you’ll probably get it down.

More on February so far:

I woke up sore but mobile-yeah! ( I wrecked my back on Wednesday night showing my kids my wicked cool dance moves while tossing Ella up into the air. I caught her in a zig, rather than a zag and ohhhhh… SNAP. The paaaaaaain! –(not yeah! )But! I got right in to to see a chiropractor yesterday who snapped me out of it, and I have a newfound respect and much gratitude-life is full of surprises-(yeah!)

Ella woke up feverish and puked-(not yeah!) Right on schedule for the Annual Sayer Tummy Bug Jamboree-which always falls over the week of my birthday. Every time. Without fail.

The sun is shining-(yeah!)

*

I dropped my camera and I think it’s broken-(not yeah!) though depending on who you are it might be a yeah!

Got the tax return! .I had no idea we’d even filed!-(Yeah!)

Ella had a brief miraculous recovery (miracle of motrin?)  and ate a full bowl of cereal for the first time in about a month-YEAH. (Reaaaaallly hoping I don’t get to see that cereal again later)

This made her feel really energized and insisted on going out to play in the sub zero-temps…..(um..yeah….?)

I was somewhat stoked to say goodbye to January and then I remembered I hate February quite  a bit more. Still, that does not negate the happy fact that we are one month of Winter down. Good stuff.

Listen people. Here’s something important. I’m going to reaalllly try to be a little less whiny/depressing on the blog for a while. I am still thoroughly committed to being transparent when it comes to my mental health. I think it’s important that we start losing the stigmas associated with the epidemic of depression, and that can only happen if we talk about it and normalize it by talking about it.  But I’m starting to suspect that I’m coming off as a little/lot darker than I actually feel, which worries folks unnecessarily, and is probably a major downer. That’s not what I want. I really have no interest in contributing to the darkness in the world.  

The boring truth is that I tend to gravitate toward hyperbole and dramatics. I suspect that (bar a couple of especially dark days like this one) ,  I feel not unlike most people do who live in crappy climates in the Winter, I just tend to analyze and verbalize it more.  For the most part, I’m a pretty happy person with a pretty cushy life,  who like everyone else, is much better served by getting out of their own head, doing some service, getting exercise, and living life with gratitude rather than navel gazing and taking their emotional temperature too regularly.

Here’s to a more chipper February.

Don’t forget to enter to win your very own light therapy lamp here! –(YEAH!)

I'm reading: Welcome February! Stained glass crayon tutorial, this month so far, and a bit of a declaration.Tweet this!