Secret Swap Monster Style

The Danger Craft group started up a secret swap for anyone who wanted to make a monster and send it out.  I was lucky enough to join in and make a monster for someone in Athens, Greece.  It wasn't too hard to figue out what monster make.  I choose Sammie the Sock monster.  As for the yarm, the pink yarn that I choose jumped right out at me when I saw it. 

I quickly made up "Socka" with her green little socks and mailed her off to JuleeQuee.  Then it was just a waiting game to see when the package would arrive.  Here's the post about Socka arriving...........

keldar5!!! I received your awesome package featuring Socka the beeyooootiful Pink Sock Monster! She is so incredibly cute. :-) I’m so impressed with your perfect knitting - so even and lovely.
I’m so excited to have a handknit washcloth to add to my collection. That cotton is so nice and soft and is some of my favorite colors too. The honey roasted pumpkin seeds look delicious and the handcarved stamp! (!) Did you make it? It is so wonderful. Nice work. Thanks so much for making me such a lovely package.
Socka is adapting well here in Athens. She says it’s much warmer than where she came from. Here’s a picture of her on the balcony, with Athens in the background. I’m making some warm cookies and milk to welcome her home. :-)


Thank you Michelle! :-)

Makenzie meets the Monster Queen!!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!  Makenzie got to meet the queen of monsters Rebecca Danger!!!  I love it!!!!!!  Who knew that little Makenzie would meet someone famous.  I'm jealous!  But here's the post from  the travelling monster group.




Pictures from our fun weekend! First off on Saturday the 3 littles and I took Mackenzie and Shannon to visit the monster Queen herself, Rebecca Danger, as she was doing a book signing at our LYS. She even signed their journals!!!

The kiddos even got to love on some HUGE monsters :D


and then on Sunday the monsters joined Sarah and I for a trip to the grocery store.
Sitting like ladies…

Mackenzie was stealing sips from my Coke Zero

They were both drooling over the cakes, Mackenzie was a bit taken a back and fell over from love!

And the poor girl was a little worried about the break apart bunny….when she heard people ate them she shrieked a little.

and they LOVED the ride on the conveyer belt!

I am sad to see them both go tomorrow, but hope they enjoy their trips!

Snow Butterflies, Not Snow Angels

Normally the monsters around here hang out in various high places - nicely away from the cats and excited children. The top of the curtains are a popular spot. I think they like the view.

Anyway. Around these parts when there is a bit of snow everyone is surprised - usually it is just sleet and insta-ice on the roads. I’ve been in this weather, tried to stop, and the only reason why the car ahead of us didn’t get hit was…. they couldn’t stop either. Everyone just kinda slid for a while and came to a nice gentle sideways stop. Kinda nice when the boss says “if you see snow or anything close to snow, work from home - nobody even try to come in, even if the systems all go down, until this clears”.
Low and behold - we had snow. I stepped outside and couldn’t help but notice some tracks in the snow.

This, of course, attracted attention and somebody couldn’t help but try to toss a few (small) snowballs at each other. I think Saturday won by virtue of Not Being There until the other two were done.

And why is it that the little ones are always the ones that pretend to not mind the snow the most? Caught in the Snow Angel attempt…

Turns out Makenzie makes a better Snow Butterfly. An awesome butterfly, I say.

Then came the ” I’m cold… ” and the ” I didn’t even bring socks, can I borrow yours?” talk. Hmmm…. time to go inside.

Much better. And they aren’t alone either:

I think they had fun. But, it was a work day for me. So I did have to get something done. I would have let the monsters watch me work longer, but they had odd ideas about ‘helping’.

Makenzie and Saturday at the Dentist

Howdy Mommas keldar5 and april
We went on a drive in the country. Guess what we found?! COWS!

Saturday arrived on Wednesday right before The Blizzard of 2011 occurred in Austin. We hopped in the car and make a quick run for eggs.

Thursday morning, Aleah and I had checkups at the dentist. Mackenzie and Saturday made the waiting part a lot easier. Miss Aleah had another cavity free visit! (YAY) I had to get a filling repaired. :/

They also wanted to know what this funny box was for.

So Thursday night, the Blizzard was supposed to start but I thought I had time to go drink coffee and knit for a bit.

Heh yeah, when I left all the cars near the building were fine, but what I couldn’t see was the sheet of freezing ice that covered my windshield. Did I mention my heater/defroster wasn’t working so hot? I am so glad Makenzie was able to remind me to GO SLOW and what to do when the car fishtails. I was going slow and it happened anyway. It took us a while to get home because I had to stop and scrape my windshield way too often. Saturday and Mackenzie were troopers. All you guys that live up north are troopers too. I’ll take my horrible hot summers and leave all this icy/snow business behind me.
About 3 in the morning, (thank you Donavan) we were up and noticed there was white fluffy stuff collecting.
OMG SNOW! ok now both Makenzie and Saturday are sitting here laughing at what we call snow. It WAS snow (and ice and sleet and freezing rain along the way) but when we got up for the day… we had THIS!

and THIS!

My wonderful husband took everyone out front to play in the snow there. He has pictures too and he will be posting them shortly. :) (psssst alrick it’s your turn!)

Makenzie misses the snow storm

I wish I was in Texas, there's pratically no snow.  And Makenzie is enjoying it.  Here's another update from her on the road from TwistedString.

A quick picture of Olivia having one last swing on the bamboo chime before she took off…

Albert jumped right in his box before we could even take a picture but it was really loud today and we were both a bit absent minded.
Makenzie went with me to Home Depot for some pipe insulation this evening after we saw Olivia and Albert off. The big cold front is coming tomorrow afternoon.

Makenzie very astutely noticed that the lawn tractors were probably not big sellers right now. Even in Texas the grass is dormant for the winter.
Tomorrow we are hoping to visit friends before the weather gets really cold. Well cold for Texas. We showed Makenzie the weather report and she laughed! Lol
Eta: we are glueing the button back on her now tomorrow. It fell off :/

Sammie finds a little bit of South Africa

Before Sammie continued on with her journey this week, I took her out to see some snow.  Since it's a whole lot warmer where she comes from, I had to dress her very warmly.  Lucky for me there were toy clothes from another stuffed toy that fit her perfectly.

As you can see, it's a completely white background.  That's Sammie sitting in a snow bank.  And if it wasn't for wearing something warm, she'd have a very cold bottom.

 As you can see, Sammie found the one thing that reminded her of home,  an elephant.  She was excited to find it and knew she needed to have some pictures with Jumbo to sow her Mom and family.

After seeing the statue of Jumbo, it did make her feel home-sick.  However, I told her that she would soon be on her way to the next foster family and closer to home.

Makenzie and Albert in Texas

It looks like Makenzie has arrived in Texas along with a buddy named Albert.  Here's the story so far..............

Howdy Monster Mommas Keldar5 and doggerham!
Makenzie and Albert arrived from their transatlantic journey from acandy on Saturday and Olivia arrived from noknitsherlock in California today.
It’s a good thing Makenzie and Albert were ready to go! I was worried that they might be too tired, but when “cake balls” were mentioned their ears perked up.

We joined some knitter friends at a local bakery and got right to work. Those little monsters make some awesome “naked” cake balls. Here they are right before we put them in the fridge to firm back up.

Then after dipping in chocolate. (note the monster cake ball in the middle)

We were all pretty famished. One of our group suggested Elevation Burger…so off we went!

Sunday we decided to use some of our piggy bank money to go for sushi! YAY!!!
Albert decided he’d prefer to stick with the udon bowl.

Makenzie dove right into the rolls. When our house roll came, Chris and I had to eat fast because Makenzie is one sushi eating monster!

We laid low for a few days after running around all weekend but made it to storytime at the local library branch.
(complete with a really awful iphone pic and a boy wondering what the hoozie)

Today we went with some other kiddos to explore a greenbelt area in a nearby neighborhood.
Albert donned the yellow scarf and climbed right up to the fork on this tree.

Makenzie was looking hard down the trial looking for other bunnies, but no luck today.

Somehow my two kiddos and two travelers were needing something cool to drink and had enough energy to tear it up at the Chickfila playground. Our Chickfila has their own vintage fire truck out front celebrating their new Spicy Chicken line. Everytime we go by Donavan screams FIRE TWUCK! (boy likes his trucks)

We got home to find a monster in our mailbox. We got the box in and quickly opened it up. When we did Albert said “HEY! I know that tutu!” Sure enough his sister Olivia emerged!
After some quick howdy’s and how yall doin’s, Olivia was quickly snatched up by the resident Princess for a twirl.

Dinner ended up being out (due to my poor planning and the big L). So we took the monsters to Cabo Bob’s. Why yes, we go there a lot. We almost had a hot sauce debacle due to a mislabeled bottle but I was the only one that got flamed on a big bite of 66 Red Exxxtra Hot. Thankfully it was rather quick to discover and we got the right bottle. The spoon is holding the remains of the really hot stuff (it’s habanero and chipotle v. just chipotle)

Everyone got a quick drink of Aleah’s cherry limeade which she insisted that they all try, just in case there was too much spicy in their monster mouths. I think Aleah even shared her fish tacos with them.

ETA: While were were at Cabo Bob’s one of the local firestations came in for takeout. This place has at least three of the local stations rolling through. So all the monsters and kids stood out front when they blasted off in that big ol truck. A pumper engine this time (there is a ladder crew and another regular pumper that comes through too). They waved and flashed the lights for the us. My kids love fire trucks and firefighters.
Everyone is headed to bed now, monsters included. Have a great night yall!