Glitter, flour, war paint and gluten; What is your New Years Resolution?

I swear I didn't mean for the title to Rhyme.  But I'm going with it because its AWESOME.

Christmas has come and gone.  As I'm sitting here typing, I have several Christmas stickers glued to various parts of my body, belated gifts from my 3 year old son Jimmy.  My house looks like a glitter, pipe cleaner, powdered sugar, and cheap-plastic-toy hurricane has blown through.  We baked cookies, decorated gingerbread, and made about 14 glitter-Popsicle stick-pipe cleaner Christmas ornaments.  We wrapped over 40 gifts.  On top of that, since "Santa" came, the state of our family room is akin to the Caterpillar room in Sunnyside Daycare in "Toy Story 3," right after the tots blew through.

Resolution 1: No more toys that contain more than 10 pieces allowed.  Seriously, tinker toys, batman playset, AND 20-piece race-car toy all on the same day? WHAT WAS I (er, I mean Santa) THINKING?!  There are now about 346,789,008 pieces of various play sets strewn about the house.

cute glitter tornado pic :)

Not my house, but a reasonable substitute image!

Resolution 2:  No unsupervised arts and crafts sessions lasting longer than .5 milliseconds

My son just went to bed looking like an Indian warrior, after having a bit too much fun with his new "Paint Pens".

He received the paint pens as a gift, which, in my haste, I hid less than 9 feet off the ground.  After an extended period of the well know eerie quiet, AKA  "Why isn't there a chaotic din shaking the walls of my house anymore?!" I found him at the top of the stairs, painting his hands, arms, face, and of course, the walls.  "Look mommy! I'm painting!"  Are they really that innocent or is it just an innate survival mechanism to save them from the wrath of stressed-out mommies?


Resolution 3:  At least pretend I remember that I'm trying to maintain an anti-inflammatory diet
Cookies at every turn, Cake. Those addicting marshmallow Santas. Chocolate. Sour Patch Kid Candy Canes (I mean really, who could resist?), Ginger Bread, ICING.  Oh my.

Christmas = GLUTEN!   The day after Christmas, exhausted yet hungry, I consumed a no less than 5 Panera bagels, plus about 6 caffeinated beverages.  Despite the ridiculous levels of caffeine coursing through my system, I passed out at 8:30 pm, in my sons bed, mid-way through 'Curious George Flies a Kite".  The next day, after waking up at 10, I was lethargic, grumpy and felt like I had the flu... or shall I say 'glu'.  HA. sorry.

Feeling much better after eating only romaine, carrots, hummus, strawberries and apples for 24 hours (and of course sharing a small bottle of Patron silver with my best friend who came into town), my poor little guy actually came down with the real flu, despite having a flu shot.   We are talking the whole shebang; walking explosive snot factory, several accidents of the 'messy' nature, fever, barking cough, middle-of-the-night wake up screaming sessions, headaches.  Luckily, he is already getting better, (note the stickers and paint fiasco from earlier this evening).   One amazing redeeming result? He actually took a nap; 3 hours.  First nap in 6 months! Hallelujah!   So, the current status of my life is:  snot, glitter, wrapping paper, broken toys and ornaments, screaming (but adorable) feverish toddlers, and feeling like a train-wreck both inside and out.  I have always loved Christmas, but I'm still trying to get used to this new Christmas reality; Christmas through the eyes of a mother.  Good lord its a lot of work.  Christmas vacation?! I think I'd rather be back at work.  The end of the year has left me a bit frazzled, if you haven't picked up on that yet.

So back to the point of this post!  I want to hear your resolutions.   Extreme, small and in-between.   Post in comments section!  Other resolution ideas I have?  Try harder to be in the present, without freaking out over the small stuff.  Like craft explosions, snot, and a few too many carbs.

Merry Christymas and of course a Happy gluten-free 2014!

New Layout! Please send feedback!

Hello to my fabulous followers! I changed the layout of my blog; let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your feedback.   Merry Christmas!

Pajama Eaters, Snack Bags, and a very Candy Christmas!

How do I know I feeling better??  I've been at the sewing machine for about 3 hours a day for the last week. I am passionate about sewing; its by far my favorite hobby.  Nothings beats creating something with your own two hands, that you can look of and feel proud of!

Unfortunately, every time I looked at my quarter-finished, cutout pattern of my "Pajama Eater" project over the year, (link goes to "Sew Fearless' " original blog post and free!! pattern.  She has tons of amazing projects, check it out!)  I felt not proud, but guilty;  I had originally planned to make it for my son LAST Christmas.  By Spring,  I completely forgot about it... until I found the scraps last night in a drawer!  With my wonderful new-found energy, I finished it up in about 3 hours.  (The project probably took about 6-7 hours total, including the work last year).

Here, for your viewing pleasure, is one of  Jimmy's Christmas present this year, a "Pajama Eater".  It is part stuffed animal and part practical accessory... kids "feed" their pajamas too it in the morning instead of throwing them on the floor! Thus it is the perfect gift for a mom with toddlers... practical and adorable!

Feed me your jammies!!

Jimmy will be able to open the zipper to stuff his PJ's in (and see the cute "roadway" flannel fabric inside his mouth), and then shut it to keep the jammies nice and snug in its "tummy".

Love the teeth. 

 I can't wait to see his face when he opens this one; I promise to post a pic :)

Projects part two:

Many of you know I make reusable/foodsafe sandwich and snack bags.   I started making them after buying one at a consignment in Reston, and bemoaning the fact that I only had one, which was covered with basketballs (Jimmys style, not mine!).  I've made at least 20 at this point and have finally perfected the pattern.  I'd be happy to share the pattern with anyone who's interested!

I had a bit of a drought over the past few months of illness however, but I'm back!  In the past 2 days I've made 5.  Mostly Christmas presents, but some will be for sale at three little monkeys consignment in Sterling, VA.  So if you're interested, head on buy! They sell kid styles.  I also make 'grown up/mommy' styles, like the black/white number shown below.  Under the way-more-awesomer 'very hungry caterpillar' bag.  Yes, yes I did almost cry tears of joy when I found that fabric online.

If anyone wants a bag and can't get to the shop, or wants a particular color/style, just let me know! I'd be happy to ship =D

The only other thing I'd like to say this evening is Have a Very Candy Christmas!! To stave off a severe depression brought on my horrendous NFL hometeam, the Washington Redskins, I went a little nuts with the Christmas decorating this year, and the theme is "Candy" (as it is every year, of course. There is simply no other theme that could possibly compete with "Candy") .  Here are a few pics, including my cupcake and gumdrop centerpiece and gum drop mini tree.  Of course, I also covered the entire christmas tree in both fake and real candy.   For the tree, I made a garland out of hard candy peppermints (tied ends together with ribbon), and then proceeded to shower it with candy canes, lollipops, and other candy (both real and fake).  I'll try to add some closeups of the various candied christmas tree components soon. 

The candy theme has definitely made the short, cold days more bearable... although it also has contributed to a constant craving for sugar.  Whoops, there goes my anti-inflammatory diet...

Mini Candy Tree

Cupcake and Candy Centerpiece. Apologize for the lighting.  It looks sooo much yummier in real life :(

My favorite drool-worthy pic, a blue gum drop ornament

Just an awesome pic to share

I found this on Reddit.com.  It simultaneously cracked me up and made me feel totally awesome.  Great inspiration for anyone with Autoimmune disease!