I have an idea...

I'll be back in a bit....

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Back! With this:

My prototype if you will. Its a bit rough around the edges, but the basic idea is there, and it works! (forgive the off colors...that room is INSANELY yellow light, and I'm still learning photoshop....)

And if you haven't caught on (understandably!) its a placemat. More importantly, its a placemat for Zach. I was wiping the scum off - er...wiping the table down after dinner, and thinking to myself how disgusting milk dribbles are when you apparently miss some from the night before. And how I have a tablecloth, but that's in the pile of laundry to go in next because its dirty. And buying more tablecloths won't help, because I still don't want to strip and replace it every day.

(yes, my thought processes are lengthy and complicated!) :)

After all that, it finally occurred to me - PLACEMAT! *smacks forehead* duh!

I can make a dozen of them and just toss them in to be washed when he trashes one. With a placemat to take the brunt of it, the table will survive another day! Hurrah!

And just for kicks, I made it double-sided. I used some fabric I'd bought from jcasa a few months back. They were a couple of the larger scraps, and I've been wanting to use the tractor print to make SOMETHING for the boy! He loves that tractor fabric!

So, its a bit rough, but not bad for a fast attempt at 9:30 at night. =) Next version will be a bit bigger, and not so wonky (I hope!) but all in all, I'm pretty pleased with it.

Best Birthday Present EVER

...and its not even mine. Though I deeply covet it....

Uh..that's great, Sarah. But...what is it?

Ah! I thought you might ask...

Its a strand of lights with 'boxes' on each one. Yaya made each one, and sent it for Zach's birthday. (do you feel that warm fuzzy feeling? I do.)

But why you ask? (aside from the fact that they look awesome!) When Yaya and Papoo where here in July, she would take a piece of paper, fold it into a box, and blow it up for Zach. He thought this was the greatest trick a human being could perform. Once we opened the box, I flashed back to a couple of weeks ago when we were talking to them on Skype and I mentioned that he'd been asking me for weeks to make him a box, but I couldn't remember how, and had told him we'll have to ask Yaya to make one. After I thought about it, I vaguely remembered her saying something about it, but had forgotten until we opened the box and there it was!

Its SO amazing! We're going to put it up in his room (which is WAY behind schedule! Now that its cool enough, we're going to paint it SOON!) And I'd been debating on what color to paint his room. I wanted to do 'vintage primary' colors. You know, the colors from 50's toys. That really great red, golden yellow, lighter green versions. And these lights finally pushed me to decide that's what I want to do. They're perfect. So now I feel inspired to actually DO his room, the way I want.

(see, originally...I had just randomly picked some fabrics, made a quilt top and thought we'd go around that. Except...I hate it. lol. But didn't want to 'waste' the quilt top. But...I just can't do it. I'm going with plan B)

Needless to say, I think its the best birthday present ever. Even if he doesn't understand how much time and thought went into it, I will love and keep it forever.