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I must’ve missed the memo… I must’ve missed the Facebook update… I must’ve missed the Tweet. Something to let me know that we had won the election, bought tickets, and were now on our way to becoming the governing couple of Crazytown. Before I go further, let me say that Kim is feigning displeasure but keeps smiling and giggling to herself at the notion that the baby has stolen all sanity from her and stored it in her belly.
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Let me lay out the scene for you from this Saturday. Kim has just woken me up from my spot on the couch to tell me that she’s getting desperate to get on the road to the Walt Disney Museum in San Francisco. To my left, I have the bunny in his enclosure doing his best meerkat impersonation and saying “Feed Me!” in bunny speak. To my right, I have a dog with a squeak toy, mentally screaming “Play with me, bitches!” And front and center is my pregopotamus… ears wiggling and all (Kim’s really not that big, but since she’s a huge fan of the Disneyland jungle cruise, this name just kinda stuck).
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So, I get up, only to be pulled by the wrist into the craft room to judge Kim’s latest craftiness. I see a folded piece of fabric on the table. Kim reaches for it. As it unfolds in front of my eyes, it appears to have two sleaves and a neckline. “What is it?” I ask, fully cognizant that my morning breath is still in effect and I’d better get to the bathroom quickly before I gas the animals beyond repair. “Guess!” she says as she starts to give me the front-back display. “A mumu?”… but then it hits me. This thing has an open back. Oh good lord, no. Say it isn’t so. Kim has made… dun dun DUN!… her own hospital gown. To be fair, it looks to be pretty good, but I have never heard of someone making their own hospital gown before or even talking about it, unless they were wrapped in a very snug jacket with straps to prevent you from scratching yourself. But, she found the pattern on the web, so maybe she’s not the only one. It did however plunge me into about a 15 minute episode of singing my own cover of a popular funk song…”Won’t you take me to… Crazytown?”
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In case you’d like to join her in crazytown… you can find the FREE printable pattern that she used at LazyGirlDesigns. Oh — and that fabric — that’d be from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern line.
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– Mr. M

p.s. yes this is a “sneak peek” at the finished room… but no more photos until everything is totally done in there!

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For this year’s Weddingbee Valentine’s Swap, I decided to have a little bit of fun with my Cricut machine and create an original design that it could cut for me. “My Funny Valentine” is one of my favorite love songs, mainly because of it’s honesty and also because it’s a Rogers & Hart standard. The line, “You make me smile with my heart” is just too classic to pass up and I figured it was perfect to send to boys and girls for any sort of Valentine’s greeting. I attached my cutouts to wooden postcards for a bit more whimsy… and I only hope my Valentine swappies love them as much as I do!
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In case you’d like to make your own version of this card, you can download the SVG file here (*.zip format) and then simply use a program like Sure Cuts A Lot to connect your Cricut to your computer and cut the custom file.
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Well… I have to admit that it was the swap that just didn’t happen. I was really excited, as 26 people signed up through the form to participate in the swap. But then, as the deadline arrived, 7 people emailed me to say that they were no longer going to participate. And then in the end, I only received packages from 2 people.
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I was luckily able to submit those cards I received to the “Holiday Mail for Heroes” campaign, but I held on to their swap cards through the holiday, hoping that a strange mail error had kept the 17 other packages from  arriving, but I’d get them somehow.
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They never arrived and I felt so horrible for the two lovely swap participants, Marissa and Kim, that I had to do something to thank them for believing in the idea of the swap and sending in their cards. So today, they should both be expecting a package with something they can personalize themselves and keep up the spirit of sending out snail-mail:
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I adore Three Designing Women’s stamps, so I thought a gift certificate for their own stamp and set of cards would help to keep up their mailing habits. It doesn’t make up for the failed swap in any way, but hopefully they’ll test the waters another time and try out another internet swap in the future.
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As for my next swap… I’m hoping to get some nice Valentine’s in the mail just like last year!
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