The Best Christmas Tree Skirt

Okay, here are the cast of characters for the best Christmas Tree Skirt .. ever. Promised to become one of your most prized possessions, even in all it's not so perfect glory...which makes it even more Perfect IMO.

First off...You need a few supplies. Not many though promise.

1) Boring ol XMas Tree Skirt...Plainer the better...this is just a piece of polyester cut into a circle shape, I got it somewhere for dollars.
2) Paint. I used the kids green crayola paint the first few years, I don't recommend that as it starts to fade and this year I had to go over it with some green puff fabric paint (which I put on with a brush so it wasn't puff). I used just a basic black acrylic paint this year, it's darker and will stay longer. You can not wash this so don't bother with mixing it with the textile medium as per the paints probable recommendations.


3) Black Sharpie to write the names and the year. And something to go over that. Again I used a fabric puff paint, this one is a gold glitter paint.
4) A paper plate.
5) The hands or feet of your featured subjects!
6) Lots of towels - paper or rags like I use...this project is messy. :D

So I bought the skirt for like $2 as I have said before. I cut a line down the middle of one side so that it would easily wrap around the tree (yours may already have this because I think most do, but again, it was $2).

I decided that that my slice mark was the 'middle' and I choose to have a separate side for each kid.

You could group yours together by year, alphabetical order, child preference (kidding), what have you.

I'd try and place them as close together as possible though, as you can see I did not do that at first and now I'll regret not having the space later....though I think the 1 year old may have had something to do with that in 2008. ;)

Anyhow, put your paint on your paper plate. I added some water so it wouldn't be so thick.

Put your skirt down on a flat surface, towels at the ready.

Have the kids press one hand in the plate. Make sure when they lift it off the plate it is evenly covered and that if anything is going to drip it drips back on the plate (otherwise you have to do creative hand placement to cover the drips that land on your skirt) ;)

Have them hold it over the skirt, fingers splayed (is that really a word splayed?) and help them press it down gently.

Press over their hand and each finger so all the paint transfers (if you use the watered down acrylic it transfers really well).

Have them gently remove their hand and wash it...or give them a towel. It depends on the age of the kid, younger the kid, the faster you should wash that hand!

Then repeat with the other hand.

Write their names underneath (or have them do it if they can write - which again will make it even more special one day) and the year with sharpie.

Go over that with the gold puff paint.

Let it dry for at least a half hour (especially the puff paint).

And voila. Best Christmas Tree Skirt Ever.
PS - It doesn't photograph well due to the textures of the paint (since hands aren't smooth) so just be aware it's even cuter in person. :D

Honestly...

This is my 101 post. Sweet right? I've only not updated since oh...June. Whatever...totally suck at this. :D

Butter

I'm under the weather.

So when my husband came home last night from work I decided to go lay down a bit, lest I spread swine flu to my entire family (not really but well, I can be paranoid).

I came out at one point to find out why my almost two year old was screaming "Mom Mom Mom Where are you???!!!" and found a butter wrapper on the floor.

This scenario has played out before:
1. Butter was removed from the fridge by crazy one year old.
2. Butter was unwrapped by crazy one year old with great fine motor skills.
3. Dog was fed said butter.
4. Dog barfed.
5. I cleaned up melted half digested butter off my kitchen floor.
6. Everyone was wicked excited.

So of course I yell to my husband..."have you seen butter???!!"

And of course he looked at me like I had six heads.

Me: "Butter, there's a butter wrapper on the floor."

Him: "No, haven't seen it."

Me: "Damn dog probably ate it. Uggggh CONOR!"

Him: "That sucks."

Me: "You're dang straight that sucks because now the dog is going to puke again and I'm going to have to clean it up. What were you doing while Conor was out here pealing a stick of butter feeding it to the dog?"

Okay, so that was an inappropriate thing to say because Conor is super stealth super fast genius child (said so I don't kill him) and could probably do things a professional illusionist only dreams of. He was however sitting in the den playing video games w/ Aiden.

Then I look in the den.

And sitting straight up on the arm of the couch NEXT to where my husband was sitting was a pristine unwrapped stick of butter.

Then I laughed my ass off.

And the worst thing, hubby had no idea why I was laughing. He didn't even SEE the stick of butter even after I lost my crap laughing at it.

A diagnosis.

(I'm not going to give excuses for the looooong time away, I'm here right now and we'll all just have to get over that month + hiatus)

Aiden has a diagnosis. It's kinda what we were thinking all along, he is on the autism spectrum and he has a disorder known as PPD-NOS.

Pervasive Developmental Disorder, Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) is a 'subthreshold' condition in which some - but not all - features of autism or another explicitly identified Pervasive Developmental Disorder are identified. PDD-NOS is often incorrectly referred to as simply "PDD." The term PDD refers to the class of conditions to which autism belongs. PDD is NOT itself a diagnosis, while PDD-NOS IS a diagnosis. The term Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS; also referred to as "atypical personality development," "atypical PDD," or "atypical autism") is included in DSM-IV to encompass cases where there is marked impairment of social interaction, communication, and/or stereotyped behavior patterns or interest, but when full features for autism or another explicitly defined PDD are not met.

It should be emphasized that this ''subthreshold'' category is thus defined implicitly, that is, no specific guidelines for diagnosis are provided. While deficits in peer relations and unusual sensitivities are typically noted, social skills are less impaired than in classical autism. The lack of definition(s) for this relatively heterogeneous group of children presents problems for research on this condition. The limited available evidence suggest that children with PDD-NOS probably come to professional attention rather later than is the case with autistic children, and that intellectual deficits are less common.