Read My Lips, No New Chapsticks!

What is the absolute best thing to happen to a house? The prospect of some guests who will stay a while. Dinner guests coming? I get some of the house clean. Over nighters require another layer of preparation. But friends who will stay a week? Hoo boy, run and hide you dust bunnies, run and hide!

A couple from Cleveland were to visit our congregation for a week, and I had plenty of time to get ready. I knew my frantic cleaning of the winter ick would be in the few days before they came, so I decided to attack some of the other areas of the house in the weeks leading up to their arrival. You know, those places that a guest would never ever look in but you fling open to show them because after all, you went to all that trouble. "If you were to need some calming anti-itch cream with no chemicals, just a soothing balm to relieve the ill effects of a sunburn, well we have a bottle right here in this incredibly organized bin of skin potions." You know, occasions like that. Hey, it could happen.

We have a small bathroom, with just enough room to do your business without too much turning around. So we keep the majority of bathroom, hair, skin and other unmentionables in the little closet in the hallway. It's not a disgusting mess or anything, but it needed some attention. So I pulled everything out of it, and screamed. It was a disgusting mess. I sat down in the living room and made piles of categories. Skin stuff. Hair stuff. Cleaning stuff. Medications. What is this and why did we ever buy it and should we keep it because as soon as we throw it away that forgotten condition will rear its ugly head kind of stuff. The piles grew and grew. Then I tossed and tossed and the piles became manageable.

It all looked much better when I found more logical ways to put it all back. And since we let our guests have our room and we slept out in the trailer, it made the transition to tiny house living much easier. I just grabbed my newly organized caddies of makeup and skin care and hair products out to our temporary living space, with the knowledge that all the weird unmentionables in the hall closet were organized within an inch of their existence.

Towards the end of their stay, our friend began to suffer the consequences of a sunburn he got before he arrived to California. His wife asked if we had anything for itchy skin. "You mean some calming anti-itch cream with no chemicals, just a soothing balm to relieve the ill effects of a sunburn? Well we have a bottle right here in this incredibly organized bin of skin potions!" Oh the joys of skin potion bins.

The dog kept me honest.

Four more hotel hairsprays than I need.

Freebie lip balm is the new freebie water bottle.

Love those IKEA catch-alls.
They catch all.

The anti-itch cream is just itching to help a guest.

I rewarded myself with a pile of 79 cent IKEA dish towels.

Oh Baby, a Hat Fit for an Infant!

Although it's definitely not hat season around here, it's always baby gift season. A friend asked if I still made baby hats, and the answer was "Of course!" And of course I forgot how much these little hats take out of me, I overthink them way too much. 

The main pattern from Repeat Crafter Me is pretty straightforward, and I've made enough of them now that I can whip out the hat part pretty quickly. The issue in the past has been that they turn out too big. Way. Too. Big. For this one, to get a hat fit for a baby/toddler, I made the 0-3 months one, and that seemed to work well. 

After the basic hat is done, the heart wrenching work begins. The nose, the eyes, the ears and - just stick a crochet hook through my heart - the mouth! How I agonize over these little hats, worrying if they look cute enough, happy enough, not funky around the eyes, and of course they must have the sweetest little mouth ever. Perky, but not defiant, happy but not smirky. Well, maybe just a bit smirky. 

This part of the hat crocheting process makes me earn the wage of a sweatshop worker in a developing country, the kind that Bill and Melinda Gates help through their philanthropic kindness. I need to give Mr. Gates a jingle and see if he can be my crocheting patron. You know, for the good of the arts. 

So here was the process for the puppy hat, which took me not long to make, but oh so long to finish. 

I made the hat part pretty quickly.
Then for the nose, the slightly crooked nose.
And the mouth. Is it cute enough? Not snarky?
But just a little smirky?

Oh how I agonized over this little guy's eye patch.
And his eyes,
Then I attached his ears.
The left ear wants to stick up. Way up.
Proving that an ear can smirk.

Then, how long to make the ear flap cords?
I mean, I don't want to choke the poor baby.
But too short looks stupid and not nearly cute enough.
These decisions keep me up at night.

There. A puppy hat, slightly spunky but not too smirky, and fit for a baby.