I dragged the lovely but annoyingly-uncomfortable rocking chair out to the minivan so we can donate it to Goodwill and lugged the ugly, awesome video chair up from the basement. I moved the changing table from the living room (where Troy assembled it) to Elliora’s room. I found the baskets we originally used for changing-table storage, found new places for the yarn and craft supplies they were holding, and arranged them on the shelves below the changing pad filled with diapers, lotion, and wipes.

All of this rearranging has activated my Must Get Rid of Excess Crap mode. I’ve been regularly donating bags of Elliora’s outgrown clothes to friends and charity in recent months, but now I’m feeling the itch to get rid of more. Books, toys, clothes, furniture, give it all away, MWAHAHAHA! Ahem.

So anyway, while I was busy this morning I had the sudden need to clear out my gift stash. I put a bunch of it into the giveaway bag, but some of the things in there I thought I might give away to you guys. These are all items I bought to give as gifts a couple of years ago but then didn’t, for one reason or another. They’re all new and unused.

Two white, 100% cotton baby t-shirts screenprinted in red with a little cardinal saying, “Cheer.” Although one is tagged 3-6 months and the other tagged 6-9 months, they look exactly the same size to me, and they’re both too small for Elliora. These were purchased from paperbluebird’s Etsy shop, but the shop is no longer open. Know any babies who’ll be about those sizes this holiday season? (Note that the ink on the one on the right, the 6-9 months shirt, is very slightly blurred.)

Two pink and green striped fabric wallets, purchased from bluejaye crafts on Etsy, which also seems to be on hiatus. I own one of these little pouches and have been using it constantly for the past three or four years. It’s a little faded, but has held up beautifully.

Mom’s Birthday Calendar, designed by Sandra Boynton. It’s a perpetual calendar, so you can write birthdays or other important anniversaries on it and use it year after year. On the right is a photo of a similar calendar (the design is slightly different; my calendar is taller and narrower) that I’ve had for years, hanging on my fridge.

Last, a set of square magnets with little nature-y sketches or motifs on them.

Would you like any of these things? Comment and let me know which item(s) you’re interested in. If you only want one or two, that’s fine. If you are interested in all of them, that’s okay too. If more than one person is interested in anything, I’ll just do a drawing. If you win an item and you’d like to PayPal me a couple bucks to cover postage that would be nice, but you don’t have to. Call this a random-act-of-kindness giveaway, I guess. I’ll leave the comments open for a day or two, and once I do any drawings I’ll post the winners’ names. If you don’t email me your address within a day or so, I’ll draw another name. Sound good? Okay then. Comment away!

Updated 13 Oct 2011: Comments are closed. I’ll post the winners tomorrow.

Anyone out there want this little dotty mug and saucer? (Edited to add: the cup is only about 3.5 inches tall—it’s a mini-mug!) It was in my etsy shop for ages and the listing just expired. It’s actually an espresso mug and saucer but I was thinking of a little girl when I painted it.

I told Brenda a long time ago that if no one bought it, I’d sell it to her for a song, or possibly a latte. Before I do that though, I’m offering it to you all one last time for $18 with free shipping. If you want it, tell me in the comments and I’ll put it back in my Etsy shop as a reserved listing.

Anyone? Anyone? Or does Brenda need to buy me a latte? Update: Celeste is buying it for one of her son’s pals who broke her arm. Thanks, Celeste! It’s in the shop for you.

Annalie and I are back at my Aunt Julie’s house for a few days, which means I have not been online much lately. We are here because my mom is back in California for an unexpected visit. No, you’re not going crazy; yes, she did just go home a couple of weeks ago. But she decided to come back because her youngest brother, the black sheep of the family whom we hardly ever see, is in intensive care at a local hospital. It’s pretty serious. We don’t really know what’s going to happen with him, and my mom decided she would regret it if the worst were to happen and she never got to say good-bye. I don’t really want to talk too much about it because it’s a tricky situation. Everyone knows how family can be, right? How they can drive you absolutely crazy and make you swear you’re never speaking to so-and-so again, but then when it comes right down to it, they’re still family? Yeah. It’s one of those things.

Anyway. Despite the less-than-happy reasons for the visit, we have been having a good time. Yesterday we hung out at my Uncle Bill and Aunt Kathy’s house with assorted relatives and friends. We swam in the pool and had dinner on the patio. The kids chased each other around and ate popsicles while the adults had coffee. The sky grew dark and we were treated to a beautiful full moon rising as the colored lights came on around the yard. It was great.

My Uncle Bill loves 1950s- and 1960s-era antiques and cars. He and my Aunt Kathy have been antique dealers on and off for years, but mostly he just collects for pure enjoyment. In their old house, he had renovated a freestanding garage in their backyard so it was like walking into a little apartment from the past! The bed, the TV, the chairs and table, the oven, the fridge, the dishes in the tiny kitchen—everything in that room was from another era. And the best part was, they used it! That little garage was their guest house. When they moved, I was so sad that the guest house was no more.

In the house where they’ve lived for the past ten years Bill has slowly, bit by bit, been filling up the pool house with exactly the right items to turn it into a retro diner of sorts. There is a high counter with a slushie machine and an industrial coffeemaker, and off to the side there is a bright green 7-Up fridge and a hot-dog machine, the kind that has the rollers for cooking the hot dogs. When they have parties at their house, the pool fills up with people and the pool house is busy with people helping themselves to slushies and hot dogs.

When my cousin’s kids Derek and Desiree are over there, they use the pool house as their own personal pretend restaurant. They even printed up “menus” that they keep in a menu rack by the front door. Derek named it Bob’s Eat-It-All! (Bob is their dad, and he’s a restaurant manager. Like father like son, I guess!) Yesterday while we boring adults ate our grinders at the table on the patio, Derek and Desiree and Annalie had hot dogs and chips and pop at Bob’s Eat-It-All.

From what I could see and hear, they were having a blast. Derek was busily rushing back and forth between the house and the Eat-It-All with cans of 7-Up and hot dogs and straws. He has always been fascinated by food and cooking—when he was 3 years old his favorite video in the world was the instructional video that came with his grandma’s Cuisinart—and I would not be at all surprised if he follows in his dad’s footsteps and ends up working in the food-service industry somehow. There are a LOT of people in this family who have worked as cooks and owned and managed restaurants.

I said something to Bill about how great it was that he was letting the kids play in the pool house, when so many people would be worried about them breaking something. He said, “Well, I don’t want them to grow up remembering their crabby old uncle who never let them touch anything at his house! Besides, it’s just stuff. It’s meant to be used, and it can always be replaced.” I wish my attitude towards my considerably less-cool, less-valuable stuff was as good.

Therefore, I really don’t mind selling this one in my Etsy shop. It sold! Thank you!

Now I get to paint another one.

Domestic Chicky is helping Lotta kick off her new shop with a giveaway! If you have a blog and you want a chance to win a cool pink retro bracelet and ring, click over to this post and see what you need to do! Just do it before January 18th at 9pm PST.

(Thanks to OMSH for the link!)

My Etsy shop isn’t very exciting at the moment, since there is only one thing for sale there. But it’s a fun thing:

Gumball magnets!

Who knows if I will actually sell anything. But the shop is open, and I will be adding more items by and by.

I know you all are waiting with bated breath to hear about the rest of our visit in Omaha, including the wedding. And of course you are dying to see photos, right? Well, I’m sorry but you’re gonna have to wait a little longer. I am tired and have to get up early in the morning. And this weekend is my friend Jill’s 40th birthday bash, so we’re going to be busy partying, and taking more photos, so I can get even further behind. Sometimes I think maybe it would be smarter to just skip ahead and pick up right where we are now.

I will at least tell you about the time a couple of weeks ago when Annalie was watching Wonder Pets, and she recognized the melody of Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube waltz. She turned to me and said, “Hey, they sing this song at the Glass Slipper Ball on Little Einsteins! How funny is that?”

Happy weekend, ya’ll!

*Neilochka’s site, Citizen of the Month, is not exactly a family-friendly site. He’s a great writer, smart, very funny, but…it’s not G-rated. Consider yourselves duly warned. :-)

I have been admiring Maura’s craft as seen on her Flickr photostream for ages, and am a satisfied repeat customer of her Etsy store. So I was quite excited to hear that she has been featured on Urban Outfitters’ blog! Way to go, Maura! :-)

The above package created a good hour of fun for Annalie and me. The shredded paper that was used as packing material in the box became confetti because, well, why not?

If only making our kids happy were always this simple.

Once we were done playing, it was easy enough to vacuum the mess up. Annalie finds the roar of the vacuum a bit too much for her sensitive ears, so she wears one of Troy’s stocking caps when she vacuums.

And looks totally cute in it.