Next Step: Preschool

As I walked in the doors of Jardin Magico, the assistant director stopped me to say “Penelope made us all laugh in preschool! All the new kids wore name tags and had to introduce themselves to the older kids. Penelope was the last one and she said “My name is Penelope and my name is Penny. I’m from toddler A class”’ I have to say I love when she says things in full sentences. It happens all the time now, but it still catches me off guard when she puts a whole bunch of thoughts together. The other day she told me to open the cupcake store. I told her it was closed forever and she said “Go home, get your keys and open the cupcake store!”

Back to the first day of preschool…she is actually in the transition phase which means she spends the morning in preschool and the afternoon back in the toddler room. As of September 1^st she’ll be a full time preschooler, but for now we still drop her off and pick her up in the toddler room.. When  I went to the toddler room Penelope had to tell me all about preschool. She grabbed my hand and led me to her new classroom where I got to meet one of her new teachers, Christian. He told me that Penelope did great. She loved all the new toys in the room and made friends with the older kids. Her most favorite part was that she got 2 tacos for lunch. I guess in the toddler room she only gets 1. All  afternoon she told her friends and teachers that preschoolers get 2 tacos! She obviously is very excited to grow up. I can’t blame her. Being a preschooler means 2 tacos and extra time on the playground? This growing up thing is pretty exciting.

A fun logo

In case you missed it, my sister-in-law Jenn is ridiculously creative. At her wedding she gave the bridesmaids all sorts of wonderful handmade presents. The gift that excited me the most was this:

She took a photo of Cece from my blog and made it into a stamp with a birthday hat and a santa claus hat and then made a bunch of notecards. She made different stamped notecards for all 9 of her bridesmaids! Here's the photo of Cece. Perfect, huh?

Once I ran out of the notecards I asked if I could get more or get the stamp. She sent me this:

A little bag with the stamp that she hand cut so I can always have Cece notecards. I have no idea how she cut it into the rubber so perfectly!  It also came with this little tag:

Now that she is Jenn Henry she made a logo "JenHen Designs" for the stuff she sells at her mom's store. Isn't it adorable? Here was our conversation when I called her:

Me: I love your logo! That's so cool that you have a logo. I wish I had a logo.
Jenn: I'll make you a logo.
Me: Ha ha...why would I need a logo. I don't do anything creative.
Jenn: What are you talking about? You should have one for your knitting!
Me: It isn't like I have an etsy shop. I'm still a beginner.
Jenn: That's okay. You should have a logo when you give them as gifts. All handmade gifts should have a personal tag.

So without further adieu....

Isn't it cute? We were trying to think of a play on my last name without it being cheesy, i.e. "Strands of Love." We thought "Loose Strands" sounded funny. Plus, I tend to show Chris a project and say "Look it's finished!" despite loose strands hanging off of it. Weaving in the ends is my least favorite part!

So I don't have any etsy store plans, and I still feel a little silly having a logo. Here are a few projects I've done this year:

 A cowl with a lace pattern. This patter requires thick wool and big needles. It was a really fast knit and a good intro to lace patterns. I'm still going to add a button, but I do like how it looks with my grandma's pin.

 Hat for Chris. This actually didn't turn out like the pattern due to not paying close attention on rows 16 and 17. (Amy--that was when we were chatting on your living room couch Easter weekend) I wish I could say "oh, this is my own design" but I have no idea what I did and couldn't repeat it. Chris did get some use out of it this year. This photo was taken on May 1st. There were snow flurries as we were walking!

This hat is not for the gnome, although he does look good in it. This is for my brother's friend Nate. We are doing an art trade. He wore my brother's hat on a hiking trip and wanted one of his own. He is amazing at pottery so I asked him to make candlesticks for me and I made him this hat. I feel like I'm on my way to living in an artist commune!

I have one very big project started for a Christmas present. I also spent months knitting a sweater for Penelope that was an absolute fail. The pattern was for a lightweight summer cardigan, which meant knitting with yarn the width of dental floss and teeny needles. Once I was done Penny put it on and Chris told her to start singing "It's a Hard Knock Life". Humph! Maybe I'll take a photo of it....we'll see!

My dream project is this sweater:

When I can do that dahlia, I'll have earned my logo!
So thank you, Jenn for taking the time to make my amateur projects a logo. I love it! I do love knitting things for people so let me know if you want something,  I'll add it to my list and tie a "Loose Strands" tag on it when completed!

Tomorrow

Let's start with the embarrassing part. We took Penelope to see Annie and I cried through the first 10 minutes...as in tears rolling down my face kind of crying. What can I say? Being a mom has turned me into a complete sap. I was in Annie twice growing up so the moment the lights came up it brought back all sorts of memories like being on the stage while Annie sang Maybe and then dancing to A Hard Knock Life. But it wasn't the memories that made me cry. It was the way Penelope sat straight up and was mesmerized from the moment the show started.
We were a little unsure how she'd do. She loved it and was so well-behaved. It was only an hour long with most of the boring, adult parts removed. All the kids in the show were wonderful...a little older than usual. Most of the orphans were middle school or maybe even early high school. Annie was probably about 14, but she was amazing. Penelope fell in love with her. In fact she only clapped after the songs Annie sang.
On the way home she started singing Tomorrow. Melt my heart! We'll definitely be going to more children's shows at Stages theater in Hopkins. Right now I'm off to buy the Annie soundtrack from iTunes....and maybe Music Man...and oh, can't forget Sound of Music. We'll be belting some songs in the Strand household in the morning.

What I've been up to...

Click here to view this photo book larger

Finally got my photo book done! I don't expect you to go through it...it's pretty much the blog cut and paste, but Shutterfly will send it to the blog right from their website. Pretty cool! As all of my scrapbooks in the beginning there's lots of text and picture placement is well thought out....by the end, no text and just pictures in squares. Oh well, Penny will love looking at it and I love being done with 2010 already! Usually I'm a year or more behind. 

By the way if you put in Book40 on shutterfly you'll get 40% off all photo books--code good through Thurday. Another one will come around in a few months, I'm sure.