Layering isn't always the best option

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

When my parents were here this past weekend, we started telling them some stories about the funny age that is 3. One of the stories was about the night when we checked on Penguin after she'd settled in to sleep, and discovered she'd decided to add a few layers to her pajamas before falling asleep.

How many layers?

Well, see if you can tell from the photo:

(Yes, that is her cookie costume as a scarf. Also, I took that one off right after taking the picture.)

Give up? You should... you can't even see the pink footie pjs that were her original going-to-bed-outfit... and which were still underneath all that!

Penguin's outfit that night (most of which were removed post-picture, without waking her up) included:

• her original pink fleece footie pajamas
• the purple princess/crown pj pants you can see on the bottom
• a matching purple princess/brown pj top
• the purple star/moon pj top you can see
• matching purple star/moon pj pants you cannot
• a denim jumper
• socks
• a tutu
• and her cookie costume.

We (ok, mostly me) just kept giggling as we oh-so-quietly, and oh-so-gently kept removing layer after layer after layer. I guess it's just a good thing it wasn't summer or she would have sweated herself to death!

The orange dress

(c) 2010 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

...can be found here.

(You'll notice they don't show the short side without the boa, even on the model!)

Happy New Year Brain Dump

(c) 2011 Ms. Huis Herself at musenmutter.blogspot.com

Happy New Year to you all! Yeah, I know it's already the 6th of January, but better late than never right? As I've got several dozen "Oh, I gotta remember to blog about that" items rolling around in my head, I'm just going to brain dump a few of them. Maybe I'll get around to my 2010 review/resolution update and be a little more thoughtful yet this month!

• First of all, I'm only getting a chance to write this because Penguin fell asleep on the couch this morning. I don't remember the last time she took a morning nap, so I'm guessing she's not feeling 100%. Earlier, she used one of her two-per-day tv tickets & watched all curled up under two blankets on the couch. That's not unusual...but when she stayed all cozied up & just listened to music from her Pandora channel... and then covered up her head so it was dark... I decided I'd just leave her be. So we'll to to the library this afternoon instead of having quiet time; it's all good!
• We had a lovely and overly-generous Christmas visit back to MN. Good to see so much family and even a few friends. All of my folks' kids & grandkids were together for Christmas Eve, and all of Mr. Kluges's side were able to be together for a few hours on the Sunday following. We even managed to squeak in a quick visit with 3 of Mr. Kluges's high school friends, their spouses, and all the kids. Those are rare, since we're spread out from Illinois to Wisconsin to Minnesota to Colorado!
• For my park & rec grown-up tap class, we're wearing fitted, sequined, ORANGE dresses. Sure, they've got a built-in leotard, but they are SHORT. The asymetrical hemline reaches my knee on the LONG side...but the short side... well, I like to call it "cheeky." And I'm the youngest one in the class. We were going to wear black leggings under them, but it's just too Halloween-y with the pumpkin-orange dresses. So, brilliant me decides we should attach some 6" flapper-fringe to the hems for a bit more coverage. I'd mentioned the idea of fringe when we were trying to decide what to do earlier, but I could tell people weren't seeing what I was seeing in my mind's eye. So, yesterday I hit the fabric store for fringe... and dye since I couldn't get orange. Washed it, dyed it (not well, it turned out coral, but close enough to demo), attached it... and brought it to last night's class, where it was met with much enthusiasm. Yay! Now I've got 24 yards of orange 6" chainette fringe on order!
• Ok, Penguin woke up, so I'm off. Happy 2011 to you all!