Winter Crafts

For Christmas, Chase received a 3D printer from Ivan. He has been finding lots of things to print and designing lots of cool stuff for himself and his classmates. 

Top: Left: Chase designed a maze and then took out the scaffolding; Right: Chase made a fidget that he downloaded online; Bottom: Left: For Valentine's Day, Chase made keychains for all his classmates with their names and some moveable hearts; Right: I designed these two-toned names for me and my colleagues to put up in our cubicles. 

Just like last year, I participated in February Embroidery Bingo from BonnahCo. This time, it was a flower pattern, and while I didn't win bingo, I did have a lot of fun and got Sakina into it. 

Top: I decided to stitch on the opposite side of the fabric so that my stitches would stand out more; Bottom: Last year's on the left and this year's on the right -- let's see what next year's will look like. 

Edit: Just like last year, I am editing this to include a BonnahCo ornament I did at the end of the year. For the next few years, they are doing a polar bear theme so this is the first of a few similar ones, but for now these are the two I have so far together on the tree. 

2022 in Review

[Previous years in review: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013]

This year, I am finally returning to the theme of this blog! Lots of crafts and home improvement projects! I did some embroidery, Chase and I made an octopus, a halloween costume, and some Christmas ornaments. We also did many crafts not mentioned here such as beading, pom-poms, and lots of drawings. We reupholstered our dining room chairs and did a lot of gardening. We also got solar panels on our roof and did a lot of small energy-related improvements on the house: updated the thermostats and switched all the bulbs to LED. There was a lot more maintenance related tasks that we first anticipated: dealing with the yard work, cleaning the gutters, dealing with random ants, checking our boiler and sump pump, etc. We had hoped to install some air conditioning before the summer but for various reasons didn't get to it. That may be a project for next year. 

We are also returning to traveling and hosting visitors. We hosted 6 different people/families throughout the year, which was super fun! We made many shorter trips: local winter & fall, NYC, Massachusetts, and Philadelphia. We/I also made some further trips: Baltimore/DC, South Carolina, Nebraska, and Bermuda. Chase slightly added to his state count with New Jersey, Maryland, and DC, bringing it to 12 (MA, CT, RI, NY, NE, CA, NV, IA, IL, PA, NJ,  MD [& DC]). He also turned 8. 

As always, here is an Instagram collage of pictures from the last year.

Happy 2023!

Day trips to NYC

This year, we/I ended up with 6 day trips to NYC. While that doesn't sound like a lot, it's not always easy to have a full day of time to travel there and make the most of it.

May: Last fall, before Chase’s Van Gogh obsession, his art teacher showed him a book apparently called “The Big M” (can’t seem to find it by that name though) about the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This book prominently featured this blue hippo so Chase has been talking about seeing it for a while. Thankfully, with my mom and Chase, we had chance for a day trip to the Met, not only to see the hippo but also to see his favorites (Van Gogh and Monet). 

August: On another open day, my mom, Chase, and I decided to go the MoMa and the Top of the Rock afterwards. Our library has a cool program where you can check out tickets to NYC museums and enter for free. We took advantage of that this time, even though we had been to the MoMa last fall. The Top of the Rock was pretty cool -- I had never been!

September: Marina visited with Bee and we did a day trip together -- just the 3 of us. We went to the Met, walked around central Park to Seneca village and visited the upper west side (to see the area Taza lived). 

November: Thanksgiving weekend, my mom, Chase, and I had another free day so we decided to go the Hudson Yards area of NYC. We went up to The Edge (such nice views around sunset!), walked the High Line to Little Island and finally checked that out. This area of NYC was built up and opened around 2019 so not a place we've spent much time yet. The weather was perfect! 

The Edge's gimmick is that there is a see-through area going straight down -- but it's quite small and there were a lot of people taking pictures. 

Little Island was so cute! Not much to it but it was fun to check out. 

December: Nate and I traveled to NYC twice in December. Once to go to a reception for our college (HMC), and once to go to a show and eat good food. We saw Book of Mormon (finally!) and enjoyed that, had some yummy dim sum and some cocktails, and walked around the city on a nice night. 

Making ornaments with Chase

Chase was very excited this year to make some ornaments for the tree. Because of my parents' move, I had received some of the old ornaments I made (years and years before I started this blog) so he wanted to make similar ones. Also because of that move, I now have all my old ornament crafting stuff with more than enough materials to make some nice ornaments. We went to Michael's to grab the ornaments themselves -- which are now plastic unlike the glass ones I was using 20 years ago -- and stumbled upon these larger ornaments that looked like snow globes. Chase was super excited to decorate one of them and made a whole wintry scene for a tiny kitty, complete with presents (a yarn ball) and snow balls. He liked making the snow globe so much that we actually went back to get a second one so he could decorate a wintry scene with some trees for two tiny lizard figurines he had. It was so fun to make ornaments together and definitely put us in the holiday mood!

Siphonophore Halloween costume

Even last year, Chase talked about being a siphonophore for Halloween. I didn’t really have the time last year but decided that this year, we could make the costume together. It took about two weeks of evenings, but by working together, we assembled a pretty cool siphonophore costume (with lights!). Chase threaded each needle for the strings (about 270 threaded needles for 540ish strings) that hang off each pompom and made the large pompom on his hat. I sewed on the pompom ribbon and sewed in the lights. It was very fun to make this costume together!

Due to Halloween falling on a Monday, he had three straight days of Halloween and wearing his costume. He was very happy about his costume and wore it on Friday for a trunk or treat, Saturday for another trunk or treat, Monday for a Halloween parade and for trick or treating. The costume held up super well even after hours of after-dark playground playing. It was also very helpful to have him lit up so we never lost sight of him! Chase has loved siphonophores ever since seeing an episode about them on Octonauts. He had to tell almost everyone what a siphonophore was (not an easy task for a super shy kid), but he had a super fun time showing off the costume!

Fall in New England

[Last year's Fall activities; And those from 10 years ago]

Fall in New England is still by far the best! With Olga, we finally beat the corn maze at Treat Farm that bested us last year (only the 11th group to do that this season at that point!) and got some Beardsley's Cider Mill cider donuts to celebrate! 

Our path broken up in two parts (when we found the exit prematurely) -- we definitely used the right hand rule this year to systematically find all 6 hidden clues and get out. So glad we finally conquered it but it still took us a solid 2 hours!

At the beginning of fall, while the weather was still predictably warm, the three of us with my mom went to Quassy Amusement Park. It was a bit of a drive, but very few people were there, so we were able to go on all the rides as many time as we wanted. It was super fun. Closer to the middle of fall, Chase's old school was holding their annual carnival. Chase went with one of his friends (Nina) and had a great time!

This fall, Nate and Chase even got to take in a Dolphins/Jets game in New Jersey. Chase has been rooting for both the Jets and Dolphins all year (for reasons we don't quite understand). When Nate saw that they were playing each other, he decided to take Chase. It was a very traffic-heavy trip, but the two of them had a lot of fun. 

At the game; Chase at a local lake taking some fall peeping pics with my parents. 

Trip to Nebraska

At the end of September, we spent a very full few days in Nebraska. We traveled there to celebrate the wedding of Mike and Brittany. But since we were already there, Melissa and family met us and Chase met his newest cousin. Having all the family together allowed us to finally make it to Vala’s pumpkin patch (a big seasonal amusement park right in Nate’s hometown). The timing also gave us the chance to celebrate Nate’s grandmother’s 91st birthday! Oh, and Chase and grandpa had fun matching their clothes (as always). 

Chase with his cousin and on a tractor at Mike's family's farm. 

Nate's grandmother with 2 of her 6 great grandchildren on her 91st birthday. 

Vala's was so much fun! I had been hearing about it for years so it was nice to finally be able to go, especially with Chase!

Matching, matching!

We also hung out with Nate’s childhood friends both at the wedding and in a later get-together. Our kids all played so nicely together. Joe, Angelica, and Cirilla had visited us in June, so it was nice to see them at their place so soon after. Chase and Cirilla really enjoyed playing together again.