What I learned on the Internet today

It might surprise you to learn that I am one of those people who is paranoid about the Internet.  I'm obviously not quite ready to hide out in a cabin in the mountains, but I hate Facebook and am always wagging my finger at certain siblings for revealing too much in their photo albums.  Etc.

But that said, I recognize there is a lot of good on the Internet.  It certainly enables me to keep in touch with my family with an ease that we only dreamed about 20 years ago.  I also love online shopping, Pinterest, Ravelry, My Fitness Pal, and a number of other sites.  But probably the neatest thing about the Internet is how it can teach you to do stuff.  Almost all my knitting know-how came from Youtube videos.  And today, during my kids' three-hour nap (yay!) the Internet gave me the idea to make these cute little handwarmers and even taught me a couple basic embroidery stitches with which to embellish them.

And then I made them.  They are filled with rice and fit into the palm of your hand.  You microwave them for 30 seconds, then slip them in your pockets for a winter stroll. 

One thing the Internet hasn't yet taught me is how to take
non-blurry indoor photos on a winter's day.

Also, I know that my whipstitching needs work.

Winter twig tree

On Friday Natasha and I decided to make a winter twig tree while Zoia napped. First we gathered the twigs outside.

Then we put them into an empty wine carafe alone with a string of pearl beads that didn't make it onto the Christmas tree.  I think we needed more beads, though.  Then Natasha hung some ornaments on it.  We used old glass ornaments that it would not break my heart to lose; however, I wanted to give them a fighting chance, so the tree's home is the top of our bookshelf.

My poor jet-lagged girl staring at her finished creation.  When Papa came home, she pointed excitedly and yelled "A dih da!"  (Translation: "I did that!")

For the birds

Yesterday Natasha and I made bird feeders while Zoia napped.  I got the idea online at Unschool Preschool - if you have young kids, you need to add this brilliance to your bookmarks tab; she's a toddler-mothering genius. 

Anyway, the project is super-easy.  You just give the kid a pipe cleaner and some Cheerios and let them go nuts.  I don't know whether stringing cereal on a pipe cleaner is something all two-year-olds are capable of, but I have to admit I was pretty impressed with my daughter's skills.  Just look at that concentration!

Will the birds eat the Cheerios?  I'm guessing not. (Also, what birds?  I think they all flew south already - it's cold here!). But N liked the concept of the birds "nyum-nyuming" her creation and this was a fun activity for us to do together.

Panic buying and some crafting

Just two hours before we had to leave the house for Dulles Airport to catch our flight home, I was racing up and down the aisles of AC Moore, frantically trying to determine what items I needed to round out my holiday crafting supplies.  The girls were home napping, but needed to be roused, fed and changed.  Clothing needed to make its way out of the dryer and into our suitcases.  Beds had to be looked under and couches moved to locate missing hair barrettes and toys.  First things first, though - I had to take care of the pressing matter of whether gold or silver wired ribbon would look better on my Christmas wreath.  (And as it turns out, I didn't even use the ribbon).

Panic buying.

I think most of us who live the expat life have experienced this at one time or another.  I imagine it was worse when I was a kid and we didn't have Amazon.com (also, I'd hazard a guess that the term "snail mail" was coined by a user of the APO back then). Here in Moscow, I'm told, you can find just about anything for a price.  I'm sure that is true, however, I don't have the time or inclination to hunt down things like pipe cleaners if it is going to involve two hours in road traffic or a 45-minute journey on the metro.  Also problematic: I hate paying for shipping.  And my Amazon Prime membership is pretty much worthless now that they have stopped free two-day shipping to APO and DPO addresses (if anyone from Amazon is reading this, take note that you now get a big thumbs-down from me and probably from a lot of other people in my shoes).

So during our R&R back to the States, I bought.  And bought.  And bought.  We filled up two new suitcases with my purchases, and I still had to mail a couple boxes back to the States.  Trader Joe got a lot of our money.  So did Target, and AC Moore, and Michael's.  I had decided the girls and I needed to do more crafty activities together, so we're now all stocked up on googly eyes, pom poms, craft foam and of course, pipe cleaners, to name a few items.

I also decided I needed to make a Christmas yarn wreath for our door.  When my first attempt turned out looking more like a lifesaver than yuletide decor, I panicked.

Would I be able to find the items I needed to turn my craft dream into reality in Moscow?  Better hedge my bets.  And that is how I ended up back at AC Moore four hours before our flight back to Russia.  I bought stuff to make the finished wreath, and a few things that didn't get used.  Sorry for the lighting.  I'm not a great photographer and the natural light here is kind of lacking when I think to take these photos.