On My Day Off

So.., I'm not sure what other 57 year old grandmas do on THEIR day off, but I made stuff out of stuff I had around my house for Elizabeth, "our" American Girl Doll.

Remember?  I bought her when I had the money and will give her to Hertsje when she is old enough.  Or, when Broeder is old enough.

At least that's the plan.  I may need to purchase another one.

"Our" Elizabeth needed a table.  I found this thrifted lazy susan in my cupboard doing nothing in particular except taking up space.

I had also just emptied a coffee can, so I covered that in some scrapbook paper.

It isn't attached yet, just balancing there, and balancing quite well.

The height is just right.  I am happy with it!

Then I tried to make a chair.

For that I cut down a small oatmeal container I found in my closet full of stuff I may or may not do something with at some point in time.

I covered that in the same scrapbook paper.

Then I fashioned a back out of less than half of the remaining container.

It was all going so well until suddenly it wasn't.

The first thing I did wrong was to glue the back on upside down.  Of course, removing it ripped up the paper.

As I am wont to do, I threw a fit.  But just a fit.  I didn't throw any"thing" as that would not be a good thing to do.

I patched up the back where it had ripped and was again feeling rather pleased with it all.

Until I got a bit impatient.  Me?!  Impatient?!

Yes.  That describes me.

While I was attaching everything I fumbled all of it and somehow burned off whatever remaining finger prints I have and the entire thing went on crooked.

See?  It's awful.

But, Elizabeth can sit in it just fine, it just looks like a hot mess.  Ouch.  I remember.  Can still feel it as I press my computer keys.

So, I'll try it again someday when I have emptied the big container of oatmeal.
I'll wait a bit though, at least until my finger tips forgive me.

I'm happy with the height of the table.  Using an extremely scientific measurement I can tell you most assuredly that Elizabeth's table touches on her thigh EXACTLY where my kitchen table touches on my thigh.  Is there a better way to measure than that?  Hmm.  Maybe there is.  I'm not too terribly big into accurate measurements, preferring just to "eye-ball" things.

For the rest of the day Elizabeth stood at her new table and painted with her water colors. I donated an easel to her cause.  It's really hard to tell who had the better time, the doll or me.

If you are wondering how this all came about, the American Girl Doll Catalog came in the mail last week.  I poured over it one afternoon, Famke spent some time after school one day with it, and Hertsje has picked out EVERYTHING that she wants from it, which is just about everything IN it. Feintsje only looks at the back cover which showed a pretend popsicle, but he doesn't want a pretend one, he wants a real one.  An orange one.  Too soon.  Too too soon.

Since there is no funding for AGD toys for me OR for the grandchildren I shall do all that I can to made stuff with stuff I already have.  And, as everyone well knows, I have a lot of stuff.