Snug as a Bug.

I love these mornings when I wake up wide awake with an hour to spare before Ana does. The house is so quiet. The air outside is usually completely still, and lately very dark. I try to get in at least 10 minutes of quiet every morning, but an hour!! That's luxury.

Last night, I was up a bit late enjoying a new find from the library: Tasha Tudor's Heirloom Crafts. For those of you who don't know Tasha Tudor, she was a children's book illustrator and lover of the country life. She illustrated over 100 children's books with a very old-fashioned style. They are quite beautiful, and I much prefer them over the cartoon-y appearances of kids books like Dora and others. The book gave me many ideas for home crafts. Especially the melon baskets made from ash wood (which the Shire has an abundance). Very dangerous.

But the one craft I've lately attached my spare time to looking further into is making a braided wool rug. It seems it's not difficult at all, and with some patience and only a little money, Ana's room can have a nice rug for her to run over.

In other news, we've been the happy recipients of yet another of my brother's cast-offs: a toddler bed! It couldn't have come at a better time. We were starting to make plans to retro fit Dan's twin long (and super tall) bed from his childhood to make it easier for Ana to crawl in and out of when Aaron's wife Jodi called and offered their little bed. It is so cute, just like a hobbit bed. Which is fitting, because Ana's feet are huge for her little body: just like a hobbit's feet.

And she loves it. We were a tad worried that we'd have to play the "Go back to bed" game last night, but she only crawled out once. Dan met her at the door and told her that if she got out of bed, she's have to sleep in her crib. Well, that did it. She hippity hopped right back into her little bed and dove under the covers. Two minutes later and she was sawing toothpicks.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And don't forget, Advent starts on Sunday. Hoo, where did that come from?