Joy

At some point during dinner last night, Victor started teasing Benjamin and me. You see, Victor and Ripley are two guys made out of the same mold. They know how to chill. And chill. And chill. Benjamin and I can do a half hour of chillin' before we start to go bonkers and invent for ourselves a project. Midway through chicken soup last night, Benjamin says that he'd like to make blankets and pillows to sell in his classroom for their "Pay Pals". I should mention that this weekend, I taught Benjamin how to use my sewing machine -- which he thought was fabulous! The funny thing is, Benjamin was asking this after he'd finished his homework, we were sitting down to dinner, AND it was 7:15pm at night! He looked at me with those excited "PROJECT" eyes and knew I was in.

.

What are Pay Pals you ask? Good question. I didn't know either. Basically, you earn points by doing your homework. After you reach a certain number of points, you earn a Pay Pal, which is a Beanie Baby. Then the children proceed to make things to sell to their classmates' Pay Pals. Money (popsicle sticks) is earned by doing homework. So, basically, we hurriedly made blankets and pillows for little beanie babies to earn a handful of popsicle sticks. Truly, I think it's a fabulous concept. And it seems the kids are really into it. Benjamin at one point explained to me that everyone "plays" with their Pay Pal during snack time. Benjamin said "EVERYTHING happens at snack." What a riot.

.

I had some old fleece hanging around that I can't for the life of me dig up in my mind what I'd purchased for. On sale in the remnants section probably. Well, it came in handy. We made a pattern out of an old roll of paper towel hiding in my craft room. Benjamin pinned the paper towel pattern to the fleece and cut out three blankets with pinking sheers.

We cut out three rectangles for the pillows. Benjamin gave a whole hearted try sewing the pillows up on the machine, but the material was extremely stretchy and I finally had to come to his rescue.

Benjamin was in charge of stuffing the pillows and stitching up the last side by hand.

We had the opportunity to talk about the importance of presentation when marketing anything. So we bundled each pillow and blanket together with a piece of unused yarn I had hanging around.

Aren't they adorable? I'm not sure who had more fun, Benjamin or me. Joy.