Measurements

I am getting ready to make a dress for Eleanor using a pattern. This will be the first time I have ever used a real pattern, the kind that comes in an envelope with the tissue paper. I've always seen them at the fabric store and they seem really intimidating. Well, they are. I pulled the thing out and I still have yet to figure out which size to cut so that the dress will actually fit her. I read all the directions, which is not usually in my nature for a creative project like this, and still, nothing. So, I decided to take all of Eleanor's measurements while she was awake so that I could work on figuring it out while she is asleep.

After I had finished with her measurements, I came back in the room a few minutes later and found her taking some measurements on her doll (actually, Riley's doll -- on long term loan). Not only was she using the tape measure, she was also writing down the measurements on the bottom of the sheet I had used to record my own information. What a stitch! (Pun intended.)

Ali

I finished Eleanor's doll. Well, except for the clothes. Luckily, we had a dress on hand, which is a tiny bit too small, but it works for the time being. Eleanor named her Ali, which I imagine is for a girl in her music class.

I got the complete Waldorf Doll kit from a place in Ann Arbor, of all places, called Weir Dolls & Crafts. The kit came with fabric for the body and head with the pattern already printed on it, matching thread, yarn for the hair, floss for the eyes and mouth and a bunch of wonderful wool stuffing. I also bought, on their recommendation, some dollmaking needles and ball point needles for my sewing machine. I figured I would make it look (approximately) like Eleanor so I chose a light skin color, blue eyes and blond curly hair. The hair color isn't exactly like Eleanor's but I think it is still pretty cute.

It was so much fun to make. I felt like I was pouring a bunch of love into the little doll body every time I added a new wad of stuffing. I found the trickiest part to be sewing the body and head together, but hopefully they will stay joined! I am looking forward to making the clothing so that Eleanor really feels that it is her doll. I am going to let her pick the fabric and (hopefully) make matching dresses.

And, let me introduce Ali:

Pillows and Burp Rags

I made some pillows for Eleanor's room and some burp rags for a friend who just had a baby. (Hmm, there must be a nicer sounding word than burp rag...)



The pillow inserts I have had since Eleanor was about three months old and I am just now finally getting around to making covers! I do like how they turned out though. It really has more to do with the cute Alexander Henry fabric than with my sewing but no need to dwell on that. I was going to put zippers in but got impatient and just stitched them up by hand so we could start using them. Plus, I don't really know how to put a zipper in. I don't think the hand stitching is too terribly conspicuous.



The three little burp rags are blue polka dot fabric and different colors of blue terry cloth on back. I re-purposed one of the little bags from Eleanor's birthday party (which never happened due to ear infections) as the wrapping. The colors are perfect together. Now to get to the post office and get it in the mail.



The weather is beautiful, cool and sunny, here today. We were all really sick with a 24 hour bug over the weekend so it is nice to feel good and have the weather nice too.

Smelly Kool Aid Play Silks

Eleanor and I (emphasis on "I") decided to dye some silk scarves for her to play with. We saw a tutorial on the Artful Parent blog, and since I've been excited to try all of her projects because they all look wonderful, we (again, read "I") decided to do this one right away.



I went to Safeway and bought all the colors (flavors) of Kool Aid they had, seven in total. We followed the instructions to soak the scarves in hot water with a splash of vinegar and mixed up the dye. Eleanor enjoyed smelling the packets of Kool Aid and stirring (splashing) the water/vinegar/powder.



Once we got everything mixed, the tutorial calls for microwaving the scarf in the bowl with plastic wrap over it for 3 minutes. This smelled terrible to me. I don't remember ever having such an aversion to the smell of orange Kool Aid, maybe I've never smelled it before, but boiling it in the microwave filled our house with a wretched and nauseatingly sweet orange, plastic laden funk. I am serious, I can't ever remember being so averse to a smell even when I was pregnant! Anyhow, we made it through that step and I think the silks turned out great. I do wish we had been able to find a color that would make blue though. Eleanor seems to be enjoying them, even if they do still smell like Kool Aid.



Maybe next time I'll get really fancy and use onion skins and blueberries to make natural dyes. I bet they would smell nicer.

The Kitchen

I've been feeling especially crafty lately -- just wanting to make anything and everything for Eleanor and Henry that I possibly can. I saw a pattern on the blog forty-two roads for a cardboard kitchen and decided that it would be perfect for Eleanor. I had no idea what I was getting into.



The woman who made the kitchen originally and created the pattern must be running for mom of the year. Or engineer of the year. It is an incredibly well thought out pattern and a very creative re-use of corrugated cardboard but I just couldn't make it to the finish.



I must have put 20 hours into the thing and this is as far as we got:



That said, I kind of like the way the uncovered cardboard looks. Eleanor enjoys it, though maybe not quite as much as I think she should for all the hours of woman-labor. At any rate, the good thing about it is, if she gets tired of it we can just collapse it or recycle it. So, I am on to the next project -- a Waldorf doll for Eleanor. More on that as it comes together.

Happy Birthday...

dear Anna! Our friend Anna has officially moved from "baby" Anna to "big girl" Anna as she passed the one year marker.



I hope she enjoys the bean bags as much as I enjoyed making them. I got the idea from a recent post on my very favorite new(ish) blog, the Artful Parent. I did use rice instead of beans though -- she'll be able to put them in the freezer or microwave to soothe any boo-boos.

Art, for Goodness Sake

I have been feeling like I need to be more artsy around here lately. It all started out when I enrolled Eleanor in an art class with Paula, her new art teacher, several weeks ago. It is the most adorable thing -- six little darlings around a low table up to their elbows in paint, glue, glitter and joy. (Thank you to Cathy for the recommendation.)

Coincidentally, right around the same time, I came across a new blog that I am really enjoying called The Artful Parent. The woman who writes the blog, Jean Van’t Hul, seems to know exactly what questions I have, because every post is just what I need to keep (or bring) a little bit of art and beauty in our day to day existence. So, thanks Jean.

The idea of art in everyday life has also got me thinking about the Kuna. They really live artfully without even stressing out about it like I seem to be doing. They just naturally incorporate beauty, color and lovely forms into daily life. The most obvious example is the molas that the women wear, but even in small things such as the wirwir, a kitchen utensil that they use for making madun (a thick warm plantain beverage) the Kunas' artful ideals shine through. And, don't even get me started on their language -- I mean, a word like wirwir to describe something that stirs really fast -- it's fantastic. Anyway, the exhibit and book "The Art of Being Kuna" really hit the nail on the head with that title.

These various tangents have led to much more artsy experimentation around the house. This morning we tried a bit of painting, which I have been hesitant to do because of the carpet. However, as I have seen in art class, Eleanor is pretty decent at keeping it (whatever materials she is working with) on the table. So we gave it a go.



The results were very satisfying, Eleanor enjoyed experimenting with the brush, her fingers, a baby food jar, the textured watercolor paper and the paint. From what I have been reading lately, it is important to discuss the experience with Eleanor rather than the finished product, but I must say, the middle piece with the baby food jar prints, is quite visually appealing to me. In fact, I think I am going to frame it and put it up somewhere. And, my worrying was for naught, as no paint ended up on the floor.



(These pictures are sideways, I couldn't pin them up the way she painted them because there wasn't enough space. So, tilt your head to the right and you will see them as they were created!)

Nana's Flower Cards

I come from a creative family by all accounts. My brother and sister are both very creative, my dad paints, my mom does all sorts of crafty little things, my aunt hooks rugs, and my Nana creates pressed flower cards. Here are a few of her recent cards -- she actually sent these to me in October of last year but I am only now getting around to sharing them with everyone. I think this new bunch are some of the nicest ones ever. My favorite part about the cards is the amount of love Nana puts into their creation; from the gathering and pressing of flowers, to the arrangements, to the final little note with where the flowers are from -- they truly are beautifully and lovingly made. Hope you enjoy the digital versions!

Crafty Night

Vince had a football night a week or so ago with some friends and I sat home and enjoyed some quiet time sewing and watching figure skating on TV. I had actually already seen the competition they were showing (Grand Prix in Paris) but I decided to watch again since a) you can never watch too much figure skating, b) there were some exciting things happening (Trent and Vise landing the first throw triple salchow in competition!) and c) the music was a nice background for sewing.

So, I made a baby blanket for Henry. Not actually a blanket, per se, but a little lovey that he can use to comfort himself so that I don't have to be up all night with him! Eleanor's blankie is a small knit square (thanks Barb P.) that she has dragged all over creation -- so much so that it hardly resembles anything other than a rag. But she loves it. And, it is conveniently small. I thought Henry might like something similar but since I am not a knitter, I put together a white textured cotton fabric and a blue cotton flannel that he can hold on to. I also appliqued his name on top, just because I thought it would be cute. All of my time with the Kuna, watching them sew with such patience and precision, really gave me an appreciation for the art of applique and reverse applique. It is fun to be able to put a bit of that same type of love into something for my son.





I've got a couple of other little projects going and some other ideas rolling around but I'm going to save those for another post since some of them are birthday and baby gifts -- I don't want to ruin the surprises before they go out. Though I might as well, I am embarassingly far behind with all of this. Ahh, well.

Tree Topper

I was feeling that our tree was a little bare on top, so the other day I made a star. I had this idea floating around in my mind, and I have to say, I think it turned out rather nicely. I drew a star on the fabric, cut through two pieces and sewed them together almost all the way around. Then I turned it inside out, stuffed it with Poly-Fil and stitched up the little hole. I sewed a cone of fabric on the back so it would rest comfortably on the tallest point of our tree. Here is the finished product:



And a side view:

A New Obsession

I haven't been writing as much as I would like lately, due to the fact that I have been obsessively sewing. I have been using a book that I mentioned before called Bend-the-Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. I just want to make every single thing in the book immediately and even as I sit here typing I feel my fingers itching to get back to that old sewing machine. The moments when both kids are asleep are so few and precious, like moments when I used to skate and would fly around the rink by myself free as a bird. I don't mean to sound as though I dislike spending time with my kids, of course I love being with them more than anything, it is just nice to have a moment to do something other than nurse, change diapers and deal with two-year-old tantrums.

So here are the things I have been working on lately. Yesterday, I attended a baby shower for a friend and was so pleased to give her a handmade bag, bib and burp cloth with some of my favorite California Baby bubble bath. I even made the tag to match from a coupon sent by Target that was the perfect color. Vince must have thought I was crazy -- as soon as the kids would go to sleep for the night, I would hole up in the laundry room with the machine, the iron and the book to sew. I think it turned out nicely:



Now, I am knee deep in my first (small sized) quilt. I had the most fun picking out fabrics but, boy, is it difficult to figure out which things will match when put into a quilt. I probably spent at least 45 minutes deciding which patterns and solid colors to buy, all the while worrying that Henry was going to wake up and Vince would be stuck at home with no milk. It all turned out just fine -- I got some fabric and Henry was still blissfully asleep when I returned. So here is the general plan for the quilt, I've gotten some of the panels together and am going to work on it a bit more right now!

Feeling Rather Self-Congratulatory

I did it. I sewed something. A Woodland Elf Hat for Eleanor! I have been reading the lovely blog Angry Chicken, which lead me to the blogger Amy Karol's wonderful new book Bend-the-Rules Sewing, which in turn lead me into a crafting frenzy. I can't tell you how excited I get when I look at the cool things that she and all of these other (primarily) crafty women are making. It seems that many of them are also mommas, approximately my age, with kids close in age to Eleanor and Henry -- it feels almost like an electronic connection to some long lost friends.



Anyway, back to the hat that I am ever so proud of. I had a bad time last week when I found that some sort of little worms were eating my sweaters. They even got to the cashmere sweater that Vince gave me for my birthday last year and it made me cry. So when I found that the pattern for the Woodland Elf Hat can be made with a sweater, I decided to turn my sorrow into joy. I got out the old sewing machine -- a hand-me-down from a childhood neighbor named Eleanor as well -- which wasn't working, and with sheer will and determination I read the manual, cleaned the lint, oiled the gears, and got it going.



Now our Eleanor's ears will be toasty with this soft and sweet little hat. I decided that I like sewing with a machine too, it is relatively fast (even for a beginner like me) and it can be quite precise. In fact, I like it so much that Eleanor, Henry and I went out in the pouring rain yesterday to get a few supplies for other projects at the fabric shop. It is probably a good thing I had the two of them demanding most of my attention, otherwise I might have spent a LOT of money!



By the way, I don't have any clue how photographers get child models to do what they want. Trying to get a shot of this darn hat was like trying to brush Eleanor's teeth -- nearly impossible!

Grandma's Book

We just got a package today from Grandma. She sent a few things, including some fall stickers for the windows, a t-shirt for Eleanor and a fantastic rhubarb recipe. But, the crown jewel of the package was a book, made especially for Eleanor, of Grandma and Grandpa's new driveway. Wow, did she love it. I think I am going to have to laminate it so that she doesn't destroy it as she reads and rereads it.



Eleanor's favorite page included the pictures of the red dump trucks. She made some beeping sounds -- the kind a truck makes when backing up -- and pointed out the various parts of the truck.



My personal favorite page was the page with the mini-loader on it. It was so sweet of Grandma to think of Eleanor when the mini-loader arrived and photo document the whole process. The mini-loader has been one of Eleanor's favorite trucks since the day Henry was born, so to have one in the book was pretty special.



We want to send a huge thank you to Grandma for her thoughtful handmade gift. It was obviously created with a lot of love. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family.

In other news, today was a big day for Henry as well. He had his 2 month checkup. Unbelievable, that our little tiny baby is already two months old. And, his big sister is 21 months old. Where does the time go?! Anyway, Henry got a clean bill of health and seems to be growing like a weed. He absolutely detested the shots though -- he got as mad as a hatter when the nurse gave them to him. I imagine he will sleep well tonight.

Learning to Hook

I am hooking my first big rug. I don't have any sort of pattern, which may be a mistake in my first large scale attempt, but I am enjoying the soothing rhythm of hooking. The nice thing is, I just have it all in a big laundry basket and at moments when things are calm or the babies are asleep, I can just pick up and start. I began the project with a black border and then spent a couple of months staring at the blank space on the rug warp trying to envision what might fill the outer boundary. In the end, I decided to go for something simple, circles of different colors at random spacing. My Aunt Glee sent the warp and some lovely colors of wool that she dyed, which I am using in along with some wool I have here. All of the wool is recycled, or probably more accurately put, reused from old clothing and secondhand store finds.
Here is a picture of all the different items I used to make the circles:



Seems that Eleanor is interested in learning to hook too. I am probably not the one to teach her since I am so inexperienced myself, but hopefully she will be able to work with Nana and Aunt Glee the next time we are together, so that they can impart their vast knowledge of the art on her. I think it is so nice that she has an interest in the rug. I believe that if she is exposed to the wool, the process of cutting and using ones hands to create, she will learn naturally and enjoy creating as well. Even if she doesn't want to hook rugs, I think that being in a creative environment will help her imagination and that is something that I feel responsible to help foster.
Here are some pictures of Eleanor -- checking out the wool, practicing her hooking, and getting bored with the rug warp and starting in on the couch:

A New Stool for Eleanor

I had so much fun the other night making a stool for Eleanor. I have been looking for a stool to put in our bathroom that she can use to get on the potty and use while washing her hands without much success. Most of the stools I have seen in the stores are either plastic, covered with characters or just boring. I wanted something a bit unique for her; something that would be her own.

After reading a post on a blog called Angry Chicken about toys not made in China and her homemade toys, I was inspired to make a stool for Eleanor. I came home from a trip to the craft store with an unfinished stool, some colorful card stock, two sponge brushes, and a jar of Mod Podge, which is apparently non toxic and therefore perfect for the project. Since I had a 50% off coupon, the amount I spent was less than what I would have spent if I had bought one of the plastic stools! I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to do but figured something would hit me. I decided to put Eleanor's name on the stool in blue along with a giraffe -- an animal she has always loved.

I drew the idea out on plain paper first and then cut the pieces out of the colored paper from the pattern. The letters were a bit tricky because they are so small, but I think they turned out alright. Then I put a layer of Mod Podge on the stool and put the first layer of the design down (yellow part of the giraffe, leaves and branches) and pushed all the air bubbles out. Once that dried just a bit, I put the top layer of the design (giraffe spots and letters) and another coat of Mod Podge. I have put several more layers of Mod Podge on since and am considering a coat of something that will protect and take the tackiness off the surface -- it is going in the bathroom after all and will most likely come in contact with water at some point!

Here is the stool:



And, on a completely unrelated note, we had a young buck in our backyard yesterday eating the pears from our tree. Amazing to be three miles from D.C. and have such abundant wildlife!