I finished up another pair of baby shoes for the baby. I picked a nautical theme for this pair. I made a skirt last summer out of the same fabric I used for the sole, so, hoping I can squeeze my post-partum self into an elastic-waisted skirt, we may get a little matchiness going. heh.

We love sailboats in this family. Chris and his family have always enjoyed sailing, and growing up, C prowled around nautical museums on family vacations. If the boat is wooden, all the better. One of our first big outings after we started dating was Chris taking me out sailing for the first time in my life. Other memorable sailing occasions include renting a sailboat for an afternoon in Bermuda (our destination for a family cruise that my great-aunt and uncle took us all on) in 2002. We sailed all over finding patches of reef. Then we'd hang over the side of the boat and stick our head in the water with goggles on and snap pics with an underwater camera. Way better than snorkeling. haha! That was so fun! Then, of course, there was the wild ride in a harbor in Maine last summer for E's first sailing experience.

Sailing is great. The thing that strikes me every time we manage to get out on the water is how quiet it is--skimming across the water so noislessly. Occasionally the rush of water adds a little punctuation to the quiet.

Boats are special icons in our family. When I look at sailboats, I think of some really happy times with C and hope for future fun times with our boys.

Posted by at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

...while I wait.

I figured that I really ought to make some baby shoes for my own kid. I found this linen in the scraps bin at the fabric store, and it's SO SOFT. I love it!!! I may just start a new affair with linen.

My mom still has my sewing machine, so I hand-stitched these shoes. It actually didn't take very long and has been kind of therapeutic. The onesie is just a simple applique with that awesome applique fusible stuff.

Posted by at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Phew! two days later, and it's basically done! I decided to welcome my third trimester with my first attempt at sewing clothes for myself that wasn't an Aline, elastic band skirt. So I made a maternity shirt. And since I just can't be a normal person and use a preexisting pattern with a predictable design, I came up with this by cutting up an old maternity shirt that I didn't like. The style was okay, but the fabric was really dated in an uncool way. This shirt isn't exactly like the original. I made the slits up the side to give me a little extra growing room, did a trim instead of a collar, and eliminated the darts in the back. I don't normally wear a print like that, so I added the bias trim on the neck, sleeves, and hem to break up the print a bit, frame it some, I suppose. I'm really thrilled it worked out, since I've never made a shirt before.

Posted by at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I have recently found a blog that just blows me away. It's my new favorite blog: The Artful Parent: The intersection of Art and Parenting.

The title kind of says it all. It's about a mother and her interactions with her toddler doing art things, resources for the rest of us, art ideas, art concepts, and the philosophy of doing art with children. They have weekly art playdates with other toddlers. I love it because it partly explores what is developmentally appropriate for their age, developing their own sense of creativity.

I know nothing about art. At best, I can categorize paintings into historical genres and mediums. I know what was important when. I know the Virgin Mary is painted in cobalt blue. But as far as applied art? nothing. Never had an art class. Ever. Not even in high school. We had art class like 3 times in first grade. And I think after school a couple of times in jr high. I've always had art supplies available to me. I've dibbled and dabbled here and there, reading a few books. But basically I know nothing. But I think creativity is really important, and its something I want to inspire daily with my kids. Resources like this blog are really valuable to me, because I'm getting an education about more constructive ways to share the art experience with my toddler.

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(My favorite part: the cell phone pocket and the chapstick pocket)

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I've been trying to get more sewing in. I made this for our good friend Maddie, who got great art stuff for Christmas. I'm getting a good solid hold on my smock pattern.

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Making dough ornaments, part 3. Hang on tree.

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Yesterday at my mom's we made salt dough Christmas ornaments.* It's part of the Quest for Unbreakable Ornaments meets Crafting with Toddlers. It was fun to see how much Ellis has matured. He can roll the dough so well now and sort even managed cutting out a few. Today I stocked up on glitter glue from ACMoore. This weekend we will paint and beglitter our baked stars and birds.

*BTW, this recipe that I linked to worked out great! 1/2c. salt, 1. c flour, 1/2 c. water. Mix, knead. Roll on floured surface, bake on ungreased sheets for 2 hours on 250F. Couldn't have asked for better!

Posted by at 11:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

This was the fruits of my Thanksgiving weekend craftiness. I made smocks and crayon rolls for K's girls as part of an Exchange of Goods. (I'm also the proud owner of a Beco carrier as part of this exchange.)

I'm pleased, especially, with how the smocks came out. They're all one piece, cut on the fold, and sewn at the shoulder. I basically figured out the pattern in two different sizes with a old Tshirt as a rough guideline.

Posted by at 10:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Originally uploaded by Hillary Lang.

I just might have to buy this pattern. These gnomi need a home in my house. They are making me very, very happy. And when you have crazy, befuddled pregnancy brain, it just might take a gnome to make you happy.

Posted by at 9:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

After reading Hillary's inspiring post about wool, i decided to finally give felting wool a try. So I stocked up on 100% wool thrift store sweaters, and threw them in the washer on hot then in the dryer and...nothing. One sweater shrank a bit. I was discouraged. My MIL (since I was at her house/her washer) threw them in again on the sanitation cycle (which actually heats the water more) for two hours. Then the dryer. Success!!!

I made a pair of baby shoes for a double baby shower at church this morning. One for a boy and one for a girl. The wool was really thick and difficult to work with, so lovely as it is, I probably won't use it again for baby shoes. I have other fabric mediums to inspire coziness.

On the blue shoes I used the cuffs of the sleeves for the ribbed effect. And hand-embroidered pink birds from acrylic felt (I'm no purist) on the yellow ones.

Posted by at 10:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I think fall is my favorite season. I mused this fact to Chris yesterday, and he was like "duh". Is it that obvious?

I made a fun felt leaf garland. I just gathered a bunch of different leaves: 2 kinds of maple, 2 oak, and a ginko. I traced the leaves onto paper which I used as my pattern for cutting them out of the felt.

(sorry those bookshelves don't make the best background. the garland looks great in my cozy orange living room)

Then I made two vertical slits into the felt to thread the ribbon through. All I have was gold curly wrapping paper ribbon, but hey, it works.

I've seen this idea around the internet and just loved it.

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I love the car fabric that I found.

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Window Decals!

I got these rolls of translucent plastic in primary colors in the window treatment section of IKEA. One side is kind of grippy so they stick to the window. Though I think if you use a little moisture it would stick better. When the colors are overlapped, they create secondary colors with the light shining through.

I cut out shapes freehand for Ellis to stick on. This activity was a moderate hit with him. He had difficulty managing small sticky bits, and was more interested in unrolling the rolls of plastic. I think if I had shapes manageable for his hands already cut out that would've helped. And in that case, would also make it a good activity for a younger kid as well. An older kid might get into some of the things I was trying to do, like make a little face with eyes, nose, mouth. That was just way too detaily for Ellis and he does have pretty good fine motor skills for his age (27 mos).

I also tried the butterfly, which was a little more successful. I just kind of whipped it together, taping it up. If I were to do it again, I'd make two silhouettes of the butterfly and "sandwich" the colors between them with glue or maybe even on contact paper.

Posted by at 4:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I wanted to highlight another blog (mothering, crafting, etc) that has had some good posts lately: angry chicken.

She writes of healthy toy alternatives that cheap, mass-produced, plastic, toxic badness that has now surfaced with all the toy recalls. (I don't think we have any toys that are affected by the recalls.) She also writes of purging plastic in general.

And she recently published a tantalizing book: Bend the Rules Sewing *ahem, gift, ahem*

Anyway, in her toy post, she gives some great ideas of toys you can make with your kids at home. My favorite, by far: the aunt sarah dolls. I love it!!

Posted by at 12:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Lately, I've been really inspired by a couple of blogs--SouleMama and two straight lines--in how they bring their creativity and crafting into their lives, their mothering, and their homes. SouleMama has a book coming out about it. *coughs*great gift idea*coughs*

I've been trying to think of things to do with my crazy 2 year old who is still trying to figure out how scissors work. He's just beginning to get into crafty things, though he doesn't always get what we're doing. The gluing cotton balls onto paper fell totally flat.

This afternoon I took him outside to make leaf prints. He doesn't quite get the idea of stamping/printing. But he loves the paint brush. (And I had fun making leaf prints.)

He fell in love with the paint brush a couple of weeks ago when I gave him a couple of squares of fabric and some fabric paint. He was so serious about painting. He really enjoyed it.

And in the quest for ultimate toddler room coziness, I turned the squares into pillows that he can roll around with, cuddle up on, or lay on his tummy making the train go around the track.

Posted by at 11:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)

Today I went to the Art Star Craft Bazaar. Let me tell you, it was flippin' amazing!

This is the first craft show I've ever gone to. It's this whole huge world that is so brilliant and beautiful. Stall after stall of creative and talented people that are happy and excited to share what they're doing and will sit and chat about it. (It was SO different from an academic conference: the whole jaded expression thing didn't really jive here.) I was excited and overwhelmed. I saw some stuff/people that I had seen on the internet. I visited the Etsy booth and got a free bandana! It was all just such a wow experience! And it's a good thing I didn't have any cash with me.

Some highlights:
* people being friendly to Ellis. This is kind of a dread experience as a parent of a toddler: a whole day of no-touch. But people were totally pumped about E and didn't mind a nice touch.
* seeing these fun Tshirts and onesies in person.

An aside: I had this weird conversation with this one lady. She had these sweet appliqueed onesies for sale, and the onesies were in all these cool colors. Having overheard a few other conversations about places to obtaining blank clothing items upon which to venture creative expertise, I offered the following question: "where did find such cool onesies?" Her reply, "I made them." And I'm like--duh! this is a craft bazaar. So I clarified: "where did find such cool colors?" So at the end of the day, which of us should be the one feeling dumb? (probably neither--but it just seemed really weird). Okay, aside over.

* compliments on my new skirt (because, duh, I'm going to wear something I made!) and subsequent sharing love over the new skirt book!
* visiting the Etsy booth! It all felt so rock-star-ish.

It was so cool to see all this great talent in real life. Stuff I've only ever seen on the internet. I felt like I got a great initial view into the whole indie craft thing. If I weren't so durn tired at the moment, I'd be in there sewing like madster with all this inspiration. But I think I've done enough sewing this week to be satisfied. Lots of projects coming up though.

Posted by at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

What I've been working on today! a gift set for a friend to take to a shower

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A couple of weeks ago, I bought this book, Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics. It gives you directions for taking your own measurements, plotting hte styles out on the fabric (or making your pattern), and very clear directions for assembling. It gives you the tools to create the style you want. I'm thrilled to find this book!! I've reluctantly acquired a few patterns lately, but I didn't have the motivation to pull them out yet. I hate patterns. They freak me out, and I'm not sure if what I would make would fit right. I love how empowering this book is for someone like me who has yet to sew a successful piece of clothing (until yesterday that is).

This skirt is a simple A-line with an elastic waistband. Very simple. Very easy. It took me one hour flat to make it, which included taking my measurements and ironing the fabric before cutting it out.

Posted by at 10:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

So apparently, my camera is all of a sudden working again. So maybe it wasn't a memory card problem. Maybe it was a Mac G3 problem. Hmm. Picture taking happened like normal.

We went to our friend's (friends') house today to enjoy Sunday afternoon outside in the spring sun and to celebrate the advent of 2 years in the life of our three little boys born within a month of each other. I didn't take enough pics, so hopefully, Livs will oblige with some digi fun later. I hope she got a good one of E with chocolate frosting smeared across every inch of his face. We won't say anything about the communal sippy cups or communal cup cakes. But I do think everyone had a blast! And the weather couldn't have been more perfect. And Jonesey made a chocolate cake to.die.for. (And I'm not even a fan of chocolate cake.)

I made matching T's for the three boys. The back says "I love you" in ASL, and the front has their initial on the pocket (but I didn't get a pic of that). Freezer paper stencil (of course), and I used the air brush from the orange and blue Ts (I couldn't find a color that we had that worked with the red, so I just the old sponge/fabric paint for that one). They turned out pretty cute, I think.

Posted by at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Let's see it's 5 pm...4 pm in Louisiana. I think graduation was in the morning, but I can't remember.

Anyway, it's bound to be done by now. So, hey, I graduated.

The nature center was great.

My sister is here. She is entertaining the No I Would Not Nap-er while I work on a couple of pressing craft projects and clean up this room to prepare ye the way for the couch that we're inheriting from moving friends.

So I really got into using our airbrush this afternoon. This is C's baby. He's been DYING for an airbrush and came by one last winter (his hobby is building models). I'm a little frustrated with it overall, but intrigued enough by the results to keep pressing. Maybe different paints....??? Has anyone had any experience with an airbrush?

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I finished the sling last night. I took in about an inch and a half, and it made such a huge difference. All the hems are hemmed and seams reinforced. It's actually really comfortable. The weight is distributed nicely across my shoulder. I can't go hiking in it or anything, but it's great for around the house or tricky errands. I don't need my hands at all, so I can do things like cook dinner without a whiny, tired toddler dying to be held (because he IS being held and is very happy to behold the glory of the work of mom's hand). I'm really happy with it and wish I had made the leap sooner. I just had to get the mental barrier of my thesis out of the way.

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I never did post a pic of Ellis's backpack. Well, here it is in all it's glory. My favorite part is the sippy cup holder.

Yesterday I made a sling! I finally made the leap. something I've been dying to do, but never got my brains around. I'm so thrilled with it. It was so darn easy to make that I feel downright sheepish. And my only regret is why in the world didn't I do this sooner?! Anyway, it's still a little big. But the good part is that Ellis likes it. He's still my snuggle bug.

(I was trying to get him to sign I love you, because it's so darn cute!)

Posted by at 8:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

What? you ask, a new machine? But haven't you been sewing up a storm this whole time?

Yes, but it wasn't my machine. It was my MIL's, on whose machine I discovered that I could sew and that it would worth plopping down hundreds of dollars to obtain my own. So, thank you and farewell, dear, wonderful Husqvarna. And hello, Janome Sewist 509! (okay, it was the least expensive, most basic machine in the shop...but you gotta start somewhere)

I went to a sewing machine store in Lancaster yesterday with my mom. This place is hard core, and they know their stuff. Folks, I was surrounded by greatness. Pfaff's to make youf knees wobbly. But I wanted solid, basic, and simple. And, uh, $200 max. And that's what I got. I'm pretty happy about it. So I'm going to play on it now.

Posted by at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Cotton baby shoes for a spring baby. thank goodness for baby showers or I'd never get around to making baby shoes. I thought they were cute and feminie without having PINK smeared across it.

Ellis was busy making Valentines for his grandmas. He's really getting into coloring, which makes me really happy. We put that shelf up above his table for his art stuff

Posted by at 9:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

The bath robe that I made out of old towels for Ellis. My plan is to dye it to freshen it up a bit. My plan is also to make matching slippers. I made up the pattern after cutting up an old thrift store sleeper. But it was actually pretty simple.

If I weren't driving to Virginia tomorrow, I would stay up uber-late to make them, like I have for the past few nights. But I'm too tired.

I'm outtie for tomorrow and Thursday retrieving my husband's grandmother 7 hours away in VA. Ellis and I are road-tripping 3 days before Christmas.

I'm beyond panicked. I'm to the Whatever stage.

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The first great thing emerges from the CHA.OS!
My first doll! (that's not a glorified pillow)

Definitely inspired by Olive and Archie, though I couldn't afford the pattern, so I had to make it up myself. Loved the simplicity of O and A. The Ikea Bear served as a model. For the most part I'm happy, though the legs are a bit big for the rest of the body, and I wish I had used different color for some of the face detail. Too washed out. I wish the face had more personality. It's not bad, but not quite what I was going for. The arms are nice and floppy and huggable. I think Ellis will like it.

Complete with Cool Dude Vest.

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Once again. The link to the Snowflake Tutorial I made a couple of years ago.

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We had another baby shower for a church friend this afternoon. Her baby is due in early December, and she doesn't know if it's a boy or girl. I know these are blue, but I thought they could go either way. And I couldn't resist the Christmas-y-ness!

I'm working on my own bootie pattern. But it's hard to figure out how to work out the kinks. Since these were for a gift, they are largley based on Heather Bailey's Bitty Bootie pattern. Even though it's more work, I prefer to line my booties, even though the pattern doesn't necessarily call for it. And I don't like how the toes turn up in her pattern. Hmmm. Maybe I'm just being too picky.

Anyway, I was pleased with how they turned out. Now it's back to thesisizing. (a few more details are on Flickr)

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A couple of weeks ago, I was bent over the sewing machine in desperate earnestness as I embarked on my newest venture: baby shoes.
We had a baby shower for my sister and my new baby niece, Katarina, and I wanted something really sweet for her. And, face it, it's WAY FUN having a little girl in the family. Much as I love all the sweet boy stuff out there, there's something really fun about pink and bows.

It took me several hours to come up with a pattern, which, I thankfully tested first with paper and tape. (That could've been a maddening experience. *shudder*) I wanted something pretty and lined. This blue pair was my first attempt, and it bears the marks of it, being a lopsided. It's lined with a soft flannel, perfect for baby feet. There's an elastic band holding them together. Alas, I realized that they were two big for my two-month old niece, so I started a second pair. I tried the first shoe on her, before I made the second, and it was way too small for her looong feet. It really will only fit a really new born, so with thesis needs pressing, I haven't gotten around to finishing the pair, which is sad, because I just love it. Already, I could tell that it was getting smoother, so hopefully after a few more pairs, I'll get the hang of this baby shoe thing.

To go with the blue pair of shoes, I made a cute, felt headband, inspired by katiek's genius. I overlapped the ribbon and made a casing for a little elastic on the bottom. I'm not a fan of the garter-looking baby headbands out there, but I thought this looked okay, and had the potential to fit well--if I had made it the right size for Katarina's head!! *sigh* poor girl. Next time, I won't try to surprise and just get the right measurements.

I have to put a hold on fun crafties until I finish my thesis. ---- Though we did paint the kitchen a happy, pale yellow on Saturday. Okay, NO MORE!!! WORK, WORK, WORK!

Posted by at 11:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

When we were kids, we loved playing with these reproductions of vintage paper dolls created by the woman who eventually went on to create the Campbell soup kids. Hours were spent on adventures with Dolly Dingle and her buddies. My mom passed on one of our old paper doll books, with most of it still uncut. I traced one of the dolls and created a pattern for this doll, which is attached to a cute gingham to make it a nice cuddly pillow. It's the perfect size for little hands, and I plan to give it to my new little niece, Katarina!!

Posted by at 9:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

With birthdays and baby showers looming and a thinning wallet, I put my creative fingers to work yesterday and came up with pretty good results, if I do say so myself.

First task was making burp cloths for up-coming baby shower at church. I have a pile of perfectly good bath towels saved from a relative who was getting rid of them for newer, fluffier ones to match a new home decor. I've tucked them away for crafts for a couple of years. (I ultimately have a picnic blanket of sorts in mind, but we'll see.) One did come in handy as material for a burp cloth. 'Cause, face it, when the baby really gets burping, these small, flimsy things falter in the face of the deluge. When Ellis was at his burping prime, I tended to use bathroom handtowels anyway.

And on a recent trip to Lancaster, I bagged some really sweet fabric scraps from my mom's stash in the attic, so this project ended up costing me $0.00. Just the way I like it! ;-)

Since the shower is for someone who doesn't know if she is having a boy or girl, I tried to find colors that would go either way. I handstitched the animal faces before sewing them on. Then I used a little fusible web to attach and then carefully zigzaged around them with the machine (it's tricky zigzagging around all those curves!).

I thought they turned out pretty cute:

Next project was the Freezer Paper Stencil revisited. It's Chris's birthday this week, so I made him a penguin Tshirt in honor of his operating system. Yea, he runs Linux, and the official mascot is a penguin. And, well, I just didn't really want to by the Tshirt of a penguin kicking Bill Gates's butt. I got the penguin pic off of veer.com. (Thanks, katie!)

Posted by at 4:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I love blogosphere. You can find cool stuff by cool people. More creative things than I could ever think of on my own. Since katiek (infinitely more artistique than I) started getting into freezer paper stencils, I've been itching to try it myself. In light of my last project, I wanted to keep in the same ASL art theme.

For Father's Day, I made Chris a shirt that said "I love you".

Posted by at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Ever since Lynn made guitar undies for Josiah, I've been intrigued by the possibilities of iron-on printer paper. So recently I got my chance to have a go with the medium. Except not. Because I got the wrong paper. What I got was printable fabric. So I thought I was making an iron-on transfer and here I was stuck with a nicely printed piece of fabric at 9 pm and a birthday party the next day (today). Uum..

So I had to improvise a little. I used fusible web (my favorite "sewing" thing ever, because you don't have to sew!) and fused the names onto the shirts. But they looked just pasted on, and kind of weird. My mother-in-law suggested that I sew an zig-zag applique stitch around it. At first I was dubious, but when they looked weird, I thought I'd try, and she was right. It really looked good after that. (so I had to sew after all, which wasn't so bad) And because I had already fused them on, the Tshirt fabric wasn't difficult to work with.

I made one for Ellis and his two friends, who are all turning one within a couple of weeks of each other. Charlie's turned out best, so the detail from his shirt is below. Ellis's is a little crooked. :-P Too late now.

Posted by at 8:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)