Happy Halloween!

We have been squeezing all we can into, and out of, October, wringing that towel for every pumpkin-spiced drop we can get. The week has been full: welcoming a childhood friend and her family into our neighborhood; putting the finishing touches on Halloween costumes; and making plans for a certain soon-to-be-four-year-old's (really!?) birthday. And while I have some catching up to do in this space, tonight I'm going to spend the last hours of October thinking of the weekend past and its sweetness, inside and outside of those candy bags.




You might recognize Audrey's costume. I made these wings from a pile of leftover felt back in March with plans of giving them to Audrey as part of a birthday gift. Then, a couple months ago, she informed me that she wanted to be a butterfly for Halloween this year. Not one to stand in the way of a Halloween wish, she received the gift early. Saturday morning, I covered a headband with felt matching the wings, and attached antennae by covering some thick floral wire with felt and twisting it around the band before sewing some pink circles (with light green circles inside the front pieces) on top. The costume made her sing, literally. She fluttered around the house Saturday morning sporting the wings and singing a made up tune. It may have been the before-bedtime sugar, but she woke up singing this morning, and those butterfly wings found themselves making a second appearance in, ahem, church.




Nathan spent his first Halloween buzzing about in this costume (actually he spent it sleeping in the little red wagon while his sister dashed through the neighborhood), made from a black fleece that once belonged to my sister. The fleece found its way into a pile intended for Goodwill a few months ago, where it sat, because, good as my intentions might be, I just can't seem to make it to Goodwill. Once I began brainstorming warm Halloween costumes for Nate, that fleece got pulled back out (sorry, Goodwill), which may be my best rationalization for procrastination yet. The fleece gained a few yellow felt stripes and a pair of wings fashioned from floral wire and a pair of my pantyhose that had a run in them (yep, he's going to love knowing that when he's older). One stinger and a hat made from the same fleece later, and he was ready for his close up (or at least, running away from it). Two sweet winged creatures zooming around your house? Precious. One full bag of Halloween candy for a preschooler ready to devour it? Frightening. Two memorable costumes without paying a dime? Priceless.

I'm Just Mad About Saffron...

I have a hard time throwing useful things out. Even things we bought replacements for months ago. Holey things. Dingy things. Wouldn't be caught dead in, on, with, sort of things.




This, ahem, compulsion led to a little sheet-dyeing experiment a couple weeks ago. Jason and I had replaced our once-white sheets. I couldn't bring myself to toss the sheets into the clothing donation pile. So, I tossed them into hot turmeric-spiked water, instead, following these instructions.



Our turmeric was a little on the dated-side (the expiration date read August 2005, making this a two-birds-with-one-stone project: a little aged spice use-up and color touch-up), so I wasn't sure how this would turn out. But, one brightly-colored pillowcase later, I was a believer. (You can also use turmeric to dye Easter eggs).




A little fun with bias tape, and pillowcase dress tutorial later, and we have one repurposed pillowcase and one new nightgown for summer. Because, what's cozier than sheets?



Even if they are a little spice-scented.

A Little Curb Appeal

For those of you on baby-watch, no I did not take my hot glue gun to the hospital. I have my multi-tasking limits and a rather practical husband who would, at the very least, raise an eyebrow to such behaviors (I did, however, take this picture while talking on the phone, which might explain a little about its, ahem, quality). Realizing that we would not be spending our day at the hospital, I decided it was time to get a holiday wreath on our door.

Sometime last year I picked up a grapevine wreath for around $3. I kept thinking I would get around to making something to dress up our doorway. I didn't. Instead, I found odd-shaped (made just for hanging on doors, etc) galvanized buckets with handles, filled them with objects (evergreen sprigs, fake berries) and hung them from our rather weathered wreath hook.

In November, Audrey went on a little pine cone (or snow cone, as she called them) hunt at my parent's house. Remember this? This was the first year my parents' evergreens produced pine cones and Audrey amassed quite the collection. Some of them found their way home with us, and my mind drifted back to the bare grapevine wreath.

Fast forward and month and a half. Armed with a glue gun and a pocket of time, today I dug out the grapevine wreath and Audrey's pile of pine cones. I had thought gluing pine cones to a wreath would be a simple, fast project. I was wrong. Pine cones don't like to stick easily to the inconsistent surface of twisted grapevines. I improvised. I grabbed some dark brown felt. I glued the felt to the back of the pine cones. Then, I glued the other side of the felt to the wreath. It was still tricky getting multiple points on each pine cone to stick to the wreath, but this method worked much better. (Tip: cut out all of your felt pieces before touching your pine cones to prevent sap-covered sewing scissors).

Of course, I ran out of glue three pine cones short of finishing and had to run to the store. Glue retrieved, I tied a piece of ribbon (I believe this ribbon was one I had saved from the top of gift I received at my baby shower for Audrey. Like the wreath, it was sitting around waiting for the perfect project) in the bare space on the wreath before filling in the last three pine cones. Pine cones secure (or what we're going to call secure and hope for the best) I dug out some of the fake berries from my "throw some berries and greenery into a bucket and call it a door hanging" adventures and separated them into small sprigs. I tucked the springs between any holes where pine cones refused to snuggle up as close to their neighbors as I wished they had. I didn't glue these into place just in case I decide to attempt to use this as a multiple occasion wreath. I might take the sprigs out and swap in some dried red leaves for fall, etc. In the meantime, for the price of a handful of glue sticks (about a dollar) and a $3 wreath that has been sitting around bidding its time, we've added a little holiday cheer to our door. Not too shabby.

Preparation Week 2: The Soaker Stash

You could say we've shifted into baby mode. Not that the whole weekend was baby-related, there was plenty of Christmas, family fun, and football to go around, but the subtle (and sometimes, not so subtle) aches in my back and the daily movement of the candy cane marker on Audrey's 24 Days til Christmas Calendar are constant reminders that this baby's arrival is just around the corner. So, I spent a couple pockets of time this weekend creating a soaker stash.

We used disposable diapers with Audrey. She ended up being in diapers for longer than I expected she would be. And, well, I'm tired of buying diapers. I'm tired of the late day drives to the store solely for diapers after realizing we've just run out. I've over the diaper trash. I'm ready to get tired of something new. After we had Audrey, a couple friends began using cloth diapers. They became big advocates. They've given a little advice. I've decided to take the plunge. Jason is a bit nervous. I can't blame him. He thinks it's only a matter of time before I grow tired of washing diapers. He's got a point.

But, there is something so sweet about the little soaker stash above that gives me hope that this whole cloth diaper thing will feel just as cozy. I've ordered a small pile of Chinese prefold diapers from Toasty Baby that should arrive on my doorstep today. They are your basic run-of-the-mill, no bells or whistles, need to be secured with safety pins or snappis (also arriving on my doorstep today) cloth diapers. (I also have a couple all-in-one diapers - read: more bells and whistles, look like disposable diapers -arriving, with hopes that those helping out with our little guy who are a bit cloth-shy will feel a little more comfortable taking a turn with those). The Chinese prefolds require a cover to go over them as an extra layer of protection. Hence, the wool soakers. I found a free soaker pattern here. The pattern uses an old wool sweater (I grabbed one from Goodwill and gave it a thorough cleaning) to make the soaker. My sweater (a medium women's) was big enough to make 3, with a sleeve and part of the sweater's body leftover, which means I paid around $1.33 per diaper cover. Add $1.50 for the prefold, and $2.83 doesn't sound bad for a diaper you use again and again. Let's just hope the laundry part isn't too bad, either. In the meantime, I can't help but smile each time I imagine our little boy with a sweater on his bum. Really, what says snuggly winter baby more than that?

Pajama Time

When I woke this morning, the earth was already soaked to the bones and the sky hung dark like a velvet cloak - a sure promise of more rain to come. Regardless of where I needed to be, it was the kind of morning that made me want to linger in my pajamas. This not possible, I began to linger on pajamas, instead, Audrey's to be exact, or her lack thereof. While Audrey has plenty of pajamas to keep her warm, her summer stash consists of one lonesome nightgown. Working in the found nooks-and-crannies of the day (and just finishing while Jason performed bath duty), I took action to begin to remedy this problem before the rain stops and the heat sets in.

First, I grabbed the pants in the photo above, snatched from a destined-for-Goodwill pile at my parents' house. Then, I grabbed a pair of shorts that already fit Audrey well. Taking advantage of the workmanship done before me, I folded the shorts in half and lined them up with the bottom edge of one of the legs. After pinning them in place, I cut around the shorts, adding 1/2 " to the side and 2 1/2" to the top. I took this piece, lined it up on the other pant leg as I had the first, and cut out a second identical piece.



Cutting the pieces out this way meant the hem was already finished for me, as well as two of the sides. I finished the other sides using the serger (just to make sure they won't fray - pinking sheers can be used, too). I lined my pieces of fabric up, right-sides together, and sewed along the curved edges (basically just the slope you see in the picture above). This creates the crotch of the pants. Then, I turned the shorts (with right-sides together still) and pinned together the short bottom edges. Stitching these together creates the inner sides of the legs (the seams that you have just sewn essentially create a cross). The legs sewn in place, I created the waist. I turned the top edge down 1/4" and pressed it all the way around with a warm iron. Then, I turned the top down an additional inch and pressed it again. I sewed two rows of stitching (the second for reinforcement purposes) as closely to the bottom edge as possible, leaving a space about 1 1/2" wide to slip the elastic through. I believe I used 3/4" wide elastic (it was leftover from another project and no longer labeled) that I had wrapped around Audrey's waist to make sure it would fit. I fished the elastic through my newly created waistband using a safety pin attached to the end as a guide. Once through, I put one end of the elastic on top of the other and stitched over both pieces several times. The ends got tucked into the band and the 1 1/2" opening stitched closed.



Of course, the final step was having Audrey try them out. Here she is, running around the room as I try to take pictures, telling me how much she likes her new underwear. Hmm...who knew she was a boxers girl?

These are by no means fancy or the cutest pair of pajama bottoms on the block, but they will be a little more comfortable this summer than the flannel pajamas that have gotten us through the winter. I envision them with a sweet white tank top, but that's a project for another rainy day.

Fashionably (or Just) Late

The great thing about 2-year-olds is they don't live by their calendars. When you pull out their just-completed Valentine's Day gift on February 23rd, they don't whip out their palm pilots, pull up their calendars, and give you a smug look that says, "what took you so long?" They take the gift, smile, and start to play. At least, that was the response from my 2-year-old when I presented her with her new puzzle game at breakfast this morning.

Audrey loves puzzles. She can also count to ten (occasionally - and sometimes frequently - leaving out the number eight). Lately, number books have been a big hit, especially one she received from her Grammy for Christmas. I've noticed that most of the books show the number spelled out (five), the numeric number (5), and a picture of some objects whose number corresponds with the numeric and spelled out number (5 balls). The book from Grammy takes things one step further with numbered buttons on a side panel that say the number when you push them. Audrey has started to master pushing the right numbered buttons, but each number is written in a separate color, so I don't know if she recognizes the numbers or is just matching the up the colors and shape of the numeric numbers. Also, most of the number books we have use different objects to illustrate the numbers on each page.

I started thinking about how I could simplify the idea of matching numeric numbers up with counted objects and came up with the idea of these Valentine puzzle pieces. Now, the colors and objects are the same, so the only thing that makes one puzzle coupling different from the rest is the numeric number and number of hearts. The puzzles are made out of a medium-thickness cardboard box that used to house a yoga mat, but more recently found itself on top of the to-be-recycled heap. I traced some puzzle pieces we already own onto the cardboard then used an exacto knife to cut them out. I painted them white using two coats of acrylic paint left over from another project then used red acrylic paint to freehand the numbers and hearts (again, two coats). I thought of this project at the beginning of February, when it seemed like it would take a week, tops, to carve out niches of time to complete it. I finally finished it at 10 pm last night. What can I say, turns out I'm not a speed demon with the exacto knife or paintbrush. Luckily, two-year-olds don't care.

L.O.V.E.

Remember Project: Valentine? Friday night we finished up our little project and were able to share a little Valentine love with my nephew in the shape of this bib. We turned to Robert Indiana's Love painting (1966, seen at the Indianapolis Museum of Art) for a little inspiration. Don't worry, we're not trying to steal Mr. Indiana's idea for any monetary gain, just a little doting on the nephew. We changed it up just a bit and got to work making a freezer paper stencil for the bib front. If you are interested in learning to make stencils using freezer paper (which, I highly recommend - it's a really easy way to, say, cover up that irremovable stain on your kid's shirt), here are two helpful guides: Printing by Hand, by Lena Corwin and The Creative Family, by Amanda Blake Soule. The free bib pattern can be found here. The bib was made out of some t-shirt fabric remnants.

Audrey added her own touch to the gift by helping to stamp the card (a first for her). Unfortunately, I forgot to snap a picture of the card before we sealed it up.

We hope you were able to spend the weekend doting on someone you love. On the off chance you need to kick-start your Monday with some Valentine's Day-inspired humor, here is a little poem I wrote as part of a game played at a recent mom's group meeting. Each lady was randomly handed two cards that contained words she must use in a Valentine's poem to her spouse. My words were "barbie house" and "fireside." Here is my poem (keep in mind we had about 5 minutes to write these):

I used to play with a barbie house, a mansion that was pink.

A pool outside, a fireside, all the amenities of which I could think.

But no matter what I put inside, no Ken could quite compare,

To the hunk of burning love with whom a house I share.

Wishing you much love!

Soft and Fluffy

Soft and Fluffy: Outside:



Soft and Fluffy: Inside:




I sewed the final touches on this fleece for Audrey this morning. It is the Baby Wrap Jacket pattern by Katie Himmelberg out of "Stitch" magazine (the Winter 2008 edition). I used the fleece pictured below and another cream one for the binding, both in the "destined for Goodwill pile" as my fabric.

I love that the new fleece has a kimono-inspired look. I made it a little big in hopes that she'll be able to wear it next year as well, but I might have gone a little overboard on the sleeves. Oops. I have to admit, I didn't follow the pattern to the letter, but I think it turned out alright. Today, for snuggling inside while we wait for the temperature to go back up, well, for that I think it's just perfect.