Team Umizoomi Toys

Alex really likes Team Umizoomi. There are no Umizoomi toys available to buy so I made him a little set out of peg dolls. Bot doesn't looks EXACTLY like he was supposed to but... what's a girl to do? Geo and Milly look... ok.

Peg Dolls

I've been quite productive in the crafty department recently but too lazy to take any photos so... no recent blog posts. Yesterday Talia, Alex and I painted peg dolls for the first time. I had been looking forward to it for a long time! It was really fun even though it was quite messy. I could have worked on them forever. I made Alex a really cute superhero but he was too busy playing with it to let me grab a photo. What more could I want?

Anniversary Map Papercrafting Project

I felt a little guilty about not finding a unique gift for my parent's anniversary last month. Actually, it wouldn't have been so bad... except I didn't send my mom anything for her birthday which was two weeks prior. I'm the kind of person who will get a gift if I see something great. If I don't see anything I like, I just might not send anything. It's not very nice or consistent but I have a lot of gift angst. It doesn't help that certain people in my family are pretty good at picking out gifts. My family is hard to shop for and I just can't handle the pressure!

The night before my parent's anniversary I started feeling guiltier and guiltier so I spent two hours scouring etsy.com for something special. I found a lot of contenders (must keep them in mind!) but most had a long turn-around time so I drew inspiration from a few artists and came up with this gift myself. I bought an atlas at the bookstore and a cloud punch plus a deep frame from the craft store. I enlisted some help to pinpoint the exact cities that my parents had visited over the years. I punched them out of the maps and affixed them to the frame. It took quite a while to figure out the best way to attach them (sewing was involved!) and the best configuration for them (approximately spatially according to city). The best thing about it is that I haven't made much of a dent in their travels-- I only covered Europe and Asia! This means that next year I can give them Africa and the next South America and then Australia! So in the end, I get a few years worth of anniversary gifts out of this one idea! How awesome is that?

DIY light box

1 "under the counter" light + 1 clear Sterilite or Rubbermaid container = DIY light table.

Self Portrait T-Shirt: Freezer Paper Stencil

Alex has learned how to draw a self portrait! I took one of his many drawings and turned it into a freezer paper stencil and put it on a t-shirt. (If you want to know how to do it, google the words "how to make a freezer paper stencil" and you will find tons of tutorials.) Isn't it cute?

Belated Party Post

Talia's 6th birthday party was at Beansprouts, a hip little kids' cafe in our neighborhood. It was a "pj party" (all the kids came in their pajamas and it was held in the evening) and a cooking class. The kids seemed to have a good time and, more importantly, it was relatively stress free for me. All I had to do was get some goody bags together. I went with the pajama party theme and bought washcloths and pillowcases onto which I appliqued the kids' initial and a rocketship or flowers, respectively. I also gave out toothbrushes and toothpaste, a glow stick, a deck of cards, silly putty lip gloss for the girls and one page of junior mad libs. After way too much begging, I finally got Talia to draw a "Thank You" sign so I could take a photo of her with it and get thank you cards printed up. I recently got a new point and shoot camera (long story) and I hate it (none of the pictures from her party came out) and need to return it and find another. It takes decent pictures outside though.

Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse Necklace

It looks like I'm still finding time to craft with a new baby in the house. Honestly I just don't feel good if I can't make something with my hands every single day. Of course there are many days I don't get to be creative in that way but I try not to let more than a few days slip by. I'm still working on Shayna's baby quilt (top is completely done, back is about 2/6 done, then there is the basting... and the quilting... and the binding...) and today I spent at least an hour organizing my fabric room which always boosts my creativity.

I have bought a LOT of fabric recently. I think I was "drunk dialing" during my bouts with insomnia during the last few weeks of pregnancy. By "drunk dialing" I mean ordering lots of fabric online in the middle of the night and not remembering it in the morning. I bought entire collections of Hope Valley, Meadowsweet, Chirp, Little Folks, Hunky Dory, Botany and more more more. Some are charm packs or layer cake packs but some are the full fat quarter collections. In the past I have wanted to buy collections only to find out they were sold out or discontinued so I figured: buy now, worry later.

Anyway... I have only really had time for teeny tiny projects these past two weeks. One of them was this necklace for Talia to wear to the Overture Center to see Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse with her Kindergarten class. Normally we really dress up for our trips to the Overture Center. For The Nutcracker Talia wore a fancy ballet dress. For Little House on the Prairie (with Melissa Gilbert as Ma!) Talia wore an "apron dress" that I spent three hours making that morning (and that was just for the apron that she wore over a dress she already owned!) and a sunbonnet. I felt slightly guilty that I wasn't able to volunteer as a chaperone for her class so I channelled that energy into making this little necklace. It has all the important elements-- the purple purse, the sunglasses, the crown and the cowboy boots. I fused fabric to both sides of heavy pellon interfacing, cut out the shapes, top-stitched them and added embellishments (rhinestones and star buttons). I sewed them down on a ribbon and added some stitches to make it lay flat. Luckily, Talia liked it and wore it. I heard from another parent that T's teacher was pretty impressed and actually showed it around to the other teachers. It's always a bonus when others appreciate your work! I don't have too many crafty friends nearby so it's nice to share. That's one of the things I like about this blog... so... enjoy!

More Birds, No Baby

Still crossing things off my list, I guess. The first bird mobile is for Bloom Bake Shop, a new cupcake shop on Parmenter in Middleton near Villa Dolce. The place is really cute, the cupcakes are delicious and the shop is owned by a great friend so stop by! Annemarie always admires a collection of these birds that I made and attached to a thrifted birdcage so I decided to make her a mobile as a "housewarming" for her new adventure. The second picture is of the mobile I just finished for Talia's room. All the fabric is from my stash and it should coordinate well with her new bedding. Hopefully I can get around to finding a ceiling hook and get it up in her room sometime soon.

Still no baby, but I have 4 more days until my due date. Interestingly enough, I was obsessed with birds right around the time Alex was due too!

Spool Bird Wall Hanging

I finally made a wall hanging using the pattern from Spool Sewing. I've made these birds before but I don't think I have ever posted a picture. I've always drooled over the beautiful pieces on the Spool Bird Flickr group and now I can finally add something of my own. I used all the colors of our new living room and attached them to the branches (with a hot glue gun-- last time I tried sewing them to the bird cage I was using and it was difficult to get them where I wanted them).

It was a real challenge to figure out how to hang it. I ended up attaching three lengths of fishing wire and then gathering them and hanging the whole thing from a single hook in the ceiling. It's a little precarious but as long as no one touches it I think we will be alright. Talia is jealous and wants a bird mobile of her own so I'm working on that now and I'm sure Alex will want one too. After I finish that project I just have the baby's quilt left. I've done a lot of work on it already so I just need to sit down and get back into it. I've found a great way to get back into sewing after a stalled project is to just take a break and work on lots of small projects. I've certainly done that! Now I only have two weeks (give or take!) to finish the baby quilt. It's going to be gorgeous!

More sewn pillows

I quilted another pillow and made two more simple ones. I'm surprised at how easily I found fabric to coordinate with what I already bought. We also got the wall hanging we ordered. It's all coming together. I never really decorated a room before (which is why most parts of my house look like my college dorm room-- mess and all) so this has been a good experience so far. I just finished a piece of wall art that I made myself and about which I am very excited. I have to figure out how to hang it and then I'll share.

Hand-Printed Tablecloth

I've been looking for a new modern tablecloth (currently using a $4 vinyl "Happy Hanukkah" one). I haven't found anything to fall in love with so I bought some fabric and decided to come up with a few of my own (cause I don't have anything better to do?). This was my first attempt. I bought Lotta Jansdotter's book Lotta Prints and decided to try my hand printing one. I created some simple potato stamps and used fabric paint on muslin. So far it's already getting trashed (little kids will do that but I have also spilled on it!) but I bought some nice dark brown fabric as well and might try printing that one too. I also have some modern spring-y fabric that I need to sew up. I think the best thing would be to find some sort of coated fabric or maybe even top something with vinyl or similar because I can't be washing tablecloths every day!

Pillow Update

The pillow on the left is the (very expensive!) one I bought for our new couch. The one on the right is the pillow I sewed to coordinate. The one I bought cost about 10 times more than the homemade one-- and the homemade one is actually more comfortable and useable. I have lots of other ideas and great fabrics in mind to add to the collection. We'll just see if I have any time to make them before this baby gets here...

Cloth Napkin Bonanza

In my nesting efforts I have been finishing little projects that have been on my list for, oh let's say, the last two or three years. Today I moved some books from one shelf to another. I pass this shelf of books at least 10 times per day and every time I think it looks messy and needs to be moved or straightened. It took me all of 4 minutes to do today.

We've been doing a lot of home decorating as well. Talia got a bunk bed and Alex got Talia's old bed. I bought bedding and lamps and curtains for both. We ordered an entirely new living room from the nicest furniture store in Madison. Yesterday I bought a pillow for the new couch for $150. I could have totally made it myself-- if I didn't mind stealing a local artist's ideas. Today I bought coordinating fabrics and pillow forms so hopefully I can make a bunch of pillows to match. I also have been looking for an awesome tablecloth (for our new dining room table, gifted to us by my in-laws as they have recently downsized) and haven't found one I loved so I bought some fabric and fabric paint and am hoping to hand print one a la Lotta Jansdotter. I know, a lot of projects with a baby coming in less than a month-- especially considering I have totally stalled on her quilt...

Another thing I did today was sew up 22 cloth napkins. I've been wanting to use cloth exclusively for a long time but you really need a lot of napkins to make it work. I decided to take an entire collection of fat quarters and serge the edges. This is a collection I got at Joann's and I totally love it but... it's not the highest quality fabric. I made one or two quilts using this type of collection before and I think the fabric is too thin and slightly see-through so I don't want to go through all that work again and be disappointed with the final result. Now I get to look at this fabric collection every day anyway so I'll get to enjoy it! Truthfully, all I did was serge the edges of the fat quarters so if I change my mind and need a quilt, the fabric is still completely intact. Hopefully the serged edges will hold up to repeated washings.

Most importantly, I threaded my own serger today! Originally, a friend did it for me (by tying on new thread to the old thread's ends- I got a used and therefore previously threaded serger) and that worked fine. Then when I had a problem with it I took it to the repair shop. They didn't charge me but they did keep it for two weeks. A few days ago one of the needles came unthreaded. I tried to re-thread it but it kept coming undone. It worked fine as a three-thread serge, especially since I was just finishing edges-- not using it for actual construction. Today it just messed up completely in the middle of the cloth napkin project so... I got out my manual and re-threaded the whole thing. It took about 30 minutes and Alex was really trying to "help" me but I did it and I can DO IT AGAIN! I pride myself in being skilled at following written and pictoral directions. I think that's why I was able to teach myself to sew, cook, put furniture together and I'm great at reading maps. Taking on the serger, however, always scared me. Now I know I can do it. I love having a serger and would be lost without it. Imagine double hemming 22 napkins = that's 88 edges (meaning you would have to press them each twice for 176 edges). Even if the serged edges do not hold up after repeated washings I should still only have to single hem them. Isn't that great?

Lazy Sunday?

In order for me to do this:

I had to let them do this: (Check out that wall art installation in the upper left of the collage. It consists of a red feather and rainbow thread -among other things- taped to a post in the basement.) There was a lot of great collaboration between the kids and they really did play well together, unsupervised, for most of the day. There is a LOT for me to clean up. Alex is really handy with a pair of scissors and leaves huge piles of teeny tiny pieces everywhere. I'll probably spend as much time cleaning up after them as I did on the quilt, which thankfully, is almost finished (more on that when the intended receives it). Obviously, Ron was working today. I did plan on taking the kids out of the house at some point- maybe to get dinner? but we ordered pizza instead. Then, unexplicably, the kids demanded jelly sandwiches afterward. (See, it's not all gourmet food around here...)

In addition to the art-fest, there was also a major jet crash into the playmobil airport, a dumptruck full of pompoms and a jump start on the kids' Valentines. With the new baby due around Valentine's Day I feel like I'm just simply going to forget things, like my niece's third birthday and Valentines for school, plus Talia insists on an annual scavenger hunt; why I started that tradition is beyond me.

In other news, I cut the tip of my finger off two nights ago. I was using a very sharp 10 inch Chef's Knife to cut up some butternut squash. I know people say that using dull knives is a hazard but I always cut myself with the freshly sharpened ones. I rarely use that knife, as I prefer a slightly smaller one so it was still extremely sharp from my semi-annual trip to the knife guy in September. Ron and I debated going to Urgent Care to get it treated but decided there wasn't much to do, considering the skin there wouldn't really stretch well for stitches and the piece that got cut off was too small to reattach. We got a good look at it for the first time this morning (prior to that, every time I unwrapped it blood would start pouring out) and it looks like healthy tissue. I did bang it on something today and it started bleeding again. I can't imagine how long it will take to heal and I wonder if my thumb will ever look normal again. I'm guessing not. I will spare you the pictures of it. Unfortunately we ate the butternut squash dish (roasted, with arugula pesto) last night and it was NOT worth losing a finger over.

Library Book Bin

The Hanukkah Helper has been creating some mischief in our house each night. Last night he emptied the library book bin and climbed up a fairy tent vine. I'm actually running out of ideas about where to put him. The kids love it and it's actually easier for me to get Talia downstairs on school mornings because she wants to see what he's done. On the other hand, she's waking up earlier on weekends too...

Actually I'm writing this post to show off the Library Book Bin. I've been using it for a while but finally got around to decorating it. I matched the fabric to the colors in the fairy tent, used fusible web and just ironed on the letters and some cute birdcages (no sewing). Every week or two I go to the library and literally just sweep an entire shelf of books into my bag. I barely look at them. There always ends up being a mix of books for Talia and Alex to look through. If they don't like them they get new ones in a week or so anyway (not that it's ever happened!) At Alex's age Talia was still ripping books up but I've been able to get Alex library books for months now. It's so refreshing to have new things to read! We also check out DVD's and many many audiobooks for the car. I've noticed that Talia will listen to some books that are slightly above her level (Little House, the original Peter Pan, today we started The Borrowers) and her comprehension is great. We have the best library in the world. Have I mentioned that they don't charge for late items? Ever?

Sustainable Fabric Food Covers

I bought my friend Annemarie the Farm Chicks Cookbook for her birthday. It's cute-- country recipes with crafty projects thrown in. The recipes are a little sweeter than I like (lots of desserts) but are fresh and seasonal. The crafts are all made with thrifted materials which I really appreciate! One of the projects is for sustainable food covers. Since I like to toss in something handmade with gifts (when I get the chance...) I decided to sew some up. I dug into my stash of 30's reproduction fabrics (all thrifted, I might add) and used a set of nesting bowls as pattern to cut out circles. Then I serged the edges (SOOOOOO in love with my 2nd hand serger right now-- thanks Jennifer!) and sewed on 1/4 inch elastic-- pulling it as I sewed to create the elastic sides. I tried them on different bowls with and without lips and they work great! I'm definitely going to make some for myself. I'm a stickler about sealing food up in the fridge so I'm not sure how these will fare but I was thinking they could be used for things I might leave open in the fridge anyway, like washed grapes or food I've prepped for dinner or maybe when we eat outside.

To recap:
1. cut out circles of different sizes
2. serge the edges if you can, or leave them to be pinked after the elastic is on.
3. sew on 1/4" elastic and PULL as you sew
4. pink the edges if you haven't serged them
5. enjoy!

Cutest Ever Freezer Paper / Fabric Collaboration

I used freezer paper for the Little Red Riding Hood and fabric for the hair. If Talia doesn't like it I might just have to make one for myself. Or kill her. Whichever feels right at the time.

What summer means to me

We had a summery day here last week (just one!) and I got the urge to make a friendship bracelet. I gave it to Talia. She made one for Alex (surprisingly well with my improvised board) and I ended up making two more for Talia as well. Not to be outdone, Ron wanted to show that he knew how to do it too. Who knew he could do something crafty? He also gave it to Talia who now has 4. She hasn't taken them off yet. Alex didn't like his, I guess. Or maybe he doesn't want to be friends with Talia. I can actually make pretty fancy ones but I won't get into that... just yet anyway. It was the perfect project for a summer day.

Organized Art Closet

Ahh, the art closet. This is where all the magic happens. We are in this closet at least 5 times a day. It was a mess. I can't believe I let it get so bad. This is a complete makeover. Let's just say I got to know my labelmaker. Very well. I sort of wish I had a "before" picture but I'm kind of glad I don't. I probably wouldn't even show it. I'm taking bets to see how long this can last. I'm guessing less than a month. It took me about 5 hours to organize (and I needed a babysitter to watch the kids).

I've been really sidelined by illness this past week. I have a bilateral ear infection and sinus infection. I can not hear out of my left ear. Well, I hear a ringing sound. Constantly. It also feels like I just stepped off an airplane and my ear is completely stuffed. The rest of me is getting better. I finally broke down and started taking antibiotics, which I don't really believe in for what is really just a bad cold. But whatever. Luckily Ron has been around quite a bit and I haven't been the only child care provider in the house. The kids haven't been sleeping well either but that's another story. I expect to be better by my next post and I'll reveal pictures of Talia's new haircut and our spectacular 5th birthday plans.