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stinker

The Baby has hit a new developmental stage where he's not so interested in eating. I mean, he still loves food and can pack back the bananas and crackers like nobody's business, but at mealtimes he's changed his tune. If he's sitting on your lap he's happy to have almost anything spooned into his mouth, but when left to his own devices, he's just not that interested in feeding himself any more. Which is a big change. We mostly try not to focus on the behaviour and my trick is to give him only one or two nice morsels of whatever we are eating at a time. That way if he eats them or not, at least he can't make a big mess with it. Anyhow, Hubs was home alone with the boys tonight for dinner, as I was at work and he made a delicious meal of meatballs, sweet potato and regular fries, and green beans. Hubs dished the Baby up a nice toddler sized portion and then went about eating his own meal. A little while later he looked over to see that the Baby had eaten it all. His tray was empty and he seemed very pleased with himself. It wasn't until Hubs went to unbuckle him from his seat when the meal was over that he found this: Yep, giant mushed up food stash tucked in next to his bum. He'd shoved nearly every bit of dinner into his 'cache'. I don't know whether he thought he was saving it for later or just getting rid of it. Such a stinker. 

And I just need to show you his new 'look'. Here he is modeling a teddy bear sweater that I knit back in, oh, I dunno, the 80's? He found it as I was cleaning out a closet today and insisted on wearing it. Despite the fact that it is obviously too small and was originally intended for a stuffed toy, I kind of feel like he's pulling it off. Who knows maybe he's on to something? Just wait, its only a matter of time before cropped sweaters with cutesy intarsia motifs are hanging on the racks at Forever 21. 

fairy house

At the end of a forest walk we took the other day we found a nice little piece of tree bark that was just crying out to be transformed. Isn't that just waiting to be turned into a little fairy-house?

So we propped it up at the base of a tree....

...and put a roof on it.

I just love how it blends in there at the base of the tree.

So if you know a little gnome or sprite (or tiny Ewok, as my Star Wars obsessed four-year-old insists) who is looking for a place, this would be perfect. The ad I'd write for it would say. "Cozy bachelor aparment, above ground, but near to the forest floor. Five minutes from the closest creek, with access to beautiful old growth forest and ample foraging opportunities. Adjacent to a home with two small children who love all things green and magical, who own neither cats nor dogs. Flexible lease length. The only payment required would be if you could teach us an enchantment to keep the racoons and squirrels out of our garden. (And if you can do that you can live there forever!)"

bird!

As I was stepping out of the shower this morning, the Little Dude ran into the bathroom, bursting with excitement. "There's a BIRD in the fireplace upstairs!" he announced in a manner that assured me that he was NOT joking. So I grabbed a robe and ran upstairs.Everyone was gathered around the fireplace, still in their pyjamas, to see what they could see.

Yep, he's in there. A Grackle I think. Must have come down the chimney and now doesn't know how to get out. Poor guy was flapping around, kicking up soot and randomly pooping (sign of stress probably).

We talked about what we should do. My suggestion was to call my Dad and have him come over and help us figure it out. Because that's always my suggestion. But Hubs pooh-poohed me saying "We can't call him for everything. We can figure this out." 

And he was true to his word, as he came up with a simple and elegant solution involving a clear plastic storage box and a sheet of cardboard. We put the clear box in front of the door, and the idea was that we'd open the door, the bird would fly into the box, we'd slide the cardboard over the top of the box and release him.

And it worked like a freakin' charm! Pretty much as soon as we opened the door he obligingly flew right into the box.

I know, it would be a waaaay better story to tell if he had been more difficult or he had gotten out of the box and flown around the room and some mild mayhem and hilarity ensued. But honestly, I'm glad it all went smoothly. Because a: I'm sure the whole experience of getting stuck down our chimney was pretty stressful for him and b: I've got so much nice freshly washed fabric sitting around in that room and the last thing I need around it is a nervous flying poop machine.

But the best part of the whole thing was how excited the Little Dude was about it. The Baby thought it was all somewhat interesting, but L.D. was absolutely stoked. He sat next to me as Hubs was locating what he needed for the trap and release, and as the bird fluttered in and out of view behind the glass of the fireplace he turned to me and said with great sincerity, "I love that bird."

But of course, as the saying goes, "if you love something, set it free. So we carried him to the balcony...

..took the lid off the box....

...and after a moment of stunned silence he spread his wings and flew off into his familiar green and blue world.

And all's well that ends well. He soared across the valley, leaving us with a soot dusted box and a story to tell. It was a pretty exciting way to start our day. 

nesting

There is something sweet happening in the little pine tree in front of our house.

Look and see who is in there. Do you see her? Look closely.

Another mother, busy at her work, keeping her eggs warm. No small feat on this strangely cold and blustery Mother's Day. But depite the rain, the snow and the hail (hail!) she huddled low on her nest, and her little eggs stayed warm and dry. 

Well done mamma mourning dove. And happy Mother's day to you all.

who made it?

I've been a little light on the posts here lately. Sorry about that. Between rehearsing for a play reading, meeting various sewing deadlines and the occasional evening shift at work, life has been really cutting into my blogging time.

I spent last week sewing like a mad woman on a project that almost literally turned me into a mad woman. Honestly, my innocent little sewing machine gets to hear her fair share of cursing, but it is the rare project that has me threatening to throw my poor defenseless ironing board out the window. 

Its a long story, and not especially interesting, but here's the short version. Since I sew/make things/am a fibre artist I occasionally get asked to make things out of fabric that aren't really in my wheelhouse, per se. And this was one such thing. This is the close up of an academic stole, a part of the regalia that would be worn with robes by an academic for official university events. A friend of mine works at a university and needed some of these made. Two in fact. He had an original for me to copy, so no big deal right? I happened to have almost an exact match for the fabric on hand (and good thing too, do you have any idea how hard it is to find velvet for sale in May?) and so after a few days of planning and measureing and testing I got down to it. 

And I just. about. lost. my. mind. I have sewed with velvet before, on a recreational basis. Remember that pretty little cushion cover I made? So I know that because of the nap it shifts and grabs and you need to pin the shit out of it. But I made the classic quilters mistake of only cutting a quarter inch seam allowance, when I should have used garment making practices and factored in at least a half inch for the seam, if not more. Because after carefully cutting and sewing and laboriously machine embroidering (not my favourite, I totally prefer hand embroidery, but I was replicating an original and had to follow the lead of whoever went before me) I turned my "finished" stole right side out only to find this: Aaaaand cue screaming. Do you see it? That frayed open seam where it should not be? And at a very focal point, RIGHT alongside the applique. Oh, I was so mad. The time wasted! The fabric wasted! The fact that I now had to make TWO MORE of these rotten things because this one was a TOTAL WRITE OFF. Garbage basically. There was no way to fix that frayed fabric edge and open seam. Nothing but wisps of thread there, nothing to sew into. I even tried turning it inside out again, ironing on some interfacing and sewing that together, but when I turned it right side out not only was the fraying obvious, but also the interfacing was visible. Sigh. 

Well, as they say, live and learn. And boy did I learn. So with very careful cutting of my meager remaining velvet supplies I managed to get two more stoles made. This time with MUCH larger seam allowances and a generous edgeing of fray check all along the freshly cut seams. I have never used fray check before (chemicals. yuck) but in this case it did save my bacon. 

When I successufully finished the 2nd one and showed it to Hubs he smiled and said "It looks great! Are you happy?" And I said, "Well, I'm relieved and not filled with murderous rage, so sure, lets call that 'happy'." And when I finished the 3rd one I was very pleased indeed because it meant that I would no longer have to sew velvet! At least not in the near future. 

But the best part of this whole experience came when my friend Shawn came to my house to pick them up. He was sitting at the table finishing a quick cup of tea. I was getting ready to put the Baby down for his nap, and I plunked him down on Uncle Shawn's lap while I rushed around trying to find Floppy Dog or something like that. And my sweet boy looked at the pile of velvet stoles on the table, pointed his chubby little finger them, looke up at Shawn and said "Mommy made it." And my heart just melted! Because I didn't know he knew. I didn't know that he even paid attention to what I do on and off throughout the day at the sewing machine. One of the difficult aspects of parenting can be the way that it seems to narrow the focus of what you do and who you are in life. You go from being a professional, or an educator or an artist or whatever you defined yourself as before parenthood to being a mom. And only a mom. Or as I've heard some women put it just a mom. (which of course makes me sad, because we all know that, to our children at least, it is a very important job) And I've heard those without children complain that their friends who are moms "let it take over their lives." And that complaint is not with out foundation because lets face it, parenting is an incredibly immersive experience. It is literally a 24/7 job. You are never off the clock. There are no breaks, unless you have someone else to take your place and even when you are not with your kids, they are still on your mind. And you never ever stop being their mother. So yeah, it kinda takes ove your life. I don't say this to complain, just to state the facts. And I have worked very hard, as I begin my journey into motherhood, to retain the other aspects of my self by which I to continue to define me. I'm a mother but I'm also a wife. I'm a Feminist. I'm a Christian. I'm a researcher. I'm a designer. I'm an artist. I'm an actor. I'm a quilter. I'm a sewist. I'm a maker. All those things are important to me and I don't want them all to be swept away as the waves of motherhood wash over me. 

And to think that my two-year-old sees that I make things! Has noticed that I do something during the day that is NOT laundry and food prep. Can see that beyond being the woman who loves him and cares for him and is as we jokingly say around here is "the nice Lady with the Boobs", that I am also a person that makes art. It makes me so, so happy! And I know, I know I'm ascribing an awful lot of importance to a very simple observation on his part. He is hardly at the stage where we will have a conversation about the definition of art or the multiple facets of of identity. But still. It feels good to think that he will look back on his childhood and remember me not only at the sink in the kitchen, but also at my sewing machine in the studio. That he can see beyond me as an extension of himself and perhaps get a glimmer of who I am on my own. And that feels good. 

new star wars sheets

I thought I'd seen all the vintage Star Wars sheets that had been made, so its kind of exciting to find a new one. Look at this! Bad lighting and whatnot, but stil, exciting.

How awesome is that!

I love the droids variation on this one. I love that Chewbacca is included. And he's such a nice, flowy curly version.

And there are some GREAT space ships/machinery on this one. 

Great Millenium Falcon. Though I think what I really like best about this is the clouds. 

Fantastic little walker. 

And my favourite.... Ewoks AND Han and Leia. Perfect. Though what I love most is the little baby on his mamma's back on the far right. 

See? How cute is that? 

Oh, and also Jabba... With his little buddy, Salacious B. Crumb. Love it. 

Anyhow, made some bibs with it. Wanna see 'em?I know I've made hundreds of these, but I still really enjoy it. I love the way it crops the image. 

See? Those clouds are killing me.

Good ole' Jabba.

The best. 

Anyhow, I'm having a really sewing-heavy week, as I think I might be doing a craft show this weekend. But there's a lot going down this week besides that so we'll see. I'll get some of these up into the shop next weekend. 

Right, back to sewing....

 

al fresco

I love Spring.
For two days in a row now we've eaten outside. And not just at dinner either.

We've had all possible meals on the deck with the exception of breakfast. And who knows, maybe tomorrow we will start our day on the balcony too!

Because the boys sure do love it. Food always goes down better in the great outdoors. And there are birds to point to, and planes way up the the sky. And we get to eat barbequed burgers and fresh guacamole with chips. Chips for dinner! Oh the decadence. 

Oh Spring! We are so glad you are here at last. 

foraging

Green things are starting to come up in this brown spring time world.

So we headed out into the woods to find something a little extra for dinner.

We took baskets with us to make things easier to carry.

There were flowers to be found along the way.The Dogtooth Violets are starting to bloom. 

And I got very excited to see a Trillium. I always think of them as rare and special.

Ok, maybe they're not so rare.

As you already know, from what the Baby told me yesterday we were on our way to Fern Gully, one of our special places in the forest behind the house.Fern Gully even has a door.

Which adds to the magic, and the fun.

Look at that intredpid little adventurer!

And here's what we are looking for. Fiddlehead sprouts!

We picked them...

...and put them in our baskets. 

Aren't they just the prettiest things? I love how green they are, and how everything else is so brown. They are oddly otherwordly. Like the food fairies would eat. 

And there were TONS of them. Hubs said that according to the rules of foraging we should only take 20%. We didn't get anywhere near to that number. 

Everywhere we looked there were little bits of green, holding the promise of more to come.Its such a beautiful time of year, with these tiny little buds on all the branches and a world full of potential.

Ok, quick side note. I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity to get a few nice pictures of me and the boys. I find myself in the usual situation of the phtographer-mom in that there are no pictures OF me because I am busy taking all of the pictures. So since Hubs was with us, I sat down under tree, gathered up my boys and smiled for the camera.I include the above photo, not because its a good one, (I have slitty eyes and L.D. is being a goof) but because it shows how snugly I was pressed up against that tree. 

Hubs snapped away....

...and eventually we got a few good ones. The boys ran out of patience and we decided to head back to the house. Then I stood up and looked back down at the base of the tree and saw this:Little red ants. Swarming all over the place! Hubs proceeded to rush over and do his best to brush them off me. But not before I got a few good bites. Dang, do those things hurt! Just a little pinch at first by then they throb and burn like nobody's business. You can really feel the venom. It was a brief flurry of panic as Hubs hunted under my layers and tried to de-ant me, and I wasn't too worried, but you know who was? The Little Dude. He watched the proceedings with great anxiety, shouting "There's one Dad! Get it! Get it! GET IT OFF MOMMMYYYY!" and started to wail when he felt that Hubs had not successfully gotten rid of an ant that he thought had crawled up under my shirt. Poor Guy. He was quite beside himself. "Its ok Buddy," I soothed, "Why are you so upset? I'm fine, I promise." "Because its gonna biiiiiiiiite yoooooouuuuuu!" he howled. He was so worked up. But when he saw that I was ok, and I assured him that I had not been hurt too much by the bites he did calm down. But still, it was quite a moment. 

He was back to his old tricks in a few moments, smiling and chatting, until I turned the camera on him. at which point he refused to smile for me at all, doing his best scowl in my direction. Oh, I see his future surly teenager face in there for sure....

...ah but he can't keep his smile from me forever!

And that Baby is full of smiles, even though most of them involve him sticking his tongue out (a trick he learned from his brudda)

Anyhow, we finally got those fiddleheads home where we could cook 'em. Hubs peeled the papery brown bits off them, and I blanched them in boiling salted water for 10 minutes, as the internet told me to. The water turned an alarming shade of reddish brown, but I had been warned about that, so I carried on.

Here they are all cooked up.

And here they are on our pizza! Along with leeks, tomatos, sausage, mushrooms and goat cheese.
And said pizza was enjoyed with great gusto...

...by all. Nom. They tasted sort of alike asperagus, but not quite so stong, and a bit more earthy. The Little Dude ate all of his and the Baby ate about half. Normally something this vegtable-y would probably get rejected, or require some cajoling, but there's nothing like having gone on an adventure to get your food to make that food even more appealing that usual. Basically I should go out into the forest and hide all the vegetables I want them to eat, and then would could 'forage' for something new every day! Hm, maybe not such a bad idea....

an adventure story

I got home the other day, just after Hubs had just finished putting the boys to bed. "Quick", he said, "if you get in there now you just might catch him before he falls asleep!" So I ran into the Little Dude's room for a hug and a kiss. "Are you awake?" I whispered to him, as I leaned over his bed. "No." he murmured groggily, and slung his arm around my neck and pulled me down for a hug anyways. When I returned to the living room Hubs asked me "did you get to nurse him?" "oh, you were talking about the Baby!" I realized, and then ran off to his room to see if he still wanted to have 'bup time' as he puts it. 

The Baby was wide awake, and smiled up at me when he saw me. I lifted him out of bed, and snuggled down in the chair with him to nurse. He made short work of it, as usual and then sat up to tell me about his adventure outside that afternoon while I was away. It went like this:

"Fern Gully. Keep Walking. Daddy pick dat. Take it home." 

"Then what?" I asked him. "PIZZA!" he replied. 

On a side note, I love that he tells me stories now. Its a new development, this recounting of events that you were not a part of. He does it for Hubs too, or anyone else that was not around when something cool happened. Its interesting that he now is aware of who was or was not around when something happened, and that he wants to try to pass that information to you. These devopments in how kids understand and experience the world and their relationships to the people around them are pretty much why I signed on to this whole parenting thing. Its the best. Anyhow, can you guess what he was talking about? What could he and Daddy have picked outside and then taken home to make pizza with? Well, we did it again today and it was fantastic. I took a TON of pictures, and will show you them all tomorrow, as its very late right now and I have to go to sleep. Leave a comment if you can guess what it was. And then come back tomorrow and see....

sewing + tv competitions = awesome

Look what I just found on YouTube.

 Its a reality tv competition about sewing! I know, right? I love it when the universe takes two of your favourite things and smashes them together. And its not all Project Runway like where as long as you can't see that the hem has been glued in place its all good. Oh no, its all about the actual craft of sewing. And its in Britian, so they pronouce things like "applique" all English-y like, and talk about "haberdashery". Oh listen to me blather on- it is now officially confirmed: I am a total dork. But seriously, I've watched all four episodes in bits and pieces over the last couple of days and it was very, very enjoyable. And doesn't leave me with that bad taste in my mouth that some other reality shows do. (*ahemdancemomsahem*) Also, they have little historical info segments about sewing and clothing that are very enjoyable, and they explain the shit out of everything for the sake of the viewer who might not know that much about sewing. Which at times is annoying (is there anyone who would watch a television show about home sewing that does not know how a patch pocket is constructed?) and at other times is informative (I certianly learned a lot during the how-to-sew-trousers segment).

Anhyow, my point is that if you like to sew and like to watch tv, you should watch this show. Also, you should sew something while you do it. Knitting and Crocheting would also be acceptable.