finger thumb

ornamental

We've got some ornaments up on the tree now. Took the time after church on Sunday to hang ornaments as a family. I always have such fond memories of decorating our tree when I was a kid. We'd get out all the boxes and untagle the lights and hang the ornaments all together, with everybody digging out their favourites, and the quiet delight of remembering those old familiar pieces. My mom would bust out the shortbread and other Christmas baking, and we'd have hot chocolate or tea and garland would be strung and Christmas villages constructed and the Baby would be laid gently in his little porcelain manger. Sigh. End rose colour reverie here and cut to the present day, wherein we try to decorate a tree with an enegetic three year old, a very grabby baby and two tired out adults. 

Ahem. The scene was not so quite so idyllic. Which is not to say that it wasn't fun, for the little people involved at least. 

The Little Dude was very excited to be decorating the tree, and did his trademark blend of capering wildly about and alternately concentrating very carefully on the little things. Like getting these two ornaments hooked together. We don't have a ton of ornaments, as I favour the vintage ones, especially the glass variety, which I've been building up a little collection of over the past couple of years. I pick the up at the thrifts whenever I see them, and have lucked onto a few nice sets even. Though they are not the most 'kid friendly' ornaments.
And of course, this is bound to happen. We've broken four (so far) and I keep the vacuum at the ready for cleaning up the evil little shards. We do have a bunch of soft/rigid non-breakable types too, and those are mostly on the bottom of the tree where little hands can get to them.

Though these particular little hands are very, very persistant. The Baby's reach is surprisingly high. We did what we thought was a sensible job of hanging things up high, but then over the course of the next day had to shift almost everything (breakable or not) up another few feet. So now we have this really weird looking tree that is basically naked for the bottom two feet. It looks really funny, though you only have to be a parent to look at it for a few seconds and realize that this is the house where a crawling baby lives. Either that, or a dog. 

The whole time I was taking photos of the baby reaching for ornaments, I had this funny feeling that this image was so familiar. So I went back into the family albums and found this one: The year was 1976 and my little brother (MrLemurBoy for those of you who know him on the net) was almost exactly the same age as our Baby is now. Baby's birthday is in February and my brother's is in March, so that makes sense. And so funny to see how things don't change. Nine month olds are mobile, grabby little crawlers who want to touch and chew everything. 

He was so pleased to be able to reach a few that I did not stop him right away. And by and large he was very gentle, and just happy to be able to touch that shiny, pretty thing up there in the air. And after all, he was the only member of the family who did not break an ornament that afternoon. (We started yelling 'Opa!' after the second one)
But eventually, for his safety, he was corralled into the playpen with a lovely non-breakable ornament to chomp on. 

getting our Christmas on

This weekend we finally got our tree. We're taking the decorating one step at a time, and started by just putting the lights up. The lights are very, very popular around here. Hubs loves all things LED, and has a string of super, multi-setting little ones that glimmer and glitter and strobe and flash. Very fun.

This is the Baby's first Christmas of course, so we had to introduce him to a tree in the house. He's kind of funny about texture sometimes, and was not so keen on touching the tree at first. After the first poke at it, he kept his hands to himself, refusing to touch it again. (He's funny like that, you should have seen him the first time he had a raspberry, the look on his face was hilarious, like "What the heck is in my mouth!" He spit it out and poked at it on his tray for about 5 minutes like it was a dead alien and he was an eleven year old with a stick. But he got over it after that, and now raspberries are his favourite fruit. He can't get them into his mouth fast enough)

oooh, such pretty colours. 

By the next morning, the Baby had gotten over his reluctance, and we could not keep his little hands OFF the tree. He likes to gently brush the needles, and he LOVEs to touch the lights, and seems to be especially fond of the orange-y red ones. He totally makes me think of ET when he does this. 

And as you can see, the novelty has not worn off yet. For the first day we had it at least, all activities took place by the tree. We had to eat where we could see the tree. And play in the room with the tree. And where better to read your book than in a chair dragged over to the tree.

Tomorrow we'll get some ornaments on it. 

poor baby

Sorry that I did not have the energy and/or time to post last night. We're back on the cold train here. Or should I say, under the wheels of the cold bus. This time its the poor baby. I don't think he's had a 'real' cold yet. He had a little congestion awhile back, but this is a full on can't-breathe-when-you-lay-down cold. Which of course, means that he only sleeps for about 30-40 minutes at a stretch. SO BRUTAL. Last night I put him to bed at seven and then he was up on and off until 12:30. One of those really, really difficult parenting nights. Though I feel very blessed that the Little Dude had a great night and did not wake up at all, even though the Baby was wailing in the room next to him and up and down the hallway for large portions of it. Thank goodness for white noise machines. Anyhow, the Baby finally went down past midnight, and Hubs and I colapsed into bed. And then the Baby only woke up once between then and 6:20 am. So that could have been worse. And of course, my mom is AN ANGEL, who called me the next morning and asked if she'd like me to take the Little Dude for the morning. Um, is a frog's ass watertight? That'd be a yes. That way I could get some stuff done while the Baby was napping. Like cleaning up my computer so that I could actually download some photos. Argh. My computer is so full. And yes, I know you can just do some computer magic, like buy new ram or memory or whatever, but really, that doesn't solve the problem of there being, like, three years worth of photos on my computer. And ya'll, I take A LOT of photos. You may have noticed. Anyhow, did some clean up and posted new stuff on Etsy. Check it out.  Posted one of the Test Pattern Totes. Thanks to Hubs for taking the awesome pictures for me.

Of course, the Baby did not know about my plans to get some work done, and he mostly had plans for being congested and tired and sad, so it took me about a half and hour to get him down for his nap. 

A short digression on parenting: I have ideals for how I parent. This is not always the best thing. I have a plan that I like to follow. I have a way that I'd like for things to go. And I have rules for how I'm going to do things. (All the other parents who are reading this are smirking right now. To make a plan is folly, I know that, but still I try) And I'm not saying that my rules are The Right Way To Do Things with capital letters and all, but they are the way that I want to do things. Lets be clear. You should do things your way, and that way is whatever works best for you. Right? And my way is just my choice, and no reflection on your choices. There is waaaaaaay too much judgement in parenting as it is. I don't want to add to it. 

That being said, there are a couple of things that I do, when I parent that make sense for our family. Our kids take regular naps, at regular times. We follow a schedule that has some leeway and room for extenuating circumstances, but generally speaking nap time and bed time follow a predictable routine. It works for us. And our baby sleeps in a crib. I am pro- co-sleeping, but have found that it does not work for us. We stay up much later than our kids, and also, they don't ever seem to want to sleep in our beds. Any time they've come into bed with us, they seem to think its time for a party and no one sleeps. So we don't co-sleep, even though I think its a fine idea. Also, I always put my kids to bed awake. Meaning, I don't rock them to sleep and then put them in bed and then leave the room. The theory is that they need to learn to put themselves to sleep, so I help to create the conditions for sleep (comfort, calmness, quiet, dark, etc) and then leave them to put themselves to sleep. Also, I think it'd be jarring to go to sleep in mom's arms but then wake up in another room entirely. That'd freak the baby out. Better that they know where they are falling asleep. But before you think I'm some sort of regimented hard-ass "let 'em cry it out" 50's style mom, let me tell you that I don't believe in leaving a baby to cry by himself. I'll sit in the baby's room with my hand on his back, and sing or shush for as long as it takes for him to be calm. But I don't run in and pick him up because he's crying, or nurse him either. Nursing isn't always the answer, and I don't want to become the human pacifier. (That being said, I'm a long term nurser, and breast fed the Little Dude until he weaned himself at 18 months. I'm very pro-breast feeding. I just don't like to use it as a catch all solution any time my baby cries)

Anyhow, all that is to say that today, all bets were off. The poor baby. He was SO unhappy and SO tired, and so unable to put himself to sleep. So I figured that I'd hold him until he was asleep. Well, that didn't work. He'd fall asleep soon enough, but as soon as I laid him down he was awake and crying the saddest cry in the world. (That baby really has the most heartbreaking cry I've ever heard. It totally sounds as though someone just told him that his dog died. Its the kind of cry you feel in your solar plexus, I'm telling you) I tried it three times, holding him for longer and longer intervals. Finally, my back (and my sanity) could not take it any longer. So I figured I'd feed him to sleep. Not what I usually do, but surely that'd work. And yes, he fell asleep, but again, as soon as I set him down he was wailing. So at last, after a half an hour and no sleep I made a last ditch effort. I got into the crib with him, lay down next to him, and breast fed him. He fell asleep and then I had to very, very carefully and quietly get back out of the crib. Not so easily done. But I managed it. They should totally train ninjas by giving them light-sleeping infants to care for. You get some mad ninja skills as a parent. I'm telling you no one can close a door as quietly as a mom. 

So all that is to say that I'm tired. And have broken all my my (admittedly self-imposed) rules (that don't have to apply to you, because you can parent however you want. There's no 'right way') and just want a little time to myself that does not involve doing dishes. 

But that Baby is still so darned cute. Even when he's sick. He was so lovely today when he was awake. Still just a happy little guy. Hubs was doing the cutest thing with him.  What's that in the bag?

Seriously, how could that NOT make you smile.

He was loving this so much. Lots of laughing, and big toothy grins. (When those teeth were not busy chewing of course)

The Little Dude also thought this was HYSTERICAL. And of course wanted to help. 

Though that 'helping' was just a thinly veiled excuse for getting the Baby out of the bag so that he could get himself in, and do some swinging too. 

That's my baby, poor little guy had runny nose and he was still up for being swung around in a bag. 

We sort of migrate around the house over the course of a day. There are a few different rooms that have "play areas" aka: toy dump zones. And so we usually start our day in the living room. And then spend some of the late morning/early afternoon in the basement (so mama can do some laundry) but we often end up, during the last hour of the day, before dinner time, playing in the front room, by the big window.  First of all, its just off the kitchen, so I can get dinner started. Second of all, it has a nice big window where we can see when the Christmas lights start to come on around the neighborhood, wave at the passing cars, and most importantly watch for Daddy coming home. 

Monkey see, monkey do. You can't see it very well in this picture, but I'm telling you, this window is filthy! Covered with handprints and faceprints and the remnants of snacks and dinners and runny noses. Because there is something about this window that draws the Baby like a magnet. Its the perfect height for him to pull himself up to, and that big, smooth cool surface just begs to be touched. And licked. (See above re: filthiness) And his favourite window activity; smacking at it with his little open palm.

He'll stand there for quite awhile, alternately helped and hindered by his big brother. Depending on L.D.'s mood, he's either hugging him and helping him to stand taller, or poking at him and 'encouraging' him to fall down. ahem. And all of those contradictory things can happen over the span of 5 minutes. Ah, three year olds. I think 'mercurial' might be the best word I have for this age today.

But whether helped to stand or inexplicably pulled down, the Baby gamely gets right back up there so he can whack at the glass with his little hand. Smack, smack, smack, every now and then turning to smile, and reach out to me as if to say "do you hear that lovely sound?" Smack, smack, smack.

 

garage sale

Though I love thrifting and all things second hand, I didn't go to many garage sales this past summer. There's something about the demographic in the mid-sized bedroom town that I live in that just makes for not very exciting garage sales. The houses aren't old enough I think. Too many new-ish subdivisions, not enough I've-lived-here-my-whole-life-as-did-my-parents-before-me homes. Its usually just a lot of VHS tapes, CD racks, uninspiring dishware and recently used baby items. Nothing stellar. But I was on my way home from an appointment on the other side of the highway the other day, and I have to drive through a bit of farm country to get here from there. And I noticed a garage sale sign. It was a grey Saturday, quite cold, not snowing yet, but on the cusp. "Who has a garage sale at the beginning of December?" I thought to myself. People who are moving out of a small country home that they've lived in since the early 60's. Jackpot. 

Now, I'll freely admit that these are not great pictures. And also, you probably won't be that excited about this stuff unless you are a sewer. Did I mention that they lady who was having this garage sale was a sewer? And she was de-stashing big time. 

Ok, so those roles are all 100% wool. Melton wool, like the kind you use to make winter coats. One of them is kind of moth eaten, but I don't care. The potential is amazing. I washed up some swatches (because it was quite dusty) and there was hardly any shrinkage in the cold cycle. The potential is very exciting. Maybe I'll make some really nice blankets. Maybe patchwork, maybe not, who knows. And that yellow bolt - 100% linnen! So great. And then another little bolt of grey men's suiting wool (yum) and a bolt of beige cotton. I know, most people may find it hard to get excited about beige cotton (I roll my eyes at myself a little from time to time) but its such a quilting staple for me, and good quality quilters cotton is usually, 7-9 dollars a meter. So this is such a great find. And then down on the floor in the top picture you can see another bolt of linnen, green this time, and some old school dish towel fabric, and a really nice chunk of some sort of loose open weave fabric that will be great for teaching the boys to embroider on. Its kind of like burlap, only nicer. 

And there was also some actual burlap. Also good for little kid embroidery, craft projects, etc. 

The garage sale lady was not only a sewer, but also did a ton of crafting. There was every kind of craft supply under the sun. Bins of styrofoam shapes, santa doll heads, fake flowers and dyed feathers. You name it, she had it. But it tended to be of the cheap and tatty variety (I'm not a big styrofoam or Christmas craft fan) so I passed on most of it. But I did get that giant pile of embroidery hoops (I'm always misplacing embroidery hoops) And that nice teak-ish tray. And the ravioli maker (don't know when I'll use that, but whatever). But one of the best purchases I made was a big plastic bag full of birds. You know, the little fake bird that people use in flower arrangements and wreaths occasionally. Anyhow, the Little Dude LOVES them. HOURS of fun. Literally. I just gave him the bag and let him pull them all out and we talk about them, and play with them and they ride around in tractors and diggers. Oh the fun is endless. He piles them all up on the table and says "look at all my lovely birds!"

We also used them to decorate a bit. Here's our Christmas-y mantelpiece.

I got hubs to cut me some nice pieces of the birch that got felled last year, and we collected some pinecones and then used all the red birds out of the bird bag to give it a bit of colour. 

All in all it was a very successful garage sale trip. Oh, and I also got a lot of old books, a bunch of old Martha Stewart mags, a fun casserole dish that I forgot to take a picture of and some random ribbon and such. And all that for twenty bucks! Best garage sale ever. 

And speaking of Christmas, L.D. has discovered the Grinch. Or has he originally mistakenly called him, "The Gronch" He saw a guy dressed up as him in a Christmas parade the other day, and could not stop asking about 'dat green guy' so I went to the library and got out the Grinch who Stole Christmas for him, and we've read it every day so far. 

cupcakes and mystery fabric

Dudes I am so tired these days. There's something up with my neck, super sore and constantly giving me a headache, and the Little Dude has been getting up at night lately  (and I have no idea why, he's usually a good sleeper) so I'm just too tired to be very creative tonight, aka, downloading and editing photos. So here's just a few bits and pieces. 

First of all, if you want to laugh, check out this personalized apology video at the ob tampon site. Type in your name and they sing you a very funny, sappy song. Found via Denvan. 

Also, I made cupcakes today. Not muffins, honest to goodness cupcakes. With, like a pound of butter. They were so freakin' good. I got the recipe from Two Bite Cupcakes, by Viola Goren, which I got out of the library the other day. I just intended to browse through it like food porn (ie: fun to look at, but no one really does that stuff) but then got all inspired by the recipes and yesterday, put a pound of butter out to thaw so that today I'd HAVE to make cupcakes. I used her Vanilla Cupcake recipe, but got all fancy and added cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, so they had this lovely subtle spiciness to them. Also her motto is "enjoy the deliciousness but avoid the guilt" because they are supposed to be mini cupcakes. But I didn't have mini pans, so I made full sized cupcakes. (And I don't feel guilty at all) The Little Dude referred to them as "upcakes". He quickly corrected himself, but really, it was so darn cute. Also, I learned a new way to make icing, and I'm kind of blown away by it. I've always just mixed together butter and sugar, with maybe some cream cheese in there, but this book had a recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream that did not freak me out with details about thermometers or anything like that. So I just went for it, and MAN is it ever good. And oddly light. There's way less butter in it, and a bunch of egg whites so its quite nice and fluffy. All in all, I'm quite pleased. I got nearly two dozen cupcakes out of the batch and ten bucks says they don't last out the week. The Little Dude LOVED them, though he was only allowed two today (much to his chagrin. He was sure he'd get another one when Daddy came home from work) but I feel better about it than giving him Oreos or something like that. At leas there's no preservatives in these, or weird MSG related chemical. Just good ole' butter n' sugar. 

Oh, and are there any fabric hounds/Harry Potter fans who can tell me what this fabric is? Sorry about the bad photograph of my TV screen, I'm old school that way.

I really want to know what fabric her dress is made out of, and where I can get some. Its from the scene where Child Lily and Child Snape hang out by the pond in the last Harry Potter movie. I have a feeling its a Liberty print, but haven't been able to confirm that. Sorry about the crummy images, but I looked all over the internet for better and couldn't find any stills from that scene. Just a bunch of really intense Snape fan videos. The creative use of other film footage that involves redheaded girls and awkward long haired boys in possible period costume is quite amazing. I can't pick just one, so go to youtube and search Snape and Lily and you'll find tons. Ah internet, what can't you be used for? 

around the house

The days feel so full and hectic sometimes, and I have to remind myself to slow down, take a minute, play a game, and have some fun with the boys or else the whole day zooms by in a frenzied cycle of meal prep, dishes, diaper change, laundry etc and before I know its starting all over again. 

We call the hours from 5-8 rush hour. Or crunch time. Or "we just have to get through this and soon everybody will go to sleep". Its the hardest time of the day; getting a meal together when everyone is at their neediest, marshalling the boys through bath and toothbrushing and bedtime when they are having an inexplicable energy spurt (how can they be that full of activity when I am this tired?) that causes them to get manic and silly, running around in circles and laughing hysterically. Anyhow, as with most things, the mood with which you approach it makes all the difference and if I'm acting like its the hardest thing ever, it totally will be. So today, I decided to enjoy it, laugh at the silliness, revel in the wriggly wet bath time baby, and really, really enjoy story time. And I'm telling you it makes all the difference.

Don't get me wrong, I'm still exhausted, and my back hurts, and I'm not exactly thrilled to hear a little voice over the baby monitor asking for just one more thing! But instead of being something to be gotten through, there were moments to enjoy together as we wrapped up our day. For instance, have you every seen a better way to enjoy a story than draped over your Daddy's shoulder like a little lion cub?

And I know he's been my kid for, like, three years now, but I still cannot get over his hair. I love those curls!

And the Baby's been busting out new teeth left, right, and centre. Ok, actually just left and right. Teeth number 5 and 6 have come in on either side of his two front teeth. So after he was bathed and pyjama-ed I tried to get a picture of the tiny little toothy protrusions.     It proved harder than I thought. First of all, the camera itself is waaaaay too interesting, so you get a lot of this:

Its the auto focus and flashing lights, plus he just wants to get his mouth on that lens. 

Ok, there's a nice open baby bird mouth, but no teeth visible. 

And here we have some teeth accompanied by crazy chipmunk face. Not quite what I was looking for. 

Ah, there's the shot I want! It took his big brudda to make him smile like that. Though you still can't really see the new-new teeth. They are pretty much just tiny razor sharp little nubs. I'll probably have to wait a few weeks to get a good shot. And then his face will look so different again. Its amazing how a couple of teeth practically change him into a whole other person. 

Ok, and now a sad note. I was doing the rounds on a bunch of blogs I like last night and found this post from a blog that I've often enjoyed, Posie gets Cozy. I love her sewing, beautiful photography and fun posts about cooking, but I didn't read often enough to know that she and her husband were in the process of trying to adopt a baby. I'm not going to go on about it here, as it is her story, not mine, and she writes so beautifully and honestly about something so crushingly sad. Please be advised that if you are at work, and will have to be interacting with people within the next half hour or so, I would not recommend reading this now. You will probably cry. I definitely did. It wrecked me. But its bears reading, though maybe you should wait until you are home. 

lil quilt

I made this little guy awhile ago, and just never got around to posting about it. 

Every now and then I like to get off the treadmill of my 'gotta get it done' making, and do a little something just because I feel like it. No 'big idea', no deadline, just reach for the first thing that grabs my interest and let me hands do whatever they like.

In this instance I took a bit of one of my favourite fabrics (an old Ikea sheet, not vintage really, probably just from 5-8 years ago) and cut out a small rectangle. Then I layered it up with some batting and backed it with lovely grey linnen and then I just hand-quilted the hell out of it. I just followed the stripe that was already printed on the fabric, in a matching colour of embroidery thread. 

And this is what I ended up with on the back.  So simple, and yet so satisfying. This project was really just about enjoying the process and the material.

I really can't decide which side I like better. I was going to put a couple of hanging loops on the back, but I couldn't really decide which the back was.

The texture of this thing is just ridiculously nice. Its lovely just to run your fingertips over. 

I like objects that fall into this sort of funny in between place as for a definitions or uses. Its not really a use item. Its too small for a place mat, to big for a coaster, not long enough for a table runner. So since it has not useful purpose, it can't fall under the rubric of 'craft', so it must be art. But then again, I didn't really conceive of it as 'art' when I made it, and it doesn't have any greater concept or meaning, other than being nice to look at and good to the touch. So I have a hard time calling it art either. I hate that whole definition argument anyways, and have kind of been avoiding it since I left Art School. I don't like how 'art' is a term of privilege and 'craft' is almost a minimizing put down. As a friend of mine used to say "I refuse to function within that dichotomy." However, that's easier said than done, since the whole world acknowledges and functions within it, and ascribes monetary rewards accordingly.

Anyhow, its too late and I'm too tired for much more debate and pontification over the state of the Art/Craft divide. What I meant to say was: Isn't this pretty?

And I sure did enjoy making it. 

booth at the Gladstone

Sorry for my absence these last couple of days. Before the show, things were just too hectic to blog and after the show I was just too tired to blog. MAN I'm tired. Like, new baby tired. Sheesh. 

Anyhow, I wanted to let you know how it went. Here's what my booth setup looked like: taadaaa! I'm happy with how it looked. Fun and colourful and lots of inviting product. 

Though I'm a little on the fence about the teddy bear. He's a last minute addition, and maybe a bit too cutesy, but I needed a way to show how the drooler bibs looked when in use. They just look like weird little triangles on the table, and people generally speaking need to be shown how things are going to look if they are at all transformed by being on a three dimensional body. Anyhow, I think for next time I'll take a really nice picture of one on the baby wearing one, and blow it up to an 8 x 10 and put it in a frame. Because as much as I like bears, I think the teddy looks a little twee. What do you think? Picture? Teddy? I'd love some opinions. 

And here is my lifesaver, my fairy god mother, my beautiful assistant, Farihah. She and I have worked retail together before I had the Baby and have stayed in touch and when I put a desperate plea out over facebook for a helper/box schlepper she agreed to come along. And guys, I COULD NOT have done it without her. She cut the trips up and down the stairs at the Gladstone hotel in half, was an amazing salesperson (though I already knew that) and generally saved my bacon. I was so tired in the last hour of the sale (from 10 - 11pm) that I was unsure if I was making sense when I talked any more, and she kept assuring me that I was. Also, she totally kept me awake on the drive home. (Didn't get home and into bed until 1:00am) If I hadn't had someone to talk to, I'd have just had to pull over in a car pool somewhere off the highway and go to sleep.

Anyhow, it was a good night. The traffic was reasonable, and lots of lovely friends dropped by to say hello, which was really great. And there were a lot of other really cool vendors too. I was too busy with my own booth to walk around and take pictures, which I really should have done, but I'll try to do it next time I do a sale (that'll be the 17th, at Movies and Makers) so I can blog about some other people's cool stuff as well.

It was funny, I really busted my ass to make new and exciting stuff (bags, pillows, wallets, etc.) and despite all that, I mostly just sold bibs. People like the bibs, so I'm not complaining. Also, this time the big seller was Mr. T. I totally sold out of the Mr. T bibs and I don't have any A-Team fabric left. Here's hoping I can find some more before the next sale. 

And now, for no reason at all, without even a segue here's a picture of the boys.

Oh yeah, I do have a reason. Because they are adorable, that's why. I'm their mom, I don't need any other reason.