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creepy crawlies

Over the spring break we took advantage of some really great programs at our local library. One of them was a Creepy Crawly workshop. It was for ages 5-8, but we were allowed to bring our Little Guy along even though he is a couple of years below the specified age range. I told him he could go, but he had to sit on his bum on the mat with the other kids and quietly behave. Keep a low profile. Not annoy the other paying customers as it were. 

Well, you can see how that went. He's the one in the green shirt with the long blonde hair standing up and muscling himself up to the front of the crowd. 

To be fair, he was shorter than the other kids, being younger and all, and he just wanted to see what was going on. So he kept standing up and walking around the crowd to get to the front and see what the lady was holding in her hand. Which was a series of increasingly interesting bugs. 

Hissing cokroaches, African Giant Millipedes (above) Hermit Crabs...

...even a Blue Tongued Skink. Oddly cute with his little rubbery arms. Though sadly for the Little Dude there was not a Tarantula. The day was too cold to bring him out to the library apparently. 

The bugs were very interesting and all, but eventually the Little Guy got his hands on one of these child-sized magnifying glasses, and then there was no way he was putting it down. 

Everything is so interesting through a big fish-eye lens. 

Especially this guy.

He had a lot of fans. 

wes anderson

Apparently, he's a big fan. We got this lovely big Wes Anderson book out of the library the other day, and both boys spent a good bit of time paging through the whole thing. Here's an interesting article about the aforementioned Mr. Anderson, by the author/editor of the book, Matt Zoller Seitz. 

Anyhow, if you like his movies at all, this is a great book to spend some time paging through. So many lovely pictures, so much detail (oh how these boys of mine love details), and also, animals. Which reminds me, we may have to watch The Fantastic Mr. Fox with the boys someday. 

Its never too late

Today I spent the afternoon teaching my little brother to sew. And by "little" I mean "completely grown-up adult who just happens to be two years younger than I am". So you know, little. 

And by "little" I also mean 6'3". So he looks almost comically tall sitting at my sewing table. I hope he gets a better, more ergonomic set-up going on at home. 

A couple of weeks ago he e-mailed me and said "you'll never believe what I'm going to ask you." and then asked if I could teach him to sew. Which of course is music to my ears. Apparently he wants to eventually be able to make puppets and sew his own cosplay costumes. (I know, over six feet tall and a total geek? Sorry ladies, he's taken. wink, wink.)

I wanted to start him with something small and useful. So we made these.  Do you know what they are? Let me give you a hint. 

Yep, they're for juggling! I used a pattern for juggling chooks from the Red Ted Art book. You can find it here online. And also, he can juggle. I know. 

We left out the part with the little beak and comb to make it look like, well, a chook, so ours just look like pyramids. But they were super easy and super fast and very satisfying. They are filled with rice, so they have a nice fluidity too. 

And then "Onca PJ" as the Little Guy calls him, had a little bit of time to play lego. Joy! (As a side note to looking at these pictures, apparently being tall has a few drawbacks. He'd better be careful or he's going to end up looking like Igor. Oh the posture!) But all in all, it was a lovely afternoon of making stuff with my not-so-little brother. Also, I can't wait to see the puppets he will make someday!

 

making the cut

I have this problem. You know how I love vintage fabric. Especially vintage bedsheets. I'm always on the lookout for a good, bright, graphic-impact vintage bedsheet. I love high contrast, I love clean geometrics. And I have just a bit of a stash. Just a usual quilter I-have-a-fabric-problem stash. 

Anyhow, I have some favourites. And this is one of them.  Isn't that lovely? And its a nice big piece too, like a queen sized top sheet. No annoying elastic edges like on a fitted, and no holes or wear patches. Just a gorgeous huge expanse of fabric. 

So let me tell you what my problem is. I just can't cut into it! I've had this sheet for at least a year I'm sure. And its one of my favourites. So I've officially been hoarding it. And I've finally got a project that I want to use it for and I still am having such a hard time cutting it. Its been sitting waiting to be used for over a month. I've done all the other cutting and sewing that I can do before I have to cut into this. And now I've got everything else done and It's been two days and I can't do anything until I CUT. THIS. FABRIC. Hubs has been teasing me about it and told me that if I didn't cut it today he'd cut it right down the middle himself and then take it out to the garage and use it for a rag. Which is a total lie of course, but still, he makes a good point. I'm not sure why I get stuck like this either. Its not like I'm ever going to use it as a bedsheet. Maybe that's what's in the back of my head, like this is an awesome bedsheet and, you know, if the zombie apocalypse ever hits I might need some extra sheets. And once I cut it it will stop being a bedsheet. Though on the bright side it can start being a lot of other things. 

It took me all day, right until fifteen minutes before the Little Dude was going to get off the bus (and then my quilting time is over) to finally slice into it.  Whew. And now its been started. 

And here it is in use. This is just one component of a bigger item, but it gives you an idea of what I'm doing. These letters have been paper pieced, from patterns that I drafted myself, and that "Q" was a real pain in the butt. But now it is done and I can move on with the project. Which is a good thing too, because I have a deadline and so many other things I'd like to get to! 

So it is just me or do any of you other quilters/sewists have this "I can't cut my precious fabric" problem too? 

little kid party

So it was the 'birthday weekend' here on Saturday and Sunday. Which means it was the weekend that falls closest to the Little Guy's birthday, and so that was when we had the actual parties. Our family party with aunts, uncles and cousins was on Sunday, and the party with his little-kid friends was on Saturday. So it was a very busy weekend. Also, it was the Oscars, and I love the Oscars, so I also hosted a little dress-up/eat/watch party, so basically I had three parties this weekend. Luckily my sweet Mom hosted the family one at her house, so I only had to clean my house and make food for two parties. Thank heavens. Though I should not even complain, because I do love a party, and really, would love for there to be something social and fun at my house every weekend. 

Anyhow, every good party starts with a cake. After much stressing out over facebook (thanks for the support y'all) due to the fact that I did not grease the pan properly, it did manage to turn out ok in the end. The Little Guy is really into dogs these days, so a dog cake was in order. He was very happy with it, and naturally requested the piece with the little red gummy tongue, which was his right as birthday boy. Its a gluten free cake recipe that I alwasy use and should get around to posting here someday because it is delicious. But I cheated and made a swiss meringue buttercream for the frosting (Martha Stewart recipe) which is gluten free, but NOT dairy free. And it was aMAzing. One thing about rarely eating dairy is how much you do appreciate it when you get the chance. Because ermagersh, butter. 

I'd like to say a few words here about good old fashioned little-kid home birthday parties. There has recently been (or maybe not recently, I haven't been a parent for that long) a trend for having parties at a 'venue'. Like a place where you rent by the hour, or pay per child, or a community centre, or a country club or something like that. And I know that there are a variety of reasons for this, like people who live in apartments or don't have a lot of kid-friendly space at home. I totally get it for city dwellers and whatnot, or older kids where you want to do something out of the usual, like bowling or something. But I have to say, I love a simple home party at this age. We asked the Little Guy who he wanted to invite, and all together there were nine kids include the birthday boy and his brother. And that is PLENTY if you ask me. Nine kids feels like about two-dozen kids when you've got them all together under one roof. And you hardly even need to plan stuff for them to do, they are just so happy to have other kids around, and play with all the regular toys that are always around, but seem more exciting when there are new friends to experience them with. I guess what I'm trying to say is that next time you are looking at planning a little-kid party, take the pressure off and just have it at home. Don't feel like you have to invite the whole class. Try something like inviting as many familys as the birthday child's age. (as in, we invited three familys, because LG is three) because that really helps to keep the whole situation manageable, and also cheaper. And I know, as kids get older it gets less easy to do this. I'm sure it will be only a matter of years before I am eating my words and ponying up for some sort of cleverly named pay-by-the-hour play space for 28 of the Little Dude's nearest and dearest friends. But while I can get away with it, I will be happy to have these simple cake-and-ice-cream-at-home parties. (Please note that by saying this I do not mean to criticize anyone who has had parties in a play space. The Little Dude and I have been happy to attend lots of these parties, and have had a great time. They are totally fun and practical in many circumstances where you have no choice but to invite a lot of people. I'm just putting this out there for the parents who can't afford to do anything like this and may have felt bad. I don't want anyone to feel bad. After all, its a party! There should be no feeling bad at parties!)

And its amazing how time flies at these things. You've got cake to eat, presents to open...

(The Little Guy was very happy with some playmobil doggies and all the other lovely gifts he recieved)

And then we got down to doing a simple craft. I pre-made some masks out of craft foam and felt.

And then we decorated the heck out of them with stick-on jewels. Not the most sophiticated craft, but then again, he's three. And he loves sticking things to other things. 

I love doing crafts with kids because you see so much of their personality in the choices they make. 

And speaking of personality....

If you want to do something similar, I used the templates from this super-hero mask tutorial, but made them generic, and also used a template that a friend of mine had made up for her son's birthday. I don't have a link to that though, as it was just something she put together. But it was a really fun thing to do, and now the masks will be part of our dress-up repretoire until they fall apart.