Rabbit Is Wise

Clothes for Barbie

I have a dislike-hate relationship with Barbie.  I had sworn to myself that my girls would get Barbies.  However, I neglected to have the grandparents swear that same oath... And soon, after Christmas and birthdays, Barbies filled our house - all in various states of undress (because who wants to keep Barbies looking neat and tidy?  It is best to take out their nice hairdos, lose their shoes and take off all their clothes).

Because of my dislike of them, I never made a big deal over how poorly they were treated.  You want to practice cutting hair on your Barbie?  Sure, go ahead!

Without really realizing it, the Barbie phase passed.  It has really been over a year since I've seen my girls play with their Barbies.  They are still here - at the bottom of toychests and drawers.

And it was just the other day that one of those undressed Barbies made an appearance... quite by luck, for her.

I was working on a set of cloth hankies with some nice flannel fabric when my middle child asked if she could have a scrap - to make a dress for her American Girl doll.  After two attempts at drawing the dress pattern on her scrap of fabric, and two reminders from me that fabric isn't quite like paper and we should be a bit more careful when using it, she drew a dress on a scrap of fabric that she wanted to direct me to sew.

Now, from the drawing on the fabric, I KNEW it would not fit her American Girl doll.  But I kept my mouth shut.  I wanted to see if and when she would recognize that fact.  She asked me to cut it out, and told me exactly how to sew it shut (seams on the outside, stitch up the side and around the puff sleeves, leaving openings for the arms and head - though I did have to ask how the arms would get out the sleeves before she remembered about the arm holes!).

As it was, the realization of the size discrepancy didn't happen until I had unsuccessfully tried to pull the dress up over one of the doll's legs (it wouldn't even fit over a leg!).  I had to cut a slit down the back of the dress to try to make it fit... then enlarge the slit to try it make it fit again.  When my daughter still didn't grasp that it won't fit her American Girl doll, I showed her how it was too tiny to fit and suggested she find one of her Barbies - because I thought it would fit a Barbie better.

After some prolonged digging and searching, a Barbie was found.  We discovered that we had to cut the slit even further to fit over those large hips of hers - and even then, it wouldn't close over her bottom!  A bit of ribbon around the waist to keep it in place, and it actually wasn't too bad of a dress (for being designed by a 5-year-old).

Looking back at the experience, I'm glad I held my tongue as I did.  It gave her the freedom to experiment and learn from the process herself rather than having me direct the project towards my own goals of perfection.  And I ended up being surprised by how well it turned out and because she was in charge of it, she stuck with the project until it was completed.

My Wonderful Consignment Store Find

Quite a while back, I checked out Playful Learning: Develop Your Child's Sense of Joy and Wonder from the library.  I have to admit that the main thing that stuck with me from the book was the cover photograph of a wonderfully organized art basket.

My kids were never able to keep their pens and pencils quite so organized.  If only I had a basket like that to organize their art supplies.

So I kept that in the back of my mind... always looking wherever I went from a substitute.  I wasn't able to find what I was looking for - even online.

And a short while ago, I stumbled across what I thought was a perfect substitute basket at a local consignment store.  Think of my astonishment when I came home and looked at the cover to the book - only to discover it was the exact same basket as in the picture!

My girls have been using this basket for a few weeks now and I have to say, this is the most organized my girls have kept their art supplies.  They always know where they are.  It is very easy to keep picked up and to tote around the house to find that perfect spot for drawing or coloring.  Rather than putting paper/stickers and such in the large section, I took three plastic containers I had from some store-bought pesto.  They fit perfectly into the large section, and allow us to divide our colored pencil collection into warm colors, cool colors, and white/black/brown colors. 

 

Now that I've seen it up close, I know this is a utensil caddy, normally used for silverware and napkins... and have since found various alternatives online.  What a difference the correct keywords make when you're doing online searches!

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. ..... in solidarity with SouleMama

 

New Turtleneck Cowl Design...

I finally got around to casting on for a turtleneck cowl for myself.  The rest of my family (except the baby) each have their own, love them, and now it was my turn. I wanted to be able to use it this winter (not that this winter is ending anytime soon).

Rather than shopping for wool to use for this project, I wanted to use yarn I already had in my stash.  I had some gorgeous Shadyside Farm Studio Grasshopper Green Krayonbox worsted weight I had found one year ago at the Rhinebeck Sheep and Wool Festival (I had a chance to go, sans kids, last year - before the birth of my third. It was heaven!)  I figured that the ribbing would be flexible enough to cast on a few more repeats than what I do when using bulky yarn - and obviate the need for swatching my gauge.

So, as I was knitting (what was going to be a copy of the turtleneck cowls that I had knit my family), I started thinking of ways to improve the design and make it different - but not too different.  What I like about the cowls is their versatility.  You can wear them folded over for that "turtleneck sweater" look.  You can stretch them out to cover a cold nose.  You can fold it over and wear as either a headband or a hat without a top.

I thought to myself... what if?  What if I introduce eyelets to one of the edges? It would be not only an interesting stand-alone design element (if desired), but also allow for a ribbon or I-cord to be laced through.  Pull on the I-cord to cinch one side and, voila, the cowl turns into a hat!  And what if I add small pom pons to the ends of my I-cord, to make it look cool and funky?

Part of me did NOT want to take the chance of making this with my gorgeous yarn.  Part of me wanted to stick with what I know.  But then I reminded myself: "How am I going to learn new things unless I try them out?" (Plus, since this is such a fast knit, if it didn't work out, I could always frog it and reuse the yarn for something else)

Thank heavens I listened to that little voice.  I'm SOOO happy with how the cowl/hat turned out.

For the I-cord, I asked my husband (the artist) for a recommendation of which yarn to use.  He looked through my stash and ended up picking out some leftover Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica I had from the Seaweed Shalom sweater I knit.  The funny thing with his choice is that, in this varigated color yarn, there are bits of green that exactly match the grasshopper green of the cowl!

 
  

Lessons Learned from this project

Of course there are a few lessons learned from the project... things I would do differently next time:

• I cast on an uneven number of repeats, so when I lace the I-cord, the tails come out on the same side (look closely and you'll see one tail of my cord ends on the front, one on the back.
• I would have knit it a bit shorter... I feel like it is maybe three to four rows too long.

So what do you think? Do you like the design and functionality of this?

Letters to my Children... a Tradition

Since my youngest child just celebrated her first birthday, I thought I would share with you an annual tradition I started when my eldest child turned one.

This isn't a grand tradition that my children will look back fondly and remember.  It isn't one that involves a special song sung or a book read.

This tradition is one that, for the moment, is mine alone.  My children won't get to enjoy this until they are adults...

... each year, as the birthday of one of my kids rolls around, I sit down with pen to paper and start to write them a letter.  I try to tell them a little bit about themselves: what they're doing, what their interests are, developmental milestones, funny quirks.  I also try to include my thoughts and feeling on parenting them at this time.  I try hard to keep it to things that I think, when they are older, they will be interested in knowing... even things that I will probably forget myself by that time.

I haven't decided yet when I will give the bundle of letters to each of them.  One idea would be to give the letters when they turn 18.  But somehow I don't feel they'll fully appreciate them at that time.  They won't have enough living under their belts to appreciate hearing their mom talking about them losing their first tooth.  Nor do I think that the milestone of college graduation would be appropriate.  I think I may end up giving these letter to my girls at the birth of their first child.  Of course, one or more of them may end up not having children of their own.  I'm not sure what I will do in that case.  But to me, these letters are a picture into not only who they are (or were) at these various ages, but also what it is like to be a parent to a child at these ages.  I hope my voice will speak to them from the past and give them encouragement as they start out on the adventure of parenting.

And if they decide not to have children?  They will still receive the bundle of letters - though I'm not sure at what adult milestone that will happen.  And though it won't be there to give them perspective on their own childhood as they embark on raising their own kids - it will give them a glipse of who they were as children - from the perspective of their mother.  Hopefully that will be something precious to them.

 

Do you have any unique family traditions for birthdays that you would like to share?

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. ..... in solidarity with SouleMama

 

VERY Last Minute Valentines ... for my girls

 

 

Who knew that my girls would be heartbroken that their Mama didn't make them any valentines?

When we were making my Last Minute Valentines the other day, I made only one myself, for my husband.  I told the girls then that I wouldn't be making them any valentines.  They seemed OK with that at the time.  But today, all I saw were sad faces.

Because we homeschool, they didn't have a classroom of kids they were going to receive valentines from, and they felt that the day wasn't being celebrated enough.

So, I had to get my "craft" on.  I had to come up with something quick and dirty that would be loved by them... and my solution?

Stuffed hearts with embroidered words on them.  I know my girls.  They both love anything that is soft and stuffed.  And I was happy to see that they were both extremely excited to receive these valentines.  If I had had more than 10 minutes planning to make these, I might have tried to stuff them with a bit of lavendar so they smelled nice.  Let's not even talk about the horrific embroidery I did on these (totally freehanded, so not evenly spaced or anything - very homemade!).

But the speed at which I whipped these up didn't seem to diminish the amount of love my girls have for these.  And I had all the supplies on hand (fuzzy red knit fabric, red felt, white embroidery floss, stuffing).

Who knew?

Last Minute Valentines

I just realized that Valentine's Day is in just a couple of days.

Because I homeschool, I don't have the stress and pressure of sending my girls to school with valentines for their whole class.  Nor do I have to worry about the candy/no candy decision.

But I do like to use it as an opportunity to make some homemade, hand-crafted valentines for family and close friends.

We started by each making a list of those people important enough to get a valentine from us.  Then, I took a collection of white and pink paper, folded in half, and cut out various sizes of hearts.  While the hearts were folded, I took a paper punch (or for my eldest, she did this herself) and punched holes all around the outside of the heart.

The girls then got to choose between red, pink or white yarn to lace through the holes.  Tie a pretty bow at the top, add maybe some glitter glue, possibly another smaller heart glued to the center - then it is just a personalized message and you have a wonderful valentine card!

The girls had so much fun making these.  The hardest part is waiting for that darn glitter glue to dry!  Easy-peasy!

 

Lessons Learned:

• When the heart is folded and you are punching the holes, make sure to punch an odd number of holes.  That will ensure that the next step will make your strings come out at the front of the Valentine for tying the bow.
• Start threading at the bottom of the heart, ensuring that the string passes to the back of the Valentine between the two bottom most holes.  Then lace up each side to the top holes and you'll find the string comes out on front where you can tie a bow.

A Birthday Gift for My Youngest

Less than a year ago, when my youngest was only three months old, Amanda over at SouleMama posted about this wonderful birthday book she made her youngest in celebration of her first birthday.  I promptly saved this idea away in the back of my mind with a promise to myself that I would make such a book for my daughter's first birthday.

I just LOVE the idea of making a personalized baby book ... one where the child gets to see her pet cat when learning the word cat or her daddy when learning the word daddy.  And I love even more that it is a fabric book that can be sucked on and chewed (this one is a veteran book-chewer!).

Here is my selection of fabrics:

As is normally the case, I waited until the VERY last minute to make this.  Less than a week away, I finalized my fabric choices.  The photographing, photo selection, printing, and sewing was all left to stolen moments during the final days before the celebration.  The snowpacolypse gave me an excuse to ignore my other responsibilities and get this finished on time, though admittedly, I was putting the finishing touches on it the morning of her birthday!

I had so much fun working on this project, and it came together quite easily.  I used a baby board book we already have (and like the size of) for general dimensions.  I decided to only use batting on the cover as I felt it would have made the entire project too thick to close properly, and I'm happy I did that.

 

Lessons learned from this project:

• It would be so much easier to cut everything out evenly if I had a cutting mat and rotary cutter.  I've never used one of these before, but lifting the fabric with the scissors (especially if it isn't pinned down to the pattern or whatever else I'm cutting) doesn't leave a straight edge.
• When working with Stitch Witchery:
  1. Don't use your ironing board as a cutting board
  2. If you do, make sure to clean up any tiny scraps of witchery before you iron anything, and
  3. Make sure your large piece of stitch witchery isn't anywhere close to the iron
• The print-on fabric was really nice, but frayed at the edges.  The iron-on transferred (ironed on to white fabric) where perfect for the wording.  I can't decide which I like for the photos, but do not, under any circumstances, iron over the iron-on pictures unless you have them covered first with parchment paper!!!
• A jeans needles in your machine works great for stitching all the pages of the book together.
• Look closely at the notions aisle AFTER you have found your fabrics.  I would have used more rickrack and ribbon around some of the interior photos if I had more on hand that matched my fabrics!

What I Saw This Morning

If you saw my {this moment} picture from yesterday, you can see that I took it of the view from my front door just as the storm started.

I couldn't wait this morning to wake up and see what Mother Nature had delivered at my doorstep overnight.

Well, the wait is over and this is what I found:

I wasn't able to get the exact same angle as the other shot because, as you can see, to get the full effect (with the full door frame as reference), I had to step back quite a bit. I haven't measured it yet, but it looks to be quite a lot.

And I believe the only reason we have power this morning is because it isn't a heavy, wet, stick-to-the-branches snow. I'm happy about that. I have a craft project I need to get done today for my daughter's birthday tomorrow, and I kinda need the power for my computer and sewing machine!!! Let's hope the power stays on all day.

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. ..... in solidarity with SouleMama

(updated Saturday morning: if you're curious what this same shot looks like now, check out my "after" picture!!)

My Baby's Birthday Crown

My fingers have been busy as of late, crafting for an upcoming birthday - my baby's first birthday. 

I made my middle child a felt birthday crown a few years ago and wanted to do the same for my youngest.  At that time, I asked my eldest if she also wanted a birthday crown, but she seems to have outgrown that stage, meaning she will never get a crown of her own. 

While that makes me sad, I was able to celebrate her last birthday in a homemade way by creating a family birthday banner - to be brought out at each of our birthdays in celebration of the day. A visit to my local fabric store to grab a handful of fat quarters and double-fold bias tape gave me the ingredients I needed for creating it and I'm SO happy with how it turned out. If anyone is interested in how I did any part of it, I'd be happy to answer any questions!

But that isn't what I'm here to talk about.  I'm here to talk about the birthday crown I've made for my youngest. There is so much inspiration for felt birthday crowns out on the internet. I'll admit that I originally got the idea here from my favorite blogger, SouleMama.

I love working with felt. It is so easy to sew and so forgiving. I was inspired by my own Christmas stocking creations to applique my daughter's name on the crown. I free-hand pencil the letters on the felt and then cut them out with small scissors. My artist husband always compliments me on my felt letters, which makes me smile inside.

I had my middle-child's crown to use as a template but decided to construct this one a bit differently.  I used three main pieces of felt: a full-sized outside "background" piece, a full-sized inside piece, and a smaller middle piece that's the same color as the lining.  I started by appliquing the name on the smaller piece. I then stitched the flowers to the larger front piece. I created a fabric tube to cover the elastic and then stitched around the outer edge of the crown, joining front to back and catching the elastic and casing between the two, while at the same time sewing down the ribbon trim around the edge.

The one thing I didn't like about my middle child's crown was that when I made it, it was too big (even with the elastic) for her head, but it doesn't fit my eldest, even with the elastic - so it wasn't adjustable enough, even with the elastic.  This time, I came up with a solution: I used some buttonhole elastic that I have for a batch of cloth diapers I'll be making soon.  I put a buttonhole in the back layer of the crown felt (to hide the tail of the buttonhole elastic) and stitched a button to the outside of the hole (for buttoning the elastic to).  I did this before stitching the back felt to the front felt (so all my stitches didn't come through to the front of the crown).  I added a buttonhole to the fabric elastic sleeve so the buttonhole elastic can exit the band.

I love how the crown turned out and it should fit my little girl until she's outgrown wanting to wear it. As with all things you do by hand, there are always some lessons learned, and those are in particular what I want to share with you (maybe if you're reading this and decide you want to make your own crowns, you'll be able to avoid some of the problems I ran across because I shared them with you):

• I would have sewn the front to back excluding the little pom pon trim, and then gone back and hand stitched the trim in place.  As it was, I thought I could stitch it on with a zipper foot, but even that wasn't thin enough to avoid having the foot catch the pom pons and have me sew too close to the edge of the felt.  I had to go back and hand-sew the front-back together in some places because of this and it doesn't look at "finished" as I would have liked it because of that.  Also, if I had hand-stitched the trim, I could have had more control over how well the trim turned the corners at the crown points.
  
  
  
• The ribbon that I sewed to the bottom of the crown - I forgot that I should have left a bit extra and folded it under to create a nice edge alone the sides (rather than what I did was to clip it off at the edge, exposing the rough edge of the ribbon)
  
  
  

My Favorite Homemade Bread

Let me start by saying that my family isn't big into bread.  It is such a shame.  I love a great loaf.  I have fond memories of my time in Germany, most of which involve the various foods I ate there.  There was one particular loaf of Bauernbrot that I had which was the most amazing loaf of bread I have ever eaten... buttered with a dark Waldhonig smeared on top.

The problem with me baking bread at home is that so much goes to waste.  I'm the only one eating the bread - and I can only eat so much of it before it goes stale!

However, that is not the case with this caraway rye bread that I make (from Jeff Hertzberg's book Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day).  Though my husband doesn't care for it, my kids gobble it up as quickly as I do... and I can easily go through a loaf in a few days.

Rather than measuring out the ingredients by volume, I've translated the recipe to use weights.  I LOVE using a scale in the kitchen, particularly with baking.  I feel like I get more consistent results AND I make less dirty dishes that way.  I find that I use my kitchen scale at least once a day.  The recipe is so simple: just measure all the ingredients into a bowl and stir.  Below, you can see what it looks like once it has been stirred.

With the above recipe, I typically split it in half and bake two nice large loaves of bread at a time.  You can either freeze one or later or, as I do, give one away.

Below is what the dough looks like once it has risen and been refrigerated, before shaping into loaves:

Here is what a loaf looks like once shaped and before it rises:

Sometimes I can't wait and bake the loaves immediately after the first rise.  I've found that my loaves flatten out quite a bit when I do that and it makes for generally better loaves if you let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight (after the first rise).

These dough for the loaves in the pictures was refrigerated for about two days.  And I was very happy with the consistency of the dough when I shaped it into loaves and let it rise.

And the final result?  Perfection.  You can see that I slashed the tops of the loaves.  Definitely do this.  I forgot to do it one time and my bread "exploded" (burst out the sides and make for a very unshapely loaf).  It tastes amazing toasted with butter on top.  I like to sometimes add a thin slice of sharp cheddar on top of that - or a bit of honey.

 

{this moment}

A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see. ..... in solidarity with SouleMama