Sew what?

After feeling rather lukewarm about my sewing at the end of last year, I've actually completely quite a few projects since the new year began and I'm feeling motivated again. Hooray!

1. Okay, first up is a mei tai, but it involves a little back story. Jason's aunt and uncle live in Hong Kong and when I became interested in baby carriers, I asked Aunt Bev if she could be on the lookout for a "real" mei tai. They are Asian-inspired carriers, so I wanted to see how one from Asia differed from those we typically see in the US. One day, a package arrived with this:

I was totally surprised by the package and thrilled to get this in the mail. Big thanks to Aunt Bev, but as you can see from the photo, the straps are just barely long enough to tie around a 1-month-old Kaia. This carrier was either a) intended for a petite Chinese woman (which I am not) or b) meant to be attached by some means of tying that I am not familiar with. Either way, if I wanted to use this carrier, I was going to have to modify it. (not to mention, I didn't think the pink floral did any justice the lovely red embroidery!)

The carrier was actually really well constructed, but after some quality time with my seam ripper, I had extracted the embroidered panel unscathed. I framed it in black so as not to take away from the embroidery.

On the reverse side, I found an Asian-inspired print that coordinated with the new colors of the carrier. (A quick email to a friend who teaches Chinese here made sure that the Chinese characters on the fabric were right-side up).

I prefer to have a sleeping hood on a mei tai because it prevents bobbling heads when babe falls asleep on your back, but I didn't want it there all the time because it would cover up the embroidery. So, I added snaps and made it detachable.

And what do you do with the hood when it's not in use but you want to have it on hand in case it's needed? Add a pocket in the strap of the mei tai!


2. Jason got me a little netbook as a push present/birthday present and I made a padded sleeve to keep it in. I had this owl fabric that wanted to be used for this project (yes, sometimes fabric calls out to me to be used for one project or another).


3. While sometimes I buy fabric because I like the fabric and the project comes later, sometimes I buy fabric with a specific project in mind. That was the case with Sierra's purple plaid pleated skirt (say that 10 times fast!). I saw the fabric in a flyer for JoAnn fabric and then went to the store to hunt down the fabric and a pattern that looked like what I saw in my head. This is the result.

4. My diaper bag. I started this before Kaia was born and finally got around to finishing it a couple weeks ago. I haven't actually taken any specific photos of it, but I noticed in a photo from playgroup recently.
5. I already mentioned that I had my first attempt at making felt food, and I guess that counts here, too. It's part machine sewing, part hand sewing.

6. Stuff for Shannon's babe, part 1. A mei tai. Shannon and I went to the fabric store so she could see/touch/pick out fabric in person. She bought the print fabric, I supplied the other materials needed and the time/skills as a baby gift to her. She apparently likes the fabric designer Alexander Henry without even realizing because the fabrics she chose for both her mei tai and her diaper bag come from that designer.
7. Stuff for Shannon's babe, part 2. A diaper bag. Shannon picked a fabric she loved for the main fabric, I helped choose the others to co-ordinate, and then she left it up to me to design and put together. Three pockets on the outside, five on the inside.


7b. I made a little clutch to match. I've been using one for myself lately after I received it from a friend and I like sticking my wallet/cell/chapstick/etc. in there and just throwing it in the top of the diaper bag. If that doesn't work for her, she can always use it as a cosmetic bag/small toy carrier/snack pouch/etc.


(The diaper bag and clutch, by the way, are still in my sewing room. I finished them just in time for baby to arrive. Really. She's due tomorrow (which doesn't mean that she will make an entrance by tomorrow, just that after tomorrow her mama will surely be serving her an eviction notice). As far as I know she could already be here and I just don't know about it yet. Maybe Shannon is in labor right now! Okay. I'm excited for my friend.)

Already proving me wrong

It was just yesterday that I mentioned that Kaia has been trying to crawl but has not yet mastered forward motion.
The girl must have heard me dissin' her crawling because today (you guessed it) she showed me that yes, in fact, she can go forward. It's still rather disjointed and not particularly efficient, but just give her a couple weeks.

This new development is just further evidence of how quickly my baby is careening toward childhood. Listen, Kaia, I know you've got that big sister to keep up with, but please, please don't grow up too fast on me.

Interview with a 2-year-old

I tried to interview Sierra. She jumped on the bed, sat down, jumped off the bed, went to get some toys, crawled across the floor, crawled back, got back on the bed, jumped some more, sat down again, jumped up and down some more ... phew!! It's no wonder I'm exhausted all the time.

Happy half birthday, plus one week

Last week Kaia had her 6 month birthday (Already! Really?!). Based on where she was a month ago, I actually thought that she might be moving by now. Well, she IS moving, just not quite forward just yet. She sure tries hard, though. She will get her knees under her and rock back and forth. She digs one toe into the ground and pushes. She is quite adept at going in a circle and can very easily turn on her belly to reach something she wants to one side or the other. And she goes backwards. Which frustrates her. She pushes up and the strength of pushing up with her arms pushes her backwards, she just hasn't coordinated all the movement for forward motion just yet.


She is such a happy baby and smiles all the time. Okay, maybe not all the time, but I feel like she doesn't get upset very easily.


Recently, though, she is suddenly a little bit clingy. While she used to be okay with just about anyone holding her, now if Mama is nearby, she wants Mama. The other day, a friend offered to hold her for me for a bit and it seemed like she lasted just a minute or so before that pout lip came out and she was looking around for where I went.

We haven't really introduced solid foods yet. I've let her try a few things, but she really doesn't seem all that interested, so I'm just going to push it right now. She certainly doesn't need the extra calories. She's a perfectly chunky little baby. At her 6-month check up last week, she came out in the 50th percentile for height (25.5 inches) and the 75th for weight (17 pounds, 2 ounces). It is interesting how children in the same family can be so different. Sierra started eating solid food at 5.5 months, and loved it. Kaia, not so much. I just figure we'll try again in a week or two and see if she's changed her mind yet. I do wonder if she will be getting teeth any time soon. She had a period around Christmas where she was a constant pile of drool. Then she seemed to dry up a little and now the drool is back with a vengeance. I feel like I'm constantly wiping and her little chin is chapped from being wet all the time.

Kaia is just as much a mover as her big sister was. Even when she's breastfeeding, one little foot is kicking, kicking, kicking. I guess we just make active kiddos. Speaking of breastfeeding, baby girl is getting more and more distractible when she's eating. I have to be careful nursing in public because if she sees something she's interested in, she'll turn her head, pop off the boob, and suddenly I'm all exposed. Oops!

I can't believe we're already past the 6-month mark. I feel like time has swooshed by even faster with #2. Slow down, baby, slow down!!

Cookin' in a Cardboard Kitchen

Two things to know leading up to this post. 1. Jason's parents have a little kitchen in their basement for Sierra to play with when she's visiting. She loves it. 2. I subscribe to Family Fun magazine, which has a lot crafts and things to do with kids.

Thus, when I saw this kitchen in one of the issues, I knew I was going to make one.

I was casually in search of two identical boxes of similar size, but hadn't made any effort to find them when one day, while heading into the dining hall, I saw an abundance of just delivered boxes that were just the right size! I found the woman in charge of the shipping room and demanded politely asked, "Who is the recipient of those boxes out on the sidewalk." After successfully tracking down the owner of the boxes, I had the beginnings of Sierra's kitchen.

It was a process that I worked on a little bit at a time. Sometimes Sierra helped, sometimes I worked on it by myself. I ran out of colored duct tape because I used it to secure shelves inside the oven as well as border all the edges of the boxes, so we had a stall when we had to get more tape. I didn't have nearly the number of plastic caps to use as knobs as the article suggested, so I just bought some inexpensive wooden cabinet knobs and drew on them with a fine tip sharpie to make the knobs on the stove and oven. I made the paper plate burners twice because the first time I free-handed them and they were just too sloppy for my sometimes-a-touch-anal-retentive self. The sink is just a big salad bowl that Sierra picked out at the dollar store.
I like how it turned out.
The cupcakes are done. Would you like one?

I can't take credit for the cupcakes. My mom sewed those, along with two aprons, one for Sierra and one for a friend.

I did, however, recently take my first foray into felt food. A girl needs something to cook if she has a kitchen, right?

I started with a strawberry. At first, I was going to use thread to make little seeds, but then decided it was overkill.
Then I tried a fried egg. The yolk is enormous, but you get the idea.
Sierra wants me to make a banana next.

Shaker eggs

Another post! Because Sierra is napping (*GASP*)!

Yesterday, we went to Jason's hockey game and Sierra fell asleep in the car on the way home. It was probably a bit before 4:30pm. Jason transferred her to her bed when we got home and she actually went back to sleep. I finally woke her up at 6:30. I knew from past experience that there would be no early bedtime, so to occupy ourselves, we did an evening craft.

One of the props Ms. Pam uses at Toddler Sing Along are shaker eggs. Sierra has a lot of fun with them, so we made our own. I knew I had some plastic eggs in the closet from last Easter so crawled under the stairs and dug them out.

Sierra held the eggs for me and we filled them with rice or beans. I suppose you could other small, shakeable objects, but that's what came to mind first when I was assessing what we had on hand. Now that I'm thinking about it, I have a lot of beads and I'm wondering how those would work. Or small buttons. Tack nails? Anyway. Moving on.
I used hockey tape to tape up the entire egg. I don't want any small item to go flying around the room if the egg pops open. My husband plays hockey, so we had it on hand, but I like that it's cloth so you can draw on it later. I suppose that you could just some other tape if you wanted. You could probably also just tape well around the middle of the egg so the color shows through, but I wanted to occupy Sierra for as long as possible.
Thus, after I had the egg all taped up, we decorated them with markers.

Then it was time to SHAKE YOUR EGGS!!

Stained glass

Today, one of the blogs I read is doing a giveaway from this shop.

The stained glass stars are fun and eclectic and I love them. I was reminded that I used to do stained glass before the girls were born. I really enjoyed it and hope to get back into it someday. I decided to write this post to remind myself of all the steps and equipment before it is completely gone from my memory.

1. Decide on a pattern and trace/draw onto white paper. If required, create the pattern to have smooth lines that can be cut and broken from the glass. I made a stained glass triathlon for myself and I had to do the background in pieces to make it work. I just found some simple images, traced them, blew them up with a photocopier and then added the lines to divide up the background into shapes that would work with glass.
(pencil, paper)




2. Trace your pattern onto the glass you will be using. A light box is very helpful for this step, so that you can see the pattern through the glass. If the glass is too opaque to see through, you can cut out the individual pattern piece and set it on top of the piece of glass and trace.
(glass of various colors, light box, sharpie marker)

3. Cut and break your glass pieces. For longer straight lines, there is a tool that can be placed along a straight edge (e.g. 2x4 attached to a table) and rolled across the glass piece to cut it. For smaller pieces and odd shapes, a handheld glass cutter is the tool to use. Some styles have a reservoir for glass oil to make the cutter run across the glass smoother.

When breaking the pattern pieces out of a larger sheet of glass, straight lines can be snapped off along the edge of the table. There is a tool that is like a glass pliers that helps with breaking the glass into the shape you've cut. For small pieces, it's useful to have two of these.

For mosaics, and small random shaped pieces, there is a tool that is essentially a glass a clipper.
(cutting tools: straight edge roller, glass cutter, glass clipper; glass oil)
I used a clipper and a cutter for this scene:

Note: To cut unusual shapes, steep curves or sharp corners, a jigsaw can be used, but like grinding (in the next step), it must have a diamond blade and be used with water.

4. Grind/smooth all pieces. A glass grinder is needed for this task. It has a platform filled with water and a diamond bit in the middle that spins around and around at a high speed. The water is required when grinding glass. The grinding gets rid of all jagged edges and roughs up the straight edges a little for the next step. Wear safety goggles!!! Shards of glass can fly off and you don't want to risk one getting in your eye.
(glass grinder, safety goggles)

5. Apply copper foil tape around the edges of all pattern pieces. This task it tedious, but I never really minded doing it. Place the tape centered along the edge of your glass piece and then fold over onto the top and bottom. It will only go over the edge on the top and bottom maybe 1/16 to 1/8 inch. Press down well so that it is firmly attached. Those little Pampered Chef pan scrapers work really well for that, but you could also just use a popsicle stick or something.
(copper foil tape, pan scraper or similar)

6. Place pieces together. Flux and solder the junctions. The flux is an important step. It makes the solder run smoothly. If you skip it, you will know. It can be applied with a paint brush. Solder comes in a roll and looks like thick wire. You unroll a part of it, place it along the junction to be soldered together and melt it along the line with a hot soldering iron. Best to do this on a smooth, hard surface so that you can easily pick up an pieces of solder that get loose or go through the cracks. After the first pass you can go back and smooth it out both on the back and on the front. You may need to add solder to some thin spots or melt it away from where you put it on too thick.
(flux, paint brushes, solder, soldering iron)

7. Attach any accessories to the piece. As long as it's heat resistant, and you can stick copper foil tape to it, I imagine you could attach just about anything you wanted. This is also where you will add hooks for hanging if you desire.
For the stained glass triathlon I did, I just attached pieces of wire at the corners and just soldered them into the junctions. You could also do a wire loop on the back so you can hang the piece on a wall and not see the hook.
For this desert lamp I did for my mom, I made the silhouette cacti out of copper foil sheet. It similar to the tape that goes on the edges of the glass pieces, but a little thicker. You can just draw the silhouette that you want and cut it out. Probably won't be able to use those scissors for cutting paper after that, though.

This vase is embellished with glass leaves and flowers, which were made by twisting wire together.

(wire, copper foil sheets, etc.)

8. Scrubby, scrub, scrub. Wash thoroughly to remove all flux or your patina (in the next step) won't take properly. There are special products for this, which I couldn't remember, but this source says that Parson's sudsy ammonia all purpose cleaner is the ticket. (note, she also says to wax the piece both before and after applying patina, so maybe wax here as well).
(Parsons sudsy ammonia all purpose cleaner, scrubber)

9. Add your desired patina. This will change the color of the solder. I know it's available in black, silver, copper, and that copper green color. You basically just poor the patina over the solder lines and there's a chemical reaction that changes the color of the solder. Dry it off, apply wax, wait for the wax to dry, then wipe off. You can use a toothbrush to get the wax out of the corners.
(patina, wax, toothbrush)

10. (optional) Sign your work with a glass etcher and/or add any text, etc. I made a wedding gift for my friend Liz when she got married based off the invitation she and her husband designed. I wanted to add their names and wedding date to the piece, so I printed it out in the size and font that I wanted, taped it to the back of the glass and basically just traced with the etcher.

(The faces are painted. The features were just too small to do with glass)
(glass etcher)

While I'm certain I'm forgetting some things, these are the basics and now I have my little resource if I ever get the chance to make stained glass again. And now you know another tidbit about me.

What does M look like?

We have a game that we play with Sierra that we just call "The Letter Game."

Sierra has a set of cards, each with a letter of the alphabet on it. To play the letter game, we lay all the cards on the floor, and Sierra picks out a card. If she knows the letter, she gets an m&m and we do the letter sound and some things that start with that letter and she puts the card in her bag. If she doesn't know the letter, she has three chances to figure it out and then I get that card.

The other night, we were sitting at the table eating dinner and Sierra was talking about The Letter Game.

Me: "Do you know your letters?"
Sierra: "Yep"
Me: "What letters do you know?"
Sierra: "I know 'm'."
Me: "You do? What does 'm' look like?"
Sierra: "It looks like chocolate."

I adore this photo

This is Sierra and Sophia at Toddler Sing Along last Monday. I just think it's a darling photo of these little friends. They were both listening to Ms. Pam sing and Sierra leaned back onto Sophia, who put her arm around Sierra's shoulder, and then Sierra took Sophia's hand. So cute.

Also, I know I haven't been posting much. There just aren't enough hours in the day. I'm hoping to catch up on some posts this week.

Reflections on Running

Since Kaia was born, I've been struggling to get back into a regular running schedule. I run, but it's erratic, unpredictable, not nearly frequently enough. I registered for two triathlons, the first in May, so I really need to get it together and figure out how to get some good workouts in. I think my best course of action is just going to be to bite the bullet (so to speak) and get up early to workout. But oh, how I despise waking up early. Early bird, I am not. I do have to often wake up and do "mom stuff" but it doesn't require a large energy investment. And I thought my days of waking up earlier than I want to in order to workout ended when I graduated from college. I still haven't talked myself into that course of action, but I'm running out of options. (maybe I need to seek out my friend Dawn for a pep talk. She apparently wakes up at 5am every day. ugh.)

Anyway, today when Jason came home, he asked if I wanted to go for a run. I'm so glad he did because I don't know if I would have gotten out if he hadn't mentioned it. I wasn't feeling particularly motivated, so I decided to do a little warm-up and then run some 800 repeats on the track. I thought pushing myself a little would help get me going.

I thought that a reasonable goal would be to run my 800s in 3:15 or 3:20, but I got excited and ran the first in 3:12. I thought I had totally burned myself, but managed the others in 3:13-3:13-3:14-3:17-3:17, with a 3:00 recovery between each (or 3:05). I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, I feel really happy about the workout and how I ran with my current level of conditioning. On the other hand, I can't help but remember how fast I once ran similar workouts.

Just to torture myself further, when I got home, I looked up some old cross country workouts. One early season workout was 8x800 in 2:52/2:54, later that same season 6x800 in 2:38/2:42. If you're not a runner, this is probably all mumbo-jumbo, but basically, once upon a time, I did the same workout I did today 40 seconds per 800 faster than I ran them today. That's a lot. And those are times I will never, ever see again. But! I probably can do that workout faster than I did today, so I will have to revisit it if I can ever get myself back into shape!

An Early Valentine Party

Today at our Thursday Woodberry Toddler Playdate we had a Valentine celebration. There were 8 mamas, 8 toddlers, 3 babies, and one gradeschooler who was home for the day due to school being called off for snow that barely amounted to enough to be mentioned. That's Virginia for ya.

Anyway, in addition to the usual ruckus that is several toddlers in a room, we also did a cookie and Valentine exchange. Sierra and I had used these as fun activities earlier in the week because one day we mixed up sugar cookies, the next day we made them. She said, "I think we need an 'x'." And just when I was about to say that an 'x' wasn't really a Valentine cookie, I realized that we could make a few 'o's and voila! Hugs and kisses!

This morning, before Kaia woke up (thank you, Baby, for sleeping in today), Sierra and I made little Valentine cards to give to her friends. I sewed some pieces of scrap fabric to cardstock and then passed them on to Sierra so she could "sign" (scribble) the inside. Then she got to pass them out to all her little buddies at the playdate, and she was thrilled to get some Valentines in return.

The playdate itself did not go as smoothly for us as it usually does, and I was disappointed in Sierra because my normally sweet little girl was a bit of a stinker to her friend Harper today (we are sorry, Lorae and Harper!). First, as Lorae and I were trying to swap 8 kinds of cookies, Harper started yelling, "Stop, Sierra! STOP!" I turned to see Sierra pulling and pulling on Harper's shirt. I separated her, and she had to have a timeout in the hallway and then apologize. Then, when we were leaving, Harper was trying to pick up her things, and Sierra took Harper's phone, ran away with it and wouldn't give it back when asked. (sigh) Life with a 2-year-old can certainly be challenging. I don't know why she was feeling mischievous today, but I hope we do better next time!

(pictures to follow)

First of February

These photos were actually taken on the 2nd of February and we took advantage of some unseasonably warm weather to get outside and take some pictures. While much of the country was digging out of the snow, we were enjoying sunny 62 degree weather. Sure, it's lovely, but that's just not right. I mean, it's February!! It was Goundhog Day, though, and the rodent definitely saw his shadow, so I guess that means more winter is coming our way?





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