Daily Grind

I was going to lead with an apology for abandoning the old 'blog again, but it seems like that's been done before, no?  Let's change things up a bit.  

You know I'm busy.  

Things I've been up to lately include but are by NO means limited to...

This.

This.

This.

 But mainly this...

 

...and this.  

That would be... 

an Easter dress for a 3 year old based off of a picture of a dress from a boutique that my good friend wanted for her girl but could not obtain; a skirt I whipped up for myself and LOVE; a hefty stack of cloth napkins that I made out of samples of fabric that were discontinued at a furniture store, given to me by a friend who used to work there (completely free, awesome cloth napkins!!); my 3 year old and almost-5 year old; and my 1 year old and my 29 year old--err, my handsome husband and the capable provider for our family.  (LOVE that guy!)

Just didn't want to leave you hanging... even longer.  More later. 

(How much later??  Shall we begin to place bets??)

Oh, while I'm here, I'll impart a small nugget.  I have begun to indulge in a little afternoon treat that I want to chat about for a second.  In the morning, I make an extra cup of coffee--just one more than what I normally drink.  I doctor it up with a small shot of chocolate syrup, pop it into the fridge, and in the afternoon I mix some almond milk in it and have it over ice--TA DAA!  Iced coffee, with next to NO effort!  I leave it in the pot, adding the syrup after I've drank all I'm going to drink for the morning (but before it goes into the fridge so that the sugar dissolves completely), so I don't have any extra dishes.  If you're lucky enough to tolerate dairy, you could add cream or regular milk, and some sugar makes it a little more "treat-y".  

Okay, so it's not an original idea, but it is a small way that makes my afternoon a little happier, and helps to ward off the cravings that so easily turn into chocolate chip binges.  The reason I thought of it right now:  I'm having one, with a bit of vodka (I know, I know--whiskey would make it a proper Irish coffee, but I didn't have any) as a nightcap after a long day. Don't worry.  It's decaf.

And.  It's.  Awesome.  

Cheers!!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

One year ago, I went through the most stressful time of my life. My husband's job was working him about 100 hrs/wk on night shift, I was 9 months pregnant, and the older two were 3 years old and 22 months old. Oliver was born on a Monday around lunch time, and my dear sister Brenda died early the next morning. I hosted Thanksgiving dinner two days later in a house much to small to fit everybody, and the day after that made a 4 hour round trip (more like 6 hr, said and done) with the two tiny kids and a very fussy 4 day old for the funeral. The next week, my husband started his new job 3 hrs away, only to come home on weekends. I parented 3 under 4 alone from December until March, when we finally joined him. Things got a lot better from there, due largely to the fact that dh is so much happier here, in a job and a location that he likes. Now, if only our house in Iowa would sell!

This is not the first holiday season that we will spend without Brenda, but it is the first time her name will not appear on my master list for gifts and cards. Likely due to the shock of the fresh event last year, I'm much sadder this time around. Brenda's childlike mind made for some lively discussions and happenings at meals and get-togethers. Now, there is no one to take your drinking glass to the sink to be washed before you're finished with it. No one to watch out the window, nails between teeth, worrying over who's late to the present-opening. No one will pull out his or her notebook and start their Christmas list for the next year just as soon as the last gift is opened. And for the life of me, I MUST find one of her hand-tracings with her ring sizes written on each finger!

Brenda, Easter 2009

There has been time to process some changes before the 2011 Christmas checklist was written up. Now more than ever, for some sad reason, I'm flooded with gift ideas for her. Here's one huge thing I learned from her passing: DON'T WAIT! If there's a small thing that you think would brighten someone's day, don't wait for a reason to execute it. If you feel like you should send a quick card for no reason to someone, do it! As often as it seems birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays come around, there's really no telling if they'll actually get here, is there? Nothing drives that home like an unexpected loss.

So this year, as Thanksgiving approaches and I am inundated with the seasonal tasks of menu planning, gift making and buying, and calendar keeping, my very honest thoughts on thankfulness are as follows: Take my money. Take all that is in my closet and hanging on my walls. Take our cars and our house (yes, PLEASE take our house!). Take our fancy dinner and the table we serve it on. Just let me enjoy my family--my loving husband, my precious children, my generous parents and in-laws, my siblings, my precocious nephews, and those friends who are close enough to count as family--for another year, and may I be so blessed to have even more.

Happy Holidays, from my family to yours!

It's Not "Free Time"...

...it's insomnia. That's how I'm able to get things done these days. At least, that's how I'm able to blog about it! So, here are some things I've been up to over the last week or two.

I kept a pair of worn-out pj shorts that I LOVED and turned them into a pattern piece. To do this, cut them in half at the seam that runs down the front and up the back (where the good Lord split ya!). Since shorts are symmetrical, you only need to double layer the fabric, right OR wrong sides facing, cut out two mirror-image pieces of the same pattern piece, stitch them up the middle (right sides facing), sew the inseams together, and install a waist band. If you use the fabric's selvage as the bottom of the legs, you don't even have to finish the edges! A great use for stray pillowcases or worn-out sheets with a few good areas left. I have 2 pair and plan for many more.

I am just plain tickled with how this top turned out! A while back, I made standard front and back pattern pieces based off a dress that fit well, so there's no guessing at the right size when it comes to making a new top. I just use the pieces and alter them as desired. This fabric isn't stretchy, so to accommodate my need for easy breast exposure (ahem, I breastfeed, please remember!), I made the front about 5 inches wider in the middle and ran elastic thru the neckline. And because I think raw bra straps are tacky, I gave it wide straps that taper at the ends. And a pretty blue ribbon to match the tiny floral print, so that I don't look quite so pregnant (I'm not, btw). I LOVE it!

I have trouble getting this pattern to fit right, but with enough altering, this dress finally did. And tiny sleeves, because arm fat needs a camouflage and I intend to wear this to church. Gifted fabric--free clothes! The undershirt underneath was $3 at Kohl's, but was also the pattern piece (by folding it in half) for the next two photos...

As per the aforementioned public nudity (I'm being facetious--I assure you, I'm quite discreet) I was in dire need of undershirts with stretchy necklines. So I worked up a couple. The lacey scribbles are deliberately shabby-chic, and mainly for sleeping.

I wear this one in public. The fabric is a little thicker than I'd like, but it's a good lumpy-belly-hider because it's not too tight.

I got an email from Etsy about herbs. The kind that are everywhere, so you don't realize what they are. I'm still looking for mugwort and a few other things, but I was very familiar with the first of the herbs they featured: plantain. Not the banana's cousin. I never even noticed it was anything other than grass because it's such a ubiquitous plant but there it was, everywhere I looked, when I looked for it! The short story: the juice in plantain is supposed to take the infection and pain out of bee stings, bug bites, cuts and scrapes. By now you're familiar with my feelings on free and natural stuff, so I've been cleaning out those little plastic shampoo bottles that jump into your luggage at hotels and making little bottles of plantain tincture. If it works, then I'll have nearly-free, natural "medicine" and facial astringent in a couple of weeks. If not, I'm out a few ounces of apple cider vinegar and I've de-cluttered a shelf in the bathroom closet. I think it will work, because when dh, f-i-l and I picked blackberries last weekend I got scratched up and stung, and it seemed to calm my irritated hands. But that could have been all in my head, so we'll see, when the tincture matures. You can follow one girl's adventures in plantain tincturing here. (Search "plantain". I couldn't get the direct hyperlink to work.) She's pretty enjoyable. I think you'll like her.

This last thing is just a plain good idea. Not mine, but good nonetheless! It's like a seat belt, for a regular chair. I saw this done on a blog that belongs to a mom who is by far smarter and more talented than I, and I wish wish wish I could reference it but I have no idea who/where she is. So, if anybody knows, please leave a comment below!

Because I couldn't find it, I had to come up with a design on my own. Little Miss happily modeled it for me here. It's like if you were to strap a diaper to a chair, and strap the kid in the diaper. It rolls up neatly and can be tied with the straps. I was going to put some sort of pocket on it to fold it into, but really, who has the time??

Back view. I used D rings to secure it. (Don't buy those new--harvest them off of 25 cents thrift store belts!)

For the front strap, which goes around the child and the chair, I used an O ring and a plastic clip that, I think, came off of a pair of snow pants. I would have used those plastic clips that are on stroller straps, but I didn't have any on hand.

Here's my sketch, if that helps any.

And here's one of the three most important things I've been working on. See those 4 teeth?!?! They're SHARP! And I don't recall the other two biting quite so hard...

And now I'm off to potty train my two year old. I'm ready for only one kid to be able to cover me in poop. Wish me luck!

Tutorial: One Double (Full) Fitted Bed Sheet to Two Toddler Fitted Sheets

When we moved, Grandma J gave us two toddler beds and the double bed that Little Miss used to sleep in became the bed in the guest room once again. We found ourselves in need of more crib-sized fitted sheets, and with a surplus of girly double sheets. In case you were wondering, as you can see in the pictures below, a double sheet is almost exactly the size of two toddler bed sheets. So, naturally, Mommy got an idea.

See how, when folded in half, a double sheet hangs off a crib mattress? This is a perfect size, when the corners are fitted, for a crib mattress sheet.

Also, notice the toddler in the picture. It is important to note the virtual impossibility of snapping a photo of a mattress on the floor in the presence of a toddler without said child bouncing on the bed.

Another view, another child.
Okay, here we go...

1. Fold your sheet in half. Cut along the fold line.

2. Finish the edge. Doesn't matter how. Serging it is fastest. I did that on one of the "new" sheets for sake of time and ease. On the other (in the pic), I folded the edge under and sewed a straight stitch to match the finished edge that was already on the sheet.

3. Looking at the corner of the sheet, you can easily see with a striped pattern that they meet at a 90 degree angle. This means that you can simply cut out a square and join the sides to make a new corner. This can be done by folding in one corner to make a triangle and cutting along the edges.

To find the size of the square I needed, I needed to know the length and location of the side of the corner that was already in the sheet. This was easy to find because of the stripes. I measured the seam of the existing corner to find the length, and followed the stripe across the sheet to find where the edge of my square needed to be placed on the long side of the sheet.

4. Place pins to mark where your edge should be. Fold in the corner to make a triangle, and pin in place to avoid fabric shifting as you cut. Cut two sides, using your triangle as a guide.

5. For the other corner, you can repeat step 4 or use the square that you just cut out as a guide. Just lay down the square that you just cut out, and cut around it.

6. Match your new raw edges, right sides of the sheet fabric facing.

another pic of the edges matched up

7. Sew the raw edges together. Finish edge (zig-zag, serge, or fold over and hem).

8. To figure out how much elastic you need to fit your corner, simply measure the elasticized length of the sheet. Do NOT stretch it out for this part. (There are no red squiggly underlines showing up, so I'm assuming that "elasticized" is, indeed, a real word.)

Obtain 2 lengths of elastic for this.

Because I used re-purposed elastic--and, come to think of it, a gifted sheet--this was a completely free project for me!

9. Find the middle of the elastic.

Mark it and match it up with the corner seam on the sheet.

10. Holding onto the middle of the elastic (which is pinned to the sheet), pull the first half of your elastic as tight as it will go and find the point of the fabric it reaches to. Start sewing it from there. I think I used a multiple zig-zag stitch, set on the longest length and widest width. When you get to the middle of your elastic, take your pin out and keep sewing, pulling your elastic as tight as it'll stretch.

11. And... you're done! If you're lucky your toddlers will be over the moon at the awesome sheets that Mommy just made. If you're really lucky, they'll give you a real boost by running to Daddy to gush about what a great job Mommy just did.
This day, I was lucky. :)

Quick Note

I am working on a post that will act as a two-month update of what I've been up to. Unfortunately, it's taking about 2 months to complete, but I'm trying to get it done! I just needed to drop in for a quick holler about a blog that I just found and WISH I'd found months ago.

http://diymaternity.com/

It's awesome! I love it! If you're at all into DIY clothing and you're in the motherly way, or you know somebody who is, check it out! I found it while searching for nursing top ideas, and it's good for that, too. Love it!