Pin tucks, Pleats, and French Seams...

Cause I just need that much more crazy in my life, right?  Judah is fast approaching his baptism.  And though I've made a gown before (for Cora) 1. It is very feminine and 2.  he is a chunk and won't fit in it.  Cora can still wear it (unbuttoned but at 2.5 yrs old!), but my 6 month old baby boy won't fit in it.  So he gets a new one.  And I'm up sewing in dim dining room light until midnight.  I bought a Simplicity pattern and I never remember that I don't like Simplicity!  I like the look of the outfit on the outside, but the inside is all unsightly, unfinished edges and raw seams.  So I add another layer of bodice so I can tuck the skirt in with a little hand stitching (insanity.  I know) and I do french seams on the skirt, so it's nice and tidy.  French seams, for those of you who don't know are when you sew the pieces together (wrong sides facing each other) with the seams on the outside, then you turn it wrong side out (right sides facing each other) and sew the seams again, to tuck them in.  It hides all the raw edges and keeps delicate material from unraveling.  Useful! 

This gown has a lot of pin tucking in it and I am not great at it.  There have been some grumbles and ripping out of seams to get them straight, even with ironing!  Long lines of pin tucks.  Arg!  But I know I will love the end result, so I'll shut up and sew.  Now I know why mothers made one unisex gown for the first baby and every other baby wore the same one.  Because finding time to sew with a 6 month old and a 2 year old who wants nothing more than to "help" me (i.e. play with the pins, crinkle pattern pieces, try pattern pieces on baby brother, and run around with fabric scraps on her head and around her neck because the are "So pretty!"), it's hard to get much done until "dark time" (as it is called around here).  "Sun time" is for mama to mind the kiddos!

The Camera

I've been asked about my camera several times now and I think I need to let you know about it.  Let me just say that it is really hard to take a picture of a camera without another camera and without showing off my spotty bathroom mirror.  So this photo was taken with my phone. 

Here it is, in all of it's 4.5 megapixel glory!  Yes, laugh now.  I know.  It's a piece of crap.  It's a Nikon Coolpix that is so old they don't even sell them any more.  4.5 megapixels!!  Really.  It's sad.  The ring has come off of the lens.  The battery door won't stay shut.  It's downright raggedy! I've been saving for a new one, but every time I get close to having enough, something else happens and the money goes toward that.  So me and my trusty old coolpix trudge on. 

Yet, it's not too bad because I get lots of compliments on my photos.  I do have some secrets though and I'll share them with you.
1. I take about 40 gillion photos of things I want to capture, just to get it right.  Because, hey, it's digital and it's not like I'm wasting film.
2. The details are more fun than the big picture.
3. Never, ever, ever use the flash.  (unless you life depends on it)
4. You can always fix the colors in a photo editor and it doesn't have to be a fancy one like Photoshop.  I often use Windows XP photo viewer!

I also have to say this is about making use of what I have.  Someday I'll have a fancy camera, but I'm not there.  If I wait to take pictures until I can do it perfectly with the perfect gear, then I'll never do it at all.  It's now what you have, it's how you use what you have!   

Momentum

I wouldn't have thought that being a stay at home mom requires so much work, but IT DOES!  When Matt and I were gone to work all day, the house didn't get messed up and therefore, no one had to really clean in, aside from the occasional bathroom scrub and dust bunny sweet.  Now, add to that my baby and then another (not mine, I'm babysitting a couple of afternoons a week - it's like INSTANT TWINS!)...it Indiana Jones (in Raiders of the Lost Ark) was running from a giant ball made of dust bunnies, dishes, and laundry, that would be my life.

However!  It makes me think through things, plan a little (sometimes a very little) better and honestly, enjoy the small things more.  Here's a taste of my life right now, with projects impending, Halloween impending, birthdays and parties and visiting impending...  There's a lot of impending going on around here.

 (Click on the photo to see more notes)

Yesterday this table was clean.  I envision it being clean again.  Very, very soon.  That pile of laundry in the upper left corner, mostly folded.  That orange felt, mostly a pumpkin. That stocking, well...I'm still in the beginning stages of that, but Christmas is a long way off.  I've got time.  Don't worry.  I'll get it all done...I've got momentum. (as long as everyone stays asleep for 20 more minutes!!!)

On the cheap - handmade love

The penny pinching continues, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still things I want to do, buy etc. My neighbor is having a baby soon and I've been collecting things here and there for her shower. She requested gently used items! How great is that?! I found some sweet gently used things, but wanted to make her something special. I had a couple of ideas but settled on some soft crochet balls for the baby. I made these without anything inside, but when you make them you can add things inside, like a shaker egg, or a bell. Anything that won't come out or open up while inside. (An Easter egg with pebbles? - seal the egg shut!)



I started with this pattern from Martha Stewart online, but I'm not sure if anyone actually crocheted (is that a word?) up this pattern before they published it. It makes more like a football than a round ball. I had to do some re-writing, but it's a great place to start for the general idea. I used a worsted weight yarn (Red Heart 'soft yarn' - Cheap, washable, oh so nice!) with an F size crochet hook.

Here's my modifications to Martha's pattern: (This is for the yarn and hook size listed above)
Follow her pattern through 'Round 11'. Then...
Round 12 and 13: 1 sc in each st to end of round. Finish off.

Make 2 and stitch halves together except for one inch. Stuff the ball until it is firm - when you squish it and holds its shape.

Add something that rattles or jingles for fun! You can also use wool and felt this ball in your washing machine after you've stuffed it, using a little less stuffing, then dry on low. (Can you imagine a dryer full of these bouncing around? It makes me smile to think of it.) I got 2 of the three done and feverishly hooked and hooked trying to finish the third, but didn't. The girls at the shower thought I was crocheting a yarmulke! It does resemble one before it's stitched to its other half.

PS. Hide these from the cat!

And finally...the baby bear gives her grin of approval for these soft fun balls. Hasn't she gotten big!?

While my Squidoo gently sleeps

Yes, Cora has many names. Toad (for the faces she makes), Squid, Squidoo, Squeaker, Angel baby, Squirt, Tiny, Gorgeous, Grumpy...we call her so many things. Right now she is sleeping and I have a moment to breathe!

The days pass in a haze of about 12 hours. It's all I can manage to stay awake for in a stretch. And they often run from noon to midnight. I'm trying to change that. To get back on a human schedule. I do so like structure. I never knew how much until I had a babe. My horribly unstructured mind needs something to provide it with edges to bump up against.

In the quiet moments when the Squidoo is asleep, I'm not doing laundry or dishes. No, I am reading and watching Netflix movies. The house is not too far this side of chaos and so I'm not feeling guilty about that. The days are cold(ish) and sunny and soon I will form a plan to reclaim some semblance of physical health, but for now, it's movies, books, fig newtons and short walks in the winter sun.

This week's films were:
Into the Wild - somehow this movie annoyed me that he finally figured out that life was about relationships and then he died, because he was too stubborn to take some survival training before he walked out 'into the wild.' The gypsy life has always had a draw to me, but I never wanted to do it alone.
Outsourced - I more watched this for my Sister in Law and it was slightly amusing, but had great footage of India.
Definitly, Maybe - a prime example of how most of the romantic comedies from Netflix are crap I wouldn't pay to see in the theatre, but looked mildly amusing so I add them to my queue. Not one I'd recommend.

Books I'm still in the middle of:
The Shack. I don't want to talk about this book yet, but I am reading it.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Matt reads to me and Cora at night and we just started book 4. I figure she won't be old enough to read these for some time and is too young to know what he is saying yet!

Just life...and then some.

My day today:

• Roasting a chicken in the crock pot , 8-10 hours (but minimal work for me!)
• About to start a new loaf in the breadmaker, 3 hours, but once again, minimal me work!
• Roasting a butternut squash in the oven. Some work, but SOOOOOOO worth it.
  
• Re-arranging the office (this could take DAYS). I got rid of the huge 'door as desk' operation and pared down to a small desk. Should help me manage mess level, but now all the gradoo from the shelves has to be gone through and reduced. See why it could take days?
  
• Purging my magazine collection. I always think I want hand-me-down magazines, but then the guilt of not reading them, and not wanting to waste any perfect recipes, tips, ideas etc, makes them stack up, taunting me. They are going in the recycling bin today. Goodbye Martha and Real Simple. I'll read you online. Less paper (and guilt) that way.
• Watching the bean shift her butt from side to side of me. It's starting to not hurt. I guess that means I finally stretched enough to fit her!
  
• A nap and a walk with the Geek.
  

OK, for realz, yo.

First off, please know I don't talk like that. Second, I am needing a little culture in my life. I am going to be blowing my allowance this month on shows and new CD's. (Yes, I have an allowance. No, my parents don't give it to me. It's called budgeting. It's what people do who don't want to live forever in debt. Don't judge me! lol) (Man, I'm a smidge snipey today.) OK, so anyhoo. Got any great ideas for shows? I'm pretty sure I can recruit you for the cheap ones, and maybe you for the non-smoking venues. Although, I may just bypass the smoking venues after the Beyond the Edge Preds party. I coughed for 2 days! I've been feeling less like the musician and more like the admin lately. Not cool.

I talked to a friend the other day and she recommended a book for me to read to help merge the two halves of myself that seem to cancel each other out. Of course, my mind was so full of the the one canceling out the other, I forgot the title. Rats! Now she's in London.

My head is so full that I forgot to mention that it snowed. A LOT this weekend. And then melted all away by the next day. It was so pretty while it lasted. Me and Freckles went for a walk about 11pm and saw neighbors out playing in the snow. We stopped and chatted awhile. I took pictures. They should be up soon (meaning I'm a slacker and haven't done it yet.) I'll post some here, so by the time you read this, they may already be here and you'll turn your head with a distinct "baroo?" And then laugh because I'm just that spacey, but you love me. Cheers!

Oh Martha...

I am a living, breathing, juxtaposition of incongruous things, and I like it that way.

There's the tomboy holdovers from my youth: (some aren't tomboy, just cool stuff)
I love dirt, I love messes, I love not bathing for days...well, not love, but put up with for the sake of sleeping in 20 minutes, I love books about making things, I love Making the things in the books, I love fishing (though the worms make my stomach flip over), I love swimming in any sort of body of water, I love soccer, I love running around with my dog in the passenger seat, I love home improvement, I love tools, I love working on my Volkswagen, I love 'puters, I love photography, I love yard-work and hammering things and building things. I love jamming on my guitar, I love going to rock shows, I love camping and making fire!

Then there's the 'girly stuff': (not promoting the stereotype, just putting a division up in myself that amuses myself)
I love tea parties and long for my own set of china, I love sewing, I love knitting, I love baking, I love cooking, I love crocheting, I love embroidering, I love mopping, I love vacuuming, I love scrubbing the bathroom (oh the cleanliness of it all!), I love round things and shiny things, I love to make jewelry, I love to paint pretty pictures, I love to buy fresh flowers for my house, I love parties and dressing up (although my feet get so mad at me for wearing high heels) And finally I love Martha.

Against all odds, I love Martha!! I could spend hours on her website and flipping through her magazines about how to make things and make things beautiful. So what if she is a snarky know-it-all who's bourgeois taste in recipes (simple supper my eye) makes her magazine recipes something I am sure to never try, is a convict, wore a very apropos costume this year and not very nice. I don't care!! Say what you will. She's just so very clever!! I can't help myself.

Fully expect to get wads and wads of hand-made gifts from me all you out there. I may just quit my job to stay home, bake, and blog. I promise not to get any car grease on them.

Dr. Wife says take 4 ibupropins and ICE IT

This weekend Matt tried very hard to get to Ohio to play air-soft with his team (the Gun Devils) and after a huge downpour, a busted radiator, and $700 dollars later, he got on the way. A great time was had by all, much manly grunting and tromping around the woods in Camo, shooting at people. Matt sprained his ankle (again, the same one he sprained not a month ago at another of these events) and spent the last day soaking up the cool summer weather (compared to here! 96 and 95% humidity-yuck) and getting sunburned. I got to play nurse when he got home, poor dear. Freckles and I had a quiet weekend and spent Saturday at the Tomato Art Festival with our friends Paul and Christy Nicholson. Christy has a great little shop online and she sold her crochet wares, t-shirts, and cool buttons with tomatoes on them at a booth at the Tomato Art Fest Bazaar.
I also have a little shop online too. I made designs that I think all my grubby hippie friends and family would like. Just for fun. Besides that, I've been playing here and there and working as the Nanny on the Go. I am spending today with a pile of kidos who are feeling a bit sicky and Matt is at home following Dr. Wife's instructions on how to care for a sprained ankle.