CHRISTEPHI

Hubby asked me to make gifts for the two first-time mamas who work in his department. Both are having boys, so I settled on a cheerful bunting or coverall or snowsuit...whatever you want to call it. I used the "Corduroy baby coverall" pattern from Ottobre 6/2007 (#10, size 62).  I followed the pattern for the most part, with just a few minor changes -- like snaps instead of buttons up the front, and making the bird an applique rather than a 3D stuffed critter.  Oh, and I made the pacifier tether with a snap on the end rather than one big loop that could prove to be a strangulation hazard. The shell is soft baby wale corduroy I picked out at JoAnn specifically for this project.  The lining is organic cotton sweater knit from Fabric.com that I had leftover from some clothes I made for Miss M.  I ended up using every last bit of it!  It's very, very soft and snuggly!  I got the blue, red, and orange ribbons at Hobby Lobby, using  scrap of the...

Sometimes the house is such a mess it's hard to know where to start.  Sometimes I want to bury my head in a pillow and hope the mess goes away on its own.  Sometimes I do...but it never does.  I've figured out a few mind games to play with myself that have been quite effective. First, don't let Tuesday off the hook.  Tuesday likes you to think it's an unimportant beginning-of-the-week kind of day.  There's a whisper in your ear, "It's just Tuesday, you have plenty of time before Friday."  But somehow, it jumps from Tuesday to Thursday in the blink of an eye and that means Friday is the next day!  I have learned that Tuesday is pivotal.  If I slack off on Tuesday, I'll regret it on Thursday and Friday.  If I banish much of my To Do list on Tuesday, the rest of my week flows much more smoothly! Second, set the timer.  Maybe I just work well under pressure, but it seems if I ask myself, "How much can you do in an hour?" and th...

My mama sweeps the floor. My mama carries cookies on a tray. My mama irons a dress. My mama puts the baby to sleep. And that is how Miss M answers the question, "What does your mama do?"

 Monday was the deadline for my Fall SWAP .  Um...I'm not quite done. (And I'm not quite sure how I started this post Monday and now it's suddenly Friday, but that's a different story).  I did, however, make more good progress before the deadline went flying by! I made a second Puolukka bodysuit (Ottobre 6/2009, #1), this time of organic cotton baby rib knit from Fabric.com.  It's delicious!  I am going to have to order some in other colors to make myself undershirts for winter.  It's so soft and comfy!  Again, this is for Miss M to wear under dresses and with skirts this fall and winter.  It'll look especially nice with the Vadelma pinafore dress that isn't quite done (and therefore not pictured here). The Dolly dress (Ottobre 6/2008 #6) is darling, albeit a wee bit too short for a "dress."  But that's alright, I prefer Miss M to wear leggings in the fall and winter anyway, so no harm done.  It's funny though...Miss M is 8...

I found this darling knit bird pattern free from the Handmade Holiday post on Plain and Joyful Living .  I made a little I-cord worm to go with it per Miss M's insistence. To make it a little safer for my young children, I used a pipe cleaner for the feet (it's all one piece and the sharp ends go way inside the stuffing so even the baby can handle it) and felt for the beak.  I really like the look of the wooden feet in the original pattern, but it wouldn't have been practical for our home.  (I wanted to make a toy, not a decoration). If I can wrest it away from Miss M, it will be a Christmas present for one of her cousins. The pretty purple yarn was just a two inch ball of wool (leftovers my mom gave me).  It suits the birdie perfectly, don't you think?

It's been quiet around here.  Well, not quiet exactly.  Rather noisy in fact.  Just very little remarkable taking place.  Little Guy is teething, and therefore not sleeping very well, which means Mama doesn't sleep well either.  And that leads to Mama taking a nap with the kiddos midday and not getting done the things she wants to do. But such is life with kids, isn't it? We took a bit of a break toward the end of summer, but are back in the swing of things with Miss M's homeschooling.  We started PreK in March and are continuing it, along with lots of game-like supplements since she's very much interested in letters and spelling (though she's not quite reading yet). Her handwriting is getting to be really quite impressive for someone not quite four years old! Some days we don't "do" school and instead she sews, composes, creates, and explores all sorts of things!  She's learning all the time, so I don't mind...

Last year we went to Applefest in Weston, MO where I waited a half hour to purchase a pint off fresh, hot apple butter.  Oh, how disappointed I was when I got home and tasted it.  The nutmeg was overpowering!  I'm not a big fan of nutmeg.  I prefer cinnamon with my apples.  I vowed that I would make my own next time.  Well, Applefest is just around the corner and I won't have to buy any nutmeg-laden apple butter, because...I made my own!  (Though mine has very little nutmeg!) Half the fun was picking the apples ourselves at our favorite local orchard .  Apple picking is a yearly family tradition. Only the Galas were open for picking that day.  They were kind of ugly since most had split open, but they made great applesauce and apple butter, so who cares what they looked like before? I used a recipe my friend found online (with only half the nutmeg called for) that used up the apple peels from making appl...