oliver + s little things to sew

Just so you know we aren't all club feet and type 1 diabetes up in here, I thought I'd better share some of the sewing projects I've been working on. In fact, I'd say we're way more ninja/She-Ra/paleontologist/ballerina/LEGO mania than anything else these days, but you'd never gather that from all of the sad poetry and difficult personal stories I've been sharing lately. Life is good. My kids are happy. And apart from a mad case of cabin fever caused by back-to-back viruses, we are all doing just fine.

 I've been doing quite a bit of sewing from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew, and I love both patterns I've tried so far. Graham went through this crazy pocket phase right before Christmas, where every single day he had to wear a pocket shirt AND pocket pants, and all said pockets were filled with various cars and keys and coins. So for Christmas I made the Explorer Vest, equipped with five big pockets - plenty of room for all of his treasures. Unfortunately, all of his phases of intense interest change and fade quickly, and I had to bribe him with a small handful of Cadbury Mini Eggs just to put it on today. You win some, you lose some, I guess. :)

The second project I tried is the art smock, and it came together really quickly, plus I learned all about French seams and a new, cleaner-looking way to do pockets. Sela looks really cute when she wears it, and I love that it has long sleeves and velcro closure. It keeps her arms from getting smeared in paint, and she can put it on and take it off on her own!

I'm anxious to try my hand at the mini-messenger bag for Sela's big kindergarten debut this fall, and the little aprons and cozy winter hoods are so sweet. I've also had my eye on Anna Maria's Handmade Beginnings, mainly because I love the reversible pants SouleMama has made in multiples over the years.

a special birthday quilt

For Graham's birthday I made him a letter quilt, similar to the one I made for Sela a few years back. It's still a little weird for me to talk about quilting here, as I've always considered it to be such an old lady hobby. But maybe the time has come to finally embrace my inner granny and confess that one of my best friends is 85 years old, I get positively giddy over licorice allsorts, I'm in bed by 9:30 pm, and I spend most of my day wearing some variation of a muumuu and talking to old dudes about composting.

Hot, right?

Don't worry, I also know all of the words to Nicki Minaj's Super Bass and have spent an obscene amount of time following all the Laguna peeps from The Hills to The City, but so far I've managed to dodge the Audrina bullet. Don't even get me started on the whole (highly emotional) summer I dedicated to watching Teen Mom, or that I sometimes say hella cool - but only in my head. Promise.

I think I may have just realized why it's so difficult to find friends in my age bracket. Ugh.

This is really getting away from me, isn't it?

Quilting?  Right. I love it. I love the whole process of sorting through fabric scraps, piecing, and the hours of handwork. I think my favorite parts of Graham's quilt are the sweet prints I used from my grandma's stash, the extra pieces I added on the inside to make the quilt a bit wider (I didn't do this with Sela's and it is just a bit too narrow now that she's older), and that I paid my neighbor to machine quilt it for me. I love the look of hand quilting, but the thought of sitting under a quilt for 30+ hours in July just seemed insane. Quilting is more a wintertime activity for me, I think.

Graham loves it, and spends a lot of time making little boy forts and hiding out from dinosaurs and pirates. He likes having Sela point out his name and all of the G's, and it has proved to be an excellent road for all of his cars.

Here is the back of the quilt, including the letter:

You can see Sela's quilt here, and it has all of the info for ordering through Spoonflower. Also, I originally found the idea for the letter quilt on Sarah's blog, The Small Object.

while i was away...

I did a bit of special + secret (shhhh!) birthday sewing.

Including this tiny little quilt that has forever changed how I think about quilting.
 

image

I bought this album and think I definitely get a better cardio workout from my cleaning the living room/dance party routine than I ever did from the boring hours I logged on the treadmill.

"Rumor has it, ooooh,
 Rumor has it, ooooh,
 Rumor has it, ooooh..."

Don't worry, I totally rock it. Just ask Graham. :)

I've been collaborating with some of my favorite women on this exciting project. I'll dedicate an entire post on International Women's Day, periods, service, sisterhood, and just how awesome I think women are (Superheroes, I'm telling you. Superheroes.), but for now just check out the website and pencil in this amazing opportunity on your calendars.

image from mnmlist via stephmodo

I've been thinking A LOT about this. And this. I think "Fall in love with less" is my new mantra.

I spruced up my entryway and took a super crooked picture of it. You're welcome.

I watched this documentary and dedicated an entire day to cooking French food in honor of this hilarious, heartbreaking, and surprisingly gripping film about French pastry chefs. I cried and cheered and was totally engrossed for the entire two hours. If you are super nerdy like me, please watch this film and then come to my house and we'll make gougères together and discuss men who cry over pastries.

Sounds thrilling, right?

Right.

how are you, dear friends? well, i hope. i'm happy to be back here, filling this space with my random thoughts and interests, though i did enjoy my little break from the interwebs. have a wonderful day, okay? XO

little miss midwife

As I've mentioned before (here and here), I have my babies at home. The prenatal visits with a home birth midwife can be a bit different than with an obgyn. They are often longer, more personal, not as invasive, and usually include the older siblings in the exam to help them feel part of the experience.Sela loves my midwife Briana and always looked forward to coming to my prenatal appointments when I was pregnant with baby Graham. She loved watching Bri measure my growing belly, listen to heart sounds, take my temperature + blood pressure, and fill out my chart. It was not only fun to see how interested Sela was in all of Bri's instruments, but it was important to me that she witness the knowledgeable, skilled, and tender practices of midwifery + how women support other women in birth.

For the past few months, Sela has been talking a lot about doctors and midwives and babies. Her baby dolls are usually found tucked up under her shirt covered in band aids, and we have this conversation a few times a week:

Sela: "Ummm...are you going to have a baby soon?"
Me: "Not anytime soon, lovey."
Sela: "Are you sure? Your tummy looks like..."
Me: "Don't even say it..."
Sela :"...a ball!"
Me, putting the jar of Nutella away and mumbling something about never missing a yoga class again.
Sela: " Don't worry mama, I'll be your midwife!"

So for Christmas, I put together a midwife kit for Sela (you know, just in case my ballish tummy turns out to be baby after all. JUST KIDDING.), and it was a huge hit. I'm a big believer in giving kids real tools, not plastic toy imitations, for play. I think it helps them understand better the world around them, enriches their play experiences, and makes them feel special to be trusted with important + real tools.

Here are a few things I tucked into her kit + the sources, if you are interested in making your own midwife or doctor's kit :

1. Stethoscope :: AllHeart $6 :: I loved all of of the color options.
2. Digital Thermometer :: Walmart $3
3. Measuring Tape :: Hobby Lobby $2
4. Midwife Clip :: I made it out of wool felt, embroidery thread, a clip, and hot glue
5. Penlight :: AllHeart $3
6. Reflex Hammer :: AllHeart $5 :: This isn't a tool that midwives have, but I thought it would be a fun addition.
7. Oral Syringes :: Walmart $1 :: Sela uses these to give shots. Again, not really something a midwife uses, but something Sela has a lot of questions about + has fun using on all of us.
8. Blood Pressure Cuff :: Amazon $11 :: This is a pediatric model, so it's perfect for little kids. It's fun to watch her figure out how to put it on + watch the dial as the cuff puffs up with air.

Not pictured:
Tube of "prenatal vitamins" : cherry tic tacs
Appointment cards my sister-in-law made that Sela loved so much she used them all the first day
Various wraps, gauze pads, and way too many Hello Kitty band aids.
Oh, and the box! I tried and tried to find some kind of cool, vintage doctor's bag, but ended up just buying a clear toolbox. Everything fits nicely + stays organized, plus she can actually carry it around - which is nice because most of the bags I looked at were way too big for her to carry.

Here is the label I designed for the outside of her box:

It's pretty simple, a lot of fun, and much cheaper than most of the other doctor's kits I found. Sela loves trying to find our heartbeats, peer into our ears + throats with her penlight, and measure her baby dolls.

Do your kids play doctor? Do you think it's crazy I let my almost four year old play with a real blood pressure cuff? Have you seen any cute doctor kits around?

a quilt for a sunshine girl

Last November (as in 2009), I had a vision of two beautiful + bright quilts, hand quilted, of course, wrapped in thick red ribbon and carefully tucked under our tree just waiting for Christmas morning. I had big dreams + absolutely no experience in quilting. I spent all of November cutting + piecing + pinning + sewing, hours and hours were poured into these quilts before I realized that there was no way I could finish before Christmas. Carefully I folded them and stacked them neatly in my closet, vowing to finish them in January - maybe, just maybe in time for Valentine's Day.

Imagine my surprise when I found them this past November all pinned + ready for hand quilting! I spent most of November watching 50+ hours of Bones + Friday Night Lights (which i found surprisingly compelling, given that it's about high school football...) stitching away, and I managed to finish Sela's quilt 3 days before Christmas. Hooray!

And you know what? She loves it. Almost as much as she loves holding completely still + smiling RIGHT INTO THE CAMERA, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD. She's a wiggly one, that sunshine girl.

the pattern I used was denise schmidt's flock of triangles. brooke has a great post about her daughter's flock of triangles quilt (with much better photos!) right here. i used this great tutorial for the binding, and found it incredibly helpful. i also want to try katie's 10 hour quilt sometime soon, it's so simple + beautiful.

diy star garlands

I made these simple star garlands last week + I love how they turned out. My living room feels like an Anthropologie window display, only instead of cute, fancy clothes we are sporting a huge tie-dye t-shirt (Sela), no pants (Graham), and the world's most unflattering yoga pants (Brian, obviously. hehe).

I just took an old copy of Huckleberry Finn that was already falling apart, tore a bunch of the pages out, folded the pages in half + cut out 2 stars per page, and then fed them through my sewing machine to string them all together. Super easy, right?

They look incredibly magical at night when you can't see the strings connecting them together and you can see their shadows on our ceiling.

Here is how they look draped around our living room :

advent calendars

I love advent calendars. I love finding tiny packages tucked into pockets each day + planning small, festive activities to celebrate the season. For the past few years I have created a different calendar each year, but I think I want to find something a little more permanent - something that signifies the beginning of the Christmas season in our home and something the kids will associate with their childhood Christmas experiences when they are grown.

Here are a few that have been on my mind for the past few weeks:

  

 

the gorgeous tuuni linen calendar via bliss. burlap sack calendar + tiny packages calendar via oh happy day. felt tree calendar via inchmark. i think this one is especially sweet - i can't imagine how long it would take to stitch all of those tiny ornaments!

halloween 2010

 

I love Halloween. With the themed costumes + dry leaves blowing across the sidewalks + too much sugar + lipstick on little girls + dark chilly nights + painted faces + glowy jack-o-lanterns + the enthusiastic TRICK-OR-TREAT! choruses + hand-me-down costumes that are just a little too big or too squished or too worn. I love it. All of it.

This year was no different. We made paper pumpkins for the front windows + bats for the walls. We made homemade donuts + soup with yeasty rolls + took long fall walks. We carefully planned our costumes (Goldilocks and the Three Bears, after Sela's favorite bedtime story), + I spent the entire month of October sewing + collecting a red gingham apron, funny hats, snowy white eyelet, + bright red tights. Everything finally came together just in time, including the tiny white buttons quickly stitched on the night before.

And then it's an hour before go time + Graham pukes everywhere. Quickly I put all  my visions of family themed cuteness far far away + try not to let my disappointment show as I help Sela into her special blue dress + button her pinafore. We wave good-bye to Graham and Brian as we head out into the freezing rainy night and make it exactly 2 houses before Sela starts clutching her stomach + crying tummy ache. Sigh. Warm jammies, comfy beds, and early bedtimes for everyone. Happy Halloween, sicky heads.

Although it wasn't exactly what I had envisioned (is it ever exactly what we envision?), it was a good time. My kids ended up with plenty of candy + we are still reeeeeeeling from the sugar high. I'm pretty sure it's making us all a little crazy, case in point:

So...how were your Halloween adventures? Pictures, links, super cute costumes I have to see? Send them my way, dearies, I would love to take a peek.

all of the sweet photos were taken by my mama. sela's dress + pinafore made by me (with lots of help from my incredibly patient sewing teacher, margaret). and that peter pan collar? probably my greatest achievement of the year. graham's hat was purchased from our local grocery store, which randomly had a bunch of really cute animal hats hanging on an end cap. baby graham's costume was going to be a little more bear-ish, but i ran out of time. the overalls are cute though, right? see you on thursday, friends! xo.

skinnify

On Monday I finally tried Susan's tutorial for turning regular (or bootcut - I swear all girl toddler jeans are bookcut!) toddler jeans into skinny jeans. It is super easy + addicting, it was hard to stop at just one pair! I think I'm going to tackle a pair of my jeans next; it's so impossible to find skinny jeans with a high enough rise + since I'm constantly bending over to talk to and pick up my littles, I need something that will cover my bum.


super blurry photo by me. obviously. i think sela's stance is so hilarious, i just had to post it here. at that exact moment she was telling me how she hopes she gets a hot air balloon for christmas, and not to worry because she is going to keep it tied to the swing set when she's not flying around checking out all the roller coasters in china. big dreams in that little body of hers. big dreams. xo.

graham's quiet book

This post has little to do with Graham's book. Sure it's cute + clever + most of the ideas came straight from this talented lady, but it has nothing to do with the book. It has everything to do with me + motherhood + the crazy space I was in as I cut out 50 felt leaves, hand stitched miniature petals on to miniature flowers, and taught myself how to do a blanket stitch.



Mexico, 2006

I sobbed as I waited to board the plane. Giant tears streaked my sunburned face as I clutched my boarding pass + rumpled passport in a sweaty fist, my body shaking. The loud + happy travelers in line with me glanced nervously around, awkwardly avoiding my gaze. My mind shouted + screamed at my legs to turn and run. GO! my mind shrieked, this isn't how your story ends, how your life is supposed to look. Turn now, catch the first crazy bus through the heavy jungle heat, and find your way back to hazy-golden Mexican dreams. Turn your back on home + love + whatever that future has waiting in the wings; change your mind, run away, get lost, Go! Now! Go!

My heart sighed + sank. The more wise + forever part of me knew how this story played out. She somehow knew this flight was taking me home to become someone's wife. And that a few short weeks after becoming a wife I would discover I was to become someone's mother. Somehow she knew that this one decision at this one moment would require me to turn my back on a version of myself that would be gone forever. forever.

I stepped forward + boarded the plane. 

As I shoved my backpack in the overhead compartment, I felt her low familiar voice vibrate through my body, "Cry now, baby. Things are about to get crazy, and there is no time for mourning tomorrow. Let it out and let it go." So I did. I folded my exhausted body into my seat like a small child seeking refuge in the lap of an indifferent mother, tucking my legs under my brightly embroidered dress. Resting my pounding head against my knees, I began to cry. I cried until my dress clung to my heaving chest, cold + heavy.  At some point, I fell asleep; disappointment, betrayal, anger, and most of all fear, emptied from my weary heart. As the plane touched down in snowy Salt Lake City, my mind wandered to curious golden-brown faces, deep staccato rivers of language that wrap around you + hold tight, and endless boiling highways, stretching a million miles into a desert sanctified by the sun.

Home, 2010

I am sitting at my kitchen table sewing a blue felt octopus into a quiet book for my son's first birthday. I am thinking about my life now and the one I had dreamed for myself. I am comparing my life to the lives of other women my age. I'm thinking about decisions and destiny and another version of myself who walks along dusty highways, holds the smiling faces of beautiful dark children in her hands, and shouts the deepest yearnings of her heart to the ocean + inky midnight sky.

I'm thinking about Mexico and late night flights and heartbreak and healing and the big decision followed by a handful of small decisions and marriage and baby and baby and life. My life.

I realize now that the moment I stepped forward and boarded the plane, I said yes. I said yes to a life with a gentle + kind companion. I said yes to a belly full of babies, and yes to a lifetime of holding my breath hoping those babies don't break. I said yes to a body that changes and a heart that grows to welcome all of the new + wonderful people who show up + stick it out.

I said yes.



To the happiness and heartbreak, dreams and disillusion, sorrow and serendipity, breathtaking and...well, boring days that I stack, ever so carefully, on the creaking shelves of my lifetime...


I say yes.