A Hair Stylist I Am Not

2.29.2012

After two years and nine months we finally decided to give O a proper haircut - and by "proper" I mean that I just cut it in our bathroom.

And I'll let you in on a little secret - I've never cut hair before and had absolutely no idea what I was doing.

Perhaps that explains this look of fear on O's face.


Or this look of total exasperation with the never-ending haircut.


Poor child.

Happy Birthday!

2.28.2012


Happy Birthday, Ben! 

You're the cream in my coffee, the cheese on my pizza, and the butter on my bread...life just wouldn't taste quite right without you!

Want To Know How Lazy I Am?

2.26.2012

I'm so lazy that since I put the stretch needle in my sewing machine 4 weeks ago, I've sewn with nothing but stretch fabric because I'm too lazy to change the needle back to something for a woven.  But I also know that I can certainly benefit from some practice in sewing with knits so we'll just call it a win-win situation.

Want to know what's not a win-win situation though?  That I went to Joanns the other week to check out their itty-bitty knit section again and apparently the fabric that I chose and had cut was one of the only knit fabrics that wasn't on sale and so what was supposed to be a cheap-o trip to Joanns ended up costing way more than I had planned.  Oh well.

On the upside I do love this little fabric and so far I've been able to make two teeny-tiny little envelope tees from it and I still have about a yard and a half to go. 



The short sleeve version will be for this little baby

Hello 35 weeks!  Goodbye ability to breathe or put socks on with ease!

but the long sleeve version will be off to a different home where it's job will be to keep the cutest little baby nice and warm until spring gets here (oh how I wish it were here already!).

My Personal Musings on B.C.

2.23.2012

Actually I have just one musing and that is that I'm not a big fan of b.c. (you know, butt crack).  I have one of my own, thank you very much, and so I probably don't need to see yours.  And I'm guessing that you probably don't want to see mine - or my toddler's.   And so as a public service I decided that it was time to sew up some new undies for O once I noticed that she was growing out of her original pairs of handmade undies and sporting a little b.c.  I turned to the That Darn Kat undies pattern once again, although this time I cut out a size 4 (for my almost three year old - apparently she's got a little junk in her trunk).

What?  You don't decorate your fireplace with homemade undies?
What?  Your wreathe still isn't hanging up two months after Christmas?
What I love about this round of undies is that this time I didn't have to buy any new fabric to make these little cuties.  Each and every pair was made with either leftover fabric from my last underwear making extravaganza or from pieces of knit fabric leftover from other projects.  Which, of course, according to my calculations, means that these undies were absolutely free to make (I love it when that happens!).


Seeing your toddler run around in a pair of handmade undies, though?  Now that's priceless.

Our Weekend?

2.20.2012


Ice cream sundaes with homemade hot fudge, whip cream and M & Ms.  Need I say more?

Classic Hot Fudge from David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop

3/4 c. heavy cream
1/4 c. packed dark brown sugar
1/4 c unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 c. light corn syrup
6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
1 Tbl butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Mix the cream, brown sugar, cocoa powder, and corn syrup in a large saucepan.  Bring to a boil and cook stirring frequently, for 30 seconds.

Remove from the heat and add the chocolate and butter, stirring until melted and smooth.  Stir in the vanilla.  Serve warm.

(This sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.  Rewarm gently in the microwave or by stirring in a saucepan over very low heat)

Regression?

2.15.2012


O has never been a toddler who wants to be treated like a baby.  She likes to eat what we eat, pick out her own clothes, and sleep in her own bed.  And if we accidentally call her a baby?  Well then she indignantly corrects us by yelling "I'm a kid!  Not a baby!"  But lately this has been changing and I'm a little concerned that we have some regression on our  hands.

Yesterday when I asked her what she wanted to wear she told me "a shirt, some pants, and a diaper."  This coming from the child who's been wearing underwear only for the past 2 months.  A diaper?  I don't think so.

And when she asked for milk this morning she told me that she wanted it in a baby bottle rather than a cup.

Oh, and have I mentioned that our previously potty-trained child has begun to pee in her pants at least once a day?

I naively thought that O was immune to the changes going on in our house - particularly since the baby isn't even here yet - but apparently I was wrong about this one.  It certainly isn't the first time...

Made With Love

2.14.2012

I'm generally not a huge fan of Valentine's Day and I have to say that the few times that Ben and I have gone out for Valentine's Day I felt incredibly awkward and uncomfortable surrounded by nothing but couples.  Perhaps it's the sense of obligation.  Perhaps it's the sense of expectation.  Or perhaps it's just me - but, truth be told, I rather just spend Valentine's Day at home.

That said, I'm all for a holiday that gives me an excuse to eat an abundant amount of chocolate and so I decided to take advantage of this Valentine's Day to try out a new recipe of chocolately goodness - homemade Snickers bars


My final thoughts on these little bites of heaven?  They are delicious but I learned early on that you only need to cut them in teeny-tiny squares when you eat them because these things are rich!

I followed the recipe as written with only small changes made here and there - like substituting half semi-sweet chocolate chips for the milk chocolate chips and cutting down on the added sugar in the nougat portion.  And I definitely recommend storing these in the refrigerator because mine turned into a gooey mess when I left them out (and when I attempted to bring some to my parent's house in a ziplock bag, stuffed in my purse.  Sorry dad!).

Around Here

2.08.2012

I have to admit that I haven't been quite at my best lately.  O's been sick.  I've been sick.  And I've learned the hard way that when you're 8 months pregnant and you have a coughing fit, it's possible that you may pee on yourself.  Um, totally gross.

But amidst all the grossness, there's still some goodness going around here.

Like this Saturday when I pulled out all the teeny-tiny baby clothes and began to ooh and ahh over how incredibly cute they all are.

Or this Sunday when we put O on her bike for the first time.


She may not understand the whole peddling business, but this girl definitely understands the importance of looking good while biking.

Matchy-Matchy

2.06.2012


For the record, my mother never dressed my sisters and I in matching clothes so I don't know where my obsession with matching outfits comes from.  It's quite possible that its origin lies in watching the Sound of Music far too many times (you know, when all the Von Trapp family kids prance around town in matching outfits made out of curtains...yeah, that's totally going to be our family.  Ha!).


In any case, I seem to have a bit of an obsession with matching clothes and because of my on-going obsession, it seems only right that this new baby should learn at a early age that she and O will be wearing matching clothes for many years to come.


So with the leftover fabric from this little shirt, I made O a dress with the help of an Oliver and S knit dress pattern.  It's the first time that I've sewn with this pattern and when I started the dress I told my husband that I was just going downstairs to sew for a couple minutes...and then before I knew it, I had the entire dress finished.  I love a project like that.  It's as if the dress magically sewed itself.


And O actually seems to like her new little dress.  In fact there was no bribing her with candy to dress her up in it for an unseasonably warm afternoon at the park.  And that, my friends, is what I like to call a success.

A Knit Tee For The Babe

2.01.2012

I'm not proud of it, but I have a bad, bad habit of purchasing sewing books and then never making a thing out of them.

Amy Butler's Little Stiches for Little Ones?  Got it.  Never made a thing out of it.

Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing?  Got it.  Never made a thing out of it.

Anna Maria Horner's Handmade Beginnings?  Got it.  Never made a thing out of it.

You get the point, right?

But perhaps I'm turning a corner, because with this project I've made two (yes, two!) projects out of Meg McElwee's Growing Up Sew Liberated.  And for the record, I love both of them.


Now I should probably say that knits are definitely not my favorite thing to sew with, because while I've had some successes in the past, they've definitely been accompanied by some major failures.  But with all the cute knit items that I'm seeing lately (like this one...love!) I've become convinced that I need to get over my apprehension of knits once and for all.

And I'm hoping that this little tee will do it for me.


Now my only complaint will be the slim-pickings that exist when it comes to knit fabrics.

Yeah, yeah...I know that Spoonflower offers amazing knit prints galore, but for the time being I'm avoiding Spoonflower like the plague because I'm afraid of an instant addiction to their adorable array of knits.  And the last thing that I need right now is a twenty-seven dollar per yard fabric habit!

Fabric: Interlock cotton knit and ribbing - both purchased at Joanns
Pattern: Envelope Tee from Growing Up Sew Liberated
Size: 0-3 months