Back to the drawing board

I sat down this weekend to order the artwork for the girls room and ran into a few road blocks.  Syd’s room was easy. I went to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art and ordered the three Grant Wood prints from their website….even the ones that aren’t commissioned at the Cedar Rapids Museum.  One stop easy shopping at its finest.

Thing is Thomas Hart Benton doesn’t have his own museum that specializes in him, which is sad really because his body of work is quite large and MO doesn’t have many things to be famous for, but I digress.  His Kansas City home and art studio have been turned into a historic site that is run by the MO state parks department but it is definitely not a ‘art museum’.  I did however contact them this weekend to see if they had any prints in stock, and of course they do, but only the racier more popular paintings of his; none of his bright countryside or farm scenes. The gentleman I spoke to was extremely helpful though (seriously after living here for so long I’m always in shock with house nice and helpful people are in the Midwest!) and told me to email him the works I was trying to track down and he would see where they are housed (private collections vs. art galleries) and then I could contact the art galleries themselves to see if they had any prints.  He managed to locate a few, but none of them are the 3 we had pegged for the room, and none of the art museums carry anything larger than a postcard.  I did find a dealer on eBay that is selling smaller ‘prints’ from a book that I’m thinking of ordering 4 of and using on one wall as a collage.  Not quite what we had in mind when we set out on this inspired design adventure, but it’s better than nothing.

To add to this frustration I had narrowed fabrics down to a select few and ordered some half-yards which arrived on Friday and they didn’t click with me.  The blue was to electric and the red to orangey.  The more I stared at it the more I hated it…which isn’t a good thing when I remembered how many hours upon hours I stared at Syd’s bedding and decor while holding a feeding (and sometimes screaming) infant.  So those fabrics will be going back and I have a few more on order.

I’ve completely scraped the aqua/red/creme color scheme and am leaning more towards a yellow/white/gray.  I was inspired after looking at a few nurseries in magazines with yellow bedding and gray walls.  Even though the artwork won’t be playing a dominant role in the room anymore the smaller prints we can locate will still coordinate well with this color scheme.  Once the additional fabrics I ordered arrive I plan to visit the only local quilt shop we have in the 30 mile driving distance of where I live to see what, if anything I can find in person that inspires me. But I’m not holding my breath. I called this weekend to see what designers they had in stock and it didn’t impress me (hence why I had to order some of my fabrics online because they didn’t carry Moda’s Half Moon Modern line, nor had they heard of it).  I do know that a fast way to go out of business is to aim towards one demographic and if you want to target your quilting fabrics to the 60+ age groups who live for batiks (like ahem G-Street Fabrics does) and not the thousands of 30+ woman who are ‘rediscovering’ sewing then…well…I’m going to go online to find my fix instead of patronizing your brick and mortar establishment.

I’ve also located some pretty awesome red fabrics, and would love to do a red/pink/gray room for the girls. However, I keep thinking of what a pain the ass it would be to always have to separate the red sheets from the rest of the laundry (3 years later our red cotton sheets STILL bleed onto lighter fabrics).  Maybe someday…for the next step… nursery to ‘big girl room’ I can finally decorate in a lovely bright red.

And for those of you who think I’m crazy for 1) caring so much and 2) putting so much time into this…remember I’m a closet ‘artist’.  I find this process fun – searching, deciding, scheming, assembling and the best part…sitting back and admiring.  I wish I could do it for my real job.  Instead I read boring scientific documents and sit in endless meetings.  Thankfully this dull art-lacking job pays the bills so I can order endless amounts of fabric to feed my hunger.

Syd the amazing

All parents think their kids are amazing and we are not one to quibble about that.  Although we probably publicly brag much less than most parents, it is nice to track some of the development stuff, but I really don’t pay attention to where she is on the development timeline anymore as much as I probably should.

I have noticed lately that her language development has really grown to the point where she has been using simple sentences.  At around 22 months she had many commands down “Mama sit there”, “Daddy sit there”.  But now she is able to string along more words to get her point across.  A welcome addition to many of her commands now is “please” and more often than not we don’t even have to prompt her to say it.  Just yesterday morning she was eating breakfast and said “More juice please” followed by “My stomach hurts” — a huge development for any parent trying to guess their child’s pain and discomfort!  Of course there are somethings she says because we say them so often like “No barking Charlie!” which she will now shout each time Charlie barks.  Too bad he doesn’t listen to her either.

This weekend she killed me when she woke up from her nap and asked for her horsey’s (these two misfit Ikea horses we bought at some point when we were in the apartment together as ‘decoration’) which are up on a high shelf in her room.  Immediately she took the orange one and put him in the corner in the kitchen. She then turned to me and said confidently “Horsey time out.  Bad horsey”.

Only Syd knows what Horsey did.

She has also been singing to herself which is about the cutest thing in the world.  Her favorite are the ABC’s, Twinkle Twinkle, and Ba-ba black sheep, among others.  Sometimes when I’m driving I’ll look back and see her doing the arm motions to Wheels on the bus while softly singing to herself.  Always makes me smile…

New Crib

Since we had some down time and nothing better on our to-do list we got the job of buying baby girl’s crib done today.

We went with a very plain crib that will sort-of coordinate with Syd’s crib and furniture.  Although a different brand than hers the simple line and square edging will be a decent match.  Since Syd’s crib will eventually turn into a double bed, which will eventually end up as a guest room bed along with her dresser, this will be the crib we keep for (hopefully someday!) grand-kids so we were looking for classic sturdy simple.  This will also turn into a toddler day-bed although, the plan is to get all new matching ‘big girl’ furniture for both girls when Syd outgrows her toddler bed.  Therefore, baby-girl will more than likely transition straight from crib to a twin bed.

Bonavita Peyton Classic Crib

Although pictured here in Espresso, ours will be in the Chocolate finish which won’t match perfectly to Syds existing furniture but it will be close enough!

Our hope is to get the new room painted after Royce’s mother and sister visit in February.  This way we can move Sydney into it and get her acclimated a bit.  I for one can’t wait because currently my sewing room is smack below Syds room and she can hear every sniffle and pin drop.  Drives me nuts that some days when her nap is going on 3+ hours I’m scared to sew for fear of waking her up!  All that glorious time – wasted.

I’ve also made some progress on the design of the new “Girls room” (it seems so strange to call it that!).  I’ve ordered a half-yards of the fabrics I’m leaning towards before I make my final decision and order.  But the prints and for the most part the color theme have been chosen.  You can check out my options on Pinterest.

Making Butter

I learned how to make butter at Syd’s Waldorf school.  The adults would pass around the jar of cream to shake while the kids explored.  It was so fresh and sweet I knew I had to try it at home…so we have…and will continue to do so.  It’s so easy – it’s a shame I didn’t learn before now!

First, start with good quality heavy whipping cream. We get ours from our dairy, so we know the moo-cows are grass-fed and happy. Pour the cream into a glass jar big enough so you have room to shake; I like my jar about half full of cream.

Second, shake. Shake shake shake til you think you can’t shake anymore.  Shake it high, shake it low, give it to a kid to shake, or a husband.  You will shake, in total for about 15-30 mins.  The cream will go through stages that you will feel while you shake.  First is the cream stage, it’s how it feels right when you start shaking.  The second stage things will get a little thicker.

The thick stage

Then it will get so thick you will think there isn’t anything going on in that jar and that you should stop shaking — but don’t! — cause if you keep shaking miraculously things will separate and lead you to the fourth and final stage.  The final stage is when you sorta hear the butter slop and splash with the buttermilk.  THIS is when you are done.

The final stage

At this point you can pour out the buttermilk into your vessel of choice using a funnel or as I have done here, a mesh colander.  Then with a spoon or spatula or other flat device, work the rest of the buttermilk out of the butter. I do this first in the colander.

and then I use some cheesecloth to squeeze the rest.

Viola!  Butter!

If you want you can work in some salt at this point or keep it unsalted — whatever your pleasure.  Other herb infusions would be fun too!

With a pint of cream I can get a good-sized ramiken of butter (maybe 1.5 sticks?…next time I’ll weigh it), and about 1.25-1.5 cups of buttermilk which is just enough for buttermilk pancakes, fancy that! Now go find some good bread and enjoy!

Holiday handmaking

With all of our holidays at home this year I had a lot of down time to work on some projects for Sydney.

A few were done before Christmas so that Sydney could have a little handmade something for her day.  First up was a little apron. She really was intrigued by Mommy’s “dress” that I wore while prepping everything at Thanksgiving. Since she was getting a play kitchen from Grandma and is always in the kitchen ‘helping’ these days, a Sydney specific apron was on order.

Sydney's apron

I found this free pattern from Sew Liberated and even though it is sized for a 3+  year old with some modifications it fits Sydney just fine. I added the pocket detailing (every apron needs a pocket for a kleenex!) and the rick-rack to spice it up.  I must say this is a very thoughtful apron pattern – the elastic at the neck and the velcro at the waist allow for the child to put it on by themselves (Syd needs some help but she is 2 afterall).

elastic neck

Both fabrics are from Michael Miller. The front of the apron is Sweet Bakers Home from a random Michael Miller half-yard assortment that I ordered to stash build from Fabric.com (amazingly there is another kitschy kitchen print that I can use to make another apron for another little girl someday too!). Although the pattern doesn’t call for contrasting fabric for the lining, the Michael Miller teal Dumb Dot I had in my stash coordinated so perfectly I couldn’t resist.

Velcro waist with contrasting lining

Like I said earlier, this pattern is for an older toddler so it didn’t fit Sydney that great. After I was finished with the garment (and after I took photos) I folded under part of the neck strap to the wrong side and tacked it down to make the neck opening smaller. And I did the same for the waist band on the non-velcro side. All of these tacks can be removed later as she grows to reveal the full length of the straps; much easier than making another apron!

Also for Christmas I made Sydney some mittens from my Oliver & S “Little things to Sew” book. This is the second project I have completed from this book. They went together super fast and should last through a few winters…assuming we don’t lose them…  but if we do I have plenty of the felted wool in my sewing room to make a new pair!

See that mitten she has on...ya I didn't think so...a better picture is coming soon (when said mittens return from day-care)

Last but not least over the Christmas and New Years break I had lots of downtime to make Sydney a new dress.

Hippy or not she is still cute!

I used Simplicity #2320 and boy was it a pain in the *ss to make. That yoke — ya — lots of ripped stitches and cuss words were flying. After that part was done though the rest of it went together pretty easily.  Royce isn’t a fan of this dress — says it looks too ‘hippy’ and he doesn’t like the contrasting yoke fabric. Ah well; you win some, you lose some. This summer I’ll pull the ruffled halter pattern to make his favorite shirt for Sydney to make up for the ugly dress!

Organizing her 'men'.

It would look a bit less hippy if were to chop off the bell sleeves and made a cap sleeve — so I think I’ll do that when I have some time. The dress is made of Chysalis Release in brown by Sanae for Moda and the yoke is Lollipop Flowers in cherry by Sandy Gervais for Moda.

Simplicity #2320

I’ll have to say I am very glad I’ve made a few garments from tutorials and other pattern makers (Oliver & S) becuase the big-3 pattern companies use THE MOST ARCHAIC ways of putting together a garment. I think they sit in a room and think of ways to make it as difficult as possible. Thankfully I know enough now to know better and can put them together for the most part using my own techniques when it comes to zippers, sleeves and openings.

A sewing update

So I started writing this post on Nov 19th — to say it’s a bit delayed is an understatement.  Needless to say, I’ve been working on a few things here and there but haven’t had the chance to post.

I finished this Tea Party Sundress for Sydney a loooonnng time ago.

Tea Party Sundress

It’s not really sundress season here anymore but that is what layering is for right?  I’ve had this pattern for what seems like eons and I had to do something with it fast since it only went up to 18-24 month size.  I kept dragging my feet because I couldn’t find coordinating prints that inspired me.  I would find something for the skirt but then couldn’t find something ‘just right’ for the bodice.  I found some fabric in MN when we were there this August – although not an ideal shopping trip because I only had my prescription sunglasses with me – I did come home with some awesome scores from The Crafty Planet.  It has also been very hard to stay away from birds; everything these days has birds on it – and they are all beautiful designs!  Syd already has two bird dresses so I needed to do something different.  I wasn’t all that ecstatic about this fabric, particularly because they are not fall/winter colors, but I have to say this looks really cute on little Syd.  The skirt is made from Dandelion from Alexander Henry and the bodice uses Amy Butler’s Sunspots from her Love collection.  You may remember, this dress was featured at her birthday party.  Sadly the Tea Party Sundress pattern is out of print now but I’m hoping O&S brings it back as a digital download because I would love to make this one again when Syd gets older.

Flat piping detail

It has such yummy detailing and went together so smoothly. I really love sewing from Oliver & S patterns!   Which is why I made another one recently…this time it was the A-line skirt from the Sunday Brunch pattern.  I used some stretch corduroy from my stash that I had bought to make a skirt for myself.  She looks so grown up when she is wearing it!

Grown up skirt

I’ve also made some simple elastic waist skirts for Syd to layer over tights and pair with plain turtlenecks or tops. These are fun to do because they take such little fabric…. the one below I made out of fabric scraps from a gift I gave a coworker.  One skirt I made from Michael Miller Bicycles in Bloom and the other in Joel Dewberry Sparrows in Cavern. She is wearing the bicycle one today so you only get a picture of sparrows.

More birds!

Next up is my Made By Rae’s Lickety Split bag. I feel like I’ve had this bag forever but I never blogged about it. I’ve been using it daily for a purse and diaper bag since the summer — hence why it’s so dingy looking in the photos but if you wanted a clean bag you would never get a photo so no judgement please!

Lickety Split Bag

I used her pleated pocket tutorial so that the pockets held bottles/sippys better and I extended the strap so that I could use it as a cross shoulder bag (just FYI this will require purchase of 1.25 to 1.5 yards of fabric instead of 1).  The fabrics are both from Joel Dewberry’s Aviary 2 collection; Sparrows in plum and Lodge Lattice in lilac.

4 pleated pockets = 4 sippy cups transported

I have fabric to make another one in some more wintry colors I just have to find the time to put it together!

Lastly, a little project for myself!  I purchased some yummy velveteen (Anna Maria Horner Woodcut in Crimson) and cotton voile (Valori Wells Wren in Mandarin) to make a Figure 8 scarf.  This scarf was also featured  at Syds birthday party.

Cozy figure 8 in warm colors

I love the versatility of the double layers, not to mention it keeps my neck cozy warm.  It’s a bit short as I only had 52 inch length to work with (pattern recommends  72 inches) but it suffices.

I have a few things I made for Syd for Christmas that I’ll post about later, in addition to a dress for her I finished this week that is waiting for a washing to get rid of all the chalk marks. I’ve got a lot of other projects up my sleeve as well so hopefully my next sewing post won’t be to far away!

Its another girl!

We asked Syd the other day if she wanted a boy or a girl and she replied “cake-cake”.  In her defense she was sitting on the counter where we typically make “cake-cake”, so maybe she didn’t understand the question.  Regardless, another girl is about as close to ‘cake-cake’ as one could get!  Afterall — sugar and spice and everything nice…that’s what little girls are made of — right?

Like the last go-around we had our sonographer write down the sex and place it in an envelope.  We had the sonogram on Tuesday and had to wait until Friday to open it.  By Friday we both were pretty excited and antsy.  The drive to dinner was horrendous – took us 15 mins just to get out of our neighborhood because of an accident blocking an exit.  Then we just had bad luck the rest of the drive into DC by hitting lights, getting behind pokey drivers, crossing paths with more ambulances, and nearly hitting a leg-less man in a wheelchair crossing the street, you know…the usual 1 hour commute to drive 10 miles.  Once to the restaurant (Founding Farmers) we had to wait some more for our table, and then wait even longer for my glass of wine to appear.  The envelope was just burning a whole in the table by that point.  But the nervousness, the excitement of opening it and finding out…made us both shake, and then cheer when the news was revealed.

I’m glad we do it this way, a way I find 100 times more pleasurable than ‘waiting’ for the ‘surprise’ on baby’s due date when I’m tired, in pain, sweaty, exposed.  At least this way I got to enjoy it with a glass of wine, a fantastic dinner with good conversation, in good spirits, with my pants on.

Yay!

Before we found out, we would have never admitted it publicly, but we both wanted another girl (yes, even Royce, probably more so than me).  Royce was a difficult child and teen, obviously he turned out OK, but getting there I think was stressful for his parents and deep down he was afraid of raising himself as a child.  Boys burn things, destroy things, jump off things (at least Royce did).  Most girls tend to be a little more tame, a little less Godzilla-ish.  Not that girls are without drama or troubles or that we wouldn’t have been happy with a boy — everyone seemed to want us to have a boy, and many of our friends have lovely boys — we just preferred another girl.  Girls help out each other when they are older (at least my sister helps us out a lot!), they typically are closer friends, and girls take care of parents when they get old.  The logistical reasons are nice too.  I can reuse a lot of the clothes I made for Syd,  not to mention the other clothes and shoes we have amassed.  And given our tiny house they can share a room — forever.  It will also be nice when they are older and Daddy is working we can do ‘girly’ things together to spend our time — of course assuming they both enjoy girly things — but I think even deep down the most un-girly of girls still occasionally enjoys going shopping and getting her nails done.

When I found out Syd was a girl my cousin Steve (who also has 2 lovely girls) told me a story that sticks with me to this day:

When Anne was pregnant with Eden, one of my students said, “I hope it’s a girl.”  And I asked, “Why?” And she said, “Because girls are better.”  And I queried, “Better for what?”   The profundity of her answer stays with me to this day: “For the human race, sir.”  I’ve yet to figure out a way to argue against that.

Neither can I.  I’m glad to be making the human race better x 2!

If I could, I would give birth to a 2-year old

Royce and I have been wishing lately that we could just fast-forward to baby #2 being 2-years old.  Even with the occasional tantrum and dilly-dally moments — the interactions, the personality, the increase in independence of a 2-year old  is so much more rewarding than an infant.  I honestly did not find the infant stage fun.at. all.  I’m the first to admit nurturing isn’t my strong suit and babies need a lot of that.  I never knew what to ‘do’ with Syd as an infant.  Now we can play games, sing songs together, color together.  I actually miss her when I’m at work and look forward to picking her up from day-care.  I felt like as a baby we just stared at each other (and cried — a lot).

Syd is finally at that point where she will play independently while I cook dinner (last night she built block towers).  Or if she wants she will sit on the counter and ‘help’.  This is a complete (and refreshing) 360 from a  year ago where she would do nothing but scream at me while I tried to accomplish a task that wasn’t 100% focused on her.

Maybe baby #2 will be ‘easier’…that’s what everyone seems to say.  My expectations going in this time are definitely different.  And at least I know that in 2 years — if we make it out on the other side  in one piece – we will get at least part of our lives back and will have another fun little person by our sides.

Christmas 2011

We had a very cozy Christmas here at home among ourselves.   Syd had a pretty good concept of Santa and the gifts I think.  She had fun before Christmas day looking at the presents under the tree and passing them to the people they belonged to.  On Christmas Eve we read our 3 bedtime books by the light of Christmas tree, one of which was “Twas The Night Before Christmas”.  She was pretty apprehensive on Christmas morning but got into the swing of things rather quickly once presents started opening.  For more photos of the day click on Syd below!

Beginnings of nursery design

I’ve started to work on collecting fabrics etc for the new babe.  Since we don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet (less than 1 week away!) I’ve been looking at inspiration for both.  This is helping since I was kinda worried I wouldn’t be able to find boy stuff that I found fun, but I have!

You can follow my nursery board on Pinterest to see some of my ideas from fabrics to art work to cribs.  We more than likely will be putting both kids in the larger room which is currently the guest room and moving the spare bed to what is currently Syds nursery.  So on top of making new stuff for baby I may have to make coordinating new stuff for Syd’s bed too.  We will see how it turns out.  Some of the fabric I’m looking at would work well with the things I previously made but it may also be fun for her to get ‘new’ things for her ‘new’ room.

For Syd’s nursery we used artwork from a famous Iowa (Dada’s home state) artist, Grant Wood, to give the room a theme.  This time around we will be using works from a famous Missouri artist (Mama’s home state), Thomas Hart Benton.  A lot of his stuff is really cool so I’m getting excited!

Once we confirm the sex it will be easier to pare down the decisions so this process/task will get more focused next weekend!