Walking the Path

My husband left last Friday and doesn't return until Monday. He'll be home for less than three weeks, during which time my oldest is scheduled to get his adenoids out, unless he catches the germ his younger siblings have right now, in which case we'll have to reschedule, except having already taken him directly to the ER with younger siblings in tow after a so-called simple tooth extraction while my husband was away last summer, I don't want to have this surgery done unless both parents are actually in the country. This year is looking remarkably like last year in a lot of ways: kid surgery (which was, indeed, rescheduled last year because of illness), husband travel...I am working on walking the path with grace, however. And I really do mean working on it.

I have, shall we say, tangled feelings regarding all this travel. I would not choose to carry so much of the home-life responsibilities by myself, but I wasn't given a choice. I wasn't consulted at all; I may have elected to do things differently, way back when, had I known the travel would grow and grow and grow, no end in sight. It's not that I'm not capable; I'm extremely capable. And it's not that I shy away from difficult things; I have always been a hard worker, willing to do what needs to be done. It's that I feel powerless. I think that in any difficult circumstance, the difficulty is compounded when we feel helpless or powerless. I didn't choose this. I don't want this. It doesn't matter.

I'm working on it.

Meanwhile, I wrote myself a colorful list of things I want to make/do/research while he's away. I'm chipping away at that list slowly. Here is some of what I've accomplished--and all photos are dimly lit photos taken by my phone, so I can tweet them. But you get the idea, well-lit or not.

This stamp was inspired by Egyptian faience, specifically this hippo. This second stamp is also thanks to the hippo:

I have a couple more stamps I want to carve, too. And I have some turquoise fabric. And I have some ideas of combining them...

And just as I painted rocks for the kids for Valentine's Day, I decided to paint wooden eggs for them for their Easter baskets. This is my daughter's, in progress.

I just...you know, some of the lines aren't perfect--I probably should have used a Sharpie rather than paint for the black outlines--but I just get a kick out of this every time I look at it. I plan to use the same shiny-making acrylic varnish on the eggs that I use on the rocks to seal it all up. I think she is going to LOVE it. I'm hoping to paint Yoda and Darth Vader for my boys' Easter baskets.

I also have "knit two sleeves" on that to-do list, and I haven't started them. I have six more days on this trip. Think I can do it??

Sewn: Sparkly Princess Cape

I've had this cape in my head for a long time--since I made the skirt out of the same fabric, actually--so it's just as well my daughter decided she needed a sparkly cape for her Halloween princess outfit. She was more than happy for me to use the fabric we already have, too. I wish I had better photos; it's grey and dim today, and I had to use the flash indoors. But you get the idea, and I'll be sure to post photos of the entire princess outfit after Halloween, although they are forecasting rain for Halloween, how dare they?!

I used two layers of a basic cape shape. The underneath layer is the blue satiny stuff, and the top layer is the sheerer, sparkly stuff. I hemmed the sides and bottoms of each piece separately, then zigzagged them together at the raw neck edge before sewing on the narrow binding that extends into the ties, which you can see below.

That way, the layers flutter individually as she runs.

It turned out just as I pictured it, and I am beyond delighted with it. My daughter seems pretty happy, too. And as far as Halloween sewing goes, this was extremely low stress.

Are you doing any costume creating this year? How's it coming along?

Birthday Shirt

It's about that time of year again...

I realized when I made last year's shirt that I was going to have to make this a tradition. This year, though, it's not a surprise (although she won't see the finished shirt until her birthday). She just assumed it was coming because, after all, her number is changing, so she needs a new shirt. She had advance say on colors and design. In the end, she chose what I wanted to do anyway--a four with a crown--although for a while there we were awash in her initial in a circle with a crown and the four. I'm happy simplicity won out.

Goodness. I love that design, I really do!

I also really enjoyed sharing photos of where I live in the last post. Here's one more, a different pond that I drove by four times today (on the way to and from preschool gymnastics, and on the way to and from karate).

I didn't have my camera earlier in the day, so this was taken about 5 pm and it's not as vibrant, but still. Autumn is pretty here this year. Last year we sort of missed the colorful part entirely thanks to Hurricane Irene. The leaves that weren't stripped were salted, or something like that. There are a couple of trees on the way into town that are, as my son put it, so bright that it hurt his eyes to look at them. Next time I go in that direction I'm going to have to make time to stop, find a safe place to pull over, and take some photos.

Finally, I signed up for the Art Every Day Challenge. It takes place in November. I don't think I'll be posting every day, but I hope to have something to show for every day, when I do post. By the end, I'd like 30 postcard-sized pieces of artwork. I'm thinking of a variation on a theme--an animal per day, or 30 trees...something like that. Usually, if I make time to draw, it's a better day.

Before that, though, I need to sew up a sparkly cape. I didn't think I was sewing anything for Halloween this year, but the almost-four-year-old has other plans, and who can argue with the Birthday Girl?

Sewn: Mermaid Pouch

On one of the posts with zippered pouches, Cameron commented that she'd be interested in one if I ever got my hands on some mermaid fabric. Turns out, I had a yard of Heather Ross Underwater Sisters tucked away, and a brown zipper that matched perfectly. It's quilting cotton, which doesn't have the nice weight of the upholstery fabric that I think is just perfect for these pouches, so I decided to try fusible interfacing for the first time. Cameron also wondered if I'd be able to do a strap, so that was another new addition for me.

I think it came out adorable.

I fussy cut so one of those mermaids ended up on each side of the exterior pouch. The inside has the same fabric.

I continue to have issues getting the open sides of the zipper to meet perfectly on the side seam--they shift a bit. I wonder if this is because you have to sew the sides together with the zipper open? I wonder if there is a better way to keep those loose ends from sliding, if perhaps I have to pin the heck out of it right there, which is tough, because that's the thickest part of the seam (where the raw edges of the lining fabric and exterior fabric are piled up with the edges of the zipper--lots of layers) and because the zipper is hidden on the inside while I'm pinning. I'll have to think on that a bit. This pouch had even more going on right there because of the strap ends.

That little imperfection aside, I still think this little wristlet pouch is just too cute. And my zipper foot doesn't intimidate me at all anymore. Sheer repetition will make anything easier, eventually!

Gifts for Nieces

Last week I made a couple of small things for my nieces, which of course couldn't be shared until I gave them to them yesterday. My oldest niece turned sixteen last week, and she'd asked for a special birthday shirt, like the one I made my daughter. Of course, I was happy to make her one!

There are some smudgy bits that I'm not happy with, but I stopped myself from pointing out each and every one to my niece. Once the first coat of paint had dried, I had to touch up a few spots, so I did, but those spots (don't know why) began to look different as they dried, so I covered the whole thing with an even coat of paint, but those touched-up spots still look different to my eye. This has never happened before with this paint, so I'm not sure what caused it or what to do differently next time. Other than that, I think it's adorable and it looked really nice on my terribly grown-up looking niece.

Since we were bringing gifts for my oldest niece and a gift for my nephew (whose birthday was last month, but I was a little late!), I thought it would be nice to bring something for the youngest in the family, a five-year-old who has to wait all the way until February for another birthday. Using her Zodiac sign of Pisces as inspiration, I painted her a rock.

Black is her favorite color, and I wanted to use silver on the black, and she also likes pink...and thus the color scheme was set.

And my husband and I received a HUGE gift of our own--we left all three of our children with my sister after the birthday party and we spent the night in Boston. From about 5 pm Saturday night until about 1 pm Sunday, we were in Boston just us, doing grown-up things. We got dressed up and went out to dinner. We had brunch and I didn't have to stop eating to cut anyone's food. (It was fairly easy to find safe places for me to eat in Boston. It is such a treat to simply go out to eat.) We talked without anybody interrupting us. We slept past 7 am. When I say we have rarely managed to date since having children, that is a huge, huge understatement. This was like a decade of dates rolled into one, and it was long past-due.

(I have the best sister, don't I?)

More Painted Rocks

Two finished:

Finished: Elephant and Ladybug

Another in progress:

In progress: Crab

They are just so fun and satisfying to make!

August

This week, the one that begins with my mother's birthday on July 29 and ends with the anniversary of her death (five years this year) on August 5, has the potential for being rocky every year. I say "potential" because these things vary. Some years it's okay. Others, not so much. Sometimes bracing yourself for it just means it pops up somewhere else. I still have a lot of big, yucky feelings, understandably. To add into that, my 96-year-old grandmother was discharged last weekend from the hospital to a nursing home--the same one, actually, in which my mother died. When I visited my grandmother in the hospital I really thought, well, I thought I'd better tell her whatever I needed to tell her, and I did. Last weekend we brought the kids to see her in the nursing home--this is her third rehab stint there, all after hospital stays--and my oldest looked drawn. He remembers just enough of visiting my mother there. But we visited again on Thursday and he noticed right away how much better she seemed. She sat up and visited with us, enjoyed the kids, and she and I joked and laughed together. I felt so much better after that visit with my grandmother.

And despite the sneaking feeling that I spent a goodly part of the week lying on the couch in a heat- and inertia-fueled stupor, that's just not so (although there was some of that, too). We began the week by taking the kids to Watch Hill's Flying Horse Carousel. This was my daughter's first ride on the carousel.

While she was riding she was almost solemn. She smiled when we waved to her, but otherwise, I think she was just quietly soaking it all in. After her two rides were over and I went to help her off her horse, she didn't even say anything (unusual for this talkative girl), she just wrapped herself around me and hugged me tightly, so overcome, I think, with absolute excitement and joy. That ride was just so wonderful she was rendered speechless.

Later in the week I took the kids to the zoo, and later still, the oldest, youngest, and I painted rocks. My daughter had been asking to paint rocks again so on a hot hazy afternoon, we did. My oldest and I took our inspiration from an activity in My Art Book, which I borrowed from the library. It's based on Australian dot paintings from the Balgo Community--but really it's just taking the technique of painting dots and transferring it to rocks, not trying to reproduce the traditional paintings (which would give me pause). My son opted to paint a turtle but without the extra layers of dots; since he was painting a local turtle that already has spots, he kept his dots to the shell. I decided to paint a snake and go all out with my dots.

This was just super fun to make. And since I have acrylic varnish on the shelf (what don't I have, I wonder), I made it shiny. I want to make more--and even though we have rocks aplenty, I couldn't help but bring more home from the beach today, to become more animals, more shiny rocks, more brightly colored happy things.

Which is why I also painted this:

It's on a 6x6 gessobord, in need of a frame. It's a fragment from a favorite poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. (I have also embroidered this fragment on my jeans.) I was trying out some different Pages + Paint techniques here, although no collage. It's just a happy piece, created to make me happy.

In the same vein as beach rocks and mermaids, this week I received a sweet little package of sea glass and driftwood from Cameron at Paint Myself Pretty.

The bag is shiny so it's hard to get a good picture of all the goodness inside, but it's also so pretty with that sticker and all that I haven't been able to make myself tear into it yet, even carefully. I'm just enjoying looking at it the way it is. But soon I will pour the sea glass into a little bowl and put it on the table so I can just look at it and enjoy it all. Thanks, Cameron!

And I've been working on my Ravellenic Games lace:

I've been trying to do a repeat per day (64 stitches times a 24-row repeat). The pattern says it took 15 repeats to get a 60-inch scarf, but my gauge must be different, because even with stretching, I don't think that will happen. That length right there is eight repeats. So while I may meet my Olympic goal of a repeat per day, I don't think I'll be done with the scarf at that point. I want to use every bit of that skein of lace weight. It's really pretty stuff, too. Here's a close-up; unblocked, of course.

So that's been the week, pretty much. Posting may be spotty for the rest of this month; we'll see how it goes. Pages + Paint had me in the computer a bit more than I wanted to be in July, trying to contribute to the discussions on the blog, in the Flickr group, and in the private forum. I'm feeling I need to counter-balance that and step back a bit (so much so that for two days this week, the laptop was not only off, but shoved under my bed so I couldn't even see it). Summer feels like it's slipping through my fingers, and I'm not quite ready....no, not quite ready.

What good things snuck into your days this week?

A Better Zippered Pouch

The comments to my last post about zippered pouches had some really great links and advice, which is why I have two better zippered pouches to show off today.

These are sewn from cotton upholstery fabric liberated from my sister's stash. (She's moving and has to sell her house, so if you know anyone who wants to move to Middleboro, MA, and likes old sprawling houses, let me know.) (Also, I'm very, very sad she's moving even farther away. The fabric only helps a little.)

So anyway, it's a thicker cotton, and a sturdier-feeling pouch. Naomi shared this tutorial link, which helped immensely in two ways. Firstly, I added a line of machine topstitching on either side of the zipper, which easily and immediately elevated the pouch into something more polished. It also eliminates any sticky-zipper issues. Secondly, I followed the tutorial's helpful tips on pinning the outer-fabric side first and how to position the zipper teeth. Once the zipper is in and it's time to sew all the sides up, the whole thing is so bulky in the middle it doesn't lie flat, and I was struggling, on my own, with how to approach it. Yay for helpful tutorials and helpful commenters who direct you to them!

My three-year-old daughter claimed one of these as soon as she saw them. I decided the other one was a perfect new home for all those cards I was trying to squish into a too-small pouch.

This photo gives you a good view of the topstitching and how neatly the zipper lies now. Also you can see that I lined the pouch with the same fabric. I have a lot of it, and it just seems like it will put up with a lot of abuse. I really like it as a zippered pouch, but I'm out of zippers that match it (for now, anyway!). I think this fabric will also make a nice tote, so that's in the works, too. You know, eventually.

A couple of quick, unrelated things:

* After a bit of a break, I'm back at my other blog, too, because it's the best place to talk about any homeschooling/life-learning topics and activities. (I suspect it might be in transition for a bit.)

* I had my annual physical not too long ago, and I had him run another celiac panel, because last year my tTG number was falling but still not normal. This year it's about four points above the normal reference range, what the doctor called "not clinically significant." I'm really happy about this because I hope it means my body is just about healed from all the damage I unknowingly did to it.

Hope you had a great weekend! I expect I'll have some things to share this week from the Pages and Paint online workshop, which started out great last week.

{How To} Sew a Quick + Easy Headband

Sewing headbands is addictive...

Since I sewed my first headband, I've made a few (ahem; quite a few) more for myself and my daughter. It took me a few tries to get the length and width just right, but once I did, I was off and running. I've sewn these on the machine and by hand; either way they are quick and easy gratification, and they keep my long, unruly (especially in the humidity of summer) hair off my face.

It's been a while since I shared a tutorial, and I thought it would be fun to show how I make these. I scanned in my adult template and child template as a Google doc. The child one is sized to fit my three-year-old daughter's head. The elastic makes it adjustable, but you may want to fiddle with the length or width a bit for an older child. (I aim to get the finished length to run from just behind one ear to just behind the other.) Just remember not to make the end openings any narrower than they are now, or it's just too hard to turn them right-side out. The templates are for half of one side of the headband--print them full size on 8.5x11 paper, but trace the outline against the fold of a larger sheet of paper. (Or you could cut two pieces and tape them in the center.) If this doesn't make sense, it should once you see the pics below. Okay, enough of the small details. Let’s get started!

For an adult headband, you’ll need enough fabric to cut out two pieces. A fat quarter is definitely enough. You could use two different prints and make it reversible. You could embroider your headband like I did with my denim one. Play around! You’ll also need about 5.5 inches of elastic (a little less for a child). I usually use woven, but the scrap I grabbed for this is knit. Take your full-size template and trace it onto your fabric. If you’re not fussy cutting (to get a particular part of the fabric onto your headband, like I did with the dogs here), just fold your fabric right sides together and trace, then cut out both pieces at once.

Sandwich your elastic on the inside. You can leave a little poking out the end.

Then pin your pieces together on three sides. Begin sewing (1/4” seam allowance) at the end without the elastic, but leave yourself a little room--a half inch or so--at the end. Otherwise, it’s really hard to turn it rightside out.

When you get to the end of the first long side, pivot and then sew back and forth over the elastic a couple of times.

Pivot and head down the second long side, being careful not to catch the elastic as you do.

Once you’ve sewn all three sides, turn it rightside out (grab hold of the end of the elastic to help you do this), then iron the seams flat. (You could press a bit before you turn, if you wanted to.) Fold the raw edges of the open side under and press.

Rather stained ironing board cover...

Tuck in the other end of the elastic and fit it to your head so it’s comfortable—not too tight, but not too loose, either. Then sew the opening shut, sandwiching the elastic inside. Again, go back and forth over the elastic a couple of times.

Pinned and ready to be sewn

You could topstitch all around if you want, but I never do. Here's this one all finished.

If you finish and realize the elastic isn’t quite right, no big deal. You can always adjust it. I made one too loose, so I just overlapped it and sewed it securely. I made one for my daughter much too tight, so I cut the elastic and inserted another piece to extend it, again, sewing it securely.

Finished headband--the modeled shot! So quick and easy, pretty and useful. So much to love in one little project.

Goofy self-portrait, so you can see it on.

Shared with my creative space...

A Little Something For My Moos

Once you get Mini Moo cards, of course you want to make a little case so you can carry some around with you.

This is made from cork leather, which was part of an order from Agulha Não Pica, the shop of Gabi, who writes the Portuguese stitchery columns for Feeling Stitchy. I have a small and precious piece of it. It's already soft on the inside, so I didn't need to line it, just sew it. My crooked stitches are proof of my inexperience with sewing this new material.

But I still think it's just the perfect little carrying case for my sweet little Moos. That's just a simple adhesive Velcro tab, cut in half--I felt that would be the closure that would wear on the cork leather the least.

Gabi explains what cork leather is here. I already knew Portugal was a big producer of cork (the biggest, apparently) because when my husband went there for a conference, he came back with a a little blank book for me, with covers of cork leather. It would be so lovely to have enough of this to use in book binding. Maybe in the future.... meanwhile, I have the rest of my original small piece. Wonder what else I'll make with it?

May Check-In

The irises have begun to bloom.

Remember how my goal this month was to remember to breathe? Well the kid-stressy thing that was originally scheduled to be over and done with by Mother's Day was rescheduled and then rescheduled again, and is now at the very end of the month. So my original plan of thinking about the rest of May once that was over and done with obviously had to be abandoned. I realized this at about 11:30 last Thursday night, like this: Oh, we can't wait to plan details of X's birthday party until after Y, because now it's two days BEFORE Y. Oh no. We have to plan it RIGHT NOW RIGHT THIS MINUTE. Do you realize Memorial Day weekend is NEXT WEEKEND??

Deep breath...these smell like grape.

So maybe right then I wasn't breathing too well... in general though, I've been making sure to spend time outside, listening to the birds. We have a stream, too, that you can't see through the scrubby but you can hear, especially in the evening. The kids and I have been checking on the phoebe nest. No change in the number of eggs, but she rearranges them a lot. We don't often see her on the nest, though. I think maybe she's incubating them? And she's just very skittish? But we're not sure.

We try to respect her privacy but she did build the nest right under the deck, which we, you know, use. For playing and grilling and sitting in the sun reading a book. She also flies away as soon as I round the corner of the house on my way to fill the bird feeder, which I do every morning around 7 am. It's nice to walk through the wet grass in the quiet morning hush, listening to the birds. I photographed these irises, the first blooms this year, on Sunday morning after filling the feeder.

My favorite of these photos: a top-down view

So I obviously can't wait until the end of the month to start getting ready for Squam, either. My to-do list is random and all in my head (always a dangerous thing). Everybody's bathing suits are sorted out. And I ordered Mini-Moo cards.

I've wanted some since I first heard of them, but couldn't justify them. I don't have an Etsy shop or anything I'd need a business card for. But did you see how inexpensive these are? I decided I wanted something to tuck into packages that I send to Internet friends, and something I could hand out if anyone asks for my contact info. These are so cute, and they have cropped bits of my own work on them. The cuteness and prettiness of these cards is much more satisfying than just writing my email address on a scrap of paper and handing it to someone.

I also decided I needed a backpack. I have a backpack, of course, pre-packed with mostly kid stuff, and it'll be staying home so my husband can just refill as necessary and take it with him. After looking 'round lots of sites, I decided on this Timberland backpack in stone, which was on sale when I ordered it. And then I threw in this slingable tote bag in blue, also on sale, because it also looks supremely useful.

And I finally called the folks at the camp where Squam is held, to talk about my gluten cross-contamination concerns. (That had been on my mental list for...oh, a while.) The food services manager called me back, and the good news is that she seems well-informed on how to avoid cross-contamination on buffet lines and as far as such matters as preparing the gluten-free food before the gluten-containing food. Also good news, she seems willing to work with me in whatever way she can. The not-so-good news is that while breakfast and, often, lunch are being prepared, the baker is in the same small shared kitchen, baking. She told me that the areas only have one exhaust fan and flour is definitely in the air. I really can't safely eat anything prepared where there's flour floating around.

It seems I'm extremely sensitive to cross-contamination. My thought on this is that it forces me to be vigilant. Did you know someone can have celiac and experience no symptoms at all, while all the while their body is attacking itself quietly? My opinion is that it's not safe for anyone with celiac to eat food prepared in a floury kitchen, whether they feel a reaction or not. So I can look on the bright side and say my sensitivity is like the canary in the coal mine, letting me know there's something dangerous going on at a very low threshold. While having this conversation I definitely had to remind myself to breathe. I quietly said, Oh no, I'm not going to eat for five days, am I? But there's a cold kitchen separate from the other kitchen, so as long as I don't mind cold salads and such, which I don't, I should be okay. And I'll be bringing lots of food with me, too. Like I said, they're willing to work with me, and I feel better for having called ahead and not being surprised when I arrive to learn about the simultaneous baking. This way I can come prepared.

And look how far I've finally gotten on Azami, after eleventy-fifteen false starts:

I'm done with the side lace panels and now it's just stockinette for a while, which, one hopes, I won't mess up. After pulling it out the last time--I'd gotten as far as the top tier of the lace panel but I'd forgotten to switch from garter to stockinette--I decided the size I was making, 35.5", looked very big around, so I went down a size but decided to eliminate the waist shaping. My entire shape has changed since I stopped eating gluten and started gaining weight. It's good I'm not underweight anymore, I just have to think a little bit more about what flatters me, since my body is different now. I'm still learning how to outfit this new shape.

So that's a skimming recap of May thus far, because, of course, not all of life is bloggable. How's your month going?

Felt Flower Garland {+ Poem Link}

Our slider was desperately in need of some spring freshening; it was well past time for the Valentine banner to go. Somehow, I missed March entirely...which works out well, because these flowers are so seasonal!

This garland idea was inspired by the craft in the last Waldorf parent-child group that my daughter and I attend. The leader had materials to make spring crowns for the kids. Everybody's ended up looking different, of course, but the basic idea was to finger knit the base and then sew on felt flowers (whatever sort of flowers we wanted).

This crown has three flowers, but my daughter was wearing it jauntily, to one side. At any rate, I thought some green crocheted chains with sewn-on felt flowers would be just perfect for our window.

I wasn't going for perfection here. The flowers were traced around a cut-out paper guide, but they're cockeyed and lopsided in places. This came together very quickly; I'm not interested in trying to dress up this window in any manner that will lead to stress. It's fun, it's quick, and it's cheery. We have a little vine of flowers trailing atop the window molding, and I love it.

***
For today's poem, I turned to Mary Oliver. I am betting many of you have read or heard her quote, "Tell me, what is it you plan to do/with your one wild and precious life?" Knowing she's a poet, I was curious about the rest of the poem--I was sure I hadn't read it before. It's called "The Summer Day," and you can read it here. This quote is always used in an inspirational way, in a sort of "Get up and find your true self and passion and get going" sort of way, and I was pleased to discover that the speaker of the poem has spent the day being "idle and blessed," paying attention while she strolled and rolled through the fields. It's good to know the context, isn't it?

I spent today climbing big, rocky-shore rocks with my children; picnicking and playing at the playground; loading up on even more armloads of books at the library (we currently have a total of 51 books out between us, with ever-revolving due dates); and playing outside at home. They have the week off from school, and the weather is cooperating nicely so far. A fine way to spend a day of my wild and precious life.

Patching

I have boys, which means I've patched my share of holey knees. Both my boys wear size slim pants, which aren't available everywhere and therefore aren't cheap. For a while there, I was patching knees constantly. This year the rate has been slower...my younger son tripped at the beginning of the school year and ripped a hole in a brand-new pair of pants (argh!!), and my older son's favorite corduroys just required patches on both knees. It took me a night or two to work up to it--patching isn't my favorite thing to do--but he was so anxious to get them back, and then so happy when they were done. It's humble, the patching, but it's satisfying that I can repair with my hands, extend the life of an item of clothing, and make my kid happy, all in one swoop.

I also have a favorite pair of jeans, the ones I embroidered poetry on. My first-ever embroidery, actually, was practicing chain stitch to make a spiral on some batik denim, to turn into a patch when the left knee began to wear out. (The poetry came next.) When the right knee needed patching, I was lazy...I just cut a circle from a torn, rag pair of jeans and blanket stitched around the edges. (The denim frays, but the stitching contains it. It's easier than trying to stitch through a turned-under edge.) Well, earlier this week, I looked down an this is what I saw:

Ack! I decided it was time for another cute patch. I found some more of that batik denim, embroidered around some of the shapes in a bright lime green, then blanket stitched it on with bright orange. Because this fabric is thinner than the circle patch, I tried to cover all the edge. Here's what the jeans look like now.

Hmm. It was cloudy this morning. Here's a close-up of the old spiral patch with the new patch overlapping it.

Isn't that fun? Although it kind of looks like a mushroom house. So, I went around the edges twice. The first time, I was spacing the blanket stitching and aiming to get the thing on. It can be hard to get patches on without them buckling sort of funny, especially in a stretched-out area like the knee. The second time around I filled in the in-between spaces for as solid an edging as I could manage.

I keep the patches on my boys' pants plain and straight-up, but I can have a bit more fun with my own. These jeans make me smile, they're so bright and cheery. And this patch didn't take that long, especially doing a little here and there. I finished it up Saturday morning--I've been working on little tasks here and there all day--patching, sewing buttons, weaving in ends. Lots of stuff to share this week!

Leap!

This is the last week of the e-course I've been taking, Stephanie Levy's Creative Courage. This is also February vacation week in this area, although my boys only have the first three days, since Thursday and Friday are being used as make-up days for the time lost at the start of the year due to Tropical Storm Irene. While I'd rather they not get stuck in school until nearly July, I'm sort of bummed we have such a short week off.

These two things really do go together; stick with me. Stephanie starts each week of the course with a video, and in this week's, she talked about Leap Year and how that can be an inspiring idea, to leap. "Leap" is actually one of my word cards, but I wasn't making the connection with Leap Year at that time; I was thinking about how going to Squam will be a leap, but such a necessary and good one. I've been trying to be more open to stepping out of my comfort zone, which has definitely narrowed a bit over the past ten years of caring for little people.

So her video and my own thoughts on leaping (and shifting, too; she said the phrase for Leap Year in German translates into "Shift Year," which she thought wasn't as inspiring, but I think sometimes a shift is all we need to see things completely differently) were rolling through my head when the kids and I went downstairs to play with blank Shrinky Dink sheets. Until recently I didn't realize it was possible to do whatever you wanted with Shrinky Dinks. All I remembered from being a kid was those pre-printed sheets you colored in, and where's the creativity in that? Well, the kids and I got creative, as is our habit, and we had a blast--absolutely the most fun I've had with the oven in ages, since when you are forced to cook every night whether you feel like it or not (food issues), it kind of loses any fun it might ever had held. I may have, er, made more pieces than the kids.

Oh dear, these are all mine.

Yes, those four matchy ones are buttons! How cool is that? I pinned this tutorial a while ago and kept it in mind. And hey, want a closer look at that little Leap! pendant?

You know when you're swinging really hard, just really pumping those legs and flying high and feeling soooo free, and then you jump off and fly for just a second or two? That's the feeling I was holding onto while I drew that, just a little reminder--perhaps to go on a key chain, maybe--of how freeing and liberating it can feel to leap! Can't you tell? Whoever it was just jumped off that swing. She is leaping.

I love to swing. I was swinging not too long ago, in the playground at the school where my daughter and I attend parent-child playgroup. We were the first ones outside and she was swinging on her tummy and didn't need me to push, so I got on and just started pumping, and it felt so good, especially because my body has been unreliable for so long. I'm keeping up with my DDD challenge, which is walking, trying to start the month with two walks per week and end the month with three per week. The first day I put my daughter in the stroller and walked half a mile up the street and half a mile back, I was in so much pain afterwards. All my trouble joints ached. But the next day, I got the whole family up and out to a family hike (organized by RI Families in Nature), and it was okay. And the next one-mile walk was better, and the next walk was two miles, and I can do it, and I'm not in crippling pain afterwards, and I'm not exhausted. I ache, and I'm tired, but not fatigued, and I think the exercise is helping with that.

Bit by bit, I am walking through this. My follow-up blood work for Lyme came back okay. On days I get out and walk I feel amazing. I used to not give a thought at all to whether I could handle a walk; my body just did. I'm grateful to be working my way back to that place. I swung next to my daughter and I was grateful, even when my hip began to ache and I had to stop...I was grateful for that time of swinging and the feeling of flying.

Are you planning to make a leap this Leap Year? {I'm pretty sure Squam won't be my only leap...}

How To: Lickety-Split Valentine's Day Napkins

When Valentine's Day falls on a school day, I like to tuck a surprise in my boys' lunches. Last year I wove a little heart out of paper and slipped a note inside. I was wondering what to do this year--and let's face it, I'm running out of time!--when I saw Maya's doily-printed coaster and I thought, Of course! Freezer paper! I love that stuff. I have a stack of white cloth napkins that I bought with embroidery in mind, but the fabric is all wrong for stitching. My kids take a cloth napkin in their lunch every day. Of course!

Materials: Freezer paper, heart hole punches or scissors, cloth napkin, textile paint (I like Speedball Screen Printing Inks), brush to apply

I began by cutting a square of freezer paper to fit in the corner of the napkin. Then I punched hearts into it, more or less dictated by how far the hole punch would reach. You can see that the cut-outs aren't perfect; it's not a very good hole punch, I don't think. (This is what I get for not waiting until I was at the store that carries Fiskars.) I neatened up best I could with an x-acto knife. If you don't have a heart hole punch, you could just cut some hearts the old-fashioned way with scissors.

Iron the freezer paper into the corner of the napkin, then dab on the paint.

I made five of them. Two will go to school with my boys, and the kids will each have one for Valentine's Day dinner. But also, there are five of us in the family, so we have a matching set for all of us, too.

When the paint is dry, heat set it (follow the instructions for your particular paint). And there you go--lickety-split Valentine's Day napkins. I made these after my kids were in bed Friday night.

This will be a sweet surprise in their lunch bag on Tuesday! And I was able to do it quickly and with supplies I already had on hand. Phew!