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??

Ready For Valentine's

I lost all momentum for Christmas stuff, but I'm down with Valentine's Day. I hung the banner we made last year:

All the snow out there with sunlight bouncing off it made for a very bright background.

I also made painted rocks for the kids. A couple of years ago I gave them each a rock with a heart mod-podged onto it, and my youngest peeled hers off. This year she informed me that she needed a rock with a permanent, painted heart on it. Our supply of good painting rocks is running low, especially since she went through a heavy period of rock-painting earlier this autumn. But I managed to find three.

So sweet!

We also have a tradition, in this family, of giving the kids books for Valentine's Day. I accidentally started it, and one year when I didn't give the boys books--I knit them treasure pouches with a knit heart inside--my oldest looked stricken. "But we always get books for Valentine's!" Books it is.

My four-year-old loves all the Ladybug Girl books, so when I saw Bumblebee Boy (which we've had out of the library) on sale locally for half off, I picked it up for her. My eight-year-old likes origami and Star Wars and all those Star Wars origami books, and my oldest has had my little laminated tracking guide outside while we wait for the bus in the mornings so he can try to figure out who visited the snowy yard overnight. I figured a more complete guide would be welcome.

And finally, I didn't forget myself, either. My husband is away this week--we're starting a heavy travel period with one trip each of the next four months, this one being the only one that's not international (and thus the shortest of the four). I'm sort of head down about the travel, looking no farther than the week I'm in, because stacking trips like this--oh, they are hard, and it just gets harder as they pile up. But this week's trip is over Valentine's, and I'm by myself, and truth be told even if he were here I'd probably only get a card anyway, and I wanted something else, something special, and realized the only way that would happen is if I got it myself.

So I did. Two pairs of earrings, because I couldn't decide between the two, and yes, I had them wrapped, because I'm worth the pretty packaging.

How about you? Are you ready for Valentine's Day?

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!

Valentine Banner

The kids and I collaborated on this month's seasonal window hanging. The full story on how we made it is over on my kids/art blog (as you can tell, because I was too lazy to change the name stamp on the pictures to this blog name). It involved paint, and more paint, and paper bags, and glue...

...and it is just so cheery. I admit, I'd been sort of proprietary of that window space, really enjoying decorating it and surprising my kids, but I also really enjoy looking at this Valentine heart, love-filled collaboration that will liven up our dining room all month long.

Since cutting out hearts is (just) a bit beyond my youngest's scissor skills right now, we gave her the scraps and a heart hole punch, and I made this sweet little hanging string of hearts that decorates the doorway at the top of the stairs, into the kitchen.

And this pretty much represents the sum total of weekend creating, and I'm amazed we managed this much. We had one kid in the ER Friday night, another at the pediatrician's bright and early Saturday morning, three separate trips to the pharmacy for prescriptions, and we parents were so exhausted we spent a goodly part of the weekend staring dumbly, trying to remember what we maybe had been going to say, again? Some weekends are like that.

But we have hearts. And I love 'em.

(This project was part of TinkerLab's latest creative challenge, using paper bags. If you're interested, all the information can be found on Rachelle's blog.)

Sewn + Embroidered Closet Sachets

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Ours was very relaxing, which was just right this year, considering the lingering fatigue. Of course I still baked and cooked, but lots of time was spent in jammies, resting, reading, and knitting. This is a gift project that wasn't quite done heading into the last week before Christmas, so I finished it up in small bits. These were begun in September--I embroidered the pine cone motif on linen, then cut squares, hand sewed them, and finally, filled them with cedar shavings. Turns out there was really no shortcut for this part; it had to be done by hand, bit by bit. The shavings weren't going to fit through a funnel, and they didn't pour from a paper cup, either. When all four were filled, I sewed the filling holes shut.

They smell so nice, and they can be tucked into a drawer or hung in a closet. I gifted three of the four today. I really enjoyed making them. I didn't realize until I went looking for the first post that these were actually three months in the making. Of course it wasn't three solid months; I'd do a bit, put it aside, do the next step, and so on, in between other projects. But there's something nice about passing along, as a gift, something I've lived with for a quarter of the year. I hope they're hung in a visible part of the closet. I like to picture the recipients (my mothers-in-law, my sister-in-law, and my sister, who hasn't received hers yet but knows it's coming so this post is perfectly okay) opening the closet to grab a coat or sweater, seeing their hand-embroidered and -sewn sachet, and smiling. Because making these certainly made me happy.

Turning: Winter Solstice

The kids and I made luminaria to celebrate winter solstice--I like to bring in the light to remind us all that it will return, same as always. These ancient rituals make a lot of sense to me. Since the solstice occurs at 12:30 am on the 22nd, I'm not quite sure if Wednesday night is the longest night, or Thursday night. We decided to play it safe and light our luminaria both nights.

In actuality, they will be lit most of the winter, or else other candles will be lit--I like to have a centerpiece of candlelight when the evenings are dark and cold.

Directions on how the kids and I made these (with two versions, one for younger kids and one for older, both very easy) can be found here.

Happy Winter Solstice to my fellow northern hemisphere dwellers! Here comes the sun... (no, really!!)

Packages

It's a good thing I didn't leave too much to this last week, since the treatment for Lyme appears to be, at least at the beginning, worse than the disease itself. I'm doing small things in small blocks and I keep falling asleep. This is very frustrating! One of the tasks I've left to do is the wrapping, so last night I wrapped the teacher gifts, which are the first to be delivered.

The lighting is so poor! And I'm too tired to arrange them nicely out on the deck with some natural grey light, instead of the indoor grey light. But those are my brown paper packages stamped with trees, and some have pine cone tags. Inside, of course, are notebooks (and coffee cards), and the larger ones are mitts.

And recently, I received a package of my own in the mail from Lamina at Do A Bit. I was the lucky recipient of one of the items she gave away for her 100th post, this screen-printed tea towel:

She has a much better photo of it on her blog, because she lives in Australia and they have all the natural light this time of year! (And plus, I didn't iron it before I took a picture of it. Blame the Lyme for my laziness!) I began to follow her blog thanks to Our Creative Spaces, so not only have I found inspiration and some new blogs, but I've a lovely new tea towel, too. If you haven't visited her blog, go do! She shows lots of screen printing and stamping and loads of other fun creative stuff.

Superhero Cape

About four or five years ago, when my boys were smaller and before I knew how to sew, I saw some superhero capes that looked handmade in a local independent toy store (now, sadly, closed). The owner confirmed that a local woman made them, and I asked if she thought she’d be interested in making a couple custom capes, in my boys’ favorite colors, with the first letter of their names on the back instead of a bat or a superman symbol. I like the idea, see, of an open-ended cape, so a kid doesn’t feel he has to be superman or batman or whoever. The sewist—who I never met, or found out her name—agreed, and I bought my boys some capes. They are still in the dress-up box, and my 7yo still wears his regularly.

Now, though, I can sew. Good thing, too, since it’s no longer an option to buy one at the toy store. I thought my husband’s three-year-old nephew might like a personalized superhero cape for Christmas, so I asked my sister-in-law his favorite color and got to work, using a yard of red Kona cotton (although it didn’t take nearly all of it) and a dark blue fat quarter. I know there are many cape tutorials and patterns out there, both free and for sale, but I figured I could work backwards from the ones in the dress-up basket. It’s a simple construction, with a sewn-on collar band held closed with Velcro. While Velcro isn’t my favorite item to work with, and I hate how it snags on everything, it’s probably the safest choice for this age group. (Although I admit: I tie capes onto my own three-year-old when she asks me to.) I ended up sewing the Velcro on by hand, because I thought that would give me the greatest control over the slippery little suckers, and I could check both sides of the collar band as I worked.

Grey day, everything is grey, and I needed to use the flash.

All in all, this was relatively simple, yet I think it’s so cute, and it was interesting enough that I didn’t feel like I was just churning out product at the sewing machine (like I feel when I’m sewing jammie pants, actually). My 7yo asked if we were giving this in person, since, he said, "I like to see people open their gifts and I bet he will love it and put it on right away and we can all be super heroes together." My daughter has requested one of her own in blue; perhaps she’s tired of wearing her oldest brother’s initial on her back? I told her that would probably have to wait until after Christmas, though.

(I would like to thank my wonderful husband, who gifted me with the time to sew this cape...)

A Forest of Holiday Cards

Holiday cards--hand-carved stamp

 Last week I carved a couple of tree stamps. I decided this one would be perfect for the front of this year's card. Usually I order photo cards but this year I just don't feel like it. For my own amusement, I added a salamander to the back of each card.

This is the other tree stamp. (Oh, the shadowy taken-at-night photo!!) I think it will work nicely on a gift tag or plain brown wrapping.

These were carved from sketches, rather quickly, last week when I was feeling prickly and needed to sit quietly by myself and make something--and my three-year-old, thankfully, cooperated with that plan.

What are you planning for holiday cards this year?

(You can see lots more creative folk here!)

Handmade Holidays: Progress Report

On this, the last day of November and the last day of my daily posting challenge, I thought it appropriate to report on my progress with my handmade holiday plans. Despite my tendency to add things to the list, I'm not in bad shape. I've been busy in November!

This is the status of my embroidered pine cone project. They're sewn up and just need to be stuffed and sewn shut. At first I thought these might be mainly stuffed with wool with some pine needles added, but as I sewed them (by hand, which meant I could sit in my rocker upstairs and chat with my husband while I sewed) I realized they wanted to be filled with cedar chips, and then they could hang in a closet or among woolens and be pretty and useful, a combination that I adore. After thinking it through, I realized a pet store or perhaps garden store was my best bet for red cedar chips. I've confirmed this, and next time I'm up near the big pet store, I'll buy a bag, and then these will be finished.

As for teacher gifts, I knit the final pair of cabled mitts and made a bunch of cute notebook covers, so that's a big ol' check mark--done! My daughter made her bookmarks (no photo of those, though), but the boys haven't made their chosen handmade gifts yet--school takes up SO much time. My daughter and I also made recycled crayons, which are so cute I just had to include the photo here again. Then I decided to make something else for my youngest nephew--I have the material, but it's a sewn something, and getting a chance to use the sewing machine is still a Big Production around here.

So remember how I thought maybe I'd use beeswax to make some ornaments? I decided upon seashell candles instead, and those are done too.

That brings us to my own kids. I've spent the month knitting them hats and mittens, which are not for Christmas, of course, but still need making. I haven't made the spare mittens yet (although there are plenty of spares floating around from prior years anyway), since I took a break to knit my daughter a sweater just because (almost done, too!). In between, I started a boy dolly for her. This is what he looks like as of last night, in a poorly lit flash photo because he only comes out at night, of course. His stuffing hole needs to be sewn (I like to let it sit for a night so I can see if I'm still pleased with the stuffing level) and he needs a face, hair, and some overalls, I think. I also wanted to sew up some play felt envelopes for my daughter--I ordered and received the wool felt, I just need to trace out a template and get sewing and embroidering.

So, as of right now, I need to finish the dolly, make the envelopes, and make my nephew's gift. That sounds completely reasonable, right?! Unless I forgot something, or I see something else I really want to make for somebody...

How are you doing with your handmade holiday plans?

See more super creative people here!

(How To) Make Quahog (Clam) Shell Candles

(When I had this idea, I assumed others had as well and went looking for tips. I found some good information here, here [PDF link], here, and from the local beekeeper of South County Honey who sold me the beeswax at the farmers' market.)

Materials: Quahog shells (that's what we call clam shells in Rhode Island), beeswax, wick (large cotton braided), hot glue gun, old pan (not used for cooking), and large tin can.

When I looked online for information on how to do this, I found lots of pieces here and there. I've put it all together in case you want to try this too. I'm not only loving the final product here, but I love how it's so very local. The shells were collected at a local beach, and the bees who made the beeswax live down the road.

To start, I rinsed any sand from the shells and boiled them gently, just to make sure they were clean. I used the same pan I later used for the water bath (same water, too). Once again, I borrowed the pan I long ago handed over to my kids' play kitchen. You don't want to use a cooking pan for this, just in case you get wax on it. Once the shells were dry, I used the hot glue gun to attach the lengths of wick to the bottom of the shells.

The beekeeper suggested large cotton braid wick. He said the melting point of beeswax is high and you need a large wick to create a large enough flame--something like that, anyway. I was able to find it locally in a craft store by the spool. I cut the lengths of wick generously; they'll get trimmed later.

Next I needed to hack off some of that big block of beeswax so I could put smaller pieces in a clean tin can and melt them. Easier said then done. Eventually I managed.

This is an old knife and not one I'll ever use for food again, clearly. Here it's holding the tin can down so it doesn't float around in the water bath. The PDF I linked to above had some useful tips for melting beeswax, including the melting point of beeswax (about 145 F). This is far below the boiling point of water (212 F), so I set the burner to medium and kept a close eye, turning it down as necessary. I stirred the wax (with that knife again) once it began to melt, too. Once it was completely melted--and it smelled so nice!--I poured it into the shells. Since the water wasn't boiling, the can wasn't too hot to handle with my bare hands, which made pouring the wax much easier.

So, the first batch of wax that took me soooo long to hack off the block? Yielded two candles. Sigh. Anyway, you can see I propped the shells just a bit to keep them level, and on that back one, I clothes-pinned the wick to keep it straight. On most of them I was able to carefully drape them and it was Good Enough. My oldest was home sick while I was doing this, and we were trying to figure out a way to rig up a wick-holder-upper, but we settled for Good Enough in the end.

I repeated this process until all the shells (13, some larger than others but none huge) were filled.

I have a corner of the original block of wax left. The beekeeper also told me that beeswax burns straight down, so as these burn it probably won't burn all the wax on the edges. He suggested two wicks in a large shell, but I ended up going with one in all of them. I think it'll be fine on the smaller shells; I'm not sure on the slightly bigger ones. There may be some unused wax around the edges--perhaps the recipients will collect it and make new candles?

Here are the candles, wicks not yet trimmed, in boxes on my slightly messy dining room table because it was time to feed the kids lunch and I needed my kitchen counter.

And one last photo, of a candle in hand so you can see the size.

I love these!! I made enough so that we'll have some for us, too. Because these are holiday gifts, of course--a very local handmade Rhode Island gift.

Weekend Project: Teacher Gifts

Have you been following all of Sew, Mama, Sew's Handmade Holiday posts this month? In the Passion for Writing post, they featured these adorable mini memo-book covers, created by Larissa at mmmcrafts. I've had it in my head to give the boys' teachers, aides, and so on little notebooks along with the coffee gift cards, and I thought I'd make recycled scrappy notebooks, because really? They are very, very cute. But then I wondered if it would look a bit snarky to take all those one-sided pieces of paper from school and send them back to school as gifts, even if a main focus of the school's mission is environmental stewardship. I fear I already walk a fine line. So when I saw these adorable notebook covers, I decided to go with it. I already had everything I needed--except the mini notebooks--right in the studio. (I love that. I love a well-stocked studio!!)

Because I am absolutely enchanted with Kraft card stock lately, that's what I used to print out the template. I made a couple on Friday night, and learned that the fastener has to be quite loose and that I didn't like using embroidery floss so much for the tie closure, because it frayed quickly. (I think waxing, as she suggests, would help there. I did that on the second one and it was better.) Then the next day I began making these eight assembly-line style.

Here's a notebook-in-hand photo to give you an idea of scale.

I just can't get over how cute these are! I used the same paper on the spines of all eight (assembly line!) and twine for the closure, because I thought it went well with the brown cover and the colors of the paper (which is from the "Down Under" assortment of these decorative papers). These took the weekend mainly because of the gluing. At each gluing step, I pressed the join between the pages of a heavy book (my art history book gets so much use in the studio for pressing leaves and gluing things) before moving on. For the flaps on the side with the fastener, I had to do one flap at a time, with the covers sticking out from the book at an angle. The fastener gets in the way of doing both flaps at once.

Some of the notebooks wouldn't fit into the book covers correctly. For five of the eight, I sliced a teensy bit off one of the notebook covers--front or back, doesn't matter-- and that did it. I swapped them around to check; it wasn't the covers, it was the notebooks. A wee bit off is all it takes, since these covers fit just right.

When I began, I was thinking I'd stamp the front covers with something, but I don't know. I kind of like them plain. What do you think?

Preparing For The Countdown

December starts next week, which means it's almost time to fill the countdown calendar with surprises. I have some things I keep in mind when making my list:

• I include things we're going to do anyway, like cut down the tree and then decorate it.
• I make sure to ask the kids to tell me their must-do activities for the holiday season; those go on the cards, too.
• I like handwritten cards, so if I need to change something, it's not a hassle. For instance, if I see a local activity coming up that sounds perfect, I'll trade out cards for that day; or if the weather doesn't cooperate on tree-cutting day, we'll adjust.
• I like a calendar that allows me to peek, because I'm liable to forget what's coming up.

I printed out some simple business-card-sized rectangles in Publisher, using a green or red star border. I printed eight per page, for 24, but it'll be easy enough to print some spares in case I need to change anything. I also have some chocolate and I'll make sure each child gets some. (We have three kids, and the calendar has three colors--easy enough to assign and keep track!)

Here are some of the items I'm including in our countdown calendar this year. Some are more involved than others, and some--such as reading Christmas stories and listening to music--we will likely be doing all month long. However, experience has shown that even the simplest activities are special and exciting when packaged in a special envelope and opened one by one.

Make bird seed "cookies" to hang outside

Hot cocoa & marshmallows for after-school snack

Make presents

Go ice skating

Wrap presents

Make luminaria for solstice

Listen to Christmas music

Watch Christmas specials

Take a drive tonight to look at holiday lights

Celebrate solstice

Bake cookies

Track Santa

Make a frozen wreath

Make countdown rings

Write letters to Santa

Send out cards

Plan Christmas dinner

Buy gifts for donation

Read Christmas stories

Make ornaments for our tree (I like this time capsule idea!)

Are you planning a countdown calendar this year? Do you have any suggestions for activities?

Pinecone Stamp

From this...

to this.

I'm working on some ideas for gift tags and/or stamping onto Kraft paper for gift wrap. (I still love brown paper packages tied up with string best! But I want to add some stamps here and there.) This is a different carving block than I've used before--it's Speedball Speedy Cut. I find it very easy to carve but a little crumbly and probably not the best choice for anything with detail.

Family, Food, Football: Happy Thanksgiving!

And beautiful autumn flowers from our dinner guests!

We had a great afternoon with my husband's family, I didn't ruin the turkey (even though it cooked way faster than expected), and although I've seen just about no football yet today, I'm looking forward to sitting in one spot and watching the night game while I knit. (I hope I can stay awake!)

I am thankful for so, so much, including a husband who does dishes.

I hope your Thanksgiving (those in the US) was full of whatever you like best. Thank you for being a part of this little blog.

Gratitude Tree

Let me start by saying I don't believe thankfulness should be confined to November or that we should only turn our thoughts to gratitude because Thanksgiving is approaching. I believe an attitude of gratitude is directly linked to the habit of happiness, and that is how I try to live my life. Many many years ago, during a difficult time, I told myself to find something to be happy about every day, no matter how small, and then write it down. When you turn this into practice, it becomes a habit of the very best kind. Thankfulness is there at the core of me; I recognize my life is full of loveliness, both big and small. I no longer need to write it all down.

But because we are hosting Thanksgiving this year, I wanted a centerpiece that visually represented in some way this life full of reasons to be thankful. So I decided upon a tree. I picked up a fallen branch in the yard, stripped it of its dead leaves, and placed it in a clean glass jar, held in place by pebbles and stones. (The bag of pebbles--the only purchase I made for this project--cost about $2 at a craft store. The larger stones at the top are from the beach.)

Using the maple leaf template I traced for the thankful banner, I sized them to fit some tags I already had (bought in an office supply store) and sandwiched the tag inside two leaves.

I had to cut the tag so it tapered, and the leaves are printed on and cut from brown Kraft card stock.

Once the glue dried, they were ready to be written upon and hung on the branches. If you want to make your own, the PDF file with the smaller leaves is here. The left leaves are a mirror image of the ones on the right, so when you cut and sandwich, the cutting lines will be hidden. You also could simplify this by punching a hole in a single leaf to tie a string on.

The tree sits in the middle of our table, with leaves and a metallic Sharpie next to it. Anytime someone is moved to do so, he or she can add a leaf to the tree.

"The house"

I think I'll also be using this leaf template to make our place cards for the dinner table. If our guests want to, they can add their leaves to the tree with something they are thankful for written on it.

For big things and small--the house and Legos, my marriage and coffee, the people in our family and imaginary friends--we are thankful, every day.

Rocks + Leaves

It's been a rocky week thus far in the background here. When I get a chance, I've been cutting out more maple leaves--small ones this time. Focusing on getting those little leaf points just right, cutting out another and another and another, is soothing in its own way.

More on this project later, when it's complete. Before then, I have more leaves to cut.