Pinwheel Striped Apples

These are what we call "Pinwheel Apples" around here. They are, essentially, sliced apples reassembled using peanut butter as glue. These are great easy snacks for mom to make, or for kids to make with some adult help (like slicing).

They look really festive if you choose two nearly identical apples of different colors, like these:

To make them yourself, you will need:

• 2 apples as close in shape and size as possible
• nut or soynut butter
• a cutting board
• a sharp knife
• a melon baller
• something to serve them in ( I like to use colorful Ikea kids' bowls)

The first step is to wash the apples, then dry them and cut them in half along the core:

Using the melon baller, cut out the cores. Using the knife, cut out the stems and any remaining flower bits at the bottom of the apples.

You will have 4 nice clean apple halves and a pile of stuff to put in your compost.

Get rid of the compostables, and slice the apple halves into fairly standardized slices (a little variation is okay). Get out your nut or soynut butter.

Hold one hand cupped, and start reassembling an apple in your palm, using slices of alternating colors:

Add a spoonful of nut butter, and keep adding slices until you get a fairly complete apple. You should be able to maintain the alternating stripes of color all the way around, if you were careful about cutting your slices.

Press the completed apple together with cupped palms to help it hold its shape and set in a bowl or saucer to serve. If it's hot out, refrigerate for an hour or two before serving to help them hold together. Garnish with berries or other fruit (orange slices are also awesome).

This how-to is also available as a youtube video, with photos of more of the steps:

Enjoy!

Savory pies for a cool summer evening

So, today I made pies. These are basically made by the method used for making calzone, out of my favorite basic yeast dough (use your favorite dough or pizza dough recipe), and filled with sausage and mushrooms, chicken alfredo, or cheese and ham (that last one is for the kids). 

Make your dough, divide it into handful-size balls (I get a dozen or more out of a single recipe), set on an oiled cookie sheet or tray, cover with plastic and rise in the fridge for 3-8 hours, then roll out into roundish, flat shapes. Think tortilla-thickness, they will rise a bit after filling and sealing. do one at a time, roll out, fill, seal. Fill with about half of what you think you need to fill each pie. Seal the edge with water and pinch closed, then move onto a cookie sheet and snip a small hole to keep it from blowing up. When the sheet is filled, bake at 375 F for 20 or so minutes.

All fillings are cooked and ready to eat before filling the pies, since they only need to bake for 20 or 30 minutes to cook the bread. Use whatever strikes your fancy. I think curried chicken or savory lentil pies would be great for next time. You can even use slices of fruit and sugar and spices.

One pie filled me up, two was enough for my hungry husband who skipped lunch, and one and half was enough for our older, fast-growing, ever-hungry boy.

I took the last two doughballs and cut them in half and filled them with berries mixed with sugar and cornstarch, the dusted the half-sized pies with more sugar and baked them.

We're all full now, so I think I did a good job.

Ikea MALA easel, hacked for two!

I have two boys, and inevitably, when one wants to draw or paint, both want to do it. We recently moved and reorganized/resized our art/school/creative play area, so we needed to replace our old easel, a Melissa and Doug adjustable height easel, with one that folds flatter when it's not in use.

We picked the MALA easel (not on the US website right now) at Ikea because it's really flat when folded, and that's what we needed. It's the same height as the old one, so my boys won't notice much of a difference in use.

The only issue I had with the new easel is one I've always had, and had previously solved with an additional sheet of paper and another clip, but it meant that if one boy is still using the roll and the other is done, boy one will have to wait for more paper. Not practical, and really a setup for sibling rivalry!

Well, Ikea also has a small, portable paper roll holder, also in the MALA line, and it happens to fit perfectly on the rails of the easel's roll holder/tool bin. So, I've combined the two, and with the assistance of clips, converted the easel to work for two artists at one time. This is the back side of the easel, where the white board is:

And this is the front, where the chalkboard/paper path is (say hello to underpants-superman, my assistant):

I've altered the paper path for optimum tension, as well as to make it easier to fold when not in use, and to make it a bit easier to trim off fresh masterpieces without having to re-thread the paper through the retaining slit. It goes through the slit, up and folds a bit over the top, where it is held with the clip.

The clips are repurposed garment hangers with integral spring clips. I like these, because they are sturdy, easily replaced, and the clips are widely spaced. This means that you only need one for a big sheet of paper, instead of two.

Here's a repeat of my initial image, so you can see the paper rolls and the paper paths from the side without having to scroll up and down:

The tabletop paper holder has one of its removable crayon trays removed (I just set that aside) and sits on the rails of the easel's paper holder, the paper goes up over the white board and is clipped with a second repurposed hanger. It's not attached permanently to the easel, because I want to be able to remove it easily so I can fold the easel flat for storage.

ETA: If you want to secure the paper roll holder to the easel, use two to four long velcro cable ties, and just wrap them around the foot of the roll holder and the tray bar. The structure of the easel and the roll holder help to keep it in place, but if you need extra peace of mind, this works quite well .

All I have to do to fold it flat is to un-clip the secondary paper at the top, pick up the small paper holder, roll up the paper, and put the other crayon tray back in. Then I can put it up, and fold the easel flat, slide it next to the desk, and both are put away. Even adding in the crayons, that's less than 2 minutes for cleanup, which is fantastic with 2 busy kids in the house!

Underpants Superman gives the idea The Purple Crayon of Approval. So do I!

Small Home Improvements

Well, really, a tiny kitchen makeover, or a makeover of the beloved and indispensable play kitchen that lives in our dining room. My boys love this thing, and are horribly rough on it and love banging the doors open and closed, pretending to wash pots and dishes, and otherwise reenacting the organized chaos of Ratatouille with their own variations.

I did most of the shopping for parts for this version of the play kitchen at Ikea, mostly in the as-is dept.

This is a view of our new sink and countertop, which was made from rejected shiny blue kitchen drawer fronts, at 50 cents a pop. The sink is by far the most expensive single part. Its "faucet" is made of the most basic pull handle, anchored at one end, plus two of the very basic knobs. The rest of the wood (the shelf up top, and the stovetop, fridge door and oven door) were more unfinished drawer and cabinet bits from the as-is dept.



Another pull handle makes a handy towel bar, and we used them on the oven and fridge as well. Here you can see the drawer knobs being put to their intended use, albeit an abbreviated version. The drawers are made from stout cardboard boxes mounted inside a frame made from the old cardboard play fridge. This time the cardboard looks good, and is really sturdily reinforced with heavy paperboard shipping corners from a large appliance, so it should last a while. Also, those drawers are really functional. One even holds our current crop of play food cards. The fridge has simple shelves of wood strip that hold up removable baskets.



This is the little stove and oven. The oven is held up with a loop of heavy twill tape and closes with magnets and little steel plates. Any gapping caused by wee fingers means it won't close at all. The burners on the stove are made of the metal plates and rings from the ends of nut cans (or coffee cans if you shop at Trader Joe's), and those stove knobs ought to look familiar. More Ikea. A huge bonus to the peanut-can rings/plates? They are precisely the right size for the Duktig pots and pans, and they have a lip that makes the pans stay in place when little hands are stirring "soup."



For comparison, above is the new kitchen in all its wooden glory, and below is the old "reuse, recycle, rebuild it often as the kids destroy it" version.

Now in the new version, you may notice some zipties. The hutch is actually made from another short piece of the same (non-ikea) modular, peg-together shelving that I have had for 15 years. I ziptied them securely together. It's still much better than the previous hutch of glued together cardboard boxes.

As for the temporary methods of securing the various parts, we'll be moving again, so it's better to keep it easily broken down. Much of the rest of the construction is anchored with hot glue, though there are plenty of screws where there will be stress. The sink, for example, is held in with a bead of hot glue, and hot glue is what keeps the countertop and stovetop from shifting during play. Still temporary, then, but the parts can handle more wear and tear.



Don't get me wrong, its various incarnations rocked for a time, and it was fun to redo periodically, but was always kind of an ugly kludge and was perpetually on its last legs. Of course, a big factor in making the change, from the cardboard play kitchen on a wood frame to a repurposed wood and cardboard on a wood frame version was the fact that I am finding myself short of time for a constantly repeating weekend project. It was time to strip it back to the frame and start fresh, and make it more permanent, yet still easily broken down for moving.


Also, I have just realized that, again, I've done something in red and blue and neutrals. This is my living room. Notice a pattern?



I guess I like red and blue. I blame my early exposure to modernist style via inundation with (now) vintage Creative Playthings toys.

Summer Popsicle Bites!

Don't these look wonderful?



We love smoothies in summer. I like to use a mix of fresh and frozen fruit and juices, so we get a nice slushie type smoothie. No matter how much we make, though, after I fill the cups, there's always a little bit left, and it's not fair to give one person extra.

So, I put it in a fun-shape ice tray (mine are from Ikea, but you can get them just about anywhere) and freeze it overnight. Sometimes I do this with juices, too, but those melt so fast the kids don't really like them as much. Of course, you can use a regular ice tray, but the fun shapes get a response that's an order of magnitude greater than a regular icecube shaped fruit pop.

Today's fruit pops are hearts made from a mix of peaches, plums and tropical fruit with apple and orange juice and a star made with apple juice. Here they are dished up for tonight's dessert, perfect to keep two overheated little boys happy on a nearly record-hot day:

Review: DadCanDo

I'm not a dad, I'm a mom, but I LOVE dadcando.com, I love the projects, the sense of wonder, and the joy in nerdiness and creativity that is the basic spirit of it. I've been a fan since I first found it, back when he had a few paper airplanes, a wand how-to, and some fun paperfolding crafts up there. It's been a couple of years now and it just keeps getting better and more fun.

My kids are getting a little older now, too, so the projects are really more fun for them than before, as well. The content has grown so much that it's hard to know where to start. it seems a little late to post a review considering I've been kind of a fan for a while now, but there's a reason for this entry.

Recently, at least since the last time I downloaded a project, the website changed over to a membership-required site (there used to be a support suggestion at every download, and now downloads are members only). I have to say to EVERYONE with kids (or a yen for Harry Potter crafts!) that this site is worth every penny of that membership fee. His design skills are great, his how-to's are well put together and easy to understand, and moreover, the projects are versatile, customizable, and fun to do with your kids. You are essentially paying for a well put together activity book that keeps updating with more stuff.

... And then there's the stuff for the parents (there's general stuff, parenting advice, and a HUGE amount of stuff for single parents, which is wonderful since so much that's out there assumes two parents). I'm not a single parent, but I sure spend a lot of time pretending to be one - that's the lot of a military spouse - and advice on coping with single parenthood is useful to me, too. Oh, and I'm not a dad, but I have two boys, and sometimes it's hard to remember how to tap into the wonder of childhood and exploring the world so you can share that with your kids.

I love this website. I can only suggest that you subscribe. I have.

It's Beautiful!

Because I love my little boy this much:



I made him this:



He loves it. "It's Beautiful!"

Because I can't keep secrets, I made this for everyone who might want to make their own version of it.

And just so you don't think I'd leave my big boy out of it, I took macro photos of his fish and framed them for him.

Play Dough!

I made this lovely play dough from this recipe over at Cooks.com. There are easily a hundred different play clay recipes there, but this one was similar to an old one that I had tried before and really liked, but no longer had a copy of (isn't that always the way?).

It's a cooked corn starch salt dough, with a little oil for consistency and to help prevent sticking. This version has you color AFTER cooking.

I made a few small changes, of course, because I'm one of those cooks, and I can never leave anything alone. Here's how I did it, based on this classic recipe.

First, measure out the cornstarch and salt. Do not pack the cornstarch down or you'll need more water! Then put the dry ingredients in your pot and mix well. Next measure your water and oil. Drizzle your water in and stir with a narrow spoon or silicone mixing spatula. Keep going until all the water is incorporated. it'll get kind of hard to stir, which is normal for cornstarch. It'll also be kind of gritty. That's the salt. That's normal too.

NOTE: I omitted the shortening and wintergreen oil and just used salad oil. One tablespoon goes in the pot, the rest is kneaded in later. Add the oil and mix it in a little, then turn on the heat. A medium-low burner is best, and it has to be stirred constantly until it's all cooked. It will get harder to do, and you have to keep scraping the bottom and sides of the pan (remember that spatula? You really need one for this part)or you risk scorching to uneven cooking of your dough. It'll get lumpy, mushy and translucent. Eventually almost all of it will be cooked, and then turn off the heat and just keep stirring it around the pan until any opaque or runny spots start to blend with the rest.

At this point, cover it tightly - a plate is fine if your chosen pot has no lid - and let it sit until it's cool, about an hour. Don't refrigerate it.

Take it out of the pan and knead it in a medium sized salad bowl to work out any lumps that have occurred, slowly adding the remaining oil. You can drizzle in a little more oil or a little water as needed if it's dry or crumbly, but remember that coloring will add moisture too and don't go overboard! Keep kneading it until it's nice and smooth, then divide it up into as many hunks as you want colors and put each into a ziplock bag.

You can either color it now, or let it sit overnight and color it in the morning. I used washable tempera paints to color mine. To do that, put a couple squirts of paint into each bag, seal, and knead until mixed. Add more paint until you like the color, but remember that the more intense the color, the more likely the dough is to stain, even with a washable pigment color. My bags took three double squirts for red, three for blue and two for yellow and they are relatively non-staining.

Store in plastic bags in a cool place.

What the CPSIA means to me

This entry is not "against" the CPSIA, however, I am worried about how that very necessary piece of legislation has been, and continues to be, mishandled by the vary people who should be making it work. As it stands, it's not doing any good, and won't be able to do any good, until the blame stops being passed back and forth between the CPSC and the Committee for Energy and Commerce.

Like many, many other parents, I was delighted that there were now steps being taken to test imported, lead-contaminated toys. I still am. I am delighted that the toys and clothes and feeding items available to me will be safer in the future. However, there is something gravely wrong with this necessary, well-intentioned law.

What is wrong? The CPSIA is both too narrow and too broadly defined, requiring items known to not contain lead to be tested, specifically disqualifying component testing or testing by materials suppliers, and thus effectively making it impossible for small and micro businesses to comply at all. Some will survive by making only two or three items in batches of sufficient size to send one for testing, but their prices will go up. Some small companies are being turned away by the certified testing labs, because their business isn't lucrative enough. It's even worse if you make one of a kind, unique items - things that might be possible to make from a selection of pre-tested and certified materials must now be made in batches of two, so that one can be destroyed by the testing lab in digestive lead testing.

This would not be a problem if the parts of the law that need defining, clarification, redefining, etc could be dealt with, but the CPSC and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce are dragging their feet, and passing the buck back and forth. Nothing is getting done, even though there seems to be a lot of talking and blamethrowing. That means that all these thousands of small companies, small stores, even libraries and schools, that want to comply with testing, or that already do by only using/buying domestically made materials, are left out in the cold, unable to do comply, because no questions are going to really be answered in time for the deadline(s).

I call it irresponsible, especially given the desperate economic climate our country is in. The fact is that the testing is often unnecessary, and where it might be necessary, it is mandated to be done in the most onerous, burdensome way. Furthermore, the lack of sufficient labs coupled with the short time frame for testing has made it impossible to even get the requisite tests performed, were the tests even easily affordable. Costs have been driven up to amazing levels by the sudden overwhelming demand.

What does this mean to me? I was working on a home business, getting all may ducks in a row, getting ready to sell a few items for kids on etsy. That's not going to happen now.

As I've said elsewhere, my embryonic business is being forced to change focus completely. At least I only had a few items made up to try out sales for the holidays when the impossibility of continuing due to the CPSIA caused me to stop and put everything aside until I could work out what I was going to do.

I even set aside all the standard startup paperwork (thank goodness I put a hold on my plans before I filed for my fictitious business name! I'd have to refile, because it was obviously child oriented!) as soon as the impact of this law became apparent, while I was researching use testing requirements last fall. I had hoped to have everything in place to start small in early December, but my etsy shop instead sat empty, and will remain so until I finish my non-kids designs, and figure out exactly what I'll be doing.

I've looked back at the time I've spent preparing and it turns out it is over 2 years of work down the drain. I am looking to refocus entirely on hand spun yarn, historical costumes, and collector art dolls (NOT for kids, small parts, display only). Time will tell if there is even anyone who wants those things. I'm sad. My kids loved the prototypes of my playthings, wore my cloth diapers and cloth training pants, I wanted to share what I'd made for them with other kids.

As bad as I feel about not being able to share my kid-oriented work with others, I feel worse that I won't be able to buy handcrafted items for my own children, or I'll have very few, and MUCH more expensive, options available to buy. According to this law, I can't even swap my craft work for someone else's craft work, unless both items have been third-party tested according to the law's requirements. Even if all parts are domestically sourced and confirmed lead free and nontoxic by the materials manufacturers, that person-to-person craft swap is illegal, an exchange of contraband for contraband.

I may - may - be able to get samples of the fabrics and notions I use XRF tested so I could list and sell the few items I have ready between now and August, when even that screening process will become insufficient. However, that depends on demand, and I have to work out if the profit I will make on a few all-textile toys, cloth diapers and dressup hats will cover the fees for that, even given how reasonably priced as a small-volume XRF scan consultation can be.

That's where I am. It's not a pleasant place to be. It's like looking at the burnt-out shell of a home you once loved. What's worse is that I'm not alone. It's like a huge city has been obliterated, and we all have to start over.

This has been long-winded, but people in despair want to talk about it. It usually helps to do so. So far, my letters, calls and emails have been ignored. So far, it looks bleak.

At least our inspiration can't be outlawed. I can only hope that next year, some of us can emerge from the wreckage, like cicadas, and begin again.

Not sketti-ohs

I make my kids o-shaped noodles from time to time, and I make a sweet tomato/cheese sauce to give them a taste of one of my old favorites we don't buy because I'm trying to avoid food additives. This is an occasional treat! I don't make it often, and my older boy thinks it's too sweet, even with only one spoon of sugar, at five.

This recipe is easy to modify for various special diets, since you are in control of the ingredients.

12 oz of smooth tomato sauce (or 4 oz tomato paste and 4 oz tomato-based mixed veggie juice)
3/4-1 cup of shredded cheese (we use colby/jack, or you can use a mix of jack and mild cheddar, or even veggie cheese, whatever makes you happiest)
1-2 Tbsp sugar to taste

Heat sauce to a simmer, add cheese. Stir until cheese is mostly melted, then blend with a stick blender and add sugar 1 Tbsp at a time, blending and tasting between them. If you don't have a stick bender, pour into a blender and blend until smooth and the cheese is fairly incorporated.

Pour hot sauce over:
4-6 cups of o-shaped pasta, cooked and cooled.

Stir, and serve.

OH HAI YARN DIET and some actual knitting

I may not have been knitting much at all for months and months (it's been impossible around Mr GiantBaby), but I've continued to buy yarn, slowly, in little bits and bobs. This combination of factors is not good, and after the last infusion of stuff into my stash, I called Yarn Diet until I get some of my many wips and planned projects out of the way. To help with that, I picked up a set of nickel DPNs from Knitpicks during my last bout of frustration induced retail therapy. I thought, maybe, if I spoiled myself with some new tools, I might be more likely to use my ever-multiplying stash of materials.

In aid of this lofty goal, I picked some rescued yarn out of my stash and decided to make my mom's Christmas present, which would be a circular lace shawl. If it's on one needle, in a circle, it'll be harder for the little guy to rip it our of my hands. That's the theory anyway.

I decided to use the 1940's lace tablecloth pattern from knitting-and.com - so far I've gotten through row 57, in two or three after-the-kids-go-to-bed sessions. Including a night in which MrGB did no such thing, and I discovered that he is less interested in pretending to be a cat in relation to my yarn and more interested in trying to sit on my shoulder while turning my work lamp on and off. Different? yes. Better? Maybe.

I'll let you know if I develop any exciting injuries this time. In any case, I've come back to being able to knit and things are going well. I may even get to put up a FO post some time. Perhaps I'll knit a pig with wings or a flaming snowball to commemorate the occasion.

Looking Busy

I'm distracting myself while my sweetie is deployed. I have lots to do, since I am suddenly parenting alone, and it'll be the better part of a year (optimistically) that I'm doing this. So, why not turn it to my advantage? I'm taking my frustration (and lonliness, and sadness, and just plain missing my other half) and using it as fuel towards my goals.

I have introduced a new daily/weekly routine, one that is designed to not be easily disrupted when he comes back. It's easier to do this while he's gone, anyway, since I'm not working around his routine right now.

A major change is that I'm using the kids as a vehicle for more exercise. I need to exercise - I hate feeling this weak. In any case, MrGiantBaby is finally old enough to take to the park and chase around (plus he doubles as a weight, since he's about 30 lbs now). We now go out for an hour of walking/playground time every day, come home for lunch, followed by naps. I do housecleaning during naptime, and this will likely be my last mid-day internet time, since that's restricted to an hour and a half max per day, preferably in the early morning or late evening.

On the creative front, I got the tree up and decorated it with cut paper snowflakes (among the things we left behind were our Xmas decorations). Pictures to come when I get enough made that you can't actually see the tree unless the lights are on. I'm also rearranging my office/workspace this weekend (I've got a 30-pound, 18 month old motivator for that, let me tell you - he spend more time taking my craft area aprt thatn I get to put it back together again), and might actually get to budget in some sewing time again once my routine gets, well, routine.

It's still pretty chaotic around here, but I'm at least looking busy.

Happy Holidays

An easy Ikea hack

This is what I did to make over the ultra-basic LÄTT kid-size table and chairs. I was really tired of cleaning the not-overly-slick surface of the pressboard panels and wanted to do something more interesting with them.



We had a section of very nice decorative vinyl shower curtain lying around (we'd used it for a messy mat for eating or playing on, but I plan to replace it with something more rug-like). After I took apart the table and chairs, I cut the vinyl in appropriately sized pieces with about an inch extra on every side. Then I wrapped it around the edges and taped it tightly over the panels with duct tape and pushed/slid them into their grooves (this took a bit of work and some gentle hammering). The duct tape really only needs to hold the covering in place long enough for assembly, as the essembled items will secure it in place. Finally, I reassembled the chairs and table.

I like this because it requires no paint, no new tools, and can be done with anything, really, as long as it's not too thick (wallpaper, fabric or even clear contact paper laid on pieces of kid art would work great). Also, you can change out the decorative coverings easily if you or the kids get bored with the look.

Blogstalky week 5&6

First, since I cannot find the photo I want to use for week 5 (statue), I'll just tell you about it. It's a memorial at the Mountain View Cemetary in Oakland, California. Victorian or Edwardian, for a little girl, it's a big white marble block with a little girl lying on it as if she's asleep, and it's not easy to read.

Very sad, but commonplace, right? The interesting bit is that every time I've gone there, to photograph the cemetary (a hobby of mine) or just to enjoy the contemplative beauty and read about the occupants, I've found that someone has left a small stuffed animal in her arms. Sometimes it's been there for a long time, dirty and bedraggled, and sometimes it is new. It's been going on for years, because I've been going to that cemetary since 1986 or so, and as far as I know it still goes on.

It's absolutely the most touching tribute I've ever seen left at an old memorial. Beats plastic flowers hands down.

Now to week 6: a day in the life.

I'm skipping my usual day, because it's boring: I get up, drink coffee, make breakfast, care for my kids, do chores, squeeze in a few minutes of crafting time, brush teeth, pass out, get up and do it again.

Today, it's more exciting than that, because the whole of San Diego County is on fire, or seems that way. We have not evacuated yet, but I've made my list of what we are taking in event of evacuation.

So here's my evacuation packing list:

1. Air mattress, crib mattress, playpen
   
2. sheets/blankets
3. clothes (grabbing 4 bags of freshly done laundry) and shoes (from shoe rack in hallway)
4. Husband's uniforms
5. First Aid Kit
6. Contact lenses/glasses/allergy meds
7. Diapers
8. Plastic File boxes with important papers
9. Flash drive with virtual important papers
10. Key Volunteer Binder
11. Small knitting project (kids' going out toys are already in the car)
12. Digital camera (already took photos of all valuables that will be left behind, including spinning wheel)
13. Water from garage (1 flat sippys, 1 box bottles)
14. 1 pot and 1 frying pan, plastic dishes, cups and 2 sport bottles
15. Toiletries (shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste)
16. Storybook for amusing children
17. Stroller and babywrap
18. my computer if I have time (it's not insured).

A lot of this can't really go in the van yet. Other than that, I've been watching the news for evacuation notices, and dealing with hot, frustrated kids who want to play outside and can't. Mr GiantBaby is currently throwing a tantrum because FX brought a toy downstairs that the both wanted, and I took it away because they fought over it.

Yay.

I'm also trying to work out whether I should sort laundry, make dinner, or just get everything packed to get evacuated. The news says we're probably fine for now (two sets of hills between us and the current fire that may cause evacuations), since the fires that are heading for the sea are running along valleys.

The ash fall is getting thicker, but it's still not bad. The smoke made the sun look like a red disk in the sky this morning, I can't open the windows for ventilation due to the smoke and we have no air conditioning. With both fans going full blast, it's about 85 in here.

Crabby hot kids, worried mother. Mr GiantBaby just bit me.

Stuff On the Worktable

Here's a quick rundown of my current projects, and a cool thing I figured out for a small work area. Projects first!

This first one is a two-layer dressup sun/royalty crown I made for my kids. It's a big pain to sew, though, because of the fiddly shape of the rays, so I probably won't be making any to sell that are just like this. I'm also planning to make a soft tricorn hat and a pointy hat, but the little guys have to wait for those. The big sewing project (my formal and Laura's formal) is going to eat up a large amount of my time.

The second thing I'm making is a soft toy inspired by the fact that little kids love to pull all the tissues or wipes out of a box. I'm calling a it a "magic tissue box" and the "tissues" are serged random shaped fabric pieces, different on each side They connect with hook-and-loop, so they pull out one after the other, but will tear away for safety, and connect to the bottom of the "box." The box is actually a box bag without a zipper, overlapped to give the illusion of closure.

I'm making one for Mr Giant Baby to replace the cardboard-and-knotted-fabric prototype, and one to test the waters with in my Etsy shop. I had several goals for this:

1. Stimulating patterns and colors, maybe also textures
   
2. Washable, all fabric
   
3. Soft
4. Safe (so no knotted-together pieces of fabric)
5. Portable, so it has a handle, and the "tissues" connect with hook-and-loop so they don't get lost easily

They are still in progress, and I'm still deciding whether I want to add round and square tissues or keep with the random triangles and rectangles I've been using. Also, I have a few threads left to trim..



This is a hint of the colorful pieces for something I am planning to sell, which is a terrycloth teething toy. Mr Giant Baby has already worn his prototype nearly out, but he'll get a new one of these, too.

My goals for this one are:

1. Bright colors and interesting patterns
2. Teethable surfaces (terrycloth)
3. Washable and quickly drying
4. Interesting surfaces
5. Loop for hooking to stroller/carseat

Pictures when I have more than just parts!

Finally, this is my solution to having only one worktable, two machines I need to switch between, and a small work area (so adding another table is impractical). I got this turntable with a TV stand that was Freecycled to us, and since my husband didn't want the turntable it was sitting around useless - until I realized it would fit on my worktable, and it would hold both my machines (which happen to share the same type of pedal/cord). It works fabulously, and all I have to do to switch machines is unplug one, spin and plug in the other. It's really fast if I do my matching thread setup before I start.

And here is the coolest thing, which I figured out recently - I can fit my small cutting mat on the end of the worktable next to the turntable, so I can cut things out without having to move the machines around! Yay for better organization in small spaces.

Going Fabric Shopping Today

...because I'm a nut and I volunteered to make a gown for my friend Laura, since we're both curvy and weird to fit. It's just plain better to make it from scratch if you have to have that much fitting done, I say. 

I am taking Mr GiantBaby along, because Husband is exhausted (they do that to you regularly in the Marines, apparently), and he doesn't need 2 rambunctious kids running him over all day without backup. This means that all the stuff has to go with me too - stroller (no baby carrier, since he's HUGE and I'm already uncomfortable), cloth diapering stuff, feeding utensils (he's VERY into spoons), cup, juice, bag with toys...

And then there's what I need to bring - My swatches, since Laura and I are trying not to be clashy (we'll be hanging out all night while the men BS and drink, so we decided not to be clashy or matchy), the patterns, The Girly Stuff Survival Kit. Yeah, it's the Eve of That Week, and my uterus feels like it's warming up for a marathon. Ouch. 

Blogstalkers: I'm making my Purse Guts post after I get back, because it's much more interesting after a day out. It's all boring now, what with me having cleaned it day before yesterday. 

Also expect a "what I'm up to lately" post, since I've got the photos taken. I was just too lazy to write about them.

Really, it's knitting related!

Today, I go in to the Naval Hospital to go through the monthly patient orientation for tubal ligation patients. As you can imagine, I'm thrilled I'm on the list. I've been wanting a tubal since the birth of my second child, most recently mentioned here as Giant Baby of yarn destroying (and knitting unraveling) fame. I love my kids, but I know when I'm outnumbered, and I swear that it's only a matter of time before you read about them duct taping me to the wall and running off in my car.

But - my need-to-fidget, ADD body is looking toward an hour or two of boring presentations and Q&A with, well, dread. How will I hold still? Will the medical staff get angry that I'm so fidgety? How many other women will be there (well, you know, men just don't have this procedure)?

So I'll be bringing my knitting/small fidgety projects bag, which is this old shoulder-tote bookbag I got at Bookpeople in Austin when I lived there. I actually have two, but one is beige instead of lavendar, and it's missing. I'll probably have Bobby and the Scarf (which is now over 2 feet long! I know I've mentioned somewhere that I'm positively the slowest knitter ever) stuffed in there, with those charts and some graph paper , and a pencil, and maybe some spare yarn and needles. That's a lot of stuff, and my small projects are all in these little repurposed vinyl bags (ugly, but practical).

Also, I finally squeezed the money out of my budget to buy a Monkey Bag, which I await with barely contained greed. Too bad I have to wait, but I can take consolation from the fact that it'll go with me on procedure day.

Blogstalkers! The Navelgazing Post, or, it's all about me.

In honor of the reanimation of Knitty Coffeeshop Blogstalking, I've redecorated. However, I took the easy way out, and just used a template, so expect it to change again when I get around to it. Maybe I'll just spend some time trying on templates. I dunno.

Anyway - we're supposed to be self-centered this week. I'm awful at that (see! That's about me!). Personally, I think I'm boring, while the things I do, the places I've been, and the people around me, are interesting.

Here's an example of the boring, the normal, the unremarkable:

I'm 37. I have 2 kids. I'm averagely pudgy and averagely tall. I have averagely large feet. I have 3 sisters and 2 brothers, and three stepparents. I wear glasses. I drive an old, third-hand minivan. I had three years of college, and left to work without my degree.

The Interesting:

I grew up in California. I'm from Berkeley/North Oakland, with moves to Santa Cruz, Monterey, Mendocino, San Jose, San Diego, out of state to Texas, Oregon, and Illinois, and out of the country to Ireland (in early childhood). I've lived everywhere from very urban environments to very rural environments - places I had to carry mace, and places I had to feed horses and care for sheep. I like to tell people I was raised by a pack of wild intellectuals in the woods, which is close to the truth.

I've been doing fiber arts in some form since early childhood. So long, in fact, that I don't really know when I learned to spin. I know it was after 1973, because Susan Druding says that's when she sold my mom her wheel. I know I've been weaving since I was six or so, as I used to have a tapestry I made hanging in my room. I also don't remember when I learned crochet, but I remember my first attempt to learn to knit. It was AWFUL - my mother decided we would learn together, and we didn't. The resulting scarf was very 1970's, acid green, big "deliberate" holes, gauge problems, etc. I hated it, I hated knitting, and I never wanted to do it again. My mother hated the scarf so much she gave it away, and I remember being angry that she gave it away, because it was so hard won I did not want to part with it. Well, at least Nadia liked it, which is more than the horrid thing deserved.

I sew, and I sew all kinds of things. This week I designed a bra pattern for 1-way stretch denim I had lying around, and it is so comfortable. I'm also making my dress for the Marine Corps ball (in November), and I recently had fun doing brainless sewing for my living room (see the previous entry). I can drape, flat-pattern, and estimate yardage in my head. All for a hobby.

Professionally, I've been a bookshop clerk, a warehouse worker (I was so slim and strong, if only it had paid better), an administrative assistant, a graphic designer, a security guard (really), an illustrator, a web designer, a theatrical costume designer, a telephone operator, and a bridal dressmaker's assistant. I've also worked in restaurants, from being an assistant dessert chef at a 4-star gourmet place to managing a pizza parlor near a university.

I have geeky hobbies - I'm in the SCA, and I have done historic reenactments, museum volunteering (costumed interpreter, collections processing, docent). I like to play computer games (though I hardly ever get to anymore - I used to be really good at Quake.), and tabletop RPGs. I read a lot - everything from mysteries (I prefer historical ones where the authors have done lots of research that only other people like me would care about, of course), to horror, to fantasy, to hard research materials. I've been known to read encyclopedias for fun. I recreate medieval wire jewelry, collect beads (and sometimes use them), and cook stuff. I used to (before kids) work as a convention volunteer staffer for as many as three conventions a year, mostly science fiction. It's like herding cats, and that's just dealing with the important people :)






Um, I also used to be cool (sort of). I had a mohawk, and I have a tattoo on my scalp, of a knotwork roundel from the Book of Lindesfarne. Once, when I was a phone bank volunteer for KTEH in San Jose, the actor who plays Lister on Red Dwarf scared the crap out of me by sneaking up to take a photo of it. I managed to get a picture with him for that :) He is, by far, one of my favorites of all the "famous" people I've ever met (and I've met a lot of them).




See? it's the things around me that are interesting (even my hair is more interesting than me), not me. But I guess I clean up okay :)

Interior Decoration, Budget Style

When we moved, we had to store our livingroom furniture (two heirloom ironwood tables - too heavy; a large l-shaped sectional - too big; a steel and glass display cabinet - too heavy and too big; and a restaurant shelving entertainment center - didn't want to disassemble it), so we had nothing for the living room when we got here, except some pillows, some boxes, and some blankets.

We had planned to get some replacement furniture from Ikea, but they were out of all the cushions the day we went, so we didn't get any of it. And we ended up spending the money budgeted for that living room on other things in ensuing weeks. While the rest of our house was furnished, the living room sat empty and forlorn. Nothing but an area rug, boxes, sad and battered pillows, blankets and a big tv. It looked like a 'first apartment' story when you walked in the door, without the motorcycle on the carpet.

Later, I freecycled a loveseat, chair, and ottoman, which were originally white/yellow damask but had become ugly, dirty, ... and smelly. Cleaning was ... ineffective. We covered them with the blankets and used lots of Febreze for a couple of weeks. I got 20 yards of navy blue brushed microfiber, imprinted with a tiger-stripe pattern (invisible unless looked at closely) for a dollar a yard at Valdemart, which, when combined with my staplegun, worked just dandy to do a quick and dirty re-upholstery job on the used furniture.

At some point, we figured out the tv would fit nicely on top of Chris's footlocker. It looked okay for awhile (interestingly, this living room was still iffy enough that the only images I have are focused on my kids). We also got a torchiere from Valdemart and some wire grid shelves from Tarjay. It began to come together. The boxes began to leave the room.

Then, I freecycled a nicer, but still used, (and green) comfy chair and had to work that in, too. The same week, I ran by Ikea and bought 20 yards of end-of-season fabric (4 different, semi-coordinating fabrics). I love the end of season fabric. I made new covers for my pillows and even made drapes. I made a throw for the sofa, and I have enough left over to make all kinds of other stuff.

Then, later the same week,I discovered that the nearby daycare center was tossing lots of old, school quality, furniture (I'm guessing they got a grant to replace their old stuff), so I asked, got permission (crucial when dumpster scoring nice stuff!), and picked up three low storage shelves and a kids' workbench. The low shelves became a sofa table, a television stand, and the base for a wall unit also made up of a small chest of drawers and some of the grid shelving.

Here we have the curtains,

and some art I made to fill the large, empty wall.

So, now we have a living room full of furniture and I think we have spent 60 bucks. there's still a large box draped with extra fabric pretending to be an end table between the two chairs, but the rest are gone.

I want to do a really pretty, magazine style shot, but that requires a lack of cookies on the floor and good light. Maybe tomorrow.