Changes

Things have been changing like crazy around here. But most significantly, I'm working on realizing a little dream of mine. It involves a whole lot of sewing and a teeny tiny business that just might go somewhere. EarthAppleStudio is the home of my new venture and all the blogging I've been doing lately. I'll still use this for more personal and littles related blogging, at least that's the plan for now. Come have a look!

Friday Moment

Inspired by Soulamama's {this moment}.

Growing, making, learning, smiling

In 2010, we were moving. In 2011, we were moving. In 2012, we were living in an apartment and thinking about moving. It's 2013. We have a house. We have a garden. We have vegetables.

I am loving this garden thing even more than I thought I would. Part of it is the shared excitement of doing this with the family. There's actually someone else who gets excited about news like "look, the carrots are coming up!" Peanut cheered at the table when I told the family we were eating salad from our garden. Pumpkin loves going out with a pair of scissors to cut herbs.

The unexpected gift of gardening has been watching the kids. Pumpkin helps with planting the seeds, dropping them into the holes or the rows and covering them with soil. Both help with watering the garden. I thought it would be my project. It's ours.

This one, on the other hand, is part of my project. I've been following Carolyn's blog for quite a while now. She makes nearly all of her own clothes. It's amazing and inspiring. I'd like to be making more of my own clothes as well.

My latest project was this light weight corduroy skirt. It's based on a Sew U pattern with pockets drafted by me. It's kind of my perfect skirt, simple, easy, and comfy. The puffy pockets are great for a tissue or my iPod. It's also just for riding the bicycle, which I do often enough living here!

I made the top last spring, I think. I drafted the pattern based on my favorite shirt from two winters ago. The pattern is still in progress, but it's getting better every time. I need to take in the shoulders by about a centimeter, so that will happen the next time around. The fabric is a bit too heavy. A bit more drape would be nice - and maybe make it less likely to mold to and constantly show off my little pouchy belly. Learning, learning, learning!

What are you growing? Making? Learning? Loving?

Made in 2012

I have a thing for lists - lots of lists for reason and no reason, all the time. My favorite lists are the ones that are the dream lists. Books to read, places to go, things to do, things to make. In 2012, I had a "Make 2012" list. It was a long list and it kept growing. Let me count - 51 items. All sewing or knitting projects. Many for kids, some for me, some for others. It doesn't cover everything I actually made, but here are the items I got to cross off this year:

• Scarf for Peanut (match papa's) this one got lost recently, poo
• Wool pants (lined) for peanut
• Patchwork bags (games)
• Dolls from old sheets for D (5!)
• Skirt for me (Sew U pattern)
• T-shirt pattern for me
• Apron for Peanut
• Pants for Pumpkin
• Sweater for Pumpkin
• Pajama pants for Peanut
• Bibs (TAA)
• Pencil roll
• Pumpkin pillow
• Button pillow
• Peanut sweater
• Peanut socks
• Sweet baby cap for Miss. C
• Apron for Pumpkin
• Apron for Miss Z
• Apron for Peanut (yup - two in one year)
• Pajama pants for Peanut
• Clothes bag for school
• Bag for card game

That's a tidy list. With a few ravelry links and links to older posts for the very curious. I'll be working on the Make 2013 list soon.
What did you make in 2012? What are your dreams for 2013?

Urgent Bag

This week, I learned that Peanut hasn't been using the bathroom at school and that he strongly prefers to have his own clothes to put on after an accident. The bathroom bit I understand because it's a bit scary. Of course - it's stalls on his own and I neglected to ever take him for a look around. Today he came home from school and told me he had used the toilet, though, so I think that's taken care of itself.

The clothes bit presents different dilemmas. I try to keep his wardrobe a bit limited. My basic list is five bottoms, five tops, a couple overs (sweaters/hoodies), and two party shirts (dress shirts). Lately, though, we've been stretching between laundry days. Every once in a while, the last shirt or pants actually come out of the drawer once in a while, effectively announcing that it's laundry day again. Taking a shirt or pair of pants out of circulation can have a noticeable impact on our laundry/clean clothes balance. And the fact that I'm worried about this at all is fairly worrying in itself, but that may be entirely another topic.

The mama stand-by solution for an uncomfortable situation (like having to leave a set of clothes at school for a few weeks until we're sure there won't be any accident) is to pretty it up and sew. In this case we made a simple drawstring bag. Peanut picked the retro orange floral fabric, I picked the blue to contrast. The floral was from a second hand pillow case I found at a thrift store a couple years ago. The blue came from Ikea. I used a light twill tape for the straps, so we'll see how that holds up. The apple is hiding a little cheesecloth patch with his name stamped on it using a name stamp I made for him last Christmas. We'll see how that holds up, too. The bag's at school now, hopefully not to be used ever.

Out of curiosity - how do you figure out how many clothes the kids need?

Checking in

It seems that I've been away from this space for a while. Well, the plan is to start attending more regularly to share a bit of what we've been up to. Things are actually settling down a little bit in our lives. Kids go to bed easier and earlier. But perhaps more importantly, I promised myself to start working on me again after Pumpkin turned one. We passed that milestone a couple weeks ago, so the time is now! For now, a bit of catching up...

I've made some big changes in the way I cook - most of which involve enthusiastic use of our freezer. My research on-line turned up mostly batch cooking (meals in the freezer), up to a month at a time. That wasn't what I was looking for, so I've been working on developing my own system. The goal is to prep meal parts that I can put together to make fresh meals, but in less time. I've developed a few tricks over the past few weeks and will share more in the future.

I've also done some making. Here's a peek at a couple projects.

These bears (there are five) were made from a friend's favorite childhood sheet. It's my first foray into designing and crafting stuffed animals/pillows. The best part was Peanut helping me stuff them and telling me he was filling them with clouds.

There's an elephant costume in a drawer that never made it to a good picture. Must fix that soon - but believe me, it's fantastic. Mainly because of the little elephant wearing it!

Pumpkin got a beautiful wool dress of her very own - just in time for the weather to get really warm here in The Netherlands. It will make a wonderful vest next year. It's the Little Sister's Dress by Tora Froseth in Cascade 220. I modified the pattern successfully and must post notes on Ravelry.

I also revisited an old pattern of mine with new ideas. It's basically a drawstring backpack. Works up in a snap and made a cute handmade birthday gift. I love how much a little bit of lace added to this project. Must keep that in mind for future projects.

Beyond that - Peanut is heavy into writing. I'm trying to keep up with him. Got myself copies of The Write Start and Playful Learning in order to try to keep up with him. Pumpkin turned one. We like to say she's developing a personality. Standing up, making her wishes known, and still giggling like crazy once in a while. She and her brother have started playing together and it's wonderful to see how much fun they have.

And so life goes on - whether I'm writing about it or not. I've missed this space and this work. I'm looking forward to being around a bit more... ta!

Collaborative Pillow Project (CoPiP)

I love acronyms. They make my life a little more entertaining.

The CoPiP came about because I know myself too well to try to achieve random. Random is too difficult. At some point, a scheme or plan must be hatched in order to prevent any potential over-randomness, thus negating all randomness thus achieved. In other words, me no good at just closing my eyes and picking. We were given a lovely rocking chair just prior to leaving Chicago (the day before the movers arrived). For some reason, the caning in the seat has started to give. Instead of having it redone just yet, I decide to make a pillow. I've had the idea in mind for a while - a linen pillow with many colored lines using embroidery thread. So I marked lines an inch apart, Peanut picked the colors, and I stitched. It was fun. He was excited about each color. He also analyzed his choices, noticing that one shade of green disappeared into the linen background. These observations informed the next choice.

I was ready to put the pillow together when I decided to add a bit of color to the other side, too. I cut a few rectangles of coordinating fabrics and asked Peanut to arrange them. He told me he needed more to make a house. I cut, he arranged, and voila! I love this pillow and love the fact that we made it together. The back became the front and it's a nice reminder to include Peanut in my sewing projects. And it leads me to more profound thoughts - about inspiration and ideas and imagination. We'll be trying more projects in this vein. Have you? What did you make?

My Creative Space

All of this fabric went straight from the box to the shelf. It's a collection of new, thrifted, and gifted fabrics in all sorts of weights – from a voile-like weightlessness to canvas. I'm loving looking at it and wondering what it will all become. I'm not loving the fact that there isn't time to touch any of it just yet. There are curtains, peanut aprons, and a few drawstring bags waiting to be made. But until a few more boxes get unpacked, they'll just have to wait their turn.

In the meantime, Peanut is making his selections. I love that he sees fabric as potential. I love that he is already learning to appreciate that things are made and not just bought. Good, good, good!

Go see more creative spaces!

My Creative Space

We're surrounded by boxes. In fact, another 32 arrived today. We have one book case and about 30 book boxes. Sometimes it feels like the only thing we're making around here is the biggest pile of packing paper ever – to re-use... because we'll do this all again before too long.

In the meantime, I'm using this little space as my cabinet of wonders. Wonderful things to use. Wonderful ideas to contemplate. Wonderful hours coming up to tide us through what will certianly be a long, grey, wet winter. Taking a moment in my day to peek in here reminds me that the boxes are temporary. We are in-between. We are getting there – and don't forget to enjoy the journey!

Go see more creative spaces!

My Creative Space

Last week, I showed off my little traveling bag – but the real secret is inside. This is the little bag full of big surprises. I made it last spring using the Weekend-away Travel Bag pattern from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. The stitching on the outside was inspired by this skirt I saw on the always entertaining Myrtle and Eunice blog. It's made with IKEA linen and quilting cotton, so it's very light weight and squishy. It was a bit fussy to make – I'm not sure I agree with her method for putting the lining together – but it came out nicely.

And it is big. I mean really a big bag. I fit loads of stuff into this bag and can still open it wide enough to find what I need. Don't you love the mushroom print? So adorable.

This is what I fit into the bag – plus the occasional folded-up, written all over, printed out pattern. There are a lot of knitting needles. Someone who lives in my house asked me once why I keep buying more. We sigh, we shake our heads – they'll never understand. Anyway, I think I've used just about everything here at least once. Except the gray yarn I bought to darn socks. Darn socks. The red square thing is my Pinocchio tape measure. You pull the nose. Who doesn't need that?

What's in your bag? What are your essentials?

Go see more creative spaces!

Sling story

I have wanted a ring sling for a long time. We've gotten plenty of good use out of our wrap and Ergo carrier, but neither of them are particularly good for either quick on and off or putting a sleeping baby down. I've been following Danielle's blog closely and between her sling post and some encouraging emails (thank you!), she got me on track. Here's the finished product:

It's made from a mid-weight linen. After sorting through lots of options, I decided on the "floating ring" option. I like the fact that it gives a padded shoulder without having to use any additional materials. The shoulder seam (this closes the ring pouch) has three lines of stitching. Sewing this seam through six layers of fabric went better than I expected, except for the part where my bobbin ran out of thread in the middle. It would be nice to have a fancier stitch, but this works just fine.

As for using the sling, it's working out well. Pumpkin seems comfortable and it is particularly nice for nursing. The linen will be light weight for the summer, which was also part of the master plan. I will try to add a complimentary pocket eventually for carrying cash and keys. Laying sleeping Pumpkin down hasn't worked out yet, but that will hopefully change as she gets older.

House Pants

We spend a lot of time at home and in our family, we wear comfy clothes at home. It's something I learned growing up. In our house, there were school clothes and home clothes. Back then (way back then), it was to keep our school clothes in good shape. Now, it's all about comfort.

Through my pregnancy, I wore a pair of size large yoga style pants. Since Pumpkin was born, they don't fit quite as well. Let me put it another way - they're falling off. Finally, inspiration hit - house pants.

The fabric is from IKEA and the patterns is taken from my favorite pajama pants. They worked up in a couple of hours stretched out over a day or two with a toddler and newborn. I'm a happier mama - if not any more stylish. Now starting to think about how much fun it would be to color in those houses.

The bulge in front of my belly is Pumpkin in a sling. Details tomorrow!

Gift Making

Lest you think we haven't been craft, creating, and generally coming very close to making a huge mess, fear not! Days have really lost their shape lately, and making something is becoming an important way to mark that they pass. Without it, we get to Friday and I'm not sure where the time went or why I feel so tired.

This project was a set of bags for pentominoes for the cousins in the Netherlands. We picked them up at the Robie House, a Frank Lloyd Wright house on our block. They are a set of 12 shapes based on five squares. They offer infinite opportunities for making shapes and, if you're Peanut, parking garages.

I cut fabric for the bags and used masking tape to mark off squares. I colored in one square and added appropriate initials to each. Then, we let him loose with the fabric markers. It was a hoot. Taking out and putting away the markers proved to be at least as interesting as the coloring and the results were entertaining.

We sewed up the bags together, which was another adventure. A terribly skilled artist I know did freehand machine quilting with Peanut in her lap, which gave me courage. He put his hands on top of mine and we were off, sewing the bags together. Great fun had by all.

I'll try to post more projects this week!

Making the Most

My midwife's office is on the north end of Chicago. That makes it a great excuse to go see something new, which we did in spades last week. I've discovered my favorite Village Discount Outlet on North Kedzie. Both youngsters have benefited from this so far. Unfortunately, I packed away the yummy pink dresses (yup, you read right) right away. They won't fit for about a year.

We discovered Toast in Bucktown for an impromptu mama-grandma-Pumpkin lunch. Their sign (a piece of toast) and a few happy looking people in the window were enough to convince me we should eat there. Just to prove that some things are meant to be, they had three versions of egg Benedict on the menu. For some reason, eggs Benedict is not on every single breakfast menu in existence. This oversight baffles me since I think it's one of the yummiest things going. I can vouch for Toast's prosciutto version. Their Hollandaise sauce was a bit too citrusy for me, but the overall effect was yummy.

Our final stop was also my primary destination, The Needle Shop. One of my resolutions for this year in Chicago is to take my crafting more seriously. An important part of that is acknowledging the value of my crafting by investing in better materials. That has been easier for me to do with yarn than fabric, so this was an important stop to support that resolution. There was some modest purchasing.

The zipper is a zipper off a roll, something I didn't even know existed. I also picked up a bit of Wee Woodland by Keiki, a gorgeous blue solid that I didn't write down a name for (dumb), and Herringbone and Flower Fields, both by Joel Dewberry. There aren't any concrete plans for these yet, but there might be a pair of summer bloomers in there and some accents for Peanut shorts. We shall see. Regardless of where they end up, it's lovely to have them home to inspire and delight.

And still, we craft!

The crazier life gets, the more peace I find in stolen moments of crafting and writing. Thus this blog and creative projects become more valuable the more I neglect them. Enjoy the crazy logic there.

Despite being an active boy, we've avoided worn out clothes because he's just grown too fast to wear anything long enough. That's changing as of now. A few weeks ago, I noticed that the knee of his jeans were worn out. The mama sighs, puts the pants away, and waits for inspiration. One day last week, it finally happened. We put together a thrifted 100% wool sweater and some silhouettes traced out of Look, a children's picture book by Dwell Studio and came up with this:

I did a blanket stitch around the edges to keep it in place. Embroidery thread would have created a more dramatic effect, but I don't have any on hand, so a doubled strand of sewing thread did just fine. Peanut loves his new turtle. He spent the better part of the day checking it on his leg and showing it off. That's my kid!

Dressing Funny

We're not particularly fashion forward around here at the best of times, but second-week-with-two-babes is a particularly bad time. I present the evidence above. That would be mismatched stripes paired with Mama-made-some-crazy-pajama bottoms. Topping it all off we have a head scarf from Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross. It was a nice easy with clear directions. The only problem is that apparently I'm not really a head scarf kind of girl. Well - I think so, but the family disagrees. That means it's easy, but maybe not flattering. Thank goodness it looks good on one member of the family! Now to look for bits of time for a bit more sewing...

And I have no idea what he was doing with the spatula, but it's gone missing. Odd.

Slinging good times

With Peanut, baby carrying seemed like a bit of an exotic thing to try. With Pumpkin on the way - it feels more like a necessity, a common sense way to deal with baby needs and adult needs at the same time. I went ahead and made a sling for myself using two different on-line tutorials. Pictures of that will wait until there's an appropriate model, though. I wanted to make one for Peanut as well and lucky for me, Danielle did it first and kindly let me know what size to cut for Peanut. It's a nice, quick project and Peanut enjoys wearing it with "mouse." Yes, he has no idea who Mickey is and is certainly in for a surprise. What I love about him and the sling, though, is that he seems to get it. He puts it on, carries mouse, and just does what he wants to do.

He's also found that the sling itself can be quite useful - for, say, transporting cars. It's going to be fun if we get to go out with our matching slings one day. It's going to be a hoot!

She sews, too!

This time, I have a set of finished products! They are correspondence folders, inspired (again) by Amanda Soule. They are very late Christmas gifts for two lovely girls who always make me smile. My version has pockets that could work for cards, a notebook, and postage stamps. I thought about adding a pen holder, but figured it would only end up bulkier and bigger than it already is.

The main challenge in making these was trying to do a decent job on the top stitching. I don't think I really managed and find them a bit scraggly looking in that detail. There hasn't been much sewing going on around here and I'm pretty rusty. Practice will make perfect, though, so I'm planning a few more projects. I treated myself to a copy of Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing and have flagged half a dozen projects I'd like to try. What with all the free time I'll have in the next few months, it should be no problem!

Warm hands and puzzles

I'm feeling particularly triumphant about my latest knitting project. Made mittens for Peanut and not only do they fit, he loves to wear them. The weather has gotten surprisingly warm here and he's still wearing them, so we had to leave them at home.

These are made from some Mirasol Hacho 100% merino yarn I picked up in Oslo last winter. I bought 10 skeins and planned to make a sweater for myself, but it tuns out to be too colorful for my taste in big pieces. It is fabulous, though, for smaller projects, including this iPod Touch cover. The pattern is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's 36-stitch Gloves in Knitting Without Tears. This books is fabulous for inspiration and generally encouraging you that you can knit anything. It's also fun to read and funny, which continues to surprise and delight me. My changes included sizing down for Peanut, using a smaller gauge, and adding the cable on the back. The details are on my Ravelry page.

We did not bring many toys with us for this year in Chicago. In fact, what we brought was books, a teddy bear, mouse, a game, and a couple puzzles. The puzzles are nine piece interlocking puzzles drawn by Dick Bruna. He writes the Nijntje/Miffy books and Peanut enjoys them a lot. I do as well because they're mostly written in verse, which is fun to read. We picked up the puzzles at a thrift store. After cutting the pictures out of the box, the box was tossed and puzzle pieces stored with pictures in a provisional plastic bag. This weekend, they got some serious attention from Peanut and mama. Peanut spent over an hour sitting at the kitchen table putting together the puzzles over and over again. Mama took a bit of time to make new bags for the puzzles.

Not a lot of sewing has happened around here since Peanut is still able to wear the light cotton pants I made last spring (and probably forgot to blog about). It was nice to sew even a little bit again and especially nice to be able to share that a bit with him. Sharing being pressing the reverse lever together after countless choruses of "why don't we touch the scissors?" and "needles are sharp!" We're both learning.

Making again!

It's a sure sign that life is settling down a bit when there's time to make again! This morning, someone special treated me to a morning on my own and here's the result:

It's just the kind of project that makes me smile - one that went off without a hitch! The inspiration for the skirt is one that has been my summer staple for years now. I adore the easy style and comfort of this skirt, but the quality is not very good. The result is a pilled skirt that looks old when it's new. While visiting my parents this summer, some stash raiding took place and one discovery was this striped knit. There was just enough fabric for trying a pattern based on the skirt and the result is great. This 5-minute-skirt tutorial was my inspiration for working on the pattern. To my delight, the method works great. It would be interesting to try combining fabrics. My idea is to use a heavier (fall is coming!) fabric for the body and stick with the knit for the waist. Now, I just have to work up the gumption to order new fabric and make a couple more!