My Very First Craft Post Ever!

If you know me, you know I'm not crafty. If you don't know me, well then welcome! I'm not crafty.

I found a tutorial for simple, no sew baby bodysuits that I just had to try. Everyone around me is having babies lately, so this seemed like the perfect craft to take a crack at.

On a side note, did you know that that one word we all use for "baby bodysuit" is actually copyrighted. I will, henceforth on this blog, be calling them "baby bodysuits" so as not to receive any threatening letters in the mail from a certain copyright holder's legal department.

The tutorial mentioned a product called Wonder Under. My mom (who, unlike me owns and can operate a sewing machine) says there's another one called Stitch Witchery. Whatever they call it, it's a miracle! You can iron one side to any fabric you want and then uncover the other side and iron it onto any other fabric - clothes, cloth napkins, curtains, etc. It makes me feel like a genius AND keeps me from passing out from blood loss as a result of stabbing myself trying to sew.

So here's the project:

You can tell this is my first tutorial post because I almost forgot to take the "in process" photos.

Pattern

The Wonder Under comes with paper on both sides. I took the paper off the first side and traced my design onto it with a marker. If you're planning on using really light fabric, I'd recommend tracing much more lightly with pencil or pen. I didn't think about this until after I used marker, but fortunately the marker didn't beed from the heat of the iron and my fabric was dark enough that the marker didn't show through.

I cut out my design and then took the paper off the back side of the Wonder Under. It's easier to cut your design when the paper is still on because it's a little more rigid. I started to pull the paper off and then thought better of it. Fortunately, that little start of pulling the paper off came in handy too. Once the design is completely cut out, it can be hard to find a loose edge of paper to pull on.

Bird in Process

Vest in Process

When I got to this point, I felt like something was missing. If I were a seamstress - or capable of looking at a sewing machine without fear that my hair will spontaneously burst into flames from the stress - I might have chosen to sew a border around my designs. I did not choose to do that. Instead, I chose this to puffy paint around the edges to finish it off.

Not being one to waste scraps, I took one scrap, ironed it to another scrap, and practiced painting the edge so that I didn't ruin one of my adorable bodysuits.

Once you get the paper off the back, iron the design onto the bodysuit per the instructions on your iron on fabric stuff. I was making a couple of boy bodysuits and a couple of girl ones.

Practice Painting

Little Man Bodysuit Complete

Sweet Girl Bodysuit Complete

And Done! See? That wasn't so bad, now was it? We can be crafty! All we need is the right craft!

Pickin' and Grinnin'

**First off, a little note of apology for the ridiculously bad formatting of this post. I spent over two hours tonight trying to get things to line up correctly and they just wouldn't. SO FRUSTRATING! I'd blame it on Blogger not communicating with my Mac, but it does it at my parent's house on their PC too. I'm seriously thinking of switching to another host. I have so little time to write anyway, I want it to be enjoyable when I do. This formatting stuff makes me so mad I put off posting at all, which frustrates me even more! If anyone has any ideas on how to make it better, I'm happy to hear them. Ok, rant over. **

The mother of one of our good friends has an amazing property just outside of town. It backs up to a little creek, has an amazing yard and garden, and it's practically overrun with apple trees! The tennants told our friends that they didn't want the apples or any of the produce from the garden. So... a little while back three families from our small group took a field trip to steal the apples and raid the garden see the beautiful area and spend some quality time together.

 

Straight away, Elise showed
Norah around Nana's house.

 

 

Penny and Isaac spent some
quality time together too.

The confused looks I got when I asked, "Watcha eatin'?

It was less confusing when I just said,
"Show me your apple!"

Yum!

Jazzy modeling her apple.

Those feet up there belong to Darin, Jazzy's dad and
our designated "tree shaker".

 

Norah inspecting the haul.

While the daddies were pickin' the
girls went down to the creek.

Norah encouraged her friends to climb rocks.

There was posing for photos,

And lots of giggling!

This is about as high as Jazzy got.

In the mean time, Penny hung out
happily on the blanket.

When he got tired of his seat, Isaac helped
his mom text some friends.

And Isaac chilled out in his car seat.

My handsome husband got to help himself
to some garden fresh herbs.

And the girls had a dance party in the planters.

Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to practice some photography on the less mobile of my two little subjects.

Leaf inspector.

Leaf taster.

Super Baby!!

This is my absolute favorite photo that I've taken of Penny in the last month. I know you can't see her face, but there's just something so very... Penny about the image of her exploring her world, content, on her own. I'm actually thinking of having this one put on canvas. It won't be long before I'll have trouble remembering when she was this small.

Sort of a Genius

Norah has been playing with the magnetic letters on the white board at my mom's house. She's definitely shown an interest in reading and spelling. She already writes "sentences" (strings of squiggly lines) for us and tell us what they say. My mom, the veteran teacher with thirty years of experience says this is a great sign.

Today we noticed that she spelled her first word.

At first my mom figured it was just an accident. We don't even know anyone named Sharon. Then she realized that "Sharon" is actually "Norah" spelled backward with an "s" added. It could still totally be an accident but I'm gonna be a good mom and tell everyone that my kid is a genius.

It Matches!

Yesterday morning I went downstairs to get Norah up for church. She looked at me and asked, "Mom, do I have a pull-up on?" Saturday was a hang out in your jammies day but she had worn panties under her footie pajamas. Daddy had put her to bed the night before so I told her I didn't know. She unzipped her jammies and gapsed in surprise! She had slept without a pull-up and she was dry!

Truth be told, she'd been sleeping dry for months. I was mostly just trying to use up the pull-ups that we had. I can't bring myself to throw those things out, they're so expensive, and I didn't want to store them until Penny grows into them.

Anyway, she was so excited that she'd stayed dry I figured it was a great opportunity to reinforce that idea. I'd seen a pair of Hello Kitty rain boots the day before that I knew she'd love. She's been really into Hello Kitty lately, thanks to a Heallo Kitty sweatshirt she got for her birthday. I bought the boots and put them aside for just this type of occasion. They are now the only shoes she has any interest in wearing. She's already informed me that she'll be wearing her new boots in the snow as well. We'll see how long that lasts once it actually gets cold.

This morning, Norah decided to dress on a character theme. She was so excited that her sweatshirt, belt and boots all match. My little fashionista.

Haircut and Photo Shoot

It was well past time for Norah to get a haircut. As my mother was fond of saying when I was a child, "She looked like a pig lookin' out from the bushes." I have no idea if this is some kind of saying in the midwest where my grandparents came from or if it's just something Mom's family said, but it definitely made it into her vernacular. Looking at this photo, though, it's a fairly apt description.

At first she was worried that it would hurt to get her hair cut.

Once she realized it didn't, she was quite the happy little client. She took one look at her new 'do and started beaming. She even liked her "hair cutter lady" so much that she let her put her hair in pigtails.

Despite the fact that she has pigtails in most of our "professional" family photos, it is something she almost never voluntarily lets me do!

Since her hair was freshly coiffed, and she was wearing her new favorite skinny jeans that we got on vacation (they're from California so they must be cool!) I decided to do an impromptu photo shoot. I've been working on taking a few tips from the photo pros whose blogs I read. I'm trying to avoid doing so many posed shots. They never work with pre-schoolers anyway.

This is what happens when you ask a three year

old with a sucker to look at you and smile.



This is what happens when you ask her again.

This is what happens when you have someone else
distract her. Much better!


 

She just had to smell all the flowers,
so I got some action shots.





Who could resist a cute little tushie shot?



Double Rainbow

The other day I was walking to my car after work. My walk takes me through the parking lot of the liquor store across the alley. Classy, I know. As I walked through the parking lot, a guy came out of the store. As he passed me on the way to his car he said under his breath in a sing-song voice, "Doublerainbow" He kind of said it the way Tim Gunn might say, "Fab-ulous" on Project Runway. 

I was a little confused. I thought to myself, "Gee, I wonder what kind of liquor Doublerainbow is..." Then I came around the corner and saw this:

It was the brightest, clearest double rainbow I've ever seen.

Then, the rainbow followed me! All of the following photos were taken from my car on the way to my parents' place while I was stopped at various red lights (thankyouverymuch).

Anyway, nothing super deep or inspirational. Just thought I'd share with you all about the time I got followed to my parents' place by a rainbow. You're welcome.

In Other News...

Now that I've documented all of our adventures in California, it's time to update my tens of readers on what has happened since then. We're going in no particular order, because it's my blog and that's how I feel like doing it. So, let's start with this little slice of whimsey:



I took a picture of this... erm... we'll say "motorbike" on my phone while I was parked in front of my favorite coffee shop here in town. I was all chicken and took it through the car window (unintentionally including part of my finger) because I didn't want anyone to be like, "Hey! Don't take pictures of my awesome 'motorbike'!"

But the reason I took the picture was because this... thing, this very, very... interesting... thing, totally represents what is awesome about the town I live in.

Here, we are resourceful, tough, and creative. We're quirky but we have a great sense of irony. Most of all we own our quirks. Yep, I doubt you'll find another town in the west with a population more proud of their quirks. So I thought I'd take a moment to point out all of the features of this... I'm still going with "motorbike"... and demonstrate why this should probably be the official city vehicle.

First off, let's address the resourceful part. The three towers of plastic drawers bungeed to the back are a fantastic addition. They're like several miniature trunks in which the rider can keep wrenches, bolts, keys, a spare pair of socks and possibly even important documents folded up really, really small.

Now how about tough? You'll notice there's a yellow poncho on top of the drawers. That's right. This driver scoffs at the rain. Would minor Autumn monsoons stop this guy? Not a chance! Frankly, I would be completely unsurprised to see this thing driving around town in the dead of winter.

Let's move on to creative, shall we? Need I even point out the faux (I assume) lambswool seat? At this elevation the sun really bakes vinyl imitation leather, so it makes sense to upgrade to a more comfortable seat post haste.

Quirky. Yeah. I don't think that one even needs an explanation. Plus, I can't pick just one quirky element.

We have a sense of irony. I don't think you can make it out in the photo, but the name of this particular vehicle, written in very fast looking font, is The Sherpa. Of course it is. Because this thing was obviously purposed specifically to transport ones possessions through perilous mountain passes to dizzying elevations. What else could it possibly be meant to do?

Finally, let's talk about owning your quirks. If you want to communicate loud and clear that you're proud of your quirky... I'm gonna stick with "motorbike"... how would you do that? I submit to you that bright gold rims are definitely the way to go. They add the bling to an otherwise ordinary army green and chrome, lambswool clad, plastic bureau and poncho outfitted high altitude transportation vehicle. They say, "No, I'm not driving The Sherpa because it's all I can afford. I deserve a vehicle as unique as my journey! I am the author of my own epic adventure! I am the Captain of my 'motorbike'!"

It is exactly that spirit that permeates the community in which I live. Whether we express our unique point of view through our commitment to maintaining floor-length dreadlocks, our insistence that hula hooping is both exercise and the highest form of visual art, our crusade to educate society about the psychological benefits of macrame or our desire to do something really crazy like wear a collared shirt to work, we are all, in our own way, the Captain of our "motorbike".

And we wouldn't have it any other way.