The Good, Good Taste of Naptime

With my oldest in daycare and my maternity leave going until late September, this summer naptime is, wait for it...ME TIME! Not that naps are at all consistent or even all that long and there is always laundry and housecleaning and all that other stuff. But, on occasion, naps will extend beyond the time it takes to keep the house humming. And, lately this has happened more than once. I hope I didn't just jinx myself but there you have it. At the same time, our CSA is in full swing and the refrigerator is chock full of amazing greens and assorted vegetables. As a result, I've found myself reaching for this cookbook a lot lately, Feeding the Whole Family by Cynthia Lair. Cynthia is an instructor at Bastyr University in Seattle and an editor of Mothering magazine. The cookbook is full of information on foods good for breastfeeding moms and for just-eating babies. But, the recipes are also good and tasty not just healthy. I highly recommend it. And, who can resist the cover, made by the amazing Nikki McClure! With my pockets of time I was also able to sit down and read this article on Urban Homesteading in this week's NYTimes magazine. And, the article included a great recipe for a lemon tart. Now, I have a tart pan but I didn't even know it. I had to go to the Williams Sonoma website to see what a tart pan looked like in order to be sure that what I had was the right thing. My confidence in baking is so low. But, I'm getting there. So, I cooked up this lemon tart and I love it! I did substitute my own recipe for the pastry crust because I wanted to use the Cuisinart, which makes it so easy. And, the magazine's recipe had a great tip for rolling out the dough--stick it between two sheets of cling film. It's brilliant, it sticks to nothing and you can roll it as flat as you'd like. The tart itself is very rich and next time I might remove the lemon rinds because they can be strong but overall it was very good.

the evolution of a hat

Felt a strong need to make something for myself the other week. So, I pulled Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing off the shelf and made her sunhat. It felt at times a little too awkward than it should be and sure enough, it turned out RIDICULOUS. This picture really doesn't capture how mad-hatteresque it looks. And, I found the brim far too long, good (I suppose) if you were gardening but when I wear a hat with this wide of a brim I can't find my son...no periphreal vision.
So, I took another stab at it, shortening the brim by two inches. I discovered that I had inadvertently flipped the hat crown such that the sudtle flare down (you know, so that it fits across the forehead and narrows up around the top of your head) was facing up. This would be why it felt so awkward to sew and looked so silly. I'm much happier with the shorter brim and correctly sewn hat crown.

Ironically, the picture of the hat I like is a worse picture than of the ridiculous hat. I mean, seriously, is that chicken neck! Aren't I too young for that?

Favorite Apron to date

My first 'full contact' apron, made using the pattern in Seams to Me. It is for Grandma, who makes the world's best jam, applesauce, sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookies, and banana bread in the world. And, this is exactly why the apron needed to be so sweet!

I really like this apron and the pattern is pretty great. I did do some shortcuts as Anna Maria's projects do tend to be meticulous and have lots of steps. That said, the apron has a pleat and a shaped waistband, all of which make the final product really nice. I decided against pleating the bottom half her style and did a quicker ruffle style, I also did not cut the head strap on the bias because I didn't have enough contrasting fabric. And, I skipped making a pocket for the same reason. Quick question: Why do aprons have pockets? I don't really use the pocket.

This was one of those projects where I spent the whole time thinking about my grandma and how much she was going to like this. At every step, picturing how much she would like the little details. And then, when it was all done, I had a quick little 'I kind of want to keep this for myself' moment. Somewhere in me a twelve year old still lives.

I Feel an Art Party Coming On.

While it is nice to have an art smock so you are ready for art projects at any time, it is even better to share it with friends. So, a few buddies got art smocks of their own. Maybe soon it will be time for a toddler art party! That sounds both wonderful and potentially very, very bad.

You Must Be Mistaken...

that's not a tear, ok, maybe it is. After one and half years with the same amazing caregivers, and from bottlefeeding all the way to drinking from a sippy cup my son had his final day at his daycare. Next week he starts at "Big Kid School" and we all take a deep breath. (I mean I know he is ready but there are five year olds there. What?!). To commemorate and thank the staff we made a wall hanging for them.

I stitched a little house emanating hearts using a straight stitch and flannel fabric onto white fabric and then stuck it to freezer paper to make it solid. Then my son painted on it, regular kid paint in case he ate it. After that I sewed scraps around it in a hodgepodge style..I wasn't all that concerned with exactitude and wanted a kind of kid-like look anyway. Then I quilted it sewing a hanging loop onto the top. It turned out crazy and chaotic and well just right in my book.

Public Service Announcements (including a giveaway)!!

Four things that everyone should know:
1) My amazing and talented friend Erin Jane of ErinJane Designs is giving away an amazing piece of her handmade jewelry. So head on over and enter her giveaway, it is open until August 5th.

2) Another dear friend of mine has started a blog about her summer at home with her daughters, Stay at Home Summer. Check it out, she is a fantastic writer and mother with great thoughts and even better articulation of those thoughts about motherhood.

3) I'm a sucker for a grab bag, always have been. Oh, the fun of a surprise. As a child, our local toy store always had them for a dollar. I love the joy of those cheap plastic toys and little parachute men all because of the surprise. So, I was delighted to see that Reprodepot.com, already an amazing fabric site is offering scrapbags of their fabric when you order over $50 worth of material. I'm unfortunately on a fabric diet because I've been overindulging lately (and this is very hard for me already!) so I'm not going to be able to pick up this one but thought I ought to pass it on.

4) There is a great organic movement going on within the fabric world. The designer behind Cicada Dreams is starting a line called Cloud 9 Fabrics and Daisy Janie, who has a great blog and etsy shop. I should add they are not only organic but also gorgeous fabrics and great for the sewing done for little people. If you happen to be fabric shopping, it can't hurt to support a good growing thing.

Quick T-shirts for change

No, not for a political movement. But, something nearly as pressing...the transition of my 2 year old to a different school with different teachers (but run by the same people as his current school) is just around the corner. So, similar to my hope with this top, I quickly made these so his first week of school (mixing these in with some he already has) will involve clothes he is pretty excited about. The horse top is all freezer paper stencil with a sewing stitch thrown in. The car top was lots of fun to make. I fused interfacing to the back of bits of old t-shirts, then cut bits and pieces as I pleased and sewed them together to make the car, adding stitched for details. I think there is going to be alot more of this in my future. The letters are from something I got at Michaels, called Generation X or something like that. And, I can personally vouche for their longevity. These buggers go on easily and stay stuck through wash after wash, I've used them on all kinds of things.