Growing

Whipping up a grocery bag holder took me less than an hour.  I like the result, it's pretty and useful, but more importantly I can see in this craft a number of ways that I've grown as a crafter since beginning my challenge this year.  Unlike last year, I can now:

1. Read a mention of an object, with no picture to go on, and imagine that I could make it
2. Troll Pinterest and find a number of tutorials to make that object
3. Skim the tutorials just to find the average dimensions of fabric needed, and the general techniques used
4. Compare the techniques and materials used by different crafters in their tutorials and determine which best suit my vision, skills and taste
5. Come up with my own ideal measurements, and also realize that with anything other than tailored clothes, these measurements can be fudged a little to suit what I have on hand
6. Sew the object, start to finish, using my own common sense and what I remember from the tutorials, without having to go back and reference anything

Ways that I'm still trying to grow: 

• as a businesswoman, I want to be better at choosing what to sell for my possible, future 'home baking business'.  I'm kicking myself that I bought a bottle of anise just before deciding I don't want to make biscotti after all-- what a waste!  And I've spent years baking dozens of recipes each year, and somehow I still can't decide what would be easy & popular enough to make a good home business.
• as a homeschooling mom, I want to be better at finding 'teachable moments' and opportunities to learn together aside from our formal lessons.  I don't mean through online videos or websites, either-- we all spend plenty of time staring at screens.  This weekend Radish and I plan to plant some seeds in the garden, there's a start anyway.  Gardening is a hard sell to Primo, though, I'll have to think of something else to do with him.

April Update

We are on our 'April Break' from lessons right now, and I think I agree with Radish that this is the best of our three annual breaks, because it falls in the spring.  The idea of taking a break in changeable April is that we can pick up and run out the door whenever the sun comes out, instead of having to finish math or some such.


So, you might think that since we're on break, my craft challenge projects must be humming along.  Um, no.  Last week I did *nothing*-- just couldn't get inspired to make anything.  This week was in danger of being more of the same, and derailing my challenge, until I had a conversation with Lovely Mother about crafting and inspiration, and remembered that 'when in doubt', I can always work on Snorzy's rainbow sweater.  I was stuck on that one, once again, this time just because it was time to switch from the trim color to the main color.



 

Once I worked a little on the sweater (and I mean a *little*, I picked it up near the end of nap time so I had about 5 minutes before I heard Snorzy crying), I got out of my rut and the next thing I knew, I had two ideas for sewing projects.  I can thank my friend Jen F. for the first one: she repinned one of my Pinterest pins, from my Sewing board, and I realized this is what I want to make, next week!  It's a 'shirt skirt', made from a men's XL t-shirt, from the blog Sew Like My Mom (I feel like I've made something from her blog before, but I can't think of what).  This skirt involves shirring and elastic thread, two things I've never done/used.  Here's my sweet spot for sewing projects: things from tutorials that don't require paper patterns, about which the writer of the tutorial says something along the lines of "this can be made in an hour!", yet which also involve techniques or materials that I've never used.  This project hits that spot.

 

Also, I was reading the free magazine from Hannaford supermarket, Fresh, this morning while on hold with the phone company about our lack of dial tone, and found inspiration there, too (it comes from the weirdest places, and at the unlikeliest times)!  I haven't looked up a tutorial yet, but I know I've seen them-- for a cloth bag to hold plastic bags from the store until we can take them to be recycled.  Dull, tiny, simple, yet useful and will reduce the clutter in the house rather than adding to it-- fits the bill for my craft challenge.

 

In other news, the Big Homeschool Buy is done and delivered-- I had to move books around to different bookshelves to clear out a shelf in the dining room for all of this coming year's homeschooling materials.  I'm excited about some, intimidated by others, and realizing I need to take some time this month while we're on break to read, and write some lesson plans.  The best part was that the boys spontaneously picked up a few of the books each, read a little, and declared them good.  The one I'm currently the most intimidated by/excited about (yes, both) is a unit study called Microscope Adventure.  It's like nothing we've used before.

 

Pyramid Bean Bags

I'm feeling a little more inspired around the craft challenge this week, since my lovely mother sent me a big box chock full of colorful, patterned fabric remnants from her stash, as well as a bunch of spools of colorful thread.  This week I used some of that bounty and made these pyramid bean bags, as a birthday present for Snorzy (I made a second set at the same time for a little friend, so each set has 5 bean bags in two different fabrics).  I found these on Pinterest as 'pattern weights', which would also be useful next time I sew something with a pattern since I hate pinning.



The very clear and easy tutorial is here, on a blog called Five Green Acres.  In order to close these up with the beans (I used split peas) inside, I had to use a blind stitch.  I have tried to do a blind stitch before, but this time I found a good tutorial here, at Positively Splendid (the directions are for a pillow, this was the same idea but in miniature), and really managed to do it well.  Next time we finish a box of tissues I'm going to convert the box into a little storage case/bean bag toss game to go with these.  Then I'll be all set with a handmade gift for Snorzy's birthday!  I hope he'll like them, I think he will if Radish's reaction is any indication-- he couldn't stop fooling around with these until I put them away.

The State of Things

I'm living in a state of distraction this week, from two causes:

1. poor Snorzy is under the weather, with a bad cold that leaves him whining and demanding my attention (and somehow it's made his nap more of a hit-or-miss affair than usual so I don't have that almost guaranteed hour or more to get things done on the days that we're home all afternoon)
2. I had an irritating letter from the local school, questioning the quarterly report that I sent in for Primo.  Calling the coordinator for homeschooling in the district yielded a 'don't worry, I'll call the principal about it, you don't need to re-submit anything', but at the same time the whole situation has left me shook up and unhappy about homeschooling here in a state where we have to do a lot of reporting to the local district.

Even so, I managed to get in under the wire (on Monday) with a very quick little project so that I wouldn't lose steam in my self-imposed craft challenge.  I made a sewing machine mounted pin cushion, to give me a handy place to stick all the pins I need to remove as I'm sewing something big like the sheet from the week before.


Last night I was searching Pinterest for middle school homeschooling ideas, and found something called CNN Student News, a ten minute news report with comprehension and discussion questions in an easy-to-use format.  Happy doesn't begin to describe it, I've been wanting to do 'current events' lessons with the kids since we started homeschooling, but even our little local weekly paper always has stories in it that I'd rather they didn't see.  This morning we read the questions, they watched the video, then they took turns answering the questions and we got into a little bit of discussion about some of the news items.  They loved it, and so did I!  There's nothing like finding a new homeschooling resource, and successfully implementing it.  Joy!

Crib Sheet

For my second project of my 2014 craft challenge, I went with something both simple and veeeeery useful, a crib sheet for Snorzy's bed.  I had made three flannel sheets for his cradle before he was born, but the cradle lasted only until he was about 4.5 months old before he was too big for it.  Such a bummer to have to put aside those handmade sheets! 
I did a little research (hello Pinterest, yes I'm talking about you again) and came up with three or four more projects that I'll do for this craft challenge.  However, many of them are toys-- if I could do anything in the world I'd be a toymaker-- and I began to worry that my craft challenge is going to result in spoiled kids (especially Snorzy) and a house full of extra...stuff.  So in resistance, I decided my second project would be something that I would have had to buy anyway, if I didn't make my own.
I was excited to hit Jo-Ann fabric and pick out something cute, something with critters on it, maybe in flannel...but all the 'diy crib sheets' direction I found online called for fabric of either 44 or 45 inch width, and sadly all the cute, nursery prints and flannel were 42 or 43 inches wide.  Why is that?  Maybe I could have done better at fabric.com or something, but I was looking for nearly-instant gratification here, so I settled for some lovely aqua quilter's cotton (44 in wide).
I was able to bang this together in very little time, from remembering to prewash the fabric this afternoon just before going to pick up my niece D from the high school so she could watch the boys for me, (pause, find other things to do while I wait for the fabric to come out of the dryer) to ironing, cutting, pinning and sewing the corners just before I had to bring D home, to after dinner and nursing the baby finally finishing the last bit and putting it in his crib before bedtime tonight.

Next up, toys! (maybe)

here I am, sewing the casing for the elastic (thank you to my photographer, Primo):


And here is the finished result in Snorzy's crib.  Other handmade items in view: bunny lovey (mine) crocheted blanket (made by a good friend, Jen F.)

Craft Challenge 2014

I’ve decided to make something every week of 2014, starting this past week (I’m writing on the 10th, but I swear I finished the first project on the 7th!)  I have a Pinterest board or two filled with things I want to make ‘someday’, but the other day I was looking at my ‘Snorzy’ board and was horrified to see several cute, simple things that I meant to make for him for which he is *already* too old!  Ever since I had to virtually give up knitting due to hand pain, it has been hard to always have a project on the go—it’s so much easier when all you need is two sticks and some yarn.  I find that once I get started on a project it’s not hard to stay motivated and finish in good time.  It’s just the beginning that is the biggest obstacle for me.  So many of the things I do as a homeschooling mom are either consumable or never-ending (cooking, laundry) or have such far-reaching consequences that I don’t get a satisfying ‘ahh, I’m done’ feeling (teaching the boys lessons, manners, how to live in the world).  It’s nice to have something to point to at the end of a short period of time, about which I can say, “I made that”.  Hence, this New Year’s challenge: I will ‘make something’ – complete some kind of multi-step craft project—every week of this year for a total of 52 projects by year’s end.  We’re several days into the second week and I don’t have an idea on tap yet, so we’ll see how I do at sticking with this challenge.  I’ll also have to figure out the rules for myself as I go, in regards to big projects like quilts—can I count each part of the process as a mini project?  But I give myself permission to count *very* simple crafts, as long as there is more than one step involved—for instance, see my next post, on my first project of this challenge—a Wipes Box toy for Snorzy. 

Technorati Tags: Pinterest,crafts,quilting,Snorzy,projects,challenge,2014,homeschooling,knitting,Wipes Box toy

Habits

I recently read the book The Power of Habit and it has me thinking a lot about my habits, and how they are forming my life.  According to this author, every habit (which includes much of our behavior) consists of a cue, a response, and a reward.  Sometimes it’s hard to tease the three apart, to figure out what the cue is that triggers the habit, or what the reward is from a seemingly unrewarding behavior (for example, why do I yell at my kids?  it doesn’t make me feel any better when I do, and it rarely elicits a good change from them).  Today I noticed that by changing my habits just a little—taking a shower before eating breakfast rather than after, switching up the order in which I do things in other, even smaller ways….I ended up feeling energized by the change, and found myself changing other more damaging habits (usually I somehow end up sitting on the couch all morning, instead I was up playing with the baby, cleaning, and I came up with six different ideas for blog topics too).
Another habit I’m trying to change is my tendency to do things unrelated to the boys’ lessons during lesson time, in the between minutes when no one needs me.  I get swept up in reading my current book, checking Facebook, trolling Pinterest.  I want to try to only do things related to lessons during lesson time (in terms of reading, writing, using media)- I have been less successful at making this habit switch so far, but when I do succeed with this to any extent I find that I’m more patient with the boys when they get frustrated at a difficult lesson, or when they lose focus.  Instead of having to pull myself away from something wholly unrelated to lessons straight into a crisis already in progress, I find I either sit thinking quietly and notice right away that they are getting into difficulty OR I read or do research related to lessons, and their crises don’t feel unrelated when they interrupt what I’m doing, it’s all part of the same project.  It was easier when I could still knit, that was something I could do with half of my attention and I never felt the need to ask them to wait longer than it took me to reach the end of my row, before I was ready to help with the tricky bits of their work.

Bunny Ears

I guess I mean this to be mostly a homeschooling blog, if only because that is the main thing that I am doing with my life right now—homeschooling my older two boys.  However, as I explained in my last post we are on a one-month hiatus from formal ‘lessons’, so even though I probably should be planning lessons for next month or searching for new materials to use when we get back to it, instead I’m ‘obsessively obsessing’ about my latest craft crush, the Lovey Blanket project from Deborah Moebes’ Stitch Savvy.  I first encountered this project while searching ‘Lovey Blanket’ on Pinterest (because lovies in general are my favorite thing for babies).  I was thrilled that her book was available from the interlibrary loan system, and when it arrived at my local library I happily dove right in.

Well.  It’s a beautiful project but the written instructions, the step-by-step photos and the pattern all leave much to be desired.  I love the final result so much, though, that I’m determined to make do and push through, and figure it out on my own with the hints I can manage to glean from her instructions.  So far I cut out the fabric and made the ears.  As it turns out, when I cut the fabric according to the pattern and sewed the ears using a 3/8” seam as the instructions told me to, I got ugly little skinny ears with no voluptuous ‘flop’ to them.  I’m going to try again, and now I wonder if I should cut all the pieces for the head bigger so that he doesn’t come out with a skinny, ugly little head. 

Here are the ears, my first attempt:

Small Bites

It's not ideal, but better than nothing- many Mondays this fall, I've had a little taste of help at home, in the form of my lovely niece D coming over for a two hour window after school.  She watches all three boys while I get things done around here, the kinds of things I would otherwise let slide, and the kinds of things I must do but usually have to do in a harried, hurried, start-and-stop fashion.  With two straight hours of uninterrupted (well, sometimes a little interrupted, but not as much so as usual) time, I can get a lot done.  So far today I've planned tonight's meal (no mean feat on grocery day) and written a grocery list and meal plan for the week.  Now I still have an hour left, and nothing else I need to do.

Sometimes it's hard for me to remember that it's better to spend a little time on a task, than to let it go undone.  I tend to think that if I can't devote a long stretch of time to one activity, then it isn't worth doing it at all.  This is how I end up with a small rainbow sweater started and set aside for *months*, untouched even though I enjoy knitting and actually *can't* do more than a few minutes at a time without damaging my hands further.  And this is how I find myself going back over my day when Snorzy falls asleep at night and realizing that I didn't read to him once, all day.  I'm pretty sure that never happened with the older two, I always read to them in the little in-between moments in our daily routine.  I don't know where all those moments get to these days, though I have my suspicions (I'm looking at you, Pinterest!)

Those moments add up though, running into each other, combining and solidifying into the fabric that makes up my life thus far.  Those chunky board books read to my bright-eyed boy will become the foundation for a lifetime of literacy for him, and memories of chanting the stories to him will stay with me as he grows up and away.  And those bright eyes are always watching, his and his brothers' too- I want them to see a mama who is (almost) always intentional in how I spend my time.  I reserve the right to sometimes laze in front of the tv or page through pins in search of something pretty or fun to look at.  Most often though, I want to be able to close my eyes at the end of the day with the satisfied feeling of having done all the work that presented itself to me- in teaching my boys, being careful of my relationships, creating beautiful things, and nourishing my family.