Change the Conversation

"If you don't like what's being said, change the conversation."  I've been somewhat obsessively watching Mad Men lately, catching up on this series after Sweet Hubby and I took a loooong break from watching (we don't get the channel and have to wait for it to come along on Netflix).  I find myself lying awake at night, unable to sleep, thinking about what's going on with the characters and what could happen next.  I can't blame Mad Men for my insomnia, I'd be awake anyway-- I just think it's funny that after I go through the catalog of my own worries, I turn to those of the fictional characters I'm most involved with at the moment.  Today I was trying to express to a friend what I find so interesting and escapist about this series-- and I realized (aside from the costumes) it's the relationship of the women in the show to motherhood- or rather their complete lack of interest in their children.  Even the stay-at-home trophy wives in the show (with one exception) have very little to do with their kids, more interested in their clothes, husbands and affairs.  It's not that there are no women on the show, or no mothers, or even no children-- there just aren't mothers who build their lives around their children, even while they are new mothers and the children are adorable babies.

It's little wonder I find this fascinating after a day that starts with waking to the sound of Snorzy's voice in the other room, followed by homeschooling and getting the big guys to their activities all while chasing a very active toddler, through dinnertime and shuffling everyone off to bed-- there isn't a moment of my day that doesn't have to do with my children.  And I love it, in fact I love it too much-- I can't seem to wrap my head around doing anything else with my time even though I know I'll probably be mad at myself ten or twenty years from now if I don't go back to school or find a creative outlet or a career now while I'm young(ish).


I haven't been keeping up with this blog because I haven't been keeping up with my self-imposed craft challenge-- as we started our new school year and spring turned warm and wonderful, I just couldn't get excited about making things.  The temptation is to start a new blog, the way I used to start a new journal periodically as I felt I was moving into a new phase of my life (starting college, starting a career, starting a family).  I've learned though, that what works best for me is to just turn the page and start fresh from where I am, unapologetically.  When Primo was small I bought a colorful composition book at the grocery store and started a hybrid journal/scrapbook, over the years I've continued through five of these books (every time I'm afraid I'll run out of colors and have to repeat, I'll find a new one in the stationary aisle), which veer wildly in content as I go through phases of interests-- from fashion and makeup to garden plans and children's parties, preschool play time activites, literature, career planning, homeschooling and travel.  I never worry what it's 'about' or whether it fits-- it's just a brain dump, a window into what's going on in my cranium.  Never anything very serious, I'm not out to impress anyone with my sophistication!


(the pink one on the left is the original-- started ~November 2002)

And so, this blog.  We'll see if I pick up my craft challenge again, maybe when it gets cool or something causes me to get inspired again around making things.  I'll never stop writing about homeschooling-- that is, unless I stop homeschooling.  Right now stopping is not in the cards, although theoretically I've always said that I'm only committed to homeschooling one year at a time.  So, what else will I write about?  Stay tuned and see.  For today, here is a look at my Fair Acre (um, actually just a fraction of an acre in the middle of a small city)...it seems Mr. Groundhog has moved on, so I'm cautiously planting some baby vegetables this weekend, and hoping he doesn't come back to munch them!


baby kale


my enemies-- I planted two tiny rhododendrons side by side the first spring we lived in the house, and ten years later I've threatened to tear them out nine times


and right next to my enemies, my oldest plant friend-- a Jackmanii Clematis that I planted that same first spring, ten years ago, as a little start ordered from the Kelly Nurseries catalog.  The other two varieties that I planted never grew.  Every time I think he's done and not coming back, up he pops again!


some happy hostas, my new best friends of the plant world.  I love how lush and lettuce-y they are in the spring, and how happy to grow and thrive without any fussing from me.


and, a frenemy-- the wild rose climbing rose in the middle of this shot was a tiny bush donated by a friend years ago.  I didn't realize it was a climber, or I wouldn't have put it in my precious sunny patch.  He choked out a prettier rose that grew next to him until last fall, and his tendrils catch me as I try to weed and plant in the patch.  The roses are tiny and cute and plentiful, but I think it's going to be moving day for this guy, one day soon.  For now, I have his longest branches trained up along the fence-- hope they stay that way until I figure out where to put him!

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.

Late April Updates

Last week turned out to be one of those 'work on Snorzy's sweater' weeks, since Sweet Hubby was on vacation from work and we were too busy having fun for me to want to plan or execute a new craft.  I'm totally okay with that because since I can knit only a few rows at a sitting, this sweater is going to take forever to complete!  For this week, I'm going to sew a plastic bag caddy as my project.  I found a bunch of tutorials on Pinterest, now I just have to narrow down which one I like best, and get to work.

This is our last full week of our April break from lessons, we'll get back to it next Thursday when May begins (can't believe it's already almost May!  This year is flying by!).  I've previewed most of the curricula that we're going to use, and I'm cautiously optimistic that the kids will like the new things.  Primo will be using History Odyssey, which references Henrik Van Loon's Story of Mankind as a textbook.  Last night I started reading reviews of SOM on Goodreads, and overall they were positive but some people criticized the book and said they would never use it with children.  I've started reading it myself, but I'm not enough of a history buff to know if the history is accurate and comprehensive (I guess I'll have to get Sweet Hubby, history teacher that he is, to read it too).

I'm still in the 'product testing' phase of looking into starting a home baking business.  I tried out biscotti but found them too fussy to make, with too much waste (added to that, I noticed that there is another small business that makes biscotti just a few towns over, and I think that not having an Italian name or heritage might be a drawback).  Now I'm planning to bake some chocolate oatmeal cookies, costing out the recipe and giving it to testers to see if it would be a tempting enough product to sell in local shops.  Lovely Mother suggested I make something pretty, but I'm not sure I want to sell quantities of things that have to be carefully crafted and fussed over.

 

Shirring, and April Musings

As I mentioned in my last post, this week's craft was the Shirt Skirt from the blog Sew Like My Mom...an opportunity for me to try out elastic thread and shirring.  I read a few tutorials first, so luckily I knew this was going to be a bit of a pain-- from winding the elastic thread on a bobbin by hand, to holding the material flat as I sewed so that it would come out right and not too bunched up.  It worked ok, but this was the first of the things that I've made this year that I've been unhappy about-- I don't know if I'll use this skirt.  Here are some mistakes I made, that made this a little unlikely to make it into the wardrobe rotation:
1.  the T-shirt I chose at Goodwill was new (leftovers from Target), soft, and a good color of grey...but not very thick, or well made.  I ripped a tiny hole in it when I started sewing and had to stop, cut off half an inch, and start again.  I should have been as much concerned with the quality of the T-shirt as the color.
2.  there is a ruffley bit at the top because I left a good 1/4 inch edge when I began, fearful of going any closer to the top.  The directions said 1/8 inch, but I forgot that until I sewed all the way around and saw the ruffle appear.
3.  the directions said to do 12-15 rows of shirring but I got bored/worried about running out of elastic thread and having to wind another bobbin (I was already on my second one, that was all I prepped ahead of time) and stopped at 11.  After steaming the elastic it shrunk down and got a little stretchy, but it doesn't grip me tightly and I'd be worried this skirt would fall down if I wore it in public.  Maybe it would have been more grippy if I had gone for a few more rows of shirring.






This one I *won't* be modeling for the blog!  Above you can barely see the dots of green and purple on this light heathered grey skirt, it's hard to see from this picture why the material of the t-shirt tempted me in the first place.




This close-up gives a better idea of the material and the shirring-- I'm glad I tried it anyway, and I would try another one with a better t-shirt (maybe extra long, but not men's XL?) and maybe better quality elastic thread too.  I had to buy Dritz as that was all they had at my local store, and only afterward read in the comments of a tutorial on shirring that Dritz is the worst for this use.  Oh well.

In other news, we're almost halfway through our month-long 'break' from homeschooling-- although it's not a complete break, as things like Debate class and piano lessons are still going on, as well as physics experiments with the 4-H club which the boys just joined and some lessons with our 'tiny co-op' on Fridays with our good friends. This month off has gotten me thinking again (this crops up every couple of years) about doing a home-based baking business, selling cookies through local stores.  I'm not sure if I can really manage it on top of the homeschooling (not just the lessons, but the driving all over for activities) and keeping up with a toddler.  This month I feel like it would be possible, but I might just be thinking so because right now we're on break and my days are not over-full.  Then again, I recently read an article in a magazine (maybe Redbook? I can't remember) about having a bunch of mini jobs, less than part time, instead of a full time job or even two part-time jobs.  It felt like a revelation when I read that, because I tend to do things "all or nothing' in some ways, and it never occurred to me before that I could work a little of this and a little of that, and make money and keep myself occupied without having to compromise what I'm doing with the boys.  So, instead of imagining that I could either have a huge, busy, thriving home-based business, or not do it at all-- what if I only sold to one or two outlets, and didn't have to spend too many hours a week on the business?  The big boys are five years older than they were when I started looking into having a food business (I took a class about it in 2009)...they could be genuinely helpful (not in the cooking, but advertising, delivering, accounting) rather than just cute little sidekicks.  They're actually really excited about me starting a baking business, it motivates me to try because I don't want to disappoint them.  My family is so touchingly invested in seeing me do something besides just be the mom, it's nice.  Or insulting, wait-- are they trying to get rid of me?

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.

 

Happy Spring Chef's Apron

For my craft project this week, I made a chef's apron with the happy spring fabric that was included in the box of fabric my mom sent recently.  I had thought about using this piece for the oven mitt, but concluded at the last minute before cutting it out that it would be a waste because a) this piece was too big for such a little project and b) the charming print would have been obscured by the quilting.




After wracking my brains for an outdoor use for this (somehow that would have seemed more spring-y to me, to actually use the 'sunshine and blue skies' fabric while outdoors), I gave up and decided to make the simplest big, wearable thing I could come up with-- an apron.

One of these days I'd like to make a pretty little frou-frou apron, or one of those tricky ones that looks kind of like a dress.  But for my first one, I went simple-- a chef's apron.  I consulted some blogs, but couldn't find an example of one that was adjustable using jump rings, like the one I had hanging in my kitchen-- a nice manly apron that my lovely mother had sewn for Sweet Hubby.  So, after gleaning as much info as I could from these tutorials: Once Apron A Time and Kathy's Cottage Easy Apron , I went ahead and got started, and when I got to the bit about the top I just reverse-engineered Sweet Hubby's apron and figured out how Lovely Mother made it with the rings for adjusting.

The whole project, start to finish, took only three nap times: one for cutting the big pieces and the pockets, one for cutting the strips for the ties, making the ties and sewing on the pockets, and one more for sewing together the two sides, pressing and topstitching.  (I love topstitching-- I didn't even know what it was, before the Bunny Lovey project, and now it's my favorite part of sewing)  Several parts of this project were new and adventuresome for me: cutting out the pieces using my rotary cutter (even the big bits, even the curves), making pockets (I was trying for rounded ones on the yellow 'B side', but they looked funny once I sewed them on so I folded down the tops and pressed them, making them look like envelopes rather than half circles), the aforementioned reverse-engineering (so proud of myself for figuring something out without explicit instructions! and I didn't even break down and call Lovely Mother or Ariel for advice, like I usually do!).

I wish I had taken more photos while this was in progress, but I every time I work on a craft project I feel like I'm racing the clock, one ear cocked to hear if baby is done with his nap.

Here are the pockets and ties:



Look what came in handy, as I sewed around the whole edge of the two layers!





Here is the 'A side', just before pressing and topstitching:



And here I am, modeling the 'A side', then 'B side', then the ties in the back (which were not as long as I wanted them, but I ran out of fabric and couldn't make them longer)





I had thought I would like a big pocket on the chest (not down lower, I don't want to look like a kangaroo), but now I wish I had made it smaller, or made little hip pockets like the ones on the 'B side' instead.  Oh well!  I was completely improvising all the pockets, I'm lucky they didn't come out even more wildly wrong than this.  Also, if you look closely you can see where I had to fold up a little bit of the fabric before tying, to make this fit.  I used my Sweet Hubby's big apron as a pattern, and I was afraid if I tried to guess how to make it smaller, I would make it too small.  That's okay, I'd rather a big, voluminous apron that needs a little fold to fit, than a titchy apron that I'd never use.

One last photo: here's my new pretty apron hung up on the kitchen coat rack, next to Sweet Hubby's old manly apron.  Aw, aprons in love!



What next?  I have no idea!

Oven Mitt Part Two

Well, I almost loved this oven mitt project.  At the last minute it turned into a bit of hand sewing, to attach the 'cuff' that hides the cut edges at the bottom.  The tutorial didn't specify hand sewing, but in the comments section several people said they couldn't do it with their machines (nor could I-- it just didn't fit on there)-- so at least I wasn't alone!  I don't like hand sewing, I'm not very good at it and my stitches look like they were done by a child.  Now I'm debating whether I'll make another of these, knowing that it will end in hand sewing.

Challenge Update

For this past year, I gave myself an unofficial challenge (unofficial because I wasn't yet blogging, to make it official ;), to finally figure out how to make a delicious, light cake.  I'm a bakestress, and know my way around cookies of all types, yeast breads, quick breads and muffins, rolls, and many other confections.  Somehow I just couldn't wrap my head (or hands) around baking a cake that didn't turn out dense, heavy and unpleasant to eat.  My challenge then: learn how to bake a good cake by the time Snorzy's first birthday rolled around.  Up until late in February I didn't think I would be successful-- throughout the year, for every occasion and sometimes no occasion, I baked cake after cake, following all the advice I could find online and in books.  Still, each of my cakes turned out a bland brick.  Finally, I had a partial success with the Birthday Chocolate Cake from The Mom 100 by Katie Workman-- I made it for my father's birthday on February 19th, and it baked up perfect at first, and then got a little heavier when I put it in the fridge.

For Snorzy's birthday I made Zoe's Cupcakes from C is for Cooking (the Sesame Street cookbook), after a friend came over for dinner one night bringing those and they were the most delicious homemade cake I've had *ever*-- and from a kid's cookbook no less!  I think the secret to baking a tender cake for someone like me who just doesn't naturally have the touch with cakes is this: lots of dairy.  I used whole milk plain yogurt (the recipe called for a full cup, and this in addition to butter, not instead), and they came out soft and pillowy.  I also re-visited the chocolate cake from the Mom 100 (speaking of dairy, it calls for both sour cream and whole milk in addition to two sticks of butter) being even more careful to get all my ingredients room temperature and not over-mixing (my downfalls as a bakestress are absolutely over-mixing and over-baking), the cupcakes turned out lovely underneath but with overdone crunchy cookie-like tops, despite the fact that I baked them for 1 minute less than the minimum time given-- I think it's time to invest in an oven thermometer.  Overall, I was pleased with my progress, and now I believe that I can bake a yummy cake whenever one is called for (though I still would like to learn how to make a perfect butter cake, without all the added dairy).

All this by way of saying-- I can rise to a challenge, even when I don't do so well with it at first.

After a good start on my craft challenge, here have been my contributions to it for the past few weeks:
1. skipped, trying to believe that 'making' the list of curricula we'll use for the year really counts as making something
2. cast on and knit the first few rows of the right, front panel of Snorzy's rainbow sweater-- another case (as when I finished the back panel) of using my challenge to motivate a dull little piece of a project that otherwise would have caused me to stall
3.  used my craft time to send all the pictures in my phone to Walgreens so that I can print them and 'make' photo albums-- I don't know what other people do with their pictures, but I feel like I need an actual, paper photo record of every important moment (and some cute, less-important moments) of my children's lives

So now, I'm determined to actually, factually, un-ironically, make something in the upcoming week, start to finish, using yarn or fabric or art supplies.  Wish me luck and a visit from a muse, pictures to follow.

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.

Struggling in February

This time of year is the pits, every year at this time I get at least a little fed up with everything.  Many years I entertain the idea of sending the kids to school, in February, but come March I love homeschooling again and wouldn't dream of doing things any other way.
I'm trying to keep things a little bit light and fun over here...the boys are doing plenty of math and all the other core subjects, but I'm making sure I keep some lighter things injected into our school day-- for example, today we started with a Valentine-making workshop (which included lots of practice in negotiation and working together, and for Milo also the skill of finding an unknown zip code--so, not completely noneducational).
Another way we're keeping it interesting is by doing science experiments, like this one on crystals:

And later in the week we're going to view some videos on Khan Academy and Ted Ed (or is it Ed Ted? never can remember) about plate tectonics, earthquakes, Pangaea, and Fibonacci numbers.  I've been thinking about how to incorporate these online resources into our homeschool, and what I've hit on this week is that I'll have them do their usual books-and-papers work on these topics, and then add watching the videos (and, as always in our hs, writing and drawing about what they've learned) late in the week as enrichment.  Up until now I've resisted using videos in the boys' lessons, going with the Well-Trained Mind idea that learning from books is a different skill that should be acquired first.  However, some of the home educating moms whom I respect the most (Hi Jen S. and Ariel D.!) use Ted Ed (Ed Ted?) and Khan Academy videos with their kids, so I knew it was time to re-think this and see what using these could do for my family.
Craft Challenge news this week: well, this time of year really is getting me down, and my week was, once again, almost up without anything to show for it (craft-wise, that is).  So, last night on Primo's advice I grabbed my fabric scissors and a big bag of felt scraps, and made some shapes and animals for Snorzy's felt board.  Radish agrees with me that the baby would probably just eat the felt shapes right now, so this will be put away and likely show up next under the Christmas tree later this year (when Snorzy will be almost 2)

Next up: remind me to get around to the post that I've been meaning to write about learning styles, Radish, and multiplication.  Also, I'm going to try to do a more involved and interesting craft this week-- not needle felting yet as I don't have the supplies, but something engrossing and fun.

Pesky Inch

I wasn't feeling inspired about the craft challenge this week, so I decided to allow myself to use it as an incentive to finish something that had been plaguing me. While I was pregnant with Snorzy, and before I knew if I was having a boy or a girl, I bought a few skeins of really lovely Lorna's Laces yarn, rainbow colored. I started a sweater, knitting the back first, which had to be knit to 14 inches high. For awhile I was going along well, knitting two rows at a time, once or twice each day (any more and my hands hurt me). Somewhere along the line, though, I ran out of steam and put the project aside. It was a good thing I changed my mind about making it size 6 months to one year, as I originally intended. Thank goodness for smart knitting friends like Ariel, who suggested at the outset that I size the sweater up quite a bit (I ended up with the 3T size) both so that I could knit it slowly, and so that Tiny Baby (as I called Snorzy before I knew him) could wear it longer. The unfinished back panel has been dormant for months, while Snorzy himself is creeping up toward one year old. I just couldn't get myself to knit the last inch and a half of the panel. Here it is, about 12.5 inches, just needed a few more rows to hit 14 inches and allow me to put this dull plain knitting part aside to work on front panels, sleeves, etc.   Ten minutes of knitting interspersed with resting my hands and rolling a hot rice pack on them, I finally hit 14 inches and can move on to the more interesting parts of the project (this will be, incidentally, my first sweater). Now, where did I put my stitch holders? :)

Cold Snap

One fun thing about this prolonged stretch of cold weather is that we were able to get around to an art project I'd been meaning to do with the kids: an ice chandelier, as seen in The Jumbo Book of Outdoor Art (one of my favorites for unusual art projects).  Primo made the frame by himself (not visible in the picture below, unfortunately-- the kids were the photographers), and we collaborated on a set of colorful ice cubes and a circle, all with small objects (natural and man-made) trapped inside.  We hung it about a week ago, and it's been interesting to see the cubes melt and change, *even though* the air temperature hasn't risen to even close to 32 degrees all week.  How is this possible?  Our hypotheses include heat from the cars passing on the street, and sunlight shining on the ice.



Once again I felt a little 'under the gun' to make something for my craft challenge.  I had the idea to make Snorzy a felt board, but didn't know what to use as the base (without buying anything).  Then I realized we had just thrown a white board into the recycling bin.  I had one of the kids retrieve it, and used it to form the basis of a felt board (with a blue sky and a slight hill made of green felt).  I found that staples wouldn't stay well in the cardboard back of the white board, so I reinforced it with duct tape.  Not pretty, but hopefully it will hold up.  Next mini project: making some felt shapes for Snorzy to use with this board.  No rush, he's still at the age where he's more likely to put the pieces in his mouth than on the board.  Maybe I'll save this as a birthday or even Christmas present.  The important thing is that I *made something* this week, other than the chandelier (with the boys) and various baked good ('Samoa' Brownies, Chocolate Cherry Dump Cake).

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.)

Wipes Box Toy

For my first project of my 2014 craft challenge, from this blog post, as seen on Pinterest: I made a baby wipes box ‘toy’ for Snorzy, with fabric squares that he can remove again and again.  Maybe making this was a little bit stupid, since none of my three kids ever did the ‘pull every baby wipe out of the box’ thing, maybe I’m just encouraging bad behavior.  He drives me so crazy anyway, though, in that he hardly plays with toys but instead looks around for anything he can get his hands on that he *shouldn’t* play with.  I think I wouldn’t even mind so much if he pulled real wipes out of a current box of wipes, if it would keep him sitting still for five minutes and not pulling on electrical cords or knocking over my things. 
I cut out about twenty squares of fabric in a variety of colors and textures, using pinking shears to get a hard-to-ravel edge without having to do any sewing.  I opted not to do applique letters or numbers on the squares yet, but if he ends up liking this toy a lot I’ll add them later.  To decorate the box and hide the brand labels, I covered it in bright blue duct tape (left over from Primo’s Tron costume from a few Halloweens ago).  So far he likes the box itself more than the fabric, and it’s a little hard to get him to take the fabric squares out (we have to pull one out halfway and then show it to him).  He likes opening and closing the box, though, and if we take the fabric pieces out of the box for him and throw them around, he plays with them.  Yesterday he stood there and carefully handed me one after another, while I said, “Thank You” for each one.  Time will tell if this turns into a favorite toy, but it was free and he’s played with it a little, so I’m satisfied.

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. 

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