MommyCoddle

Inspiration, a new little craft, a sad kitty, and a happy one...

INSPIRATION: I finally got the chance to browse through the March issue of Country Living magazine. Often I find their taste a little too shabby-chic for me, but this issue was jam-packed with lots of inspiration and ideas...
If you printed out Hillary's dolls, you might be searching for ways to make small magnetic boards for them to play on. This article had lots of neat ideas for boards as well as some helpful how-to's

...like applying the  chalkboard paint with a sponge applicator or roller to avoid the streak marks that brushes leave behind...and gluing scraps of vintage fabric, wallpaper, labels, to the backs of standard erasers for 'retro appeal'.
More button inspiration which I'm always looking for these days, of course!

And a dreamy craft room:




There's also an inspiring article on some successful women entrepreneurs who have turned their bliss into business....inspiring!

A NEW LITTLE CRAFT:



I really can't take complete credit for these because I'm almost sure that I saw something similar online. But you know how you jump from one link, to the next, to the next...I don't know where/if I saw this somewhere. But I thought it was a fun way to use up some of my knitting scraps. I need to work on my wrapping technique and my sheep silhouette a little, but I like the idea. And I don't know really what they will become (an ornament, a mobile?), but I still like it. And I'm sure there are other animals that might be fun to try. (this was the craft that needed Dan's opinion before posting, remember?)

A SAD KITTY:
Hillary gave us a preview pattern of a pointy kitty from the booklet of patterns she's working on...So I was very excited to make one with my stash, even though I didn't have the best coordinating fabrics. I still wanted to give it a try. You would have thought that this kitty was filled with catnip because another kitty in my house has taken it upon himself to shred every 'point' on this little project. I'm not even sure sad bunny would be friends with this sad little kitty.

A HAPPY ONE:

What a Reward!

This world of crafty bloggers is amazing. The people I have met, friends made, inspiration found, encouragement received....it's unique and cherished.
In particular I've made a wisefriend in the last few months...we share so much in common, conincidences and little ironies that we were starting to believe we might have been separated at birth.
Yesterday she sent me this:

A perfectly timed little "reward" for my computer-free day...the spring'06 craft mix CD and a lovely pin. First of all I have to say I'm very picky about my music, but I love this one. I'm definitely thinking that no. 8 has just the perfect beat for cutting, at least for me, but I'm a pretty slow chopper...and the pin. I love it. In fact I wore it yesterday. It was a bit of a rough day and each time, I looked down at it, it was a little breath of fresh air, a little bright spot.
Thank you, thank you, Blair.
and will there be a summer '06 edition? :)

Brown Paper Packages...

I've got mail on the brain. First of all this wonderful little parcel arrived in the mail today from Jackie.

I admired her children's PJ pants (Jackie, I tried to go back and find the original picture on your blog, but couldn't...hmmm..) and told her I had been wanting to make some for my girls, so she sent me the pattern she used. Not only that, she sent along some adorable buttons (enlarge the picture, it's worth seeing them up close!), some beautiful vintage fabric and look at the card she made! I'm just going to keep it at my desk to admire. Is it from one of your linocuts, Jackie? It is all beautiful and I love it. I can't wait to pull out some of those patterns. Emma has already asked me to make her the little cross over swing dress...but I'm thinking I just HAVE to start with the pants and that little jumper top with pockets! Jackie and I have both shared our grumbles about dragging children to the post office, so I know the sacrifice it took to ship this little package!

I've also got my miniswap package on the brain as well.

I know that I need to get it out by the end of this week, so I've been doing a little knitting and sewing and picking up a few things here and there for my Canadian partner Mary-Sue and her two children....(who ironically are almost the IDENTICAL ages as Emma and Mary.)

Well, I had one other little crafty endeavor to share today. Something completely random that I whipped (wrapped would actually be a better word for it) last night. But Dan is out of town and I haven't gotten his crafty opinion of it yet, so I'll wait to share it...

He'll be back in time for dinner this evening and I'm ready to collapse into his arms. Mary has been very sick while he's been away...

...enough so that we've been to the walk-in clinic and had chest xrays. Let's just say my sweet little Mary is still suffering from some major doctor's office fears after her Christmas eve incident.

She screamed bloody murder from the moment the nurse tried to take her temp in her ear, all the way through the chest xray (it was horrible, and of course I shed a few tears, again!), to being approached by the pharmacist in a white coat at the drug store. She's traumatized. But better (now that Dan's coming home, of course!) She's still coughing so much that she has to run to me and cling to my leg until the coughing passes before she can return to whatever she's doing. It's been a rough three days....Thank goodness for a little sunshine and balmy 37 degree weather ( I live in Wisconsin, remember!?) I even saw a kid in shorts today. It's not THAT warm...

And He's Off....

Dan made a short pitstop at home this weekend in between work in Illinois and a job interview in Delaware. He just left a few minutes ago for the airport to catch a flight to Baltimore. He's interviewing for a job in Delaware, stopping in for a short visit with my family and also getting the chance to spend a little time with our good friends from college and their new baby. I knitted up these slippers for the new babe this weekend. Also peeking out in the picture is a diaper cloth (that i just added a little ribbon detail to), and a little fluffy sheep that are going along as well. It was a struggle for my girls to let go of that little lamb and send it off to someone else!

The booties are from this book which is one of those books where I want to make every pattern inside.
And of course I had to include this picture of my wacky little girl. This is what she came downstairs in first thing this morning. She doesn't waste any time in the morning. I forced her to put a tshirt over the slip because we still aren't out of the single digits outside. I hesitate to say this, but why does this picture of her remind me of cyndi lauper??!! Wait until she finds out that this little number is actually a SLIP and not a dress! She'll be heartbroken this summer!

One Fish, Two Fish

Inspired by this Lois Ehlert book called Fish Eyes that I swiped off Emma's bookshelf

and the pattern for the turtles, I made my own set of fish today. Perhaps I'll create a little ecosystem.

The pictures in this counting book are great and give me lots more ideas if I feel so inclined. But my favorite fish are the little ones in this first picture, which were my initial inspiration. 

And this is the view out my window this morning.

We are getting a huge snowstorm and there must be at least 12 inches of snow outside. Not only that, we were getting lightning and thunder during the storm. Strange. The girls were freaked out.
Dan's still out of town and we are all suffering from some severe cabin fever. I think I've got the worst case. Thankfully, Dan's home for the weekend before he's off again to Maryland for a job interview....

FYI: I'm computer-free tomorrow.

More Love

I was so excited to find this bag tonight at goodwill for only $3. I think it is going to be my new knitting travel bag. I always throw a bunch of stuff into my diaper bag/purse and it gets lost or dirty or forgotten or milk-stained. I love to take knitting with me when I go away or when we go on a long roadtrip and I'm thinking this bag will be the perfect thing. It just begged to come home with me.
I did something a little different today and hit the goodwill with a friend and her daughter who is one of Emma's playmates. It was wonderful. The girls played together in the toy section, always staying together and my friend and I took turns wandering around the store. We both kept saying to each other how well our system was working. I'm looking forward to thrifting with this new system again soon. I highly reccommend tag-team-thrifting!
Be sure to read Blair's post today about the reunion with her preppy-self and her much-loved Bermuda bag...I remember mine with several interchangeable covers. I don't think I even had anything to carry inside them except for maybe a few kleenex or something. But still, I HAD one and that was all that mattered.
And finally, I leave you with one of those posts with lots of pictures, where I just can't decide which one is my favorite. But let me just say that my daughter is MAD about her kitten. She is still thanking me (and Jesus) for getting him for her. She cannot keep her hands off of him and the wide grins and giggles and squeals of pure joy make all the dirty "glitter" box changes worth it. (Emma thinks it's called a glitterbox, and I thought, maybe if I use this terminology for it, cleaning out the lumpy clumps won't be so bad. It's really not working.)

A little love...

The girls and I are alone on valentine's this year while Dan is away doing some carpentry work. (Before he left this morning, he did leave us each a little treat on the kitchen table when we came downstairs this morning). The girls and I are still celebrating the day in our own way. This morning I made these supposed-to-be-pink-turned-out-purple heart pancakes. I am definitely following in the footsteps of my mother who always made us green breakfasts on St Patty's day.  The pancakes were very yummy, even though Dan was missing...

We also have two new friends in our home,who in this picture seem to really be in love as well. I got the pattern from a book I found at an estate/tag sale this summer. It was a little lady who was moving from her home into a nursing home and selling many of her posessions. She was so crafty and the sale was full of patterns, yarn, thread, books, needles. Tucked inside this book was a little notecard with her shaky handwriting that listed all of her grandchildren's names. Beside each name was the toy she had picked out from the book to make for each of them. Very sweet.
The turtles are filled with lentils which makes them so floppy and fun. The girls love tossing them around to each other and Emma carries hers around in a big green bucket.
***
*Happy Valentine's Day to all!!*

MiniSwap Flickr Pool

It looks like some packages are already starting to roll in, so I've established a flickr photo pool to share pictures of our swap goodies. Please photograph the treats you received in the mail and post your pictures to the group. I only ask that in your photo description you include who the package was from and their blog/web address (if they have one). I think this should work and it avoids having me juggle all the pictures via email. If you don't have a flickr account, you can sign up for free account here.

Join the group pool here.

It's Good To Be Back...

First of all, I just want to say that I'm sorry I haven't been a very good responder to people's comments lately. I usually make every effort to respond by email, but lately I've just been behind. My inbox is full of people that I've been meaning to get back to and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. So, for now, I'm just going to put it on hold.  I appreciate your kind words, ideas, and encourament so much and I know how much I enjoy it when someone responds to my comment, so I'll try to get back in the groove very soon.
****
I've been back to my pottery ways for the last two weeks. It feels so good to be back. The break was nice and gave me some time to collect more ideas but it feels good to be creating again. I haven't fired or glazed anything yet, just making new things. But hopefully I'll have some color to show very soon. Here's some of the things I'm working on today--buttons (of course), coasters, small square dishes (NOT ashtrays, thank you very much, Dan!), and some pendant jewelry that I'm so anxious to glaze (and wear).

Family Drawing Time

We do art projects pretty regularly around here, but after reading a post at WhipUp about Family Drawing Time, I'm trying to make this a more regular thing. I've expanded it a little bit for now. We draw at the beginning in our sketch books, then I break out another project. Yesterday we did oil pastels with watercolors (which is a beautiful effect and children can make some pretty frameworthy art with this) and today we made trees out of circles. I found some lids around the house that we stamped in paint. Emma of course, takes it the extra mile and glues glitter "ornaments and snowflakes" on everything. After talking with a friend who is a mother/artist about art with children, I'm trying to keep things as open as I can--giving direction on how to use the supplies, without any pressure about what the finished product looks like.
I'm enjoying this regular relaxing time of coming around the kitchen table to create. I save my cup of coffee for this time in the morning. I work in my idea journal, we put on some good music....I may not always have a big project planned, but being together, pulling out all of our supplies with endless possibilities is relaxing and inspiring.
(I think this is why Mary enjoys Family Drawing Time--the washing of hands afterwards).

Especially For Pa

This one's especially for Pa, but anyone is welcome to watch it of course...This is the song Mary gets each night before bed and she's starting to sing along now....
Download MVI_2841.AVI

Testing and Drooling...

I  pumped out this skirt today for Emma. (this was a quick before naps photo shoot and I couldn't really get anyone to cooperate, so this is the best shot I got) Ever since I made the dress, I've been wanting to make just a twirly skirt. Then over the weekend I got the latest MiniBoden catalog and saw the exact skirt style I had in my mind to create here.
Of course, I didn't use a pattern and barely measured a thing because that's the way I sew these days (or at least attempt to sew). I just drew a few sketches in my notebook and started cutting. Emma was very impatient with the number of times I made her try on the waistband for measuring and pinning. I don't really like the colors or fabric of this one, but it was just a tester. I didn't want to use fabric that I absolutely loved until I came up with a good plan to make the skirt. I think this type of fabric is a little too light to give the proper flounce. It's a little stiff or something. Maybe it will relax after a few washings. I'd also like to add a little more detail at the bottom eventually--some grosgrain ribbon or contrasting binding perhaps. But this is just my tester. More trials to come later.
My next project will be a blanket for Mary using some of those fabrics I showed yesterday. I have reworked my plan, which will mean a trip back to the fabric store. I'm hoping to work on it some more this week.

Oh, and the drooling part of this post:

A new children's catalog from here. I'm just in love with classic wooden children's toys lately.

And I'm starting my begging campaign with Dan to get some of this installed in our house. I don't care where, I just want to enjoy it under my feet somewhere!

MiniSwap Button

I forgot to post this help from Blair on how to put the miniswap button on your blog. These directions are based on typepad. If you're still having trouble, let me know and I think I can send you the HTML code.
Thanks for this Blair!!

For typepad users:
Go to the Control Panel section of your weblog and click on Files

Upload the mini-swap button as a new file (I just dragged it from your 
pg onto my MAC desktop pulled it from there.)

Click on the file to get its URL code  (Copy this to paste later)

Go to an existing typelist or create a new one, then add this as a new 
item

Fill in the link title with <img src="(put your filename here)"

Fill in the link URL with http://mommycoddle.typepad.com

This should put the button on the webpage with a link back to you.

  That should do it.

Risky Business and a new project

Everyone is in love with this doll house, even Henry. Maybe because Emma sets it up as "Henry's Restaurant" and puts his food and water dish inside. Still, food or not, I find him rummaging around the upstairs floor of the dollhouse or getting in a little "quality time" with one of the dolls. 

(Look at those claws!)

Emma tells me that Henry is a very "risky" (frisky) cat. I have to agree now that I've had him pounce on my face and bite me in the cheek. I guess sitting on the sofa watching TV is an open invitation for play with a 12 week old kitten.

I pulled together these fabrics yesterday to begin a project for Mary. I'll post more about it when I have a better plan, and when there isn't a little babe crying in the background....

A Culinary Low

I like to think of myself as a good cook. On occasion I burn or under cook or over-season. But generally what comes out of my kitchen is a success.
Tonight however, I hit my culinary low. It started out as one of those uninspired evenings--standing in the kitchen, nothing completely defrosted, tired from three days out of town, wanting take-out but knowing the budget called for eating chez moi. It got even worse when I pulled out  "The Four Ingredient Cookbook" which I received as a wedding present five years ago. Then it took an even deeper nosedive when I set that aside for the "Pillsbury: Cooking For Kids" recipe pamphlet. I dejectedly perused the pages, passing pictures of canned pear sailboats and teddy bear cinnamon biscuits until I came to this crowd pleaser: Cheeseburger Pies. (I swear that I was sober when I made the decision to press back the pages and begin creating this delectable fare.) I had all the ingredients--ground beef, shredded cheese, ketchup (yes, there's ketchup IN the recipe), mustard (yes there's mustard IN the recipe), flour, milk, eggs, onion. And I thought, "Who doesn't like something in the friendly shape of a muffin?"
So I pressed on--browning the meat, mixing together the wet ingredients (milk, egg, butter, ketchup and mustard) folding these into the dry ingredients and again FOLDING in the ground beef to this. It ended up looking like something you're forced to eat blindfolded at a fraternity hazing. But I continued, inspired by the photograph of tender little beef cakes.
I was still enthusiastic when I popped them out of the muffin tin 20 minutes later, even though the tops looked a little dark and the bottoms were black. I like crunchy things I thought to myself and it's shaped like muffin, for pete's sake!
I even maintained my enthusiasm as we all sat around the dinner table and I plopped a crunchy biscuit onto each plate.
But my enthusiasm quickly hit a low when I looked across the table at my husband, thoughtfully and carefully cutting his muffin into two neat halves, spreading a layer of mayonnaise, ketchup and mustard down the middle. I thought of the other times I'd seen him carry out a similar ritual, sitting down at the breakfast table with a steamy cup of coffee and a cinnamon apple muffin, carefully cutting his muffin into two neat halves, spreading a layer of silky butter down the center. And my positive attitude about my meat muffins came to a screeching halt. I succumbed to laughter and tears, barely able to get out between gasps: "These are horrible." Emma, who had been dredging hers in ketchup looked perplexed but them came to the same conclusion as her unglued mother: "These are gross."
And that was rock bottom.
Literally--they had ROCK BOTTOMS.