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I’ve been keeping the boys busy outside as much as possible to help use up all that amazing childhood energy. With the cold weather and bikes that need to be ridden, I needed something to keep the boys’ exposed hands warm but still keep their fingers assessable to ring their sweet little bells and pick at little ‘this and thats’ in the dirt.
Last week, we went grocery shopping. As nearly always, I tossed Oliver onto my back in the beco and went into the store. It was a cold day, so we bundled up before going inside. Clearly not thinking everything fully through, I put the R2D2 hat on Ollie. Somewhere during the shopping trip he took it off and tossed it aside. Long story short, the hat was never found. I’ve left all the info I possibly could at lost and found and called them every day for several days. I have no doubt that it was found shortly after Oliver tossed it. The floors at the store are nice and wide and we would have found it on the first pass, but no such luck. Someone out there is wearing the hat that was originally made for my hubby, but ended up fitting my boys. It really is unfortunate, but I hope it’s at least being loved.
The hat’s disappearance prompted me into a fit of comfort knitting. I looked at my ravelry queue and saw these mitts, so I got straight to them. I haven’t stopped knitting since. I desperately need to work on birthday stuff for Aidan and hopefully my focus will shift soon. I just needed the comfort of those clicking needles and repetition to get me over the loss of the silly little hat that I worked so hard on.
I’m working on a little something for the birthday boy. I’d like to applique and/or embroider something in the center, but I’m not sure what. Maybe sign it ‘from Mama’ and 2010? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Look at those corners! Not bad for my second ‘quilt.’
Chalkcloth and oilcloth are two things that I had never worked with before. I remember old vinyl placemats and the designs were nothing to write home about. However, thanks to designers like Anna Maria Horner and Momo, there are some really gorgeous prints being put out in oilcloth. They were perfect for this project. I first showed a small teaser at the end of the post here.
Aidan graciously allowed me to draw a picture on his placemat to try out all of the pretty chalk colors. He promptly ‘fixed’ it by coloring brown all over my stuff. Thanks.
I made chalkboard placemats for the boys and a few of their friends. I learned a LOT about my machine and tension when working with chalk and oilcloth. Seriously, figuring this out held me up much longer than I care to admit. Aside from that, this was a really fun and relatively quick project to ‘mass produce’ for gifts. I followed a tutorial and added a bit of extra bias tape tucked in the binding so that it could be easily tied once rolled up for travel. There’s a bit more chalkcloth (backed with oilcloth) at the end of the tie for the recipients name.
One of my husband’s complaint about all of our wooden toys is that he wanted some soft balls to throw. I agreed that this was an issue, so a few friends and I got together and experimented with wet felting and needle felting. I would say I’m pretty terrible at both, but wet felting a ball in a washing machine is probably the easiest craft ever. Ball up wool, put it in a bit of pantyhose to hold it together, and toss in the washer on hot (we put ours in a pillowcase to keep all the fibers from getting into the machine.) I made one with a large jingle bell inside and I needle felted some designs on the other. Neither are exactly what I had envisioned, but the boys enjoyed finding them in the toe of their christmas stockings. We play with them daily and my husband likes to bounce them off the walls and catch them. /sigh
“Look at all my babies!”
I couldn’t resist getting a quick shot of Aidan’s work. The only baby I see is the one he is in the process of covering up with the silk. All the same, the quoted phrase above is what he said, quite proudly, to me when I walked in. He had covered his bike, his brother’s bike, his baby stroller, the rocking chair, another small chair, and who knows what else with silks. I guess those were all ‘his babies’ in some form or another. This was on January first. The silks were gifts for both boys for Christmas, but were also used for wrapping their other gifts with.
This morning, we had our monthly Houston babywearers meeting. We hadn’t gone in quite a while because the boys had been sick and the holidays, etc. It was a beautiful day (temps were in the 70s!) to go to the park and meet with other like-minded families. Well, I think having a babywearing mama and being around all those other babywearing mamas finally got to him. When we got home, Aidan finally asked to wear the ring sling that I bought for him before he could even walk. The minute his baby was properly in his carrier, Aidan started swaying and singing to him. My heart just melted. Of course, I had to interrupt his play to get a picture of this momentous event. When I came back with the video camera, his singing wavered a little, but it was still there. After a while, he checked the baby and said, “baby’s still awake.” His mind then went to, “he needs to burp.” So, his little hand started patting his baby’s back to help baby burp. What a thoughtful little daddy. <3
  
Aidan, it wasn’t too long ago that your daddy and I were singing and swaying to our very first sweet little baby in that same manner. My, how quickly you’ve grown.
  
Keep those sweet babies close to your heart!
I’m glad to report that today Aidan is even more back to his old self. He skipped his nap today, so he must be feeling better. One of the things that was special to him during his down time was his ‘healing pillow.’ I mentioned, in this post, what a comfort it was for him when he was feeling so poorly. We both decided he needed an extra cover when one day he got a little sick on the one that was on there.
For buttery softness next to sensitive skin, I used a 100% cashmere sweater that I bought at goodwill. I tossed it in a hot wash a few times and dried it. It didn’t seem to shrink much, so I’m thinking it was already a bit felted.
I love the envelope closing on the back. I used the ribbed bottom edge of the sweater to save myself some work. It has the bonus of being extra stretchy when I want to change covers and it also has a nice finished look. The wool retains the heat better than the cotton cover did and it’s a little more snuggly to hold. I had originally bought this sweater for some long over-due mittens, but they will have to wait a little longer.
Wishing you all some warmth and simple luxuries. 
Despite not feeling well, Aidan is beginning to anticipate his birthday. I’ve started working on his birthday crown and his name banner in small fits and starts. The boys will be sharing the birthday banner that I made. I don’t feel like I was able to talk much about Oliver’s mama-made gifts, so I thought I’d highlight them a bit now.
The ‘OLIVER’ banner was easy and fun to make. I loosely followed Amanda Soule’s directions in Handmade Home for the felt banner she made. Instead of felt, I used burlap and chose to hem the edges for a little cleaner look. You can just as easily leave the edges rugged, I’m sure. I wasn’t sure how I would attach the letters on this one, so I used some fabric glue after a short, but failed attempt at sewing the letters on. Half of the letters are made from a Recess charm pack from moda, with the other half being from my scrap stash.
The ‘happy birthday’ banner was fun to make and relatively quick, for all the space it takes up. I used a fair bit of instruction from the tutorial over at the moda bake shop. Instead of buying a charm pack, though, I used a fat quarter bundle of 1 from each print in the blue colorway of Shade Garden by Michelle Engel Bencsko for Henry Glass. I cut out 14 rectangles that were 6″ x 16″, folded them in half with wrong sides together, and sewed a 1/4 inch allowance leaving a small amount open for turning. After I turned them, I cheated a bit and skipped handsewing them shut. Instead, I ran a really close machine stitch, which was largely hidden by the thick ric-rac trim that I used. For the letters, I did as the tutorial said and used heat ‘n bond instead of engaging in what was sure to be a long amount of time bending and swearing over my machine.  I used a font that I liked in MS Word, high tower, and made them about 4″ high.
The crown:
 
I am so pleased with the way Ollie’s crown came out. The end result was so much better than I thought that I would be able to create. That said, there are some things that I want to fix on it. I plan to rip it apart before Oliver’s next birthday, lol. I wasn’t able to get a large enough piece of wool felt for the back lining of the crown before my deadline. I had to use acrylic felt for it and it shows. The quality is so lacking and different than the wool felt, so it will be replaced. I also want to take my time more on the contrast stitching on the front. I did it a little differently on Aidan’s crown and would like to employ that technique on this one. On Oliver’s, I tried to sew the whole thing together while making a nice straight stitch. Oliver was also helping me with this by stepping on the pedal for a little bit of surprising bursts of extra speed. My sewing is not that great, so, of course, things went awry the minute he touched the pedal. For Aidan’s, I did all the contrast stitching before attaching the front to the back part of the crown. This way was so much easier and came out much cleaner. I also worked on it while all my little helpers were sleeping.
As far as tutorials go, I used tips and tricks from two different ones and merged them together a bit to make my own. I modified the pattern from juicy bits to include a larger peak and broke it up into 3 sections for the front. I also looked at Nicole’s tutorial from Frontier Dreams just to give me more ideas.
To see the crown and banner as WIPs and some of the symbolism behind the embellishments on Oliver’s crown, click here. The only thing not mentioned is the fabric used to cover the elastic. It’s scraps from one of the first pairs of pants that I ever made for Oliver, shown here. Happy crafting!
I will admit that I haven’t had much time for television and haven’t been ready to fully look into the tragedy that is Haiti right now. I’ve been taking in bits and pieces from other bloggers and what they are sharing is all that I can handle for now. I do want to share one way that I am helping. I know that it is small, but it’s what I can do right now with the little energy I have of late. Scratch that. I can’t text. My phone is broken. Well, here’s a very simple way that You can help, if you have a working cell phone. You can text ‘haiti’ to the Red Cross at 90999 and they will charge you $10 on your next phone bill. How easy is that? Now, donating through text messages usually takes a while, but I just read an article that cites Verizon and Sprint are speeding up the process to get the money there asap. AT&T is working on doing this as well, but aren’t as quick just yet. I hope they get it together and make this happen! Personal update: I just gave a small donation to Doctors Without Borders via their website. Even if you can only give $1, it helps!
What a somber mood I’ve been in. Our 2010 has been full of bumps and bruises, cuts and burns.. My sweet boys are sure working their way through some tough endurance testing lately. Both are currently sick, with Aidan taking the worst of it. It’s days like today that I am so very thankful that I still nurse him. Yes, he’s nearly 3 and he still breastfeeds. He will wean when he’s ready. He doesn’t rely on it for his only sustenance, but over these last two days, it’s the only thing he can keep down. We’ve been doing lots of cuddling, napping, and comforting around here. Little Ollie only has some congestion, but is still slowed down some. He’s been quite a sport in letting me tend to Aidan as much as I can, though.
In the pic above, my little guy is getting some much needed rest. The green thing on his chest is his ‘healing pillow’ that we made for him together back in November. The pattern is the eye pillow from Soulemama’s Handmade Home book. I made a few others for friends, but this was the first one that I finished and he swiped it up and claimed it as his own. Of course, he did help to make it. I gave him a big bowl, a funnel, a measuring cup, rice, and herbs. He loves pouring and mixing, so this was right up his alley. I would measure the rice out and he would pour it into the bowl. We then mixed in some lavender and chamomile. He helped me fill up each bag and really enjoyed using the funnel. I used a soft jersey knit that I had leftover from making some pants for one of Aidan’s buddies. It’s worked out nicely, but after he got a bit of mess on it yesterday, I realized that more than one cover would be prudent. Lucky for me, we had a thrifted 100% cashmere sweater on hand. Yup, we felted and cut that baby up. I plan to sew it up tomorrow for Aidan. He loves how soft it is and you can bet that if there is anything I can do to make him the tiniest bit more comfortable, I will. I am hoping that the wool will give the added benefit of being a bit more water resistant. If I find that it isn’t, I’ll go ahead and lanolize it the next time I need to wash it.
These past few days have really brought home to me how important handmade/homemade items can be. I hope that my boys remember and continue to be immersed in a childhood filled with lovingly made comforts. I’ve been using the small quilt that I made for Oliver to wrap Aidan up in as I rock him. I’ve used it to keep him warm while other sheets are washing and to keep his healing pillow close to his body. He’s become quite attached to both objects now and it comforts me to see how they bring a little extra comfort to him.
I have been thinking for a while about an ‘official’ New Year’s resolution. I have so many mini-goals for the year ahead, but none seemed to be something that I wanted to really set in stone. Finally, I have figured it out. I want to send one handmade item to someone in need each month. I am going to start with craft hope’s Red Scarf project for foster teens. I have a lot on my crafty to-do list right now, but I will make this happen.
Yes, this post is about Oliver. We’re starting it with a photo of big brother helping Daddy cut baby Ollie’s umbilical cord. The time stamp on the original photo shows 3:30AM on Janurary 2nd. This is 3.5 hours after Oliver was born in our bathtub. Yes, Aidan stayed up! He was so incredibly excited about the birth of his baby brother. I had no idea that he would react (despite all of our prep work) and absolutely jubilant wasn’t my first expectation.
Somehow, a full year has passed us by and my sweet baby Ollie has grown into Oliver. I can’t believe how fast it went, especially compared to Aidan’s first year. The first few months were a bit of a struggle. Have two so close together was definitely a challenge, especially tandem nursing, but we made it through. Oliver has been the happiest baby I’ve ever met. My little guy is rarely without a smile and have a laugh that is just impossible not to join in on. His emotions can run strongly in the other direction as well. He has a temper that you don’t want to be on the wrong side of. Very strong willed, this one.
Happy birthday, my sweet Oliver.
Christmas eve
I love seeing images from other people’s holiday celebrations. It provides such an intimate glimpse into their lives and homes – ones that we would never know otherwise. I feel it’s only fair to share a few of our own and I hope that you enjoy them.
Our families typically do the big holiday celebrations the weekend before the holiday. Well, that mainly goes for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easter is usually the same weekend. When I lived in LA, we celebrated Mardi Gras, but it isn’t recognized much here in Houston. I’m getting off tangent here…
For Christmas this year, the boys’ grandparents came (2 sets out of 3) to spend Christmas eve and Christmas morning/day with them. On Christmas eve, my husband cooked a big gumbo for everyone. We had hot chocolate and drove around looking at lights, then came home to eat, and finally laid our heads to rest in anticipation of the next day. The next morning, the boys woke up to discover their gifts and had a grand time opening them and playing with their new toys. Aidan was really into it this year, and Oliver was quick to catch on to his brother’s excitement.
We are so thankful to have been able to spend so much time with family, especially since they live a few hours away. Above all, the greatest gift that the boys received, by far, was time with their grandparents. I’m so, so glad they were able to come and share such a magical time with us.
The boys got a few gifts each from us this year. I always try to keep it simple, but even I sometimes get caught up in the fun of finding and making little treasures for them. The silks used to wrap all of their gifts were a joint gift for the boys. The first gift opened was lovingly shared by both boys: a magnetic trucks and diggers book.
Aidan’s big gift from us was a beautiful wooden train from Palumba. Oliver’s was his first waldorf doll. It’s handmade by the amazingly talented Marie of Knecht Ruprecht. I still need to get a good photo of him with his doll. He adores it and so does Aidan.
The boys each got a bike from Grandmou and PawPaw, but they mostly just shared Aidan’s.
Let me tell you, Aidan hardly took his bottom off of that bike seat the entire day. Notice the handlebar in the photo below.
We had a nice Christmas dinner (lunch to some of you) of sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, seitan with mushroom gravy, homemade rolls, etc. Basically the same as we had for Thanksgiving. Yummy.
Later that evening, Aidan’s best bud Ethan came by with his whole family in tow, great grandma included. We were all excited to have them over! We played for a while inside, then got bundled up for a walk outside to look at lights in our neighborhood. It was the perfect ending to the perfect day.
These past weeks have been very busy and hectic, but also very full and rewarding. We’ve been crafting, cooking, entertaining, relaxing, and enjoying our precious family time together. I’ve been especially thankful for our health, since a member of our (extended) family has been in the hospital since christmas eve.
I’ve since changed the baby blue to be a continuous red ribbon. I’m really pleased with the way this came out in the end.
The crafting frenzy took a short break during christmas time, but is back in full swing to prepare for the birthday of one very special little person. Our dear baby Ollie is turning one tomorrow and I’m doing everything I can to make it extra special. In the busyness of the holidays, I didn’t quite get around to purchasing his first birthday gift, but I think he will forgive me if it is a bit late. I do have other gifts to present him with. I’ve been busy making a family ‘Happy birthday’ banner. I’ve also made one with just Oliver’s name – and will do the same for Aidan eventually. His birthday crown is still in progress, but I hope to finish it tonight – or, at least, by early tomorrow.
The starry night and little house represents that Ollie was born at home and at nearly midnight – 11:57pm on January 1st!
Beyond that, it’s time to get back in the kitchen to whip up some yummy eats and treats for the birthday celebration. We won’t be doing too much for New Year’s Eve this year, but I should have all my ducks in a row by the next one.
Aidan has been preparing for Oliver’s birthday as well. He’s been making pomanders while I’ve been busy sewing. I was so tickled to find that he could do it all on his own this year. He pokes the orange with a toothpick and then inserts the clove. That boy has grown up so very much over the past year, as well. He’s been practicing singing that well known birthday song, too!
I hope that you and yours have had a very happy holiday season. Please be safe if you go out on New Year’s and I hope you have a fabulous start to 2010!
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