little things

Don’t worry. I’m not going to embark on another sentimental post. I won’t drone on about how we should all appreciate the little things in life, stop and smell the roses, etc, etc. Surely there are other bloggers better suited to provide you will that sage advice. It just so happens that most of the photos I wanted to show you have a unifying theme; they are small. So, my apologies to all the cynics (I include myself in this category) if the title made your eyes roll. Apologies also to all those nice folks out there who may have been hankering for another healthy dose of sap.

OK–Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way.

Grammy had a set of great old-fashioned flash-cards sitting on her kitchen table that caught my eye. I borrowed them, took photos of each card, and during a recent shrinky dink frenzy, made a few mini flash-cards for myself. These three are my favorites. There is something about the design of that cookie jar that I love. Click on the photo if you are curious.

This itty-bitty dress and teeny-tiny pair of pants are part of a project I am finishing up for when I visit my brand-new niece at the end of this week.

We ran into this sweet little thing, along with a bunch of his brothers and sisters, at a local farm this weekend.

And here’s my favorite little guy, riding on the shoulders of my favorite big guy.

Sometimes it’s a good thing to take it easy and trail behind the group.

What did you do over the weekend? Hope it was great.

g is for girlfriends

***ADVANCE NOTICE: This post contains more sap than a maple tree in Vermont during sugaring season. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.***

This past weekend we had a special play-date with a great little guy whose goes by the nickname Goose. His mom is a good friend of mine from high school. They live a few hours drive away from here and, lucky for us, come home to visit family fairly often. It was such a nice visit but it reminded me of how much I miss having all of my sisters and girlfriends around. I live in my hometown and am surrounded by family, but I really do miss those relationships. You know. The kind in which you know what the other person is going to say before they say it. But you wait for them to finish because it feels so good to hear that they can totally relate to how you are feeling. Thank goodness for Redhead Auntie who is always around for a good dose of sister-love, and laughs, when I need it. And my runner-friend Roxy. I’d die without them.

My two best girlfriends from high school and I all have kids that are within a year of each other. My sister who is a couple of years younger than me just had her first baby, and another sister is months away from having a baby girl. I dream of the day when EVERYONE moves back home so that we can be together. My vision has us all living in the same neighborhood, within hollering distance from each other. In this make-believe place, we all meet up after dinner for walks, glasses of wine/beer in hand, while the guys are watching baseball and the kids are tucked in bed. It is such a pleasant daydream. I know this sounds kind of lame, but I really do cherish this little wish of mine. (I say lame because I hate the word cherish. But there it is–cherish, cherish, cherish.) Just thinking about it makes me happy.

Besides, if you were me, wouldn’t you want your kid to be playing side-by-side everyday with this sweet little man? Just saying.

So, my sisters (actual and figurative), MOVE HOME ALREADY! Then we can get together and make cute, goofy things like this:

unfinished business

Do you see the date on that quilt? That’s right. It says Christmas 2003, which makes this queen-sized hunk of unfinished business more than four years old. I gave it to the Cydermaker, my husband, when we were dating. I completed the quilt top a week or so before Christmas and then quilted the top, batting (a heavy cotton blanket) and back together by running long seams along the length of each side of the “flying geese” patchwork sections. In other words, I ran out of time and did an extremely shoddy quilting job. And even though you are not supposed to bind a quilt until the actual quilting has been completed, I decided to bind it up. Because I wanted to make it look like it was finished. Not a smart thing to do. Nope. Not smart at all.

I have decided that it is time for this quilt to be given the attention and care it deserves. I was toying with the idea of undoing the binding and those lengthy quilting seams so that I could start anew with the quilting. But then I did a little reality check. I know myself, and I know that I just won’t want to do all that seam-ripping. So I think I will get myself a lap-sized quilting frame and quilt this sucker by hand. Did I just write that out loud? It is going to take forever to finish, so check back with me in four more years and I’ll show you the results.

easter in review

This was my contribution to the meal. Baaaaa. (Thanks to Mrs. Eckler in Munich for the idea. And thanks American-Girl-in-Berlin for doing trial runs with me when we both lived in Germany. I miss you!)

These beauties decorated Grandmama’s table.

This kiddo had himself an egg TOSS…

…while these cuties had themselves an egg HUNT.

Good food + good people+300 plastic eggs+ decent weather = GREAT EASTER

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a new niece to visit in a week or so and need to go say hello to my sewing machine.

prizes, finally

At last. The name-that-fish prizes have been sewn, sealed and delivered. The pillow pictured first is for the sixth grader who gave our new family pet the name Creamsicle. The fabric is mostly Tula Pink’s Flutterby mixed with some solids and a fish print that was imported from Japan. I used the disappearing nine-patch pattern, but took it one step further by cutting the blocks in half two more times than is standard. I did this because I wanted smaller squares of fabric in the design. I first learned about the disappearing nine-patch here. The border and backing fabric is chocolate brown corduroy.

This second pillow is for Barbara, the winner of the random drawing. The center flower is from Amy Butler’s Lotus collection and the rest of the prints are Freshcut by Heather Bailey. I used scraps leftover from this quilt. The off-white material framing the patchwork is cut from an old tea towel. This pillow is backed in brown corduroy as well.

This was my first attempt at pillow making and I was happy with the results. It was particularly rewarding to be able to give the pillows away to two wonderful people. Thanks again for playing my silly name-that-fish game. Creamsicle is doing great and is loving his new name.

chocolate kisses

There’s nothing quite like having your first set of chocolate bunny ears for breakfast.

i said a hip hop, a hippity hop…

Guess who had a surprise visit from the Easter Bunny? Have a great weekend and a happy holiday.

a good read

A friend at work recommended this excellent children’s book. It is billed as “a book of manners for all occasions.” I love the sense of humor it conveys, so I thought I’d share a couple of my favorite pages. If you can’t read the text in the photos (assuming, of course, that you are actually INTERESTED in reading the text), just click on them.

There is another page that reads: “You go to London to see the Queen. She says, ‘Oh, you must stay for dinner. We are having spaghetti.’ So you do, and there is spaghetti for the main dish, and a spaghetti salad. By the time the Queen’s guard brings spaghetti for dessert, you cannot fit into your chair anymore and you want to leave the table.”

“What do you say dear?” (Flip to next page.)

“May I please be excused?”

OK. Well, trust me. It’s a very clever book. I am realizing that my description isn’t so great. So folks, I think this post marks the beginning and the end of my illustrious career as a book reviewer. I am going to stick to show-and-tell of the handmade variety from here on out. Speaking of, did you catch that prize in progress strategically placed beneath the book? If you do want to hear more about children’s books and the many adventures of a gorgeous two-year old boy nicknamed Goose, then let me point you in the direction of my good friend Mommy Goose. She is a proper librarian, after all, and a darn good writer to boot.

i hate to break it to you…

…but my kid is so damn cute.

Even when you can’t see that sweet, smiling face.

Wait for it…

There it is!

These photos were taken on a walk during a recent weekend morning. I think this was our little guy’s way of telling us that he doesn’t need his big fancy jogging stroller anymore. He could have logged a good half mile that day.

how-to: freezer paper photo stencil

I have had a few people ask about the “prints” on grandpa’s beer bag, so I thought I’d write out the steps. There is a good post on Angry Chicken about this. The only difference between her method and mine is that I used a photo and skipped a step by printing the photo directly onto freezer paper. Also, I advise using both the inside and the outside of the cut-out so that you can make two stencils with the same cut-out. I tend to need things spelled out to me, so my instructions will do just that. I should also mention that I didn’t take photos every step of the way, so this isn’t a full-blown photo tutorial.

Step 1: Select a photo that will have an interesting silhouette. This is the one I chose:

Step 2: Cut out a piece of freezer paper so that it will fit in your printer. For me, this was a standard 8.5 x 11 inch sheet.

Step 3: Print your photo on the non-waxy side of the freezer paper. I had to hold the freezer paper in the paper feeder because the freezer paper was curling up. With a little fiddling, it worked out fine.

Step 4: Use an exacto knife to cut along the silhouette. Save both the inside and the outside of the cut-out. This way you can make two different designs using two different fabrics.

Step 5: Choose two pieces of fabric that suit your needs. Cut two pieces of freezer paper the same size as your fabric pieces. Now, adhere those two pieces of freezer paper (not the silhouette cut-outs!) to the back of the fabric so that when you begin painting, the paint won’t bleed through. You do this by placing the waxy side of the freezer paper so that it is facing the wrong side of your fabric and iron it on. Don’t use steam. Iron long enough so that the paper is stuck to the fabric.

Step 6: Flip your pieces of fabric over so that the right side of the fabric is facing up. Place your freezer paper cut-out pieces on top of each piece of fabric. Make sure that the waxy side of the paper is touching the fabric. You will really do a number on your iron if you have the waxy side facing up. I came pretty close. Iron the freezer paper onto the fabric.

Step 7: Use fabric paint to cover the fabric that is not concealed by the cut-outs. I sort of dabbed it on when I was close to the edges. (I used Pebeo fabric paint that I found at an art supply store in town.) I used opaque paint because I used darker fabrics. There is also transparent paint for ligher fabrics.

Step 8: Let the paint dry, then peel off the freezer paper. Heat set, using instructions from the fabric paint manufacturer.

Does that make any sense? Give it a try and let me know how it turns out. And if my instructions are horrible, let me know that too, so that I can fix ‘em up. I know I wrote this in my original post about this project, but I thinks it’s worth mentioning again that the pattern for the tote comes from JC Handmade. If you try this technique, please consider adding a photo of your finished product into my flickr group.