My 2011 goals

Obviously it wasn't "blog more" if it was, I would have already failed. There are as follows;

1. Spend more time doing things I really love and not let random nothingness fill my day. This includes inviting people over more often, and creating things.

I've done pretty good on this goal so far. I have made every gift we've given this year including; a mermaid's tail towel, a bouquet of hair bows, a Daphne costume, marble mazes for The Bear's Valentine's, and a Fancy Nancy Art portfolio. I forgot to take pictures of some of these items, and some have not been gifted, yet.

2. Get my house back in order. Having Peanut REALLY set me back a notch. Now, I was never a clean freak, but at least my house used to not need a Hazmat team to come to get it back in shape. This goal goes in waves, depending on the health (and teething) of my children and me. i really need to get this under control so #2's inviting people over can happen.

3. Get The Bear's hair into shape. She has such a tender head that getting her to let me comb it was WW3, but she wanted to wear it long. This has been a HUGE success. Daily, we comb it and style it under threat of cutting it up to her ears. (Since it goes to her waist now, that is a HUGE deal to her.) I must say, I've gotten pretty good at braiding, interesting parts, multiple pony tails, buns, et al. Sadly, I have taken very few pictures of these pursuits. Perhaps, taken more pictures again should be a goal?

How do you foster your kids creativity?

So, Cotton Babies in honor of their new line of cloth diapers posed the question, "How do you encourage a creative, artistic spirit in your baby, toddler or young child?" on their blog.

Even though I rarely enter such contests, this question was near to my heart. Since I am a crafty person, I really wanted The Bear and Peanut's creative energies to be encouraged. Peanut is still too little to do much artistic endeavors with, but he is always attached to me. He sees me creating in the kitchen, choosing patterns to sew, cutting, sewing, etc. Seeing me create is a good first step.

Now, the Bear that is a whole other can of worms. From a very young age, we encouraged her:

To make her own fashion statements.

Whether she was just playing dress up, or picking out the fabrics for her own designs. We always are supportive of her fashion choices. (We only have 2 rules; her body must be covered when leaving the house, and socks and shoes must match for school days.)

We let her try using the tools you need for creating.

She took the above photo at 16 months old.
Now, at 4 and a half, I am teaching her the basics of sewing. She has her own working machine and tells people on a daily basis that she has it. She also has been exposed to paints starting at a ten months old. Sure, early on she was covered in more paint than the paper, but the experience of playing with different mediums was priceless. She also has many instruments to experiment with- keyboard, guitar, drums, shakers, etc. We encourage making "music," singing and dancing throughout our house. Many times when we are doing chores, we will pull up Pandora and let the music fill our house as we dance and pick up toys.

She is allowed to make a mess.

She may have to help clean up after, but she is allowed to make a mess while creating (in the above picture she is rolling out sugar cookie dough.) I don't know about others, but when I am in the throws of crafting/creating I am usually making a mess. She has to know that it is ok to make a mess if you clean up after. As you've seen in old blog posts, I have laid out paper and let her run through paint to create masterpieces. I am not afraid of a mess.

We encourage her to pretend.

In the above case she was sewing a dress for me with her pretend sewing machine. She is encouraged to create stories about how fairies leave mushroom umbrellas in our flower garden, make up songs about how she loves her brother, and dance around like a loon, by us joining in on her silliness, and games.

Last but not least, we include her in everything.
From gardening
To home construction, our kids are included so they can learn how to do any task. This also gives them a greater skill set to draw from for creating.

The Bear has a wonderfully creative mind, and I like to think how we raise her has something to do with her creativity.

So, I've been a blogging slacker.

Since my last post, the toddler (henceforth called "The Bear")

Became a preschooler. (Don't ask me how; I swear it happened overnight.)

Oh, and she also became a big sister.

This strapping young man (I will call "Peanut" for the time being) is my cloth diapered dude. I've always said that I could never do cloth diapers. I couldn't handle the laundry. Well, chemical burns/rashes made a liar out of me. And you know what? Cloth diapers are pretty darn easy, and cheaper. The 3 extra loads of laundry a week aren't ideal, but better than the screaming little dude we had 3 months ago.

Let's see... we also moved (only 7 miles away, but still.) Shortly after moving, we found out about Peanut and had to move fast on getting some of the basement finished so the hubster could have an office without taking up the 3rd bedroom.
Excuse the spotty pictures, my camera lens was dusty. We added 2 rooms to the basement. The guest bedroom (the yellow room) is currently doubling as my sewing space. For doing all the work ourselves (with the help of family, but no professionals), I think we did pretty well. We have a huge space to finish for an addition family room, but we have time. I also painted murals in the kids bathroom, and dolled up the Bear's room. Peanut's room is next.

A few months ago the toddler and my mom picked out some ribbon at that W store. I was told I needed to make a hairbow from it. That hasn't happened yet, but it did inspire this tunic.

I used the ribbon on the sleeve.

Appliqued a flower that looks like the one on the ribbon.

And a Hello Kitty on the front. The toddler loves it. The pattern is Roxy by Farbenmix. The fabric is something I bought at Hobby Lobby.

Gymbo blankets

Gymbo blankets make GREAT fabric. You get a print, a solid that matches, an embroidery that matches and binding and if you're lucky you get them on sale for $10! Good deal.
Sometimes, I will get them for more if it's a print that I *love* but only came in the baby sizes. Anyways, on my online sewing group it was asked how to take them apart and save the binding. So, Here is the best way to take apart a gymbo blanket.
First, you need to unpick the stitches holding the tag on.

Find the place where the binding starts and stops. It's about 2 inches from where the tag was.

Next on the "Right" side (The right side is the solid color with the embroidery) about 1 inch to the right of where the seam of the binding is you need to unpick 2 or three stitches using either a seam ripper or small scissors. Do not start on the binding seam because this is is top stitched down, not chain stitched! (The seam of the binding is being held in my left hand in their picture if it helps you visualize)

Next pull the binding a little bit from the blanket and snip one stitch on the side of the "hole" in stitches away from the binding seam. (to the right in this picture)

When you flip over the blanket and gently tug on the chain stitching, the thread should pull out easily. If not clip one or 2 more stitches on the other side.
Once you get it to pull easy, just keep pulling and pulling.
Until you get to the seam.
Now, you will need to pick stitches again. There are 2 layers of stitches to pick here.
Wallah! The binding is off.
Next go around the blanket cutting the looper stitches.
And pull the two layers apart. it comes apart REALLY easily this way.

Troubleshooting:


If you get a snag on the chain side's tread, do NOT yank. This will make a horrible knot and you'll have to start over on getting it undone by picking threads.
Simply, flip your blanket over and pull on the single thread. Give this a nice firm tug.
Flip over again and gently pull to see if the snag came undone. Try again. If it doesn't work after 2 tries, go ahead an unpick a few stitches on the right side and try again.

Wonder what to do with gymbo blankets?
BubbaChic made an adorable dress from one.
Material Mama made a romper for a baby.
Lots of people make diapers to match their gymboree clothing.

Happy Birthday Fabric Hound

Fabric Hound is having a contest for their BIRTHDAY! Go enter for some GREAT prizes. There are some beautiful fabric at Fabric Hound. This is my favorite! (It was hard to choose one. The colors are so bright and it's SOFT.)
Tons of patterns can be found there too. This Antonia Pattern from Farbenmix is uber cool!
Good Luck!