Swap goodies from Little Jenny Wren

My swap package from Little Jenny Wren arrived today- I was so excited! She's such a sweetheart- her first package was lost in the post, and she quickly sent another.

She stitched up a beautiful little stocking, stuffed with two tiny bunny pins (don't those look like Golden Books bunnies? The ones that painted Easter eggs?) and a cross-stitched Santa ornament. I love the ornament- she fused it to a cotton backing and then stitched around the edges. I'm such an admirer of her dolls- she does amazing handwork.

Thanks for a great swap, Jenny!

A Gift from my Talented Sister

I received this beautiful tablerunner from my fabulous and talented (and too-far-away) sister, Aunt LoLo for Christmas. Isn't it great? She got busy this last Christmas season and churned out about 6 of these suckers for (uber lucky) gals in the family. I love the colors, and how soothing it looks with the pine table and chairs. (The platter was a birthday gift from my aunt- she's an interior decorator, and doesn't she have fabulous taste??) I love how these two gifts coordinate, and I can see them and think about families who love us.

I especially love the free-motion quilting. It's so LoLo- she could sew a straight line, but why would she want to do that?

I also love how hardworking this is- it's a durable and machine-washable table runner, that can easily stand in as a huge hot pad for a row of hot dishes at dinner time. Brilliant!

Winter Home: Curtains

We put curtains up in Mimi's room- I love them!

Here's what I love:

1) Clip on rings, so I didn't need to sew tabs or a rod pocket.
2) Cheery blue and pink, that brightens up the room and tones down the "baby" factor of the pale walls.
3) Thick "blackout" backing that keeps heat in at night.
4) Magic fabric dimensions: I bought two yards of blackout fabric and two yards of blue. Obviously, the blue is shorter than the blackout fabric. Magically, I had a scrap of pink that coordinated and was EXACTLY the missing length.

Mimi's room is hands down the coldest room in the house at night- I put a little space heater in there for her, and it ran every hour or so. With this curtain panel, it maybe runs once or twice at night! We bought a curtain rod, but it turned out to be too short so we'll use the tension rod for now. She's not as light-sensitive as Ernie during her naptimes, so that gap at the top doesn't bother her one bit.

Another reason I love the clip on curtain rings is that I can change out her curtains whenever I like- an old quilt, a pretty tablecloth, or another curtain panel. Anything the right size is fair game. For napping kids I like one-panel curtains like this, so there isn't a gap in the middle. The blackout fabric is pretty stiff, so they don't meld together in the middle like most two-panel curtains would.

We've been putting up curtains all over the house, but this one is hands-down my favorite!

For more tips on your winter home, visit Melissa's site and check out her great tips, and the other festival participants!

A Circle of Friends

We had way too much fun making Christmas dolls this year- they're positively addicting.

I free-handed the pattern, but based it on the general shape of the famous Black Apple dolls at Martha Stewart. The hair was my own design for each doll, to match the little girl who would receive it. I tried to match skin color too, but had a limited selection here. My own daughters fairly glow in the dark, which is pretty true to life though, now that I think about it.

The general pattern for these beauties can be found here.

If you're going to make some, the best tip I can give you: Draw or print your pattern piece, and trace exactly as it is onto the backside of your fabric with disappearing ink.  Cut roughly around your shape, and stitch on the line.  Even up the seam allowance after you've sewn.  There!  Now you have dolls and not blobs (or am I the only one who is rotten at tracing a pattern and sewing a 1/4 inch away???)

When designing your hair, the hair piece of felt should be the same size as the face piece of cloth.  Start out by tracing the face piece onto your pattern paper, then change the shape to be the hairstyle you want.  Sew the felt onto the face cloth, and then carefully snip away the excess at the hairline before you attach the front of the face to the front of the body.  Obviously, if you make the hair bigger than the original head, cut the the head pieces larger to accommodate the extra hair bits, then trim it up after you sew.  Unless you're a whiz on that sewing machine, the hair will be mostly free-form when you sew so don't even try to shape the head pieces before you sew the hair on!

I used similar-colored cloth for the back of the head- it seemed sturdier than the craft felt I was using for the hair.

The faces are painted on, and heat set with an iron.


Here we have Ernie and Mimi.

Halligator and MP.

The the unstoppable BBJ.

The CSA experiment

Last year we started an experiment: I signed us up for a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share from a local farm.  We wanted to 1) support local agriculture 2) eat organic produce 3) try new fruits and vegetables.

Every other week, I drove downtown and picked up our box.  The quality of the farm-grown produce was amazing.  Comparing it to grocery-store produce was like...comparing a tin whistle to a flute, or a Palmer's chocolate easter bunny to a Lindt truffle.  The convenience was outstanding, too.  Our CSA is different than a lot of others- they have drop off points all over the area, so I just had to make the 10 minute drive.

It was easy having someone else make the choices, too.  When faced with all the variety at a farmers' market or grocery store, it's too easy to stick to the classics.  But when handed 3 pounds of a new vegetable, it's time to look for new recipes!  We found out we don't like kale all that much, but bok choy is alway delicious.  We like our chard harvested young, and leeks are as amazing as everyone says.



I noticed our CSA brought in outside produce.  If they could find a reliable, organic source, they'd throw it in the box.  I wanted local, so I normally logged onto the website and substituted with something from the farm.  Now that we're deep in Winter, the only local offerings are things in storage: apples, potatoes, onions, squash, parsnips, carrots.   I log on and say no to the oranges, the persimmons, the lettuce.

 Another reason we chose this farm was that we could order on a week by week basis, rather than pay a large sum up front and receive a box each week for a set number of weeks.  There was also no requirement to go work on the farm.

I've cancelled this week's box: we have more than enough squash, potatoes, onions, apples, and parsnips.  I think our time with the farm is ending, as I simply can't justify the cost right now based on the amount of food in the winter box.  I'm planning next year's garden (more on that later) and we'll start visiting the farmers' market again in the spring.

Based on what we wanted from this experiment, it was a raging success.  We bought local, we bought organic, we tried lots of new things.  The boxes were expensive, but much cheaper than prepared foods or meats: our total grocery bill went down.  But, time to move on, I think!

What about you?  Have you thought about a CSA?  Do you belong to one?  Did you know what it was before this post?

Sunday Thoughts

This is a favorite verse of scripture for me- it kind of sums up everything.

Jacob 6:12 "O be wise; what can I say more?"

We know the rules of the game.  We know what is required of us.  

All that's left is to roll up our sleeves, remember what we've been taught, and go to work.

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Happy New Year!

There are a few projects to tell you about, that just need photos.  (Oops, mailed one of them without snapping any photos!)   So let's talk about 2009.  Amazing year.

1)  My oldest daughter started talking.  At age 3 1/2 she had about 10 English words, and 20 other nonsense/signing words.  The downside of this is she is going through the NO stage of the terrible twos, the I DON'T WANT TO stage of the threes and the WHY stage of the fours...all at the same time.  No, no.  Don't envy me.  Please.
2)  About 9 months after she started talking, Ernie learned to read.  Sakes alive, the girl can read!


3)  Wonder Daddy passed his final CPA test.  For the first time since I've known him, he ISN'T studying at night.  Can't tell you the difference it's made in our home to have a daddy that isn't always off-limits to the kids.


4)  Went hog-wild on an "I can make that" bender.  Bread, cookies, snacks, cleaning supplies, toys, clothes...apparently I'm enough of a recluse to prefer making to shopping.


5)  Completed another year of almost all handmade gifts.  Again, with the no-shopping thing.





6)  Got better at canning.  Lots  better.  (plum jam, tomatillo salsa, peaches, peach honey, apple butter, marmalade, applesauce, apple chunks, fig preserves, figs in syrup, figs in water, blueberry jam... and all but the peaches and citrus were home-grown by me or family!  Hello free!)


7)  Went from 159 pounds to 139 pounds.  I love nursing.  I love cooking my own food.  I love fishing "these are never going to fit again" clothes out of the scrap pile and finding out they're too big.  I love the lovely ladies who joined my sister and I in our weekly weigh-ins in the weight-loss challenge this year.  I love being able to run without being weary.

From I Wonder Woman

From I Wonder Woman

8)  Started cloth diapering the baby.  Love love love the cloth diapers.



9)  After a long and dark winter, kicked the baby blues.  Remind me to never have another Fall baby, so long as we live in dark and dreary sun-free-in-the-winter climes.

10)  Called to serve in our local Spanish branch of the church.  Desperately praying to remember what I learned in high school.

11)  A mildly productive garden.  For me, that's a raging success.  Three tomatoes!  60 pounds of tomatillos! Plums from the tree before the squirrels ate them all!  Plus raspberries, blackberries, mint, lemon balm, basil, and 4 twenty-inch-long beans.  I won't mention the (many many many) crops that completely failed.  This is a new year, and we're only looking at successes!

Thank you thank you all for being here.  For being so supportive.  For being so generous in your own bloggy homes.  I'm looking forward to another great year!

And, after nearly two years of this bloggy business I've learned something: There are about 15 of you here to see ME...and hundreds of other visitors looking for tutorials.  Instructions.  Tips.  (And inexplicably, information on Amanda Barnes Smith.  Truly.  One of my top search results right now, right after Rolo Treats.)  And if there's something I love, it's telling people what to do.  So, look for more tutorials, instructions, and tips in 2010!  Oh, and look for more music.  Hopefully lots more music.