Under Construction

The best of all bibs

Did I mention ya'll are awesome with your feedback?  When I asked about bibs, you had some great ideas. I personally sort of agree with Sonja that the "Rustic" was the coolest bib but I think Far From CA hit the nail on the head identifying the best features of each. 

And thus:

The reversible, quilted bib with pocket and snap closure.

In related news, I made my first sale over at Etsy! It was to a friend and co-worker which was so sweet of her. It also inspired me to actually get to work listing some things for sale in the shop.

One thing that's listed is this bib, as part of the Etsy/Instructables Sew Useful contest.  You can buy the bib here and the instructions to make it are here.
Enjoy!

Domesticity

I'm not a SAHM but I'm playing one this week. I know it probably gets tedious if you do it week after week and I certainly know it's exhausting but oh my goodness it is so. much. fun! 

Biscuit and I have been living it up and I've gotten completely domesticated.  My first day off, I made a pie during breakfast.  Then I bought and hung a clothesline (and wrote about it over here because I was so excited--I am very easily entertained). I also bought Biscuit sheets for her big girl bed (at the thrift store so they are hanging out to dry). Let's sort of skip over the part where it seems I bought the wrong size of sheets.  They work okay anyway.

Then Tuesday I had to go back to work. Blah blah blah. But Tuesday night was our family date with another family (they cook for us every other Tuesday. Apparently we are good company even though all we ever do is bring ice cream to go with the homemade pie our hosts provide. Wow, I feel like a schmuck writing that but they are very nice and feed us very well twice a month. And they have very cute kids who play chase with Biscuit so she is guaranteed to sleep). ANYWAY in addition to being good cooks they also have a hyper productive peach tree so I suggested we make JAM!

Today (another day off, woohoo) Donna (generous hostess with the mostess) showed up with a FIVE GALLON BUCKET full of peaches (no photo but I swear it was full) and we made 30+ jars of jam in 5 peach related flavors.

(I call this "Jam Still Life") tee hee hee

Tonight we did a jammy taste test, here are the results:
Peach/Plum (using way overripe Santa Rosa plums): Overall best jam
Peach/Blueberry: Mr. H's favorite, tasted sort of like strawberry
Peach/Ginger: Not gingery enough for me
Peach/Peach: Too sweet
Sugar free Peach: quite tart but loads of flavor

Jam making=domestic fun (and very messy kitchen). I highly recommend it.

I'll close with an image that proves I was far to busy making jam to properly put my daughter down for a nap in her big girl bed

I guess she rocked herself to sleep after her story. She slept like this for 2 hours ;)

P.S. I was excited to see the Silhouette Tutorial made it over to the CRAFT blog. That was cool! Thanks for the mention, CRAFT.

Design experiments: Bibs

I'm working on a bib design and welcome your input. Three different ideas:

Rustic

Natural linen with flannel inside. Edges are left raw and finished with rows of orange stitching. I also tried free motion quilting a monogram (not fully satisfied with that) and used a covered button snap kit I found at the thrift store for the closure. I like bibs that snap.  According to my washing trials, the edges of this will fray and curl but the bib will remain intact.

Quilted

This one is a little quilt with strips of all the orange fabrics I had out for another project. It's reversible with an old fashioned fabric I love and found on clearance at JoAnns. It's sewn and turned inside out and top stitched to finish the edges. The closure is velcro, more adjustable but less sturdy against a toddler bent on bib removal.

With a food catcher

Used a bit of the Alexander Henry foodish fabric I bought and was afraid to cut. Added a lip or small pocket at the bottom to catch food and finished the edges with bias tape. The closure is velcro.

All three

So, what's your favorite?  Why?

List-o-randomness

Biscuit is transitioning to a big girl bed. Photo evidence of morning #1 and morning #2 (morning #3 will show the crib, I am lazy) and (she insisted on putting on the shoes at 2 am and who were we to argue at that hour?)

I discovered the key to crafting productivity.  You want to know what it is? A large cup of iced coffee at 7 p.m.  That was last night :) Tonight my sewing is awaiting the results of a very scientific experiment involving my washing machine and these testers.

I sorted the junk mail and paid the bills tonight. This is perhaps my least favorite household chore EVER (I hate paperwork).  I did pause to open this piece of junk mail could you have resisted that tagline?!?) click to enlarge photo

I am irritated with Clubmom because they apparently took down the blog posts I wrote for them and now I can't access the content I created (they said they would leave it up).  Grrrr

Silhouette Tutorial

I know I've seen a very similar tutorial somewhere in blogland but since a few folks asked how I made my Father's Day present, here's the technique I used.

Materials: person to photograph; digital camera; photo editing software; printer; scissors; decorative paper for backing; plain, dark paper (or sticker) for silhouette; smallish oval frame (oddly enough, I only found oval frames at Wal Mart, not at craft stores)

Step 1: get child to pause long enough to capture profile image despite digital camera delay (most complicated step by far).  BTW, do I detect a bit of toddler bershon here?

Step 2: From here you could possibly skip to step 4 but here's a few more steps you could add in for good measure if you are bored (which apparently I was)
Crop photo in editing program and use magnetic lasso to select and erase the background. Clearly I am not a photoshop expert.

Step 3: Make it all black (I found this helpful to visualize which of my  crummy photos was going to  work best)

Step 4: Resize your image in the photo editing program until it's right for your selected picture frame (mine was about 4 inches tall).  Print image.

Step 5: I found an oversized plain brown sticker at Paper Source (I really have no idea what you would need a 5 inch brown circle sticker for but it worked great for this). You could also use plain black paper.  Lightly affix the printed image to the back of the paper/sticker (double stick tape works) and carefully cut out your image removing double chins and adding necks as you go.  Also, look at the way the image cuts off below the neck, it should be longer in front. You may want to test this on extra print outs as it was hard to get right.

Step 6: Choose decorative paper and cut to fit frame. Affix silhouette

Step 7: Write in name and year along bottom of silhouette (done after this photo was taken)

Step 8: Wrap and give to recipient as a cute, personal, easy, $6 gift.

Up to no good

Up to no good. Perfect caption for the photo; perfect caption for my life.

I think I've got too many balls in the air right now. In addition to the day job and the whole parenting gig I've got going, there are a few more irons in the fire here at Casa Haworth.

First, is Refurber. Back in my Clubmom days, Tracey over at Clubmom connected me with Clay of the parenting site Minti and I was invited to be an Ambassador for Clay's new home improvement site.  So far it's lots of fun--Refurber is a place for folks to ask questions and share advice and tips for home remodeling and renovation. I get to ramble on and on and pretend to be a painting expert.  See, fun.  Stop by and check it out.

Also, I've mentioned it here before but not very formally, I'm slowly getting set up on Etsy with Haworth Handmade.  There's a link over to the left on this blog. I figure if I write about it, it'll force me to get my act together and list some other items that I have for sale but aren't too likely to sell while packed in a box in my craft room.  I'll keep you posted if I list anything fun.

And speaking of selling, this weekend is the Sacramento Craft Mafia's first show! I'm a bad member and won't be selling but I'll be there supporting the famiglia. Be sure to stop by if you're in Sacramento.

Finally, I have a few little writing projects up my sleeve but don't want to jinx anything so I'll leave you hanging.

Lot's going on, now all I need is a dose of inspiration (or maybe caffeine)

The hair is gone

Reporting back on last week's post (sorry for the delay, had a little business trip I forgot about)
I did cut off my hair (actually, the guy at Great Clips cut off my hair).  Minor language barrier prevented much discussion beyond my indication that I wanted it short. He got an excited little grin and that was it. Hair all gone. I guess the "style" (or lack thereof) is okay.
Short hair=short pig tails

Silhouette, done.  Not sure if I chose the best paper but Mr. H seemed to like it. I did add her name and the year in brown pen after I took this photo. Everyone else gave everyone else hats for Father's Day (really, Mr. H got THREE hats) so at least I didn't get him a hat.

The fridge is all shiny and clean.  The rest of the house, not so much. Hope your week is going well,

Turns out vacation has wifi

Ya'll are so cool leaving advice about the hair and paper. Thank you! I promise to report back on my choices but in the meantime a few links of stuff I'm loving this weekend.

The new issue of Small (although maybe I liked the first issue more?)

The idea of zinc countertops for the kitchen remodel

The fact that this book is out this week (and I have a gift card to Borders burning a hole in my pocket)

The (film) photos I took today of Biscuit splashing in a lake

The sunny 80 degree weather I'm enjoying while I know is over 100 at home (it was 88 degrees in my house Thursday night--cleaning the fridge was the perfect activity!)

Hope your weekend is relaxing.

Pretty please

I need your advice:

1) For Father's Day--which paper?  The silhouette is chocolate brown. The walls in the bedroom are celery green.  The father (and the child) are out of town. (you can click the photos to make them bigger and see the paper better)
a
b.
c
d. e

I'm not in love with the frame but finding an oval frame is a lot harder than you might have thought.

2) I'm seriously considering this.  yes/no?

3) Is this a sign I need to clean my fridge more often?

These are listed in order of importance. I already know the answer to #3 ;) 

----------------

I'm heading out of town Friday morning to join Biscuit and Mr. H for a weekend in the mountains.  Tomorrow I clearly need to clean the kitchen. See you Monday to report back the final decision on #1.

Green dress with bird

With a title like that, can you tell it's late?  Ever since Handmade Parade I've been wanting to make Biscuit a dress with the Mukibubb patch as decoration. Today I finally got around to it.

It's Simplicity 3843, an It's so Easy pattern. It was easy and I'm pretty satisfied. The sleeves have a bit more gather than I wanted and I should have found some matching bias tape but all in all, a good naptime project.