Under Construction

Toddler Fixation

Toddlers are funny creatures. If you've ever hung out with a toddler you know what I mean. One minute screaming for pizza and the next minute refusing to eat pizza in favor of cherries which are being called grapes.

Biscuit is at an unbelievably fun and adorable stage. Even though an emphatic, "NO LIKE," is probably her favorite phrase there are plenty of things she does like. And she likes them a lot.

Have I mentioned the sprinklers?  She loves sprinklers. On or off, it doesn't really matter. She seeks out sprinkler heads on every walk and points out sprinklers that are on. Or off. Or suddenly, "all gone." She calls them "prinklers" and as far as I can tell spends a good portion of her brain power thinking about them.  Oddly, she doesn't actually like getting sprinkled.

And fans. Several months ago she was terrified of fans (which made a summertime trip to Home Depot pretty much a nightmare--they have a lot of powerful fans to show off right by the registers). Then, inexplicably, she decided she likes fans after all. Ceiling fans, whole house fans, table top fans, air conditioning vents, she's an equal opportunity fan lover.  For now...

Several months ago, when Biscuit was going through a phase of wanting to be held up to peer over the fence into the neighbor's yard (to see the boats it turns out) I decided to start chronicling these funny, strange and often fleeting obsessions. Because I'm already a year behind on the scrapbook, I decided to use a blog. 

I do this just for me and post infrequently at best. A title and a photo, that's it.  I'll do two posts in one day and then none for several weeks. But already I enjoy going back in time a few months and remembering the things I've  forgotten.  I thought there might be a few readers out there (hi, dad) who would also enjoy this photo chronicle.

If you want a bit more Biscuit in your life, swing on over to Toddler Fixation.  It makes me smile every time.

P.S. I'm no photographer but this is my favorite shot so far (don't think about the germs).

Pretty presents

When I'm making gifts I'm excited about I have SUCH a hard time resisting the urge to blog the project before the gift is even received.  Then, once it is received, it feels so last week and then I often don't bother blogging it at all.

But these are two of my very favorite projects ever so I had to share.

This is my best friend's son's drawing of a person. You can read the story behind the drawing and see the original art on her blog, here. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to embroider it.  It's done on natural linen and framed in a thrift store frame that I covered with a wood grain fabric.  The frame is kind of random but I was pleased with the embroidery. 

And then for Little Man's little brother a very early birthday bib.  This concept of using a calendar tea towel to make a birthday bib has been floating around in my mind for AGES. 
Several months ago I found a stack of vintage (1950's) linen, calendar tea towels at the thrift store and bought only 5 (of perhaps 20 brand new ones on the shelf). Pretty much the next day I came up with this concept and totally regretted not buying all 20. The one time I show restraint.

The bib came out even better than I imagined, mostly because of the cool rooster on the back (from the top half of the tea towel).
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So of course the birthday package arrived several days late for the birthday but I put in a jar of jam and an pencil roll from Sarah. I think they'll forgive me my tardiness.

 

DIY and eco friendly business cards

I had this business card stamp made ages ago at iPrint.com but never actually made the business cards.

Going to BlogHer finally got me into gear and I cut up outdated brochures from work and made a colorful little stack of cards.

I like them.
But I don't always have very high expectations.
Well, sometimes I do.
But not in this case.
My crooked little cards are just fine.
And I like that I am recycling.
And that each one is a bit unique.
So there you go.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I think my recent mood can be quickly summarized: busy and blah.  I won't bore you with the details but I will leave you with a laugh.

Remember my t-shirt re-fashion attempt? Well, I think there's a Halloween costume in there somewhere ;)

Forgot to mention

There was CRAFTING at BlogHer.

And not just crafting, crafting with the winner of Project Runway season 1 (although I never managed to meet her). And crafting with free alcohol and snacks.   

And crafting in the "Under Construction" section of the very awesome Chicago Children's Museum.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a photo of my (not especially successful) t-shirt refashion project. (Hint: I didn't follow any of Chloe's patterns)

Priorities

A summary of my recent trip to Chicago:

Personal expenses
'BlogHer conference registration: $205
Beer at airport: $6
Train into city: $2
Taxis: $9
Food: $18
Bed at hostel: $33
First trip to fabric store: $44
Second trip to fabric store: $52

An itty bitty fabric store just off Michigan Avenue was having a moving sale. Nearly all fabrics were $5 per yard (but the seersucker and cotton check above were $2.50). The walls were stacked floor to ceiling with rolls of fabric on tubes, cast offs from some factory as far as I could tell.  The guy behind the counter reminded me of a friendly sort of soup nazi (from Seinfeld). Fabric had to be placed just so and you'd better know how many yards you want BEFORE you get to the cutting table.

When I walked in, I was overwhelmed and didn't see any cottons (my usual weakness). I was walking out disappointed when I noticed a section of wool knits way up high by the door. Can you see the texture? They're really nice. In my first trip I bought the green to make a sweater for Biscuit and I bought several yards in neutral browns/tans with no real plan in mind.

As soon as I got out the door I had the sudden inspiration that I wanted to make scarves in charcoal and black. I also realized I forgot to get the linen and seersucker I had picked out. As soon as I got done with my work conference I raced back to the store where, in addition to a charcoal knit and a woven, I also found that cream colored silk and several more wools.  I also met the most lovely young woman who was a wedding dress seamstress and was a store regular. We ended up going out to dinner and chatting about sewing over sandwiches. I love that kind of random encounter.

So I didn't fit in the architectural boat tour or any Chicago style pizza but I had a great time in Chicago.  I'll have to go back for the tourist attractions.

Nineteen photos

Hey, I'm back from Chicago--eventually I will post about my (slightly ridiculous) fabric purchasing in the Windy City but the last two nights it's been all about Biscuit.

Tonight--inspired somewhat my the contest over at Picture This--I handed the digital to Biscuit (while she was standing on a mattress) and showed her which button to push to take a photo. She really wanted to take photos of daddy (resting on her bed)

But she couldn't quite figure out that she had to SEE daddy in the window and THEN take the picture.  We got several of this shot

After which she asked "where daddy?"
She also liked the bright flash so we got several washed out shots (check out the newish, short haircut on display)

I was trying to explain how to frame a shot and we got this EXCITING image of Bear Bear!

But you want to know what it REALLY looks like when you hand a 21 month old the camera?
Like this:

Because it's awfully hard to understand how to hold a camera when you aren't even 2.