Under Construction

Reading pillow

Speaking of pillows given as gifts, I realized I never blogged about one of my very favorite projects! This pillow was a gift to my mom for Christmas.

I took a photo of Biscuit's bookshelf (I tidied it up first)

Then I had it printed, pretty much life size, onto fabric at Spoonflower.

And I sewed a pillow. Which is very fat because the pillow I shoved inside was a bit too large.

My mom gave Biscuit nearly all the books so it's fitting she have the pillow.

I got several other photos printed onto fabric but so far haven't made the rest into pillows. Seeing this again makes me want to get back to that project. So cool!

Turns out she can sew a pretty straight seam

Thirty minutes before we had to leave for dinner at my sister-in-law's house Biscuit decided she wanted to make them a pillow "case." I'd spent the afternoon making samples for my next sewing class (Patchwork Pillows, April 22 at Beverly's in Carmichael. Don't miss it ;) and she wanted to get in on the fun.

 She drew the design, chose the fabric and stitched it up with very minimal help! She actually sews pretty straight.

I tried to convince her to gift the pillow to me (it looks so nice on our chair!) but, no, it was for her aunt and uncle. Seems like they liked it.

Trellis

I happened upon a library book called Making Bentwood Trellises, Arbors, Gates and Fences. I brought it home and next thing you know I'm clipping hopefully inconspicuous branches off our redwood tree and bending them into a very crooked, very amateur heart trellis.

Author Jim Long would probably be horrified at my construction and my top arch is definitely "too pointy" but that was an impressively fun project. I've already installed it, crookedly, in the front yard.

I certainly need to practice but if I get better at bending wood there's a privet bush/weed across the street with my name on it. Jim suggests that privet is good for bent wood trellises. (He didn't have anything to say about the suitability of redwood.)

::

I've had project A.D.D. lately. Everything. Sounds. So. Fun! I'm super inspired about all sorts of work. But, when the kids are asleep and I have time to actually DO projects I've been just falling asleep myself. This is, as you might imagine, very frustrating. But at least I made a dorky trellis. Now to plant some vine seeds at the base.

Robot, foot, dinner, sewing

Robot

Not sure if I mentioned it here but Mr. H is the coach of his high school's robotics team. The past six weeks have been a flurry of design, construction and testing culminating in today's competition. Robots playing basketball, anyone? It was fun to go see the competition but mostly because it means his long week days and Saturday work days are over for this year.

And Oscar looked pretty stinkin' cute in safety glasses.

Foot

So this would be just perfect. Robot team is over, Mr. H is teaching less intensive classes this term, all would be smooth sailing except that Mr. H broke his foot. So that's not so good. This happened Wednesday (during robot set up) so he's been sporting a really awesome black boot.

Dinner

We skipped the traditional corned beef and went with the (probably more traditional) potatoes for dinner. Specifically potato leek soup (with a side of Irish soda bread, naturally). I got a big stack of cookbooks at the library a few weeks ago and I'm really enjoying having new recipes to try. Cookbooks from the library. Who'd a thunk it? (Tonight I was trying recipes from Love Soup, a book recommended ages ago by Angry Chicken)

Sewing

Tomorrow is  my second sewing class. Tote bags! I'm pretty much ready for that but trying to get set up for the April class (patchwork pillows) so I'm off to sew.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Lunchbox napkin (and tapioca)

I just finished my second bowl of tapioca pudding in a row. I was going to type this while eating tapioca pudding but Firefox froze. Then iPhoto. That gave me time to finish my pudding and decide on a topic for this post. Right after I finish discussing pudding. I've been making rice pudding for a while now thinking it is as good as tapioca but I was wrong. Rice pudding is a sad, bland excuse for warm, rich, vanilla-y tapioca. I use the recipe on the side of the Minute Tapioca box (it's a red box). Exactly as written but it's even better if it sits for more than 5 minutes in the beginning. Mr. H hates tapioca. Weird, huh?

In related news, I had the tapioca out in the first place to make a strawberry rhubarb pie in celebration of pi (pie) day which is tomorrow (3.14) but we celebrated on Sunday. The pie looked impressive but was not as good as the tapioca pudding.

And 156 words later, the topic of the post--napkins.

This was a totally fun 10 minute project.

I didn't put anything in the paint (like you would to paint a wood chalkboard). The texture of the napkins (both cotton and linen blend) was sufficient for the chalk to write. I used freezer paper for the stencils.

I tried to rub off/erase the chalk and it just smudged (see above) but that was fine with me since cloth napkins get washed a lot and the chalk came right off in the wash while the paint held up just fine.

Biscuit is a big fan of notes in her lunchbox so here's one more way I can do that for her. Fun!

And now I'm considering bowl #3 of tapioca......

 

Photos and links

I've been informed that some readers just visit this place for the kid photos. Fine. Here you go. And then there are some links.

Little farmer helping me in the garden

eyelashes! cheeks!

you saw this coming, right?

And some blog links. I took down my blog roll because the format was bugging me but a reader (hi, mom) requested some of the links so here are a few I've been enjoying lately.

Early childhood education/ideas/play/creativity/parenting type stuff

• Kleas (she runs a Waldorf preschool)
• Soulemama (everyone knows her, right? homeschooling/homesteading author and mother of five)
• Sew Liberated (former Montessori teacher now pattern maker with two young sons)
• Swistle (awesome "mommyblogger" and writer)
• Julia (probably my favorite writer/storyteller on the internet)

Inspiring creative types

• Angry Chicken (always random, always good)
• Aesthetic Outburst (art with a side of farmhouse renovation)
• Two Shoes Studio (great art, short posts--she's having a show this Friday)
• Ali Edwards (scrapbooker. especially love her 52 creative lifts project)
• Posie Gets Cozy (pattern designer, embroiderer, dog lover)
• Keri Smith (always something to think about--author of unique books)

Advice and self helpy types

• Ask Moxie (parenting advice--Lisa, the archives are a treasure trove for new parents)
• Zen Habits (mindfulness and minimalism. A bit preachy feeling at times but lots of great food for thought in the archives. these posts were thought provoking for me this week. My friend Norah linked to this good parenting post)

I think this list is long enough for tonight. So here's a parting shot for making it this far. Isn't he adorable?

Come and sew

Gosh it's been weeks and I never reported back on the sewing class. It was so fun! All the registrants were friends, friends of friends or blog/facebook connections which was cool.

I had marketed the class as "learn to sew" but only one of the four participants was actually a newbie. The other three were ladies who just wanted an excuse to get their sewing machine out of the cupboard and complete a new project.

I actually think a better class structure/marketing strategy would be "come and sew." Participants of all levels would be encouraged. Classes could be a bit larger and the focus would be on completing a fun project and learning a few new techniques during the 2.5 hour class.

Of course I realized all that after already setting up the March class--learn to sew a tote bag on March 18. But still, all levels are welcome.

The absolute best part of teaching the pillowcase class in February is that two of the participants are still sewing like crazy. Now that their machines are dusted off they can. not. be. stopped. It's so cool to think I had a bit to do with them getting back into sewing. Best part for sure.