Things we do after nap :: Ice play

Its been soooo hot! Disgustingly, depressingly hot. Now before you scold me for complaining about the heat when I live in the Seattle area let me remind you that one, I'm getting mui preggo-pants here and two, because it doesn't get hot often around here, no one has AC. That means that when its 85 outside its 100 in my flat roofed, no insulation house. Gross.
Jack and I were melting the other afternoon and so lethargic that I decided it was a good day for ice play. Ice play is a lot like water play. Its easy, so fun for littles and requires minimal clean up. Put a towel down (or not) under your highchair, strip that baby to a diaper and gather a couple of things you already have in your kitchen.

We started with some ice water in a sippy and a small plastic cup filled with ice cubes. We tentatively touched the ice and talked about how smooth it was and how it was slippery like soap in the bath tub. Jack wants to kiss everything right now so he decided to give the ice a little smootch.

"Oooooo cold!" Since we'd just had our faces next to the cup we decided to blow into the cup and feel the cold air come rushing back out.

We noticed that the ice had started melting and that there was now a little bit of water in the bottom of the cup so we talked about how ice is made from water, and then poured the water onto the tray.

Then some of the ice came out too...

Of course the next logical progression was for colored water to join the party.

We eventually added some dinosaur sponges and the color blue.

It was at this point that Mama realized we had been playing for 45 MINUTES, and that it was time to get started on dinner. I was shocked that Jack stayed engaged for so long. It was a great lot of fun and helped us stay just a little bit cooler.

The best upcycled tote!

Bruce started a new job at Microsoft this month. Very exciting career move for him and very exciting swag upcycling opportunity for me. He brought home this bag from his orientation (along with, seriously the best water bottle in the world). Also, please ignore the monkey. They are EVERYWHERE.

I knew it was the perfect size for a new diaper/snack/toy/extra wipes bag. So I slip stitched some polka dotted fabric on the front and elevated it to moar awesomer status.

I used it first on our outing to the Seattle Children's museum a couple of weeks ago and it was perfect. I HATE taking my purse there since I inevitably end up crawling around on the floor with Jack. Something not too big, but over the shoulder is best for me. It easily held several snacks, 2 bibs, a package of Kirkland wipes, 3 diapers, my giant wallet, keys and the Jelly Bean sling. I've been using this thing almost every time we've gone out since then. That's a pretty successful upcycle, dontcha think?

Animal flash cards

I'm almost done with the homemade gifts. Well... Jack's homemade gifts anyway. I have one left to go. I'm doing so well, I may have to throw in a couple extra projects before the big day. Anyhoo. Here are my animal flash cards.

Ive been talking to a friend about how much she loved using flash cards with her son and how much she thinks his language skills developed because of them. I thought about buying some, even took a gander around the interwebs but the graphic designer in me always comes out at times like these and says "You know, you can MAKE some that will look exactly how you waaaaaannnnt...". That voice is always a little sing-songy. Of course, I listened to the voice. I bought a roll of Duck clear laminate from Staples for $9.49 and 10 sheets of scrap book paper (for the backing) at JoAnnes for about 3 bucks. I have TONS of laminate left. Plenty to cover the food cards I also designed but have yet to print out as well as, I'm sure, several more sets.

All that cutting was a bit time consuming. I'm so glad I thought to bust out my rotary cutter and mat for trimming the edges. Stacking 4 at a time and just running along a straight edge was sooo much better than scissors. Plus scissors always get stuck to sticky stuff and then you have to stop and pull the extra bits off. Anyway, this worked beautifully.

Not sure how interested Jack is yet. Truthfully, this is what happened next.

We've got over a month till Christmas. Perhaps they'll hold his interest a little longer by then.

I put the PDFs up on a file sharing site if anyone is interested in making their own. Just click through to download.

http://www.4shared.com/document/4n0S4H9p/animal_flashcardsA-F.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/8_SmeC1Y/animal_flashcardsG-L.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/I4QvJVNQ/animal_flashcardsM-R.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/HnhKOw7B/animal_flashcardsS-X.html
http://www.4shared.com/document/U48wdaOY/animal_flashcardsYZ.html
 

Another Christmas present for Jack: floor cushion

I've been kicking ass this year in the handmade gift department. Perhaps the universe is making up for last year but everything seems to be coming together quickly and almost exactly as planned (wouldn't be hand made without a couple of bumps). I've had this project on my gift list for Jack since forever. Its the land of nod inspired floor cushion from Living with Punks. There are so many great tutorials on Susan's blog and this one didn't disappoint.

I didn't have any piping so I used strips of corduroy along the edges and I think it worked out just fine. I can see that the thickness of home dec fabric would have probably made a pillow with a bit more structure. I would definitely go that route next time. It looks a little overstuffed. That's OK though, Jack doesn't seem to mind.

Part of the beauty of this age is that I can check out the sizing of my mama made presents and then whisk them away at nap time. He wont remember a thing. Win.

Best hat in the world?

I love projects like this. It was conceived and executed within 48 hours. It's getting colder around here and I wanted to add a hat to Jack's hand made Christmas presents. Of course it couldn't be any old hat. Ive had this super soft fuzzy yarn in my stash forever. When I came across it, looking for inspiration it jumped out and screamed "Yeti". Right in my face. Rude right? But it couldn't be ignored.

I used Jane Richmond's top down hat tutorial and this ear flap hat pattern as reference. The face is craft felt, a couple of mis-matched buttons and embroidery floss. I'm so excited about how it turned out. Now, on to slippers for mom!

Things we do after nap :: indoor "leaf" pile

I've been fascinated lately by "things we do after nap" going on over at Sew Liberated, mostly because I've found it hard at times to find creative activities to do with a 13 month old that aren't completely exasperating for one of both of us. Jack is old enough now for independent play which gives this happy momma a little more time to get some things done around the house. Jack isn't quite old enough not to put things in his mouth, or pay attention for more than a few minutes in any kind of guided environment. He is however, beginning to understand simple instructions and I wanted to encourage that by doing something a little more specific together. I was inspired by both a recent trip to the park and a recent trip to the mail box. Jack and I were admiring the lovely fall colors and I was reminiscing about making piles of leaves in my parents front yard as a kid. All that jumping and throwing was a blast. We only have evergreens in our yard so piles are unfortunately out. When we went to get the mail that afternoon and I saw the ridiculous stack of junk mail I had my ah-ha moment (the light bulb, not the band... but now I need to listen to "take on me").

Here's what we did. We tore all the junk paper into strips together.

And made our own indoor pile of "leaves". We threw them about and stomped around.

And then practiced putting them away in a paper bag.

I'll save this scrap paper for more indoor play as the weather continues to get less friendly around here and when we're finished Jack will hopefully be old enough for his first simple paper mache project. I do love me some paper mache. Theres recycling at its best my friends!

Technicolor Baby

Lets be clear. This is not my original idea. Though I'm not sure where I've seen it in the past, its popped up several times in several blogs over the last few years. Its one of those things I saw before Jack was born and filed into my "rainy-day with kids" memory bank. For those of you who live in and around Seattle, you'll know that today was a perfect day for such an activity.

It couldn't be much simpler, just 2 ingredients. Plain, vanilla, or in our case, honey flavored greek yogurt (it just has to be white and without fruit chunks) and the food coloring you undoubtedly already have in your cupboard.

I mixed up one of each of the colors I had, stripped Jack down to his diaper, and plopped a bit of each color onto the tray of his highchair. Instant, edible finger paint. Perfect for trying to get enough dairy into this slowly weaning baby and keeping him entertained for 15 minutes or so.

A nice rainy day mess and a fantastic excuse for a cosy afternoon bath.

Update: Squee! Jack and I got ourselves featured on Naptime Crafters!

Review of Microcrafts from the people who brought you Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Right after Jack was born I "met" Eric from Quirk books. He had seen my skeleton from Creepy Cute Crochet and since then has generously offered me several books to review. The latest doesn't disappoint. Microcrafts arrived yesterday, and this morning Jack and I set to work, looking through every page to decide what we should make.

With Halloween approaching, the monster babies seemed like a no-brainer.

Our version ended up slightly less micro than the book's version mostly due to the fact that Jack is still prone to sticking things in his mouth and I didn't want a choking hazard on our hands. It also ended up a finger puppet, while although I didn't get a good shot of it in action I can assure you Jack thinks it is hilarious.

The whole thing came together so quickly we decided to make a little something for baby Eva who we will be visiting for the first time later this month! Eva has lots and lots of delicious dark hair so we knew that a ribbon bow would make a lovely little pressie.

Jack agreed to model. Man this kid is cute. I need to get knocked up with a girl ASAP so I have an excuse continue making stuff like this!

So here is my review. This book is fun! Both of these crafts came out looking great, we were able to complete them within an hour and with stuff we already had on hand. I think that a good craft book has projects that inspire and allow you to put your own spin on stuff. We found it easy to up size AND finger puppetize the monster baby which I think is fantastic because its already turned into something we will play with again and again. There are lots of neat things in this book that I'm sure will get any one's creative juices flowing. If you're interested, get it (at 36% off AND with prime shipping) on Amazon here. Happy micro-crafting to you!

Son of a Von Druke it's finished!

I cannot believe its actually finished. I stitched the last corner down on Jack's quilt binding about 10 minutes ago and I feel AMAZING! Its been a life long goal to complete a quilt and I've done it! I started planning this quilt when I found out we were pregnant and its been in process throughout a large portion of my pregnancy, through my tendinitis and surgery and now, just a couple of days past Jack's first birthday (my updated deadline after the tendinitis diagnosis) I can put my baby to bed with his own momma-made quilt. I used scraps for the patchwork, some of which are old clothes of Bruce's. It will be really fun to tell Jack that "that used to be Daddy's shirt" when he's old enough to understand. The "batting" is a flannel sheet donated by a friend. I didn't want it to be too heavy so that it could be used in the summer on its own and in the winter with heavy pj's or perhaps another blanket if it gets really chilly. I backed and bound it with another sheet, one we were actually using on our bed while I was pregnant. I hand quilted the whole thing with embroidery floss which makes the back look awesome.

It came out way cooler than I could have ever imagined. But my favorite bit is this little bear.

My parents had a garage sale this summer and while going though piles of stuff, my mom came across my old blankie. It was hand made by my grandma, and is literally loved to tatters. I couldn't believe it hadn't been tossed out. This bear was sewn into the corner and it accompanies some of my earliest memories. I love love love that I was able to add this to the back of Jack's quilt. Every piece of this thing has a story or memory attached. So not only were there countless of hours spent thinking of and loving my baby while putting it together but all the materials are special in some way too.

I think he likes it.

A little bag for Jack

Yeeeesss! Ive finished something in one sitting! I can't tell you how good that feels. I've been working on Jack's quilt and various knitting projects which are all fine and good until your soul cries out for something to actually be finished. Enter the extra long naps Jack has been taking lately (such a good boy) and something I've been meaning to try forever. I give you the fabric basket or bucket or bag or whatever you want to call it.


I used an old pair of pants for the outer and some super cool vintage fabric I scored at the senior center swap meet that I had no idea what to do with.

I didn't use a pattern and my math was a little off. Oof, should have paid better attention in high school geometry. But fabric can be forgiving and so I just fudged the edges a bit as I was pinning and it came out OK. All in all I'm pretty pleased. I think it'll be easier next time. Perhaps I'll bust out a couple more of these before I go back to that quilt.

Knit pants for fall.

I know, its sweltering hot in Seattle. By sweltering of course, I mean 80 degrees. It IS the PNW after all. So you may think I'm a little nuts to be knitting pants but my reasoning is 2 fold. First, I am using knitting as part of my post-op physical therapy regimen. It's actually doing wonders, in small doses of course, for my wrist/hand mobility and strength. Second, I wanted to get a jump on the knitting season. I always seem to find myself up to my ears in projects I wish I'd started over the summer. Not this year! This year I'm being proactive! I chose this pattern.

It only took about a week of evening in-front-of-the-tv type knitting. The pattern was so easy. My only complaint would be that not every step is spelled out completely. For instance, you'll end up casting off a couple of stitches in the crotch area before you divide to knit each leg. The pattern doesn't actually tell you to sew these stitches up during the finishing but its pretty self explanatory.

My consensus is that you must knit these for the baby in your life immediately. Super easy, super fun and as you can see super super adorable.

Jack's Squiggly Toy

Does your baby like electrical cords as much as Jack does? Seriously, this kid sees a cord, shrieks with delight and hightails it directly to danger. He mostly seems to want to pull it wide between his outstretched arms. He does this over and over again (with a little exploratory biting thrown in of course). Its kind of fascinating to watch actually. I'm dying to know whats going through his head. What I'm not dying to know is how many bites it takes to get to the center of said cords. Yes yes, of course they are unplugged (I can hear Gidget gasping). Anyhoo, lets take death and destruction out of this equation all together. I decided to knit up a squiggly thing and Ive made you a little tutorial so you can knit one up for your cord obsessed baby too. The coolest thing about this pattern, if you can call it that, is that it is totally free form. You don't have to worry about gauge or yarn types. In fact, I think it would be even more awesome if you used a bunch of different bits of yarn. This also makes it a great stash busting project. Please note: This is my first tutorial so let me know if anything is unclear!

Materials:
2 dpns (double pointed needles) any size
Numerous random bits of yarn
A needle for weaving in the ends

This squiggly toy is basically a bunch of i-cord knit together. If you've never knit i-cord, there is a great video here. They've done a much better job explaining it than I could. Ive linked to the English version but if you knit continental, they have a video for that too. Its super easy and kind of addictive. Once you've got it down, you'll want to knit i-cord till you're blue in the face.

Start out by knitting a nice long bit of i-cord. Bind off and weave in the ends. Next, you'll pick up 3 stitches around the middle of the cord.

Figure out where you want to start your cord and insert your needle into any stitch.

Wrap your yarn around the needle.

Pull it through.

Insert the needle through the next stitch.

Wrap your yarn. Double check to make sure you are using the right bit. Ive started knitting with the tail of the yarn by mistake. Very annoying.

Pull the yarn through again. You should now have 2 stitches on your needle.

Insert your needle through the last stitch.

And pull your yarn through for the last time. Now there are 3 stitches on your needle, and you are ready to start your i-cord.

Keep knitting to the desired length, bind off, weave in the ends, and start the next cord.

That's pretty much it. See, told you it was easy. Keep picking up and knitting cords until your squiggle is sufficiently squiggly. You could do this in any color combination to match a baby shower gift or nursery decor. You could add pom-poms to the ends. You could knit it up with strips of fabric instead of yarn for a different texture. The possibilities are endless. I'd love to see what you come up with.

FYI: Since this toy is made up of longish bits of cord, it is not intended for unsupervised play. If you want to make something you can leave your baby alone with, make sure you shorten the cords to an un-strangleable length.