04.01.10
Posted in Crafts, Green, Kids, Kids Crafts, Sewing at 8:27 am by rachel
I love that in France the fish is the symbol of April Fool’s day. Back in high school my French teacher went all out (as she did every day, for that matter), sneakily taping a paper fish to someone’s back and seeing if they caught it before class was over. During our time living in France, I noticed that a lot of the Easter/spring candies were in the shape of fish in addition to eggs and bells. I wonder if the symbols all became associated with Easter, or if the fish takes on new meaning for the Christian holiday (fish on Friday during Lent perhaps?). In any case, I have fully embraced the fish as our springtime emblem.
With fusible interfacing and an iron, it took me about 5 minutes to enbellish this shirt last night. I was going to zigzag stitch around the borders of each fish, but I’ve got job applications to write and a chapter to finish, so this will do for now!
Pause for quick photo…and…he’s off!
Because Jax loves fish and all things water, I thought I’d perfect my recycled crayons method using an ice cube mold we picked up at IKEA. Now, the tray said “for water only” but I thought it would still work well for crayon melting since the oven is only set to “warm” for this project. I had tried this with a heart mold for Valentine’s day but neglected to grease the mold first, so I thought that would solve my problems this time.
The greased mold with broken crayon bits
After 10 minutes, they started to melt, but I soon noticed the bowing of the tray was going to pose a problem…
Some spillage, but using the potholders to weigh down the sides, I straightened out the mold and let the crayons cool and harden this way.
And then the removal: disaster as I carefully popped the fish out. Only two fish survived with tails (out of twelve).
The mold didn’t fare any better with the greasing, either. Oh well. We can always remelt and try again with a different mold. In the mean time, we still have some fun multi-colored ovals to color with!
Happy April Fool’s Day!
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02.19.10
Posted in Crafts, Kids Crafts, Sewing, Yarn Arts at 11:49 am by rachel
The biggest accomplishment of the past weeks has been finishing the draft of my third chapter (only one more to go!), but I also found some time for a couple of craft breaks.
Remember that vintage sweater I framed last year? Since Jax has actually been wearing the thing, I thought it was time for a nursery decor overhaul. I have this lovely quilted doll blanket my Aunt Marge Ann made for me when I was little, and I’ve finally found the perfect use for it:
The new and improved reading corner: framed doll blanket hanging over the dog-bed-turned cozy corner. The alligator pillow is a TJ Maxx find (and Jax fell in love with the animal in Florida – “adiddle” he calls them), and the green velvet one is something I made and thought would add interesting texture. The big white pillow is a fuzzy quilted floor pillow.
I then took an idea from Purl Soho that I’ve been harboring for over two years and added some colorful interest to another blank wall:
Once I blogged about the DIY ribbon tag toys I was making, my friend Cecilia requested a couple – one for herself and one for a friend:
{That little donkey print gets around!}
Here are some in-progress pictures:
I also finished a knit bonnet – my first time trying this pattern and this yarn (big fan of both) – and sent it off to baby Tegan out in California.
Here’s a tip for gifting your yarn work: make a tag the same size as the yarn label and tie them together to the gift. That way, all the info about material content and washing instructions is all there.
Finally, for a totally random travel idea from the daughter of two scientists, you can make toddler snack packs with little test tubes. {Don’t worry, these were never used in any experiments!} My mom gave me a ton of these to organize craft supplies, but they worked wonders during our trip: not only are you only dealing with one serving of snacks at a time, but the twist-off cap can become an intriguing toy for the toddler.
O’s cereal, Cheddar crackers, and Dried Cranberries, ready for take-off
Similarly, if you need special laundry detergent on the go (if you are using cloth diapers or if your tot has sensitive skin), the tubes work well for that, too:
Just don’t try to get these guys through security…Who knows what they’ll think.
And voilà, my list of recent crafty randomness.
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10.06.09
Posted in Crafts, Family, Hudson Valley, Kids Crafts, New York Life at 10:31 am by rachel
Autumn is in full swing here, but some beautiful summer-like weather on Sunday meant we could partake in fall’s activities under a warm sun. We decided it’d be a day to take advantage of one of the benefits of living in Westchester County: its proximity to some family farm fun. This one-year-old thought it was a fabulous idea!
We started the day with a pumpkin craft: I cut a piece of finger painting paper into the shape of a pumpkin, taped it to Jax’s highchair, and then put two little blobs of paint onto it. Remembering what my mom learned in a young children’s art workshop, I stuck only to primary colors to have Jax discover the result of mixing all by himself. So with a red blob and a yellow blog and lots of messy play, he made orange! I then used a leaf-shaped paper puncher to punch out colorful paper leaves in yellow, red, and orange, and added those to the mix. The result:
After some delicious bagels at our neighbors’ (we have the nicest people living all around us!), we headed out to Stuart’s farm to see the real thing and pick our own apples.
Try as Seth did to show him how to do pick apples, Jax mostly just studied the technique rather than try it himself.
He knew all about tasting them, though.
When our bag was full, we headed over to the pumpkin field and let Jax crawl all around.
Then we finally found the perfect pumpkin to take home:
So Jax waved good-bye as he crawled away:
On our way out I took some shots of the random vestiges of farming’s past (Stuart’s Farm has been around since 1828):
as well as its present day:
That building to the right is the bakery, where we tasted a freshly-made doughnut. It was a totally new species of pastry to me.
On our way out I snapped some photos of the autumn colors in their many forms.
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