Today I Made This Smock

(Pattern from Bend The Rules Sewing)

I got up early to let the dogs out and the house was so calm and quiet that I was tempted, for once, to stay up instead of crawling back beneath the warm blankets to eek out a few more moments of sleep.  I made my way to my sewing room, found this pattern, and started sewing.  The daughter awoke and found me working on her surprise; she remained to keep me company, singing songs and clapping whenever I finished a section of bias tape.  Her only request after a day of wearing her new smock?  That I add a pocket or two for her pennies.  I think I can manage that.

You may have noticed that I skipped both the Thanksgiving and Black Friday posts.  I wasn’t camping out in a long line to buy a plasma screen t.v., but I was hanging out with family and friends…I suppose you could say we spent those two days making memories.  Pictorial evidence:

 

I hope you and yours had a lovely holiday, too. 

Today I Made This Problem Solver

I have been meaning to make this Problem Solver for months now.  We have a mudroom that was originally intended to be an "outdoor space"; it was changed to an indoor space but something got lost in translation with our builder and we ended up with a very chilly mudroom with interior finish.  To help keep our house as warm as possible while keeping our heating bills at a minimum we added this not-so-lovely but very functional accordion door at the intersection of mudroom and kitchen.  The door stops the draft, but it has a bad habit of sproinging open when I am trying to bring in groceries, corral kids and dogs out to the car, or hang up the hundred coats that always gather near the front door.  The Problem Solver is a bracelet for my accordion door; a simply hook and loop tape attachment makes it easy to lock the door out of my way when I need to, and stays put in the crack between door and wall when not in use.

Ahhh.  Something to check off my To-Do List! 

Today I Made This Owl

I realize I am coming in a little under the wire with this first post, but today didn’t go exactly as planned.  Let’s just say the first project, a turtle, had to go back to the pond.

Make Something Every Day...I Dare You

Nothing makes me feel more satisfied or accomplished than making something with a few materials and my own two hands. I love sitting at my sewing table for an hour or two and walking away with a finished bag, pillow, or baby dress. Sitting in a comfortable chair with a warm cup of tea and my knitting in the evening helps my mind find peace; the simple act of working stitches into rows, rows into a section, and sections into a sweater feels like a natural progression toward something good and lasting. Making toys for Harrison and Emma, even when those toys are simple and short lived, helps me feel connected to their learning and play at the most basic of levels.

Making things feels good. It boosts my creativity, jump-starts my brain, and gives me a sense of accomplishment in my day that I rarely get in my other tasks. That is why, for the next month, I am going to make something every day, and I invite you to join me. From November 25 through December 24 I will make something every day and post about it here. I'll keep the rules simple:

• The item must be created that day – no posting old items because I’m short of time. 
• Made items can be as simple as a sketch or as complex as I can manage in one day.
• Knitting counts, but if I am working on a big project I will commit to finishing a large section in one day…one row seems a little lame.
• Alterations, both aesthetic and purposeful, on an existing piece can count.  For example, I have a few clothing pieces that need alterations before I can wear them: pants in need of a hem, shirts need darts, etc.
• Gifts for the holidays count…so if you happen to be my mom or sister or friend, don’t be sad if you open something you’ve already seen; obviously I won’t post the name of the person I am giving the item to.  You’ve been forewarned!
• Money does not have to be a limiting factor, for me or for you!  Get really creative and see what you can make without buying anything at all.
• Do it every day, no excuses. 
• Posts will be titled “Today I Made This”

In these worrisome economic times, the ability to take the wisp of an idea from the point of  inspiration and build it into a tangible body of work is priceless.  Challenge yourself and see how capable you really are; I bet you’ll be amazed at what your own two hands can do. 

November’s Quiet

We’ve been sick.  I seriously had no idea how often we would be sick once our children began their school years, but the answer seems to be summed up neatly in one word: constantly.  Fortunately the illnesses are of the annoying variety rather than being incapacitating.  We sniffle and sneeze and whine and wheeze our way through each week and just when we begin to feel better, perhaps a day or weekend goes by before we succumb once again to an illness.  I am fairly certain the manufacturer’s of Puffs Plus will not need any help from the bailout; we are keeping them well profited.

There is a good side to all of this sickness in that it forces us to slow down.  Our non-school weekdays are spent on the sofa next to the cheerfully burning woodstove with stacks of books on the table before us and quilts tucked cozily around our legs.  My knitting is never far from my hands, and the tea kettle (its whistle broken, sadly) is nearly constantly making a fresh pot of boiled water for our tea and cocoa.  My fire building skills have vastly improved over the last few weeks and I am now proud to state that I can successfully begin a long lasting fire without filling the house with smoke…most days, anyway.

With the leaves now gone from the trees the bright light of winter has begun to fill our home on sunny days.  The patches of sunlight work their way around the house as the hours tick by and we shift our seating arrangements accordingly, with Charlotte (our beagle) being the member most concerned with catching this solar warmth.  The world outside of our windows is looking more wintry with each passing day, but in the tiny little garden beneath our chimney my clematis has one brave bud still basking in the late-autumn sun.  The rest of the plant’s leaves have been caught by the frost and the other blossoms have long since faded, but this one bloom refuses to die back.  Nature, even at the end of it’s season, contains the audacity and willfulness of life.  Our November days are are warm and quiet, and we savor them knowing that soon the holiday season will be upon us with all of its chill and cheer, followed by the deep freeze of the early year.  It will be a long time before new leaves and buds make their appearance on the clematis, so today I am thankful that just one blossom has held out its neck to reach for the sun. 

What She Said

“One of the tricks is to ALLOW a child to be bored; NOT to fill up every minute with options and extracurriculars; not to allow electronics to be clicked on in a moment of down time. The boredom forces invention; the invention gives a clue as to what deeply amuses a child.”-Mellisa Fay Greene

Dear Harrison,

You are tired.  You play harder than most kids I know, you go to school where learning new things requires an intensity of concentration that takes enormous amounts of energy to maintain, and your body and mind are growing up fast; all of these things together wear you out to the point that you are on the verge of tears nearly every day by the hour of five o'clock.  By the end of each day you have the tendency to become a puddle, to push boundaries and the limits of our patience until we, too, feel like puddles.  At those moments, the moments in which I want to throw up my hands and call uncle as I make a mad dash for the door, I find myself hoping that you will have a son of your own one day.  And you might think that is a hateful thing to write, but I don't wish a son upon you in vengeance, rather I wish a son upon you so that you, too, will know the depths of love that I know, the love that keeps me from running out the door.  The love that makes me hug you and hold you close rather than keeping you in a constant time out.  The love that makes me secretly giggle when you try, yet again, some thing that I have told you not to do no fewer than a million times. 
We've been doing better this week, you and I.  I had long since given up all hope of naps for you because as you got older you just seemed to grow out of them and I grew weary of returning you to your bed twenty times an afternoon.  It was exhausting and I will admit defeat; I simply gave up.  But then a funny thing happened.  I snuggled you close on the couch earlier this week, tucked a blanket around your shoulders to ward off any chill, and thought to myself that in the absence of a nap we could at least enjoy a quiet time together.  I turned on some boring show about politics and you laid your head on my arm until, quite suddenly and soundlessly, you were asleep.  Your little body sagged in relief as your slumber replenished the depleted stores of energy in your cells.  Your face relaxed, you started to snore, and I realized that in all of the time we spent arguing about naps I was getting it wrong.  Instead of putting you away in your room, alone, to sleep off your naughtiness and bad moods, I should have held you close for just a little while because what you needed, more than sleep, was me.  You needed to know that, in spite of all of the changes in your little life these days, I am going to remain a constant.  I failed you, in a way, when I didn't recognize what you needed and I am so sorry, my little man.  But now I know. 
We've kept up the couch cuddle time for a few days now and each afternoon as I tuck the blanket around your shoulders you look at me and smile; it is not the triumphant smile of one who has won a battle, but the contented smile of one who has finally gotten exactly what they needed.  And me?  I found out that I am getting exactly what I needed to: time with you to hold you close, to remember that you are still a very little boy.  Time to slow down and relax, to watch my son sleep.  I have also gotten the gift of a son who is not a puddle at five o'clock any longer; instead you are ready to help me make dinner, ready to clean up the mess of our day, and ready to play very kindly and patiently with Emma.  We are each changed by the stillness of one hour; we are replenished.
Maybe one day you will have a son, and that son will go to school for the first time and he won't take a nap afterward, and the busy days of young boyhood will wear him out to the point that you won't quite know what to do with him.  If that day comes I will let you read this so you'll know how clueless I was some days.  Hopefully you, too, will have the opportunity to learn that slowing down long enough to hold him and love him is the answer to a great many disputes and aggravations.  I do so hope you'll have a son someday.
Love, Mom