mama urchin

When Amanda Jean said she wanted a red and white quilt — only red and white — I thought, no problem. I have a ton of red fabric in my stash. Well, it turns out I didn’t have any of the right red and all the right reds had a little something else in them too — green, pink, tan. So I finally got myself to a fabric store last week and picked up a few red and white prints. I decided to make a star since Amanda Jean helped me begin to conquer my fear of triangles. I had to rip out the last seam about four times before I was satisfied with it. It is still not perfect but the points in the middle match so I’ll live with it.

Courtney sent three solids and asked us to create a square that was bordered in the muslin color. Courtney said: feel free to tea dye, distress fabrics, or to pair them with things that appear just a little “off.” And if it’s a fabric that looks like it was your grandpa’s work shirt, or your grandma’s house dress even better. So I wanted my square to look like it was pieced together with little leftover or re-used scraps. I think I did it. Well, I hope I did.

Remember how I made a few apron sets to have on hand for birthday gifts? Well, they’ve been a huge hit and the birthday parties haven’t stopped. So, I’ll be working on something new to have in the stash soon. This, however, is about the boys. Katie hasn’t been invited to too many boy parties this year but we have had a bit of a run on babies that have big brothers. And any mom of two (or more) knows that gifts for a new baby are always better received when they come with a gift for the big sister/brother too.

The dinosaur backpacks are made from the same clearance fabric as Katie’s dino dress. They were super easy to make and I finally got to use some grommets — something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. The contents include all kinds of Dinosaur stuff I got in the dollar bins at Target — grow tablets, stickers, dinosaur skeleton kits, tattoos, etc. I also included a couple of Schleich dinosaur figures. Really, you could find almost all of this stuff at the dollar store. And as a mom I know that I like when Katie gets gifts like this. The stickers and tattoos get used and used up, and then they’re gone. The figures and the skeleton can be played with creatively and won’t be quickly outgrown. And all kids love a bag to put their junk in — I had a lot of trouble getting this one off the model. It’s so much better than another Polly Pocket or Spiderman figure. I also change the contents slightly depending on the recipient. A dinosaur book would be good for an older boy while a dinosaur coloring book and crayons are just right for a younger child.

The pillows from my bloggy birthday give-away are headed out today. Finally. Man, I am slow with the sending. These got held up with zipper issues. Why can you never find a zipper that is the right color and the right length? So there is one pillow where the zipper color is the best I could do and another where the zipper is way too long. Still, I think they’re pretty cute. Click through to flickr to see who gets which one and individual photos too. And here is a photo of my prop master — always ready to help me with the photography.

Another delayed baby gift. This is for a sweet little boy who arrived at the end of last year. The free pattern is called Super-Natural Stripes and it is knit in super soft Blue Sky Alpacas‘ Organic Cotton. I used the colorway pebble instead of the sage and I’m happy with the variegated effect. My only modifications were I didn’t knit the single row of bone at the cuff, hem, or button band/collar. It wasn’t really necessary with the pebble yarn.

Baby Stripes
Pattern: Super-Natural Stripes
Yarn: Blue Sky Alpacas‘ Organic Cotton in colorways 80 (bone), 82 (nut), and 84 (pebble)
Yardage: less than one 150 yard skein of the bone and nut, less than two 150 yard skeins of the pebble
Needles: US size 7 and US size 5
Gauge: 16 st = 4 in
Size : 6-12 months
Modifications: Omitted the bone stripe at the cuff, hem, and button band/collar.

I feel a little out of the swing of things in this space. No real reason, I guess, just hazy, you know what I mean? I have a bunch of stuff to finish up this week though, we only have three weeks until preschool is out for the Summer. Seriously, Summer. Anyway, the garden was looking very purple-y this weekend. My grandmother loves purple. LOVES it. She always has, as long as I can remember. So all the purple got me thinking of her and this silk yarn — Posh Yarn’s Lisette — I scored when Vanessa recently destashed. I’m planning to make something lacy for my grandmother for Christmas with it. The yarn is aran weight, any suggestions? I’ve decided to dangle the yarn as a carrot in front of my nose for me to finish up all those things I need to do. Hopefully I can cast on by the end of the week. And speaking of carrots…

This is a quilt for some friends that had a baby at the end of last year. I wanted something soft so I made a huge log cabin from blue and green flannels. I backed it with minkee so it will be soft against the little guy whether it’s used as a play mat or a crib quilt. Wow, though, I need to get with the program on getting gifts made in a more timely manner.

And an update on the other babies. As of this morning I was fairly convinced that Mama Bunny had not returned since Sunday. So, while the urchins were at preschool we carefully pulled back the leaves and fluff and found that the babies were still there, doing well, and a little bothered that we were disturbing them. After some online research and some info from some of you I felt much better that they were doing fine — i.e. they hadn’t been abandoned/orphaned — and that a rabbit nest in the middle of the lawn is not that unusual. To be safe I moved a plastic Adirondack chair near the nest since someone walking to the front door from the street would probably step right on them. Then tonight as we were heading out after dinner we saw the Mama tending her kittens — did you know baby rabbits are called kittens? Unfortunately, she saw us too so she quickly hopped away but she was watching to see what we did so we just got in the car and drove off. Turns out, she’s a good mama after all.

This week Heather and Alicia are asking everyone to be their guest over at the Noticing Project. Alicia was one of my first real blogging friends and I’m really enjoying this new project of hers. And allowing us all to notice and share for a week is such a great idea.

Speaking of noticing, when Papa mowed the front lawn over the weekend he noticed a kind of weird looking clump of fur and leaves carefully arranged in the yard. He pulled it back to find this:

He thought at first they were baby mice but when he explained what he found to me — I wasn’t home before dark — I was pretty sure they were bunnies. The next day we looked at them again and they are bunnies, I’m sure. The problem is they are smack in the middle of our front yard with no bush or any type of cover around. I’ve had my nose pressed against the front windows for the last two days trying to catch a glimpse of Mama Rabbit. Stefan assures me she’s going back but I’m not entirely sure. So, in order to preserve my sanity I put a dandelion flower on top of the nest to see if it gets moved. Because seriously, I have my own babies to worry about.

On Thursday my trainer at the gym canceled our session and I was left to decide if we should go to the gym anyway or be lazy and stay home. Lazy won. So I decided the urchins and I would pull the weeds in the veggie garden to get it ready for planting — really, I need to get with it in the Autumn and put the garden to bed properly. Then I wouldn’t have all this Springtime cleanup to do. We got about half of the beds cleaned up before Tristan got stung by a bee and it was lunchtime.

After lunch while Tristan napped I tackled the overgrown lawn. The grass was amazingly high — as tall as Tristan in some places. It took me the entire rest of the day and at the end this is what I was left with:

So close. Stefan finished it on Friday night and yesterday he mowed the front lawn so we won’t be arrested by the grass police. The thing is you would think all that mowing would be tedious and boring but we had the best time outside all day. The urchins discovered fairy land under the willow tree and spent a lot of time hunting for roly polies I can already tell, this year it’s going to be easier with the urchins outside and I am so excited because after our sick-all-the-time-stuck-in-the-house-winter we need all the vitamin D we can get.

Before we scooted off to mission control — more rocket pics in Papa’s flickr stream — someone in our house turned five. She has been telling us for months about the mermaid swimming party she was going to have. My philosophy on children’s birthday parties is that themes are fun for them, even if I personally find them a little too much. And if you are going to do a theme, I say go for it whole heartedly. So, a mermaid swimming party was had.

The inside says:

We had the party at our local recreation center so we couldn’t really decorate too much. I just got all kinds of shells and some ocean-colored beads to put on the tables.

For food we kept it simple. Papa made an awesome cake — with art direction by Mama — and we had ice cream cups and swedish fish. Let me tell you, I had forgotten how good swedish fish taste. The castle cake was made with a nordic ware pan. We made a sheet cake to be the ocean and decorated it with homemade candies, store bought sugar fishes, and two theme-appropriate playmobils.

The mermaid princess seemed pleased, if not a little overwhelmed. She’s already started planning next year’s party, a fairy teaparty — do you think she’s been reading Daria’s blog?