Violette Crumble

Wedding pillow

2009-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

I made a (clearly very late) wedding gift for Abby and Chris, and I finally finished it and mailed it off. The first time I saw this old transfer (which I got from Floresita's vintage transfers on flickr) I immediately knew that I would use it for a Chris and Abby wedding pillow. They are both cat lovers who also have the best collection of antique everything. I used the coveted bird and wave fabric for the back:

I think I have to use my last remnant of the bird/wave fabric for my very own pillow. I like using the black piping for the edges.

And that is all I have to show for my crafty old self right now. As I recently mentioned we have had illness after illness around here in 2009 (nothing serious, and I am always thankful for that) and our latest bout has been with THE CHICKEN POX!

My poor little guy came down with the chicken pox in the middle of spring break, during a big annual music festival (South by Southwest). Needless to say, I did not get to see any bands. There was a fever, and a lot of waking up at night, and not a lot of sleep for mom or dad. I had intended on getting Harlan vaccinated just before kindergarten, but in a way I am relieved that he got the virus out of his system, since now he will not have to re-vaccinate himself every twelve years. I can not imagine very many grown men remembering to vaccinate themselves, and getting chicken pox as an adult is really horrendous. While Harlan was sick I heard from many friends who got the virus in their teens, their twenties, and even during law school finals! Lucky for us, there were enough parents around who wanted their toddlers to get the chicken pox too, and we were invited over to their homes. Harlan is such a social butterfly, and he hates being cooped up inside (no pun intended). I know some of you may be floored by the thought of intentionally getting your kids the chicken pox, but I can definitely see the benefit of it. I had it when I was thirteen, and let me tell you, I was way more miserable than Harlan was with it at three (which was really no walk in the park either).

So, we are all in a period of relative wellness (I know it's just a matter of time before my allergies return. I just finished a second round of antibiotics for an ear infection) and I am trying to catch up on work. At the end of April I am going to be selling at the Funky Finds Spring Fling in Fort Worth, so come check me out!

Stash Interview

2009-03-01T12:27:00.000-08:00

I have really enjoyed reading the sew mama sew stash interviews from February. I might be a few days late, but no one can call me fat quarter short. I will now proceed to interview myself, and I will be very delighted by my own answers:

First of all, what do you usually sew?

Clothes for my son (mostly pants and shorts, but occasional jumpers), stuffed toys, clothes for myself, play matt/baby quilts, and children's clothing for Rose & Duke.
Scraps are kept in Ziplocks in an open toy trunk, on the floor of the closet.

When you shop for fabric, what size cuts do you usually buy? (i.e. If you see something beautiful, but you don’t have a use for it right away, how much do you buy?)

When I buy for Rose & Duke appliques, I buy small quantities, maybe a yard. Very rarely do I buy less than a yard of something (unless it's from Japan and sold by the half-yard only). When I buy for Harlan I buy at least 1.5 yards, and when it's for myself, I buy 2 to 3 yards to make a shirt or skirt or even short dress.

SMS: Do you buy on impulse or do you go out looking for something you need?
I mostly am an impulse buyer. I frequently look at my favorite online stores and buy things when I see them and fear they may run out. I also have certain fabrics that I need, and I look for those as well. I am constantly searching for prints with small fruit on them, for the tree appliques that I make with screen-printed animals standing next to them. When I am back visiting NYC, I also stock up on items in the garment district that I know I will need for sewing for my family: linen, solids, wools, velors, etc.

SMS: Are you a pre-washer? If you are, do you wash your fabric before you need it, or only when you’re ready to use it?

I just started pre-washing. I used to never pre-wash anything, because it's such a hassle. Ironing is something I find loathsome, and can not figure out how to perfect. No matter how long I go back and forth over certain fabrics, the wrinkles don't come out. Steam or no steam. Or they come out, but then they come back. It makes me crazy.
These are some of my rayon triangles, cut from all the '40s dresses I used to wear in high school and college. Once the arm pits came apart, they became quilt material. I have yet to sew the quilt. Maybe that should be my goal for 2009.

SMS: Do you iron it?

See above.

This is one of my favorites. Fans of Japanese prints will recognize it. I bought it a few years, and just bought more when I saw it available. I will probably hoard it for several years.

SMS: How do you sort it? (color, print size, collection, etc.)
I have mostly cotton prints, and I sort by predominant color. I also have a stack of home dec. weight cottons, a stack of velor and cashmere/wools, and a stack of solids.

This is one of my favorite floral prints. It's from Japan, and I only have a small amount, but I plan to incorporate into a blouse somehow.

SMS: Do you have any special folding techniques?
Nope.

SMS: How do you store your fabric?
It's all in a closet in my son's room. I suppose that when we buy a house I will have a better solution, but for now it beats keeping it in boxes under the bed, which is what I used to do back in Brooklyn, when closet space was a super-precious comodity. I also have some in boxes, but that's mostly scraps and ongoing projects.

I totally should have bought more than a yard of this Kokka print. I can not find more anywhere and I think it may one of the most perfect designs ever.

SMS: What tips do you have for building up a well-rounded stash?

When you see something you like that might not last in the stores for long, buy it. Make sure you have the solids that you work with frequently, and play with different brands of solids for different purposes, to see which ones you like the best.

SMS: When do you say enough is enough?

When you run out of storage room!

This is a scrap from an

Publish Post

old feedsack that I cut and pinned to make into a blouse. I never sewed the blouse, and now that I've had a son and my ribcage has expanded, it will never fit me anyway. I recently noticed that some designer has reproduced this print exactly. Maybe Alexander Henry?

SMS: What are some of your favourite stash-busting projects?

Quilts are the best way to cut down on the stash. I have yet to make any adult sized quilts, but I sure will be ready when the time comes.

SMS: What’s your definition of the perfect stash?
The inside of Purl Soho.
This is an old feedsack. How can you beat cobwebs and yellow roses? What on earth should I cut into it for?

This one is blouse material. I think it is from Lecien. I bought it at Brooklyn General a couple of years ago, while shopping with Kimmy one day.

On the mend

2009-02-20T13:25:00.000-08:00

Have you heard the one about the disappearing blogger?
Tea towel made as a surprise for a friend

When it comes down to it, I really can not do it all. As much as I, and every other mother I know wants to, it's just not possible. So there are choices. And they need to be prioritized. When I began this blog I did so in the hopes that virtually keeping track of my projects would help me finish them, and help me stay in touch with other bloggers who enjoy making things, baking, and taking photos of their accomplishments.
Pants made for Harlan this month. They were not intended to look like M.C. Hammer pants, but they kind of do.

What turns out to be possible, is that I eek out precious bits of time to make things (without keeping track of anything,) I bake things constantly (despite theoretically being on the Weight Watchers points diet,) I sit down to read my favorite bloggers' blogs, and keep in touch with them through commenting on their blogs, and I continue to take photos on a daily basis.

detail of pocket. Train fabric from Leslie.

When it comes down to my own blog, life seems to get in the way most of the time. Since moving to Austin a year and a half ago, I have not gone more then four weeks without any allergy symptoms. I do not mean a few sneezes and watery eyes either. We're talking sore throat, coughing that ends up in loud fits of gagging, partial to total loss of my voice, and completely blocked nasal passages that force me to sleep sitting up like the elephant man did (for some reason the one thing I always remember from the super tragic movie is that he had to sleep sitting up due to his messed up breathing issues). Do I sound like an old kvetcher, ready to move down to Boca yet (I wonder how the allergies are down there)? To add to all this glory, the state of being allergic so often has generally lowered my immune system and made me more vulnerable to infection. Since November, I have been fighting a sinus infection that has given me fever and chills, and body aches and exhaustion. It took me three months of living like this (with two brief periods of feeling well mixed in there) to finally stop and consider that maybe it wasn't just allergies that were bothering me. And now, on a ten-day course of antibiotics, I feel like a new woman. I am also seeing an allergist about taking weekly shots to stave off allergic reactions. I'm telling everyone this because I have basically been spending the last couple of months just going through the motions. There has not been enough time to get work done, let alone blog about what I am stitching while laying on the sofa with my eyes propped open. And now I feel that I am coming out of a tunnel and hopefully rejoining the land of the living.

Truck pants made for Harlan last month, using really expensive black stretch denim that I got in NYC to make a skirt for myself with. I have no idea why I blew it on these pants. I guess I didn't realize that one could not get similar fabric at local fabric chains like Jo-Ann's.

Moving to Austin may have given me massive allergies that will require weekly shots for a very long time, but honestly I fucking love it here. Winter with the sun shining almost every day, and warm enough weather to play outside is really the antidote to a lot of things in my book.

I recently just managed to get some of the vintage pillowcase dresses up in the shop. It was not easy to get fantastic photos of the dresses due to their being white and flowing. I'm working on getting better shots, but for now, click on the photos and check out the detail shots which I think came out quite nicely with my macro lens. Also, check out the new sleeper sets and romper dresses.
Long-sleeved onesies are still available for a couple more months too!

Happy 2009!

2009-01-05T17:32:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I was absent from blogland as I was working on keeping my booth stocked at the Blue Genie Art Bazaar, and spending time with the fam. There were a lot of really fantastic artists at Blue Genie this year, and despite the current economy, sales were strong. Rose & Duke sold a decent amount of items, but I was expecting to sell way more and so now I have a lot of stock to fill my site and some local shops. That is what I will be spending the next few weeks doing; photographing items, uploading them, and taking samples around. I am super bad about updating my webshop, and my 2009 resolution is to make time to keep it current.

In crafty news, I had a fun time doing an ornament swap with some great bloggers. It was called the "Los Locos Calicos" swap, and I'll post a link to the flickr group as soon as more folks have uploaded their photos (hint hint ladies). I received the cutest ever Christmas bunny pom pom ornament from Frizz. It came inside a hand-pained wooden box which I now keep my barrettes in. I'm linking you to her photos of the critter, because she took really great ones. I ended up sending out two ornaments. The one that I made for the swap is this one:
I hand embroidered sliver thread onto blue wool felt . It wasn't that easy to remove the stabilizer, let me tell you.

I ended up making a batch of these birdie and vintage millinery flower ornaments. I had a box of vintage wooden thread spools in a drawer and the inspiration just hit me. I ended up including one in the swap.

Sorry for the overexposed photo. My other 2009 resolution is to take better photos. I end up rushing a lot and the results are not always pretty.

Guess what awesome thing happened chez Dunlap? Our ruby grapefruit tree gave us the sweetest grapefruit ever! A hail storm knocked off all but one, and here she is:

We also had a Christmas visit from my mother, and she and Harlan made a gingerbread house together:
Please note the Playmobil midevil guards out front. Somebody put them there to ensure that no one else tried to eat the house. This, after receiving the Jen Corace Illustrated Hansel and Gretel from Sanata. It's the loveliest rendition of the story I have ever read.

3 is the magic number

2008-11-19T18:21:00.001-08:00

Once again I've been a bit scarce around blogland for the past month. After Maker Faire (which went really well by the way, see here and here for a couple of shots that are better than my own) we had Harlan's third birthday to celebrate, and then I dove right back into production mode for the upcoming Blue Genie Art Bazaar, which is a three week long sale of items made by local artists.

With less than twenty hours a week to devote to working, blogging is put on the back burner once again. Here are a few shots to keep all my dear readers in the loop!

Harlan's third birthday on Nov. 1:
I think this is my only photo pose. Every photo of me since Harlan was born looks exactly like this. Here is the birthday boy being asked to pose:

We had a little party for Harlan and some of his pals at a place filled with inflatable jumpy houses. Some of them were so large that they had slides and ladders (inflatable too) inside them.

I updated my deer and tree applique designs. I'm now hand dying the blanks in vibrant, more "punchy" colors, that come out somewhat variegated. Instead of hand painting each shirt, Joe drew a deer that I'm silkscreening (and I added a small batch of a big bad wolf version). Silk screening goes a lot faster obviously, and it feels great to be able to produce the clothes a little faster than I was doing so before. Lastly, the tree appliques remain the same except that there is now only one tree per shirt.

I am making most of the trees with my traditional ric-rack, and leaving some with raw edges for a more "manly" look for little boys who don't rock the ric-rack.

This shirt is Kelley green, although it looks more yellow in the photo:

These little romper/dresses are new too, and come in a variety of colors:

Also new are these sleeper sets. The hats will be sold with the nighties (don't these things remind you of Sweepea?)

I really love the way blue dye came out, but it shows the most variegation of any of the colors I've tried so far. It's a bit trickier to work with and I had to scrap a pretty big batch of blanks unfortunately.
I'm hoping to put some of these in the shop, but that is pretty neglected these days as well. If you are interested in a particular size or design to purchase, feel free to e-mail me and I'll send it to you instead of putting in the upcoming Art Bazaar. I'm also making some great stockings with the woodgrain fabric, some Japanese import fabrics, and some linen ones with the deer. I hope to post again soon, but if not, please know that the comments you all leave and the e-mails you send really mean a lot to me.

Sneak Peak #2

2008-10-06T13:00:00.001-07:00

Twenty two totally unique hand-embroidered dresses are ready to debut at the Maker Faire on October 18th. So far I have figured out how to make them in a few sizes ranging from 0-3 months to 4t. I choose the size the dress will end up being based on the embroidery and trim of the original pillowcase. Here is a sneak preview of a few of the dresses:

So, it's not the easiest feat in the world to photograph some of the designs on these in a short amount of time (which is the only amount I seem to have for every task these days). I just realized that I chose two green and yellow dresses out of all the different color combinations. There are many different colors, believe you me!

And now, if you are dying of suspense about who won the ticket drawing for the Maker Faire tickets, the winners are:

shewolfnm: Two adult tickets and one child ticket

and

Solotko: One student ticket (can be used by a child)

and

Jen-uh-four: One student ticket (can be used by a child)

Congratulations! The way I generated this drawing was by placing the names in two bowls. One bowl had the name and ticket request number of everyone who asked for adult tickets, and the other had the name and ticket request number of everyone who asked for children tickets. No one asked for student tickets, but the Maker Faire will admit children under 3 for free, so all other children are students right?

Please feel free to stop by the Rose & Duke booth in the Bizarre Bazaar and say hello when you come to the fair.

Maker Faire Ticket Giveaway

2008-09-29T13:01:00.000-07:00

Extra! Extra! Get 'em while they're hot! If you are going to be in Austin on the weekend of October 18th and 19th, and you would like to go to the Maker Faire, I can help you with the cost of tickets, courtesy of Average Jane Crafter. The adult tickets cost $25 each, the student tickets cost $15 each, and the youth tickets cost $10 each. I have FIVE to give away (2 adult, 2 student, 1 youth). Please note that you must be an actual student or an actual youth to use the allocated tickets. In order to enter the drawing, please leave a comment by 1:00 PM CST, Monday, October 6th. I will draw winners at that point and post the results. The comment that you leave must include an e-mail address where I can find you (unless I can find your e-mail through your personal profile that you post with), what kind of tickets you want and how many, and one of two things (yes, there's a twist): 1) A link to something handmade that is for sale that you would love to buy for yourself if you got some free money, or 2) A brief description of something you do to help other people or make the world a better place. I will choose three random winners. If the total amount of tickets requested by the three random winners leaves leftovers, I will draw names from posters requesting the type of tickets leftover. In other words, if, after choosing the three winners there is a youth ticket left, I will draw names from posters who requested a youth ticket. Good luck!

In making news, I took a day off from working on items to sell, and made Harlan some muscle car shorts with this cool fabric. He gasped when I showed them to him, but then I had to practically twist his arm to get him to try them on for a photo. He's very fickle these days.

Rose & Duke got a mention this week on the Wickedly Chic blog, thanks ladies!

PLEASE REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL IN YOUR COMMENT, IF YOUR PROFILE DOES NOT INCLUDE IT! I HAVE A FEW COMMENTS ALREADY WITH NO MEANS OF CONTACT.

Almost Famous

2008-09-24T13:32:00.001-07:00

Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter interviewed me for her column on Craft Magazine's website. Thanks so much Rachel, you rock!

The dress is a sample that I made recently, but there should be about twenty unique dresses in time for the Bizarre Bazzar at Maker's Faire. Each dress is made from a vintage hand-embroidered pillowcase, and is fastened with vintage buttons. This is my first step away from hand embroidering items myself, and moving into producting garments that can be made faster, but are still special and different from other items usually found in children's clothing stores. As many of you have probably figured out by this point, hand embroidering isn't exactly fast, and therefore is not very cost-productive. I hope the dresses are a hit!

DRUMROLL AGAIN!

2008-09-16T18:57:00.000-07:00

Kim kindly declined an apron. Her comment on my post was not an entry into the draw :)

The actual winner is now......

Brook!

Brook's blog has some fantastic embroidery on it lately. I know she will look super hot in her new apron. Congratulations mama!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!

2008-09-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

And the winner of the vintage chicken scratch apron giveaway is......

KIM!
Kim, you didn't mention in your post which apron you want. I will e-mail you and find out.
There will be lots more similar giveaways in the future. I'm telling y'all that Austin is a treasure trove of inexpensive vintage goodness. I have to say that it was really a pleasure to get comments from people I never heard from before in addition to those whom I know. I am not that great at always responding to comments, but I sure do love getting them, and also discovering some great new blogs from commenters.

Sorry, but there are no photos in my post for the first time. I'm scrambling to work on clothing-making whenever I get the chance and the camera is sitting in its drawer. More exciting posts next week!

Vintage Chicken Scratch Apron Giveaway!

2008-09-09T13:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend while doing some vintage-goodness shopping, I came across these two old aprons with chicken scratch embroidery on them, and could not resist. Once I got home, I remembered that I don't even wear aprons very often, and I knew that one of these lovelies deserved a home with someone who could really appreciate it. Since chicken scratch is all the rage in crafty blogland these days, I just know there is someone out there reading this who will want one of these aprons. Leave a comment saying which apron you want (I only will give away one) before next Tuesday, and a week from today I'll have Harlan draw a name at random from a hat. Be sure and comment with a way that I can contact you via e-mail should you win :)

Another cute mid-century kid's chair was scored here in the great state of Texas:

Also in crafty goodness news: New curtains for Harlan's closet, sewn from Ikea fabric (forgive the lousy photo).

A plain denim skirt made from the Sew What! Skirts book that I bought a loooong time ago. Yes, it's another photo that doesn't do the subject justice. The skirt came out really cute, but no one is around to help me take a photo right now, so it's just me, the bathroom, and the lack of tri-pod.

Going in the mail tonight is a wedding gift for some friends who got married back in June. I actually had completed the pillow on time, but I was waiting for the second piece of the gift to become finished (it's something Joe made) before mailing it. I hope the recipients are not reading this before they get the pillow. If so, sorry it's so late! The fabric in the background is the same fabric I used to back the pillow with.

French knot details on bride-kitty's dress:

Some vintage 40's rayon crepe fabric that I'm going to make my next super lightweight TX style skirt with:

I'm a little unsure of how it will look once it's on me. It may too shear, and too unflattering, but I'm going to finally take the plunge and cut it up. I've had it sitting around since I got in Portland way back in the day.

Ladies, check their shoes FIRST!!!

2008-09-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

OK blogland friends, I have been sitting on this juicy story for a couple of months now, and I can't keep it to myself any longer. To those of you ladies who are single, and to all of us who remember being single, what is one of the first things you check out when you meet a man you might be interested in? It's the shoes, right? He might be cute, but if he's just wearing jeans and a t-shirt or some other nondescript outfit, it's always necessary to see the shoes so that you know if he's going go home and put The Clash on his stereo, if he's more of a Dave Matthews kind of guy. Yes, there are other kinds of guys too, but I find that most young men fall into one of these two basic categories. Well, today I have to tell you all that a good friend of mine was out on the town a couple of months ago, and she definitely went a little too far "into her cups" as they say in the south. She brought home a gentleman whom she had met several times before, and the next morning, she saw HIS SHOES for the first time. Can you imagine the horror? That's all I'm going to say here my friends. I should warn any of you at work that when I sent the link to those shoes to a couple of girlfriends at work, they laughed so hard and so loud, that they had to share the shoes with everyone else in their offices.

In news from my home front, there has been a bunch of hand-embroidering going on for the upcoming Maker's Faire in October. We also celebrated Joe's birthday this weekend, with a surprise (that I arranged) visit from Joe's best buddy Neilson.
Luckily Neilson enjoys good food, and so we spent the weekend doing the local gastronomic tour. First stop was at Torchy's Taco truck which recently merged with another truck called Shuggies (I think) in a larger space. Joe ordered the chicken fried BLT from Shuggies, and it was phenomenal. Cushioned in between a squooshy hoagie roll was lettuce, tomato, some green chilies, mayonnaise, and several pieces of bacon that have been fried in fried chicken batter. The bacon tasted totally crispy and surprisingly light.
We also got to sample some tasty jalapeno hush puppies. Oh yea. Of course some tacos were part of the meal as well.
I'm pretty sure this is the barbacoa taco with queso fresco, cilantro, avocado, and lime.

I baked a chocolate cake for Joe's birthday and got lots of help from Harlan, who is recently really into helping me bake. Any time he hears the Kitchen Aid mixer going and he's not already helping, he comse running in with his stool and slides it up to couter to help.

I've Been a Bad Bad Blogger

2008-08-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

Last post June 1st? Eek, the summer went so fast. A month-long trip to NYC and having Joe home with us here the rest of time made the days just fly by. The only items I made over the past couple of months were a ton of shirts for Parts & Labour on S. Congress. They're a really interesting boutique that only sells locally made items. I've also had a bunch of custom orders that I have worked on in place of updating my long-neglected blog. The only thing I made for myself this summer was this skirt:

Oh, do you like those shoes? I put them on for the photo because they were the last extravagant purchase I made before quitting my last full time job. Remember that scene in Sex in the City (the series, not the film) when Carrie realized that all the money she spent on shoes could have been used for the down payment on an apartment? I think that that might be a semi-universal epiphany (and by semi-universal I mean professional urban single women obviously). I like to remember the days when no one had heard of Suze Orman, and it was perfectly reasonable to blow money at Barney's and on cocktails instead of using it to pay off credit cards and save for the day when one might actually have a child and have no use whatsoever for 3" red suede platform shoes that were handmade by some little white-haired shoe-master in Italy.

But back to the skirt. Does it look vaguely familiar? That might be because originally it was a sun dress that I was working on. I could never figure out how to line up the bodice with the skirt, and so the bodice that I sewed a few months back is now being scrapped. At least I got one cute new thing to wear out of it. *Note to self- always make a muslin version of any new pattern before using the good stuff.

Of course there have been about a hundred things that I have been meaning to blog about, but I have come to realize that a more realistic approach for me will be to post about one thing each week. That's my "new year's resolution" for this upcoming school year (yes, I still think of time in terms of school years. I suppose that I will think of time this way for a long time with a teacher husband and a child). Here are some snapshots from our summer:

Dreamy days at the beach:

A boy and his love for baby lions (t-shirt made with transfer paper and access to flickr) and old tractors:

A visit from Joe's mom, and a dinner out at the Biergarten in Wahlburg:

Look! He's a little boy already:

Me me me and more about me

2008-06-01T18:09:00.000-07:00

Here is my flickr mosaic created for Spiralling's game. I'm determined to win.

1. Jessica Simpson, 2. Dark Bordeaux, 3. Leg it, 4. Tiffany Blue Washers, 5. Bad liver and a broken heart, 6. mr. imagination's bottlecaps (149), 7. Overhead, 8. Box of Macarons, 9. Today menu: Colorful fruit, 10. Love and affection, 11. Lazy Cow - Flatford, Dedham, Essex, England - Sunday June 10th 2007 - Highest Explore position - #1 on June 14 2007.WOW!!.:O):O):O), 12. Rose, Duke & Hayden

The way the game works is that you answer the following questions (I put my answers after the questions below) and then you type each key word into the search engine on flickr and choose one of the photos from the first page that comes up. I made the mosaic over at fds flickr toys.

The Questions:

1. What is your first name? - Jessica
2. What is your favorite food? - See's Candy
3. What high school did you go to? - St. Ann's
4. What is your favorite color? - Tiffany blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? - Tom Waits
6. Favorite drink? - Lime Ricky
7. Dream vacation? - Hawaii
8. Favorite dessert? - French macaroons
9. What did you want to be when you grow up? - A writer
10. What do you love most in life? - Love and affection
11. One Word to describe you. - Curious
12. Looked up my flickr name and found something about me: I wasn't too sure what this one meant so I typed Violette Crumble into flickr and got a great shot of Hayden wearing a Rose & Duke shirt.

Harlan was home from school all of last week and I have to say the poor guy had a rough few days. One evening he burned his fingers on the stove top (I gave up on locking him outside the kitchen gate while I cook because I couldn't take the shrieking). The next night we set up his much anticipated big boy bed. Like an idiot I didn't put a guard rail on its side, but set up some sheepskins on the floor next to the bed instead. Well, insomnia struck me that night and I ended up taking a big dose of anti-anxiety pills to knock myself up. I awoke to the sound of my poor guy screaming, and wandered deliriously into his room to find Joe holding him, blood everywhere.

Somehow Harlan fell out of bed with his blanket wrapped around his legs. We figure he stood up on the sheepskins and then face planted onto the wooden floor, smashing open his lip and busting his nose. The swelling is finally going down, but in the photos below you can see his fat lip and his slightly Joan Riversesque swelling around the nose and under the eyes.

I can not take credit for these great photos. They were taken at the zoo by new favorite Austinite Mark. The picture of me tells me that my hair is indeed pretty bright in the sunlight. I think that I'm going to mix my current red dye with some dark brown and see where that takes me, despite the fact that Joe's students all really love my hair color (another sign that it might be time to tone it down a bit). I'm also stuck in the place where my hair is no longer a cute Katie Holmes bob, nor is it the standard Jessica long hair that only gets cut every ten years. I'm at a crossroads people. Either it's getting cut again or it's not getting cut for ten more years. I'm leaning towards cutting it one more time in the next couple of weeks only because I want to look good at Mike & Desiree's wedding in NYC at the end of the month (for some reason it's more important to look good at weddings even if they aren't one's own, right?) I'm also planning on magically fitting myself into a dress I got at Anthropologie while I was pregnant. Do you think I'm kidding that I bought shit I couldn't fit into when I was pregnant? I'm not. I was lucky enough to not have to wear maternity bottoms the whole pregnancy because Harlan planted himself pretty high up in my ribcage. For this reason I was certain that as soon as he came out I'd be back in a size 6 or 8. No one told me that the ribcage might not go back. I was prepared for my shoes not to fit any longer (the majority still do). I was prepared for crazy stretch marks (didn't get a single one although there are some crazy spider veins on my back and today one showed up on my shin. If only they'd showed up on my elbow in the shape of a cobweb. And while we're on that subject I recently saw a guy with the spiderweb elbow tattoo that was in the shape of Texas. I'll have to do a whole separate post about Texans' love for everything Texas.) However, the ribcage expansion I was not prepared for. I'm still going to stuff myself into the unworn fancy dress however, and I think I may be able to do it by just moving the buttons over. No one will know, right?

Hot

2008-05-26T13:47:00.001-07:00

So it's been hovering around 100 degrees here lately and I'm trying to embrace it as best as one can. Maybe if I pretend I'm one of those people who loves intense heat, I will actually become one. In the mean time, I had my bread party last weekend. Some friends came over and brought different items baked from the bread book. I made the almond bostock which is basically rolls of brioche with almond paste swirled inside them, along with orange flavor and grated orange peel and almonds on top. It was maybe one of the best things I've ever eaten, especially since we had it while it was still warm.
I also baked two plain loaves of brioche, and I just ate a slice of one with some Nutella and sliced banana on top. I guess the diet is officially off.

Katie made two focaccia, one plain and one with thin onions and salt. I could eat it all day long basically (with almond bostock breaks in between).
Harlan actually went up to this first and clamped his teeth around the edge of it. As Katie put it, "it got the toddler seal of approval." Kelly brought some pecan cinnamon rolls and they didn't exactly taste like crap either: Let me tell you, all that was left of these was a few pecans and some crust. Dr. Ruth made the light bran, and I have to say I think I may switch to this loaf for a while (I've been making the light wheat each week for sandwiches, but this one has a bit more heft to it): Jenifer made an awesome cheese ball with some fresh feta from a local organic farm.

In crafty news, I made a cupcake for Mae's birthday The pattern is from here.
We finally got some wicker chairs and a table from Ikea for our balcony, and I made a couple of seat cushions for the chairs. I've also been working on a sun dress with some of my coveted Folklore fabric. Here's the top of it shown upside down: Like the ric-rack around the top of the bodice? I'm going to add some to the hem as well. There is one big problem however. I cut my fabric and patterns super carefully, and sewed every single seam with the same seam allowance, but that shit just doesn't line up properly.
Notice how the vertical seams don't line up? I kind of tried it on and it seems like it should work out to fit O.K. if I go ahead and insert the zipper, but I feel like I'll know that I screwed it up. However, if I rip it up and take in the couple of inches along the front of the skirt then the floral pattern won't line up. I am stumped.

In shop news I'm adding a banana cowboy on a green background. He's kind of always been everyone's favorite and I think the green makes him look extra special.

A few nights ago we went out to a biergarten in the middle of nowhere and it was super awesome. Even though I'm not a big beer drinker, they did have the Widmier Heffewiesen that I always liked back in Portland, and a polka band really hit the spot. To make things even better there was a plethora of Texas glamour grandmas getting their groove on on the dance floor. There was one super old guy in a full-on Tyrolean outfit and I kept hoping he would ask me to dance, but all the old biddies kept getting to him first. Check him out in the left corner:

More Bees & Bread

2008-05-16T12:55:00.000-07:00

This Saturday my high school class is having its 20th reunion (thank you to the lady from the park who acted shocked when I told her and said I looked 29. I guess the face lift really paid off) and I'm sad to say I won't be there. Yes, I'm one of the few people out there who loved her high school. I had dedicated and interesting teachers, and really cool friends. I should mention here that I didn't go to public school. My school is a pretty well-known private Brooklyn school that does things like have Bertolt Brecht Day, where we ate German food and performed his plays. We had a smoking lounge too, and you were allowed to smoke in front of the school, but if you were in 7th grade, you had to go around the corner to smoke so no one would see you (the school goes k-12). Mike Diamond from the Beastie Boys was a senior when I was in 8th grade and he would throw french fries at us eighth graders who dared to try and smoke in front of the front door with the seniors. It was good times all around, and I hope to make the next reunion.

Yes, more sporadic posting I'm afraid. I've been working on designing the new Rose & Duke line (entirely sewn from scratch children's clothing, that won't be sewn entirely by me for once) and researching manufacturers. Aside from that, there's been a little more stitching going on for Abby:

I bought the blank tea towel fabric from reprodepot, and sewed some ric-rack along the bottom edges. I also got some great amigurumi patterns from a new friend over at Ravelry (I sent her a really good Japanese pattern book for her to copy from in exchange for the patterns she designed and sent me copies of). I made a marshmellow man and a sour apple.

The apple is missing his leaf and the marshmellow man is supposed to be a cupcake, but I think he looks more like a toasted marshmellow instead. He reminds me of the marshmellow man that I got as a gift when I bought something from Chet and Dot.

MY OVEN SUCKS. I have a thermometer in there, and sometimes you have to turn the heat to 550 to get it to reach 450 and sometimes you have to set it at 420 to get to 450. There's no telling what will happen once you put the bread inside. In addition, my dough rising is pretty incosistant as well. I don't know if it's the crazy Texas weather which changes so quickly, or if something else is going on, but half the time the dough is nice and wet and it rises perfectly and looks like this
and when it comes out this wet and flat on top, the bread comes out like this This is the light wheat bread by the way. I've also tried the olive bread and my favorite, the Chris Kimball (of Cook's Illustrated) sandwhich bread:
This is super tasty, but like all the other loaves- not very tall. I have no idea how to get a taller loaf so that one can eat a more normal-sized sandwich.
I also got a wild hare and tried my hand at homemade orecchiette (which is a bitch to remember how to spell) because the recipe in the recent Italian issue of Gourmet sounded sooo easy. While it wasn't necessarily difficult at all, it took forever. I spent half of a nap (Harlan's nap) cutting and pressing each little piece together. It tasted really nice with some Romano cheese, chopped parsley, and oven roasted tomatoes from the Whole Foods olive bar. The texture of the orecchiette was soft but not sticky or slimy. I think however, that I will continue to buy it from now on instead.

5 Minute a Day Bread, Take 1

2008-04-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Have I mentioned that I'm trying to do everything in my power to both save money on food and eat organically and locally when possible? Yes, you and every other whitey out there you are probably thinking. (O.K. Not every whitey out there, if you caught the Oprah episode this week about the families who waste tremendous amounts of everything possible. Family #1 who sounded suspiciously from Long Island threw out $700 of food a month because they don't save anything once the bag/box is open).

With the rise in prices of food and the current concern about wasting fuel by buying stuff flown in from all over the world, I'm doing what I can. If I can buy as much as possible organically and in bulk, and then make things myself like bread, desserts, and almost all of our meals, then I'm accomplishing two out of three. I also joined a local CSA, which is a chemical-free farm that customers pay a bulk sum to at the beginning of each season. Customers then go to the farm each week and pick up two giant bags of produce. At my CSA the cost breaks down to $25 a week, which for that amount of organic food is pretty darn good. Another great perk to the whole thing is getting lots of varitiy of produce that are not found in any supermarkets. If you want more tips on how to eat healthy for cheap, check out this long but very informative thread on a cloth diapering board I frequent (the third post down turned me on to the CSA and making everything from scratch using bulk organics).

At the same time I decided to make everything from scratch, I kept reading all the hoopla in blogland and message board land. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the book, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the authors of the book developed recipes and a method for baking different types of bread made from a dough that only takes fifteen minutes to make, requires no kneading, and remains in the fridge all week. Each time you want bread you cut a 1 pound hunk off the dough and quickly shape it, let it sit out for an hour and a half, and then bake it for thirty minutes.

Required equipment includes an oven thermometer, a baking stone, a pizza peel, and something large to store the dough in. I asked a group of women on a local mothering message board (several of them are on the bread bandwagon already) what pieces of equipment I can do without, since I did not want to have to invest quite so much money in something that may not even work out. I got some great tips from them that I will now share with you lucky readers:

1. Don't blow $30 on a baking stone. Instead, go to Home Depot and pick up a giant terracotta (untreated) tile for $1.30. Here's mine with some awesome lemon-poppy scones on them (the breakfast of the week that was actually the breakfast of three days):

2. Oven thermometers are really inexpensive at Target, as compared to Williams-Sonoma.

3. The book requires you to fill a broiler pan with water and keep it in the oven during baking, to release steam. Instead of ruining a pan and fussing with all the water, buy a brick and soak it in water for a while before putting it in the preheating oven. The brick will release an even amount of steam and you don't have to worry about any accidents with the water.

I actually did not buy a brick yet because we had to hussle out of Home Depot when I was buying the terracotta tile (two year old wanting to run through aisles instead of staying in cart), but I did buy a great pizza peel and dough scraper at good old Williams-Sonoma. I hit up Target and got my oven thermometer (by the way have you seen the amazing Dwell Baby for Target line? I just bought this and this and this for a few baby showers coming up to go with the requisite Rose & Duke apparel) and went to work. The first thing I noticed about my super-lame electric oven is that it is off by ten degrees. For the temp. to be 450 I ended up setting it to 460. I went to work and heated my water for the dough to 100 degrees (measured on the candy thermometer). I added the yeast and salt and flour, stirred, and let it rise. Here is how it looked:
This doesn't look like it rose very much at all does it? It didn't. I refrigerated the bread, took it out the next day, let it rise again, and formed my loaves:
These loaves are over one pound, because I wanted larger loaves. Unfortunately I forgot to add baking time and took them out when the tops were only slightly browned. The insides were raw.
I baked a little longer and voila:
Two large loaves of bread that were extremely dense and required a lot of jaw-work to get down the throat. Not really what I was hoping for. I dumped the remaining dough and started over, this time heating the water to a little over 100 degrees, and decreasing the amount of flour by 1/4 cup (as recommended by the book if the dough was too dry the first time ,which this one certainly was). I got a nice, sticky dough:
When it rose it really took off too:
I have no idea why the photo won't remain vertical by the way- it's something with blogger, sorry folks.

This time I weighed exactly one pound of dough before baking.

The loaf seemed pretty flat when rising on the pizza peel before baking, and it did come out more like a ciabatta than I had hoped for. Unfortunately, I was baking the bread at the same time I was cooking dinner, and I had to set the oven to 550 degrees to get the thermometer inside to read 450. WTF? My guess is that when the stove top ranges are on, the oven just can't get quite as hot. The other consequence of the oven being wacky is that my tile broke in two. I bought another one, but if this one breaks too then I may have to give in and buy an official baking stone.

As you can see it's not the tallest loaf of bread in the world, but the texture inside was just perfect, with a moist and dense crumb, and a crunchy crust.
As you can also see we ate our first good loaf of homemade bread with Nutella. Dinner had already ended at this point, so what choice did we have? Next I'm going to try the light wheat recipe and use a loaf pan. Hopefully the loaf pan shape will make the bread more user-friendly for us, since we a sandwich eating family.

Here are a few shots from the CSA we go to. The lovely farm-maiden is holding a bouquet of garlic blossoms. The stalks are really sweet and delicious in a stir-fry. I used some last week in a greens and feta pie as well.
The farm property is fairly large for an urban farm, and the owner's eight year old son has been kind enough to take Harlan and me on a couple of tours. We got to play with chickens, see the tiny airplane in its hangar behind the crops, giant water drums, a koi fish pond, and several houses on the property that are made completely from native and found objects. The houses are also totally sustainable and I'm looking forward to a tour of them given by an adult at a cocktail party/ property tour they provide once a month. Photos will come. The eight year old also told us where to steer clear from hornets nest, snake-filled areas, fire ant communities, and other country things that reinforced that I would not ever do well living "off the grid" unless it was in a space community on bug and snake-free planet.

This is Harlan playing in a wagon at the farm. It's a funny photo of him, but I'm using it to show off his Obama Baby t-shirt, made by my friend Kim and available at her wonderful store Sidepony.

The rest of this post is totally unrelated items, starting with some lovely Jello desserts brought to a party recently.
Anyone know any good Jello recipes? I'm thinking this may be the only way I'll be able to eat dessert and lose weight. I'm looking for recipes using gelatin and fruit, not actual Jello by the way. This one had seltzer in it which gave the Jello a really nice texture. Also there was hibiscus involved somehow.

Here are Harlan and me on a little hike we like to take. Wild Basin's a nice place to go hiking except for the fact that Harlan ends up wanting to be carried quite a lot.

Harlan and his friend Sol, walking up the steps together, holding hands all the way:

I feel like this photo should be made into an inspirational poster. Perhaps it could say, "You can always make it to the top when you help someone." Or, "A friend with a hand, is high in demand." O.k. What about, "Four legs good, two legs bad." The possibilities are endless!

Abby Don't Look

2008-04-09T12:59:00.001-07:00

I know this is lame, but I'm posting a photo of a birthday/housewarming gift before I mail it. So, Abby stop looking (or else look if you want to know what is coming your way soon). Here is what I made last week. With help from the Goddess of Vintage Embroidery Patterns, I was lucky enough to score a set of the busy bees transfers. There is a tee towel with an additional busy bee coming next, but I couldn't wait to show this one off. I used some Japanese bee fabric to contrast with the plain muslin.

Bathroom #1 is complete and I need to figure out a way to photograph a very tiny room in order to show it off. Bathroom #2 is on hold as my contractor called this morning (the day bathroom #2 was supposed to be demolished) to tell me he has a hernia on his leg (?) and he would like to start the bathroom next week. I don't know what to expect, but I sure am happy to have at least one excellent place to bathe.

Rose & Duke got a good review this week on the celebrity baby clothes blog.

Breakfast of the week:
This oat bran banana bread is some seriously good shit. Let me tell you, if you like banana bread, this is the way to go. Take your old bananas and follow this recipe. However, and this is important, substitute raisins for dried cherries, and be sure to dump in a good amount of the secret ingredient garam marsala.
My friend Jen. W. back in Brooklyn taught me this tip, and I must say that garam marsala in oat bran banana bread is to regular banana bread as watching regular t.v. is to watching t.v. with Tivo: Once you've had the new version, you're never going back.

P.S. Austinites: Did you know that a loaf of banana bread costs $12 at Texas French Bread? Are they F'ing kidding me? I don't even think that the obnoxiously overpriced Dean & Deluca in SoHo charges that much. If this kind of price inflation is a result of New Yorkers moving to town, I humbly apologize, and offer you my secret banana bread recipe as a peace offering.

Doin' my Homework

2008-03-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Between South by Southwest, old friends and family in town, and the bathroom renovations, it's a miracle I have accomplished anything above and beyond keeping my hair clean and my kitchen clean. I eek in time when I can these days, and my Superbuzzy stash is finally going to good use.
We bought this rocker at Ikea when we first moved to Austin. When we got home, there were no cushions included. I am not sure if we got ripped off or not, but I ended up buying some foam at a local upholstery store, and making my own covers for Harlan's very own rocking and reading chair. I used a cotton/linen blend on the back of the chair, and the sides of the bottom. I also used a green Kona cotton, some of the Joel Dewberry faux bois print, and the Superbuzzy trees. My brand new Janome machine came in super handy and I decided to trip out my pillow with this stitch along the borders of the fabrics:
Fancy, don't you think?
I also finally got around to buying a new foam seat for my mid-century love seat, and I covered it with some velvet Crypton fabric, and of course added some pillows made with Japanese fabric from Superbuzzy.

The blue leather ottoman is from John Derian in NY. It's one of my favorite stores of all time. In fact, I would be perfectly happy if Anthropolgie would move in next door, and City Bakery would move in on the other side. They could knock down all the walls, and I would move in and only let in my friends, people who promised to take in and care for stray animals, orphans from Africa and any eastern block country. O.K. you can also come into my store-house if you give me personal Pilates lessons each day with your expensive Pilates machine.

Those pillows on the sofa are also from my Superbuzzy stash, and I must admit that I sewed them a couple of months ago but forgot to post them. Here are details of all the pillows.

Here is a sneak peak of bathroom number one which is just about finished. The tiles are by Cocktail and the color is Mojito. They are made from recycled glass and they are super light and remind me of the ocean. I'm going to make both bathrooms pretty much the same, and my theme (yes, I'm giving my bathrooms a theme) is of course, the sea (or if you want it make it sound really fancy, let's call it la mer).

I've been slowly making more items for Rose & Duke, including more of the tree applique with painted deer shirts, onesies, and pants. I will be adding them to the shop tonight or tomorrow. I decided to stop hand painting the deer and go with using freezer stenciling them for now, since it's a little more crisp looking and leaves less room for error. A few of the hand-painted ones were not what I was hoping for and so I'll be adding them to a new SALE section of the site. I've also started sewing together the long-awaited waterproof play mats. These are great looking quilts with PUL waterproof backs. The PUL is the same fabric used in some cloth diaper covers to prevent liquid from getting to the other side of the cloth. The idea of the waterproof play mats is that they can be used with young babies whose diapers often leak (and who often puke all over the place unexpectedly). This way, mothers can protect their floors, beds, couches, and those of people whom they visit with baby in tow. The play mats are also perfect to bring to a park where grass may be wet from morning dew or rain. I hope these are a hit. Here is the first one I've put together:
As you can imagine it will be a challenge to photograph these since they are quite large. I'm probably going to make them in a large size and a small size, so that customers can have options.

As many of you know, I love to bake, and each week I make a batch of muffins, scones, or something else both tasty and full of fiber for us to grab in the morning and eat as we scurry out the door. I realized that if I at least post the breakfast of the week each week, along with accompanying recipe, that I'll be forcing myself to check in here four times a month. I think this is a must as I tend to get distracted easily and forget to post on a regular basis. This week's breakfast is a mixed-berry lemon muffin.
The special ingredient is a Meyer lemon which have been in the supermarkets around town this week. For those who have never had one before, those suckers are super sweet and delicious. I also made a big batch of vinaigrette with a few of them for salads.

Mixed Berry Meyer-Lemon Muffins:
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
Mix in mixer for about five minutes until light and fluffy. Add a swig of vanilla, and then slowly add four eggs, one at a time, being sure to mix well after each addition. Meanwhile, have four cups of well-mixed grains. I vary what I use here, and this week I used 1 cup of white flour, 1 cup of oat bran, almost 2 cups of stone ground whole wheat flour, and a dollop of ground flax seeds and wheat germ. Total grains should be 4 cups. Add to this 1/2 tsp. salt and 4 tsp. baking powder. Mix well. Grate the skin of an organic lemon (non-organic lemon skins are supposedly pretty chemical-laden) and add this to the grains. Have a cup of buttermilk set aside, and squeeze half a lemon into it. With the mixer on, alternate pouring in some flour with some buttermilk, ending with buttermilk. Add three cups of mixed frozen (or any kind of) berries. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.
Last but not least, I'm excited to have joined Ravelry, the knit and crochet community. I first heard about over at Futuregirl's blog, and boy am I psyched to get back into my projects. If any of you are on Ravelry, please look me up (VioletteCrumble) and make me your friend! You know I love this web-community jazz.

Also, I need your opinion on something. Should I cover the rest of my mid-century sofa in the same pumpkin fabric that I just made a new seat in. I love the funky pattern of the original fabric, but I'm not sure if it's just too many crazy things going on at once. I am slowly learning how make my surroundings a bit more minimal looking. What say thee? Yea or nay?

Second post in two days!

2008-03-03T12:38:00.000-08:00

I forgot to do self-promotion last night.

This past week, Rose & Duke was featured on the blog Cuteable:

I was also asked to participate in Funky Finds' March Giveaway of handmade baby items. One lucky winner will receive a Rose & Duke gift certificate for any shirt or onesise.

Be sure and enter the contest :)

Picopter Pants and other tales

2008-03-02T19:12:00.001-08:00

Now that life is falling into place a bit, I am returning to doing things that I enjoy, such as working on projects planned for before we moved to Austin.

Case in point: I bought some helicopter fabric from Superbuzzy (do I even need to link it anymore?) back in August to make curtains for Harlan's room. It turns out that the blinds in there don't offend me as much as I originally thought they would, and the kid is totally, completely, obsessed with what he calls "piecopters". There are quite a bit of piecopters flying around Austin for some reason. We have even seen two of them make landings on near by hospital roofs (there are about a trillion hospitals here for some reason. They all have special purposes too, like the heart hospital, the children's hospital, the eye hospital, the trauma hospital, the big toe hospital, and the eyebrow hospital). I broke out the fabric and made Bub some pants that he refuses to take off:

I also recently bought him some frog rain boots at Target which he is quite fond of wearing:
This is the outfit he picked out today to wear to Ikea. We went there to pick out new bathroom supplies because we are finally getting the bathrooms renovated, hooray! I will post before and after photos when the work is finished. The bathrooms are way too gross now to simply post before photos. Seriously. If you thought our balcony looked like Sanford and Son's, you don't even want to know what's in the loos.

Harlan's latest obsession besides piecopters are pillow houses. We discovered pillow houses last week over at chez Ellen & Brennan. Their sons pull all the pillows from the house together and dump them across the living room floor. They then proceed to throw themselves on top of the pillows and one another. For, like, hours. It seems to never get old. They like to be buried in piles of pillows and pretend to be chickens coming out of the eggs too. That's good times. Here they all are at Harlan's first pillow house:

And here is Harlan at home with his own pillow house. Please note the pillow I made from Superbuzzy fabric!
Doesn't he look just like a newborn chick?

Here are the guys at a trip to the zoo last week:
And here is a lousy shot of an amazing band called the Quebe Sisters. You can listen on that link.
They are a family with three sisters who all won Texas fiddle contests (one is the national champ as well) and they sing the loveliest harmonies I have heard in years. Plus, you really can't beat triple fiddle.
If you're wondering how we got to see a band play, just notice the playscape (that's 2008 speak for "jungle gym") structure behind the tent. The local fancy supermarket has a restaurant and a huge deck and playground (with a heart hospital right on the other side! And the hospital that Ladybird Johnson died in, one block away) attached to it. On the weekends they have bands play for free outdoors so that suckers like us with kids can pretend we still have social lives. I don't want to make all of you who are freezing feel jealous, but it does feel pretty awesome to spend a winter evening sitting outdoors in a light dress and watch the sun set while drinking a margarita and listening to a kick-ass live band play. Did I mention the playscape behind the tent where Harlan is happy to run amok for two hours?

And now, I am introducing my new blog collection of local bumper stickers. Here are the best of the past week.

Irony and humor:

Scaring you away from hell with the threat of an angry and wrathful God:

That's right sistah:

Whatever it takes to keep you away from the devil:

Drumroll please....

2008-02-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

Rose & Duke is open for business!

I love the way the site turned out, and I have more products that I'll be adding to the site when they're ready.

Today I was thrilled to see that Rose & Duke got a mention on my favorite blog about web shops for kid's stuff: Bloesem kids.

I must warn you to hide your wallet before checking her site out. Every store she highlights sells the loveliest handmade items for children. It's addictive for shopaholics like myself.

In mail news January was a pretty exciting month over here. I won a contest on Chet & Dot's blog and check out the booty I received from Jenn:
That's right gals! I got a free Chet and Dot drawstring bag, a kleenex pack holder, a scalloped-edge wallet, a mini spool of twine, a bookmark, and my favorite, a tiny penguin ornament. I tell you it was better than Ed McMahon showing up at my door with balloons.

But wait, there's more! Last month I fell in love with a new blog, Elsa Mora. I found Elsita through the flickr embroidery group, but she also makes spectacular porcelain sculptures, detailed dresses, jewelry, and prints. Anyhow, Elsa highlighted one of the prints she made on her blog (it's called Motivations) and I commented that I wanted to purchase it when it went into her etsy shop.

Instead of putting it in the shop she sent it to me! I got it to frame and give to Joe for his classroom, although I'm looking forward to the summer when I get to have it back.

Lastly, I had pretty much given up hope of ever receiving my swap package from the Montessori by Hand holiday traditions swap. I sent my package out on the mid-December deadline, and when mine hadn't arrived before I left town for the holidays, I wrote to my swap partner. She had apparently accidentally sent my package to the wrong address and it was returned to her. Anyhow, it finally made it to me in late January and inside were some recipes, some truffles, and this adorable acorn hat family. Emily also included an envelope with some other acorn hats so that I could make my own. I have to admit these were worth the wait!

And here's another reason for a drum roll, after staying home with Harlan full-time since he was born I've finally gone back to work part-time. Now that Harlan has acclimated to Montessori school, I'm going to work at my own school each morning. I'm tutoring junior high students at a near by public school in a rural area that I had never been to before. It's only fifteen minutes away from my central Austin neighborhood, but you would never know you were right next to a city based on all the fields that stretch to the horizon. The weird thing is that it's kind of a rural ghetto. There may be expansive fields on either side of the two-lane road, but every few fields there is one filled with something like a row of pink dumpsters, a gentleman's club, or a cluster of mobile homes with cardboard window coverings (and yes, they are occupied). I'll have to start taking some pictures to add to the rural decay flickr group. There are some truly spectacular shots in this group, like this one, and this one, and this one.

It feels good to be back at work, not just because it gets me out of the house, but because as some of you may know I was suffering from stomach issues and ensuing panic attacks when I was in graduate school (and pregnant with Harlan). I was tutoring at a public school back in NYC at the time and it became physically impossible for me to continue the work I was doing as well as attending my classes. I could not get on a subway. I was positive I was going to need a bathroom or that there would be a bomb on the train, or that there would be a bomb scare and the train would stop and I would need a bathroom and not be able to get to one. I could not stop thinking about the people who were on the subway both during 9-11 and during the blackout a couple of summers later when subway riders were trapped for hours. It was a very rough period in my life, both because of the physical and emotional issues I was having, and because of how difficult it was for me to get those around me to understand that I was in a legitimate crisis and not able to control what was happening to my body. While panic attacks are common, people who have never had one can't really grasp how terrifying they are, and how much they can limit one's ability to function. In my personal situation, the panic attacks were a direct result of the stomach issues I was having during my pregnancy, and once Harlan was born, the fear of having more panic attacks did not help my stomach functionality return to normal. It became a case of the chicken and the egg whenever I had to give up control and get on a subway or bus or in a car, and I retreated into a safe and wonderful world in Fort Greene where I was lucky enough to be able to surround myself with compassionate and intelligent mama friends. For Harlan's first year I was never alone, and I never had to explain to anyone why I couldn't get on a subway and come meet them. I was also lucky enough to have Joe support me and believe that I would get better. He never pressured me to get on a subway that I couldn't get on, or to "try this or try that" as many other well-intentioned loved ones suggested.

I was not a stranger to the world of panic attacks when I became pregnant with Harlan. Back when I graduated college and began my first job teaching at a school for children with emotional and learning disabilities, I experienced panic attacks for the first time. This first time too, stomach issues were involved, as was the fear of getting on public transportation. The school was two very long bus-rides away from my house and I was lucky enough to have a best friend who drove me to work at the crack of dawn each morning, even though she had no reason to be up that early. Our friendship ended years later, but I will always be thankful for her help during my first crisis. I suppose I have been very lucky during both periods in my life when I was full panic-crisis-mode. If I had had to experience either time without such wonderful friends and loved ones, I'm not sure I would have made it through to the other side. Anyhow, the point of my divulging all of this personal information to the world is that my being able to take myself to work each morning means that it's finally over, and that I'm officially back in the world of the fully-functioning. For the most part I kept my crisis to myself, because it was difficult to explain and also because it was shameful. In retrospect I can't understand why I felt ashamed except that I was afraid of being judged. I suppose I'm not anymore.

Greetings earthlings

2008-01-20T12:46:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been a long time since I posted an entry here. The explanation for my absence is that we took a long vacation back to NYC for Christmas and then down to Florida for Harlan to meet my 95 year old grandparents.

Since our return I have made a new year's resolution to get my time management under control, and to prioritize what I spend my non-Harlan time doing. This blog has been bumped down a notch, along with reading my favorite blogs, because right now I am under a deadline for the launching of the new Rose & Duke site and so I'm spending whatever time I have working on samples of the 2008 designs to photograph. I also made it a new year's resolution to make more time to work on personal craft projects for my home and my family. It seems like I used to spend a ton of free time making cute outfits for Harlan and other nifty creations, but sadly that free time got all eaten up by work obligations, and suddenly what began as a fun way to make money without leaving the house became a very full time job. I am going to try and find balance this year my friends.

Without further ado I present the highlights of the past month:
Harlan enjoyed opening a ton of Christmas gifts at his grandma "Mimi's" apartment. It was so bittersweet to be home (Joe wonders how long it will be until we call Texas "home") and see all our family and friends. We miss everyone a lot but at the same time our peers with toddlers are stressing about finding places to live where a second child could fit, and getting their toddlers into pre-school. As many of you may know the pre-school scene in NYC is super competitive and expensive. These are two adjectives I'm not so thrilled with, and our trip basically reaffirmed that we made the right move to Austin.
Our trip to Flordia was ironically freezing cold. The local news seemed to have around the clock coverage of the local citrus growers and how they were trying to salvage their crops. Harlan enjoyed meeting his great grandparents, but let's just say they had forgotten how two year olds act and seemed to think that I had let a wild gorilla loose in their condo. Above is a photo of a house that had a crocheted gaslight cap. I really wanted to get up on the lawn and get a close up shot for the blog, but I was too chicken to get out of the car with my camera. There were a LOT of crocheted gaslight caps, all in green, white, and red for the holiday season (or because everyone in Florida is Italian, but I tend to think the holidays had more to do with it).
This photos was taken at a recent turkey fry potluck party that my friends Kevin and Jenifer hosted at their home here in Austin. The Jackalope that Harlan is posing on was made by Kevin at his amazing business Blue Genie Art. By the way, if you have never tasted a deep-fried turkey before you are seriously missing out. I went to the party thinking it would taste just like turkey except with a fried skin on the outside. Instead it turns out that frying a turkey seals in all the juices and flavors that end up pouring out of the meat when you bake it in an oven. D-licious. Below is a shot of Kevin deep frying some Twinkies. I didn't try these, but I heard they were pretty F'ing good too.

What's old is new

2007-12-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

I went to hock my wears on S. Congress today in the Guerro's outdoor area, along with my friend Jody who also sells hand embroidered and appliqued children's clothes. Unfortunately, today was one of the only super cold and windy days in Austin this year. The winds were so strong that our entire tables and garment racks kept dumping over, so we packed up and decided to have a mamas' day out. Luckily for each of us we sold a couple of items in the short time we were there, covering the cost of the spot, and we scored a free make-up day next Saturday!

After a tasty lunch and couple of drinks we checked out the new old-fashioned candy store and ice cream fountain shop: Big Top. I've been watching them decorate the shop with giant circus posters for a while now, anticipating their grand opening:

There were wall to wall candies- the hard to find kind that you thought you would never see again!

The ones that immediately grabbed me were these chocolaty morsels, filled with liquid marshmellow:

Because the store just opened I knew that whatever I bought would be super fresh and I was not disappointed one bit. This Valomilk melted in my mouth, and the chocolate was surprisingly good quality. As soon as I saw these maple peanut balls in the bulk bins I knew I was a gonner:

What they lack in aesthetic value they more than make up for in taste and texture. Again, they were super fresh tasting. "Num num num" as Harlan would say (and as he did say when he got hold of the bag I left on the counter). Less appealing for taste value, but more appealing for ha ha value were these:

I also picked up some cinnamon toothpicks for my mom since we'll be seeing her up in NYC very soon:

Last week I received a surprise book from a secret friend of mine who works at Conde Nast and always hooks me up.
The new Son of Stitch 'N Bitch book by Debbie Stroller. The patterns were overwhelmingly cool and very clever. My favorites include the Lucha Libre ski masks:

The High Fidelity sweater (look- the pattern across the chest looks like 45 rpm records):

Joe wants me to make him this hat:

I guess I'll have to add it to my super long To Do list. Luckily I'll be able to get at that list soon. I've begun the Rose & Duke 2008 collection and have decided that once they're up and the site is launched (early Feb.) I'm going to relax and only fill web orders until the summer at which point I'll begin producing for next year's Christmas fair season. I seem to have spent all my "free" time over the past year working on embroideries and other business related stuff and suddenly I have no time to make anything for myself or my family. Suddenly it's no longer fun, and surprisingly unprofitable for the amount of effort involved. I may keep up with one retail store in Brooklyn and one here, but otherwise I would rather try to concentrate on the Christmas season when I can do what I've been doing on a more frequent level (I missed the deadlines to apply to a bunch of good craft fairs here this past season) and on web orders. This way I'll get all the profit myself and will also be able to make the whole thing more of a part time venture than it has been so far. I want to keep it fun! That said, here is a sneak peak of some of what I'm making for next year. A few of the designs are expanded and more detailed versions of the appliques I made at the beginning of last summer (see some old pears here.) These old applique designs were the first to sell at Stitch and the most fun (and least time consuming) to create. Bingo!
Happy Cherry Hoodie:

Happy Flan Onesie:

Happy peach face shirt:

A pair of pears:

I have a few more in the works as well, mostly inspired by Japanese sweets that show up in my craft books or on bento boxes or Decole goodies. I've seen a couple of crafters out there make really great stuffed versions of these sweets. Check out Cutseypoo and her egg tarts, Cocokoala's needle felted critters, She Like's Cute's softie pins. I can't get enough. What did old people do before the internets showed up? I feel like when Joe and I one day tell Harlan tales of how we grew up with telephones that were attached to walls and no internet, that he will think of these stories the same way we thought of the ones our parents told of growing up sitting around a radio on a Saturday night, and what they watched the first time they saw a television. Joe recently had such a conversation with one of his classes of high school seniors. A particularly funny student asked him if they had cars when he was a kid, or they had dirt. Perhaps I should call Bill Cosby and tell him this "kids are funny" anecdote. Perhaps he's already reading it.

Holiday Secrets Revealed!

2007-12-09T15:20:00.000-08:00

Warning: If you are involved in a holiday ornament swap with me- do not scroll down unless you want to ruin your surprise.

This week I completed my 9 ornaments for one swap and sent them out. Here they are posing for you before I wraped 'em up:

Some of you MSL readers may recognize the deer. Some of you Superbuzzy fans may recognize the background fabric. I bought it to make Harlan a Christmas pillow and duvet top with.

This next ornament is going out to Emily, my swap partner for the Holiday Traditions swap (see sidebar for more info). I got the embroidery pattern from Hilary and can't wait to make more of these for myself and others for next year. I promise not to mess up the mouse head again. The sides of the ornament are hand stitched with vintage silver thread. You can't tell in the photo, but it really pulls the whole thing together.

In other holiday surprise news, my good pal since high school Lindsay gave birth to her second daughter, Tatiana. I'm posting this photo of Tatiana and older sister Natalia mostly for friends and family of mine who have known Lindsay all these years, although who doesn't enjoy seeing snuggly baby photos?

In yet EVEN MORE holiday surprise news, I keep forgetting to tell everyone that I chopped all the old hair off the noggin a couple of months ago. I came across a recent photos of Katie Holmes whose new haircut is supposed to be a rip off of Posh Spice (it's not even close in my opinion) and said to myself, Now that I can live with. I'm going to be really pissed if they print a photo of me saying I am also trying to rip off Posh because anyone can see right here that it's actually Katie whom I'm biting. I brought the photo in to Stacie (my friend and resident hair cutter) and as usual she gave me exactly what I asked for. Here are photos of me and Harlan taken earlier today at the park:

McJagger and the Doody Sandwich

2007-11-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

I've been tagged by Jen, the talented crocheter/seamstress of The fabled needle. Here are ten weird or little known things about me:

1. I got arrested the night before the S.A.T.s for throwing stuff off my parent's balcony. My friend and I hit a moving police car as it turned a corner. Woops!

2. I'm a major sugar addict. I can't go even one day without a few sweet things. Once I had to cut all yeast out of my diet for a week and I still put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee each morning. Diets are pretty much out of the question.

3. My first star obsession was with Adam Ant when I was in seventh grade. My best friend Maya and I spent all our allowance money on his albums, posters, and buttons for our jean jackets. We eventually got to see him play at Radio City. We even wrote him letters. My second and last star obsession was with Robert Smith.

4. Maya and I were also obsessed with gay men in seventh grade. We went to school in NYC's west village where gay men are abundant, and we thought they were the best thing ever. We hung out outside a gay bar (Uncle Charlie's) on Friday nights with a Polaroid camera and notebook, asking various men if they could help us with a school project by answering questions. We took their photos, and asked what their favorite bands were, where in the world they would want to live if they could live anywhere, and what their favorite foods were. None of them turned us down and I still have a baggy full of the Polaroids in a box in the closet. The pictures freak me out because I now realize that some of those men must be dead as the photos were taken right when AIDS was starting to infect people but no one realized what it was yet.

5. Later in high school I was the youngest (and first under 18) person to volunteer at Gay Men's Health Crisis. I wanted to do in-home visits with a client to help him (or her) with tasks he was too ill to perform. I went through an intensive training and then they discovered that I could not do the job due to insurance issues because I was too young. I ended up working instead at the recreation center, serving meals and playing mixed tapes on Friday nights. My pal Emily joined me and we enjoyed our junior year spending Friday nights eating and boogying with a group of really fun adults.

6. I have been to a psychic twice in my life (different psychics). Both times I went just for kicks not expecting much out of it. Both times I was told I would have two sons. The first time when I was in high school I was told I would end up either a teacher or a nurse. I've already been a teacher and am still considering switching to pediatric nursing. This same first psychic also told me that I would live a long life but die a violent death (thanks for nothing b'yotch!)

7. When I was a kid I thought Mick Jagger was an Irish person who was called by his last name, McJagger.

8. The only thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a writer. That and a mother. At least I got one out of two. And I'm not dead yet, so we'll see.

9. A few years ago my cousins and I cranked called my grandmother and whispered, "Do you want a doody sandwich?" She said she would love a doody sandwich. We never told her it was us.

10. When I was 27 I declared bankruptcy due to credit card debt. It never caused me any problems and I have zero debt to this day. Yippee!

OK, I now tag Kimmy, Jen Tiffany, Daryl, and Linda.

Well Hello Dolly

2007-11-27T10:55:00.000-08:00

My paltry posting habits are due to the holiday season, I swear! I've been working away on ornaments for this ornament swap and this one (as if I don't have enough to do, but I couldn't turn down a good swap). I'll post pics a week after I send them out. Also, I am replenishing the Rose & Duke stock because I'll be selling again in a couple of weeks in the Guerro's lot on S. Congress. Please stop by and say hello if you are in town, there will be lots of handmade goodness for sale.

We enjoyed a peaceful thanksgiving at Jen and Kevin's with Jen's delightful family. You betcha that I brought some desserts. I made a batch of pumpkin chocolate chip squares (for some reason I forgot to photograph these). Everyone always goes berserk on these and they are quite easy to make. I also took a risk and went with Martha's recent recipe for pear cranberry pie with a lattice top. I used a plastic star from Harlan's shape sorter toy to cut the starts out of the crust. The pie was good but too heavy on the cranberries unfortunately.

At the last minute I decided to throw in a chocolate bourbon pecan pie, because every thanksgiving table needs a good one. I made this one from a combination of recipes and it came out more like a soft cookie on a pate brisee pastry, which may not be exactly what I was going for but still tastes a lot better than a fistful of baby corn or cuchifritos (deep fried pig ears).

I did not want to work on anything I had to do during the vacation, so instead I made a couple of doll dresses for the baby dolls at Harlan's Montessori school. When I picked him up last Tuesday a couple of the kids were playing with the dolls, and I noticed that their only outfits were totally falling apart (and were pretty crummy to begin with). It made me sad. Next I'm going to make them a couple of quilts for their wooden cradles. I can't believe I forgot to photograph the back sides of the dresses, but I did. They are totally open, with two covered buttons and red velvet ribbons on the other side to hook over the buttons. I used a combination of these two patterns. I would like to make them some sweaters so if anyone knows of any patterns for doll sweaters please let me know (knit or crochet).

P.S. I went to the City Wide Garage Sale last weekend and was basically just overwhelmed by the crowds. We only stayed a brief amount of time, but I did score three vintage aprons for $2 each. While I don't wear aprons and bought these to scrap the fabric for other projects, I feel badly cutting them up because they're just so darn cute. What can you do?

Half Violet Crumble

2007-11-16T14:01:00.001-08:00

So it turns out my camera is fine but the lens is broken. Lucky for me my father's birthday gift to me just arrived today. It's a micro lens and it's taking me a little practice to get the hang of. Here is one shot I took with it of a couple of the price signs I had on my table at Stitch:

This is a shot I forgot to post last week. It's my failed attempt at making honeycomb with chocolate coating for the adult's goody bags at Harlan's birthday party.

I made the honeycomb three times, all according to Nigella's cooking show. She never mentioned a temperature for the confection to reach and thus I never ended up with a successful honeycomb. Lucky for me my friend Kim can steer me in the right direction in time for Christmas.

Christmas List

2007-11-15T20:39:00.000-08:00

Apparently Urban Outfitters* has sent a spy into my subconscious to come up with a fabulous bunch of goodies:

salt and pepper shakers

Critter cookie jars:

Some fantastic cameras including The Diana:

A record player you can plug into your computer to turn your albums into CDs or MP3s:

*Disclaimer: I know it's wrong to support them because they rip off so many indie designers, but for crying out loud they're killing me with some of this stuff.

BUT, better than anything available at Urban Outfitters is the t-shirt from Houston artist Chingo Bling:

I think I need to get this "T-churt" as it called on the webstore. Not that half Irish Catholic half Ukrainian Jews are in danger of being deported, but still.

A Stitch in Time

2007-11-11T18:51:00.000-08:00

I have been a horrible blogger lately because I have been working non-stop to prepare for Stitch Austin. The event was my first major vending experience, and it was a great way to get my feet wet. Stitch was a fashion show and guerilla craft fair that happened last Saturday down at the Austin Convention Center, and it showcased the talents of designers and crafters from all around.

I shared a booth with my friend Jenifer, and our load in time was at ten in the morning, although the show did not officially open until 2:30 P.M. I managed to pack my garment rack, over a hundred garments, and all the other accouterments into a giant suitcase and Rubbermaid box with wheels. I also had a folding chair, and a giant two year old (Harlan measured in at 3' 2" at his recent two year check up) in tow. My plan was to pull into the loading dock, strap Harlan into his stroller and make short runs with all of the gear into my booth inside. There were a bunch of volunteers working at the loading dock whom I had been told via e-mail would be willing to help vendors load in. The volunteers who stood by the entrance with clip-boards in hand were a bunch of barely-twenty-somethings with a Delia's aesthetic, who seemed to think that the woman running laps between the station wagon and the kid in the stroller was invisible. By the time I had gotten the suitcase past them and ran back with Harlan to the box and chair sitting in the middle of parking lot, an older volunteer approached me and asked if she could help. Usually I'm one to say, "No, no, I got it" even if I'm on fire and someone approaches me with a bucket of water, but on this day I happily handed my child over to a stranger while I ran back to pick up the box and chair. When I got back Harlan was surrounded by nice women all chatting with him, and he did not even notice my 30 second absence. The helpful stranger then helped me even more by dragging the massive box and chair all the way to my booth for me. Big thanks kind stranger!

The show was a lot of work but also a heck of a lot of fun, not only because I got to experience total strangers rushing over to ooh and aah over my efforts, but because I met so many cool, talented people who were all trying to do the same thing that I have been- earning a living by making things. I managed to do some great trades as well, but unfortunately I can not show you anything I received nor any action shots of Rose & Duke because MY CAMERA BROKE!
Great timing, as my father just bought me a micro lens for my birthday too.

Moving right along, I know I need to post something visual, so I'll mention some holiday crafting inspiration for any of you who don't have enough already:

Sew Mama Sew has a post each day this month with a different tutorial for something you can make as holiday gifts.

Anthro has some adorable hand sewn felt house ornaments that have inspired me to make some for some upcoming ornament swaps.

Alicia P. is going to sell some kits to make her famous Santa Lucia dolls. You better bet I need one. Speaking of Alicia, if you know any Corgi lovers you need to get a gift for, how about this book?

And lastly, I have a new Japanese fabric ALERT for all you fanatics out there:
LOOK HERE
Or don't if you like money and want to keep any.

Again, apologies for the lack of photos, hopefully the matter will be resolved shortly.

Holiday Season Begins Here

2007-10-27T13:36:00.000-07:00

October kicks off the holiday season and off we went last weekend, to Marble Falls to Sweetberry Farms.

Pumpkins were piled everywhere, including on a lovely rusted bed and inside an old truck:

Notice any difference between myself and the other visitors? I know it's difficult to see all the people in the bed photo, but I can assure you that none of them were wearing dresses, let alone ones from Anthroplogie, nor are they wearing Camper maryjanes. They were not holding toddlers wearing cute shirts that their friend Abby got for them at Tea Collection sample sales in San Francisco. Pretty much everyone seems to wear jeans, t-shirts and sneakers, and I'm not talking about cute vintage Wranglers or sexy fitting Barney's jeans with Petite Bateau tees or American Apparel hipster ringer tees.

Pumpkin patch (a.k.a rural) fashion was a topic of discussion on the car trip back into town and we came to the conclusion that in country settings where people drive everywhere, fashion is not as important as it is to people in cities. There is less reason to dress and also less inspiration to be gained from the outfits of others. Back in NYC you could easily be entertained walking around any neighborhood and taking in all of the ensembles. Back when I worked up on Madison Ave. there were some pretty awesome outfits to be seen- the creme de la creme of expensiveness, and of course, ridiculousness. You know when you look inside Vogue and think Who the hell wears that crazy rabbit fur bikini top with high-waited jeans and hooker boots? Well, just go walk around the 57th St. area and you will see that there is a real-live market for such absurdity. One of my favorite times of year was the dead of winter when one could spot men donning thick fur coats, looking like life-size teddy bears. My co-workers and I would regularly spot Bill Cunningham (photographer of style for the New York Times) standing back from the street with his camera hanging around his neck. We would non-chalantly pass in front him trying to look like we were laughing or enjoying ourselves in slow motion, just in case we would be good fodder for his Sunday Styles section. Alas, we never showed up in print although several of our other co-workers did, and it always felt like we were somehow part of it too (even though we were in no way part of it obviously). I have to say that I felt a kindred spirit in Angelina recently when she talked about still wanting to be able to get dressed and enjoy fashion even though her daily life doesn't exactly require it. As the no-office-to-go-to mother of a toddler, I really don't have any good reason to get out of my velour pants and thermal shirt, but for the most part I do, just because it's fun and I also feel like I lost my identity during the year that this outfit was the only one I wore (2006 when Harlan was a baby). Now that I get a full seven hours sleep each night and am not breastfeeding, there is really no reason not to get dressed each morning.

I hope I am not offending any country dwellers out there- I'm sure many of you own garments other than hemmed jean shorts and puffy white sneakers, but I have not met you so I'm basing this passage on my own experience with country folk (which is pretty minimal honestly- I am definitely the person that the bumper sticker "Yankee go home" is intended for).

Speaking of fashion, the local temperature finally dropped last week (going down the the upper 30's at night and warming up to a lovely upper 70's during the afternoons) and Harlan got to wear this awesome vintage plaid jacket that my friend Karen got him at an auction up in PA.

Karen is due to give birth to her first child in two weeks, so send her best wishes everyone.

On the drive back to town we stopped at a roadside junk shop and picked up this antique child's rocking chair for $15.

It is not in perfect condition as the wood could use a little shine and the vinyl has a hole on the seat and a paint stain on the bottom front. I plan to refinish it one day and keep it in my future craft room with some softies on it. For now Harlan loves it and it goes great in our living room.

Speaking of crafting (and of chairs for that matter) I got three wonderful books in the mail last week as an early birthday gift (thanks to the magic of the amazon.com wish list) from my father and stepmother in law:

I have had my eye on this one for a while since it features so many great interviews and projects from many great crafty bloggers out there. I have to admit I am in love with Heidi Kenney's tissue box cover:

Just when I thought I was too cool for something as lowbrow as a tissue box cover, I find myself feeling I can not live without making one.

Simple Sewing with a French Twist has been at the top of my wish list for a while. Here is a peek of some inspiring projects:

This folding chair is the first thing I'm going to make (as soon as I finish 100 other things) for our balcony. You just need to find a wooden folding chair, spray paint the frame black and sew a basic seat and back for it by tracing the one you rip out of it.

I discovered this book over on Posie Gets Cozy and have been wanting to try a little ribbon embroidery of my own (project 102 on the list I suppose).

Also in the mail as an early birthday gift came this hand embroidered Chinese top from my mother in law who lives in Taiwan:

Also super inspiring.

I'm working away on the business and here are a couple of hoodies I'll be offering. The one with the initial be available upon order with whichever initial the customer wants. The letters are from a vintage pattern that Karen also got at an auction for me a while back.

I need to get a better lens for my camera so that I can control the light as well as get more detailed shots of embroidery stitches. Perhaps as a birthday gift to myself :)

Speaking of the embroidery business, the shop has a new name. I had to cancel my tax i.d. number in NY and have to file a new Doing Business As name here in Texas. As you know I had trouble figuring out how to keep "Bun Bun" but get rid of the "baby" so that people will not assume that I only make baby clothes and items. I wanted something that indicated both genders and that sounded like it was from a few generations back. I ended up choosing the names of my favorite great-aunt and great-uncle, who are still going strong up in Brooklyn in their eighties. They are Rose and Duke, and Rose is a fantastic needlepoint artist to boot. Here is the postcard for the new shop:

I found a web design team to take over the task of creating a site for me, and it will debut in February. Until then, enjoy your Halloween.

Down in Old San Antone

2007-10-16T09:34:00.001-07:00

I've been hard at work making different items to sell, and I won't be showing most of them here until they're all complete and Stitch is right around the corner. In the mean time here is one design I've been working on. First, I wanted to do this little bunny for a wall hanging:
I had already sewn this embroidery from early on this summer into a wall hanging:
Then the bunny's balloon reminded me of a cute shirt that Harlan received as a gift for his first birthday. It had a large number one on it. I fooled around with a couple of variations:
and

Last Sunday the Crumble family went for a quick drive south to San Antonio to visit our pals Ellen and Brennan and their sons Quentin and Emmett. Ellen and I were college roommates our freshman year at Reed, and Brennan came as a freshman the following year. I still remember the letter I received from Ellen the summer before we met. She told me that she loved rock 'n roll and was currently listening to Daniel Johnston, Fire Hose, The Meat Puppets, and Neil Young (also a weakness of mine). She drove her grandparents old beater while smoking and listening to the radio, and she wondered what kind of car I had and if I was bringing it with me. I knew right away that we were going to hit it off even though I didn't yet know how to drive (I was a NYC kid- none of us drove). During our spring break freshman year we embarked on a road trip to Idaho and ended up going all the way to San Antonio, Ellen's home town. It was my first trip to Texas and I was hooked!

Here we are in our dorm room, dressed up like Gun's & Rose's for fun:

And these are shots of one another that we took during that road trip, in San Antonio:

I can't believe I'm sporting the vintage men's vest in both photos. What the f was I thinking? Even worse than the fact that this look was in fashion then is that it's on its way back. I just saw it in Lucky and almost felt compelled to write them a letter telling begging them to just let it go with acid wash and the other bad late 80's fashion choices.
I almost feel badly for the models.

Ellen and I drifted in and out of touch with each other over the years since college ended, and eventually we both lived close to one another in Brooklyn. Last spring Ellen returned to San Antonio and we are neighbors once again. I think she looks exactly the same now as she did almost twenty years ago. And look what cute critters she and Brennan brought into the world:

After eating some killer breakfast burritos (San Antonio is something like 80% Mexican and the Mexican food there is amazing) we went to a local park.

The picnic house at the park looks a lot like a famous San Antonio landmark:

I got a bit lost trying to find I-35 to get home from the park, but the big blue Texas sky did not disappoint.

That's my kind of October day. Guess what else we do in Texas in October?

I've got Bento Fever and I'm in Love

2007-10-03T09:46:00.001-07:00

Now that Harlan goes to school in the mornings, it is up to me to pack him a lunch each day. Never mind that he only seems to like hot dogs cheese and fruit, I still need to pack these items in his super-duper lunch bag. I'm sure many of you who pack lunches are familiar with this site about bento lunches and ideas for what to put inside them. For those of you who love all things cute and Japanese, here are my latest acquisitions, all purchased under the premise that Harlan will like to eat what is inside things that are cute:

The best place I found online to get great bento boxes and accessories is ebay. There I discovered the colorful silicon baking cups that make great food holders inside larger bento boxes (or any larger plastic box). They sell a good assortment of these on amazon.

Here are good websites that carry Decole and other cute goodies. WARNING: LOCK WALLET UP BEFORE PROCEEDING:
http://www.sugarpinebeauty.com/ (type decole into search)
http://www.pancakemeow.com
http://spiralling.typepad.com/shop/
http://www.loloko.com/catalog/decole.html
http://www.shelovesstars.co.uk/

Click here to see the most amazing bento lunches ever.
My Nikon D70 SLR takes great photos but unfortunately one can only use the manual settings with a specific lens that I do not own and can not justify purchasing right now. My condo (like most structures in hot climates) is very shady. It is surrounded by dense trees and has long eaves that hang over the windows, keeping it cool but also quite dark. It's nearly impossible to get a good photo of anything on my porches or inside, but here are a few peeks. This is my trendy gnome and mushroom doormat, courtesy of Target:

This is the are in front of my front door. My mother gave me the beautiful bougainvillea, which I have always always always wanted to grow, ever since seeing them all over Florida. Anyone remember Poppy the Pig? I have filled him and a metal bucket with various succulents. I love me some succulents, ever since seeing them all over San Francisco. Now I live in a climate where they will thrive happily. The man at the gardening store warned me to bring them indoors when the temp. drops below forty. How can this be? What about all the giant ones I see on everyone else's front lawn? Does anyone know? I have many more planted out back on our deck but no photos yet.

Here's the cabinet I bought at Ikea recently to keep my fabric in. I may not have my craft room yet, but at least I don't keep it all under the bed anymore.

This is the area over our sideboard in our living room. It's what we see when we are sitting on the sofa on the opposite wall (which I will photograph when I finish making pillows for it).

Here is a close up of my Halloween chicks, purchased from Jennifer Murphy.

They're just so dang cute, and the fact that they are made in China did not deter me from buying them in the least. It's great that Jennifer had such a high demand for her products that she was able to outsource making them. One lesson I learned back when I went to that Design Sponge sponsored event for people starting their own businesses (be sure and click the link as it goes to all the files from the event) is that most buyers are interested in the design and price of items, along with the story that is behind them. Were they designed by a famous RISD grad who used to work for Martha Stewart but then dropped out of the corporate world to raise her daughter and sit around crocheting pot holders that she started selling on the street corner? Apparently most consumers are only interested in the story up to a certain point, and after that the price is an issue. Making things by hand in the U.S. is costly because the cost of living here is so high. Minimum wage is even up to $7.50 an hour in some states (still too low in my opinion but that's another discussion). If any of us expect to make a living by making things by hand then we have to charge accordingly and the question that remains is, Will people buy a bunch of Halloween pom pom chicks for $20 a chick? I wouldn't. Not because I don't respect the time that went into making it, but because right now I can't afford it (although I have found a way to justify such purchases many times in the past). Now, happily there are some people who can afford it and will shell out the big bucks for things that are locally made. These are most of the people who buy my stuff, and I'm happy they are there, but the truth is that I can only make one or two items a day and that is not enough to live off of. So, I have finally found a company in New Jersey whom I am working with to make a couple of my designs by machine. The process is not cheap, because they are in New Jersey and not China, but I want to keep my products 100% American made and charge accordingly, hoping that customers will still support me because they like the designs, the workmanship, and the fact that the products are all locally made. The one glitch I am having right now is color matching machine threads to DMC colors. We'll have to see the results when my samples get back. I hope that I can eventually have everything I design made professionally so that I can spend my own time making things for myself and designing. You get tired of embroidering or sewing the same exact design over and over by hand. Getting back to Jennifer Murphy for a moment, does anyone know where one can buy the material used to make the kind of bears she and Molly Chicken make? I would love to try making a few for gifts (gifts for myself that is) but I have never seen any place that sells that type of faux fur.

This weekend Joe and I did some iron-on transfers on t-shirts for Harlan. They came out pretty cute. Guess which two designs I found and which two Joe found. Scroll down for answer.

The two of the left are Joe's. The first is an Pogo image that is super cute. He wanted to do another one using a Love and Rockets image but we could not find any that worked on a t-shirt for a little boy. Instead he went with a good old fashioned Black Flag logo. I chose a page from Richard Scary's most beautifully illustrated book I Am a Bunny, and of course the Stray Cats logo. We have to keep Harlan old school.

I have one last question to pose for my readers. I've cancelled the business Bun Bun Babythreads with the state of NY. I need to reopen it here in Texas, but I also want to change the name so that people don't assume everything I sell is for babies (I often hear, "Oh, I don't know anyone with a baby"). I'm thinking I should keep Bun Bun as a prefix for the name but don't know what to put after it. Let me know if you have any ideas.

For good tunes, go here and listen to Petra Hayden's genius cover of Thriller and breathtaking a Capella version of God Only Knows. I heard Petra's a Capella cover of a Journey song while driving Joe to work one morning on a local radio station. The music in Austin is one of its main draws, and I'm relishing in discovering new artists to listen to now that I'm here. I don't get out to many (many being zero) shows any more, so being able to actually depend on the radio for good music is a saving grace.

Hey Bub, Where you goin' with that lunch bag in yo' hand?

2007-09-21T13:18:00.001-07:00

My little man started his first week of school this past Wednesday.

Harlan has loved carrying a bag around for a while now, and for once he is carrying one that he actually needs: His new Cream Cram lunch bag!

I told you all that I would find a way in despite names that were deposited on waiting lists while the students were still in-utero!

Actually, it is because of this blog that Harlan made his debut at a tony pre-school this week. A wonderful woman here in Austin ("R") e-mailed me a while back to let me know where I could buy Violet Crumbles in town. We wrote back and forth a couple of times and she recently wrote after reading my post about not being able to get Harlan a spot in a reputable local pre-school. She told me about a wonderful school right in the neighborhood ( a huge relief now that I am spending way too much time in the car) that her son had gone to. "R" recommended that I call the school director and tell her that we knew each other. It worked.

The first day I left Harlan in loving hands I was elated; proud of my independent and social son who waved bye-bye to me non-chalantly as he ran off to play some other kids.

The second day was not so easy. The third day even less so as I had to drive away watching Harlan weep at the realization that I was not staying with him. I spent this morning feeling like a wretched mother, abandoning her first born. I know of course that everything Harlan is experiencing is normal and that he will quickly acclimate to his new fun-filled mornings at school, but you can't reason with me when today was the first time I had to walk away from my crying baby.

Yellows Blues and Reds

2007-09-11T12:06:00.000-07:00

Violette Crumble Double Corn Peach Muffins:

1 cup buttermilk, warmed
1/2 cup plus 1 tbl cornmeal
2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tbl zest from organic lemons (probably 2 lemons- non organic rinds are pretty bad so skip the lemon if you can't find organic)
2 eggs
splash of vanilla
3 ripe peaches, skinned and cut into chunks (blueberries also work great)

1. Preheat oven to 400
2. Warm the buttermilk on low heat and add 1/2 cup cornmeal, mix & set aside.
3. Whisk remaining cornmeal with dry ingredients.
4. Cream softened butter, add sugar, then lemon zest, then vanilla, then eggs.
5. Add soaked cornmeal and buttermilk.
6. Add dry ingredients and mix until just blended.
7. Add peaches.

Fill muffin trays (this makes about 12 muffins) and place in oven. Check after 18 minutes. Tops should be lightly golden brown.

A good thing to use the de-skinned lemon on is a nice Violette Crumble Quinoa Salad:

Juice from 1 lemon
1 cup quinoa
3 beets- I used three different types, but they all tasted the same
Chopped pecans
Dried cherries
2 scallions
Olive oil
Salt & Pepper

1. Boil, skin, and slice the beets. Marinate them in some lemon juice and olive oil for a couple of hours.
2. Prepare quinoa (follow box directions or boil 2 cups water with quinoa, turn heat to low and simmer about 20 minutes until all water is absorbed).
3. Chop up scallions, and throw it all together. Mix in more olive oil and lemon juice to taste.

Our bedrooms walls are my favorite Tiffany blue:
I bought these Anthropologie knobs for the closet doors. Too bad you can't really tell in this shot.

Harlan's crib is still beneath my favorite collages from One Good Bumblbee:

Not yellow red or blue but still new and very cute: Decole mushroom timer and magnetic picture holder, placed upon stove top:

Looking for some really beautiful music? I just bought this CD:

Perla Batalla sings in Spanish and her voice will send chills down your spine. I bought the CD after hearing her rendition of Cucurrucucu Paloma, one of my favorite songs ever.

Looking for a fantastic read with pictures that will also help fill you in on recent Iranian history?

Read Marjane Satrapi's Autobiographical graphic novels Persepolis 1 and 2. I just finished the sequel and must say that I enjoyed it even more than the first book. In the sequel Marjane leaves Iran to live in Austria during the 80's as a teen and boy did she have some good adventures.

Victory!

2007-09-06T13:07:00.001-07:00

Apologies for the lengthy hiatus, but the movers finally arrived and I have not had much free time ever since.

Of course the move in did not occur without major drama. The truckers finally phoned us to say that they were in Houston and would arrive the following morning. The next day (while Joe was at work, even though we had planned to move in to occur when he still had three weeks left of vacation) The driver called me to say he was downstairs and that his 18-wheeler would not be able to get into the apartment complex. He asked me to come downstairs.

I strapped Harlan onto my hip because otherwise he runs in the opposite direction of wherever we are going. We descended into the heat and humidity and walked all over the parking area while the driver pointed out problems with bringing his truck in. Either he would not be able to turn the truck around to go back out the entrance, or else the truck would hit electrical wires that covered the exit. Keep in mind that the driver had me walking all over the property to show me these pitfalls while Harlan and all 4500 pounds of him squirmed and squealed on my hip because he wanted to get down and run. OK, I said. No 18 wheeler. What next?

The driver told me he would have to go rent a U-haul and "find some guys" to help him move everything from the 18 wheeler on to the U-haul, and then up the steps into my apartment. I quickly called a friend of mine to find out where the local day laborers hang out. I told the driver and he thanked me because You can get those guys without paying them much.

I got in my car with Harlan and drove to the ATM to get money and then to the supermarket to get sandwiches, fruit salad, cokes and waters to give to the guys. There was no way I was going to contribute to exploiting some poor immigrants who were about to move all my crap twice in the heat.

Never mind that Moishe's guaranteed that our stuff would be delivered a month before it actually arrived and still expected me to pay for it. They had also promised me that their long distance truckers were theirs (they were not. They were contractors, which explains why their truck was not replaced when it broke down) and that the movers on the other end were also theirs (they were not. They were day laborers that I had to find for the truckers and had to pay so that they were not exploited by the truckers). Keep in mind that Moishe's is supposedly the moving company with the best reputation nationwide. Moishes's moving company. I threw that sentence in for google searchers to find this story. Long distance movers. There's another one for googlers.

So, the stuff is here, some is broken but most is not. Our queen sized mattress for some reason looks like a giant ass sat on it. We can not figure out what happened, but each side of the mattress is majorly indented and there is a thick, high, mound running vertically down the center of the thing. It's a bit unsettling.

Now for the fun part- unpacking all the goodies and decorating a whole new place. Little did I realize how much I disliked so many aspects of my last place. I must admit it's good to be home.

P.S. These photos are all of Harlan at his favorite new place on earth- the new Town Lake Park which has a giant area with a spiral in the center that shoots water and cool steam at various heights and intervals, and is surrounded by tiny pools for the toddlers to get down and splash around in. It's my new Ft. Greene Park. We go every afternoon after Harlan's nap and meet up with all the other neighborhood moms and their toddlers. I must admit, we ended up in a pretty awesome spot.

Tune in next time to hear about the $175 speeding ticket I got for going 29 in a school zone and to see the latest crafty decorating as well as my new Decole goodies and great places to get some of your own.

The Album Cover

2007-08-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

I got lucky with this photo. Harlan was running amok in his favorite playground and I was trying to get at least one non-blurry photo. I didn't have to do anything to adjust this one, it just came out great.

Last Saturday we cruised a couple of yard sales (Scored a P.D. Eastman board book for 50 cents, which is great because Harlan is learning the alphabet with these Eric Carle animal/alphabet cards and now his new board book) and then went on to my all-time favorite place to shop: The City-Wide Garage Sale. As we walked into the auditorium we noticed people coming out holding lots of good stuff. Good stuff that they should have known not to buy because I was on my way. Stuff like antique children's western rocking chairs and Haywood-Wakefield dressers. These gloaters wore badges on their chests that announced that they were Early Shoppers. Turns out anyone can get there at 8:30 (an hour and a half before the doors open to the rest of us slugs) and pay $10 to go all Wilma & Betty when the horn sounds for the sale to begin. I shouldn't complain because I got what I went for: Two antique metal wall sconce/shelves to hang in our bathrooms (no photo sorry) and some vintage embroidered pillowcases for $2 each from the guy who always has four giant tables of vintage linens in massive heaps that you have to dig through along with other crazed enthusiasts. I love how soft vintage cotton and linen bedding is. Check out the French Knots on the first one:

I also have to admit that one thing I love about Austin is the abundance of taco trucks. Here's one at the closest gas-station to our apartment to sell Willie Neilson's Biofuel(the store that carries our regular B99 was closed on Sunday and my tank was seriously empty):

I got a phone call on Saturday from the driver of the truck with all of our belongings on it. They were broken down in West Virginia. I called him this evening and he says he'll be here tomorrow or Wednesday. I'll believe it when I see it. So far I have gotten pretty good at making dinners that you can bake on tin foil and serve on plastic plates. Last night we had pecan crusted salmon, baked asparagus with parmesean, and corn on the cob. I salted it with salt packs left over from a trip to Sonic. I refuse to pay for salt when I have perfectly good salt coming to me any day now in a truck.

Hard lessons on services

2007-08-14T12:29:00.000-07:00

The bad news: The movers are not even picking up our stuff from the NJ warehouse until this Wednesday. No one at Moishe's called me to tell this news, despite a guarantee that our stuff would be here no later than August 12th. I had to call several times to find out what was going on, and apparently there was a "truck delay" and so our stuff is now expected to arrive next weekend. Word to anyone considering using Moishe's movers: Don't.

The good news: I found my camera's USB cord. I had packed it after all.

More good news: Harlan, the kid who used to refuse to get close to the ocean or step foot in a strange bathtub is completely bursurk for swimming pools.
This is him in the kiddie pool in our condo complex. As you can see Harlan is struggling to break free of his daddy's arms so that he can run into the adult pool. He has no fear of drowning obviously, and I'm going to have to buy a life jacket for him (we borrowed one for Muskoka for the boat rides) because he thinks that a very fun game is played by running into the adult pool at top speed while I scream WAIT FOR MAMA!!!!! He runs down the steps as I clutch his arms and proceeds to plunge face down into the water so he can blow bubbles (with his mouth wide open somehow). Then he picks his face up and laughs and blows more bubbles and then enjoys holding my shoulder while I float him around the pool. I've got to get this kid some swimming lessons A.S.A.P.

So far the pools are shaded and comfortable in the evenings when the blazing heat begins to let up and the chicaedas aren't buzzing quite so loudly from the trees. We go down to the pool after dinner and Harlan plays and swims for a good hour and a half before coming up and going to bed. It's even more ideal than I had imagined to end up here instead of in a house, because for right now pools are Harlan's favorite place to be. We went on Sunday to a near by pool over at Little Stacy park and Harlan spent two and a half hours in the pool, along with me and several other toddlers and their parents. We met some great people who reminded me of my friends in Ft. Greene, and I felt releived that we had decided to move to this neighborhood.

More bad news: We hired a guy off of Craig's List to scrape the popcorn surface off of our ceilings and to paint them white. We thought it would be a great opportunity to take care of all the renovations we want before the movers arrive. Good old Clint arrived and seemed like he knew exactly what he was doing (although it was a bit hard to tell because he really talks like the King of the Hill guy who no one can understand; A super sloppy southern accent mixed with a mumble and delivered at top speed). He promised to tape off all the walls and cover the floors with plastic so nothing would get wet or damaged. He promised to be finished in two days. At the end of his second day Joe checked out the progress. I don't even want to go into too much detail because it just makes me upset, but let's just say that the ceilings look like cottage cheese in the midst of patches of flat cement, with totally shredded up edges. Clint said he wasn't finished and would be back the following day to clean it up and smooth it all out. The next day he did not show up and he did not answer his phone. We assumed he realized the job could not be remedied and so that was that. The following day I got a call from his wife, explaining that Clint was in jail, but wanted us to know that he was coming to finish the job when he got out. "But it's not his fault. You see this guy owes us money...." I cut her off and said I didn't care because he was not welcome back. As if the crappy ceilings weren't enough, he never properly covered the floors and all of the wood was now buckling around the edges, ruined from being covered in water that was not cleaned up. I had to spend hours removing the scraped cement and paint from the floors as well as our freshly painted walls. The floors will need to be replaced if I ever want to sell the place. Lesson learned: Word of mouth is always the better way to go when hiring someone to move your stuff or work on your house.

The good news: One thing I love about Austin is the access to great yard sales. So far I scored a bunch of small things, but one coup was this rocking horse ($10):

I also see that there is tons of stuff for sale on Craigslist that would never go for so cheap in NYC. I wanted to get a Radio Flyer no-pedal trike for Harlan and I scored one for $10:

So far these two toys keep him endlessly entertained in our almost-empty apartment.

More good news: The crafty business community here is a busslin'. I knew this already through my pal Jen Arnston, but it's great to start meeting other women doing what I have been trying to do for a while now (selling handmade items). I think that Jen and I may share a booth this November at the Stitch craft bazaar and fashion show. I better turn up the volume as soon as my stuff arrives and get cracking to make sure I have enough stock.

More bad news: Getting your kid into "the right" preschool is just as much of an ordeal here as it is in NYC. There are apparently more toddlers than there are cool/prestigious/right-minded pre-schools and so parents here place their kids on waiting lists as soon as they are pregnant. I'm going to be persistent though, and see what I can do because I have a feeling where there is a will there is a way, and Harlan really needs to start spending time without me for a few hours a week (both for his own sake and mine). Plus this way when I go back to work he can go full-time and it won't be traumatic for him.

More good news: The price of childcare here is drastically less than it is NYC. This goes in accordance with all the other wages here, but the point is that even on a public school teacher's salary, you can send your kid to a prestigious daycare or preschool and still have enough left over to live on. We've only been down here a couple of weeks, but already all the stress caused by living in Brooklyn without being rich has disappeared. Suddenly I'm just like everyone else: I don't have a nanny or a housekeeper and I get to spend time with my husband and my friend's husbands (I met some new friends we were invited to go to a pool at the Elk's club in the afternoon with their husbands, because they weren't working jobs that required twelve hour days. What an oddity!)

Please don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking anyone who has the luxury to work a job that pays enough to hire a nanny or a housekeeper, but when most of the people around you live in this world you constantly feel like what you are doing will just never be enough and your child will go to a crappy public school with no toilet paper in the bathrooms (I've read too much Jonothan Kozol) because you couldn't afford to send him to pre-school, and he will end up in a gang and have to scrape ceilings for a living while you spend your old age in a welfare hotel because you never saved enough to move to Florida with all of your friends.

It's Hot + Cool Stuff

2007-08-05T18:42:00.000-07:00

Supposedly Austin has had a relatively mild summer so far. Since moving down here it's been in the mid-nineties with a couple of days of such intense humidity that I almost fainted at one point. One would think that such conditions would force you to stay inside all day with the air conditioner blasting, but fortunately we have discovered some lovely parks that are quite shady and pleasant for Harlan to romp around in. There are even pristine swimming pools nestled below the cover of live oak trees, and I must admit it kicks ass to be outdoors here despite the oppressive heat.

My camera's USB connector is currently in a warehouse in New Jersey with almost everything else we own, waiting for a long distance truck to pick it up and bring it to us. The expected move in date is now August twelve, which seems like a hassle considering they picked everything up on July twenty-fourth, but is actually a blessing in disguise. We are using the time to paint, re-floor, and de-popcorn the ceilings of our new condo, so it works out quite well to have the place remain empty a little longer.

Since I don't have interesting crafty photos of my own to share, I figured I would post about children's items available online that I love and recommend.

For those of you who, like me, can not get down with Crocs or Tivas on your own feet or those of your offspring, I am loving the Saltwater Sandals. They make them for toddlers:
and also for adults: They are leather with natural soles and they are waterproof! No need for rubber shoes ever again. To top it off they are cheap cheap cheap (well the women's ones are anyhow). I paid under $30 for my red pair at an annoying hipster Williamsburg store where the salesdude acted like he was doing me a huge favor by selling me shoes. I think I'm going to order a white pair online. I got Harlan's the week before I bought my own, and they are so darn cute on him I can't stand it.

Children's art: I have four prints for Harlan's room from One Good Bumblebee which I adore.

When we actually live in a house with more room, I would love to buy some Ashley G. prints:

Who can resist the funky prints by Portland's popular Apak?

Harlan has been sleeping in this travel cot which is not only super easy to set up and extremely light, but also super comfy, since there are no bulky metal bars around the edges of the mattress for Harlan to bang his head against.

I highly recommend spending the extra fifty bucks on this over any of the other pack n play type of travel cribs.

We just bought a cute Sigg sippy cup so that Harlan can drink his water and look cool at the same time, without worrying about plastic and whether or not it's going to poison him even more than the mercury in our air or sea or any of the other far more serious dangers in the world. As you can see, I may use cloth diapers and own a car that runs on veggie oil, but eating and drinking from non-plastic items is not high on my priority list. I do avoid plastic when possible (ie the Sigg canteens) but at the same time I am also aware of the fact that we can not avoid all of the toxins that are out there, and to obsess over avoiding every toxin would end all of us up living like the lead character of Safe. Don't get me wrong, I pop Excedrin if I come into contact with Windex or a kitchen just "cleaned" with a bottle of Fantastic, but just because I'm hyper-sensitive doesn't mean I don't realize that there is no truly "safe" way to live in an industrialized nation. (For any of you who have spent time in Berkeley, what's up with those germophobes who dress in all white and wear face masks to keep the germs away? Why does wearing white help?) There was a great article in Elle a couple of months back where the author had her blood, hair, and dryer lint tested (along with samples from her children) for every possible toxin out there. The results were really quite upsetting, because they included DDT from thirty years ago still in her system as well as that of her kids, but ultimately the author realized that there really is no way to avoid every possible poison out there. Sad but true.

Wow, that was totally an off-topic rant. More cool stuff for kids to buy or make:
These cowgirl/cowboy outfits
Free amigurumi patterns to crochet.
These amazing bears
Anything from here
And of course the amazing light switch plates and tiles from Robot Candy. I can't wait to get one for Harlan's new room.

Crafts and a giant sofa are in the hizzy

2007-07-21T18:03:00.001-07:00

Guess what my friend Kim S. made for Harlan before he moves south?

I love it so much, and the herringbone tweed is made from her father's old sport coat (which Joe says he wishes he could have). Kim was also sweet enough to save me a giant hunk of the Valrhona chocolate bread pudding she had just made. Did I mention Kim writes for Chocolatier magazine? I bet that job beats tempting as a receptionist (not that those are the only two options in the world for careers, but sometimes it kind of feels like it is to me). She also gave me a big pile of cardboard boxes that she helped me carry home while pushing Harlan in his stroller. I can't wait to join the car culture quite honestly (I'm getting a bio-diesel VW, don't worry).

If you wonder why I placed such a cute bunny on a pile of taped up boxes it's because every surface in my apartment is covered in boxes. Every surface that is, except for our giant sofa which had to be lifted up the side of the building with rope and pulled in through the window because the clearing at the top of the first flight isn't tall or wide enough for the couch to get around the corner and up the next flight. My cousin Lori used to own a furniture store out on the North Fork of Long Island and gave me the sofa because it had a bit of water damage on the back of it. The men that worked for her who drove the sofa into Brooklyn for me are a couple of real characters. Andy, who is a mildmannered and hulkish schizophrenic who married his Psychiatrist and had two healthy children with her, and Cleo, an extremely generous older Texan African-American who looks about 20 years younger than he is. Cleo is super muscular and short and has a thin moustache. He also enjoys wearing vintage ladies jewelry like enameled floral necklaces (three at a time), along with gold eye-liner and skin tight jeans with red pumps.

As soon as the two of them realized that the sofa would not fit around the corner at the top of the first flight of steps, Cleo insisted that he would go buy a rope and pull it up, because they hadn't driven the damn thing for four hours on the L.I.E. for nothing. Andy kept saying, "No way Cleo. No way" but Cleo was determined. As the two of them hoisted the sofa up the side of the building a small crowd gathered to watch on the sidewalk. Cleo pulled the rope and dripped with sweat while screaming at the onlookers, "Whatchew all lookin' at? This 'aint no damn picture show, keep moving 'fore I charge y'all!"

I placed a photo of the sofa on Freecycle and on Craiglist and received a few e-mails. The first was my favorite as the subject line read, "I wan your sof". Inside, the message just said to call the sender. I know I'm kind of old and not totally down with text messaging codes and what not, but is it really that difficult to type the extra t and a in the subject line? Needless to say I didn't call. None of the other e-mailers worked out (surprise surprise, an ad that says Free Sofa, Bring Rope didn't get great results) and so we have decided to leave the behemoth to my lovely landlord and his five foot nose hairs (have I not mentioned the nasal growth before? It's nightmare worthy so perhaps I have spared you all thus far). The best part is, Landlord will probably drag the sofa out the door and down the first flight of stairs before realizing that it won't fit around the sharp corner of the stairwell on the second floor. He will have to bring it back up and either get a chainsaw to cut it in half, or pay someone to get it out the window for him. I feel tempted to leave a note on the sofa that just says, "This is what you get for being a hostile a-hole to people who live on your property".

Guess what came in the mail to me today just in time?

The busy bees embroidery transfer, courtesy of the famous Floresita. She had an extra copy of the pattern and was generous enough to send it to me along with a very sweet note. I am such a fan of hers. If you don't know who she is, be sure to check out her flickr embroidery group, embroidery group blog, and vintage transfers blog, which has scans of many fantastic transfers for you to see or use. Needless to say, between the Amazing Dad Sport Coat Bunny and the free transfer in the mail, I scored big time.

Here is a gratuitous photo of me and Harlan taken this afternoon. I had to have a recent photo of myself to post an intro on the new meetup group I just joined in Austin. I'm hoping to meet other moms in my new hood to spend time with. I can't even believe how sad I am to leave all my Fort Greene mama pals. They have really been a bunch of lifesavers over the past 20 months, and the best part is, we would have all loved each other even if we didn't have children the same age. I can't imagine that I will be this lucky again.

I've been oot and aboot

2007-07-17T19:34:00.001-07:00

What a flaky blogger I have been, although to be fair the past month has been extremely un-computer friendly to me. We spent a week up at lake Muskoka at Joe's family's lake house that has been in the family for generations. While packing for the trip Joe recommended that I bring along some of my craft projects since there was going to be so much time to relax. Being the know-it-all that I can't help but be, I did not pack anything recreational other than a pile of New Yorkers that I have not had the opportunity to read. This was wise. While all of the family members at the house with us lounged on the dock and rode around in sail boats and Kayaks, Joe and I pretty much did what we do on a daily basis; we took care of Harlan. At twenty months the big lug has only been really walking about three months, and all of it has been on solid cement ground. The rocky steep ground on this Canadian island was not familiar turf, and so we spent a lot of time running around the porch and playing with grandpa's plastic clogs. Luckily grandpa was a good sport and enjoyed having a charming toddler take his shoes on and off repeatedly, and occasionally offer them to his cousin if she happened to be passing through. Not a lot of spare time to work on crafting, but it was certainly relaxing and always great to get away from Brooklyn in the summer. And did I even mention that they sell English candy in Canada? Yup. I got to go to the Cadbury outlet store. What could be better than that? The truck stop availability of maple or cinnamon Kit Kats? Perhaps. The abundance at the supermarket of those crazy English potato chip flavors like dill pickle and ketchup? Maybe. But as anyone knows, it's hard to beat the English Cadbury. I went to the outlet store in desperate search of the chocolate spread that Dottie Angel is hoarding over on the west coast. Alas, they did not have any, but I did leave with a shopping bag full of candy. I hope they have a good dentist in Austin.

Right now I am getting in my beach time at my mother's house in Long Island. The apartment is half packed and we move out on the twenty fourth. As you can imagine, not a whole lot of crafting going on these days. P.S. Check out this shot of Harlan in Canada with what we called "boat face" on. He loved riding in the boat, but always got this super serious face while the boat was actually in motion.

Wa Wah Waaaaahhhh*

2007-06-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

*As in the sound the trumpet makes when the punchline is corny.

The house inspector's report arrived in my inbox this morning. As Harlan scampered beneath my feet, trying to climb into the revolving office chair, I leaned over him and read the computer screen while my heart stopped. The roof, foundation, plumbing, HVAC, and electric have major problems and all need to be replaced or repaired. Any other problems other than everything major you ask? Why yes! There is mold and moisture damage in the walls. But there is brand new carpet and fresh paint on the all the walls,!

The real estate agent called and let me know that the roof, foundation and electric issues could be fixed before our move-in date of August 1. She offered to research the cost and then approach the seller to make these repairs for us. Sounds good! I hung up the phone and all I could see was moldy walls and leaky AC ducts so I e-mailed her to let her know that it's just way too much for a house that was not priced as a fixer-upper. Now I'm thinking our best bet is to get a rental and pound the pavement for a fifties ranch house that is in working condition. I still want my original kitchen and bath, none of that granite and marble crap.
On a cheerier and craftier note, here are my scores from Renegade last weekend:
Suitcase and pail from Pixigenne!
Cool silkscreened and appliqued T-shirt for Harlan (his handmade wool shorties/ diaper cover also arrived in my mail this week from royalbuns):

And of course a sad rotten banana and a happy good egg from My Paper Crane:

I also got a lovely package in the mail from Veronica of Petunia fame. It included a handmade ribbon brooch that now lives happily on my diaper bag, a quilted card, and some vintage buttons that I put away before photographing them to keep Harlan from eating them:

Look what I got!

2007-06-15T18:48:00.001-07:00

Aside from an electric toothbrush embroidery hoop and lens cap I got a house.
Our bid was accepted and I'm already picking out Anthropologie resin cabinet pulls for my new 50's kitchen. Unfortunately this is about all we can afford to do to the house right now. Who cares though? We got a cool house that we can call our own.

Are you wondering about Harlan and the embroidery hoop/electric toothbrush/ lens cap/ Yahoo Serious hair-do photo? All of a sudden he is into everything. It's a constant trail of destruction. His favorite new toys are my large embroidery hoop, which he throws over his neck, and my electric toothbrush. I have to buy him his own (toothbrush, not hoop). I grabbed my camera to take a photo and of course he had to nab the lens cap before running off with all three, only to drop the lens cap and pick up my sandal which he then threw in the toilet. This morning I ran around trying to get everything together to go meet some friends in the playground and I couldn't find Harlan's left sandal anywhere (note to self: buy more than one pair of shoes for Harlan). We put on his too-small sneakers and left. I finally found the missing shoe this evening in my top desk drawer which is usually secured with a safety thingamajiggy. I must have left it unlocked. Apparently Harlan's cohorts are in the same phase. I saw my friend Kara today who is 7 months pregnant, and her son Arthur who is about a week apart from Harlan in age. The rascal had her chasing him all over the street as he opened people's gates, pulled dirt out of people's planters and dumped it on their front steps, and then ran into the middle of three deaf guys having a heated discussion in sign-language on their front lawn. The guys all thought it was pretty cute and so did I, but I was in awe of Kara's mellowness as she carried him over her swollen belly, kicking and screaming. She didn't even raise her voice or seem annoyed as she said, "No hitting buddy". I feel like she's an angel and I'm going to turn into a crazy Jewish mother running around screaming at my kid every time he gets a crumb on the floor (O.K. Not even close to reality, but I just feel that way). I think I am ready to sign up for anger management half the time.

You know what's great about having our own house? No more crazy landlord. Oh, did I tell you the latest in the Landlord Chronicles? Months back I ordered a year's worth of Croq zines from Heather in Portland. A month went by and I never received them. I e-mailed her and she had mailed them Priority Mail with delivery confirmation and it was signed for. Neither of my neighbors would steal my mail, nor would they sign for my mail and lose it somehow. I was stumped. Heather was generous enough to send me new copies. FF to last week, I walk in the vestibule and what should I see but the original package. According to my neighbors their months-old lost packages showed up the same day. We can only deduce that Landlord had been signing for our packages and just keeping them in his basement apartment because he was too lazy to walk them up the front steps to our entryway. Classic.

One more bragger shot: This is Harlan in his new, super soft Baby Beehinds bamboo and cotton diaper.

The House

2007-06-13T12:20:00.000-07:00

We put a bid (a low bid) on a house in a great neighborhood, just minutes from where Joe will work. The neighborhood has been steadily going up in value for the last ten years when the first gays moved in and spruced up the fifties limestone houses into Dwell magazine modern homes. I'm not big on the new modern aesthetic, I'm more of a Victorian and fin de siecle kind of gal, but I can definitely fall in love with the fifties kitchens and spacious floorplans. And the small turn of the century homes that I saw were just way too small and un air conditioned. So here's the deal: We may not end up with this house but I wanted to be able to show it to friends and family and this format beats a massive e-mail with tons of attachments. I hope everyone else in the internets enjoys a little voyeurism into my life:

Going in the front door (I'm not showing the full front of the house for privacy/safety reasons):

Window to the right of the front door:

This funky shelf is by the thru-way to the kitchen/dining area:

Stacie is looking through the window into the garage door. When she looks to the left she sees this built-in:

Across from this built-in is the kitchen:

Spice cabinet under big cabinets:

There is also an oven built into the wall and a fridge and washer dryer that isn't hooked up:

Behind this area is a door that goes to what we call the "mother in law" annex. It's an addition that has three rooms, railroad style. The back room has tons of built-in shelves. I would probably use this area for a craft workshop and library to house all our books since the air conditioner is a wall unit and there is no central heat in this addition:

Back in the main house are three bedrooms. The master is L-shaped and has a bathroom in it. This is the linen closet and toilet:

Here is parts of the other bedrooms. It's hard to get a whole room in a shot:

Other bathroom:
So cool!
Fenced in back yard:

Jen and Yoshi saying hi to remind everyone that I will have friends with babies Harlan's age:

Quest for Diaper

2007-06-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

Before I talk about diapers I'll spare all of you who don't have to worry about such things. Let's talk instead about great stuff to arrive in the mail this past week.

From the other side of the planet came a great package from Anastacia, a wonderful artist whose collages I have been admiring for a while:

It's a whole bunch of handmade tags, to go on gifts for others or to be hoarded by yours truly. I love the vintage children tags the best. These are definitely getting hoarded. I am making a small package to send over to A to thank her.
Speaking of collage work, I can't wait to get my greedy paws on one of Pixiegenne's fabulous decoupage suitcases this month at Renegade. To justify the purchase I am buying it for Harlan to keep his little Leggo and Fisher Price toys in. If he ever decides he is too old for it or it's just not "him", then I'll have to take it I suppose.
This official sewing pattern arrived from Liesl yesterday as well:
When I took her backpack making class last month we used a draft of the pattern. Now I have the finished publication, along with the book with directions. Great graphics and very comprehensive.
My Martha Stewart craft supplies came in quick time this week too. Oh, did I forget to confess to a little online shopping? I ended up buying the special ruler with the edge that attaches to the rotary cutter for automatic straight lines, no matter how much booze is in the system (or my case no matter how much clumsiness is in the system):

I threw in a lovely blue ink pad (images to come soon) and a couple of circular punches since they can supposedly cut through felt.

The only craft item I have done any work on lately is finishing up this baby pillow which is reserved for Kim S:

It was a lot of fun to make and I'll do a few more when time permits. I think it's just the kind of thing a mom wants for her baby's room. I know I do!

There is not going to be a plethora of crafting this summer. I am focusing wholeheartedly on moving south which is taking up almost all my free time. So far I have been looking at houses on the market (online) and tomorrow I fly down to see a few of them over the weekend. This is the first time I will be without Harlan for more than about two hours so I'm kind of scared, but also looking forward to the down time this trip will involve. My blog posting will probably only be about once a week until I am settled in our new home (and I have internet access. They have that in Texas right?)

Now, on to my Quest for Diaper. I originally decided it was time to switch over to cloth when the garbage issue reached full force in our building. Once El Raton was discovered I decided to cut down on garbage production as much as possible. Composting happened, and recycling went nuts. I even started saving plastic bags and batteries to bring over to Whole Foods which has bins to collect these items. I also really wanted to save money and to use something natural on my baby that would also be super cute and fun. The system I have been primarily using consists of a G-diaper which is sold with flushable inserts. I do not use the flushable inserts because they end up costing as much as disposables, and they do not hold much urine. Instead I place a micro-terry insert and a micro-terry doubler in the removable nylon pocket that snaps in the G-diaper cover. I wrap the two inserts with a biodegradable diaper liner for the purpose of easy-poop-removal. Just lift the liner off the diaper and drop the whole mess in the toilet. Then drop the dirty liners in the diaper bin to be washed. Assuming the diaper cover has not been dirtied, replace the nylon liner with a new one and plop in a new insert sandwich:
This is the inside of the diaper cover with the nylon liner holder:

Here it is with the insert sandwich put in:

Here is the whole thing on:

At night I like to use what is called a pocket diaper. The first pocket diapers I ended up liking are called Fuzzi Bunz. They are pretty popular. This type of diaper is like a pair of snap on panties that can be stuffed with additional inserts to absorb urine. Each pocket diaper must be washed after each wear. The outside of these diapers are usually made of a waterproof material called PUL, and the part that touches the skin is usually micro-terry fleece.

I discovered another brand of pocket diaper that is my favorite, called Green Acre Designs. These are made and sold by another "work-at-home-mom" so that is an added bonus for me. I love the design of these diapers and you can order them with custom color combinations. I started with a brown and pale blue combo and it fits like a glove and is super absorbent. No leaks at all:

The inside material that I chose (you can choose from a couple of different fabrics with GADs) is called suede cloth and it's made with bamboo which is very absorbent:

The fit of these diapers is really above and beyond the other brands I have tried. It's very trim and not bulky under clothes. Look how cute they look on:

I would use these all the time personally, except that I am concerned that the PUL outer layer is too hot for the Texas climate. I poked around on some diapering message boards (OK, I am obsessed, let's face it) and the message I got loud and clear is that cotton and hemp or cotton and bamboo fitted diapers beneath thin wool covers are the coolest and most absorbent way to go. At first I was quite skeptical about how cool it might be to wear wool in the summer, but then I remembered my corporate days of having to wear a suit all year long, and I did have a summer weight wool number from Brook's Brothers that was surprisingly cool. Here are two beautiful wool covers I ordered from Sugar Peas:

They sell hemp/cotton fitted inserts that snap inside:

All diapers need to be pre washed a few times before they become totally absorbent. This is especially true for hemp which apparently contains oils that need to be washed out of them before use . Wool diaper covers also need to be treated with lanolin on occasion to keep them water resistant. They do not require frequent washing and do not smell from contact with a dirty diaper underneath them. I also ordered a super luxurious wool cover from Kiwi Peels but it's back ordered. These are also handmade by a stay at home mom. She's sewing as fast as she can.

If any of you are interested in learning more about cloth diapering there are some great resources online. This forum has a ton of information for beginners, on everything about the choices available to how to prepare new diapers etc. I've been really enjoying posting on the diapering forums and exchanging information and support in a friendly environment, but, get this: The forums are frequented primarily by super Christian home schooling moms and super crunchy attachment parenting types. Who knew there was a world where these two worlds collided? I sure didn't. My friends and I have mulled over what the common ground might be and I have come to the conclusion that it's mostly about simplicity and living in a natural environment.

Harry is just easier to understand.

2007-06-01T12:57:00.001-07:00

I've been tagged by Shiso Mama for a meme about names:

Give the meaning of your kids’ names, and write about what or how or why you gave the name to your kids. Tag five people to play along and leave a comment at their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

I have had my children's names picked out since my early twenties. I've stuck to them as well. The names I have for girls are still just waiting to be used on a future daughter, even though one of the names has become slightly popular (Talullah nickname Lula). The other name will probably never be popular, Luciana. These names go with my basic theme for good names: Either they are names that sound southern and old fashioned or they are Italian. My number one boy's name has always been Harlan. I don't know where I first heard this name (or Talullah for that matter, but I did have a neighbor named Luciana when I lived out in Bensonhurst which is where I basically fell in love with all the Italian names). When I worked at Tiffany's and told all my coworkers that my favorite boy names were Harlan Clyde and Rocco they all spat food out of their mouths with laughter (it was lunch time). They said it sounded like I would have a litter of bullies.

Well who's laughing now, huh? I get complimented on Harlan's name often and he's the only one I have come across who is under the age of thirty. When I was pregnant Joe and I decided on two things together about the name, 1) that it would be Clyde, because Joe wasn't sure about Harlan but we both liked Clyde, and 2) that we would keep the name quiet until the baby was born. Thing #2 was a fantastic piece of advice given to me by my old friend Lindsay from when she was pregnant with her daughter seven years ago. She told me that everyone has an opinion and that most people are underwhelmed by whatever name you tell them. Sooo true. I have so many friends with babies now who had miserable results from telling their families the chosen names prior the the birth. One friend even had her mother in law burst into tears at the suggestion of the name Lulu. The MIL told her that the name should really be a family decision (since when?) and that she would die if she had a granddaughter named Lulu. They ended up giving Lulu a different first name but they all call her Lulu. Oy.

So how did Clyde become Harlan you ask? When I was in labor it was rough. The major contractions lasted 36 hours and there was back labor involved. After the first 12 hours at home I decided I could not handle any more "natural" childbirth and begged to be given anything to take the pain away. The anesthesia lasted for a while, but had to be re-administered over the next day and then taken away during the final hours of pushing so that I would be able to feel what I was doing as I pushed out the ten and a half pound baby-man. Needless to say Joe told me during this time that I could name the baby whatever I wanted.

When I called my grandmother and told her Harlan was born and that his name was Harlan her response was (imagine this being said in a Boston accent), "Well don't you just think people will call him Harry? It's so much easier to understand." To this day I like to call Harlan Handsome Harry as a nickname.

Not much crafting going on right now- lots of preparing to move: Looking at houses online, figuring out plans on how to deal with everything from getting a TX teaching certificate to a bio fueled car to what to keep and what to sell and give away. Plus I can't breathe out of my nose. Clairitin and Sudafed don't do squat. If anyone has any suggestions I'm begging you to put me out of my mouth-breathing misery.

By the way, for the meme I'm tagging Anastasia, Bitter Betty, Angelina, Veronica, and Ruth.

Cowboy Theme- Just in Time

2007-05-29T17:45:00.000-07:00

Here are the embroideries I've done this past week. They'll be turned into various children's items and put on etsy as soon as they're finished. I had some trouble getting good photos so I'll have to re do them.

Cowgirl and cowboy kitties version 1 on linen/cotton:

Version two on vintage linen napkin:

Close ups of fireflies and French knots:

Banana cowboy on blue cotton:

Cowboy kitten on green cotton:

The big news here is that after two years of planning we're moving to Austin this summer. Joe got a job starting in mid-August. I'm relieved because this was a plan we came up with so that we could afford to buy a comfortable house in an area we have friends in, where I could continue to stay home with Bub for a while longer before returning to full time work, and where I don't have to deal with subway anxiety. I'm sad because I'll miss all of our friends and family who are here, and I'm scared because it's the unknown, even though I've moved to new cities several times in my adult life (two of those times being to Austin). This is the first time I brought two family members with me so I feel more responsibility and I can no longer toss everything into a Ryder truck (U-Haul sucks) and go.

I might even have a craft room one day :)

Berries, teeth, diapers, kitten, skirts

2007-05-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

The strawberries are here! I'm not talking about the giant tasteless supermarket variety of berries that are flown in from 3,000 miles away (picked last week). I'm talking about the tiny, dark, super sweet kind that were picked early in the morning and brought to the farmer's market. The real kind:

Also really good right now is the Superbuzzy fabric that arrived earlier after I stalked their site for days waiting for the new stock. Everything I got is so lovely that I can barely stand to part with it, but I have big plans for sales. Harlan likes it so much he won't even let me photograph it:

The only thing I need to actually do is make everything. Other than that I have to sell it. Both concepts are simple in nature, but Harlan was up every hour or so for the last three nights moaning and groaning with a fever, and now I'm exhausted. The daytimes are not much better and the culprit appears to be some new teeth making their way in. I spent Tuesday evening on the sewing machine zig-zagging away on the microterry diaper inserts that I needed to make rectangular in shape so that they would fit into the G-diaper linings. Did I mention the diaper system I ended up finding? A woman from the neighborhood whom I know told me about her ingenious cloth diapering system that does not use any horrid bulky pre folds. She puts terrycloth diaper inserts or doublers into the linings of her G-diaper covers. She also wraps a bio-degradable liner around the inserts so that if poop should occur the only labor involved on her part is sliding the liner into the toilet. This system is still a bit bulkier than disposables, but I do prefer it to shelling out money and going to Target every week for disposables. Also, it's the strangest thing, but there is no odor from the diaper can with the cloth diapers.

Last weekend we went to a wonderful birthday party for one year old Hayden. I made this Japanese kitty for her and I hope she doesn't mind the lopsided eyes. I want to enlarge the pattern and make some more to sell. On the business front I have been working on some embroideries (like the cowgirl kitty in the previous post) to make into small quilted wall hangings or pillows. I am still not sure which way to go with this because I don't have an idea of what people might rather buy. I do know that my appliques are on hold right now because I am just enjoying making small quantities of items that I can work on when I feel like it. It's not that the appliques are not fun to make, but I am easily sidetracked and due to feeling generally overwhelmed these days I am reluctant to invest time in larger plans.

I got this book from Amazon and I can't believe it took me this long to find it. The book explains how to custom make any basic skirt pattern for your specific measurements. There is a super easy to understand formula and diagram for how to create the pattern on paper or directly on fabric. Even someone who has never sewn on a machine before could figure out to make their own skirts. I'm afraid I may be even more sidetracked than usual when it comes to craftiness...

From the stoop sale duvet comes...

2007-05-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

The queen sized linen and cotton duvet that I scored a couple of weekends ago is coming in very handy. So far I used some for the convertable backpack I finally finished:

Here is the inside:

By the way if you want to pre-order the pattern for this bag you can do so on the designer's site here. The flowered fabric is Japanese canvas weight cotton and the orange button is a vintage one from France that I received from Charlotte in Sally Shim's Vintage Button Swap pt. 2. The first swap I also had a European swap partner. Fun.

I also cut a scrap to do this embroidery which is still a work in progress.

When it's finished I'll either use it to make a mini/doll quilt or a pillow, along with some vintage hankies. We'll have to see how much more time I am able to spend on it. Do you notice that the flower I started is blooming with French knots? Oh la la.

Tales from the plagrounds

2007-05-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

Harlan wakes up around 6:30 each day, and is rearing to go by about 7:30. He tells me he is ready to go to the playground by bringing me one of my shoes and slamming it against my foot while moaning. Sometimes he brings me his own shoe and performs the same routine. By about 8:30 I load him into his stroller, pack the bag, and gently push the whole load down the flight of steps onto the street while all the nine to fivers rush past me on their way to the subway. We walk in the opposite direction, over to one of many parks in the neighborhood. On any given day Harlan and I have visited a minimum of three parks city wide.

Conversation from Cuyler Gore park last week: A five year old boy is playing on the jungle gym with Harlan (after school) and Harlan toddles past him commenting, "Doo doo doo doo". The boy turns to me in awe and exclaims, "He said doo doo!" I told him that Harlan is only a baby and that he doesn't really know what doo doo means. The boy looks at Harlan and says, "You don't know what doo doo is little baby? It's brown, and it comes out your butt, and it's disgusting, and it goes in the toilet. There. Now you know what doo doo is."

Today in Manhattan: Union square park at 9:00 AM, I unload Harlan from his stroller and as he runs towards the slide I push the stroller, now draped with farmer's market goodies, next to two women sitting on a bench. One of them is Gwenyth. She is dressed like any other mom at the playground at 9:00 AM on a Monday morning, messy hair, no makeup, sunglasses, a flowing long cotton dress and flat sandals, coffee cup in hand. I look around for a toddling Apple to play with Harlan, but see only a storm of elementary school aged children running amok. Harlan plays alone on the mini jungle gym and eventually a couple of teachers gather up the class and form a line. Gwenyth goes with them and I realize that her "baby girl" is already school aged and she is with the class today for some reason. I suppose I need to keep up with celebrity news in order to be better informed about the ages of their offspring. Around noon in Tompkins Square Park I see my old friend Heidi and her sweet girl Beatrix who is running around barefoot with a ladybug ball (Beatrix, not Heidi). I brag to her of my star sighting and she says that in her neighborhood she sees Julianne Moore almost daily with her adorable son. She also once came across "SJP" at a water park on the west side. All the other moms were in their terry cloth sweats and suddenly SJP showed up in platform heels and a freaking Birkin bag (did I even spell that right?) I guess if you have a bag that cost several thousand dollars you don't mind if it gets schmutzed up at the water playground. Hmmm.

Last Saturday my good pal Ellen, her husband Ed and son Zack met up with me and some friends over in Prospect Park for a breakfast picnic. The allergies were fierce, but the grass was lush and filled with clovers and it was one of those mornings where everyone just feels that life is good:

Greetings earthlings

2007-05-11T11:26:00.000-07:00

Forgive me for falling a bit off of the blogging wagon. As you can intuit from the wonderful mother's day card I awoke to this morning, I am a bit busy these days. One of the perks of marrying a man who draws comics is that I get really good, handmade cards each holiday.

Lately I am spending my free time working on the convertable backpack for my class which ends this Tuesday. I wasted a lot of time fretting about fabric choices (clearly a sign that I should stop buying fabric without specific projects in mind) and eventually ended up using simple Japanese blue and off-white floral print canvas (it looks just like this) with a cotton/linen lining and straps. The cotton/linen arrived in my happy little hands at a stoop sale last week when I scored a queen-sized duvet cover in perfect condition for ten bucks. I already have two vintage duvets and one from a Dwell sample sale so I really don't feel guilty scrapping this one to use for my many projects.

This morning I dropped Harlan off with my mother and went up to Daytona Trims in the garment district. Future Girl tipped me off about this gem of a store for buying acrylic felt. I ended up with a nice assortment
as well some cotton lace
and a buttload of ric rack:
and sumptuous* velvet ribbon: and a mutation of the two:
How genius is velvet ric rack?

So, now I own even more supplies and have an even longer to do list. Good thing summer is coming and Joe will be home all day to allow me a bit more time to make some stuff and bring home a little more bacon than I've been chewing on... Speaking of which, we will be going up to Canada for a week to Joe's family's lake house. I just discovered I have to move rather quickly on acquiring a passport for young Harlan, who does not want to sit still in front of a white background to have his photo taken. Instead I took a picture of him in his highchair yesterday morning and I plan on cropping it in Photoshop to put on white background. This plan is more feasable. How funny is it that he will seemingly be neckless?

Lately I have been looking at the recent keyword activity from statcounter to see what random phrases have been typed into google that have led people to my blog. These are my all time favorites: Red velvet cake Boynton Beach, Blouse with breasts showing through, and Ina Garten's hot gay friend.

* Sumptuous is a really vile word in my opinion, almost as bad as using delicious to describe a baby, but for some reason I felt compelled to use it in my description of this ribbon. I apologize if you felt temporarily nauseated.

Tips of the trade

2007-05-02T12:37:00.000-07:00

Here's a custom order I did tody for someone giving a gift. I am always unsure about my embroidered lettering in such confined spaces, but it's improving and I only do it when asked. I'm still working on the appliques and decided to make my smiling pears a pair:

I really love the 100% wool felt that I get at Brooklyn General and I just got an order for this specific onesie so I used the wool felt and then washed it and dried it in the dryer on high. As you can see with the super duper lens and high mega pixels of my camera, the wool got a bit fuzzy. I think it actually adds charm to the appliques because what's even cuter than a green smiling pair of pears? Fuzzy smiling pears. I doubt they would stand up to years and years of hight heat drying but considering the size is 3-6 months I don't think that will be an issue. My biggest obstacle right now (aside from lack of time to produce more samples) to launching the new line of appliqued clothing is literally purchasing the materials. I have to get to the garment district to buy some acrylic felt that I like the look of. Everything else that I have seen so far looked too cheap for my taste. The reason it's nearly impossible for me to perform this simple shopping expedition is that Harlan goes ballistic if I take him shopping. He screeches, throws his bottle or anything else I hand him for entertainment, and bucks and pops in his stroller to escape its confining straps. Not something I can bring along to jam-packed midtown any time soon.

Meanwhile, I signed up for a class over at Purl for my mother's day gift to myself from Harlan. I'm so glad he knew that what I wanted more than anything was a break that involved leaving himself and the borough of Brooklyn in order to do something fun all alone. In three classes I'm going to make a backpack that doubles as a tote. There are all kinds of sewing skills that I hope to learn (putting in a lining for one thing) and so far so good. I bought some lovely Japanese floral print for the body of the bag and patched together a couple of yards of various fabrics for the straps and lining. I can't wait to see how it comes together. The teacher turns out to be Lisel of Distressed. Lucky for me! She designed the tote and I already learned some great tricks from her last night that I hope to share later when I actually apply them to my bag. One of the other students in the class had a great tip for all of us: When tracing a pattern from (or another tissue one), use vellum instead of tissue paper. This way your copy will be much more durable and last longer. In addition, vellum pattern pieces are much easier to store (I always get fed up trying to refold my pattern pieces and stuff them back into the envelope) and less likely to fall apart if you want to pin them to yourself first.

More tips coming next week. In the meantime, I sat down today during my free time and grabbed my Tivo remote while working on the Sadie embroidery. After checking out my gal Rosie over on The View (I'm not ashamed, I love her) doing her hot topics, I checked out Martha's show from yesterday. She gave a tour of her new craft line over at Micheal's and I was drooling over the rotary cutter that attaches to the T-square topped quilter's ruler. There is a little edge along the side of the ruler that the cutter rests on and slides over so that you end up cutting your fabric in a super straight line at the edge of the ruler. I went over to Micheal's and could not find it for the life of me. They have her line separated into really obscure sections like celebrate, share, and cherish and inside each section is a specific project. I have no idea where the hell anything is. Horrible web design! Next I went straight to her site's new section of her products and found the cutter but not the specific ruler. At least I can count on her site to have excellent navigation and comprehensive sections. However, I find it very un-Martha for her site to be missing something she advertises on her show. As the public knows, and as I know personally from having friends working for her, she is not one to overlook details. I think this reputation of hers as being a perfectionist is really good PR, because it's one reason I may shell out the big bucks for some of her tools. I know they're not going to be crap. Let me know if any of you can find the special ruler anywhere.

Garbage update: Landlord apparently called my downstairs neighbor and apologized for cursing him out and holding him personally responsible for the overflowing torn up trash. He said he figured it must be someone else putting it there. Now if you recall, the reason it's there is that he DOESN'T TAKE IT OUT for weeks on end. Yesterday morning Joe took down a bag of our garbage and noticed two things: 1) Landlord had in fact taken out some trash and placed it on the corner for pick up. 2) The trashcan was popping and jumping. After he raised the lid a chihuahua sized rat lunged at him and scurried away inside Landlord's entryway. A pile of watery, decomposed garbage remains at the bottom of the trashcan.

Poopee Pot

2007-04-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

Tonight I bring you a post with no photos, only text.
Why? Because I have to admit that I am overwhelmed with sweating the small stuff this week.

We returned from a lovely (albeit cold and rainy) trip to Fresno on Monday evening. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday doing my usual routine with Harlan involving making the rounds at the neighborhood playgrounds, meeting up with friends, and sitting on the floor of my living room while the gorilla from that 70's Samsonite luggage commercial shrieks and throws objects as large as his entire body at me if I pick up the phone or walk towards the computer. When he napped, I crashed hard. Nothing was sewn, stitched, knitted, or baked. No crumbs were removed from highchair trays or kitchen counters, no shriveled up grapes were pulled out from under the sofa. Mail was not sorted and phone calls were not returned. I napped on the couch and watched an episode of Desperate Housewives, and I don't mention this to be ironic or in any way poetic, it's just what happened. I took the advice of Richard Dreyfus' character in one of my favorite movies What About Bob, "Give yourself permission to take a vacation from your problems." I turned on the Tivo and ate some See's candy and did not feel guilty or unproductive. I did yoga and washed my hair, and trudged through the crumbs on the floor nestled among baby gorilla's wreckage while he slept.

Then today all hell broke loose, the small stuff happened and I sweated it big time. First of all, the cloth diapers that I carefully researched and selected arrived. The unbleached prefolds required being laundered prior to use. Three times for maximum absorbency. No problem. I loaded up 42 of the 100 I ordered and took them along with Harlan to the laundromat. I washed and dried them twice and brought them home, only to discover that they are so enormous that even if I wore them I could barely fit a pair of maternity pants over them. WTF? I ordered the toddler size based on the weight chart provided on the website. No way is a 30 pound baby going to wear these suckers. I berated myself for having wasted $100 on something I can only resell for half that price, and thought that this was the worst part of my day when the mail arrived, and in it was a big old letter from my crazy landlord.

Was it a new lease? Nope. It's a letter stating that we have been throwing out our trash in ripped up bags that he has to clean up, and that he is charging us $50 for the service. If anyone reading this blog happens to recall, my landlord rarely puts our trash out for the sanitation service to collect. At one point I went out and bought giant lawn and leaf bags and collected all the rat-eaten trash myself and put it out on the curb. I sent him a letter complaining about it and charging him for the trash bags, and his response was to call me and curse me out and threaten to throw me out. It gets better though! Enclosed with the letter are color photos of the garbage cans filled with bags of garbage that have clearly been eaten by rats. The bags appear to be shredded with a cheese grater, they are mere pieces of plastic entwined with trash swimming in a can that has clearly been ignored for at least a month. At the bottom of the letter the landlord demands that I cease putting out my garbage in this condition, or else he will "take further action". While this is clearly hilarious and insane, it just pushed me over the edge a bit and I turned and looked at my four foot pile of newly laundered, useless, $100 Chinese pre-fold diapers and wondered how I ever gave up cigarettes. Calgon take me away!

But fear not dear readers, I won't leave you on such a bleak note. My husband Joe has a co-worker at the school he teaches at who goes to grad school at night at City College, which has a very diverse and international student body. When the professor read the attendance for the first time she prefaced one of the names with, "I'm sure I'm mispronouncing this, but, Poopee Pot?" An Indonesian student replied, "Yes, I am Poopee Pot, that is correct". The class tried to stifle their laughter and the professor asked Poopee if he had a knick name that he preferred (Poop? Pee? Pot?) "Yes, my friends call me Pizza Man." I do have a very scatalogical sense of humor so I apologize if you're not with me here, but Poopee Pot has become the answer to about 50% of the questions around here ever since Joe brought that story home (i.e. "What should we eat for dinner?" "Who is hosting the democratic debate tonight?" Answer: Poopee Pot?) This is how I overcome sweating the small stuff. Poop jokes always do it for me.

Button swap and new bird in town

2007-04-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

We just flew in from Fresno CA this afternoon and I have a busy week ahead but felt the need for a little checking in. Above is another bird made from a Tiffany felt and some red wool felt and red floss. One of my two most favorite color combos is this blue and dark red so I had to do it. I gave the little guy a kerchief and some wire feet to boot.

In the mail last week I received some great stuff from Charlotte in France through the Shim & Son's button swap pt. deux. Charlotte sent me amazing buttons that are totally me along with a hand crocheted album with felt pages, some wooden beads and beautiful bookmarks she made from photos that she took (she's a professional photographer). I scored!

I'll have to tell you later about my Kinokunia adventures, but I have a few orders to place this week for Bun Bun Babythreads.

Tales of cloth and thread

2007-04-17T11:14:00.000-07:00

Here are the first pair of spring overalls I made for Harlan from brown cotton and some Superbuzzy fabrics. They took a lot longer to make than I estimated and since I'm a beginner seamstress they don't look perfect. When I thought I had completed them and tried them on Harlan they were way too short in the torso so I had to make some additions to the straps at the top. One can't exactly try a pinned muslin practice outfit on a squirmy toddler. Now when I make the next pair I'll elongate the torso so they'll fit a bit better. I do love them though.

Last Saturday we went to the flea market in Chelsea and met up with old friends from Austin Karen and Mike. They live in PA now and buy antiques from auctions to resell full time. They are at the flea market here quite often and they always have to most original items I ever see there. I got some great vintage fabrics and buttons from them:

This one is an old feed sack. It looks like it could Liberty Print, don't you think?

Kitties and hearts:

Two repro fabrics Karen had, and some great bakelite buttons:

They also had some old wooden cheese boxes which I have been scouting ebay for lately. I want to make some dioramas with them. For now they are housing our Homeys and Trailer Trash figurines as well as some Kid Robot toys and an old wind up chicken:

I've also been spending my "free time" over the past week researching cloth diapers as I'm planning to switch over from disposables. During the research process I also discovered that I can get rid of the wipes and keep thin terry Target washcloths in the wipes warmer along with a witch hazel and water solution. For pee pee situations I will just use a spray bottle and dry cloths. Ever since the landlord began letting our garbage pile up in front of our building I have been on a campaign to minimize how much I create. I began saving compost and bringing it to the farmer's market each Saturday. Now with no more diapers there should be considerably less output coming from our apartment. Did I mention that he moved back into the ground floor? He still lets the garbage build up although he puts it out more often than when he was not living here. I've had a couple of run-ins with him since the incident and ignored him, although last week I saw him on the street and just said hello out of instinct. As Joe predicted when the incident occurred, he is acting like nothing happened.

Here's a question for you readers, does living "off the grid" mean no internet, or does it just mean supplying your own water, electric, and fuel etc? To be truley O.T.G. do you have to fully support yourself or can you have a job and pay taxes, have a retirement fund, and invest in the market as long as you supply your own power and water?
Just wondering as I like to fantasize about going O.T.G. but I gots to have my internets and Tivo.

Food Ups and Downs

2007-04-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

I've been having a major hankering for rice pudding lately. There's a shop on east Spring St. in Manhattan that only sells rice pudding in many different flavors. I've only ever gotten the chocolate hazelnut because it's so good, but I would like to try some of the other flavors eventually too. Their pudding is perfect; rich and velveteen. Needless to say I have never tried to make rice pudding, and the other night there was a bevy of rice left after we had a stir fry for dinner so I attempted my hand at it. I looked in the Joy of Cooking and saw a baked pudding recipe that seemed pretty simple, so I just went with it. I added my own zip and doodahs by throwing in some golden raisins, pistachios, and cinnamon. The result was not exactly what I expected, it wasn't creamy and custardy like a bowl of Kozy Shack. Instead it was quite rice heavy and savory and reminded me more of a noodle koogle with rice instead of noodles. The best part turned out to be my zip and doodahs, which really gave it a nice flavor. Live and learn.

On Monday we went to dinner over at my father's in lower Manhattan and right before we got there we decided we were in need of some hot chocolate (it was a cold windy week you know). There is a chocolate shop a couple of blocks from my father's that has gotten great reviews and I'm shocked to say that I have not yet tried it. I love their packaging most of all:

We walked into Mariebelle and I immediately wanted to move in. The whole place was decorated like some 18th century French chocolate shop and the glorious packaging and stacks of chocolate and caramels were practically giving me a panic attack. I love brown and robin's egg blue together, more than perhaps any other color combo and of course I love chocolate, so there you have it. For a fleeting moment I considered making Mariebelle my new favorite chocolate source (sorry See's, please forgive my temporary insanity). This moment was super fleeting though. Major fleeting. Into the back room we went, tables and chairs were packed with wealthy Italian tourists eating dessert and drinking hot chocolate. They were seriously all polished from head to toe with buttery leather outfits and glistening hair. One table had even gone into the front of the shop to look at chocolates and left their LV wallet on the table alongside a very sexy looking flat digital camera that had a brown leather front. I was eying it to see what brand it was but had to quickly look away so it didn't seem like I was wanting to steal it (OK maybe I'm a bit paranoid, but that's what I was thinking at the time). We walked up to the counter which had a glass case of bricks of chocolate covered nuts and rice krispies ($30 a pound). Joe asked for a small hot chocolate to go, and, $5 plus tax later, here is what he got:

I had to save the empty hot chocolate cup and place it next to a regular sized coffee mug so that you could see just how small it was. It's seriously the size that you get when you are handed free samples of something. We got maybe two shots of hot chocolate. MAYBE two shots, for $5 plus tax. Yes, it was good, but so is the hot chocolate at City Bakery (my personal favorite) and Jacques Torres (my second favorite) and both of those places give you an actual coffee cup filled with hot chocolate AND a homemade marshmellow for much less than $5 plus tax. Did I mention the tax?

After feeling ripped off by the world, karmic justice soon made its way back to me. First, in the form of mail. I received a very unexpected gift in an ass-kicking package from Frizz:

I love her drawings and rubber stamps so much and now I have one of my very own. Her illustrations and paintings are really unique and I hope she can soon earn a real living from them.

The next piece of karmic justice that came my way (and this was a major coup) happened as a result of the best night of the week: recycling night, or as I like to call it, cheapskate's shopping night. Before the sun goes down each week on this day, I carefully take note of everything neatly piled up behind my neighbor's fences, as it all sits in wait to be placed at the edge of the curb after dark. There is always a Swiffer or two (one was mine as soon as I realized that I couldn't replace their stink-ass chemical laden spray with something non-toxic), a lot of Fresh Direct boxes, and piles of New York Times. But this time there was something a little extra special, just for me:

That's right, a huge-ass pile of Cook's Illustrated, including the very first issue! This is my favorite cooking magazine, and I have coveted them for several years now, although I have not subscribed due to budgetary constraints. For those of you unfamiliar with Cook's, the editors take a few basic well loved recipes and cook them with every conceivable (reasonable) method possible, in their official test kitchen. They then publish the results. One issue might have roast chicken, lemon mereingue pie, scrambled eggs, and tuna salad. Alongside these basics there are reviews of items like butter and toasters. It's really been a great addition to my own repetoire of kitchen skills. Aside from the folks at Cook's and Martha I can honestly thank Ina Garten for teaching me how to cook. During my thirteenth summer I got my first job doing food prep in her store Barefoot Contessa which at the time was in Westhampton NY. Some of you may wonder how a thirteen year old got such a job, but the explanation actually speaks volumes about the labor market in the Hamptons. Locals who live there all year need work that is not seasonal, and stores like the Barefoot Contessa were seasonal. They opened at the beginning of the summer season, and ended when the city folk cleared out. Winters out there were like a ghost town. Almost all of Main St. was shut down except for the movie theater and the drug store and post office and maybe one or two restaurants. Local kids worked the summer shops and restaurants during the high season and the pay was pretty good. There were a handful of kids like myself who didn't live there all year but who also weren't the typical summer kids who also got the jobs in town. The fact that we may not have been able to get working papers was never questioned. I didn't even know about working papers until I was well over twenty one. What I remember working for Ina has very little to do with Ina actually. She was in and out of the shop but mostly it her super hot (and super gay) sidekick who showed us the ropes. He showed us how to quickly chop veggies, make guacamole, and prepare lemon squares, cookie dough, roast chickens and other delicious treats, then we'd go out back and smoke cigarettes and admire his little MG, or maybe it was Fiat, I can't remember which. My friend Patty who was the townee to work there used to whisper with me constantly about which women who came into the store we thought he might be dating. I'm not sure why we didn't realize he was gay, but it hit me last year while watching a Barefoot Contessa rerun on the food network. He showed up on an episode and I seriously blushed at the memory of Patty and I sitting out back smoking her mother's Kools while gushing over this much older, much gayer man. Ah the innocence of youth. I am seriously veering off of the subject, but the point is, that I learned how to cook at the Barefoot Contessa over the summers of my teen years and I still love their cookbooks very much in addition to my Cook's Illustrated magazines. Between the two I'm good to go. I have no idea how I strayed over to the Joy of Cooking for a rice pudding recipe, but the result was not good.

I'm also just realizing that I need to post a long overdue piece on local bakeries. O.K. I promise to do it soon.

Blousing around

2007-04-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

I made this blouse last week and I like how it came out despite its flowey, slightly maternity-esque shape. It was easy to make and for that I love it. I think for the next blouse I may give the old Simplicity 4589 a try that I have seen some other crafty bloggers make. It's also a bit boxy, but then if I want anything form fitting I have a closet full of such blouses that are just sitting there, waiting for me to stuff myself into them and return to work.

My Superbuzzy fairy tale fabrics arrived over the weekend.

I bought enough to make Harlan a bunch of shortalls for the summer but I love it all so much I am not sure what to do with it. It's almost too great to use. When I received the e-mail from Superbuzzy that new fabrics were in I checked them all out, made some bookmarks of the ones I wanted, and then went to sleep to avoid my usual urge to immediately buy everything I like the looks of. In the morning when I went back to open the bookmarks pretty much everything I wanted was gone. Who knew that online fabric shopping would become as competitive a sport as sample sale shopping? When did the day arrive that we turned into Betty and Wilma at one of those sales where the cave women dive into a pile beneath a SALE sign with limbs flailing and items flying overhead?

Also in the mail was this photo album from Shutterfly:

Last year when Harlan turned one I made him this album for his birthday. I put all the best photos from his first year in it along with a kind of letter to him that narrates what happened over the course of the year. It took me this long to edit and re-edit the damn thing and I finally gave in and ordered it last week. I love how it turned out although there are some typos that I did not catch when I edited it. I suppose that will add to the personalized charm.

During a bit of recent cleaning out of things I came across the perfect frame for the embroidery I made Joe for valentine's day:

Happy Easter and Passover everyone.

It's what's for dinner

2007-04-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

What's wrong with this picture? It's the pasta. Joe's good friend lives in Italy and brought us this pasta as a Christmas gift last year. It has sat in the back of the cabinet ever since. When we opened the wrapping paper I didn't even laugh. I almost threw it out, but the thing is, it's perfectly good pasta and it's even from Italy. So tonight I swallowed my pride and boiled it up to add to our standard kale based pesto with peas and red peppers. This is the only way I can get Harlan to ingest vegetables (make it into pesto and sneak it in amidst the pesto and pasta and plenty of cheese). I have to admit, it was SFG.

If you want to read about a life even more exciting than mine (what? More exciting than making dirty pasta for a family dinner?) You should all go immediately over to my good pal Elliette Devine's blog. Her most recent post is about having to go with co-workers to a strip joint in the Bronx. I can't believe Fifty Cent wasn't there honestly. She also has hands down the best childhood photos posted including this one which I will borrow as a means to entice you over to her blog:

Happy Mushroom Applique

2007-04-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

I made this happy mushroom applique shirt over the last couple of days. When I cut out the mushroom fabric I did not allow enough seam allowance to iron the edges down properly and ended up with some trouble. Trouble continued as I attempted to use the zig zag stitch on my Ye Olde Sewing Machine. The zig zag just never works. Probably the issue is the tension, and, as suggested by Angelina after my last post, I should get it checked out. However, I think it just is what it is. What it is is a Singer that my mother bought me at Woolworth's back when there was a Woolworth's on 8th St. in the Village. If you remember when this was, then you know how long ago this machine was purchased. Add to the age of the machine the fact that I bought it at Woolworth's, and that may explain why the zig zag never quite works out. Within two seconds of using the zig zag on the large mushroom, the machine had sucked the T-shirt into the slot under the needle and built a mound of thread to render it nearly impossible to remove the shirt from the machine.

After resolving never to use the zig zag again I straight stitched the mushroom heads on to the shirt and then embroidered around the edges to camoflauge where their seams were not deep enough to cover the raw edges. Clearly I need to perfect this design before I can sell it anywhere, but it still came out cute enough for Harlan to wear. In the photo of him he is saying hi on his imaginary cell phone.

Last night Joe and I went out for our date night (the second of 2007 despite to resolution to make it a monthly occurence). Luckily our friend and neighbor Salina babysat for us. In exchange I will sit for them one night whey they want to go out for dinner or to a movie. I have been pretty good about finding free babysitters so far. I have yet to pay for any. If I had to pay $10 an hour plus car fare home for someone to watch Harlan for an evening then it's already a night we can't afford. Anyhow, across from my house and right next to Salina's house is a stoop that is perpetually littered with stoop sitters. They are often drunk and yelling at one another, both from next to each other on the stoop and from stoop to window up above. Salina and I love to recreate their world every chance we get. For instance, if I am walking down the street and she sees me out her window, she will throw open her window and holler at me in part Spanish- part faux-drunken jibberish. I will yell back the same way.

Last week I was walking up the block around the corner and saw Salina ahead of me pushing Mattie in the stroller. I sped up, leaning on my own stroller and began to call out to her, "Hey! Mira Puta! Muy sexy! Muy sexy!" Then I continued with some loud tooth sucking noises that some of you may be familiar with if you have ever been a woman walking down a street in a city. Here's the punchline, when she turned around, it wasn't Salina at all. The woman held her hand to her chest and looked at me as if to say, "who me?" And I began to immediately apologize, explaining that her hair looked just like my friend's, and her stroller is the same one my friend has. She turned around and kept walking before listening to even one word. I have to say I wasn't quite as embarrassed as I should have been because I was pushing a baby in a stroller which somehow legitimizes my offensive behavior. Doesn't it?

Mas Pantalons por El Nino

2007-03-31T17:23:00.000-07:00

I made these pull-on pants for Harlan last week using some dyed quilting muslin and some cute Japanese fabric for the pockets. My sewing skills leave a lot to be desired (including mastering machine tension as you can see from the back pocket, and sewing in a straight line) and each of you is a witness to my journey. The pattern doesn't have any pockets but Harlan has a Lucky Wang pair that look similar to these with pockets I like so I traced them and cut out the ones you see on the front. I put one square pocket on the back for Harlan to keep his wallet in. Or maybe a pack of Kleenex considering he's been miserably sick for the past week. Again with the high fever and runny nose and drooling (Joe calls him Rudy Drooliani).

These are some lovely cream-filled easter eggs from my favorite NYC chocolatier, Li-lac. My mother used to take me there each Easter when I was little and although they have been sold to a new ownership and moved location they are still finger-lickin' good. Joe picked these up for me one night when he was near their store at Central Market in Grand Central Station. It was a great surprise. They are filled with chocolate mousse, chocolate fudge (their least good filling in my opinion), marzipan (the best marzipan around), maple-walnut butter cream (SFG or, So Fucking Good) and chocolate butter cream.

Speaking of easter candy, have you seen Mariko's recipe for easter candy cake? I think I may need to make it after easter when the goods go on sale.

Also, my four-month pledge to not buy any new clothes but to make or re-fashion old ones begins tomorrow. Check out the Wardrobe Refashion blog to see what people are doing.

Looking Like Busey but sewing like Martha

2007-03-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

Pants! Pants! Get 'em while they're hot.
I wanted to warm up my sewing skills (it's been a little while since I've sewn an entire garment) with something for Harlan so I made him a quick pair of elastic waist pants with this stretch corduroy houndstooth fabric. I like the way they turned out except that they are HUGE no matter how you dice it. Harlan is a tall and lanky baby, he is not one of the ones you may see with the chunked-out thighs that roll over the knees and the squooshy tushy. I am therefore putting these pants away for next fall, which I think is a more appropriate time to sport this fabric anyhow. Perhaps I'll knit him a brown sweater to go with them. Next I'm going to make him some pull-on pants using a different pattern and some cotton broadcloth since the warm weather is upon us. Afterwards I will go straight into sewing that blouse for myself that I posted about doing a while back. The New Vintage Wardrobe dress will come next, when my skills are good and heated up.

Today we went out in search of sneakers for Harlan over in the Fulton Mall. Fulton Mall is an outdoor strip of Fulton Street that runs maybe a mile and is completely filled with "urban" brands of clothing and jewelry, cheap household goods, and of course a few fast-food stores thrown in in case one gets hungry. If you are like I am and always thought that urban meant city, then you have not worked in advertising. It was there that I discovered that urban actually means inner-city, and not all of a city. In this urban mecca we strolled into Jimmy Jazz which I love because it gets The Clash song stuck in my head day. Harlan ended up with an adorable pair of Adidas white leather sneakers with olive green Velcro tabs across the front. Good stuff. I may go back to get him a giant down parka for next winter since they are selling them for only $29. They have giant fake fur edges on the hoods too. No one will mess with Harlan at the playground if he has that one, believe you me.

As we left and wandered towards Atlantic Ave to buy some middle eastern food I passed a store that for some insane reason I have never noticed before. Sav-A-Thon was right there, tucked in a side street, just waiting for me to discover it. There it was, just what I thought Brooklyn and all of lower Manhattan had lost to gentrification, a giant old-fashioned sewing and craft supply store. They had cotton muslin in white and all colors of the spectrum for only $2.99 a yard, as well as everything else a girl could want. I picked up some elastic, buttons, bobbins and a new pattern as well. I have been wanting to buy cheap muslin to try sewing my vintage dress with before using the fancy fabric I bought at Purl, but I didn't want to wait until going up to the garment district to have to buy any. What a great find!

The last couple of days have been pretty good around here as far as mail goes. I got packages from Bitter Betty and Future Girl in exchange for a couple of little craft supplies I sent them (see old post about getting rid of craft supplies). Here's what I got:
From Future Girl, some lovely vintage trim (I'm especially fond of the German stuff) and yarn for me to make some amigurumi critters with eventually. Hooray! And look how romantic the people on the yarn package are. You know it's good stuff when lovers use it.

Next I got some ric rac and a zipper and more German looking vintage trim from Bitter Betty. But what else is in the picture you ask? It's one of her amazing decoupaged embroidery hoops. I'm so excited to use it as a frame for an embroidery (or a photo transfered onto fabric, I can't decide what to put in it right now). Thanks ladies!

As I mentioned in a comment on someone else's blog last night, I have been walking around lately looking at my reflection in store windows to see if Gary Busey's mug shot is looking back at me. If you don't remember that picture, perhaps you can recall the recent mug shot of the diaper-wearing astronaut? Same feeling. Last week I ended up with a shiner after falling down a flight of steps in my friend's lobby. I had Harlan in the sling and was carrying a ton of bags so I couldn't see my own feet and they were slippery from the melting snow outside. I flew down and landed on my butt-bone. Harlan had a bump on his forehead and I could not figure out what he had bumped it on. The next morning I woke up and had a giant black and purple bruise over the bone above my right eye, the same side of my body that I carry Harlan on. I guess my back hurt so much that I didn't even notice the slam to my face. Add to this my hair which had a month's worth of white roots that gradually turned pale orange to dark orange to reddish brown, and I was a sight for sore eyes . It's amazing how much it affects my mood when I look crappy. You would think that considering I am not single, nor do I go to work each day that it wouldn't matter, but it actually really does. Just like when it's dark and rainy outside, if I look like Gary Busey I am not in a good mood. Well, luckily today everything has changed. My eye bruise is minimal, I dyed my hair (and therefore it is also clean), and it's seventy degrees and sunny out. Life is good.

You know why else it is good? Today on Martha, Jenn Docherty was the special guest crafter and she demonstrated how she felts little birds. I have been dying to make one of these but was not quite sure if there was more to it than I thought there was (there isn't, just make a shape with roving and poke with felting needle). That Martha may come across on screen like a real pill, but she has great taste as well as her finger on the pulse. Thank goodness for my Tivo (so I don't have to sit through the entire program) although now that The O.C. is no more, and The Office seems to have disappeared I'm not sure what I can veg out to when I'm just too pooped to do anything else. Even my Showtime favorite The L Word ended this weekend (anyone else hoping Jenny dies out at sea and doesn't get picked up by some hot lesbian boat of Coast Guard babes?)
More time to read I suppose.

First day of spring

2007-03-21T11:41:00.000-07:00

I finished embroidering Joe's valentine. I'm not sure if I'll frame it as it is or combine with other things into a collage-like shadow box.

The two felt pears are going up on Etsy for a measly $12 a pop. I am still making the new samples with the acrylic felt (these are wool felt) so that I can go around to stores to see if there will be any takers. I've been slacking off due to indulging in making stuff for myself and my family lately.

I had to show this photo from last night. We made pizza for dinner and I was too tired to wrap up the left overs (usually I do this while Joe does dishes) so Joe offered to do it for me. When I saw how much tin foil he set out I couldn't stop laughing and had to grab my camera. As you can see on the side of the photo he was trying to block the camera.

It was a great release to end the day in laughter. In the morning I found out that my father's best friend and photo assistant was found dead in his apartment. He had been like a member of the family since I was twelve years old and I still don't really believe it is real. I just saw him a few weeks ago. It's a difficult to death to deal with not only because Joseph was only in his mid-forties, vibrant, handsome, and talented, but because we had spent the last year being angry with him. He claimed to have developed manic-depression and he was not taking care of himself. He would not answer his phone for days and then show up at my father's loft and stay for weeks on end, talking incessantly and not doing what needed to be done to keep the business going. He lost long-time clients of my father's by forgetting important tasks, and no matter how many times my father asked him if he was using drugs he denied, denied, and denied. When I last saw him he was so gaunt that I was almost afraid that Harlan would be frightened of him. His eyes were sunken and his teeth looked rotten. I wanted to pull him aside and ask him if I could do anything to help but I didn't want to hurt his feelings by making any assumptions. The friend who found his body told my father that Joseph had been taking crystal meth for a while now but didn't want anyone to know. It's a mystery to me why anyone who had so much going for him would take up something so self-destructive in their forties.
I apologize for writing such a bummer post in what is supposed to be a craft-blog, but I keep this blog for myself primarily, so please forgive me if this is just too much.