penny carnival

A is for apple

Goodness. That title is going to put that Barenaked Ladies song in my head. Not that that's a bad thing. I once considered moving to Toronto so I could live closer to them. I can't imagine the kind of free time I used to have (you know, before having kids) that made it possible for me to follow a band. Not literally follow them, but know their names and their favorite colors. That sort of thing.

Anyhow, "A" is for Arthur, he's a lovable drunk. "A" is what Fonzie said 'cause he was very cool.

And "A" is for back-to-school apple prints!

The girls and I did the ol' slice-an-apple-in-half-and-dip-it-in-paint trick last night.

Remember how I said the other day that there are times when a craft project scores big points with these kids and times when it flops? Yeah, well, Bo totally hated this one. She gave it a good 30 seconds and then moved on to painting snakes and suns:

Magpie and I had fun, though. I turned some of the prints into cupcake toppers this morning. We'll be delivering these treats to cousins tonight as a Happy Back-to-School Week surprise.

Here are the basic instructions for apple prints:

1. Cut an apple in half. Do your best to create flat surfaces.

2. I remember always having a hard time holding the roly-poly half apple as a stamp when I was a kid, so I cut a couple of grooves in ours last night to create handles.

See? Much better.

3. Place a paper towel on a plate. Squeeze paint onto the paper towel, using a fairly small amount. You're trying to create more of an ink pad effect than a puddle of paint.

4. Then just start dipping the apple into the paint and pressing it on paper (or on fabric, depending on the type of paint you're using and what your goals are in life).

 

Just in case you like the whole apple print idea but want to skip the mess (or the pouty 5 year old who "just wants to paint snakes!!"), I printed six red apples and six green apples on two separate pieces of paper and scanned them for your back-to-school pleasure.

Download Green apple PDF

Download Red apple PDF

This is what they'll look like (but don't click this image and print--use the PDF links):

 

You can use those PDFs to make cupcake toppers like I did--just cut around the apple shape and tape the back of them to long toothpicks or popsicle sticks:

Or use the apples as notecards for teachers or for love notes placed in your kid's lunchbox.

As always, my tutorials and PDFs are for personal use only. Please don't use this PDF for commercial purposes. Thanks.

On a separate note, do you see my two new advertisers up there on the right? First, please give a warm welcome to The Top Stitch, which is a modern, funky fabric shop here in Spokane that also sells its fabrics, books, patterns and more online.

I remember the first time I walked into The Top Stitch. My heart pounded out of my chest because I'd never seen Amy Butler fabrics in person before. And that was when The Top Stitch was located in a tiny little space off the beaten path.

Owner Carrie Jarvis relocated to a bright, sunny, bigger spot in Spokane's Garland District and now offers an array of classes and, of course, fabrics, oh so many gorgeous fabrics. It's the kind of shop that makes you never want to move away from Spokane (but if you did, you could just buy from her online).

Yum!

Yum!

Also advertising is Twirling Betty, a mom/former lawyer who lives in Melbourne, Australia, writes a wicked-funny blog and sells the most adorable creations in her Etsy shop.

Among her offerings:

Floral hair clips ...

Charming visors ...

 

And those one-of-a-kind headbands you can see in her ad above.

Thank you, thank you.

 

 

 

Flannel nightgowns and kissing hands

Back in November or so, when it was really cold, I promised the girls I'd sew them flannel nightgowns. Now that it's April, and still cold at night but not November cold, I finally got it done.

One for Magpie ... (Photo by Bo:)

 
 And one for Bo:

Of course, she tested the twirl factor right away. And, yes, that left sleeve is bigger than the right. I've never been a perfectionist.

I started making the nightgowns following Butterick 6659, but please. The instructions for the sleeves and other trim details were ridiculous, so I only used the pattern for the main shape of the dresses.

And still they came out too big, so I tucked the fabric under a bit and sewed little darts, attempting to channel this dress by Spokane kids' clothes maker Chris Mark. (Check out more of Chris' cute stuff in her Etsy shop.)

 

Bo had picked out the fabric--Amy Butler Tumble Roses flannel in pink from her Love line--at Buttercuppity the other day.

The girls are pleased as peaches with their nighties. I don't have the heart to tell them the forecast calls for 70+ degrees this week.

Do you all know that book, The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn? Our school district included it in Bo's kindergarten registration packet. It's about a little raccoon named Chester who's afraid to go to the first day of school, so his mom kisses his hand and tells him that whenever he's feeling unsure, he should just put the "kissing hand" to his cheek and he'll feel his mama's love. I'm going to spoil the ending for you, but basically Chester decides that his mom needs a kissing hand, too. Yeah, I didn't quite make it through without my voice cracking the first time.

Even though the book was meant for Bo, Magpie has taken quite a liking to it. She's been carrying it around the house all week and kissing my hand in the sweetest, most I've-completely-forgotten-about-that-temper-tantrum-you-threw-20-minutes-ago way.

The last page of the book shows you how to say "I love you" in sign language. Here's Magpie attempting it on my lap this morning:

I've heard people say that "the days are long but the years are short" when you have young kids. Sometimes that phrase gets me through a rough moment. This morning could have stretched out a little longer, though. I wouldn't have minded at all.

Sweet and simple children's clothes

I have such an itch to be sewing these days. I'd like to lock myself away in my craft room and whip out a spring wardrobe for the girls. And maybe for myself, too, but that hasn't gone so well in the past.

No one is inspiring me more than a Spokane children's clothing maker I came across recently named Chris Mark.

Check out some of her adorable designs:

I just wrote a mini article about Chris over on Dwell Well. You can buy her designs in her Etsy shop, Team Littles.

Crafting hope, MLK Day and a new fabric fairy

OK, so I was a wee bit overzealous thinking my book sling was going to save the world. Keep in mind that last post was written with tears streaming down my face. I think I was also feeling a little cocky because I'd re-opened my Etsy shop last week and made three sales within a day. Since three sales is about all I can handle, I promptly put my shop back on vacation.

So no takers on the book sling, but I'm sure you've all seen what's been happening in the (wonderful, generous, big-hearted) handmade community: Craft Hope.

 

I learned about Craft Hope's effort for Haiti roughly five minutes after my last post. Um, yeah. It's a much more brilliant and efficient way that crafters can help the earthquake victims. Folks are donating handmade items that are being sold in a special shop on Etsy. They've raised almost $10,000 now! So I'm going to get in line over there (apparently it's quite a long line) and offer a book sling to them. 

By the way, Craft Hope isn't just around because of Haiti. They regularly post ways that people can use their crafty skills to help others in need--sock monkeys for kids in a preschool burn camp, dresses for children in a Brazilian orphanage, etc.

One kind and generous (not to mention witty as heck) crafter who is donating to Craft Hope is Ari Rooney, of Buttercuppity. I wrote about Ari on Dwell Well a couple months ago. 

The fabric gods must be smiling down on Spokane because Ari and her husband Michael just opened an adorable fabric shop in our downtown (also called Buttercuppity). She carries all the good stuff and her prices are quite nice, too. (She sells online, too, by the way.) The space is darling. There's free parking. She's planning a kids' and a dads' play area. Life is good.

Here are some pictures from their opening party last Friday.

 

That's Ari in the middle:

 

Since the girls came just shy of destroying the store, I let them each choose a fabric for me to make twirly skirts. Coming soon.

Speaking of the girls, check out their finished Martin Luther King mural:

We marched in Spokane's MLK celebration yesterday, a tradition we've kept up since Bo was just six months old. 

The girls were very proud to carry the sign ... until their arms got tired and they made me do it. And that, of course, was right when the photojournalist from the local newspaper decided to snap a picture. So there I was on the cover of the region section this morning carrying a big ol' sign that, by that time, was starting to fall apart because of the wind. I am awesome.

Again, the talented Kathy Barbro of Art Projects for Kids is the genius behind that paint-by-number mural. And she has other designs for sale on her site.

Other than that, we're just trying to get outside more and enjoy this unseasonably warm (as in upper 30s and 40s) winter we're having. My sister-in-law and a friend invited me for a run the other day. Thankfully they didn't tell me we'd be going six miles until it was over. I never would have agreed to go. But I did. And it felt great.

I'm also making attempts to feed the family real food more often, especially after the 6 p.m. consumption of a York peppermint patty caused Magpie to stay up until 3 a.m. the other night. Um, what were we thinking? The kid weighs 30 pounds. That probably contained her annual allotment of sugar.

Take care.

  
 

'The rain is like a baptism'

One of my favorite movies in high school (and this might make some of you youngins realize how old I am. 35) was "Say Anything." I was so in love with Lloyd Dobler. Still am, really.

The movie is set in Seattle, which of course is thrilling when you're 16 and you sort of think Seattle belongs to you even though you live in a suburb 86 miles away. That was before Nirvana and Pearl Jam made it big, and then we really thought we had something to brag about--even us sheltered kids from the 'burbs who probably couldn't relate to half of the angst those guys sang about.

My friend Simon, who lives in Seattle, has this for his status update on Facebook this morning: "The drive to work in the rain through tree-lined streets that were shedding their leaves, listening to Classic King FM ... I heart the PNW!" (Translation: Pacific Northwest.)

I'm four hours away, on the "dry" side of the state, and it's pouring down rain here today, too. The rain is like a baptism (a Lloyd Dobler line) on my back patio. (I don't have any profound rebirth to report. That line from the movie has just always stuck in my head.) 

The rain sounds more torrential than it is because we need to clean the pine needles out of the gutter, but I almost want to keep them there because the sound of the water crashing down onto the concrete reminds me so much of home. 

Rain was a constant growing up in northwest Washington. It didn't keep you indoors during recess--you just wore your slicker or played kickball under the "covered area" at Roosevelt Elementary School. It didn't stop you from riding your bike through Whatcom Falls Park. On especially wet days at home, you stayed inside eating grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and doing arts and crafts at the card table with your big sister. When you got older, there were first kisses in the rain and nights out with your girlfriends when the roads always seemed to be wet.

I've got the icks (again!), so I don't much feel like being out there today. But it's a perfect day for hunkering down, getting some work done, and then hopefully finally sewing up the girls' Halloween costumes later tonight.

If it's rainy where you are and you're looking for an arts and crafts project to do with your kids, check out these 3-D pumpkins I wrote a tutorial for for the new About.com site. You can use them as Halloween decorations or save them for Thanksgiving dinner and set them out as place cards.

One other crafty thing to report--the last book sling I'll be making for a while:

 

(Note to self: if someone ever asks me to applique the letter "S" again, just say no! Damn those curves.)

I put my little Etsy shop on vacation for a bit. Just too much other stuff going on. It's not like I had that many orders, but it takes a lot of time and care and I really admire the people who make a living out of doing that. I'll open it back up soon, but I need to get some Christmas and birthday gifts made for my own family first.

Don't forget that you can make your own book sling. Tutorial here.

And speaking of book slings, one that I had the pleasure of making recently is hanging in a home that many of you are probably familiar with, if you're a fan like me. Meg from Sew Liberated did a trade with me--a book sling in exchange for some of her patterns. I was quite honored that a talented person like herself would want something from my humble craft room. You can see it hanging for little Finn here.

Birthday party planning and other tidbits

I'm knee deep in a work project right now. Did I say knee? I meant neck. It's time consuming but fun, and I'll tell y'all about in a few days.

Deadlines aren't what they used to be, though. When I worked full time for newspapers I used to thrive on knowing a story had to be filed by 9 p.m. After being wherever I had to be to cover the news, I'd have half the thing written in my head by the time I got back to my desk. And if I didn't, I was in trouble.

Everything changes with kids, though, especially when you work from home. Except when the girls are at preschool, there's never a guarantee that I'll have time to focus on what I'm doing and get it done by the time my editors need it. That uncertainty is more stressful than any breaking news ever was.

A phrase we seem to keep repeating around here is "It is what it is." In other words, quit complaining. Be grateful for the fascinating careers/assignments/life we have. Get it done. And move on. 

But here's a phrase I came across tonight--on Sarah Jane Studio's blog--that I like much better:

"Never let a problem to be solved become more important than a person to be loved." -Thomas S. Manson

I wish that had been in my head last night as I was frantically trying to get the dishes done before bedtime while Magpie was crying and tugging on my leg, begging for my attention. Instead of turning off the water, parking my rear on the floor and loving her up, I scrubbed those pots clean like a madwoman ... and eventually let all the noise turn me into, well, a mad woman. 

Ridiculous. I'm not advocating being at kids' beck and call at all times (they need to learn patience, right?) but two minutes of quality time probably would have calmed her down and allowed me to finish the dishes in peace.

I read something once that said even if we do something we regret with our kids--even if it happened just a second ago--we have the option of changing our direction and taking a more positive route. In the next moment. Right then and there. Turn the corner. Don't look back. 

I don't know how that looks when your kids are older, but at 2 and 4, usually that means shifting gears from frustration to total silliness. Usually that comes naturally to me. Other times, the dishes win. Grrr ... moving on. 

I really just meant to pop on here to share a few tidbits:

-I'm getting a lot of hits right now on my pumpkin carving tutorial from last year. Just thought I'd post a link to it here to make it easier for newbies to find.

-Everybody and their brother also seems to want to bake an owl cake right now (based on Google searches that find their way to Penny Carnival). You can read about my adventures with owl cakes here and here.

-At some point, I'm going to have to start planning Magpie's second birthday party. The original idea was to make it a parade-themed party, which was inspired by these invitations I ordered. 

Aren't they adorable? They're even cuter in person, with their sweet little rounded corners and all.

But the weather has become downright frigid here, so I'm not sure I want to subject a bunch of kids to a late-October prance around the neighborhood. I think I'll save the invitations for Bo's July birthday, since she's the one who's been begging for a neighborhood parade anyway. A parade party could be so much fun--tell the kids to bring their bikes/strollers/wagons, have a stash of streamers and flags they can use to decorate their rides, do the parade thing (inviting neighbors to cheer them on), then come back to the house and serve a long, skinny cake that's frosted to look like a street. 

So I'm working on a Plan B now. Little Red Riding Hood birthday party? Three Little Bears? Alice in Wonderland tea party? Vintage circus? Hedgehogs? Mary Had a Little Lamb? OK, I need to have more kids so I can fulfill all my toddler birthday fantasies.
Update: I just want to acknowledge that I realize the birthday theme should be all about what the kid wants, but Magpie is at an age where everything is awesome to her. "Do you like moldy bread?" "I like mo-wee bed." "Do you like Brussel sprouts?" "I like bussybouts." 

Other things I'm loving right now:

-This idea for thank-you cards (just in time!)

-A work-in-progress by Anna Maria Horner. I will never get tired of rainbows.

-A lovely white dress

-and Art Nest Studio's (a.k.a. Susannah, the highly talented portrait artist) fawn softie pattern. Oooh ... another birthday theme possibility. Those could be the favors!

Ponchos for everyone!

More crafty time with the girls over the weekend led to a new Etsy listing. 

I've figured out how to make the poncho (or cape, whatever you want to call it) in sizes 12 months, 18 months, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

This one is an 18 monther, so it's a bit snug around Magpie's face (and keep in mind--she has a GIANT head). She doesn't seem to mind, though, huh?

 

The poncho is fully reversible. This one is made with black 

baby-wale corduroy and pink flannel, so you probably wouldn't 

want to flip it inside out. But the possibilities for fabric are endless--fleece, wool, whatever.

Yea for ponchos!

Ice cream social

Farm girl MaryJaneButters had a blog post the other day about how to organize an old-fashioned ice cream social. You guys know I'm a sucker for anything that builds community, so you know that kind of thing is right up my alley. But what kept lingering in my head after reading the post? Duh. A craving for ice cream.

The girls and I solved that tonight with a trip to The Scoop, a local shop that makes its own cold stuff. We always have to opt for "the kind that doesn't hurt our tummies," as Bo always tells the workers, so our order was 3 grape sorbets on sugar cones. Delish.

Fingers work just as well, apparently:

I knew we needed to linger a while because J was home sleeping (we're working our way through a case of the icks), so I brought along our felt pencil rolls and some paper.

We parked ourselves at a kid-sized wooden picnic table (easier for some of us to maneuver than others) and colored away.

Bo wanted to hang the signs on the shop's bike rack just to remind folks that they sell ice cream inside, but alas we had no tape ...

... She thought maybe curling the paper onto the bike rack would work. When it didn't, she moved on to twirling around in her rainbow dress on the lawn.

By the way, that beauty is NOT my bike. Too bad, huh?

We were there for so long that Bo built up the courage to ask two other sisters if they wanted to play with her. She's not shy, but she gets nervous about that sort of thing. The girls were thrilled and they played for all of 30 seconds until their mom announced it was time to go. I could just tell she wasn't one of those moms who likes to socialize, and that's fine, but I felt bad for Bo. 

The pencil rolls got me thinking about Amanda Soule and how her new book is coming out tomorrow. I should have pre-ordered--I would have had it by now--but the anticipation of going into a bookstore and flipping through the pages for the first time is fun, too.

Not that I have any time to follow her projects quite yet. I'm still swamped with writing deadlines and other responsibilities, including filling a few orders for book slings in my Etsy shop. By the way, I officially have a cottage license to make and sell Emmeline aprons now! I'm going to stock the shop with some once I get a chance, but for now I have a listing there for custom ones.

Are you ever so tired your stomach hurts? Ugh. Can't blame it on the sorbet, so it must be time to sleep.