As promised, I put together the pattern for the crocheted toy bags that I’ve been making lately. This is the first pattern I’ve written, so bear with me and please let me know if you find any errors or if any of the directions are confusing. (more…)
Like most households with small children, the toy situation seems to get out of control fast. You somehow go from 0 to 1,000,000 toys in only a few short years! They multiply like a wet Mogwai and next thing you know you are constantly stepping on small sharp things and doing a monthly under-the-couch sweep of wayward balls and anything with wheels. You have entire sections of your home devoted to them and somehow they end up everywhere but there. You get so sick of putting things away that you eventually just get a huge bin that you throw everything into only to have your kid dump it out the minute you put the last toy away. Andrew said that one time he intentionally didn’t pick up after Quil just to see what the house would look like in one day. He said by mid-afternoon, it looked like someone had robbed the place. Drawers out, couch cushions overturned, cabinets open!
But one thing we learned with Quil is that he is pretty good about putting things away if each type of toy has its own container and not just one catch-all bin. We started off with just cloth bags that you sometimes get when you buy a pair of shoes. But we only had a couple of those. So I decided to start making some crocheted ones. Now he’s got bags for puzzle pieces, train sets, musical instruments, cars, and he can remember which ones go where for the most part.
Don’t get me wrong. His toys still get everywhere, but it does seem more manageable when everything has a designated bin/bag. I still need to make a few more, but these are super easy to make and work up pretty quick since I crochet three strands at once with a large hook. Check back later this week for a pattern if you are interested in making some for yourself.
***UPDATE***
The pattern is now available here.
xo,
c.
I honestly think there is nothing more wondrous, beautiful, and inspiring than the natural world. Rereading that sentence, I realized I probably just ripped off a line from David Attenborough from the Planet Earth documentary series. But it’s true! Whenever we go on walks, Andrew, Quil and I are aways on the lookout for “treasures.” Whether, it’s rocks or feathers or interesting seed pods, we like to collect these little things and display them at home.
For awhile now, I’ve been meaning to photograph our growing collection in hopes that they can become a regular feature on our blog, since it seems that we’re always finding something new. So, today I finally got around to photographing the first installment of our “Found Treasures.” Hope you enjoy them!
Feathers (collected between 2008 – 2012)
I don’t know what kinds of feathers these are. If anyone has any idea, I would love to know! Aren’t they beautiful?
This Calvin & Hobbes comic pretty much sums up my feelings exactly whenever we find something neat.
Recently, a family friend and I were laughing about how she went on vacation one year and came home with a suitcase full of rocks. Andrew is slightly concerned about our upcoming vacation to the beach and the amount of shells that may find their way home with us! I’ll do my best to keep it under control.
xo,
c.
It’s that time of year again! We had a little break from garden planning during the holiday, but now the seed catalogs are out and the mad dash has begun to be ready to hit the ground running once the weather starts to warm up. I know, I know it’s still January and we have many cold days still to endure before the ground is even close to ready. But it sneaks up on us every year! We always miss those cool early days that are perfect for greens, lettuce and spinach and I am determined to get as much growing time as possible this year. We got smart after last growing season and started prepping the garden in the Fall before it turned cold, but more on that later since that’s a bigger post. Super excited to share all the new garden plans.
But for now, here’s a list of what we’re planning on growing (all our seeds are from High Mowing Organic Seeds this year):
Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans – We’ve done bush and pole beans in the past, but I prefer the pole varieties. Not only am I sucker for any plants that climb (space savers and they are beautiful to look at) but I like the fact that we don’t have to harvest all at once. You get just the right amount of beans over a longer period of time.
Green Arrow Peas – My nieces loved eating peas right off the vine. It’s like finding little treasures in all those pods. I’m hoping Quil enjoys them just as much.
Danvers 126 Carrots – Another fun veggie for the kids to harvest. Root veggies are Andrew’s favorite to harvest. Again, it’s like finding treasure!
San Marzano Paste Tomato – We aren’t fans of huge tomatoes. They are too watery and seedy and aren’t that great for making pizza sauce either. Which is the main reason we grow them. San Marzano’s are the best for sauces and such because they have a lot of pulp (aka, the good stuff.)
Greens / Lettuce
We eat a lot of greens and we like to share them with our friends and family, so we always grow a ton. I may try to start some indoors this year to take advantage of their tolerance to cooler temps. And definitely going to space out the timing of our plantings so we don’t end up with a ton of lettuce all at once that becomes impossible to consume. In the past, we’ve literally had so much that even if we ate salads every single day for every meal, we still wouldn’t have made a dent.
Squash / Melons
We stopped growing Summer squash a couple years ago. Mainly because they took up so much room and we didn’t eat that much of it. It’s unfortunate because it’s extremely productive and easy to grow. If you aren’t vigilant about picking them, you’ll end up with zucchini’s the size of your leg. And that’s just too much zucchini. No point in using up so much space. Instead, we save the space for Winter squash because they store well and we can eat them all winter long.
(Those last two were our “just for funs” this year.)
Potatoes
This year we got our seed potatoes from the Maine Potato Lady. We made sure to get our order in before Jan. 28th so we could be part of the March shipment. Potatoes are another favorite to harvest. Growing is sort of a pain because you have to build the soil up as the plant grows, but it’s worth it in the end.
Flowers
We haven’t done flowers much in the past. In previous years, we just didn’t want to expend any more time or energy tending to things that we couldn’t eat. But this year, we’ve finally branched out. No pun intended.
Nasturtium Mix (You can eat these, btw.)
We have more perennials that went into the ground in the fall. All of them from family and friends (thanks Mom and Barb!) Looking forward to seeing them sprout back up come spring. My Mom also got me a little fig tree for my birthday, that is chilling in a dormant state in Andrew’s parents garage. Excited to bring it out to meet its other plant friends this year.
Here’s a photo of Andrew and Quil getting the new beds ready this past fall.
Here are past posts, if you’re interested in reading more about our gardening adventures.
More to come, for sure.
xo,
c.
Sometimes, it’s the simple things that make kids the happiest. Awhile ago, we noticed Quil had started hanging on the edge of our kitchen table. His little fingers gripped the edge while he hung suspended in a seated position about four inches from the floor. He would swing for about five seconds before he couldn’t hold on any longer. He seemed to enjoy it so much that Andrew decided to install a swinging bar in our hallway using closet hardware and a big wooden dowel.
Our three biggest considerations were that it had to be safe, removable and simple enough that Quil could set it up himself.
To keep it safe, we left it close enough to the ground that he if he were to slip and fall, he would still be able to land on his feet.
Also, in our initial attempt we realized that the bar had a tendency to spin as Quil was swinging which would cause him to fall if he didn’t have a super tight grip. To remedy this, Andrew drilled a hole in the dowel and put a peg into the hole. He then drilled a hole for this peg to rest in the bottom of the open-ended brace, as seen in the photo below. This keeps the dowel from moving around within the hardware.
A few things to note if you decide to try this yourself. Make sure you use a dowel rod that is not too thick for your child’s grip, but is still strong enough to hold their weight. You want them to be able to hold it comfortably, but still need it to be strong. We only recommend doing this in a narrow-ish hallway. If the distance is too far apart, it might put too much strain and cause your dowel to break.
xo,
c.
Since the little ones came along, we’ve really been putting effort into creating family traditions for them to look forward to every year. With Ellis being so young, we decided to start with something fun and simple this year – making fingerprint ornaments for us and the Grandparents.
This idea actually came from an ornament that my younger sister, Flora, made at school when she was little. One of my other sisters found it amongst my parents decorations and thought it be fun to make with our own kids. They turned out super cute!
However, these weren’t as easy as we’d hope. I think it mainly had to do with their age. As the kids get older, I imagine it will get easier but it was actually quite difficult to get fingerprints from a 4 month old! Less so from Q, who is rounding on 3 years pretty soon. But still not quite as easy as I’d hoped. Ellis’ hands just kept grasping my fingers and the ink would get everywhere and smear. Quil would just push super hard on the paper so his fingerprints were just blobs! Plus, both their prints are soooo tiny. It was hard to get a clearly defined print. I also think we didn’t use the best ink pad, so the actual pattern from their fingerprints weren’t really distinct.
Next year, we’ll experiment more to find what ink and paper combo works best. But if you want to give it a try, these are the supplies you’ll need:
- ink pad (washable, non-toxic, child-safe ink) – preferably in a light enough color that you’ll be able to see the lines when you draw on top of the fingerprint. We used a grey.
- multiple sheets of cardstock – a patterned background sheet is optional
- wooden drapery rings – you can get these usually at a craft store like Joann Fabrics or Michaels or Hobby Lobby
- ribbon – thin enough to fit through the eyelets of the drapery rings
- archival ink pens – I used a Micron .05 pen for the black details, and felt tip pens for the holly
- glue
We started off by just doing a bunch of fingerprints of each kid all over the sheets of the cardstock. We figured it would just be easier to center them after the fact, rather than try to get the kids to place their fingers perfectly in the center of a small circle. I used Ellis’ thumb since her fingers are microscopic. And Quil used his index finger.
Be sure that you leave enough space around each fingerprint so that it can be mounted onto the drapery ring. This is why I had to use the patterned paper on Ellis’ portrait. I accidentally had the particular fingerprint I wanted to use too close to one of the others. This resulted in a paper circle not big enough to mount on the drapery ring. To remedy this, I cut out around the fingerprint I wanted to use and, with a mounting square, affixed it to a larger circle cut from the decorative paper. I then mounted that larger circle onto the drapery ring.
After the fingerprints were dry, we chose the best ones and used this book as inspiration for drawing creatures. I chose the snail for Ellis and an owl for Quil. I also did simple portraits of each of the kids with their respective prints.
Cut around your drawing making sure it’s big enough to glue onto the drapery ring. We then wrote the kids’ names on the back with the year, applied glue around the front edge of your circle, then attached it to the drapery ring. Add your ribbon and you’re done! Here are all of ours:
We hope to do this with them every year and eventually have them do the drawings themselves. I probably will look forward to this tradition more than they will!
-c.
[Instagram photo I took of things that inspire me]
With the zombie apocalypse forever on the horizon, my sister, Maria, and I have already decided on our rendezvous point if such a thing should ever occur. Obviously, we say this all in good fun. But it actually got me thinking about things…
At night, laying in bed, I’ve been thinking: What if some sort of catastrophic event were to happen near us? What would we grab before we made our mad dash to our “rendezvous point? I’ve thought about this multiple nights in a row, always considering things like, “maybe we should grab all our shoes, because those things will wear out quick when you’re constantly on the move.” or “I should probably grab my supply of frozen breast milk just in case something were to happen to me, Andrew would be able to feed Ellis.” Finally, one night I turned to Andrew and asked him what he thought. And his answer was simply: “the kids.” Which then got me thinking more…
So with this new year upon us, and everyone high on the prospects of new beginnings and resolutions for the year to come, I’ve decided to jump on this ol’ bandwagon and make a couple of my own.
My first “resolution” is based on Andrew’s simple, honest, and sensible answer to my nonsensical question. This is the year that I really start taking a hard look at the things that matter and only accumulate/consume/surround myself with things that are useful and inspirational. I hesitate to use the term “minimal” because it doesn’t really fit me, rather I’m going to lean towards the term “meaningful.” I’m tired of thinking about things and stuff and where it goes. Or where it will go in the future. I give up on meaningless stuff!
Which leads me to my next resolution: To be more present and, ultimately, more patient. With myself, with Andrew, with the kids, with the pace of our lives, and with all those things I see on the horizon but can’t quite make out clearly. I don’t know how many times I’ve said to Andrew in the past, “I feel like we’re always waiting. When do we get to start our lives?” – to which Andrew always replies, “We already have!” And he’s right. So this year, I resolve to stop waiting.
Oh and to blog more :)
What are you resolving to do this year?
-c.
Awhile back, when I decided to expand this blog to encompass more than just the projects that Andrew and I make, parenting and family was one of the topics I definitely wanted to include. Even though we intended to, we haven’t really had too many parenting & family discussions on here. The main reason I’ve hesitated is that in the few years that I’ve been a parent, I’ve realized (like many parents) there is a very fine line between honest discussion and unwanted advice when it comes to parenting.
However, recently somethings I’ve been noticing have made me want to have some honest parenting discussion.
The first thing I’ve been noticing is that, as parents, we haven’t been doing the best job at supporting one another.
If I’ve learned anything at all in the past (almost) three years, it’s that parenting is hard. Really hard. And many decisions you make as a parent are going to be difficult ones and sometimes the best options are the hardest to follow through on. This isn’t news to anyone who is a parent. The thing I’m finding really disheartening is that we aren’t supporting one another in these hard decisions. For example, if someone decides they want to feed their baby only homemade organic baby food – not the easiest route to take – and is finding it difficult to keep good on this decision, some parents would say, “Don’t be too hard on yourself, just buy some baby food.” – which of course would totally be fine! But the thing I’m not seeing enough of is someone saying “Just stick with it! You can do it!” It’s a subtle difference, but that’s what I mean when I say we aren’t supporting one another.
We need to root for our fellow parents, encourage and cheer them on! We need to help them to not compromise on things that are important to them. It was important enough to that parent to try to make their own food, why not try to help them follow through and stick with what they really wanted to do in the first place? And if that parent decides to forgo their initial plan and go another route, we should support them in that too. Which leads me to the next thing I’ve been noticing.
No parent is perfect. Regardless of what you see on blogs and Pinterest, it’s not always what it seems. I’ve seen lots of parents think they are “bad parents” because they don’t have a Pinterest perfect family-life, and don’t do crafts and make their own baby food, etc, which, of course, is not true at all. But I’ve also seen these same parents describe bloggers and other parents who DO make their own baby food, and do crafty things as “pretentious” and “stepford-wife-like,” which is equally as bad in my opinion, if not worse! Why would you ever want to discourage another parent and make them feel bad for doing something good for their kid/s?
What it comes down to is that different things are important to different people, AND THAT’S FINE! We need to respect that the decisions other parents make are in the best interest of their kids, just like the decisions you make for yours, and that’s all that matters. It’s okay if it’s not important to you to buy expensive organic diapers or breastfeed your baby, but it’s also completely fine if IT IS important to another parent. Not doing these things doesn’t make you a bad parent. And doing them doesn’t make you pretentious either. We need to stop judging each others parenting styles because it’s hard enough to parent without having to worry that others are criticizing our every decision.
Have you ever felt like other people were judging the way you choose to parent?
If so, just know here’s one parent that’s rooting for you and cheering you on from the trenches!
xo,
c.
I started this jumper back in 2010 when I was pregnant with Quil and didn’t get around to finishing it until a couple months before Ellis was born (2 years later -yikes!) I used the Tutu Onesy and Hat – Crochet pattern, sans the hat, by Lion Brand that I found on Ravelry. The pattern is sized for an 18-month old, but I modified it so that it would be for a newborn.
Ellis is about 3 and a half weeks old and it fits like a glove. I initially brought it to the hospital thinking she could wear it home, but it was still too big. Luckily, I tried it on her a couple days ago for the first time. Had I waited much longer, she might not have fit!
I used black Lion Brand Microspun yarn instead of the multi-color stripes in the pattern photo and removed the little skirt/ruffle thingy since I didn’t know if I was having a boy or a girl when I was pregnant with Q. Honestly, I probably would have removed the ruffle anyway because I’m not a fan of it to begin with. Also, I added snaps in the crotch area for easy access when changing baby’s diaper because it would be a pain in the butt to have to take this entire thing off every time.
Look at that cutie! If anyone else makes one, send me a photo! I would love to see :)
-c.