Gardening with a toddler

After weeks spent intermittently turning a piece of lawn into a garden (without the assistance of a roto-tiller) I finally got to planting today. We were out shopping for other things when I asked the 2-year old if she wanted to go home or buy flowers and plants. Then we spent the next 15 minutes of the drive with her saying "flowers" every 2 minutes.

Red and green bell peppers, pole beans, zucchini, cucumbers, basil, lemon thyme and regular and heirloom plum tomatoes. The little one was extremely excited with the bean seeds (another phrase she repeated 100 times or so for the rest of the afternoon). Hopefully they'll come up and keep her interest in the garden, and mine. Since we don't have a fence up yet, my other great hope is that the neighborhood bunnies don't attack overnight.

E enjoyed planting the seeds, and then was impatiently demanding "next" every time I stopped to do something silly like cover a plant with soil. Picking the flats of plants up by the leaves, walking without looking through the garden, sitting down on top of pepper plants. She was scolded numerous times this afternoon with absolutely no effect and probably still has no idea why. Any suggestions to train a little one on watching where she walks?

Projects Completed

Does hanging a pre-made curtain count as a craft? It did involve tools and I had been putting if off for only a year and 2 months. Of course I bought the curtain on clearance without actually measuring the window first. As you can see it is too small...I need another one, but I figure it took me over a year to hang this guy, obviously this window is a low priority in my home decor.

I DID actually craft this week. I have been trying to come up with something I could make and sell at craft fairs and such...drum roll please...tooth fairy pillows!

I am really pleased at how these out. My 1st two pillows (LSU ones) were a little too big, so I shrunk my pattern down an inch and they are now perfect.

1st first photo (disregarding the curtain one) is of my wool felt teeth after they have been bowed, smiled and eyed. Everything is sewn on but the jiggly eyes.

2nd photo is a close-up of a finished pillow.

3rd photo shows all of the pillows I was able to complete in 2 days!! I could have done a couple of more, but my sewing machine flaked on me. OK that isn't the truth. I thought my machine was acting up, turns out I hadn't changed out my quilting needle to a normal needle. Apparently quilting needles are not only sharper, they are also longer. Now we all know :) Unfortunately it took me 2 hours to figure this out. :P

I also designed and made "Official Tooth Fairy Tooth Transaction Logs" to go with the pillows. The card contains: a tooth chart so kids can color in which tooth was lost; a log to note the date of the tooth loss (I even threw in a bow for the tooth fairy to check off she received the tooh) , a pocket to hold a tooth, a reminder that healthy teeth are more valuable so brush and floss and finally instructions.

First Baby Quilt for 2008! Only 3 Months Late.

For the record I had finished the top of the quilt before the baby shower in February. I just was unable to layer it together, quilt and finish the binding.

I truly enjoyed making this quilt. I made it for the baby girl of my close friends Marty and Chappell. I have known Marty since he and my little brother became friends in middle school! (I am very close to my little brother, so we actually share some friends.) Regardless I wanted this quilt to be extra special.
I chose colors and traditional patterned fabric to match the look of the nursery. I would have used toile, but couldn't find any at Joann's. I know I should have looked online, I just wasn't thinking in that mode. Selecting fabric has always been a hands-on thing for me. I do have to put a shout out to a great online store, Quilt Taffy, that I have recently discovered. I can not wait to start buying from this gal.

I have another quilt to make soon. My little brother is expecting his first born June 5th. They don't know the sex so I am waiting to the little bundle is born before I begin.

taking my lemonness to new levels

I made pie. Lemon pie. It uses the whole lemon. No meringue. I totally dig it. Also, I have sprouts of oregano, chives and basil, but the picture was blurry.

I am totally domesticated. Wait, is that what I mean?

Zucchini anyone?

Rather than crash in front of a movie or with a book tonight after the baby went to bed I decided to bake. This is something I often want to do until I go downstairs after the bed time ritual and decide that I don't have the patience, energy or desire to spend time in the kitchen.

Tonight however I was determined to use the zucchini I bought a few days ago and turn it into something my little girl will eat! She's not a fan of vegetables as vegetables...or fruit as fruit come to think of it. We keep trying, every day, but this is a method that works for us, at least once in a while. I tried Jessica Seinfeld's approach and decided that the subtitle of "easy" was a complete lie. Plus the 2 recipes I tried were disgusting, to adults and child alike. So, it's back to squash muffins and zucchini chocolate chip cookies. The muffins are yummy and far more successful for me lately than zucchini bread - which has been repeatedly raw in the middle, despite lengthier cooking times and a flawless oven. The recipe is made by the walnuts, but since we haven't really introduced nuts to the little girl's diet yet, they only go in the half destined for grown-ups. The cookies are a new venture. Barbara Kingsolver used these in Animal Vegetable Miracle and they sounded intriguing. Lousy cook that I am, I didn't try one as they came out of the oven. We'll try then on a child and maybe on colleagues tomorrow.

Hopefully the whole lot will be better than the very sour sourdough I made the other day that didn't really rise.

HOLY CRAFT!

Note to self: Stenciling with room temperature butter is never a good idea.

I've wanted to do this a while now and only I've just gotten around to it. I have older stencils tacked up on the wall in my office and they stare down, yelling at me to use them on a daily basis. I've become a Jedi master at blocking their demands out. However, today it was impossible to silence them. So I made a car decal.



It didn't turn out how I wanted it to. The contact paper I was using was like cutting through room temperature butter. Joining two cuts and or trying to make a round cut was close to impossible. At first I was optomistic and wanted to do the whole thing. After cutting part of the body out, I had to change my plan. What I started out doing is completely different than my end game... and I'm actually quite thrilled about it.



I was sitting there cutting out Shauns body thinking, "When I get to the face it's going to be beyond difficult." So, I stopped. I had an arm, a cricket bat and part of a body.

I stared at it.

I called it a few bad names.

Then it struck me. Cut out the tie!

I cut it out and laid what I had before me. I LOVED IT. Not only is it a slightly obscure movie, what I had was a wildly obscure decal.



I don't care if no one gets it. What I care about is making the 4 people who live in this town who've seen the movie, smile.

i smile when i look at it

Total Fluke

I needed to not cook tonight. I decided this after making my dinner, while I had my favorite rhubarb dessert soup on the stove. Yeah, what can I say, I'm really good at making definitive decisions. Phblt.

Anyway, I wanted to do something that didn't involve food, and I am really glad that I did. I realized just how long it had been since I played with my crochet hook when I picked it up and could not remember how to start. Yeah, bad. So then I went in search of a project that was small enough to finish easily this evening and not food. This is what I ended up with:



Meet Blimey, the nearly blind whale! I know, you're saying, "Nearly Blind? That eyeball is a gazillion times bigger than it would be really!" I know, I know. But it took 6 tries before I found a needle small enough to fit through the hole in the back so I could sew the eyes on. Hence, nearly blind. Glad I found one. The eyes make a big difference. That and the tail. I got a little crazy with the tail....

yes i know whale is edible. shut up.