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Category Archives For Craftiness

Art Time

Catherine has been very interested in using her art easel lately. She loves her markers, crayons, pencils and watercolors. The last time we painted she kept putting her fingers in the watercolors (the hard, disk kind) instead of the paintbrush.

So, I thought she might like to try finger painting. Thanks to this recipe (second one down) I didn’t need to waste gas or money on getting new paints. I cooked up a batch, separated it into red, blue and yellow, and set the gal up at her easel.

Of course today she wouldn’t paint with anything but her paintbrush. I think she had a good time. There are more pictures here. Enjoy.

Christmas Joys: Stockings

A family of Christmas Stockings

Last Christmas there was a little smudge on my festive holiday mood. Due to lack of inspiration, time and supplies I didn’t get around to making Catherine a Christmas stocking. Fortunately she had no idea, but I felt awful about it. I love my stocking and our family’s stockings were my favorite decorations to hang when I was small.

This year I was struck with inspiration, had the supplies and eked out some time to sew. Having a homemade Christmas stocking is very important to me. My Mom made mine (and Corey’s and my Dad’s) and every year I look at it and think of the time she spent making it and love knowing that it was made especially for me. I wanted to pass that same feeling along to my own little family. I sewed up Peter’s stocking for the first Christmas we spent together (2001) and now Catherine’s joins the group.

As a kid my stocking always had a box of Cracker Jax in it on Christmas morning. We don’t have a tradition like that yet- what do YOU get in your stockings?

Rebecca’s Book

You know how scientists, thinkers, and inventors of old (and probably of new) had those notebooks where they would write all of their ideas, plans, formulas, etc? Well, my wife has a book just like that. I think it’s pretty cool, so I wanted to share some photos of it:

Instead of drawings of water screws or flying machines, Rebecca’s book contains drawings of craft and interior decorating ideas, lists and plans for parties, and other random musings. Lovingly hand-inscribed with pencil, Rebecca’s notebook is an inspiration to me. To be more thoughtful, plan better, and get all of my ideas down somewhere.

You can see more pictures of the book.

A New Window Cornice

Our living room has a nice big picture window. Having moved from a basement level apartment I enjoy all the sunlight that streams in every day. I’m not so keen on people looking in.

When we moved in we hung some roman shades that we found at Ikea. They are light, so they only block the view from outside, not all of the light. I like that. But the windows still looked unfinished. I didn’t want to hang heavy drapes or curtains; the room is small enough without drapery making it feel even smaller. The window is so wide that I would need to buy special rods to hang even a valance.

Before:

The solution was to build a cornice. It took some wood, ‘L’ brackets, screws, fabric and batting and some good old elbow grease to get the job done. The cornice is upholstered with a dark blue fabric that has flowers and vines embroidered on it in a similar blue. The effect is a nice linear window treatment with a little more design to it if you look closely. I like it.

After:

Window Treatments

I’ve been doing a bit more sewing. Peter and I have been decluttering our ‘master bedroom’ to make it more livable and cozy. We decided that it was finally time to put some curtains up.

We went to Joann’s Fabrics with no idea what kind of pattern or colors we’d want in the room. I figured it would take us a while to find something we liked or to agree…but it didn’t. We both knew right off the bat and it was only the second bolt I had pulled off the shelf! I guess it was meant to be.

The actual sewing was pretty easy, and thanks to Peter spending some quality Dad time with Catherine I was able to work from start to finish. The curtains were done quickly; completed in less time than it takes to listen to The Best of James Taylor. (How’s that for a measurement of time?)

Babywearing

Peter and I have been pretty dedicated to babywearing over the past year. The stroller comes in handy for long walks and some shopping trips, but there are times when it just isn’t necessary or convenient to lug out the stroller. And there are times when we want to keep Catherine close.

Our two babywearing mainstays have been a ring sling and a baby backpack. These have both worked well for both of us: Peter with Sling, Rebecca with Sling, Peter with Backpack, Rebecca with Backpack. Each has its own pros and cons so we switch between them depending on the situation.

For a while now I’ve been wanting a new carrier; one that is soft and can be used in the front carry or the back carry position. I thought that it would come in handy when the external frame backpack (with its wonderfully large pocket) would be more carrier than I needed.

Something like this:

Thanks to a couple of online tutorials I was able to sew my own Mei Tai carrier. After studying the pattern for several weeks I finally found the time to visit the fabric store. Thanks to a good sale and a gift card I scored a great deal on some beautiful fabric. I was excited to get started, so as soon as we were home and Catherine was tucked in for her nap I broke out the scissors and sewing machine.

A handful of hours later I had a finished project! The carrier is beautiful, fits perfectly and Catherine seems to like it.

Ruffles

I haven’t knit very many things for Catherine. Partially because I’m a busy momma-on the go; partially because she has very generous people in her life and has been well provided for.

I had some nice warm wool yarn left over from other projects and a great pattern (from my Great-Aunt Emeline) so I buckled down and started a little sweater. It was a quick knit and was done “in the round” so I didn’t have to sew any seams. Fantastic!

The ruffles were my idea…next time around I’ll remember to make the torso and arms longer to account for the way the ruffles lie. For now she’ll have to deal with the sweater being a little bit too short!

Blackberry

I started a pretty ambitious knitting project last fall. It was intended to be a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law, Kirsten. Unfortunately, my first trimester nausea was worse while knitting, so I didn’t quite finish it in time. So what does a good crafter do? Make it a birthday present instead!

I recently got pictures from Kirsten of her modeling it. I’m glad it fit so well. It’s hard to measure a gal that lives several states away!

Kirsten

The pattern is Blackberry from the great knitting website: knitty.com. (That first link has a great shot of the sleeve detail)

Geeky Onesies A Hit!

So those Geeky Onesies that Becky made me for Christmas have become quite the sensation!

First, I raved over them on Christmas. Then our relatives in Pennsylvania thought they were great when we showed them off later that day. Just recently, Becky posted them on the Craftster forum where they were received with a great response. And yesterday we discovered that Leah, the admin of Craftster (and fellow Boston-area resident) had submitted the Geeky Onesies to MAKE, a do-it-yourself magazine/book run by O’Reilly Media. MAKE posted about the onesies earlier this week! That’s pretty awesome in both geeky and crafty circles!

I have created a new album just for the onesies here. At this point, Rebecca has not revealed her plans, if any, for doing any further work with Geeky Onesies. But if you have any thoughts for her, be sure to let us know, either by leaving a comment on this entry, or by contacting her via our contact page.

Update 01/13/2006

We’ve got another mention, this time at one of my new regular reads, Daddy Types, the “Weblog for New Dads”. Cool!

Update 2 01/13/2006

Whoops, and there are even more links that I’ve found by way of searching for the Craftster thread. I was searching for links to our blog, but since most people are just linking to the Craftster thread, that didn’t turn up anything. Becky’s work was mentioned over at Darryl Smith @ Radioactive Networks, and also at Yes, I’m Canadian.

Awesome Gifts

This morning, Becky and I exchanged our Christmas gifts to each other. You can ask Becky about what I got her, but I just had to rave about the awesome stuff she got me (and the baby).

What have I done to deserve such an awesome wife?

Update She is even more awesome now, because after a tremendous response on Craftster, her geeky onesies have been picked up by the MAKE blog! Sweet!

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