making things

I love the new look of our closet door with this simple curtain I made with fabric from one of my favorite fabric designers. Our bedroom has beautiful blue walls and crisp white trim, and this new curtain adds the perfect touch of pattern. It replaces a wooden folding door that was just too loud and bulky for my tastes. I'd still like to add some weights to the bottom hem to help it hang a bit better, but I love it already.



I whipped up these baby bibs for a playgroup mom friend expecting a baby girl. (Excuse the ugly fake wood background; I had to take this picture in a hurry before the baby shower brunch yesterday.) This was a fun project because it was quite easy and I learned how to use a snap setter. The pattern came from this awesome book.



I made these dresses for another playgroup mom friend who just had a baby girl. The pink one is for the newborn and the green one is for her older sister, Sam's friend Sadie, and I like that they are the same style without matching. I used a great free pattern found here. I loved making these because they were actually my first garments ever, and I think they turned out beautifully. I learned a few new skills here: making gathers and attaching piping and bias binding.




I made this felt board awhile ago, using this free tutorial. At the time, Sam was very interested in learning letters, but alas, since I made this, his interest has waned a bit. He knows all the letters pictured here and a few more, but I can't really say that he has used this felt board and learned anything. Maybe in the future!

this chair

It's just a cheap lounge chair, not pretty, not even particularly comfortable. We bought it at Fred Meyer in Boise when I was pregnant with Sam three years ago, and this past weekend we dusted off the cobwebs in preparation for our first summer bbq.

Yesterday during Sam's naptime I pulled it into the sun for a few minutes of reading. I couldn't help thinking about those early summer days three years ago, when I was just coming out of the worst of my debilitating morning sickness, during which I lived prostrate on the couch trying not to hurl the single piece of peanut butter toast which was the only food I could bear to eat each day. But I was feeling a bit better, and I requested from Denis that we buy a chair so that I could recline outdoors and enjoy the warmer weather. I was eating a slightly bigger and more varied single meal each day, and I would lie on this chair, still too nauseous to read, so grateful that I could eat more and that it wasn't nose-biting cold anymore and that I could even see buds on our lilac bush. Sitting in this chair three years ago I started to feel like myself again.

Yesterday I sat here for the first time in three years, and felt gratitude again. For the successful 5th of July bbq we had, the wonderful family who came and had such fun together, for the comfortable yard in our new house, for the perfect sunny day, and for the opportunity to read (without nausea) a great book (The Liars Club) while my not-quite-three-year-old (finally) napped inside.

Sam's lens

That round steel object in Sam's hands is the lid to a nutchopper kitchen gadget (to us). To him, it is a camera. This is a picture of Sam taking a picture of me. Usually he just carries his camera around, after pulling it out of the kitchen cupboard, occasionally announcing its presence to me, and plays with it on his own. I love hearing about his imaginings. Lately, he has been going to various stores in the backyard on his tricycle. Over by the shed is Macy's, the side yard houses the ice cream store (the site of a booboo), and his favorite store TJ Max (or as he puts it, "ChayChainNax") seems to be located in the front yard some days, and down the street other days. Lots of little things become keys and doors (longtime favorite objects finding new ways to amuse him). Backyard gravel becomes salad for dinner. Many months ago, soon after we moved here, Sam even alerted me to the presence of imaginary people, usually "the lady," who would sit with us at the table, but who have not appeared lately. We encourage all of this of course, which is why I asked Sam to take a picture of me today. It's not a request I normally find myself making, but for my little dreamer-with-a-camera I'll do it.

preschool bound

We have just confirmed Sam's enrollment in a wonderful preschool beginning in late August. This curious, active, loving little guy will now have more stimulation, space, and people in his happy life. I could not be more excited. I visited the school twice, including two classroom observations, and I literally got chills imagining Sam's world expanding to include this lovely preschool. Sam himself kept talking about going back to school after we left. The time is right for me too---I have been craving more time to work on my own projects, which hopefully will help bring in some money to help pay Sam's tuition.

the garden

We have been getting much interest in our front-yard garden lately, so I thought I'd share our progress with some evening-light photos. Above is some bolting cilantro, and below is our pole bean teepee with basil in the background.

Tiny leeks.

A long trellis with 4 varieties of cucumber. Hello pickles!

Ground cherry, dill, butternut squash, and french green beans. Cal poppy and lavender too.

And in the backyard, Seascape strawberries ripen in the sun.

loving sprouts

I love eating sprouts but what pass for sprouts at the grocery store are sad plastic boxes of thin, pale, dirt-tasting strings. So, I usually make my own. The best method, I've found, is the simplest. Although I've tried sprouting systems engineered specifically for this process, I now use just a canning jar and some flexible screening. The key is to able to rinse the sprouts every few hours, and I've been known to carry my sprout jar along in my car and fill it from a water bottle on the side of the road. With my stay-at-home-mom gig these days, it's pretty easy. Goodness knows I am in the kitchen every couple of hours anyway preparing snacks and whatnot!

So here's what I do: Measure 2Tablespoons alfalfa (or other sprout-able) seeds into a 2-quart canning jar. Use the metal ring to secure a piece of flexible screening over the opening. Cover seeds with cool water and soak overnight. Empty the next morning, and proceed with rinsing the seeds/sprouts every few hours for several days. It helps me to put a sticky note on my bathroom mirror reminding me to rinse them right before I go to bed. Rinsing entails filling the jar, through the screen, with enough cool water to get all of the seeds/sprouts nice and soaked, then emptying the water right away. With our drought here, I actually walk out to the garden with the rinse water and use it on my landscape plants.

When the sprouts begin developing leaves, around day 3 or 4, it helps to rotate the jar each time you rinse it so that all of the sprouts get sun exposure. This helps to get them nice and green, which is not only prettier but I'm guessing more nutritious as well. The sprouts are usually mature enough to my liking around day 5 or 6. At this point I remove them from the jar and soak in a big bowl of water to separate out the seed hulls and unsprouted seeds from the good sprouts. Strain and store in a wrung-out cloth in plastic in the fridge; I use a plain white flour-sack dishtowel that I get real wet, wring out, and use to wrap the sprouts completely within a tupperware-type container. This keeps the sprouts succulent rather than dried-out, and they can keep over a week this way.

I've been eating them for breakfast every morning on a piece of whole wheat toast with mustard, red onion, and melted smoked cheddar cheese. My favorite sandwich is a combination of avocado, smoked mozzarella cheese, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickles, onion, and sprouts.

We also eat a lot of salad, including this one below (pictured before the addition of homemade dressing and sprouts though) with home-grown red and green lettuces, cooked quinoa, cucumber, red bell pepper, red onion, home-grown baby carrots, home-grown fresh dill and cilantro, avocado, and fresh mozzarella cheese. Yum! And yes, Sam ate every bite!

hello molars

We have a few nicknames for our little guy: Sweetpea, Lovebug, Sunshine, Cuddle Muffin, Cute Boy...but lately we've been referring to him (out of earshot) with some entirely new monikers: Mr Aggro, Hair Trigger, Wave of Destruction. Despite our very best efforts at prevention, we've had way more than our share of tantrums, vigorous refusals, emotional reversals of opinion, material damages, embarrassments in public, and even bruises. One night Sam woke up six times between 10pm and 6am, and then the next night took two-and-a-half hours to fall asleep. We've all been saying No more than we'd like and taking a lot of deep breaths. A few days ago, desperate for an explanation, I poked around his upper gums and noticed the tiniest sharp points poking through. I felt immediately justified in dosing my little land mine with baby tylenol in a desperate hope for relief. Today, finally, it appears that the storm has passed. Meltdowns, refusals, tears?...oh yes, but in manageable proportions. Hello molars, so glad you are here. All the better to munch on our early summer garden harvest of baby carrots and sugar snap peas. We are so happy our human sweetpea is feeling a bit better.