A little bit of pegboard, some paint and an inexpensive adjustable storage system from Walmart. Et voila. Easy access to spices and a whole cabinet for other stuff.

1. Paint your pegboard. Use child labor if you’ve got it.

paint the pegboard

2. Hang your pegboard. B just screwed it right to the wall.
3. Hang the storage system. B used simple peg hooks.

easy peasy installation

4. Cram it full of spices.

spicy!

5. Kick it up a notch!

the shot that almost cancelled christmas

Beginning with the joy that is taking Christmas card photos…

yay. more photos.

Trying to clean up for a minute or two…

cleanliness lasts as long as the bath

Spending Christmas day playing…

moshing with the girls

rockin' and rollin' on the new blades

And ending with a really fun trip to PA…

fishing with the cousins

best group shot

We were a busy clan.

Managed to knit up a couple hats, but totally failed on the handmade stockings. Better luck next year, I guess. The blue hat is based on the Elf Hat from Handknit Holidays, but finished with the pointy top hat shaping. Here’s the Rav. The faux-hawk was knit similarly to the elf hat but with a rounded top. Someday I’ll write up the pattern. Someday.

super bulky knit hats whip up fast!

Do forgive my spotty and brief posting. No use pretending it will change any time soon, but that ever elusive someday may eventually get here. Maybe some pics will make up for it a little bit. These two are my favorites.

Bonne année et bonne santé!

simple envelope pillow cases

the striped fabric reminded me of lined paper...

envelope back

I bet the pair of cases took less than an hour start to finish. And that, my friends, is all I accomplished during a week home alone. Sad, right? Plus it took two months to post about it. Hm.

Now these little cuties are a great kids project. I saw the idea on pinksuedeshoe.

placemat to pillow

Took a few seconds to open the seam, 10 minutes for the boys to get bored cramming fiberfill into a tiny opening and five minutes more for me finish stuffing and resew the seam by hand. Total cost: $9 ($3 for each placemat) + $4 for a bag of fiberfill = $13.

two inches of hand sewing and viola

There’s one more pillow in progress. Isn’t the smocking at 52crafts52weeks divine? This pillow top was made following learningtofly’s tutorial and using canvas and dark blue embroidery floss.

honeycomb smocking...love

I made a marking guide with a length of grid lined poster board and a tiny hole punch. Then used a disappearing fabric pen to mark the dots on the canvas.

grid lined poster board guide

Even thought the smocking has been finished for months, the pillow still needs a back. Soon. Soon.

Wow. A kid-free post. Can you believe it?

mommy and the winner

Just received a call from the South Carolina Aquarium. Our viking won 3rd prize in the under 3 Halloween costume competition! Who’s the proud mommy?

As if my inclination to decorate the boys for public appearances needed any encouragement…

the dragon unicorn in action

and arrrgh!

our viking on the move

Hope everyone had a super fun Halloween. You know we did. Liam was the boss of Halloween this year. We made lots and lots of “Halloween Projects”, such as:

ghosts

spiders

pumpkins

and

mr. scarecrow

Liam also picked our costumes. He, obviously, was to be a dragon unicorn. Originally just a plain old dragon, but then he saw our neighbor in her unicorn costume and became obsessed with unicorns. No way mommy was making two costumes, so a dragon unicorn was conceived. The costume is a modified version of McCall’s 6185. My review is on PatternReview.com. It was a solid 11 or 12 hours of sewing, but well worth it i think. The boy really loves it.

check out my tail

grrrr

Kellan was originally slated to be a butterfly, but I made a last minute executive management decision. So, with only minutes of effort on my part, namely sewing a little fur vest, our viking was good to go.

my candy!

seriously! my candy!

You’ll note that mommy and daddy seem a bit random alongside our dragon/viking combo…

had to catch more than just butterflies

It was decreed that mommy would be the butterfly catcher to Kellan’s overruled butterfly.

who doesn't love butterflies?

And daddy would be a giant chipmunk, natch.

what a glam chippie

It was a big time. And we’ll be eating candy for months.

The big one has taken to putting himself to bed at night. It starts with, “No, mommy, I do it myself.” and ends with little feet stomping up the stairs and the sound of the acrobat launching himself into his crib. He’s begun rolling his eyes when asked to do something he considers unappealing. That’s surprisingly annoying and, thankfully, still pretty infrequent. And, interestingly, he routinely calls me Jennifer. Jennifer? Seriously? The bed thing is pretty awesome, but I really wasn’t expecting to be on a first name basis so soon. Certainly not while he’s still in diapers.

On the plus side, he is finally using the potty, if only when prompted. And he’s still wicked cute. And hilariously creative. And super excited about Halloween. And takes the cheesiest photos ever.

i'm soooo cute

Not to be outdone, the new guy has shown himself to be a real bully. He wants what he when he wants it. No negotiating. No concessions. No discussion. Just do it, mamamamama.

Perhaps relatedly, the K-monster is using words such as cat, ca-ca (cracker), uh-huh (yes), ffff (fish), mamamama (mommy), dadada (daddy) and teddy and signs including more, all done, fish, and milk. He understands so much more than he can communicate, so I’m guessing that’s a significant contributing factor to his screaming at me when he wants a cookie.

i'm not bad, just misunderstood

Some days, it’s like a modern version of Lord of the Flies in our living room. Other days, Leave It to Beaver has nothing on us. We’re living the dream.

The swamp was very cool.

cypress garden swamp

But the real fun was chasing the wild boys around.

There was dancing…

groupies

and bird watching…

i see you

and alligators too.

liam-gator

kellan-gator

What more could you hope for?

Here’s the play-by-play.

drape pillowcase over chair back

tuck in the corners

gather the top at the center and wrap with a rubber band

tie some green tulle to look like a stem

cut out felt eyes, nose and mouth

glue on felt eyes, nose and mouth

take a bow

oh, the places you'll go!

B and I dipped the boys feet in paint and he held them over the canvas while I stamped their footprints across it. Then we did the same with Thor. I’ll give you a minute to run the mental movie. Done laughing? K, moving on. Pan got a pass as his claws were in need of a trim.

The canvas is 36″x48″ and I used a 1″ foam paint “brush” for the printing. It was a really quick project, except…

!@#$%

Yeah.

I totally misspelled “frequently.”

Once I ran out of curse words, I whited out the mistake and repainted the word with all the necessary letters. The patch isn’t terrible when you look head on at the canvas. Certain angles though, argh.

pan is glad he wasn't involved in this mess

The kids still like it.

viking liam

The shield is based on Hiccup’s shield from HTTYD. B whipped it up from cardboard and duct tape and a little bit of white glue.

the supplies

He stacked and glued some graduated cardboard circles to make the bump on the front, then covered the whole thing in duct tape.

the bump

add the red

and the shiny trim

clip to mold to the curve

press into place

B then used half-width strips of shiny silver to make the lightning bolts on the front and added a handle to the back.

don't forget a handle

It is totally awesome!

i love it!

Daddy also made a viking hat, but mommy got distracted and didn’t take construction pics. Oops. Anyway, the crown was shaped on my hat block, starting with the duct tape sticky side up and then covered with a second layer of tape sticky side down. He shaped the horns using a funky cardboard spine that was then wrapped in tape and filled with expanding foam filler. The bumps are little balls of tape covered with shiny tape.

forming the duct tape on mommy's hat block

The boys love it.

the boys

that's a lot of drool

Kellan is modeling a pleated bubble romper in handkerchief linen. The pattern is Creations by Michie 102 (here’s my pattern review)and probably the only “heirloom” sewing I’ll get to do. It may be for the best that we don’t have girls. I’d never leave the sewing machine if we did. I followed the pattern to the “T” up to the last step. Foolishly, I decided to leave the leg elastic longer than recommended. Big mistake. The legs were too loose and the romper fell over K’s knees and hampered his crawling.

my crawling is hampered

He was not pleased.

i am not pleased.

The pattern is very thorough in its instructions and the pattern pieces themselves are printed on heavy paper, which was nice. I pre-washed the linen and dried it, just as with Liam’s suit and starched it like crazy before cutting the pieces. How did I not know the joy of starch before these projects? My 1/4″ foot got a work out as many of the seams are french.

straight stitch is so easy with the right foot

Overall the romper turned out well. I had some confusion about the collar detail in the back, but eventually worked it out.

center back collar detail

Also, despite my best efforts, the collar had a slight overlap, but I can live with it.

oops.

Perhaps most importantly, both boys had lightweight clothes for the lovely (and hot!) outdoor wedding.

dastardly duo

sigh...

He’s a good sport too. Happily wore his “southern gentleman” costume – no complaints all night.

too much? it's too much, isn't it?

What a little dude. He performed his duties with aplomb. Liam marched up the aisle all by himself, wiped out and went flying then hopped up, grabbed his pillow and his hat and continued to his spot at the front. No fear. Nada.

one of the guys

There are many, many times that I wonder, “Who is this kid?” Seriously, he’s got his own thing going on. We are just taking up space in his world.

too cool for school

On to the details…

The hat is a re-blocked girl’s straw hat that I picked up at a thrift store. Aside: I snagged some hat blocks on Ebay. You know, ’cause I need a new hobby. I pulled off all the ribbon and trim, soaked the straw until it softened then stretched over the 19″ oval and sailor brim. Once dry, I sewed some bias tape around the brim (did a terrible job, but what can you do?) and sewed ribbon trim to the outside and folded ribbon as a hatband on the inside. Voila!

the hat kills me

The suit is made from medium weight linen purchased at Hancock’s following Burda 9781 (here’s my pattern review). This was far and away the most challenging sewing project I’ve tackled to date. It’s a miniature European cut suit. The jacket had over 30 pieces. Yikes! The pattern pieces were perfect and the instructions were ok. Burda assumes you’ll work out some of the basics and so skips some steps, such as sewing the jacket center back seam. I was a nervous wreck sewing this thing so freaked out over every skipped step. I made a few modifications, specifically changing the pants to cuffed shorts, omitting the lining in favor of hong kong finishing and replacing the jacket pocket flaps with double welts. I’d probably have lost my marbles and given up on the whole thing if not for my Singer Tailoring book.

double welt pockets

Overall I’m really pleased with the results. I think the sleeves are a little short, but our fitting sessions were limited to about 45 seconds so… Linen is a joy to sew. I pre-washed it twice in hot water and hot air dryed it to prevent (hopefully) any future shrinkage then ironed it with lots of spray starch before cutting out the pattern pieces. I LOVE STARCH! The fabric was so crisp and easy to work with. Plus, when sewing it had the perfect amount of stretch to make any eased seams painless.

The jacket’s hong kong finish looks pretty good, though I wish I’d decided on it earlier in the game. I couldn’t decide whether to line it or not and so did all the finishing after the whole jacket was constructed. Made for a lot of extra hand sewing. Speaking (typing) of hand sewing. The jacket has a hand finished blind hem (on the sleeves too). That was yet another first for me. It was not nearly as tedious as feared, was actually pretty calming.

I love the shorts. Something about shorts and a jacket is just too cute. I messed up the waistband somehow. The buttonhole side extends much to far past the center front, but I just couldn’t bring myself to redo it. I didn’t like the pattern instructions for the center back seam. Instructions had you attach the waistband then sew the CB seam, leaving a big, bulky exposed seam. It really bugged me, so I ripped it out and seamed the  CB first, then folded the waistband down to enclose the seam. Little tweak, big difference in appearance that no one but I will ever notice.

back view

The bow tie and suspenders really make this for me. They were so quick to make – like less that an hour total and looked fantastic. I followed the instructions for the David Bow Tie, but cut it a little smaller. The finished width is about 2″ instead of the standard men’s 2-1/2″, but the collar width is the same as a full sized tie, so the standard hardware fits.  The suspenders are just 2-1/2″ strips sewed into tubes using 1/4″ seam allowance, turned and pressed to 1″ wide and criss-crossed in back. Hancock’s had suspender clips and bow tie hardware, but no 1″ strap adjusters, so I just fit the suspenders and left extra length in the back to and an adjuster later.

bow tie and suspenders

suspender back

More fashion news tomorrow…

(click on the pic to see our dancing fool in action)

Well, there are the dragon raids… I guess that’s something.

my boys

collaboration

adoration

confusion

joy

intent

exuberence

play

and the ever-present dragons, naturally.

dragons!

The dragon tail (Liam’s “pikey tail”) is made loosely following Running with Scissors’ instructions. I used old tee shirts, didn’t measure anything and stuffed the spikes. The wings are from the same red tee that made the spikes and some girls knee-high socks, minus the feet, with some elastic across the back. Quick and dirty, but better than nothing. The poor kid had been running around with a towel over his head and a rubber snake down the back of his diaper whenever he played dragons. Bad mommy.

One thing I can personally verify is that it is delicious. It tastes like summer. A few leaves on a sandwhich instead of or in addition to lettuce, chopped and sprinkled on pizza or tomatoes, or made into pesto, the yummiest of all spreads/toppings, mmmmm.

If you’ve never made pesto, now’s your chance. Here’s how I do it. Note, I’ve included the Cook’s Illustrated measurements for reference, but I don’t measure anything. I do follow the Cook’s Illustrated tips of toasting the garlic cloves (in skin) and bruising the basil leaves before chucking them in the food processor, but otherwise just fly by the seat of my pants.

thanks p+g!

Step 1: Raid the neighbors’ garden for basil. Get lots and lots and lots. If you’re going to dirty the food processor, you may as well make a big batch. Cooks Illustrated’s basic recipe wants 4 cups of loose baisl to make 3/4 cup of pesto, that’s enough to dress 1 pound of pasta. One meal’s worth is just not enough for the effort, IMO.

washed and dried

Step 2: Pluck the leaves from the stems and wash and dry them well.

beat it

Step 3: Put the dry leaves in a ziplock and squeeze out all the air. Then take out all your aggression and beat the bejesus out of the bagged basil with a rolling pin or meat tenderizer.

throw away the burnt nuts, really.

Step 4 (optional): Burn some pine nuts over medium heat while while taking pictures of basil. Throw away the burnt nuts or your pesto will taste burnt. Ask me how I know this.

Step 4a: Lightly toast some pine nuts over medium heat while stirring regularly. CI suggests 2 TBSP chopped. I toss way more in whole.

smells so good

Step 5: Toast some garlic cloves still in their skin in the same dry pan you used to toast the pine nuts for 5 minutes or so, until they are fragrant. Remove from heat, peel and chop. CI says 2 cloves. As you may notice in the pic, I use a few more than 2.

blend, taste, adjust, blend...

Step 6: Chuck the beaten basil, pine nuts, chopped garlic, some grated parmesan cheese (1/2 cup per CI) and a little salt (CI: 1/4 tsp) in a food processor, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil (CI: 3 TBSP) and pulse away. Taste test. Add more garlic, salt and/or cheese as needed and blend again. Add more oil to get to the consistency you want.

oil on top

I make my pesto quite dry and coat the surface with olive oil after jarring it. The layer of oil protects the pesto from air, which would turn it all brown and less pretty. So, the pesto loosens up as you scoop it out with the extra oil. I also like to put the extra pine nuts on top, because I can.

tada

the ringbearer

and the golfing

golf lessons

and the cousins

the foursome

casey and caitlin

and the teeth

more teeth

and the mud

and the birthday girl

cealinn

the b-day "cake"

the crawling and the standing (video, click to view)

and the fishing

fishermen

and the swimming

splish, splash

and the bleeding

uck

and the gardening

tlc

liam's harvest

and the occassional pause to smell the flowers

delightful

and the yardwork (video, click to view)

whew!

shhh

Carry on.

It wasn’t a total loss, thankfully. I managed a tiny bit of stitching for Grandma, who is both a mom and one of our birthday girls.

hearts and flowers sampler

It’s the Hearts and Flowers Miniature Sampler Kit from Janet Granger. Stitched on 32 count evenweave fabric with a single thread, the finished piece measures a scant 1.5″ x 2″ or so. It is itty-bitty and was really fun to work on such a tiny scale.

that's a plain old dime for scale

I decided to keep on riding the cross stitch wave and also stitched up a triangle scissor case for G’ma. I slightly modified the Cross Stitch Happy: Hummingbird pattern and followed the Litla Skvis assembly tutorial.

front

back

I modified the design on the back flap to include a single flower from Cross Stitch Happy’s scissor fob pattern and my initials.

back flap

The case is stitched on 16 count cream Aida with two strands of floss and lined with white duck cloth canvas. The canvas was a bear to stitch through, but should provide good protection from the sharp tip of embroidery scissors. Not so sure white was the best choice, but as it was the only color I had…

canvas lining

I must say, stitching on 16 count after the mini on 32 was, well, weird. But fun.

can't get more spring-y than this

Not much, I know. But better than nothing, I hope.

happy

happier

happiest

What more can you ask for? Well, maybe a pic or two of the big boy for good measure.

what canary?

giddyap

And a little bouquet for grandma…

from the garden

Hope all you moms had a great day.

We dyed our eggs on Friday. Liam was a champ. Helpful hint: using a paintbrush to spin the egg in the dye is much easier than fiddling with the wire holder thingy.

dyeing eggs is an art

voila.

Easter morning was fun. The bunny hid a few candy filled eggs in the living room and left some sweets in our baskets. I’m pretty sure Liam ate only candy all day. Yikes.

for me?

sugar!

Aside: Liam’s easter basket is braided fabric. Constructed similarly to a braided rug and using all but 3 strips of a jelly roll. It’s only about 6″ in diameter and maybe 7″ tall (the bottom pouches out when it’s held by the strap). I quite enjoyed making it. There should be a coordinating basket for Kellan, but I ran out of time.  Surprise! Another jelly roll and some cording are waiting. Surely by next Easter…

Kellan got in the mix too… though, I doubt Easter morning was any more or less bizarre than any other day.

pink and fuzzy. score!

cheese!

silly cute, no?

sweeter than candy

Hippity, hoppity.

daddy's day out

2. The old baby suffered through a week long stomach bug in mid March. Poor little guy.

my loyal boneknapper

3. The fat boy is cute. And happy.

look how cute i am.

3a. Usually.

wahhhhhhhh.

4. The boys can play together (a little).

play time!

5. Kellan is totally working the sippy cup.

glug, glug

6. Liam is getting over sinusitis and an ear infection. Added bonus: no adverse reaction to Cefdinir antibiotic with only two days to go. Yay.

all good now.

Tada!