DAISY Chain Craft Fair!

Happy (belated) Easter friends!  I'm terribly sorry I've been a bit absent lately, but I've been thinking about catching up every day!  There has been a lot of behind-the-scenes type work going on around our house lately, and I'm so excited to share it with you!  As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm going to be setting up my first craft fair booth at DAISY Chain's 2nd Annual craft fair in just a couple weeks.  Today I want to give you an idea of what I've been working on for my little table! 

 

 

Art Print Cards!  From several of my larger pieces, miniaturized, folded, inscribable, and givable.

 

 

Baby and Toddler Skirts!  My daughter wants to wear a comfortable "dancing skirt" all the time and these are such a joy to make.  My fabrics and trimmings are often from my multigenerational stash (thanks Mom!) and vintage, upcycled sources, but always thoroughly cleaned beforehand, of course.  

Bandana Bibs!  Little ones can produce an illogical amount of drool, especially while teething, but they can sure look cute at the same time!  I love the look of these little bandana style drool bibs and tried to incorporate more absorbent fabrics into these.  I have both regular and slouchy (shown) styles.

 



I also have a variety of winter and summer bonnets, candles and magnets. There are also many more styles and designs of each, this is just to give you an idea  And who knows what else I might get a hankering to whip out before the big weekend! ;)

It was so hard to decide what to focus on, but this is the direction I've decided to take for my first show.  I'm a little giddy through all this prep, and I truly hope if you're able to make the trip that I'll see you there!  April 9-10 from 12:00 - 4:00 pm at 1244 Lawrence St. in Eugene.  Look for my sign (it will hopefully be slightly more embellished by then):

KISS Play Dress or Shirt (Keep It Simple, Sweetie)

Pretty sure I figured out (one of) my problem(s) this week.  I often feel like I do nothing well, but I'm interested in doing almost everything.  You've heard the phrase Jack of all Trades?  Me to a t.  It's becoming clear to me as I see the same attitude in my tiny daughter whose favorite phrase right now is, "Me got this."  I got it, I'm good, I can figure this out by myself.  Apparently, from my own mothers stories, my similar phrase at age two was, "Do it by myself."  I'm sure it's quite common among two year olds, but I evidently never grew out of that!  I have this desire in me to figure things out by myself and just be as self sufficient as possible.  And most often this comes out in a joy to learn new skills such as cooking from scratch, animal tending, and homemade utensils and clothing.  But then I'm on to the next thing, often without honing my skills to an adept level, but just enough to get by in a pinch if I needed to. 

Ah, well.  Perhaps expertise will simply come with age?  Speaking of which, is it just me, or has time picked up the pace a little bit?  It seems to be screaming by with a 4 and 2 year old growing in our home!  Wow!  Every day they amaze me!  And every day I'm amazed by which of their clothes no longer fit! =)  Even a non-parent friend of mine commented yesterday how absurd he found it to spend a fortune on a child's wardrobe when they so quickly out grow (or wear through) it! 

And while children's clothes can be less expensive, great deals can be found a thrift shops, and little blessings of hand-me-downs sometimes appear, there's something very satisfying in making something specifically for your child.  While I love knit and crochet, the investment of time alone into the project makes it a precious commodity that I tend to reserve for occasions such as church or the like.  But more often than not, my children live in play clothes.  I've made (refashioned) several simple play dresses for my daughter, but have been hesitant to share them on here because they're not perfect, not well-finished they're just comfortable play dresses that she will outgrow in a couple months!  But for those of you who might have a similar interest and goal, I'll sketch out my quick process.  Usually this dress takes me less than an hour, start to finish.

1)  Select a shirt: I do this from my give-away pile.  Some stains and small tears can be avoided depending on where you place your pattern.  Select a long sleeved shirt if you want your new dress to have long sleeves.

I wanted to put this here because it's often difficult to determine the shape of the sleeve.  You want to shoot for this bell shape where the sleeve will connect to the bodice so that it will hang well. 

2) Trace pattern: take a shirt or dress that currently fits (or mentally add a slight margin if you know you want it bigger), turn it inside out and fold it in half.  Likewise, fold the adult shirt in half. Line up he collar and, after you've determined how long you want the bodice to be, trace arm holes, sides and waist, lifting the sleeves to trace the arm holes if necessary.  Continue the waist cut all the way across the shirt.  This bottom rectangle will be your (already hemmed!) skirt section.  If you need to make it shorter, cut away desired strip size from the waist side.  Then determine how long you need the sleeves to be and line up the top folded edge before tracing it'sbell shape onto the sleeves of the shirt.  Don't forget seam allowance of about 1/4".   

3) Cut pieces: remember to consider seam allowance. 

4) Sew:  With right sides together, I like to start with the shoulders and sides of the top first.  Be sure you sew from the collar side toward the periphery on the shoulder seams so the collar is sure to line up.

 

 

     After this you can do a slight gather on the skirt, but I often just pin the bodice (right side out) to the skirt (inside out over the bodice so right sides are facing) at the quarter marks and then gently gather as I go. 

 

And to finish off with the sleeves, you need to sew the seam the length of the sleeve first, set it into the armhole of the bodice, and (pinned and right sides facing again) carefully sew around. 

 

 

 

 

New dress!  Time: 1 hour, Cost: $0 Ready to play and I won't worry a lick if it gets muddy, stained or torn!  This easily translates into a shirt pattern and you know it's going to fit your little one perfectly!  Though I tend to make mine on the larger side so she can wear it just a little bit longer! =)  I've used this concept for all the tops pictured.  As I mentioned, I'm not much of a sewer (Haha!  "Sewer!"  I mean "seamstress!"), so if you have any questions or I can provide better instructions in some way, I would love to hear from you!

Variation: with this sweater dress, I omitted the waistline and continued my side seams to the original bottom hem.

Variation: Use a men's dress shirt (and keep the pockets!)

Variation: no waist, higher bottom for shirt style that I did have to hem myself

Involving the Wee Ones in the Thanksgiving Fun (Plus a Free Printable!)

My Helpers getting ready for the Grandparents' arrival!

 

Wow, is it ever a Monday!  Whew!  And just before Thanksgiving, no less!  Actually, that thought is making me feel happier!  I'm so excited for Thanksgiving this year!  This is the first year since we've been married to have this holiday with ALL our family (AND some new friends!) together.  And its going to be in our tiny house!  Yeah it's going to be cozy! =)

 

Maybe I should be a little more stressed, but for whatever reason, I'm not really feeling it!  And I'm grateful for that.  My simple goal is that one will leave with empty stomachs or hearts.

 

One of the jobs I love as a Mom is the tradition maker/keeper.  I get to bring and teach the meaning of these holidays to our little ones.  The past several years we'd already been covered in feet of snow and ice, so this has been a bit of a new feel to Thanksgiving this year.  Trying to keep it simple and fun (we are dealing with toddlers/preschools after all) here are some of the ways I've tried to get them involved and just keep the celebration fun.

 

1. Thankful Tree: tried and true idea, new printable!  We did this with our play group last year and for the last several on our own.  You can just draw leaves on or cut them out and glue them on.  I'm going to try to have our oldest write out his own thankful words to put on the tree this year as he's just starting to figure that out!  If you open the blank tree in a new tab, it should be big enough to print out for your own thankfulness.

 

2. Coffee Filter Leaves:  As I mentioned before, colorful leaves were a scarce commodity by the time Thanksgiving rolled around in Fairbanks, so these colorful substitutions were a fun craft for the littles.  I cut out a simple leaf shape from a small stack of filters, drew the veins on some in permanent marker the set the young 'uns loose with their watercolors.  It's fun to watch the colors bleed so well into the loose filter paper.  We tried to stick to autumn colors, but our little lady was bound and determined to have a blue leaf this year!  They also look very nice in a window with the light shining through!

 

 

3. Leaf snack bowls: our super creative friend invited us over to make these fun little bowls!  I love how they turned out!  We rolled out oven baked clay, pressed a leaf into the clay then removed the leaf to leave it's impression.  After trimming the edges, we gently pressed them into oven safe bowls to give them shape and let them cook according to the clay package directions (I believe it was 15 min. at 350).  Once they had cooled, we did a coat of acrylic paint, then a metallic top coat.  I think they turned out so cute and we are definitely setting them out on Thursday!

 

 

4. Pumpkin Votives: I was seeing this idea online in several places and thought it would be a fun, quick addition to the tablescape.  I did have to go buy the right drill bit (1 1/2" to fit a standard tea light candle).  Actually, my husband and son took over this project on their own!  I love it when the guys get excited about these types of projects!  The only things I would warn is not to get too small of gourds: they just crack.  And then just be careful not to drill too deep!

 

 

 

I had plans for thankful list napkin holders or placemats and coloring sheets for the kids, but my printer machine decided to bite the dust last night!  And I still need to find a good story of Thanksgiving to read (any suggestions?) As far as setting the table, I usually just like to use what we already have laying around like harvested ptarmigan feathers, pinecones, doilies and gourds.  Those all feel so autumn-ey to me!  If you'd like to see how the day comes together for us, check out our instagram account https://www.instagram.com/growwildmychild/ 

 

More fun ideas for the day of Thanksgiving:

 

1. Coloring page

2. Hidden Pictures

3. Thankful List Silverware Sleeve

4. Trail Mix and Poem

 

 

 



 

Learning to Hike with the Littles

Can you believe October is almost over!?  I know I do this every month, but WOW!  We have just been enjoying every moment to the max and I think that makes time move at a quicker clip.  One of the highlights of this week was doing an apple u-pick across the road and getting a TON more apples!  Such a great time made even better by sharing the experience with friends (a few more photos on my Instagram growwildmychild).  I bring this up to let you know I’ve added (and will likely soon add more) recipes to my apple round up post from earlier this season including apple scones and apple sauce!

 

Our second great adventure happened this week when my beloved got an extra day off work and took us to the mountains!!!  Oh man, the mountains are my place.  Do you have somewhere that, just by being there, you can literally feel yourself recharging and being inspired!  I think it’s different for everyone, but for me it comes from the majesty of the mountains. 

And I think this little one and I are like minded

 

I think it’s important to get to these places as often as possible (maybe through mental imagery if not physically?) and that we need these moments of getting away to refocus and remember the Almighty Creator.  He knew we would need these wild spaces to discover!  I love how several times in the Bible (Matthew 5:8, 14:23, 15:29, 17:1) it mentions how even Jesus took time to go out into the wilderness alone or just with his closest friends.  Of all the things Jesus exemplified to us, I don’t think this seemingly small act should be overlooked.  Nature proclaims the glory of God!

 

Now, hiking with little wildlings may not always be such a rejuvenating experience.  What I’m about to write is mostly my learned-the-hard-way lessons!   But when we started having children, I began to wonder if our bush-whacking, mountain climbing, woods-wandering days were on hold until they were much older.  And to be honest, we did cut back for a bit (partially because of the Alaskan winters), but I’ve learned some ways to get out with the little ones in ways that everyone can have a wonderful time, do some exploring, soak up the grandeur, learn so many new things that we might not at home, and make memories together.

 

1.       Getting there:  before I had children, I just thought that all little ones would just fall asleep in the car.  Boy, was I wrong!  Both our children HATED car rides and would often scream. The.  Entire.  Drive…  Needless to say, this is quite stressful and does not make for  a refreshing day for anyone.  Honestly, we did everything to keep our car rides to a minimum those first years (life got better with forward facing car seats).  So, I’m just going to be real and let you know that we tried to find things that were as close as possible and went just because we knew we needed to!   There are many great resources to keep little ones entertained in the car (several in this list), but I think a CD of silly songs we put together was the best remedy for our babies.  And any snacks or drinks possible, especially if you’re doing any elevation change and ear-popping needs to happen.  I kept thinking they must get car sick and now I wonder if there’s any way to diffuse peppermint or something that might help with that?  Hm, just a thought.

 

2.       Tiny Legs:  we’ve been trying to keep to the trails that are pretty short (less than 3 miles) partially for their little legs trying to keep up and also just knowing ahead of time that we’re probably going to be carrying them for portions, depending on their ages.  If you go in expecting that, you can be better prepared.  Think about what shoes they wear, if they can ride in a back pack or carrier or just your arms?

 

3.       Realistic Hikes: you know your kids and what they’re going to be capable of.  Or if you’re not sure, start with shorter paths and work your way up.  Trail heads should all have a sign that the start that will give you an idea of the trail’s length and difficulty.  Or check out everytrail.com  It lists all the trails in your area and gives these details as well. 

 

4.       Permit Rests:  Depending on the age of your little ones, frequent rest (or just distraction) breaks should be expected.  When hiking alone, I tend to want to see the sights on the way, but basically keep moving and get to where I’m going.  I think this is where it is beneficial to have children with you because they make you stop and notice things differently.  Give yourself permission to take breaks with them and really observe things that they find interesting.  This is where so much spontaneous education can occur!  We found a bouncing branch and a tree root slide that never would have caught our attention had we been walking alone! =)

 

5.       Bare necessities: exploring can be hard work, especially if your legs are barely a foot long!  Don’t forget to pack a few snacks (for sustenance and incentive!) and plenty of water.  Dress in (or pack in) layers.  Even if it feels fine at the trailhead, some areas can be windy or cooler (near flowing water or ice?)  And a couple band-aids (yeah, wish I had brought those!)

 

6.       If cries happen, it’s okay.  It keeps the bears away.  We ended up reaching our first hike right about nap time and our little one had about 15 minutes of bellowing.  I figured she’d either fall asleep or get over it (it was one  of those cries) and she decided to keep on trucking and see one more waterfall!

 

Then just soak it all in and enjoy your time together!  Actually, on our way home, the kids were crashed in the back seat as the sun was setting and we came upon a waterfall just off the road.  Josh and I took turns running down the hill to experience it while the other waited with the tuckered tykes.  For all the joys of hiking with the littles, I must say, if you get a moment to yourself among a sight like this, TAKE IT!   There’s something powerful and calming about being alone in nature, even just for a minute.  Then go back to enjoying those with you and treasure the moments in your heart!

 

“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.”  Isaiah 55:12

Happy adventuring!

Happy Hiker!