nature frames

I forgot to pin it, but I totally copied this idea from... somewhere.  I'm sure I'll stumble on it again.  In the meantime, here's our version.

We picked some lovlies from the yard and pressed them between two layers of contact paper. 

And bordered them with some of the kids colored play tape.  It's some nice to have play tape, I never have to stress about the kids stealing and wasting my tape.  We get ours at Oriental trading.  The kids love it and use it all the time for all kinds of interesting projects.

The items aren't dried or really flattened first, and the flower petals have turned out to be a little 'wet' to stay nice in there for long.

But the look pretty right now.  We haven't put them on the light table yet, but plan to, if they survive this condensation phase.  We need to pick another set and dry them in-between big books for a few weeks.  These can go to preschool. 

the garden -note to self

We are really enjoying the okra this summer.  It's new for us to grow, and has been easy.  I have two plants, but next year, note to self- we will have three or four.  I will need to look into other ways to cook it next year, frying is the only way we eat it currently.  I was told by a friend that one plant is all you need, but I'm not sure if it's my issue or theirs.  It is a constant producer, but I need more that 2 pods (is that what they're called?) at a time.  I have to save them up in the kitchen and a few get soft before I have enough to cook up.  I think they're a funny plant, the okra appears to grow upside down. 

The corn is gone, next year I'll stagger the planting more.  This was our second year to plant corn, our first to get to eat it, so it was a success regardless.  Note to self- next year more corn and stagger the planting.  The stalks are still up because they are the poles for some beans.  I tried the 'three sisters' method (except the bottom sisters -god rest their little green souls are dead).  I won't bother doing this next year because it's hard to get in through the stalks to check the beans.

The tomatoes are peaking, but I am having the same trouble as last year.  My plants get so heavy that I end up with a maze of fabric strips holding things up.  The whole garden gets laced for support making my picking a crawling task.  Literally, I have to crawl from plant to plant.  Next year, I'll use stronger cages or reinforced steel bars or something.

I'm pretty sure I'll be using some poison on the squash next year.  I lost the last one to vine boarers.  That's two years in a row those stinkers have robbed me of a freezer full of zucchini bread. They were the bottom sisters to the corn and beans.

The peas are doing well.  The pole beans aren't as great as the bush beans, next year more bush beans, less pole beans.

I will plant more green beans for sure.  We can have them for supper every few days.  I've boiled them, grilled them, pan fried them and cooked them in other dishes, and I have to say fresh from the garden beans are better than any other green beans, no matter how you cook them. 

guest blogger- cooking with Lou

 Lou:  "Mom, you have to tell everybody about my new recipe.  Write it down on your recipe sheet, tell your friends.  It's so good, everyone should know about it!" 

So, Yeah, Lou and Bee use the stove.  They can each cook at least one meal and love to do so.  I'm always in the kitchen nearby, but they are pretty independent with it.  Bee makes scrambled eggs, Lou makes grilled cheese.  

Lou has invented something new though.  A ramped up grilled cheese.  He calls it the cheese and hotdog wrap.  I thought at first he was saying 'cheese and hotdog rat' and I was confused. 

He wanted the recipe shared with the world, so here it is.  He toasts up one slice of bread, then add the cheese on top of the bread and at the same time adds the hot dog in the pan next to the bread.  While the cheese melts, the hot dog heats.  Then you just throw the dog in the middle of the bread and wrap it up.  The melty cheese holds it all together.  He made us all one and it was delish. 

Just trying to train him up to be a good husband. 

eye injury part 3

I occasionally get asked about Lou's eye.  How's it doing?  Did his vision suffer?  etc.  People stumble upon his eye injury (caused by Dr. Bronners soap) since it comes up in a google search.  Apparently, he's not the only one it's happened to and a quick search brings people to his story.  I've had two scared parents now email me directly wanting an update, since they've had a little person do something similar.

His eye is great now.  He does have a fear of the peppermint smell!  His vision does not seem to have suffered long term (although he was blind for 5 days!).  I think it's affected his hearing- he's pretty selective now!  Perhaps that's just something about being 5.  It was a long week for us, thankfully I was working part time and had flexible and understanding colleges and hubby was able to be flexible with work too.  Lou really couldn't go anywhere (except the eye dr) for about a week.

What is this about, an eye injury?  Read here:  part 1,  Part 2. , Part 3 2014

The co-op was initially unapologetic, but when I went in and spoke to someone in person, they were very sweet. I only wanted them to understand that they soap was a liability to them.  Someone else might not be so kind as me about it.  She said they have been so worried and were sure we'd never be in again.  They did put up a sign warning that the soap bottle sprayed wildly and were very apologetic about it.  The eye Dr. did not charge us extra for the weekend visits, and the partner we saw at all of those extra visits (our regular eye dr.) almost apologized that the other dr. in the office had sent us home so quickly the first day without investigating it further.  He said it should have been handled differently and was a mistake.  Except he said it without admitting it was a mistake.

So there, that's part 3.

Lou did have his vision tested at his 5 year old kindergarten appointment and didn't do so well.  That's mostly because he refuses to speak at our doctor office. There is another story though!

(He said he was participating in a 'mud run.'  Geesh!)

The Indian dress

You can't have one kid in a home with an Indian costume without the other wanting one.  Poor Bee isn't as persistent as Lou (as in he went to my fabric stash, grabbed the fabric and said, I'll be waiting by the sewing machine until you make it).  She got put off a whole week.  

No more waiting.  

Bee got her dress.  It came together in about 20 minutes start to finish, which only would work on an Indian costume where it's edges are supposed to be unfinished and a little rough.  I wanted to add fringe down the sides, but she likes a slim look... to all outfits.... no puff.. slim.  We're working on that. 

I traced the nightgown she was wearing and added a zipper in the back.  She cut the belt while I was sewing.  The only additional piece was a fringy 'bib' added to the front. 

She got a little medicine bag to tie around her waist and was all set. 

Thank goodness there was a break in the heat today because she and Lou and been setting up camp in the front yard and playing Indian village all morning.

tie dye undies and other birthday reviews

This isn't a paid advertisement, although wouldn't it be cool if it was?  I only ever get asked to write about products (for pay) for products that I'm like, "No, have you read my blog?  I'm pretty much all about not using - whatever said free and paid spot is."  Not that that happens all that often anyway.  So here's a freebie for tulip tie dye.

For Bee's birthday,  we got her some tie dye.  I've only ever dyed a whole batch of shirts, like at camp, where we used full bottles of rit dye.  However, I knew I didn't want a whole wardrobe of tie dye, rather a handful of fun shirts.  I picked up a tulip kit at the big box store near us.

It promised to be easy and clean and give us several shirts in great colors.  We've washed them a few times and while they never look this fresh again, they still look really nice and better than any others I've made in the past.

We had tons of fun and the shirts turned out great.  We even searched down some white undies to be dyed as well with the last drops of dye.  This isn't the exact kit we used, ours had 5 colors and was called like the "bright colors" kit.  Ours has two packets of each color, so we can dye it up again next summer.

Another goodie she got for her birthday was this glitter tattoo kit which she saw on a commercial and begged for!  We are pretty careful not to let the kids watch commercials, but alas, one sneaks in here or there... then we really want whatever it is.  That's pretty much how we know about fruit loops too.

Oh, we've been having fun with this!  We are all inked up.  All the kids in the neighborhood look like they've been to the carnival.  They last for 1-2 weeks so far and the ones not on our hands have done better than those on hands.  I guess all the hand washing kills them off early.  We saw a booth at the fair doing these exact tattoos and for what it would have cost us all to get one, we could have bought the delux kit!

post offcice- dramatic play

This has been our summer of dramatic play.  The kids have really gotten lost in some some play set up with just a few props to get them started.  They are playing a deeper play than they would a few years ago since they know the roles of the players a bit more.  I love it.  I usually have to get them started by playing the first few days for the first 10 minutes and then I can busy myself with something else nearby.  Most of this dramatic play has been happening in the basement, so sewing is my best choice.

Bee is the youngest of our neighborhood girls, but even they have been begging to come in and play post office.   We had a restaurant set up earlier in the summer and we would have 6 or so neighbors over, up to the 5th grader playing!

 We used an old mailbox sorter and some old shipping boxes and envelopes we had on hand to get the set up going.  We added some paper squares to be used as stamps and stamp and ink pad set, colored tape, and the scale from our play kitchen set.  

I think I'll end up dragging my set up into preschool at some point.  If my kids are having fun with it, I am sure my school friends will too.

tatanne bag- my back to school bag

It's called the tatanne bag, but I'm dubbing it the 'back to school bag.' I like to sew a little something for myself before school gets so busy. The kids have 15 days and I have just a few more. 

 

This pattern is from  The Sister Of (De Zuster Van) and is available for free download here.  Make sure to download the English version (should that be what you need).  

 I bought the fabric first and then looked for a bag I wanted to make, which is the opposite way it should be done.  I bought 1/2 yard of 2 fabrics and and 1/3 yard of 2 others, which should be enough fabrics for many bags. That was 1/3 yard short for this one.  I squeezed every inch out of what I bought and the 1/3 yard I had to pick up the next day.  So I guess in all it has 2 yards of fabric, plus some extra random fabric from the stash that I used for interfacing. 

The Sister Of does warn that English is not her native language in her English translated version of the directions, and there are a few rough spots in the directions.  This is not for a beginning sewist, mostly because the directions are vague at times and really require a knowledge of bag construction. There are a few mistakes in the directions where you are asked to use the wrong piece number or not directed to cut out the proper number of pieces. Also, there is not a traceable pattern, she gives shapes and measurements and you draft your own.  The actual sewing is not too terribly difficult, it's the other stuff.  So it you have made bags and don't get too ruffled by some filling in of the blanks, you'll be fine.

It's bigger than I thought, bigger than her pictures.  Maybe something was added in the translation?  Perhaps when I drafted the pattern, I made a mistake.  As far I could understand, you had to add when cutting for the seam allowance, which may have been my downfall.  I would have liked it a bit smaller, but it works well for being on the go.  I can throw in a book and a water bottle and a movie that needs returned to the library and have plenty of room for all the loot the kids add.

I uses 4 rings and I really love that detail.  The straps on the sides are just loosely tied, and can be loosed up should you pack it full.  All of these fabrics are from our Joanns, I didn't write down the names but will check next time I'm there.

I added the little pleated flower with a safety pin so I can change it out as I want. Should I make this bag again, I would reinforce the straps a little more, and tried to take it down a touch in size.