Snow and Sew

I am so in the mood for sewing. I don’t know if it’s the winter and snow and cozy hot cocoa and holding my infant son during nap time for extra snuggles, but I want these days to last forever. From inside my sewing room/nursery, I watch the fat flakes fall and stitch up fun little projects for those I hold most dear.

Long before I was pregnant I knew I wanted to make clothes for my little person. I bought the appropriate Little Things to Sew by Oliver+S, stocked up on some choice Echino and other import fabrics from Etsy, Fabricworm, and local stores like Stitches and the now-gone Fabric Crush. I wasn’t sure if I would get a boy or girl right away, so I didn’t invest in patterns too much. But I did scour the internet for tutorials and fun things. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Made by Rae’s Celebrate the Boy
• Prudent Baby (hard to navigate for specific ideas, but fun to read)
• Lego Quilt by Wee Wonderfuls
• Make for Baby Boy – 25 tutorials (super cute!)
• Happy Together – Big Girl Room
• Sew Liberated – F & L’s Studio

Seattle had – is having – a rather large snowfall for our area. Now the weather persons are predicting ice storms and our main airport was closed for some time and my husband among many many other happy people, got to work from home.

I used this wonderful wintry time to whip up a couple of special items for my little man. He is growing so fast that he wears 12 month sizes, even though he is 5 months old. Crazy!

Cute little hat he will need to grow into a bit.

A pair of quick change trousers from Anna Maria Horner’s Handmade Beginnings… this is my test pair for my niece.

I am loving this pattern. I will have to make some waist adjustments for my not-so-little man, but the ease of putting these together is nice. Reversible pants are just fun!

Here is a link to all the photos, detailing the stripes and lining in soft yellow and orange flannel. but most importantly ridiculously attractive pictures of my son. I want to make him about a billion of these hats, he is so darn handsome.

And now I seem to have joined up in my first Quilt-A-Long, SWOON. However, my in between project will be more hats and probably a Heidi&Finn Urban Hoodie!

Now, off to “shop my stash” to find some extra bits for my first Swoon block! I got some great advice to make a test block first. I have NO IDEA what I am doing as I have never made a real quilt before, let alone followed a quilt pattern. I suspect that this year, 2012, will be a big huge adventure for me.

Love,

MaLora

Enough

Some days are just not enough; not enough money, not enough fabric, not enough time. It is usually stressful around the holidays, wanting to make everything “just so” I would spend hours researching craft ideas and traditions and events to make my season perfect, full. I spend time flipping through craft blogs, library books, local print magazines looking for what I could do to give people, to show my affection and love. This year, with a four-month old and a new family and new struggles, I had even more self-applied-pressure to have the first perfect Christmas for my baby.  And I didn’t get even 15% of my projects started. I wanted to make these and these and these and maybe these too. I didn’t.

Days ago Kimberly posted on my blog, which I haven’t had the time to update. It reminded me that I enjoy writing, that I enjoy posting because it gives me the chance to congratulate myself and feel proud of all that I have done. Writing helps me focus on what is most important. All the crafting, sewing, tradition making I do is for my family. And for me, my family is enough. Not just my men (my darling C and little boy A) but my brother who comes to visit and play board games with me every couple of weeks. My sister and her family in Olympia who always let us stay overnight and make delicious food and stay up late playing Catan. My other sister in Kansas with her new baby girl. My other brother in college, who is graduating this year, but makes time to talk to me regularly. I am a lucky girl, to have such a fantastic family. And I didn’t realize any of this on my own.

I read this post, here, by Bambino Steps, “You are Enough.” I have a community, of close and not so close people, that I keep near. And while I have a new infant to take care of, when he naps, when I am exhausted, I use my iphone from my husband and read my favorite blogs. I don’t post comments often, and it might make me a lurker, but I have blogs that I adore and feel like I am “close” to the author, like they are my friend. I want to build on these relationships and have a network of bloggers that I can ask questions too, that we can support each other, that we can remind ourselves that we are enough.

I am a little surprised I finished this last Saturday. It came out just perfect, and my little man likes it. The tutorial is from the fabulous “craftiness is not optional” and is great. I am taking her fabulous idea and going to make a couple more for my baby, with different sizes. It fits perfect! He isn’t quite sitting up on his own yet, but his drool from his first tooth coming in certainly makes this apron useful! I used flannel on both sides for extra softness.

So I hope that you understand that you are enough, and that the pile of crafting projects you have half started, or half daydreamed about, are wonderful at whatever level you get to them. That the time you have, you spend with the ones you love. That the energy and adoration you put into your projects are appreciated by the recipients. That there is time enough for love.

Best of luck this new year, with all your goals and dreams.

Love,

MaLora

 

Late night crafting

Last minute gift giving and I am so behind! All crafters feel this way around major holidays, but my excuse is cuter than most:

However, I did manage to whip up a couple felt stockings and am working on a custom set of Christmas stockings for my little family. I estimate, with a 4 month old who is getting his first tooth, that I will get one stocking done in the next three days.

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas this year!

Love,

MaLora

PS: Find me on instagram as “birdandbicycle” – I would love to have more crafters as friends to follow!

 

PPS: handmade clay ornament of my son’s footprint (huge feet!)

In the dark

My son is 4 months old, swinging in his battery operated chair, completely awake in the dark next to me. It is 1:06am and we had a long day of tree decorating, Lego nativity scene building, hot cocoa drinking and listening to Bing Crosby. I love The Winter Season for the holidays. I love giving, and especially crafting handmade gifts.

As this is our first family Christmas, I have really focused on building traditions we can enjoy for years. Completely doable, not to high of expectation or expense, traditions. We visited the Seattle Center for the train village and ice sculpting; got cheeseburgers from Dick’s Drive Inn; walked through the Woodland Park Zoo in the cold (my son is coughing in the dark while I type thus on my iPhone: am I bothering him with the light? Should I check on him? #newmomworries) and unexpected dry Seattle November; started a Lego nativity from scratch (meaning not the set you can buy so that it will change each year); drank copious mugs of hot cocoa already and it is only December 6th. Traditions I can remember to do, enjoy and create and laugh about because the holidays can be stressful too. I want everything to be just perfect. I want the gifts I make to be adored and appreciated. I want to balance social activities with family visits. I want my little, new family to be perfect.

We had a rough beginning. When my husband and I first met we were dating others. When we got married it rained in August. When my son came he was 6+ weeks early and I had already been in the hospital a week. We are a team, and a damn good one. Our newest member is the best so far, and our love as a team grows as he grows ( 4 months and easy 18lbs.) So I have a desire for a fantastic holiday, a vacation, a relaxing into our roles individually and together.

I have spent some time researching tutorials and patterns for holiday decor. What fits into our budget is anything I already have the supplies for. So I am in love with fabric (duh) and whipped up a couple of these awesome decorations in emerald green with gold dots. I am going to make a few more to fill up a glass bowl for my table.

Hope you are all having a lovely winter holiday!

MaLora