May the Force be with Baby: A Star Wars Quilt

We've had a good first week of school! This is Dorothy getting ready to blow out our circle time candle on the first day. I've learned that a) homeschooling takes a lot more of my day than I had been able to comprehend (although I'd been warned about that) and b) I need to make some curriculum adjustments or we'll both get bored in a hurry. I've purchased a ready-made kindergarten curriculum and I love many things about it but it's a little soft on some skills we're ready to march on into. That's a great thing about homeschool, I have to say, because I can easily make these adjustments to suit my specific child.

And late last night after my wee padawans were snug in their beds I snuck back down to the sewing machine and made a baby quilt to gift to a friend. This is for the first baby of an old college pal. This friend is the only person with whom I've attended a midnight movie showing (he was in costume) and the only person I know who owns (or owned? It's been a while...) red contact lenses. When he told me he and his wife were expecting a boy I knew I had to make him something cool and nothing light blue or fluffy.

I bought one fat quarter of Star Wars fabric on Etsy, then found coordinating prints on Fabric.com. I used the licensed fabric to make homemade patches and then made strips of the rest. I'm not much of a quilter but I like the cutely haphazard look of strip blankets. I machine stitched it all and didn't use batting because I wanted it to be thin and flexible enough to actually wrap the baby in. The finished size is 34 by 38 inches and the back is a soft black flannel. It felt funny to have the sewing machine threaded in black to make a baby gift, but I think this one will be appreciated by the baby's father, at least.

Our homeschool "classroom"

We start school Monday! I loved this house before we purchased it party for this cozy, cabinlike room tucked down in the basement. Touring houses almost two years ago I kept my eye out for the perfect space the kids and I could dedicate to our creative endeavors--a parent/child studio.  I'm kind of joking when I now call it our homeschool classroom; we'll learn here, as we'll learn everywhere. We do have a table and chairs set aside in this room for our morning circle and lessons. I've not gotten much use out of this room up to this point because it is, ahem, rather afflicted by water. Like the kind that is supposed to stay outside in heavy rains. Yuck. But we've made some changes to our gutters and are hoping to have some professional work done soon. Meanwhile, I've ditched the rug and repainted the floor and I'm hopeful that even with a little water we should be able to clean up and move on.

Since we're going with painted concrete floors until the water problems are completely solved I thought I might as well have fun with the concept. I used exterior paint to make a big sun on the floor in front of our awesomely cozy (and functional) fireplace. On some wicked winter morning in a few months I will laugh at the snow and the cold outside, give thanks that I do not have to take my car on icy roads to participate in any kind of carpool, and will head down to our quilt-laden futon by the fire with a huge stack of good books, a mug of coffee, my kids and be happy.

New beeswax crayons.

Paintings move from the easel to our art line.

A thrift-store mirror and some hooks turn our dress-up box into a full station.

Tools of the trade...

And one snapshot of my garden, to represent that our "classroom" is actually much bigger than our basement studio. This is going to be an adventure! Hopefully one that is fun. I'm excited.
Wishing you and yours a happy start to the school year as well!

Our entryway and a perpetual calendar

I sometimes enjoy reading other blogs and often get inspired by them. There are only so many ways certain tasks or projects can be done, so there will often be some overlap between the creative projects of different crafty bloggers. There is a difference between inspiration, intentional knock-offs, and flat out copycatting, right? Last winter I bought yellow paint to makeover my family room, the exact same color I've used in my living spaces in my last two houses. I tried to think of ways to make a user-friendly entryway spot to keep my family's accoutrements tidy near our main (side) entrance. I purchased a row of hooks, a little step stool from IKEA, and a big basket to keep everyone's shoes in. I decided to blog about it after I painted the wall behind them. The very next week Soule Mama blogged about a very similar project and I had to laugh--maybe great minds think alike? Then I realized she actually did it a bit better than me because she included a row of hooks for the children, not requiring them to use the step stool like I was. So, inspired by her execution of a project that exists in many homes' entryways, I added a row of bottom hooks myself after our recent paint job. The space now functions better. Isn't sharing ideas great?

I'd like to make the point that while taking inspiration from the beautiful marketplace of the mama blogosphere is acceptable and even lovely, actually taking someone's intellectual property and passing it off as your own is not okay. It is hurtful, wrong, and fundamentally uncreative to take something that belongs to someone else and present it to the world as if you own it. Inspiration is lovely. Following tutorials, giving credit and back-linking is grand. Passing another person's intellectual property off as your own, especially in a way that diverts search engine traffic from the blog for which it is intended, is stealing. (Um, yeah, sorry I had to get all preachy, right? But I wouldn't say it unless I felt like I needed to...)

Moving on, Dorothy has been asking me every day for a week how many days are left until we start school. Although homeschooling kindergarten at my house is actually going to be a pretty informal and fluid event, I have decided to follow the school schedule of our local public schools so that Dorothy and her public-schooling BFF next door will always have their days off together. It seemed high time for me to finish the perpetual calendar we will be referencing every morning and to let her see for herself how many days we have until we officially begin. I sewed rows of clear vinyl pockets over fabric that matches my new kitchen curtains. I printed off little cards with the days and numbers on them and inserted them into the pockets. I will task Dorothy will decorating/labeling the special days on our calendar (like the first day of school!) and she'll add a sticker indicating the morning's weather to each card as we go. Who knows, maybe the whole family will be better organized now that we have a pretty, easy-to-update calendar right there in the kitchen. (Yeah, right.)

A very exciting trip

For the first time since preschool began in the fall, I really can't wait for it to end.  Dorothy has had a great experience but the commute is getting to me.  I'm tired of trying to schedule all of our family's living around the picking up and the dropping off.  I'm increasingly plagued by the annoying feeling that I can never get anything done, which must mean my priorities are off somewhere.  At this point I'm thinking that the problem is the prioritization of sending my kid to a great school on the other side of town, and I know how to fix that.  I'm glad we've chosen to homeschool next year so our lives and our learning can be more seamless.  In the meantime we're making do with weekends, like this Saturday when Noah's Ark and my sewing project collided, creating a brand new playscape and a cozy scene.  It was neat the way the toy took on a whole new creative dimension after I'd scooted the sofa over and spread out my work--the animals took on completely new existences. I'm finally working on the yellow quilt for Dorothy's room that occasioned the purchase of many yellow-toned sheets almost a year ago, when we were still playing the real estate game and day-dreaming of living in our current house (wallpaper and all).

My household now includes (cue ominous music) a walking toddler.  He took steps the day before his birthday, apparently feeling the pressure of that milestone--or perhaps all the overheard whispered conversation about what an early walker his sister was.  In any case, he's a full-fledged across-the-room walker now, and wow is that dangerous. I'm so tired of replacing all the contents of my drawers that I went to the hardware store and bought an entire can of bungee cords and have been attempting to babyproof with them.  They actually work pretty well on places like these.  I have to make sure I don't get them on there too tight because I don't want to put stress on the cabinetry, but they do seem to be deterring the marauding child for a whileand I didn't have to screw in any complicated locking mechanisms.  (P.S.  Stay tuned for a future before and after in which those kitchen cabinets become white!)

Also this weekend we took advantage of a Monday preschool holiday to take a one night getaway with our extended family.  In honor of Dorothy's upcoming birthday we journeyed to her idea of Paradise--the Great Wolf Lodge outside Cincinnati. We went there once before, as a sort of consolation prize to her after a summer spent watching a newly-pregnant Mommy lie on the sofa in nauseous misery, and she's talked about the experience ever since (the Lodge experience, not Mommy's pregnancy--ha). I'm on their e-mail list so I know when they have good rates, and I really do think it is a worthwhile trip for the money.  It's not too far from home, not as overwhelming as a large park would be, and holds just the right amount of child-sized pleasures to keep a kid Dorothy's age happy for a short trip. From the discovery of the complimentary child shower gel to the wolf mascot's bedtime story, the experience kept a smile on Dorothy's face for 24 hours straight.  (And did I mention that all her doting grandparents went?  Lucky girl!)

I wasn't sure what baby brother's take on the excursion would be, but after a short hesitation as he explored the splashing water he seemed to enjoy himself as well.  We had to keep his stumbling little zombie steps from carrying his chubby baby legs out into deep water!

Unrelated, if anyone else likes embellishing t-shirts for themselves or kids, Old Navy is having a spring stock-up sale right now that involves good prices ($4 and $5) on solid-colored tees.  These shirts are much better for crafting than the ones sold at craft stores because they have a more flattering shape and are softer.  They won't last forever, but do you really need them to?  They are comfortable and cheap!  Now I've got a whole bag full of future t-shirt projects waiting.