Bits and Pieces

I am so utterly delighted that both of my children like to drink tea. This warms the inner workings of my Anglophilic heart like nobody's business! Granted, I shall have to wait to introduce them to the glories of black tea until I'm willing to let them consume caffeine, but Red Raspberry leaf tea will do for now (besides, it's quite healthy and actually reminds me of black tea). 

I recently unpacked a set of dishes I had as a child, and decided that it was time for Rosa to have her own tea mug -- Little Man has my childhood Postman Pat mug, so it seemed appropriate for Rosa to have my Mrs. Tiggywinkle mug! It's the perfect size for her chubby little fingers.

Life is speeding by -- not busy, really (I'm trying to avoid using the word "busy" these days, because it's so overused in our culture), but very full. The roses on our back porch finally bloomed, much to my delight. I couldn't believe the profusion of roses a few weeks ago! They've all bloomed out now, but for a few weeks our locale seemed covered in them. 

Also, Little Man's type A tendencies are becoming increasingly apparent. Just take a gander at this very symmetrical creation:

During a recent visit to Barnes and Noble, he sat at the Duplo table and made a square house -- the entire first layer of bricks was one color, and the second layer was another color. As a child, I was a bit psychotic about matching, symmetrical Lego colors, so it's interesting to see that Little Man is the same way!

I have more to share -- a few projects and such -- but between a visit from my family (hurray!) and my general lack of motivation to upload pictures, that will have to wait for another time. It seems strange to be saying goodbye to May already. I wonder what June will have in store?

From the Lake to the Land

Some new friends recently introduced us to a local playground and nature area -- the kind of nature trails that dreams are made of. Maybe it helps that we first visited in Spring, while the wisteria was blooming. 

There's a lake, too. A beautiful, rippling lake.

Walking through this little bit of paradise is like listening to "From the Lake to the Land" by Foreign Fields*. Peaceful. Mesmerizing. Something I want to do again and again.

The Canadian geese have not quite finished their exodus. It's been so long since I've even seen a Canadian goose!

There were hundreds of Mayapples carpeting the forest floor -- I'd never seen these before, but fortunately was able to find them with a Google search. They have a single flower below the umbrella-like leaves, and apparently produce a yellow fruit that's only edible when fully ripe (and in small quantities). I think I'll pass, thanks. But they're lovely.

We've taken a few walks along the nature trails already, and I anticipate many more such walks to follow. How can I resist, when strolling under this verdant canopy makes me feel glad to be alive? We've had some stresses lately (most recently, several hundred dollars of flooring & appliance repair resulting from a broken washing machine), but as long as we're there all of those stresses melt away.

Oh, the wisteria! One of my favorite of all flowers, along with foxgloves and daffodils. It's been years since I've really seen any (though it was actually quite common in our area of Florida -- I just never saw any in our immediate vicinity). The nature trails here are dripping with it. Glades filled with light and shadow and fragrance.

And my sweet little ones, growing bigger and stronger and faster before my eyes. I so love to watch them explore, to see the delight in their eyes as they soak up their new surroundings. How grateful I am to have a place to take them that's so easy to access -- it's only a few minutes from our home (like everything around here, it seems!).

It's a beautiful world God has made, isn't it? Beautiful in spite of sin, in spite of the curse. If this little corner of His creation is so lovely, what will the new heavens and the new earth have in store?


*Note: I'm a Foreign Fields fan, but have not listened to all of their music -- I certainly can't recommend the song Mountaintop, due to some entirely unnecessary language. I do love Fragile Branches, Names and Races, and Fake Arms. Just sayin'

A Comfy Conveyance for Laddie -- the Homemade Baby K'tan

I didn't have much in the way of carriers for Little Man when he was small -- I made a Mei Tai, but that was only useful when he was a bit bigger (and he never really loved it). I also had a ring sling, but just didn't like the way it fit. I wanted a Moby wrap, but didn't want to pay the money. Yes, they are easy to DIY, but they still require five yards of jersey (unless you incorporate a seam or two). Plus, I had seen people trying to put them on, and couldn't quite envision mummifying myself in 5 yards of fabric in a parking lot. 

Then I found out about the Baby K'tan -- two big "loops" of fabric connected by a little loop in the back, with a sash for extra support. It had the coziness of the Moby without the excess fabric. They're still a bit pricey (though you can pick one up on Ebay for around $20), but I found a tutorial and made one in brown knit for Rosa. I loved it, and so did Rosa! There's a bit of a learning curve when you first start wearing it, but I dare say it's no more (and probably less) than the Moby. 

But brown knit is rather dull, wouldn't you say? So for Laddie (and future babies, Lord willing) I remade it in my beloved Flight organic knit in "Mineral" by Birch Fabrics. At first I didn't make the sash, because I found I rarely used the sash with my brown carrier. But after wearing Laddie once or twice in this carrier, I realized he was sagging too much and needed the extra support.

Too bad Laddie napped for the entirety of his first nature hike! I'm wearing him in
"Kangaroo" position in this picture, but have since moved on to the "Hug" position.

Of course, by this time I had used up all but one piece of my Flight knit fabric, and I didn't like the idea of covering up most of the carrier with a solid sash. So I squared up the edges of my last scrap and used an incredibly soft and thick thrifted charcoal-colored tee as an accent fabric. I love how it turned out! The dark grey of the accent fabric blends with the lighter grey linen I used for the rest of my "Flight" items (stroller canopy and accessories).

Details? I used French seams and hemmed the edges of the actual carrier (not necessary with knit, but my patterned fabric is white on the underside and looks better this way), and also made a small loop of fabric to connect the larger loops -- just like the actual Baby K'tan (the tutorial I linked to doesn't include this step). The sash has tapered ends, because it's easier to tie on that way. I've been using my Flight knitting bag to store the carrier, because it's easy to grab and throw in the car on my way out the door. Which means I'll need to make a new knitting bag. Poor me... *wink*

Give Me Liberty

I've had my eye (in a favorable way) on Liberty fabrics for a long while. I've also had my eye (in a not-so-favorable way) on their price! It still boggles my mind a bit that fabric can be quite that expensive! 

And then, my chance came -- a Liberty print was going out of stock on Fabric.com, and was greatly reduced. It's a standard cotton, so it was on the lower end of the price spectrum to begin with. I snatched up some Lifestyle Stile Collection Herbert in green and pink and squirreled it away, with plans to make it into a dress for Rosa. Fast forward nearly a year, and the fabric was still awaiting its incarnation. Because actually starting a project means failure may be imminent, and the more I like a fabric, the less excited I am about the prospect of failure. 

But, at very long last, here it is:

It came out as more of a tunic than a dress, since Rosa grew quite a bit between the time of purchase and the time of creation! But I'm glad I waited, because two other fabrics came into my possession during that interval. The first was a lovely white empire-waist blouse that I found for $1. It was a stretch when I bought it -- there were so many things about it the just didn't work for me (a tad too snug, not nursing friendly, sheer enough to need an undershirt), but the bottom edge of the tunic was so beautifully embroidered that I couldn't resist. And, lo and behold, it made the perfect "petticoat" layer for Rosa's Liberty dress!

The second fabric came from a dress that my Mom, knowing my love for linen, passed on to me when she was done with it. It's the loveliest shade of pink, it matches the Liberty fabric perfectly, and it's a linen-silk blend. A linen-silk blend, my friends! Two of the most glorious fabrics combined in one perfect union! All right, that's a bit dramatic. But I'm definitely a fan. 

I altered Burda's Ruffle Top for babies for my purposes -- I'm still trying to figure out sizing on this one! I made the largest size (supposed to be 24 months), and it was quite wide on my average sized 2 1/2 year old. Anyway, I adjusted the bodice and drafted a skirt piece to match.

Pintucks on the bodice, because Liberty fabric deserves something special! I'm usually too impatient to do tucks.

I changed the sleeves to 3/4 length, and obviously did my own thing with cuffs, bands, piping, and collar.

I had just enough fabric to make a pair of bloomers to go underneath. I forget what pattern I used, but it was a standard Big 4 pattern -- bloomers are pretty forgiving!

This was my last project before we moved, and as it turns out, the timing was perfect -- the day before Resurrection Sunday I realized that Rosa had no "Easter dress," but this fit the bill! I'm not into Easter dresses per say, but it was nice to have something fresh and Springy for such a joyous day.

And now I've had my Liberty -- though I can't say I'd object to more in the future!