Craft Friday: Rice. No, really.

I was trolling through twitter the other day when this tweeter, (twitterer? Person of the tweeting persuasion?) mentioned something about making rainbow rice for her daughter to play with.

INSTANTLY!  I was instantly intrigued!  (Just go with it.  It's kind of hard to make rice thrilling.)

She posted a link to the directions, which came from this blog.  I've heard a lot about tactile play for children, and thought this would be something fun that Sebastian and I could do together.  And luckily we have a 50 pound bag of rice in the basement.  You know, just in case.  (I am not even joking.)

I had everything I needed, though the only colors left in the food coloring pack were green and yellow.  I'd used the red for red velvet cake, and the blue because I wanted to see if I could make a blue velvet cake.  The answer is no.

So we made yellow, green, and yellow green.  You put the food coloring in jars or plastic bags with a little vinegar to make it stick, then shake it and shake it and shake it and shake it.  Sebastian was interested in the shaking for all of 47 seconds, but I think that's because the jars are heavy, though he does tell me daily that he is a 'strong boy, right Mommy?'

After that, you lay the rice out on a baking sheet and stick it in the oven on 175 degrees until it dries, about 20 minutes. 

Does this make anyone else think of St. Patrick's Day?  No?

It really was a neat idea, and I think Sebastian enjoyed 'cooking' me some rice.  Heck, I enjoyed running my hands through it myself.  There is something comforting about warm, florescent, dry rice.

It gave me about 45 minutes to clean the kitchen in peace.  Of course, if you leave an almost-three-year-old by himself with a bowl of rice for too long you get an area that looks like this:

Luckily I thought ahead and stuck the kid outside.

Craft Friday: Knitty’s Amiga

Oh look!  A half-finished project!  That’s about as good as I can get these days.  I started this sweater on our long drive to Cincinnati for our anniversary.  I was sure I’d get so much done that I’d be close to finishing by the time we got back.

Obviously that didn’t happen.  I’ve been working on it since then and still am not quite there.  But really it shouldn’t actually take that long if I’d just buckle down.

Relaxing and ‘netting’ seems to take priority, though.

But that’s okay.  There’s no deadline other than arbitrary ones I make up in my head, and I’m learning to be okay with letting go of them.

Sort of.

(It really bothers me that this isn’t done yet.)

It’s the Amiga pattern from Knitty, knit with the suggested yarn, which I never do because usually the suggested yarn is ridiculously overpriced.  But I splurged on this because I liked the pattern so well and I’m glad I did.  It is super-soft, thick and thin, and so light, perfect for late spring nights.  (or normal late spring nights.  I’m not sure it’d work too well in the oven we’ve got going on now).

It’s an easy sweater and really my kind of knitting (mindless).  So I’ve got no reason for not having more done on it.  I’m gonna go ahead and blame my children, though.  I’m pretty sure it’s their fault.

The problem with trying to take a picture of yourself wearing a half-finished knitting project (other than the fact that you’re taking a picture of yourself wearing a half-finished knitting project) is that’s it’s hard to find a good angle to take a decent picture.  Granted I’m just using my ipod to take the pictures so it’s probably not going to be museum quality anyway, but still.

The only place with lots of mirrors is the bathroom, which doesn’t have much light and what light it does have looks super green/yellow.

But I tried.

And the fact that I’m trying to do it alone means you get pictures like this one:

Or this one:

And then there’s this one:

Way to clean up your background, Bourke-White.

 

Okay, then I thought I’d try going outside to get some natural light, while making sure neighbors didn’t see what I was doing.  Because of the lunatic nature of it all.

I’ve got mad skillz with the camera:

See?

A brush would have been helpful at this point.

Okay.  I think I give up.  Whenever it’s finished I’ll try to make Chris take a better picture.

For now this is what you get.  

 Your welcome.

Craft Friday: Pants!

There hasn't been much else done to the dress since it's been a helluva week, so I think I'll show you something I made last summer.

They're the most adorable little pants for Sebastian - perfect for summer.  They barely fit him last year because of his diaper, but now that he's out of those the pants fit much better.

Do you know how hard it is to take a picture of this child?  He doesn't stand still!

The pattern is from Weekend Sewing.  I love this book!  I've only made those pants, but there are so many patterns I want to make from there, like maybe this one:

 
The pants were super easy to make.  The pattern called for drawstring but I just measured Sebastian's waist and used elastic. I have plans to make more of those pants, but we'll see how that goes.  I think I'm lucky to have that one pair at all!

Craft Friday: New dress

One day this:

Will turn into this: (The white one with red polka dots)

It's McCalls 4769.

I'm not as good at sewing as I'd like to be, but I do keep trying.  I don't often put forth the effort that is required, though.  But lately I've been really wanting to sew, to create something in a way that is challenging to me.  And so I thought I'd tackle this dress.  I've also been on a vintage dress kick lately, and this is much cheaper than buying them of etsy and looks pretty close to what I'm going after.

I've spent a little more time on this dress than I normally do when sewing.  I've tried to follow the directions as best as I can, though I'm pretty awful at word problems and sewing patterns are just one giant word problem to me.  

But I've done better than I'd hoped, especially with trying to sew an hour here, 30 minutes there, whenever the children were sleeping or otherwise occupied.  One day I sewed while Sebastian painted on his easel, and then himself after he took his clothes off.

With any luck this will actually be finished soon rather than sitting in my craft closet for years like other projects I've started.

I still have no idea how to sew buttons on so that's something I'm going to have to make my mom do help me with.

And I've got plans for a short sleeve version and maybe even a long sleeve version.  But one thing at a time, right?

(Also, don't look too closely at the waist seam.  There's a mistake that I didn't feel like fixing so will try to iron out without taking the whole thing apart.  I'm not the perfectionist my mother is.)

Craft Friday: Homemade Bread

Breadmaking has always been a fascinating thing.  There’s the chemistry of it – the yeast coming alive, the gluten developing, the rising and expanding.  And there are so many different types that all follow mostly the same pattern, the same essential steps.

I have lofty ambitions of making our bread a few times a week, and never buying any from the store.  It’s healthier and just tastes better.

Three guess as to whether that actually happens.

Right.

I haven’t actually made bread, other than corn bread or a no-knead dutch oven bread, since my KitchenAid broke a few months ago.  (Even though it has a dough hook, I really don’t think it’s made for actually kneading dough.)  I’ve got really weak, inferior wrists and they get enough of a workout typing and knitting.  I figured I’d give them a break and not try to make the bread by hand.  But we ran out this past week and forgot to buy some at the store.  Now, I’d probably be okay but Sebastian eats a peanut butter sandwich almost every day, so I figured I better suck it up and get to work.  

And it really is something I enjoy, even with helpers who, when given their own bowl of flour and water to mix, just eat the results.

And once I got going, I didn’t stop with just a couple loaves of wheat bread.  I decided the next night that I’d make falafels.  And you can’t have falafels without pita bread.  And so back to the dough I went.  Now, I’ve only been able to get pitas to puff up and create that pocket a couple of times, and this time wasn’t one of them.  But that doesn’t stop them from tasting super delicious.  

So even though I probably won’t be making all of our bread from scratch, I do enjoy the fact that I can, when needed, rise to the occasion.  (See what I did there?  Am comedic genius!)

And I probably will be trying to incorporate more homemade bread into our diet, if nothing else than to see my little helper covered in flour and sporting a dough face mask.

Craft Friday: Homemade baby food

I stress about feeding my children.  From the beginning I’ve always felt like I was doing something wrong, like I didn’t know how to do it properly.  It didn’t matter if it was nursing, feeding peas, or feeding pasta.  I needed someone with more authority to tell me what to do.  And I still feel that way.  I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m a worrier and an overthinker.  And making sure a little person is fed and thriving, well, I lose sleep over it.  

 

So I’m not really sure if it’s better for my mental state if I make homemade baby food or not.  But I do enjoy it and I know it’s better for the kids.  And it’s super easy.  It’s something I’m learning not to make harder than it is.  I still feel the need to have a recipe, when really all you have to do is put veggies into a steamer basket until they’re fork tender, then puree, but I don't know if that's ever going to change. 

But in case you’re like me, here’s a step by step (with pictures!).

First, set out your tools.  You’ll need a pot with a lid, a steamer basket, fruit or veggies, fresh or frozen, a spoon and something to blend the cooked product with.  (If you’re lucky like me your mother-in-law will buy you an immersion blender and it will be awesome and work better than anything else.)  And possibly a knife and cutting board.  And band-aids.

If you’ve got fresh fruit or vegetables, just peel if needed and cut up.  Try to avoid injury, which I can't seem to do.  In one afternoon of baby-food making I cut myself four times.  I take after my mother.

I’ve made peas, green beans, peaches, mangoes, apples, pears, prunes, broccoli, blueberries, strawberries and carrots (before I knew that you weren’t supposed to make them homemade because of nitrites in the soil.)  For sweet potatoes and pumpkins just bake until super soft and puree. 

I use frozen peas and green beans since they’re not in season and the beans at the store look kind of sad.  Here’s where I should probably admit that I don’t always use full-on organic produce for Adele.  Maybe I should, but it’s not always in the budget.  I’ve been incorporating a little more but we’re still not totally there.  If I buy jarred food, which I do sometimes, it’s usually organic.

So, onward.  Heat some water up on the stove.

 

Put the fruit/vegetables in the steamer.

Check the cookbook once again because apparently this is rocket science to me and I just can’t do it without a crutch that tells me exactly how long to steam the peaches.  

Or, just steam until fork soft, testing neurotically every two minutes, just in case.

Put the peaches in a smaller bowl to puree.  Taste them for doneness and remember how much you love peaches.  Consider just eating the batch yourself.

Decide that it’s probably better to feed your daughter first, but carry a little resentment that you were not allowed to eat the delicious, delicious peaches.  

Puree until the right consistency for your child.

Pour into ice cube trays, which are about an ounce a cube.  Or buy the fancy ‘baby food trays’ and use them.  Realize that the bag of frozen peaches didn't make nearly as much baby food as you thought.  Decide to maybe wait on peaches until they're in season and you can buy a lot at once.

I like to wrap the filled trays in wax paper, then plastic wrap, then pop into the freezer until firm.  Once they’re frozen I take them out of the trays and put the cubes in labeled freezer bags.  When I’m ready to use them I just heat them up in the microwave.

Feed baby.  Realize that it was probably worth it that you didn’t eat the peaches yourself since she seems to love them so much.  Think about forgiving her for eating all the sweet peaches.

Craft Friday: For the Granola Hippies

This one isn't so much crafty as necessary.  We cloth diaper and primarily use the bum genius brand with a few other ones thrown in that I'm not nearly as fond of.

The problem with the diapers is that they are velcro and it wears out after all the washing and won't stay latched.  Ours lasted two years using them nights and weekends with Sebastian.  They do make ones that snap, but I prefer the velcro because the fit is better.  The company provides repair kits, though, and since I can sort of sew, I figured I could take care of it myself without asking my mom for help.  So I brought out my sewing machine and got to work (about 6 months after I ordered the kits, but who's counting?)

It wasn't nearly as difficult as I figured it would be and by the last one I had a pretty good system.  Just don't look at the ones I did first.  Actually, don't look at any of them too closely.  All the seams are crooked and the thread kept ripping.  I probably didn't have the right foot on the machine for what I was doing, but I had a short window to finish and didn't want to take the extra time to find the one that would work best.

I'm kind of proud of myself.  I could have just donated them and made them someone else's problem, or made my mom take care of it.  But I did it myself, wonky seams and all.

Now, if I was really crafty I would have just made my own diapers instead of buying them.  But since I barely have time to vacuum my floor, that probably won't happen.  Unless I start drinking espresso.

Craft Friday: Sock Edition

Oh socks.  SOCKS!

I don't know how I feel about knitting socks.  I usually always have some on the needles, but I think of them more as filler.  As in, if I'm not working on anything else, or if I need something easy that I can work on and not think about, I knit socks. 

They're more a utilitarian knitting project.  I need warm socks.  My kids need warm socks.  My husband needs warm socks.  But they're not overly exciting. 

Which is probably why I'm having such a hard time with these socks.

They're just too fancy.  It's a pattern I designed myself.  Well, I didn't design the actual diamond pattern, but I figured out how many repeats to do and how many stitches to cast on for.  (I use way more math with knitting than I ever thought I would!)

I thought I wanted something fancy, something to break away from my usual plain socks.  I was wrong.  I've been working on these for at least a month, probably more, and I can't seem to finish one sock.  Knitting socks, to me, is a time to shut my mind off, and that just doesn't happen when you're trying to remember where to yarn over and where to knit two together. 

And so they've languished and probably will continue to do so.  I'm sure they will eventually be finished.  Just not anytime soon.

This is what I need.

Plain vanilla.  Easy.  Monotonous even.  Something that is rhythmic and soothing, that clears my head. 

I may not be overly fond of this particular yarn, but I like the process.  And I like how warm they'll keep my feet next winter.

Craft Friday*

Well I tried. 

Sebastian's basket

For as long as I can remember I've felt the need to make stuff. It started with crayons and scissors and glue and has encompassed photography, painting, sketching, weaving and now knitting takes up most of my time, with a little sewing and beadwork thrown in.
It seems to be a family thing. Both of my parents are or have been involved in artsy/crafty things. So it makes complete sense that I'd follow so closely on that path.

So, now, Easter baskets.

Most children have baskets bought from the store lovingly (and smartly) by a sane parent.

But not my kids. Their mom is full of the crazy and so decided to make their baskets herself. I blame my own mother, from whom I inherited the crazy. She made mine and my sister's baskets, and I wanted Sebastian and Adele to have one that would be their's for their life, that they'd possibly pass down to their children.



Lofty ambitions much?

Mid-process

I'm pretty sure these baskets won't last that long.

You see, I'm not necessarily all about the details. I'm about results.  That means if a stitch is crooked or a seam is wonky, I usually just ignore it.  My mother is embarrassed for me.



So with that in mind, you can probably guess where this is going - to the land of misshapen Easter baskets.

When I first made Sebastian's a couple of years ago I tried really, really hard to make every row of the basket line up properly.



At least Adele seems thrilled.



It didn't work.  And after finishing and holding the basket up, each layer of rope was separated from the ones around it, making it not so much a basket as a mutant accordian.  I called my mom to complain and ask what I was doing wrong.  Apparently you're supposed to sew each layer together.  I was working on it at the last minute and my sewing skills aren't exactly the best, so I got out my hot glue gun.  Yes, this basket is held together with hot glue.  I guess there are worse things.  And Sebastian seems to enjoy it and it holds eggs, so I guess it serves it's purpose. 

For Adele's, I worked on it for two naptimes and one evening after the kids went to bed.  With pretty much the same results.  The glue worked so well the first time, so why mess with it, right?





*Since I've got so many projects going on at once, I thought I'd dedicate a day to show you what I've been up to.