January 2011

Warmth and Color

January 26, 2011

My posting may be a bit spotty here this week, as it is submission time at Rhythm of The Home, and we are sifting through so many amazing contributions: reading, editing and laying out. Bernadette, Julia and I are working double time to try and get the magazine as near to completion as possible as soon as we can, since the wee one is due just two days prior to the launch date.

I am just stopping in quickly today to share my late night project from yesterday. After staring at my computer for hours on end, I needed something creative for my hands before bed. I had my heating pad under me while working (you all know how I love to use my bed as my office), and I noticed the cover was dingy, grey and in serious need of replacement.

I love winter, I really do, but I hate being cold. I am one of those people who can jog in 117 degree weather in Arizona, and feel awesome. Cold weather, however, can leave me with constant neck pain and tight muscles. I suppose that is why you see so many posts here on warm bath and foot soak recipes throughout these months.

My heating pad, or rice packs, go every where with me, and one place for sure I know it will be is in the birthing room in just a few short weeks. Like I said, it was time for an update, and I gave it the quickest one I could think of.

I measured the existing cover, and added what I needed for seam allowances. I then cut my strips of flannel 16×5″ and sewed them together.

From there I sewed the case together, and with right sides facing, I placed the new cover inside the old (the old cover is made of a great sturdy flannel, and it seemed unnecessary to throw it out). Leaving a 3″ opening, I stitched them together at the very edge, pulled the new outer cover through the inner layer, and then topstiched around.

In less than an hour I had a brand new pretty cover, and was snuggled up and ready for bed. I am learning that re-purposing kind of rocks, and that there can be endless ways to take something old and icky and give it new life.

Now back to work.

Please note: Heating pads do emit EMF’s, and while I love my heating pad, it is not something that I would recommend for excessive use during pregnancy or with small children. This is where Rice Packs would come in handy, and can be just as healing and beneficial.

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Snack Bags and Lunch Totes

January 24, 2011

As I am sure that many of you can relate to, I am now fully immersed in the nesting instincts of my pregnancy. I find myself scrubbing floors at all hours of the day, walking behind my children with a vacuum, and becoming rather irritable at any discovery of clothing out of place.

I will say that my family, especially my husband, seem to be taking all of this in great stride, especially since the other two pregnancies yielded disastrous nesting projects that he is still cursing me over (think an entire English garden in our backyard that I planted at 7 months pregnant, and he now maintains).

I feel a great need to be organized and “ready” for this new life coming into our world, perhaps more so than with the other two, because as much as I may want it to be so, life will not be able to stop fully once the wee one arrives. There will still be home school lessons, chess club, art class, and life in general to tend to. Everything will of course slow down, and especially in those first few weeks we will all be together taking in this new life, but 7 and 5 year old brothers will only goo goo over an infant for so long before they want their rhythm to return.

While organization has become a focus, reusing what we already have and buying as little as possible is also becoming a strong trend in our lives. With this child, and with my family in general, I am moving as far away from disposable products as is possible, and am trying to look at all aspects of our day to see where we can reduce waste. More than that, I am attempting to save as many dimes as possible by using up what we already have available to us. A few weeks back I came across this amazing video tutorial by Amy Karol, and it set in motion a fury of sewing projects that have left me feeling a bit more secure that we can live with little waste and still be organized.

Amy’s snack bag tutorial is so fast and easy, and it has yielded not only a stash of snack bags for our family, but a set for many of our family and friends (I figure the more gifts I can get made and put away, the easier the holidays will be with a babe on the hip). While I do own a serger, I have to admit that I despise the darn thing, and so I have modified Amy’s pattern to meet my needs with a sewing machine. I have been using fat quarters from my stash, and each one produces three snack bags, while leaving me enough fabric to whip up some quick lunch/grain bags as well.

A few yards of muslin found on my sewing shelves and one strip of fabric left over from each of the snack bags, and I have a quick set of bags for those take away lunches to the museums, park, etc. Or reusable bags to head to the grocery store or co-op for bulk rice and grains.

The more I put it into practice, the better I feel about our ability to use what we have, and reduce the waste that we create. Sometimes that feels overwhelming to me, but other moments, like these, make it feel a little bit more possible to make a small change that has a big impact.

While so far these little bags have only held food, I can see them being the perfect way to carry around wipes, cloths, and general supplies for the little one. I will say that for my family, I sewed up 20 of these small bags to make sure that we had an ample stash, as well as 10 grain/lunch bags. It seems to be a good amount for an active family of four, but I imagine we will be adding to it as we get closer to picnic and outdoor time in the coming warm months ahead. I simply turn them inside out and put them in my delicate wash cycle with other clothing. They have held up well, and can take a good amount of abuse.

There is nothing earth shattering that we are taking on, but making these small changes feels like a positive step, both in family budgeting, as well as our impact on the earth. To learn more about other small changes that families are making around the globe, head on over to the One Small Change project.

Wishing you all a very Happy Monday.

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Valentine’s Fabric Wreath

January 20, 2011

I don’t remember where I first saw a fabric yo-yo being used, but I remember being intrigued. It was a long and lovely garland of yo-yo’s hung from an archway, and it looked so festive and perfect. I quietly set the idea into the back of my mind, and now a few years later it has slowly come to surface.

I recently found myself with a very overstuffed fabric scrap bin, and decided that I had enough scraps in coordinating colors to put a few yo-yo’s together. You realize that I said a few. A word of warning, when you decide to make a few of these, you will inevitably find yourself buried in a mound of yo-yo’s for which you can not escape. It becomes a bit addicting, and the idea of “just one more” plays like a broken record in your mind.

Over the holidays I fell in love with Maya’s pinecone wreath constructio n, and I made a few to adorn our house and doors (one thing we do not lack around the holidays is pine cones and cardboard). As my fabric yo-yo collection has grown and grown, a heart wreath for valentine’s day seemed like the perfect way to use up my pile, and to give the house a bit of decoration for the upcoming holiday. Thank you to Maya for the idea of using basic cardboard as a wreath form for this project.

This is a great project to have help from the kiddos, as pulling the strings on the yo-yo’s allows for endless joy, and they are the perfect helpers for gluing each yo-yo to the form itself.

Simply start with a piece of cardboard in any size that fits the wreath that you want to create.
Draw your heart shape, and then using about an inch difference, draw another heart inside of the first.

Using an Xacto knife, cut away both drawn lines to create a thin wreath form.

Using your form as a guide, decide on the placement of your yo-yo’s, then simply set them on the outside of the wreath form.

Using an all purpose glue, glue each yo-yo to the form and allow to dry completely.

Hang wherever you would like and enjoy.

To give some life to my mantle, I glued patchwork pieces of fabric left over from the yo-yo’s to mason jars and lit tea lights inside. They are a fun way to create some soft light while bringing in the fabrics and colors from the wreath below.

Resources for making yo-yo’s
Heather Bailey (making them on your own)
Pat Sloan’s Video for making them with a Clover Yo-Yo maker (my method of choice).

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Beating the Winter Blahs

January 18, 2011

The grey of winter has settled here in Northern Colorado, and the kids and I are doing are best to stay warm and cozy. This is always the time of year when I find myself in need of self-care and nurturing, heading into the herb closet to make salves, soaps and bath remedies.

Over the past few days, a lot of lotion bars have been made, wrapped, stored and gifted. In anticipation of a new little one, diaper ointments and baby oils have been thoroughly researched, and the kids and I have found and modified our favorite recipes.

Lotion bars are one of the true great inventions. A solid bar of beeswax, cocoa butter, shea butter and a touch of lavender makes these smell great, and are a fun way to get the nutrients that the skin needs with out the worry of the kiddos spilling oil all over the floor.

Made into a massage bar form, these are a great gift for just about anyone, and are always part of our Valentine’s Day gifting to friends and family. I am sure that there are tons of recipes for many different types of lotion bars, but our favorite has been a quick and easy combo of oils and beeswax that gives the bar a solid texture that melts to the warmth of the hands.

4 oz of beeswax

4 oz cocoa butter

4 oz shea butter

2 oz Jojoba oil

10-15 drops of lavender essential oil

Melt everything together in a double broiler and pour into ready made molds. Allow to harden for 24 hours, remove from the molds and allow to harden for another 24-48 hours.

Enjoy!

To combat colds, flus and the general blahs of winter, the boys and I try to do steam inhalations as often as we need, especially living at above 5000 ft where the dryness is about more than you can take in the winter months. We have an endless combination of dried herbs and oils that we use, but lately we have been loving a combo of peppermint, spearmint and ginger root.

A few tablespoons of your favorite herbs, a few essential oils (if needed), some hot water and a towel can make any winter day a little bit easier. I have been surprised by my kids love of steam, and their willingness to stand over a bowl of hot water, taking deep breaths, for a good 20 minutes. It really does help to alleviate many of the issues that we see during the winter months, and no matter what, it always feels a bit relaxing as well.

The winter months can be rough, but I always feel like a few home remedies can make the devastating effects of the weather a little bit easier.

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Quick Weekend Creating with Kids

January 14, 2011

As always, you all gave me so much to think about yesterday, and your comments touched me deeply. I want to respond to each of you individually, but I also wanted to say a collective thank you for your amazing words and dialogue.

The boys have recently learned about the use of negative and positive space in their paintings and drawings, and it has become a bit of a passion to my oldest to create in a way that uses both.

For Christmas gifts, the boys each gave the other a canvas with their initial painted in the negative, and bold bright colors in the positive. They now each hang above their beds, and this simple project can be done using shapes, letters or any design you can imagine. While we did ours on canvas, we have also done lots with regular paper for painting as well.

It is super quick, and even I have to admit that I got a bit into it, as my bedroom now houses three of these in geometric designs.

Materials

:: Art Canvas or Paper
:: Paints ~ We used Clementine Paint for the tutorial, but any kind of paint will work well. This is a great project to introduce the kiddos to acrylics, oil paints, etc.
:: Painters tape
:: Paint brushes

To begin, have your child choose a design that they want to make on the canvas. Cut and layout the painters tape, and press it down with your fingers to make sure that there are no bubbles.

Gathering your paints together, let you child pick and choose the colors and brush techniques for each section of the painting. Once all of the canvas has been painted, allow to fully dry,

My kids favorite part is peeling the tape off the reveal the design.