Tutorials

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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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 construction, 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.

Find the perfect place to hang or display, and enjoy!

Happy weekend creating.

For more info on creating with tape and canvas, you can read Jean’s piece in Rhythm of The Home

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What I See When I Look At Me

January 10, 2011

Thank you all for your beautiful comments to last weeks post. It is so nice to know that I am among so many amazing dreamers. 

The boys have recently joined an art group here in town with about 6 other home schoolers. The teacher has been working with children on the subject of art for over 20 years, and her approach is one where she sees each child’s life as art, rather than just a crafter who might enjoy some glue, paint and scissors. She is serious is her attempt to expose the kids to a more mature level of artistic expression, and the boys came home in love with the class.

This past week they spent time looking at different pictures of famous portraits, and then drew what they knew of themselves. Over the weekend, I found Jacob in front of our hallway mirror, studying himself in serious, funny, sad, angry, ways. He had every expression you could imagine, and a sketch pad below to capture what he was seeing.

He was serious in his use of color, and trying to put onto paper what he saw before him, and I found the entire experience fascinating to watch. Jacob said that it was hard to “see” himself in the mirror, because he couldn’t get his expression to match his feelings, and I realized that in Stephie (their art teacher) exposing them to the portrait work of other artists, she had opened a door for them to realize, at such a young age, that who we are on the outside does not necessarily reflect who we are inside, and that trying to both capture, and in many ways express, emotions is not always easy.

I am coming to realize that in simply exposing kids to art, and helping them to see it in their everyday lives, we are giving them the ability to both create their world in a beautiful way, and also allowing them to explore who they themselves are, and are not. Jacob may have attempted to show what he looked like, but he realized that he can also be allowed to express what he feels like. That process may be a lot slower in coming (I noticed that the only drawing that he let me watch was the one where he was happy), but it is still developing. It will be interesting to see how he (and his siblings) use art as a way to work through where they are in their life, who they are becoming, and how they “see” themselves.

I am just so excited to be able to watch their journey unfold.

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