A Thrifted, Handmade, Valentine's Day (Star Wars Edition)

One of my goals for the year is to do more handmade gifts.  Along with that I really want to try to use at least partially recycled materials or at least materials I already have on hand.  I've had a couple projects I've wanted to do for a while and decided to take the opportunity of Valentines Day to complete them.  My boys are especially into Star Wars  hearing a two year old talking about Chewbacca and R2D2 is kind of the cutest thing ever).  Without really meaning to, it became a Star Wars sort of holiday.

For Toby, I spotted this ADORABLE Chewbacca Softie Pattern on Draw Pilgrim.  For the thrifted portion I found a pair of used brown corduroy pants in good condition.  I had to buy the stuffing and the felt for the face but all the other notions I already had on hand.

For Josh, I've been meaning to make him an Ipad lap pillow since Christmas.  I've seen a few pictures floating around the internet and just sort of made up a design.  The pillow form is thrifted (seriously, have you seen the price of new pillows?) but it was actually still new with the tag.  I tried in vain to find a used Star Wars sheet or throw to make the case out of but to no avail.  I finally had to suck it up and go to the fabric store.  They had several Star Wars prints to choose.  I found out later that they had never carried Star Wars fabric before and had only had it for a few weeks.  What a lucky find!

So here's the final product.  I'm happy with how they turned out.  I left the sash off of Chewbacca because I think Toby would have just pulled it off anyways.  Did I save money going the thrifted route?  I think so overall.  Definitely on the pillow.   I'm not sure what corduroy yardage is going for these days so I'm not sure if I saved much there.  If nothing else I have a sense that I reused something already made rather than using something new for new's sake.


May everyone have a day full of love!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Sunday Outing

The last two Sundays we've taking family outings to the newly opened Fort Vancouver Library.  There were several years where the library wasn't really on my radar. I preferred to buy books.  If we went out, it was likely to movies, a restaurant, or shopping.  When they began building the new location, my shiny-meter clicked on.  We had just begun a family, the economic tide had shifted and I was once again focused on simpler, less commercial living.  I had daydreams of regular trips with my son to the library instilling him with my love of reading.  I realized I could test-drive many more books if I checked them out from the library and then could purchase the ones I *really* wanted. This last outing I was able to get several books on a number of topics I am currently interested in.  We've also discovered the library's fantastic collection of movies and graphic novels which is very exciting to Josh.

One of the big bonuses has been the discovery of the children's floor.  It has this huge activity area that Toby is TOTALLY digging.

  He can run around and explore to his hearts content and he burns that inexhaustible toddler energy.  This is great, especially this time of year when it's cold and yucky out.  It takes the edge off of not being able to go feed the ducks so often which is one of his current favorite outings.

I hope we can make this a common outing.  There is lots for all of us to do and it is a free outing especially good for a rainy day.  And maybe he'll just develop a love of books out of it!

Bundled

Dusting off the Knitting Needles

I took up knitting a few years back when knitting was all the rage.  I bought Stitch N' Bitch and imagined myself knitting up all sorts of cool hats, sock, gloves, and sweaters for myself and everyone I knew.  I started off with a nice easy scarf and was encouraged by the result so I dove in head first.  I twisting scarf, some socks, fingerless gloves and realized I was in WAY over my head.  It was no longer fun.  The idea of even attempting something as complex as a sweater was completely daunting and so eventually I just packed up the yarn and the needles and stashed them away. 

Fast forward several years later.  Priorities have shifted.  I'm a mama.  I'm reading simple living blogs obsessively (I'm not going to lie, I kind of want to be just like her when I grow up), I am slowly stretching my wings with making more from scratch at home, and I want to go back to creating lovely things that my family will use rather than buying if at all possible.  These choices are yes, partially financially driven but also I really have a deep seeded urge to be living my life this way.  I told my husband a few weeks ago that my dream job is being a mommy.  The way I dream about providing for my family is not bringing hoards of cash but to creating a warm, nourishing, healthy home for those I love.  Were a ways off from that dream.  We need to sort out some financial stuff first but I'm hopeful. 

Starting Out

So, last weekend I pulled out the big bag of knitting supplies and started simple.  I decided that after years of reading the praises of homemade dishcloths I would see what all the fuss was about.  I found this lovely pattern at Little House in the Suburbs and started.  I had to reteach myself all the basics but luckly found that it was like riding a bike and was much easier to learn the second time around.  I even had the same brand of yarn (in a marvelously bilious green).  It's a fabulous pattern, easy to do, easy to remember.  So quick too!  After I competed the first one and promptly soaked in the sink with all the dirty dishes, I went back to make a second one for my mom.  I plan on making several to have on hand. 

Early Morning Coffee, Knitting, and a Snuggle Pug - what more could you need?

I'm not sure what my next project will be.  I started reading Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmerman (recommended, again, by SouleMama).  I'm hoping to gain enough confidence to try a sweater for Toby soon.  I would love to see him running around in a sweater made by his mama!

The finished Product - not too shabby!

My Etsy shop!

My Etsy shop is FINALLY back up!  Right now I just have my prints up because everything else needs to be photographed.  It's a start.  Check it out!  I also added Etsy Mini to the right sidebar.

Getting Out

Tuesday of last week I declared to Josh that I didn't want to look back on this summer and realize we spent every evening in front of the television.  It's easy to do.  We both get home from work, I make dinner and by the time everything is said and done, all we want to do is zone out.  The nights that Josh works late or I plan a more elaborate dinner make this worse.  Toby doesn't typically allow me to disappear into the kitchen to cook dinner and our kitchen isn't really set up to handle him.  The more elaborate the dinner, the longer it takes and the messier the aftermath is.  SO, my new goal for the remainder of the summer is to plan simple quick meals for dinner so we can have some time in the evenings for some outdoor time.  We have a really nice walking trail about 5 minutes away from us, a couple of small parks with play structures for Toby, and we could at least spend the evening in the backyard if nothing else.  Tuesday night we had a quick dinner of chicken sausages from Costco (yum) and several different fresh veggies from the garden.  After the nice easy cleanup we went down to the walking trail and walked for about an hour.  Toby spent most of the time in the stroller.  We tried to let him walk a bit but the sidewalk was pretty rough so he fell and scraped his knee pretty bad.  All and all, the walk was lovely and successful.  The trip to the park afterwards was NOT a success.  Toby, who usually loves to swing, had a meltdown on the swing.  Sadly, the park was not very well maintained so there was broken glass and trash everywhere so we couldn't really let him run around.  We finally left with Toby in tears.  Perhaps a different playground next time.

Since then, we've been doing great.  We've going down to the walking trail almost every evening since.  On a work retreat last week I discovered a really great hiking area that is quite close.

 view from the bridge

 waterfall created by a dam

 ducks on the water

We went there on Sunday and had a lovely hike around the lake.  Toby rode in the Ergo.  Not the most hiking friendly carrier, especially on some of the steeper hill that were on this hike but it worked.  We may start looking for a frame carrier for him and we are hoping to let him do some himself as he gets older.

I hope we continue to do this.  Toby is an active kiddo and I want to make sure we can keep up with him.  We love hiking and got out of the habit of it a few years ago so I would really like to make this a part of our lives again.