Twenty Twelve

Already working towards # 9

The New Year. I haven’t made New Year’s Resolutions for quite some time, but this year, I thought I’d go ahead and do it. Why not?! Here’s 10:

1. Do science and art more with my son. (My real problem here is in the planning. If I can pick out a handful of projects for each week, and have them set up, I will succeed!)

2. Do household chores more consistently. (Ah, I am so lucky to have a Tucker! He is the most helpful guy. I’d like to fit in more of the chores though. I’m a here and there person, doing some of this, doing some of that. If I could just seatbelt myself in for a stretch of housework each day, I’d get a lot more done!)

3. Get better at executing weekly meal plans. (Love the planning, drooling over recipes, making lists…just need to make sure every meal planned and purchased for gets made! I do enjoy cooking -especially when Tucker and I get to do it to together – and I looove good food!) This leads me to the next one…

4. Have less food waste. (Much better than I ever was, but still could be better.

5. Do the things that make me happy!!!

6. Make, make, make! (Sewing, knitting, baking, crafting, and well, this encompasses a lot!)

7. Read more books. (Makes me sad when I haven’t made time for reading.)

8. Have our most awesome edible garden yet – and preserve the bounty! (Last years got fried by an overabundance of nitrogen when we used too much compost. It was not a glad moment.)

9. Be healthy. (Eat more fruit and veg, exercise, drink more water, have good posture, limit worry and stress, etc)

10. Be good to the earth. (Compost, recycle, consume less, get self and family out in nature, water wisely, organic and/or local eats, less plastic, etc)

I think I’ll leave it at 10! There’s lots more of course that I’ll be doing and improving and learning. Most important to me is the time spent with Family. Our home, our life, our love, – I’m going to cherish every moment and make many memories. I want my kids to look back and be grateful for the warm, safe, and loving home; for food cooked with love, for a fun, imaginative childhood, for caring and understanding parents who took the time to let them know that the kids are important and loved, who spent time playing with them and learning with them, and who put Family before everything else!

Happy New Year all! Much luck, good health, and happiness to you!

What resolutions are you making?

The Rough Road to Bike Idaho Shirt

 This is the second shirt I made for Tucker for Christmas. (Here is the first, and here is a more thorough freezer paper tutorial.) It caused me all sorts of grief, and served as a bit of an education in the shirt making biz. In the above picture, it is looking pretty snazzy – aside from the unfortunate dab of yellow paint at the tippy-top of Idaho. That was disappointing for sure, but the upsets just kept coming…ending in a shirt that made it to the ‘work shirts’ drawer…

Here I was starting out rather well. I had my design – it’s a bike lane sign except an Idaho instead of a diamond. It’s the same bike as the one on the signs. I just printed an Idaho, traced my inner line, and put the bike inside of it. Then with my Exacto knife, I cut it all out.

 I used freezer paper again as well as acrylic paints.

 Here it is all lovely, except for that dumb dab at the top, of course. But what you can’t see, due to my camera trickery, is that the Idaho ended up slightly crooked. I fiddled with it so much, I’m certain I had it right just before the last time I decided to move the stencil for the umpteenth time – and then it was wrong. It’s OK, though, because later on I magically fix this eye sore.

What you also can’t see is that it took a million coats! And those long diagonal bumps – that actually give it a welcome topographic feel – are places where the shirt didn’t lie flat within the stencil. AND, with all those many coats, when I pulled off the stencil, the edges of dear Idaho tried to pull of with it – some succeeded.

 And then it dawned on me…how can I put the freezer paper down for the bike when it only adheres to fabric??? Aw, thinking I was not! Since I had already messed up with the misappropriated yellow dab, I took on a rather fearless attitude and just went with whatever ‘grand’ idea happened into my inexperienced head. So, I ironed the paper to the paint anyway, and you know what, it stuck better than I thought it would! It even came off as well!

 What it did not do well, was sealing up tight. You can see here that the paint moved under the stencil – giving the impression that it was dripping mud, which is no bad thing really. I decided maybe it was better that it wasn’t perfect, because well…IT WASN’T!!

 I still needed my black outline to give the impression that it’s a sign. But, with my adopted gutsy attitude and my need to force ingenuity due to my many errors, I came up with a new plan. I used a blue paint, and tilted the stencil to ‘correct’ the crookedness. And I let it be sloppy because this shirt was decidedly care free and did not want to be held to any rigid ideas of immaculate lines and such. (Be sure to sense the sarcasm.)

And here is the final product. And I really do like it quite a lot. But that yellow smudge…SAD. Want more SAD? When I washed and dried it for the last time, it cracked in some places and the yellow paint chipped in one spot where it had glued itself together.

Complete failure? Not at all!! Once again, I learned a lot through doing. And now, I am ready to learn and do screen printing. Lots of it!! Oh the possibilities!!! (Including re-making this shirt!!)

What crafting mishaps have you experienced? Please share, it’ll make me feel better!

Makin’ Lincoln

I saw this post by Dana of MADE and instantly knew I wanted to make a Lincoln shirt! She uses freezer paper and has the posterized stencil all ready for printing. She also has a tutorial on posterizing images, if you’re interested in someone else’s face.

I figured it would be a good second shirt for my foray into freezer paper stenciling (Here is my first, with a more thorough freezer paper tutorial). With Christmas on its way, I decided to make one as a gift for Tucker.

I printed the stencil on regular paper, then enlarged it and printed it directly onto freezer paper (print on non shiny side). I got out my cutting mat and Exacto knife and cut away at the photo until I had the above. I kept the original photo as a guide to what was positive and negative. The little pieces I stored away in a plastic baggie so I didn’t lose them. I had to do the project in increments between Molly naps and therapy, taking and getting Collin from school, and Tucker coming home for lunch and from work. Painting t-shirts is not the easiest thing to do in parts.

Iron on your freezer paper, shiny side down. The floating pieces just get laid where they belong. Use the original picture as a reference.

Make sure there are no gaps where paint could creep under the paper and ruin your meticulously cut out design and make you very sad…and mad.

I used black acrylic paint that my mom gave to me. It didn’t take many coats, 2-3. I dried the paint with a hair dryer on a low setting in between coats. I’m impatient, and time is of the essence! It dried very fast and I was soon able to peel off the paper and see Mr. Lincoln looking mighty fine!

Now Mr. Lincoln did not go entirely smooth for me. I ran into a very panicky moment that threatened to ruin it all. The freezer paper seemed to start to lift at some spots. I thought it would be smart (that was my first problem), to put paper down and run the iron over it again. Silly me hadn’t even let the paint dry yet, so the cardstock adhered to the wet paint. I started to take it off, but it was so stuck, and where pieces did let go, paper fuzz was left behind. I took a wet rag and dabbed at the paper, hoping it would release. For the most part it did, but plenty stayed glued. I scratched at it with my fingernails and got the majority of it off – THANK GOODNESS!!! Disaster avoided and lesson learned!

Now once the paint is completely dry, you will want to heat set the image. I used a thin cloth napkin laid over Mr. Lincoln and ironed over him thoroughly. Voila!!

This making shirts thing is very fun to do!! And the freezer paper makes it very user friendly. I’ll be sharing my second shirt for Tucker tomorrow. It had a whole mess of issues!

Bat Shirt – Freezer Paper

I had read about freezer paper stencils some time ago, but just recently decided to finally try it out for myself. I love that a rather simple process can yield some decent results!

Bats were on my mind, as it was Halloween, and my son loves Halloween with all of  its spooky fun (Nightmare Before Christmas being a favorite movie since he was two!). I made some bats after seeing them here (template), and decided to make the shirt as well! (There’s a template to download for the shirt  at the site.) I printed the template then traced it on to freezer paper with a Sharpie. Next, I cut out each little bat with an Exacto knife. (I also enlarged the stencil a bit, as it seemed better proportioned to the size of shirt I used.)

The amazing thing about freezer paper is that you can just iron it right on to the fabric and it sticks! Put the sticky side touching the fabric and run your iron over it, making sure to get a good seal so that paint won’t run under and ruin your shirt!

With a foam brush, I applied black acrylic paint. Dab it especially good on the first coat, so that it fills in the fibers of the fabric.

Be sure to slide a barrier in between the layers of fabric so as to not get any paint on the back of your shirt! I used a couple of pieces of cardstock and it worked well.

I waited for it to dry in between coats, and it only needed a few. If you’d like it to be faster, you can use a hairdryer on a low setting to dry the paint.

After it was completely dried, I carefully peeled away the freezer paper, and got this finished custom made tee!

One last thing before you’re finished is to heat set the design. I just laid a cloth napkin over the bats and ran the iron over it several times.

Looking pretty spooky!!

Hopefully you’ll try a freezer paper shirt yourself now! If you’ve done one before, what designs did you do?

High Chairs and Acrobatics

Molly is 7 months old today! She ate in a highchair for the first time, bolstered by pillows to push her little self forward. Peas and bananas were on the menu. And she ate it all up, of course!

The way cool highchair was Tucker’s when he was little, given to the family by his Dad’s Mom. Feels pretty special setting Molly in there.

A week ago Molly started rolling over from back to front! She’s such a determined little lady – amazing us every day!

We often return to a room with her happily playing on her belly. I just know she’ll be sitting up soon! And before we know it…crawling!

4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!!

RED!!!

Needed a change! Have wanted red hair ever since I saw Felicia Day in Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog (LOVE!). Was nervous, but went with it! My stylist was great! And a huge thanks to Tucker’s mom, Dy, for making it happen!! Just the pick-me-up I needed!!

William’s Syndrome

Our Sweet Molly

It was three weeks ago that our sweet little Molly girl was diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Williams Syndrome. You never hear of something all your life, and then suddenly it permeates every aspect of your existence.

This post is a difficult one to write – so many emotions, so many things have happened. I’m mentally and emotionally exhausted and overwhelmed. The shock is coupled with the reality. Sometimes we’re dealing with it all, and sometimes we’re not because you just can’t experience that immense weight all the time. I don’t think we can even fully understand what this means for us – good and bad alike.

In many ways I need to write this just to sort it all out in my own head – sort out the last 14 months. Replay what happened, how we came to this point. It all feels sort of like a dream – becoming pregnant, the excitement and joy, the stressful pregnancy (Read: here and here), the arrival of our lovely Molly, the NICU stay, the joy and love, the worry that something wasn’t quite right, and finally the diagnosis. And here we are – wondering what it all means; what’s to come.

I’m also writing to keep friends and families updated and in the know, to give them a glimpse of the life, and maybe to offer some understanding.

And last, I hope this blog will serve as a resource for other families who will one day receive this same diagnosis. Or for any family with a special needs child. I know that reading other blogs from people in the same situation has helped me immensely.

I will also keep posting about the everyday and what we’re all up to as a family because life certainly – even happily – continues on.

Love my Lovely Family!!!

I’m in Love with the Celebration of Love

Oh Valentine’s Day! How I’ve so underestimated your potential all these many years! I do love Love after all. But somehow, you had been classified as a slightly silly holiday in my eyes. But with all the crafting possibilities, the yummy baking, and the pouring out of affection on one’s family – how could I have ever relagated you to such a meaningless corner of my mind? Well no longer! Hearts, pinks, and reds will abound in our home this year! The above crafts are just a sampling of the fun that is to come. (If you have a little girl, you just have to do the felt heart button covers! How sweet and simple!) Collin and I are going to do the crayon hearts today. My mom has done them in the past and they look so pretty with the light shining through. There are a TON more crafts out there of course. This is just a small sampling from Martha Stewart. I LOVE Valentine’s Day!!!

What Valentine’s fun do you partake in?

Non-Stress Tests, SGA, & Biophysical Profiles – Huh?

So excited to make this a family of four!!!!

…In continuation:

So aside from the fear of pre-term labor, all was going well. I was taking it easy as instructed. My time was spent listening to podcasts; watching movies on instant Netflix; watching cooking vodcasts; reading books and magazines; journaling; playing word games; reading crafting, decorating, music, and cooking blogs; knitting; reading articles on the NPR website; browsing Facebook; and, best of all, spending time with Tucker and Collin. (It may sound like a pretty sweet gig, but believe me, I would have much rather have been able to DO things, like physical things. The body gets so tired and achy just sitting/laying there. And the mind gets foggy. And you feel useless and are so dependent on others. It is NOT fun.)

What came next we were not prepared for. At my routine doctor’s appointment on the 30th, the doctor was alarmed by a smaller than usual measurement of my uterus. It was measuring about 4 weeks off! (Turns out my due date was incorrect though, as I knew all along. We finally decided to go from my first ultrasound due date, as it is more accurate. So in all actuality, I was 32 weeks at the time.) My weight gain high up until this point had been only 15 pounds, and at this appointment, I had dropped down to just 11 pounds. Aside from that, everyone kept telling me how small I was, and rather than feel ‘lucky’ I felt nervous, like something was wrong. But up until this appointment, my doctor brushed aside my concerns. I never got huge with Collin either and gained just 25 pounds, a healthy amount. But this seemed different somehow. And, my gut feeling was right.

The doctor ordered an ultrasound, and the soonest we could get in was January 3rd. The worries definitely set in. At the ultrasound, the technician confirmed her small size. She was weighing only 3 lbs 2 oz. This was less than the 10th percentile. Small for gestational age is what they call it. SGA. The doctor informed us of all of this at our follow-up appointment the morning of January 4th. He was worried. He had us worried. There were some positives: the measurements were symmetrical, her amniotic fluid levels were good, and she did well on her biophysical profile. I also felt good about her movement. She’s an active baby. He scheduled us for another ultrasound in two weeks time to check on her growth. I also had to come in for a non-stress test on the 6th (it went well – responsive) and every week there after until delivery. He took me off of the Procardia. All we had left to do was wait for the ultrasound. Longest two weeks ever.

Tucker and I were definitely affected. Thoughts would slip into worst-case scenario territory, and that made for a sad, scary place to be. For the most part though, we kept positive and convinced our selves that our baby would grow and be healthy. If there wasn’t adequate growth, or if the growth changed to asymmetrical, or if the amniotic fluid level dropped, the doctor was going to induce me. This was an outcome we were most certainly hoping to avoid. It was such a long anxiety filled two weeks as we waited to see how our little girl was doing!!

When the 17th finally rolled around, we got to see our little girl again – pushing her feet up against my uterus, sticking out her tongue, and moving all about. We also got to see that her growth was still symmetrical, amniotic fluid levels were good, and she had gained 9 oz to get to 3 lbs 11 oz. Still less than the 10th percentile, but it was good enough for our doctor to feel reassured about keeping her in there – no induction and a chance to continue to gain weight and make it to term! We felt great relief with this news. It had been such a heavy worry – so anxiety ridden. Ahhh, we really could breathe easier.

This coming Monday, the 31st, I have another ultrasound – two weeks from the last. Hoping – and expecting – more growth. Feeling optimistic!!