Birthday Time

Well, it's that time again.  Birthday time.  Which means birthday planning time.  Leif's birthday is coming up soon, and he'll be four!

He used to look like this:

But now he looks like this:

I've been working on other projects seeing his birthday as some hazy event in the distant future, but egad!  It's nearly here!  There's so much to do:  Spray painting, sewing, baking, balloon buying, snack making, gluing, decorating, wrapping, and there's still another present I want to get him.  And that's the easy part.  Mostly I need to sit down and write out what to do and when to do it.

Rose's birthday went over pretty well.  She had a mermaid theme, and I like how it came together.  

See?

The best and funniest thing about her party was the way the pink octopus candies came out.  They look positively terrified.

Which, if you had seen the massacre that followed, was quite apropos.  

Here's a peek into the pre-massacre.

I still laugh when I see these.

Run, Octopus, run!!!  Oh, nooooo....

I'm hoping my kids won't completely inherit my twisted sense of humor.  

Leif has requested an airplane birthday.  I've been collecting ideas on Pinterest for his party that I'll post soon.  I'll try to keep you up to speed on the preparation projects if I don't get too overwhelmed.

Like when does that ever happen?

Hahahaha......haha....ha....hmmm.

(For instructions on how to make those fun octopus treats see:  Octopus Marshmallow Pops by Wants & Wishes.)

Real-Life Handmade

Confession time.

I have an oddly-shaped head.  At least I assume I do.  It would explain my headband issues.  There are two kinds of headbands in this world.  The kind that wiggle off my oddly-shaped head or the ones that hurt like the dickens behind my ears and give me splitting headaches.  Elastic, plastic, metal, doesn't matter.

Until now.

Enter Sunshine and Carousels.

This beautiful, green headband is the most comfy, stay-put, cutest headband I have ever, ever owned, and I've tried a few.  Granted, this photo was taken pre-irrationally-last-minute pixie cut.  But I have a few ideas on styling my new do with this headband.  There's no way I'm letting this total awsomeness go unworn, and I'm wayyyy too selfish to give it to somebody else.

Fortunately, my girls are still a bit too small to start swiping my stuff -- well, my accessories, I think.  Though I keep finding my red crystal flower pin curiously in their possession.  I have no idea how that keeps happening.

Miscreants.

But cute miscreants.  So I'll keep them.

But this post isn't so much about hair accessories as it is about my love of handmade things.  I know.  It's been like five seconds since I mentioned it.  But is there anything better having something that someone has obviously put real care into, someone you can believe truly loves what they do?  I could be reaching, but it makes me feel connected just a little more to real people, and real people with real skill and beautiful minds.

I am a big thrower-outer.  (Yeah.  That's a word.  Would I have typed it if it wasn't?  Okay.  Probably.)  My answer to clutter is to give it away or throw it out.  Ask my kids.  They just lost about half their toys to a recent purge.  Rose thought it was traumatic whereas Leif was helping me fill the bags for the Salvation Army.  But four kids with birthdays and Christmas tend to rack up a lot of stuff that doesn't necessarily get played with.

But things I would never get rid of?  I love the blankets my grandmother lovingly crafted for my kids, gorgeous knitted and quilted ones.  There's the display case my great-grandfather made for my great-grandmother that I'm using to hold my plethora of books.  I have articles of clothing that my mom made/designed that I haven't worn in ages.  She even made my wedding dress, which, though the marriage turned out badly, is a work of art and will be precious to me forever, as will the veil my grandmother stitched with her glorious hands.

Don't even get me started on the funny clothespin people my kids make.

It's not even just things made by family and friends.  It's jewelry and paper things and wooden toys purchased from true craftspeople.  These are the things that will still be here when I've clocked my 100th Goodwill run.

It's why I'm able lately to talk myself out of getting clothes or other make-able from corporate superstores.  I mean, do I really need what I sometimes think I do from there?

(I do realize, however, that we're probably destined to start wearing holes in our outgrown clothing if I can't find more time for the sewing machine soon... or at least more time for the thrift stores... or I'll have to cave.  I did just get the twins some shorts recently from Target.  It's Florida for crying out loud, and they didn't have any.  But I digress.


These arguments with myself can be so tiring, not to mention psychoanalytically scary.)

Because, money aside, it seems, at least for me, to be better to have less that means more in life, to be focused on making and salvaging and saving things that matter, and then to actually have things that matter to save.

I know I'm not who feels this way lately.  There are so many people jumping on this train, and I actually feel like I'm behind.  I follow so many charming and brilliant blogs from the U.S., UK, Australia, Norway, Romania, Ireland, et cetera, lately about people who have these awesome ideas along these handmade lines and who actually share them, passing ideas onto others who come up with their own neat things to do with them and pass those on.

In a brief but lovely conversation I had with Nicky Walsh of Nicky & Max, I think she put it well:

"The world financial crisis is changing everyones mindset…here to. Money is no longer the goal, less material living is. Homegrown, homecooked, enjoyed with friends, family, keep it cheap, support local producers, get a more wholesome hobby, learn a craft, make it yourself, old and secondhand, heritage and vintage, back to basics, experimentation and re learning and got to be cheap."

And that's really it, isn't it?  It is to me.  What do you think?

So I really like my headband, and I can't wait to find more creative people to talk about and, of course, shop from.  Because... well... that's the fun part.

Handmade Things

I was a studio art major for two years of college.  I loved it.  Absolutely loved it.  But in the second semester of that second year, I kinda chickened out -- or as I prefer to think of it, made a more practical choice.  See, the way I saw it, while I may have had some God-given creativity, I never saw myself as having much in the way of talent.

Useful thing, talent... for the artist at least.

It worked out that as I was deciding that being an artist wasn't for me, that cathedrals came into my life while working on a research paper.  French, English, and German Gothic cathedrals to be more specific, and art history became my new love and focus.  And it worked out, really.  I have no idea how I would have been able to pick a studio major.  I want to do everything.  Then I loved that, because I got so much out of seeing other people's ideas and the things in design, printmaking, sculpting, painting, and so on.

Every once in a while, I regret not being able to make things for a living.  I mean, the rare times I still get to walk into a craftsman's or artist's studio, I still get a little weak in the knees.  I absolutely love the creative environment and inspiring potential of it.  I love to see what people are making and what ideas they come up with.  I love things that people can do with their hands, with art, science, and design and making something beautiful, taking that passion that God gave you and fashioning something really well done out of it.

It's why I go to the farmer's market, seek out craft entrepreneurs, look for ideas, and try to learn to make things and do things on my own.

These guys are cool.  They remind me of what I'm talking about.  And they have rad facial hair.

I think it's so great that there seems to be this new movement -- or a revitalized one to less mass market and more handmade.  Don't get me wrong.  One day I would love to be able to make almost all things myself or get them from small business and local makers, but unfortunately I often don't have the money, but mostly the time to do this.  As a single mom of four kids with a full-time job, I'm a regular at the local Super Target.

And there is something to be said for supporting big businesses that you know provide jobs, though it always turns my stomach to think that my ability to buy $4 shirts for my kids reinforces the view that certain large companies have of it being in their interests to short-change their factory employees in other countries.

The war within continues, and I hate that I cannot always afford my principles, but I digress.

Stepping down from soap box now.  Anyway...

I'm trying to instill a little bit of this into my kids.  I mean, they can be whatever they want to be, and only God knows what it is for each of them -- plumber, astronomer, homemaker, teacher, accountant, forest ranger, writer; the list goes on -- but I'd really like to encourage their creativity.

At the moment, they are in the midst of making clothespin people.  I think they really, really like making these, because they're toys, too.  I got inspired by Nicole at Making It Lovely.  And I love how my kids' version of these people look so diverse.

And how this picture looks like the clothespin person version of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Anybody else feel like making a monumental object out of mashed potatoes?  Just me?   Mmmkay.

My Swedish Kid

I haven't posted in a couple days, because I've been working on, well.... work.  When it rains, it pours. 

I've also been working on silly things like this, because it's Rose's birthday tomorrow, and I would like her to have some stylish, crafty things in it.  So I was up late last night mostly working on this:

You can't really see it, but we're having a mermaid-themed party, because Miss Rose likes mermaids for the moment.  I thought this would be pretty and fun, and I really am liking the idea of having festive decorations you don't have to throw away.  She can hang it in her room after.

I got the pattern from Little Lizard King.  Very cute if I do say so myself.  The fabric is from Nauvoo Quilt Co.  These two shops are lovely and speedy with tons of cute stuff, which basically will eventually translate lots and lots of -- well, let's call them necessary -- purchases.

But let's go back a bit.

First, I love this place:

And of course a good part of the reasoning for this is it's a cool store with furniture I can afford.  I actually had a brief moment of insanity where I almost bought TWO cute craft bins at Joann Fabrics -- two at $17.95 apiece!  People need organization, right?  Right???  But can you imagine?  Then I came to my senses and remembered to just jot it down on my running list for a future Ikea visit when I had enough on there to rationalize the amount of gas to get to the store.

Phew.

Another part of the reason is the cafeteria is actually pretty darn yummy.  And, once again, economical.  Sometimes, I can feed my kids there for free.  I don't usually plan it that way, but sometimes you just get that extra happy grace.

What I usually get there (except for breakfast, because it's woefully unavailable) is this:

But as I haven't been there in a while, I decided to make my own and experiment on my family, because what are family for except the leeway to experiment on people who have to love you no matter what?  I had made Swedish meatballs before, but this time I used this guy's version:

Because when I make his recipes, they usually turn out awesome.  (For recipe, see:  Alton Brown's Swedish Meatballs.)  Also he doesn't use sour cream in his gravy, which is good because me mum does not care for the stuff.  And while she's family and, as aforementioned, therefore well-placed for experimentation, it would not do to experiment with things you know they don't like.

Unless your kids have a fatal aversion to vegetables, and then it's just tough noogies.

In my opinion, the recipe was much better because of it.

This is my sous chef.  Or at least my sous chef for the evening.

She apparently, judging by her shirt, had some sort of Italian dish at school that day.  Nevertheless, she's good to have in the kitchen.  Whereas Lily is good for serious culinary training, Ivy is good for morale.  For me, anyone three feet tall who can fall off a two-step step stool and laugh about it is okay in my book.

So here is my sous chef on the floor.  It's so easy to find good help these days.

Side note:  My kids are a motley cultural blend of Welsh, German, Mexican, Norwegian, Lithuanian, and a little bit of Swiss and Irish just for fun.

Ivy is now all of this and half Swedish.  She ate enough of the resulting Swedish meatballs to be practically fluent in the Swedish language.  She's been listening to ABBA ever since.  She's planning a viking raid that I'm not supposed to know anything about.

Actually, I think she was doing that anyway.

I'd have taken a picture of the actual meal, but min familj inhaled them too quickly.

I shall have to explore more Swedish cuisine in my off time from now on.

Have a lovely day!

Girlish

Sometime's I'm too practical (and sometimes not).

I've been called a cynic once or twice (but mostly an optimist... I hope).

In the past I've been able to talk myself out of the frivolous or unnecessary, but I've found that as I get older and responsibilities get more pressing, it takes an added effort to make sure to include the fun and silly and "unnecessary" things of life.

So in celebration of having three little girls,  I have decided I'm going to throw girly birthday parties, paint tiny fingernails, continue on my search for pixie dust retailers, embrace pink, pink, and more pink (if they want to), and continually seek ways to help them celebrate their girlishness in as much as it goes with their personalities.

Rose's family mermaid birthday party is this weekend.  Yayyy!  Shhhh.  It's a surprise.  

So in that vein, I'm in the middle of making tutus for all of us.  Well, the tutus (and ensuing dress-up madness) are for them; the pictures will be for me.  

They like tutus.

And pink.

Crafts are fun; girl crafts are girly fun.  

I'll let you know how they turn out.

Don't worry.  Leif won't be left out.  We like all his boyishness, too.

Arrrgghhh.

That's my manly sound.


Never mind.