tommie

Tommie dePaola was fantastic yesterday afternoon. He did not read from his new book but instead just told funny stories to the audience about how he came up with Strega Nonna (doodling while in a faculty meeting) and about having ovens in his studio so that he can bake bread while he works, which sounds a little like heaven to me. The kids giggled and laughed through the whole thing and then stood a little in awe when he offered to pose for a picture with us before signing our books. The only downside to the event was overhearing that Mo Willems spoke at Teacher's College last week (right around the corner from us) and I missed it. Darn. Next time.
It seems so off that the little corner bookstore in our neighborhood would have someone as famous at Tommie dePaola visiting, but I guess my mindset is still small town. Despite the evidence all around, I sometimes forget where it is we live. Note to self: You live in New York. So do lots of your favorite authors. Pay attention and you might get to hear more of them speak. Duh.

by candlelight

When my children were small, I gave up on dangly earrings, necklaces and candles (and late nights out every weekend and seeing movies on opening night, and sleeping in on Saturday, but that's a different story). The earrings and the necklaces went intentionally, after the first almost ripped out ear and broken chain. But the candles just sort of disappeared. I went from always having candles in the house to just not buying them.

I've never really been much of a dangly earring wearer unless I'm dressing up and although I'd like to wear necklaces more, I usually don't remember to put them on, so neither of those was really too much missed. But I did miss candles. They have a calming effect on me, as if they force me to slow down and enjoy the moment I'm in.

Last year I had a sudden realization that my kids were well past the age of pulling my earring out and necklace breaking and slowly, when I remember, I've started wearing jewelry again, and I also started occasionally lighting candles at dinner, or maybe once in a while in the living room for the evening. But I never got back into the habit of having candles.
With the days growing shorter and shorter, our apartment seems darker and darker in the evenings. The yellow paint, which I've gotten used to during the day, feels a little cave-like at night, which is not super comforting, I can tell you.
As I've mentioned before, I'm a big fan of Chez Larsson and a little while back, she mentioned, not for the first time, that she lights candles every night to help balance out the very dark evenings in Sweden and I realized that was the perfect solution for me as well. So for the past week, I've made an effort to light candles every night. Tea lights in jars, pillar candles on saucers, tapers in make shift holders (little jars filled with salt). And it works. Strange how a small thing like candlelight can make such a difference. Games or books or knitting (or trying to decide what to knit with some of the yarn I've spun) by candlelight is just, nicer, somehow.
Do you burn candles on a regular basis? How do you ward off the winter blues?

it was still halloween

I almost dreaded last night. Halloween has been, for the past four years, one of my favorite days. A combination of parties and school events and neighborhood parades and, just, good friends living next door and up the street and around the corner, made Halloween in Charlottesville pretty unbeatable. So Halloween in New York, after out cancelled trip, well, I wasn't super enthused.
And it was different. It was not small town Halloween. At our sweet little neighborhood trick or treating we did not get candy from the folks in the liquor store. But when you live on a street full of doorman-less apartment buildings, you can't exactly walk up and ring a doorbell. Well you could, but it probably wouldn't go that well. So we went down to Broadway (hey, how many kids can say that they trick or treat on Broadway? Ok, so it's way up from that Broadway, but it's still Broadway) where the liquor store was feeling generous, the Hagen Daz was not, and the Presbyterian Church was set up as a haunted house complete with cobwebs and bat shadows coming from the belfry and remote control, ahem, I mean REAL ghosts flying around above us.
And the playgarden put on a nice little party with a haunted slide, candy, hot chocolate. and glowsticks, which are always the highlight of the night for my kids. Well, that and counting how many pieces of candy they have so they can sell them to me (ten cents a pop, Both kids are about $10 richer today).

It was nice. It wasn't our norm, but it was fun. Colder, darker fun, those few hundred miles between there and here make a big difference on when the sun goes down. But it will be fun to look back on "that Halloween we spent in New York", where someone dressed up as a giant cockroach and the lady making Hot Chocolate for everyone had been making it for Playgarden Halloween parties since 1968. Where every single girl in Evelyn's class dressed up as a butterfly, bee or ladybug and the prizes for fourth and fifth place in the best pumpkin contest were $20 gift certificates for espresso (in the kids category, who knows what the adults got!)

And despite living on a college campus, I only saw one inappropriate costume (but it was WAAAAY inappropriate. Let's just say it was so small that it revealed too much on both ends, but the kids were too busy conning the Cuban restaurant's bartender into giving them double candy to notice) and one slightly inebriated fray boy, who was nevertheless sitting out in front of his house dressed as one of the green squeaky men from Toy Story handing out candy. Come to think of it. I wonder it that was a hazing thing. Poor guy. We'll just pretend he was imbibing to ward off the chill.

iron-on frames: a tutorial

This weekend we were hoping to head down to Virginia for a little small town Halloween fun. Alas class schedules got in the way and we had to cancel at the very last minute which meant that we a) had no food in the house when it started snowing on Saturday morning and b) we had a long (cold outside) weekend to fill with fun to make up for the fact that we were not back in Charlottesville with friends. So we baked, and we cooked. And I did a lot of dishes from the baking and the cooking. And we played games and watched movies and got some crafting time in. Among our projects was this one.
A year or so ago I framed two of our favorite picture book dust jackets for the kids room and I've been meaning to add to the collection ever since. It's not super easy to find el cheapo frames in the city to paint, however, so I've been holding off. Recently we purchased both Fireboat and Wildwood, both of which we are loving, and they seemed like they would be good additions, so I've had their dust jackets tucked away in my craft stash awaiting frames.

Back up to this past summer. While I was visiting my parents I went a little crazy at having a Hobby Lobby (and a car to get me there and back with many, many bags) so close at hand and brought back almost a full suitcase full of supplies. One of these being a bottle of spray called "Stiffin Stuff" which I had been wanting to experiment with. I'd heard you could use it to make iron on wall decals and I wanted to try making some big fabric words for the kids room. (I also bought polka dot fabric for the project at the wonderfulness that is Hobby Lobby) But when I was heading through the security line at the airport, a grumpy TSA guy pulled out my bottle of Stiffin Stuff and lectured me about tying to sneak liquids on board. Frankly, I hadn't really thought of the stuff as liquid, I though it was more gel like, similar to Modge Podge, but whatever. I handed it off to my dad on the other side of the scanner and went home without my Stiffin Stuff where my fabric languished in the cupboard. And I forgot totally about the project.

Until my parents came for a visit and brought the bottle with them (in checked luggage, smart folk those parents of mine) So this weekend I pulled out the bottle and scanned the web for some details about making iron-ons and came across this tutorial. Perfect! I could use my Stiffin Stuff and frame those dust jackets at the same time. In the end I altered the process a little, so I'll run through what I did.

First, lay out some freezer paper on your work surface. You really have to soak the fabric with this stuff and it's not really something you want all over your table. The Freezer paper keeps it from soaking though. For what it's worth, I found that shiny side up was better, the fabric seemed to dry faster. Lay out a chuck of fabric larger than you need for your frame and spray all over with Stiffin Stuff, making sure it is fairly damp. I actually sprayed one side, let it dry and then flipped it and sprayed the other. But I'm not sure that was necessary. Let the fabric dry completely. I left mine overnight.
Trim the dust jacket down so that only the front cover is left and the edges are nice and neat. Lay this out on the (dry) fabric to get an idea of how big your frame will need to be. Err on the side of too big, it's easier to cut it down than to start all over.
Fold the fabric in half and then in half again and cut a piece of paper down to match this size. Either freehand sketch or use an existing frame to sketch the outer edge of the frame. remember your folded edges so that the pattern repeats nicely. Lay your template onto your fabric and trace with a piece of chalk or a sewing pencil.
Cut out the outer edge of the frame and unfold the fabric.

Flip the fabric so the right side is down and center the dust jacket on it, tracing around the edge with the chalk. Trim about 1/4 inch in from the line (so the square is smaller than the dust jacket by a bit)
Now, time to hang the art.

I found it was easier to use very small pieces of painters tape to hang the art in place and then use larger pieces to center the frames over it. Using a hot but dry iron and moving all the time, I pressed the fabric from the bottom up, removing the tape as I came to it (the small pieces underneath stay put, but they didn't show)
The kids were tickled to have the new book covers on the wall, I think we'll have more to add in the next few weeks as well. Tomorrow we are going to hear Tommie de Paola read his new book and I really want to get this new edition of Pippi Longstocking for them since they both love Lauren Child. I also still plan to hang some words, I'm thinking of spelling out READ in the center there, or maybe just doing a great big E and B over their beds. We'll see. For now I'm just enjoying the fact that the iron on frame thing worked so well.

snippits of the week

There is nothing sweeter, I think, than waking up to find someone small and warm (or not as small as they used to be and warm) snuggled up in the crook of your neck. Or finding a note on your pillow from a small someone who has suddenly realized the wonder of words.
Some days, motherhood (parenthood) is hard. I don't want to get up and pack a lunch and take her to school. I don't want to teach or make dinner or do anything. I want to read, or daydream, or just sleep. Fortunately, that's only some days. Most days, most days are sweet. How can they not be with these two around?
It's getting colder here. On Saturday it's supposed to snow, although how much I don't really know. Although the city is a little faster paced than my internal clock, the weather here is much more my speed. Wool coats and fleece jackets and hats and sweaters. I'm comfortable dressed for cold in a way that I will never be for heat. Last night the radiators in our building came to life, hissing and clicking and giving off that lovely radiator heat. I haven't lived in a house with old radiators since I was little and just the sound of them was comforting. The candles help too. I sometimes forget about candles in the summer, but when they days get short, it's nice to see them glow.
Last weekend we found a street fair. They are every where right now. Streets closed off, games and rides and good things to eat. (And really bad for you things to eat. Mozzerapes. Grilled cheese sandwich made from cornbread and mozzarella. Yum). This one was small. Hosted by a Montessori school a few blocks away, but lots of fun. Cupcake decorating, toss games, face painting. The perfect Sunday afternoon.
And just so you know I didn't forget that Halloween is coming. Here is the sign of the week. I'm tempted. I tell you. Totally tempted.
Have a happy weekend everyone!

project bags: a tutorial

A few months ago I was strolling down Broadway heading to a bookstore when two girls stepped out of a knitting shop down there and started walking right in front of me. They had that stylish "I'm a New Yorker: kind of look. Tall boots, slick hair. I believe one of them was wearing tights as pants. Those kind of girls. Except they were also knitting as they walked. I actually had to speed up and pass them and then do the fake "Oh I forgot something" turn around so I could make sure. Yes, they absolutely were knitting and walking. Needles clicked, boots sashayed, and the yarn hung from their belts in brightly colored drawstring bags. Genius.
I'd love to knit and walk. I was actually thinking the other day that if I could some how figure out how to knit while doing the dishes, I could get a lot more knitting in my day. This is the level of depravity that I have reached. And knitting and walking, well, I walk A LOT in this town. Just think of all the knitting I could do walking to the library and the grocery store and the park and the school and the subway station. I'd be speed knitter girl!

This, I'm afraid, will never happen. A) because I almost always have someone or two some ones whose hand I need to hold or whom I need watch like a hawk to make sure no sidewalk licking is taking place, or my hands are just full of two backpacks, tow coats, a discarded scooter and a bag of groceries. But even if that were the case there is B) the fact that I am totally uncoordinated and knitting while walking would just lead to face plants and possibly getting hit by a taxi, because they rely on you watching them, not the other way around.

But just because I can't walk and knit doesn't mean those little project bags wouldn't be handy. Since then I've actually noticed a lot of knitters with them. And it makes perfect sense. Instead of toting a whole separate knitting bag with you, these small, squishy bags can be stuffed into your normal purse and they will keep your yarn and needles from getting tangled with your string cheese and ipod earbuds. They also keep your yarn from rolling all over the place while your are sitting around the living room (park, kitchen, playground, subway) knitting.

I could buy one, yes. They sell them at every knitting shop around, but why, when they are so simple. Plus I had a bunch of ripstop fabric out yesterday while I was working on making a draco lizard costume (Don't' worry, I don't know what a draco lizard is either. My kid, he picks the weirdest things to be for Halloween).

You could make this smaller or bigger, depending on how much storage you want. I'm working on a sweater and have a few more ready to cast on when this is done so I wanted something that could hold a lot of material.

You'll need:

1/2 yard of fabric - lightweight is best, ripstop was perfect
1/2 yard of double fold bias tape
1 yard of cording or ribbon

First cut a rectangle 25 inches wide and about two and a half inches wider than you want the height of your bag. for me this was 18 inches.

Along one of the long sides, fold the bias tape over the raw edge and use zigzag (or straight) stitch to attach. I used a contrasting color since the bias tape I had was the same color as the fabric. Needed a little zing. Ya know?
Three inches down from the bias tape edge, fold a 1 inch channel and straight stitch across, backstitching at each end.

With the channel sides out, fold the bag in half (hamburger style) so that the bias tape ends and the ends of the channel meet.
Slip a loop of bias tape in just above the channel. This will allow you to clip the bag to your bag of your belt, should you feel the need to walk an knit. :)
Sew from the bottom of the bag to the bottom edge of the channel and then from the top of the channel to the top of the bag. Leave the channel ends open.

Sew along the bottom and trim the excess fabric on both bottom and side seam so they are nice and neat.

While the bag is still inside out, run the cording/ribbon through the channel and then tuck the tails through the opening you left at the ends of the channel so that thy will be on the outside on the bag.
You can leave the bag like this or, if you want a flat bottom (so that it will stand up) fold the bottom so that you create triangles with the bottom seam running up the center and stitch across about 2 inches in.
Trim all your threads, turn the bag right side out and pop in your yarn.

thinking of

Blogger, for reasons unknown, seems to have eaten yesterday's post. Perhaps the good folks in charge don't like beets and sweet potatoes. Who knows.

This morning I'm sitting in an disorganized apartment listening to workmen re-plaster the wall in the kids room to fix some Hurricane Irene damage (water + wind + old walls = plaster disaster) while the furniture from the kids room takes up all available space in our room and the office while Briton does his work at the coffee table (next to Will, also working at the coffee table). Hopefully this will be a one day project. I'm not sure we could last in here longer than that.

That's what I'm doing. But as for what I'm thinking...
I better send this little lady off today, because Evelyn has been casting longing looks at her. Seeing that lovely poofy hair on her makes me want to give Eliza a new do.

Knitting baby hats is ridiculously fun. I'm halfway through a pair of very small hats for a pair of as yet to be born twin girls which makes me wish that I'd been a knitter when my own kids were babies (don't even think about it. That ship has sailed!)
Trying to decide which of these clothes Eliza needs and which of these Evelyn needs for Christmas. And also trying to decide if my French is up to pattern reading.

And thinking of sewing, maybe the two blissful, child-free hours that I'm getting this afternoon will not be spent on paperwork, or even writing. But where oh where can I set up my sewing machine today?

Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bread Mix is much better made with applesauce and an egg instead of oil and milk and eggs. And it was pretty darn good the original way too.

One Halloween costume down, one to go, and then I can work on my own. This year I am not going to be a witch or Donna Reed, my standards for the past several years. Shocking, I know. Will hasn't figured his out yet, but since the bearded lady idea and exicution materilaized mintues before we headed out last year, I think he can handle himself (although I did float the idea of the two of us going as Mary Poppins and Burt. No go. Maybe next year)
No one in my family will do this costume. Such a shame. I love it. (via Pinterest)

And that will have to do, because now I need to go help translate some hieroglyphics numeration system math problems.