Finish it Friday ~ Little Bird Embroideries

 

My word for 2021 is "finish," and I started the year with a list of 21 things I wanted to, you know, finish. Some big, some small, some totally unreasonable. One that fell into the smallish department, both in terms of physical size and in effort to get done was this set of seasonal bird embroideries. I have a tendency to buy, or ask for as gifts, craft kits (usually some kind of stitchery that I don't normally do) that look super cute, and then never getting around to executing them. 

This embroidery kit from Cozy Blue Handmade was a Christmas present from a year or two ago (and if you look at her website, you too will be overcome with desire for one of these kits!). I'd started a couple of them (during the corresponding season, of course), but had lots of excuses for not getting them done--it's harder to embroider while watching TV than to knit; I couldn't see to stitch because we had poor lighting; I couldn't see to stitch because I needed new glasses. I resolved the latter two issues with new glasses and better lighting, and I just got over myself and worked on them while watching TV. Most of what we watch is dumb and doesn't require full attention (though I think I missed an important clue when embroidering while watching Only Murders in the Building). And I finished! 

And checked another item off my list. I'm up to ten, which is dangerously far from 21 with only two months left in the year, but it's ten more items than were done at the beginning of the year, so I'll call it a win for now.

As for the embroideries, I hang the seasonally appropriate one on a panel of wood separating our south-facing living room windows, which looks cute and festive.

Finish it Friday ~ Little Bird Embroidery

This isn't much, but I'm all for celebrating small wins this week. Several years ago C gave me an embroidery kit for Christmas (because I asked for it) by Cozy Blue Handmade. It has four patterns--all of the same image of plants and birds but in a different color scheme for each season. They're totally adorable, but the thing is, I don't really like following patterns or instructions (except while knitting). Also, it's harder to embroider while watching TV and the lighting in our house wasn't that great. Which is to say I hadn't gotten very far over three or four or five years since I got them.

This winter, I bought new lamps to make working and reading in the evening easier and more comfortable. And I found that if I'm watching something sort of mindless, embroidery and TV aren't totally incompatible. And so I finished the first of the four seasons: winter cardinals (which, truth be told, was the one I'd made the most progress on in the past, so it really is a small win, but still a win).

While I had my embroidery box out, I tidied it up, winding all of the floss onto little cards. (I don't have a "before" photo, but picture a packrat's nest.) This was a useful activity for keeping the hands busy during interminable conference calls when knitting might be a little too obvious.

Also in the embroidery box was this little scene I stitched up a few years ago on a weekend trip to the pond. This is more my kind of embroidery. It might not be as professional-looking as the kit, but it was more fun and personal. I have to think of what to do with it, though.

I also found these embroideries from drawings M made when he was very little: a smiling, happy elephant and turtle and a very long, winding snake (which, apparently, was my Waterloo on this project). 

I don't remember what I planned to do with these and I don't know what I should do with them now, if anything. I could dig out my kids' old drawings and do a whole series, put them together in a wall quilt or something. But I'm not sure I could handle it. They are so far from the cute little kids who drew cute little animals (and, if I recall correctly, I had to really dig to find these little animals--M mostly drew robots and space and war scenes).

Best of the Blog ~ Kid Art Embroidery

Over the last few weeks of blogging, I thought I'd revisit a few of my favorite posts. Since it's the holiday season—and who doesn't start a new craft project two weeks before Christmas?—I thought I'd harken back to one of my very favorite crafts—embroidering my kids' drawings. I've had so much fun over the years working with my kids' art and transforming it into decorative household objects.

I love these projects because kid art is so great, and tracing over it with floss and needle allows you to spend a lot of time noticing the details and character in their work. And, honestly, it's nice to sit and focus on something sweet and simple that has nothing to do with the horribleness of the world. It's good therapy—and cheap therapy. I encourage you to try it.

Don't worry if you lack sewing skills—if you can thread a needle and tie a knot, you can embroider. To get started, see: 

Kid Art Embroidery How-To

I'll admit, there's a limited range of finished projects you can make with the art once you've embroidered it (for a while I thought of doing a quilt with embroidered squares alternating with printed fabric, but that never happened). Some things you can make with your embroideries:

Wall Hangings (rotated seasonally):

Autumn Wall Hanging
Santa Wall Hanging
Pirate Wall Hanging

Table runners and placemats:

Halloween Table Runner
Thanksgiving Table Runner
Christmas Table Runner
Christmas Placemats

Pillows

 Owl and Pussycat Pillow

(Sadly, this pillow has gotten completely destroyed by use—the embroidery floss worn off, the white linen shredded; I don't recommend a pillow project in a household of—er—active people).

One of my favorite things about blogging and reading blogs has been getting inspired to try new things and learn new skills. Kid art embroidery is just one of those things I might never have discovered if it weren't for bloggers out there sharing their work.

Little Santa Project

I'm not quite sure what the status of Santa is around our house. Over the last few years, E and Z had been making a lot of, "If Santa's real, then how come…" type of noise. My boilerplate response: "Only people who believe in Santa get presents from Santa." Maybe they took this to heart, "how come…" discussion this year, even when I say things like, "It's not too late for Santa to make all your presents back." Or, "Did Santa treat you well this year?" I'm not sure if I'm humoring them or they're humoring me.

Anyway, E brought home a stack of good old dot-matrix printer paper from school on the last day before vacation and this inspired him artistically in a way nothing else has in a long while. He quickly turned out a super-cute Santa drawing that I knew right away I wanted to turn into an embroidery.



I had a bit of unexpected downtime Christmas Eve day (the wonder of being home all day on the 23rd to clean, so that the 24th only entails cooking and setting the table) and again Christmas day (after the guests left) and I stitched up the Santa. E started him off, sewing up the right side of his pants and overalls. I thought it would be cool if he did the whole thing, but one length of floss was enough for him (but he did pull of a serviceable backstitch, which could come in handy some day). After I finished, I framed him up in red fabric and hung him between the front windows by the tree, where he keeps busy making me smile.

For more on how to turn kid art into heirloom embroideries, see this post.

Sneak Peek

In the weeks leading up to Christmas last year, I found myself staying up ridiculously late at night working on ornaments for my family ornament exchange. It made me tired and grumpy and not especially full of Christmas cheer. So, with that memory fresh in my mind, I got started on next year's ornaments sometime around January 2. For reals. I've never in my life gotten started on anything Christmas earlier than, say, October (make that November), so this was quite a coup.

For several weeks, whenever we watched TV or movies, I busied myself with hand-sewing. Slowly. Steadily. Without pressure or stress. I had them done by early February, and tucked them away for timely gifting next Christmas, at which time I'll share more details.

Another Kid Art Embroidery, and a Challenging Kid

A couple of months ago, we were on our way home from the dentist when we witnessed a wild turkey get hit by a pickup truck as it crossed the road. Z was especially upset by the sight. He was already in a not very good mood after having not-listened at the dentist and consequently not-gotten a treat at the health food store, but he is also a very sensitive guy, despite his gruff exterior, especially when it comes to animals.

Immediately after we got home, he sat down and drew a picture of turkeys very much alive. To me, the picture told the story of the turkey making it safely across the road. I don't know much about art therapy, but whatever he did, it was therapeutic. As a bonus, the picture was fantastic and I knew right away I wanted to make it into a kid-art embroidery.

I meant to have it done in time to be a Thanksgiving decoration, and started it in early October, but I got sidetracked on other things and didn't get it done for the holiday. I finally finished it up Friday morning, the day after Thanksgiving, which isn't too bad. 

I decided to use a beaver-chewed stick that Z had found on our hike the day before to hang it. I thought he would be pleased: his drawing, his stick. But I cut the stick to the proper length and when he saw, he pitched a super, ginormous fit.

Only after we went down to where the beaver dam is and found a whole armful of replacement sticks did he calm down. Getting out into nature seems to be one piece of the puzzle of how to sooth this boy.












I realized later (much later, as I was cooking dinner) that he had refused lunch, instead eating a leftover pancake and was probably in need of some protein-based nourishment. But even so, he is one tough kid. Very strong emotions. Super duper stubborn.

I know I'm supposed to use euphemisms like "persistent" and "determined" and "high spirited," to look on the bright side of this strong-willed little person and believe that those traits that drive me up the wall will one day serve him well as he faces life's challenges. But I find it hard to get to that place when he's thrashing around the living room over a #@$%& &**^$@# stick!

I know there's a sweet little boy inside of him––he wants a pet owl, gloves shaped like turkeys, a fuzzy sweater (and an i-pod touch, oh my) for Christmas. He cries when he sees a turkey get hit by a truck. Then again, he's also the boy who, when we were writing the things we were thankful for on watercolor leaves to put into our gratitude journal, wrote, "I'm thankful for poop." When I asked him to write something nice, he scribbled out his leaf and sobbed on the couch for half an hour (that one was after five servings of yogurt parfait, and can in no way be blamed on low blood sugar). Later he explained to me that he meant that without poop, we'd just blow up. I have to admit he has a point, although I don't actually believe that's what he meant at all.

I'm sure it's hard to be a twin. And a little brother. Heck, it's probably tough at times to be seven. I just wish I knew what to do with a kid who's so persistent and determined and high spirited.

And they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon...

When C and I got married, eleven years ago this past Saturday, it must have been The Summer of Marriage, because it seems like we attended a lot of matrimonial festivities that year (twenty-five must be the age at which one's biological clock begins to tick on overdrive). Many of those ceremonies turned out to be solemn affairs, with a surprising amount of heavy-handed godliness for a bunch of hippies from COA.

I wanted to bring a sense of joy to our ceremony, a light-heartedness and a bit of irreverence. We didn't want our friends to be bored, and we certainly didn't want to depress anyone. So, along with a number of pagan-ish readings from this book, C and I read Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Owl and the Pussycat." C's friends appreciated the reference to the "land where the bong tree grows," while mine (those bad girls) snickered over the owl's waxing poetic over his "lovely pussy." Everyone got a huge kick out of the two being married by the "turkey who lives on the hill," at the expense of our officiant, our dear, dear departed friend Al.

"The Owl and the Pussycat" was one of my older sister's and my favorite stories when we were young, and we heard it many, many times (oddly, I can't remember what book it was in, or what the illustrations were like). It's one of the few poems I know by heart (along with about half of "Kubla Khan," and "Candy is dandy/But liquor is quicker." My sister, just to show how psychic we sometimes are, got us the book (illustrated by Jan Brett) for a wedding present and planned to read it at the reception for her toast. She was not pleased to be upstaged by the bride and groom.

This is just a really, really long way of explaining why I was so thrilled when Heather Ross came out with Owl and Pussycat fabric this summer...I knew right away exactly what I needed to do with it...a commemorative pillow for our anniversary (in disguise as my gift to C). I found a picture M drew of those very characters when he was about five years old and visiting friends of ours. I embroidered the picture and framed it with happy, sleeping moons and owls and pussycats in their beautiful pea green boat, sort of following the quilting technique form Patchwork Style, only I didn't read the directions very well and missed some steps. It's all a bit crooked and wonky...I'd like to blame my old sewing machine, but it was probably more due to me a) being lazy and b) starting the damn thing at 10:30 Thursday night (it did give me the chance to step outside sometime after midnight and view one shooting star--the Perseids were peaking that night).

(The back)

We dropped the kids off at friends' on the coast Friday night (the very friends at whose house M drew that picture), and went out to our favorite restaurant, El Camino (here's me savouring my Mexican Chocolate Pot de Creme with ancho chile powder...mmmm),

then spent the night at a bed & breakfast--yes our first night away from kids since we went to Philadelphia almost two years ago. We did not dance by the light of the moon (it was a new moon), but we did sit in the park in Brunswick and, you know, have an actual conversation. With complete sentences and stuff. We even played a few hands of Rummy (like the old days when we didn't have kids or a TV). I have to say it ended far, far too soon Saturday afternoon (why is it one's children always seem so much louder and, I don't know, like there are more of them, after one has been away from them for a bit?). Next time, we're taking a week!

Birthday Month Wind-Down

We're finally done with birthday season--OK we've been done for a couple of weeks, but it's taken me this long to recover--with the exception of writing thank-you notes. I thought I'd take this opportunity to de-brief on the buy-nothing birthdays x three.

For M, who turned 7:

A book and a DVD that I had ordered for Christmas but that didn't arrive until January.










A nature backpack and colored pencil roll (I had planned on making it for Christmas, but ran out of time--I had already bought the sketchbook and field guide last year and the cute little colored pencils were something I bought a long time ago and had used maybe once; the fabric, thread and ribbon all came from my bins).


An embroidered pirate picture, inspired by Soulemama. I found the pictures that M drew in the recycling bin, traced them on muslin and embroidered. This was such a fun project to do--I loved tracing over and then sewing over the lines M drew; it was so amazing to see what kind of detail he had included in this drawing (which was originally on notebook paper). I did buy the pirate material for the framing (but the muslin, ribbon, batting and dowel were all in the scrap bin).

A ribbon bulletin board for M's "office." I made it with a flattened cardboard box rather than cork or homasote (recycling!), but I bought the cool space material. I got the ribbons at Margaret Smith--a business that made handbags locally but just went out of business, due to overseas competition. They sold out a lot of notions and I came home with a huge bag of ribbon, rick-rack, buttons, elastic and zippers (does that count as new or used? I'm not sure).

C bought him a tackle box and some fishing accessories (C does not have to abide by the buy-nothing rules; it's just me) and I got him a fishing vest at a consignment store.

For birthday party favors, I made little drawstring bags and the kids went on a quest in our woods and loaded up with wooden acorns, apples and eggs and chocolate Earth balls and yummy pops...Oh and I also made brownies (using No-Pudge Fudge mix!) for the party because I was sick of baking cakes. I think it has to have been my most brilliant idea ever--you don't need plates or forks or cupcake cups and they are fast and easy to make and almost every kids ate his/hers!

For E and Z, who turned 3:

Magic Cabin babies. This is another project I had planned for Christmas but never got around to, so I already had the materials. My friend AA and I spent about four or five weekend afternoons just putting together the bodies (she made one for her daughter), and then we still had to make clothes and hair. At the last minute I decided to make sleeping bags for our camping trip, inspired by Emma Bradshaw. E and Z mostly like to strip off their clothes. E will sleep with his, but Z launches his across the room. He said he was going to "put it outside animals eat it," which is surprisingly similar to the sentiment M had about the prospect of a younger sibling (or two).

Superhero capes. I got this idea, which I thought was great, from Sara and I found a pattern, which is so clever, at Puking Pastilles, and whipped out five of them (one each for E and Z and three more for little friends) in one night. They turned out so cute...but E and Z refuse to wear them! So much for so much.

For all three of them, plus a little friend, who also celebrated her birthday on our camping trip: Birthday crowns, inspired by Soulemama. I also made two more (not pictured) for the other set of twins who joined us on the trip and I have been delighted to learn that they wear them all the time.

In the end, it was not completely "buy nothing"--I bought materials and I'm not sure how to count those items I had alread purchased last year--but it was "buy a whole lot less," which I feel much better about. Of course they all three got tons and tons of other presents from friends and family so none of them seemed to feel deprived (even though I had the in-laws get them rain coats instead of toys). I had fun making stuff, but it was a little exhausting--I stayed up late nearly every night last month cutting or sewing or gluing--and I never took the time to reflect on the fact that my babies are THREE and SEVEN already. Now I know the answer to "how does she do it all?" when I read a craft-blog: she doesn't sleep, she neglects her kids, her mind wanders at work to what she needs to get done at home, her house is a disaster and she might just be a ticking time bomb.