So Long Cotton Balls, Hello Cotton Flannel Squares!

In the search for ever-decreasing my consumption/carbon footprint/living in a more sustainable manner, I have finally found a replacement for cotton balls. I’ve had the idea in my head for days and finally cut and sewed these beauties up this evening while L3 was brushing his teeth and using his mouthwash.

The fabric is a cotton flannel that I purchased and have since used on several project last fall. I love, love, love the print. Now I’ll be using it to apply tea tree oil to myself.

The specs, in case you’re interested: I cut ~2″ x ~2″ squares then zig-zagged the edges of them. I can use them multiple times each, then wash them. Voila! First handkerchiefs, now cotton flannel swabs. Happy me, happier Gaia. 🙂

And a sneak peak at what I’m working on for the Etsy shop:

Sorry, forgot to rotate the photo before I uploaded it to flickr!

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Typical Morning

• Come downstairs to find a pile of chewed paper, courtesy of the Jasper. Mama looks at him and he becomes submissive immediately, knowing he did wrong.
• Light show during breakfast
  • L3: the lights are hurting my eyes, I’m tired, turned them off
  • L4: turns lights on
  • L3:(shouting) L4!!! Turn them off! 1 – 2 – 3!
  • Mama turns lights down again, meanwhile both kids are now on the couch with Jasper playing instead of eating their nutritious and delicious oatmeal. Humph.
• Getting all of our bodies crammed into clothing, Jasper into harness and leash, and out the door for L3’s bus and Jasper’s morning potty break.
• Mama, I’m hungry, want a sandwich (at 9am). She settles for Annie’s Bunny Grahams that we got on sale at Lori’s.
• “Mama, Jasper’s eating glue!” Mama looks over to see that L4 has uncapped the glue bottle and poured out a large puddle because she, “wanted to glue paper.” This all happened about 15 feet from where Mama was sitting and reading Organic Gardening.
• Mama cleans up glue mishap, explaining how we get glue out of the bottle, working with L4 to draw a glue line instead of a puddle, and we glue a big L down that L4 had been coloring, then Mama writes all the L names of the family down on the paper, too.
• Jasper finally conks out for his morning nap, L4 colors more and Mama blogs.

Who knows what other daily adventures await–it’s just 9:30!

****Addendum****

Around 10am the school nurse calls me.  L3 had an itch in his ear that he couldn’t reach with his fingers.  So he stuck his pencil in his ear to itch it.  Of course the pencil point broke off in his ear.  He sat in the nurse’s office for 1.5 hours, then I picked him up (was waiting to hear from doctor’s office).  L3 will be visiting the doctor at 1pm this afternoon for the extraction.  I’m hoping the rest of the day will be quieter.  Eek!

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Handmade Holiday 2007 Wrap-Up

Below is a compilation of some of the things that I made for people this holiday season, though not all, because I didn’t get pictures of it all! This was a very satisfying gift-giving year, especially with the things I made for my kiddos. Yesterday L3 was running all over in his Harry Potter robe and both kids frequently sleep with their Wee Wonderful dolls. 🙂

Things missing:

• Coasters and market tote for Inkwench and AG (if you could ever send me a picture, I’d be grateful!)
• Market Tote for sister-in-law
• Back-pack and pj bottoms for nephew Zach
• Capes for L3, L4, and nephew Sam
• All the marble magnet (except for Ms M’s!)
• Puzzle ball for niece Sophie
• Cloth napkins for my parents
• Corduroy pants for niece Addison
• Scrapbook pages for mother-in-law (we give her some of the kids every year!)
• Taggie blanket for niece Sophie
• Market Tote and cookies for Meg & Scott
• Jam, spicy almonds, and sweet pecans made for several different people

Wow, I missed pictures of a lot of things!! 😦 Part of the reason for this is that our good camera was with L1 at work many days. He (against my advice!!) became a yearbook adviser this year and he has been taking a large amount of photos for the book. By the time he gets home with the camera, lighting is not so good. Sometimes I took pictures anyway. . . *sigh* Those middle-school students are getting good photos and a great yearbook because of all the hard work L1 is putting in for very little compensation. At least it should be good evidence in his case for tenure next year. But enough of my rant. Katie, if you’re reading, now you know why your socks were so late!

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It’s Never Enough

Today I had plans to go out and buy some new knitting needles and maybe even some yarn. Then I watched this video, “The Story of Stuff.” I felt embarrassed for wanting to go out and get the new needles because I couldn’t find one. (I did a more thorough search and found it shoved far down the side of the couch, yippie!) When I was at the half way point in the video (it’s about 20 minutes) I felt like I shouldn’t be buying anything and was questioning the purpose of my life. (Yes, a bit melodramatic, but that happens when you spend the day with a 2.75 year-old and no adult conversation for hours on end.) I felt more hopeful after watching the rest. One striking piece of information for me was the statistics provided on happiness levels in the US.

I urge you all, every single one of you reading this, to watch it. It is only 20 minutes. Think about it’s message, about the entire process. Then come back here and let me know what you think, please! (For instance, what did you think about the happiness stats?) As always, I am trying to create a dialog about these issues. Besides my own individual actions one of the best things I can do is to try to raise awareness and create a community of caring, even if virtual, where people will change things for the better. I’m not asking you to live an austere life with no comforts. But I am asking you to think about your choices of consumption and think about the mess ahead.

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Girly Style Strikes Again

The latest creation from Girly Style Wardrobe, shirt L, pg 18. I’ve had the pieces cut out for months, but the holiday madness hit (proof coming) and it languished on the shelf as I worked in a frenzy to make gifts. I love the style, I’m a sucker for brocade ribbon. Unfortunately, I wasn’t completely symmetrical sewing on the ribbon, but I’m worried that I’ll ruin it if I try to rip it out and resew it. So don’t look too closely, okay? 🙂 I also left the elastic out of the cuffs, but otherwise followed the pattern.

I’m working on designing a couple of patterns right now, but hopefully in the next few weeks I will get a chance to work on an adult version of this shirt. And adult one of these, too!

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My Bliss: Alone Time

It’s been a quiet day. Sunshine has streamed in through our large picture windows, staving off some of the bitter cold that lies without. My only companions have been Jasper and Tortellini (the family cat). I didn’t realize just how much I enjoyed having time to myself until I didn’t have it anymore. Since L4 finished daycare on December 14th it has been few and far between. L4’s napping is becoming irregular and now that Jasper is here, even if she is napping, he still may need some attention. Today truly has been blissful because it has been so productive. Here’s a snapshot of what I’ve done:

• folded some laundry (I know, yawn, boring!)
• lifted weights
• made steel cut oats into oatmeal
• made templates for oval and circle place-mats
• ironed fabric
• cut fabric for place-mats and a new bag for the shop
• sewed the special order for the shop
• played with Jasper in the cold outdoors
• read for book-club
• read a few blogs
• wrote two letters of recommendation
• finished up some little pillows for my nephews that I started yesterday
• knitted on my Tangled Yoke sweater

The best part is that the sun hasn’t set yet, my family will be home from their adventures soon, and I’ll feel refreshed and able to enjoy them again.

Don’t those smiles deserve to be enjoyed?

What do you like to do with your alone time?

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Pssst!

Looking for some nice, gender neutral kids’ pants? Check out the new pair in my shop!

A quick peek:

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Don’t Say Plastic, Say Klean Kanteen!

Why? Because we were looking for ways to further cut plastic from our lives. We’re big water drinkers in the L house, and our Nalgene bottles have served us well for years (since college, really). But with growing concerns about plastics leaching nasty chemicals, we knew that we needed to find an alternative. We chose the Klean Kanteen after reading about some concerns with the aluminum counterparts. Here are some thoughts so far:

• We have the 40 oz size and it rocks! We have to refill it less times because of its capacity.
• There isn’t any weird taste due to its material.
• The smaller mouth makes it easier to drink for me. I had to have inserts in my Nalgene because I tended to spill it all over myself. Even the kids can drink out of it without any problems.
• I’m bummed that you can’t put hot liquids in it. But since I generally just drink water, I can’t imagine what other beverage of which I would need 40 oz.

Now we’d like to get some smaller bottles for the kids to use. If you have any questions about the bottle that I may not have answered, ask away!

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Carbon Neutral?

I have been interested in purchased carbon credits for both our home and our cars. Though we pay extra to have a portion of our electricity through wind power, we are not carbon neutral. So I thought that carbon credits would be a great way to offset the part of our carbon footprint that we haven’t been able to reduce yet. Then I read a recent article by 7th Generation that has me rethinking the entire concept of carbon credits. Some points that I thought were important:

• We aren’t reducing the amount of CO2 through carbon credit programs.
• The programs aren’t regulated
  • This means that some of them are just scams.
  • Some programs, while not scams, might not demonstrate how the offset is happening.
• Carbon credits aren’t a long-term solution, we’re still putting CO2 into the environment and aren’t reducing our emissions.

If you’re interested in reading more about this, I’d recommend reading the above link. There are further links in the article to more information. In the meantime, I think our family is going to hold off on the carbon credits and look to simplify through further reducing our carbon footprint. For tomorrow: a review of the Klean Kanteen!

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As Pink As It Gets

Yes, that’s me wearing those PJs!  The cherry blossoms on this fabric had me, and so I purchased 2 yards (at .99/yd!) of it just after Thanksgiving for some jammies for me.  I made the Amy Butler pattern again, but didn’t have quite enough fabric for the full length, so they’re cropped.  I generally wear socks with my PJs in the winter, but they looked better sans socks for the picture.  Now I get to wear my comfy PJs before summer and they’re very soft in a cotton flannel fabric to boot!  This is probably the most pink I’ve purchased in years (seriously, at least 7), though I won’t be wearing them out of my home (unless I’m visiting somewhere and they are the bottoms on the PJ rotation).  Of course, now I’ve just shared them with the Internet….  I hope you all have a less dreary Monday than we’re having here!

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