Like Mother Like Daughter

Like many other women, I’m slowing turning into my mother. And that’s not a bad thing, I just find it funny. For example:

• I own a zippered robe. This is one of my mom’s trademarks. There hasn’t been a mother’s day, birthday or Christmas in the past 20 years where my mom hasn’t asked for a zippered robe. And I think my sister has one now too.
• Sometimes I make Chris carry my purse/diaper bag. My mom’s purse must weigh 50 lbs. And if you are out shopping with her and she gets tired, she might just ask you to carry it for her. Normally I travel light, but with a baby it’s hard to do that. And my diaper bag does get heavy.
• When everyone else is ready to leave a restaurant, we can’t because my mom says, “I’m finishing my drink.” I do this now too.
• You pull into a parking space at a store or restaurant and it always takes my mom a few minutes longer to get out of the car because she’s touching up her lipstick. Yeah, I started doing this one.
• I bought a nice terry cloth lined shower cap the other day. My mom has thick, curly hair and doesn’t need to wash her hair everyday like I do and uses a shower cap so her hair doesn’t get wet. Since I’m home with Daphne I don’t always take the time to wash and dry my hair everyday and really liked my mom’s shower cap when we were home over Christmas.

Love you Mom!!

A side note to my sister, Lauren, if she reads this before I can call her later: HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Do I need to send you a shower cap to coordinate with your zippered robe, or do you have one?

Retro Canister DIY

Check out this DIY canister project featured on Design*Sponge today.  Here’s the before:

And the after:

I actually have that exact canister set.  My red and white Lustroware are my main display canisters, and this metal set is the “ugly stepsister” that lives in the pantry.  This is really a cute project and believe me, you can find that canister set at any antique shop or flea market for under $10.  I think I got my set for $5.  I love retro kitchen canisters.

Nanoo Nanoo

This is going to show my age, but when I saw this new car seat featured on ohdeedoh today all I could think about was Mork and Mindy:

I mean, didn’t Mork have an egg-shaped space ship.

Mei Tai Pattern Review

Ok, even though I didn’t have the most pleasant sewing experience last night with my Montessori By Hand mei tai (I forgot to mention I ripped my leg open with a pin, don’t ask how, hopefully I can get the blood out of my yoga pants) it wasn’t a complete bust. This morning I tried it out with Daphne and it wasn’t bad. I don’t like my choice of strap material (medium weight stretch denim, obviously my fault) and I didn’t like the shoulder straps size or the fact that they weren’t padded. When I make this pattern again I will either increase the shoulder straps to at least 6 inches in width, or pad the shoulder area. I think this might help it wear more comfortably. I also think I’d reduce the body width, just a tad. Also, the instructions don’t take fabric pattern direction into account when they say you need 1/2 yard for the exterior. So if you have a directional print you might need more fabric.  Ultimately there are many different tutorials online for making your own mei tai.  I really don’t think this pattern is necessary, but in my case I really wanted a printed pattern to follow so it was worth the $12.  I can tell you with just a few minutes of wear it wasn’t nearly as comfortable as my Babyhawk carrier, but with a few modifications I think I can get it to work for us.

10PM

Despite the fact that I’ve been staying up pretty late since Daphne, I’m really not a night person. In fact, I’m normally in bed by 10PM. I haven’t seen Letterman in years. I never make the ball drop on New Year’s Eve. So with this in mind I’ve developed a few late night rules, such as: never argue with Chris after 10PM, because the silliest thing will blow up into a knock-down drag-out fight, just because we are tired and say stupid things. Wait until morning to argue. And there are a few others, but you get the idea.

I think I’m going to have to add starting crafting/sewing projects after 10PM to my list. I just screwed up beyond repair my mei tai project. Grrr… Daphne went to bed without a fuss tonight, so I finished sewing my quilt. I was watching Coupling on BBC America while clipping the seams when I decided to start cutting and sewing the straps of my mei tai (at this point it was midnight). So I did the straps and cut out the body, stitched it up, turned it right side out… then I realized the expensive Amy Butler fabric that I used for the exterior was NOT on the exterior. The cheap ass flannel (which was supposed to be sandwiched in the middle) was on the outside. I laid the fabric out wrong when I was pinning it together. So I was faced with the dilemma- keep going (the other side of the mei tai was the khaki denim fabric that I used on the straps, that would look ok as the front) or rip all the seams, resize the body (because I’d already trimmed the seam allowance and clipped the curved top edge) and resew. I’ve never done this pattern before, couldn’t find any reviews on babywearer.com, I don’t even know if this is going to be comfortable to carry Daphne in or worth the hassle. So I decided to just keep sewing. It’s done now. Looks crappy. As soon as I try it out tomorrow with Daphne it’s going in the trash.  Well, maybe not the trash, but it’s never leaving the house.  Argh.

More Valentines

I picked up these vintage valentines several years ago at an old country flea market outside Miami, OK.  According to the dates on the back they are from the 20’s to the 60’s.  I love them, so fun and cheerful.  Someday I will do something with them (collage? simply frame them?).

Love this little guy:

My Little Valentine

Sporting her new Valentine’s Day outfit that Chris bought her from Target. It looked SO big on the hanger but as you can tell from the photo, she doesn’t have any room to spare. She had a major growth spurt this past month.

It’s hard to get a good picture of Daphne that requires a flash. It startles her. Right before I took this she was cooing and smiling. That quickly changed into the “deer in headlights” look after the first picture.

Almost Done!

My quilt project is coming along nicely. I’ve added a few pictures to my Flickr photostream of the process in case you are interested in making your own rag quilt. Once I get the quilt completed I’ll post again with more detailed directions. It really looks bad at this point in the process, until I wash it. Hopefully during the next two evenings I can make all the tiny clips in the seam allowances and get it washed and dried. Here’s the front:

And the back:

My Label

This is really cool:  My Label 3D fashion pattern software by Bernina.  You can enter your measurements (kind of like a 3D digital dress form),  choose from their built in patterns, make adjustments, print out your personalized pattern and sew.   I haven’t tested the software yet (they have a free download) and it’s a little pricey, so I don’t think I’ll be running out and buying a copy soon.  But I really like the idea.  In the past I’ve avoided patterns for dresses or shirts because I wasn’t confident on how to adjust the bust area of the pattern.  Luckily Simplicity and other pattern companies now have C & D cup adjustments in some of their tops/dresses (the standard for pattern making is a B cup if I remember correctly).  I’ll have to do more research and see if any other companies offer similar software.

Colorfix

I’ve mentioned before that I accidentally dyed my hair black a year ago. Well, not Goth black, but a soft black. Eventually it faded, but it was still a shade darker than my natural dark brown. Since my hair grows fast (especially when I was pregnant) and I get my hair cut every five weeks, most of the black is gone. But I could never get the ends of my hair to fade so I was touching up the gray at my hairline with a darker brown than I wanted so it would match. Argh.

As of today, I hadn’t dyed my hair since the first week of November. So I had a couple inches of my natural color at the root line and a whole lot of gray. Luckily most of my grays are at my temples and you don’t see it when my hair is styled. Yesterday I was cleaning, had my hair pulled back, and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and it looked like I had white highlights. It was like Bride of Frankenstein. Something must be done.

So I decided to buy a box of Colorfix, some medium brown hair dye and fix my hair once and for all. I guess the smart thing (but expensive) would be to have a professional do the color correction. But I’m cheap and stubborn and don’t have a stylist I trust currently. Seriously, what’s the worst that can happen? I tried the Colorfix tonight. First the slight color correction… worked great, but the ends were still a tiny bit too dark. Then I did the full color correction. All my old color is now gone. My hair is a weird brown/orange shade, but after reading all the reviews on folica.com and makeupalley.com I expected it to look weird until I can re-dye. Tomorrow I’ll try a medium brown permanent color and hopefully be back to normal. I purposely went a shade lighter since I think my hair is going to be so porous after all this that it might soak up too much color. I’m afraid if I went to a darker brown I’d just end up with black. Chris is currently asleep. I’ve considered playing a little joke on him and telling him this weird orange brown was the color I was going for. But I’m the worst liar in the world. He’d never buy it.