A Frugal Fix

Little Sir it getting bigger and as his body grows so does his will.  He has officially given up sitting in his awesome high chair (scroll to the bottom of that post.)  We have agreed that he can sit on a regular chair either on him bum or on his knees.  Well, he can't really reach yet when sitting on his bottom, so it's usually his knees. . . or I should say, it's sometimes his knees because meal times at our house sound something like this. . .

"Little Sir, on your knees!"
"On your knees!"
"LS, on your knees RIGHT NOW!"
"You are going to fall off that chair and crack open your head- it will hurt- now sit on your knees!"
"LS, if you don't sit on your knees RIGHT NOW you are going to go back into your high chair!"

Monday evening, after a fun day at the part with friend we were having a particularly difficult time.  In complete exasperation I groaned "Little Sir, why can't you JUST. SIT. ON. YOUR. KNEES?"  The funny thing is, he answered.  He told me it hurt to sit on his knees and showed me the scraped up knees he had acquired earlier at the park.  Well, what do you know, I'm a horrible mother sometimes.

So I asked him if he would like a pillow to kneel on and he said "YES!"


I went to the family room and retrieved one of these horrible throw pillows that we have been throwing around our living room for years and years.  I keep meaning to get rid of, but always forget when I'm going to Goodwill because they are still in the living room being used as toys, dog beds, laptop desks, kneeling cushions. . . you get the idea.

Little Sir was thrilled and stayed kneeling the entire rest of the meal.

I had also just received a package in the mail from the Duke's grandmother with some boyish fabric in it that had been in her stash and she was hoping I could use.  It was sitting on my stairs waiting to be put away and there was one piece of fabric that Little Sir just would not leave alone.  He wanted it as a cape, as a blanket, as a tent, he just wanted it!

I had an idea, and tonight while the Duke was eating a late dinner, I sat at my sewing machine and worked out a boyish solution to our meal time mayhem. 


Cute, don't you think?


It's a simple pocket pillow cover with two ties sewn into the back seam.


The ties were even free, some bias tape a woman threw in at a garage sale when I bought a sewing pattern from her! I zigzagged down each side of them in red to for a bit of detail.

I'm so happy with this.  Not only do we have a solution to the kneeling problem, I don't have to look at my ugly and unwanted throw pillows anymore.  Well, at least one of them.  I think there may be another little boy or girl in the near future who will need a seat cushion to kneel on.

I'm sharing this project:

Genius in my Head

You know that day when you were a child. . . that day that it finally clicked and you had learned to ride a bike. Do you remember that feeling? Millions of other kids have learned to ride a bike, your dumb older sister could ride a bike, but still, you felt like a genius for having master the art of two wheeled locomotion.

That is how I felt about this project.

I have seen them all over blogland. Like here, here, here, and a bunch of them here. A zillion and one people have done it before me, but it was so easy, I made it a little different than any others that I have seen, and I absolutely love it.



Now my camera has a pretty little dress to wear. I also made mine removable so that I can change it if I want to. Oh, and I didn't use any of the tutorials, I thought they were all a little too much for basically a tube of fabric. I just laid my camera strap on my fabric, ripped the fabric in the appropriate places, sewed it together and put it on. No pattern, no measuring, just fast. It only took about 20 minutes to make it.

I Heart Spoonflower

You all know about Spoonflower, I'm sure.  But did you know that they hold weekly contests.  I just love seeing what this community of designers comes up with each week.  Sometimes I even enter.  (In fact, look for me next week, the theme is "desert" and I do know a little something about the beauty of the desert.

I didn't enter this week's contest, but I thought some of the entries were very interesting.  This week's challenge was "paper collage."  The fabric had to start out as a paper collage and then be scanned in to create the fabric.

It was interesting to me that some of them just looked like more digitally created fabrics.  All of my designs, to date, are digitally created.  I have no problems w/ that, just would have liked to see some more creativity around the medium.

Here are the ones that I loved this week.  You will notice that I really was drawn, particularly to ones that are layered and have that lovely semi transparency you can get with tissue paper.  So pretty.



If you are interested in seeing my novice designs, you can check them out here.  And you will notice that no, I do not sell my designs, but you will find many incredible designers that do here.

The Dragon Dresser

I found this "treasure" at a thrift store (DI for you Mormons out there, the one here in Seattle is fabulous) for $40. It is mostly solid wood, including the drawers. Only the decorative fronts are a thick veneer mounted on some particle board, but are still dovetailed. It was in nearly perfect condition.

When I brought it home the Duke nearly fainted and dubbed it the horrid-grandma-dragon-dresser. He could not believe I would bring home something so ugly. I reminded him that in 9.5 years I have never disappointed him in the home decor department. He just shuttered.

Little Sir seemed to like it quite well, mostly because he saw the paint brushes come out!



Primed



In process, with all the necessary tools, including a sippy, of course. Little Sir and the Lion Baby were excellent assistants. Little Sir even removed all of the hardware with almost no help from me (the kid's not even three yet, he's clearly a genius!)



Well, my Duke, eat your heart out. We now have more storage in our bedroom than you could ever wish for, and it's beautiful.



The paint is Behr's Magnolia Blossom in High Gloss. I LOVE this color. It is a beautiful creamy white. I have it on several of my walls. I chose this white and the high gloss finish mostly because I had a gallon of it in my garage left over from when we painted our window seals and banisters. I rolled the smooth parts, but the drawers had to be done with a brush. My experience in painting zillions of feet of molding came in handy here. My tips: plenty of paint on your brush, brush quickly, and in the same direction as the line of the molding. Don't go back over it while it's wet, if you miss a spot, get it on the next coat. Sand between coats if needed.



The glaze is Ralph Lauren's tinted a dark brownish black. I put it on with a brush to get it down in all the cracks then wiped it off with a damp rag.

Here's a question for those of you who have done this a lot. Do you glaze the flat surfaces if you are just looking to use the glaze to bring out the details? I decided too because the flat portions of the middle drawers got glazed and I wanted then to match in case you could tell the difference after everything was dry. I'm not sure it made any difference.



The handles were spray painted with everyone's favorite oil rubbed bronze. Having never seen it in person, only in blogland, I really didn't know why everyone loved it so much. NOW I get it. It really is a beautiful finish for the hardware.

I'm working on a large piece of art that is to go over the dresser but it is not coming together how I was hoping. I may have to start again, but look for that soon.

I'm sharing this project:

The Great Binky Give Up - The End of the Mimi

Thank you to my dear friend, Tabitha, for this idea.  It was a lot of fun and has been so helpful over the last 2 days as Little Sir continues his adjustment.



He wasn't sure about the floppy, lifeless puppy we handed him after he had chosen a fluffy fun doggie, but trusted us as we assured him that we were going to "build" him.



Getting ready, this is a big step and he knows it.



Fill 'im up!



He's ready.



In goes the Mimi!  (Oh that face!)


He very carefully followed the lady's instructions on how to prepare the doggy's heart.


Blurry photo, but he was so happy to have brought his puppy to life.




He gave Mimi Doggy a very thorough air bath.



And he chose a bandanna in his favorite color to tie around his neck. Daddy helped him.



Lastly Mimi Doggy got a birth certificate.



We had one very happy little boy on our hands.



We also took him to have a special dinner and Mimi Doggy was his constant companion.

It has now been 2 full days without the Mimi. He did have a little bit of trouble getting to sleep the first two nights. Tonight he was able to get to sleep with almost no trouble. There has been very little crying throughout the entire week. Even though I know it was a difficult week for him, I think doing all of these fun things made the transition for him a lot easier.

Saturday he found a long lost Binky in the garage. He didn't put it in his mouth, he brought it to me and showed me (with much excitement.) I told he that he didn't use Mimies anymore and that he could either throw it in the garbage or give it to the Lion Baby. He accepted that without trouble, said he wanted to give it to the Lion Baby and since Little Lion was sleeping he gave it to me to wash off and give to him later.

He loves Mimi Doggy very much except for when he is struggling and asks for his Mimi, then we give him his doggy and remind him that his Mimi is inside the doggy now. He will then throw the Mimi Doggy to the floor in frustration. It is a good outlet for him and it is a good way for the Duke and I to be consistent in helping him through those difficult moments. It isn't long before he is picking Mimi Doggy up and hugging him tight.

The Great Binky Give Up was a great success. It was still hard, but it made a week that could have been horrible and instead turned it into a fun and memorable experience.

The Great Binky Give Up - Phase Four

Today was the easiest day of the project so far. We tackled it in the morning before Little Sir left for preschool and I think he actually enjoyed it! There were no tears, no sad phases, no problems.
As we were talking last week about how Little Sir wanted to give up his Mimi's he remembered a time that we tried before, several months ago when I let him use scissors to cut the silicone portion of his Mimi off. For some strange reason he finds this activity highly appealing. (We won't discuss the fact that I find that disturbing.)



So, after breakfast he held onto is Mimi while I got everything ready.



He was excited to get right to work when the scissors showed up.



Sending it up in the sky or out to sea, very traumatic, destroying it, great fun. The kid is strange.



Then he put it in a special bag that we made for the garbage man so he would know what it was and how special it was. (that is a giant Mimi attached to it.)



He was very proud of himself (and so am I.)



Then outside on our way to preschool.



He throws it in the garbage with no ceremony what-so-ever.



He replaces the lid and runs happily off to the car so he can get to school.


Today was so easy and painless. We'll see how he does at preschool and what tonight will bring. Tomorrow is Phase 5, the final phase. Wish us luck!

The Great Binky Give Up - Phase Three

Today we packed up half the house and moved this circus to Golden Gardens Park, which is as beachy as Seattle gets. Little Sir was torn, he was excited to go to the beach (sand and water are his two favorite forms of matter) but he knew why we were going, and he wasn't very excited about that.
I knew that we had to get the Mimi business out of the way first thing so we could enjoy the rest of the day. Little Sir was not as ready to get down to business.



This was his reaction very soon after arrival when I told him it was time. He recovered quickly, though.



He "held his Mimi in his mouth" for a few moments while holding onto the little boat that would carry it away to the new baby who lived far away.



He placed the Mimi in the boat along with some special pretty rocks we picked out on our way down to the water as a present for the baby. (Rocks are his third favorite form of matter, and more readily available than sand and water, which is a major bonus.)



He held the boat for a few moments to say goodbye,



Then he place the boat on the ground near the water and told me that the water would come to take it away. (Yes, my child understands tides, he is brilliant.)



He turned



and walked away.



His understanding of tides is still limited and it was clear that the tide was going out, so I offered to walk it out into the water for him.



He agreed and stood on the beach to watch me as I walked it out about 20 feet. (I did NOT want it to come back!)




Away it sailed.



If you look close (or click through to photobucket and look at the full size photo) you can see an orange speck floating out to sea.



When I came back I didn't ask him how he felt, it was heartbrakingly clear. I just snapped a series of photos as he watched the boat sail away.




We quietly ate lunch and after a while I told him I was very proud of him. He said "Yeah, I'm a big boy, but I'm still sad." And then I shoved a hand full of sand down my throat to make myself feel better.
The seagulls helped lighten the mood. I started throwing the remains of Little Sir's sandwich up in the air and they would catch them in mid air while putting on the Seagull version of an ultimate fighting match. It was very impressive, especially for the boy.



Little Sir decided to get in on the action and spent some quality time chasing seagulls.



He was much happier when he returned.



Then we built a sand castle together.



He dutifully destroyed it.



Later I took him for an ice cream cone and for awhile all was right with the world.

He fell asleep in the car without the assistance of a Mimi but was rudely awoken by a hungry little brother who screamed half of the way home from Golden Gardens. There were some tantrums and tears over the Mimi and after some time I decided to skip the nap.

Tonight I put tomorrow's Mimi on his pillow for him to use when he went to sleep. However, I told him that he could only use it while he was actually in bed. He could also choose to come sit with me in the big red rocking chair and I would rock him and sing him songs, but the Mimi could not come. He held the Mimi in his mouth for just a few seconds, then threw it back on the bed and joined me on the rocking chair. He fell asleep not long after as I rocked him and sang to him, no fuss, no tears, and no Mimi! I am so proud of him and I think we are both going to be OK.