Bye-Bye 2013!

One year ago I was full-term in my pregnancy and content to ring in 2013 lying on the couch and watching the countdown on t.v in my pyjamas.  I was tired from carrying the extra weight but oh so very excited to meet the little person that had been growing in my belly for nine months.  It turned out I didn't have to wait too much longer since Adam came almost two weeks early.  

How did a year go by already?  2013 was incredible but also incredibly difficult.  It was filled with tears of happiness and of frustration.  I was touched by the pure love of a child and also stung by feelings of isolation and doubt.  There are only 19 minutes remaining and I can't stop the clock but I can look back at what has been the most intense and rewarding year of my life.  Thank you Adam for coming into this world and being our son.

Showing off our new hats!

Kisses at Sherway Gardens

Say "Cheese" with Daddy

Thank you Uncle Alex and Auntie Kristin :)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Rub-a-dub-dub

Drool Monster!

New hat from Iceland

Mommy and me

Funny faces

Curious babies

Snuggle Puppy

Family photo

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Dragon babies

Sleepy smiles

Hello World

Chi-Ching! Leather Coin Purse

Amidst holiday celebrations, ice storms, hosting family with power outages, and nanny interviews I was able to sneak in one last sewing project for 2013.  And thankfully so because it was my quiet time to unwind, to do something small just for me.  Usually I don't get a chance to sew until the very end of the day but at least after Adam's gone to bed and order has been restored to the living room and kitchen, I can sit down at the Singer for an hour or two without interruption or distraction.  Sometimes I'm still whirring away at the machine after Mike has already put down his book and turned out his bedside lamp and the house is completely quiet.  As long as I get a bit of sewing time in though, I feel refreshed.

The latest project was a simple leather purse for carrying change and random items. As with most of my projects I started with one idea in mind which then transformed into something completely different as the sewing progressed.  

At first it was just going to be a quick and easy cloth coin purse to replace the one I lost several months ago.  Since then I've been finding loose change all over the place; in my pockets, in my bag, in the holes of my jacket liner.  Of course, it's never when I really need it most like when I'm already holding Adam in the blistering wind and standing by the shopping cart stop across the parking lot of No Frills or Freshco and cursing about not having a darn quarter on me.

So enough of the madness, time to sew up a solution!  I decided last minute to spice up the purse and dug out a sharp mustard-yellow leather scrap I picked up two months ago.

The shortest zipper I had on hand was bright red which really pops out against the leather.  You can see in the above photo I put a scrap piece of cotton across the end of the zipper tape to attach it to the leather sides.  Worked out nicely.  I added a similar cotton strip across the top but unfortunately I mis-measured (ok, mis- eyeballed) the width of the leather bag.  As a result the top of the zipper doesn't close completely leaving an ugly gap (see below).  Sloppy sloppy sloppy.

Oh well, I wasn't going to shed any tears over the zipper.  Next was the inner lining. I used some scrap quilting cotton to make two pockets for the change purse and added white braided piping along the top of the divider piece.  

Then I hand-stitched the inner lining to the zipper along the inside of the purse.  I wondered whether I could have machine-sewed the liner to the zipper first, and then sewed the leather afterwards which would have saved me hand-stitching altogether.  But the mental exercise of flipping the leather and lining inside-out and outside-in - and figuring out the order of it all - had exhausted my brain so I gave up.  Besides, it wasn't much hand-stitching.

Oh, and I also added a small loop along the side of the purse in case I want to later attach a strap for hanging around my wrist. Typical for me it wasn't until after I had already sewed the bag closed before I had this bright idea so I ripped open the seam to add the loop.  Luckily I hadn't put in the inner lining yet so it was only a few minutes of setback :)

And there you have it.  Some loose change and lip butter in one pocket...a few fivers (oh geeze, no twenties??) in the other pocket.  

Speaking of fivers...have you all seen the new polymer five dollar bill?  It features Dextre, a two-armed robot mounted on the end of the Candarm2.  I'm not much of a space geek but it's pretty awesome that I worked on that robot and supported the launch from JSC in 2008.  My signature is on that thing somewhere ;)  Or whoops, was that supposed to be a secret?

DIY Fabric High Chair

When I read these fabric high chair tutorials from this mama makes stuff and homemade by jill I knew I had to make one.  They're so simple and yet so functional!  Last weekend we forgot to pack the travel high chair when we went for dinner at the in-laws so we ended up propping Adam on some cushions and then strapping him to the back of a chair with a belt.  Good grief, 2-point harness! It worked pretty well to be honest but didn't look all that comfortable.

Then I came across these tutorials so yesterday I pulled out my pretty fabrics and got to work.  I'm not even going to bother explaining how to make this because it's so easy and already covered in the tutorials I mentioned above.  I'll just say that the dimensions I ended up using were:

Waist belt: 40" x 6"
Connector: 4" x 6"
Front panel: 10" x 20"

Outside fabric

Inside fabrics

I used whatever materials I had on hand and was a bit short of the pink-yellow honeycomb pattern which is why part of the lighter floral fabric spilled over into the front panel.  I really love piping and pulled a bright orange one out from my stash.  It was perfect.  Piping just breathes life into a project.

The only catch to using this fabric high chair is that you have to have the right kind of chair.  It works best where the chair backing has vertical bars, such as with our dining chairs.  Otherwise there needs to be a gap between the back and the seat in order to feed the front panel through. Here's what I mean:

Yup

Yup

Nope

Our dining chairs have bars and a gap so the waist belt can be fed through (as shown below) or wrap around from behind.  Either way would work but threading through the bars allows for a more snug fit around the body.

The waist belt attaches with long Velcro strips around the front panel which folds over the top.

"Abracadabra!"

And when you're not using the high chair you can just wrap the front panel around the waist belt a few times and then secure it closed with the Velcro.  

Pretty. Simple.  

London Fog

A month ago today I was on an 8-hour plane ride home from London England with Mike and Adam after attending my cousin's beautiful wedding and visiting with family.  I had intended on writing about the trip shortly after returning but then things got busy and I kept putting the writing on hold. Now it's all sort of a fog, that 5-day whirlwind trip, but I'll do my best to re-cap.

Needless to say I was nervous traveling overseas with a clingy, curious, wriggly 10-month old baby. It didn't help that Adam had a fever and was throwing up just days before we left. Luckily that all cleared up in time for the trip.  As it turned out, to our relief and delight, the plane rides there and back were relatively straight-forward.  Okay yes, Adam had a meltdown all throughout the safety demo and take-off but then he was snoring (loudly) by the time we were at altitude. That was a relief for everyone on the plane no doubt, and even Mrs. Dagger Eyes sitting beside us eventually relaxed her eyebrows.  I, on the other hand, was stiff as a board having Adam sleep on me for the entire flight.  Looking back I'm sure I could have put him down or passed him to Mike at some point but I was just cringing at the thought of him waking up all the passengers so I simply (or maybe not so simply) stuck it out.  Gold star for mama.  Fortunately on the flight home we made use of the bassinet I reserved with British Airways. 

Lesson #1.  If you can reserve a bassinet for the flight, DO it, then USE it.  

Never mind that the bassinet is too small for a 10-month old baby.  USE IT.  Your body will thank you.

Flight home

Flight to London

Against my family's persistent objections we decided to rent a car which would make getting around with baby and gear much easier.  We rented a car in Melbourne where you also drive on the opposite side of the road but in Australia the steering wheel is at least on the left-hand side.  In London Mike had to get used to right-hand steering on top of driving on the left side, not to mention numerous intimidating roundabouts. He navigated like a champ though, and having the car gave us the convenience and flexibility that is oh so important when you are traveling with a baby.  I was grateful for it on the day of the wedding when we were running to and from hotel, ceremony, and reception with long breaks in between.  

Lesson #2. Don't underestimate the importance of convenience when traveling with a baby.  

It also meant that we could rent a car seat instead of lugging ours with us from Toronto.  

Lesson #3.  Rent or borrow baby gear as much as possible.

We rented the car seat and borrowed a travel crib.  It's questionable whether we really even needed to bring the stroller. It came in handy for his naps on the day of the wedding but for the rest of the trip I just used the baby carrier.  London subways are a nightmare if you can't use stairs.

Leaving Blackhorse Station

On the day of the wedding it was cold but beautifully sunny outside. Yes that's right. Sunny...in London. Oh Sue, you were a very lucky bride!  I mean, aside from scoring an awesome husband of course. The ceremony was at Fanhams Hall in Herfordshire - pure elegance and charm.  The reception was at a Chinese restaurant and they had one of those popular photo booths set up.  So much fun!

Lesson #4.  Every wedding needs a photo booth.  

Lesson #5.  Smile for the camera or else you'll be labeled the grump.  

Yes Adam, we're talking about you.

Once the wedding was over we really had just two days to visit with family and explore the city so we packed in as much as possible.  We went for fish and chips, visited the Tower of London, rode the London Eye, and walked around Oxford Circus.  I even saw Billy Elliot the Musical with my cousins for a girls' night out. The movie had made me cry and the musical did the same.

Lesson #6: Do touristy-things when you're a tourist because heck, why not!

I look like Mary Poppins visiting the London Eye

Adam laughing at the guard's hat

Mike laughing at his own hat

Who's not laughing at this guy's hat?

And finally, I just want to say that after having traveled with Adam to London it was definitely worth the trouble.  He adapted easily to the time change and different faces and settings, and we got to spend a wonderful few days seeing London with family.

Lesson #7:  Traveling with a baby IS possible!

Oh For Juki's Sake!

Sad. All of November come and gone and I didn't even have a chance to write anything new!  It was a busy month, that's for sure.  And Adam spent three of the four weeks sick with some virus.  The incredible part was that the only time he was healthy was during the five days we were in London England for my cousin's wedding (smack in the middle of the month).  And thank Goodness for that because a sick 10-month old would have made the 8-hour flight seem even looonger, I'm sure.  So I am grateful for that but I'll write about London another time.  This post is to celebrate the very satisfying victory where six weeks after posting about my newly-arrived Juki, I finally got it working.  Good grief is right!

When I first opened the Juki I was so intimidated about threading it. I think it took me 10 minutes per thread to make sure I didn't miss any guides or loops.  Now I can honestly shrug my shoulders at having to re-thread the Juki.  That's because I've done it dozens of times over the past few weeks.

Now, to clarify, I didn't spend all of the past six weeks troubleshooting the Juki.  As I said, we were busy with London and nanny interviews (don't get me started) and a long list of other things...but whenever I could find some time during Adam's naps I would attack the Juki. And I always lost.  The thread just kept breaking on me when I used the pedal and I threaded and re-threaded and tri-threaded that thing to death.  I fiddled with the tension, I used the manual wheel. I went crazy.  Every time I got to a point where it looked right with the manual wheel I'd give the pedal and go but the thread would break after about two inches of serging.  Frustration set in.

I started suspecting that my thread was just weak, seeing as I picked the spools up from the bargain bin at Fabricland.  I talked to a few people about serger thread and they said there was nothing special about it.  That threw me off.  Finally I read online from a fellow blogger that the quality of thread was very important for sergers because of all the fast-moving complicated parts.  Worth giving it a try right? 

So the last time I was up visiting my parents I grabbed my mother's bag of old thread spools and found what I thought was decent quality thread (at least better than the discount ones I bought to "test" the Juki).  They were mismatched in colour but I didn't care. I just needed to test out this theory, and besides, different coloured thread would help troubleshoot any tension problems.

Well guess what?  After threading the Juki with the new spools of thread it hummed beautifully on the very first try.  

The winning piece (centre) surrounded by scraps displaying previously failed attempts

 For Juki's sake...it was the thread all along!  Lesson learned? Don't cheap out on thread, it'll cost you hours of frustration.

Thank you Sweet Verbena.

Sweet satisfaction.

Separation Anxiety and Other Unhelpful Terminology

If you are currently pregnant or entered recently entered motherhood then you are probably receiving emails from babycentre.ca.  Actually one of my co-workers whose kids are seven and five are still getting weekly updates on their child's development.

I think the website contains a wealth of useful information but I've also come across some terminology that sounds kind of silly to me.  And in new-mom circles I've heard these terms used often to describe the new phase their baby has entered.  One of the things mothers are often asked is how her new baby is sleeping.  One mother will explain that her baby has been sleeping through the night for months but has recently decided to wake up every hour or two crying.  "Ahhh....it's sleep regression" another mother will nod, knowingly.  Sleep regression? Isn't that just basically saying "Ahhh....she's no longer sleeping well".  You don't need a term for it, do you?  Or is having a label just cuter than saying "Ahhh...it's sleep-not-well".  I am relieved Adam has not entered this phase (yet).

"Somebody pick me up already!"

How about Separation Anxiety?  Now that is a phase Adam entered three weeks ago.  It's funny when I tell people that Adam has become very clingy and cries when I leave his side.  "Oh don't worry, it's just separation anxiety," they reply.  Well, yes I know, I just told you as much. Explaining that he's uneasy about being apart from me is not new information.  It's about as helpful as telling an eczema sufferer that she has dermatitis.  Dermatitis: an inflammatory skin condition.

They say separation anxiety strikes around nine months which is dead on for Adam, although he experienced something similar around seven months for a few weeks.  That was fun.  Last night I was exhausted after another day of entertaining and soothing a clingy baby joined at my hip, all the while trying get a few things done....like go to a doctor's appointment, pick up some supplies from the sewing store, make and eat food, clean sticky toys.  But then around Adam's bedtime I was holding him up to play with the buttons on our thermostat and he turned to me, cooed, and gave me a big wet kiss.  I've been teaching him how to blow kisses for about two weeks and he's great at pursing his lips like a fish and smacking them loudly.  It's adorable. But this time he was leaning in to actually give me a kiss on my nose.  He did it several times in a row as if to say "Mama I love you" or "Mama your nose looks delicious".  It was the sweetest thing in the world.