Preparing for Lautaro's Birthday

I am finally making Lautaro’s birthday invitations. I hope to finish the cards tonight and mail tomorrow. Once again, burning the midnight oil. I think I enjoy procrastinating and working at the last minute. Maybe it is because 1 AM is the only time my house is quiet!

Here are the details on the cards. I didn’t have to buy any supplies to make these cards. I was determined to use only materials that I already had on hand.

Lautaro LOVES dogs – so we are going with a puppy theme for his second birthday! Thanks to Mama Plum, I found a cute puppy template from designer Anna Maria. What a find! In addition to some fun freebies, she also has an interesting website and online store. Best of all is her beautiful textile design work. Her fabric is such eye candy that it makes you want to start sewing. Very inspiring! I cut the puppies from a very thin denim fabric. At first, I started stitching the pups onto a piece of Paper Source red cardstock. The stitching was a little too cumbersome. So, now I am hand stitching near the edge of the puppy and then gluing the puppy onto the card. The red card is then pasted onto a kraft paper card. Today, I worked on making cards while the kids made art projects with packaging peanuts.

Friday Find: Valentine’s Crafts

I LOVE Valentine’s Day! I think it is my favorite holiday, along with Halloween. I just adore all the red, pink and purple decorations. Could there be a more girly and cute holiday? I really don’t care whether or not I receive a Valentine’s Day gift (although chocolate always delights). I really love Valentine’s Day for the crafts.

I used to make handmade Valentine’s cards. Now, since Lautaro’s birthday is two days after Valentine’s Day I am not making cards anymore. Well, actually, no Valentine’s crafts at all. I hope in the future, I can be more organized about his birthday planning and set aside some time for gluing paper dollies and glittering hearts.

So, for those of you who do have time to get out the scissors, glue and sewing machine…

Sew Mama Sew Valentine’s Ideas

And for those of us, who don’t have time to sew, check out Etsy Valentine’s Showcase.

Quiet Book

I was so excited to find 26 Lively Letters by Barbara Williams and Carol Grundmann at the Friends of the Library shop at the Tuolumne County Library. One of my favorite keepsakes from my childhood is the quiet activity book that my Mom made me. Each mom from the co-op preschool I went to as a child made a page for the quiet book. Each mom had to make enough versions of the page for each child in the class. When they were finished, each child had a unique quiet book created by all the moms working together. I love the idea of the moms crafting together to create a book. I love my cloth book that reflects the craft style of the late seventies and the individual work of the different moms. There are cloth pages with felt appliqués to practice sorting, tying shoes, learning the alphabet and using buttons and zippers.

As I got older and thought about having kids, I couldn’t wait to make them a quiet book. My only problem is that I don’t have twenty other moms to work on the project with me! So, I talked my Mom into working on it with me. I am going to try to make a few pages for Lautaro’s birthday. Why do I always wait until the last minute to do my projects?

Lautaro’s Waldorf Doll Finished

Here is Lautaro’s adorable new friend. I can’t wait to find out the name Lautaro gives him. Although, it may be awhile, right now he is referred to as “bebe.”

So, my idea of tracing Baby Doreengi’s clothes to develop my own patterns, almost worked, but I was short on time. One of the arms was two narrow and I couldn’t figure out the elastic. So, I put the shirt on backwards and wrapped some thread around the waist to make it look like a little kimono, which I think is cute. Malena graciously lent a pair of Baby Doreengi’s pants for Lautaro’s baby. I will have to wait for my parents to visit and bring me the patterns to make some more clothes.

Waldorf Doll in Progress

I am almost finished stitching together the body of Lautaro’s Waldorf doll. Today, I finished attaching the body and I am now working on perfecting the feet. Later, I will add hair and facial features.  I totally forget that this little doll will need clothes! My mom has the original patterns and I forget to cut my fabric while I was visiting her. So, I will trace around Baby Doreengi’s clothes (Malena’s Waldorf doll) to create patterns for Lautaro’s doll. 

I really have to hustle the remaining bits of this afternoon and tonight. I have to finish Lautaro's doll, sew doll clothing (i should probably make Baby Doreengi an outfit while I am sewing.), wrap presents and clean the house. I was hoping I would have time to sew some matching family stockings, but that will have to wait until next year at this rate!

A Waldorf Doll In The Making

Today, I received the supplies to make a beautiful Waldorf Doll for Lautaro. He loves Malena’s Baby Doreengee that I made for her third Christmas, so it is time for one for him. Baby Doreengee will have a little brother. Oh, Malena derived Baby Doreengee’s name from my Aunt Doreen.

I ordered the doll making supplies from Weir Dolls. For Malena’s doll, I ordered one of their kits with a pre-made doll head, pre-sewn body and crocheted cap for the hair base. I worried that if I did the doll completely from scratch, it would look a bit non-human. The Weir Doll kit is wonderful with simple, easy-to-follow instructions. All the items necessary to make a beautiful doll are included and packaged nicely. No machine sewing is required if you buy the kit and select the pre-sewn body. I like buying the pre-made head, because I questioned my ability to create a realistic-shaped head using only wool, cotton tubing and embroidery floss.

Making Malena’s doll, I quickly understood, why an already-made Waldorf doll is so expensive. It takes a lot of love and time! It is a simple, yet time-consuming process. It is such a wonderful feeling and experience to be able to make your child’s first doll. I know that this is a doll that my child will treasure forever and be able to give their children. I believe that all the love put into creating the doll shows in the doll’s personality.

I would rather my child have one special, high-quality doll than many plastic dolls. Many people complain about the price of wooden toys, Waldorf dolls or play silks. If you buy less, yet high quality toys it probably equates to the amount one would spend on plastic toys that break and need to be replaced. Not too mention one of my favorite reasons for fewer toys – less clutter. Plus, if a wooden stacking toy is left on the living room floor, it doesn’t look as obnoxious as a plastic Dora the Explorer plaything.

Oh, if you are feeling really brave and crafty, like my friend Maria at MamaPlum you can check out this blog entry about making dolls from scratch. Darling and inspiring!

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays, next to Valentine’s Day. I think it is because of all the fun decorating possibilities. So, one would think our house would be decked in ghosts and goblins. But, no, we just have pumpkins on the front deck. Inside we have mini pumpkins, gourds and these beautiful glass pumpkins. These are made by Tom Stanton at Holy City Art Glass in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Every year the Los Gatos High School has an art glass pumpkin patch fundraiser. Amazing pieces! It is unbelievable how many women are in line to buy their yearly glass pumpkin. Last year they raised $17,300 for the school to use as they wish! Quite impressive!



Here is the beginning stage of Malena’s costume. She wanted to be a “hugging witch.” The dress is made with a black satin. I made a cape and sash with glittery black fabric on one side and sheer purple with fuzzy scared cats on the reverse. The glittery fabric I found as a remnant at half price! I love pinning the pattern to fabric. The feeling of the tissue paper pattern tautly pinned to the fabric brings back memories of my childhood. My mom was always sewing dresses for me. She always made our Halloween costumes also. It is so much fun to make costumes for my own children.

Lautaro is going to be a spider, again. Since we didn’t get a good picture of him last year, I am going to try again this year. I will wear a white dress and white shirt embellished with black ribbon to look like a web. I hope to have a good picture to post!

Unfortunately, the kids are home sick today, so we don’t get to go on the preschool walk in our costumes. Plus, since we are so far out in the country, there is nowhere to trick-o-treat and we won’t have any Halloween visitors. It is all retirees and vacation homes in our neighborhood.

Quick Catch-Up

So, I am going to make a real attempt at keeping this blog current. Heck, maybe I can even get someone to read this thing…

Here is an updated list of my latest projects:

1. Minky Blanket – silk in an paisley pattern on one side (brought in Los Altos at Thai Silks and purple super-soft minky from Minky Delight). Both pieces were short ends, so I got a bargain! Minky is difficult to sew with though… I have read complaints about people being covered in fabric fluff while sewing, but that isn’t my case. The minky from Minky Delight, doesn’t seem to shred much. However, I can’t keep the two pieces evenly together. The minky streches so much, even though I pin a lot, by time I get to the next pin, the minky is bunched up. I would love any tips on sewing with Minky.


2. Malena's 4th Birthday Cake - Malena wanted a mermaid theme for her 4th birthday. I was this close to making a cake with a fondant mermaid on top. But then the reality hit that I only had a few hours in the middle of the night to decorate the cake. Thank Goodness! I made a two-layer cinnamon cake with cinnamon buttercream, at her request. I decorated with lime green fondant and handmade white chocolate shells. She loved the cake.


3. Mermaid Quilt – Based upon a Cuddly Quilt Kit from JoAnns. However, the original instructions were basically a patchwork blanket. That would have been fine, but I had to take in one step further and make it into a REAL quilt. I added a natural cotton batting, hand-quilted stars and a batik binding (which I made in the proper quilting technique). I bought those materials from Siri’s, who actually lives less than a mile away from me. I am lucky and can drive over to her house and browse her garage-turned-warehouse-store for fabric and notions. What a find out here in the foothills. I never would have finished the quilt in time for Malena’s 4th birthday. Oh, due to a cutting mistake, I had to replace some of the plush turquoise fabric for the center border. I found the perfect bright pink minky dot at Minky Delight as short end. I think the quilt turned out well for my first one. Although, I am not sure I am a quilter at heart. It takes considerable amounts of patience, mathematical skill, precision and dedication. I wish I could have all of those qualities! I don’t know how my Vava has made so many beautiful quilts. I can truly appreciate her work now!



4. Sundress for Malena – It is so much fun to sew for a little girl. So many patterns out there for cute little dresses and accessories. This summer, I couldn’t wait for the opportunity to sew a sundress. I even tried making a version for myself. I won’t post the results of that project. Let’s say, I am just going to stick with clothing for littles for now.

5. Smock– This was a quick and easy project. The pattern instructions were very clear. It provided a great introduction on sewing with seam binding and had useful tips to improve the process.

Denim Bling!

I have decided that plain denim is just so boring and predictable. Everyone is wearing uber-expensive jeans feeling they are unique by buying an elite pair of jeans. Well, I have had enough with it and have started embellishing my denim to reflect my personal style. Now, I will truly have a pair of unique jeans - taste and style are things that money cannot buy.

Sew Outdoors!

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that I decided to sew outdoors on our new deck. I had to sew ten flannel playclothes for Malena's Waldorf nursery school. Today, I washed, ironed and rolled them. They look so soft and inviting for play! Lucky kids!



Doesn't the deck look awesome? Diego designed and built the deck all by himself! It took him one weekend and a few weeknights after work to complete it. I applied the water sealant on it. This weekend, Diego started building the back deck - by himself! We also have a new wooden hot tub to install that we ordered from, Sea Otter Wooden Tubs in Alaska. We didn't want to be soaking in a big tupperware container filled with hot water, so we opted for the safer wood option. The people at Sea Otter were extremely helpful with choosing our tub and explaining the benefits of a cedar tub. The tub smells wonderful! I can't wait to get in it once it is built. Ohhh... it has jets too! (for a good, informative article on endocrine disruptors, such as the chemicals used in plastics or cholrine, read this article published by a colleague of the renowed Dr. Christine Northrup. Check out her site for information on women's health and wisdom.)