swimming in brine

wonky windows #25.

2012-02-12T23:26:00.000-05:00

this installment of wonky windows is brought to you by paper. as an art teacher, paper is essential. unfortunately, i took over a classroom with a shockingly limited supply of paper, but i was so delighted to be teaching art that i was not about to be fazed by a little thing like no paper. and then a colleague suggested i cross my fingers and submit an order to the principal. lo and behold, my principal approved it and the order was promptly placed. so a couple of weeks ago a stack of boxes appeared in my classroom. super exciting.

what is behind curtain number one?

paaaaaaaaaaaaper!! this sight makes my heart go pitter patter.

wonky windows #24.

2012-02-02T20:47:00.000-05:00

these are my travel windows...a few tidbits that made me giggle during our christmas trip to los angeles.

pringle on the plane. checking out the view from 35,000 feet.

have you ever looked closely at the lock on a public bathroom stall? me neither. or maybe i have and there was never anything to see. either way, when i saw the logo on this lock, it made me giggle. hiny hiders!! and check out the logo's picture...soo awesome.

upon returning to fort lauderdale, we saw this dude sitting in a room. whatevs. but then i started feeling a little creepy. we looked a little closer...

he is made of wax. art installation. right then. welcome back to florida.

wonky windows #23.

2012-01-30T22:09:00.006-05:00

never a dull moment in miami. here are some windows into my day-to-day encounters with my city.

i was in line behind this lady and i was kind of mesmerized. and that's all i am going to say about that.

i see this bumper sticker semi-regularly. no comprende. i mean if you want to share with the world that you love and/or hate jesus, that is fine by me. but to be honest, with this bumper sticker, i am not sure whose side you are on.

a little old lady, who needs a walker, jaywalking across a six lane road. during rush hour. the epitome of a florida grandma.

wonky windows #22.

2012-01-29T23:12:00.002-05:00

a window into my working world.

cut paper faces. this was the second project i did as an art teacher. i gave every student the same materials and then sat back and watched their personalities emerge.

as the sign says, these are collages. magazines, novels, textbooks, wallpaper, construction paper, glue, and scissors... a lot of the students did not grasp the concept, but these students took to it like ducks in water.

some more awesome collages.

one of my sample collages. i was showing the students that collages can be designed around color instead of objects. fun times at work!

this student finished her work early, so i asked her to draw a self-portrait and this is what she came up with. i adore the hair style and hat.

wonky windows #21.

2012-01-15T19:35:00.001-05:00

i am always snapping pictures of things i want to share...of course i never seem to find the time to do my sharing. but here are just a few things i have seen recently that made me chuckle.

i took this picture at a cvs pharmacy. in my opinion they need to do a little work on their signage... when i want a soda pop, i have never before thought to myself "let me go and buy a warm beverage."

on wednesdays i work at a different school, which takes me on a different path than usual. i drive by this plaza that hosts the sexy shop and cuban cafe. i will never understand how these two businesses ended up sharing a parking lot. i am equally baffled by the shopping center two blocks further down the road, which houses a bagel store and a gun shop. strange bedfellows.

saw this sweatshirt at a tjmaxx. i immediately recognized that something was strange, but it took me a second glance to see what was amiss. apparently we live in miaim.

holy twenty twelve.

2012-01-03T19:15:00.002-05:00

oh my poor blog. malnourished, neglected, and feeling abandoned. i have not yet given up on posting...it just seems that since i returned to work, my blogging time is gone. literally. quantity of time and quality of time. a) there are not enough minutes in the day and b) my favorite time to write (3am) is no longer available, because i have to be sleeping in preparation for working the next day. the good news is that little pringle is suffering from none of the aforementioned neglect. on the contrary, he is thriving...well fed, adorably clothed (thanks in large part to hand-me-downs from his cousin), and infinitely loved.

pringle at the park...back when miami was still warm.

you are probably wondering how i found this time to write this post...i thought you would never ask!!! let's see, it is 4am, so the writing juices are flowing. i should be sleeping, but 45 minutes ago, a car parked almost directly below our bedroom window suddenly started honking. woke up the entire family, including the baby who had to be coaxed back to sleep. thanks to the mister for taking care of that. anyhow, being the wildly imaginative person that i am, i immediately assumed that someone had a heart attack and was face first in their steering wheel, so i called 911. of course, i am the world's most curious creature, so i stood on the balcony and waited. speaking of outside, it is 47° out there. why didn't anyone send me the memo that we would be experiencing a 40 degree temperature drop overnight?!? i have to know these things...i can't wear sandals when it is 47° outside!!! okay, back to the night's craziness. eventually a police cruiser rolled in, stopped next to the car, got out, shined his flashlight around, and apparently found nothing. after watching this mind-numbingly boring scene unfold with excruciating slowness, i finally wandered back to bed. and then my brain started writing this post. so here i am at 4 in the morning, tucked in bed and typing a post on my phone, because otherwise i will forget it. that said, my brain just turned into instant mush...like instant pudding, only without the milk..so i am abruptly going to sleep. i guess i will finish this post tonight.

ringing in the new year...party animal.

[14 hours later]. i was a wreck today. first day back at work after the long winter recess and i was running on empty. most folks arrived at work looking refreshed from their vacation. and then there was me. rolling in at the last minute with bloodshot eyes and no tea in hand. thank goodness i teach art...otherwise spending the day with boatloads of other people's children might have been tantamount to torture. this whole, skip the caffeine for the baby's sake is starting to wear on me. seriously people, i want a gigantic cup of caffeinated coffee. alas, pringle is already a bundle of energy and i am not going to up the ante by adding caffeine into the mix. okay, so i think it is safe to say that we have a reached a point where continuing this post will take us on a long, slow, ride through my completely exhausted brain. i will spare you. you are welcome.

and happy new year. for reals. happy new year.

art shmart.

2011-11-25T22:06:00.002-05:00

hard to leave this little face at home.

three weeks ago marked the end of my maternity leave. (obviously it also marked the end of my free time, hence the abrupt end to blog posts.) it was a bummer because as a happy homebody, i do not suffer from a burning desire to be employed. alas, there are bills to pay, so back to the grindstone. but the exciting part about returning to work is that at the beginning of the year my principal did some finagling and managed to hold open the art position just long enough for me to get my art certification. and now, that's right, i am an art teacher. and it is divine. i teach art to all the students in the second through fifth grades. it is official. i love my job.

two fourth grade classes at one time. crazy, but we survive.

now i am not one for complaining. well actually, that's a lie. i complain a lot. however, at work i try to keep my chin up, because i have learned that the place is what you make of it. i wander the halls with a big smile, because my personal motto is "a happy face makes a happy place." are you gagging? sorry. now where was i? oh right, about to tell you about the trash pile i inherited that is supposed to pass for an art classroom. yikes.

six 1" squares of fabric clipped together and stored in a box. what the what? why save these?

floppy discs from 1993. how did we manage with 2mb of storage?

okay, so i am thrilled to have a classroom - not all art teachers are so lucky - but this place was a dump. bursting at every seam with bits of paper, jumbled up crayons, oozing tubes of ink, lumpy paint, broken pencils, and dust. oh my god, so much dust.

politically correct crayons. i heart crayola.

the good news is that under the craziness, i unearthed a surprisingly good selection of art supplies. three weeks of tossing, scrubbing, sorting, cleaning, and organizing, and i can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. i still have six boxes of paper scraps to sort by size and two hundred large art reproductions to organize, but then i will have a dream classroom.

making adinkra "cloth" with a third grade class.

and my days will consist of wrangling children to create gloriousness, wandering the internet for project inspiration, and creating sample projects. did i say, i love my job? i do. i love my job.

wonky windows #20.

2011-10-27T13:02:00.000-04:00

looking at the world through my eyes.

yesterday, i went a-hunting for some toys for pringle. i did find some goodies at target, but i have to admit, some of the prices seem ridiculous, especially for toys the kid will discard after a few months. so thinking i might be able to find something in good condition and easy to disinfect (hello BLEACH!), i wandered over to the local goodwill store, where i found a couple great toys. yay. and then i saw these shoes. and if this one isn't bad enough, just know that there is an entire display. it is a ten-foot-square, waist high stack of boxes filled with this ridiculous footwear. i am eagerly anticipating the day when i see someone trying to walk down the street in these. as i am typing this, i am terribly bummed to realize i did not look at the price. clearly i was too mesmerized. unfortunately that means i cannot finish the sentence..."these can be yours for the bargain price of __________ dollars."

sometimes i try to act like an adult. here and there i think i manage to fool a few people, but not in the grocery store. i am like a five year old. who needs lunch when you can have a box of animal cookies?

wonky windows #19.

2011-10-21T12:08:00.001-04:00

this week in our wonky world.

on monday we found this sign hanging in our building. now, the mister and i are no strangers to living life without running water, but no water at all? for five hours? with a baby? oh dear. i decided to fill the bathtub, so there would be water for washing hands and bucket baths. yes, a bath in a bucket. the mister filled up a giant soup pot. when i was filling up a pitcher and some water bottles, the mister suggested that i was going a bit overboard, because we would not need that much water.

and then i woke up in the morning and found this...every thing that would stand still long enough to hold water was full. when i asked the mister what it was for, he said it was just in case we needed some more water. apparently, he had changed his tune.

despite our preparation, i still managed to end up in the shower with no water. see, i went to the gym and when i returned, i planned to use pringle's bathtub to take a bucket bath. but then the mister pointed out that the water had not yet been shut off, so i could take a shower. my gut told me it was a bad idea, but i did it anyways. that's right. i drained the bathtub and got in the shower. of course you know where this is going...i got halfway through my shower and whoops, the water stopped. so there i was, dripping wet, with conditioner in my hair, and no water. thank goodness for the mister's arbitrary desire to fill every container in the kitchen. i raided the mister's stash of water, dumped it in a bucket and finished my bath. thankfully, the rest of the water shutoff was a total non-event.

grease be gone.

2011-10-08T22:23:00.004-04:00

i do not often do product reviews, but i simply HAD to tell you about my fancy new shampoo. i know, random, but seriously, this stuff is too cool for school.

stacks of solid shampoo by LUSH.

you see, last year when my pregnancy was headed into the second trimester, my head turned into a grease factory. so much for that "healthy hair" everyone had promised. it was awful, but i found a new shampoo and conditioner and figured it would all wash away (literally) after the baby was born. so problem solved.

and then i gave birth to pringle. thanks to some wild post-pregnancy hormones everything was once again out of whack. argh! at first i did not notice, because i was too busy oohing and aahing about my baby. but six weeks after pringle's grand entrance, i emerged from my cloud of euphoria long enough to chop off my locks. oh dear. now there was nowhere for the goo to hide. so at the moment when you feel like a lumpy sack of potatoes and your only saving grace is your hair...i was stuck with a greasy do. depressing to say the least. i tried skipping the conditioner. no dice. i scoured the shelves at target and tried out five different shampoos, but apparently the oil factory had amped up production, because nothing was working.

solid shampoo by LUSH.

i attempted to find some information on the internet, but the searching yielded few results. apparently oily hair is a taboo topic. why? i do not know. so i am taking the topic out of hiding and putting it in the spotlight. during my googling, the only useful thing i found was this list of the top 10 shampoos for oily hair. i have always been a drugstore shampoo kinda girl, so i balked at the idea of spending $30 or more for a bottle of shampoo based solely on some random online review. and i was even less convinced that i should buy a bar of shampoo. yes, a BAR of shampoo.

jumping juniper shampoo by LUSH.

but i had reached a point of desperation, so pringle and i headed to the mall and went to LUSH to pick up a bar of their jumping juniper shampoo. ummm..can we say wow? i was totally skeptical that bar soap for my noggin would work, but the reviews were nothing short of glowing. and now i have to add my two cents...this shampoo is beyond fabulous. 1) my hair is 100% not greasy. yay. 2) it lathers better than any shampoo i have ever had. 3) it only costs ten dollars 4) it seems to last forever. 5) it is not liquid, so the transportation security administration does not care how much shampoo i have in my carry-on. 6) it will not spill in my luggage or gym bag. 7) it is a BAR of shampoo people!

jungle conditioner by LUSH.

so for everyone out there with oily hair or any other hair issues or non-issues...seriously, you should check out LUSH's solid shampoos. there are 15 varieties designed to combat every possible hair problem. i like my little puck so much that i am heading to LUSH to buy their solid conditioner. yay for shiny, happy hair!!

this product has earned the pickel stamp of approval.

note 1: i was not given any compensation to write this review.
note 2: all photos of LUSH products are courtesy of the internets.

sew vintage.

2011-09-20T20:00:00.002-04:00

last week pringle and i went to los angeles to visit my family. we stayed at my parent's house, which is a treasure trove of, well, just about anything you can imagine and more. i never fail to discover things to amuse me....this time around i found an old sewing book. totally fascinating. if it was not already obvious, i am a total sewing nerd. just reading about sewing makes me happy, but pictures and patterns?? in a book older than me?? yummy!!

everything you ever wanted to know about little girls' dresses. this was the "children's" section. all it had was dresses, dresses, and more dresses. and a picture of a boy in pants. there was a measuring tape next to his leg, but the text had zero explanation about pants. it should have been the "girl's" section. oh well.

plackets? sounds like a military formation. it's not. it is the slit you put in the hem of a skirt or dress. you learned something new, right?

interesting choice of adjectives. personally, i think i might have called these "pretty" dress trims.

do girls still prance? because these girls are definitely prancing.

oh the joys of smocking!!! i love me some smocking. if i had this many smocked dresses, i too would be holding hands and dancing in circles.

bathing suits. love it. so old-fashioned. so amazing.

so adorbs!! time to cook up a sister for pringle. just kidding.

baby pants tutorial.

2011-09-03T20:13:00.006-04:00

i think babies wearing pants are adorable. i mean, i think all babies are adorable, but when you put them in pants, you up the ante. naturally, i wanted to put pants on my little guy, but i balked at the craziness of buying miniature pants that will only fit for a few months. i figured i could sew some, but my internet search did not yield exactly what i was looking for, so i created my own pattern. i am posting it here with a tutorial, in the hopes of saving you the trouble of creating your own pattern. i appreciate you using this pattern for personal use only.

this pattern is for basic elastic-waist baby pants. they are not the "super easy" single pattern piece pants, rather proper pants that have two pattern pieces. a front with a dropped waist for a better fit and a back with extra space to fit a diapered bum. the pattern is sized for 3-6 months, but it can be easily re-sized to fit your baby (see below for a little information about changing the sizes). if you have a serger, i recommend using it for steps 2, 3, and 4.

materials: 1/2 yard of lightweight fabric and 17 inches of 1/2" elastic. [choosing fabric: cotton or cotton flannel are both good. knits stretch, so sewing is more difficult. horizontal stripes need to be matched during cutting and sewing, which makes them a pain in the neck, but not impossible.]

directions: (click on images to see them larger)

before you start, print out the baby pants pattern. in the print box, under "page scaling", select "none." it should print in landscape mode on 4 pieces of paper. put the papers next to each other without overlapping the edges. make sure to match up the lines - there might be a slight gap where the printer created margins, but that is okay. tape the pages together and cut them out.

put the pages next to each other without overlapping papers. there might be a slight gap due to printer margins.

step one. fold your fabric right sides together and lay your pattern pieces on top. the bottom edge of each pattern piece should be parallel to the grain of the fabric. pin the pattern pieces in place and cut out your fabric.

step 1. cutting fabric.

step two. take the pattern pieces off the fabric. your fabric should already be right sides together. pin along the center seams. sew. press the seams (serger: press to one side. regular machine: press open).

step 2. pin and sew front and back center seams.

step three. make sure your fabric is right sides together. you do not want extra fabric at the top or bottom edges, so in this step pinning is important!! pin the top and bottom corners of one side. then match up the rest of the side and pin. repeat this for the other side. sew down both sides. press.

step 3. pin the top and bottom side corners. then pin the rest of the side.

step four. lay the pants down flat, making sure the sides are actually on the side. this might sound stupid, but unfinished pants can be a tad deceiving, so just check! the side seams should be on the sides, and the center of the waist should dip down in the front. again, you do not want extra fabric at the bottom edges, so pinning is important. line up the seams in the center of the crotch and pin. pin the two bottom corners. now pin the rest of the inseam. sew. press.

step 4. match and pin center seams and bottom corners of inseam. pin the rest of inseam and sew.

step five. create the casing for the elastic. turn the pants inside out. turn the top edge down 1/4" and press. now turn it down 3/4" and press. have a seam gauge stashed in your sewing box? pull it out and use it...you will see, it will make this step easier. pin the edge, with the top of the pins at the top of the pants. this is probably the opposite of how your brain wants to pin this edge, but when you get to the sewing machine you will thank me, because you will be able to take out the pins while sewing. if you have a label, sew it on before you sew the edge. if you have a tag that goes in a seam, you can tuck it under the edge before sewing. sew along the edge all the way around the waist, but stop 1" before you get to your starting point. this will leave a gap that you will use to thread the elastic into the casing.

step 5. elastic casing at waist. fold & press 1/4". fold & press 3/4". add label. pin elastic casing.

step 5. sew the bottom edge of elastic casing.

step six. thread your elastic through the casing. make sure the elastic is flat inside the casing (you do not want to find a twist after closing the casing) and overlap the edges of the elastic by about 1". sew the two ends of the elastic with a zig-zag stitch. now finish sewing the casing by closing the 1" gap you left when sewing the edge in step five.

step 6. thread elastic through casing. overlap elastic ends by 1". join elastic ends with zig-zag stitch. finish sewing the elastic casing.

step seven. hemming the pants. turn the pants inside out. fold the hem up 1/4" and press. then fold it up 3/4" and press. again, ignore your brain and place the pins, so that the top of the pin is sticking out the bottom of the pants leg. now turn the pants right side out and sew along the edge. if you like, you can do a second line of stitching for decoration. repeat on the second leg.

step 7. hem. fold & press 1/4". fold & press 3/4". pin. sew hem.

step 7. optional: sew a second hemline. nibble baby toes.

congratulations, you have finished your pants!!!

finished pants! big enough to fit a diapered bottom.

a delightful modification is to add a different fabric at the bottom of the legs. if you want to do this, you need to replace the bottom of each leg with a different fabric. do this BEFORE you start assembling the pants. remember that 1" of the bottom is turned under during step seven, so if you want a 1" strip of a different fabric at the bottom, you actually need to cut a 2 1/4" strip (1/4" seam allowance to attach to the leg, 1" turned under when hemming, and 1" visible). you also need to cut 3/4" off the bottom of the pant leg and then attach your colored piece to the bottom of each leg. the sew the pants as usual.

pringle modeling pants with a different-colored bottom edge.

altering the pattern to fit your baby. if the the pants are too short/long, just extend/shorten the bottom portion of the legs. if the pants do not rise high enough to reach the waist or go up to your baby's chin, extend/shorten the waist portion of the pattern piece. if the pants are not wide enough or too wide, extend/shrink the side of each pattern piece (note, if you are adjusting the width, you probably need to adjust the length of your elastic).

need help?? if you need assistance or if something does not make sense, post a comment or send me an email at pickelswimming@gmail.com

credits: when creating this pattern, i consulted the following sites: wabi sabi baby, made, make baby stuff, and sew mama sew.

you have no pants.

2011-08-30T21:42:00.003-04:00

the folks in lesotho do not have large quantities of clothes stashed away in their closets. actually, they don't have closets, they have free-standing wardrobes, but that is a horse of a different color. the point is they do not have a lot of clothes. but they have clothes. they do not run around wearing leaves and leather thongs. in fact, they dress a lot like us....well, sort of. what i mean to say is that just like us, they wear skirts, pants, shorts, t-shirts, dresses, jackets, etc.

even the babies and children have clothes. sometimes it seems like babies have the most clothes, because it is handed down from kid-to-kid. they grow out of it before it wears out, so it accumulates. which makes it all the more entertaining that small children can often be found sans pants. especially in the summer. maybe it is because their mothers are tired of washing diapers or just because the kids are tired of pants. i do not know. but one of my fellow peace corps volunteers started telling kids "you have no pants." this line never ceased to make us laugh hysterically. [side note: in the light of day on my couch in the U.S.A., i struggle to convey the hilarity, but peace corps volunteers will laugh at almost anything...i guess it is a mechanism of self-preservation that prevents you from spending all of your time crying.]

pringle's first-ever fitting.

since it still makes me giggle, i like to say it to pringle. all the time. he wears onesies EVERY day, with no pants. we save his two pairs of pants for outings. although i do love to tell him that he has no pants, i think they look adorable on him and i wish he had more. but it seems insane to pay money for unnecessary clothes he will grow out of in a month. so i googled pants patterns. how hard can they be, right? oh my. not only are they not hard, they are ridiculously EASY. (check out my tutorial.)

first pattern. needs work.

i found a two-piece pattern that is sized for infants, but the pants do not fit so lovely in the bum. then i found a four-piece pattern that is PERFECT. except it is sized for a 2 year old. so i put together the information gleaned from these patterns, my pre-existing knowledge of how pants are constructed, and a pair of pringle's pants to create my own pattern. perfectly sized for pringle.

second pattern. nifty, but needs work.

and now i am obsessed. O.B.S.E.S.S.E.D. seriously. i made him three pairs yesterday and i have plans for more. LOTS more. this kid will never again be sans pants, because i think he is beyond adorable when he wears them. and they did not cost me a dime. thank you neverending stash of fabric.

third pattern. presto perfecto!!

little things that make my world go 'round.

2011-08-29T23:22:00.001-04:00

yesterday the mister sent me a text message asking if i could go to the grocery store to pick up some things. "smooth peaches" were on the list. do what? exactly.

there are lots of peach trees in lesotho. they were first brought to the country in the early 1900s by french missionaries (so the story goes) and can now be found in every village. as a result, the basotho LOVE peaches. but there are no nectarines. i guess that is why the name "nectarine" has simply not stuck in the mister's brain. he discovered nectarines during one of his first visits to the grocery store and was immediately in love with the hairless peaches. after living here for four years, he still calls them "smooth peaches." and every time he says it i giggle and adore him a little bit more. in my world it is not the big stuff that matters, but all the little things that add up to our life together. like calling nectarines smooth peaches.


the peach tree outside my hut in lesotho.

driving home from the grocery store with a bag of smooth peaches, i could not help but think of a song i first heard a couple years ago. i was at one of my best friend's weddings and her husband's cousin-in-law, dick siegel, performed his song "the little things." quite possibly the world's most perfect song. you should listen to it. it will make you smile.

Find more artists like Dick Siegel at Myspace Music

blanketed.

2011-08-29T01:02:00.002-04:00

every day with a little baby brings new developments. the latest is that pringle is starting to grab hold of things that you put in his hand. this is rather exciting because it means we can give him things that he can use to keep himself entertained. and most things that we put in his hand eventually end up in his mouth.

trying to eat his sock monkey's arm.

he has a rattle that he plays with by shaking it and waving it around or he shoves it in his mouth and sucks on it. the problem with this rattle is that once he drops it he cannot pick it back up. apparently he has not yet figured out the joys of his opposable thumbs. being a mini-human means that he is also fascinated by ordinary things like burp cloths, which happen to be much easier for him to hold. after considering these basic facts, i decided the little guy needs a toy that is easy for him to hold, play with, and suck on. enter the lovey or security blanket. i have decided that pringle needs one. yes, NEEDS.

trying to eat his momma's sewing.

i could head over to target and pick up a security blanket for $7.99, but what kind of crafty mom would i be if i purchased something that i could lovingly make myself? and of course i could make this blanket by sewing together two pieces of cloth, but well...have you ever met me? no? oh, well in this house we like to complicate things as much as possible. so rather than take anything resembling an easy route, i instead used leftover fabric from THE quilt to make a mini quilt. and a mini stuffed owl. and then i sewed the two together and, if i may say so myself, the result is rather marvelous. it only took me a week.

ladies and gentlemen, meet paco...

me thinks pringle likes paco...

minimalist amusement.

2011-08-21T23:47:00.000-04:00

a week after the mister and i found out we were pregnant, i dragged him to the local baby store. my goal was not to show him all of the things i wanted for our baby, but rather to show him the vastness of the world of baby products, most of which i was hoping to avoid purchasing. i had rather strong opinions on what i wanted, but having never before had a baby i was not always sure what things were optional. i tried to find a list for guidance, but oh geez. i found gads of lists and they were all endless. yikes. in the end, we just went with our gut, buying the bare essentials with a plan to add as needed. we are not trying to deny pringle anything, we are just raising the kid on a budget. it turns out there is even a name for this... the minimalist baby.

this week the mister and i decided that pringle NEEDS a crib mobile. perhaps this seems like a strange necessity, but let us examine the facts. one, the kid is obsessed with the things that dangle from his play gym. and two, the kid wakes up at the crack of dawn and wants to play. clearly he needs in-crib entertainment....anything to buy us a couple extra minutes of z's. we pondered an ikea mobile, but it does not come with any way to attach to a crib. not sure why they call it a *crib* mobile, but that is a horse of a different color. long story short, it was not working for us, so the mister and i joined forces and made pringle a mobile.

the mister attached the arm of an adjustable lamp to the side of the crib and i sewed together some bits of cloth. we put it all together and now pringle has an adjustable crib mobile. he cannot take his eyes off of it. just in case he does, we also stuck a mirror on the wall so he can talk to himself. frugal-style fun and games.

baby got back.

2011-08-16T14:55:00.001-04:00

the pepa.

sometimes things are not better in the west. no offense to the myriad of companies producing baby carriers, but the developed world has simply not designed any product that carries babies as efficiently and perfectly as the women of developing nations. i have seen pictures of how it is done in other countries, but lesotho is the only country for which i have first hand experience. they use a blanket and a gigantic safety pin. that is it. it sounds too good to be true, but i assure you it is possible. thanks to my two year sojourn in lesotho, and the fact that my best friend and her mother both had babies, i learned how to pepa (carry a baby on my back). about a month ago i decided pringle was ready to pepa, so on my back he went. other people seem surprised at how much he likes it, but not me. let us think about this...he is tightly wrapped and happens to be strapped to one of his favorite people in the world. what's not to love? anyhow, i started off using my tjale (a blanket women wear around their waist or shoulders, similar to a picnic blanket - mine was given to me by my in-laws) and when at home, i carried pringle around on my back all the time. but i was not mentally prepared for venturing out in public. i have this awful tendency to get a bit timid about doing out-of-the-ordinary things in public, so obviously strapping my baby on my back and wandering the grocery store was totally NOT in my comfort zone. ugh.

boring blue blanket.

but then a friend saw a picture i had posted of pringle on my back and she mentioned that my blanket is boring. she is right. it is blue with blue stripes. well, i cannot say that i needed another sewing project, but i like a good challenge. and i realized that maybe if i made a special pepa blanket, i would be more at ease using it in public. as an added bonus it would be lovely and hopefully not be as hot as an acrylic blanket, which is mucho importante in miami. so i pulled out my fabrics and voila!! a quilted cloth to carry my little pringle. now when people ask me what carrier i am using, i am going to tell them it is a "pepa" by lerato designs. and they will be super jealous, because their hands-free carrier ain't as fantastic as my hands-free carrier.

the new and improved pepa blanket.

ain't it lovely? i am still not 100% confident using it in public, because i feel like a fish out of water, but i am working on it. i am building up mental stamina... i used it walking downstairs to get the mail, to a yoga studio grand opening, and in the mister's company at the grocery store. it has been wonderful, but it definitely gets a lot of stares and comments. i know i know...time to stop worrying about what everyone else is thinking and just worry about what is best for me and my baby. easier said than done, but i am trying!!!

pringle loves it!

wonky windows #18.

2011-08-15T09:59:00.001-04:00

while the mister and i were running errands, i found myself snapping pictures. it seems that i am constantly entertained by the vehicles around us.

the back of this truck lists the number 1-800-CLUCKER. it made me giggle. when i saw the side of the truck, which features a large chicken, it all made much more sense. further research has informed me that apparently this company is one of the leading poultry distributors in florida. who knew.

there is something about seeing ginormous target trucks rolling down the street that warms the cockles of my heart.

we pulled up next to this car and the mister said "do you think they are scouts?" i was dumbfounded. since the mister is from lesotho, there are gaping holes in his knowledge of non-essential american culture. which makes it all the more entertaining when he pulls a gem out of thin air. when i asked him how he knew about scouts, he said that there are boy scouts and girl scouts in lesotho. fun fact i never knew about his country. although, i still don't know how or why he linked this car with scouts, because i do not imagine the scouts in his country have a ride like this.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

muscle mama.

2011-08-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

i am trying to get back in shape since pringle was born. although "back" in shape is maybe not accurate, since i do not think i could argue that i was in shape before i got pregnant. details. anyhow, i am tackling this "get fit" in multiple ways.

pickel on the left doing abs, while pringle sleeps in the stroller second from left. photo courtesy om yoga miami.

first, stroller boot camp. sounds cute, right? ummm...there is nothing cute about this class....except of course the darling babies riding in their strollers. we speed-walk up and down the sidewalk and stop to do lunges, squats, abs, and pushups. ouch.

pickel and pringle in our yoga pose. photo courtesy om yoga miami.

second, baby & momma yoga. okay, this one is pretty cute. and since we are not gasping for breath, the mommas can chat. when the babies cooperate, we help them stretch. then while they rest or sleep, the mommas do yoga. it is relaxing and lovely, but our instructor makes sure the poses we do work as many muscles as possible. more ouch.

third, i have headed back to the gym. i get on the treadmill and walk two miles with as much speed and % grade (you know...uphill) as i can handle. and then for a few minutes i lift the ten pound weights and hope that i will have michelle obama's arms the next time i gaze in the mirror.

fourth, i started a one hundred pushups challenge. supposedly, if i follow the routine, in six weeks, i will be able to do 100 pushups. i will believe it when it happens. although, if you add together all the pushups included in yesterday's workout, i did eighty-eight, so maybe there is something to this!!

fifth, just for good measure (as if all of that wasn't enough), i somehow convinced two people to do the pushups challenge with me, but they in turn suckered me into doing the two hundred situps and two hundred squats challenges. yikes.

i am hoping to maintain my motivation, because although i am not always a fan of exercising, i LOATHE dieting. i will do anything to ensure that ice cream and cookies do not have to be eliminated from the pickel food pyramid.

gingher me happy.

2011-08-11T15:07:00.000-04:00

for the last two months i have been ogling the flyers i get in the mail from joanns fabrics. considering i have a mountain of fabric and was not actually sewing (having a newborn apparently reduces project time to zero), all i could do was gaze adoringly at the flyer and dream of the days when i would find my way back to the store. and then last weekend happened. when it was time to run some errands, the mister let me add joanns to our list of stops, because all scissors were 50% off and i declared that i ~~wanted~~ NEEDED a new pair of thread cutting scissors. no brainer. until we got to the store where i found an almost empty scissor display. lucky for me, without complaining the mister drove me to another joanns, where i bought my first pair of GINGHERS!

for those of you who may not be familiar, ginghers are the crème de la crème of sewing scissors. owning a pair makes me feel like i have reached the pinnacle of sewing and entered a secret society of sewers. [side note: i find it rather unfortunate that the word for a group of people who sew happens to be spelled exactly the same as the name for the underground pipes which carry sewage.] you might think i am being dramatic, especially since i got itty-bitty scissors, but they are stupendous. and GOLD-plated. and they come with a leather sheath and a tin storage box. i mean seriously, when was the last time you bought scissors that came with a storage box?

wonky windows #17.

2011-07-28T01:31:00.002-04:00

wow. it has been a while. thanks to keri for reminding me that we should not neglect the windows!!!

this week is a window into a simple delight.

this melts my perfectionist heart.

seven weeks ago i gave birth to a little munchkin who likes to eat every two to three hours. since i opted to breastfeed him, we are sort of attached at the hip (well, actually it is the boob). pair that with the fact that his lack of vaccinations means we limit his excursions to public places and i am a stay-at-home mom. when i say stay-at-home, i mean, i literally do not leave the house. okay fine, i do. but it is rare. tuesday and wednesday pringle and i attend exercise class and on sundays i go grocery shopping.

holy organization. the joy, the joy.

the grocery shopping is sans pringle, which means it takes a bit of finagling. i needed a time that fit with the mister's studying, class, and work schedules, AND fit the munchkin's eating and sleeping schedule, so i picked sunday morning. early sunday morning. so early that i had to look at what time the store opens. 7am. that's right, this night owl heads to the grocery store at 7:00am sunday mornigs. eek. but there are some distinct beneifts. 1) it is easy to get an awesome parking spot. 2) the store is practically empty. 3) the checkout lanes rarely have a line. 4) the bread in the bakery is still warm from the oven. and 5) the store is untouched, which makes it look delectable...hello produce!! which leads us to this week's pictures. these displays are always present, but by the time i used to show up in the afternoon, they were a mess. this organization; this perfection; this gloriousness, makes me want to sing from the rooftops.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

hanging on to the future.

2011-07-23T14:26:00.001-04:00

when i think of myself, i kinda still think i am a kid. but technology seems to be around simply to remind me of the gap between generations and the fact that contrary to my beliefs, i am no longer a kid. i have always chuckled about (and cheered) my mom's escapades on the computer and, most recently, her foray into text messaging. but the reality is that my smug little self is now getting lost in the dust. let's face it...i only took up text messaging, because i became friends with some young-uns, who were quick to help me realize that phone calls were so 1990s. so i got with the program and started text messaging. shortly after, the same friends convinced me to join facebook. i did and now i feel the urge to check it every three minutes. somewhere in all of this i discovered smartphones (hello, iphone!!), online education (yay master's degree), and blogging (wahoo!). despite what i thought was technological prowess, it still seemed that the future of communication had swept by and i was just hanging on to its coattails by a fingernail.

stuck under a sleeping baby.

and then i had a baby. sometime in a sleep deprived moment, probably stuck under a sleeping pringle, i jumped into this thing called twitter. you may have heard of it. i signed up for an account in 2008, but not really understanding it, i never tweeted. it is a strange concept, but i think i love it. although, it does seem like it is the perfect breeding ground for stalkers. details details. and now in my determination to at least ride ON the coattails of the future, i signed up for google+ (have not yet figured out its purpose) and thanks to mrs. nipper knapp, as of last night i am now a member of pinterest. i have only pinned a few things, but i think the idea is a gem. i wonder what is next. i am trying to keep up, but something tells me that in twenty years, pringle will be looking on in amusement as his mom tries to figure out the latest technology that is the backbone of his generation.

now that i am on top of all the latest social networks (i think), my latest adventure is to try to convince some companies that they should give me their products to test and review on my blog. see, i was bopping around on the internet looking for reviews of various baby products the mister and i are considering for purchase, when i realized that there are lots of folks out there receiving products to test out and review on their blog. i decided that since i spend inordinate amounts of time on my computer anyways, i should at least put my time to good use!! but i am thinking that if i want to convince companies that i have some clout, i might need a few more folks following my blog. so i need YOUR help. if you are a member of google or facebook or twitter or pinterest, you should find me and FOLLOW me!! no seriously, you should. all the cool kids are doing it and it makes me smile to know there are people out there. plus maybe it will help convince some corporates that swimming in brine is the bees knees. cant wait to see you in the world wide web!

google friend connect: follow my blog by clicking on the "join this site" button (left sidebar).

facebook: swimming in brine - i would provide a link, but they wont give me one until i have 25 people - all the more reason YOU should find it and like it. :)

twitter: @swimminginbrine or you can click my name in the twitter box (right sidebar)

pinterest: pickel swimming

nice to meet you murphy.

2011-07-20T14:00:00.002-04:00

"if anything can go wrong, it will." ~murphy's law.

who, ME?!?

in my pre-baby life i had some run-ins with murphy. now that baby is here, murphy visits every 5-7 minutes. awesome? well, no. not exactly. but it does keep you on your toes and teach you how to see the humor in life. these are the top 10 new rules in our life.

1. if it is inconvenient or impossible to take the baby out of his car seat, he screams. conversely, if it is convenient or possible to take him out of his car seat, he is sound asleep.

2. the baby will scream hysterically during a car ride, only bothering to fall asleep when we arrive at home.

3. the baby will happily hold the paci in his mouth when you sit with him. he will drop it the moment you walk away.

4. when you are prepared with a rag to catch spit-up, the baby will just burp. when you are entirely unprepared, the baby will barf all over you.

5. the baby will make hundreds of cute faces when the camera is in the other room. retrieve the camera and the baby just stares at you.

6. if you need the baby to sleep "just five more minutes,"so you can finish something, he will wake up. if you want the baby to wake up so you can do the 2am feeding before you drift off, he will stay asleep.

7. when you put the baby in a cute onesie you would like to look at all day, he will happily soil it within the hour.

8. when lying on top of you (aka you cannot get anything done), the baby will sleep soundly for hours and hours. if you try to put him in his bed, he will be awake within 60 seconds.

9. the more tired the baby is, the harder it is to put him to sleep.

10. if you are early you will breeze right out the door. if you are on time or running late, the baby will gleefully provide you with a diaper explosion that will require you to change his diaper and outfit, and possibly even your outfit. the severity of the explosion is directly proportional to your tardiness.

all in a days work.

2011-07-09T00:34:00.003-04:00

if only we were always this calm.

the mister: hi honey.

me: hi!!!

the mister: how was your day?

me: busy.

the mister: oh yeah? what did you do?

this puts a damper on productivity.

me: oh, you know, lots. ate breakfast. watched the tour de france broadcast. three times. played on facebook. for four hours. called the bank, which was uber-frustrating, so like all sane folks, i cried on the phone with the customer service representative (everyone cries when they call their bank, right?). nursed the baby. tried to soothe my crying baby. it took three hours. ate some candy. played on twitter. watched the baby sleep for two hours. pumped. ate some lunch. and then you came home, so that's it.

tales of lesotho. happy faces.

2011-07-02T21:48:00.000-04:00

just discovered this unpublished post that i wrote last august, shortly after our trip to visit the mister's family in lesotho.

a tourism poster from the 1970s.

lesotho holds a special place in my heart...not just because it is the mister's country, but because it is full of friendly faces. some of the faces i know, some of them i don't. basotho love to smile and laugh. when you consider their circumstances, you would think there is no reason left to laugh, but they do. if you look at their clothes, possessions, and houses one might think they have nothing to give, yet they are unfailingly kind and generous. they open their hearts and their homes with no questions. my favorite times in lesotho are laughing with the people i meet and i can only hope that my spirit is as unbreakable as theirs. here are a few of the smiling faces i met during our trip.

just a newbie.

2011-06-30T12:13:00.004-04:00

hard work...who ME?!?

as you have clearly figured out, i have a newborn in the house. loving the little one, but ummm..newborns are hard work! holy bananas. i mean, don't get me wrong, it is all good stuff, but it is HARD WORK! i was expecting the typical eating, sleeping, pooping, and crying...but i did not realize the potential complexity of those four events.

milk time...censored, because this is not THAT kind of blog.

eating. this is not a simple affair of have some milk and then be fine with life. nope. first, he nurses eight to twelve times a day, for thirty to forty minutes at a time. yikes!! never knew it could take so long to fill the world's smallest stomach. of course, at least half of the time i forget to grab my phone, the remote, or something to drink, so i end up stuck under a nursing newborn with nothing to amuse myself and completely parched. second, i am supposed to remember which side he nursed on last and start on that side at the next feeding. do who, what?!?! right. i can barely remember to brush my teeth and i am supposed to keep track of which boob is up next. ummm. sure. third, make sure he eats every three hours. well luckily, despite never remembering to look at the clock, this is not a problem. this kid never stops eating. fourth, change the kid's diaper BEFORE he eats. okay, check. and finally, burp the kid AFTER he eats. oh sure, spend forty minutes waiting for the kid to suck his way to sleep and then wake him up?!?! no thanks. he will burp in his own good time. (this is probably the point when someone is freaking out, because i do not regularly burp my kid...but hey, sleeping babies are much more pleasant than cranky i-am-supposed-to-be-sleeping-but-you-woke-me-up-to-burp-me babies.)

sleeping on prime real etate...momma's lap.

sleeping. that is, the baby sleeping. seems straightforward. mmmhmm. easy peasy, until the little dude discovered that he can sleep in his momma and poppa's bed or better yet...on top of them! yup. little guy is already spoiled. if he is even remotely awake, he refuses to sleep in his crib. this is a great time to point out that his crib is butted up against our bed, so his mattress is essentially an extension of ours. it's not like he is sleeping miles away, but apparently he thinks the 9" space between him and his momma is too much. at this point you might be wondering how a newborn refuses a crib. well, we lull him to sleep wherever he likes...in our lap, on our chest, next to us in bed, etc. then we move him to his crib. for up to five minutes things seem fabulous. and then the noises start. he squeaks. then he opens his eyes. next he waves his arms and kicks his feet. sometimes he manages to give himself the hiccups (sounds ridiculous, but i swear he does it!), and no matter what, after a few minutes he starts crying. oh and did i mention that when i manage to get him to sleep somewhere other than on top of me, he invariably wakes up right as i am thinking "i hope he sleeps for two more minutes, so i can finish what i am doing." this kid has a sixth sense for how best to dominate momma's world. whoever said that babies are boring, because all they do is sleep, has clearly never met my kid.

nonchalant pooper.

pooping. okay, even i have to admit, there is nothing complicated about the little guy's poop. he poops, i change his diaper, he poops again. sometimes he does not wait for a new diaper before pooping, which means big clean up for me. but still, pooping is basic and easy peasy. although, i have to say, his pooping is amusing - the kid lets loose some whoppers and he does it all while gazing nonchalantly into the distance.

this is the "PICK ME UP" shriek.

crying. according to the experts (whoever they are), newborns have different cries for different issues and if i tune my brain, then based on his cry i should know exactly what my kid wants. ummm..i guess my brain is not tunable, because i have so far only deciphered three different cries. the first is the rhythmic shrieking, which is the little dude saying "pick me up, pick me up, PICK ME UP!!!" check. then there are the startling screams combined with kicking, which means "my belly hurts" and is almost always followed up by a humongous poop. got it. finally there are the fussy and whiny cries, which cover all other issues. this is the crying for which i wish i had translations, so i could tell if the dude is hungry, tired, hot, cold, needs a diaper change, or is just generally uncomfortable. maybe in another few weeks i will have the guidebook, but for now we just bop along hoping to find the cure for his crying. luckily pringle is an easygoing dude and has been patient while i figure out how to be a momma.

mommy list.

2011-06-25T22:55:00.001-04:00

**warning: some folks might consider this a sappy post. you're gonna have to deal. i just had a baby...sap is now in my blood.

while i found pregnancy to be a delightful experience, it has nothing on the fascination of life with baby. when the doctor put my little nugget on my belly and i stared into his wide-open eyes, i could not believe that i was finally holding my precious pringle. so perfect and so complete. despite having taken all the requisite science classes in school and having previously seen tiny babies, i still marvel at the fact that this little thing popped out with ears, hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, fingers, toes, and nails. i had tried to envision life with pringle, but having never experienced it, it's a little hard to imagine.

before you have a baby, there are lots of folks who are ready to give you unsolicited commentary on what to expect. they typically focus on the humdrum and negative, reminding you of the poopy diapers, sleepless nights, and the expense involved in bringing a baby into the world. i tried to just nod and smile whenever these folks felt the need to speak their mind and kept reminding myself that obviously there is a reason why people say "congratulations" when a baby enters the world. luckily, in my life there were lots of positive folks, excited for the impending arrival of our little nugget and readily telling me how my life was about to be turned inside-out, but in a wonderful way. it's hard to put into words the amazingness that comes with a newborn, but if i had to try to explain, these are some of the things that keep me constantly fascinated with my little guy and mommyhood...

1. the wild-eyed look he has when he is fighting sleep.
2. he squeaks.
3. his soft and squishy little knees and elbows.
4. his baby sneezes.
5. the way he relaxes at the sound of my voice.
6. the way his hair smells.
7. he has the hiccups about 17 times a day.

8. he throws his arms above his head when he is sleeping.

9. after nursing, he turns into a limp noodle.

10. his look of nonchalance as he lets rip a LOUD poop.

11. he purses his lips and scrunches his eyes when i put kisses all over his face.

12. watching the mister play with him.

13. when he is tired, he closes his eyes, raises his eyebrows, tilts back his head, and rolls it around, in some sort of weird stretch.

14. as sleep-depriving as it is, i love that he would rather sleep curled up right next to me, than 9" away on his bed. (yes, the white sheet right next to him is his bed, but it is too far away from mommy).

15. his serious study of the world around him.

16. his chubby cheeks.

17. his hair is all over the place and completely uncontrollable.

18. watching the myriad of faces he makes when he sleeps.

19. he falls asleep on my chest or on my lap and i want to melt.

welcome little one.

2011-06-13T22:37:00.000-04:00

you will have to excuse me for not posting anything on the blog lately. i have been staring at my darling pringle. he was born on june 6, 2011 at 1:00pm. he weighed in at 8 pounds 11.2 ounces, and was 21.5 inches tall. welcome to the world little man!!!

THE wishes.

2011-06-06T06:06:00.007-04:00

in case you did not know it, the quilt is finished. it has actually been finished for a few weeks. super exciting. many folks expressed interest in knowing more about the fabric's origins, so here we go, in no particular order...

...forty contributors. forty stories.

#1. from my pops in california. pringle's grandpop. his hands-down favorite activity (other than purchasing glass sculptures) is refereeing soccer. this fabric is a piece of one of his favorite referee uniforms.

#2. from ausi karabo in colorado. she and i were in the peace corps together. she lived in the mountains and i lived in the lowlands...but we didn't let that come between us. this fabric was given to her by another peace corps volunteer who was also stationed in the mountains, so it is sort of a double-wish. lucky pringle!

#3. from one of my mum's dear friends in california, who is also one of my most faithful supporters. i cannot remember a time when she was not in my life, so you do the math...it's been a while. she gave me a gorgeous pair of turquoise earrings to protect me during my time in lesotho. i wore them every minute i was there, so if you see pictures of me from my peace corps days, you will see those earrings. this fabric is from her son's crib bumper. he is now in his twenties, so once again...you can do the math, this fabric has been lovingly saved for a long time.

#4. from a fellow returned peace corp volunteer (rpcv), who also served in lesotho, except her tour was thirty years before mine. we "met" when i started doing graphic design work for a lesotho rpcv organization. we have never actually met in person, but sometimes i find that hard to believe. in 1976 she bought a tablecloth that commemorated the 10th anniversary of lesotho's independence and now here it is...part of our precious baby's quilt.

#5. from ms. pumpky in miami. she and i met when we started teaching together. it has been a long and crazy adventure, but we are still stuck together, like glue. she cut off the leg of one of her favorite pairs of jeans and donated it to pringle's quilt. nifty!!

#6. from mrs. nipper knapp in california, who inspires me (and fills my to-do list) with gads of awesome sewing projects she finds in hidden corners of the internet. i met her at one of my dearest friend's weddings - she is the groom's cousin-in-law, oh, and she was the photographer - and the connection continued. thank you facebook. she sent three fabrics: 1) an awesome floral print, 2) gingham which was used in said dear friend's wedding, and 3) the sparkly skull fabric, which is too awesome for words.

#7. from a lovely lass who i met in miami, when we were both first-year teachers, teaching kindergarten at the same school. sadly, she has since moved to new york, we do not often have a chance to see each other. she sent this lovely pink polo shirt, which she frequently donned during her teaching days.

#8. from my peace corps "parents," who now live in california. during our time in lesotho, they took me in when my host family booted me from my house a mere four months before the end of my service. he was the calming voice of reason and she was a fellow crafting and sewing afficiondo, with delightful night-owl tendencies like yours truly. she groomed my sewing skills...forcing me to do things like iron seams and sloooow down. oh and did i mention that the two of them presided over my wedding to the mister? yup....they are keepers. we love them dearly and wish they did not live so far away.

#9. from another of my mum's friends in california, who has known me since i was in kindergarten. her son and my brother were in the same grade and she and my mums were both involved at the school. and they played tennis together. she has watched me grow up and sent this darling ladybug fabric for the quilt.

#10. from a kick-ass lady, who i met during a summer teaching training program in miami. sadly, she too has moved away...now living somewhere in the 'burbs of D.C. oh and as you can see from the fabric, she switched careers. now she works for the diplomatic security service. she carries a gun, which normally would scare me, but in her case it makes me feel like the world is just that little bit safer. the fabric speaks for itself.

#11. from an awesome lady that was in the peace corps with me and now lives in florida. she is always up to fascinating adventures, which often involve lots of long-distance running. but what i always remember from her is during our peace corps training when we had 11 females in one hut and we wanted some music to play...she jumped up and said "i've got jock jams." it endeared her to me for life. that and her exuberance, smile, and constant laughter.

#12. from another one of mum's dearest friends in california. she too has watched me grow up. she is one of the most bubbly ladies, always excited to hear about my latest escapades and adventures. oh and she is from ireland, so she has the world's most lovely accent.

#13. from one of my dear college friends. i honestly cannot remember how we met, because i do not actually recall having any classes with her, but we were both always working in the same studios, so we spent a lot of time together. there was also a wine festival where we enjoyed the bottle too much..ooops. and a visit to her parents' farm, where she taught me all about the different types of cattle. apparently they are NOT all cows. a lesson i have never forgotten. she and her husband participate in historical reenactments and she HAND-sews (to maintain authenticity, but wow...) her own dresses...this lovely fabric is from one of her dresses.

#14. when my paternal grandmother passed away a couple of years ago, i found this piece of yellow silk in an envelope labeled "china." presumably, it is from the trip she and my grandfather took to china. since it was her fabric and happened to be in my grandfather's favorite color, i thought it apropos to include it in the quilt.

#15. from one of my college roommates, who lives with her lovely family in virginia. she and i were suitemates our freshman year, roommates our sophomore year, and housemates our junior year, so we spent a lot of time together. her darling daughter picked out these lovely fabrics for pringle's quilt.

#16. from one of my bestest high school pals, who lives in northern california. he and i attended the same schools starting in 6th grade, so we knew each other, but we did not become friends until our senior year of high school. he is a free-spirit, with a wonderful heart and a never-ending youthfulness, which is probably why we hit it off the moment we ended up in the same group in physics class. we have not seen each other in years, yet we have kept in touch through letters...real live letters (and some emails). interestingly, he and his wife are also expecting their first child this june, so despite our distance, we are still totally in sync.

#17. from another of my mum's dearest friends in california. she has watched me grow up and encouraged all of my artistic endeavors. she sent a beautiful applique patch that i had to reassemble a bit to fit it into the circle format, but i think it still encompasses the spirit of the fabric.

#18. from my mum's younger brother and his wife, who live in germany. the white hen is the literal representation of their last name, so it is a rather perfect piece of fabric to represent my mum's side of the family.

#19. from one of my closest and darling friends, who i met in middle school..she now lives in georgia with her husband. she and another friend are responsible for naming me pickel. so many stories of so many adventures...early morning birthday picnics, track & field, shakespeare in the park, a thwarted midnight trip to buy glue, a shared fascination for writing snail mail letters, and so much more. the owl fabric is just darling and the other fabric is from a trip she took to africa.

#20. from a wonderful lady that i was with in the peace corps. she now lives in illinois and sent this beautiful fabric, which is actually from a dress that she wore while we were in lesotho!

#21. from a girl in my village in lesotho, who followed me everywhere i went. when i met her she was 11 and she quickly became my shadow. she helped me fetch water, showed me around the village, and taught me all sorts of useful skills, like hand-washing laundry and cooking basotho foods. this fabric is from a bandana that she used to wear all the time and then gave to me when i was leaving.

#22. from one of my bestest friends, who was living with her husband in rhode island when she sent the fabric, but they are soon to be back in their home in tennessee. we met in sixth grade and got to spend a lot of time together after school waiting for our mothers to pick us up...they both had a fondness for being a tad on the late side. sometime that year i declared her my best friend and have never looked back. along with the lass from #19, she gave me the nickname pickel, which stuck so well that i am quite certain her parents forget my actual name.

#23. from the mister. this fabric is from one of his favorite shirts, which he wore all the time, when i met him lesotho. he loved it so much that it was one of three shirts he brought with him when he moved here.

#24. from a darling couple that was in the peace corps with me. they are originally from kansas, but now live in arizona. when i pondered my relationship with the mister, she is the one that i asked...how did you know that your husband was "the one?" although it did not seem like a concrete answer at the time, she said "you just know." and you know what? she was right. she and her husband sent two fabrics. the first is a southwestern design, obviously indicative of their current locale, the second is the peace corps logo cut out of a shirt that i designed for our group at the beginning of our time in lesotho.

#25. from a wonderful lass who i met when we were both teaching at the same school. sadly, she was an international exchange teacher and she had to return home only a few months after we became friends. she is currently teaching in dubai, but she is from ireland, hence the fabric has the lovely green design.

#26. from an awesome lady in tennessee, who i met when we were in the peace corps together. she attended the university of alabama and is a die hard fan, so she sent this hounds tooth fabric to represent the traditions of the crimson tide.

#27. from my brother and his family. they used some photographs to design this awesome fabric for the quilt. so cool!

#28. from a sweet lady in idaho. we "met" after she read about my etsy shop on keri's blog. she ordered a bag and then we became facebook friends. we have never met in person, but that has not stopped her from being amazingly generous to our darling pringle. she sent this gorgeous red fabric along with a beautiful wish.

#29. from my best friend in lesotho. she did not have any money to buy fabric, so she was always trying to redesign old clothes. on one of my fabric shopping adventures, i found this fabric and bought it for her. it was so precious to her that she never had the heart to cut the pieces to make a dress, so she just wrapped it around her like a sarong.

#30. from a wonderful lady, who i met during our summer teaching training. she lives with her husband in florida, although no longer in miami. she is a math whiz, so she did not teach at my school, because she was teaching high school math, but i saw her most every friday for happy hour. she sent this fabric, which i believe is from one of her shirts.

#31. from my mom's older brother and his wife, who live in germany. this fabric is a piece of a towel that was one of the linens in my grandmother's (pringle's great-grandmother) hope chest. that makes this fabric over 80 years old!!

#32. from a fabulous lady, who lives with her family in australia. she and i met in florence when we were both traveling solo. i had no plan for the next week of my travels, so she invited me to join her plan...she was heading to verona for a few days. we got along so well, we traveled together to venice, vienna, and munich, which was our final stop because i had to get on a plane to come back to the states. she sent this gorgeous fabric, which features an aboriginal design.

#33. from keri who i met at my darling friend's wedding (same wedding at which i met mrs. nipper knapp)..she is the wife of the groom's brother. she and her husband live in colorado and bought a nifty house a couple of years ago, which has given her lots of opportunities to hone her interior decorating skills, so she is a fellow DIYer. i recently helped convince her to buy a sewing machine. major coup. oh and did i mention that she is a HUGE supporter of my etsy shop...close to 50% of my sales have been people that have found my shop via her blog. she was a bit worried that this fabric might be too "girly," but i assured her that this quilt has no rules, so lucky pringle got this glorious fabric in their quilt.

#34. from a dude who is a dear friend of the mister and i. he was a teacher in miami, now he is a teacher in new york. he taught the mister how to be a male in america...introduced him to the wide world of sports, specifically, american football. turned the mister into a die hard new york giants fan. he also taught the mister how to drive..thank goodness, because i did not have the stomach for that endeavor. he is the king of ties, so this fabric is from one of his stellar ties. the polka dots were actually the lining of the tie, but so awesome that i could not resist including it in the quilt.

#35. from a wonderful couple that i met in college. i met her through the wonderful lady of wish #13 and i met him because we both spent ridiculous amounts of time in the graphic design computer lab. they live in virginia with their three adorable boys. the fabric is from one of their boys' shirts.

#36. from an awesome lady that was in the peace corps with me. she and her adopted basotho son live in california. she loves everything about horses, especially riding them, so she worked with a friend of hers to design this gorgeous fabric for pringle's quilt.

#37. from an amazing lady that was in peace corps with me. she was my closest peace corps neighbor since she lived in a town about 25km from my village. i spent many weekends hanging at her house, drinking coffee, reading, and just being silly. one day she asked me to take her wrap skirt and add a zipper to make it a regular skirt. so i did. and wouldn't you know it, the fabric she sent is from that very same skirt...a few years later and much loved.

#38. from a darling lass that i met in high school. we call her lemon. she is an amazing drummer and photographer. when i decided that i wanted to buy an old slr-camera, she was the one who went with me to pick out my darling nikon. and then we had lots of photo-taking adventures. she lived in new mexico for a long time, but now she is back living in los angeles. this fabric is from shirt for a women's roller derby team. yahoo!

#39. from my mums. the first fabric is a new fabric that represents her wish that pringle's life be filled with rainbows. the second fabric is from her mother's dress. it is a fabric that her dad bought her mother, in vienna, during the beginning of the war years, when fabric and new dresses were a huge luxury. pringle is so lucky to have such a beautiful silk in the quilt.

#40. from yours truly. the first is my favorite seshoeshoe (traditional fabric of lesotho) design. the second is from my wedding dress. the green is my favorite color.

wonky windows #16.

2011-05-21T13:11:00.002-04:00

a window into our wonky world...
the mister and i love fruit. not fruits and vegetables. just fruit. we occasionally eat vegetables, but it is fruit that finds us in the grocery store four or five days a week. mostly we eat bananas, strawberries, pineapple, nectarines, and apples. but a few months ago we added watermelon. don't get me wrong....we always enjoyed watermelon, we just did not consume it that often. now i happen to be a lucky lass, because i am married to a championship watermelon picker. okay fine, he has not ever won a championship, but if there were such a contest, i would bet a lot of money that he would come out on top. he honed his skills in the fields of lesotho, so the grocery store with plenty of pickings is no match for him. we always got the lovely little watermelons, which according to this ny times article, are called "personal melons." right-o. they are about the size of a honeydew melon, seedless, taste delicious, and fit nicely into the refrigerator. oh and the mister and i can consume one in less than 24 hours.

the twenty-eight pound monster.

as of last week, those personal melons are old news. we have now regressed into the world of seeded (gasp!) and gigantic watermelons. last week the mister brought home a giant that was probably close to 20 pounds. ummm...we ate the whole thing...in 6 days. today, the mister was not feeling so bashful. he bought a 28 pound behemoth that is so gigantic it will not fit inside of the bag he was planning to use to keep it fresh. are we having a party? uhhh..nope. sharing with seven other families? uhhh..nope. this massive gem is just for the two of us (well three...pringle is a hungry little one). this leaves me wondering...is it possible to consume too much watermelon???

sew baby sew.

2011-05-17T18:37:00.006-04:00

the moment i found out i was pregnant, i started planning my sewing projects. since i love to design and sew bags, i knew that i would make our diaper bag. for months i pondered all manner of tote bags, debating the merits of various accoutrements. and then i talked to my mums. she mentioned that my brother and his wife use a backpack. i firmly explained that i am NOT a backpack person, hence i would NOT be using a backpack. she gently pointed out that using a backpack means your hands are free, but at my further insistence that i would use a tote bag, she dropped the issue.

fast forward a few months. one afternoon, upon arriving home, i realize i have my school bag (tote), gym bag (tote), and two grocery bags (totes) to carry upstairs. eek. in order to simplify the carrying process and avoid two trips, i carried my school bag like a backpack and grabbed the rest in my hands. it was this moment when i realized that, as per usual, my mums was right. a backpack would be a whole lot easier when i need my hands to carry important things like my BABY!

needless to say, all my months of designing the bag in my head went right out the window. luckily i found this glorious backpack design on the internet and some fabulous plaid fabric. i did not actually use the pattern, but i did use this bag as inspiration and then made my own pattern. of course, i could not do simple things like a basic flap. oh no...my flap is a zippered pocket with a magnetic closure. and why have a flat pocket on the front, when you can have a zippered pouch pocket? i spent some time calculating with paper and pencil, then cut out the fabric, and then started sewing. it was a daunting task. there was definitely some cursing, oodles of whining, a lot of action for the seam ripper, and settling for some moments of less-than-perfect sewing, but, it is officially complete.

naturally, you cannot have a diaper bag without a travel changing pad and a wipes/cream case. so i made those too. now i am on the prowl for my next project. i already made burp cloths, changing pad cover, nursing cover-up, crib sheets, and oh yeah...the quilt. i wonder what is next.

THE quilt finito.

2011-05-09T16:12:00.003-04:00

a rather startling event happened this weekend....i finished the quilt. not one step, or two, but the whole durn thing. that is right kids. the quilt is done. finished. fertig. finito. just as i was starting to think that i would never ever complete this monumental task, i bumped into a whole lot of motivation and voila. success. this must be nesting, because lots of other things have also happened in the last seventy two hours, but that is a story for another day. for now, the quilt in all of its glory.

we are still awaiting the fabric from the mister's family in lesotho. yes, it has been a loooong time. six and a half weeks. ugh. luckily the quilt's design allowed me to finish, while leaving a space for the missing pieces (those pieces are included in all of the quilt "counts").

forty six contributors sent fabric from five continents: north america, europe, australia, asia, and africa; five countries: united states, germany, australia, united arab emirates, and lesotho; and twelve states: arizona, california, colorado, florida, georgia, idaho, illinois, new mexico, new york, rhode island, tennessee, and virginia.

since many of pringle's well-wishers sent more than one cloth, we had sixty-four fabrics to work with. as much as possible, i tried to include a large and a small circle of each contribution, which resulted in a grand total of NINETY NINE circles.

in keeping with the spirit of the circles, i added loops to my favorite meandering quilting pattern (the white lines looping all over the fabric is the quilting). i cannot tell a lie...i love the way it looks.

we are still in awe of the number of people that sent fabric for the quilt. family from around the world. friends from childhood, college, peace corps, and work. some folks we have never even met in-person, others we have only met once or twice. but no matter how new or old the friendship, it has been amazing to discover how loved our little nugget is, even before her/his arrival.

to everyone who sent fabric, this quilt's for you, from you, because of you!!! THANK YOU!!!

THE quilt on speed.

2011-04-25T23:58:00.001-04:00

ummm...so remember a few days ago when i was a bit worried that perhaps i might never finish pringle's quilt? yes well, apparently my fears were completely groundless. i was totally possessed and energized on saturday, so i got to work.

totally wacko knee pads.

i laid out all the circles...crawling around on my makeshift kneepads (some of the mister's socks strapped to my knees) until i was completely satisfied with the placement of each circle. around the time my knees were ready to fall off, despite the "knee pads," the circles were ready for pinning. since my knees could take no more, i flopped onto my rump and scooted around pinning down every single circle. and then i had to iron each circle to activate the fusible interfacing (glue) so the circles were attached to the background fabric. finally i had to sew circles around the edges of each circle. holy bananas.

did i mention that there are ninety-two circles? just in case you did not get it the first time, there are NINETY-TWO circles!!! as you can probably imagine this entire process was rather overwhelming. needless to say, it is with relief and disbelief that i can tell you the front of the quilt is complete. well, as long as you are willing to ignore the seven empty spaces reserved for the fabric en route from the mister's family in lesotho.

next step...the back of the quilt. the little pieces are all sewn together. now i am waiting for the rest of the fabric to arrive (hopefully tomorrow). once i have it i can finish the back and then finish the whole quilt. gasp. it is starting to seem like maybe, just maybe, this quilt will be finished before the little one's arrival. phew.

THE quilt snooze.

2011-04-23T13:16:00.002-04:00

the glorious roman glass pastel.

it has been a little while since my last post. considering that there is a new life brewing in my belly, a slightly overwhelming quilt project in progress, and the regular nonsense that is my existence, you would think i would have something to say. i do, except i have been sleeping. a lot. oh and trying to get semi-prepared for the impending arrival of little pringle.

my "extra" fabric from fabric.com. yum.

but it is time for a quilt update. although i have been hitting the snooze button a LOT, i have accomplished a few tasks. i officially decided that the backing fabric will be roman glass pastel - big thanks to those of you who put in a vote. it is expected to arrive on tuesday and i canNOT wait. of course, all i had to do was spend an extra $15 to get free shipping, so naturally i had to buy some other goodies. poor me. i got a couple simple, but lovely designs. but back to the quilt. after coming up with a design two weeks ago, i finally finally finally cut all the pieces for the back. it was hard to find the time in between all my sleeping, but it happened.

lots of backing pieces...yahoo!!

it has been a few weeks since i have pondered the front of the quilt. i cut out the background fabric, marked the edges of the design space with masking tape, and started laying out circles. my plan was to arrange the circles by size...spreading the various sizes out evenly across the whole design. sadly the result was a discombobulated hodgepodge. then i tried arranging the circles by color and voila...i was in love. but that leads us to a BIG problem. i am STILL waiting for the fabric coming from lesotho. it has been in transit for over a month and we have no idea when it will arrive. super frustrating, but what can you do? sooooo after waiting another couple weeks, i finally gave in to the fact that i have to begin sewing without this fabric in hand. the mister called his sister to inquire about the colors of the expected fabric, so i will be able to save spaces and start sewing.

messy hodgepodge. this layout clearly ain't working.

long story short...today i am officially laying out all of the circles. i have strapped a pair of the mister's socks to my knees, because my ordinary methods of squatting or crouching are simply not gonna happen with my mondo-belly. instead i will be crawling around on my makeshift knee pads. awesome. soon, very soon, i will post some pictures of quilt progress.

THE quilt conundrum.

2011-04-09T19:09:00.000-04:00

when people think of quilts, the focus is always on the front of the quilt. but after putting hours and hours of work into a quilt, it seems silly to make a boring back. after all, with just a little extra design you can have a second quilt. fancy. sounds simple. but then you throw me into the equation and it becomes enormously complicated. first of all, i want to incorporate each of the fabrics that were sent by friends and family. ohh-kay, that is a lot of fabric, but with the perfect design it is going to work.

the design.

second, i need a base fabric (the large greenish sections of the design) that will be interesting enough to make a "second" quilt, but simple enough that it does not outshine all the other fabrics. oh and it has to be gender neutral, because pringle is a surprise. in other words, the perfect fabric. mmmhmm...no problem.

marimekko unikko.

luckily, mrs. nipper knapp recently succeeded in nudging me to expand my fabric horizons, beyond the local joann's fabric store, to include the internet. now i am confronted with overwhelming amounts of fabric, to say the least. i immediately fall in love with the glorious marimekko unikko fabric, which i have convinced myself, despite the flowers, is not gender specific. great! until i discover it is $43 per yard. jeepers. that is a bit much, even for my beloved baby.

back on the prowl, i spent three hours perusing etsy, fabric.com, and purl soho. after ogling hundreds (maybe thousands) of different fabrics, i narrowed my list to nine contenders. and then the mister came home and put in his two cents and we are down to four choices. now we need your help. please please tell me your thoughts....or pick a favorite or two (keep in mind these swatches only show 4" of fabric and the quilt will be about 50" square). grazie.

roman glass pastel (kaffe fasset).

illuminating dots lime (penny lane).

paperweight lime (kaffe fasset).

stones earthy (naturella).

THE quilt day 7.

2011-04-08T20:45:00.003-04:00

this is the second to last round of circle creation. we are still waiting on fabric from the mister's family, but since it is traveling over eight thousand miles, from a country with a dubious (at best) postal system, we are not sure when it is to be expected. this weekend i have plans to start figuring out the arrangement of the circles. i have a lovely digital representation, but it needs to happen in reality. and maybe, just maybe, i will begin the official sewing. i am having an internal debate about the merits of hand sewing versus machine sewing. i suspect technology will win, but one can never be sure. i am thinking that any inkling i have for the idea of hand sewing is prompted only by my desire to utilize my darling needle holder...

me thinks everyone should have a snazzy needle case.

anyhow, with no further ado, the latest round of circles, which came to us from california, new york, and dubai.

p.s. just in case you were wondering...it is officially too late to send fabric. but thank you for thinking of us!!

THE quilt day 6.

2011-04-03T17:52:00.002-04:00

a wee bit of time has passed since the last installment of quilt news, but there are good reasons. first, the mister and i went on a much needed and first-ever vacation. oh we have traveled together, but we have never gone somewhere, just the two of us, for the sole purpose of relaxing and spending time with just each other. ummm...i do not know why we waited four years to do this. i guess we had some idea that it would require lots of planning or money or time. it did not. we drove two hours, found a lovely little motel on the beach, and plunked down for two days of doing whatever we felt like doing whenever we felt like doing it. it was dreamy.

lounging at vero beach.

second reason is that i have officially entered the third trimester of pregnancy and my weekday energy has been zapped right out of my bones. which leaves me the weekends for sewing. long story short, yesterday was my first day of sewing in ten days. gasp!

this time around we have circles from california, virgina, florida, and germany.

the last bits of fabric are trickling in from around the globe. despite wanting to wait for every last person i have ever known to send fabric, on march 31st, i finally decreed that i would no longer accept new offers. so the last pieces of cloth are making their way to us and the design is finalized. phew. i cannot wait to start putting it all together!

wonky windows #15.

2011-03-23T21:14:00.000-04:00

a collection of random photos from the past week.

this is a picture of my inner elbow. i had to go through a three hour glucose tolerance test, which included four, yes FOUR blood draws. not cool. now i know that my veins are challenging, but typically after some whining and griping, the nurses do hit their target and there is no problem. ummm..not this time around. this is the chronology of my arm. on the left is the day after the test. in the middle is about five days after the test. and on the right is seven days after the test. it is now nine days after the test and it is still the same. i am starting to wonder if this is permanent.

this picture was taken through my windshield. i was stuck behind this behemoth the other day and i could not help but chuckle. i always find it amusing to see gigantic gas guzzlers making claims towards environmental friendliness. now i realize that this company deals with liquid waste cleanup (i.e. sewage spills), so that is probably a good thing for the environment, but it still made me laugh.

i am overly fond of buying large bags of oranges, clementines, tangerines, etc. unfortunately they often sit on the counter until they rot and then we throw them away. terribly wasteful, i know. but last week i bought a bag and promptly devoured them. deliciouso!!! holy cow they were so perfect easy to peel and super duper juicy. so i bought another bag. and another. the mister and i have consumed approximately nine pounds of these mandarin oranges in a mere ten days. and the stickers? could they be any cuter?? i mean, seriously, could they?

this is the cutie that got away. it rolled behind the tv stand and bikes. the mister declared it out of reach for mrs. prego. i grumbled that he was being ridiculous. and then i saw the location and realized that he was right. grrrrrrr.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

shirr impossible.

2011-03-22T21:26:00.001-04:00

last week was my spring break and i have a tradition of sewing my way through spring breaks. of course, this time around i am awfully pregnant, so 23 hours straight at the sewing machine was out of the question, but i did spend at least a few hours a day working the pedals. most of the time i was fussing over pringle's quilt, but once i was on a roll sewing circles, i had some spare time. i decided that it was imperative to make a long sundress. i hopped on the internet to search for an easy sundress pattern and well, the results were a bit less than fruitful. i mean, there were a LOT of dresses, but they all seemed to be for little girls.

the dress in my imagination.

soooo...i figured that since i like to act like a five-year-old, i might as well dress like one. i used this shirred dress tutorial, which is of course modeled by a little girl. no surprise there. now i do not know about you, but i have never shirred fabric. a few months ago i discovered a shirring tutorial and bought some elastic thread. i never actually sat down to do any shirring, so the elastic thread was still hanging around in my sewing bins. i dug out a gigantic piece of cloth i bought in lesotho in 2004. clearly it was time to use this gorgeous fabric.

i have hoarded 5 meters of this fabric for 7 years. i like it. lots.

i cut out my pieces and sewed the sides together. and then i shirred. and shirred. and shirred. and shirred. ten inches of shirring later and i had the bodice of the dress complete.

shirring.

the shirred bodice.

unfortunately when i tried on the "dress" it looked about as awesome as a potato sack. not cute. so i cut off the bottom, added more material to make it ruffly, and then reattached it. now, when viewed from the front, it is definitely a dress, but then i turn to the side and well....it does not exactly show things off in grand style. rather it makes me look like a big-bellied whale with a gigantic arse. still not cute.

lovely dress that i cannot yet wear.

of course i convinced myself that if i washed the dress, the fabric would relax and it would all be golden. sadly, no. the dress is lovely, but it is decidedly NOT maternity wear. so i will be the cutest post-prego ever, but i still gots no long dress for wearing with the little pringle ensconced in my belly. but i have grand plans. i am going to make this dress again with floppy fabric that will drop straight down below the belly, rather than using the belly as a ramp to flip out an additional three feet. it is gonna be awesome. you'll see.

THE quilt day 3, 4, & 5.

2011-03-21T20:35:00.005-04:00

fabric has been coming in a few pieces at a time, so i have been making a few circles each day. here is where i should note that the "day" in the title represents the days that i actually work on the quilt. i take pictures after each set of circles, but somehow i got a bit sidetracked with who knows what and i neglected to post the pictures from the weekend. my deepest apologies to mrs. s.s., who expressed her desire to see the latest contributions (which include hers) by telling me to "get to it missy!" i cannot argue with enthusiasm, so all i have to say is "yes ma'am."

day three. representing new york, illinois, arizona, and florida.

day four. representing colorado and germany...added another continent!!! yahoo!!

day five. the most recent contributions. representing virgina and ME! for reasons unknown, when i finished sewing my wedding dress, i left all the scraps at my parent's house, so i have been waiting for the arrival of that fabric. in case you are not sure, it's the white circles.

THE quilt. day 2.

2011-03-17T10:39:00.001-04:00

i have to admit that it does not seem that i made much progress on the quilt yesterday. but i did. i made twenty of the fill-in-the-gap circles, which are awfully itty bitty, but totally adorable. and i received two more pieces of fabric in the mail, so i made two more big circles. plus i did some brain organization to figure out how on earth i am going to put all of these fabrics together, especially since there are still twenty one fabrics en route. yikes. apparently the world is just as excited as me about procrastinating and being fashionably late.

day two circles.

since i want to keep up the progress of sewing, i had to come up with a plan to handle the additional fabrics which are expected to arrive sometime in the next two (or three....eeek!) weeks. i started trying to draw the design on paper, but the scale is awfully important and without some sort of mini-template, there was no way for me to do this by hand. so i switched to digital designing. seems a bit like overkill for a "simple" quilt, but my pops is an engineer and that half of me does not do carefree designing. when i moved to the computer my goal was to make sure that i can actually fit all of the circles onto the size quilt i had planned.

the digital quilt.

good news...it is all sorted. until someone else informs me that they are sending fabric. then things could get a bit hairy. i suppose i will just cross that bridge when i get to it. for now the purple, green, dark blue, orange, and yellow circles are all sewn. the light blue circles are the placeholders for the fabrics i have not yet received and i expect to add more of the mini circles (yellow, orange, and dark blue). just looking at this makes me smile, because the quilt is coming to life. yahoo!!!

THE quilt. day 1.

2011-03-15T21:51:00.001-04:00

for the past month we have been receiving fabric and wishes in our mailbox. i was expecting this project to be fun, i had no idea that it would be totally amazing. i have been blown away by the spirit and generosity of each person who has sent fabric. thus far we have 32 fabrics from 23 different people...we have gotten old, new, used, and blue...they have come from 8 states, and three continents...

32 fabrics.

this week is my spring break, and for my entire five years of teaching, i have always sewed my way through spring break. i did not see any reason why this week should be any different. but i spent yesterday morning at the doctor's office suffering through a glucose tolerance test and yesterday afternoon moping around hoping against hope that the tests would come back normal. last night i organized and ironed all of the quilt fabric and today i was determined to get to sewing. but then the doctor's office called to tell me my results were normal, which made me so happy it took me thirty minutes to come back down to earth.

circle templates.

back to the quilt. i had planned on cutting a square from each fabric and sewing them all together. and then mrs. nipper knapp found this gem of a quilt at purl bee. neither one of us can imagine why anyone would make a mini quilt, so we both opted for baby quilts. she has already finished hers, which makes me feel like a slow slow dodo-bird, but i digress. this quilt calls for circles. lots and lots of circles. and i LOVE circles. my plan is to make a big circle with each of the fabrics and then make little fill-in-the-gaps circles with all of the scraps. today i made a circle with each of the 32 fabrics that are in my possession. and if i may say so myself, this quilt is gonna be stupendous.

next step...start making fill-in-the-gaps circles with the 32 scraps and wait for the other fabrics that are en route. luckily this pattern is perfect for all of my procrastinating pals. since the circles are attached to a large background fabric, i can just leave spaces for the twenty or so fabrics that have not yet arrived. fantastic-O!

easy peasy burp cloths tutorial.

2011-03-12T18:18:00.002-05:00

i do not want my little pringle to suffer the fate of the cobbler's children, so i am getting a head start on sewing for my baby. the other day as i wandered through the fabric store, i came across some lovely flannel on super sale. i decided to buy some to make some burp cloths. i chose four different fabrics and bought a half yard of each. not sure about the general sizing of burp cloths, i turned to the internet. i quickly discovered that "basic burp cloth patterns" are overly complicated, because they are always in the shape of a peanut. now i have not ever raised a child, so maybe i am missing something, but for the life of me, i cannot figure out why a rectangular-shaped burp cloth is undesirable. i have a feeling that all of you moms out there are snickering and thinking, "ha! she will learn soon enough that the only way to properly handle spit-up is with a peanut-shaped cloth," but just in case there are other folks out there like me, i have created this tutorial for the world's easiest rectangular burp cloths. if you can sew a straight line, you can make these.

materials (for five burp cloths about 8" x 18"): 1/2 yard of each of two different complimentary flannels and thread.

step 1. cut your fabric into 8" strips (don't worry about cutting the length - it is already 18"). you should have ten of these strips - five in each color. cutting perfection is not of the essence, because we will clean it up in step 3.

cut 2 pieces of flannel about 8" x 18"

step 2. put one strip of each fabric right sides together. i did not use pins, but if you are a uncomfortable sewing without pins, then now would be your moment of pinning. when you are ready to sew, start in the middle of one end and sew around the edges with a 1/4" seam allowance. leave a 2" opening to turn the cloth right-side out.

step 3. clean up the edges and cut off the corners, making sure you do not cut through any stitches.

cleaning up the seam allowance and cutting off the corners.

step 4. use the gap to turn the cloths right side out. if you have a bone tool, now would be the time to put it to use. if you do not have one, use a chopstick or some other small pointy-ish thing to push out the corners.

a bone tool.

the cloth turned right-side out.

step 5. iron the cloth flat, making sure the seams are pulled out as far as possible. tuck under the edges of the gap and iron flat.

step 6. sew around the edges with a tiny seam allowance (i did about 1/8"). this will close the gap and make the cloths look pretty.

sewing along the edges will close the gap. the closer the better.

and that is it!! you are done. enjoy your stack of easy peasy burp cloths.

two of my finished burp cloths.

wonky windows #14.

2011-03-12T12:43:00.001-05:00

thursday afternoon rain clouds. i know people come to florida to enjoy the sunshine, which i like, but i love the rain. it is amazing. one minute we have sunshine, the next a torrential downpour, and five minutes later it is sunny again. sometimes it pours on one street and not on the next. this picture captures it perfectly....sunshine on the playground with black clouds rolling in. since there was no thunder or lightning, we stayed outside until we felt the rain, when one of my space cadet kids said to me "ummm...teacher, i do not like the look of those clouds over there." my response? "my name is not teacher and if you had listened, you would know that we are going inside right now." hmmm...not exactly gonna win any awards for being sugary sweet, but the entire class made it inside 7 seconds before the clouds burst.

this week's art project. i never intended my blog to be a stream of all of my students' artwork, but i cannot help it. i LOVE kindergarten art. it is so whimsical, so perfect, and well....so wonky! and it is a huge point of pride for me that unlike many of the other teachers at my school, when it comes to art i do not stop at drawing with crayons. not me. no sir. when it is art time, we take out all kinds of goodies and the kids are 100% responsible for the creation of their project. in my classroom the wonkiness is not a mistake, it is cherished. to that end, i limit my assistance to demonstrations, explanations, and unclogging glue bottles. and the results make me smile every time.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

going postal.

2011-03-04T18:42:00.001-05:00

i may have mentioned this before, but just in case you do not know about it, i love the united states postal service. i mean seriously, you can send five sheets of paper across the country for a mere 44 cents. and be honest...when you get mail, and i am talking about good mail, not bills and junk, you always get a bit of a thrill. am i right? and stamps..oh the joy of stamps. i have gads and gads of stamps, some dating back fifteen years, just waiting for the perfect envelope. they can make or break the beauty of a mailing. truly folks, ditch the liberty bells and check out some of the other philatelic offerings!!! hello, awesome love stamps.

the current love stamp.

comics...so nifty.

even the "humdrum" stamps are delectable.

these stamps are small change, but are some of my favorites.

all images of stamps are from the united states postal service website.

sometimes i suspect that my love of everything postal has led me to know more about the postal service than many of their employees. in fact, twice in my past i considered applying for a job with the postal service, but i was thwarted by the application FEE(?!?!) and the fact that many postal employees are downright pissy (mom, my apologies if that word offends you....ooops). i do not know if this is a unique qualification for the job or a not-so-glamorous result. either way, i am definitely waaaaay to cheerful to qualify for a shift in any urban post office. obviously i adore the postal service, but they do have one big BIG flaw. it is virtually impossible to make a quick run to the post office. in fact i would not be surprised if i learned that post offices hold the world record for longest average wait time. which makes it all the more amusing/frustrating to see a sign like the one below...a new addition to my local post office.

wonky windows #13.

2011-03-02T10:37:00.004-05:00

wondering what i do with my time? you are probably thinking i spend all of my time looking for things to photograph and feature as wonky windows. you might be right. but i have to admit, i find it seriously amusing to share my world via a few select pictures each week.

this is actually a picture i took about a year ago. it was a demonstration of my ridiculous fondness for green. i always knew green was my favorite color, but i did not fully appreciate how much it had infiltrated my life until i gathered just a few things to include in this "green" picture. if only you knew how many things were left out. clearly i love the color green. in the course of the year a lot has changed...my phone is now in a pink case, my purse is a lovely brown, my favorite sweater is too small for my belly, and my toes are natural because i read somewhere that nail polish leeches through your nails, so i am scared to wear it while i am pregnant. regardless of these facts, my favorite color is still green, right? ummm...well, i think so. although lately i have noticed that my color preference seems to have shifted over the course of my pregnancy. i now find myself ridiculously drawn to orange.

when it came to select an exercise ball, i picked orange. just the other day i bought a yoga mat. color? why, orange of course. now i am starting to get concerned, because pringle will be residing in our bedroom and we seemed headed for a huge clash between the pre-pregnancy and pregnancy decor. but green and orange go great together, right?

my wonderful mister. he has always been wonderful, but since we found out about the existence of pringle, his awesomeness has known no bounds. during the first trimester, when i wanted nothing to do with food, he took over making my lunch. and he has not ceased this production. he follows a list and makes me the same exact lunch every day. you might think this is boring, but let's face it...the lunch is working and when you are feeding a pregnant lady, you do NOT get creative. but there are often little quirks that make me chuckle. yesterday amongst my lovely strawberries, i found a miniature, unripe strawberry, with its little leaves painstakingly sliced off, just like all the big, ripe strawberries. kind of like a mini-me strawberry. the adorableness was not enough to overcome the knowledge that it would be a bitter bite, but i did struggle to throw the cute little berry in the garbage.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

cover up.

2011-02-27T15:54:00.001-05:00

when i bought my sewing machine, i vowed to make a cover for it. how hard could it be, right? no problem, except i would have to put aside my three million other projects to tackle that one. such an easy project, yet it always got relegated to the back burner. five years later i finally reached the moment when it was time to make the cover. i pondered my stash of fabric...not wanting to use my "good" fabric for such a mundane project, yet still hoping for something adorable to stare at when the machine is not in use. enter mrs. nipper knapp of my mom's a nerd.

some of you are probably wondering who on earth is this mrs. nipper knapp lady that keeps cropping up in my posts. well, i met her two years ago at the wedding of one of my best friends. she was the photographer, but also the wife of the groom's cousin. i had heard that she was crafty and when i met her i thought she was perfectly lovely, but we were at a wedding, not a quilting bee, and she was busy photographing all the festivities. we did not have a chance to dive into our shared interests. after the wedding we became facebook friends and it was quickly evident that our aesthetics are closely aligned. and she makes stuff. all kinds of stuff. and she has a project list that rivals my own. but most precious to me, she too is spellbound by fabric, nifty sewing projects, and quilts. at first i was afraid she would think i was stalking her, because i was enamored of all the projects she spotlighted on her blog. but then i gave up any pretenses and just gushed my excitement for everything. since then i have happily helped her with some of the technicalities of sewing and quilting and she has provided ridiculous amounts of inspiration. she has a superb knack for discovering hidden gems and has singlehandedly doubled the list of things i want to make. so of course, when it was time to design my sewing machine cover, it was one of her finds that led me to the dark side...turning a project from super simple to ridiculously complicated. and i would not have it any other way. thanks mrs. nipper knapp.

a close-up view of the sewing machine cover.

the find is a tutorial on comfortstitching for an applique of a girl on a tree swing. i decided to take the "easy" route and skip the girl and the tree, but i used the featured applique technique. i created a colorful strip with all my scraps of fabric and used it as the centerpiece of my sewing machine cover. the whole project took six hours, which even i will admit is ridiculous for an appliance cover, but the results are super snazzy. i share a bedroom with my sewing corner, so this is one of the first things i will see every morning. not a bad way to start the day.

the two sides of the sewing machine cover atop its precious cargo.

wonky windows #12.

2011-02-24T18:49:00.001-05:00

time for another installment of wonky windows into my world (i seem to have a limited number of actual windows, so we are liberally using the figurative definition of windows).

i kill plants. fast. but not on purpose. i know i am not the only person who is incapable of keeping foliage in a living format, but i might be the only person raised by a gardening genius to completely lack any ability to keep alive any type of plant. even those so-easy-a-baby-could-raise-it plants seem to have me stumped. the worst part is that i refuse to accept that plants are dead. take the one in the photograph. it has looked precisely that spritely for approximately two years...most people would have long since realized that they lost the battle. not me.

people love to give me gifts of turtles. although i do think they are rather amusing looking little beings, i have never professed an undying love for turtles. yet for some reason when people see turtles, they must think of me. not that i mind - turtles are kind of adorable. the one on the left came from my grandmother's collection. the set in the middle is a lovely hanging decoration with lots of turtles that was bestowed upon me for a birthday a few years ago. the one on the right was given to me for christmas during my freshman year of college...his name is humphrey jellicus rex the third, and he has slept on or near my bed every night since he entered my life.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

the grand finale.

2011-02-19T19:35:00.000-05:00

hoot! hoot!

for most of the world, christmas is long gone. but we are in our own little world in miami. i promised the darling ms. pumpky that i would have a gift for her, but it had to wait until after the overwhelming pre-christmas days. we agreed to exchange gifts shortly after the new year, but well, i am a giant stinker and was not ready until yesterday. see, i had this brilliant plan to make her a lovely bag for school. sadly, the "perfect" bag that i made was lovely, but totally not perfect for her. time for a new plan, but i was completely stumped. and then i remembered the last time i visited her home and froze on her couch, because she has lost her throw blanket. not sure how you lose a throw blanket, but she did. and i was cold. so i thought to myself, the lass needs a couch blanket!!! and i had the perfect idea, because not too long ago i was trying to convince mrs. nipper knapp that she could indeed quilt a quilt and it did not have to be scary (she has since made and quilted a perfectly lovely quilt...bravo!). as an example i showed her this positively genius quilt by katie did. of course, ever since i found this design i have wanted to make one and now was the perfect chance. so i wasted nary a minute and headed promptly to joanns to procure the materials.

now this quilt was intended as a one-day project. but, well, i am six months pregnant and there is only so much i can do in one day. plus, although i have done little bits here and there, this was my first true experience with applique. i could not resist adding some cute-as-a-button owls. but, ummm...fusible interfacing? what's that? oh right, you need it to applique and apparently if you do not follow the directions rather precisely, things do not work out so lovely. anyhow, long story short, this turned into a four day quilt, but i am pleased as punch with the results, so the time spent was well worth it. oh and ms. pumpky was quite simply delighted.

my first experience with fusible interfacing. it took a few hours, but i finally had the two little owls ready to be appliqued.

the finished quilt. ready just in time for christmas in february. yahoo!


i am completely enamored of this binding fabric.

the back. pretty purple is pumpky's preference.

wonky windows #11.

2011-02-09T19:09:00.002-05:00

you might think i have some sort of fancy explanation for why i disappeared for two weeks. not exactly. all i can say is that lately my night owl tendencies have been completely overshadowed by this baby growing in my belly. i have been asleep by 9:30pm (at the latest!!) and the five hours between the gym and the bed are fully consumed with thinking about food, finding food, eating food, showering, and starting back on the food process. not to mention i probably spend an hour a day enthralled by my kicking and wriggling pringle.

but it is time to share a few pictures with you...

a glimpse into life as a teacher. last week this kid decided to throw a five day tantrum. this lovely pose, which was accompanied by a loud wailing, is from the playground where he was in timeout. there was not much i could do about his perpetual fit, so i just ignored him. i am hoping that if my own children decide to try this tactic, i will be half as calm as i am when it is one of my students. i can see you scratching your head wondering why i did not speak with his parents. i did. they informed me that he was upset because i did not give him a birthday present in november. ummmm...right then.

taken through the window of steak & shake, pringle's favorite restaurant. we eat burgers and fries and top it off with a mint chocolate chip milkshake. YUM!! but i digress. these absolutely delightful and yes, HOT PINK plants seem to be all over miami. every time i see them, i think to myself, "if i were a plant, this is the plant i would be." you know, simple with a flare.

i love bread. this particular display is one of four, that's right, FOUR, bread displays in my favorite little market. i would like this assortment to come to my kitchen every day. actually i would like this whole market to come to my house everyday. is there anyone that is not secretly obsessed with bread? i could eat fresh baked bread all day long. in fact the mister and i typically finish a baguette in two days or less, which means we buy about 4 baguettes a week. yikes.

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

wonky windows #10.

2011-01-29T17:16:00.008-05:00

it has become increasingly evident that my internal clock does not have a special alert for wednesday. as a result, i frequently forget to post my "wednesday windows" on wednesday. in an effort to avoid avoid false advertising, while still participating in this rather entertaining ritual, i am changing the name to wonky windows. i long ago fell in love with wonky quilts...probably because i just adore the word "wonky", so it seems apropos to get to use this term anytime i feel the need to share glimpses into my wonky (heehee) little world. so, with no further ado, the first installment of wonky windows...

THEME: reasons i might be 5.

(note: none of these pictures were taken through/via a window, but they ARE windows into my world).

i LOVE sugar. this picture was taken at school. it was the friday before my birthday, so ms. pumpky baked me cupcakes to celebrate. thanks to my unnatural obsession with sugar i have been known to out-sugar my five-year-old students. when handed a box of cupcakes, i was overjoyed to stuff my face with the sugary goodness. yummy!!!

i take a school picture EVERY year. sometimes two. one of the perks of being a teacher is the opportunity to get a complimentary school picture (probably a dubious perk, but a benefit nonetheless). although i almost always loathe these ridiculous pictures, i like things that are free, so i never fail to go in for my photo sitting. these are hands-down my least photogenic moments, but i keep going back for more. somehow on this particular day i actually managed to resemble myself. sort of. i am giving all credit to pringle for adding a little glow to my world (too bad he/she did not unquirk my eyebrows).

i dress like a kindergartner. i like to think that i look adorable and hopefully appropriate. but then five-year-olds, some of whom i do not even know, walk up to me to tell me that they love my shoes, my dress, my jacket... either this means that i am uber-stylish OR (and this is more likely) that i adorn myself in articles of clothing that appeal to small children. i mean seriously, what's wrong with a baby-doll dress, leggings, purple socks, and flowery corduroy shoes?

interested in participating in wonky windows? check out the instructions.

THE quilt.

2011-01-26T18:53:00.013-05:00

okay folks....as i am sure you have discovered, i love love love making quilts. and now that our baby pringle is happily ensconced in my belly, it is time to start planning THE baby quilt. luckily for me, i do not have to go shopping for fabric. whaaaat?!?! thats right, you heard me. i do not have to go shopping for fabric. how is this possible you ask? because you, yes YOU will provide the fabric.

chinese characters for "wish"

i am super duper excited about this project, which i discovered almost two years ago when researching patterns for my nephew's baby quilt. this project is called a "100 good wishes quilt" and is a tradition from northern china. the basic premise is to convince 100 friends and family to send me a swatch of fabric along with a good wish written for our baby. the one hundred pieces of fabric will be combined all together to make a single quilt and the written wishes will be combined into a scrapbook for pringle to enjoy a few years down the road. naturally, if you choose to participate, you are sending a bit of love and a good wish, hence the name of the quilt. fancy, eh??

the patterns for such a quilt are endless, but i want to keep it simple, so i am thinking of something like these two gorgeous good wishes quilts made by the folk(s) at original quilts.

i know you are chomping at the bit to participate. have you already thought of a scrumptious piece of fabric? is it a brand new bit that you think would be just perfect? or maybe it is from a long loved shirt that you no longer wear? no matter where or how you come upon the bit of fabric, it will be perfect. now all you need are some details and you will be ready to roll...

fabric: any color, any pattern, any age, anything goes. the fabric can be used (i.e. from an old skirt or favorite shirt), but we would prefer if it is clean. and nope, it does not have to have anything to do with babies, baby animals, baby toys, or baby colors. variety is the spice of life! 100% cotton is best, because it is easily washable, but if you don't know the content of your fabric, fear not...we are super flexible. just make sure the fabric is not super thick or chunky, because i have to be able to sew with it.

size: the fabric should be a minimum of 8" x 8". don't make yourself crazy trying to be exact, because i will be cutting the piece to fit the exact measurements needed for the quilt (the fabric will be cut down to about 4" x 4", so keep that in mind when choosing a fabric). if it makes you feel better to send a larger piece, that's perfectly fine by us.

wish: your wish can be whatever makes you happy...wishes for pringle, words of wisdom, a quote, an excerpt from your favorite poem/song, etcetera. write your wish on any paper that makes you happy (maximum size 6" x 6"). decorate your paper however you like, but remember that it is going to be put in a scrapbook, so it needs to be relatively flat. make sure to attach a bit of your fabric to your wish paper, so that pringle will be able to match up your wish to your square in the quilt.

deadline: since i need time to sew this lovely quilt, please send your fabric and wishes by march 15th. if you need our mailing address, please send me an email at pickelswimming@gmail.com.

we are so excited about this quilt and we want to thank you for helping to create a lifelong treasure for our little bundle of joy.

what the what.

2011-01-22T23:57:00.001-05:00

every time i visit my parents' house, i am astounded by all the craziness. not my parents. they are not crazy. well, not any crazier than me, which might not be saying much, but i do not think that any of us needs to be institutionalized. the craziness is the things that they own that are just, ummm, crazy. i have no other word. their house is a gallimaufry of paintings, gadgets, books, crafting supplies, electronics, sculptures, and gardening goodies. i am sure that many of you think that either you or your kin have some crazy nonsense, but do they have...

laser-guided scissors?

wiggly knives to cut cheese in pretty slices?

irons that stand up on their own two feet as soon as you release the handle?

a psychedelic mushroom clock that chimes the hours?

and a whole host of light-up clocks that are virtually unreadable even to the experienced viewer? some of these chime every fifteen minutes. all of them chime on the hour. the top of every hour is a cacophony of chimes.

for those interested...all the clocks were made by chrono art.

wednesday windows #9.

2011-01-19T22:23:00.001-05:00

this week's theme: the wonderful world of our condominium building.

when i moved into our condo, i was told that condo rules prohibit pets; however, there is one lady who has medical authorization to own a dog. i did not think anything of this fact. after a few weeks i met the lady and found her to be aggressively friendly. strange combination, but i have not other description. having been accosted by her multiple times over the last five years, including her yelling at me for not joining the condo board, loudly insisting that her large, growling, and barking dog (which may have been foaming at the mouth) was perfectly harmless, and running her hand down my leg at a meeting, i have since changed my opinion. she is simply crazy. after being harassed himself, even the mister, who is much less feisty than moi, finally had to agree. the lady is cuckoo for cocoa puffs.

it just so happens that her reserved parking spot #116 is right along the path from my parking spot to the building entrance. i used to cut through her spot (between her car and the column)...you know, shave a few seconds off of the journey to my house. but then pringle joined my adventures and i have had to learn to think for two. one day i realized that crazy lady technically owns that parking spot and i am not the least bit interested in introducing pringle to that world. since that epiphany, i have avoided the spot like the plague. or tried to. but occasionally when lost in my own thoughts, i find myself wandering through the corner of her spot. do i just forget it and continue? ummm...no. because apparently i am a little wacko myself. i have actually retraced my steps, as if that erases my tread into psycho territory, and walked back around the support column. anyone who observes this probably thinks that i belong in the loony bin, but i have to protect my young!

living in miami, i am constantly surrounded by people for whom english is a second language. the resulting english can be amusing. i am not gonna lie, it took me a minute to decipher the meaning of a "computer for car key," and still, i am only assuming that my analysis is correct.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

wednesday windows #8.

2011-01-12T17:50:00.002-05:00

another glimpse into my wacky world.

taken through my car window (this seems to be my favorite window from which to take these weekly pictures). i cheated and took this picture on tuesday, but it was too fascinating to ignore. it's not that i have never before seen fog (the town in which i grew up is blanketed in thick fog nearly every morning), it's just that i have never seen it engulf miami. i have lived here for five years and this was the first morning that i woke up to a soupy fog.

this is one of the laundry rooms in our building. not much to look at, but it has machines. fancy, eh? you don't think so? i do. today is laundry day. i hate doing laundry (yes, i have complained about this before), but every time i consider wallowing in my misery, i think of my in-laws who have to do their laundry by hand. and then i thank my lucky stars that i have machines to do it for me.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

christmas completed.

2011-01-10T18:41:00.001-05:00

clearly christmas is over and done with, but i still want to share the goodies that i made. plus, it is never a bad time to celebrate christmas!!

first there was the much pondered gift for my nephew. final decision was to make him some owl pillows. if i may say so myself, i think they turned out absolutely darling (they are about 12"). and in case anyone was wondering, as far as my nephew is concerned, i was the hands-down winner of the auntie of the year award. i also made a mini owl as an appetizer gift for ms. pumpky.

the owls' names from left to right: zeke, zeus, and zettie.

then there was the quilt that i was working on. since it was for my brother and sister-in-law, i could not tell you about it, just in case they decided to read my blog. they were married back in june and i had dilly-dallied my way through six months trying to finish up their quilt. i figured i should finish it before the end of 2010. finally finally i got it done. what a relief. from start to finish, it was definitely the most labor-intensive quilt i have ever made, but it was worth it. i totally love it and i think they do too. unfortunately my pictures are not stupendous, but you'll just have to enjoy it despite the crap photography.

the quilt is about 5' x 6'. i forgot to take a picture after i sewed on the label. oops.

hope y'all had a merry christmas and a joyous boxing day. boxing day is the mister's birthday, so that day rates a little higher in our world than it might in yours. and of course, a happy new year to you and yours!

wonky stripes quilt pattern.

2011-01-08T21:51:00.001-05:00

hello quilters. if you are interested in a quilt that does not require gads of painstaking measuring, cutting, and piecing, this is the quilt for you. this design works well with both planned fabrics and scraps.

how much fabric should you buy? great question, but it depends on how big you want to make your quilt. at the end, i will show you how to calculate your fabric needs if you want to do a different sized quilt. the materials list is for a quilt that has 7.5" squares and a final size about 60" x 60".

materials:

1/3 yard of each of 9 fabrics for the quilt design
2 yards of fabric for the quilt top border
3 2/3 yards of fabric for the back
1/3 yard of binding fabric
64" x 64" square of batting
1 spool of quilting thread

quilt top:

take each of your 9 fabrics and cut along the long side of each to make 5 or 6 wonky strips (i.e. smaller at one end). to ensure that your strips are appropriately wonky, i recommend using scissors instead of a rotary cutter. you can also do wavy lines, but these are more complex to sew. see my tutorial on sewing wavy lines.

cut wonky strips.

mix up all of the long strips. create strip sets with different fabrics. sew strips together with a 1/4" seam allowance. make sure the strip set is at least 8" wide. press the seams open, using starch as you iron. starch is your friend!!! it not only helps to create flat seams, it also acts as sizing, so that the fabric will hold its shape when you start cutting.

mix together fabrics and sew together strip sets.

cut each strip set into five 8" squares. you should end up with 45 squares. using the clear plastic quilting rulers and a rotary cutter is the easiest way to complete this task. if you do not possess these items, then find yourself some joann's coupons and go shopping. seriously. it is possible to cut these squares without these tools, but why on earth would you want to make your life extra difficult?

cut out squares. finished square.

set aside 9 squares for the quilt back. lay 36 of the squares on a large, flat surface (i use the floor), and move them around until you are satisfied with the arrangement. for this design you should use a checkerboard-style pattern with vertical-lined squares next to horizontal-lined squares (see picture - orange squares represent vertical-lined and green squares represent horizontal-lined). sew the squares together with a 1/4" seam allowance. press the seams open. again, be generous with the starch.

arranging vertical and horizontal stripes in a checkerboard pattern.

arranging the squares of a large quilt that was made with this pattern.

lay out your border fabric. you will need to cut four 7" strips the length of the fabric (i.e. 7" x 72" strips). attach your borders either with mitered corners or butted edges...your choice. trim any excess fabric.

now for the quilt back. sew together the remaining 9 pattern squares. press the seams open (don't forget the starch!). lay out your backing fabric. cut out two pieces. 16" x 64" and 40" x 64". sew the strip of squares to the long edge of one piece of backing fabric. then attach the other piece of backing fabric to the other side of the strip of squares. press the seams open.

cutting the backing pieces.

the assembled quilt back.

since this post is focused on the quilt pattern, not on teaching you how to make a quilt, i have included links to helpful tutorials for the final steps of quilt creation.

make your quilt sandwich.
quilt your quilt. unless you are a die-hard traditionalist, i assume you will be using a machine to do the quilting. you can do free-motion quilting (more free-motion quilting) or straight-line quilting (which also includes stitch-in-the-ditch quilting). trim the excess fabric from the edges.
attach binding (more binding and more binding).
create a quilt label (i do hand-embroidered labels, but that is a tutorial for another day). and sew it onto the back of the quilt.

voila!! you have a lovely wonky stripes quilt.

a larger version of the same quilt pattern.

calculating fabric for alternate quilt sizes.

the measurements in this example are the ones i used to calculate how much fabric was needed for the 60" x 60" square quilt.

quilt top design:

most fabric is 42-44" wide, but that includes selvages, so we will assume you have a usable section at least 41" wide. we want an 8" square, which means that we need 8" + seam allowances. since we will be cutting our fabric into strips, we should add in a few inches for seam allowances. to be safe, i would purchase 12" of fabric (1/3 of a yard), which will yield 5 squares. each additional 12" piece of fabric will result in another 5 squares. our quilt calls for 44 squares, so we will need 9 different fabrics (9 fabrics x 5 squares per fabric = 45 squares, which is 1 more than we need).

determining fabric requirements for quilt top pattern.

quilt top border:

this design includes a 6" border. the quilt top is to be 60" wide, so you need to buy at least 64" of fabric (this includes extra for seam allowances). buy 2 yards of border fabric.

quilt back:

this design uses 8 squares from the quilt top sewn together to form a strip down one side of the back. the rest of the backing fabric can be whatever your heart desires, just remember that the quilt back needs to be a couple of inches larger on all sides. for this size quilt, you will need 128" (3 2/3 yards) of fabric. you will have excess, but there is no way to avoid this (unless you want to piece together your backing, in which case you can create your 64" square any way that works for you).

quilt innards:

you need quilt batting that is at least a 64" square. you can buy whatever batting you prefer - personally i prefer low loft cotton batting. my standard is warm & natural, but when it is available my favorite is a 50% cotton, 50% bamboo batting.

quilt binding:

you will need to cut 2.5" strips and sew them together until you have enough binding to go around all four sides of the quilt. the binding will be 60" x 4 = 120", plus a little extra, so you need at least 130" of binding. your strips will be 41" long (the width of your fabric), so you just need to know how many to sew together to get the desired length. 4 strips will be about 164" long. perfect. 4 strips x 2.5" wide = 10" of fabric. to be safe, you should buy at least 12" of binding fabric.

determining fabric requirements for quilt binding.

lunchtime.

2011-01-08T11:56:00.000-05:00

i love lunch. actually it is probably my favorite meal of the day. i am guessing this stems from the fact that i positively adore sandwiches and lunch is the meal best suited to those happy creations. strangely, despite my love of lunch, i HATE making my lunches for work. even stranger is i hardly ever take sandwiches. i like cooking and i like eating, but the joy is sucked out when i get to the part where i have to condense some food into a traveling meal.

now that pringle is with us, i am trying to make a conscious effort to have healthy lunches. not that my previous lunches were unhealthy, there was simply no focus on ensuring a nice balance of fruits, veggies, and other nutritious goodies. i was thinking variations on rice, vegetables, and salad. bento boxes anyone? have you seen the creations some people come up with? it is nothing short of amazing....

this is some bento box art featured in an article on the woman's day website:

let us be honest..these are a little bit out of my league, but at least i could have an adorable container to go with my lovely lunch bag. so my mumsy and i went to the asian dollar store and found not just a display, but an entire AISLE devoted to traveling meals. wow. containers of every shape and size to hold anything you could possibly want to include in your lunchbox. not to mention little delights like mini molds to shape your rice into animals. somehow i restrained myself from buying everything. i got a small assortment of goodies, so that whatever meal i am trying to make mobile, i will be well prepared.

the cutest little two-tier container. it even has a space for my utensils. i created the little elastic strap to hold the tiers together.

a totally divided container with flaps! its like a de lorean, only better.

could not resist the stackable boxes. condiments anyone? yes, i have containers for my vitamins, salad dressing, and toppings.

i have no intention of creating bento box art, but i am stocked up with a versatile collection of containers that will hopefully make lunch creation a bit less painful. this week i carted around my two-tiered beauty. top tier had salad and the bottom had the lentils and rice recipe from an article in the sunday new york times. so far so good!!! let's hope i can keep this up.

how to sew wavy lines.

2011-01-08T11:44:00.000-05:00

it has come to my attention that more sewing tutorials are needed, so here goes nothing. today's topic is sewing together wavy lines, also known as sewing a curved seam. i put this tutorial together at the behest of mrs. nipper knapp, who jumped ship from "easy" quilts (actually no quilt is ever easy, but some are less complicated) and found herself smack in the middle of sewing a "simple" quilt. ahhh, the wonderful world of simple quilts...complicated messes wrapped up in designs that scream "i am simple, try me!!" anyhow, long story short, she needed some pointers on sewing curves, so i came up with this and am now sharing it for the world to enjoy.

step 1. cut a piece of fabric in half with wavy line. assuming you are sewing together different fabrics, layer them on top of each other, with enough overlap to accommodate your wavy line, before you cut. this way the seams will line up. if you are quilting, you can put multiple fabrics on top of each other (cut them slightly larger than your desired final piece) and switch around the colors after the cut. sew them together, and voila you are on your way to a fancy wavy-lined quilt.

step 2. flip one half so right sides are together...the seams do not match - don't panic.

step 3. make the first part of seam match and start sewing with a small seam allowance (i use 1/8"). if you use a bigger seam allowance, you will need to do a lot more snipping (see step 7) and/or trim the entire seam allowance with pinking shears, so that the seam allowance fabric can "bend" around the curves.

step 4 & 5. as you sew, keep moving the top layer so that the edges stay together. make sure the needle is in the down position any time you do any wiggling.

step 6. you should end up with a semi-ugly seam.

step 7. iron the seam (i prefer to iron the seams open), cutting little slices into the seam allowance in any hard curves where one side of the seam doesn't want to lay flat.

step 8. spray with starch and iron from the top...it should be golden.

a note about starch. starch is your friend. use it GENEROUSLY, because it not only makes things iron pretty and flat, it helps them stay the way you intended, AND it is sizing, so the fabric won't stretch and buckle when you do lots of piecing. i have never actually measured, but i wouldn't be surprised if i use a half a bottle of starch per quilt. since the question came up, i use niagara. it was what was available the first time i bought starch and it worked, so i have stuck with it. i recently found a non-aerosol version at the store and i switched to that..works like a charm.

aerosol on the left, non-aerosol on the right. both work fine...

happy wavy sewing!!!

wednesday windows #7.

2011-01-05T23:08:00.005-05:00

did you think i forgot? nope. not this week.

i took this picture while i was driving to work. this is a lotus. i love the movie "pretty woman" so i was hoping that i was getting to see a real live lotus esprit just like the movie, but no such luck. this was a lotus elise. or something like that. can't say i would mind driving one of these around town, but i am guessing it is not worth the investment, since there is no place for pringle.

maybe it is the jewish side of me, or maybe i am just a cheap-O, but i hate paying for parking. it gets under my last nerve EVERY time. naturally pringle's doctor is at a medical center that requires every single car to pay for parking. argh! i detest this so much that i park on the street and walk the two blocks to the doctor's office. not only does this save me from the irksome fees, it also gives me a modicum of exercise.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

pringles anyone?

2011-01-04T19:24:00.004-05:00

happy new year!!!

the first post of the new year! clearly this post should be about something thrilling and important to start the new year off with bang. i have been trying to think of something that might fit the bill, but i seem to be coming up short.

i ♥ grapefruit juice.

hmmm...i could tell you about my recent switch from apple juice to grapefruit juice. let us just say that i am obsessed. i drink a LOT of grapefruit juice (averaging a quart a day). or perhaps we could marvel over my lack of interest in sugary goods. that's right...my gigantic sweet tooth seems to have shrunk. i mean seriously, i used to be a cookie monster and now i could take them or leave them! i also developed a fondness for pringles. i always liked them, but i did not typically purchase them. and then one day i did and i went home and ate the whole can. this repeated itself a few times, before i finally lost interest.

original pringles. yummy.

but none of that is exactly "start the new year off with a bang" kind of news. perhaps instead i should tell you about the enlarged belly i am experiencing as a result of eating a ridiculous amount of pringles. or perhaps my belly is growing because it is home to pringle....the newest (and youngest) member of our family. that is right folks...the mister and i are cooking up a little bundle of joy. actually we have been cooking the little one for over four months (which explains all the weird food habits) and cannot wait until its expected arrival in june.


our little pringle at the end of november.

three cheers for lots of excitement, new adventures, and boundless joy in 2011!!!

wednesday windows #6.

2010-12-29T21:39:00.002-05:00

holy bananas, i am actually posting this on a wednesday. sort of shocking.

taken through the window of my mom's car. southern california is not exactly known for frequently running trains, so seeing one moving is a bit of a spectacle. what i found extra fascinating was the fact that this train waited for the CARS! since when do the trains do the waiting? only in L.A.

a caprese sandwich. seriously the best sandwich in the world. so simple, so delicious. i could eat these all day. sometimes i do. in fact, when the mister and i got married, i only had two requirements regarding wedding refreshments...caprese sandwiches and coronas.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

wednesday windows #5.

2010-12-24T14:50:00.005-05:00

yes, yes, yes, i am aware that it is friday. but i was busy like a little bee. now i am settled in los angeles at my parent's house and i have a spare five minutes (well actually i do not, but it sounds good), so i am posting my wednesday windows. enjoy.

let's face it..nobody likes to sit squished on plane for five hours. but i LOVE the view.

i met my nephew for the first time yesterday. he is almost a year old and he is absolutely, positively, the cutest little guy in the world (i am of course 100% unbiased). i have spent a grand total of 1 hour with him and i am head over heels in love.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

holiday haul.

2010-12-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

some of you might be wondering the results of my shameless hustling for holiday gifts, so here are pictures of all of my gifts. did my 18 students and their parents appropriately show their appreciation? you decide.


a handmade card and little debbie cupcakes.

a coloring page and a candy cane.

a handmade card.

a stuffed penguin and a miniature rubber robot.

an eraser.

framed by chaos.

2010-12-18T16:57:00.001-05:00

as if i did not have enough projects on my plate, on tuesday i decided that i should give a gift to some of my colleagues. of course i cannot walk into a store and buy some little trinkets like a normal person. oh no. i have to create. right. on a budget. super. luckily, i mentioned this to mrs. nipper knapp and not surprisingly, she is a treasure trove of ideas. she promptly rattled off some quick and easy options and i was ready to roll...picture frames for the ladies and one embroidered hanky for the gent. no problem. except for having only 48 hours to buy the supplies, make the frames and hanky, and wrap up all the goodies. yikes!

a quick trip to michaels and target to secure supplies and i was ready. twelve picture frames...here we go. i set up a little assembly line to whip through these as efficiently as possible. paint the back of all the frames. apply modge podge and attach purty paper. cut the paper to size. modge podge over the paper. three times. wait for it all to dry. clean up the edges. insert a cute lerato designs card in place of the advertisement picture. wrap it up and tie a bow with a handmade gift tag. voila! it only took sixteen hours.

and then i remembered that i needed to embroider a hanky. ummm...never embroidered a monogram before, but how hard can it be, right? eeeps. it might not be the finest monogram ever completed, but it was done with love and that is all that matters. i hope.

of course 8 hour days at work followed by 8 hour evenings of crafting means i did not get enough sleep and ran myself right into another cold. argh!!! but i will get better fast and then i will plow headfirst into the real christmas gift creations, because it would not be christmas if i was not crafting until the last possible minute.

wednesday windows #4.

2010-12-15T23:26:00.002-05:00

the fourth installment of wednesday windows.

looking through the window of our china cabinet. in case you are not already aware, i spent a little time in africa and kind of fell in love with the place. there is something inherently peaceful about life in a little african village and i harbor dreams of raising children in the tranquil setting. of course there are those minute details like devastating poverty, appalling health care, and inferior education... not to mention the fact that i cannot exactly stomach the thought of being ten THOUSAND miles away from my family (so instead the mister is that distance from his family - thank goodness he is not a momma's boy). maybe we could relocate lesotho just off the coast of california. then the mister and i could have our cake and eat it too.

this is oliver. from an early age i had an unnatural fondness for monkey and orangutans. actually, i thought it was completely realistic to think that i could have one as a pet. turns out that my parents were not exactly supportive of that plan. but when i was about ten, they did buy me oliver. we found him at price club (the predecessor to costco) and it was love at first sight. he has hung around with me ever since and now spends his days lounging on our bed while we are at work.

interested in participating in wednesday windows? check out the instructions.

shameless.

2010-12-14T20:28:00.005-05:00

when i was a kid i remember begging my mom to let me buy this or that for my teacher. twice a year i got to pick something little to show my teacher how much i loved her. it was never anything earth-shattering, but it was my childish way of saying "thanks." from my perusals of the blogosphere, craftosphere, and facebook, this tradition continues, yet the kids at my school do not seem to have gotten the memo. i am a big believer in the motto "it is the thought that counts," so does that mean that despite wrangling your kid for six hours a day, five days a week, for 10 MONTHS that i do not even warrant a thought?

patiently teaching 5-year olds how to weave paper.

in five years of teaching, which thanks to various administrative shuffling, puts me somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 kids, i have received nine gifts and only a handful of cards. now i know the economy is in the dumps, but is it truly too much to ask that you go to the dollar store and buy a candle or sit your kid down with a paper and some crayons and tell them to make a thank you card for their teacher? really?

more times than i can remember my mom told me that it does not take much to say thank you and it sure does make the other people feel special. so this year, thanks to the brainchild of ms. pumpky, i have taken matters into my own hands. blatantly begging some might say. i prefer to think of it as continuing education...teaching kids that they should say thank you. i am not picky. handmade cards and dollar store gifts are the apple of my eye; all i ask is that you think of me. to that end, i placed a box on my desk, stuck a fake present in it and pointed it out to my kids telling them that if they have cards or gifts for me, they can just put them in the box. i plan to give them daily reminders of the box's existence. shameless plugging? perhaps. but i have decided that it is necessary since their parents refuse to teach them how to be good people.

the ~~beggar~~ collection box.

for those of you that have kids in school...do not forget the teacher. they work hard day in and day out to try to prepare your child for the future and it is always nice to know that you care. no need to spend a fortune...feel free to have your kids make a popsicle stick photo frame or some other crafty dealio (click here if you need some inspiration) and i guarantee the teacher will love it. after all there is a reason they chose to surround themselves with little people.