candles

I mentioned before my plot to buy beeswax for a useful purpose. I was feeling a little sad to miss wedding preparation details (because I lived across the country and because I am part of the groom's family, which means a big fat MYOB!--though sweet Christine has been kind enough to ask for my input a couple of times). I had used the Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667 Anglican bishop “Shakespeare of Divines”, as I so-usefully indicated on each slip) quote for a cousin's bridal shower years ago, and thought first to tack it to a couple of sparklers (recent Fourth enthusiam still with us) before I had the beeswax candles inspiration. A lucky change of plans: my new sister-in-law has since told me the details of a rather traumatic dress-on-fire incident when she tried to use sparklers to transform into Tinkerbell...

My first beeswax-of-my-own acquisition was a few years ago (for pysanky), and the girls and I dipped a few candles then. I thought I was pretty much a nature girl when I purchased the unbleached beeswax from a chain craft store, but this year's golden purchased-from-the-keeper tiny tapers make the old ones look positively drab. A few process shots (click on the page & it won't be so wee):

steamroller prints

I have fresh lino blocks on the shelves of my newly-organized closet, ready to carve soon. So this I found crazy-delightful.

happy birthday, Marian

When Marian survived the summer before she turned two, her pulmonologist looked at me very seriously during our just-pre-birthday appointment and said, "You better be having an awfully big party this year."

Here's celebrating SEVEN!!!
Your birth was beautiful, one of life's great events, but your life and joy multiply ours daily.
I love you, little darling.

ice cream update

This morning while making waffles, I heard howling from upstairs. Unfortunately, not an entirely unusual occurrence. Mornings can be touchy for Marian if the princess is feeling neglected. In a moment, Nathan came down carrying the distraught child. Uncharacteristically, they were reading last night's blog posts together on the computer, and the ice cream's fate was revealed too harshly. Nathan didn't realize it wasn't old news & didn't think to tread/read softly until it was too late. Luckily, she was distracted in a hunt for clues (ultimately fruitless) and agrees to try again.

Pobrecita.
(can I spell my Spanish anymore? Corrections welcome.)

everything smells like beeswax

I made up an excuse to buy 2# of beeswax (more on that later), and it has been the mum-imposed focal point of our household for the last 2 days. I LOVE the smell, Audrey is politely enthusiastic, Marian is neutral (which is saying something: she's super smell-sensitive since her transplant, and constantly screwing up her nose with an "EEWWW!"), and I have been interested in the emotions it has elicited from Nathan. When he was a child, his father kept a couple of beehives, and the smell has been bringing up memories aplenty. I'm way into the idea of having my own, but he had rather enough back in the day. And, surprisingly to me, since he is a self-sufficiency superstar, I guess my father-in-law did, too, because the bees have been gone for a long time. My friends Scott and Cynthia are new beekeepers, by the way. I'm fascinated. I lost the link to Scott's beekeeping blog (happy edit: found! http://floralabees.blogspot.com/), but found this in their local paper: http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=8331880&nav=menu62_8_5

I bought the wax from http://www.ebeehoney.com/, which fit my needs of being (1) small and from-the-beekeeper-ish and less processed, (2) inexpensive, and (3) shipping quickly, since I have a bit of a deadline for the intended projects. It came very quickly and is golden and honey-scented. Pleased consumer.

(AND: just found Scott listed on the same ebeehoney.com as a beekeeper who will come remove bee swarms for you. He's all over this.)

pregnant sewing

In my spring-cleaning/nesting organizing rush, I sorted through all sorts of old clothes I'd saved to give to Goodwill or upcycle (use the fabric), and took a second look at a few in the discard pile. My body is shifting rapidly into full watermelon mode with nearly 4 months left to go, and I did my first sewing in awhile.

Project 1: I used 3" elastic and an old weird stretchy tan tee to make new, lower-cut waistbands for two pair of pants (one khaki, one linen capri) that I had discarded pre-accidental pregnancy because they were too short and too saggy-butted, respectively. The result is a bit wonky (that 3" stuff is hard), but perfectly acceptable when properly covered by prego-friendly long top. And I was able to solve the too-short and too-saggy butted problems with a bit of clever cutting and sheer good luck, too. I have more pants recently rescued from the discard pile to remake in a similar way, but some can wait for cooler weather and/or also need widening. My Alberta college roommate and her friends would put in fabric panels on the sides of their gloriously old 501s for the decor of it; I think I'll do the same for the hip-widening possibilities.

Project 2: I had purchased a girls' size XXL gauzy peasant dress from Old Navy for $2.97 last fall and found it in one of my piles. I immediately cued into the empire-waist styling (prego watermelon self) and light fabrics (prego overheating self) and focused on a rescue. All of the dimensions were good, when on, but the length a bit short. After draping several fabrics all over the dining room table and couch as extension possibilities and being seriously warned as to the frumpiness probability of the finished product by my ever-wary-of-post-project-breakdown husband, I decided on a low-contrast option, and tried to unify it all with a bit of cotton crochet trim and adding a bias strip over the elastic waist casing. I stitched the extension to the underskirt, which I think works better. I enjoyed sewing this project after the stretching and inventing of the wide elastic: mostly very careful, very perfect topstitching. I felt pretty pleased with the result, and was frumpiness vindicated when the teenage sister of one of Audrey's friends commented on the coolness of my dress twice, threatening a while-you-sleep robbery, while we watched movies at their house that night. No on-photos, but here it is drying in the sun on Tuesday:Project 3: A circus tent of a shirt. Even striped! I tried to modify a pattern by adding way too much length and breadth. Loved wearing it, but had to pin up the neckline. Unpicking done, pleats and resewing of FOE yet to come before photos appear. Too sensitive to think photos of circus tent on circus self very comical.

good wood

Remember my recent wooden toys obsession? Yeah, 2 posts ago since I'm so bloggy lately...Well, I got myself all excited with bedside sketches and decided to buy a scroll saw, then remembered a chance conversation with a friend who offered the use of hers a year or so ago...luckily still willing. While I decide how much I might ramp up production to justify the big purchase. The danger is, of course, once I have the saw, then I need the belt sander, then the...

I warmed up by doing the sanding and waxing and happy wood purchasing for a new rail for Marian's bed. We're putting the girls' beds back up in bunkbeds, so the top bunk with rails will become Audrey's, back on top, and Marian needed a rail. I wouldn't ordinarily worry, but she is tube-fed by pump all night, and if she fell out of bed, it could rip out her port and just be an ugly situation. Nathan was a champion and got right to business with the circular saw (too heavy for me) and screws. Of course, we haven't subsequently gotten around to arranging lifting help to re-bunk, but are ready when the time comes :).Then more wood for me! I decided to stick with pine: not only beautifully inexpensive, but a softer wood for a novice saw-er (my last time with a scroll saw was 8th grade shop, a marvelous experience that has left me with all sorts of "I can handle power tool" confidence, even though, um, it's been awhile...). And I do love the familiar grain of pine and was able to find a beautiful board of "select cut": no knots. I love those, too, but they're a beast to cut through (in my vast experience).

SketchesRough cuts
(note the Childbirth without Fear on the table with my goods. I'm getting obsessed. These books are all over the house! Must recommend, though: Grantly Dick-Read was so completely radical when he wrote it in the 40s, and the information is still excellent. It's interesting to note how childbirth practices have and have not changed in the intervening 80 years or so).I used watercolors to stain the wood to my taste, and mixed my own beeswax (candle post coming soon!) finish paste. I don't have the consistency right for ease-of-use, but it's food (and therefore future gnawing) safe and the eventual result was silky-smooth and smells yummy.

I'm SOOO thrilled with the first result. My own stacking/standing wood block tree. Or puzzle. To put on one of the lintels (see! it stands!) in the baby room until he's ready to play. Or until the girls want to. Or until I just want to touch it. Or make my husband admire it. Or...