Ex Patria

MSCE Day 24 through 30

Oh, well, yes.

I did stuff but I had no time to blog about them - husband got "let go" and although this doesn't change much (other than that we have to pay health insurance premiums now, so it does change quite a bit, when you make up the tally) I had a slight panic/depression/panic episode.  I totally trust in my husband's abilities and his knack for finding work but you know, the economy, it's bad.  These days, it's not all "those who want to work will find work".  There is also this "we would hire you but you know, we just filed for Chapter 11" thing going on.

Oh, well.

Hm.  I did say that already.

So, the things I made:

Day 24 - A little boxy pouch.  Here are the very cool and great instructions and here is the picture of my result:

Yeah, you noticed, yes? No picture!  Why, oh why?  Because the husband took the pouch to the pool and promptly lost it.  Yes, I was just the teeniest tiniest bit ticked.  It was really, really cute with an adorable Amy Butler Midwest Modern fabric.  Sob.

Moving right along.

Day 25 - Finished up Leah's cardigan, and adding socks:

Isn't it cute?  It's a Drops pattern - I adore the fact that all the patterns are free downloads! - and the yarn is, hm.  I forgot.  I know it's cotton sock wool but I really don't remember.  Which is a shame since I like the bright cheerful color combination quite a bit.

Day 26: Knitting needle roll.  There are loads of instructions on the net but in the end, I eye-balled it and sewed it up on the fly.  It does show a bit because the pattern is slightly crooked but hey, the needles fit and it looks cute anyhow.

Day 27: I'm stretching a bit because we didn't do much that day, other than finishing those hand prints we made some days ago.

They turned out very cute, though.  One can even see at first glance who of my kids is the leftie (it's Jacob).

Day 28 and 29.  I'm sorry to report that I spent two days cleaning and picking up my house.  It was very necessary, I disposed of donation clothes that had been piling up for months, I threw out a big bag full of old broken toys or pieces thereof, and the house feels nice, clean, and roomy. 

Well, it did, anyway.

Day 30:  (I'm cheating just the tiniest little bit - it should really say Day 32.)  Jacob's new bed!

Jacob got a new bed, part of his transition to being a big boy!  He's completely out of diapers, accident-free for a week now, and mostly dry at nights too.  So, he deserved a new bed.  Also, he shares a room with Leah and there is the problem that we always had to tread carefully when going in to change her because Jacob builds elaborate train sets.  With the new loft bed (not too high, he can just about stand under it), he now has a space where he can build a train track and leave it up for days, if need be.  No more enforced de-construction!  Everybody's happy.  (Although Mommy didn't quite foresee the ensuing chaos...  I'm working on it!)

Doug and I built it and we didn't even squabble during it.  We're getting good!

So, MSCE.  It was fun!  And exhausting.  But it got my brain into gear and you know, I'm looking at things differently and there are lots of things that are cool and take very little effort to make.  Thank you, Dot!  And do go over to Dabbled to read up on the round-up of the month.

Thank you for bearing with me.

Next, we resume to kids and politics and oh!  Swine flu, or "new flu" as it is called in Germany now.

UPDATE: Oh, I forgot.  Jacob and I made little marzipan carrots for his nursery school group on Wednesday.  They were baking carrot cake and I suggested we bring the decoration.  He was really good!  We dyed the marzipan orange and green and just rolled little balls and then rolled them some more into carrot shape.  A little green ball pressed on the top for stylized greens, done! It was very easy and much more fun that buying ready-made ones. And Jacob was so proud of himself and his work and that made me very happy.

MSCE Day 23 - The crib bumper is finished

So I finished the crib bumper.  I used an Amy Butler template from this book, and fabric from the Ginger Blossom line by Sandi Henderson.

The bumper sags a bit because I used batting instead of the suggested bumper pads - mainly because we can't get the bumper pads in Germany.  However, the husband travels to the US in May and promised to bring the pads back for me.*  That's why I didn't bother quilting the bumper, since the batting will be removed again. 

I also didn't bother making a fitted sheet.  Two reasons: I was too lazy, and then I reckon that if I don't cut and sew the fabric, I can reuse it when Leah needs a bigger bed!  Because I love the fabric so.

I wanted to make the outside of the bumper green, or striped (the other Ginger Blossom options I have in my fabric stash) but the male vote went for the pink floral.  I live to serve. ;-)

The canopy, btw, is a cheap IKEA thing that goes so well with the colors of the fabrics as if I had intended it to be so.  I did not.  But I can pretend I did!

I will make a quilt from the same line next but that might not happen this month.  I've run a bit out of steam, we've had bad professional news last night which shook me more than it should have, the gorgeous spring begs for outside time, and I'm trying to recharge my batteries for two weeks of single motherhood in May.  So, quilt - later.

 *Watch out for packages!

MSCE Day 22 - Earth Day

Things I did for Earth Day:

•  Participated in the Earth Mosaic project.
•  Read to the boys:

 

• Didn't plant anything today but did plant within the last month: two currant bushes, one elderberry bush, one each of thyme, oregano, lemon balm, lavender, parsley, dill, chives, sage, basil... and quite a few other herbs and lots of flowers.  I live by the credo that every day is Earth day.

• Talked to the boys about the Earth but we do that a lot anyway.
• Stopped and looked around and gratefully took in all that green, the flowers, the trees in full bloom, the birds singing, the clouds up in the sky, the wind attacking our Bali flag.  Beautiful Earth. 

Happy Earth day.  Because, you know, we are really quite happy here.

MSCE Day 21 - Finally, the herb snail garden

It's done.

We had visitors, we had some rainy days, we needed to pick up the stupid rocks.  It turned out that a. rocks are really expensive when you want to buy them and b. there are so-called "Steinlesen" everywhere -- designated spaces where farmers can dump the rocks they remove from their fields.  One can just go and pick them up there!  Very clever, and very for free. 

Anyway, so I didn't get finished until yesterday (day 20).  But I'm pleased with the outcome:

You see the little bucket pond in the front - it's got a burlap sack hanging into it which wicks water into the area next to the bucket.  That's where those swampy plants are growing - water iris, water lily and cowslip and water cress (which I still don't have).  I'll get some more smallish rocks today or tomorrow and finish covering up the rim of the bucket.  It had been all covered up but then I used many of the small rocks to stuff holes in the larger wall.

The snail circles off the left side and sort of behind the wall you can see there behind the water.

The top is the Mediterranean zone - sandy and warm.  The big bush is rosemary, the lavender is already in bloom, and in the front you can see oregano, thyme and lemon balm.  The sage is really tiny still and is hiding behind the lavender.  Hm.  Now that I think about it - is the lemon balm okay up there?

I stuffed some rock garden plants into the holes of the walls - rock cress and saxifraga.  Nice little splashes of color, no?

The pond, btw, has two goldfish in it.  Our neighbor, who is very green and very nice (or the other way around), has a big garden pond with loads of fish.  He loves that we do stuff with our garden and he donated two goldfish.  When I told the boys they should maybe name them, the only thing they came up with were "Alan-Fish" and "David-Fish".  You would think they could come up with better names!

I also planted some container strawberries and put them next to the pond (we'll just call it pond, OK?), and I also planted a rhubarb.  Doug loves rhubarb and so do I - he prefers compote, I prefer my Mom's heavenly rhubarb cake.  In any case, we now have rhubarb.  Last, not least, I also planted some aquilegia just because I like them.  (All of the latter ones are outside the actual herb garden walls.)

So now we have:  Parsley, chives, lemon balm, organo, thyme, rosemary, sage, mint, basil and dill.  I still want to get coriander, water cress and maybe tarragon.  Oh, I can already taste all the herby goodness!

(I just realized that I need to switch the parsley and the chives around. Parsley needs to go further up, the chives need to go closer to the water.  Ack!)

MSCE Days 19 and 20 -- Memories of Nana and salt dough

After Leah was born, my sister-in-law gave me a little gown that had been hand-made by her beloved Nana, her's and Doug's paternal grandmother.  Nana passed away before Doug and I met but I know she's been a great influence in his life, and everybody talks in glowing terms of her.  A kind lady with a green thumb and a vicious card player streak - she must have been something. 

I was really touched by this present, all the more so because Nana had made this baby gown for R, my nephew.  The gown came wrapped in a piece of old-fashioned wallpaper.  P. told me that it had been wrapped in this wallpaper when she first got it from Nana -- a left-over piece from her kitchen wallpaper. I know what to do with the gown but I had no use for the piece of wallpaper.  Yet, I couldn't just throw it away.  But stashing it in some corner for years to come? It would become just another piece of clutter.

Then I had an idea.  I have some decal frames - wall decals in the shape of picture frames.  We also have a staircase full of art and photos, our ever growing motley collection of things we like and that can be hung on a wall.  So I cut the wallpaper down to size and stuck it on the wall (wall - wallpaper, get it?) with the decal - and voila!  It's cute, visible, it's a reminder of Nana that is both whimsical and touching and I don't feel bad about either throwing it out or it collecting dust somewhere.

And then we also made new hand prints.  Remember the not-so-great outcome of the ready-made hand print version a few days ago? 

Well, David made one at a birthday party last week where they used salt dough.  Hah!  That's easy, I thought and made salt dough. There are a ton of recipes on the net but basically, it's flour, salt and water.  My mother, who is a very crafty person, recommends a little bit of oil and a tablespoon of wallpaper paste powder to create a very fine, smooth dough.  Do what she says, people.

Roll out the dough, let kids press their hands in, voila!  If you don't like the results, scrape it together and knead a bit, roll out again and repeat.  Very fast, best results - much better than the store-bough putty.  It has the right consistency for prints - not too soft, so the kids don't go through the dough when you press their fingers down, not too hard so that you don't see anything.  Also, kids love salt dough.  Any leftovers will be gleefully turned into snakes, balls, or weapons.  If you have boys, that is.

I recommend to let anything made of salt dough dry at room temperature for about two days, and then gently bake it in the over at very low temperature for about two hours.  The pre-drying prevents cracking - the faster you dry, the more you have the danger of cracking.  Patience is a virtue here.  Also, the oil and wallpaper paste powder will help here.  Once the prints are dried, I plan to color the outlines and leave the prints white.  And then, of course, they will go into the artsy stairwell.

MSCE Day 18 - Caterpillars and bugs

Another rainy day, so we made some indoor crafts together.  Old egg cartons cut into two, painted green and adorned with pipe cleaner antennae and legs, and wiggly eyes - tadah, a catepillar!

Jacob made this one.  I helped with the feet and the antennae but mostly, he made it himself.  Very earnestly, too.

I made these, with the little bug being a single egg cup, and another one cut into two and trimmed down a bit to make the wings - because, when I said "look, here, a bug!", Alan insisted on it getting wings.

 

The whole family of bugs and caterpillars.  The boys had fun, and so did I.

By the way, Doug made a praying mantis from a paper towel roll, an onion, drinking straws and play doh.  Unfortunately, the enthusiasm about it was also its sad end - but it was a cool and inspired thing!

MSCE Day 16 -- Photo jars

I found this on another blog but I didn't bookmark it and now I can't find it anymore.  So, this cool idea is not mine but it's cool and I think I can share it.

How many photos have you lying around in your house that you never put on display because, frankly, they are either not the kind one puts into a frame, or because it's a hassle to exchange photos in frames?  Lots, if you are like me.

And how many empty glass jars do you have in your house?  You know, empty spaghetti sauce jars, or jam and jelly jars, baby food jars...  I also have a lot of those.

So, combine the two and you get - tadah! - photos in jars! 

What a cool idea.

I find that because of the reflective quality of the glass, it's best to display the jars at eye level - in a bookshelf, for instance.  You can either use the lid or not, the photos stay inside either way.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Angelique, we now have the origin of the idea - Photojojo.  Thank you, Angelique! Much appreciated.  I hate not being able to attribute correctly.

MSCE Day 15 - Stick bread

We have very good friends visiting - we met back in Armenia, and now they are stationed in Germany and my friend B. and her two boys have swung by for two days (R., unfortunately, has to work).

The weather is still very lovely and we had dinner outside in the garden.  We had a motley assortment of dishes - homemade pizza, tabouleh, green salad, olives, crudites, and stick bread.

Do you know stick bread?  It's very popular in Germany, and the technique is the same as roasting marshmallows, only you use bread dough.  It's very yummy, and the boys had a blast (even if somehow I ended up doing all the stick holding over the fire...).   I found it goes fastest and best if the fire is burnt down to really hot embers.

You need to de-bark your sticks (we used fresh ones).  Form the dough into a sausage and wrap it around the stick, overlapping slightly, until you've got it all wrapped around the stick.  Hold over the fire, turn frequently and wait until the dough has turned a nice brown color.  When it smells done, it is done!  Easy.

As for the dough, we used a ready-made bread dough but you can also ask your local baker to supply you with bread dough (or, in Germany you can).  There are also tons of recipes available on the net. 

I didn't make any photos as I was busy roasting bread for five little boys.  I also, frankly, didn't get any stick bread myself.  Such is the life of a mommy.

MSCE Day 11 - Spring day photos

A gorgeous spring day.  We're hanging out in the backyard until Alan will go off to a birthday party, and the rest of us will go for a nice long walk.

Some impressions from our garden:

Brother and sister in the hammock.

Waiting for occupants.

Good old Bali chimes.  They have been with us for over ten years.

 
A project that the boys and I did a while back - just string wooden beads and attach the strings to a dead branch (which you can find in your backyard, if you have little boys!).  Hang up in a tree, voila!

 

Disregard the dirty nose, please. We're all nursing spring colds.

 

Somehow, he looks much older and very alien to me in this picture.  I keep staring at this picture, asking myself -- who is this handsome boy?

MSCE Day 10 - Baby Hand Prints

Things I've learned about making baby hand prints:  Don't be impatient and make the print when the putty is still too wet.  You'll get gouges where the baby claws at the too soft mass.  When you wait until the stuff is too dry, the imprint is barely visible.

Well.  Better luck next time, I suppose.