His wonderful Nanna sent him this jacket today. His face may not show it, but he clearly LOVES it. And by love it, I mean he is not constantly trying to take it off. Hooray! Nanna not only made it, but made it REVERSIBLE! My husband asked why I don't make things this fancy. Clearly, he has never tried to sew a pair of pants with a small child constantly unplugging his sewing machine....

We got to see "Where Soldiers Come From" this evening at the Calumet Theater. It's been playing all this week, but this was the last night and we almost forgot to go, but I'm so glad we did.
I have a hard time watching things about the war(s).
They are usually a little heavy-handed with some type of propaganda that never speaks to my true feelings about the people behind it or the people who are over their risking their lives (in every sense of the word).
This film was an incredible portrait of where soldiers really do come from- why they sign up, what their families think, what happens to them in the service, and the difficulties they face when they come home.
There's no "message", only truth.
"Where Soldiers Come From" was made by a young woman from the Keweenaw Peninsula (where I live), and it follows a number of young men from this area, one of whom is actually a student of my husband's. About half of the film is shot less than 15 miles from my house. Even if you are not interested in soldiers or the war, it's worth it for the way the filmmaker captures this truly unusual place.
It is opening in very select cities across the country right now and if it is in your city, you should go see it. But don't bring your kids, because the language is very bad (5 slept through it, so I think he's ok). Find out more here.

Here they are! Lovely, no? I finished the second one mere minutes ago and am thrilled to be able to share it! I'll be scanning in my pattern pieces and writing up the tutorial the rest of this week- yay fun!

I used a double layer of heavy cotton/hemp canvas for the sole. The print is one of Jessica Jones' (from How About Orange) that I bought a few months ago and have been itching to use. The boot is fully lined with fleece for a warm cozy (potentially sockless) foot!

My original pattern needed several modifications to accommodate my sweet boy's exceedingly pudgy feet, ankles, and calves. I've never seen a foot with such depth (captured above by Dad's fisheye lens).

He posed in his new boots ever so briefly before climbing away, ditching Mom, Dad, and boots alike.

I'm not quite sure how to describe this recipe except to say that it is amazing and so fattening it actually burns calories. I modified the original (found here), so if you read/try this recipe, but think it would be better with more butter and sugar, you should check it out.
It combines the delicious flavors of chocolate, nut butters, nutella, and graham crackers to create something beautiful and amazing, but I personally might add some kind of salty crunch next time. Perhaps some broken up pretzels, or Chex, or something like that.

Ingredients
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 C brown sugar
1/3 C powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 C graham cracker crumbs
1/2 C Nutella
1 C nut butter (I used part almond part cashew)
2 pinches sea salt

Add sugars to melted butter and stir until smoothish. Add vanilla, graham cracker crumbs, and salt and stir to combine. Mix in Nutella and nut butter.
Press into a pie pan, cover, and put in the freezer to set while you make the chocolate frosting.

Frosting Ingredients
1 1/2 C chocolate chips (I used milk chocolate)
1/4 C butter
1/4 C milk or cream (I used half and half)
1/2 tsp vanilla

Melt chocolate chips in microwave, taking care not to scorch. Stir in butter, microwave for a few seconds if it starts to get unworkable. Add milk and vanilla, stir until smooth.
Remove pan from freezer, pour chocolate frosting on, and put back in freezer for 1/2 hour to set.
Eat it up and love it!

Yeah, not really.
Yesterday, we had THE MOST BEAUTIFUL day! Perfect clear blue sky (as you can see), the leaves are turning gorgeous yellows, oranges, and reds, AND it was warmish!

The three of us took a nice walk (and ever so efficiently managed to come home with toothpaste and ibuprofen...) and on the way home, Fred had an idea for some wonderful pictures that would take advantage of the built in blue backdrop we were given.

5, who got quite vocal about his desire to NEVER RIDE IN THE DAMN STROLLER AGAIN, seemed to cheer up a bit after Dad tossed him in the air a few hundred times. Perhaps you can see that as well.

I finished an excellent baby boot pattern today- I'm making them for 5's birthday, I'm so excited. I'm hoping to have a new tutorial for it within the next week, so look for it soon! They're adorable and lined (I used fleece so we won't have to put socks on him if we don't have time for him to take them off a million times before we go) and pretty simple too.

I'm having a lovely fantasy that I'm going to buy this beautiful dress pattern (from Grainline Studio), and make it for myself. Of course, as adorable as the example is, I think I would probably make it from the EXCITING new collection Lotta Jansdotter's coming out with (arriving in stores in early November I think).

I LOVE this design. I keep thinking I want to use it for the body, but it would be so nice on the trim too...

Perhaps this one could be the body, or maybe the wide stripes...

This one would work for any of the pieces. It's slightly less fun though. Ahh well, I'm sure I'll have plenty of months to mull it over while I make my way through the hundred other projects that come before it.
I did make a pair of balloon pants today that are kind of for myself- they're a costume prototype, so if they turn out (which they did, I might add) they get to be mine! I haven't taken them off even to trim threads, they are SO comfortable. Pics soon.

The little man can easily entertain himself with a funnel. A few days ago I was using one to get stuffing into little sewn legs and he REALLY WANTED TO HELP. So I gave him his own funnel.
He uses his a little bit differently...
You may be able to tell that he kind of has a one track mind when it comes to anything even remotely boob-shaped. The bottom picture is a nanosecond before he gives it a little test nurse- you know, just in case.

Unfortunately for my blog, I'm working on A LOT of projects that have to be kept under wraps!
            Many many Christmas presents- I'm so pleased with how they're going and SO WISHING I could share with you!
        A new costume commission for a Swedish library circus show- most of my designs for this have been inspired by interesting children's clothing construction.
            Some beautiful birthday presents- I am making a Black Apple doll for 5's birthday that I can share SOON (he can't read my posts yet anyway...).

In the meantime-

We had THE MOST DELICIOUS SANDWICHES for dinner! The two Fred's happily danced and made music while I made Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwiches!

I used the picture from the original post as mine were not even close to this pretty. So it's bread, cream cheese, cheddar cheese, crumbled tortilla chips, and jalapenos. He has a fancy way to prepare the jalapenos, but I just sauteed ours. It is tasty! And spicy! But I can't share it with the baby! Boo!

Wrong!
Sick baby + sick Mama + Dad sailing all day = Mom understands why some animals eat their young.

I'll be the first to admit it- I'm spoiled on an easy baby. He's slept all night for, like, ever, he takes 3 naps a day, he likes new people, etc
So, when this week of sick brought with it a week of only taking one nap a day, and that one approximately 3 hours long, every minute of it ON MY LAP, I thought I might lose my mind.
The waking hours were filled with screaming in my ear and wiping snot on my chest, and WILDLY protesting being put down OR being held.

We survived.
And today, we are both feeling somewhat better.
Back to three naps, 40 minutes of which I got to be alone!
I also managed to get some excellent birthday/xmas present work done in spare moments this weekend. What a coup!

Not totally better though.

5 has been generally obsessed with the kleenex box (yes, I know, they're "facial tissues", but I feel pretentious saying that...) for a few weeks and this has intensified exponentially with the onset of the family head cold. I have tried putting it out of his reach (I hate the crying and the knee-grabbing), I have tried letting him play with it but tucking all the tissues inside (he figured that out REALLY quickly), I also tried not letting it bother me when he pulled all of them out of the box, ripped them to shreds, and then chewed on them all day. Last night though, I had an epiphany. I could take an empty box, and put slippery scarves in there for him to pull out!
Genius move, if I do say so myself.
Now he gets to develop his brain, and motor skills, and all that other jazz, and nobody gets irritated! Hooray! I need to dig out the rest of my slippery scarves though, because the three I found last night don't take up much time...

As soon as nighttime temps drop below 40 degrees, I get sweaters on the brain. I've been trying to think up good projects to use up some of my stash of unwearable sweaters (so I can get more?) and in sorting them I discovered that some of my favorites actually "coordinate" (this is not a word I say easily, but Fred physically cannot survive any more insanity in our living room).
I cut these babies up, and sewed them together to make a super sweet lap blanket! I'm going to back it with an old plaid chenille blanket we have laying around that is not warm enough to be of any use in the UP.
It's not quite done yet, I need to add a strip along one side yet, but it's really all I got done this week, so I had to show it off. I think it's going to be PERFECT for Fall!

Mister 5 has been a bit sick today (and last night, ugh), so we had a snuggly, cozy day where the to-do list went out the window as much as possible.
After a fantastic 3 hour nap (in my lap and on my chest), he felt perked up enough to go check on Dad in the bathroom and figure out that he could shut the door on me! We then open and shut the door about 100 times. Anything that makes my baby smile like that is fun.

Every fall I order a pound of basil from the coop to make and freeze a big batch of pesto. Someday, I will successfully grow enough of my OWN basil so I won't have to order it, but...
I picked it up sometime last week already, so I HAD TO MAKE THE PESTO! So, 5 got to pull things out of cupboards while Mom made pesto.
It turned out especially DELICIOUS, which is a good thing, because I didn't use any pine nuts this year (they were $54 per pound!) so I made it on the fly. I used basil, olive oil, parmesan, slightly steamed garlic, raw pumpkin seeds, lemon juice, and cashew butter. So good!

While my boys ran to the store to pick up dinner items, I whipped out a bit of printing! I'd wanted to try printing with okra since I saw it over on Bloesem Kids and boy oh boy is it cool! I did not know that okra had such a cool cross section. Hoping for some more minutes this week to print a few other colors...

I ordered a green scrap pack from Skinny La Minx a few weeks ago and it finally arrived! Yay! If you haven't heard of her, you should definitely go check out her site, she does beautiful screenprints on super tasty fabric! Most of these beauties will be made into Christmas presents, but perhaps one or two will make their way into my personal stash...

So, I have LOTS on my plate right now, at least 3 giant major projects going on, and what do I decide I really HAVE to do this weekend?
Oh, yeah, I totally need to weave a rug on my hula hoop. Definitely.
It IS a pretty neat idea, I saw it on Pinterest. I wrapped tshirt loops around my hula hoop to turn it into a loom, and then us other tshirt loops to weave a beautiful little rug on it! I'm about two hours in on this one and I'd say it's about 16" across already.

It's not entirely unproductive- I think they could make cool presents....

I will just tell you that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed today.

Not for any real reason- it was one of those days where a hundred tiny things build up until you are wishing that your TV got some station, ANY station, even if it's just talk shows, because you're just going to have to wait this one out and hope that tomorrow is different.

A few times this week 5 and I have been awakened prematurely by someone down the street honking their car horn. This is one of those usually insignificant things that for some reason had me plotting elaborate revenge fantasies today. Not so good.

We decided to enjoy the nice weather and walk to our meeting this afternoon- this seemed like and obviously good idea.
Except by the time we got home we were covered with sweat and then dust and the baby had been crying for the last 10 blocks so I had to take him out of the stroller and carry him.

Hmph, not such a biggie- we would take a lovely refreshing cool shower and at least one of us could get clean even, until
OMG there's a giant freaking spider on the shower curtain for crying out loud are you kidding me?!

Ever so luckily, Pops was coming home for lunch so we only had to huddle half-naked and jumpy (ok that was just me- 5 was mostly naked and happily nursing) in the living room, looking for movement in my peripheral vision for about a half an hour.
My wonderful and indulgent husband then vanquished the monster, and after lunch even escorted us into the shower, making sure that my hawk eyes couldn't find any more baddies before he returned to work.

I have to say, after the fabulous (and spider-free) cold shower, the world suddenly became a better place. Possibly because 5 could not be any cuter all naked baby butt with wet hair and a silly grin.

That babe, he is starting to bring out the best in me. Upon our discovery of the hideous monster, THIS time I immediately shielded 5 from harm, DID NOT scream until he cried, but simply ran away with him safely in my arms. Perhaps I will get my fierce mama bear merit badge yet...