20
Jun, 2011

father’s day

today for father’s day, mr. happy stuff suggested we take a trip to the zoo.  our local zoo is a small one, but it’s only a few miles from our house and entrance is free.  i packed up a quick picnic lunch, mr. happy stuff packed up a diaper bag and we grabbed the camera and the stroller and headed out.  the zoo was packed, but we all still enjoyed ourselves.  i especially had fun playing with our new camera.  i’m still working out the kinks in my technique, but here’s a little video i made with it:

 

father’s day at the zoo, 2011 from carissaabc on Vimeo.

i love to watch you play with our boy.  i also love how awesome you are at putting him to sleep when he’s fighting it (and i probably take advantage of your skill in that area far too often).  i can’t imagine doing this parenting thing without you.  thanks, mr. h-s, for being such a wonderful daddy.  i love you!

Posted in baby stuff, summer, video | 1 Comment
18
Jun, 2011

Pattern testers needed!

I’m working on a small project and could use the help of some pattern testers. It’s a quick (15-30 min MAX) project and you’ll end up with something useful. Interested? My deadline is Tuesday, so please reply asap if you’re willing to give it a try!

P.s. I promise it’s not baby clothes.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Pattern testers needed!
17
Jun, 2011

celebrate the boy: pajama shorts (aka: boxer briefs)

during the february celebrate the boy month, one of the guest bloggers (from “sew a straight line”) posted a great pattern and tutorial about how to make boxer briefs from t-shirts.  of course, baby dude is still in diapers and doesn’t wear boxer briefs (especially not in a size 3/4), but i thought that the larger size might allow them to fit over a big ol’ diaper butt and that they’d make pretty cute jammy bottoms.  and……

i was right!  (apologies for the blur.  this is one busy toddler!)  this was the original shirt (most of which had already been chopped up to make a monster shirt for my nephew’s birthday):

and here’s my favorite part:

one of my favorite details about this pattern is that it can use up relatively small pieces of knit (and right now, i’ve got a bag full of “small” pieces of knit!).  i altered the instructions to just cut the legs hems from the hem of the shirt sleeve and i didn’t bother with the fly, so other than having to topstitch each of the seams, this was really a pretty easy pattern.  i think maybe he needs a few more pairs…

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | Comments Off on celebrate the boy: pajama shorts (aka: boxer briefs)
16
Jun, 2011

celebrate the boy… with help from grandpa

my parents came for a visit a few weekends ago.  my dad is a wonderful woodworker and i’m always looking for projects that we can build together whenever they visit so that i can build my own woodworking skills.  i’d love to be as proficient in wood as i am in fabric!  this time, i asked if we could build a “fun pod” and he agreed that it looked very do-able.  unfortunately, when the time came to build it, i had other pressing obligations and since i can not be in more than one place at the same time and since i really wanted to have a “fun pod” i just asked dad to build it on his own.  it took about $50 worth of materials and only a short amount of time (not sure exactly, but i think it was just a few hours at most) to create this:

isn’t it great?!  i’m hoping to get around to painting it sometime, but it works just fine as-is.  the idea is that it’s safer than letting baby dude stand on a chair or a stepstool (less likely to tip or fold up on him, he can’t crawl down (or up) by himself… which i may regret later but for now is priceless) but still puts him at counter-top height so he can see what’s going on.  for the most part, he seems to like it and is content to stand there instead of insisting that i hold him in my arms while trying to chop onions or stir boiling liquids.

there are lots of similar products available online (learning tower, kitchen helper) and several online tutorials for how to build your own (ohdeedoh, another one on ohdeedoh, too lazy to find others), but i love that this one has a footprint not much larger than a barstool and i just love the simplicity of the design.  it’s definitely inspired by the funpod, but my dad made a few design tweaks to make it easier to build.  the adjustable floor is just a board that is notched on each end and then sits on slots cut into opposite sides of the fun tower:

and the handles are cut out instead of attached to the outside:

we put felt bumpers on the bottom so that it slides around the room easily if i need to move him (baby dude also enjoys pushing it around when he’s not inside it.  also, he loves tossing things into the box–refrigerator magnets, snacks, his bottle….).  thanks, dad!  i’m sure we’ll get lots of use out of this piece of furniture and it’s so much more meaningful since it was built by his grandpa!

update:  you can see the final painted version here!

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff, stuff that makes me smile | 19 Comments
15
Jun, 2011

celebrate the boy: lobster shirt

before:

after:

this was made with the figgy’s tee for two pattern, but the front got kind of weird and gappy and i think i prefer the shirt with contrasting colored sleeves, but this will do just fine for a summer shirt for this year.  i’m oddly fond of the back.

 

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | 2 Comments
13
Jun, 2011

celebrate the summer boy: bike helmet liner

this summer, baby dude is old enough to ride in a bike trailer (hooray!) so he also needs a well-fitting helmet.  it can’t be too tight because that would make him uncomfortable (i.e. sad and screamy).  it can’t be too loose because then it will fall down over his eyes as we bump on down the road and then he will be uncomfortable (and sad and screamy).  so we took some time to fit him properly about a month ago and found that it was almost impossible to get the helmet to fit tightly enough.  it was close, but just not quite right.  until mr. happy stuff put a knit stocking hat onto baby dude’s head and then put the helmet on top of that.  success!  except that now that it’s warmer outside, we have doubts that he’ll be willing to don a wool hat under his helmet.  so with much slapdashery, i managed to come up with this (toddlers are really hard to photograph without blur!):

it was originally based on the sweet pea pilot cap by sew liberated, but i got ahead of myself and didn’t actually read the instructions until i had all the pieces already cut out and realized then that i was supposed to do some extra steps before and while cutting it out.  oops.  plus, i’d already decided to make it with two thicknesses of t-shirt material to get it to the right thickness to make the helmet fit and that wasn’t part of the pattern either.  but i decided to forge ahead anyway.  i got the three main pieces sewn together and tried it on baby dude and mr. happy stuff worried that the ear-flap parts would make it hard for baby dude to hear us talking to him.  and i worried that the extra bulk of another chin strap would be irritating.  so i cut those flaps off and added a hat band (made from the neck of a turtleneck).

it’s not perfect, but it is reversible (the other side is solid green with the same blue central section) and i think that it will serve it’s purpose until his head gets big enough to wear the helmet on his own.

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | 1 Comment
12
Jun, 2011

celebrate the boy: summer edition

hoo boy, i am late to this party, but better late than naked, i say!  in case you have no idea what i’m talking about, you can click the link above, or you can recall that i participated in the official celebrate the boy month in february (search my archives for “celebrate the boy” if you’re interested to see what i did) and that it’s basically a good excuse to make cute things for boys, sponsored by the made by rae blog and the dana made it blog — two totally inspiring blogs.  imagine my delight when i read that they were hosting an impromptu pared-down celebrate the boy week to feature summer clothing!  we are finally at the point where the hand-me-downs are thinning out and my boy is sorely lacking in shorts and short-sleeved shirts, so this was perfect timing.  except that i need about a week’s heads-up to gear myself up for this kind of blog-nanza if i’m going to be sharing my own creations.  soooooo…. i’m a week late to the party and everyone’s already gone home, but i’m still going to show you all the fun things i managed to make for baby dude this weekend. we’ll start simple:

my first 90-minute shirt of the weekend!  it began as this adult shirt:

but i think it’s much cuter on my little dude:

and i just have to brag that even though i didn’t have a chance to post any new pix to the celebrate the boy flickr group for last week’s c.t.b. extravaganza, my “crazy dress pants” from february made it to the big photos on dana’s round up page. woot!

stay tuned for more installments–including a tutorial!

Posted in baby stuff, crafty stuff | 1 Comment
11
Jun, 2011

lemon cake

dear readers, i have much to share with you, but i’ve been spending time doing the happy stuff instead of documenting the happy stuff, but i still like to have a record of the highlights and, of course, i love getting comments from all of you, so some serious catching-up is in order.  i finally downloaded a bunch of photos off of my cameras tonight, so that’s one big step done.  but enough whining, let’s talk about lemon cake!

awhile back, i tried to read through molly wizenberg’s memoir/cookbook and quickly realized i didn’t have time to read and enjoy it properly.  until i hit upon the brilliant idea of listening to a recording of it.  i mean, i love foodie writing, i love hearing stories of people’s lives–it was excellent driving entertainment.  and at the end of each chapter i was convinced that i needed to try the recipe she’d just talked about (a dangerous side-effect of a good food blogger!), but the recipes weren’t included on the “unabridged” recording!  not that i have any interest in trying to follow a recipe aurally anyway.  so i checked out a paper copy of the book and flipped through it, marking the recipes that had particularly caught my attention.  this recipe for a “french style yogurt cake with lemon” was pretty much at the top of the stack, so when i found myself with an occasion that called for cake last sunday, i jumped on the chance to try this recipe.  one of the things i love about it is that there are no weird ingredients (other than, perhaps whole milk plain yogurt, but with a baby in the house, we almost have that on hand these days) that i don’t just stock in the fridge.  it’s really a pretty simple cake.  the most onerous part is zesting and juicing the lemons (not really that big of a deal).  i doubled the recipe and made two since i was feeding a crowd and i used white whole wheat flour instead of all-purpose flour because that’s what’s in my cupboard right now.  every piece disappeared.  i heard lots of positive comments floating around the crowd and the pieces that i’d managed to eat before i put it out were quite tasty.

the recipe in the book varies slightly in that it calls for a second glazing and i think that’s really key.  the cake itself is a bit of a blank slate, but the addition of a lemon/sugar syrup and a lemon/sugar glaze on top of that makes for the perfect lemony zing that’s not too sweet, but makes your mouth taste like sunshine.  i don’t think i’ve ever been disappointed with one of her recipes.  maybe i’ll have to try another one from the book soon….

Posted in yum | 2 Comments
30
May, 2011

baby dude gets chatty

here are a few words we’ve been able to pick out of the constant chatter. enjoy!

Baby Dude Gets Chatty from carissaabc on Vimeo.

Posted in baby stuff, video | 2 Comments
26
May, 2011

baby dude film fest, part 3

this one’s a little bit old by now (we finally have a baby gate on this half of our stairs!), but it’s still a classic. love the babbling, especially!

Baby Dude & the stairs from carissaabc on Vimeo.

Posted in baby stuff, video | 1 Comment