Mama Squirrel

Portrait Of The Mister As a Daddy

When Flannery was three months old I decided to have her picture taken at a local portrait studio. Although we had taken plenty of pictures of our own, I felt the need for professional documentation of the existence of our child.   I made an appointment, spent way too much money on an outfit and anxiously waited for our scheduled date and time at the photo studio.  

On the morning of the photo shoot I woke up at dawn.  I was so desperate for beautiful pictures of my smiling baby that I left nothing to chance.  I made sure she was fed, changed and rested before I dressed her and packed her up.  As we were getting ready to go I remember thinking that, not only would we return home with fantastic pictures, but the studio would probably ask us if they could use the pictures of our  baby for some sort of national advertising campaign because she was that adorable and photogenic.  Here she is right before we left the house (note the bib as a pre-emptive strike against drool on her outfit):

 We arrived at the studio and were called back into one of the bays where the photos were taken.  The photographer arranged some bolsters in a manner that would support a baby in a safe-yet-aesthetically-pleasing way.  I gave Flannery a kiss, set her down into her little scene and stepped back.

And  she lost it.  Without being hungry or tired or having a dirty diaper she went from zero to hysterical as spectacularly as a three month old infant possibly can. With no obvious provocation, her face turned red, her tiny limbs flailed angrily in the air and she screamed as if she was being attacked by a swarm of wasps.  

I was horrified.  I rocked her, stroked her and offered to buy her a pony when she started kindergaten, but nothing would calm her down.  It was one of the first times I learned one of the most important lessons of parenting:  planning doesn't matter; my own wishes don't matter and clinging to them will only make me sad. However, in that moment I couldn't acknowledge this and my own eyes teared up in frustration.

The photographer observed Flannery was more calm when I was holding her and suggested that she take a picture with both of us.  Clad in a spit-up stained T shirt and fat jeans, I was not feeling photogenic.  The photographer and I both turned toward The Mister who obliged.  He picked up Flannery, calmed her and smiled.

We purchased the photo  because it was hard fought and won. When I first saw it, I remember thinking Flannery looked like an angry baby sparrow who was denied her worms.  Today, it is one of my favorite pictures of Flannery and The Mister.    I still think Flannery looks mad, but seven years later her expression makes me smile.   What really makes the picture for me is The Mister and how obviously and wholeheartedly he loves his little girl.  It is one small piece of evidence of the kind of father he is to both of our daughters. 

 

Photo by Portrait Innovations, 2006 

 

Stick Doll Fun

Anyone who is a regular on Pinterest knows that pinning a project idea and actually seeing it through to completion are two very different things.  I currently have 720 pins and the number of Pinterest-inspired projects I've completed is...significantly less than that.

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a pin that led me to a tutorial for how to make Miss Lolly Dolly at Teawagontales and I knew I had to do this with my girls.  All you need are craft sticks, colored pens and washi tape.  Jane has a fantastic tutorial on her blog, so I won't get into that here, but I did want to share our dolls with you.  The background play scape is courtesy of The Milk Belly Princess.  I'm not sure about the species of the little animal in the lower right hand corner of the paper, but its sweetness is making my teeth hurt.

Here are the dolls made by me:

These were created by Little Tiger:

One of the best parts of this craft is that the dolls are endlessly customizable.  Both Little Tiger and The Mister made their own miniature copies of The Milk Belly Princess dressed in doll versions of the outfit she was wearing that day.

Speaking of the Milk Belly Princess, here's her doll collection:

Let's take a closer look at my favorite.  Look at that big, friendly smile:

I hope there was something this week that made you this happy.

 

Shady Dealings

One of my favorite parts of being an adult is not having to ask for permission before starting my crafty endeavors.    The floor lamp next to our front picture window had a very plain shade.  I decided to spruce it up by branding it as a Casa de Costello original.  

Last week's tage sale treasure hunt (you can read more about that here) left me with a generous addition to my stash of embroidery floss:

The colors I chose for this project (blue, green, pink and orange) were inspired by this stained glass window that hangs in our front picture window:

 It is made of salvaged materials and was created by one of my friend Laura's art students in her Art Four class three years ago.  The little pop of orange in the lower right corner is subtle here, but can be very bright when the sun hits it just the right way.

I began this project by tracing my hand on plain white paper and cutting it out.  Then I pinned the hand print to the lampshade and backstitched around it.  I did my hand first with green embroidery floss and then The Mister's in blue.

Here's my hand.  The stitching on the reverse side of the shade is really obvious in this picture, but less so in the house.  I'm OK with that, though, since we don't typically bring our floor lamp outside.

Here's a close up of me backstitching around the pattern for The Mister's hand.

This is what it looked like when The Mister's hand pattern was pinned to the shade.  He traced his own hand and I like how he included the outline of his wedding ring.  Being married to me can be tough--I'm glad he's still willing to publicly acknowledge that he's mine.

Having said that, I could have done a better job sewing around the ring portion of his pattern--escpecially the side close to his middle finger.  The next time I do this (there are rumblings that Grammy Susan might like one) I need to make a conscious effort to make smaller stitches.  I think a little bit of quality was sacrificed in my excitement to finish this project.  

Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess' hands were small enough that I could include both of their hands in the project.  One hand from each of us circling the shade would have been better than nothing, but being able to change it up a bit adds more interest.  Here is a close up of Little Tiger's hands:

...and here are the hands of The Milk Belly Princess.

Here's the finished lamp shade back on its perch.  In the background you can see Melissa Crowe's felt play board that I made and wrote about here.  The girls still really enjoy playing with it.

Tapestry Table Deconstructed

Since there was some interest in how to make a tapestry table after yesterday's post, I thought I would take apart ours in an effort to show you how to make your own.  

Full disclosure:  this was a GIFT.  I sent this picture to my mom after I found out that Blueberry Forest Products was no longer making their Tapestree Table.  She has an amazingly gifted carpenter friend who made my girls a balance beam and a rabbit hutch for their stuffed bunnies and I was hoping he would be willing to take on this challenge.  Fortunately he was!   Here's what I know about the construction of our tapestry table.  

Although there are other ways (like this) to make a tapestry table out of a pre-existing piece of furniture, our table was made from scratch specifically to hold large pieces of fabric for sewing.  There are a total of six closures that fasten the top of the table to the bottom, two on each of the long sides of the table and one on each of the short sides.

I had to undo all six fasteners in order to remove the top frame from the rest of the table.  The top frame comes completely off.  The underside of the top frame has a groove that goes all the way around and looks like this:

I'm not sure how this groove was made.  Like I said yesterday, I know next to nothing about even the most basic carpentry.  I'm showing you this in hopes that I'm giving you enough information so you'll know what tools you need to use.

When the top frame is removed, the table looks like this:

Each of the four wood pieces on the perimeter of the table is sitting in a groove on top of the burlap.

These wood pieces are completely removeable.  Although these pieces are not equal in length to the sides of the table, the two pieces for the long sides of the table are longer than those for the short sides. 

When the burlap is removed from the table, the bottom frame looks like this (sans the little pink shoes--someone was VERY WORRIED about what I was doing to her new toy).

The groove goes around the entire perimeter of the bottom frame and is identical to that on the underside of the top frame.  

Taking the tapestry table apart was easy.  The tricky part was putting it back together.  I found it impossible to simultaneously pull the fabric taut, set the four wooden pieces on top of the fabric in their grooves and set the top frame back onto the table all by myself.  My mom said it was a two man job, but even when we worked together The Mister and I struggled.  

The Mister (in his wonderful think-outside-the-box way) had a better idea for putting the table back together.  Leaving the top frame face down (with the groove side up) we set the four wooden pieces into the groove before covering the top frame with fabric (so, from the bottom working up,  top frame face-down, wooden pieces, fabric--got it?).  Then we turned the bottom of the table upside down and set the bottom frame (with the groove side facing toward the fabric, table legs sticking up in the air) on top of the fabric , wooden pieces and top frame.  It took a little bit of wiggling to get everything set in such a way that the six fasteners could close snugly, but without forcing them.  Then we turned the table upright.  

I love this toy and hope Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess will enjoy it for a long time.  The only challenge comes in putting the table back together after changing the fabric.  I'm not sure how else this could be done in a way that would still allow the fabric to remain taut enough to sew.  If anyone out there decides to take on this project I would love to see your results, whether you copy our table exactly or make some modifications of your own.

Sweet Dreams

The Mister had to suffer for this shot, but I love it anyway.  The threat of a thunderstorm brought Little Tiger to our bed.  Routine brought The Milk Belly Princess.  Ultimately, there wasn't enough room for all four of us so The Mister slept half of the night in the nest of blankets and stuffed animals that is the lair of The Milk Belly Princess.  But at least it gave him a new appreciation for our Tempurpedic mattress.  

All Creatures Maimed and Broken

A few months ago The Mister made this video of Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess talking about every doll or stuffed animal they've cared enough to name.  I'm not sharing this because I expect you to watch the entire 22 minute extravaganza, but there are a couple of reasons why I wanted to mention it here.

 

First, I think it was a novel idea for a home movie that I'll appreciate even more when the girls have outgrown these dolls and stuffed animals.  (Or in the cases of those scary baby dolls, when they leave in the middle of the night to go live with another family.)

 The second reason I wanted to share this today is because I noticed that in the movie several of the animals have  colorful tape "casts" wound around one or more of their limbs.  I'm not sure if the toys are clumsy or if they fight while we sleep, but there seems to be an increasing number of injured animals around here.

The game will start suddenly.  One of the girls will be looking at a book when she suddenly lifts up head, jumps up and states (a la Wonderpets) "There's an animal in trouble!"

The child who makes the declaration will then attempt to throw her voice to simulate the distress call of a small injured creature cowering in a remote corner of the house.  Both girls will run upstairs or into the next room and, after some rustling  emerge with their newest patient, cuddling it while crooning and stroking its fur.    Legs, paws, tails, fins and backs are healed with masking tape and index cards.  Usually this is all that was necessary, but some animals like Annie the Horse require a more complicated, involved treatment.

I'm not sure what happened to poor Annie, but apparently the only cure for what ailed her involved tissues being taped all over her body.  Medicine was then administered by applying water to the tissues with a paint brush.  

Hmm...looks like certain spots needed to be treated with colored bits of tissue paper as well.  The whole procedure was performed in hushed tones and with the kind of hyper focus I hope my actual doctors give to their work.

 Admittedly, this is one of the less environmentally-friendly games played here at Casa de Costello what with the tape and tissues.  But the compassion the girls show for each other and their patient during this type of play is so good to watch.

Little Red Four Year Old

Before we get too far away from the birth month of The Milk Belly Princess, I would like to share some pieces of her birthday party with you.  Seven little girls gathered at BAYarts on a Saturday afternoon to help us celebrate.  Per the request of The Milk Belly Princess, the theme was Little Red Riding Hood, a theme she decided on at this time last year.  In fact, last spring,  when the local JoAnn Fabrics went out of business, I bought an entire bolt of red felt at their clearance sale.  I had lofty goals of making little red riding hoods for all of the guests.  Then, as the year wore on and it was time to start making the hoods, I began to wonder whether they would look as adorable as I'd originally envisoned.  Would The Milk Belly Princess and her friends look like the sweet protagonist of her favorite fairy tale, or would they seem more like tiny druids?  

In the end, my mother, The Amazing Grammy Susan, made one beautiful red riding hood as seen here, being modeled by Miss Milk Belly herself.

I thought it would be cute to have a photo booth where each guest could dress up and pose for a picture with her basket for granny, but my little one was the only one who wanted to do this.  

We began with snacks of fruit.  I tried to make the beautiful "Marshrooms" that I found here, but they did not look as beautiful as they did in the picture that inspired me.  I wasn't sure how to keep the apple tops from sliding off the marshmallows.  Toothpicks seemed risky with such little kids, but the marshmallow fluff I used as glue was too slippery.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that I'm not the first mama to fail at something she saw on Pinterest, so I'm not going to let it get me down.  

My wonderful friend Laura painted hands and faces,

We played "Pin the Hood on Little Red" with the game board courtesy of The Mister.

Then it was time to sing our baby into another year.  I wish I knew what she was thinking here.

Once again our favorite birthday cake bakery did not disappoint and created this delicious cake to fit our theme:

After the cake, it was time for our final craft, decorating our very own basket to take to grandmother's house.  I looked long and hard to find a craft that would fit our theme, but this was silly.  Little kids like to paint, regardless of what it is.  It's more about the sensation of touching and pushing paint than creating a final product.  

Really, this could be said about children's parties in general.  Instead of obsessing over themes I should savor the pushing paint, the process, the moment, the gathering.  I spent a lot of time planning thematic crafts and games, but that was more for me than my youngest daughter.  At the end of the day, when I asked her about her favorite part of the party, she said it was "playing with balloons with my friends."  

Handmade Happiness

I've already shown you the dolls and the kitties I made for Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, but today I want to share four more gifts from this Christmas that made me smile. The first is this pair of earrings The Mister picked out for me.

To say The Mister is not a fan of shopping is an understatement akin to "Gee, that Michael Phelps is a pretty good swimmer."  If given the choice between Christmas shopping or poking himself in the eye with a sharp stick...OK, The Mister would still probably choose shopping, but he would think long and hard about it first.  So that's  why I really love these earrings from Bead Paradise.  I appreciate that he was willing to show his love for me by going outside of his comfort zone.  I also love them because...well look at them!  Peacock feathers!  I've always thought they were the prettiest feathers of all.  When they were feeling particularly proud or victorious, my little cousins in Hawaii used to do what they called "The Peacock Dance."  They would flap their arms, strut and chant "Peacock, peacock, peacock dance!"  I think I might have to do this the first time I don these earrings.

The next gift is one that I finished for The Milk Belly Princess.  I say finished because she actually started it herself on the night that we did this.  She drew the picture and then lost interest before sewing it into a pillow.  The clean lines and facial expression of the cat were too wonderful to stay stuck in the Milk Belly Princess'  overflowing bin of works in progress.  When I saw the blue patterned flannel on sale as a remnant at the fabric store, I knew it would be a perfect back for the cat.  Here is the finished pillow that I made and gave to The Milk Belly Princess on Chrsitmas morning.  The fabric it is sitting on is what I used for the back.  

In this post I described my visit to Collective Upcycle and the beautiful necklaces made of vinyl flooring by Nicole McGee of Plenty Underfoot.  After reading my post and listening to me rave about Nicole's store and her necklaces, my parents paid a visit to Collective Upcycle and this was waiting under their tree for me on Christmas morning.

Although Collective Upcycle is closed for the season, they will be popping up again this summer and I will keep you posted as more details become available.  

In addition to receiving handmade gifts,  my mom knows that I like to make my own to give to others.  After all, she's probably been my most enthusiastic homemade gift recipient for upwards of three decades.  She is a fan of estate sales and flea markets and is always on the lookout for raw material for my crafts.  Here's the gift that elicited the biggest reaction from me when I opened it.

Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess laughed at me as I shrieked and flapped my arms up and down when I saw this giant bottle for the first time.  The Mister was puzzled that I was so excited about something that he would have just thrown away.  

It wasn't long before I had all of the buttons organized into this:

If only I had the same enthusiasm for organizing the rest of my house.

Eager Eve

For me, the magic of Christmas crests on Christmas Eve.  Most believe that Baby Jesus was born in the middle of the night, so this is when  the magic of the Christmas Story is at its zenith.  Even in the more secular world off food and presents, anticipation is so pure and simple before it gets mixed with the complications of reality.  On Chrsitmas Eve, everyone is thrilled with the potential of what's to come and knows it will be wonderful.  No one has  had a chance to realize that they burnt the ham or offended their sister by buying her a sweater two sizes too small.

After church on Christmas Eve, Little Tiger, The Milk Belly Princess and I went for a walk to look at Christmas lights while The Mister made dinner.  We returned home, the girls took a bath and we sat down to our traditional Christmas Eve feast of pizza with chicken and pasta:

As you can see, we've engaged in this tradtion for quite awhile.  Here is a picture of The Mister and I eating the same Christmas Eve dinner at our old house eight years ago in 2003:

Hmm..leopard print slippers?  Must've seemed like a good idea at the time.  Anyway, after dinner, the girls helped The Mister make cookies for Santa.   In Kevin's family, it is a Costello tradition to put M&Ms on top of Santa's cookies.

The girls set out the cookies: The Milk Belly Princess left out a special drawing for Santa:
...and then it was time for bed...for the little ones anyway.

I wasn't quite finished with one of the gifts I wanted to give Little Tiger and The Milk Belly Princess, so I had to stay up a little later to finish.  That might be an understatement.  According to the NORAD Santa Tracker, he was was in the Falkland Islands when the girls went to bed and leaving San Francisco before I turned in for the night.  But I really didn't mind.  It's part of being a mom to little kids, right?  Besides, after everyone else went to bed, I enjoyed sewing and listening to carols in the light of the Christmas tree.  All was calm and bright indeed.

I thought the Katie Kitties I made from Hilary Lang's booked turned out really well.  Here they are waiting for the girls in the stockings their Grammy made for them:

and here's the picture I took of our tree right before I went to bed, all pretty and peaceful before the craziness of the morning:

It looks a little foggy and blurry, but I don't mind.  At 3:00 AM, that's how I felt too.

Christmas Eve Eve

Ever since I was a little kid, December 23rd (or, as I call it, "Christmas Eve Eve") has marked the day when all of my enthusiasm about Christmas hits a fever pitch.  When I was little, I would ask my parents to take me out to see a Christmas movie on December 23rd because I felt that was a pleasant distraction to make the time go faster until Santa made his visit.  

Here are some scenes from Christmas Eve Eve last night at Casa de Costello.  While The Mister read Christmas stories to The Milk Belly Princess:

Little Tiger and I worked on our button trees:

I mentioned in this post that I wanted to make my own variation of the bead tree that the Mister's sister Kate made for us, but that I wanted to put my own spin on it.  After looking in my own craft stash for what I had a lot of

I decided on buttons.  Here are some pictures of our trees.  I had so many white buttons that I made a small forest.

The forest will stay at our house and be displayed every year on our kitchen table.  I wanted to do this for my mom, but she already has so many Christmas decorations that I don't think she has space for more than one tree.  Here is the tree I made for her.

Little Tiger's tree is still a work in progess, but I really like how colorful it is.

I hope you are savoring the delicious anticipation of this evening and tomorrow.  Merry Christmas!