Nothing beats the Classics

When my son was a newborn, we were big Happiest Baby on the Block devotees*. We swaddled him like crazy, and he loved it. I'd lay him down on the blanket to swaddle, and he'd get giggly and smiley. Sometimes, he'd be asleep before I even finished tucking in the last flap. It was dreamy. (for the record, our daughter had raging reflux and was a horrible sleeper, so don't think we haven't paid our dues as parents! ;)


Once he got to the point where he wanted to be swaddled with his arms outside the blanket, I noticed that he was playing with the tag on his favorite cloud-print fleece blanket. I'd somehow end up swaddling him the same way every time so the tag was popping out right at his head, and he'd just rub it between his little fingers as he fell asleep. Before long, he'd rubbed all the writing off of it, and it was pilled and threadbare.

He finally outgrew swaddling all together, but I could tell he still had a thing for a tag. Of course, I'd seen the Taggie blankets, but this happened to be around the time I took my first sewing class, so I decided to try my hand at making one**. I took some of Ben's favorite fleece swaddling blankets and used them to make small tag blankets so he could still get his tag fix. The first one I made was incredibly wonky, so it was - of course - the one he latched on to.

I had enough mom experience in me to know that having a kid attached to one item in particular can be dangerous. If you lost that item, or it gets destroyed, you can have a disaster on your hands. I thought I'd be smart and make at least three tag blankets for him, but he still just clutched on to the original. One day, we jokingly called them his "Classics," and it stuck. When he's getting ready for bed, or is stressed out, he'll run around saying, "My Cwassics! My Cwassics!"

And when he finds them, he buries his face in them and takes a deeeeeeeeeeeep breath. (we call that, "taking a hit off the classics") and rubs the worn out satin ribbon tags on his nose. It's hilarious. Of course, he likes them to get extra stinky. I've tried to convince them that they are best fresh from the dryer, and he likes them warm and clean, but when they've been tucked under his little sweaty, sleepy body for a week .... that's when he loves them best.


We actually lost them for a while a little more than a week ago. He didn't have the meltdowns I thought he would, but he did ask each night - when I handed him one of the backup tags - where his "Classics" were. I found them last night - buried in one of the never-ending piles of laundry that lives in my house. I washed them and tucked them in bed with him in the middle of the night. He woke up and acted like it was Christmas. Miracle of Miracles! "My Classics! My Classics!" He instantly took a big whiff and started rubbing the tags on his nose.


Some of the tags have already fallen off, and those that remain are pilled beyond belief. Several of the tags used to have little novelty prints - dots, frogs, camo - but that's been long rubbed off. I'm so curious to see how much life the "Classics" have left in them, and to see how long Ben goes nuts over them. I dragged my E.T. doll to college with me, so ....... who knows .....

* I've often said that if I ever meet Dr. Karp, I'd kiss him full on the mouth ... and I'm totally serious. ** Tag blankets may be easy and fun to make, but Taggies have a copyright on their version of the product (which has been safety tested and specially developed) and pursue folks who sell copies vigilantly.

Crafts from the Past: Or why I don't make costumes for my daughter

OK, correction, I did actually make my daughter's costume this year, but it was a simple one. I have, however, resigned from making any remotely complicated costumes for my daughter ... ever since the Lady Train disaster of '04.

At that point in AK's life, she was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine, and was watching Thomas and the Magic Railroad on a daily basis (a horrifying viewing experience, except for the strangely charming performance by Alec Baldwin). She adored Lady Train - the magic "girl" train that appears and somehow produces gold shavings behind her when she treks down the track (and that's one of the least weird things about the movie).

So it was decided, or really -announced-, that AK would be Lady Train for Halloween that year. I thought this would be a great chance to get crafty and come up with some kind of cool costume for her. I pieced together boxes, paper plates and paint stirrers, coated everything with loads of spray paint and topped it off with gold glitter accents. I figured out how to fashion some elastic straps so she could wear the contraption, and finally presented it to her - sure that she'd gleefully respond and request to wear it non-stop on through 'till Christmas.

You can guess how things went instead. She thought it was fine, tried it on for a second, and then - when it came time for the big Halloween party - she wore it all of five minutes. She refused to put it back on, and it was tossed aside. It lived out in the garage for a few months while I waited for her to suddenly decide it was "cool" and that she had to wear it.

That never happened.

Since then, I've been reluctant to even toy with the idea of making a costume for either kid. I did pull one together for AK this year - but it was easy. Black Beauty requires just a leotard and tights, some fake fur tacked on as a tail, and some felt ears and a mane tacked on to a headband. Not much to mess up there.

So for now, my costume-making abilities are spent on other people's kids, where I don't have to really worry if they wear them or not.

Crafts from the past: The Pinkalicious Stick Horse

This week has been nuts for me because my son is out of school for Fall Break. It was an unusually busy week for work and other stuff, so I haven't had much time for crafting and posting about it. You guessed it - another installment of Crafts From The Past.

Don't laugh, but here in Texas, our kids get out of school for Rodeo Day.

Seriously, I said don't laugh!

It used to astound and confuse me, until I became a teacher and learned that so many kids (especially in the small-ish West Texas town where I grew up and was teaching) would be absent on the day of the rodeo, that it made economic sense to close the schools that day.

Quit freaking laughing at us!

Anyhow, March always signals Rodeo time, and last year at my daughter's school, they had huge Rodeo Day festivities. Parents were asked to bring a stick horse for their child for things like mock barrel racing and calf roping. (seriously) I don't know when or why it struck me to make one for my uber-girlie daughter, but I did. And I was really happy with how she turned out.

My daughter's been playing with the stick horse (hobby horse? I like stick horse) a lot lately. She's in a HUGE horse phase. We watch The Saddle Club every.single.day. I actually like it. (shhhh!) She rides the stick horse everywhere and does horse shows with it out in the back yard. My son and nephew have now requested stick horses of their own, and I'm thinking those will be Christmas gifts. We'll see.

Enjoy the stick horse - the project that spontaneously came together, and has been one of the most loved, most used, most fun projects I've done.

I also posted this project to Craftster when I first made it.

Crafts from the past

Since I was crafty before I started this crafty blog, I thought I'd pull up some projects I've done in the past. Plus, it's a laundry day, and I'd actually like to try to sew something before I have to pick up the kids, so I'm slacking on actually posting a new project. Here's one of my faves from a while back that made me laugh.

I give you: CraftsterWoman! (the text below is copied from my original posting of this project on Craftster.)
In a couple of hours, I'm heading out to see Leah at the Work*Shop here in Austin. She's doing a book thing, and there's going to be a surprise craft swap of some sort. I had a random hit of inspiration in the shower last night, and came up with a "Craftster Woman" (think: Wonder Woman with a glue gun) accessory set. It must have been meant to be. I had all the materials I needed on hand, my freehand cutting of a felt glue gun silhouette rocked on the first try, and I was able to complete the set (and a matching tote bag to wrap it in) throughout the day, while hanging with the kids. All pieces are wearable (the headband has squeeze clip barrettes that I pirated from my daughter's old bows, the cuffs have button fasteners) and the image of "Craftster Woman" on the tote bag has the glue gun, scissor and spool details morphed into her costume. She's off to save the word one craft at a time! Enjoy. It was fun to make. Hopefully someone who shares my slightly lame sense of humor will get it tonight and will model it. I'll have to take my camera.

******UPDATE*******
The event was great! If Leah is coming to your hometown (or close by) you must go! You'll have fun, meet crafty folks, and get to make some cool stuff. The craft swap was great, and I am pleased as punch that Lisa (co-founder of The Work*Shop Austin - very cool place) picked the Craftster Woman set. It was insanely perfect. The woman OWNS and spends most of her time in a C-R-A-F-T S-H-O-P, folks! It was right up her alley (which was good, because I was afraid that someone might get it and think I'm really weird) Can I say how completely stoked I was that she not only donned the ensemble, but wore it all evening. How cool is that! Here she is looking ready to fight off bad craft vibes with her cuffs. I added a note to the bag that said something like "The head band will keep you focused while crafting. The lasso will rope in good ideas, and the cuffs will deflect any self doubt you have while crafting." or something to that effect ... I was writing it while my kids were crawling on me, so I don't remember. Fun stuff!