Hanging Out

Well this is it.  Will and I decided to try and start potty training Julius this weekend.  We’re sick of washing diapers I guess.  Plus he really hates diaper changes and that has lead to more rashes lately.  Poor guy.  We’ve told him that this weekend he gets to be a “nunu” (naked) while he potty trains.  He seemed excited at the prospect. Who doesn’t want to run around pantsless all day?

For the last few weeks Julius and I have been making muffins on Sunday or Tuesday mornings.  We’ve made chocolate chip zucchini, chocolate chip banana, blueberry and apple muffins.  They are all delicious.  I’ve been trying to make them slightly healthier (picture me saying that in air quotes) by using this cool article from King Arthur Flour on how to cut down the sugar in muffins.  It’s a great article, and very scientific.  The gist is that you can usually use half the weight of flour in sugar (maybe a bit less if you have other sweet things flavoring the batter) without compromising the texture of the muffin.  Julius can’t tell the difference when we lower the sugar and is constantly asking for “muthins”.  We’ve been reading If You Give a Moose a Muffin the sequel to If You Give a Mouse a Cookie which he refers to as “Moose a Muthins”.  It’s my current favorite word in Julius’ vocabulary (maybe second favorite to “tutu”).

Here’s my muffin man, mouth full of muffins.

I’m feverishly working on a present for Julius’ birthday.  I decided to make him a play kitchen and some play food.  When I decided this (about 6 months ago) it seemed like I had plenty of time.  Unfortunately, several months of procrastination later and I’m starting to run out of time!  You may be thinking, “but you have a whole month!”  You’d be right about that, but this particular month is filled with Halloween, the medieval party and all the planning for Julius’ 2nd birthday party!

Despite my busy-ness (or maybe because of it) I’ve still made time for a few quick crafts.  This one was inspired by Julius who was constantly taking all my earrings out of the drawers and losing them.  He motivated me to reorganize my jewelry cabinet and add another earring rack.  The earring rack I made earlier has completely run out of room, and has gotten me frustrated, because there is no way to use earrings with backs on it without taking it off the wall.  This new holder made entirely from scraps, has worked amazingly well and it only took me about 30 minutes.  I wish I’d made one years ago!

Tapestry Earring Holder

What you’ll need

• Medium/Heavyweight woven fabric (I used upholstery fabric with a wide weave)
• 1/2″ single fold bias tape
• 1/2″ Dowel (mine was 5″ long)
• 2 – 1/2″ wood dowel caps
• 1/4″ ribbon (mine was 9″ long)

1. Cut fabric into a rectangular shape sized as you please.   You’ll want to add 2.5″ to the length for the dowel pocket.  For me this meant my rectangle was 23″x3.75″.
2. Cut the bottom of the rectangle into a pennant shape, by finding the middle and measuring up the same distance on both sides to find the hypotenuse of the triangle you want to remove.
3. Starting at the top side of the pennant, Open out bias tape and pin the back of one edge of bias tape to the edge of the pennant.  The right side of the bias tape should be touching the wrong/back side of the fabric.  Pin along the fold line.   Top should not be covered.
4. Stitch.
5. Fold bias tape over the unfinished edge of the pennant and pin to form a finished edge.  Stitch close to the edge of the bias tape.  Iron. 
6. Fold top of pennant over by 1.5″ onto the back of the pennant.  Fold 1/2″ under again, so the unfinished edge is hiding.  Stitch through 3 thicknesses of fabric. 
7. Drill an 1/8″ thick hole into either end of the dowel.  Sand dowel including the edges. 
8. Wood glue dowel caps to either end of the rod. 
9. After dowel has dried, insert rod through dowel pocket in pennant and insert ribbon through one end.  Double knot.  Insert through other end of dowel.  Double knot.
10. To use, simply push the earring wire through the weave of the fabric and secure with earring back.