Japanese Sewing

My new obsession. I recently picked up these two Japanese crafting books at the bookstore in Uwajimaya. These two weren't in stock and had to be specially ordered, but the bookstore has a large selection of other Japanese sewing books. You can pay more and purchase them from International Amazon. I've also seen them on ETSY.

The patterns and photos are so beautiful and inspiring. I've completed the first dress and am now on my second. Unfortunately, I over-estimated my size and the first dress is waaay too big. I was being generous with the cut, since Japanese patterns tend to run small. Plus I never feel as small as my Japanese friends, so I figured the size medium would fit me well. I was wrong. It's a darling dress though, and will hopefully fit me well when I gain another 60 pounds the next time I'm pregnant :)

The instructions are completely in Japanese, but they have wonderfully detailed illustrations. I was confident enough in my sewing skills to give it a go. Plus I had my nephew, who's fluent in Japanese, on reserve in case I needed his translation skills. I was able to wing it enough to complete the dress without needing any help with the translation. It turned out to be a very easy sewing project. I found a few blogs helpful for a some basic Japanese sewing terms and sewing tips. And voila! A darling new dress that I swim in.

Camping May 2009

My family and I spent this past weekend camping in the woods at Deception Pass. At the last minute, Alex had to stay home for a job that he needed to get done.

This camping trip was much different than last year's. Last summer when we were camping, Burl was just 6 months old or so, and spent the entire time nursing. This year was completely different. My sweet boy is a busy one and thoroughly enjoys exploring nature. And although there was more delicious campfire food than what we could all eat, I may have actually lost weight chasing him around. At home, I have walls, doors and fences to contain him. But being out in the wide open, Burl had no boundaries. It was a great weekend, but by no means was it relaxing.

Needless to say, I terribly missed Alex.

Afternoon Nap

Burl sat here all afternoon rolling around and babbling away while Alex tried to nap. There wasn't much napping going on, but it was still a beautiful afternoon.

Built By Wendy

Here's my new shirt. I've had the pattern and the fabric for a while now but just got around to putting it all together. The pattern is pretty simple and also pretty popular in blogger land. I used an old thrifted cotton bedsheet. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'll probably be making more of these, since it's such an easy sew.

Our Diapering System

I know, my life is so exciting these days that I blog about cloth diapering. But really, diapering consumes so much of my life right now, and I enjoy doing it, so here's a post about our prefered diapering system.

I feel like I've become quite the cloth-diapering expert over the last year. With some trial and error, some messes and leaks, some rashes and diaper-free time, our family has come up with a diapering system that works well for us.

If you're lucky enough to have a child anything like my sweet boy, don't bother using prefolds once they become mobile. Prefolds worked great until he started crawling. Expecting an active little boy to sit still for the folding, wrapping and securing of a diaper is totally unrealistic and just asking for frustration. But if you'd like to give it a go, I have a whole supply of brand new toddler size organic prefolds anyone is welcome to.

Fitteds were the way to go for us. Our favorite and most used fitteds are these. The absorbency and fit are far better than any others I've tried. And they're really inexpensive. The only draw back with these is how rough they can be when they're wet, which causes diaper rash on Burl's skin. Hemp velour diapers are much softer against his skin, but not quite as absorbent. I've bought some from here, here, here, and some other shops on Etsy and Hyena Cart.

It only took me a year, but I finally switched over to solely using cloth wipes. And really, I'm ashamed to admit it took that long. There really is no need for disposable wipes. I've purchased most of our wipes on Etsy or here. To moisten the wipes, I use a spray bottle of diaper spray that I make, or diaper spray from California Baby. Plain water works just fine too.

I sew or knit all of his diaper covers from wool. I use recycled thrift store sweaters and my own pattern to sew pants or shorts. My favorite knitted pattern is the Picky Pants pattern from Little Turtle Knits. Using wool works well for us, as it serves two purposes; a diaper cover and an outer layer for pants.

I machine wash the diapers and wipes using Trader Joes unscented, chlorine-free powdered detergent. Now that the weather is warmer, I'm happy to be sun-drying our laundry again. I run the diapers through the dryer for a few minutes to soften them up before hanging them in the sun.

There ya have it. It's really pretty simple. I had some sceptics when I was pregnant and planning on cloth diapering, so I feel good about sticking with it. I didn't really know anyone who was cloth diapering at the time, so I learned most of this by my own research and experimentation. I highly recommend and encourage anyone else considering cloth diapering to give it a try. I think you'll be glad you did.

Mother's Day

I heard some wise words yesterday from a wise woman, "Mother's Day isn't about me, it's about my mom". And despite being a mother myself now, I couldn't agree more. Mother's Day will always be about my mom. She is who I want to be more like and she instinctively is one of the most Christ-like persons I know.

This is one of my favorite pictures, I have it framed on my wall. My mom in this picture is the epitome of the person I want to be. I love how beautiful, tired, and happy she looks all at once. I love how her children and animals are gravitated towards her and how none of us could get close enough to her. I love the happy, peaceful looks on all of our faces, even our dog Buffy's face.

And as I type this, with my sleeping babe and three dogs in my lap, there's hope yet that I may someday be more like her.

April 21

A bit of random activities in our days...

I just got my sewing machine back after two weeks of being in the shop and more than a month before that of not working properly. Man I've missed her! The past two days, I've been sewing my little heart out; shorts for Burl, pants for me, some mending for Alex, and several other little projects. And I'm not done yet. She may be do for a tune up already. Not really, but I've definitely been making up for lost times. And she's purring like a kitten.

The weather's been so nice the past few days! Burl and I went to the (crowded) beach today down the street. I've kind of run out of things to do in the yard for now. It's been tempting to plant all my new veggies, but the weather's suppose to cool down and drop below 50 degrees. My tomatoes won't like that. So I've left them in their pots for now to bring inside at night. I think next week will be when I plant them in the ground.

Since we've been spending so much time outdoors lately, Burl couldn't be happier. His eyes on the other hand have been showing signs of irritation. I put some of my breastmilk in them and it helped. I took him to his pediatrician this morning, and he doesn't think it's anything serious. I worry about Burl picking up strang things, since he's exposed to so many different species of animals. I LOVE my pediatrician, because he's supportive of a lot of the decisions Alex and I have made. Not that I need a doctor's approval for our parental decisions. I've learned though that our parenting instincts are definetely against the norm. And having a supportive doctor has been helpful. He thinks it's a good thing to surround Burl with different animals. I couldn't agree more.