it's halloween on the barbary coast......

happy halloween from mr. fox & the gang....

red, yellow & blue.......

i don't know about where you live, but we haven't been so lucky when it's come to heat waves lately. our humidity levels & "feels like" temps have been so high that over the last two weeks, we have rarely left the comfort of our air conditioned home-unless of course, it's to go to the pool. that being said, we've been doing a lot of indoor activities with our babyeel and this last weekend, we made play dough! 


i still have my big book of early childhood activities from college & has it ever come in handy! from years & years of lesson planning to now with my own little nugget, it's inspired many ideas/activities! along with covering things like, gross/fine motor, art, language, science & math activities, it also has a little recipe section in it. we decided to go with the basic play dough recipe, which is as follows:

5 C flour

2 C salt

4 T cooking oil

add water to right consistency (about 1 1/2 C for me)

i mixed the first three ingredients & then slowly started to add water. i soon discovered that it was much easier to take off my wedding ring and mix everything by hand-it was somewhat meditative too. 

just keep slowly mixing in water until you get the right consistency. if you've ever played with real play doh, you'll know what you're looking for, although this dough comes out a little more like the pizza dough kids get at pizza places while they wait for their food than store bought play doh. it should look something like this:

if you want to make colored play dough, you've got a few options. first, if you have food coloring or tempera paint in powered form, feel free to toss it in with your dry ingredients. if not, you can use liquid food coloring. i decided to make 4 colors (all i had), so i separated my big lump of dough into 4 equal parts & i dropped in a few drops of natural food coloring (no red dye #5 for my little guy). knead and if you must, add more color until you get your desired shade of play dough. they all came out good, except yellow. it was kind of weak!

while H is a typical toddler boy in many ways, he also stands alone when it comes to getting easily grossed out. like when it came to helping me mix the dough for one! he refused to touch it and it took about an hour or so after it was made for him to consider holding it in the ziplock bag i put it in and about another hour after that before he was ready to touch & play with the actual dough. papaeel & i had to do some pretty good convincing before he'd give it a whirl and while he's more apt to play with it now, he still kinda cringes when feeling it between his fingers. 

summertime clothes.........

my goodness! it's been awhile, hasn't it? i've almost forgotten how to blog! we've been busy bees and believe it or not, i (mamaeel) have actually gone back to work on a little more than part time basis. not to the office, but to my first love....co-op records! it was my dream job as a teenager (what child of the 90's didn't dream of working in a record store?) & it came to fruition on july 15th 1999. that was my first day and what a surreal day that was. well, now here we are 12 years later & i'm back. a little older, wiser and the only mother amongst the other record slingers. we have fun, and most days i can't believe that i get paid to do what i do! and best of all, business casual doesn't apply! 
so, besides being a mama & wife, slinging records & crafting every chance i get, we've been busy hitting up water parks, hiking on days that aren't too hot, going to story hour @ the local library, spending time with family & friends, and taking in live music! this weekend we had the pleasure of going to pitchfork music festival in chicago. this was H's 2nd year and he was definitely more active this time around! i think he literally said, "hi" to every person there and better yet, he thoroughly enjoyed shaking his little tush to the live music! while we tried to express the magnitude of what he was witnessing, "son, that is thurston moore!" he wasn't impressed & only cared that the man on stage was providing us with a danceable tune. this child was full force all day & by the time animal collective played (they closed friday), H was so exhausted he was fast asleep about 2 songs in, which means he missed, "brother sport," his favorite animal collective song. we tried to wake him to no avail, so i had no choice but to dance enough for the 2 of us (literally-i was wearing H the entire time & my back is now in dire need of an adjustment!). haven't heard that song, or seen the video? well, here it is just for you! they've definitely embodied the spirit of paul simon in this song, so don't be surprised if you find yourself wiggling around a little bit.

since we were going to a music festival, i wanted to make H something special to wear to celebrate the occasion. last year he wore this adorable kung fu cotton shirt that belonged to my niece when she was a baby (she is now 22 & is getting married next month!) & while it was a little big at the time, sadly it doesn't fit too well anymore. didn't he look too cute, though? god, i love this picture!

i'd seen these adorable wings on pinterest months ago & wanted to make them & figured pitchfork was good enough of an occasion as any to wear them. you can find the tutorial i used for the wings here; http://llevoelinvierno.blogspot.com/2011/03/make-alitas.html
it's a pretty great blog! she gives measurements for the wings, but since her little one is older than mine, i just measured H's arms & back so his wings would be a good fit. i cut out the base of the wings from material that looked "pretty" from both sides. it's a woodland themed tapestry we've had that has been used for everything from making a slipcover for H's glider that we picked up at a garage sale before he was born, to a floor pillow i made for H, to a wall hanging, to this and there is still some left!

i used everything from scrap material to dad's old shirts for the "feathers." i really like how the different prints & colors came together! 

it was mildly tricky to get the right placement of the first feather onto the wing backing, but once i got my rhythm, it was smooth sailing. 

before i knew it, i had a set of matching wings! i used my rotary cutter to trim up the edges & then i took some ribbon and made neck ties & two little arm straps.

wah-lah! a complete pair of one of a kind wings! it took a little convincing before H would let me tie them on & keep them that way. 

here he is at pitchfork wearing his wings, enjoying the sand in between his toes. what a little hippie! 

quick & to the pointless (okay, so in all actuality, there really is a point & it's a pretty good one).....

toddlers are busy people & our little H is no exception. while it seems that most of our time is spent in motion, there are a few less active moments where we attempt to focus his attention on particular tasks. curling up with a book or three is always great, but we like to stimulate our boy's brain in lots of ways & as much as possible! here are a few things we've made from items found around the house to keep our babyeel's fingers busy while also working on a little fine motor, color & shape recognition, language & other such fun!


earlier this week i was inspired by a photo that i saw on pinterest of a shape memory game by dandee designs.  check it out for yourselves here: http://www.dandee-designs.com/2011/05/shapes-colors-memory-game.html

i love the wooden discs they are made with, but had no luck finding any at our local, "we've got it all, but not really" mega store. unlike most, i don't have immediate access to a craft store in my area & my woodworking in-laws live an hour away, so i decided to find something else to make them with. i was determined to get them made asap & we weren't due for a trip into town for another day or two, so i started to dig & came across a stack of old album covers that i have been collecting. my friend & craft fair partner uses the actual records as canvases (records that are otherwise unlistenable, of course! we never destroy mint records, we listen to them.) & papaeel & i upcycle the covers for lots of things & so i figured why couldn't they be used in place of the wooden discs? yeah, they're a little thiner than wood, but that just means if they end up being thrown, it'll hurt less. i decided to go with a seals & crofts album cover & proceeded to look for some fun paper to use for the back of our matching/memory shape game (at H's age, this activity is more appropriate as a matching game, ie., "can you find the other black square?" as he gets older, we'll use them as a memory game).

i cut the album cover along the sealed edges so it opened up & used a spray adhesive to secure the paper to the front & back. it sat outside to dry for a little over an hour & when it was ready i brought it inside & quickly pulled out my 3" circle punch only to discover that the record/paper combo was too thick for my punch to successfully punch through! it was looking rather dreadful for a second, but then i decided i'd just have to do it the old fashioned way. i found a good sized circle (roll of masking tape) & quickly traced out 12 of them. i painstakingly hand cut each one with scissors, but what other choice did i have at this point? 

not too shabby! i cut out 6 different shapes (2 of each) from felt & used aleene's quick dry tacky glue to adhere them to the circles. once the felt dried, we were ready to match some shapes!  

*for the record (pun intended), i strongly suggest adult supervision should you decide to make your own set. do you really know where those old records lived before they came into your possession?? that fact & the glues used are why i make sure the pieces stay out of my boy's mouth.


what to do with some big wooden beads & a shoelace or two?? tie a big knot on one end of the shoelace & let your toddler work his/her fine motor skills. H will sit with such focus & determination when trying to string a bead. it's pretty great to witness!

another fun fine motor activity is the clothespin game. all you need is a narrow mouthed container & some clothespins & you're ready to go! 

we left the part of the sticker that wouldn't peel off just where it was & let H create the container's artwork. oh, how he loves to draw!

your child is sure to love dropping the clothespins into the container, dumping them all out & doing it over & over again. 

H is way into counting right now, so we make sure to count the clothespins as he drops them into the bottle.  he's pretty great, this child of ours! i'm sure you feel the same about yours, so go on now & enjoy one of these activities with them. 

martha, my dear......

we love us some sesame chicken! and while sometimes it's nice to order it in, that's rarely the healthiest option. not only is it going to be loaded with msg, but more than likely, the chicken used was not organic. having an 18 month old who we strive to keep as preservative/sugar/processed-free as possible, we are very aware of the foods we bring into our home. and knowing that there is no way for us to successfully sneak in a container of delicious take out sesame chicken & not expect H to want any, we decided we had no choice but to make our own. enter martha stewart....

over the years we've had a few roommates, so naturally we've acquired things that said roommates have left behind. one good score being a collection of 3 martha stewart everyday food mini mags. they're loaded with good recipes! we've made quite a few things out of them, and have eyeballed the sesame chicken recipe a few times. well the time had finally come! here is what martha's lighter sesame chicken looks like:

here is what our version looked like:

you can find her recipe here, http://www.marthastewart.com/313256/lighter-sesame-chicken
we swapped out the honey for agave & i didn't have any cornstarch on hand, so i doubled up the flour instead. it was oh, so very delicious & H loved it as much as papa & i did! 

hot seat, can't sit down!

it has been pretty hot here the last few days! we survived our first market, but it was enough for us to agree we wouldn't attempt saturdays as hot as this past one again. i was so parched from over exposure, i thought i might be sick. luckily, there is a fountain/sprinkler just down from the market & when papa eel & H made it down, they were able to walk over & cool off as needed (next time, i'm gonna go too!) here are a few of my favorite, recent creations we had for sale this past weekend.

you can barely see the tag we sewed into the owl (bottom right), but i decided that i could no longer make & sell things locally or especially cross country without properly labeling them! we've played around on spoonflower.com & would love to get some material printed for tags, but as previously mentioned, my materials fund is a little low at the moment. since i knew i was going to be making more plush items, i thought long & hard about how i could come up with a simple, yet effective tag and most importantly, out of something we already had. i began digging through one of my craft closets and came across this:

hmmmmmm....i thought, surely there was a way to make this work to my advantage. we talked things over, then papa quickly made up a layout with our name/logo, mirrored the image before printing (very important step!) & printed it out.

not bad! it looked like it could work, but i didn't want to jump the gun & decided to only do a strip, so as not to waste the precious linen i was going to use to iron them onto.

they turned out pretty good & even though they aren't quite exactly what we wanted, they work! yay!

5 years, stuck on my eyes. 5 years, what a surprise.....

yeah, i've been slacking! well, at least when it comes to maintaining this blog that is. we have been putting our all into finalizing last minute details for the packaging of our goods and the like, as this saturday will kick off our 5th summer at the riverfront market. 5 years, i can hardly believe it! i smile when i think about our first year with our hodgepodge setup & the stuff we were making & selling then. i mean, i wasn't even a mama yet (and let me tell ya, being pregnant & being a mom has definitely prevented those early saturday mornings where i was still slightly drunk from the karaoke/dance-athon that started the night before. try selling my wares to strangers with maker's mark still fresh on my breath in a voice raw from belting out red hot chili peppers songs the night before. ahhh, those were the days! i could never pull off such a feat these days. and to be honest, i really wouldn't care to. i have a dance party everyday and night with this little boy who totally reshaped our lives. ahem, where were we?) okay, so i've only been a mama for 17 months, 2 weeks & 5 days, but still. being a mother has been rather enlightening. plus, i've had a lot more time to devote to creating since quitting the day job.  and while we're still doing a lot of the same; jewelry, photography, paper & fabric goods, etc., we're doing them with a little more precision. it'll be good to get back out in the heat! i'm looking forward to mingling with the other awesome crafters, making fast friends with random strangers, running across the road to use the potty & spending most of our earnings on organic produce & amish baked goods! well, maybe all except that last part. we're actually going try to earn as much & spend as little as possible this summer and have planned ahead and finally planted a garden! we'll still have to buy blueberries and a few other things, but we've "weeded" out a lot of regular purchases. wha wha! 

speaking of spending as little as possible. our materials fund has been little to none which has forced us to look at the things we already own (the things that fill up many a drawer & craft closet around here). we've collected lots of things over time & it's about time they got used! lots of up-cycling going on around here lately. t-shirts, old dictionaries, moby wraps, an atlas, etc. here's a couple of necklaces & bracelet that i've made out of H's old homemade moby wrap. oh, and a photo of my little boy in it last summer when it was first made. 

my goodness does time fly! this child has grown so much that front carrying isn't really an option. we also upgraded to a soft buckle carrier which is a lot nicer to our backs. apparently, i subconsciously stuck with similar colors. here's a photo of the carrier taken at it's unveiling, about 8 months ago). 

i based the design off of a few other carriers (baby hawk mei tai & ergo to name a few). it's been a dream and is still in working order today, but my toddler, like most, would much rather use his own two feet to get from point A to point B. and who am i to intervene with that. 

until next time party people! i leave you with this, a photo of an old church-no more. it was just recently bulldozed. i think it's been empty for awhile, but the sign was always reassuring. 

drama day weekend.....

we really try to utilize every minute of our weekends, whether it be relaxing to the fullest, or getting as much done as humanly possible. getting stuff done can sometimes prove to be tough when you have a 17 month old who demands your constant attention. another reason why nap time is great! (yes, i'd much rather be napping alongside my baby boy right now, but blogs don't write themselves)
anyhoo, it's been kind of a whirlwind the last few days. we've done so much, it's hard to remember everything. good thing i had the camera out to capture it all!

nutella stuffed french toast. yum! could eat it daily, but that wouldn't be fair to our little H as he has not yet had the joy of experiencing the fine delicacy of chocolate (we keep him away from most processed foods and don't make a habit of eating food he can't). 

discovered our old cribbage board (which hasn't really been used since i was in college in chicago & my roommate and i  played while waiting on our clothes to dry at the laundromat) makes a quick and entertaining fine motor/color recognition activity. we made sure to stay close as the small pieces could become a choking hazard.

as previously mentioned, we've been going through stuff and either passing it on to a new home or finding a new use for it.  i came across two pairs of H's corduroy's (2 of my favs) that have become too short for him and it's also getting too warm for cords, so i decided why not make cute cut off shorts? i've seem them at stores this season, but could never bring myself to purchase new cut offs (for myself or H). it was super simple and they turned out uber cute! i cut them a bit shorter than his other shorts, as they are made of corduroy and we don't want to start any fires. i thought about running a stitch around the bottom, but these probably won't fit by the end of summer, so i didn't bother. 

mmm....left over grilled chicken, provolone & avocado sammies on honey whole wheat. so good! one of H's favorite lunches! he loves avocado.

have you ever heard of made by joel? this guy comes up with great activities/toys for his kids and shares them on his blog. if you have yet to check him out, do it now! www.madebyjoel.com  a lot of the stuff is for older children, but he recently made these fleece squares for babies. i decided H needed to have some and well, since i have more felt on hand than fleece, i decided to make them for him outta felt. we talk about the size and color and even count them while playing. learning can be so much fun!

the riverfront market will be starting up in less than 2 weeks! so, needless to say, i've been staying up late working on new stuff for it. we (papa & i) have been designing things on our trusty ol' mac and i have also been putting my hands to work making jewelry & such. here is what we started (& actually finished:) this weekend. the print is based on neutral milk hotel lyrics (who were name dropped on parks & recreation last thursday-did you catch that?) and the necklace is made out of old t-shirts. we strive to reduce, reuse and recycle in our lives and in our art wherever possible. whaddaya think? until next time........