present idea: on-the-go doodle kit

It feels like I spend a LOT of my time thinking about presents for kids, and I’ve been so happy that lately I’ve been making craft kits, sticker books, and t-shirts instead of buying toys that may or may not ever see the light of day. I recently came up with another idea: an on-the-go doodle kit. We have a little flexible plastic pencil tote that contains a lightweight sketchbook (I bought a ton of them at Muji when we were in Taiwan) plus some oil pastels or crayons. I usually throw this kit into my purse or under the stroller when we go out to eat or when we are running errands that require waiting. It has saved us tons of times during long and otherwise restless waits at restaurants, and I thought other kids/parents might enjoy the same.

I wanted to have something a little special in our kit, though, and I decided that it needed a fun drawing tool. Otis and I recycled some crayons that we acquired at East Bay Depot by breaking/cutting them down to small chunks and melting them in a star-shaped silicone cake pan. It’s a great way to use up old, broken crayons, or even the crayons that you get free from restaurants. You can use any shape you want – use an old muffin tin, or even melt it in a big sheet and cut them into shapes while still warm with a sharp cookie cutter (though I’m not sure you’ll want to bake anything edible in the pans afterwards). We broke up the crayons together and Otis arranged them in our cake pan. Then we sat in front of the oven and watched them melt very slowly. (We baked them at 200 until they were melted, about 15 minutes.) It was a fun project to do together, and he found the cutting of the crayons quite satisfying:

yes, there he is with the superman outfit again

I found a great substitute for our beloved Muji notebooks in these fantastic little sketchbooks from Moleskine. I love their regular sketchbooks, and they make these thinner versions in a variety of wonderful colors. They fit just right into a clear plastic “binder pouch” that I found at Target (I need to go back and buy a bunch before all the back-to-school supplies are gone!) and I added a star shaped crayon tucked into a little sewn drawstring bag. I will attach a little tag that will inform our gift recipient that the crayon was “Made by Otis.” I know some prefer to limit their use of plastic, and you can definitely sew a larger drawstring bag instead; there are so many possibilities.

I love this little doodle kit! And I hope our gift recipient will, too.

 

present idea: mix CD

One of the best presents I received after Otis was born was a collection of three CDs made by a couple of our friends who happen to be really knowledgeable about music. I am pretty clueless myself, and would probably still listen to Duran Duran if I could, so I like learning about other music. And I appreciate the time and thought that goes into making such a present. It’s like sewing or knitting a present.

We are attending a mini-family reunion of sorts, and I made copies of these two CDs for Otis’s cousin. One is good for sleepytime, and the other is good for all-around fun. We like he likes it. I thought I’d share it with you, too. You’ll recognize much of it, as I did, though I never thought of much of it as good kids’ music. And I’m not necessarily saying that Otis prefers listening to this over music about monsters and animals, but I sure do like it, especially the Asleep collection, which I would play when Otis was screaming in the car. If you have other grown-up favorites that are good for kids, I’ve love to hear about them.

Otis Awake:
Ooh Child – Nina Simone
Blackbird – The Beatles
The Lion Song – Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Three Little Birds – Bob Marley and the Wailers
Cupid – Sam Cooke
Car Song – Woody Guthrie
Buckets of Rain – Bob Dylan
I Had A Good Mother and Father – Palace Brothers
Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor – Woody Guthrie
Paradise – John Prine
Joshua Fit The Battle – Elvis Presley
What The Deep Sea Say – Woody Guthrie
Loves Me Like A Rock – Paul Simon
Blueberry Hill – Loretta Lynn
Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding

Otis Asleep
To Know Him Is To Love Him – Dolly Parton
Love Me Like A Song – Willie Nelson and Kimmie Rhodes
Can I Sleep In Your Arms – Willie Nelson
How’s The World Treating You – Allison Kraus and James Taylor
Hobo’s Lullaby – Arlo Guthrie
Over Yonder (Jonathon’s Song) – Steve Earle
Birds and Ships – Billy Bragg and Wilco
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face – Johnny Cash
This Side Of The Blue – Joanna Newsom
La Noyee – Carla Bruni
Rene and George Magritte With Their Dog After The War – Paul Simon
Prelude No. 7 – Chopin
Gymnopedie 1 – Satie/Jean-Yves Thibaudet

See you next week!

 

present idea: craft kit for kids

A while back, I put together a craft kit for Otis that was filled with all kinds of crafting knick-knacks. It was a great way to organize and contain all the tiny little pieces that were becoming hard to keep track of. Happily, it was a big hit. He loves to pull it out to string together necklaces or to find that special something to add to his artwork, and it’s even better when he gets to do it with friends. It wasn’t until recently that it occurred to me that perhaps this would make a good present for other kids as well.

We got to test it out this past weekend when we celebrated our friend Amelia’s 3rd birthday. We bought a small plastic organizer (the kind with the compartments that you can change as you wish) and filled it with goodies. It was fun to search for materials, and Otis is pleased as punch to get a fresh infusion of supplies. Along with dyed pasta that we made for Otis’s birthday party (great tutorial here — the rubbing alcohol really helps!) and sparkly lanyard for necklace/bracelet making, we also included feathers, pompoms, pipe cleaners (cut down to fit), colored popsicle sticks, googly eyes, and sparkly and self-sticking foam shapes. Finding the perfect glue was a challenge – it needed to be liquid glue for the materials I bought, but it also needed to fit in the box! The piece de resistance would’ve been a pair of folding scissors, but I had no luck in that department. I love how self-contained the kit is. Hopefully, things are open-ended enough to provide lots of creative fun.

The birthday girl loved it and I was really happy to hear the news, since I was suffering from one of my usual bouts of self-doubt over yet another homemade present. I can’t wait to see her new creations. I’ve been making lots of sticker books for our friends, but I think I see a few craft kits in our future.

 

a visit from grandparents

Last week, we had a visit from Vaba and Granddad (F’s parents). We don’t have the chance to visit with them very often, so this was a great treat. They’ve been to the area before, so we didn’t do anything too touristy – the men went to see an A’s baseball game, we went to the big Ferry Plaza Farmer’s Market in SF, and attended a garden show – low key fun with very Californian activities. I personally feel like I ate non-stop for a solid week. Does that ever happen to you when you have visitors?

Vaba and Granddad say blessings before every meal, and this was something new for Otis. I noticed him watching everyone very carefully at the beginning of each meal, and it took him a few days to finally ask Granddad why they say blessings. His very simple answer was that he wanted to talk about the things that he was thankful for, which I think is a great answer for a pre-schooler. A couple of days after they left, as we sat down and prepared to eat, Otis looked at me and said, “Mama, thank you for this dinner.” It was such a surprise, and rather touching. Unfortunately, it didn’t last – the next night, Otis looked forlornly at his meal of spring vegetable risotto and said, “(sigh.) I wish this dinner had meat in it. (sigh.)”

Hopefully, they have recovered from their visit. They had a good time, but I don’t think it would be a stretch to guess that Otis might be the most energetic of their grandchildren. I wouldn’t even think it a stretch to mumble something about Otis torturing them with his persistent chatter or boundless energy. Which would explain why they taught Otis how to play “Squish the kid!” and that old classic game, “Still as a mouse.” Hmmm, do you think it’s for the same reason that Fifth Aunt Grandma K keeps trying to teach Otis how to play “Pretend to sleep”?

 

post thanksgiving

When you see a kid dressed like this, don’t you usually assume that he’s going through some “phase” where maybe he refuses to mix horizontal and vertical stripes or possibly insists on becoming a different color each day of the week? Poor kid never even had a chance with a mom like me.

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend. We haven’t seen much of F in the last months, but his schedule magically cleared up and we got a long holiday weekend full of the guy. Only problem is that it just makes us want him more. Otis got some much-needed bonding time, and then whenever he looked up to see me instead of F, he would purse his lips and sourly ask me, “Where’s Baba?” Hi, nice to meet you, I’m Chopped Liver.

This year, we had the good fortune of cooking Thanksgiving dinner with friends. It was sort of like a potluck, each of us responsible for a stuffing of our choosing, sides and a dessert, and we cooked the turkey in our oven here though they brined it at their house. It was pretty relaxing, and a lot of fun to have friends here as well as my parents. I generally dislike leftovers except for Thanksgiving leftovers, which in past years I’ve been known to eat for breakfast, lunch AND dinner on the same day. We’ve just about finished our leftovers, except for the stuffing. There was a LOT of stuffing this year. And you? Did you have wonderful celebrations with loved ones? Let me know if you ate something amazing.

Here are some gratuitous shots of all the kids:

 

a sticker book for otis

I hate to brag, but we’ve been receiving the greatest presents lately. We really have a wonderful group of friends, and I can’t wait to brag some more and share the pictures with you, but first, I wanted to show you a present that Otis received recently:

It’s a handmade sticker book, with a pocket full of animal stickers, made by my friend, Carey.

Can you imagine how excited Otis was to get his hands on this? Just as I was handing the present to Otis and we were admiring the stickers together, Miss Bee started fussing so I went to go check on her. When I returned a short while later, I was surprised to see that EVERY SINGLE STICKER had been peeled off and stuck in his book. He didn’t save a single one. Hmm, I think this is a kid that would definitely eat his dessert first. Well, that’s it for that activity, I thought. But as we looked through his sticker book together, I realized that Otis had actually created little vignettes with his stickers. His animal play has expanded to include elaborate narratives lately, so this was really perfect for him.

Here’s a farm, with the horses climbing up a hill:

Here, the dinosaurs are afraid and running from the flying dinosaur:

One clever thing about the sticker book is that the pages are made of wax paper, so we can actually move the stickers around and create different stories (although I doubt that Otis will let me). I hate to advocate stealing Carey’s idea, but this is such a great, handmade kids’ present that I think that everyone should make one of these. What do you think, Ms. Carey, can we write a tutorial for this great project?

update: Here is the tutorial.

 

a present and a related work in progress

Today is my due date, but we are still waiting. And waiting (I think the landscapers are finishing their work as I type, so it looks like they’ve won the race to the finish line). Our friends, who were originally due 2 1/2 weeks later, even had their baby this morning! In the meantime, I continue with the sewing. Oh, and the waiting.

We have a baby friend, Oliver, who celebrates the same birthday as Otis, and despite how easy it should’ve been to remember, we actually forgot. Naughty naughty. So I made him a small belated present – a food related present, since he has recently been magically cured of some trying eating difficulties.

I sewed him a bib from fabrics collected from Otis’s baby clothes . Does that seem unsanitary somehow? But I loved all of these clothes, and they bring up such great memories for me, and it seemed like a shame not to use them all up. I embroidered his name on the bib, and it’ll go into a package with some dishes and utensils from Boon, whose new feeding products I’m rather enjoying. Oh, and the new layette looks nice, too.

What actually started this bib project is the idea that I wanted to make Otis a quilt made of his old baby clothes. After we found out that we were having a girl, I went through all the boxes of clothes that I had been holding onto for the past three years, figuring out what to keep and what to give away. I used to love buying these little button-up shirts with great patterns on it for Otis (yes, uncomfortable and silly for a 2 month old, so sue me), and I just couldn’t quite bear to give them away. So it seemed to make sense to make him a keepsake with them, especially since he doesn’t have a large enough quilt to cover his bed now that he’s moved onto a twin-sized one. So I took all of the clothes that were made of woven fabric, took a very deep breath, and cut them all to shreds. After the first shirt, whose destruction made me quite sad, it was actually quite therapeutic. I’ve actually had to stop myself from eyeing clothes that have great patterns but that he still fits into. And the verdict?

Otis had a lot of blue clothes, which surprised me a little.

But now I’m finding that I’m a little stuck, because in case you can’t tell, I generally don’t mix a lot of colors and patterns, and every combination that I’ve tried to work out seems to be just so darned busy.

See?

And see?

Is it just me? Probably, since thinking about more than 3 colors at a time usually makes me feel slightly tipsy. I think I’ll just have to sort of give into the (perceived) busyness. I’m not used to this whole concept of mixing and matching, but since I feel quite committed to using all of these little squares that I’ve cut up, I think I’ll have to just go with it. I guess Oliver’s bib was a sort of try-out, and it doesn’t look too bad to me, so maybe I’ll feel differently about it once it’s all put together. I think I’m leaning towards two rows of pieces squares, followed by a solid band of white or off-white (rather than the small squares, like the bottom photo), repeating this, and then putting a white/off-white border around the whole thing? Anyone have any opinions about this?

And here’s another question – I’m debating the fate of a shirt of Otis’s, which is one of my absolute favorites. I’ve only just stopped stuffing him into it because it’s cutting off circulation at his wrists (it’s an 18m shirt). A friend recently said, “Hey, that shirt looks like a girl could wear it.” and I had to respond, “Um, that’s because it is a girl’s shirt.” So it’s really something that could be passed on to Otis-ina, an idea that F likes. But it’ll really be Otis’s shirt forever in my brain, and it feels like it should be part of his quilt. Should I cut the mother up, or should I save it?

 

happy birthday ashley!

Today is my niece, Ashley’s first birthday. I can hardly believe that the past year has flown by so quickly. I mean, do any of you remember when you were all giving me great suggestions for her name? She’s walking now, and really becoming quite famous – she’s been in a number of newspapers, and she’s going to be in a yogurt commercial with my sister-in-law soon. I mean, the kid gets more positive press than Violet Affleck! (She must have good PR people….)

Happily, my brother was just in town, and I was able to hand off her present to him. No big surprise, it’s a baby bag, a little tote made with my favorite Etsuko Furuya fabric that was left over from my homasote bulletin board project. I stitched on some felted leaves, and some leather cord for the stem. My sister-in-law loves handbags (she’s otherwise a jeans and flats kind of girl), and I guess I’m getting Ashley started early on that path as well.

We’ll get to see Ashley this summer when we go back to Taiwan. Happily, my brother is going to move to an apartment much closer to my parents’ place, so hopefully we’ll get to spend a lot more time with her. Otis will love to have a playmate to order around. Happy birthday, Baby Ashley!

 

recent projects

As much as I wish I were lazing about, eating bonbons and having my feet rubbed (uh, my birthday IS coming, hint hint), I’m trying to take advantage of these sad, last days of my mother’s visit by cleaning, organizing like a fiend, and working in the studio. Here are some recently completed projects:

It seems that every boy in our lives receives a baby man-purse for one birthday or another. This is one that I just finished for our friend named, well, you can guess:

My mantra while making this: “Do a good job on this one, because his mama sewed Otis an excellent quilt which lies draped on his bed at this very moment, and his grandmother is an accomplished seamstress and knitter who seems to make everything cute that he wears. Plus, you are harboring a not-so-secret hope that she will unlock the secrets of Korean cooking for you.”

I tried my hand at embroidery for this project. It was shaky at first, but it got better. I think I actually rather like this project. Do you hear that, Gods of Self-Doubt? I defy you! Here’s a closeup. You can also see how my poor mother has been spending her days: sculpting Playdoh hats for each and every one of Otis’s animals.

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A scarf for a friend, who’s going home to a very cold place.

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A bib for sweet baby Hazel, whose parents run one of the tastiest establishments in town.

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When it was almost time for our friend, Emmett, to celebrate his third birthday, we asked him what homemade present he wanted. “A black scarf, like Mama and Baba. But with animals.” I was happy to oblige, and even happier that he made such a specific request:

It’s two rows of animal appliques on fleece, which is a material I feel conflicted about, but which seemed like a good idea for its washability. I was trying designs out, and ended up with enough materials for an extra for Otis:

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A denim man-purse for Jack, who’s a big fan of trains (there was a tremendous homemade train cake at his party and everything!):

There are still other projects I’m working on. I’m hoping to get as much done as I can while I still posess my sanity and my nerves. It’s felt good to make some things with my hands, but you know, I still feel a little weird about making presents sometimes. I was talking with a co-worker, and she told me the story about a friend of hers, who wasn’t sure how to tell all her crafty friends that their taste just wasn’t her taste, and would they quit it already with the crappy presents. Sometimes I feel the same way, when I receive a lukewarm response to a homemade present. Now, I mostly ask what a person would prefer, or make things for people whom I know well know to know that they’ll appreciate it, or who have hinted to me in the past. What do you guys do/think about homemade presents?

 

here she is

Hey look, we got to meet our new niece/cousin, Ashley. She’s tiny and sweet and adorable and has oh so much hair. Wait, that picture doesn’t paint a vivid enough picture. Look at this one:

That’s fantastic hair, isn’t it? They’ve been finding it rather impossible to tame, plus she’s just got so much of it.

Hm, but then again, if you were able to see my hair in this photo, you’d see that my hair is also rather poofy and large and sticking straight up. Maybe the humidity is doing a job on both our hair!

Otis adores his new cousin and can hardly refrain from covering her with kisses whenever he sees her and although it does not prevent him from screeching and running around her in circles while she sleeps, it does inspire a deep desire to ask that she do all kinds of inappropriate things with him. Ashley play with car? Ashley sit here [on the massage chair]? Ashley eat pork chop?

We’re slowly adjusting to the new time zone and weather. Jet lag is treating us real baaad and no matter how much you complain about it beforehand, you just can’t really prepare for the heat and humidity of a tropical country. This is pretty much how we feel whenever we go outside (uh, except we’re actually inside here):

We look like we used an entire container of gel on our heads. You know, wet look style. So we’re enjoying the air conditioning.

Once we adjust to the time and weather and the great-grandparents have had a healthy dose of Otis, we’ll start taking a few small excursions into the city (unfortunately, just about when F is ready to go home). I’m not sure what we’ll do with Otis otherwise. If the relatives had their choice, he would spend all his time singing songs, dancing and eating lots of food in front of them. But it’s so hot that he gets droopy quickly outdoors at the playground, and he’s already growing restless being indoors with the portable yet favorite toys I brought and keeps insisting, “Go home? Go home!” If anyone has any other suggestions for indoor entertainment that don’t involve the purchase of many new toys or the watching of a lot of TV and can be done within sight of adoring family members, I’d appreciate it.  Unfortunately, his attention span for drawing is still rather short.