Crafts: Little Mermaid

Yesterday, after writing my "I" post, the camera broke. My husband attempted to fix it, but it remains in limbo. Actually, it's in pieces on the coffee table covered by a sheet of paper that reads "DO NOT TOUCH." (I've noticed engineers and former engineers only write in all caps.)

So, no J and no K because I won't have a photo for either post.

L is for the Little Mermaid. Not the Disney version, but the true Hans Christian Andersen story and the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen Harbor.

For years I wanted to see The Little Mermaid statue. I was always fascinated by the story--in the Andersen version not everyone lives happily ever after--and interested in how and why political protesters have lopped off the statue's head multiple times. In 2001 I got to be my cousin's companion on a cruise with my parents (long story) and we started and ended in Copenhagen. Right away, before we sailed away, I made us go see the statue. Today, in reading the Wiki page, we could have saved ourselves a trip and just gone to Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas. That would have been cheaper.

Now I should explain that my cousin really liked the Disney version of The Little Mermaid when she was little. So somehow, my grandfather, who paid for the trip, was convinced that she was the one dragging everyone off to see a statue. Several times after the trip he joked that she finally got to see The Little Mermaid statue. She couldn't have cared less about a statue and, if I am honest, seeing a statue is not really exciting (they don't move, or talk, or dance, or sing). It would have been more exciting if a protester had cut off her head while we were there, but I digress. Anyway, it's now a family joke that my cousin finally got to see this statue and now her life is complete.


While walking around Copenhagen, my mother and I found a craft store and got a few cross stitch kits. She convinced me to get this kit because of the sail boats and the ship in the background (as opposed to this one by the same designer--she was right, leaves would have been boring to stitch). To be honest, I can't say I enjoyed stitching it because I started it around September 11, 2001, and finished it while watching news coverage in the days following the tragedy. However, I still like it and I still like having seen the statue and I even like the family joke. And I'm determined to see every MerSomething statue in existence.


If there had been a cross stitch of Singapore's Merlion, I would have purchased it. Yes, I'm that brand of crazy.

Crafts: IN SYNC

IN SYNC refers to a Kats by Kelly cross stitch. Kats by Kelly are easy cross stitch charts because they mostly only use black floss. Originally, I made it for my mother's black and white bathroom, but then she and Dad moved to a lovey house without a black and white bathroom, though the bathrooms are nicely decorated. So now I've got it in my own bathroom.

I finished it before I got married, so my initials are SLP. Then I started working on a companion for it, called Kitty Oasis. Then I got married. Then I finished the chart. Thus, SLW. (Can you see me?) The entire Kats by Kelly line can be found at Calico Crossroads.

Crafts: Hummel Boy

I am skipping G because I didn't have time today to take pictures and must write about something I already have a photo of.


Hummel Boy. The official title is Looks Like Rain, it's a "Weekender" but since it was one of the first cross stitch charts I made, it took me more than a weekend to complete. I made it for my grandmother who collected Hummels and found it when we cleaned out her house for an estate sale.

After hearing about my husband's early affinity for lederhosen (something he unknowingly shares with my brother), I decided to hang it in my son's room. The color scheme matches too. And it's a little boy. And I have a boy. So it works.

Why are toddlers in lederhosen so cute?

Crafts: Flowers

More cross stitch patterns from Canada today. I picked up this pattern on the 2002 Holland America Canada and New England cruise--the one where we visited Prince Edward Island, among many other places (Boston, Quebec, Montreal, Novia Scotia, Maine). I believe they are Lupin flowers and were blooming all over P.E.I. and thus became part of my memories of visiting Green Gables. I didn't get around to stitching this pattern until the next year, when I saw similar flowers in Colorado.

As usual with my cross stitching, I wanted to do something with the finished piece besides frame it. As usual, I had to get my mother to make a pillow. Thank you again, Mom--and thank you for the help getting my own sewing machine!

Crafts: Elephants

Like many pregnant women, I nested. Unlike some pregnant women, I was unemployed while nesting. So, I went a bit stir crazy and ended up sewing elephants. Why elephants? Simply because I had a pattern in the Sew Everything Workshop book and some fabric scraps from my grandmother.

No baby needs a couple of elephants in their nursery and they are in the way, taking up space. However, I had fun making them so they are here to stay. I should mention that I left off the button eyes because I couldn't figure out where to put them and for safety reasons.

I also use Mama Elephant as a stand for my tiara.

She kinda reminds me of Dumbo.

Crafts: Dollhouse

When I was 10, my parents gave me a dollhouse kit. Little did they know how much time, effort, and money would go into it.

Dollhouses are time consuming.

After my parents put together the basic shell, I collected furniture. The house remained unpainted and undone until my senior year of high school. Suddenly, I was consumed with the need to complete it before graduation. It took paint, wall paper, my brother (door handles), my grandmothers (wall paper, curtains), and my parents, but I got it done.

At college, I discovered Austin's Kerby Lane Miniatures (now an eBay Store). At the end of each semester I would sell my books and take the remaining money to that store and get a few objects for my Dollhouse--such an mini Pride and Prejudice novels or a tiny cat puzzle. Things that did not cost much--used books don't bring in much money.

I worked very hard to make the house represent me. So it's got things I like, objects that I have in real life, hobbies and games I play, and things that remind me of loved ones. The beer stein reminds me of my parents, I had the Disney Sleeping Beauty book, I played soccer, I like Monet's paintings, I visited Paris, I like to make gingerbread houses, and I was always the kid who got stuck sitting on top of the manual ice cream maker while someone else cranked. Thus, all those things are in the house.

Even though it has gone through two moves, the house remains the same and is unharmed, happy at my parent's home (it's third) in Tulsa.
Above, the entire house. Nine rooms and a porch.

I've always thought the entry was the most elegant room.

"My" room. Me in high school: French horn, books, masks, a journal. I don't know why I insisted on there being a crib in this room too. I guess I just liked the crib.

The living room. Hmmm. Suddenly I want to rearrange it.

Crafts: Christmas Stockings

My mother made all the Christmas stockings in my family. My grandmother made all the Christmas stockings. So, when I was pregnant, I decided to make the Christmas stockings.

That was December 2008, and now, in October 2009, I have almost completed them.

See, they don't have names yet. That would require me to embroider and I've not done anything more than back stitching in years. I'm thinking the names should be done with a split stitch and I want to practice first. Otherwise, I'm only halfway pleased with these stockings. There was a lot of trial and error, I know where the back and front don't line up and I may add a giant jingle bells to them to hide a mistake I made on two of them. I used ribbons because I don't know how to sew very well and messed up my husband's stocking. The green ribbon on his is glued on, and not very well I might add.

In the end, I am proud to be (nearly) done with them.

Crafts: Blackwork on Anne Boleyn Quote

Blackwork: is embroidery stitched in a counted pattern using black thread. It was popular in the time of Henry VIII (thank you, Wikipedia). I'd never heard of it when I first started cross stitching but I had heard of Anne Boleyn and I liked free things. Thus, when I found a free cross stitch chart with a quote from Anne Boleyn's prayer book, I printed it out, got some black floss, and got stitching. Best I can tell, blackwork is fancy backstitching.


This was an easy cross stitch, in fact, I think the hardest part was when I wanted to make a pillow out of it and gave it to my mom, who broke her sewing machine (or something) and had to get more help. (Thank you for following through, mom.) I like the little Tudor flowers in the quote. I enjoyed this project enough to do more free blackwork charts and one of strawberries in red, the red makes it Scarletwork. Sadly, I think the company that put out the free chart above went under, since I can't find it no matter what I Google.

Crafts: Anne of Green Gables

It seems I like to start my Alphabets with Anne of Green Gables. Anne starts with A. I like to read, I like to travel to places that I read about. I like to cross stitch. And I like to cross stitch things and places I like. This topic is about crafts.

I never thought of myself as a big craft person, in fact, I think I like to dream about doing crafts more than I actually like to do them. I could spend hours thinking about what I might do, looking projects up online, and getting a button click away from purchasing project clicks. What stops me? Kowing how many uncompleted projects I already have hidden in the Christmas/craft/baby closet. My favorite crafts are related to Christmas and I feel silly doing those all year long.

I should also explain that I really only cross stitch during football season. In college I realized the multiple commercials drove me crazy and that I needed something to do while watching football games. So I took up cross stitching wanting to stitch a Buckingham Palace chart I'd picked up in London.

Somewhere I have an Anne of Green Gables bookmark, but I can't find it and don't want to dig in the baby's closet while he is napping (in his crib--a miracle!).


One way to really get to know an object or place is to cross stitch it (other ways are to read a book, embroider, needlepoint, paint, sculpt, or complete a jigsaw puzzle). So here is Green Gables, purchased at the actual Green Gables in Prince Edward Island in the summer of 2002.

Simple, easy stitching, reflective of the time period of the Anne of Green Gables books. I did run out of one green color and had to substitute with another. One of my favorite cross stitches. I've learned I have to stitch things that interest me, not others, or I give up. This means my stitching is selfish and rarely given away.

Bringing Baby Home: Zephyr

Z is for Zephyr. A zephyr is a breeze from the west or a gentle breeze. Why is it on this list? My son likes to feel the wind on his face. We discovered this when he was a few days old and took him outside. Feeling the wind seemed to calm him down.

I now use this to my advantage and take him on walks. I aim for breezy days, but just getting outside is nice. When he feels the wind, he closes his eyes and turns his face toward the breeze. It's fun to watch. I make it a point to take him outside once a day--even just to get the mail. It's good for him to get fresh air and hear the dogs on the block. It's an added bonus that wind calms him. (Passing wind calms him too, but that is another story.)

Bringing Baby Home: You Time

Y is for You Time. Even though the first few days of a new baby's life are demanding, it is important for a mother to take some time for herself. This could be a shower, time with friends, or reading a few chapters in a novel. You time can be taking a walk and helping with recovery.

One book I read called it the EASY method: Eat Activity Sleep You. I tried to follow this method, but sometimes the Eating lead to the Sleeping and my You time meant doing laundry. The Y part usually does mean chores or checking email. Sometimes it also means uploading photos and writing short blog posts. You time means time away from the precious bundle of joy. Or like now, the bundle of calmed-down contentment.

When a woman becomes a mother, it's easy for her to lose her pre-baby identity, taking You time helps remind her of who she was before and who she is now, helping to meld the two identities.

Bringing Baby Home: Extras

X is for eXtras. Extras of everything. Extra blankets, extra diapers. Extra changes of clothes. Extra changes of clothes for mother. Yesterday we finally had dinner at a restaurant--of sorts, it was Rudy's "Country Store" Bar-B-Que. Usually at Rudy's it's "Sause" on my shirt. This time, it was a double dose of spit up. I needed extra clothes.

We also need extra storage space, an extra pair of hands, and extra pacifiers. Extra patience. Extra crib sheets. Extra sheets for our bed.

And we have extra love for our son. And extra special love from him.

Bringing Baby Home: Wipes

W is for wipes, lots and lots of wipes. In the first weeks, the average baby goes through 8 to 10 diapers a day and it stands to reason that they also go through 8 to 10 wipes a day. More if you are like me and accidentally grab two wipes while trying to hold down a squirming infant.

Since we use cloth diapers I thought it would be good to make our own wipes too. I cut up an old baby blanket and put them in an old plastic container (it used to hold lunch meat). In the beginning, I mixed a cup of water with a teaspoon of baby wash and a teaspoon of aloe vera extract/oil. Now I just kinda squeeze the wash and what's left of the extract/oil onto the cut up blanket and run some water on top. I only end up using these about half the time, mainly because the infant is larger and has bigger squirms.

I also have a stash of make-up remover towelettes in my diaper bag. Before I had children, I used them for the port-a-potties at soccer games, Austin City Limits Festival, camping, and for cycling trips. They appear to have most of the same ingredients as baby wipes and I figure they will work just as well. My son has not had diaper rash and does not seem to have sensitive skin. I'm lucky, I know.