Ask Your Kid #1

"Ivy, brush your teeth. Ivy brush your teeth. Did you brush them? That wasn't long enough, brush them again and hum your ABC's. Did you rinse? Spit? Oh, don't swallow the toothpaste water. Mouthwash? Ok. Oh wait, go back in and wipe the toothpaste off your face. Yes, there's toothpaste on your face."

-OR-

"Ivy, let's get in the car. Ivy, it's time to leave. Wait, maybe you should wear something different. Come on, you need to change, you'll be uncomfortable. Ok, at least take off the cinderella click clack heels. OK, you can wear the fur coat, but put on slippers. Or your TOMS. I don't know where your TOMS are, just wear slippers. Ok, let's get in the car. Hurry, we're running late. Do you need help up into the car? Yes, I know it's hot, you're wearing a fur coat." 

These are the common conversations that take place between Ivy (age 4 & three-quarters) and I all day long. Between the daily necessities like getting dressed and brushing teeth, and the daily schedule of getting places on time and making sure meals are on the table, sometimes conversations with your kids can be, well, quantity, not quality. 

Tonight I read Ivy a book, like we always do at bed time. When I finished, I could tell she was still wanting to talk. She said she wished she could make her own book. So I asked her, 

"If you could write a book, 

what would you write about?"

Ivy: "You, and daddy, and me. And grandma, and grandpa, and baby Chad." (Baby Chad is a little boy my parents watch). 

Me: "And what would we do?"

Ivy: "Hold on, I'm thinking. It has to be something easy for me to draw... (pause)… We would go to a flower shop. And get a lot of flowers and take them home."

Me: "And then give them to people?"

Ivy: "No. I want to keep them at our house so we can look at them, cause they're pretty."

I liked talking with Ivy like this. I liked being face-to-face with her and hearing about the things she thought about on her own. No interruptions, no inhibitions, just speaking from her own mind. I could psychoanalyze a few things about this short conversation: 

-Why not challenge yourself with something harder to draw? 

-Don't you want to share the flowers with others? 

But I didn't (out loud). That wasn't the point. For me, the point was listening to my child and giving her my undivided attention. She has the chance to express her thoughts, to me. I plan to continue looking for ways to have more face-to-face conversations with her, and sharing those questions with you. Try asking your child this question. I'd love to hear his/her answer! 

Aloha, Rebecca

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Ivy and Clovers - Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Like I said on Facebook earlier today, I like green things. My first business was called "Green Light" and I named my daughter "Ivy." Have you read my "favorite things - the green edition" post? I'm not big on blogging about holidays, but being that it's the "greenest" holiday, I think it's only fitting for me to share this St. Patricks Day riddle with you:

Poor Ivy will probably get called "Poison Ivy" a million times in her lifetime. I held back tears the first time I heard a kid, (ahem, her cousin), call her that last November. But, if she's gonna get teased, I think this is probably one of the coolest names to get teased with. Plus, have you ever seen an ugly "Poison Ivy"? Nope. They're all gorgeous. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day and don't drink too much beer.

Aloha, Rebecca

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Super Hero Cape Tutorial

Yesterday we made a cape. 

You heard me. 

I guess I should back up. It's not every day you make your kid a cape.

Well, we were at a baby shower on Labor Day (pun intended) and Ivy and a little friend were stealing the tissue paper and ribbon from the opened gifts and making capes. All week, Ivy's been begging to wear the tissue paper cape, but it's pretty much ripped to shreds. So I got tired of the disappointment in her eyes every time I told her we weren't going to wear the ripped cape, and asked her, "Should we make a better cape?" Of course she said, "Yes!" So we went to my fabric and she picked out this magenta fabric with chartreuse root/coral/dead tree print on it. Girl's got style.

First I cut it out like so:

Ivy is almost 3 years old, and tall for her age. 

The bottom is about 24 inches across. 

It's 22 inches from the bottom to the base of the neck, then I eyeballed the part that goes around the neck. It goes up to about 28.5 inches from the bottom.

It's 18 inches across the top (part that sits on the back of the shoulders)

I used a white piece to line the cape.

 Then I created the letter "I" in white fabric, and sewed it over a black circle. I didn't like it alone like that, so I added a white square around it. Plus, I hate sewing circles, so it was much easier to sew a square to the cape. You can see in the photo below, I just sewed straight lines up and down the circle to fasten it, rather than actually sew a circle. It will fray, but what good super hero's cape doesn't show some wear and tear from the crime they're fighting in the world? ;)

Before you sew it all together, sew on some velcro to the neck pieces. Think about which sides you're going to sew... 

Then I placed the two pieces of fabric together, so I could sew them. I did add a little "super power" to this magenta/chartreuse cape...  Black leather fringe along the bottom. I picked it up at a garage sale in San Diego earlier this summer. This cape demanded for it. Look closely at the photo below on the right-- you can see I pinned it inside, so it would be included in the stitch.

I left the nape of the neck unsewn so I could flip it inside out through there, then sew a reinforcement stitch around it once it was right side out. 

See the stitch around the neck?

So then Ivy enthusiastically suited up. Checked herself out in the mirror...

Then flew next door to grandma and grandpa's house to show them...

Showing it to grandma was super (hero) exciting.

And that's the story of Ivy's cape. 

NEWS UPDATE: Super Ivy has been spotted flying around in her cape since yesterday. 

Aloha, 

Rebecca

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Tutorial: Kids Chair Cushion

Here's what I did on my day off: Kids chair cushions! 4 of them. 

Here's the adorable fabric up close:

Here's the chair I started with (see previous post here):

Those chairs (and the matching table) got a huge makeover. More on that in another post. 

Here's my template. Yes, that's Sonya Tayeh. No, I don't think she's a genius, (I know, disagree all you want), she was just on the back of my magazine which I used to make my "pattern." I just traced half of my chair seat, a little larger than the actual seat. The top edge is actually the "fold" of the fabric. You need two folded pieces to make the cushion. 

Here's what one cushion looks like (sideways) cut out. I used XL rick-rack (one of my favorite things right now) as the cushion holders. 

Place the two fabric pieces together (wrong side out).

Sew 3 of the four sides together. Don't sew the side where the cushion holders are going to go.

Because the rick rack was the huge kind, I needed 4 yards of it. Each cushion used two 18" pieces. 

I love these two colors. I couldn't choose just one... so I didn't.

I set the cushion on the chair and put the rick rack right where I wanted it on the chair. I put it inside, then sewed almost the whole side together, leaving a 4" section open so I could turn it inside out. 

Here's what it looked like:

Then I stitched a cross in the center to give it depth when I put the filling in. 

Filled it up...

I sewed the whole side together, not just the section that was open. Then I also sewed the rick rack together because I felt like it pulled the cushion to close to the back of the chair the way it was. 

Ivy's dressed it up with her Easter necklaces. :)

And those are the cushions. :) Details on the painting of the chairs will come later. 

Aloha, Rebecca

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