Babies, Clothes and Baby Clothes May 7, 2010

She enjoys the chair in her room.

Yes, I realize that every picture nowadays has her in her pajamas.  Sorry about this lack of attention to her wardrobe.  The fact is, she does spend most of her time in her jammies.  She puts them on around 6pm for 7pm bedtime, sleeps, romps in them in the morning and wears them through the morning nap.  So round about noon, she actually gets dressed.  Her life is a Loosie Ladies dream.  (Ok MHar, “ladies” plural and possessive…ladies’ ???).  I guess I should spiff up her jammy wardrobe for your enjoyment.  I will take it under advisement.  You missed a great outfit today.  She had on her green clown/hammer pants, white sleeveless polo and jean jacket.  Oh so cute!

So today Gina and I saw “Babies.”  I think it opened today.  It was very good.  If you haven’t heard of it- it’s a documentary that followed 4 babies for their first year of life.  One from Namibia, one from Mongolia, one from Tokyo and one from San Fran.  (BTW, the girl in San Fran is named Hattie!  I wonder if she was adopted too, since her mom was the only one not shown prenatal plus the fact that Hattie was pretty darn cute and had two remarkably homely parents).  It was great in the way that you sit and compare the different cultures and how they “do” child rearing.  That in addition to the simple pleasure of watching a babies cutest moments made this a full pricer for me.  Plus I learned many things, including:

-Half of what we consider important in child rearing in this country is actually not that important

-A large piece of lard with a matchstick shoved through it crossways to prevent it from being swallowed whole makes a GREAT pacifier

-Diaper wipes optional!  All you really need is a mother’s knee to wipe the poo and a dried corn cob to wipe her knee.

-No animals in Namibia or Mongolia will ever hurt a baby, no matter what that baby does to them.

-Babies are safe playing amongst the hooves of cows (really!)

-One motorcycle for a family of 4 is quite sufficient for getting home from the hospital after the birth of a baby.  Mom just holds baby- Duh!

Quinn- you will have a CORONARY if you ever see this movie.

I was a little shocked to see how similar things are between the metro US and Tokyo.  They had the same toys, activities, routines, parental involvement, etc.  I would have liked to see another country in place of either Tokyo or SF.  But, it was a winner, folks.

Going to Florence tomorrow.  The weather better be good or I’m turning around and coming home.  Just kidding.  Today after the movie I went to Columbia (the store) and bought a windbreaker that I will be keeping in Florence.  Seems I always forget a decent rainproof jacket and regret it.  But, the fact is, Hattie has some summer clothes she is dying to show off to Florence folks.  Is there anything anyone can do about the weiner?  I have decided I love Columbia sportswear.  I got a shirt, actually 2, a black and a white one, that I like a lot.  When I was in Seattle I got 2 prs of pants that I love love love.  I’m going to have to get online and see what else they have.

Let’s see, Hattie pic, check- Talk of Hattie’s wardrobe, check- Babies, check- Complaints of foul weather, check- Columbia sportswear, check.  I’m done here.

Books, kids and dead dogs. In that order.

Readers!  I think you can tell when I’m shut in the house, yes?  You get 47 boring blog posts in one day!

But this is breaking news, on two fronts.

1.  I started a new book and it is vair vair unputdownable.

 It has the worst cover of all time, and yes I do judge books by their covers!  But look beyond the cheese factor and inside is the vair compelling story of Queen Katharine nee Princess Catalina, from her upbringing by Ferdinand and Isabella (was Isabella really that much of a bad-ass?  now I want to read a book about HER) to her mawwiage to Arthur then Henry.  I’m only a few pages in, but it is a page turner of the first order.  Ladybird – I think it has your name all over it!

2.  MHar from the comments is a fan of the young adult fiction, like me.  That, combined with her withering attacks on Elisabeth Hasselbeck on The Facebook have endeared her to me forEVER.  ANYWAY, she recommended some young adult books on Tudor history that she said are very good, and told from the teen point of view.  Win, Win, Win.  I’m never sure if people are reading the comments, so I thought I’d list them out here in case any other readers want to look up these books.  YA fiction is good stuff.

Mary, Bloody Mary
Beware, Princess Elizabeth
Doomed Queen Anne
Patience, Princess Catherine

All by Carolyn Meyer.  I’m going to git on that, fo sho!  It is always amazing to me how much earlier people were living their adult lives back in the days of yore.  I had a hard time getting into my first Tudor book because it was about King Henry’s 13/14 year old mistress, and can I get a big grrrross on that?  But it was what it was. 

I think that’s all for now.  I’ve been housebound all day.  Wish I could sneak to Barnes & Noble and check to see if they have those YA books, but I do have the Constant Princess to keep me company.  That, and the 47 chores I have to do tonight to prep for J’s bday tomorrow -AND- Z. to tend with who is like a Wild Man of Borneo tonight.  He’s running around here like he’s posessed by the devil.  Laws!  And Poor B is sick as a dog.  And J. just found dog shit upstairs.  I better get off the computer before he skins her alive and boils her carcass.  Ozzy is on THIN ICE readers, THIN ICE.

In which I review a Tudor historical fiction book…or skip this entry too, unless your name is Emily

Dear readers, I met my goal of finishing this book before the weekend. Due to the sick boy, I’ve had a bit more reading time than normal. Yay for more reading time – boooo for sick boy.

So, when we met Emily at Happy Knits, we quickly bonded over her bad-ass knitting skills, her experience with Ysolda patterns, our mutual yarn snobbery AND a love of Tudor historical fiction. She generously loaned me a book about the Anne Boleyn era, when she hardly knew me and I still have it here waiting to be read. But people, I am a Completist (I made that up) – meaning I like to start from the beginning of any series, whether it be television or books. And I figured out that the book she loaned me is #3 in a Tudor series by Jean Plaidy. So I decided to start with the first in the series, shown below.

This story is the story of Henry VIII’s parents and his father’s reign. That cover makes it look kinda romance-y/sleeze-y but it’s not. Phillipa Gregory’s books are much more romance-y. So…this book was Medium. The writing was very repetitive – the same facts or anecdotes were repeated too many times, as if the author expects readers to have short-term memory loss or something. In one way, it’s kind of handy because you can easily get confused by the cast of characters and all the history…but this book goes a little overboard.

BUT – it was good to learn about life before Henry VIII’s reign and just generally learn some more history. I am a sucker for the details. And the details once again people: it would SUCK to be a woman back in the 1500s! They were nothing but pawns for power plays between the countries. I was continually blown away by how much input the women had into their lives – which was exactly 0.0%. It would also suck to have any kind of illness back then, before MEDICINE and ANTIBIOTICS. It would also suck to be executed as a traitor – hung til you’re almost dead, then cut down and gutted, THEN drawn and quartered I think? Lerd!

The most interesting part of the book was the stuff with Princess Catalina (later Queen Katharine) of Spain. She was married to Henry VIII’s brother Arthur then married off to Henry after Arthur died. She was treated like a turd on a stick in the in between years, which I didn’t realize. I think her story is the one I’m most curious about. I think book #2 in the Plaidy series covers her era? Then book #3 that Emily loaned me is when she gets the boot for that hot little piece of ass, Anne Boleyn.

But…I have Phillipa Gregory’s version of Queen Katharine’s story in the next room, calling my name. What to do, what to do?

And now a word about The Tudors – the series on Showtime. We’re in the middle of their final season on Showtime right now. And I have a majah beef with it: Henry is played by Jonathan Rhys-Myers. This is the last season of it and we’re in the Katherine Howard (Catherine?) era. According to what I’ve read, I think Henry was an overweight, rotten-legged creature at this point in time. Yet Mr. Rhys-Myers is looking hot as ever, with a slight limp. It makes Katherine/Catherine’s dalliances with Culpepper a little hard to believe. Someone told me (?) that they read that the king’s leg was so rotted up at this point in time that you could smell him coming from three rooms away. Let’s say it all together: Grrrross. So this season of the show on Showtime is a little disappointing to me. In addition to the confusing appearance of Henry – it’s also just super confusing, with characters coming on every week that I have no clue who they are. Bah. But, lovely sets and costumes, so a little something for the eye there.

OK – that is all for now. Thanks for reading. Emily. I know you’re the only one who had any chance of sticking it out.

Resources – Dahlia

This post is for JLew.  Here are all the links you’ll need to make the dahlia this summer.  When you’re ready to make it, come back to the blog and click on “Crafty Stuff” over on the right —>>>>

and you’ll be able to find this post.  I yam a Full Service  Craft Enabler and Very Considerate Blogger.

Here we go:

The original directions:  http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/04/23/a-flower-pin-for-you-favorite-mom/

Here are some helpful notes after the original post:  http://www.notmartha.org/archives/2010/05/06/mothers-day-felt-dahlia-corsage-a-few-notes/

I used the clothespin method the second time and it was waaay easier.  I just got the craft ones from Joann – not the teeny tiny ones, but the ones one size up.

Now here’s another blogger who made them – and made templates you can download.  TRES TRES helpful.  http://urbancomfort.typepad.com/urban_nest/2010/05/a-flower-for-mom.html

Here is the template:  http://urbancomfort.typepad.com/files/dahlia-template-1.pdf

When I used her template…that’s when I figured out I made my first one way too big.  Durr.

Hints from me:  Use sharp scissors!  I used that Ailene’s glue (Tacky Glue?) on the first one but bought the Fabri-Tac for the second one and I recommend the Fabri-Tac.  It just worked better, dried quicker, etc.  Use a coupie – they have it at Joann’s.  Take the 10 min to do the templates – it’s much better that way.  Use your rotary cutter to make the strips first, like shown on the tutorial.  Mucho easier.

Now a word on felt.  You have to use wool felt.  It’s so much better than the plastic-y stuff you get at Joann’s.  The colors are richer, the heft is better and the cheapo felt has a weird plastic-y sheen to it.  Grrross.  If you want a trial piece, let me know.  I have a light pink sheet with your name on it, sweet pal o’mine.

Here are some good places to get wool felt online:

http://www.purlsoho.com/purl/products/accessories_notions_list/145  This is my favorite.  Oh, but so spendy.  But look, they have a pack named “Dahlia!”

http://www.feltorama.com/Woven-Wool-Felt-s/94.htm  I’ve not ordered from here

http://www.magiccabin.com/product.asp?section_id=0&department=0&search_type=normal&search_value=wool%20felt&cur_index=&pcode=185  I’ve not ordered from here either.

There’s a store in Portland that has it by the sheet.  It’s expensive, but has really glorious colors.  If you’re looking for something particular, let me know and I can go look for you.  Free shipping.  🙂

Ok, I think that’s all you need.  Happy Making.

Senor Preshie Pants, Day Two

Oh lerd readers.  Senor Preshie Pants #1 is still sick, and actually worse today.  He had the throwing up this morning.  Poor boy.

So I’m home with him again.

Sigh.