On My Nightstand: October 2015

As soon as we got into our guest room in Santa Fe a few weeks ago, PX dumped out our bag of books and carefully stacked them on "my" side of the bed. "That's where they belong!" he said.  Amazing. I never thought twice about the giant stack of books next to my bed, so I certainly didn't think he noticed.  I thought it would be fun to document what's on my nightstand every once in a while.  This is one of those things that readers (all four of you, heyyy ladies) may or may not find interesting, but I definitely will want to read ten years from now. So bear with me.

Bottom to top:
It Starts With Food by Melissa and Dallas Hartwig (Victory Belt Pub., 2012)
I love food, and I love knowing what food is doing in my body. This is like taking the food info out of The Primal Blueprint, expanding on it, adding recipes and a high level of playful attitude. The extent of my university biology education was sorting through leaves and seeing what bugs we could find (seriously) and spending two class periods talking about e-coli break outs (complete with drawings of port-a-potties in spinach fields). Science doesn't come easily to me, even though it is what I am MOST interested in, and I have to read and re-read and discuss it to make it stick.

Lovable Livable Home by Sherry and John Petersik (Artisan, 2015)
So many projects, so little time. Signed by the authors who came to St. Louis and gave a lovely presentation about homemaking. Tons of pics with a few projects scattered throughout. They don't have precise instructions, but the emphasis is really on making stuff your own, so I guess that's easy if you have to wing it! I started reading Young House Love when it was This Young House and I stumbled across it while trying to plan my wedding. I was hooked. I miss it, but I admire the way they're putting themselves first. I still have moments when I look at my house and think, "Dang, YHL would have been DONE with these projects by now!" Not sure how they did it.

Sewing to Sell by Virginia Lindsay (Stash Books, 2014)
I already mentioned this one when writing about the sperm whale backpack for the big cub. I keep renewing it from the library, but I've had it for two full months now and I guess I need to give it back. The projects are really well-designed, so I'm tempted to buy it. The advice from a business side is maybe useful, I guess? It is definitely more about marketing than about "How to not go to jail for doing your business all wrong." It doesn't even mention things like CPSC requirements for children's items, and I am just really frustrated with things that make it seem like all you have to do to open an Etsy shop is take a picture and post it.  I guess you CAN do that. But shouldn't? Clearly I'm overwhelmed and bitter about the whole "knowledge begets responsibility" thing, since plenty of people selling kids' stuff just....make, pic, post, sell. Some day. Just not today.

Fun with the Family in New Mexico, 4th Ed. by Kate Winslow and Julia Ward (Globe Pequot Press, 2004)
Most of the things we did in Santa Fe were, in fact, recommended in this book.  I'll certainly check it out again for our next trip.  It's a big state and we haven't done a whole lot of exploring yet. The restaurant suggestions were not so good (both in quality, per the opinion of our hosts, and accuracy--several had closed), but that is to be expected with an eleven-year-old book.

My Quotable Kid (Chronicle Books, 2009)
A gift from an aunt, Christmas 2013.  We get to write down things that PX says like, "I don't need to think! I have LIGHTNING in my brain!" but the downside is that it makes me compare the kids.  Lil miss is hilarious in a way that can't be quoted, so it's hard to capture that.

Santa Fe, 5th Ed. by Lawrence W. Cheek (Compass American Guides, 2009)
This book was written by a native, who really likes mentioning he is a native, and it starts out by telling us in Santa Fe it is normal to work three jobs and barely make ends meet. Womp womp. I didn't read it cover-to-cover, so I can't say if that tone carried through the book.  I'll probably check this one out again, too, because it was so thorough. Lots of historical context, many day trips, and very, very detailed descriptions of things.  Where Fun with the Family only had one section of one chapter dedicated to Santa Fe, this is a whole book, so they're different by equally valuable.

Falcon Guides Best Easy Day Hikes: St. Louis by JD Tanner and Emily Ressler (Falcon Guides, 2011)
Library book! This guide has several things going for it. It is super detailed, describing the whole lengths of trails down to the tenth of a mile. It includes quite a few Illinois trails (woo!). And, it is small enough to take on the actual hike. Downside is that it is from 2011, and these kinds of books get outdated pretty quickly.  The only error I noticed was that they said there was no curfew in Forest Park, and there definitely, definitely is. If I had more time and a shorter bucket list, I'd do something crazy like make it a goal to hike through the entire book in a year. Maybe in 2017!

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd (Penguin, 2001)
Sometimes I read fiction.  I stole this one from Liz while helping her clean out her bookshelves before she moved. Progress is slow because I keep losing my spot and forgetting all the details.  This is why I never made it past a few hundred pages of Game of Thrones! (Not on my night stand. That one is IN my night stand.)

Five Wriggly, Wiggly Caterpillars by Debbie Tarbett (Caterpillar Books, 2012)
There are always kids' books in our room. Always! This one is a solid choice--good rhymes, bright pictures, take-away-one math concepts, and butterflies at the end. A gift to PX from a great-aunt on his first Easter.

What are you reading? What should I add to my pile?

School Bags and Moose Jammies

Most average human beings would roll their eyes at me for feeling like we've officially over-scheduled our kids.  PX has preschool 2x/wk for 2.5 hrs, and each kid takes one thirty-minute gymnastics class. You guys. That is FOUR DAYS IN A ROW I have to BE somewhere ON TIME with my ACT TOGETHER. And really, preschool days count doubly because I have to drop him off AND pick him up! ON TIME! Which, according to my observation, means fifteen minutes early.  Poor Bebe. If she naps after he gets home, she's up all night. If I toss her in her crib as soon as we get home at noon, I have to wake her up prematurely to go get bro. We'll figure it out. Or continue to suffer the sleep deprivation we've all felt the past ::double-checks math:: 42 months.

The boy's bag. It's the "Great Big Tote" from Virginia Lindsay's Sewing to Sell: How to Sell Locally & Online. Hm. More on the book another time. For now, let me just say I requested it from the local library BEFORE I found out about CPSC/local/state/fed requirements. So it is great, but the topics covered have taken a backseat to legal stuff for now.  Back to the bag: I completely redid all the measurements to make it more Finn-sized. It's about 14 x 16 x 2.5, with 18 inch straps. It's a bit large! The pockets are just right for storing contraband toys, like trains and dinosaurs. 

The front pocket is a squid, colored with heat-set crayon and gel pen. It is lined with a DS Quilts print, which I used again for the back pocket. The teal doesn't read quite right from far away, but up close I really dig it. The sperm whale fabric is from the "Don't be Crabby!" line for Robert Kaufman.

As soon as I presented the bag to PX, BH pointed to herself and said, "Ah-MAH!" Which means something along the lines of "Gimme!" and "Me, TOO!" She doesn't need a bag, but she sure could use another moose shirt. How many moms have had to say that? Every single day, we ask what she wants to wear and she signs moose. Every day. If she can see her moose shirt in the dirty laundry, she drags it out and tries to put it on. I guess it IS rather special--a four-times-handed down shirt from all her Conley cousins. Aunt Liz gave her moose jammies from Bar Harbor, but it's a wee hot for them yet. Mama to the rescue. A onesie and pants set.  These are upcycled from a pair of PJ pants my Aunt Mary Jo gave me (Christmas 2003) and were finally worn beyond repair.  The pants are loosely based on Georgia Leigh's Ankle Biter pattern. Mike said, "Hey! You have a pair that look just like this!" ::thud::

The onesie was leftover from the pile of blanks I bought for PX's monthly onesies. I had the Wonder-under (actually...not Wonder-under. Wonder-under is the "Kleenex" of fusible stabilizers. This was actually Heat and Bond Lite), thread, and elastics, so this little set cost me nothing but time. In other news, moose antlers are really REALLY hard to stitch around. The onesie stretched (knits! ahrg!) and the plaid stretched and it isn't perfect. Next time I'll try with an open-toe foot.

Not a bad week for sewing, really. Not the best week for photography (might need a spot besides the clothesline) or laundry (sweet lord, it is piling up!) but that's ok, too.