Free jeans!

Well, sort of free jeans -- old jeans that I've made new again. I've been purging my closet in an effort to get a lot of crap out of our condo, and I found some old jeans that just fit. This is amazing since I'm in between sizes right now and can't seem to find anything in my closet that fits. The only problem is that there was a hole in the leg (which was probably cool the last time I wore them). So I fixed it!

I remember the way my mama would patch up pants when I was younger so I just used her method. Here's a peek at what I did. This is my first follow-along post so hang in there with some of the photos.

Cute jeans. Ugly hole.

First I picked out the fabric I wanted to use for my patch and cut a piece that was slightly larger than the actual hole. You'll see that I decided not to be subtle with my color choices.

Next I cut a matching piece of iron-on interfacing.

Guess what I did next...yep, I ironed on the interfacing to the patch piece.

Then I turned my jeans inside out and pinned my patch in place.

Now comes the fun part. I stitched like crazy! Like I mentioned before, I chose bold colors. I wanted to use neon pink thread to contrast with the green fabric, but I'm out. So I used orange instead (it also happened to be what was on my bobbin). I used cream thread on the inside since that was also what was on my machine. Let's see how it looks right side out.

Looks like I need to do a bit more stitching directly over the hole, so I used pins as guidelines and stitched away again.

When I was satisfied with my stitching I clipped around the patch on the inside to remove some of the bulk.

Flip them right-side-out again and tada! I have seriously been wearing these jeans all week.

Here's my sewing station which also doubles as our dining room table. It actually is cleaner than it was earlier today.

Hipster Baby

As I mentioned before, I love when our babysitters dress Jo. So I think I'm going to start a series on the blog sharing Jo's fashions.

Fashion baby blog post!

To kick it off, here's a great ensemble by Sooz. She calls this the hipster-baby look. Just give Jo some big glasses and a PBR and she could fit right in down in Bucktown.

Tights from Grandma Annie, cardigan from Grandma Jackie, shorts from Auntie Lynn, no clue where the onesie came from.

Jo's favorite chair

Sorry I was so absent last week. Let's start this week off right with a post I've been meaning to do for a while now. 

I was so lucky to have my lovely friend, Jess, throw me a baby shower before Jo was born. I wasn't sure about the the whole shower thing as opening presents in front of people is weird for me (and so is inviting people to give you gifts), but Jess threw one heck of a party.

The only rule I gave her: no games. So as a way to get everyone involved, to prepare for Jo, to have something else to do besides eat and open presents, and to be creative, Jess had everyone help paint a chair for Jo's room. She found an old chair, painted it white, drew the basic pattern, and had paint and brushes for everyone. Now Baby Jo has a chair created by all of the women who are part of her life. It's so awesome!

The quote written on the back of the chair is from Lighthousekeeping by Jeanette Winterson. I had just seen a play adaptation of the book with my mama and a few friends of mine that weekend.

Rogaine?

It's started. I'm losing my hair in what seems to be large quantities. I didn't think this would happen to me after I had Jo. I was hoping it didn't happen to me. I'm shedding like crazy. It's a good thing I have a lot of hair.

Reunion!

I've mentioned before that Nick and I took a Bradley Method childbirth class before Jo was born. It was super informative and was actually a huge contributor in our home birth decision. Our class lasted nine weeks (yep, nine weeks), but we felt extremely knowledgeable and as prepared as possible for our birth when we were done -- Nick and I both like information. We also met some really lovely families.

A few weeks ago we had a Bradley reunion with many of the families from our class. It was delightful to see the other moms and dads again and to meet the new babies that we had been preparing for. We talked about our birth stories and our new routines and feeding babies cookies and egg yolks and working and childcare and in-laws and a bunch of other things. Most importantly, we did a lot of staring at all of the amazing babies we made.

L-R: Vanessa & Jaxon, Lindsey & Alex, Jo & me, Kristina & Gus

Jo had a great time making new friends.

Jo and Gus get acquainted

My little garden gnome

One thing I love about having babysitters is that they dress Jo in the cutest clothes. Like this outfit courtesy of Sooz.

Tights from Grandma Annie, onesie from Gap, hoodie is a hand-me-down, and I made the skirt. It's just the perfect little outfit.

vyssan lull

If you're not subscribed to the mini social, get on that. It's similar to Gilt or Zulily and today they have a sale from vyssan lull, which carries so many of my favorite Scandinavian brands like Plastisock.

I'm so proud

The other day our Tuesday sitter (we have four babysitters we juggle) said, "You know, I babysit two other babies the same age as Jo and she is the easiest. She is so sweet."

Baby Jo is so lovely for Nick and me, so it's nice to know that she is delightful for others too.

My mama has always pointed out that Jo is such a good baby. It's true. Jo is sweet and loving and snuggly and strong and smart. And that's not all. Here are a few other things I love about her:

• I love how she buries her head into me when she's happy. 
• Her smile could melt even the coldest of hearts.
• When she talks, her voice is soft and gentle unless she's excited, and then she squeals.
• She just keeps getting bigger and bigger. 
• I see so much of Nick in her. 
• She's super tactile -- touching everything she can, feeling for texture, scratching it with her nails.
• Last night she slept through the night. 
• Sitting and standing are her favorite things to do. And she's really good at them.

Confession

One thing I love to do is pick my hair. I look for split ends and pick them apart or clip them off. I look for gray hairs and I pluck them. Picking my hair is one of my guilty pleasures.

It drives all of my family members crazy. My mama hates it. My sisters hate it. Nick hates it. I'm sure Jo would hate it, but she's just a baby. Maybe she'll love doing it too?

Anyway, I don't have a lot of time on my hands without Jo or something else to do. I've found that the few hours I have after Jo goes down for the night are like gold. By the time I'm done working on our Etsy shop or my theatre company or the show that I'm in I then do laundry or take a shower or pick up a little or eat. Then it's usually late. But I always take a few minutes before bed to pick my hair. I shut the bathroom door. It's a few minutes all to myself and it's awesome.

Something new

I thought this kimono that I made for Baby Jo might be a bit big. I was wrong.

It seems as though she really likes it, right?

Breastfeeding and feminism

I'm crazy busy this week and am struggling to find time to blog, so today I want to post a link to an article I found interesting.

The Backlash to Breast is Best touches on breastfeeding and feminism and our choices as women. Read it and let me know what you think.

They're here!!!

The tags. For Lilla Barn. Are Here! This means that we can list items for sale! Woohoo. I'm so excited.

Jo is too. She just told me so.

Another way to follow...

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You can keep track of my blog updates using Bloglovin. It's super easy. 

Grubbie Style

Ok people, Grubbie Style says that they have hip t-shirts for boys, but I would say they work for little girls too (if you're into gender-neutral stuff). On the Grubbie Style website you can make your own shirts: pick a design, pick the art color, pick a shirt. Yay!

I especially love this one since Jo is my little monkey.

Although this one may be more appropriate for Jo's size at the moment.

They're also on sale on Zulily today. Seriously on sale. Stock up, folks.

How to kiss a frog

No, this isn't a post about fairy tales, although the princess/frog/kiss story is a good one. How to Kiss a Frog is a Swedish children's brand and it's just lovely. You can actually see fairy tale-ish elements in the styles HTKAF has on their site. Victorian ruffles and pin-tucks add frill while the color palette stays neutral.

Lilla Barn Photo Shoot

Jo and I did a photo shoot today with some new pieces for our Lilla Barn shop on Etsy. She did really great and didn't puke on anything, although I make two outfits just in case (one for Jo and one for the shop). She actually preferred to nibble on her kimono top. Yummy. She was probably jealous since we made delicious cinnamon muffins earlier that she couldn't have.

Did I mention that she weighed in at 18lbs, 8oz yesterday at the doctor's office? Yeah, that's the size of a ninth month old. Maybe she's sneaking muffins behind my back?

Zulily Alert - anais & I

It's a good day on Zulily today.

anais & I is one of my favorite brands. Their clothes are sweet and sophisticated but still appropriate for little girls. I wear a lot of black and grey...I guess it carries over into my pics for Jo, eh?

Flower Power

I just saw this paper flower tutorial on Grosgrain and it reminded me of my wedding. I'm always in need of a project so I made it my plan to have only paper flowers at our wedding party. I started making flowers in June, 2009 in preparation for our September 5th, 2009 party date. I was crazy about making flowers. I made flowers after work and before bed and over the weekend. I had my family make flowers. I had my friends make flowers. I had my friends' families make flowers. Flowers galore! At my bridal shower I had everyone help make flowers. I think when we were done we had around 500 flowers. All in all it turned out to be a super special way to get everyone involved.

Since I had never made paper flowers before, I found these kits from Paper Source and they provided a great pattern. This Martha link also gave us a good starting point. Then I bought a crap-ton of all kinds of paper. It turns out everyone who helped created their own designs based on these basics, which made for an awesome variety. 

Here's what we came up with. All of these photos are by Moments Shared Photography in Minneapolis.

My mama rounded out the decorations with these lovelies and these pom-poms.

Here are a few more links for flowers (yay Martha!):
Kids' paper flowers
Giant poppies

Another cool thing about these paper flowers is that, like regular flowers, we could give them away to guests at the end of the night. Anyone could take home a vase. We were at our friend's house last night for the SuperBowl and they still have their paper flowers out. My mother-in-law has a vase with paper flowers in her house. I have this collection of flowers in our living room.

 
Here are a few close-ups of my faves.