Diaper bag

I have a question for the Moms in the audience. :-) What features in a diaper bag do you find most indispensable? Inner pockets, outer pockets, plastic lining, outer keyring, zip closure, two handles, etc. Or something totally different? I realize this will change depending on the person and the lifestyle. For what it's worth, I plan on breastfeeding and and probably using a mixture of cloth and disposable diapers. Thanks in advance for your help!

Homemakers Creed

For my birthday, my parents gave me a vintage, framed copy of the "Homemakers Creed" which they found at an estate sale. I would guess it is from the '40s. It is labelled "General Mills Inc." and "Betty Crocker," so it may have been associated with some kind of sales campaign. Anyway, I'll be hanging it in my kitchen where I can view it frequently for inspiration!

HOMEMAKERS CREED

I BELIEVE
homemaking is a noble and challenging career.

I BELIEVE
homemaking is an art requiring many different skills.

I BELIEVE
homemaking requires the best of my efforts, my abilities, and my thinking.

I BELIEVE
home reflects the spirit of the homemaker.

I BELIEVE
home should be a place of peace, joy, and contentment.

I BELIEVE
no task is too humble that will contribute to the cleanliness, the order, the health, the well-being of the household.

I BELIEVE
a homemaker must be true to the highest ideals of love, loyalty, service, and religion.

I BELIEVE
home must be an influence for good in the neighborhood, the community, the country.

Grandpa's cradle

In honor of my 26th birthday, I am going to stop being a lazy bum and post on my blog! :-) In all fairness, Douglas and I have been on the road the past two weeks -- first visiting his family in Colorado, and now we're staying with my parents. It's great to be "home" for my first birthday as a married woman!


The family has helped with "baby fever" by digging out all kinds of old baby clothes, blankets, toys, etc. Everyone enjoys this walk down memory lane. One item I'll be taking home with me is this beautiful wooden cradle, made for me many years ago by my skilled grandpa. Nestling inside is a vintage quilt, given to me with the cradle. I didn't realize until now that it was made for Arvid, my grandma's baby brother, who was born in 1929. That means it is 80 years old! I will probably use it as a wall hanging, since I don't want the old fabrics ruined by baby spit-up or other stains.

'30s silk charmeuse

The dress I hinted at in my last post is being made from EvaDress 7482 (short-sleeved view), with a skirt added on to the blouse. I sewed up most of the mock-up yesterday, and I'll be seeing my friend soon so I can fit it on her. Once done, I look forward to cutting into that luscious blue silk. If I can't fit into cute '30s styles myself, the next best thing is to sew for someone else!

Maternity tunic

(click for larger picture)
OK, this will probably be the last maternity sewing project for a while! I've got other fish to fry. (For one, a delectable '30s dress from a sapphire blue silk charmeuse! Alas, it's for a friend and not myself!) Anyway, Jo-Ann Fabrics had a sale on Simplicity patterns, so I picked up S2696 to make a summer top. The fabric is an old Indian-print sheet, cut to make the print part of the design. This was quick, easy, and cheap, and now I have a comfortable new top to wear!

Summer maternity dress

I am rapidly running out of clothes that fit (down to two elastic-waist skirts and one pair of maternity jeans), which motivated me to do a little sewing this week!


The cotton gauze fabric was given to me several years ago by my friend Susan. I used Butterick 4685 (with modifications). Because the fabric is sheer, I lined it with muslin. At one point in the proceedings, the dress looked distressingly like a muumuu!! But hacking some of the length off and adding the underbust elastic helped solve that problem.

I wore it yesterday when I accompanied Douglas to a nearby city for a job interview [his, not mine], and felt extremely comfortable all day. What a relief to not having anything constricting my thickening waist! :-)

Churn dash

I am determined to try my hand at quilting and finish a baby quilt before Baby comes! I've chosen a block pattern (churn dash, as seen here) and drooled over reproduction fabrics. I think I will try to mix 'n' match fabrics from different lines to get more of an eclectic look to the quilt (hope this doesn't backfire on me!). Some of my favorites are here, here, and here.

I'm taking my time over this project, because I won't have an opportunity to go fabric shopping for a few weeks yet, nor have I yet acquired a walking foot for my machine. But half the fun of any project is in the planning stage!

Simplicity 4749

I actually made this top way back in March (before I knew I was pregnant -- I just thought the style was cute). It's from a vintage pattern I won on eBay last summer. I used a linen blend from Jo-Ann Fabrics, but I'm not very happy with the fabric choice. It's a little stiffer than I thought it would be, so it doesn't drape very well, and the quality seems to be rather poor as it's already faded after just a few washings. But, it works well right now, as I'm in the big-enough-to-look-fat, not-big-enough-to-look-pregnant phase -- the stiffer drape hides my pudgy belly.

All the details...

Thanks, everyone, for all your well-wishes in regard to my previous post! Baby is due December 5th, so I am currently about 11 weeks along. We are all very excited and overjoyed that God has blessed our marriage in this way!

I plan to have some maternity/baby sewing to share in the weeks to come! :-)

Three mothers on Mother's Day

Excerpt from my current reading

[Excerpt taken from my 1909 Lippincott Juniors edition, with charming illustrations by Maria L. Kirk...]


"So Diamond sat down again, took the baby in his lap, and began poking his face into its little body, laughing and singing all the while, so that the baby crowed like a little bantam. And what he sang was something like this -- such nonsense to those that couldn't understand it! but not to the baby, who got all the good in the world out of it: --

baby's a-sleeping
wake up baby
for all the swallows
are the merriest fellows
and have the yellowest children
who would go sleeping
and snore like a gaby
disturbing his mother
and father and brother
and all a-boring
their ears with his snoring
snoring snoring
for himself and no other
for himself in particular
wake up baby
sit up perpendicular
hark to the gushing
hark to the rushing
where the sheep are the woolliest
and the lambs the unruliest
and their tails the whitest
and their eyes the brightest
and baby's the bonniest
and baby's the funniest
and baby's the shiniest
and baby's the tiniest
and baby's the merriest
and baby's the worriest
of all the lambs
that plague their dams
and mother's the whitest
of all the dams
that feed the lambs
that go crop-cropping
without stop-stopping
and father's the best
of all the swallows
that build their nest
out of the shining shallows
and he has the merriest children
that's baby and Diamond
and Diamond and baby
and baby and Diamond
and Diamond and baby

Here Diamond's knees went off in a wild dance which tossed the baby about and shook the laughter out of him in immoderate peals. His mother had been listening at the door to the last few lines of his song, and came in with the tears in her eyes. She took the baby from him, gave him a kiss, and told him to run to his father."

--At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, first published in 1871

Covered bridge

A few weekends ago, my father-in-law and brother-in-law came out to join Douglas and I on a work-related road trip. One of our first stops was at this pretty covered bridge, dating from the late 1870s. According to one website, it was actually washed down the river about a mile during a 1913 flood, but the bridge was put on rollers and taken back to its original location, where it has stood ever since.

The morning was very tranquil and the spring greens were just lovely. I'd like to go back for a picnic sometime!

Spring

I am finding that spring in Indiana consists of a torturous weather cycle. The weather will show signs of warming up to glorious temperatures, reaching highs in the mid-60s, only to be followed by immediate rain, which brings things back down to near-freezing again. Sigh! I am trusting this won't last forever. ;-)

When I do get the chance to walk outside, I enjoy all the cheerful daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips that have bloomed in our neighborhood yards. Many trees are budding and the magnolias look especially beautiful right now. How is spring progressing in your neck of the woods?

Six months

Last Saturday was our six-month wedding anniversary. Those of you who have been married for years and years are rolling your eyes right now, but half a year seems like a very long time when you are newly married (in a wonderful, blessed, joyous way!). :-)

For a retrospective look at our wedding, here's a sequence of photos that's one of my favorites:

Guacamole

• two ripe avocados
  
• two roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
  
• 1/4 large purple onion, chopped
  
• 1/2 green pepper, chopped
  
• handful of fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
  
• salt, cayenne pepper, and lime juice to taste

Cut up the avocados and scoop out the innards into a medium bowl. Mash the avocado with a fork. Add the chopped tomatoes, onion, green pepper, and cilantro and mix with the avocado mash until evenly coated. Add salt, cayenne pepper, and freshly-squeezed lime juice to suit your taste.

LAURA'S NOTE: This recipe is extremely flexible -- you can vary the amounts or ingredients to reflect whatever you have on hand, but it's always delicious! My husband is always very happy whenever I make this. It's yummy to eat with tortilla chips, or make your own healthier chips by toasting a whole wheat tortilla, then cutting it up into bite-sized pieces. I also think this tastes great as a dip for cauliflower.