Thursday, April 19, 2012

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

if your name is raya, avert your eyes


I finally, finally finally finished this gift that had been on my mind since Raya was born (only a year plus ago). My mom made my son a set of bean bags (rice filled) when he was a year old and 4 years later they are still played with daily.  They have been fish, weights to hold down blankets for forts, food, jack be nimble candle sticks, bombs (not as proud of this one) and many many other things.  My mom put shapes and numbers on ours, but I thought maybe name arranging might be a hit when Raya is around 4 and I really want her to keep her English skills fresh so I can talk to her.  They have been shipped off to Sweden (empty for cost reasons and with a bit of guilt at sending an unfinished gift to a mom of the newly walking) and for being so so late she got the bonus set pictured below.
  

I had a bunch of sweaters that I liked, but didn't like to wear for various reasons and instead of sending them off to Goodwill I decided to reincarnate them.  This red sweater that I happened to buy when I was with Raya's mom (way back in our early 20s when we didn't have a clue what was in store for us) has morphed into a hat and matching pants set, because don't we all have matching hats for our pants?  The pants pattern AND hat pattern were found on pinterest but here they are to cut out the middle man.  HAT is here and PANTS are here.  Or you can find them on my pinterest board.  They were super easy, well easy enough that I only had to pull out a few stitches here and there.  My seamstessmanship leaves much to be desired, but I often had a kid on my lap running the presser foot or was furiously sewing in my two precious hours a week when one is at school and one is napping.