Recrafted :: Nature Bags
Before I went on vacation I wanted to get a set of Nature Bags for my kids, and Michelle’s kids. Then when I went to order them I realized they were $35 a piece. Multiply that by 4 kids and you spend enough money to send Steve into convulsions. They are seriously cool, everything is organic and recycled. Cool doesn’t make $140 magically appear in my bank account though. Sadly.
After looking at them for a while, all grumpy and bitter that I’m not rich, I decided I could probably make something comparable for considerably less money. Like, you know, the no kind of money which is about all the money we currently have.
Several years ago Steve and I had a huge fight about the curtains in my living room and how I couldn?t have new curtains because that was a frivolous expense even though I just freshly painted the living room and really needed new curtains*. I swear it. We actually haven’t had a fight that loud and passionate since. Curtains are a Big Deal. Men need to understand this. Also, Steve underestimates me, I got new curtains for a steal (literally, my Grandma bought them for me for my birthday that year) and I got new curtain rods by returning all the pop cans and waiting for a killer sale. So there.
Since I?m thrifty and clever, I kept the old curtains. One never knows when one may need old curtains you see. Those curtains have been remade into numerous things, including 4 little nature bags.
I?m quite proud of these bags, and learned a lot in the process of putting them together. The pattern is of my own creation (if you can call a mail bag a pattern of my own creation, and I do). They have a Velcro closure, and little pockets on the inside for nature necessities. That?s right; I made a bag with INTERIOR pockets. The brain, it hasn?t worked that hard in very, very long while. In each one I tucked a pair of real binoculars, a bird book, magnify glass, sketchbook, pencil, glue and bug jar. And yes, the pockets fit things, like the binoculars. All told, after buying the binoculars and magnify glasses the four bags cost $46, a little more than a 1/4 of the cost of the actual bags, and I could have skipped the binoculars but really think kids should have a real pair anyway. Of course, Callum already broke his pair so um. yeah.
Since the bags were made out of beige canvas, I figured it needed a little something to spice it up, but I still wanted to honour the intent of making these bags from recycled materials. The fabric owl and bird ribbons seemed perfect, they were in a huge bag of ribbon I bought some time ago at a thrift store. It doesn’t get more recrafted then this.
When Steve saw the bags all done up with the ribbon he remarked on how I had ?hippie?d? up the bags true to where we live. I really hadn?t meant for the bags to look ?hippie? but he?s right. They really do. We?ve got four little nature-loving hippies now. I?m down with that.
The best part is that the kids really seemed to enjoy them. Especially my god-daughter (she’s
who I caught running to get her sketchbook to sketch a bug she saw or glue in a leaf on numerous occassions. Seriously, why doesn’t the entire world have children because the joy they pour into your heart IS LIKE THE BEST DRUG EVER. Sadly I suck at pictures and didn’t take one of all the kids gluing in leaves and scribbling on every page of their book (ok, only Callum did that).
The bird book I made custom for our vacation spot with this super cool website called WhatBird.com, then laminated them with my mini laminating dealie. I?m cool, I have a mini laminating dealie. I know you?re jealous.
Since I made my own nature bags, I didn’t get the cool book telling me the activities I could do in nature. I compromised and instead bought myself I Love Dirt. Any excuse to buy myself a new book, and I could justify the $12. It’s a cute book, with some fun ideas like trying to build your own bird nest and the like. To make this a truly recrafted project, I suppose I should have bought the book second-hand. hmmm… and the binoculars and magnifying glasses…
*the curtains I bought are exactly the same color, but honestly? Not the point. These curtains sit on the rod differently and yes, it matters.
God Damn Fucking Ants
For years I have gone on and on about the little black ants that invade my kitchen every spring. Initially I thought I would die from the horror of it all, but over the years the ants and I have learned to live in peace – they stay out of my pantry and I don’t call the pest doctor.
Two days ago I noticed a lot of sugar ants had suddenly descended upon my kitchen, in their haphazard way. Yesterday they turned up in my pantry. Today I bleached the shit out of my kitchen.
They didn’t care, they’re back in the pantry.
While I may tolerate the little black ants, sugar ants don’t fall into that same category. The most important thing to note about the little black ant is that they’re little. Really freaking little, you could convince yourself it’s dirt or pepper. Right up until they move and you know what? Even then I can convince myself that the spec of dirt didn’t just move, I have an active imagination is all.
Sugar ants, though. oh, Sugar ants are anything but little. Sugar ants are very clearly a big-ass bug hauling it’s disgusting bug ass across the floor, or through the cupboard, or ACROSS THE LIP OF MY HONEY CONTAINER. THE HONEY I EAT.
Sugar ants needs to die.
Currently I have some borax ant traps going on, but seriously, I’m not sure I can wait three days to see if it works. I’m also extremely pissed off that I spent all day standing in my kitchen (which is a cement slab so my back? HURTS.) bleaching every food and garbage cupboard because the internet said, on a a gorgeous, sunny, hot day. A day when I should have taken my son to the beach instead of having him stand around eating cheezies and discussing ant habits, while I bleached.
FUCKING. ANTS.
Good Mother – Bad Mother
I just finished reading Ayelet Waldman?s Bad Mother*, a novel/essay about motherhood, specifically how we as women are constantly judging one another, and ourselves, and can never really measure up to the demands of what a good mother is in our society. The book talks specifically about Ayelet’s experience as a mother of four, and while I found her honest and funny, I?m not sure this is the book for everyone.
During the entire read I was surprised to realize that for all my joking around, for every mention here that I won?t be winning that Mother of the Year trophy, I actually consider myself to be a good mother. In fact, I think all the women I know are good mothers.
Now don?t get me wrong, I don?t think I?m the perfect mother, I don?t think that I won?t, at least in some small way, do some sort of damage to my kids that they will have to overcome as an adult. Personally I don?t really see that as a crime. Welcome to life, kids. Besides, the perfect mother?s children would never be found in the middle of their street, a good 5 minute toddler walk up the driveway, screaming with glee before their mother noticed them gone. Not that that has ever happened to me.
I often get comments, mostly in response to my crafts, to the tune of ?you?re such a good Mom? which I love, because damn, who doesn?t like a compliment, but I don?t think the fact that I make silly little things for my kids is a criteria for being a good mother. I don?t think baking my own bread makes me a good mother, either. That just makes me someone blessed with the chance to stay at home with her kids and is looking for things to do with her time. Plus, I like crafting. It?s my hobby and whether or not I had children, I?d still be knitting and making stupid little things for my god-daughter who graciously pretends to love it all.
No, what makes a mother good is simple: she?s a good person.
So even though my kid is poking my best friend?s kid in the face with a fork, and then laughing hysterically, and my best friend?s kid is very politely saying ?please don?t poke me in the face with a fork? I still believe I?m a good mother. Because when my 1 year old is 4, I believe that she too will say ?please don?t poke me in the face with a fork? rather than say, pin the annoying toddler to the ground and punch them in the face. Maybe I?m naïve to think this but the way I see it ? that lovely, polite kid? That?s my best friend?s kid, and the women I go to first for advice, to support me, to be my children?s village, well they all have pretty terrific kids. So chances are I too will have pretty terrific kids someday soon, too.
Those women are good mothers, and not one of them has the same parenting style as the other. What they all have in common is the fact that they are good people.
*Ayelet Waldman is new to me, but damn, her essays are fantastic blog fodder. You?ll probably hear more about her from me when referring to parenting topics.
We survived our first road trip
Our vacation, on the whole, went really well. The biggest problem was that Claire was not content to hang out in our campsite and repeatedly wandered away as quickly as you could bring her back kicking and screaming. So that and the whole sleeping thing was annoying, but I was prepared for the whole sleeping thing. Steve declared that he missed the trailer and from here on out would prefer to use it, except if we’re backpacking.
The kids were amazing during the longest legs in the car, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly. I’m not trying to shove sunshine and rainbows up your butt, either, it did honestly go very well. When they were getting a little antsy, it was typically for a very good reason like they were sitting in a pile of poo and it was starting to get a little bit irritating.
We had a lot of fun, too. We got to go boating in Creston with Steve’s oldest brother, we hiked and beached and explored the backside of Columbia lake in Radium, and picked cherries and sat on the beach and rented jet-skis in Herold Park. Seriously good times. You should all take your kids on a two week road trip!
Being back in the real world hurts, and we’re still completely off our schedule and back to square one trying to teach Claire how to fall asleep on her own, but somehow we’re further ahead on the potty training with Callum (thanks Ben-Ben!).
Overall opinion: I’d do it again.