pajama pants.

so last week was kid's clothing week, and, as always, i totally forgot. i did remember sometime on thursday evening, and managed to make this sweet pair of pajama pants. then, of course, i did not get around to taking pictures of them until now. alas, maybe one day i'll be more on the ball. in the meantime, here are some cool pants!

i apologize in advance for all of the blurry pictures you're about to see. the only way to convince a toddler to model pajama pants is to let them jump on your bed.

i made these by just adding length to dana's kids shorts pattern , which continues to proove to be a great investment. pajama pants are forgiving enough that i could easily have self drafted a pattern, but i already had the pattern pieces on hand. a win for laziness.

i used the pattern option for the full elastic waistband and added a draw string, more for looks than functionality. pajama pants were made for drawstrings.

these were super quick make. under an hour from cutting to complete, and that included having to redo the button holes for the draw string when i realized i put them in the back originally...

i'm really loving this woodland flannel. it's from jo ann's (which is open again here...yay!!). ever since finishing these i've been pretty jealous of margot. soon, i'll probably break down and make me a pair, so we can have matching mommy-daughter pajama parties.

accompanied by much bed jumping.

pizza and pasta and donuts, oh my!

you had to know that all of my felt food making wouldn't be limited to the vegetable variety. there are far too many other tasty treats to be had (or made).

like donuts! sprinkle donuts are margot's favorite (and every other two year old). she likes to eat them from the top down, meaning she only eats the frosting and the sprinkles. sometimes she accidentally eats some of the donut. these felt donuts are a bit hard to eat, but super cute to look at. and perfect for tea parties. 

     

  

margot is also a big fan of pizza. when she says it, though, it sounds like 'pasta', which is really confusing. confusing because i never know if she's asking for pizza or spaghetti and also confusing because she used to say 'pizza'. not sure what happened there...

the best thing about this felt pizza is that it is disassemble-able...so that margot can make and re-make her pizza over and over again. this is a particularly entertaining activity on friday evenings when we're waiting for the pizza man. then she goes and puts it in her oven, where it seems to only take fifteen seconds to cook. the magic of felt food.

these farfalle may be my favorite! so cute and so similar to the real thing. and the three color blend really makes them look awesome (and speaks to my new habit of hoarding all of the various shades of felt from all of the craft stores).

making these is super simple, as long as you have pinking shears. i suppose you could make them with straight ends, but it wouldn't be nearly as cute. the first set i made (the off-white ones) i sewed on my machine, which was fast, but made it a bit hard to keep them lookin neat. for the other two sets, i simply hand stitched them while watching tv one evening. five or six quick stitches is all it takes for these adorable little bow ties.

and  margot has a blast playing with them. they go from being stirred in the pot on the stove (with large chunks of wooden butter, of course), drained in the colander in the sink and then back to the stove. luckily, you cannot over cook felt pastas.

and that about brings this blog up to speed with my felt food endeavors. still on my list are more things that can serve as salad or pizza toppings, like mushrooms, peppers, onions, and the like.

apple picking (or reason seven hundred twelve that fall is the best).

last weekend jon, margot and i were lucky enough to head up to charlottesville to go apple picking at carter mountain orchard with my brother and sister-in-law. it was a fun throw back to our college days, while, at the same time, it also made it glaringly obvious that we're now old people. with a kid. and we're zero percent hipster. but i think i'm ok with that.

margot had a grand time.

  

jon told margot to touch the apples. she took him quite literally.

jon and margot are currently sporting the same hair-do...business in the front, party in the back.

and i shall leave you with this picture of apple cider donuts. taken by my brother, lucas. because he's still hipster.

felt food.

as promised, the felt food making has been in full swing since margot's birthday. i'm not sure what's so rewarding about making inedible replicates of edibles, but it's super addictive.

*disclaimer. upon close examination, these photos contain much kitty hair. luckily, this is not real food. consider yourself warned.

in keeping with the produce theme, margot now has an assortment of felt vegetables. for all of her fiber needs. first up salad!

or more accurately, some lettuce and a few tomato slices. this salad could use some cucumber, peppers, onions and maybe some hard boiled eggs. alas, long grows the list of completely unnecessary things that i feel inexplicable compelled to do...

the lettuce may be my favorite of the vegetables (as well as my nemesis, because i'm constantly finding it all over the house). to make it, i googled various lettuce/leaf shapes and made a template in inkscape (available here, if you want to make your own). i then spent one tv watching evening cutting the shapes out from two different shades of green felt. i could easily have stopped there and had perfectly play-with-able lettuce, but that's not how i roll. i also added veins and ribbing using my sewing machine. it really adds a great dimensionality to it. i think i have more fun making it then margot has playing with it...

then came a series of root vegetables. the construction of these was very similar to the strawberries, except that the leaves were sewn into the opening at the top rather than over it. for the radishes, i loosely followed these instructions. to make them different sizes though, i cut the finished circle into somewhat randomly sized sectors, anywhere from one half to one third of the circle. for the carrots, i just free hand cut large triangles, trying to vary the length and width. in spite of this though, the finished carrots all ended up roughly the same size...but at least they're different colors!

so there you have it. it all makes me happy. and probably keeps margot vaguely amused.

if you're worried that all of my felt food endeavors will be this wholesome, don't be. still in my to be blogged about queue are donuts, a pizza and pasta (hooray starches!).

so what should be next? sandwiches? pancakes? pot roast!?!