Dollies and wings and crowns... oh my!

Hello friends and family, it has been a while! I laughed a little when I saw my last post, written almost a year ago. At the end I had said I was still working on the "work-life balance"... well as it turns out, I struck it for a while, but things fell a part a little when R's naps became less reliable. Working from home is HARD! It felt like I was planning our whole day around nap time just so I could get an hour of work in, then another 30 minutes after bed time. As you can imagine, 1-2 hours of work per day doesn't really get you a whole lot financially and the stress of it outweighed the benefits. I decided to move on from Mama & Me a couple months ago, aside from continuing to sub for for the Breastfeeding drop-in.

This has actually been kind of amazing for me. Instead of stressing about getting enough work done, I am volunteering a few hours a week for the Parent Connection Mentoring Moms program through Beth Israel Deaconess, which is an AMAZING program that allows seasoned moms to support new moms over the phone. This is one way I'm able to continue "work" in the field about which I'm passionate, but without the stress of a job with more hours.

I also discovered recently that I LOVE creating things! This coincided nicely with the current boom of second birthday parties. So without further ado, I present some of my creations!

A Waldorf-style tent made from the grabbed the sheer, inner curtain from this room, strung around the plastic hoop formerly housed by the cover of a laundry basket, and hung from a hanging plant holder. Add some Christmas lights and put a bunch of comfy pillows underneath, and voila! You have a Queen's Tent!

This is Floppy. Floppy was meant to be an Easter present, but she saw me making it and had to have it right away. The are pretty much inseparable (very much regretting the white fleece, as it looks perpetually dirty!). Last night my mom accidentally took Floppy home as a stowaway in her backpack, causing many tears and resulting in Brian having to ride his bike to Manna's apartment to get Floppy back. Whoops!

Crown 1 (for a friend's birthday)(

Crown 2 (for another friend's birthday). I also made a third, but forgot to take a picture. Crowns are really fun and it gives me a use for all those empty cereal boxes we accumulate... I slip them inside the fabric to make them less floppy!

Dolly mei tai (a type of baby carrier that originated in Asia and is tied on). I made two of these as birthday presents. R wanted to keep this one... that's the downside to making birthday presents for other people's kids!

Butterfly wings, for another friend's birthday. I started making a set for R too, but never finished, which is a bummer because we went to a fairy house making event in Franklin Park today and they would have come in very handy! Initially I glued the blue pieces on, but they wouldn't stay, so I had to sew every. single. one. Ayayay... R's will be a little simpler!!

 Lastly, la piece de resistance, R's birthday present! Baby Mira is an anatomically correct, Waldorf-style doll, made out of natural materials. See more photos and learn about how she was made here.

What's really fun about all these projects I've done is that I can see R's creativity blossoming alongside my own. She now loves to "fix" her stuffies, "plant gardens" with sticks, make beds and clothes for her dollies and stuffies out of fabric, and more. She calls them "mydeas" and really impresses me sometimes! 

Using the sewing kit I made her-- embroidery thread with a dull embroidery needle, some large buttons, and quilt batting inside of an embroidery hoop. She often takes her needle and thread over to her stuffies to "sew" their holes!

She made this "carrier" for Baby Sasha out of my measuring tape. Technically I tied it, but it was totally her idea!

There you are, a very long post to update you on our life right now. I'm not sure what's to come for me career-wise (although I'm toying with getting certified as a childbirth educator... because, you know, I haven't spent enough money on my education and credentials!), but right now, I'm really enjoying being a Certified Mama!