Aellyn Does Disco with Liam

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Caramel Popcorn Candy Bars

MMM.  I got this recipe from Semi-homemade with Sandra Lee.  It is a Kit Kat bar (4 sections) with caramel corn on top and milk and white chocolate as the glue to hold it all together.  It was very good but too sweet.  Next time I'll try a variation with something salty like pretzels or peanuts or maybe semi-sweet chocolate.  Definitely many possibilities with this concept.

Wordless Wednesday: Funny Bunny

My most daring project yet!  (I put one ear on backwards that's why I call him funny bunny!)  Also my first use of embroidery for the face.

Here is a shot of the gusseting I did to make him stand up.

Nursing Pillow Cover

6 Month Pictures!

She's Crafty

Who knew?

This Big-eyed Owl is cotton with felt eyes and nose.  He is crinkly for auditory and tactile stimulation (crinkly = raisin bag!)

Plush baby block.  Felt block with ribbon, fringe, and needle felted shapes.  The bottom picture is a reverse side of a needle felted square so it is fuzzy.

I am having so much fun.  All these were done with no pattern and in less than an hour!

Two Happy Marriage Fallacies

I know I can't call myself a marriage expert. I've only been married 10 years. However, we are really happy and we've survived infertility a known major stressor on couples. 

I won't give marriage advice because everyone is so different.  What works is different for everyone.  There are two things ingrained in our ethos though that I think are just plain wrong.  Here goes:

1. "Love means never having to say you're sorry." 
   
   When Jennifer says it to Oliver in Love Story it makes a great plot point in the book (or movie).  In real life?  This is crap.  Don't believe it.  I think Erich Segal probably meant that in love forgiveness is always ready to be given.  But I really believe you have to ask for it and often.  When in doubt apologize!  lol.  An honest apology is all about empathy.  Sharing your emotions is the cornerstone of marriage, IMO and being able to (or at least keen to) understand the emotions of your mate is the basis of intimacy.  So, I say use the words "I'm sorry" often and always with sincerity. 
   
   
   
2. Honesty is the best policy.
   
   This is really a life skill and not just a marriage thing. It is a common refrain that "honesty is always the best policy.'  Pfft.  That is just plain stupid.  Lying is an important social skill and being a slave to honesty will make you a tool.  There are different types of lies and knowing when to use one is a very important.  Honesty, as a policy, shouldn't trump other virtues like kindness and justice.  Did you know that the Bible contains an acceptable lie?  In Joshua, Rahab lies about harboring the Isrealite spies.  This story kind of reminds me of the people who hid Anne Frank.  There is clearly a greater good at stake.  In marriage that greater good can be peace, the self-esteem of your mate, etc.
   
   So what is a bad lie in a relationship?  I think it goes back to trust.  If you are telling a lie that would errode trust were it to come out - you are not building up your relationship.
   
   What is a good lie?  Obviously, the "no your butt doesn't look big in that" is an important one for guys to know.  I think there are others.  I think it is important to support your partner in their dreams.  As the person they share this intimate, empathetic relationship with, you have a particular role in either squashing or building up their dreams.  So, when your husband says "I think I'm going to make a movie."  You think "oh for goodness sake, give me a break, what a waste of time."  But, you say "that's would be great, honey!"  This type of lie build up your spouse instead of tearing them down. 
   

So, that's my marriage observations.  Lie and say you're sorry.

Felt Play Food - I like to sew after all!

So, I'm not a seamstress.  My mom is amazing.  Like make a wedding dress amazing.  Like she made clothes for her Barbies with kick pleats amazing.  Me not so much.  It is too time consuming and requires too much accuracy.  This is why I would rather cook than bake. Cooking is like art - a dash of this, a pinch of that.  Baking?  You better get the exact amount of baking soda (or is that powder?) or pppjbbtttt.  I always thought sewing was like baking.  Exact cutting, measuring (yuck!), and straight perfect lines.

Then I saw the Felt Play Food craze currently rocking through crafting circles and I thought "I can do that!"  Turns out I was right.  This type of sewing is very seat of your pants.  It has less worry because if you mess up it isn't like you might loose your skirt in the middle of a meeting.  Plus, it is really more artistic - free form even.  Shape your food like you think it would look - no pattern required.

PLUS!  You get the pride of having your daughter play with a toy you made!  Maybe I'm more domestic than I thought?

If I can do this anyone can.  Google Felt Play Food for lots of examples and tutorials.  Here is what I've done:

From Left: A bag of ruffled potato chips, a sunny-side up fried egg, two pancakes with syrup and butter, and a carrot.

Here's a close up of the pancake.  Two pieces of tan felt sewn and reversed by cutting a small slit in the middle (which is covered up by the syrup).  The syrup is attached using needle felting* and the pat of butter is two pieces of pale yellow felt with a zig zag stitch.  The butter is then attached with needle felting.  You could make them separate for older kids to stack on their own.  For me this is mostly a chew toy for now so I attached them permanently.

This is my carrot.  Just a triangle of orange felt sewed and reversed then gathered at the top.  The leaf is two colors of green felt with needle felting used to pop the contrast color through (and keep the layers together).  This is then hand sewn into the top of the carrot.

Here's an egg.  You can see how totally crappy my sewing skills are but it still turns out to be a cute toy!  This is two white pieces of felt sewn and reversed through a small slit that will be hidden by the yolk.  Hand sew the yolk and stuff it with polyfill right before you finish the stitches.

Ok, this one was my favorite.  The magenta stripe on the blue bag and the yellow medallion that says "Chips" are both attached with needle felting.  The chips have vertical lines to make them look ruffled.  You could also sew around the edge to have non-ruffled chips.  I just wrote Chips with a Sharpie but you should probably use fabric paint.  Also, note how crappy my vertical lines are on some of the chips but it still looks good.  Gotta love imprecise sewing working!

*Needle felting is just the coolest thing ever.  It is a no sew way to work with felt that is unique to felt (synthetic or wool).  Watch this video about what needle felting is.  She is using roving, or loose wool, but the same technique applies to sheets of felt.

More Gardasil Woes

Since I moved my blog from wordpress the old wordpress blog still gets frequent comments regarding my post on Erin Brokovich and Gardasil.  They are all from mothers whose daughters have been injured by this horrible vaccine.  Even though I don't vaccinate at all, even if you do vaccinate, DO NOT get this vaccine!  It is just not proven safe and is increasingly looking horribly unsafe.  Here is a most recent comment from the old blog.  She provided links so you can take action.

My daughter, Victoria, has been ill since February 2008.
Here is some history. My daughter had her first Gardasil vaccination November 2007. Her second vaccination was in the beginning of February 2008. Immediately after her second vaccination, Victoria experienced severe diarrhea and was nauseous for about eight weeks. She had blood work done many times and doctors thought she had a virus. On March 31, 2008, she had her first seizure. My daughter has treated with many neurologists, all of whom have not related her seizures to Gardasil. Meanwhile, there are quite a few hundred people that I have found over the internet through my numerous postings and through Erin Brockovich, and their daughters are all experiencing the same symptoms, which occurred after the Gardasil vaccination. We have actually formed a group and share our daughters’ stories, symptoms and information. My daughter has had CT scans, MRI’s, MRA’s, EEG’s, blood work and was hospitalized at an epilepsy center in the video EEG monitoring unit for two separate weeks in May 2008 and September 2008. She was put on many different seizure medications. After the normal EEG results, she was taken off all medications. Her SED rate has always been high and she does have protein in her urine, but doctors do not seem concerned. I was told that her red blood are small, but this apparently is not concerning either.
My daughter has been seen by several neurologists, a psychiatrist, psychologist, several neuropsychologists, an immunologist, several infectious disease doctors, and also treated a at Wellness Center for a period of time. Wellness Center physicians believe that my daughter may have Lyme disease that was dormant until the Gardasil vaccine. Infectious disease doctors differ. Which doctors are correct? I have no idea.
My daughter currently experiences the following symptoms: non-epileptic seizures, migraines, fainting, tremors, twitches, numbness, intermittent leg paralysis and facial paralysis, tingling, staring or blank episodes, eye pain, joint pain, neck pain, back pain, memory loss, confusion, brain fog, regression, mood swings and chronic fatigue. She continues to have bouts of nausea and diarrhea. She has not been in school since April 2008. My daughter can never be left home alone. She can’t go to school, go out with her friends or work or has little “normalcy” in her life. She has very few good days and always says she doesn’t feel good.
I do not know which way to turn for help. We have seen so many doctors and I can’t seem to find anyone willing to help my daughter. There are so many other young girls who have the same exact symptoms as my daughter and the one thing that all of the girls seem to have in common is the Gardasil vaccination.
We are on a fixed income, as most people, and we have expended many thousands of dollars in an effort to seek medical opinions and assistance. Although we do have medical insurance, it is very difficult to find doctors willing to treat my daughter who will accept our HMO. Also, there are no “traditional medical doctors” who will relate my daughter’s symptoms to Gardasil as I am told “there is not enough information available” about the vaccine and doctors believe it to be “safe” . The vaccine has been available for less than three years. Meanwhile, there are some doctors who are making the correlation between Gardasil and many of the girls’ symptoms. However, the only doctors I know of right now are in California and Kansas. Other doctors are willing to “try” treatment, most of which is “homeopathic” in nature and extremely costly. Once again, I must reiterate that there are so many other young girls experiencing negative symptoms.
Each and every night, I check on my daughter many times in the middle of the night to make sure she is still breathing (like we ALL did when they were babies). I have a chime on her bedroom door so that every time she opens it, I know she has walked out of her room. I had a deadbolt put on the front door of our home with a key that can be removed from the inside. I never leave the key in the door for fear that Victoria will be confused after a seizure or when she has memory loss, and leave our home. (This has happened many times and she has been missing). When she is in the shower, I have to either stand outside the door and/or keep asking her “are you okay?”
Each day, I cry and wonder if Victoria will be next one to die from adverse reactions to Gardasil.
We are in desperate need of medical treatment for my daughter. I have run out of ideas, doctors to treat with and finances have dwindled. I do not know which direction to turn. Any thoughts are most appreciated, especially from the medical community.
Please feel free to forward this information.
Thank you.
Jodi Speakman
(267) 939-0591
Jodispeaks@aol.com
P.S. My daughter’s story is posted on the NVIC website. http://www.nvic.org
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/14/investigate-gardasil-vaccine-risks-now
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/posted.php?id=547704835&share_id=76759221290#s76759221290 id=547704835&share_id=76759221290#s76759221290
http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/Shot-Through-the-Heart.html

The Right To Bear Arms

Aellyn has been denied.

That's right.  I'm denying my daughter one of our inalienable rights guaranteed in the 2nd amendment of the constitution.

Of course, by arms I do not mean weapons, I mean actual appendages.  I limit Aellyn's access to them.  Oh yes.  Aellyn is a swaddled baby.

At first, the tight straight-jacket-like wrapping seems, to an adult sensibility, like torture.  I certainly wouldn't like not having control of my arms.  Some babies, of course, also hate it.  I think this is one of those times it helps to listen to your mama instincts.  Of course a sleepy baby is going to cry - are they crying because they hate the swaddle?  or, because they are sleepy?  Aellyn not only likes it but it really helps her sleep.  She is wht I like to call a "face slapper," waking herself up every 10 minutes.  Hugged in a swaddle cocoon she sleeps 8 hours peacefully.

Most people swaddle their infants for the first few weeks but abandon the habit once they get a little older.  If you baby is having trouble sleeping, maybe give swaddling a try again?  Here is our quest to find the perfect swaddle (and keep her in it).

First we had a SwaddleMe.  This uses flaps with velcro.  It worked well at first.  The she got bigger and stronger.  The sizing of the SwaddleMe is horrible.  The difference between the small and the large (there is no medium) is crazy.  When we went up to the large it was way too big.  We had to frankenstein it.  We sewed a 2 1/2 inch seam up the middle in order for the flap to hit the velcro at the right spot.  Even then she had to be wrapped very tightly in order for her not to push her hands up through the top every night.  It was a horrible pain in the butt and more often than not, she woke up frustrated with her hand mushed by her chin.  Defeated the whole purpose of the swaddle.  The swaddle velcro also looses its sticking power.  Never underestimate the power of a baby!  They put Houdini to shame.

Now we have a Miracle Blanket.  This is so aptly named!  The design is ingenious.  The problem with most swaddlers and blankets is that to stop the baby from worming their arms up between their chest and the swaddle you have to wrap them tight.  This lets you wrap them more loosely since it has the most amazing little arm flaps.  It is impossible to explain.  Check it out:



It is those little arm flaps that are the miracle.  We don't use the leg pocket and you can see that it really grows with the baby so you don't have to keep buying additional sizes.  She has never gotten out of this and she sleeps like...well, like a baby (if ever there was a stupid axiom it is that).  I can't recommend the miracle blanket enough!  Give it a try.

Big Girl!

Aellyn's 6 mo. well-baby visit was today.  I didn't go because I've been sick for a few days but DH just texted me to tell me she weighs 17.5lbs and is 26.5in long.  I can't believe how tall she is!  We are just about to move up to size 3 diapers.  It is really crazy to think about.  She was just a tiny little thing back in February!

Here's Aellyn enjoying her broccoli!  I love how she flinches from the flavor.  So cute.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I turned 34!  And the best part?  For the first time I don't have to say "hopefully next year I'll be a mom!"

I just got the greatest news that two friends from my infertility support group Still Waters are pregnant!  Congrats Tori and Mindy!  I'm so happy for you.  We should get together.!

So, yesterday we auctioned my grandparents' home in the mountains of West Virginia.  Grandma is really getting too feeble for them to live 45 minutes up a mountain from the nearest hospital so they are selling the place and moving in with my sister.  It was so sad to leave the place where I have so many childhood memories.  I was moping around trying to think of something to bring "closure."  Pictures? no, we have plenty.  Then I thought of witting a hidden note to the new owners.  I took a panel that hides wires out and we wrote on the back:

This was our home and it was filled with years of fun and laughter.  May it be the same for all who enter here.

and we all signed it.  It felt good some how.  We will always "be" there and everyone who follows will know it was a place of happy memories.