Reflections on Easter: The Jesus story, zombie faith issues, and the unlikely victory of Icarus

There’s no promise of safety on these secondhand wings/ but I’m willing to find out what impossible means / Climb though the heavens on feathers and dreams / cause the melting point of wax means nothing to me
~ The Melting Point of Wax; Thrice



So, it’s happened again. Easter time has snuck up on me, and now that I’ve taken a moment to think about it, it’s difficult for me to know what to make of it. Those of you who know me well know that Christian holidays have been difficult for me since I left the church several years ago. I never know what to do with Easter – not celebrating it doesn’t feel like an option. I’d be opting out of multiple family gatherings, and for what? A defense of my belief system? My belief system doesn’t permit me to hurt people I love just so I can be ‘right’. But celebrating often feels like a giant hypocrisy, because I don’t believe in the Easter story. Or, more accurately, I’m not sure whether I believe in the Easter story and I’m not overly concerned with figuring that out right now.

More on that in a moment.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Jesus story lately, probably in large part because I just finished reading Rob Bell’s new book, Love Wins. It’s been prompting me to think deeply about the loss of my faith and about leaving the church, which are both fairly unpleasant topics, but both important.

There are things no one tells you about what it is to lose one’s faith. Holidays have been hard for me over the past several years for the same reason Easter feels difficult this year. And there is a profound loneliness involved in losing one’s church and god. I remember very clearly reading Coupland’s Eleanor Rigby around the time this all went down for me, and being profoundly impacted by the strong focus it had on human loneliness. Leaving the church was a deeply thought out, very difficult decision. It had become apparent that the Jesus story I was reading in the Gospels wasn’t the Jesus story I was being preached from the pulpit (and yes, I tried many pulpits). I came to realize I didn’t actually believe the same things the Church believed, even though we were reading the same text (and for this I say, Rob Bell, I feel your pain, man.) I didn’t feel I had a choice but to leave – staying was a lie. But being without the church community you have relied on for years is harrowing. It is heartbreaking, soul-sucking loneliness. It is constantly questioning yourself, never feeling sure of anything, always feeling on the outside and never understanding exactly why. Not exactly pleasant, I’m sure you can imagine.



Church communities, as it turns out, can be replaced. Cuthbert and I have since somehow managed to build a vibrant, healthy community we rely heavily on, and that I’m honestly not sure I could survive without. We have Christians, atheists, agnostics, pagans… anyone who can live with our adherence to creating a safe space for people to live in community. Gods, though… well, they’re not very replace-able. I will never forget reading the passage of Eleanor Rigby in which one of the characters describes what it is about zombies that is so frightening…. the way they have no souls, and have lost their connection to the divine. I felt that so strongly, that loss of a connection to the divine. To this day, I have never felt lonelier or more lost than I did during those first few months without a god.



And so, it turns out that reading Rob Bell around Easter time is basically stirring a giant pot in my head, for reasons that should be obvious at this point.

I like the Jesus story that Rob Bell seems to read when he reads the Gospels. It isn’t at all unlike the Jesus story I thought I was reading.

The Jesus story – the one you get if you read the Gospels as a story, not the one the church lays out in rigid dogma and single verses and alliterated fill-in-the-blanks – is beautiful. It is the story of a man who breaks all the rules in order to love people he isn’t ‘supposed to’ love. This is a man who answers questions with questions, who consistently questions authority and challenges religious leaders. He is a gifted storyteller who consistently finds himself in community, eating with others, walking with others, talking with others, drinking wine. He’s celebrating with people, hurting with people, and loving the people on the fringes right where they are. He does quiet contemplation and angry outbursts, celebrating with people he loves and weeping for losses. He is genuine and human in a way most people cannot be. Injustices piss him off.

He says, in essence, over and over again, “I don’t care what you think the rules say I am or am not supposed to do. This is what I’m going to do because this is what love looks like. I will defile your Sabbath, because the very idea that I cannot heal (read: love) people because of your rules defiles everything I am.” And if you read the story as a story, sometimes you can almost hear the quiet sighs as he realizes, once again, no one is ‘getting it’.

It is a beautiful story. There is absolutely no denying that.

I don’t know if it is true or not, but it is a beautiful story.



All of this makes me think of Icarus. Random, I know, but this will all make sense in a moment. In the event that you are not familiar with the story of Icarus, here’s a quick rundown: Icarus and his dad are imprisoned at Crete as punishment for royally pissing off King Minos (pun intended). Icarus’ dad comes up with a brilliant plan to create two pairs of wings out of feathers and wax so that they can fly off the island and escape. There are a few issues with the wings though: they can’t fly too close to the sea, or the feathers will get wet and weighed down, and they’ll fall into the sea and drown. They also can’t fly too close to the sun or the wax will melt, the feathers will fall off, and they’ll fall into the sea and drown. Cheery stuff. Icarus curiously soars toward the sun, and realizes only as his feathers fall off that he has flown too high. He falls into the sea, et cetera, et cetera.



This is Cuthbert’s favorite story of Greek mythology. He reads it, and in it he finds something beautiful – that Icarus flew toward the sun, testing his limits, and truly living, not settling for mediocrity, but flying as high as he could. Cuthbert finds victory in the melted wax, and the fluttering feathers, and, well, that nasty bit about falling into the sea. There’s a song about Icarus, The Melting Point of Wax, that makes the points I always have such a hard time explaining about this story. It’s a song about refusing to accept limits without testing them ourselves, about refusing promises of safety in exchange for making ourselves smaller, about taking leaps of faith in ourselves. It’s essentially the dirty rocker boy version of Defying Gravity from Wicked, only about Icarus instead of a green witch. (Yes, that sentence made complete sense to me. Really.) I’m a fan of the dirty rocker boys.

When Cuthbert tells us the story of Icarus, or when I hear that song, I cannot help but find the story to be beautiful. It simply is.

As far as I can tell, Cuthbert doesn’t believe that the story of Icarus actually happened. It’s a little bit out there, isn’t it? Very likely it isn’t true. But that has not stopped Cuthbert from loving this story, from finding the beauty in it, and in celebrating it whenever and wherever he can. The story being only a myth hasn’t stopped him from tattooing Icarus onto his chest. None of us think this is strange (us Tuesday Nighters, anyway). The beautiful things he has found in this story are worth celebrating, whether they really happened or not. The truths he finds in the story are central to what he strives to be, and so he owns them, and we own them with him.

There is no church of Icarus (at least that I know of) that will say Curthbert is a heretic for valuing the story without believing it is true. No one is going to tell Cuthbert he is going to hell for blasphemy in regards to his position on the story. No one will make religious assumptions about Cuthbert based on his love for this story. No one is going to do anything except listen to the story and decide for themselves whether they find it beautiful as well.

For that, I envy him. Loving the Jesus story always seems to come back to haunt me.

But anyway, back to Easter. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?

I love the Jesus story. I really do. It’s up there with The Dark Tower for me, and for good reason. It is a beautiful story. I don’t know if it is true or not. To be honest (and I know this will get to some of you – I’m sorry) I don’t really care. I’m just not overly concerned with it at the moment; I find peace in not knowing. I also fail to understand why it matters whether it is true. I strive to live more like the Jesus story, not because of a religious conviction, not because I am afraid of hell (which I have not believed in for years), and not because I necessarily think it is a true story. I strive to live more like the Jesus story because it is a beautiful story, and it awakens a part of me that wants to live in a better way – much like the Icarus story does. And that, to me, is worth more than all the religious conviction, all the church community, all the promises of heaven in the world. I think that’s what stories like this are supposed to do. That’s why we love them.

And so I’ve decided to follow Cuthbert’s example. I am going to own this story as a story I love, as unapologetically as I can. Which, as discussed earlier, is a little bit more difficult than owning Icarus, but I’m going to try. According to the Easter story, Jesus was crucified on a Friday and rose from the dead on Sunday morning to redeem mankind and spread God’s love through the world. Good Friday has always been a day that has felt sad to me. I am going to mourn it, because that’s what feels right to me. And on Sunday I am going to celebrate, because I have the culmination of a beautiful story to celebrate.

Then on Monday, I am going to continue loving people as best as I possibly can, just as this story has always inspired me to try to do. I’m going to continue playing the role of storyteller whenever I can, live in community as best as I can, love the people who are hard to love as best as I can, and, in the words of Meghan, try to “go around making injustices my bitch”. Because that’s what the Jesus story inspires me to do.

Some people will call me a hypocrite, but the reality is that the only thing that colors my love of the story with something deemed hypocrisy is the modern Western Church’s idea that they have the market on how the story should be valued. I haven’t much cared what the modern Western Church has thought of me for some time now, so this shouldn’t be a problem.

It is a story I love. I am going to celebrate it. And if anyone has a problem with that, well, that’ll mean about as much to me as the melting point of wax.

Goals for 2011

Every year in January I come up with a list of things I’d like to do. Not ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ per se, but just stuff I need or want to do during that year. Sometimes I complete my goals, sometimes I don’t. But having them posted gives me something to go back to throughout the year when I’m trying to remember what in the world it was I wanted to do. And so, here are my goals for 2011:


Read some stuff

• Complete the Tuesday Night reading challenge of 17,000 pages for 2011
• Read these books:
• Til We Have Faces ~ C.S. Lewis
• The Stand ~ Stephen King
• As I Lay Dying ~ Faulkner
• The Lords of the Rings Series ~ Tolkien
• Outliers ~ Malcolm Gladwell
• Read whatever else I feel like.
• Keep a good record of what I’ve read so I can track my reading challenge.

Be healthier
Everyone wants to be healthier, right? So there’s some stuff I want to try:

• Reduce my consumption of these:
• Refined & added sugars
• Artificial sweeteners (i.e. Diet Coke – this is my major vice)
• Processed foods
• And since I’ve realized that fake food is just silly, let’s get rid of that too. It’s mostly gone from the house, but I think we need to purge the rest of it. Spray-on-butter, anyone? Seriously, what was I thinking?
• Oh, and I need to lose some weight. But that’s depressing, so we’re not going to talk about it today. 
• Continue hitting the gym twice a week. Since the time I spend on the elliptical constitutes a decent chunk of the actual amount of time I get to spend reading in any given week, I think I’ll be able to stay motivated.
• Milling various grains to bake bread with. This should be interesting, to say the least. But I’ve been reading that if you mill your own stuff you get a lot more nutrients and it tastes yummier. So I want to try some different grains this year and see what tastes the best and what bakes up nicely.
• Not being afraid of good fat. Eat butter. Lots of it. And eat other good stuff like coconut oil and tree nuts and animal fats. Keep pretend fats (hydrogenated and vegetable oils) out of the house.

Declutter, declutter, declutter. And declutter some more.
We have too much crap in our house. Some of it has to go! Here’s the plan:

• Go on a fabric no-buy for 2011. Ack! Rules for my fabric no-buy:
• Don’t buy random fabric. At all. No matter how cute it is, how cheap it is, or how great it *might* look on some future unforeseen project that I’ll likely never finish anyways.
• Buying fabric to finish a project I already started is ok.
• Notions to finish projects are ok
• Obviously, buying fabric and supplies to complete custom orders is ok.
• Work really hard on using up scraps this year. I’ve made a folder of good scrap projects, now I need to use it!
• Finish going through all the CDs and movies in our house, and get rid of most of them.
• One way or another, get rid of the piano in the garage
• Get rid of the rocking chair in the garage
• Take D’s grandma’s chair to be looked at. If it is salvageable, have it re-covered. If not, get rid of it.
• Decide what to do about D’s grandpa’s dresser. Re-finish it or get rid of it.
• Get rid of all the windows hanging out in the garage
• List and sell any photography equipment I'm not going to use

Community Goals

• Work with Cuthbert & Mia to finish vision/values documents for the Tet Cohousing group 
• Learn more about consensus based decision making, and implement it into our cohousing procedures
• Figure out how to successfully re-implement book club into Tuesday Nights. For some reason, our last 3 book club attempts have crumbled.

I think these all seem do-able. I guess we’ll see when 2012 rolls around what I was actually successful at!

2010 Book Review

This year I participated in a reading challenge on a message board I frequent. Our challenge this year was to read 20,100 pages. I don’t think anyone actually completed the challenge, which seemed totally do-able to me back in March but right now seems like a slightly insane goal for someone with a small child, a job, and a sewing gig on the side. I’m just past 17,000 pages so far, but I don’t think there’s any way I’ll catch up before the year is over. *shrug* Eh, there’s always next year!


Anyhow, as a result of participating in the challenge I actually kept pretty good track of what I read this year, and I’ve pulled out my favorite ten to give short reviews on. These aren’t listed in any particular order, so the ones at the bottom are as good ast he ones at the top!


My 10 Best Reads of 2010

Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity From a Consumer Culture
By: Shannon Hayes
I loved this book so much I bought 3 copies to pass around. Radical Homemakers is divided into two sections, one about (for lack of a better term), the fall and rise of homemaking, and one that details the lives of several radical homemakers. Hayes does an excellent job of describing the shift from American households as units of production to that of consumption and states her case for why she believes that reclaiming our homes as units of production is key to helping us straighten out the modern mess we’ve found ourselves in (Obesity, anyone? Environmental destruction? Maybe a little consumerism?).

While I personally don’t think I’ll go to some of the lengths she describes in this book, it was very affirming to find that I’m not the only weirdo out there, doing things like making yogurt in my crockpot, canning from my garden, sewing my own diapers, or bartering for goods and services. Overall, a fantastic and inspiring read.


The Book Thief
By: Markus Zusak
“I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate.”

I am still trying to figure out who recommended this book to me! Either way, it was excellent. The Book Thief is narrated by Death (as a character) during Nazi Germany. While collecting souls, Death continually sees one particular little girl, a book thief, whose story we learn throughout the book. This is the kind of book that has both deep subtexts and a can’t-put-it-down-cause-I-gotta-know-what-happens plot with characters you can’t help but love. One of my favorite reads of the year.


Bodies In Motion And At Rest
By: Thomas Lynch
“The hypochondriac is therefore a hopeless case, whose illness (the fear of sickness and of death) is most often cured by sickness and death. ‘I told you so’ seems the haunting subtext of their funerals.”

I simply adore Thomas Lynch. As a poet and undertaker who isn’t actually all that far away (Michigan, I believe), he always makes the most unique and interesting observations about the human condition. His writing style is witty and humorous, which makes some of the topics he deals with every day much more bearable. Bodies In Motion And At Rest is a series of essays including observations about life, death, religion, the funeral industry, divorce, raising children, and, quite possibly my favorite, a hilarious poem about his fuming hatred for his son’s beloved cat, which begins, “One of these days she will lie there and be dead”.

In addition to this book, I also highly recommend Lynch’s other collection of essays, titled “The Undertaking”.


Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter
By: Seth Grahame-Smith
This book is hilarious! It reads as a biography of Abraham Lincoln, written after Lincoln’s “secret diaries” were bestowed on the author, and details the turn his life made toward vampire hunting after his mother’s death was caused by a vampire bite. The book follows the remainder of Lincoln’s life, describing factual events but attributing them to things related to vampire hunting. Loved it!


Juliet, Naked
By: Nick Hornby
I was surprised by how good this book was. I’ve always enjoyed Nick Hornby, but never like this. An aging former rock star, a devoted fan, and his inwardly lonely girlfriend all must sort out how to cope when the album Juliet, Naked is released. The album is essentially a demo version of Juliet, a prior album that an online community of fans have idolized. I love the way Hornby used the internet to fuel the events that take place in this book. There’s something about it that makes it feel like it is ours – our generation’s book, that is taking place in our generation’s world, and in our generation’s reality. The characters are lovable and all desperately flawed – which I suspect makes them all the more lovable. The story is meaningful in small ways - it isn’t going to change your life, but it does give you some things to think about and was also overall a pretty feel-good book.


The Twilight Series
By: Stephanie Meyer
So, not exactly one book, but a very good series. I initially started reading Twilight when I was pregnant with Norah and was put off by how ‘young adult’ it seemed (Erm... maybe because its a young adult book?). I, incidentally, went into labor the day I started the book and never picked it back up until late this year. But once I got started again, I couldn’t stop reading. I think once I accepted that it was going to be light reading and what I would call ‘fluff’, I got over myself and was able to just enjoy it. The romance in the story is nearly ridiculous and sickly-sweet at times, but still fun to read. It was also fun to see what vampire/werewolf ‘rules’ and legends came about in the story. A super quick and easy read, and it’s pretty fun.


The Things That Keep Us Here
By: Carla Buckley
This novel is the story of one family’s struggle for survival when bird flu becomes a pandemic of massive proportions. When I picked this up, I was prepared for disaster, The Stand style. This is not The Stand. By concentrating heavily on one family and their struggle for survival, the story became real in ways that were truly distressing. Imagine your dying neighbor leaving her baby at your doorstop and fighting amongst yourselves about whether to bring him in because you don’t know if he’s sick… and if he is, at least half of you will likely die with him. This is not a fun read, but it is a good read, if you can dig the difference. It’s a powerful look at humanity and what comes out in us when we’re forced into dire circumstances.


Fast Food Nation
By: Eric Schlosser
I don’t think I will ever eat at McDonald’s again. Even if I could stomach what I now know is in the food, my conscious won’t let me give them my money after Schlosser detailed the unethical business practices designed to oppress both employees and franchise owners. Fast Food Nation examines a variety of fast food chain practices, as well as food processing practices in America. This book particularly focused on the meat packing industry and the potato industry. Schlosser’s witty writing style made the grim news easier to read, but not necessarily easier to digest (pun definitely intended). A must read for anyone concerned about the food industry. Paired with Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (which closely examines the corn processing industry, among others), you will learn everything you ever wanted to know about fast food and processed food (except what the food companies refused to tell the authors, which is interesting in itself).


Water For Elephants
By: Sara Gruen
After his parents are killed in an auto accident one week before he’s scheduled to sit for his veterinary exam, Jacob Jankowski finds himself quite accidentally running away to join the circus. He eventually finds himself in charge of treating the animals in the circus, and in the middle of a love affair destined for disaster. It’s written mostly as a period circus piece, which I loved, and has an intriguing plot with characters that you’re rooting for desperately right up until the end. I don’t know that there was anything particularly deep or meaningful, but I really enjoyed this novel.


Full Dark, No Stars
By: Stephen King
Un-put-down-able. I finished this book in a day and a half, which for the pre-child me may not have said much, but for the mommy-Heather, is saying quite a lot. Four novellas show ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances and leave you wondering…. now, what would I have done? In typical King fashion, he captures what is truly scary…. us.


And there you have it - my ten best reads of 2010.  I hope you enjoy!  And if you should happen to read any of these, please let me know what you thought!

2010 Quote Review

It’s that time again… time for our annual quote review! For those of you who aren’t familiar, every year I gather up the things I have heard and read and then sort out the very best quotes. This year they’re divided up into two categories – things my friends and family have said and things I read this year.


My understanding is that there’s a small competition going on within the Tuesday Night community as to who can get the most quotes on the 2010 quote review. I haven’t tallied them up, but I’m sure someone will take advantage of their bragging rights soon!

Enjoy!


From the Mouths of Friends

*I must say, this is the first time in my life I’ve experienced a spontaneous Sister Act moment. ~ Curt

*I have a theory that denim is a giant napkin. ~ Heather

*My cat peed on the census forms. She’s an anarchist, I’m just a spineless liberal. ~ Meghan
 - This is, hands down, my favorite quote of the year

*I’m looking at you and I see a problem. ~ Mallory
- Mallory was actually trying to comfort me when this one popped out, but it sounded much more like she thought there was something very wrong with me. It’s since become a Tuesday Night staple.

*My goal today is not to be a dick… so, like, ten minutes later I was being a dick. ~ Curt

*I wish apartments were as easy to steal as purses. ~ Meghan

*He was, like, really, really touchy, but with his pelvis. ~ Heather

*Punching might be a love language for Jason. ~ Curt

*I asked him what cologne he wears and he was like, ‘Man Sweat!’ ~ Meghan

*Heather: I never did anything mean to a pastor before….
  Curt: It’s surprising how quickly you get used to it.

*Is that the sound of toenails being clipped… or a gun? ~Carissa

*They don’t have whiskey in space. That’s what I don’t wanna be an astronaut. ~ Curt

*Shimmy like your rent’s due! ~ Mallory

*5,000 year PMS = The Old Testament ~ Curt

*I’m so excited because my yoga ass is coming in! – Bex

*There’s always gonna be this beautiful, bitchy undertone. ~ Curt
- Why thank you, Curtis. That’s the nicest thing anyone’s said about me all year!

*That’s the night I was my father’s Japanese son. ~ Mallory

*There’s not a word in the English language that conveys the magnitude of my “ewwww”. ~ Curt

*I’ve actually won two dance contests with the sprinkler. ~ Meghan

*That was my Tuesday Night before I had them. ~ Bex

*Curt: Was he hot?
  Bex: He was in a I-might-have-just-killed-my-parents-and-put-em-in-the-freezer kind of way


Things I Read This Year

*Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. ~ Marianne Williamson

*The hypochondriac is therefore a hopeless case, whose illness (the fear of sickness and of death) is most often cured by sickness and death. ‘I told you so’ seems the haunting subtext of their funerals. ~ Thomas Lynch; Bodies in Motion and at Rest

*I don’t drink. I did of course, and plenty of it, but had to quit for the usual reasons. It got to where I was spilling so much of it. ~ Thomas Lynch; Bodies in Motion and at Rest

*What is said and unsaid are both instructive. ~ Thomas Lynch; Bodies in Motion and at Rest

*Among the few consolation of what has been called writer’s block is the assurance that, so long as one has it, one is, indeed, a writer ~ Thomas Lynch; Bodies in Motion and at Rest

*I guess humans like to watch a little destruction. Sand castles, houses of cards, that’s where they begin. Their great skill is their capacity to escalate. ~ Markus Zusak; The Book Thief

*It’s a fundamental human need to pass music around. ~ Rob Sheffield; Love Is a Mix Tape

*You’re fighting a battle of good and evil with your dog pimp! Your only weapon is the shimmy! There is power in the shimmy! Make him fear your shimmy! Now, goddamnit show me your war shimmy! ~ Laurie Notaro; There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might be Going to Hell

*If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more or become more, you are a leader. ~ John Quincy Adams

*All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. ~ I have no idea who said this; I saw it on someone’s facebook


And there we have it, 2010 in summary!

Trainers for the little bug!

If you recall this post about my diaper sewing, and then this post about potty learning, you my have concluded that Norah decided she wanted to potty learn right after I made her a nice, new, squishy batch of diapers.  And if you came to that conclusion, you are correct.

However, we are still having our share of 'oops'es, espeically now that the potty is no longer a new, cool concept she is intent on mastering.  To help out with the oopses I've sewed her up a nice new batch of training pants.  And hey, who knows!  Maybe the production of a giant batch of trainers is just what she needs to keep her nice and dry. ;)

For your viewing pleasure, here they are:


I made her two of each design except for the owl pair - she has 3 owl pairs - for a total of 13.  What can I say, blue eyes looking up at you saying, "Owl undies, peeeese" cannot be ignored.  Here are a couple closer-ups of my favorites.





The inners and outers of these trainers are plain 'ole cotton knit.  I've used a rib knit with some spandex content for the legs and waist bands, so they will fit nice and snug and retain their stretchiness.  They all have soaker pads consisting of three layers of cotton flannel, which is (I hope) enough padding to keep a small accident from being catastrophic (pee running down the leg and into the shoe, anyone?), but not enough to feel padded like a diaper.

Now, the very best thing about these trainers... they unsnap.  This may not mean much to someone who doesn't have a small child in underwear or trainers, but to those that do, it means a whole lot - namely that you will never wrestle with your conscious over wanting to cut a nasty pair of undies off of a child rather than attempt to slide them off.  No worries, here.  Just unsnap, clean up, and go about your day.

Once I finished these up, I started wondering if these could be made with a waterproof material.  And so, I made up one last pair.  These last ones have a layer of PUL on the outside, which is a waterproof material.  I don't know how much it will actually help, as the leg ribbing is sewn right in between the inner layer and the PUL and will therefore likely wick like mad.  But, being trainers, they're intended to be taken off as soon as you know there's an accident, so maybe they won't wick too badly if I get them off her quick enough?  I'll be testing them out to find out.  I espeically like the star snaps on this pair:



These are all made from the Tinkle Time Trainers pattern.  It comes in sizes 18mo - 7 years, and also includes pattern pieces to make big kid undies as well as the trainers.  The pattern includes instructions for a pull up style trainer (no snaps - boo!), and a snap on trainer with one or two rows of snaps on each side.  I've made these with just one row.  These are relatively easy to put together, but did take me more time than I had anticipated.  The pattern is available for purchase here.  The pattern maker also has an overnight trainer pattern that's similar, but I haven't tried it out yet.

Now to see if these help the little bug stay dray!

My first custom diaper order!

I've just completed my first custom diaper order and I just had to post!

This order is 5 one size diaper covers - 2 dark blue, 2 dark lime green, and 1 aqua.  The mama who ordered it wanted something she could wipe clean between changes and didn't want FOE.  The result?  Two layers PUL with the shiny side of one layer facing in toward baby and the 'right' side of one layer facing the outside.  These have rise snaps to adjust the, erm, rise (that's why they're called rise snaps, right?), and snap closures.

Take a look!


There they are, all together.


Here's a comparison - the pic on the left is on the setting that fits Norah right now (21 months, 27ish lbs).  The pic on the right is the smallest setting


Here you can see the outside and the inside - see how the inside is shiny and wipeable?  Mission accomplished!


And last but not least, a stack of diaper yumminess.


I'm guessing most of you didn't know I was taking custom orders.  Guess what!  I am currently taking limited custom orders for whatever you might want sewn.  That includes diapers and diapering accessories, stuff for around your house, bags, baby and children's items, or whatever else you might want to throw my way.  While I'd be happy to make any style baby carrier you might want, if you're looking for a ring sling or wrap, I'd reccomend that you get in touch with Beth at Babyette first - she makes these things day in and and day out, and is more of an expert on them than me.

I'll be posting more on taking custom orders at the beginning of 2011, when I'll hopefully have more time.  For now, I'm taking a few here and there.  Feel free to message me if you're interested.

I think that's all for now.  Thanks for looking!

You know you want one.... (Calling All Babywearers!)

Calling all babywearers!

Remember that lovely SweetPod Soft Structured Carrier I made awhile back?  You know, the one with the adorable print on the outside panel, comfy and convenient internal panel, and hidden sleeping hood?  The one that left you wondering where you could get something like it?

Well, you're in luck!

This Saturday, October 2nd, there will be a SweetPod for auction at the Safe Infant Sleep Symposium.  I finished this up this week and can't wait for it to find a good, loving home and a sweet, squishy baby to carry around!

Humor me as I post these pictures - I still haven't acquired a dress form and am making due with my dining room chairs.

Here it is, in all its glory!



You can see the internal panel here.  This panel makes it so you can put baby on and move him/her to your back easily if you want.  The contoured shape of the panel also still allows access for nursing.


And here's the sleeping hood.  An invisible zippered pouch hides it when not in use.



This handmade carrier can be yours for the low, low price of... well, whatever it auctions for.

There's only one way to get this carrier, and that's to come bid on it at the Safe Infant Sleep Sympsoium Saturday.

See you there!

*The SweetPod Soft Structured Carrier is made from this pattern.  Carrying instructions can be found here.