happy stuff.

In honor of Gabriel James joining our family, I’ve put together a mix of music for you to enjoy. Some of it is new stuff, some of it’s old stuff. Some of it’s kids’ stuff, some isn’t especially for kids, but would still be appropriate for kids. Below, I’ve linked to websites where you can download either the single track (for under $1 each) or, if that’s not possible, you can at least preview the song and then choose to buy the whole album if you like it. In some cases, I’ve linked to the artist’s website if you click on their name, but a site to download the song if you click on the song title. If you live here in town, most of this music is also available at your public library if you’d like to take it for a test drive before committing to the whole album.

As the mix titles indicate, the first set of music is a little more upbeat. I’ve started the mix off just a little bit mellow in case you want to play this as your child is waking up–it’s a more gentle way to greet the day than if I’d begun with, say, track #7. The second mix set is more subdued and would be lovely to listen to during quiet times. I hope that you enjoy this music as much as I do and I hope that at least a few of these artists make their way into your regular music rotation!

Good Morning Music Mix

1. Baby by Bobby McFerrin from Medicine Music

2. Honey Baby by Dog on Fleas from When I Get Little

3. Little Potato by Malcolm Dalglish from Welcoming Children into the World

4. Welcome Table by Dan Zanes from Catch That Train!

5. Surfer Mama by Kira Willey from Dance for the Sun

6. Ten in the Bed from 25 Fun Traveling Songs

7. Wake Up by The Verve Pipe from A Family Album *

8. Let’s Go to Work by Kira Willey from Dance for the Sun

9. Shoes: Farewell, My Pants by The Nields from All Together Singing in the Kitchen

10. When I’m Old by The Milkshakes from Great Day

11. Tongo! by Billy Jonas from What Kind of Cat are You?

12. Wishy Washy Washer Woman by Johnny Bregar from Hootenanny

13. Caterpillar Caterpillar by Kira Willey from Dance for the Sun

14. Big Boatload of Bananas by Steven Courtney Band from Rolling Home

15. Little Broken Truck by Caspar Babypants from Here I Am! *

16. Fast Monkey by Steve Songs from Marvelous Day!

17. In My Heart by Melissa Green from Round & Round

Sleepytime Music Mix

1. Cricket, Little Cricket by Steve Weeks (um, sorry, this song no longer available online!)

2. Pockets by Eric Bibb from Get Onboard

3. Sweet Pea by Amos Lee from Supply and Demand

4. Sparkle and Shine by Steve Earle from Washington Square Serenade

5. Listen to the Water by Kathy Reid-Naiman from More Tickles & Tunes

6. Like an Angel by Danielle Sansone from Two Flowers

7. Mockingbird by Peter, Paul and Mary from Peter, Paul and Mommy

8. When One Became Two by The Verve Pipe from A Family Album *

9. I wish you love by Sunflow from Under the Stars

10. Blanket by Danielle Sansone from Two Flowers

11. Home by David Tobocman from I count to ten and other very helpful songs

12. All Through the Night by Peter, Paul and Mary from Peter, Paul and Mommy

13. Chinese Proverb by Sweet Honey in the Rock from Experience 101

14. Miracle by Renee and Jeremy from It’s a Big World

15. Whisper by Danielle Sansone from Two Flowers

16. Blackbird by Bobby McFerrin from The Voice

17. Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel) by Cantus from Cantus

18. Go to Sleep, My Darlin’ by the Yurtfolk from Anyone Can Sing

*each of these artist’s websites contain entire songs that you can listen to for free (you can’t download them for free, but you can hear the whole song–or sometimes even the whole album–from their page)

I’ll try to post the story of our adventures for the past several days sometime soon. Enjoy this music in the meantime!

the happy baby

gabriel james

born 2-28-2010

welcomed into our family 3-2-2010

a tiny friend of mine is having her first birthday tomorrow, and i had a hankering to make a dress, so i found this pattern and tutorial online and altered it just a bit to make it reversible.

i used fabric from my stash.  this is an older michael miller print.  the background is actually a lovely green, but looks odd in this photo.  here’s the other side:

this side was (i think) another older michael miller print–again from my stash and just waiting to be used for something.  it was super easy to put together and would have been even easier if i’d just followed the directions and not monkeyed around with the reversible idea.  my alterations made the neckline a little too stiff, so it doesn’t gather up like it should.  it might be way too big for her now, but at least maybe later in life she can wear it as a shirt!

i just got back from a fantastic concert.  the wailin’ jennys sang at the very intimate and acoustically wonderful stoughton opera house.  hearing them live brought tears to my eyes and a full feeling to my heart more than once.  laughing along with them and the rest of the audience as the fire siren went off at the fire station next door right in the middle of one of the songs (it sounded more like a tornado alarm or something and they stopped singing and asked if we needed to pay attention to that sound, but some locals assured us that there was no need to panic) and then we laughed even more,  a few songs later, when a bird flew into the room from backstage, circled the balcony once, then flew back off stage.  (he came back again for another loop or three  a few songs later)  all in all, a very distracting night for the jennys, but their music is just sooooo beautiful.  and they did my favorite live concert thing and invited us to sing along with them on the last two songs.  and the last song they sang (their encore) was “one voice” which i’ve sung with my women’s quartet…. way too much fun to actually get to sing along with the band themselves.  oh, and did i mention that we were in the 6th row from the stage, right in the middle?  ahhhhh…..

they’re coming out with a new album this summer and they sang a lot of the songs from that recording tonight and…. i can’t wait to buy the new cd!

here’s a video from their website to give you a little taste:

Performance Video – The Parting Glass

The Wailin’ Jennys | MySpace Music Videos

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again… i do love to watch animated movies.  this afternoon, mr. happy stuff and i went on a date to watch the most recent batch of oscar nominated animated shorts. 

here’s a link so you can see short clips from each of the nominated films.

if you’d like to watch the films in their entirety, here are the links for that:

french roast — i liked this one!

granny o’ grimm’s sleeping beauty — this one was a favorite of both of us

the lady and the reaper — death has a very expressive face in this one!

the newest wallace and gromit movie (woo hoo!) (here’s their fun new website!)

logorama — this one comes with a warning about language and violence.  it was mr. happy stuff’s other favorite.

this is probably the first year that i’ve actually liked all of the movies on the roster.  the showing at sundance also includes a few other movies that didn’t quite get nominations but were close.  this year, that included the short that was paired with pixar’s “up”, and a film from the national film board of canada called runaway:

i loved the music in this one–by the same person who did the music for the triplets of belleville. (speaking of which…. the director of that wonderful film has a new one now called “the illusionist”–i can’t wait until it’s available here!)

we then took in a full-length feature film in the evening with friends, the fantastic mr. fox. which is now my favorite wes anderson film.

animation enchants me.

when we unpacked one of the boxes from mr. happy stuff’s parents’ storage area (everyone has these boxes that slowly migrate from your parents’ house to your own house, right? ) we discovered this awesome quilt.  it’s folded over the edge of the crib in this picture, so you’ll just have to imagine that it’s twice as long as what you can see here (6 more embroidered panels).  i think this quilt was made by mr. happy stuff’s mom (or maybe grandma?) for mr. h-s himself when he was tiny.  or possibly made before he was tiny.  it’s very soft and has enough small stains that i don’t think i’ll feel bad if we actually use this quilt for the future additions to our household.  here are some closer pictures of the embroidered characters:

hmmm…. not sure where the bee photo went….

our nursery used to be our office.  we’d painted it this bold red color with bright white trim and it felt cozy in this small room.  when we decided to switch it over to a nursery, the thought of painting over the red seemed overwhelming, so… we decided to work with it!  i took some fabrics in to the room, i noticed right away how nicely this fabric went with the walls.  very observant readers might remember that this fabric also featured heavily in the car quilt and, because it looked so nice in the room, it was also a main fabric in our adoption quilt, but i also decided to use it as inspiration for the walls.

that’s not paint–that’s fabric!  i used this tutorial and cut out fabric shapes, soaked them in a solution of water and cornstarch, and then just stuck them on the walls and… they stayed up!

here you can see them again, above the crib.  (the mobile was commissioned from local artist jane fasse.)  i’m finding that this room is very challenging to photograph (there’s only one window and, well, the walls are red!), but if enough people ask, i’ll try to take a picture of the room as a whole to post here.

this morning, mr. happy stuff took me to sardine for brunch.  we’ve been meaning to try it out forever, and today was the day.  we ate amazingly delicious food …. baked creamed eggs with gruyere, proscuitto and spinach with a side order of the most delicious cheese grits for me, grilled sausages with the most flavorful squash risotto for mr. h-s….. i fell in love with the risotto’s crispy outside crust and stole more than my fair share of it from my obliging husband…. he drank coffee that he told me was really very good, i enjoyed fresh pink grapefruit juice…. we enjoyed watching the other people eating at the bar–oysters on the half shell!  croque monsiuer!– and saw more bloody mary’s and mimosa’s being made than i’d ever seen before.  i love the twist of the wrist that they do when curling the orange rind into the champagne glass and we both agreed that we’d never seen so much garnish piled on top of a drink as their bloody mary’s (a big fat green olive, two cornichons, a small pile of something that looked like chopped radish and parsley? and a few shavings of fresh lemon zest plus a slice of lemon and a slice of lime–all on top of a drink glass (rimmed with something that looked like beach sand…. can salt be brown perhaps? celery salt!  (thanks, amyj!)) so full that i was continually amazed that i never witnessed any spills).  we also splurged and split an apricot/raspberry/blueberry scone (with a citrus glaze) to finish the meal.  perfect.

so when i first found out that the birthmother who’d chosen us was going to have a boy, i experienced one ridiculous twinge of regret–”boy clothes are so much harder to sew than girl’s clothes!” and while i’ll still admit that there’s not much that’s easier to sew than an elastic waist skirt or a simple little sundress, these pants are pretty darn easy too.  i found the pattern while poking around online and was inspired to make another trip to the dig-n-save.  i’ll preface this entire project by admitting that making baby pants (even from repurposed, $1/lb clothing) is likely not the most cost-effective way to build my child’s wardrobe, but look at how stinkin’ cute those pants are!!  and (once the “fabric” and the elastic (new!) has been purchased and the fabric laundered and the decision made about whether or not i can really justify “ruining perfectly good shirts” to make baby pants) they only take about 10 minutes to make, start to finish.  okay, maybe 15 minutes, i didn’t actually time myself.  but super, super fast and easy.  the link to the pattern above has a pretty nice tutorial (with a great idea about adding a lined cuff to extend the wear time of the pants!) but i took some photos of my process so you can see a few extra little tricks i added.

step 1.  choose a shirt.

this is a child-size turtleneck that i almost couldn’t cut into (it’s still a good shirt!  someone might wear it!  what if the pants turn out ugly?  i’ll have wasted and ruined a perfectly good shirt!) but then i reminded myself about how much i hate turtlenecks and that made the decision easier.  plus, it was $1 a pound which makes it slightly less tragic (at least to my wallet) if the pants are a failure.

step 2.  fold the shirt in half down the middle and pin your pattern along the fold you just made, lining the bottom of the pattern up with the hem of the shirt (this will be very useful later!):

look how well the pattern fits this shirt!  almost no wasted fabric!  (the sleeves can be made into babylegs, i think….)

step 3.  take a deep breath and cut the fabric!  then, turn each piece inside out and pin as shown:

note:  if you’re using a striped fabric, it’s a good idea to try to match up the stripes as you pin, like this:

step 4.  sew the part you just pinned.  then turn one leg right-side out:

step 5.  tuck the right-side out leg inside the inside-out leg:

step 6.  start pinning where the sewn seams meet and work your way up each side from there.  again, it’s a good idea to match stripes as much as possible!  then sew the seam you just pinned.

step 7.  when you turn the whole thing right-side out, they’ll look like this:

you’ll notice that since you lined up the bottom of the pattern with the hem of the shirt, your pants are already hemmed–hooray!

step 8.  cut a piece of elastic to the size you want it to be (i’ll admit–this is total guesswork for me at this point!  i’m erring towards too big because it’s always easier to make it smaller.  plus, who likes tight pants?) and stitch it into a circle:

step 9.  fold the top edge of the pants over the elastic band.

this part would probably be easier if i would just go iron down the top edge to the desired height, but i’m too lazy for that, so instead, i’m picking a stripe in the pattern as my guide.

step 10.  put your zipper foot on your machine and snug the edge of the elastic right up next to the foot and stitch all the way around, pulling the elastic to gather the fabric as you go, until all the elastic is encased in the waistband.

then you’re done!  here are three stripey pairs:

and one polka dot pair i made out of the sleeves of a large jersey knit cardigan:

who knows if i’ll have time to make pants after there’s a baby in the house, but for now?  i’m just a wee bit addicted.  i did make one sample pair of these pants and try them on an actual baby (thanks to a friend who had their baby at the library for a program) because i wasn’t sure how the whole no-specific-front-or-back thing would work, but guess what?  diaper butts are just as big in the front as they are in the back!  the only thing i altered after trying these on the real live baby were the the pattern had the waistband pretty low.  i raised it for these.  we’ll see if that works or not once i’ve got someone to wear them.  it’s an easy fix if i need to alter them.  hmmm…. maybe boy clothes aren’t so difficult after all….

p.s. i just double-checked the site where i got this pattern and found this page.  oh my.  screen printing onto the pants?  i sense another flurry of creativity!

baby’s first hand-knit gift–a toadstool rattle!  a friend of mind from work knit this up for us and i totally l.o.v.e. it!  mr. happy stuff thought it looked like something from mario bros.  i think that means he likes it too.