Links for 2007-07-11 [del.icio.us]

• Easy Grocery Bag Shopping Tote From 2 Pillowcases - Instructables
  
  I wonder whether these would be sturdy enough in the long term for heavy groceries. Fun tutorial, and of course you could use the tote for lighter groceries, or other stuff!
• Easy as ABC: Asian-style Baby Carrier or Mei Tai - Instructables
  
  There are quite a few good online tutorials for making an ABC which I've read and taken direction from already. However, since I like to read as many as possible and then use all I learn to figure out how to make mine I'm adding this to my collection of bookmarks!
• The healthy heart guide - Independent
  
  " Heart attacks are our biggest killer – yet many are preventable. Julia Stuart on the simple changes that could save your life"
• Move to cut methane emissions by changing cows' diet | Climate change | Guardian
  
  "Experts at the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research in Aberystwyth say the diet of farmed animals can be changed to make them produce less methane, a more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. Farmed ruminant animals are thought to
• UK needs a two-child limit, says population report | SocietyGuardian.co.uk
  
  "While most of Britain's annual population rise of nearly 300,000 people is from immigration, only 21.9% of new births were last year to non-UK born mothers, says Prof Guillebaud. Each woman in England and Wales, he says, can now be expected to have 1.87 children, the highest total fertility rate for 26 years."
  
  Not sure I entirely agree with the logic of this article. I'm not sure it's getting to the root of the problem it brings up of the level of consumption of the earth's resources (really we need to work on that as much as human population). (Not to mention addressing the need to care for the older generation that would presumably become more of a problem than the baby boomers.)
• Top 10 eccentric British days out | Guardian
  
  "Is the weather raining on your holiday parade? The Far from the Sodding Crowd team come to the rescue with their pick of humorous, curious and downright ludicrous British tourist attractions"
• The yuck factor: How scientific research into revulsion is shaping our supermarkets - Independent
  
  "Rozin's research says that if something we perceive to be dirty or disgusting (such as a cockroach) touches something harmless (such as orange juice), in our minds the latter becomes "contaminated", even if the rational side of our brain knows there is n
• The Health Benefits of Journaling - Psych Central
  
  "There is increasing evidence to support the notion that journaling has a positive impact on physical well-being. University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journaling strengthens immune cells, called T-lymphocytes. Other research indicates that journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health."
  
• Wake up. Feminism is more than just capitalism with tits | Guardian
  
  "Enough of the numbers game. The issue is not how many women are in power, but how many fight for collective rights "

More craft stuff, and some thrifting

I haven't really been doing much new crafting since my last post (although the kitty is now attached at the neck) but I have some old news, and a bunch of links to things that have caught my eye. So here goes.

Another soft toy that has been languishing for a year just waiting for a face so it could go to it's intended recipient. This time a WeeBunny (also from a free pattern at the Wee Wonderfuls site). I'm sure I stuffed it full when I made it but it definitely could use more innards now. The question is do I risk doing something that will make it unpresentable for another year, or give it as is and feel unsatisfied with my finished product? I think probably I will add more stuffing -- and if I rip the seam in the right place I can take the opportunity to give the bunny a tail which I neglected to do previously. When these are done and delivered I'm going to finally open up my Big Footed Bunny book for my next soft toy -- maybe I can make one for my daughter's birthday (or mine...).

Yesterday I got my husband to take a picture of me wearing my daughter with the mei tai I made the other week. It's in the sunshine and in focus so all in all a much better shot!

Next thing is that today I tied my daughter on my back (with a different carrier that I also made but don't have a good picture of yet) and went into town without the stroller which meant I could more easily go into some of the stores in town. So I went into one of the used items stores in town and came out with a couple of tops (one to wear as is and one extra large silk shirt that may well get refashioned somehow).

Then after a treat at the bakery and a few errands I went to the less stroller friendly of the thrift stores in town and poked around swiftly (since they were about to close by the time I got there). I came away with two little plates, a package of twill tape, some green fabric, a small piece of floral print material (?summer dress for my girl?), a queen sized bed sheet (not sure what I'll do with this but I thought it was cute) and videos of a British mystery series that I think my husband will enjoy. That all came to just under eleven dollars (and the videos were five dollars). I was looking for thrifting stuff at flickr and discovered that there's actually a Thrift Thursday group. Coincidence? So here's my first Thrift Thursday post. Not sure that I'll manage to do this regularly, I don't make it to the thrift store every week after all, but hopefully that's ok.

And now for the list of links:

I saw and admired this wrap skirt in the NewVintageWardrobe Pool at Flickr. I was excited to see that there are two tutorials available at Sew, Mama, Sew showing how to draft and sew a skirt of one's very own. Yay! I have a wrap skirt that I thrifted a while back which I wore for the first time a few weeks back and love so I was thinking of trying to figure out how to make more so this should help save me some time and brain cells! I don't know whether I'll be able to make one, or any skirt, in time for skirt month though.

Loving this summer dress, lovely fabric that I'd probably never have the courage to make into a dress. I'm surprisingly bad at judging what fabric I'll like in a finished garment, I'm working on it though.

I'm interested in trying out the Sunshine's Creations tutorial for mock cathedral windows sometime. I think I'd do it with batting inside and make a quilt.

Also came across this cute "Disappearing 9 Patch" Doll Quilt at Flickr which links to another tutorial I want to try out sometime.

Oh, so much to do and so very little time! I'm already blogging when I should be sleeping again (last night I went to bed at a relatively reasonable hour for fear of blocked duct threatening mastitis, oh the joys of nursing motherhood!).

What I've been up to

I haven't given up on this blog project. There's just been a lot less computer time recently. I've got a few unfinished posts saved so maybe I'll come back and fill in some gaps later.

Last week my husband and I decided to try and shift our daughter's sleep schedule so we've been getting up earlier and therefore trying to get to bed earlier too. Though this may mean more sleep for all in the long run (fingers crossed) it's meant less over the last week, and certainly less "me time". (Also my husband had another business trip, and we had a concert with a chorus we sing with last weekend so extra rehearsals beforehand.)

My ripple blanket is still growing slowly, I don't have another picture just now, but soon.

I've also done some bits of sewing recently. I bought some onesies for my daughter a while ago that I really love but she was never wearing. We've been putting her on the potty in a very low-key attempt at "elimination communication" for a long time now and for that shirts are preferable. So I finally got around to chopping the onesies (straight across at the top of the leg shaping) and hemming them so the girl has some spring/summery shirts. It's such a quick and easy thing, and I can do it by hand rather than waiting for time in the sewing room and feel like I've accomplished something. And I'm so happy to see her wearing the shirts - I love the print and the slight puff at the shoulders... Perhaps I'll let her wear some of her other shirts again soon!

Then when I get time in the sewing room I can work on bigger things. I have managed a few blocks of time for sewing over the last few days (with some help from my husband).

I've been wanting to try and make a mei tai/asian baby carrier for a while now and had looked at several tutorials on the web (mostly via this wonderful site), found some fabric in my stash and just needed some blocks of time to cut and sew. I'd made a couple of pouch slings (easy but not the most secure) and a podaegi (which I like a lot but is a little trickier at times since you need to be able to sit or be spotted to tie the baby on).

The ABC is pretty straightforward to make, although I must admit I had to keep staring the diagram and thinking a long time to make sure I wasn't going to sew the shoulder straps inside! It seems to have come out pretty well and is comfy for wearing the baby (except that when she's tied on my back she likes to pull my hair, but that's not the carrier's fault!). I've tried a couple different ways to tie her on my back, and also worn her on my front. (The out of focus and poorly lit picture on the right she's in a high back carry, although i moved the waist ties down to the waist rather from around the chest after a while as that wasn't so comfy.) I think my husband's going to try this one out too.

I pretty much followed the basic mei tai instructions at sleepingbaby.net but I did use a modification I saw which I thought made a lot of sense where the waist strap (which was one long piece is only anchored in the middle so that you can scrunch the body of the carrier in at the sides so it's more comfy for baby's legs. (If that was all gobbledygook to you here's the link to the tutorial where I saw the idea, it has diagrams.)

I think I will want to sew another one once I've worn this one a bit. Maybe next time I will pad the shoulder straps (I'll have a better idea of how far along the strap to pad). I'm going to think about whether I want to try a different angle for the straps too. Plus next time maybe I'll find some more interesting fabric for the body panels and make it reversible.