A Month in Nesting Activites

So things have been a little crazy in the Birdhouse lately (what we call our house)
I am not sure I mentioned it here, but earlier this month, BOTH sets of our parents came to visit to help us get the house ready for baby Bean. Each set of parental units stayed for a week, invested hundreds of dollars of time and energy (actually, thousands in total) and overlapped for one crazy weekend...I may have mentioned some of this...at any rate
Projects accomplished with their help and mostly my husband's boundless energy: Dishwasher installed, hot water line run to the washing machine (which was previously hooked up to two garden hoses, one to bring water from the outside tap to the inside, one to drain the water out-during this time obviously we only had cold water washing capability  and had to use biodegradable hippie soap detergent not just for ethical reasons but because my chickens would run out and drink the still soapy grey water), utility sink constructed and installed, new swamp cooler installed, baby bedroom/utility room painted and reorganized,  and new crib assembled and installed in our bedroom.

After they left, Ryan dissembled the crib again, re-assembled it in the baby room (which we are calling the cloud room because we are not quite ready to give it over entirely to nursery purposes, and is still also our book lending library, computer room, guest room, den, and craft room-I am typing this from the desk that is in this room). Ryan also fixed the front sprinklers, and together as I mentioned we re-installed the flagstone pathway and planted a lawn. SO here are some more pictures of some of the results and processes of these efforts, as well as a couple from the baby shower...
I wanted these to be organized, but the computer uploaded them scatter shot, so here they are in no particular order...

Ryan coming out from plumbing under the house

Ryan and his pop putting in the plumbing for the washing machine

the utility sink stand ( on the left)

the newly installed swamp cooler

me sorting through books and getting ready to paint the cloud room

the nests I have obsessesively since becoming pregnant

me admiring the new crib

the old timey band plays at the baby shower, 

me and the lovely April Golz (who organized the baby shower) at the  Albuquerque Press Club

the baby car seat, and two friends for the baby we got at the shower

why we call it the cloud room

the buffet at the baby shower

the baby shower guests

the newly planted front yard

and the newly appointed cloud room, with desk/changing station, and a blank space where the crib is now.

wow. 

it's exhausting just looking at it all. and there is still the bathroom paint

the paint swatch is the final color choice, in Behr's Mermaid Song

and there are still about 25(hundred?) action items on the big list to complete before baby time.

and that I am one week shy of 8 months pregnant. And while I don't have a picture at the moment showing the 8 month bump, I do have a picture of a picture of my mother at about that pregnant which is framed on my bed stand. 

good luck on all your weekend projects 

xx

jess

More Cutesy Craft Stuff!

Ok, so I never did show pictures of all the other crafty stuff I've been making! First I wanna show off some of the new felt plushies I've been making!

Allow me to introduce the new additions individually

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

Cowboy the Sheep

and the Jolly Green monster

also I posted a not very good picture of the chickens I made earlier, so I wanted to repost a picture of them with some closeups of their cute little button eyed faces.

Rocky the Rooster


Henrietta the hen

here is one little owl I made for the babe...this one has a plastic easter egg inside of it with beads in it, so it can be used as a rattle

and here they are all together...


and for my last show and tell, a bunch of owlies and little critters I made to sell on Etsy...
if ya wanna see closeups of them, check them out at my store The Ruby Aviary! Only a couple of them will be up there today, the rest will be coming soon...
ok. that's enough of that.
hope you have a great weekend
xxjess

A Basic Tutorial for Frida Kahlo Doll

Last night I got the crafty bug again, and finished a doll I started a while ago. I learned the template from my secondary student teaching mentor Tammy Crespin, Middle School art teacher extraordinaire, and now I wish I took some pictures of the doll in process so this post could serve as sort of a how too...oh well..here is some pictures, and I will try and explain how I made her from there.
Here she is, my Frida Doll...

So I hate to have such a lack of propriety for such an icon, but just to show better how she is constructed, lets have a look under her skirt...

so I was particularly proud of her little undies and stockings, which I sewed on mostly because I only had one calf high piece of panty hose to cover her entire body with, and obviously ran out right around her mid thigh, so had to sew another fabric on to give the illusion of stockings. Here is a picture where you can see better.

so maybe you can see that her body is actually made of newspaper wrapped around thick bendable wire, essentially in the form of a stick figure. The newspaper sis rolled into long thin tube and wrapped around  and secured with masking tape. 

her head is just cotton batting stuffed into the toes part of the panty hose, sewn and gathered to fit around the wire piece and onto the body

her earrings are some silver Milagros or Mexican Miracle Charms that I had bought a while ago. Milagros (miracles) are tiny metal effigies of certain objects or people traditionally used to implore Saints to heal certain organs of the body ( I believe these are lungs) or  to protect your children, and in one case perhaps even your livestock  as I found a goat charm in the mix. Anyway the part I think I was MOST proud of when making this doll was the way I did her hair, which I don't have a great picture of so I'll have to explain.

So you can kind of see it better in the second picture, but after sewing a "cap" of black hair onto her head, I attached three felt ribbons and one satin ribbon to each side of her head.Then I braided them and sewed them to the top of her head, securing them with a bow and some tiny Mexican made flowers I got on a present from the baby shower. (Which reminds me I'd like to post pictures from that amazing event. One of these days.) Anyway I am very proud of her in general, and hope that anyone who wishes to make a Frida doll or another kind of doll can use my description as a basic template.

Home Improvement

Today Ryan and I finished the first round of improvements to the front yard in earnest. Hopefully this year what has for years despite repeated albeit less thorough attempts at greening and flower planting has been nothing but a beautifully walled dust bowl, essentially a glorified doggie toilet area, will look more like a Secret Garden...you see when we moved in the high wall surrounding the front yard was already a lovely shade of indigo purple, and so any plants look lovely there. But alas as the we live in the desert and as the drip system was defunct when we moved in, and we live with two dogs under 5, the prior owners quince bushes and our rose bushes, and our two prior attempts at grass seeding all perished under the mercilessness Southwest sunshine.

Thankfully Ryan was not deterred and focused his efforts the last few days on re installing the aforementioned drip and sprinkler systems in our front yard.

our front yard when we moved in. dirt dirt and more dirtThankfully Ryan was not deterred and focused his efforts the last few days on re installing the aforementioned drip and sprinkler systems in our front yard.

 For my part planted a few pots inspired by the Mediteranien and Moroccan gardens I've been seeing on Pinterest. (The first pics are an example of my inspiration, the third pic is what I actually planted)

I also spend my time resetting the flagstone path between the gates once set my my dear friend and artist Sean Paul Gallegos(Sean Paul on the right, our old friend Rev on the left, second picture my first attempt at the renewed path)

Finally, after we finished the path (in darkness lit by one of Ryan's shop lights, as he was determined to get it done today) we planted grass seed. Now a grass lawn, atleast as one would normally think of it, is a dubious thing to plant in Albuquerque. But since we have such a very small yard, and since we bought such a low water droubt tolerant native grass hybrid, we hope the Earth will forgive us.

in other earth related news, the tulips which I actaully didn't have to plant in the back yard finally bloomed today. My chickens were happy to dust bathe in their shade.
And just a couple more bonus pics...I shot some pictures of the back yard tiki lounge that was our garden home improvement project last year, and thought that those that haven't seen it might enjoy them (or think us nuts)

that's all for tonight. Ryan is anxious for me to get off the computer so we can start part two of the Lord of the Rings saga...hopefully more progress pics tomorrow. but for now, goodnight.
xxjess

The New and Diminished Toys for "GirlZ"

Today I saw on my Facebook feed a beautiful little image of a red headed girl proudly holding a free from Lego castle...She has red pigtails, well worn blue jeans, shirt and shoes. She is practically beaming with pride, obviously thrilled with her creation.

The ad is from the 70's, from the decade of my birth when I relished going to my friend David Messent's house to play with his inordinately huge stash of house and space Legos. When I was a younger girl, I loved the house Legos best. I would make your typical cottage house, the type with flowers in the window boxes and picket fences out front
Later,when I was 8 or 10 or so, I preferred the space Legos, and would endeavor to make stream lined space ships, making sure that all the bricks matched, so the body would be entirely grey, the wings black, and so forth. But let me assure you, neither my house or space creations ever involved instructions.This is the kind of thing I would build
And this is what concerns me.
Want to see what the image our our intrepid girl builder is now and what kind of Lego's SHE is told to play with?

Lego's poster girl is now perhaps not accidentally portrayed as taller, thinner, and older, and while she wears blue also, her clothes lack the well worn quality of the little red haired girls jean's, and to my eyes is clearly just an homage to the prior add.(Judging by the toys in her hand if it wasn't for this prior add she would probably be dressed in a more "girly" fashion.) But the girl herself doesn't concern me as much as what she is holding...not just primary colors accessible and appropriate for boy or girl architects, but pink and purple bricks with female lego figures that look like they had a celebrity makeover

The Huntington Post already did an article on this subject so I know I am not breaking any new ground here, but considering I have a 50/50 chance of having a little girl, this really worries me. What has happened to toys marketed for girls? In my youth they were definitely girly, but they were just that, like GIRLS, little girls like we were, not young women or teenagers or god forbid supermodels...
My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and late comer Polly Pocket...how did you go from this
to THIS

I mean, who is designing these reboots? Cristina Augulera? The worst thing is I read in another blog that it is the GIRLS THEMSELVES...Lego apparently launched a campaign surveying little girls and what they want...and they supposedly 4 months and 4 million dollars later came up with this crap based on what the girls said! Now my question is, have little girls changed, or has their exposure to mature and sexually themed adult aimed media changed? I think it is pretty obvious that it is the latter...I almost wanna blame the genesis of the trend on the rise of the Spice Girls, who's supposedly female affirming message of "girl power" always seemed dubious to me...what is this power they were pitching? The power to wag your thong a man and make him drool like a dog?
the one that concerns me most here is "Baby Spice" the one in the middle looking seductive, dressed in attire generally considered appropriate for a 5 year old. In fact that dress is so short it might FIT a five year old. What the hell is this supposed to be saying to our girls? Pull up your skirt and you can be internationally famous too?
Which leads me to the final chapter of my rant, which is the most dubious,most morally vapid toy for girls on the market...the BRATZ (who I think look suspiciously like the aforementioned spice girls in this picture, but even MORE sexual), and these are actually aimed DIRECTLY at little girls...

Sooo...if I read this marketing campaign correctly, my little girl should aspire to look like Pamela Anderson when she grows up? Or perhaps Ru Paul?
I mean seriously folks, I don't think I am exaggerating the situation to much, I mean LOOK AT THIS SHI...erm...stuff! this is an official image to advertize Bratz folks!

I don't think I need to even go into the title of these dolls, as if THAT was something to aspire to be.

at any rate, I rest my case.
If I do have a girl I will be finding most of her mainstream toys on Ebay it seems, so she can safely play with images of little girls like herself. And if she like me, also liked He-Man and Transformers all the better. I am sure they have these on E-Bay too.
anyway I found a camera in my house. So tomorrow maybe I will post some pictures of the gender neutral or at least delightfully nonsexual and un-plastic toys I have been making.
have a great weekend
x
jess