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Rebourne at Wordpress

Mermaid with a new 'do

I made some little mermaidens for my daughters this past Christmas. Here they are in their original state, before being wrapped:

Their hair fell off, so I finally got around to replacing one set of locks with beautiful yarn today:

I am planning on making the girls some 16" button jointed Waldorf dolls, so this was a good practice in attaching the hair. I made some mistakes and will hopefully do a better job on the second mermaiden's hair.
I had a breast infection over the weekend. That was intense and terrible. I healed myself with rest, liquids, herbs, and a little grapefruit seed extract. Phew, not enjoyable.

Wool Patches

I am fighting off another breast infection. To remind myself that I will eventually get back to something fun, I am showing you these cute patches I just hand stitched the other day:

They are going to be on two cute wool diaper covers in my shop soon.
I have been watching some very interesting food documentaries on Netflix lately. I saw Food, Inc. a while ago, but recently have watched To Market, To Market To Buy a Fat Pig, Fed Up, Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead, Food Matters, What's On Your Plate?, Ingredients, and now Food Beware, The French Organic Revolution,. I recommend them all!

Around Our Home

I'm really enjoying summer this year. If you read my blog last summer, this is the complete opposite of my sentiments from back then! Here are a few photos of what we've been doing lately:

Mama getting a head massage from middle daughter!! Actually very relaxing!

Baby loves to climb. He got all the way up there by himself (mostly). Then he ripped the curtains down. Then he danced!! Oh, it's nice to just ENJOY the third child!!

We are trying to figure out what to do for school this fall. My oldest is enrolled in public Philadelphia kindergarten (yikes), and middle girl is enrolled in Head Start. I went to an information meeting for Classical Conversations last night, and I'm pretty sure we are going to do it! I'm excited!!!

DIY thread stand for industrial thread spools

I shop at a local store that sells fabric, notions, trims, etc. Much of their inventory is bolt ends from factories or warehouses that didn't sell. I could write a book about all the amazing finds that I've bought, but for now let's focus on thread.
I bought some huge rolls of industrial spun polyester for $2/cone. It's probably $20/cone retail! However, my home serger is not equipped for such large cones, and I couldn't rig them to feed into my machine without getting caught. I was going to buy a thread stand, but I'm cheap. I googled instructions for how to make your own, and found this Instructables. I had to alter his design to accommodate my larger cones, but I had everything I needed in my house already! I saved probably $30.
I used 2 wire clothes hangers, an old woodcut from art school for the base, and scraps from dowels from my Roman blinds. It was quite fun to use lots of tools, but hubby's drill was low on batteries =(.


We'll see how it works the next time I serge a bunch of wool!

DIY lavender sachets

A few weeks ago, I got it into my head that I wanted to make some lavender sachets to keep my rebourne wool pads and wool diaper covers smelling fresh. Lavender is also an anti-moth herb. I thought it'd be nice to send a sachet with big wool orders from my shop, or possibly make them available for sale in my shop. I knew I wanted to buy supplies on Etsy, buy organic lavender, and have my logo on them.
I found this shop on Etsy, and ordered 1/2 pound of their organic lavender. I designed a tag in Photoshop and printed it onto printable fabric that had been given to me by a friend. I cut each tag out with pinking shears, and cut out rectangles for the sachets.

I sewed the labels onto each one, then sewed up the sides of the sachets, leaving a small hole for my funnel. I then added the lavender with a funnel, and finished by stitching up the hole.

I chose to pink the edges so they won't fray too much. Simple and easy, and super cute and delicious!

Urban Container Garden

I have two black thumbs. At least until this point in my life. I know that the following are in my future: a vegetable garden, a mini fruit orchard (berries!), chickens, and a few goats. For now, I am working through the toils of container gardening in the city, with a 10x10' slab of concrete enclosed in 10' walls for a backyard! Most attempts have failed, because the plants and worms (sorry guys) just get burned alive. This year we are trying again, and it's nice to have my girls at a helpful age. It is one of their jobs to water our plants everyday: vegetables in the back 'yard', and the decorative plants and tree in the hole in the sidewalk in the front. Because we are home so much, it's easy to keep track of the plants and water them more than once daily if needed.
Here is the boy playing amidst the dirt and green:

We have cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants. We'll see what has enough dirt to grow veggies, probably not much.