{bits & pieces}
The weekly “little of this, little of that” feature here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!
I told my college girlfriends that I’m feeling very mom-ish, since I’ve been sewing a halloween costume for one of my children for the first time.
I haven’t sewn anything in such a long time! I do find the halloween costume thing daunting. On the one hand I want the result to be awesome. On the other hand, I don’t want to spend any money, because I a) am trying to keep a tight budget around here and b) have strong feelings that halloween costumes should come from readily-available materials and pure cleverness and creativity (like that time I was Mary Poppins). But on the other hand (yep, there are three hands) I can be intimidated by all the social media sharing of other people’s kids’ costumes…
Well, I lucked out, because I found the perfect piece of material not only at a thrift store, but at the thrift store on half-off day. The ribbon was something I already had around. So, not counting the thread, this little cloak cost me $3.
And several hours of work, most of which has been very enjoyable, but some of which has been made slightly stressful by the addition of little people who like nothing more than to lean over my “Machine!! Machine!!” and ask me 100 questions while I wrangle a slippery polyester blanket into a Dream come True. Yes, I chose to do the sewing in the presence of the two munchkins, because I’m busy with commissioned work during the evenings and other chores during the (recently too short) naptimes! Keeping them amused (and not fighting nor strewing things around the apartment on rainy days) has its value, too.
Admittedly, the Dream come True has been mostly mine, since I was the one who persuaded my little Finnabee to want this costume. It was the only one I could think of that seemed manageable enough while also being warm (I just can’t bear to see a beautiful fairy costume covered by a dumb jacket!); it also has the double-whammy benefit of coming with a little brother-appropriate costume: Big Bad Wolf.
If you’re interested, I used the guidelines from this blog post as a pattern. My luck truly could not have been better in finding this thrift store blanket, because it was already double-sided, thereby saving me the work on several seams and finding a lining fabric. Recently I keep on being graciously handed the raw materials for my kids’ sake; it’s almost like the Lord knows exactly the level of crafting that I can handle. I’m very grateful.
On to this week’s links!
How a certain John Basinger managed to commit all of Paradise Lost to memory. I dislike the title of the article because of the use of the word “encoding,” which depicts man in the image of computer and seems to indicate that he used some fancy scientific process on his braincells in order to memorize. In fact, it’s really about the techniques that people – and actors in particular – have used often, for ages — just applied on a massive scale. Still cool!
An interactive feature on the Syon Cope, an extremely ornate and beautiful embroidered cope (yes, that heavy outer garment that a priest wears while celebrating Mass), currently being exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
A National Geographic piece about Christ’s burial place being exposed for the First Time in Centuries. I enjoyed the beautiful photos included.
A surprising look at our country’s geography: a neon map of all the river basins in the US.
Some information about the rumored “minecraft sex mod,” in case this was a topic of concern for you. I admit that I could only skim this article, since the content was totally outside my comprehension and also made me feel a little sick (kids have better uses for their time, anyway!!); but it might be helpful to you or someone you know… From my mom: “this article has many good points — mainly, the online things don’t jump at your child, YOU CONNECT and then that’s when bad things happen. To me, a young child has too many important developmental areas to explore for any kind of screen time. If a child wants to play games on a device, they have to be older — it’s like the latency period in sexual development — just don’t give a young child access.”
From Public Discourse: Calling All Electors: Throw the election to the House, and you just might save our country. This fascinating (and complicated!) piece has a lot of helpful information about the process that could, just could take place in the next few weeks.
Have I already asked you to follow me on Instagram? I still don’t totally get the medium, but I’m enjoying it and like to give occasional updates about my work (which I’ll be doing less of on the blog here since I now have my website… so do follow along if you are still curious about my pysanky and random other art works!). Don’t forget that all of our social media follow buttons are below.
Liturgical year: Today we honor St. Narcissus! (I honestly didn’t realize we had a saint by that name!)
From the archives: In my costume discussion, did I mention that I feel pressure to live up to the standards set by my sister? A Knight and a Piggy.
If you’re like me, it’s that time of year. The days are shorter, sunshine-wise, and yet longer, struggle-wise. Trying to take deep breaths: 10 Survival Tactics for Rescuing a Bad Day.
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