Jill took Noah to a car club cruise-in on Saturday, giving me almost 6 glorious hours on my own.
After I got out of the shower, my phone rang. It was our friend Emily, calling to tell me that she was at a giant church rummage sale in the neighborhood, and that baby clothes were on sale 25 items for $1. Yes. Twenty-five items for a dollar, or $0.04 each. And that there were some good baby girl clothes in the gargantuan heap of children’s clothing.
Now, this baby wasn’t going to be naked. But since up until Saturday, I’d been avoiding buying clothes in the hopeful anticipation that Jen and Cait will have a boy, it was entirely possible that she was going to have little besides hand-me-down neutrals and gifts from grandparents.
But I’d been starting to worry. What if Jen and Cait have another girl? We won’t even know until September (knock wood) when their baby is born. But who has the money to spend on outfitting a whole baby, possibly unnecessarily? (Hint: Not us.)
At 25 items for a dollar, I could lay my fears to rest.
In the course of the next hour, I sat under a shady tree with Emily and her toddler daughter Laurel, picking through a pile of clothes that was roughly 8′x12′x1′ — yes, that’s 96 cubic feet of clothing.
I bought $5 worth of baby girl items, size newborn to 18 months: 125 items. It took 3 loads of laundry to clean everything. I overbought in the cotton sleepsacks, and somehow managed to get two identical pairs of 18 month footie pajamas that are yellow with pink and red flowers. I have both summer and winter items in the 12 month size.
But at a grand total of $5, who cares?
Then I went to the bookstore, where I treated myself to 3 new authors; two long books that I’ve been told stand up well to repeated readings.
And then on to the grocery store — we’ve been out of butter for almost a week.
I got everything home, and put away, and started the baby girl laundry, and finally settled down to “finish” my felt fried egg project.
Five minutes later, Jill and Noah got home. Sewing materials were quickly put away to be ignored until Noah was safely in bed.
Jill and Noah demonstrated his new mad baseball skillz.
Today was another whirlwind of activity. Our church began a special summer Sunday School series, in honor of the 150th anniversary, reflecting on the church’s role in the civil rights movement “then and now.”
But after we got home, ate lunch, and got Noah down for his nap, I finished my felt food swap contribution. I did give up on hand sewing the eggs after last night, and I wish now that I’d never even started it that way. The hand-sewn eggs are cuter, in my opinion, but I went from having 4 completely finished and 8 more cut, 7 with yolks sewn on, to having 24 ready to put in the mail tomorrow.
This is what two dozen felt fried eggs looks like: 
I’m especially proud of my idea for stuffing the yolks — they’re filled with felt scraps left over from cutting the eggs.
Not only are no two alike, some differ substantially. There are 4 that are completely hand-sewn, 7 with hand-sewn yolks and machine-sewn edges, and because I didn’t realize I’d miscounted how much felt I needed until I’d cut 2 of my last 3 pieces, 3 are noticeably smaller than the rest, and 4 have 1-ply whites.
In spite of all that, I’m pleased with how they turned out, and how easy making felt food is. Plus I’ve finally test-driven the sewing machine I got for Christmas, and it was super-easy to set up and use. I even mended a pair of pants for Jill.
There will be more felt food projects in my future. Easy, cute, cheap, non-toxic toddler toys — what more could you ask for? I also anticipate more sewing craft activities.
Don’t forget: Monday is Blog for LGBT Families Day!
That sounds like a great day!
I got to see the Sex and the City movie while Jason took Maxim to play basketball and go swimming.
So what are the other felt foods? I’m trying to imagine non-flat foods out of felt.
I’m part of a swap with 11 other toddler moms. Off the top of my head, I remember that we’ll be getting a slice of watermelon, a banana, a soft pretzel, a bunch of grapes, and a canoli.
The last exchange organized by the same people, with mostly the same participants, produced this buffet: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jencait/2398299385/
Oh yeah, and how was the movie?
So cute! I would totally do a felt food swap! I love the sushi! Check out the links on this page;
http://5.pro.tok2.com/~mic/sub/gallery.html
The movie was great. (no spoilers) It was everything I wanted it to be. A perfect Summer movie. And the clothes were TO DIE FOR!! It reminded me why I moved to this city 12 years ago…
I know this was not the part of the story that was suppose to be shocking but really, a week without butter?? I don’t think we could make it a day.
I dont advise buying more girl clothes in tiny sizes. Esmerelda may never be able to wear all she now has. Linda had a rummage sale. Linda’s sister in law had a LOT of girl baby stuff in the sale. I now have a LOT of girl baby stuff, much of which is in the mail to Esmerelda — with some things included for Noah as well.
Love, Grandma
Thanks, Grandma! By the way, Noah called you yesterday on the baby monitor and told you all about his day.
Erin, to own my meanness about it, we were actually only out of margarine, the kind Jill prefers and which isn’t sold at the farmer’s market. We had real butter.
Anna, when the topic of the next felt food swap comes up, probably in another 3 or 4 weeks, I’ll ask if you and my neighbor Emily can be added.
If not, we can organize one of our own. Personally, I think 10-12 people is perfect — it isn’t so much work that you get completely sick of making whatever, and you get back a good variety.
Any other crafty friends want in? ISABEL, I’M LOOKING AT YOU. (And May!)
I’m curious — what if Esmerelda prefers boy clothes? Some girls do, after all…
When Esmerelda is old enough to express her opinions about clothes, she’ll be both allowed and encouraged to do so. She may not always get her way, but she will to a significant extent. Until then, we have to pick what she wears. (I suppose Noah could, but I don’t see an advantage in that.)
Noah started expressing his during the last maybe 2 months. He prefers to wear his castle, cow, race car, ladybug, and chick t-shirts, usually in that order. Almost more than any specific shirt, he HATES to change shirts. Unless a shirt is filthy, we usually let him wear it for 24 hours straight. (By then, it is nearly always visibly dirty, if not yet filthy.)
When they’re clean, we pretty much let him wear the shirt of his choice. I did force him into the “My Parents Are Exhausted” t-shirt he wore to the basketball game last weekend, and into a cute striped polo for church yesterday.
(In both cases, a clean shirt was necessary; for the basketball game, Noah had the opportunity to pick a shirt and instead rejected option after option until I picked one and put it on him.)