So I had this crazy idea to make a tent that would fit over Baby Bug’s old crib. She doesn’t sleep in her crib (even though we took the side railing off it and she could if she wanted to). It just sits in her room taking up space and collecting stuffed animals. We don’t want to get rid of it yet or even disassemble it (if it would even make it through another disassemble and reassemble) because we keep hoping I’ll get pregnant and there will be another baby in the house.

However, the years tick by and the crib just gets in the way—especially now that our art-supply collection is taking over the other side of the room and giving me many organization nightmares. The crib is just an eyesore. But what can we do with it?

Baby Bug does like to play in it. In fact, it is her own personal trampoline. She is constantly scrambling up and down into it and play-acting out some tragedy with her stuffed animals taking nose-dives off the edge.

I thought maybe I could make a tent that would go over the top of it and it could be a little play house for her. This way it would look less crib-like and I wouldn’t have to resent it so much for taking up space and reminding me that I am still not pregnant.

So I pulled out the old fabric that I used to cover my couch before The Great Couch Cover and set to sewing. And that is where things sort of went down hill. I don’t know. I think my good luck with the couch cover was just beginner’s luck. Sewing is a pain in the you-know-where! It takes too long and it never turns out how you expect.

Which brings me to something I’ve been thinking about. If you can see it in your head, can you create it? That is the question.

I once got to talking to a musician about music and how to play a song by ear. He said, “If you can hear the song in your head, then you can play it.” This may not be true for all people but it is somewhat true for me. I’m no talented musician by far but I can usually plunk out any tune I hear, one finger at a time on the piano. The guitar is a whole other story but a piano is pretty logical since the notes are all in a row. Anyway….the same thing sort of rings true for artwork. If I can visualize a drawing in my head, I usually can draw it.

I know you are not believing me on this but hear me out. Let’s pick the hardest example: a horse. I cannot draw a horse because I do not know what a horse looks like. I mean, I know a horse has a long mane and four legs and a tail etc but I don’t really know the anatomy of a horse. Their legs bend backwards at the knee or something weird and when my brain tries to fill what those lines would look like around the knee area, the picture in my head starts to get fuzzy. So that’s why if I drew a picture of a horse it would probably look like crap.

So my theory is this: if you have enough patience and you really pay attention to the picture you see in your head, then you should be able to draw it. A lot of pictures are too much trouble. Who wants to focus on drawing all the spokes in a bicycle tire for instance? But other things like a simple silly cartoon monster are pretty easy for someone like me. I think this could be true for a lot of people but it does involve turning off the left side of your brain which can be a bit tricky, especially if you like to know how to add and subtract numbers.

Anyway, back to my sewing story. I thought if I could draw my tent idea, then I could sew it. And maybe I still can. It’s just taking a lot more patience than I was willing to invest.

I sewed it together and it looked like crap. I cut my slit for the door and the whole structural integrity of the entire tent sagged and collapsed on itself. This is actually because I didn’t have enough fabric for the back panel. The back panel is only six inches where it should be 24 or so. Once you cut a slit in the front panel, there is not enough tautness in the fabric to hold it in place. I’m not really explaining that very well but just imagine it falling in on itself like soft bubble gum and you’ll pretty much have the idea.

So I sewed my door slit back up and called it a day. Maybe I’ll make a trip to the fabric store another day and give it another try. Or maybe it will just go down in history as one of those projects that flopped. I figure I’m always bragging about the successful projects on this blog, I might as well share a flop or two too.

Maybe there is somebody out there who really can sew what they see. If so, you are more than welcome to steal my idea. My only request is that you share photos with me when you’re done.

Anyway, all that really matters is whether Baby Bug likes it.

Baby Bug’s Tent from secretagentjo on Vimeo.

Which she does.

There was a flurry of activity out in the sticks this morning and yesterday. My sister-in-law, CC, made an apron! She needed to re-stock her etsy shop and decided an apron was just the thing. Finding retro fabric in my mom’s over-flowing cabinet of fabric is always fun. (Though this particular combo did not come from my mom’s closet.)

I was supposed to make one too. I picked out fabric and everything but somewhere along the way my wind blew out of my sails. I’m just not really a sewing girl. I can be at times but I had my mind on illustrations. It’s so much easier for me to sit down at my laptop and make things with my mouse than it is to spend three or four hours playing tug rope with fabric. Seriously, that’s what sewing feels like to me sometimes.

But enough about me! Check out CC’s apron? Is it cute or what?!! If I didn’t ruin every apron I own, I would buy it myself. It makes me want to bake lemon scones and drink iced tea in a tall frosty glass. She named it June which makes me think she should make one for every month. How perfect would that be? A new apron every month? I think I might just take up baking if I got a gift like that.

We had fun photographing it out in the yard this morning. CC is a great model, turning her head whichever way I tell her to. I love it when models cooperate with me.

So if it’s not snatched up already, you can go buy this apron yourself and model it around in your front yard. If you buy it, call me. Let’s do tea. I’ll bring my camera.

Yesterday was sort of a gloomy day and I was sort of in a gloomy mood so I thought I’d cheer things up with some baking action in the kitchen. I like Baby Bug to learn how to play by herself during the day but I also think it’s important for us to do at least one fun thing together too. Sometimes that one fun thing is me haphhazardly drawing on a piece of paper with her while my mind is a million miles away. But other times our one fun thing is a super duper mess in the kitchen!

Waaaah-Hooo!

First, I pulled out this little cookbook that I mailed away for years ago when I was the super duper babysitter. This book is the best. The kids I baby-sat still ask for it when I come to visit. It was a buck or two back then but you can order one here for $3.99. Still worth it, I think, for the illustrations alone.

The kids love looking at the pictures. Baby Bug and I sat down with it and talked about monkeys and splashing and blueberry banana bread for a good ten minutes. It was great. We were all set to make blueberry banana bread (which I was heavily influencing since I have some very overripe bananas) until I realized I only had two bananas and you need three or four. Bah humbug.

So I let her pick another recipe. Watermelon splashers it was. I think she might have picked it because of the green frog, knowing her. I thought it would be difficult but it was rather easy. Duh, it’s a kids’ cookbook, Brenda. Well, I guess I’m a little less confident in the kitchen than some people.

The best part for Baby Bug was making the green sugar that coats the outside. She LOVED that. All we did was put a half cup of sugar in a sealable bag and then added eight drops of green food coloring. Then Baby Bug got to squish the sugar around with the coloring until it was all green. Good times, I tell you. We could have made colored sugar all day. They had another recipe for making a jar full of rainbow-colored sugar. We might have to do that some other rainy day.

I wish I had some sugar-making photos but I was being anal about the dishes I had not done yet and didn’t pull out the camera. I’m lame, I know.

Then we made the red dough, formed it into a long “red snake” (according to Baby Bug) and rolled it in the green sugar. Baby Bug loved rolling the snake. Real dough is SO much more fun than play dough. Then we stuck it in the fridge for an hour to chill. After it was cool, we cut the poor snake into slices and stuck mini-chocolate chips into the slices for seeds. They turned out sooooo cute!

Don’t they look like little mini watermelons? I have such a weakness for mini things. They got me so in the mood for miniature food, I made Baby Bug a mini cheeseburger for dinner… but that’s another subject. I’m getting ahead of myself.

I’m thinking these would be great for a picnic-themed party. How cool would it be to serve these with some ants on a log? Or what if instead of watermelon slices we made little ladybug cookies?!! I could go on and on. And I will when I get my party site up, which is in the works by the way.

The only thing that bothered me about these adorable little cookies is that they didn’t taste like much. They are yummy and I catch myself wanting to eat nine or ten of them but they don’t have that much taste.

It could be because I was out of shortening and I had to use all butter (while taking out the appropriate amount of salt). I don’t even know what shortening is really. Is that LARD? Ew! Oh well, I’ll trust you bakers on what should have been used. It also could have been because the dough might have been a little over-worked. We might have had just a little too much fun playing with it. Or maybe it’s just a kids’ recipe and not meant to be enjoyed by adults.

But even Baby Bug didn’t really like them. She liked eating the dough and she made this swell face but she only ate the chocolate chips out of them and left the rest behind. Go figure.

So I challenge all you bakers out there to make these cookies and make them taste good. Maybe they could even taste like watermelon. Now that’s a stretch. I double dog dare you.

Recipe after the jump.
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