Embroidery

I actually can't believe that I am posting this today. I learned to embroider today!!! I always thought that embroidery was for fuddy duddy old ladies or women who are ultra craftsy. Definately not a craft for me! I don't have the patience for counting cross stitches (whatever that means) or for making elaborate wall hangings using only canvas and embroidery floss (why is it called floss?)

Despite my trepidation, I tried it today. Why? Well, I saw this idea on the Soulemama blog a while back. Then I read about it again in her book, The Creative Family. I really love the idea of making your child's artwork into something that they can use. I love the idea of making their artwork have greater longevity.

For the upcoming one-year-old birthday, the big sister said she wanted to give the birthday boy a bag. She loves toting things around in her bags and I guess she wants to pass this talent for schlepping things around on to her little brother.

I had her write the letters of his name with colored markers on a piece of paper with an area marked out that she could write in. This was for one side of the bag. Then I had her draw a picture for him. She chose to draw a picture of the birthday boy...

There he is complete with eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows, a foot at the end of one leg with 3 toes and 3 toes on the other leg without a foot. That circle above the eyebrows? That's his head, of course, with his messy hair. The dots in his mouth? That's his teeth, silly!

It was fun to collaborate on a project for the birthday boy together. We had a lot of fun. She picked the colors of the embroidery floss and as I was embroidering, kept checking my progress and offering helpful suggestions. A fun, very simple project. Really. It took very little time. Mind you, I only learned one stitch, the backstitch, but still, I think the end result turned out well.

Totally unrelated but, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, here's a little Mexican Pizza action compliments of Taco Bell and the 3 year old...