Red Scarf Project

The house is much quieter today. The 'rents have gone home, and Chris is sick on the couch. I have been sewing on my new serger all day - more or less successfully. It took me three hours to figure out how to thread the machine, only succeeding after I broke down and read the manual...

The results of today's sewing efforts will be revealed in a later post, however. Today's picture is of an item recently knit for the Orphan Foundation of America's 2007 Red Scarf Project. These scarves will be part of a Valentine's Day care package for former foster care students who are now in college in the United States. I made one last year too; perhaps this can be my new holiday tradition.

This year's red scarf was knit with a wool and (yikes!) acrylic blend that I picked up in Thailand as emergency yarn. In an attempt to create a unisex scarf, I used a simple moss stitch pattern. The final scarf was around 70 inches long. As an aside, I used my glass needles from Namaste for this project, and they were super smooth. Aside from fears of being turned back by airport security screeners, I really enjoyed these needles. They are very pretty and the scarf was done in less than a week - with frequent Christmas interruptions too.

And the Stockings...

We have had a lovely Christmas this year. My mom and dad have come all the way from Atlanta to visit. They made their flight arrangements before we knew we were moving to Beijing, so Chris and I flew to meet them down south on Friday. We spent two full days in Shanghai, mostly eating. We went to the City Diner for breakfast, had drinks on top of the Peace Hotel on the Bund, then appetizers at La Luna in XinTianDi, finishing up with a little sushi at Shintori. It was delish. Yeah, we did some sightseeing too... but it mostly was all 'bout the food.

We flew back to Beijing on Christmas Eve, and it has been a non-stop stocking opening, present giving, chocolate eating, elf movie watching smorgasbord since we arrived. Speaking of stockings, there are some new ones this year. Here is the amazing cross stitch stocking that Linda, my mother-in-law made for me as a present last year. This thing took her an entire year to complete (can you imagine!?) It has a fabulous crafty theme going on, complete with a Singer sewing machine and a knitting basket. The embroidery was so incredible that I was almost afraid to stitch it up into the stocking shape.



Hope you all have had an equally lovely holiday. Merry Merry!

X-Ray Baby

Sometimes I wonder if I will make a horrific mistake as a parent. Like feed my new daughter grapes or do something else that all other parents would instinctively know was completely inappropriate.

But then I read news of people who do really bizzare things, like put their baby through an X-ray machine at LAX. And I am slightly reassured by the thought that I would have certainly known better than to do that!

The Chicago Tribune reports that LAX security screeners are"trying to figure out what changes we can make, short of putting up signs saying, 'Don't put your baby through the X-ray machine.' "

Holiday Madness

Believe it or not, this is not a Christmas post; it is about Holidays in China. You see, there are three "Golden" weeks in China in which the entire country gets 7 days off of work. One is in May for the international labor day holiday, one is in October for National Day celebrations and the best one of all is in January or February - the Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year to us lao wai. To get the 7 days off, though, China's powers that be announce some work day rearrangements. You see, people do not get 7 real holiday days. They get 3 holiday days with 4 weekend days lined up nearby. In practice, this means that we are officially supposed to work either the weekend before or the weekend after the 7 day holiday period.

Chinese people do not bat an eye at this work day rearranging, but it would surely cause near riots in the United States. I mean, you cannot mess with a God-given right to a weekend! This week, the announcement came from HR that China has decreed December 30 and 31 as official workdays, with January 1-3 as holidays. So essentially, they moved the weekend to after New Year's Day. Jut because. And again, not a SINGLE person at work thought it unusual.

Now really, there must be a better way to boost your annual GDP estimate, isn't there?

Christmas Crafting

Chris and I found a church here in the Burbs of Beijing. A few weeks ago, they announced a charity drive for children at the Hope Foster Home, which is a nearby orphanage for children with disabilities. So we picked two names and pictures from the stack, one boy and one girl, and created little gift boxes for the kiddos. Besides picking out warm fleeces, gloves, toothpaste, little cars and playdough to go in each box, the really fun part was creating dolls for them.

What three year old boy would not want one of these? Actually, I know a 33-year old boy who was quite jealous.

And then for the three year old girl, a baby doll made from Wee Wonderfuls' make-a-long Pattern "Olive". I really liked her with a simple face - only rosy cheeks.


Completely huggable. Too bad I can't see them open the gifts next Monday!

Little Waldorf Baby

This is a Waldorf-style baby doll made from a Magic Cabin kit - the 16" Sweet Cheeks baby. It was my first attempt at a fully formed baby doll with a sculpted head, and she was relatively simple to assemble. The hair took quite a while, though, because the instructions called for a crocheted mohair wig. I do not crochet and all attempts at self-instruction through web-searches and pictures were abysmal failures. After six months of staring at a bald headed baby, I ordered "Making Waldorf Dolls" by Maricristin Sealey, which has a section on making hair that saved the day. I took the doll with me on a business trip from Beijing to Shanghai last month so I could finish up the hair on the plane. I got some serious double takes in the airport as I passed through security. All of the ladies manning the x-ray machine came up to investigate and touch my baby.

to blog or not to...

I have debated starting a blog for a while now, primarily because many seem quite narcissistic. Beyond the unwanted foray into focused egotism, however, I have been reluctant because my own attempts at journal keeping have never been too successful. My mom's attic has three or four books with a few eloquent entries in the front followed by reams of empty pages. I begin well, but seem to have problems with momentum.

Now, however, it seems that the idea of a blog is becoming more and more attractive. I am a bit of a crafty girl, always have been, and it probably is a good idea to keep a record of projects - hopefully not in a "look what I did- aren't I great" kind of way. First, a visual record of ideas, trials, mistakes, successes can help me to grow and develop. Second, I have done so many projects over the years that I no longer remember, especially those given as gifts. Perhaps it would be wise to organize and catalog the creation of these things that take so much of my free time.

Most importantly, however, my husband and I are in the process of adopting a little girl from China. In the very near future, we will need a space to share pictures and stories of Miss G with our family and friends. And while we wait, this may be a good place take a deep breath and prepare.

So for this first post, I leave you with a picture of my first two babies: Mr Frankie, whom we love deeply and sometimes allow to climb on the couch with us to watch movies, and Chris, my partner, lover, husband, and best friend.