Family life and a crafty update (mini doll carrier)

A few snapshots from our lives of late.

Enjoying watermelon, shade and ice on hot days.

Cool mornings before the sun blazes. I’m loving the Pottery Barn Woodland sheets I got just for V’s berth.

Aside from striped bass and July’s jellyfish bloom, we encounter other wildlife on the docks.

With all the boatwork that needs to be done and day-to-day living, there has not been much time for crafting. I did steal one afternoon to work on some presents for a friend’s birthday party. These are simply grocery bags used as gift wrap, embellished with more brown paper bag cutouts, colored pencils, and a black sharpie. (Look for another crafty update at the bottom of this post.)

Our wheeling and dealing neighbor Bill has been on the prowl for fish. The deal is that he gets enough for all of us, and I cook it. He get’s a meal out of it, we get free fish. The other day he got us a striped bass, which I grilled with lemon, olive oil and chives. I served it up with peach salsa and grilled napa cabbage.

Crafty update: people often see me toting O around in my Beco baby carrier. V has recently become very attached to her dolls and wants to carry them everywhere we go. It was time to give her (and us) the gift of hands free baby carrying…our version of a mini Beco.

The doll carrier is made from:

• red canvas from a tote bag that we found in the discard pile
• vintage style fabric from my stash, originally bought from reprodepot.com
• buckles cannibalized from some backpacks we shed during the move

I made it one afternoon, improvising the design as I went along. I don’t know how those mama blogs make it look like fun to craft with their toddlers/preschoolers or whip up skirts before dinner. V peppered me with questions, climbed back and forth over me, demanded snacks and potty breaks. I almost had a nervous breakdown from all the distractions!

I’m still tweaking the carrier a bit to fit V better, but all in all, I’m happy to provide my girl with tools to encourage her along the path towards attachment parenting.