I am so excited! My friend, Brenda, also known as Secret Agent Josephine, launched her books today! How awesome is that? There’s the ABC’s, Numbers, and Colors. The virtual book tour starts today! There will be prizes, crafts, and a secret clue game. I’ll be playing along. You can be all stealthy too.

Last month, at a park, Isabelle came up to me with the saddest little look on her face, with tears threatening to fall. She was patching her eye and she said, “why am I different? Everyone asks why my eye is like this.” I felt so bad for her.

And we do get this question A LOT when she is patching. The patch looks like a bandaid and if we’re out, people will stare or ask if she had surgery or if she was hurt. I always explain, oh no, she’s just patching.

A few weeks ago, the library sent me an email about some books of interest. One of them, the Pirate of Kindergarten, was about a little girl, named Ginny, who was different. She didn’t see the same as everyone else.

The subject intrigued me so I went out and immediately borrowed it from the library. Me and Isabelle read it together right away in the car. We didn’t even wait to get home. The artwork is lovely.

And though Isabelle doesn’t see double the way Ginny does, I thought it was nice being able to read her a story about another little girl who sees differently.

I especially love these pages with the phoropter and eye chart, items Isabelle is used to seeing at the doctor’s.

This part, where Ginny starts to cry when she realizes she is different, just about made me cry.

After reading the Pirate of Kindergarten, I thought I would make Isabelle her own little pirate patch. Something that looked less like a bandaid so, hopefully, she will get less questions and rude stares.

Here’s my own little pirate of kindergarten.

Thank you George Ella Lyon for writing this for all of us who see the world different.

Ok, so I know we’re going to try sleeping all together. We have a king size bed and I plan to have the baby on one side of me and Isabelle on the other. I’m not too worried she’ll roll onto him or kick him because she never rolls so violently that she rolls right over me onto the other side.

And maybe one of those side car thingies will work. I can just tuck the baby in there so we have more room. Or we’ll get Isabelle a proper bed and put it in our bedroom and see how she likes it. Who knows, she might surprise us and want to sleep in her own little bed.

Now a different question, is it totally silly that I want to make a mobile for the crib knowing that the baby is NEVER ever going to sleep in it?

This is Japanese craft book ISBN-10 4262152707 or ISBN-13 9784262152707. I got it when I found out I was pregnant.

I really like this one:

And this one:

Well actually I quite like all of them. Well, who says I need to hang it just above the crib, right? I can hang it any old place that makes me happy.

And onto real delusional stuff. I keep thinking about doing a daily comic again.

I was going to draw Isabelle hanging off my arm but…well she distracted me. So yep. Totally delusional to do a daily comic again. Well a girl can dream.

I still have Disneyland posts to write but I want to share what we did yesterday. It’s special.

Me and Isabelle made a softie. TOGETHER!! How awesome is that?

She was flipping through a book and saw a drawing of a shark. She said, “mama! Shark!” then “make me a whale.” So I showed her this whale:

And she said, “yay!” Which was perfect because I’ve always wanted to make this whale.

It’s from this Japanese craft book that I got over two years ago, isbn-10: 452904114x (isbn-13: 978-4529041140).

Guess what she wants to make next? This:

She said, “I want make cowboy!!” Ah….she keeps me on my toes.

And HERE are the rest of the projects from the book. There are 59 projects. Scanning them all in was torture. We don’t have a dedicated desk for our scanner and printer. They’re on a shelf. The scanner is at knee level and I have to prop my computer up high and then go down low to scan stuff. Yikes, I think it was easier making the whale.

Pictures of the whale to come another day because hello did you just read what I wrote?? I scanned in freaking how many pages of that book!! I’m pooped.

If you were reading on our anniversary, you saw that Alan brought me to the book store. I didn’t find the book I was looking for but found this one instead, Alabama Stitch Book by Natalie Chanin.

I’ve never heard of it before. It was just luck that there was that one copy in the store and that I pulled it off the shelf. I opened the book and fell in love with this reverse appliqué swing skirt.

I sat there flipping through the pages of beautiful pictures. Stopping occasionally to read about beading, stenciling, deconstructing a t-shirt, and at the unexpected like a biscuits recipe and “loving” your thread. And right then and there I knew I had to have the book. I ordered the book and since it’s arrived I’ve been carrying it from room to room reading it.

There’s a paragraph in the first chapter where she writes about how in the mid-1990s a lot of garment factories closed with businesses moving overseas. It makes me sad.

Ok and here is where I go off on a completely different subject.

I read that chapter and in the back of my mind I think about a link my sister sent me, The Story of Stuff and how whenever I go to Target there is just stuff everywhere. Racks and racks of clothes made by cheap labor in other countries. Clothes we don’t need. Clothes that are inexpensive to buy. I think about how much time and effort it takes for me to make something and it makes me mad.

Do we care less about things when we don’t have to pay a lot for them? When they are easy to replace with more cheap stuff that we don’t need?

It makes me think of the documentary my friend, Veronica, recommended, The Corporation, and how big uncaring companies are everywhere. Companies that do not care about the world we live in or the people who live in it. And then I get mad that I shop at Target. That big stores have things cheaper. That food sprayed with pesticides is cheaper than organic. That I don’t even know where to find a mom and pop store for the necessities.

It makes me sad to think our country is a consumer country. We don’t make things anymore. We buy things. Our economy is based on how much we buy. The government is giving us a tax rebate hoping we’ll buy more stuff to stimulate the economy.

I don’t know where I’m going with this. It all just makes me sad, this fast paced life we live in where everything is easily had and easily thrown away.

And even though I think all this I can’t stop myself from wanting a play kitchen. Even after or especially after I quickly made a sucky drawn one for Isabelle.

She sits down and we pretend to have tea on it. So she thinks it’s a little table, not a stove.

I just don’t want to think about any of that anymore. It’s all depressing. I guess I’ll just sit down and sew all the sad thoughts away. Yeah. That’s it. Sewing. Hand made. With love. By me.