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dottie angel do's... part one

some days when Mr Sun won't shine

and Mr Blah seems all around,

i am thinking it quite nice

to have a reminder of how to 'perky up' the day.

now some may say

"how Tif, could a tea towel possibly perky up my day?"

and usually i would be inclined to agree,

although saying that,

there are so many tea towels

out in 'tea towel world' doing a grand job at cheering up a nest or two.

however this perfectly peachy pair

of over sized tea towels are tres clever,

not only do they have the ability to 'perky up'

a corner of your kitchen with their pretty looks.

but they are also handy dandy

at reminding us of how to live the 'dottie angel' way

yes indeedy, several months ago

whilst rummaging around some boxes in our garage

i came across my granny's old exercise book.

this chance encounter resulted in a 'ta da' moment of the utmost kind.

the results of my 'ta da' moment being the

dottie angel do's

1. do have high hopes

2. do follow the righteous and goodly

path of thriftiness

3. do think you are most peachy perfect

4. do feel a little crafty at least twice a day

5. do wear your slip peeking out from

below your skirt

6. do embrace all that is granny chic

and give it a forever home

this pair of sweeties would be perfectly at home doing the dishes,

hanging around on a wall looking pretty

or being used to make a cushion or bag.

they do not mind which you do,

they are just happy if you are.

all this grand tea towel fabbiness

was made possible by two spiffy folks.

folk #1. my soul sister Debbie and partner in businessy things such as this

(yes 'tis true, we are now 'ltd')

she wore her little 'business cap', the result being,

these lovely quality tea towels are printed in Old Blighty

and wrapped nicely in yarn,

ready for their new homes.

and

folk #2. my long time cyber buddy Francesca Iannaccone

from Mrs Eliot Books,

who so kindly saw what was inside of my head

and made the design appear!

i am a mega fan of Fran's lovely work

and was totally delighted when she agreed

to collaborate with Debbie and myself.

lots of other nitty gritty stuff about the tea towels

can be found in the description of them in my little shop.

i must tell you, i am pretty delighted

with the results of our first 'dottie angel ltd' product

and in thrilling 'part two' if i maybe so bold,

even bolder than today

i will be sharing a little 'how two'

for making this peachy pair into cushions and a laundry bag.

i know this to be bold,

because as i tippity type,

i have yet to actually make them into cushions and bags...

she has high hopes, she has not counted her chickens before they hatched ~ Tif

parting ways, positively...

yes indeedy dearest readers, it is with heavy heart

and a nagging voice within my head saying

"haven't you learnt your lesson yet Tif?"

i must report, Mrs Hook and i will be parting ways for a while.

i do it every time and i am a fool to myself.

after my happy outcome with the 'high hopes wrap' for a chilly day,

i needed to dabble further with the fisherman cream yarn from lion brand.

i thought to myself, there could be no doubting,

if i made a big cream chunky blanket

my clan would become The Waltons.

we would share many happy moments upon the couch,

said lovely blanket keeping us cozy.

talking 'talky' things,

reading books

and always, always with a smile on our faces

i set out upon my 'no doubting' quest to make thee blanket

and to some degree i have succeeded in my mission.

the degrees of success goes as such...

successful degrees

1: blanket and edging completed

2: tags and little twiddly bits that make me smile, completed

3: admired by clan members,

but only because i stood for a long period of time holding blanket up

making 'clearing throat noises' in the vain hope,

eventually someone would look in my direction.

this was not easy i might add,

as it took quite the time for myself and blanket to be noticed

by which point my ailing arm was complaining big time

not so successful degrees

1: it should have been bigger,

only two clan members can be comfortably situated under it at any one time

2: the cross was supposed to go from side to side,

thus implying a nod to our home country and the flag of England

3: i have noted, upon completion (to a degree) of blanket

it does not contain The Waltons special family powers

but all that being said,

ignoring the lack of England flagness about it,

the inability to bring a sense of Waltons to my clan

and my inability to wave around my right arm and shoulder,

making me off duty in the kitchen and cleaning department

(silver lining if ever i saw one)

i do believe this is my most favority, favorite blanket to date

and if a time comes

when Mrs Hook and myself get it on again, in the near future

we shall beaver away on completing the flag bits...

for now however,

i am thinking it best

to ignore the 'not so successful degrees',

embrace the 'successful degrees'

and call my blanket

a 'positively postive' blanket of the utmost kind

she is remembering, remembering the 5th of november and wishing you a spiffy, safe one ~ Tif

I went from feeling like child preparation classes were stupid to realizing my kids would be here at any second and I am "completely unprepared" in a matter of days. In a flurry of type-a tendencies and OCD mannerisms, I booked us for several prep classes all of which are taking place over the next week.

I'm dragging Joe off to everything from a Childbirth Marathon Class to Breastfeeding Your Baby; he's being a really good sport about it all too. Last night kicked off our adult ed marathon with part one of Crib Notes & Baby Talk. In all honesty, we expected the class to be filled with weird people and for it to suck big time. Much to our chagrin, only some of the people were weird and the class was awesome.

We started off with a presentation by a local police officer who discussed car seat safety and gave us a list of places in the area where we can get our car seats installed and/or checked for free. Not going to lie, the videos she showed scared the crap out of me. My poor kids are going to be in child seats until they're eleven. After the car seat safety portion of the class (which lasted about 20 minutes?) the actual baby part started.

The instructor, Debbie Campagna - a practicing RN, who also teaches nursing at a local college - was down-to-earth, unabashed and generally fabulous. She made you feel instantly comfortable and answered a lot of our newbie parent questions.

The instructor began by asking us to imagine that we've all made it to term, we've had our healthy, fat babies, and now we're heading home...what are we most afraid of. I'm sure every person in the room was most afraid of answering that question in front of a room full of strangers, but what ended up coming out was:

how to manage this new little person

managing overbearing extended family

feeding/getting on a schedule

how to keep the babies from getting sick with so many visitors

managing your marriage after the baby arrives

Debbie was playful with the answers and was genuinely there to help. Awesome. After she addressed some of the major fears, talked about finding a pediatrician, well-baby vs. sick-baby checks (and how to know if your kid is really sick), and sleep issues. Below are some of my major take-aways for anyone that might be interested.

Pediatricians:

interview a pedi before signing on with the practice

know who handles call in hour (it's better to have an RN, LPN, NP or PA answer the phones)

find someone who will deal with your new parent neuroses and not make you feel stupid

if you plan to breast feed, find a pedi whose philosophy on the importance of breast feeding is similar to your own; you don't need someone discouraging you if the road gets rough.

it's okay to "fire" someone if you aren't comfortable asking them questions or if they make you feel dumb

Well Baby vs. Sick Baby:

get a regular digital thermometer (the kind that are $3 at CVS), the others (ear, pacifier) are highly inaccurate wastes of money. Rectal thermometers are accurate, but are unnecessary.

take the temperature under the babies arm with the metal tip in the fold of their armpit (not facing the back of their arm). Know that a normal axillary temp for a baby is 97.6 (always add 1* to whatever temperature you get for them then!)

for vomit to be vomit it's chunky (the projectiles that come up after feedings are from burping issues, not sick baby issues). If a baby vomits on two or more occasions, call the pedi.

if the baby's diaper goes from a paste-y consistency to liquid, call the pedi.

get Mylicon drops for newborns - these will help with a gassy/upset belly.

the book/DVD, Happiest Baby on the Block came up and we were told that there are many good strategies (the 5 S's) to help with inconsolable crying.

rashes - babies skin is super sensitive. Washing their clothes in fragrance free/perfume free detergent is not enough. You need to wash their clothes (at least for the first few months) in a baby detergent (i.e. Dreft or a generic version of Dreft). This sucks because I already washed their clothes in Tide Free and Clear. Guess what I'm doing this weekend?

Sleep Issues:

don't let a baby sleep for long stretches during the day (yes, we were told to wake them up). Why let your baby sleep from noon to 4 p.m. when they can sleep from midnight to 4 a.m.

it takes a baby three weeks to get adjusted to life outside of the womb and start creating new patterns/habits.

allow babies to self-soothe - rather than cover up their hands with mits and gloves, tend to their fingernails with an emory board, this way babies can find their hands the same way they did in the womb.

keep night feedings all business: feed, burp, change, bed. Don't get sucked into rocking, singing, mommy and me time. Babies are quick to learn patterns, and they will know that nighttime = mommy time very quickly as a result of this.

Part two is next Wednesday and will cover feeding, safety, bathing, diapering, swaddling and circumcisions. I honestly thought it would be a nightmare of two hours, but even Joe was thankful we took the class and we're both looking forward to next week.

If you're in the Albany-area, the class is offered at St. Peter's Hospital through their Family Education Center. The office staff there are simply lovely. The class itself is spread over two days (four hours of instruction total) and costs $40.