I often think of laughter as a distant memory or an old friend. I look back on it fondly, missing its authentic sound and voice. I never forget, but as time goes on, the small details lose clarity.
What exactly did her voice sound like?
That door was what shade of blue?
And time continues. Moments and faces fill the spaces once occupied by those tiny details now fussy in my memory.
I often think about laughter in this way.
I often think of laughter as a muscle once used, once strong.
The memory of the motion — the running, the lifting, the punches — is still there, but the memory isn’t enough to maintain the strength.
It must be flexed and used. It must be broken and strained, so that it can grow stronger.
I often think about laughter in this way.
With motherhood came the responsibility of more lives than just my own. Lives I put before mine — even as I sleep, with one eye open. Always watching, always looking, always thinking….
always worrying.
I find it so easy to worry, yet so difficult to laugh. The worry plays the trump card in every hand. The laughter is moved to the “do tomorrow” list.
I’ve strengthened the muscle of worry. I’ve revisited its memories and face. I’ve let my laughter muscles atrophy.
The worry voice sings loudly:
Did I play with them enough today?
Did I show my love?
Did the bill get paid?
Why didn’t he nap?
What will others think?
What if… what when… how will…
From the lightweights to the heavy-hitters, I allow them to consume me. Punching down the genuine laughter, leaving reasons to worry behind.
If you can get me to laugh — really laugh — you’ll hear chuckles turned to silent, shoulder-shaking laughter. As I silently laugh with tears streaming down my face, small squeaks make their way out as I inhale. An friend of mine used to call me “window washer”: my laughter mimicking the tiny squeaks you hear as the glass is polished until it is shiny and clean.
Shiny and clean.
Motherhood isn’t shiny and clean — you can do it all “right” and still be left with heartache.
Is it possible to laugh while the heart hurts? It is possible to genuinely laugh when life just feels hard and heavy?
I want to be the window washer again.
Harlow has a laugh that is simply beautiful. She squishes up her nose. She squints her eyes shut. She giggles loudly. She laughs often.
The other day I said to her, “Harlow, I love your giggles.”
She replied so matter of factly: “I just love to laugh, mommy.”
And in that moment I realized that laughter is like so many things forgotten: it doesn’t have to be.
It is a muscle that doesn’t want to be lost. It is a sound that wants to fill the air. It is a feeling that wants to be experienced, contagious to oneself and others.
In that moment, I realized my motherhood needs my laughter.
Laughter doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. Laughter doesn’t mean that I have this motherhood gig — or life gig — figured out.
Laughter means finding joy in the tiniest of moments: to even for a moment forget all the reasons to worry. I want to show my kids that life is more than responsibilities–being their mommy is more than the weight of it all. It is having the honor to laugh at the crayon mural on the freshly painted wall, to laugh at the joke you’ve heard one thousand times, to laugh with joy when it doesn’t mean you are happy.
Even in the middle of heartache.
Laughter may not make the world shiny and clean, but I’m beginning to believe that the sound of true laughter has the ability to polish a small piece of the heart. One moment at at time.
Well this project might be my new favorite. I know. I know. I always have a new favorite…but that’s probably a good problem, right? I love pushing myself creatively, but I also love making something we would maybe otherwise buy. A mobile, coat hooks, snack bags, and now fleece socks for Harlow’s rainboots!
If you know anything about Pittsburgh, you know it rains a lot. It can be gorgeous and sunny, too, but I always joke that it’s why we pay Pittsburgh prices. If we had weather like San Diego? We’d be paying for it too! Well, it’s also been raining a good bit here in Boston…and we don’t pay Pittsburgh prices…so……. Anyways….I digress.
Rainboots. A must around these parts, but they always seem to eat the little socks Harlow wears when she takes them off. I knew I could buy a pair of fleece socks, but we decided to have fun making and customizing a pair together instead!
The PDF patterns for the actual sock is available at the end of this post, but to alter the pattern to fit your selected boots, you’ll need a few measurements of your own as well.
The first measurement we will need is the sole of the boot. The biggest thing here is the length — then determine how the boot fits/how wide you want the fleece sole piece to be cut. I used the outline of the boot as my sole piece — including seam allowances.
You can take the length of your sole measurement and modify my pattern. Using the .JPG available below, you will want to resize the sole to the correct length — depending on how much you are resizing it, you may need to change the aspect ratio or the width will be off. Be sure to modify all of the pieces at the same time — especially the “foot” and “sole” pieces.
The next modification you’ll have to make is for the leg of the boot. The best way to do this is simply place your boot on the pattern piece — the ankle of your boot should hit at the bottom of the pattern piece. Extend the piece with more height or change the width, etc. Just make sure it’s about 1/4″ taller than your boot leg and the opening is about 1/4″ wider as well.
When you’ve created your leg boot piece, you’ll need to alter the cuff of boot piece to match the opening width. I promise this will make sense as you do it. :) You can also change the height of the cuff piece if you want more or less folded over!
After you’ve created your pattern pieces, cut everything out of the fleece. Be sure to cut the pieces on the fold that need to be — the foot, leg of boot and cuff of boot.
If you are just creating the fleece boot, you can skip to the construction section of the project, but if you are embroidering the cuff like I did, then keep reading here! As I’ve mentioned previously, I’m still very new to embroidery, so between learning about all of the thread and stabilizers and designs and whatever else, I’m also figuring out what works for me. I’ve decided I’m approaching it like quilting: there is not just one “right” way of doing things.
Moving on! Goodness, I’m a bit rambl-y today — sorry!
Because we are embroidering on fleece, I’ve chosen to use 2 layers of a medium weight stabilizer and a layer of water soluble stabilizer on top. I love the water soluble product for materials like minky, fleece and velvet — it keeps the design from sinking into the fabric. A quick rinse and it’s gone.
Hooping — getting your sandwich taut within the embroidery ring — can be a little intimidating at first. Try to hoop your fabric as centered and straight as you can. I find loosening the outer ring, pulling the layers tight and then tightening the rings seems to work best for me.
After I’ve hooped my fabric, I use the plastic guide to line up where I want the embroidery image to go. I’ve purchased this image (Hallie the Hippo from Doc McStuffins) from iBroidery — there are thousands of images and text available.
Align your embroidery pattern using the PE770 screen. I always check the perimeter of the design — as shown in the video — so I can see exactly where it will stitch. When you are ready to begin, just follow the color instructions on your machine. This design took 20 passes to complete.
I always recommend watching the thread throughout the entire process. One catch of the thread can mess up an entire color, so you want to be sure it’s loosely feeding the thread, as the tension on the machine takes care of the rest.
When the design has been embroidered, you can begin the construction of the socks!
I used a serger for mine, but a zig-zag stitch would work great too. You don’t need to worry about the fleece fraying, but the zig-zag stitch will allow for stretch. First, mark the middle of your boot leg and foot pieces.
Using pins, line up the top of the foot piece with the bottom opening of the boot leg piece, as shown below.
Serge in place.
Next, pin the cuff piece to the boot leg piece as shown below.
Sew in place. Be sure to check the direction of your embroidery design, so it’s right side out and up when folded over the boot.
For this next part, you will be pinning the back of the sock and also pinning the sole to the foot piece. I like to do this in tandem, so you can remove any excess from the top of the foot piece. (No matter how many times I measure, I always end up with a little excess on this piece.)
Pin the back seam down to the top of the foot piece. Pin the sole to the foot piece, starting at the center of the toe.
When you get to the back, pin in place and cut the excess fabric either with a scissor prior to sewing or with your serger.
If serging, be sure to tack your threads in as shown above! After you’ve sewn down the back seam, sew around the sole.
It just so happened that Harlow began a mild obsession with the Berenstain Bear series when these adorable shirts from Loved by Hannah and Eli arrived! Harlow takes her role as big sister very seriously, and I love that she calls this shirt her, “I’m a big sister bear!” shirt.
Loved By Hannah And Eli was a dream, inspired by a hobby, turned passion and ultimately a calling. I’m a Mom….I do this out of my house with a couple of friends and try to have as much fun with it as possible.
I’m Sarah….
Married to a Super Supportive Dude, 2 kids (Hannah and Eli) thus the name….
We live in Sunny California :)
The LOVED BY HANNAH AND ELI “brand” has been around since early 2012
My dream is to impact people through genuine kindness, bring families together, and do so fashionably
The Team is made up of willing friends who don’t need sleep…we are moms!
We absolutely love Sarah’s designs, and ironically she seems to take the little names I call my kiddos right out of my mouth. Grumpy bear, anyone?
In my mission to get babies into arms and being worn, I’m so excited to share 2 work at home mamas and their baby- (and doll!) wearing amazingness! Meet Vienna Springs and Stella and Wilbur— two fabulous etsy shop owners with a love of all things babywearing.
I love slings for the ease and speed at which I am able to put Jones into one — they are so great for errands and church and fussy hours and naps and playdates and museums…. can you tell I love them?
Laura, of Vienna Springsposts here color combinations on instagram and stocks her shop every Wednesday night at 5pm pacific. You have to be ready if you want to snatch one up! Krista, of Stella and Wilbur creates matching doll slings in the same silk colors — doesn’t get any cuter!
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: I love matching my girl, Harlow. Until she tells me that I’m not allowed to, I will continue coordinating our outfits to my heart’s desire. I’m not worried about her voicing her opinions — she definitely makes her’s known, and I love that about her.
To have a little fun, I showed her what I was going to wear and asked her to pick out something to match. She told me, “I need to wear my striped pants then, mommy!” when she saw my new silk tunic from Twice.
Twice is an amazing and totally addicting website that buys and sells premium secondhand fashion. You will see brands like Burberry, J.Crew, Free People and many Anthropologie labels. As someone who doesn’t buy a ton of statement pieces — I love me some classic and timeless — I have absolutely fallen in love with buying some of these fun pieces at Twice for a fraction of the cost.
This discount will expire on 1/15/15 — so hurry!
A few other fun facts about Twice. I love how easy it is to search by type of clothing, size, color, brand, and even specialty sizes (tall and petite). Sales aren’t final: they accept returns within 30 days as long as the tags are still attached and the clothing is in the same condition. If you sign up to receive the Twice Daily New Arrivals email, you will earn 10% off your entire order if you happen to buy one of the items shown in your email!
Selling is also easy with Twice: receive a selling kit with prepaid shipping and Twice takes care of the rest. You can also earn 25% more when you choose to be paid in Twice store credit. So easy!
Living far from my family is definitely difficult. I would give anything to swing over to my parents’ house when Andy works late or see them at church on a Sunday, but it makes me all the more thankful for the time we get to spend with them. So many of my memories of my childhood involve the many roadtrips we would take to visit family or go on trips. We’d pack up our bag of “to-do” items, measure the trip in Adventures in Odyssey episodes, and make sure the seating arrangements were fair at all times. I love those memories, and while traveling can be full of ups and downs, I love these adventures with our little family.
I wanted to share some of our 2-day road trip traveling fashion for Harlow and I — highlighting in particular these amazing tennis shoes we both got from Rack Room Shoes.
I mean, in all seriousness…they are pretty hard to miss!
DAY ONE
A big part of the traveling equation is comfort. For me, comfortable pair of shoes is the top of my list – especially when it’s a trip during the winter months….into the artic-cold of the Midwest (just kidding…kinda). I want a pair of shoes that are warm, easy to slip on and off and most of all — I sound like a broken record — comfortable. I have never before tried Asics tennis shoes, and I’m happy to say that I might be hooked. I’m excited to try running in these shoes as well!
Harlow picked out these neon pink Nikes from Rack Room Shoes. If you’ve had any conversations about color with her, you would not be surprised by her loud choice. ;) What I love about these shoes is the ease in which she is able to put them on herself. They have a fake-lace look with a velcro strap to actually tighten the shoe on her foot. She loves them. I love them. Winnity win, win, win!
I wish someone was paying me a dollar for every time I wrote the word comfortable in this post… ;)
So how did our 2-day adventure go? So well! Harlow was a great traveler, content to look for animals out her window and search for colored trucks. After my solo road trip to Wisconsin with her (while 33 weeks pregnant…I don’t recommend it) she hasn’t asked for the iPad once. I think having no choice to turn around and attend to her needs during that trip while I was driving forced her to grab the items within her reach. She loves reading her books, coloring and just chatting with us — I’m so thankful! I was nervous about how frequently we would need to stop for Jones, but he did great as well! I know this might be him just making us overly confident, but I’ll just take one trip at a time — calling his first one a success!
How about you — what’s your go-to travel attire?
And a very, very important question for you as well: the louder the tennis shoes the better the mama? or am I forgetting how that saying goes….. ;)
be sure to check out these other amazing moms and their sweet girls!
I hope you are having a wonderful time with family! I haven’t been opening my computer much, and it’s been such a breath of fresh air. If I owe you an email — I will be tackling those in a few days. I’m not ready to be done soaking up our family time – thanks!
xo
This post was done in collaboration with Rack Room Shoes. All opinions and love for loud, neon tennis shoes are my own. (and Harlow’s!)
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