Practical life
Making space and making spaces
Throughout the summer Esme’s independence has blossomed. She’s communicating her thoughts about the world around her, making her preferences known and is eager to be an active member of our household. She can navigate the food co-op on foot and will often carry a bag home for a couple of blocks proudly. She seemingly lives to sort the recycling and is always ready to help out with a kitchen project. She loves to feed the people she loves, apply lotion to our legs and knows to be gentle when someone is unwell. When Brian had his appendix removed in the start of July she learned to say ‘dada ouchie belly,’ which she reminded herself for the month when he couldn’t pick her up or cuddle with her.
Summer hasn’t unfolded exactly as we had planned due to Brian’s unexpected surgery. However, I’ve never felt so lucky to have so much support. My amazing mom graciously rescheduled her flight to Florida to spend more time with us and thanks to the kindness of family and friends we navigated through his recovery better than expected. We were so grateful for the help and company — to see Esme loved on by our community was such a gift.
Being down a set of arms to carry and care for Esme for a few weeks (as well as her own interest in engaging with daily tasks) shifted my focus over the past few weeks to the practical elements of our life at home. More specifically, I’ve been contemplating the Montessori concept of 'practical life' which, in regards to children relates to engaging toddlers and kids in day-to-day activities related to household management (cooking, cleaning, gardening, etc), but have also been thinking about what setting up a living space for 'practical life' might look like across different ages and stages of life. To this end I've been reading a few books at the same time and enjoying letting them mingle around in my brain a bit. I don't have a thesis yet, but it's nice to read a couple of different books circling around the similar subjects at the same time. My book stack: Having and Being Had, Montessori from the Start, The Montessori Toddler, Notes from an Island and How to Keep House While Drowning.
Buoyed by more time spent at home than we had initially planned for this summer, I’ve been busying myself during Esme’s naps on the weekend with cleaning and organizing so that we can give a bit more clarity and order to our home and also to create room for some Esme specific spaces. After re-homing some baby toys and shifting things around we’ve made space for Esme to have a place to get ready and access cleaning tools, a little practical kitchen (in our kitchen) and a little table where she can eat, draw and care for her plant.
Esme’s getting ready space is a mishmash of different Command hook products, which has made it easy to adapt as her needs change. Ideally I’d love to find a slightly larger mirror for her so she can brush her teeth in the morning here, but for now this set-up is working well.
Esme’s little table sits in the center of our living space and we eat breakfast here quite often with Brian pulling up an adult sized chair and me using the bookshelf as a table and sitting on a pillow on the ground. Esme also uses this space for light food prep, shelling steamed eggs for breakfast and chopping them with an egg slicer.
After months of hemming and hawing over how to hack an Ikea kitchen or some other piece of furniture into a small practical kitchen for Esme we ended up getting her a ready made kitchen from Lovevery. We all love it and find it incredibly charming. After adding some shelving into the cabinet, it’s a nice space for Esme to be able to store her own dishes and bowls. She loves to fetch and set her own table, fill her cup with water and grab a sponge to clean up spills. She’s still a bit short for the sink for hand and plate washing, but I feel confident she’ll grow into it soon.
Thinking about practical life at home has made me reflect a bit on what about home life gives me a sense of pleasure and ease. I’m eager to bring reading and handicrafts back into the normal rhythms of home life, versus saving them for when Esme is asleep. My ideas here mostly focus on creating space for reading in tandem with Esme (protecting space for Brian and I to both read while Esme is being read to by her other parent). I’d also like to make my space for crafting functional to me, with goal of making picking up and putting down projects a bit easier. I’d also love to make this space more accessible to Esme and to friends. Currently I sew in our hallway room or ‘snug’ which also tends to be a bit of a dumping ground for things exiting the apartment. It’s low on storage and while I recently hosted two friends to sew after bedtime, it’s mostly set-up for one person right now. As I think about this space and how to evolve it I’ve been thinking a lot about the interiors of sailboats and I hope to build out some shelves and an integrated desk into the space sometime this winter.
Wishing you well,
Carolyn
Project updates
English paper piecing
I’ve been slowly picking away at my English paper piecing project during meetings and in the evenings when my brain is a bit too fried for anything but very simple stitching. I’m still finding the project enjoyable and I am very optimistic that I’ll have a small stroller quilt ready by the time that the baby this is intended for arrives in October. As Esme becomes more and more independent, I’m planning to keep a few pre-glued hexagons in the sling bag we use as a diaper bag so I can get some stitching in on the playground once in a while. I’m waiting on some inexpensive tiny scissors from JetPens and otherwise have a little kit assembled.
Red creek patterns garden jumpsuit
I really loved sewing this little jumpsuit for Esme, although I don’t find the design super practical as it requires stripping down for a diaper change. I sewed this one from a super light cotton that I bought a roll of at the most recent Caron Callahan sale. I think the matching bias tape on the bodice makes it look so sharp and professional. I hacked the pattern to make a dress for my ‘niece’ and will probably try doing the same with the sleeved version of the pattern for Esme next summer.
Nora top
I sewed another little Nora top for Esme out of a Liberty lawn I’ve been holding on to for years. I love this pattern and am glad that Esme likes wearing this style of top, too. I’m planning to sew a few more in the 2-3 size for her for next summer.
Little floral wire baskets
I’ve had an insatiable desire to make baskets lately. I’m not exactly sure where the urge came from — I think a mix of being heavily influenced by Underwater Weaving and all of the recent organization I’ve been working on in the apartment. While cleaning up my sewing space I found all of the supplies needed to make little floral wire baskets from an old Reading My Tea Leaves tutorial and after a little head scratching and 30 minutes I had a tiny basket. Esme is a lover of all tiny vessels and likes to carry them around with her treasures inside. They work well as hanging baskets from hooks and I plan on making a few more before progressing onto a more substantial basket project.
In-progress
A few little star babies for new little people joining the world
A little snappy shirt for Esme
A pair of summer shorts for me that I most likely won’t finish in time for this season
Next up
A larger Waldorf doll for Esme for her 2nd birthday
Birthday and holiday gifts
Winter sewing
Perhaps some button downs for me
Cooking
Banana oatmeal cookies
With a goal of finding more ways to invite Esme to cook in the kitchen I’ve been searching for simple recipes for baked goods that don’t require much finesse and will probably get eaten. These banana oatmeal cookies are basically baked oatmeal and mostly require dumping a bunch of ingredients into a bowl before plopping them onto a baking sheet. They also come in handy for the mornings when Esme’s slept in and we’re practically running to daycare as a little breakfast snack for me or her.
Ingredients
2 large bananas (mashed)
1 1/2 cups of quick oats
1/2 cup of raisins
1 tbsp ground flax
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Mash bananas in a small bowl
In a larger bowl mix all other ingredients, then add mashed bananas and mix well.
Roll into small balls and flatten on a lined baking sheet
Bake for 12-15 minutes
Garden notes
A true marker that summer is progressing faster than my ability to comprehend it is evident in the garden. I took this video of Esme excitedly eating kale back in July and the bed is now unrecognizable, literally bursting with beans, greens, nasturtiums and tomatoes. We’ve overall spent much less time that I had hoped and dreamed of in the garden this season, but our bed has been kind to us — providing greens for our neighbors. Esme has learned to hold a watering can with two hands and can now walk from the cisterns at the front of the garden back to the bed all on her own without spilling very much. I’m so proud, I could burst.
Books
The Memory Police
I found this book to be haunting and super evocative. It’s surreal, quiet and beautiful. I throughly enjoyed the audiobook and deeply wish this was novel was going to be adapted as a Ghibli film for adults. On the theme of ‘practical life’ this novel placed a strong focus on the beauty and sacredness of everyday objects and simple lives.
Alterations
I picked this slim book up on a whim at Unnameable. It’s very hard to describe but weaves together a variety of subjects that are of interest to me: repair, community sewing circles, the creation of the first spacesuits for the lunar landing, Goodnight Moon, Emily Dickinson and miscarriages. It’s presented as an ‘undelivered lecture’ and I’ve found myself very captivated by it.
A note about links
None of the links in this email are affiliate links (I don't make money off of them and I don't care where and if you click, unfortunately I think they are default tracked by Substack). I’m a bit short on time today, so book links are a mishmash of used, publisher, Wikipedia and independent bookshops.
Additionally, I hope my musings never encourage you to buy something that you aren't interested in stewarding in your own home for a very long time. Links are used for illustration purposes and to highlight small businesses and designers when appropriate.