A Significant Date in LolaLand

Photo source found here.

Today is a significant date in my life and in the history of LolaLand Creations.  It is part of the reason LolaLand Creations exists.  It is a date that has greatly shaped my life - a date of remembrance of grief and loss and yet a reminder of a bigger hope than this life and of present and future joy.  August 27, 2009 was the estimated due date of my husband's and my first child - a day that came to pass without fulfillment of the promise and hopes it once held - a day robbed by miscarriage.

Miscarriage is like an exclusive club into which you suddenly find yourself forced. Nobody wants to join it, but there is great fellowship in it.  One of the things that makes miscarriage so difficult is that it is often a physically intangible loss.  Sure, it's certainly tangible to your body, but often, you do not get to hold your child in your arms or in some cases the palm of your hand.  I didn't even have an ultrasound picture from my first pregnancy to have as a memorial to my dearly missed child.  I had nothing tangible to hold onto.  It is hard to explain to others the depth of loss from not only the loss of a child but the loss of hopes, dreams, naivety, and all the future joy of getting know and raise your precious little one.  It can be difficult for others to mourn with you through it since there's nothing tangible to them to help them understand.

During the same month but before that pregnancy began, a sweet friend taught me how to chain and single crochet.  Later in my miscarriage journey, my church's miscarriage and infertility ministry blessed me with a memory box.  Amongst other things of encouragement, in the box, was a small hand-knit blanket.  My eyes are watering right now just thinking of how that small blanket and box encouraged me.  For me, it was finally a tangible recognition of my grief.  It was a truly compassionate way for ladies who have walked similar paths to love on me and assure me that my grief was legitimate.  The blanket especially touched my heart since I had learned to crochet and knew first-hand how much love, time, and sacrifice goes into handmade goods.  Oh how I clutched that blanket and wept!  The thought that someone spent time, energy, and financial resources to encourage me through difficult days was a powerful reminder to me of God's great love for me when I found myself struggling to believe I was lovable.

As I walked this path, I found it very difficult to share about my journey and grief with others who had not also experienced miscarriage.  From talking with other friends who have since walked similar paths, I guess it's a way that we try to cope - we try to shove down the pain and fake our idea of 'normalcy' instead of opening ourselves up to community encouragement and help with bearing the burden.  We tell ourselves that those who have not experienced it cannot have the level of compassion for which we so yearn.  Though they may not be able to understand exactly what we're going through, the idea that others cannot have some understanding and cannot truly empathize is such a lie!  Have not others had and lost?  Have not others suffered disappointed hopes and shattered dreams?  Have not others experienced bitter grief at some point?  Oh, ladies, men, families suffering miscarriage - do not give in to the lie!  I beg you!  Find rest and comfort in fellowship - allow others help you carry your heavy burden.  It is a heavy and dark road to walk alone.

And so LolaLand Creations was eventually birthed.  I was given this story for the glory of God, and I feel I must share it.  As Jeremiah 20:9 says, "If I say, 'I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,' there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot." So I craft to worship, I craft because it has been used in the process of healing, I craft to share the story given me for the encouragement of others, I craft to proclaim with tested and increased faith that God is good and does good (and has shown it through the death and resurrection of Christ, exchanging my punishment for unrighteousness for His righteousness), and I craft to love on others by currently giving approximately 10% of the sale price of all LolaLand Creations to the Hopeful Hearts (the miscarriage, infertility, and early infant loss) ministry which gave so much to me.

And so, August 27th for me is a day of both sadness and joy.  Wishing you all faith, hope, and love!  Thanks for reading!

Get Your Wheat On

The other day on Facebook, I asked if anyone had a good wheat bread recipe to share.  I received two responses from wonderful fans and thought I would share them, as well as the recipe I actually used, with you.

Jenn shared one from this site, and Cassee passed along this one her friend swears by.  Unfortunately, I did not have all the ingredients on hand for either recipe.  The latter recipe uses some ingredients that I don't usually stock in my kitchen, and the former requires honey of which I am out.  I discovered that not having honey on hand knocks out a bunch of wheat bread options.

But I finally found this sort of blended (uses both wheat and all-purpose flours) wheat roll recipe for which I had all the ingredients!

Yum to the tum!!!

The verdict:

• Baking process = easy, especially with a dough hook and stand mixer.
• Baking time = small active bake time but LONG wait (for rising) times. 
• Fresh out of the oven taste = surprisingly meh...  Good, but not mouth-watering.
• Next day taste = surprisingly super duper delicious!  I have no idea why that is or how that happened, but my husband and I both agree they tasted fabulous on day two!  Let's put it this way: I made 2 dozen, there are 2 of us plus my daughter who maybe had 1, and they were gone in less than 48 hours.  :)

In summary, this pic probably says it best:

Let me know if you try any of the recipes linked to above, and please post any additional wheat recipes you would like to share in the comments below!  Enjoy, and thanks!

Tutorial: What Is Bunting???

One of my really good friends is having a baby (very soon!), and I was honored to throw her a baby shower with two other friends.  Fortunately and unfortunately, both of my co-hosts are extremely craft like me!  We kept thinking of all the fun things we could make for the shower and may have gone a little overboard.  :)

I volunteered to make some festive bunting, to which both girls agreed since neither of them had a clue what bunting is.  My mom didn't know.  My husband didn't know.  I didn't even know what it was until last year.  I failed miserably in explaining it to my husband and finally had to pull up a picture on the web.  His response to the picture was, "Oh!  Yeah, I have seen that before, but only with that bright plastic stuff at gas stations and car lots."  Too funny.  According to Collins English Dictionary at dictionary.com, Bunting = decorative flags, pennants, and streamers.  For you visual people, this is bunting:

Well, today I'm going to show you how to make your own double-sided fabric bunting.  I love the idea of using fabric bunting for baby showers especially because you can gift it to the mom-to-be used each year for baby's birthday or for any festive and fun occasion she wants to use it!  They look adorable in the background of newborn photo shoots as well!

But first a quick note.  You can find my standard tutorial usage policy on my Info Page.  In this particular case, you may sell bunting you make using this pattern if you personally request and are granted permission from me (email lola[at]lolalandcreations[dot]com).  But you may not sell this pattern or this pattern slightly adjusted as your own pattern.  Thank you for respecting my work.  Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's do this!

Materials:

• 3 fat quarters
• string (honestly, I think I upcycled an old spool of kite string)
• thin utensil that will write on fabric - best if erasable/washable (I used a water soluble marker)
• ruler
• scissors or cutting mat and rotary cutter (I used a cutting mat and rotary cutter)
• iron and ironing board
• sewing machine, thread, and scissors

Instructions:
*Note:  Please excuse the horrible picture quality and switching of fabrics in the middle of the tutorial.  Also, enjoy learning from my mistakes.  :)

1. Iron the wrinkles out of your fat quarter and straighten one of the shorter ends by cutting off the selvage.  Use your ruler (and cutting mat if you have one) and writing utensil to mark a straight line down the approximate center of your fat quarter from short end to short end.  Mark two additional lines 8 3/4" from each side of the center line. (I cut my side lines and didn't realize until later that it would have been easier for me to just mark them - Hi.  I'm Lola.  I like to do things the hard way.)

2. Mark a dot every 7" down the center line, starting at the straightened edge.  Then mark a dot every 3.5" down each side line (you could get away with marking down just one of the side lines instead of both, but I would recommend marking both for better accuracy).

3. Connect the dots diagonally as shown below in the next two pictures (click to view them larger).

4. Use your rotary blade and straight edge or scissors to cut out all the triangles you just marked.  Lookin' good - Yay!

5. Place two triangles of the same fabric print right sides together and pin.

6. Starting on the short edge of your triangles, sew 1/4" seam around, leaving a gap on the short side for turning the pennant inside-out later.

7. Clip your corners, being careful not to get too close to your seam.  Turn your fabric inside out, carefully poking out corners, and press.  Fold the bottom of your pennant up to make a pocket large enough for your string and seam allowance (this seam will be edge stitched).  I made my pocket 3/4".  Press to make a crease.

8. Fold your bottom corners up and in against the crease you just made.  See picture below.

9. Fold bottom up along the crease again and pin.

10. Edge stitch the side of this pocket closer to the top triangle point to close.  Use a safety pin to guide your string through the pockets of all your pennants, making sure they are all facing the same direction.

11. Space your pennants out evenly as you like, and voila!  You can haz bunting!  Behold your handiwork, smile, ooh, and ahh!

12.  Send me a pic of bunting you make using this tutorial to lola[at]lolalandcreations[dot]com.  :)

Nursing Rememberance

I feel so incredibly blessed that I was able to nurse my sweet little girl for just over a year.  I know it's a special gift, and I will forever treasure all those sweet moments.  I knew I would be sad when she was ready to wean, but I didn't expect myself to cry.  I just finished nursing this little one for (what is planned to be) the last time, and cry I did...  So in gratitude and remembrance, I will share some of the little moments I loved in nursing with you (don't worry - no graphic pics):

Milk Drunk Baby:

How can you not adore a milk drunk baby???

Sweet Sleepy Can Hardly Or Can't At All Stay Awake To Nurse Baby

Oh how I loved watching her be so comfy and contented that she would start drifting off to sleep!

Playful Nursing Milk Drool Baby:

Nursing is where we first played peekaboo, learned to 'boop' noses, learned many new words - especially parts of the face, giggled heartily, etc.

Adorable (And Sometimes Very Active) Footed Baby:

Nursing was such a wonderful opportunity to admire, dote on, tickle, and all out adore baby feet!  And. I. Am. Addicted. To. Baby. Feet.  Sometimes they were quite active and kicked many things off the nightstand, but oh how sweet are little feet!

 

And finally...

Well-Fed Baby:

For those of you nursing, it can be incredibly challenging, painful, and difficult at times, but enjoy every second of it!  Once it's over, you will likely miss such a sweet and intimate time with your little one.  I hope you enjoyed my little nursing remembrance in pictures.  Do you have a favorite part/memory of nursing?  Please share!