Easy Mickey Mouse Costume

My kindergartener was so good on Saturday (we didn't go anywhere, he spent the day with his Legos, and we think he needed the time to decompress because he was especially angelic) that I prepared a special present for him: a Mickey Mouse costume! It was surprisingly simple, once I thought about it.

• hat with Mickey ears (we already had this, $15 souvenir from the Magic Kingdom)
• white child gloves ($2.50 from Oriental Trading Company); you may add those three lines with a permanent marker
• black long-sleeved shirt ($3.50 Garanimals)
• red pants ($3.50 Garanimals)
• yellow felt (under $1 per sheet at craft stores that sell by the sheet, and some are adhesive-backed already; I used Quilt Basting Spray to make my scrap piece of yellow felt be sticky)

Only the Mickey Mouse hat and the white gloves were "special" purchases; we had the other items. And the hat was a souvenir, not a special purchase for this costume.

You can also find puffy yellow Mickey slippers for "shoes" at the theme parks (and some costume stores) to be thorough, but my kids didn’t complain. The theme parks also have white puffy gloves with the classic three metacarpal stripes, but that also seemed overkill for my kids who prefer dexterity to authenticity.

I used this template:

Directions: Cut out two ovals (about 1.5” by 1.1”) of yellow felt. Attach to the front of the red pants, centered to either side below the waistband. Voilà, Mickey pants! Now dress your small child in Mickey hat, black shirt, white gloves, and these red pants.

Craftitunity

On The Simpsons, Homer uses the neologism crisitunity. I spent so much prep time gathering kid-friendly crafts for our trip to Atlantic Beach that I see craftitunity at every turn. The kids got "leaf buddies" last week, just colorful maple leaves with happy faces drawn on. Cale carried his around (for a couple days), and needed me to repair the stem with a little tape. The rest of that day was all Mommy fix my leaf buddy. With tape! I think the tape was very exciting.

Secret Life Of Machines

Yes, yes! I found a tip that you can now download episodes of The Secret Life Of Machines! That's one of my favorite shows ever, but I never see re-runs on TV anymore. The Exploratorium archive has streaming QuickTime, but I found the easier format (can download, doesn't stutter) to be Flash video at secretlifeofmachines.info; I'm not a fan of Flash to put it mildly (check out the boss phrase generator while you're there), so when I prefer Flash to QuickTime, you know it's a genuine statement.

No Insomnia!!!

A wonderful thing happened last night: no insomnia!!! Most nights of my life, I've experienced insomnia. I did kick it for a short while during the second trimester with Karston, after morning sickness but before getting huge. I felt like I learned enough then to kick it. Last night, I would get first-order comfy (you know, this will do to start, but I'm sure I'll need to find at least one more position before I fall asleep), and each time I was asleep in under a minute! I've never done that after getting up to fetch juice from the frig at 3 am!

What did I do right? (I would really like to know!) Lunch was gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free spaghetti and meatballs. I was still hungry, but I kept my afternoon snacking mostly under control: dried fruit, one chocolate crispy wafer bar. I was starved for an early dinner, so I ate a gigantic salad while watching TV. Then I had reduced fat cheezits while fixing black beans with rice and chorizo. I was still, yes, still!, hungry, so I ate 1/4 of a leftover pita and prunes. We all went outside to weed the garden. It got dark, so we came inside. Cale was being so good and so helpful, I rewarded him with his first pair of safety scissors whereupon we spent the rest of the evening, me holding scrap paper, Cale cutting with two hands. He sat down on the floor right away, so the mess wasn't widespread. Then Daddy read bedtime stories while I cleaned up, Cale nursed to sleep, then I went to my own bed to sleep instantly and soundly until the 3 am juice call. After juice, I curled up next to him, head on his stuffed gorilla (just a cuddle before trying to fall asleep you know), and then it was 4 am with crick in my neck. Got comfy, 5 am cuddle call. Couldn't fall asleep, but on 7.5 hours of the best sleep ever, I don't care. Falling asleep in one to two minutes instead of one to two hours is indescribably beautiful! I've never done it before but I'd like to repeat it. Often.

Custom Printed Fabric

I knew about Spoonflower already, but I was impressed when I looked at the options to print fabric on demand.

• Spoonflower: Print custom fabric on-demand
• UMadeUp: create personalized gifts and photo gifts - pillows, cushions, silk scarves and other personalized gifts
• Digital Textile Printing: Cotton, Linen, Lycra, Silk, Trevira CS, T - Shirt printer
• KarmaKraft - You design it, We print it

I was trying to decide between buying printable silk scarf fabric to print my own (includes the headache of figuring out how to print a "page" much longer than 11 inches), and to send out that print job. I was a little disappointed that Zazzle doesn't do silk scarves. I've got a gorgeous sunset photo we took in Key West that I think would be beautiful repeated along a silk scarf! (I also love the look of old-timey silk scarf maps, and I know where to find old maps online.) I still haven't decided how to do it yet. Then again, I haven't stitched together the long version of that sunset photo either. After I do that, I suppose the next test is to print to a 14-inch legal sheet of paper to see if that works as a custom paper size. If it's easy, I'll DIY; if it's a headache, I'll send it out.

The dairy-wheat connection

Often a problem with dairy masks an underlying problem with wheat, so any time someone mentions a problem with one of those to me, I suggest monitoring the other as well. Thanks to Wikipedia on lactose intolerance, I've now got a coherent explanation.

Pathological lactose intolerance can be caused by coeliac disease, which damages the villi in the small intestine that produce lactase. This lactose intolerance is temporary. Lactose intolerance associated with coeliac disease ceases after the patient has been on a gluten-free diet long enough for the villi to recover (BMJ Textbook of Gastroenterology, Chapter 11, Celiac Disease, Dr. Jamie Gregor & Dr. Diamond Sherin Alidina).

So a problem digesting wheat (as well as other digestive problems) can damage intestinal villi, and the villi tips are where lactase is produced (or would be, if they weren't damaged).

Too bad I'm now thinking I have a problem with casein not lactose. Food allergies are most often to proteins like casein, and are outnumbered 99-to-1 by food intolerances that are most often to sugars like lactose. Strictly speaking, an allergy is an immune system reaction to what should be a benign substance, and an intolerance covers any other reaction. Your immune system is normally trying to protect you from, for example, an invading virus by making an antibody to the proteins in the virus shell. That's why most immune reactions (allergies) are to proteins -- that's what your immune system is designed to detect and to react against.

Silk Tie Ideas

I did a quick 'net search for silk tie refashion ideas.

• The tie belt looks spiffy, and reminds me that two ties could make suspenders (attach suspender clips, and cross the ties in the back; my mom says she did that when she was pregnant with me). I wouldn't trust glue to have belt-worthy strength, but I don't mind using my sewing machine for belts and suspenders. Not that I've wanted suspenders since I was pregnant either!
• This sunglasses case looks good (again, I would sew instead of glue, and I would also use a slippery fabric lining), and could easily become a phone case, an iPod case with a belt loop, or a skinny purse. If you open up the tie to scavenge the material, you can make this small purse too. Following this theme, you can also make a zip pouch.
• The necktie place mats and napkin rings look very formal and manly. And they would easily adapt to be a picnic roll-up (a placemat with flatware and napkin pockets that you roll up and tie shut for the journey to your picnic destination, even Martha's done it)!
• If you have a lot of ties and patience, try the neck tie school bag.
• And finally, a scarf.
• A late 2014 addition, a coffee cup cozy.

Yep, more potential projects than I have time! I do love the whole refashion and upcycle idea, though.