Life With Daughters

I do not know what is going on with my girls this week, but somebody flipped on a very annoying switch.  Tantrums. Stomping, screaming, sassing, sobbing and rolling all over the floor in bitter frustration tantrums.  Several times a day.

We always deal with attitudes and drama from time to time, but something about this first part of summer is making them crazy (and, consequently, me).

And I find myself struggling very hard to be patient.

In trying to make sense of the sudden turn in temperaments, I have decided it must be their natural resistance to change.

Their brothers are home.  All day long.  With them.  Lu no longer has Mommy to herself in the mornings.  And neither one of them have sole possession of Mommy for most of the afternoon, as they have for the past nine months

I am trying to chalk it up to adjusting, telling myself it’s just a bump in the road and things will be better next week, or the week after.  Summer won’t feel so foreign.

In the meantime, they just feed off each other.  And I have to keep telling myself:

“Breathe, MyLiege, just breathe.”

The First Day of Summer Vacation

A fashion show and swimming with cousins – what more could one ask for on the first day of Summer Vacation!

Farmhouse Doll Bed and Bedding – In White

  

Here are my last pictures of this lovely little bed.  Sorry to any of you who are sick of seeing it.  For the rest of you who have been dying to see it in white – here you go.  (I think it makes the bedding really pop – I love it!)

I also thought this would be a good moment to share the credit for this beautiful bed.  If you are interested in whipping one of these up yourself, we used the plans from Ana White, and the bedding pattern from here.  I tweaked a few things with the bedding and if you are seriously interested, leave a little note in the comments and I will let you know what they were.

Which version do you like better – white or au naturel?

Happy auctioning to us!

Erik’s Last Week of School

Last Wednesday Erik woke up with a rather high fever.  We planted him on the couch and prepared him for missing his end-of the-year field trip that was scheduled for the next day.  “Maybe you can go back to school on Friday,” we said.  “If you don’t have a fever tomorrow.”

No such luck.  He ran a fever all day Thursday.  And all day Friday.  I know my boy is sick when he actually stays on any surface for more than two minutes without being forced. Erik never left the couch or his bed for six straight days.

He woke up on Monday (the much anticipated Field Day at school) and informed me that he was well enough to go to school.  No such luck.  He got sick before we even got his lunch made.  Back to bed.  Back to the couch.  On the bright side, he has read a tremendous amount throughout this little spell of illness. 

And he smiled.  Through it all, that boy always had a smile on his face and a “thank you” on his lips.  (Luckily, he made it to school for the last day.)

Doll Bedding

A couple of months ago Sean and I were asked to craft a doll bed and bedding for a silent auction being held for our neighborhood Relay For Life.  We had several other items on our plates, so this got pushed back pretty much to the week before the deadline. 

Sean applied the final coat of paint only a few hours before we had to turn it in.  On Saturday (while Sean was painting away in the garage) I hauled Anna’s doll bed and the bedding outside for a little photo shoot.

After a several shots, Anna asked if she could pretty please take it all apart and put it all back together again.

I obliged.

And she got to work.

Then proudly presented her finished product:

Ta-da! (I wish I had a shot with the white bed because it really makes that bedding pop.  I will be sure to catch one before it disappears forever.)

Butterfly Details

Since I’m sure you’ve all been waiting with baited breath to see the details of Anna’s butterfly skirt, I give you this post. Like I said before, Anna picked out the trims and she selected the butterfly we turned into an appliqué.

It was really easy to do.  Anna picked out the butterfly from scraps of the lowest skirt tier.  We roughly cut it out, ironed lightweight Heat-n-Bond to the back, and then I cut it out very carefully.  We pinned it in place and I peeled off the the backing (one half at a time so I could keep it pinned and in the right spot).  Once it was securely in place I set the stitch to zig-zag and very slowly and carefully outlined the butterfly.

Then I free-handed a little butterfly trail in silver embroidery thread.  It didn’t stand out as well as I would have liked, so I re-traced the path in yellow and it was perfect!  I like how it brought the yellow  from the bottom ruffle up through the middle of the skirt and into the top tier.  Very lovely, if I do say so myself.  ;>

Projects

I recently finished up a few sewing projects.  The first two projects were these quilts for a friend of mine who recently adopted two adorable little boys.  We had a good old fashioned quilting bee for her shower.  It was really fun and she loved how they turned out (phew!).

My other project was a quickie I squeezed in between the quilts above and some doll bedding I’m working on for a silent auction for cancer research (I feel totally honored to have been asked to do it – and it’s going to be so cute!).  I wanted to get in a new skirt for Anna before school is out for the summer.  So the second the quilts left the studio I got a-sewin’ on that skirt. 

I make lots of different skirts and dresses for Anna, but her favorites are peasant skirts.  So while I would have loved to make something a little more adventurous or with a different silhouette, I knew she would be happiest if it was just a ruffle-y, twirly skirt.  I took these pictures before I finished the embroidery on the green tier (because she insisted on wearing it to Djeryd’s band concert – finished or not).  I will post some more pictures of the detailing when I can. 

Anna picked out the ribbon trims and had input on the some of the other details.  I think it made for a good collaboration.  And right now she is wearing it on her field trip, which was the very best part of all as far as she’s concerned.

I don’t know.  I think all that love this skirt will see is the best part of all.  If clothes could talk . . .

Styling

In the midst of dinner preparations, I looked up . . .

and saw Lu trying to be like her big sister . . .

who had expertly shaped some pigtails out of Lu’s gorgeous brown curls only 30 minutes before . . .

now it was LuLu’s turn to be the stylist . . .

and grab a little sip of something in the process . . .

 

(don’t worry, she’s not allowed to play with scissors . . . yet) 

Things I’m Loving

:: Djeryd’s baby-bike-riding lessons

:: barefoot weather, at last

:: gorgeous, fragrant roses in full, glorious bloom

:: that my life is blessed with such an amazing family (doesn’t my mommy look beautiful in this picture?)

:: clothes that ride a perfectly versatile line between being Anna’s tops and LuLu’s dresses

:: being here

My Brilliant Son

I think all my kids are absolutely amazing. Every last one of them. Sometimes I worry that Djeryd gets a disproportionate number of blog posts for cool projects, but the truth is he is pretty much the only one doing cool projects lately. He has had a lot of elaborate assignments this year in school. Poor Mr. Erik has not even had a single book report (which makes me very sad because I LOVE book reports). So I guess this is just a disclaimer that I am not ignoring my other children, Djeryd has simply been producing a lot of fantastical sorts of things this year. And here is the latest and greatest:

What you see is a working replica of a Roman aqueduct.  Water runs through a pipe, through the mountain, up the hill, over the river, along the top of the actual “aqueduct” portion, and bubbles up through the fountain in the town square (notice the glistening water pouring over the rims on the fountain above).

Seriously, how cool is that?  When he told me he wanted to make a model of an aqueduct I suggested he make a model of only a small portion.  He insisted on demonstrating the whole system.  So I backed off. 

And he amazed me (and everyone else, for that matter).