One Apiece

In an effort to not allow Anna’s adorableness to monopolize all of my sewing and crafting energy, I tried very hard this month to do something for each of my children.  So, from oldest to youngest . . .

For Djeryd’s P-52 Mustang (I’m sure that is the wrong name for the plane and he will have to correct me) I cut a stencil on freezer paper using my Silhouette machine and painted it on using regular old craft paint.  I used the instructions found in the book, The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule, although I’m sure there are a million tutorials out there for this.

For Erik I took an plain old t-shirt and reverse-appliquéd an orange shark that I free-handed from the sharks on his jammie bottoms (the inspiration for the shirt!).  He was ecstatic!

Little Miss Anna scored a whole dress.  (Oh, my gosh!  do you see all those Cheerios?  and that freakish streak of dirt on my carpet?  And I’m sure that was the cleanest piece of floor at the time of the photo.  Agh!)  I was testing out a pattern for some school dresses.  This one wound up with a gathered neck because I forgot that when I traced this pattern several months ago to make this dress, I removed the seam allowances from the neck and hem on my pattern (I was doing a bias binding on both, and therefore, did not need the seam allowance).  I even made note of this on the actual pattern pieces, but in my haste, failed to read my own notes.  Dah!  Oh, well, I think it turned out so very cute with that extra detail at the neck.

My favorite part is that candy-stripe ruffle at the top.  It looks so yummy I could eat it.  I thought it would have been perfectly lovely with just the candy stripe trim, but Anna wanted more ruffles.  Which turned out lovely, too.

Alyx was in dire need of a sun hat – not that the sun actually shines here for more than an hour a day, but you can get a sunburn through clouds – and we have plenty of those.

   

This is a reversible sun hat from a pattern in Making Children’s Clothes by Emma Hardy.  

Now Anna wants one. 

I guess we need to start another round of goodies from mama.  ;>

Modesty Is the Best Policy

Annaliese got her first Barbie doll for Christmas from her sweet Aunt Heather.  I was very excited and a little nervous about apparel for this little piece of plastic.  It is virtually impossible to find decent clothing for a Barbie doll these days.  The great part is that it allows Anna and I the opportunity to become clothing designers – Project Runway: here we come!  I had never sewn Barbie clothes before and had only heard that they were tricky and tedious.  My friend sent me a great little link that I perused this morning and then took it from there.  Anna did some of the sewing and between the two of us this took about an hour.  This is our first outfit:

(Yes, I know this photo looks disturbingly like she has been recently strangled.  I will stage it better next time.)

I love that as we were discussing sleeve options (straps being the easiest), my smart little girl very firmly told me straps did not cover her shoulders well enough and she would need a sweater or something if we chose to do straps.  (I feel like we came up with a nice compromise.)   I was so proud of her for insisting on modesty – even in play.  And I can’t wait to show you what else the two of us dream up together.

Muchos Gracias

Thank you all so much for your comments last week.  I loved that everyone read each other’s comments and, hopefully, drew strength knowing we are not alone in our humanness.  I feel so honored to know such wonderful women and to be able to count you as dear friends.  I love you all.

Words to Live By

I have wanted to put up this vinyl lettering since we moved into our home two years ago.  I finally purchased it and put it up last week.  I love it.  I love the reminders about how I want to live every moment of my life.  I hope my kids pick up some of it by osmosis.  ;>

Is It Just Me?

Sometimes when I browse the blogosphere I come across these amazing blogs of women who seem to have it all together and all the confidence in the world.  They are so creative and fashionable and smart and they talk about how much they love to clean their houses.  I can’t seem to keep a clean house to save my life.  I can’t seem to get organized to save my life.  And no matter how much love, time and attention I pour into my children they still have bad days and I am still the bad guy. 

I know life is all about balance.  I think I’m failing my test.  I just can’t be all the things I want to be, and when I try to focus on the one or two things that are most important I get so frustrated that things aren’t perfect in those areas considering everything I am dumping into them.  How do people find the time to do anything besides cook and clean and cuddle?  Admittedly I have managed to sneak in two naps over the past two days, but I still feel so tired and stressed out and anxious . . . and quite frankly . . . that scares me.

The Fence That Sean Built

 

Many moons ago we bought our lovely, fenceless home. Many moons after the purchase we began putting up a fence to keep our children in and the multitude of visiting soccer players out (we back up to several soccer/lacrosse/football/track/insert-favorite-sport fields). Today we finally finished it. It has taken over a year to put up the perimeter fence. In all fairness to my sweet husband, I had a baby and threw out my back last year dumping any and all burdens squarely onto his shoulders.

A little twist in our story is our once-lovely arborvitae hedge. It was not doing any favors for our neighbors and so, in the interest of keeping everyone happy, we ripped it out a few weeks ago (I was very sad to see it go, and looking at the difference in the pictures above and below is making me even sadder).

 

 

It is all finished with cedar fencing now, but I forgot to take a picture(you can see bits of it behind Lu). It looks the same as the other side of the yard.  The silver lining to that part of the story is we gained some square footage in the vegetable garden to put in another raised bed. Yea!

 

My dad has given up two Saturdays in a row to come on out and help put this little beauty up. I was even able to help hold boards and things and actually contribute to a family project. Yippee!

Erik worked his tail off most of the day.  Djeryd has been sick, so he was kind of hit-or-miss, but he tried and I’m grateful he was outside with us.  (All the swimming suit pictures were taken last weekend, when it was actually kind of warm.  They are totally random pics.  The kids were on an impromptu Easter egg hunt and I was just snapping shots at anything that moved.)

Above is our yard sans fence.  Below is privacy . . . at last.   I sat down in one of the chairs for just a few seconds today and I couldn’t see anything except my own yard and house and family and it was heaven.

 

Yea Sean!!!! (And all of the other contributing hard workers!)

P.S. The yard is our big project this year. There will be many more pictures and stories documenting our transformation over the next few months.  Make sure you pop in for a looky-loo.  I hope it will be nothing short of amazing.  ;>

Daddy’s Magic

As of late, Anna has become convinced that Daddy is magic.   

 

And why would she have any reason to think otherwise?

Daddy can make a quarter drop from her ear after he makes it disappear.

I have known Sean was magic for quite some time.  He can tidy our house with lightening speed.  He  can bring sunshine into our home when it is filled with rain or storm clouds.  His strength grows to Superman-size when he works in the yard.  He makes me smile and he makes me laugh, even when the feat seems impossible.  And the most magical thing of all: the man seriously know how to clean a bathroom (that’s a trick he learned from his mother, I’m sure).  Thanks for the magic, my love.

A Little Fresh Air

Is it possible?  Do my senses deceive me?  Or has spring finally arrived in the Pacific Northwest?  I think my vegetable garden is beginning to dry out enough to actually plant some lettuce.  Although it is not warm, the sun is shining and the rain is supposed to leave us alone for the rest of the week.  The girls and I celebrated by spending much of the day outside.  We went for a very long walk (Anna was a trooper), and then played in the backyard.

The landmark moment of the day was this little one wearing tennis shoes for the first time.  She was so cute and absolutely loved it.  ( I do not push shoe-wearing at all when my kids are learning to walk – it just complicates things.  Once they’ve got it figured out and can motor around pretty smoothly in bare feet we introduce footwear.)

She walked all over that yard, falling down plenty of times, gritting her little teeth and getting back up every time.  I was so impressed with her determination and with the pure joy on her face.

Little Miss Anna is in love with this dress that we found in her baby sister’s closet.  Anna has taken it as an old-fashioned blouse for herself. 

I love the drape of the fabric, the cotton lace and the design elements, like all the gathers.

Oh, and isn’t that camellia gorgeous?  Although it pales in comparison to the little girl holding it.  ;>

Enjoy the sunshine!

OMSI: Lost Egypt

During Spring Break we took a trek up to OMSI with Sean’s side of the family.  They are currently hosting an exhibit entitled “Lost Egypt”.  I was very excited to see this for a couple of reasons.  Number one: Egypt is cool (duh).  Number two: My daughter is named after the Library at Alexandria (which was in Egypt).  Number three: Djeryd and I just finished reading a book about a mystery that takes place in the Valley of the Queens (39 Clues - book 4: Beyond the Grave).

My very favorite part of the entire day was walking through a small room with a placard outside it that said: “Caution: This room contains actual human remains.”  The ribbon of placards and pictures told the story of a young Egyptian girl whose body hundreds of thousands of people have stared at through glass over the past several years.  It was  . . . oh, I cannot think of a word . . . awe- inspiring, reverent, peaceful, intriguing, fascinating . . . is there a word that means all those things?  I was enthralled and entranced wandering through the entire exhibit.  As with the Leonardo di Vinci exhibit I could have spent hours in the hall all by myself being immersed in history.  It made me want to write a short story or a novel or anything just to fall into that world for a while.

We had a wonderful day starting with breakfast all together and packed full of fun times just being together and exploring the world of science.  Thanks everyone – we had a great time!

Movie Review: Ramona and Beezus

For Alyx’s birthday we watched Ramona and Beezus, the 2010 release starring Disney golden girl, Salena Gomez.  I cannot say enough good things about this movie.  It was charming, funny and touching.  It is a great family film in that my entire family loved it, big brothers, little sisters, Mom, Dad and grandparents.  The last time we saw a movie we all enjoyed that much was the first National Treasure.  I, unlike so many others, did not grow up reading the Ramona books.  They somehow slipped under my radar of interest.  However, since watching the movie, Erik brought home the original book Beezus and Ramona from the school library and we have been gobbling it up as a family.  The stories are hysterical and the boys love hearing how much trouble one little sister can be (Anna has nothing on Ramona – thankfully).

Back to the movie.  A great thing about the movie right off is that the family actually looks like a family, including Aunt Beatrice; they just look like they go together.  I felt the family relationships were realistically portrayed, and because of that I could completely relate to the characters, from Ramona up through Beezus and even both parents.  It was full of hope and forgiveness and the best kind of intentions.  The only thing I had a hard time with was the wrap-up of the film.  Without spoiling the ending, I will just say that I thought the father’s final job choice was unrealistic due to wages, pure and simple.

In short I highly recommend this film whether you are a Beverly Cleary fan or not.  It was fun and sweet and made me oh, so grateful for my wonderful family.  I love movies like that.

Kids’ favorite line of the film: “I’m gonna say a bad word . . . Guts! I hate guts!  Guts! Guts! Guts!”

Pink Pants for Alyx

 

So here’s my latest and greatest.  I made these pants from the same pattern I used here.  I had these almost done for quite a while, but my brain started going  into hyper-drive with all the alterations I was going to make to the pattern and I go overwhelmed.  When I came to my senses I realized I just needed to tweak a couple of things from the last time – not reinvent the wheel.

I also took better notes this time so I don’t make the same mistakes twice.  I took an inch off of the top of the waistband which eliminated the saggy drawers problem we were having (this all happened quite by accident), but I forgot to shrink up the channel for the elastic around the cuffs and I was too lazy to tear it all out and fix it.  Hence the reason to take notes, so I don’t screw it up again.

I LOVE the black.  I love those striped ruffles and the satin bows!  I love the little scallop detail at the bottom side seam on the cuffs.  Love, love, love!

And I don’t know if you can tell, but if you look really carefully at the bottom partial purple-and-white flower on the photo above and the flower on the right hand side in the picture below you can see little sparkles.  I did some pick-stitches with metallic embroidery floss to add just a teeny bit of sparkle to these little babies – for my little baby.

Oh, and I do so love those toes!

Alyx’s First Birthday

Our sweet Alyxandria celebrated her first birthday earlier this month.  It was the most laid back first birthday we’ve had in our family.  Djeryd’s was a brunch consisting lots of delicious homemade fancy foods, but for Alyx we served store-bought pizza and a store-bought cake (which turned out adorable).  We invited grandmas and grandpas, drank strawberry pop, watched Ramona and Beezus (wonderful movie), and opened a few presents.  It was so very low key, but so comforting and happy.  Alyx was way too tired by the time we sat down to cake and ice cream so she basically bawled through the whole thing (is it bad that we all laughed?).

To my sweet Alyx:

You are loved!  You are adored by each of your brothers, sister, mom and dad.  We love you!  You make our family complete.  We love to watch you toddle everywhere.  We love your little “o” face.  We love how you try to make us giggle at the dinner table by making funny noises and then smiling when we all look your way.  We love how you chew the corner off of any cereal box you can get your hands on (or any book, for that matter).  We love cuddling with you and giving you raspberries on your tummy while you wriggle and squeal. 

I love snuggling with you in the middle of the night (I know you will sleep through it soon enough and then I will miss nighttime feedings terribly).  I love that you gave Anna the chance to be a big sister.  And I love that you have given me another chance to be a better mom.  You are my sunshine.  I love you, Lu.

Polka-dot Pleats

I know I should be blogging about field trips and birthdays, but those require time and focus and decent writing.  A new skirt, on the other hand, just requires a few sentences and some colorful pictures.  Here is my latest creation.  I made it two weeks ago, but yesterday was the first (and probably last) day Anna decided to wear it.  I made this little number sans pattern.  I think it turned out pretty cute, although I would do a lot of things differently next time. 

Anna is hugely into very long skirts right now, so the first change would be to lengthen it by about four inches. I would also chop up the fabric more to make more pleats – like six or eight – to improve the drape. I also think that angling the main panels (as opposed to the inset panels) would make for a shapelier design. All in all it was a great experience. (A small note about the above picture – Anna is a freak about shoes and she would not be caught dead going out in a skirt and tennis shoes publicly.  However, thankfully, she decided to take off the black patent-leather Sunday shoes she was wearing and don the tennis shoes to run around the muddy back yard.)

And, of course, here’s my favorite picture my undercover shoot of the new skirt (I was hiding inside the house snapping pictures through the sliding glass door).  That poor baby doll . . . I hope that little thing is “feeling the love”.

Role Reversal

So I come around the corner the other day, and this is what I see.  Anna playing the baby and Alyx playing the mommy.

Alyx pushed Anna up and down the hall and all over the living room for half the morning.

I love Anna’s cutsie face she threw on once I pulled out the camera.

And I love that determined little jaw on Alyx, and Anna’s “I love you” message in the corner.

Dad’s Dog

We are not pet people in our house.  We have tried and failed, and I really don’t care.  But I grew up in a home where we always had dogs and cats.  It’s funny, but I don’t even remember feeding them.  But I know I did because I can still smell the the salty aroma of dog food if I concentrate hard enough.  I think my dad was the pet guy growing up.  I don’t think my mom could have cared less, but I don’t know.  Anyway, my dad finally got a dog after something like a fifteen-year canine-hiatus (it’s actually my sister-in-law’s dog, but that is a really long story).

My dad came out for a visit a couple of weeks ago and brought his new best friend.  At first I told him the dog could not come in the house, but after I saw those big, brown eyes I couldn’t help myself.  Man, I’m a push-over.

Anna ventured outside for some puppy playtime.  It took her a while to warm up to Jag (that’s his name), although I’m not sure she ever really relaxed around him.  In all fairness I don’t think the dog quite relaxed around her, either (he’s just a little puppy in a brand-new environment – I know he doesn’t look like a puppy, but he is; trust me).

Regardless, he is a gorgeous dog and very sweet.  And it is so nice to see my dad with a new BFF.  ;>  A man and his dog – that is a beautiful thing.

P.S.  If you are interested in pouring part of the down payment for your new house into a dog, my sister-in-law sells them here.