a girl and her dog

here's my saucy little girl wearing a red dress I made for her. that's calvin the dog next to her - our sweet, overgrown lab-newfoundland mix who sadly doesn't get as much attention these days as he deserves (a new baby in the house will do that, I suppose). but - here is documentation - the dog does get occasionally walked, even if sometimes it is by a 3 year old who really likes to exercise her dominance over him.

afternoon sketches

Here are some afternoon sketches we made yesterday. The first is a quick sketch of the baby. Followed by a fantasy Mary Poppins land. The last is a sea of colorful mermaids.

I find that when I sit down to doodle and sketch with the kids, they seem to enjoy it much more. Their attention span and creativity seems to expand. This is a possible idea for Lynne; an afternoon of beach sketches with your kids. Not completely original, but fun.

beachy ideas, anyone?

This morning - for the third morning in a row - poor L was crying in her bed because she thought she was going to wake up in the car on the way to our summer beach vacation (we made the mistake of telling them four days ago how on the day we leave, we will sneak into their rooms and carry them to the car early in their pj's). So we made little countdown chains. 9 more days and here we come, beach. Does anyone out there have any great ideas for beach vacation projects with little ones? I would love to have some little things tucked away for down-time. our vacation days are looooong because the kids like to wake up nice and early in their excitement. A couple ideas I have so far are simple watercolor pictures, gluing sand -- and maybe tie-dye -- and collecting shells and beach wood and making mobiles... Share with me your brilliance, crafting mothers!

babes in the wood

I love the illustrations of Gyo Fujikawa. I think she is a Japanese illustrator who published mainly in the 70s and 80s. I remember many of her books from my childhood; maybe that's why I like them so. The second photo of the two children sleeping in the woods is called "Babes in the Woods." It's about two little girls who get lost in the woods and they die. The birds bring strawberry leaves to cover them up. H. is terrified by this and won't let me read it.

Not all her stories are quite so acerbic. Her silly jingles are on a bit lighter note: "Christopher Columbus, what do you think of that? A big, fat lady sat on my hat!"

the old homestead

This is a painting I did a while back of the old homestead where my husband was raised. He spent his childhood playing in this lush meadow, chasing his dog Licorice, climbing these trees, exploring this horse stable. Higher up on the hill, outside of the picture plane was the 1860s farm house. This is such a beautiful place, rich with memories.

nursery

Here are some pictures of the baby's nursery (the light wasn't great, but today's the big kid's last day of kindergarten so I only have a minute this morning to post). I originally painted this room what was supposed to be a soft butter yellow - and then E. came in and said, "wow, mom! I love it, it looks like pee-pee!" at which point I loaded the kids into the car and went back to home depot for this, "dover cliffs" white tinted with a little grey and purple. Perfect. The green quilt on the chair was a present from my sweet friend Carrie, and the small sprout quilt on the side of the crib I made. The mobile I think I would like to re-work (supposed to be an abstract-ish snow white and the 7 dwarves inspired by a very lovely but expensive german one I saw in Cookie magazine), but after the 3 year old was recreating in the crib the other day there are now only 6 dwarves. I suspect the other one went down a toilet). Incidentally, "like to re-work" probably means "will not actually get around to it." The art: Melissa - do you remember when I found that painting of the girl with a bird at that little antique shop in Deep Creek? There it is by the chair - and the picture above the crib is an Ezra Jack Keats-inspired collage I originally did for E's baby room, along with a bit of wrapping paper I have fond memories of that I stuck in a small little clippy frame. The only thing this room needs, I think, is a lovely roller shade on the window. Thank you for instructions, my friend!

easy roller shades

I figured out an easy, inexpensive way to make a fabric roller shade. First buy a simple plastic roller shade from Target or Home Depot. Have it cut to fit your window. Remove the plastic shade and cut a piece of fabric to fit the size of the plastic shade. Leave a few inches of extra fabric along the sides and the bottom for a seam. Sew a pocket seam along the bottom edge and insert the wooden or plastic dowel that came with the shade. This will give it weight at the bottom and help it to hang nicely. Then duck tape the top edge of the fabric along the cardboard roller (the same way that the plastic shade was attached before you removed it.) Carefully roll up the fabric and install the shade in the window.

Lighter weight fabrics work better. I made the colorful striped shade for the playroom, and the cream linen shade for my girl's room. It's been hanging for a few years, and it still works great.

This is a much more economical way of making a shade rather than buying an expensive fabric shade kit from a fabric store. It's fairly quick and easy to construct as well.

our plant experiment

we went to the funnest science museum last weekend, where the kids made a couple of these very simple concoctions. So easy and the kids are over the moon that their plants have already sprouted. All we did was take a water bottle with the top part cut off, make a small hole in the lid and thread a thickish string through (that's the "root", which is what the experiment shows, how a root brings water) then add dirt and a bean or two and a few seeds, and fill the bottom section with water. You could also use a little annual if you wanted. Go, science!

yummy oatcakes

I made up this yummy recipe for oatcakes. Oats are a good alternative to wheat and are mild on the stomach. We ate the cakes with homemade strawberry jam. Yum, yum!

Oatcakes
1 1/2 c. oats (blend in blender until it becomes a flour)
1 1/2 c. white flour
3 t. baking powder
2 t. baking soda
1 T. sugar
3 eggs
1/2 c. plain lowfat yogurt
1/4 c. oil
1 1/2 c. milk

Mix 1 1/2 c. oats in blender until it becomes a flour. Mix dry ingredients, wet ingredients, then gently combine together. Cook on hot griddle and enjoy!

wee wooden folk

We spent the afternoon with a jumble of craft supplies strewn across our table: bright squares of felt, glue sticks, pipe cleaners, mini ribbon roses, silk flowers, skeins of colorful embroidery floss. These wee wooden ones are addicting to make.

We used embroidery floss for hair, pipe cleaners for arms, and wooden clothespins for bodies. The rectangular pattern in the bottom photo makes a nice shirt. Cut from felt and stitched along the sides, these are simple to construct. The little woodsman in brown has an acorn cap.

cupcake quest

i'm not really such a good cook, and one of the things i would like to learn how to do well is make a decent cupcake. Here's the most recent attempt, a simple vanilla with cream cheese frosting and a small dot of fondant. i noticed the seven-month old eyeing them and i realized... yes, i made cupcakes that look like breasts.

hands

These are some photos I took a while back of hands. My dad is Mr. Scripture Man. I will forever picture his hands in the scriptures or in any other scripture-related book. My mom is the most amazing creative sewing woman I know; she's always sewing or repairing or making something. And what could be lovelier than little baby hands?

It's interesting to see various personalities revealed by one's hands. I have practical worker hands: short fingers, particularly short pinkies, and short nails. But these hands love to create. What kinds of hands to you have?

play pants

well, i have nothing new today so i am posting a picture of some pants i made awhile back. it's just a pj pattern, but functional for day in a colorful heather bailey fabric (which i need to order more of).

a long work in progress

This quilt has been three years in the making. I cut the blocks three years ago, then a year later, pieced them together. Eventually I pinned the top, bottom and batting together. Thus it has remained for the past year. It's my girl's favorite play quilt. I figured it was finally time to sew on the binding. This was very quick. I ripped strips of cloth and ironed them in half. (I don't cut the cloth on the bias for this, because it takes too long and uses too much fabric. For clothes or a curved collar, I would cut it on the bias to give it more bend.) Last night while watching t.v. I worked on hand stiching the edge of the binding. I'm not quite done yet. Hopefully it won't take me another year to finish...

june, june, june

ah, summer...

quiet book

This is a quiet book that Lynne made for us years ago. My kids still love it and play with it. Baby especially loves the button subway tokens. This book is made with felt and sewn together at the binding with yarn.

I saw a sweet little homemade quiet book at church Sunday. It was made of broadcloth and bound together with grommets and metal rings. This would be a fun project.

summer dress

i finally made a dress from those c. 1972 patterns i borrowed from my mother-in-law. i think this dress is perfect for a very hot day (we have many of those around here). L. is not so sure. she modeled it for the picture, then quickly whipped it off to change into her favorite ensemble: black ballet suit with short sleeves, khaki skirt, and white tank top over everything. (a very tricky outfit to visit the ladies' room in, by the way, but she sure feels lovely in it).

corner of my house

This is a sketch I did several months ago of one of my favorite spots, my sewing closet. As we live in a fairly small house, I don't have room for a sewing room or a craft room, so I use a closet. This closet is in the family room. When I want to sew, I pull out my fold-up camp chair and plug in my machine and away I go, with my knees tucked under a card table in the closet. Most everything I need is in this little place. It reminds me of our first Manhattan apartment with its three by five closet kitchen. I couldn't really use the stove because it was tucked too far into the corner, so we ate a lot of food cooked in the crock pot. The fridge was just a little bigger than a microwave; the stove the size of a small dishwasher. There was no dishwasher, only a tiny metal sink.

I drew this sketch in pencil. Then I outlined it in pen and colored it in Photoshop. I highly recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements. I love it. It only costs about $50 and is well worth it.

It's amazing how a cluttered, unromantic corner of one's house can look so important when rendered in a drawing. So get out a pencil and sketch a corner of your house. We'd love to see what you create. Maybe my closet/kitchen held a hidden charm, waiting to reveal itself. Who knows...

emily's shirts & headbands

here are emily's cutie-pie children, wearing these adorable shirts emily made. do you see that embroidery around the edges of the appliques? so great. emily made her daughter's headband and here are her instructions for making some yourself, as they are very adaptable and not too frou-frou:

The headbands are the easiest things in the world to throw together! A neighbor gave me a similar, store-bought one--it had some little silk flowers with plastic gems on it. It was actually very cute, but I liked the whole concept even better. All you have to do is measure the head it is for, cut ribbon and elastic (the stretchier the better) to equal that measurement (add a little for seam allowances) and sew the ends together. Then cut a smaller piece of ribbon to go around the seam and hot glue it in place. If the ribbon is wider than the elastic (as this one is), just sort of fold it/taper it, iron a little and wrap the ribbon around and glue. They really are simple to make. I don't know if these instructions make it sound more difficult than it is, but...I hope not! Good luck making them. With all the cute ribbon out there, you can have one for every outfit! Incidentally, I also made one for myself with extra-wide ribbon and I must say it turned out pretty cute. You can even just hot glue cute ribbon on top of those plastic headbands and they are pretty cute too. I made a couple of those for Bryn and she seems to like them fairly well. Who knows! Possibilities are endless!

thanks, emily. love it!!

mouse/bunny & seahorse

here are the finished products of the kids' printing adventure yesterday afternoon - L made a mouse/bunny (can you guess which one is this) and E made the seahorse. They drew, I carved the linoleum blocks, they brayered (truly a verb? probably not) the ink & smashed the cards in the printer. as L would say, ta ta DA! we are going to write thank you notes for their teachers on these cards.

i also found some great ideas for fun summer plans with kids: go to the 2 straight lines blog (linked on our blog list) and click her recent post "camp russell". what a woman!

babysitting flowers

My friend babysat a whole evening for me recently. In exchange she requested a painting for her kitchen. She wanted something purple. I gathered some lovely flowers from the garden and voila, a purple painting.

I'll paint in exchange for babysitting fees (which are quite high here) any time. I wish I could paint in exchange for housecleaning and yard work...

check out this wallpaper

i found this picture in the most recent issue of Cookie magazine, and i LOVE this wallpaper! I'm thinking that it would be fun to use it in the bathroom the kids share (I am definitely not brave enough to use it in a bigger room!) Steve wonders if it is too feminine, as one of the children happens to be a boy... what do you think?

yummy strawberry jam

Yesterday we picked strawberries at a lovely little farm. Today my niece and I spent the afternoon making freezer jam. It is so easy to make and so delicious. Simply buy pectin that says "quick and easy recipe" on the box, then follow the directions for freezer jam. Clean and hull the strawberries, blend them in the blender, mix with sugar, lemon and pectin, then fill the jars. It's that simple and so, so delicious!

more onesies

melissa -- that dress is just amazing. i can't get over how great those fabrics look together!

here's a group of onesies i made for my mother-in-law to give away for a gift. the kids had fun watching the whole process and made really cute little pictures (seahorse and mouse/bunny) that we are going to ink up and press tomorrow. for now, on to swimming lessons!