if your personal stylist were four you would look like this

Because, after all, why not change into your ballet practicing-suit with speckled tights and boots for a shopping trip with your dad? Or, layer with zeal? Or accessorize with a hat you use to beg strangers on the street for money?

SHOP NEWS

Hello!

Melissa and I are feverishly working on getting the (very small) Sugar City Shop up and running. Our goal is to have it ready to go by Tuesday morning, July 15th, for those of you who were wondering when.

Thank you SO much for all of your encouragement and love!

Stephanie's Room

Our friend Stephanie, creator of the always wonderful Stephmodo blog, recently redid one of her bedrooms a la one of my favorite Van Gogh paintings. I think this is one of the prettiest little corners I've ever seen - I love her art, the stack of books (including her Stephmodo Volume 1 book, which is so cool! you could probably buy a copy of this on blurb, yes Stephanie?), the fuzzy rug, the pillow - it all came together so beautifully. Very inspiring, Stephanie! Now will you fly out to California and put together a Van Gogh family room for me?

white tunic-y dotted swiss top. and burger recipe. yum.

This is a little top that started out as perhaps a dress for the baby. But then I got going, stitch by stitch on a lazy Saturday morning, and by the time I'd done the pleats in the front and back, it just seemed like a swingy, hot-weather tunic for a girl who's covered in body art (pretty much a constant stream of it, all the time) was this particular piece of fabric's inevitable destination.

On a totally unrelated note, I have found my new summer go-to dinner, courtesy of my very gourmet sister-in-law Diane (whose amazing home in New York I hope to show you pictures of soon. No pressure, Diane, if you happen to read this).

Here is a quick, easy recipe for the best TURKEY BURGERS you will ever eat:
1 lb. ground turkey, 2 T. balsamic vinegar, 1 c. grated cheddar cheese, 1 t. salt, 2 T. dried minced onions, 1 T. garlic powder. Easy. Mix up, shape, and grill... so savory and so quick! My kids, the husband and I are all in delicious burger heaven when we devour these. And you can be too.

storytime button-over

Storybooks enchant two girls turning the pages, inspecting the lush drawings, hearing mom's voice saying the words, telling the story. One girl tries to steal the sister's coveted book. Tears, then a loud cry. Story time is over. At least the newly sewn storytime button-over is still intact, no rips or tears on it.

This pattern will be found in our shop, (as soon as we get our website up, hopefully soon!) And hopefully it will bring only cozy reading and smiles to your home. No book stealing, and no tears!

randomness

My children are finishing school tomorrow and next week and I am so looking forward to slowing down and enforcing some nice quiet time every day. I bought this book last week intending to save it for summer vacation, but I made the mistake of taking a peek -- and then I read it all that day, staying up until the wee hours to finish. If you can't read the title in the picture it is I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith - and it's by far the best novel I've read in a long time. I loved it, times about four million. Charming characters, funny conversations, great language, a little bit of romance and a pretty cover - everything I crave in a good book. What are your summer reads?

Also in the picture are my terrariums. This is my third attempt (wheat grass, because it's only 99 cents), destined for death in about a week, I'd guess. So far we've killed a lot of moss (I think by over-watering? but how do you stop a determined four-year old with a spray bottle?) and some other short plants that I never really learned the names of. I think part of the problem might be that the children keep putting small plastic farm animals and shark teeth in them, to create little scenes (of death) and so the humidity is all messed up. Oh, and I'd hazard a guess that dropping the terrarium probably wasn't good for it, either.

Happy summer! And please, book recommendations! I'm in Dodie Smith withdrawal now.

sugar city guest: my mom, on the subject of pleasant labor

sunny day
laundry collected
wash
line dry
birds and breeze
alone in thought
gather in
smell
fold

night time
exhaustion
turned down bed
ease between cool sheets
feel of fresh
scent of earth
peaceful slumber

The most over used appliance in our modern world, in my over wrought opinion, is the clothes dryer. I am an advocate of line drying under the bleaching aid of the sun and the drying agent of the breeze. But there is deeper meaning and value for me in quelling the impulse to throw the laundry from the washing machine into the dryer. Piling my laundry basket high with whites and escaping over the grass to the clothes line becomes MY time. Organizing, ordering and hanging my wash to dry is a creative task – an art form. Socks are pinned together here, sheets there, and under-garments are privately tucked away on the inside line.

Hanging clothes is the ultimate nature experience. The smell of newly washed laundry mingling with fresh outside air is a sensory high. Sun warms your skin. Listen closely and you hear the cooing of the Morning Dove or the chirping of the Chick-e-dee-dee-dee. Insects buzz around you A cob web has formed in the corner of the line. It is a oneness – a belonging in the middle of natural earth where Mother Nature once again works with us.

The reflective nature of the “hanging clothes” chore is probably the most profound for me. As I fulfill this pleasant labor, I always feel closeness to the women of my past. I think of the countless generations of women who have done this before. But often, I remember my mother. I think of her outside in most any weather humming to herself, making order in her laundry while the children inside wreak havoc. I can almost climb into her skin and feel for a moment that I am her and she is me. We are bonded together as mother and daughter and the space of time and place dissolves.

Hanging clothes is a simple act of womanly duty. Here is peace and order amid hectic lives and connection between our generations.

what to make with your husband's old shirt!

A mushroom shortall: the perfect use for the husband's old dress shirt. The fabric is luxurious-- with a high thread count--and it's even non-iron! This also made for a relaxing summer porch activity. In and out with the needle (sewing by hand makes me feel really vintage), interspersed with, "Adam quit spraying me with that darn hose!" and, "no, you may not go pee pee on the grass" (to the potty-obsessed two-year old), "no the gallon of milk does not come out on the porch" (to the four-year old), "Ahh, stop it with that hose!" (to the son) and "put your clothes back on!" (again to the two year old). Whew, sewing by hand is hard work!

servant dress again - muslin

The white cotton servant shirt shown previously, while motivating ME to clean, seemed not to influence the four-year-old in matters of servitude, even subliminally. The same can sadly be said for the yellow poplin servant dress of a couple months ago. But I'm not giving up: here are two more servant dresses, this time matching, in cream muslin. Can you tell that my children are preparing to go mop the floor for me, and then fold laundry? I'm hoping that since there's two of them they'll be able to carry really heavy things.

(Incidentally, this simple pattern will be available for sale on the new website)

coming soon...the table cloth dress!

Something mysterious has happened. Somehow a visit to an old log-clad cabin in the woods has morphed into an enterprise. I think the little girl must have seen something she liked very much. Something made by the mama of the old, cozy cabin. That mama, a mama bear, to be more precise, is a handy, crafty sort of lady who makes her own bread, tends her own plot of earth behind the cabin, and weaves her own cloth (just like all you ladies, right!). As the girl sat at the table in the little brown house and tested each bear's chair, then in turn each bowl of carrot potage, she saw something so beautiful that it captivated her attention. She sat, mesmerized, staring at the beautiful woven cloth on the table, transfixed by the possibilities of this piece of soft, fine linen.

The rest is history. (Or will be, hopefully, if we can get our website up!) Be watching for good things to come from this mysterious cabin in the woods...

slow down

I'm glad the nice slow days of summer are coming. We can take walks to town at our own leisurely pace. I won't have to say "hurry we'll be late!" for two whole months!

I think what we all probably need a little more of in our hectic world, is time to slow down. Time to lounge on our bed and think about our lives, our kids, our sewing projects, our stack of dishes in the sink...

mice mice mice

We are having all kinds of mice problems around our house. The actual kind - yes, opening up the closet door early in the morning and seeing a silent flash of brown-grey shooting across the sweaters - as well as the pretend. The four year old's best friend these days is a very subversive, power-hungry imaginary mouse. Mousie encourages all kinds of bad behavior and tries several times a day (unsuccessfully, thank goodness!) to put me in time-out for doing motherly things like prohibiting evil plots against the elder brother or the baby, asking the four year old to clean up her work, brush teeth, etc. Mousie generally disapproves of all authority beyond his own, and as the four year old reports, he is VERY powerful. But I shouldn't blame poor Mousie, solely. He has had a very, very, very sad and tragic life, as ALL of his friends/family back in Mouseland have met horrible and painful deaths which the four year old describes in detail. Often. To us and strangers alike. Should we be contacting a therapist, or is Mouseland a natural compartmentalization of all of the scary things she's trying to process as her little realm of exposure to the world increases? There are a lot of dangers we warn the kids about - I didn't realize until I heard them translated back to me through the mouse-death filter how these warnings were affecting her: mice getting into the medicine, mice getting hit by cars, mice getting carried away by black eagles (well, we don't talk about that last danger very much). I didn't think we were that negative! So, ANYWAY, for better or for worse we've decided to embrace Mousie, bad attitude, sordid past and all, along with the whole extended family of the imaginary mice-world. Here are two of my favorite rodents, the Country Mouse and the City Mouse, painted during a lengthy discussion about which mouse had it better - the sophisticated opera-going City Mouse or the whole-grain, wholesomely fed and entertained Country friend. What do you think? Now that I'm somewhat of a Country Mouse myself I wish for a little more glamour in my day-to-day existence, you know, maybe just a little bite of fancy cheese now and again, and a strain of Offenbach...

the bed's made!

Sometimes my friends ask how I'm able to do all that I do while watching three little kids. Here's my big, dark secret: I don't make my bed!

I simply can't do it all! Though I did manage to pick my room up and make the bed for this photo. I like how it looks this way. Maybe I could just frame this photo and rest it on the tall pile of books next to my bed. Then when I fall into bed at night after a long day of creating and chasing after the three little ones, I can glance over at this photo, and smile, imagining the luxury of sleeping in such a serene room with a nice made bed!

P.S. this is the treetops room: with a little bird motif moving from the painting, to the curtains, to the tree branch decked with family photos.

P.S.S. yes I do wash the sheets, every week. Though I am still hoping for a servant to do this. Lynne, I'm waiting for a servitude dress for my girl; please give it a high brainwashing factor.