modern mona lisa

Here's a sampling of our school's 7th graders' first finished art projects of the year - making a Modern Mona Lisa. (One of the kids even drew her with braces. Isn't that so funny?)

Here's the link to the lesson, which I found on a West Virginia Art Education site, if you're interested. It was really well put together, and easy to teach. I always enjoy talking about facial proportion with kids - it's such an eye-opener to really figure out where things go on a face, you know?

come grow in our garden, we will kill you

Here is my ode to our family's summer garden. Looking out the window into the sweet little box flanking our porch, it is painfully obvious that our family has not yet reached the level of gardening skill that I hoped we would have by now. In fact, we've violently regressed. I think we've grown a grand total of maybe 8 cherry tomatoes, and just one, gigantic, prickly zucchini that frightens the children. And me. Which is why I still haven't picked it and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger and scarier and scarier.

I do happily have the excuse of horrid morning sickness, which is the bright side of all of our dead vegetable plants.

And, our school's new parent-led art program! I am very excited about this. When I wasn't laying on the couch feeling next to death this summer - or trying desperately to do something fun with my poor children despite the death-feeling, I worked on compiling and revising art lesson plans for our school. Happily, it turns out that our principal, and also many parents, are anxious to make sure that art is part of our children's education. I had to do a presentation at Back to School Night about my master plan (which was scary for me. Doesn't master plan sound sinister?) - but now that's over, and we have lots of parent "art docents" signed up - as well as a Parent Art Committee - who are excited to get started leading art presentations in their children's classes.

Before this, I think I honestly felt a little abandoned by our public school system, worried that creativity and the ideals of teaching our children to appreciate beauty and gain cultural literacy were being pushed out by test scores and tiny budgets. But this experience has really opened my eyes to the wonderful people who work in schools, trying to stretch the little money they get - as well as to the power of parents getting involved. We're willing to step up when we have to, to fill needs and start programs with volunteer hours and donated money that small budgets just can't support.

(On a totally unrelated note: my good friend Liz is de-stashing and selling a bunch of her fabric here, for great prices! If you have fall sewing plans you should check out her site.)

the sofa dress: some fallish sewing

It used to be that when one bought a sofa, one bought it to last, for a long, long time. So the fabrics had to be heavy and durable and stain hiding: none of this white twill business. A sofa was a major investment that needed to last and last. My family had pretty much the same four sofas from the time I could remember until the time that I was married. My husband's grandparents resorted to the comfy plastic covers to preserve their sofas.

In fond memory of the ultra-durable sofas of yore, why not use a little oldfashioned-ish sofa fabric for a simple squared-neck dress? A swirl of gold in a heavy velvety brocade: the perfect fabric to last a long, long time. And no plastic covers necessary...

more Frock patterns in the shop!

We've got some more Village Frock patterns in the shop. This beauty was made by the amazingly creative Dana from www.dana-made-it.com.