beautiful dress giveaway

Do you know the site Shabby Apple? They have fabulous modest dresses. And for kids, and swimsuits. Great, vintage-inspired stuff. The Train to Crazy is giving away one of their dresses! Head on over and sign up :)

new business!

It closed! Only the fourth time a closing was scheduled, and it finally closed -- we have a new company! It's called Alcor PetroLab, located in Fort Worth and San Antonio. It's a testing lab for fuel and lubricants.

My feelings on all this are perhaps too personal to blast on a blog, but suffice it to say that I'm very proud of my fabulous husband. He's been planning for this day as long as I've known him. Congratulations! Parabens! Blahoprani!

V's birthday

And my brother Zach's birthday, which we planned to celebrate today along with V's, but couldn't because of the weather :-( Ironically, V preferred Zach's chosen birthday meal (baked ziti) to her own yesterday (fish, mashed potatoes and peas). We'll freeze some for you, Zach, because we have TONS. And I'm planning to make beef stew tomorrow, so we won't eat up all the leftovers. Being stuck inside has encouraged me to do a lot more cooking than usual. Of course the best cooking I did today was ...

Snow ice cream! We ate it with V's birthday cupcakes. Isn't she a lucky girl? And then we had this conversation:

V: Does anyone else know how to make snow ice cream?

Nathan: Sure, lots of people do.

V: Mommy, how did you learn how to make snow ice cream?

Me: From Grammie (my mom).

V: How did Grammie learn?

Me: From Gramma (her mom).

V: How did Gramma learn?

Me: From Gammy (her mom).

She would have kept going. Then Nathan exaggerated a little bit and said something about Adam asking Eve to make snow ice cream. And V said Eve must not have known how to make it, so she asked God. Yeah. We like to track things to the source.

Nathan took some time off work today to go out with the kids -- twice! They went sledding this morning, at a local park. And this afternoon I sent them out with tupperware (IKEA style) to build forts. No, I did not go out, because I have a fabulous husband who does it for me. I don't like the cold, and Texas gives me an opportunity to indulge that. I didn't complain (much) in Prague, but when I don't have to go out in it, I don't :) I kept the hot chocolate coming. For those who aren't local, we've been having extreme winter weather all week. M hasn't had school since Monday, because ice fell Monday night and temperatures have been very low since then (temperatures like 9, stuff like that). And of course, Dallas doesn't have the infrastructure to clear the roads, other than the main highways. But it was all worthwhile because last night we got about 5 inches of snow, which is an infrequent event here, to say the least!
See the candle smoking? That's V's satisfied face that she finally blew out her one candle :)
Our kids have the best winter gear in town! I lucked out that we got the snow this year. M will outgrow his stuff at some point, and I can't see replacing it for the rare cold events. But the sleds will be with us forever. Apparently E didn't last long on the sledding trip, complaining that her hands were cold (true, I'm sure), but very happily sat in the warm van watching a movie while the other kids played. M's favorite part was hitting his dad with snow balls. I tried to talk him into a Calvin and Hobbes snowman, but he didn't feel up to it. Maybe tomorrow, before it melts.

And last, but not least, here's a pic of E's cupcake-eating method -- hands-free:

dyeing fabric fail and win

I know it's been ages, but honestly, most of you who read my blog know the general idea of what's going on anyway. So suffice it to say that we're fine, I just haven't been blogging. But now I want to tell you about my exciting fabric dyeing adventures! My big sis, the fiber artist, showed me her method for fabric dyeing, using Procion MX dyes. (Similar to Ann Johnston's method.) So then I bought some fun stuff and did some more dyeing at home. It's really fun! And addictive. Because as soon as you rinse the fabric and realize what color it's going to be, you want to jump right in and dye something a little bit different. Anyway, I've had some good success, but some surprises. Mainly the lovely picture above this text. See the great effects? Cool stripes and such. But so 70s, argh! Yeah, my yellow dye did not dissolve all the way before I put it on the fabric, so that tiny amount of red took over. (I was trying for a fabulous project in Ann Johnston's Color by Accident, but yeah ...) Instead of a yellow and green effect, we have crazy harvest colors going on. As I type, that fabric's in the dye bath again, trying to salvage it somehow. Sorry if you liked it. Oh, but I did keep the onesie -- I figure I'll applique a pumpkin on it or something.
A small break from the fabric. E sharing her milk with a puppy. My only child who actually likes dogs. A quote from her this week:

E- Mommy, Mommy, read me the Dora book.

Me - What's the magic word?

E - Abre.

(If you don't speak Spanish and don't watch Dora, it means "open". I think it must have appeared as a magic word in a Dora episode once, I'm not sure. E was very pleased to get such a good laugh, though.)
Here's some of the pretty fabric I've done. I've tried a range of different fabrics, including quilting cotton, cotton lawn, interlock knits, knit ribbing, even that patterned knit on the left. I didn't use rubber bands or anything. The effects are all from the fabric crinkles and the dyes themselves. The ribbing I've been using takes extra dye, and the lawn ends up lighter and softer than the others, but I think it's all beautiful. One of my favorite experiments was using the leftover dye water for a new piece of fabric -- after pulling out my finished fabric, I threw in a new piece, plus soda ash water (the fixative for these dyes). Voila, a lighter shade!
And here are a couple of items made with my pretty new fabric! This one features vintage trim -- a gift from my mom.
OK, so the only part of this I dyed is the light blue ribbing, but it's cute, no? From this free pattern. I was a bit skeptical, because of the sleeve design, mainly (no tapering, and unusual shape at the top, too), but knits can do anything! It turned out great. I accidentally cut out a back in E's size, so she's getting a dress, too. I didn't have enough fabric for a whole one, so she's got some color blocking going on. I'll post a pick once I'm done. If I don't disappear from blogland for another 6 months. A project in the works for my little boy, too. He's currently obsessed with the game Bohnanza. I highly recommend it. He likes to play the 2-player game with his dad, but especially loves it with more people, because the 2-player game doesn't have the trading that's the main component of the traditional game.

Giveaway day!!

It's giveaway day at sewmamasew.com. Lovely stuff being given away everywhere, plus a chance to find fun new blogs about sewing and crafting. Here are a few samples:

My sister, at Puking Pastilles is giving away *16* fat quarters from the Tailor Made line by Cosmo Crickets.

Sweet pea fabrics is giving away *$25* to use in her shop.

Renovating Our Foursquare is giving away 2 yards of Anna Marie Horner fabric of your choice!

Awesome, right?

Happy hunting.

Daddy's old shirts

Grammie sent E a Dora backpack! She wears it often and does not like to take it off when Mommy says (for instance, to get in the car). The backpack is terrycloth and folds out into a towel. E wore it to the gym, takes it on the school run, jumps with it on the trampoline (it makes her fall over even more than normal).
Here is darling M with no teeth. They're coming in now, and I have no idea where all the teeth are going to fit. They're huge!
V and M are both loving science right now. They're doing science fair projects at the school, and I think V might do one, too. Probably have to buy a board for E, too, because no one can stand to be left out at our house. Much screaming when Daddy takes someone out in the jogging stroller. Everyone wants to go.
Speaking of screaming, I had trouble getting good pictures of this dress. (The other picture is at the top of the post, I couldn't get it to move and am too tired to fight with it.) E was so busy on her motorcycle that I couldn't get a straight shot. But isn't it precious? I've been very busy sewing the last couple of weeks. This dress was made from Nathan's old shirt, off a tutorial I found. So cute that I've made one for V, too. There are several ideas online for how to turn a man's shirt into a toddler dress, but this is my favorite because it's so clever. It not only uses the back yoke for the front dress yoke, and uses the button for the back closure, it evens uses the curve of the armhole opening to make the flutter sleeves. Some of the other tutorials are just basic dresses cut from a shirt, but this one appeals to me. And V is so happy about having something made from Daddy's shirt that I don't even have to put pink on hers! I could have avoided the pink on E's, but it looked beautiful with the navy blue, so there you go.

With all this renewed interest in sewing (renewed because I finally have a sewing machine and all my sewing equipment and my kids in the same place! and a permanent sewing table!!), I'm realizing what a cheapskate I am when it comes to this stuff. I'll post pictures soon of the charming jumpers I made for the girls, with $2.25 fabric. V's dress from $1 fabric didn't turn out quite as well, but still cute. So I don't get exactly what I would have chosen otherwise -- working within my cheap preferences pushes me to be more creative, right?

knock knock

My kids love jokes, but they don't always get them, if you know what I mean. Well, they get some jokes -- we adore the children's CD by Barenaked Ladies (Snack Time), and the first song is about M's favorite joke! 7 ate 9.

Knock knock jokes? They sure try. But it's not the easiest thing in the world to come up with a knock knock joke. Anyway, M finally came up with one that actually works. Nathan about fell off his chair in astonishment.

Knock knock.

Who's there?

Chooch.

Chooch who?

Choo-choo there's a train coming through!

Bwahaha. Even good knock knock jokes aren't funny. E is hilarious. She just says "knock knock" over and over. Smiles and fake laughs.