In their Easter bonnets

The dresses are made from Oliver + S's family reunion pattern, and a friend of mine made the hats. The girls would hardly wear them today, but I did get some pictures :) These were Janette's first try at children's hats. She's working on opening a hat shop. The quality on these is fabulous. Oh, and about the only way to get great pictures of M1 is to have him interact with his siblings, especially the baby. Sweet boy.

Oliver + S sewing patterns

What a sweet little neck! This is the back of E's ice cream social shirt. I actually measured the girls before making these in order to pick the right size, and the fit is perfect. I love the button in the back. Have plans to make ice cream social dresses for the girls. The only issue is that I have a real tendency to buy fabric with one-way designs. And the yoke in this pattern is in one piece, so if I were to use a fabric with nap (one-way design), the back of the yoke would show the pattern upside-down. Issue.

These capes took forever, seems like. The pattern is quite straight-forward, nothing tricky, but because I was making two capes and each cape is lined, that means I really made four capes. And two of them were made with velvet, which was a royal pain. The blue cotton velveteen wasn't bad, but the polyester velvet was very slippery. Even with the walking foot. The girls wear these often to church, and E likes to be little blue riding hood rather often. My favorite moment was when we parked close to the kids' school and walked to pick them up. E was a bit cold, so she was wearing her longhorn dress plus the blue cloak. Awesome style. Another day, she wore her mermaid towel to pick them up. It's nice to be three.

Here's the front of V's ice cream shirt and an a-line skirt.

And the mermaid dress! I used the class picnic pattern, but lengthened it and shortened the sleeves (3/4 sleeves are not summer friendly in Texas). She loves it, but refused to wear it to church because it's a play dress, not a church dress. She's probably right. I've got some more Oliver + S patterns to use soon. I've got the fabric and buttons for the girls' Easter dresses. :)

V's 6

So, V turned 6 and I kinda didn't blog about it. But now I am! Here she is with the topping tornado from her awesome auntie. Basically, this is a little plastic thing that you pour sprinkles into, push a button a few times, and it makes the sprinkles swirl around! Yeah, there were sprinkles on all kinds of food for a few days. M1 got in on the action, too. It was a job for 2 little stinkers.

I've been sitting on this pattern for a while -- the 3 little bears sleeping bag pattern. V sleeps with two friends, Duckie and Sheepy. Now they have their own little places to sleep. See? I did quilting. These are so, so small, but I still thought finishing the binding would kill me. Part of that is because I was making very small stitches, since it's a toy. Part of that is because hand stitching is not my friend. Anyway, V squealed with joy when she put her toys in their sleeping bags.

She also had very specific requests for her birthday cake. Chocolate cake, vanilla icing and strawberries. She explained that perhaps we could put strawberries all over the top of the cake and then put a few strawberries with the tops still on them next to the cake and that would look really pretty. Ha. I'm not much of a display-focused cook. (Taste, baby, that's where it's at.) So I got into the spirit of it and E helped me make some chocolate-covered strawberries, and V happily helped decorate her own cake. Biggest smile all day was looking at the cake before we cut into it. So glad I could make her happy.

Wax Museum and other happenings

Here's E in her mermaid dress that I finally finished. I've had a rough couple of weeks with a teething baby, so it seems like this project has been start-and-stop -- OK, sewing when you have little kids is always start-and-stop, but it was worse than usual. While I was taking pictures, she kept asking, "How can I climb this tree?" and didn't want to go back inside, despite the chilly weather.

V just finished up a unit about Texas, and the kindergarten kids had a rodeo yesterday. They were asked to make their own stick horses and wear cowboy (or cowgirl!) gear. She was very excited about making a unicorn (the only one in the school, of course) and wondered if it was going to be creative enough. Ha. I was going to make one for E as well, per her request, but then I saw her swing the stick around. Think we'll pass.

M1 also had a school function recently -- apparently a long-running event at our elementary school. Each 2nd grader did a project about a famous American (they gave different centuries to each class and made sure there weren't duplicates). After doing a bunch of work (timelines, essays, portraits, etc.), they finished up with a wax museum. The kids memorized facts about their famous people, dressed up like them, and sat around until someone woke them up by pushing the buttons on their hands. Then they recited their information and asked, "Who am I?" I didn't realize how totally adorable this would be until I went. It wasn't possible to get a good shot of the kids together, but I wish I could have. So, so cute. M1 was Red Cloud. He led the most successful war Native Americans ever fought against white men, in case you were wondering.

And this is just a picture I find amusing. It's what happens when I ask V to keep the baby happy for a few minutes.

update

E is very flexible. I thought it was hilarious that she could fall asleep this way.

M2 is rolling over and creeping a lot. To distract him from teething pain, we go outside, watch the washer and dryer run, or watch E dance.

M1 is a cub scout! His first pack meeting was the pinewood derby. He won 3rd place in his age division. Pinewood derby is high tech. There was specialty software going on.

E spent one whole day like this. It was especially amusing peeking at her in the car.

Project Run & Play Junebug Remix

I decided to sew along for a few of the challenges over at Project Run & Play. This week is a remix of a cute little dress tutorial from Craftiness Is Not Optional. Here's my take on it. I used an asymmetrical color scheme -- 2/3 hand-dyed fabric (the orange fabric), 1/3 Kona cotton with texture. This particular length of fabric I dyed based on a project in Ann Johnston's Color by Accident. Lots of yellow and a bit of fuchsia. It's a no-closure dress, my favorite kind! My kids love clothes they can get on and off themselves. The pattern for the dress is mine (well, adapted from a sloper) -- with cues from the original Junebug dress.

The colors are very Starburst. E couldn't stop playing with the buttons, and although I didn't get quite the pictures I wanted, she was a trooper for being outside in the cold with just a cotton dress on! The yellow trim is made from more Kona cotton. Canary, I think.

There are a few rows of stitches at the bottom, for added interest.


I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, but not as happy as E!

New Year's Goals

So I'm still working on my goals. I have several ideas, but I'm trying to find the balance between things that will benefit my life and things that are too ambitious when I've got a baby in the house. Tricky, that. My weight-loss goal is an easy one, since I'm already working on that. (I'm saying that it's an easy goal to make, not an easy one to achieve!) And some goals will come naturally, like having E totally potty trained, teaching M2 to sleep better, and eventually weaning my last child. Anyway, still mulling on some others. But the kids made some goals that are so amazingly cute.



M1's goals:
1. Learn how to rollerblade really well.
2. Read the Book of Mormon. (I had to talk him down from setting a goal to read all the scriptures -- meaning the Old & New Testament, plus the two LDS works: the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. I love this kid!)
3. Prepare for college. (Seriously, what's not to love here?!?)

Of course, he's also hoping to do some awesome stuff in Cub Scouts this year. First goal is to get his Bobcat by the next meeting.

V's goals:
1. Learn how to ride a bike.
2. Cook at least 1/4 of the recipes in her new cookbooks.
She's also hoping to grow some front teeth. This picture is her crazy, "look, I'm missing teeth" face. I hope she doesn't grow teeth too quickly.

I can't really remember E's goals, but I know learning to read was on the list. Of course, this is also a goal for her Mommy (by the same token, V's learning to ride a bike is a goal for Daddy to help her accomplish). And isn't this picture awesome? She was dancing around so much I kept getting crazy shots. That's my mother dying of laughter in the background.

M2 is hoping to get as many things into his mouth as possible and figure out how to move. He's got some serious food envy, so I think eating real food is on the list.

Christmas 2011

All she wants for Christmas ...

are her two front teeth! So awesome. She's got an enormous gap and is learning how to sing the appropriate song. Her lisp is 1,004 times more pronounced, as she would say herself. V likes to let her teeth hang until they fall out on their own. I know some parents are bugged by this, but it doesn't bother me. As long as I don't have to pull it, I don't care. Yesterday I almost fell over laughing because she had turned her tooth all the way around and then couldn't turn it back. Luckily she wasn't concerned that I was laughing at her and cheered right up once the tooth was back in place. E (just turned 3) occasionally tries to wiggle her teeth, to no avail.

Gratuitous pic of the baby. Apparently the bumbo seat is in the news again for being unsafe. Don't put it on the table, parents. My kids have wiggled out of it, yours will too. Apparently we have to litigate this. Oy.

Also in the news, the death of Vaclav Havel. He was the George Washington of the Czech Republic (and Slovakia, for that matter) -- a world-changer, and he is missed by millions.

Last Friday was the sugariest day ever. It was the last day of school before the break, so my two older kids had class parties. Junk food is heavily restricted at our school. (I think they get 3 non-nutrition days a year. Otherwise things like birthday cake are food non grata.) So when one of those free days comes up, there's a lot of sugar and fat going on. They ate treats at school and then brought home goody bags to eat and share with their little sister.

M1 had made a gingerbread house. When I went to pick him up, another 2nd grade class came out of the building first, each kid carrying a gingerbread house. Their teacher showed off all the cute things the kids had come up with -- an ice cream cone as a tree or as a Santa, marshmallows as chimneys. And then my kid came out. "Look, I made a machine gun!" Yes, a machine gun on the roof of his house (cleverly made with a large marshmallow, chocolate chips and a pretzel stick), a tree that had fallen down and was crushing the house, etc. I have no further comment on this.

Further treats: of course, this would be the day that E decided to finally make the next big step in potty training, requiring a trip to Braum's for some ice cream! So after the early day at school, we headed over and got pink ice cream for her. And of course the other kids got ice cream, too. THEN we had a church party making ... gingerbread houses! They had pre-made the houses for us (using caramelized sugar, which I haven't seen before), and there were quite a few extras. So we came home with a lot of houses. E in particular loved putting things on her house. She made two houses and then really wanted another, but Nathan convinced her to make a yard for her houses instead. That cute house in the picture with the smiley face is V's, of course.

Extra funny moment: the following day, M1 had eaten all the good stuff off his houses and experimented with eating the graham crackers. He told me that the one from church didn't taste good at all. "That house is not put together with sugar. It's not sweet at all. I think it's glue. I just ate glue!" Yeah, it wasn't glue. I tasted it -- the sugar had just gotten a little scorched.

Giveaway day!

GIVEAWAY CLOSED.
Winners!

Sew, Mama, Sew gift certificate:
SewLindaAnn

Electronic copies of Snarky and Sweet:
cradke
bethandodd
jaya
texheks
javede

Congratulations! I'll be sending emails shortly (after I feed the baby). I've loved all the comments -- everything from sweet statements about having already achieved life dreams to be wives and mothers, to amazing goals like growing your own food or opening businesses. The most poignant were acknowledgments that sometimes our goals change -- we choose the greater good. Best of luck with all the other giveaways, and thanks for lifting my spirits!

I'm giving away $30 at Sew, Mama, Sew! as part of their semi-annual giveaway day madness. Check out all the other amazing stuff!

This year has been a very exciting one for us. My husband and I bought a small business early in the year. We now own Alcor PetroLabs, located in Fort Worth and San Antonio. It's a culmination of one of my husband's life-long dreams. In the time that I've known him, everything he's done in school and his career has been with the aim to own his own business someday. And it's going fabulously well. He loves it, his employees love it, and so do the customers. It makes a huge difference at home to have a happy husband and father. So proud of him.

Elsewhere in the family, this year has brought us a quilt in the Quilt National show, one of many amazing goals my sister Naomi Adams has completed recently. My little sister Georgia Leigh had her sixth child and continues to homeschool, run a fabulous online shop with PDF patterns (check her out this week, her giveaway is fab), and is currently selling her house to move closer to us! OK, so they're moving because of a job, but the closer to us part is very exciting.

And my dear mother has finished a life-long dream of having a book published. I don't think she expected to wait until she had 10 grandchildren to complete this goal. I don't think she expected this particular novel to be the first one published. She works hard, running a shop with vintage patterns, working as a reporter for a local newspaper, and writing novels. I hope she publishes many more. In honor of her, I'm also giving away a few copies of the electronic copy of her first book, Snarky and Sweet. It's clean and fun, a fabulous holiday read for anyone. Think classic Elizabeth Peters or Georgette Heyer, but featuring a Texas schoolteacher.

To enter and win $30 at Sew, Mama, Sew or a copy of Snarky and Sweet, please just leave a comment! If you want to tell me about your life-long goal, go for it. (Mine? PhD.) But any comment gets an entry. If you win an e-book, I'll let you choose Kindle or Nook format. (Kindle e-books can be read on your computer.) Giveaway open until midnight December 16th, winners chosen randomly.

Good luck and enjoy Giveaway Day!

Recent sewing and pattern reviews

Here it is! The infamous mermaid doll that E already saw in process. So the picture was taken in my closet -- I don't want her to see the finished product! Some parents tell me that it's OK if their little kids see a present or two ahead of time, because they'll forget by Christmas. This is 100% not true. At least for little Wickers. Every time someone talks about presents, E mentions the mermaid doll. Yeah. Anyway, I made it with a pattern from Dolls and Daydreams -- e-patterns on etsy. It was fabulously easy to follow, and turned out just like the picture in the pattern. Highly recommend her patterns.

Here are some dresses I made recently for V. I've been feeling like I haven't done any sewing since having our newest baby, but obviously I have. Just not as much as I want to be doing. These dresses are from my favorite knit pattern -- Hopscotch by Oliver + S. Yes, her patterns are expensive, but this one has been totally worth it for me. The knit portion of this pattern runs small, FYI. I redrafted the front to make the pink dress. I took away the cross-over yoke and added a pleat instead. Aren't the little buttons cute? A vintage gift from my mom. And on fabric choice -- I think of zebra print as more of a tween/teen choice, but it's so cute on a 5 year-old! The first day she wore it, V spent a lot of time pretending to be a zebra, often using our zebra hand puppet.

M2 has long outgrown these particular ones, but I wanted to mention my sister's e-pattern for zippered swaddlers. It's available from Georgia Leigh Designs. These were very quick to make, and since I use a lot of knit fabric anyway I was able to use up some extra left over from other projects. So they were very close to free to make -- compared with $30 to buy a good one! If you have a baby that likes to be swaddled, these are so much easier to use than other options. And the baby doesn't get too hot, which is excellent (and safer).

A nice boring one to end with -- since I was making E a fabulous present, I thought I should make something for the other kids, too. M1 is getting pillowcases. They take almost no time at all, and he'll love them! I used a tutorial from MADE for this one. And after reading that post of hers, I totally want to make pillowcases for kids with cancer. Planning to make an apron for V, although I was very tempted by the fishy purse on Make It and Love It this week. Maybe for her birthday.

In other news, we went to a holiday party last night with a white elephant gift exchange. Best gifts: fireman cookie jar that says "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the cookie jar", book of cards called using animals to give bad news (picture of a puppy and the caption "It's Syphilis", or "Grandma's Dead", or "Daddy's not coming home", stuff like that), and the definite winner: a live goldfish! So glad we didn't end up with that one. But kudos to the couple who brought it.

funny stuff my kids do and say

First, may I report that 5-year-old V put my newly turned 3 E to bed last night. I had told them that everyone was getting extra reading time while I fed the baby (this is code for I'm sending you to bed early, and they buy it every time and even like it, ha). So V decided to read some herself and then read to E. And since she was brushing her own teeth, she helped E brush hers. And then tucked her in bed! I was so surprised, and then quickly ran to put E's nighttime diaper on her before she fell asleep. Just imagine what little mommy V is going to be like with M2!

Other funny stuff:

E: I'm peed is not a word. I'm wet is a word.

Makes the linguist mommy happy.

M1: I'm buying my lunch today since you didn't bother to make it. (Ouch.)

M2: doesn't say anything, but coos more than any of my other babies. And he laughed in his sleep yesterday :)

I was singing the B-A-Bay, B-E-Bee song the other day and when we got to P there was total pandemonium. V and M1 were both so amused that the song says "pee" AND "poo". Rock on. The song's from a Three Stooges routine and called Swingin' the Alphabet. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_Y6UKMp8Qw

Also, V let her tooth hang until it literally moved back and forth every time she talked. She finally lost it over a piece of toast one morning, but her nice teacher still let her go to the school nurse to get a treasure box for her tooth. I don't have a good picture of her yet, but I'll get one soon. She's really hoping to lose her other front tooth on Christmas Eve so that Santa and the Tooth Fairy will come the same night. Love that girl.

M2 blessing

Little M2 was blessed by Nathan on Sunday. This is the dress -- the dress that has crossed oceans, mountain ranges and political boundaries. The dress that my grandmother made and so many of us wore. I love using it, but also live in fear that my kid will be the one to finally stain it (didn't happen).

Nathan of course gave a sweet blessing, and it was fabulous to have extended family there and at our house afterward. I have no pictures of that part. Unfortunate, but I think Naomi got a few.


Had to take a picture this morning of E's little orphan Annie hair. It's always fabulous on a humid day.