april

I included this picture because it's pretty much the only good one I've ever gotten of the kids on swings -- I'm always tempted to take pictures because they're stuck in one place. But not still, unfortunately. See the cute shadows? E says good-bye to hers every time we walk into a store.
Last week I got this great package in the mail. By some series of clicks, I ended up on Micalah's blog, Scarlet, and saw that she had tried to give away this adorable dress, but didn't get any takers. Apparently she doesn't live in longhorn land. So I got it! Which just goes to show that random time on the internet does pay off, once in a blue moon anyway. She made it as a sample of the toddler dresses she makes from adult T-shirts. And the color is absolutely perfect for my orange-haired girl. Thanks, Micalah!
She was saying "hook 'em horns" right before I took this. Note the bare feet? Such a luxury -- I'm loving Texas right now, hail and mugginess and all. Little bit helped me check the mail, and she always needs some mail of her own when we do that. Lucky me that we have a constant supply of junk mail to supply her needs. I thought we could escape this for a while, but no. Buying a house gets you on ALL the lists. In fact, some people get on the new house lists on purpose in order to get the Lowe's and Home Depot gift cards and other goodies.
Here's my own take on using an adult T for a toddler dress. This shirt got too short for Nathan after a few washes, but it had a cute picture and was made of nice fabric with a bigger lycra percentage than usual.
So I added a bit of PINK to appease the little one. The fabric I added at the neckline and the bottom is rib knit that I dyed. The fabric was in a flat container, and I added turquoise dye on one end and fuchsia on the other, so there are some purple sections where the two mixed. I never buy white clothes for my kids, but this one is holding up so far. Thank you, Dreft fabric spray.

Texas

Little things I love about living here:

the plastic wrap has a cutting edge

my kids play with children they meet at parks

parking lots

big washing machine

big dishwasher

big oven

blue sky

enchiladas

singing hymns in English

so little smoking

Kashi frozen waffles

Amazon prime

science and children's museums

milk sold in gallons

cotton fabric

oak trees

peanut butter cups

screens on the windows

WRR 101.1 (fab classical music station)

public library -- not a little thing, actually, but I couldn't leave it out

free school

lovely, kind people bag my groceries for me

2-wheel drive grocery carts (they go where you point them!)

great service -- again, not a small thing, but people smile at me (!)

did I mention the sunshine?

sunshine

Little things I miss about Prague

fresh bread

walking to a destination, rather than going for a walk

architecture

Riverside School

small shops

speaking another language every day

"strong" chili-lime chips

the river

bridges

boats

wafer cookies (american ones are gross)

tile roofs

pedestrians

public transport

food that actually goes bad after a couple of days

eggs that have evidence of the farm on them

Krtek (little mole)

street musicians

hazelnut flavored sweets

Easter markets

practically free opera, ballet

my phone (new one is not as good)

cell phone coverage

double hinge windows

old stuff

St. Patrick's Day

We just got back from a great family vacation to San Antonio. We all spent the weekend together, and then Nathan worked a couple of days and I played with the kids. Yesterday V found her version of a 4-leaf clover while we were visiting the bridge in Waco. You know, the old bridge. Waco is also the home of Dr. Pepper, so we went to that museum, too. No cool I'm a Pepper shirts, unfortunately. They had them, but only in white which is not what I wanted.
Here's E at the Witte Museum in San Antonio. It has a cool science tree house, plus a real tree house outside. M's favorite part was a huge floor area with lights. Select your game via computer, and the lights play with you. He played a dodge ball game many times. A light ball moved randomly around the board and he had to get away. If he dodged it long enough, 2 balls started going. Fun!
We met up with some family members and went to a state park. On our hike, we discovered the large remains of a dead tree. E is a super-great hiker. Her big sister, not so much.
Here we are on a river boat tour! The kids had a great time, and the weather was absolutely perfect.
Remember the Alamo! They have employees that memorize something like 30 minutes worth of information about the battle of the Alamo, and they recite it in the beautiful grounds outside. Pretty sweet job. Oh, and we're expecting a baby in September.

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.