August Lately

Friday!!

Friday is a busy day in the crafty blogosphere!

First, there's WIP Friday. I've been working on the "my favorite musical" apron for the tie one one challenge. I first fell in love with the music of Les Miserables in high school when I performed selections from it for chorus class. Years later, I finally had the opportunity to see the show on Broadway. It was one of the most spectacular experiences of my life.

So here is the future pocket with the embroidered logo- I think I'll use a red fabric as the body of the apron and maybe some blue trim somewhere, since the logo uses those three colors.

Another Friday tradition for crafty bloggers is Studio Friday which I have also decided to try my hand at. This week's theme is studio sidekicks. My sidekick is Harry, my gorgeous gray kitty who thinks he is human. He loves nothing more than to come and stretch out in the comfy chair in the studio. And yes, that's the vintage green dress I found a few weeks ago. Luckily for him, he decided to nap on it *before* it got washed!

On the family front, we've spent two wonderful days with Ama's sister Fonta and her husband Evan. Also, Evan's sister Joy, her husband Mike and their two incredibly adorable boys Zane and Tate were here as well. They all are from San Francisco (Fonta and Evan are in London for a year however) so we don't get to see them as often as we would like.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at their inn playing in the pool, and today we went on a hay ride with a neighbor's beautiful work horses. Mike and Joy are flying back to California tomorrow, so this evening was goodbye. We were truly sorry for them to go, we have had a great time with them! Pictures to come soon, but tonight, we're ready to read a story and go to bed.

Happy Friday everyone!

It's Hot!

RIdiculously so. Perhaps a bit cooler today than yesterday, but basically the kids and I have  been laying very low.

Last night, my mom took the kids and Am and I went to see the much anticipated Pirates of the Carribbean II. It was pretty good, but really it was just one big action sequence. I'm still looking forward to the third installment. Johnny Depp is an incredible actor and Captain Jack Sparrow is such a fun character.

The only sewing-related thing I've managed in the past few days is pre-washing and pressing a mountain of new fabric. I started Thursday evening and it continued past midnight, and then several hours Friday morning. Over six hours total. Ugh.

And in case you're wondering, this is what six hours of pressing and folding looks like:

Not terribly impressive, is it?

Am's family is beginning to arrive for his mom's wedding on July 29th, so things will be busy here. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and we can do some fun things outside without melting!

A Year of Color

Amy at Happy Things has dreamed up a nifty little color 'scheme'- A year of color! Every week, a new photo representing a color from her crayon box. As someone who has been known to hoard a new, unused box of the full spectrum of crayola colors just to marvel at all the pretty colors, I'm excited!

I had hoped to get some serious sewing time in this evening, but it seems that Liam has developed a low-grade fever and some tummy issues. I hope, hope, HOPE it's not related to swimming in the lake these past two weeks. Ugh! Things were so simple when I was a kid. Parents back then didn't even worry about seat belts or sunscreen, much less e coli (which often shows up in lakes, ponds, fruit juices and fresh produce), lyme disease (from tick bites), west nile virus or EEE (both yucky viruses that we can get from mosquito bites in this area). Oh, to be a parent 30 years ago...

In case you didn't notice, I'm a big worrier. I will be in hypervigilant mommy mode this weekend.

Lazy Days of Summer? I Don't Think So!

Thank you for your suggestions to save my table cloth. I picked up some oxy clean at the store yesterday (looked for blueing, but couldn't find any) and will try it tonight.

The boys and I have been busy. Between nearly-constant temper tantrums and sibling squabbles (they're 3 and 9. Someone PLEASE tell me it gets easier!) we have managed to squeeze in lots of fun summer stuff.

Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day, despite the thunderstorms that had been predicted. In the morning we made grape juice popsicles and took a nice long walk. After lunch and swimming lessons, we decided to make some mint-chocolate chip ice cream. Word to the wise- don't try to substitute table salt for rock salt in your home ice cream maker. It won't work! We'll try again tonight with rock salt and hopefully we'll have success.

Spaghetti and home-made meatballs with bell pepper sauce and fresh mozzarella on a blanket in the back yard with blueberries for dessert. Heaven. Pure heaven. I love summer!

This morning I washed and pressed some more of my recent thrift finds. These were from a grab-bag of fabric that I got for two dollars:

The light blue is actually this nifty seagull print:

And I'm also excited that my latest fabric splurge arrived. I love everything about these prints. I'm very much into blue and green right now, so I just had to have them. The one on top was a freebie that the seller threw in because of a delay in shipping my order (which was not her fault). Now, if I could just find my muse and keep her around for a few hours...

Have I mentioned the color-iffic swap-o-rama? There's a link in my side bar. It's a very cool crafty swap where each month you get a new color theme and a secret partner. Besides sending anything from candy to craft supplies in the designated colors, you also have to include one handmade item. You can visit your partner's profile on flickr and swap-bot, and check out their blog (if they have one) to get a feel for what kinds of things they like and really customize the package to them.

I joined just after the aqua blue and brown packages were sent, and was totally bummed that I missed out on that theme. Luckily for me, a lovely gal named Lori saw my post about it in the group and asked if I'd like to do a personal swap since we both missed out. Yay! I'll be sending it out this week Lori!

I just got my swap partner for August, which is a rainbow color theme. This will be an interesting challenge since this person has very different tastes from me. Hooray for creative challenges! Maybe just the thing I need to get back into creating mode.

Happy 4th Everyone!

I know I've been a bit absent from the blogging world this week. Lots going on!

I just wanted to take a minute to say happy Independence Day to everyone. Be safe!

Has it been that long?

Today, we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary, though we have been together over 11 years now.

This little bit should tell you a lot about us: My parents offered to take the boys overnight. OVERNIGHT! We have not spent a childless night in well, what seems like forever. And yet, after dinner, all we wanted to do was go get our little boys, tuck them in, and spend a quiet night at home. Some people may call us hermits, some may call us anti-social.I'm sure some call us boring. I call us happy- extremely happy just to be together. Nothing wrong with that as far as I'm concerned.

My husband- the mildest, kindest, most patient and accepting person I have ever met.  I feel so, so incredibly lucky to be married to this man who has never once in all these years made me feel badly about who I am- never told me I should be or act like anything but who I am. Seriously, how many people in the world can I say that about? Nobody. Nobody but him. A pretty rare quality I think, and an incredible one in a husband. I love my quiet, simple, secure life, and I wouldn't trade it, or him, for anything.

This morning I did get a chance to complete the sewing I had planned for this week- four new wristlets- to be posted on my site and my etsy shop this weekend.

As Promised

Where to begin?

We had a nice, relaxing Father's Day,  just what Daddy wanted. No big plans, just time to relax and spend time with the boys.

Tuesday my mom had the boys for the morning, which meant I got several wristlets and two wrist wallets all cut and ready to sew. Yay! These will probably show up on my etsy shop and my website later this week.

The day all went downhill, however, when my mom and I took the kids shopping for the afternoon. We made it through the first store just fine, but when we got to our next stop I realized I had left my wallet on the car! I was trying really hard to be calm about it. After all, everything in there was replaceable except for the money, but what a hassle!

I retraced my route the 20 miles back to the first store. No wallet the whole way, not in the parking lot and nobody had brought it into the store. I had given it up for stolen and had resolved myself to filing a police report after dropping my mom off. Well, it occurred to me to call the police station first to see if I even needed to file a  report, or just contact my bank. I told them my name and they said that someone had turned my wallet in!

It's a little worse for the wear, apparently the change compartment got sprung when it fell so it doesn't close correctly any more (Am may be able to fix it, he has a way with those things), but everything, including the cash, was still in it. I want to thank that angel for reminding me that there is still goodness and decency in this world.

So after all of that excitement yesterday, today is a stay at home day with the boys. So far we have been outside playing in the sprinkler (great fun and especially funny when Mom gets wet!) and then doing some small crafts projects. This is a quick photo of some of our jungle boxes with glue still drying:

I did get a bit of time to try a new design out for a pleated bag. Unlined, just a quick try-out to see if my pattern would work:

Please excuse the poor composition. It's harder than you might think to model a bag while simultaneously focusing and shooting a digital camera at yourself!

I'm happy with it but it will have to be a bit wider at the top. It just barely fit around the end of my sewing machine!

Something Pretty

I'll be writing a long, entertaining (maybe) post later today, but I just read this over at Curious Bird and had to share:

Risk by Anais Nin

And then the day came, when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to Blossom.

Isn't that beautiful?

Sunday is Family Day

This week, we went to see the much, and I do mean *much* anticipated "Cars Movie" as Liam likes to call it. We have been looking forward to this movie since we saw the preview on our Incredibles DVD over a year ago. It's Pixar, it's about CARS, and Owen Wilson voices the main character. This movie couldn't help but be entertaining. I'll admit, I was really excited about it myself.

Pixar did not disappoint. The humor was witty, the animation was excellent (of course) and the sound effects were as authentic as they could get. Beyond that, the underlying story of  a small community that suffered when its town was bypassed by the highway system was a very sobering one. I could really feel the change in the mood of the adults in the room when the sadness of the community was brought  to light.

On the way:

Liam and Daddy eating lunch outside:

The boys patiently waiting for the movie to start:

We got home and made dinner, then the boys played with Daddy while I finished a big order that needed to ship on Monday. Baths and bedtime and then I stayed up until 12:30 working on a relaxing crafts project while watching an old movie on PBS. That's my kind of day!

What I stayed up making:

I hadn't done any embroidering or needle work like that for over a year... not perfect, but I like it! (It's a holder for the little packs of tissues in case you didn't figure it out yet LOL)