fodrz day
with father's day sunday and his birthday yesterday, it has been an eventful week for chip. the girls have made him no less than twenty cards (each) and several involving stacks of oversized cardstock stuck together with gluestick. pictured next to the (second of three) official father's day/ birthday gift are the official father's day cards. ruth drew a portrait of the whole family with charlie the size of a small parrot resting on her right shoulder. eve also drew a family portrait but went thematic; a circus family. complete with circus-y building, large spinning wheel, balloon-bearing clown and chip in plaid pants. penned along the top is an excellent example of eve's "sounding it out" skills. makes me want to cry i love these stages so much.
and what were the official father's day/birthday gifts? first: a jacket chip has been thinking about for months. chip never thinks about clothes for months, so we had to. second: a father's day classic that has been long overdue. ties.
his work uniform rarely involves more than jeans and a t-shirt but each sunday and one or two nights during the week chip puts on a suit and tie for church and related meetings. the girls helped me choose the fabric (although their first pick involved sparkly unicorns), i cut one inch off the pattern width (chip is a skinny tie kind of guy) and got to sewing and ironing.
for the last few inches of the tie we used different fabric for a cool semi-secret surprise. i've gone back and forth about my feelings for the surprise, but now i really like it. chip does not feel the same way. he says he does, but he is a terrible liar. i can't blame him; it is a fact that, aside from the skinniness, he leans pretty conservative and subtle with his ties. however, he likes them and us enough to wear them very happily anyway. and that's part of what makes him our favorite.. that and the fact that in two weeks he will be used to the tiny bit of flash and will be telling the truth when he says he loves them. edit: one week! it took one week!
as for the third offical father's/birthday gift.. it hasn't arrived yet. but hopefully will within the next week or so. which works out well, because a birthday week is much better than just one day of celebrating, right?.. and when father's day is in the mix too, we might as well go double time and make it two solid weeks of gift giving.. (mom, you were a genius when you started the "birthday week" when we were little. it now serves as the perfect cover for my procrastination..).
get ready, chip, the third offical gift will be your favorite.. if for no other reason than you don't have to wear it.
...
edit: fabrics used for ties (all 100% cotton):
tie one: brown and cream stripe (pictures make it look black. it's brown.) by yuwa. brown dots on cream also by yuwa but i couldn't find it available in my hasty search just now.
tie two: both the brownish and pink tiny dot are part of the "30s collection" by atsuko matsuyama. they were bought at purl's soho shop and again, i can't find them online.. (if someone knows a source online, let me know!)
Friday, June 26, 2009 at 12:23AM
Reader Comments (29)
Aw! No sparkly unicorn tie? Very classy ties and fantastic cards (complete with tiny Charlie)!
yeah, love parrot charlie. and those ties rock! my favorite part is the surprise ending. sweet.
Ack! Those cards are so so so sweet. What awesome little girls you have!
And, nice job with those ties! Hopefully the surprise part will grow on Chip.
What a fun idea... a birthday week! Hmm... I may have to try that. Especially since my hubby's and my birthdays are two days apart and right in between Christmas and New Years! Holy celebrations!! I guess we already do celebrate for the whole week. :)
Love these! My husband is tall, and always complains that his ties need to be a little longer -maybe I should make him some? Love the contrasting side, too.
and the portraits are just genius, of course!
Happy Father's Day, Chip! How nice that the whole family can enjoy this holiday. What wonderful gifts. Whenever I see a really awesome man's tie, I wish I could pull off that "woman wearing a tie" look.
your ties look fantastic! i love the fabric selection and the surprise is awesome.
I'm so glad your girls LOVE the shoes :) And it will be another HAPPY DAY when they fit :) And I love the ties! Sounds like my kids- 20 cards a piece, I love these stages too- I'll be so sad when they end, I think that's why we'll get so excited about grandkids!
I love 'birthday weeks'!!:)
hi,
i'm totally enjoying your blog and all of the inspiration that it offers! i just have ot say that I am a fan eve's drawings! her artwork really stands out to me as it looks stylized and somewhat geometric. and don't go around critquing children's artwork often (or ever), i just truly find eve's drawings intersting to look at.
and that little charlie in ruth's family portrait....hilarious, and probably the cutest thing ever. what fun you must have watching these little budding artists create.
I love your stuff and style, you have a great eye.
your biggest fan in Iceland :)
Tinna
We had a lovely example of 'sounding-it-out' skills in our house this week. I received my daughter's work for the year from her school and was gratified to see that on her "What I Have Learned This Year" page she had written in large, cramped capitals (very carefully) Jesus Loves Ass. Sounding-it-out gone wrong, indeed! Note to self - teach her to spell "Us" properly.
I love the secret surprise in the ties. They are too cool and the colours of the fabric complement each other so well. You're so talented!
Love the ties. I tried my hand at making one for Christmas and it turned out well but my husband was not fond of the fabric selection so he calls it his "I'll wear it on Christmas" tie. Did you use silk? Did you buy in locally or online if I may ask? I can't seem to find any good stuff around here.
@ Dara- that is too funny. Definitely one to keep!
happy birthday chip! and those ties are awesome.
Happy Birthday to your. husband. I can't imagine any other adorable family living in such a tiny place. You and yours are inspirational.
Have to say I am particularly amazed by Ruth's drawing, the all black with touches of pink one. Wow! Ties are fun. I recently made one for my little son since he was a ring bearer for our friends' wedding and ties that small are hard to come by, especially in chartreuse. I love your blog. Your style and your projects are really exciting and inspiring-- the kind of stuff I wish I could do, but I'm still too much of a novice to do. That, and, it's tough for me to commit the time with my two little ones, etc. Thanks for another fun to read/fun to look at post.
Thank you for the pattern link. I have been searching for one and this is the best yet!
Those ties look great! I like how you combined two different fabric prints. It gives a nice twist to them!!
I LOVE sounding it out writing! It is so dear to a mothers heart to watch her child using her (or his) brain and to see the process of learning and to have it right there on paper.
The ties are great, I keep thinking I need to learn that one, Scott is hard on ties... and Dill could use some too.
i love ties with semi-secret features! not being the crafty type i got my brother a paul smith tie for his 21st...you lift up the back and there is a 1950s ski bunny pin up girl sketch! pretty cool for an otherwise conservative tie!
x.
Fodrz Day!! :[) ahahaha lol LOVE IT! and the ties! super cute Katie! :)
happy birthday chip!!
I have just come across your blog in the last few days and enjoyed trawling through your sewing posts with my 3 year old ooohing and aaaahing over the clothes your girls have been made! Thanks for a lovely journey, I am looking forward to reading your other posts too.
What pattern did you use for the ties? They look great!