carefree

my 50mm lens broke. then one phone died while the other disappeared. two days later a water balloon burst all over (and killed) my one-month-old laptop. a water balloon. inside my home. i can really only blame myself, but still, there were a few days these past two weeks where i was pretty sure that life was against me. 

then the crisp fall wind came and blew in the anniversary of our wedding. nine years. (high-five, chip). last tuesday rolled around, chip surprise-took the day off work and pushed me out of the door to have a day of wandering all to myself. the city was wonderful and strange without my squad. i hardly knew what to do or how to interact with the city without kids.. or at the very least without the threat of an outrageous babysitting bill or looming pick-up time. but, i eventually figured it out. i wandered in soho and central park, i saw a movie at 5pm at the Paris (i was the youngest by 35 years, at least. maybe my favorite NY movie viewing experience to date.), i wandered down 5th avenue and grew even firmer in my deep love of brooklyn. chip and i met at balthazar for dinner, wandered to the east village for ice cream and another movie, then took a cab to the west village to stay the night at the jane*. all by ourselves. no kids calling our names in the night or "whispering" in our faces in the morning. it was a first ever and it was nice. and chip did it all. (big-time high-five, chip). the next morning i watched the hudson from our window and after leaving the hotel, chip took off to work while i slowly wandered home.

for a life that has seemed anything but carefree lately, it was the perfect gift. the break from everything, the time alone with chip and the happy reunion with the kids.. just right. 

and now we are back. back to schedules and volunteering and lunch-packing and scrambling to find the missing shoe and fundraising and playing and eating and meetings and eating (charlie is beastly hungry all the time lately) and trying our best to wrap it all up in pajamas, brushed teeth and a cup full of water before 8pm every night.. and i'm trying my best to approach all we have going on with the same happy attitude i approached my day of wandering. 

so it seemed right that when reuniting with my lonely sewing machine i turn to one of my favorite japanese craft books newly translated into english (hooray!); carefree clothes for girls. the japanese version made me want to dye the girls' hair red and move to the country, and the new english version does the same.. but since that doesn't make any sense (yet) i'm happy that it also makes me want to sew up a ton of these adorable clothes for eve and ruth's life in the city.

i skipped on the lovely handwork the book instructs for the apron (i get impatient for a final product when i haven't sewn in awhile.. but really, the detailed handwork in the book is insanely charming). and i went for strips of bias tape along the pant leg rather than the wide lace in the instructions- no lace on hand and i find stripes+cropped pant+little girl to be an irresistible combination (and who really has the power to resist the sailor trend, especially after just lodging in the "captain's quarters" at a hotel that was originally built to lodge sailors in port and was actually home to the survivors of the titanic while that sad mess was sorted out? not me). i love it. simple and darling and so easy to sew. eve's feelings about the outfit? she can put "special secret and even super secret messages and things in the gigantic pocket without anyone knowing" all while practicing moves for ballet class, so she's a fan. even ruth, while in her cave (laundry hamper turned on its side with blanket over it), rotating between her bat costume and skirted lime green swimsuit and shouting "pumpkin pie!" every thirty seconds gives it a very enthusiastic thumbs up. so, even with 80% of technology dead in our home, and charlie throwing everything he can find to the ground, it isn't so hard to feel carefree with images of life on the sea, super secret messages and pumpkin pie on the brain. 

* for those who follow the link to the jane, know that chip didn't surprise me with a tiny room with bunk beds (although that would have been ridiculous and hysterical.. and a revisit to our past- on a maiden scouting voyage to new york nearly 9 years ago we visited the jane when it was gritty and cheap and a friend was lodging in one of those tiny tiny rooms until he found an apartment).. we stayed in one of the captain's rooms which was cool and fun, but not without some mysterious weirdness.. 

once there was a peddler

crammed on the shelves, piled on the table, clutched in little hands, tucked under pillows and covering our laps... books are everywhere in our little place; freshly read, forgotten about and waiting, or being scoured for inspiration. eve studies the animal books and grabs her pens, ruth finds the illustrations of her favorite dresses then runs to the closet, charlie listens to the clack of the wooden book's turning pages and dances. the picture book inspiration is not for the kids only; occasionally there is a book that i cannot stop looking at, cannot stop reading and cannot stop thinking about. 

caps for sale is such a book. each time i pull it out - and i pull it out a lot - i am struck. not by the simple story or the giggles the peddler and naughty monkeys elicit from the girls (although these are constant and wonderful), but i am struck by the handful of bold, lovely colors chosen to tell the story. i often feel this way about books from the 40s, but this book is an exception even among its fine peers. a perfect and simple combination of bright colors, with plenty of white thrown in the mix. 

after years of staring and admiring i decided to make a quilt based solely on the palette of this fun book. the perfect solids were found, but after several months the quilt has yet to form- in my head or otherwise. in its place plans for little, simple, clothes highlighting this palette gestated and are being brought into the world just in time for the warmth that has finally arrived. 

round one: dresses for the girls.

if we can tolerate not taking in every second of the spring glory going on outside, these dresses will soon be joined by play clothes in ms. slobodkina's inspiring palette. but, as ruthie says, "we have some business too. like the monkeys. but that business is outside. ya, playground business." 

the big green book

two facts: chip is really good at drawing and i am really not very good. 

over the years as i've lamented the fact that i cannot make a decent looking animal chip has told me that i should get Ed Emberley's Big Green Drawing Book. it helped him as a child, it could certainly help me. 

two weeks ago on a trip to the library the girls and i came home with the big green book. the Drawing Book of Faces followed a few days later. making a horse that actually resembles a horse (as opposed to a flinstones-esque dinosaur) has never been easier. for myself or eve, who has been able to follow the simple step-by-step instructions all on her own. 

   

in addition to the wonderfully clear and simple instructions, mr. emberley's sense of humor has us all chuckling (or roaring in doubled-over laughter if your name is eve and you are now fully immersed in the world of pre-k humor). i think it is about time we made these books a part of our collection, the vintage editions if possible. i'm not sure it gets better than that first cover. 

(i'm withholding my own drawings. while i was really pleased with myself, i think it is really much more widely impressive that a four-year-old can draw a unicorn made mostly of circles than her 29 year old mom. . .)

kuplink, kuplank

there were no cardigans or overalls, no wandering mama bears or tin pails, but there was a jolly toothless man, a sleeping baby and thousands of plump berries ripe for the picking this morning at the blueberry field outside of brookings. we are back on our extended summer break in oregon and as i picked in the abnormal heat this morning the words and images of blueberries for sal ran repeatedly through my mind. i am finally coming back around to loving summer, partly for the escape i get to make to oregon, but mostly for the berries. even as i wiped away the sweat i found myself so content to be there in the patch, searching for plump berries to the sound of my sister's and mother's wafting laughter and the excited chatter of the bubbly german women to my right. seven pounds later (almost thirty between all of us) we wound our way back down the river to the shelter of an air conditioned home looking out to the ocean.

a good start to our brookings stay.

the heat should subside shortly and we'll soon be back to the regular fair of long sleeves, but for now we've kept the clothes of last week's utah stay, and we're all happy to run through the sprinklers and eat popsicles in the sun.

the next several weeks this blog will be used as an attempt to make chip feel a little closer than 3000 miles from his family, which will not change the content so much as the frequency of the posts if all goes according to my ambitious plans. i'm already behind schedule, with baby to nurse, girls to engage, vampires to read about and blueberries to consume. but at least i've made a start.

making a list

even after pulling out several to save for eve's birthday, the amount of gifts under last year's tree was embarrassing. so this year i've adopted a little rhyme (courtesy of my sister sarah's neighbor's sister- wow. that's annoying to type, let alone read. . .) to direct my shopping:

"something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read."

i've puchased and wrapped every gift for the girls (not much making happening this year. i blame baby.) and i have it on good authority that santa has his all ready to go too. . . maybe shoved in a closet somewhere until christmas eve.

since the girls are oblivious to this blog until a picture of themselves appears, i will show some of what we've gotten to fulfill our little rhyme. my favorites, as always are great books and simple toys:

something to read:

zoo-ology by joelle jolivet for eve (this is a bigger than normal book with great illustrations and groupings) and ABC by bruno munari for ruth. both are really going to work out for me; entertaining the girls for long periods of time and without getting too burdensome to read to them over and over. both are more about observing and identifying things than following a story-line. i've gotten some other great books as well (i only have so much self control) which will be great for reading and looking at. perhaps i'll do a post (or five) at some point featuring my favorite children's books.

something you want:

i think i spoil my children. but in my defense, eve came up with the request for a camera on her own ("i want that sing that mama has with the pictures on it and you push it for the pictures"). she has been asking for it exclusively for over a month now. she'll be in heaven and i'll get the chance to fix all the settings on my own camera. thank you ebay. i'm not sure ruthie's gift will be as exciting. after watching her pretend play with a barbie at church for nearly 25 minutes today, i'm questioning the blocks, but i love them and am hopeful we'll have a great time building together.

also wrapped up in the closet we have things to wear (jeans and ballet slippers), things they need (umbrellas and underwear) and things ready to stuff in the stockings- courtesy of santa. and i'm fairly certain santa will be giving:

little doctor play kit for eve. perfect, given all the appointments for the girls and myself lately. and duck on bike for ruth. really entertaining. the duck will join the many other tin toys in our home (ride-a-rocket, humming spinning top, russian police car and ambulance among others) almost all by schylling, one of my favorite tin toy companies.

now i just have to start working on chip. not nearly as easy as the girls. . .

thanks rach!

a month ago i went to the rachel ray show. brooke, alysha and i left our kids with friends and sitters and with breanne, we made our way into the city to wait in line for filming. while waiting we saw teri hatcher filming a segment and made friends with some funny ladies who were very very nervous about not getting in. luckily for the ladies, they didn't get all fancied up in their jewel tones for nothing. luckier for us, we not only made it into the show, but were placed on the second audience row. our session included segments for two different shows. the first segment aired on september 11th. if you saw this, then you probably saw my friends and i sitting in the row right behind the three fashion-experiment moms. apparently i got some good air time, but missed it entirely due to my lack of a tv and running around to leave on our trip that day. and i'm glad i did. the idea of seeing myself on tv makes me squirm. the second major segment "couch potato kids" will be airing on this friday's show. we will be opposite the adorable little couch potato boys and their moms, second row back. if i look chubby or not-smart, don't tell me.

rachel was fine, the stage set up was very cool (the audience rotates on a big circle to face the various segment spots) but the highlight of the experience was realizing that in addition to our very own bag of veggie crisps, we were getting to take home a copy of the dangerous book for boys. who needs teri hatcher when i have the instructions to make the "world's greatest paper airplane" and the rules of rugby at my disposal? eve can now identify a brook trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, pike and minnow. and so can i. pretty cool.

rained in

first things i heard this morning: startlingly loud thunder clap. scurrying of three-year-old feet. a soft little hand starting stroking my face. "it's alright mommy. the thunder not hurt you. the thunder go away. it's alright. don't be scared mommy. you're alright." nice, soft kiss. feet scurrying away.

eve is terrified of thunder. or any loud, sudden noise. she comes running, buries her head in my lap and whimpers. but when i am asleep (or trying to pretend i'm asleep just a little longer) she becomes the fearless protector, comforting ruthie and me until i'm upright and mentally capable of being the mom again.

the rain and thunder are coming down hard, which means we'll be spending the day inside reading a lot of books and going a little crazy. but, i am excited to get a chance to curl up and read this book with the girls:

i picked this up from a street vendor in cambridge, ma, on our boston trip in may. i loved the lithographed illustrations immediately and so bought it before looking at more than one page.

this strange little book is set back in the puritan masschusettes colony. it is full of "thees" "thines" and "dosts," fantastic illustrations, a defiant girl, a thieving native, and a heroic mutt of a dog.

my favorite pages:

like most of my favorite children's books, this was published in the 50s (1952). in addition to the illustration and design of the era, i love the way the social context of the 50s is often reflected in these innocent books. it makes me wonder what the children's books of the early 2000s will say about our society 50 years from now. but, the girls and i won't think of that while we're reading today, we'll just be taking notes on the bonnets, the aprons and the cloaks so we can be accurate as we play dress up after.