recovering

do you have those moments (or days) when you feel like you've done some serious reverse-maturing? lately i've been reminding myself of college me: doing anything and everything i can think of besides the one thing i really need to do. honestly, i'm always functioning a little like that, but almost dysfunctionally so in college. and here i am again, finding all kinds of things to do besides actually preparing for the major thing i have coming up: baby. this week's unhealthy procrastination has resulted in several projects, the first two involving some re-making and re-covering. not thrilling, but at least useful.

new stroller seat. the other was hideous but i held out on making a replacement until i had a legitimate reason. when it ripped apart i finally had it. keeping the plastic belt snaps from the other stroller seat, using it as a pattern for the new and using some fabric and ribbon on hand, it was done. i may have to do some major reinforcing; the girls love to sit in it and push each other around (dolls are rarely allowed in). . . i'm pretty sure i've already heard stitches popping.

ironing board cover. why haven't i done this sooner? before the burn and water marks our last cover was fine- just natural canvas- but we have had some terrible covers in the past. always in the worst shades of baby blue. no more. i used the old cover as a template, finished the edges with some double fold bias tape and fed the re-used string (but you could use elastic too) through, put on board, tightened and secured with the holder/clamp. done.

ha! this might be the most boring project report of all time. but it makes me feel like i've been slightly productive, even though i really haven't.

the real excitement begins tomorrow; we've got eve's very first fashion show! i can't wait. she'll be walking in the parson's school of design junior fashion show. the theme (at least for the children's wear class) is "street wear, hong kong 1995" and the outfit that esther (design student) made for her is so so fantastic. i imagine eve will end up covering her eyes (her shy/ i'm overwhelmed reaction) for at least a little bit of the walk but for now is insisting "i'm going to be so brave of the fashion show." on the very same stage used in project runway, we'll see how she handles the big time.

++ and there's some excitement over at brooklyn bean. head over there and get in the mix to win one of alysha's handmade goods. i consider this a real act of selflessness (i really like winning) so take advantage, blog or no.

prep work

i had big plans with the remaining easter egg dye- especially the cabbage dye. after carefully storing it on my counter, i started my brainchild of a project, opened the bottles and found that the stuff had totally fermented. cabbage wine. very chic. so that went out, the RIT came in, and i began my very first foray into dyeing fabric at home. because i feel tie dye deprived (only having done it twice in my life- when i was "teaching" groups of teenage campers to do it) i couldn't resist the urge to throw some rubberbands in the mix. here's the end result:

the girls love to spin in it. (i couldn't resist the bum shot). having totally thrashed almost every other twirly skirt, they are more than happy to have a replacement and think a yellow one needs to be made soon.

and since i am really good at putting aside all the things reality tells me i should do and instead rely on the sketchy logic of my brain, i've been busy making more clothes "so eve has something to wear once school starts". . . which is at least five months away, if we can get her into a program. . .

"school" clothes:

jacket. (yes that's ruthie wearing it, except for pants they are at the point of interchanging clothes- which is so fantastic).

shirt and little pinafore. i feel like i should call her "heidi" when she has this on.

the jacket and jumper are my own little patterns and the shirt is (again) from a vintage night gown pattern i have, but a close equivalent is simplicity 4206, just add some length to the sleeves and the shirt body. really, there's hardly an easier piece of clothing to sew than that shirt. if you haven't tried it, do.

in the meantime i'll be using more brilliant logic to justify random sewing projects that i can't get out of my head. is it springtime? is it pre-baby nesting instinct? maybe. whatever it is, it's fun.

with cardigans for now

sewing a bunch of maternity wear for myself is not appealing (i'm pretty sure i'll end up looking like a giant yellow egg in my current project) and despite the twenty+ sketches i've got floating around i'm also very sure sewing clothes in my regular size will send me into a deep depression. so, instead i'm using my recent wave of energy to make more clothes for the girls. and by making little summer numbers for them i'm hoping to usher in a little bit of warmth around here. until then, cardigans over and shirts under.

i found this fabric under a pile of old glass pitchers in salt lake city when chip and i were newly married and made a weekly habit of checking out local garage sales in his grandpa's pick-up truck, and i have been carrying it from place to place for the past seven years. i think it was originally created to be a tablecloth, but i'm not much of a tablecloth person.

eve's halter dress is a bit va-va-voom, which is really funny to me. and ruthie's is a little more classic-little-girl-dress made all the better by that big belly of hers. i know she'll grow out of it at some point, but we LOVE that belly. and the girls seem to like the dresses enough to wear for pictures, but immediately after they strip, put their princess "pretties" on and get back to the work of pretending. eve takes great pleasure in the fact that my foot never fits the glass slipper while hers always does. . .

booties for a baby

baby shoes are probably the most adorable things of all time. i loved making them for a friend's anticipated (and now brand new!) baby girl this past weekend. the tedium of small handwork usually drives me crazy, but not with these; the entire time making them i just couldn't stop smiling and wishing i had my very own baby girls back so i could outfit their little feet in one of my favorite fabrics- railroad engineer's denim. add some polka dot lining, pewter buttons, bright orange velcro and i'm a really happy little cobbler.

easter dresses

inspiration struck late saturday night and the girls were outfitted in their easter best by the time church rolled around sunday morning. i didn't give myself time for the little easter coats as i had secretly hoped to make (oh the plans i make in my head with no time to actually execute them) but i'm hoping the next time around things will be different. because maybe at that point i'll miraculously become a different person who has the ability to manage her time and children effectively. . .

i was going for a little bit of sophistication and maybe a hint of "grandma in her glory days" to come through in the dresses and i think i got it. now these two are ready to go hang out with the italian ladies in brooklyn's carroll gardens, reminisce about the old neighborhood, hit the bakery for some pane dolce and then maybe make their way to marco polo ristorante for a nice lunch.

a bunch of fairies

the first official friend birthday party for eve. a big time fairy party. despite the lack of sleep the night before and the few things that i just didn't have enough time or hands to finish, it was great. we stuck to inviting four of eve's closest little girl friends- out of ease and apartment size- and i'm so glad we did; with parents and a couple little siblings, our place was packed.

forgive the photography, with both chip and i engaged in the partying, and the photographer (chip) feeling a bit under the weather, several shots that i would have loved to share just don't exist. so, some we'll do retroactively and others, you'll just have to read about.

we'll go chronologically.

invitations by chip. complete with a little cartoon of fairy eve.

decorations. i love the lens on my camera. except when i want to get a room shot; then i get frustrated at it's limitations. working with what we've got, here are some glimpses of what the place looked like. i made the pom poms using this martha stewart instructional. chip suspended the balloons (can you tell that the balloons with lace ribbons aren't floating on the ceiling, but mid-air? they are.) and together the effect was kind of magical. i almost want to keep the pom poms up. so fun and kind of strange just floating there.

girls enter. immediately (or as soon as i can get eve to stop repeating "it's my birthday!") they are given their very own magic fairy wand. painted and glittered wooden dowel and bead. ribbon hot glued to dowel, dowel slid (from bottom of dowel up) over the ribboned dowel and secured with some more hot glue. with some great classical dancing music playing, the girls danced and waved their ribbons around. flight of the bumblebees was the favorite song by far and at the end the girls ended up with all their ribbons tangled together in a giant knot and giggling like crazy.

snack time.

fairy skirts are handed out. eve freaks out because she wants one with a yellow ribbon because yellow matches her hair. plus, i made her take a green-ribboned wand so she was already a little miffed. negotiations took place and all were happily outfitted. watching little girls dress up is so fun. ruth has no time for the fairy skirt i made for her- she has commandeered eve's birthday gift from chip's parents- a fairy princess dress.

treasure hunt- hunting for the final thing needed to transform all the girls into fairies. put together and led by the fairy treasure master chip. with great clues like "without ribbons you're a fairy slouch. but don't worry; look on the couch!" the girls had a great time running from spot to spot and collecting all the items needed to make their very own fairy crowns.

crown making. finally putting to use the massive amount of beads i randomly bought at costco several years ago. and, i love pipe cleaner and ribbon.

lunch. lemonade with fresh strawberries, yogurt covered pretzels and raisins, popcorn, cubed mozzarella and cheddar, grapes (two colors as specifically requested by birthday fairy), strawberries, blueberries and apples served with three different dips: cream cheese mixed with marshmallow fluff, lime curd, and cream cheese mixed with brown sugar and almond flavoring. not surprisingly, all the girls wanted the marshmallow fluff dip on their plates- i had colored it a light pink which was apparently more appealing than the very pale green of the other two choices. peanut butter and jelly for the fairies and turkey tea sandwiches (raisin walnut bread, cream cheese mixed with scallions, turkey and fresh basil leaves-- amazing and again courtesy of barefoot contessa) for the adults.

cake/cupcakes. eve was not willing to accept just having cupcakes, so in addition to the coconut mini cupcakes i made a little 6" cake to stick the candles on. it seems there's some sort of adjustment that should be made when using cupcake batter for a full cake (more oil?) but i don't know it so the cake was hard to frost- so crumbly on the sides- but still delicious. as all the girls pointed out, there were a lot more than four candles on the cake, but knowing eve's fear of fire i was sure she'd be requiring the help of her friends to blow them out so i loaded it up. eve wouldn't go closer than 10" to the cake.

present opening. her little friends were sweet and generous and eve was appreciative. we've already put all the gifts to use several times over.

fairy jumps. i don't know who started this, but the girls were going nuts and we're okay with jumping on the couch as long as it is orderly and shoeless. plus it was a fairy party- they had to get some flying in somehow.

take home goods. all little fairies left with their magic ribbon wand, fairy tutus, crown and a few of these lollipops i made on friday. blueberry and green apple. i have a suspicion that i put too much citric acid in the green apple, so their flavor might be more accurately described as "grossly sour, with a hint of apple," but i'm going to call this first venture into candy making a success anyway, because i know for sure that the blueberry is yummy.

and i think i'll call our very official and very first friends birthday a success. especially since chip, after sleeping for several hours post-party, did all the dishes.

eve's favorite part? "finding lots of things and playing with her friends, her fairy friends."

party girls

two parties this past weekend and one coming up for none other than my little eve who is going to be FOUR. amazing and fun and a little bit sad all rolled into one.

past weekend review:

the girls' little cousin had a pizza party that was full of so much fun kid energy it was almost overwhelming. eve really wanted to give the birthday boy a chicken. no explanation. a rubber chicken is fairly entertaining on its own (why?) but when you squeeze this beauty an egg-like sak pops out of it. hysterical. especially if you are in the two to six years-old range. fighting over this chicken led to ruthie falling down an entire flight of metal stairs, slamming into a cement wall and face-skidding onto a cement floor. turning the corner (as i was chasing and trying to get her to stop running) to see her falling backward down the stairs and then witness the awful awful tumble was the most horrifying moment of motherhood to date. her first words, through the screaming/crying were; "i want the chicken." she cried for about 30 seconds, relaxed in my lap for about five minutes and then was back to partying. i didn't recover so quickly.

saturday brought with it a baby shower and the last minute making of this little shirt to go with a sweet little pair of eliza gran pants. i should really give myself more time to make gifts. those french seams take more time than they should. the fabric has been one of my untouched favorites for nearly two years. in the continued effort to avoid the fate of being an crippled old woman with hundreds of yards of fabric that have been untouched for fifty years, i went for it and am happy i did. there is always more fabric to buy and love.

and now we've got eve's party in the works. fairy princess party. invitations out (thank you chip), six little fairy skirts are almost complete, tissue pom poms done, treasure hunt forming in my head and fairy crown and wand supplies gathered. naturally a full, too-detailed report will be brought to you once all the fun is had. for now i'm going to try to enjoy the last few moments i have with three-year-old eve. and then as i fall asleep i'll let myself wallow in the happy misery of a mother who's little baby is growing far too big far too quickly.

one yard down

fulfilling the vow to use one-third of my current fabric stash before buying anything new is, i think, a vow i won't be able to keep once the warmth of spring starts to roll in. . . there are too many beautiful and simple colors i want to have floating around on little (and gigantic) bellies when the sun starts to really shine. but in the mean time, i am doing my best to use what i have. so far, it's one yard down, 25 to go.

giant pink polka dot fabric; done. chartreuse scraps from one of last year's summer dresses; gone. linen from old dress; recycled. vintage ribbon i've been hoarding for nearly two years; halved. all wrapped up in these two little skirts that i had to bribe the girls to wear with chocolate chips and promises of "just a few minutes." maybe by sunday they'll decide that these skirts are better options than halloween 2006's little red riding hood dress and a raspberry jam smeared tutu.

as for what's next, i'm thinking tweed. might be perfect for these last few weeks of winter. which, miraculously, aren't as brutal as they usually are. for the first time in the six+ years of living here, february came and i wasn't physically and psychologically expecting california spring weather. in fact, i was still reveling in winter. but tomorrow is march, and i'm not sure if i've adjusted enough to not be completely done with cold two weeks from now. . . but the daffodil stems piercing their way up through the snow are encouraging. even if i'm wrapped up in down and wool, i'll soon have their bright floppy faces to walk by.

today

watching the rain melt yesterday's snow.

putting together valentines for school tomorrow.

playing house in the closeted hamper. sporadically shouting (at me), "hey! you! get out of our backyard!"

making plans for the next quilt. this one will take awhile.

relaxing on the pillows i finished up on monday, courtesy of some sukie tea towels bought for cheap over a year ago.

completing final stages of potty training.

baby quilt binge

an unfinished project that has been haunting me for nearly a year and a baby shower prompted last week's binge.

finally finished this quilt made of squares i took from my mom. except for the white and red polka dot, these are all fabrics from my childhood. i had it nearly completed 10 months ago but hated the way i quilted and bound it, so it got stuck in a corner. last week i picked out all the quilting, pulled off the binding and did it for the second and final time. we're all feeling much better about it now.

started making this quilt for a friend's baby girl. tying the quilt using a little hoop took an annoying amount of time i wasn't planning on. by the time i finished tying i was sick of it, so it was put to the side and finished a few days later. in case you can't see through the folded up quilt to know what the whole thing looks like; the front is a solid piece of the little girls fabric while the back is what you see (white, yellow, striped) plus another big piece of the yellow. the polka dot binding was the reject from the first quilt. i love not wasting.

after i lost interest in the girl quilt i moved on to this one. a one-night project is so satisfying (even if it is my old standby) and especially fast when it is in little little baby proportions. a picture of the tiny blanket (30x34") unfolded made it look like a placemat. but babies are small and the very pregnant mom was happy. the opposite side is nice unbleached muslin

and although our home doesn't really need another blanket of any size floating around, i'm looking forward to the next one. hopefully for upcoming boy, who is still very very nameless.