Another stripe for her sleeve

She just passed level 5 in ice skating. She can do all sorts of fancy stuff.

One-Woman-Sweatshop - literally

I work in the attic. It's nice up there. I can spread all my crap out and no one helps themselves to anything. It's what I need to keep my sanity. A place of my own.....because nothing is mine anymore. The only downfall is that it's hot up there. Really hot. Yet, I get stuff done. Here are the cooking aprons that I finished this week. Nina made me pay her (!!!!) to model them, but she works for cheap - a McDonald's shake. I have one more to make, but I swear like a sailor with the oven mitts. There's so small, and I end up running the stitches over the wrong part.

First day of pool season

Water temperate 59 degrees. That's right. Not a typo. Nina wouldn't believe us that the water was too cold to swim. Fine. See for yourself.

side note: I SWEAR this is a genetic thing that she got from Blake. Both of them steadfastly refuse to believe anything that is told to them. "Gee, it's a nice sunny day out"......is usually followed by one of them saying (stubbornly) "Let ME see". Thus confirming what has already been said. Like I have nothing better to do than to make shit up.

Anyway.....we walked down to the pool, still telling her that the water was too cold, and her not believing us. We told her to jump in. She did. Tears and blue lips arrived at the same time, which is to say, immediately. Cruel? Yes, but she was ready to leave after that.

Asher, on the other hand, confirmed my fear that he's not afraid of the water. There's no way that I'll be able to take both of them by myself this summer. He yelled for Blake to bring him in, pulling at the death grip I had on his hand, until Blake bucked it up and took him.

Ah, pool season.

School's out!!!

Friday was the last day of Kindergarten at the Institute of the Arts. See how excited they are? Sorry - no picture of the crying parents.

Nina and her cronies. Notice she's the only girl in the group. It's been that way all year. Her teacher said to me at the end of the day, "Don't let the girly disguise fool you. She's really one of the boys". Great. She fits right in.

One last attempt at getting a "cute" class picture of the girls. Hmmm.....hear no evil??? I can only hope.

It takes an extra-large puzzle box

to fit an extra-large cat.......

Sullivan the "kitten" at 12 years old.

Shameless Self Promotion

A photographer on etsy contacted me a few weeks ago about doing a trade. She wanted one of my dresses in exchange for photography. It seemed like a good fit to me because I've been trying to get Nina out of the web pictures.....crazy people out there, you know. The picture above is modeled by the free-labor that lives with me.

I get a lot of requests for trades, and I've been saying, "no" quite a lot lately, but this one seemed okay to me. Here's what she came up with....

http://jennybphotos.com/

go into - "enter site" and then "view slideshow".

I'm hoping that she'll have the cd back to me in time to get stuff printed for the June show.

I can't decide which one I like best. I like the faded, cross-hatched look, and I really like the back view of the dress.

Blueberry Soup

It must be summer because I've started making Blueberry Soup. It's my fav. Here it is in the blender (tip: let the soup cool TOTALLY before blending....it's really hard to clean blueberry and honey off cream colored cabinets. Trust me.), and on my plate.

Blueberry Soup:

serves 4

2 pints blueberries

1 2/3 cups water

1/2 cup honey (I use less than this)

1 cup yogurt (plain or vanilla)

Pinch on ground cinnamon

In a medium saucepan, combine the berries, water, and honey, and hear to a gentle simmer. Cook until the fruit breaks down and softens, about 20 minutes. Puree the fruit mixture in a food processor or blender. Transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the yogurt. Season with cinnamon. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 3 hours.

** recipe from Vegetarian Times - Complete Cookbook

"I'm keepin' this one"

That's what Nina said when I asked her to wear the pony dress, so I could photograph it. She's usually a pretty good model, and always says that she likes the dress, but this is the first one she's absolutely, positively refused to take off after. She even wore her pink cowgirl boots with it. I guess I'll have to make another one for the show in June. I'll bring her along and have Blake prance her up and down the show, to entice future buyers. ....and could Asher smile any bigger?? Every time he sees a camera, he stops dead in his tracks, flashes a BIG toothy grin (all 8 teeth), and says, "cheese".
They are a couple of cute kids, even if I do say so myself.

She's your allergy kid.

That's what the pediatric allergist said last week. About Nina. After weighing the pros and cons of getting her allergy tested, we finally decided that, in the long run, it would be best for Nina. And the only con that we can up with was that it was going to hurt and itch for a few minutes. We went on Thursday, and she was a trooper. It's a good thing that she couldn't see her back after the hives started because she would have totally freaked out!! All in all, she's allergic to a ton of stuff that we didn't even know....mainly, pollinating trees, grasses, weeds, mold, dog, cat, oranges, soy and peanuts. Ish. We don't have to get rid on the animals, but they're no longer allowed in her room, and the cats are pissed. As for the foods, well, she lives on peanut butter, so there is no need to eliminate it from her diet. We just have to watch and see if it becomes worse. And the funny thing is that she's never liked oranges because she always said that they were "spicy". I had no idea that what she was actually describing was an allergic reaction to them. It's a good thing that I never forced her to eat them. Anyway - long story sort-of short, she will start allergy shots when she's 6 or 7, but for now, we changed up her medication. It is helping a lot more than the arsenal of drugs the regular pediatrician put her on. Here's a picture of her during the height of maple tree bloom......poor kid.

Mother's Day

still crying......

My gift was awesome

Pretty necklace from:

http://www.moodswingstudio.com/

It's just what I wanted.

Toddler

My boy.

Lately, my boy is exhausting. I think that is under the definition of "toddler" in the dictionary, at least the parent dictionary.

"He was such a sweet, happy baby. What happened"??????

Well, he's walking, frustrated trying to talk, doesn't want to be held....in a very simple sense - he's growing up.

And, I swear, if one more person says that to me today, I'm going to scream....because honestly, I feel like doing that most days by bedtime anyway, so go ahead, push me a little harder.

It's hard most days, but lately, it's harder than most. Big breath. "This too shall pass".....and then he'll be driving.

Hippie Fashion

I found this beautiful set while exploring on etsy the other day:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11548656

...but I didn't want to pay that much because I'm cheap like that with sewing.

I had never done shirring, but it looked easy enough, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I found a tutorial on one of the blogs I read:

http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/

I also made a quick trip to Joanns for the elastic thread and a bias tape maker.

Then....I made the pattern - for all it was worth.



It took me about 4 hours to make the top, partly because the shirring took some fiddling. I'm super happy with it. I made the pants from a pattern because I can never get the rise correct on my own. She's happy with it, and I like it also. She wore it for the Mother's Day program at school today....because they don't hate me enough already.

Here's the run-down on the materials:

• Jeans from an old pair of mine that are, of course, too small - and too tapered in the leg
• yellow floral fabric - curtain I got at Goodwill for $.50 (washed first)
• white eyelet fabric leftover from a project
• pink dots (bias tape also in this) 1/4 yard from Joanns
• Red tie fabric - remnant I had
• Rick rack - from my stash
• Flower - from my scrapbooking supplies

Total cost to make (including bias tape maker & thread): $ 7.50

Everyone needs a Supervisor

The new swing set finally arrived today. Two Mennonite "boys" (they were about 17 years old) set the thing up in a half hour, mostly in the pouring rain. Nina was on hand, with her tuna sandwich and carrots, to supervise. With every part that went up, she got up and did a happy dance, much to the amusement of both me and the "boys".

In the afternoon

Working very hard on her letter "S" homework. I think sticking her tongue out helps.


Two things to note in this picture: (1) Asher can open the back door now, so it always has to be locked, and (2) the size of the cone on the idiot dog. He opened a hot spot on his leg and was wearing a smaller cone, but he could wedge the cone under his doggie arm pit and still reach his leg. Now he's got a cone the size of an 80s satellite dish, and the leg is finally healing. Asher thinks that his new job is to let the dog in and out of the house about a million times a day. They're both happy with that arrangement, and to Asher, it's hillarious every single time.

Because it was the right thing to do...

My brother likes to send me human interest stories because (1) I like them and (2) it shows that sometimes people do good things. This was the latest one he sent me:

http://sports.espn.go.com/broadband/video/videopage?videoId=3380875&categoryId=2378529&n8pe6c=2

These young women must have some pretty proud parents. They did what was right, and fair, and good-hearted, and if they were difficult children, then this made it all worth it. They did something nice simply because it made someone else feel good. And they didn't do it to be posted on U-Tube, or to have an article written about them, or to receive a round of applause, they did it just because.

It makes me feel good that there are still young people out there like this. And it's sad that I cried when I watched it. I think because we're so used to being bombarded with the assholes of humanity, that a simple act of kindness touches us (and the music montage didn't hurt either). So, I'll say it again, their parents must be so, so proud.

Monday

A conversation:

R: Nina...I think Daddy feels guilty because I painted the porch.
N: What's guilty mean?
R: It's feeling really, really bad about something. Daddy feels this a lot.
B: But mostly I just feel glad because it's done...and I didn't have to do it.

Hmmmmm......

Here's the beautiful newly painted porch. We can't put anything back on it until later in the week, but it's done. Check one huge project off the summer to-do list.

Also, look what I found at the yard sales on Saturday. Scott, do you remember this??? It's a Fischer Price airport from the 70s. And I got it for only $.50!!!! Asher's cars fit in it perfectly. Nina said, "But it doesn't DO anything". Exactly. I think it's cool.

I made these for the Art on the Avenue show in June. They are hair bows attached to a card. I was struggling with a way to display them, and then remembered that I had all of these blank cards leftover from some Christmas project. I think it makes them all the more appealing because they can be given as a gift. I'm still struggling with the price. In order to make any sort of profit, I'd need to charge a minimum of $8, and Blake thinks it's too low, but then again, he's not the one buying birthday gifts and the sort (so what does he know?). I'd like to charge $10, but I'm a little nervous about it.....thoughts?????
Asher is walking full time now. He was still toddling a little this weekend, but as of today, he's been upright all over the place. That means it's time to take the overalls out because they won't bunch up around his neck while he's crawling. I love overalls. You can also see a little of his baby mullet. I just don't have the heart to cut his hair yet. It's not at all curly, but until it's really in his eyes, I don't want it cut.
Happy Monday!!