2 yards down, 9998 to go (give or take)

These got really wrinkled in the wash and I refuse to iron kids clothes, soooo
But, M has new pants. I modified #29 from the 3/06 issue of Ottobre. I lengthened the shorts and left off all hardware. I also topstitched the pockets before sewing them on. He really likes pull on pants, so I thought this would be a nice compromise between pull on and a little nicer looking. I only had this issue at this point. 1/06 just arrived in the mail yesterday, so I'm really excited to have lots of great boy clothes to sew. And sew and sew and sew. Now if I can just limit myself to stash fabric for awhile that would help immensely.

Front view-plain-plain

Back view. He really likes these pockets that are set in the yoke. They are really easy to sew too. No pinning and checking to make sure all is even on both sides. Just sew and go. I let M pick out the topstitch thread too. Of course he picked some random cheap thread that I will now throw the rest of away. Yes, cheap thread does make a difference! Next time I will only offer him choices from thread that is nice to sew with.

No pictures this time. So be sad and then get on with it ;)

I was just reading another mom's thoughts on lists. I love/hate lists. I get lists going in my head and have to keep straight 8 million thoughts in my little brain that is also trying to just keep up with what my 8 year old is listening to and my 2 year old is jumping off of. It is just too much.
So I make lists.
Nothing fancy or Franklin Covey approved. I collect envelopes from junk mail and the backs of handouts from church and Village. I stack them on the counter next to the phone and at the table where I sit. If I am really organized I grab a wad of poster putty and stick it to a kitchen cabinet. That would be reserved for critical reminders like appointments and urgent grocery lists. Then I lose them all. Especially if it is a note to call someone and has their phone # on it.
I have even made daily to-do lists with M where I draw a picture next to each thing that needs to be done. He loves those and will even consent to do a few of the things on the list if the drawings are especially noteworthy.
If I make a list, one of two things usually happens. 1)I get to the end of the day and I have crossed nothing off the list and feel like the day was a total bomb. 2)I get to the end of the day and see that I have crossed lots off the list and feel fabulous.
I learned even before I was a mom from a wise mother who said to put mundane things on the list. She had saved an old list from when she had young children. It said things like, "brush Ann's hair," and "make lunch." So when I make a list I usually put things on it that most sane people would laugh at. A recent list at the table looked something like this:

• Have breakfast
• Get dressed and brush teeth-kids too
• Unload dishwasher
• Vacuum and mop downstairs
• Go to library
• Have lunch
• 5 minute dash in living room if vacuuming doesn't make it that far
• Wash diapers
• Dry diapers
• Put away diapers
• Load and run dw
• Make dinner

Depressingly enough, I feel like I've had a pretty good day if I get all this done. Even more depressing is that I often don't get this much done. Although I have days where I get lots more than this done. Notice I broke up the steps of washing the diapers. That way if they only make it to the washing machine I still get to cross something off.
It all leaves me wondering why I get so little done. Why? I'm not lazing around watching soaps. I spend time on the computer, but not hours. I read to the kids, go outside and make sure they don't beat on each other now and then. I sew too much. Oh wait, I typed that wrong--I don't sew enough! It just seems that by the time I make breakfast and clean up, get everyone dressed and ready to go and then have lunch and clean up it is time to play outside for awhile, then dinner time and my day is over. And heck, we get up at 7ish!
Then dh wonders why the house is a mess. I honestly don't know. Probably cuz we have too much shtuff. So everyone keep on me to have a yard sale this summer so I can clean out and have less stuff to make trails across the living room OK? OK!

Tie Dye Party

Dad does the fixer dip while M waits to put his shirt in.

Neighbor J holds up his daughter's shirt. Looks a bit skeptical I think :) All turned out well in the end and everyone likes their shirts.

The finished items. They really did turn out well. I did a shirt, M and G each did 2 and they also did an apron apiece. We got all the supplies from Dharma Trading Co. We've used their stuff before and really like them. I'd like to try silk painting someday. They also have stuff to do sunpainting on fabric. I think the kids would get a kick out of that too.

All in all it was a good weekend. We had the tie dye party, got a bunch of digging the garden done, had a good friend over to share a good dinner on Saturday and the boys and I made it to the zoo while C worked on some paperwork. Now we face a new week. I have a dress to fix for said dear friend by friday. Lots of Village Home stuff and the rest of life.

We are having a bit a Narnian week. We got a Narnia cookbook from the library. I made turkish delight--something M has been asking for forever. It's really quite good. A little sweet for my taste. I may try to find a recipe that uses syrup so I can use rice syrup or agave maybe. Next, M wants to plan a dinner so we can have a good Narnian supper. And I promised him a Narnia birthday party quite some time ago which never happened. Maybe we'll have a just because summer party. I could even make it a bit service-y and we could request people bring donations to the local shelter or something. Hmmm. I have a feeling this summer is going to go by in a flash!

L's new dress

I happen to have the cutest niece anyone has ever had. I know this because I am her aunt, she has another aunt who agrees with me, AND her grandparents agree. That many people can't be wrong, right?
So, with all my boy sewing, I had been looking through my fabric quite a bit. Naturally I had not been able to use this adorable floral in the boys shorts, but it was calling to me. There are lots of darling little girl patterns in the Ottobre magazine. So L gets this one. I had to buy ric-rac and buttons (I know Mom, I should have called you and asked for ric-rac, but I forgot until I had already bought it) but the fabric was already owned. Yeah! I'm making progress. Of course, I did then go and buy fabric for pants and shorts. But I don't have much bottom weight fabric.
Anyway, L will get a new dress from Aunt S soon and look cute, as usuall.

For the sewers out there, this is from Ottobre 3/2006. It is a combination of 2 of the dresses in size 86. I used the plain sleeves and the rounded collar. The pinafore has ribbon and buttons for the fasteners. And since I ran out of the floral, the inside of the front top part is green dress fabric. It was tight as I have no scraps left. But it was a great way to use up scraps.

Back view

Just the dress.

Happy belated Easter

Grandma puts chocolate in Easter eggs. How cool is that? Grandma R was in town for a couple of weeks taking care of Aunt J. It was fun to get to spend more time with her. And they both came over for dinner. So much fun to share a good meal with people you love.

And then there was Easter afternoon. Where we tried to see how wet we could get. The street in front of our house is not graded very well in one spot. Right in front of our neighbor's driveway the water collects up to 6" or so. Then it eventually runs down to the grate in front of our driveway. The boys have a blast running through all the water. They also "help" it by running the lenth of street between the puddle and the grate, pushing the water towards the grate. They use shovels, feet, sticks, etc.. Sometimes they build dams with the neighbor kids. That's one I probably need a picture of too.

It's blurry, but I needed a picture to remind myself in my later years just how they got that much water inside the boots. After this, they proceeded into the garden for some good ol' mud time. When G finally came inside, his boots were completely full of water and so was every stitch of clothing. For not being absorbant, polar fleece pants can sure hold a heck of a lot of mud and water!

Spring is Here!

The magnolia grove, upper part. I forgot to take pictures lower down where there were more blooms. Oh well.

Yesterday, C had a day off work. So we thought about doing yard work. But then it turned into such an awesome day we decided to play instead. We headed up to Hoyt Arboretum for a hike amongst the trees. We were afraid we had missed the blooms, but we just caught them. The blossoms were starting to fall from the magnolias. The show was gorgeous nonetheless. And it was a clear enough day for a view of Mt. St. Helens.
We hadn't been on many hikes last year because G was too big to carry, and too little to do much hiking. This year should be great for hiking with him. He had fun yesterday with his big boy backpack.

One of Oregononian's favorite flowers, the Trillium. Three petals, three leaves. And so pretty.

The big kid on the move. I tried to get him to say "hi" but he would just poke his hand back and finger wave at me. I guess he was just too busy. Of course, it wasn't too long before he didn't actually want to carry the pack anymore. It regained it's coolness factor when he discovered it was packed with a juice box, cup of fruit and his own bag of potato chips. That kid will do just about anything for potato chips. He's his momma's boy!

The "Clubhouse Tree"
This tree is actually 2 Climbing Oaks that make a cool clubhouse formation. M decided it would be just the tree to plant in our backyard. Then we talked about how we would have no backyard left if we did that. Oh, well.

"Let me see.... After I finish the pickles in this jar, there's maybe 15 pickles in this jar. That should fill up another half hour."

It's really spring! We have seedlings started. M is helping keep a notebook so we can learn about seeds, plants and how they grow. He's already learned that the smaller seeds sprouted first. And that seedlings are nearly white when they emerge, but turn green within a matter of hours so they can start making food. All that and mom will have fresh kale in just a couple of months. Whoo Hooo!

Finished outfits!

So that one innocent use-the-stash-shirt sorta snowballed. Now we have two outfits. Well, I did use fabric almost exclusively out my stash. I had to buy the yellow for G's pants as I don't normally have a lot of yellow. That should be changing really since orange and yellow are his 2 fave colors. M likes his sailor look. He also likes the fact he can go from pants to shorts in just a minute without having the extra leg pieces to find something to do with like the zip-off kind. All the patterns are from Ottobre 3-2006. I really want to buy more issues, but have told myself I need to sew enough from this one to justify the $20 I spent on it. Although if I was buying Burda or something, it would cost me that much for just 2 patterns. I'll sew up some more pants for the kids and a baby gift, and maybe a dress for my niece, and call it good.