My Sewjo is Back: June Bug Dress and Chloe Cardigan + kid stuff

I'm sad that I already missed my scheduled Sunday blogging, but maybe all the pictures I post today will make up for it!


This last weekend I finally got the motivation to sew something. And it all went together really fast. Everything that normally slows me down or demotivates me happened easily: thinking of what to do, picking out fabric and pattern, printing, taping, cutting. Lately, just thinking of what to sew is enough to change my mind. But I always knew I was going to make a little cardigan out of this scrap of vintage double knit. I knew I had to make it before Amelia grew too big or it wouldn't work and that was enough to light the fire.

It was truly a fabric puzzle and I really doubted all the pieces would work. I didn't realize the scottie dogs were directional and that made it even tougher. But I was able to cut EVERYTHING except the undercollar and facing. I did have to cut the collar in 2 pieces instead of on the fold and the back pieces have scotties going sideways instead of up/down, but at least I did it. This is all I had left:

I used the Bubby And Me Creations Chloe Cardigan which is an awesome pattern. So easy and straightforward and fits perfectly. I had it done later that afternoon. The hardest part was deciding what color snaps to use (I skipped the buttons since I never have more than 2 matching buttons)

It's perfect. 

Then I decided she needed a cute dress to go with it. I made the free Junebug Dress from Craftiness is not Optional in size 2. I re-fashioned a thrifted anthropologie skirt of the buttery-softest corduroy in a not-quite navy.

 I wish I had read through the pattern tutorial first because I would have constructed the bodice differently (hello? enclosed sleeves?) so I'm annoyed at the lousy inside product. It's bulky in the underarms and too broad for her chest so there's gaping. But, I love the style and it looks so cute with her cardi. I think I'll make another one and see if I can bring in the chest a bit.

And-as soon as I sewed the last stitch, Wyatt came into my room and took the sewing machine foot off. Then it dropped to the floor and split in half. It was the last foot I had that fit the walking foot. Grrrrr.

Anyway, we did a little photo shoot today even though it was freezing and dark out there. She was a good sport. Now, I will overload you with photos.

This is her discovering that Peppa Pig is on the TV in my room. 

(side note: it's adorable when my kids use the words torch and rubbish bin thanks to Peppa Pig)

In other news:

Will and I went to the Mother-Son Movie night at the school.

 And the Pinewood Derby was a great success! Will came in second and was very happy about that. It was a fun night. I could relax more since Tyler wasn't there (he had to work). 

  Wyatt and Amelia playing with puzzles. Wyatt is obsessed with bulls. He thinks every cow is a bull. So I told him how only girl cows give milk and they have udders.

 He understood that and then I saw the wheels turning in his head and he says, "And the boy cows make the cheese sticks!" Ok, son. 

 He's so funny. 

And Janie Bae had to have her picture with the chickens. 

Last weeks goals:

-exercise everyday NO EXCUSES I walked all 5 days!

-meal plan and make 2 things for the freezer yes to meal plans and does lunch prep for the week count?

-bball Tuesday, Pinewood Derby Wednesday, Temple (me) Thursday, Mother-son movie Friday,  temple (youth) Saturday. Yes to all except my thursday trip was rescheduled for this week

-finish memorizing my piano song 

-practice singing.   I did work on these things but must keep going. 

This week my goals are to:

-Teach preschool T/Th

-Exercise and no eating after 8pm

-dinner planning, lunch planning

-sew something else (as soon as the new foot comes)

-Temple thursday

-piano/voice

-finish one of the books that I've got on my kindle

-start planning feb. sharing time

Reading Binge

I love to read (the sole reason I was an English major--I just wanted to read) but I don't do it very much.  Mostly because I am easily sucked in and obsessive therefore I neglect my more important duties.  But every now and then I go on a little reading binge.

One of my life goals is to read all the Newberry award winners.  I've made a sizable dent, but the years keep adding on. I've realized that they are the perfect thing to read at this point in my life.  I can finish one a day, usually all during nap time.  I don't feel like doing much else, yet I don't need to nap.
So here's what I've read lately:

 I love her illustrations. She did the ones for the early Betsy-Tacy books, so naturally I'm partial.  Great peak into the history of Florida.  I had no idea times were so tough for them.  This may look all cutsey and strawberry-shortcake like, but no ma'm, the stories are intense.  

I LOVED this one.  So much so I recommended it to my mom.  I don't know what she thinks though.  I thought the main character was endearing, I loved the history flashbacks and there was a nice message of unity without being over the top.  Fun twist ending.  

I had read some pretty bad reviews of this one, but I actually really liked it.  I thought it was exciting and kept me interested and I liked the ending as well.  I did have to look up a bunch of late middle ages words and some Catholic prayer information, but maybe that's just me and I like looking things up.  

Funny, touching, sad.  

Eh.  

Wasn't in love with this one.  There apparently is a whole series, but I wasn't compelled to keep on reading.

Totally freaky.  Can't say I liked it.  

I thought this book was really cute.  Loved the main character and her transformation.  And being a doula, it was a subject matter I found interesting (even though there's not really that much about midwifery).  I put 2 different covers on here because I thought the cover art on the one I read (right) was terrible.  I like this other one so much better.  Speaking of covers, there's a blog that does Newberry Cover re-designs.  They are fun to look at and some are SO much better than the real covers.  Maniac Magee?

sad.  hard.  touching.  happy ending.  

I did feel the need to visit Shorpy afterwards and study dust bowl pictures.  

A little harder for me to get into the writing style, but I liked the story and how the kids were all connected.  It made me laugh.  

Kind of your typical (modern) Newberry.  Coming of age.  Tragic.  Finding yourself.  

But I liked it.  And I cried.  For real.  

I've got a few more in my stack before I return to the library.  

Did you like these books too?  

What have you been reading?

Fun plus Not Fun

My mom came into town last week to celebrate my birthday by taking me and my girls to see the Broadway production of Mary Poppins.  Any girls night out is great, but I especially love live music/shows.  I kissed the boys goodbye and we headed downtown.  First we ate yummy burgers and monster-sized onion rings at Huey's (I am a sucker for a good greasy burger) then we walked over to the Orpheum and waited.  The weather was really warm.

Mary Poppins was great.  The sets are amazing, the orchestra was great.  I didn't love our seats--normally mezzanine is my favorite place, but in this theater, the upper balcony comes down so far you feel like you're in a cave.  It was quite claustrophobic.  Then I had a very tall dad right in front so I had to lean to the right the entire first half (thankfully he switched seats with his daughter for the second.  Kudos to a dad for taking his daughter to a musical though).  I wasn't in love with MP'S voice, I really liked Mrs. Banks and the bird woman.  The story is quite different from the Disney movie we are all used to and none of the new songs are memorable.  Still, it was a great night.

Until... I use my phone to light up the program and see a text message saying:

Don't Panic, everything is going to be OK but I need you to meet me at the ER when it's over.  

Thanks.  Thanks a lot.  Yeah right don't panic.  I sat for the next 20 minutes until intermission with adrenaline coursing through and my mind racing through the worst possible situations I can think of.  I called as soon as   I could and Ty was at the ER with my baby. I could hear his little babbling voice and he seemed happy, so I relaxed a little.  They had already been there 2 hours so obviously hospital didn't think it was serious emergency.

The story is:  Ty, Will and Wyb were in Will's room hanging this hook from the ceiling.  Ty had a big heavy drill with a brand new drill bit in it.  Will, ever curious, took the drill from the shelf and set it back down on a not-so-stable box which fell off and landed on Wyb, puncturing him in the face.  Just under his eye.  Just.  It was really purely an accident.

The 2nd half of the show was much shorter, so we stayed to the end but quickly left.  Luckily the theater was merely blocks from the Children's Hospital so my mom dropped me off, took the girls home and relieved the couple from the ward watching Will.  A big thank you to my mom and the Palmers.  I walked into the waiting area and immediately saw my cute little boy in a blood-soaked onesie.  That is a really hard sight to see.  Blood dried all over his face.  Big swollen eye.  And a smile for mama.  I burst into tears.

After a bit more time in the waiting room we were taken back for care.  Poor Wyb was so tired at this point.  They decided 6 stitches were needed plus a tetanus shot and DTaP since he has no vaccines.  I was seriously bummed about that.  Calling suture specialist--wait.  Numbing medicine for eye--wait.  Clean him up--wait.  Gather supplies--wait.  More medicine to help him relax--wait.  See if I can get him back to sleep--no, wait.  Strap him to the board--get to work.  The cut is so close to his eye that it was tricky putting the stitches in.   Wyatt did great trying to be calm.  He was not happy, but I was there trying to soothe him.  My voice seemed to relax him a little.  When it was all done we had to wait even longer because one of the shots had to come from another hospital.

All in all the staff was really great and we were thrilled to finally leave.  Really I feel so blessed.  The cut follows the natural curve under the eye and I really think the scar won't be too noticeable.  I feel so extremely blessed that his eyesight was preserved.  That would be a lot harder to take.

He is looking so much better now.  The swelling and black eye are going down, the skin is coming together really well.  He gets looked at tomorrow and stitches out so hopefully things will continue to improve.
He has been so good about through all of this.  Such a good little guy.

Books For Christmas

We love getting books for Christmas!  

The kids all get their "something to read" and then my parents got us some good ones too.  

Wyb got the board book:

Will got this book because his old primary teacher used to read it to his class and he loved it.  It's cute.  

Maddie bought this book for Will with her own money (we stumbled upon a great sale of Usborne books at a yard sale).  Another good one for the fire-crazed boy.  

 This is what I picked for Elle.  I had heard good things about the calming nature of this book.  Elle really struggles with bedtime (every night) so I was willing to give it a try.  Somehow between scripture reading and family prayer and brushing teeth she loses it.  So we read this after she's all tucked in.  And it's everything people say.  It's short enough that I don't mind reading it every night, yet the pictures are beautiful and it brings a calming peaceful spirit.  

 This is a book for Elle from my parents.  Elle read this in class and loves it.  

 Maddie got another cooking studio because that girl cooks and cooks.  I was marveling just the other day at her cooking skills.  She made homemade pancakes completely on her own and she was talking about adding the dry to the wet ingredients.  I don't think I knew that when I was 11.  She just knows what to do!  And the pancakes were delish (which is slightly embarrassing because I tried making some earlier and they were a miserable floppy mess).

 Then I got this book for "Family Fun."  It was a new category of gifts this year.  Stuff I wanted to buy for all of us.  We also got a game and a ball.  Next year I will add a movie that we can all watch on Christmas day.  

This book is awesome.  

And Nana got this one for Maddie.  Also awesome.  

I got these books, which I am desperately trying to find time to try out.  There are really fun patterns and ideas in all of them.  I thought I might make each project in order and then blog about it.  Just for fun.  When I find the time.  

All images courtesy of google.  

Let's read!

Library Additions

Here are some of the books I picked up yesterday.  Some were classics I had been meaning to add to our collection (Sylvester, Gruffalo (ok, new classic), Dancing Shoes series), some picture books I just thought were cute (Crossing and Big Sister Little Sister--I was hoping this book would inspire some love between the girls.  It has the sweetest illustrations) some are books I thought Maddie would like and I'm saving for Christmas, even if she sees this and spoils the surprise (campfire activities, nature book, castle book) some are ones I've been wanting to read (Calpurnia Tate, Incorrigible Children) and some are just for fun (composer fandex, puzzles books--I bought 12 different kind and they are going in the church bag...)

Not shown are some Magic Treehouse books (Elle reads about 1/day) and an American Girls map of Kirsten's land.

I love books.  I love collecting books.  I love reading books.  I love reading allowed to the kids.  Currently we are reading the Little House series (again) after our nightly scripture reading.

 I love ending our day with us gathered in the living room and taking turns reading, listening, snuggling, calming down, quiet.  It's a nice way to end a day.

Household Happenings

• I finally got these pictures hung up.  I got them all framed, but then left them half propped against the mantle.  I intended them to go upstairs but loved looking at them there.  But since I redid the mantle, they are now in place upstairs where there was previously nothing on the walls and it's so nice!  I love my 4 kids, or 3 plus the pet baby.  Although Wy-B is seeming more like a baby-baby now.  The 2 pics of the girls were done at school, and I did the boys' pics.  It's time for a new one for Wyatt, I'd say.  
• I have a cold.  I haven't had a cold in YEARS and it really stinks! Everything hurts, including the insides of my eyeballs.  I guess this is what happens when kids go back to school.  
• I'm doing this maker's fair, like I said.  I sure hope I have something to sell (or trade).  I've been trying to get some sewing done, but it's not going very fast.  
• We were driving down the road today "in town" (I was getting Elle's James Avery charm bracelet.  Buy 2 charms get a free bracelet!) when Will sees a white van and says it must be dad.  I said no, it's not the right van etc etc when I look WAY over the lanes and see another white work van.  So I get closer and sure enough, it's Tyler!  Will thought it was the best thing in the world.  I thought it was pretty  amazing considering how big Memphis is...
• Maddie's feet just won't quit.  I am stuck thinking her feet are still in kid's sizes.  Um no.  She wears a women's 6.5-7.  Before I know it she's going to be borrowing my stuff...
• Movie recommendation:  Assassin in Love.  With Damian Lewis (he's such a good actor!)  The movie was hilarious in a British-napoleon dynamite kind of way and cute too.  After watching that we then watched Shakespeare Retold--Much Ado About Nothing where  Damian plays a smarmy newscaster.  Hard to believe that same person is Soames in the Forsyte Saga.

Good News!

The Forsyte Saga is streaming on Netflix!!!!!!

It's one of my favorite period mini-series.

Watch it and tell me if you like it too!

date night movie review

Have you seen Stranger than Fiction? Tyler and I watched it again last night. Neither of us could remember the ending from the first time we watched it, but we both remembered liking it.

And we liked it just as much, or maybe even more the 2nd time.

I love Will Ferrell and he's good as the straight man. The movie is original and quirky and still funny and sweet and even romantic. It's got it all.

So if you haven't seen it, go watch it. And if you have seen it, leave a comment!