Summer Is Not Over Yet

Over the last couple days, I have found myself getting sucked back into my studio.  This is a good thing - especially since there were many moments over the summer where I believed I was ready to put eieio to bed.  I think, though, that that had more to do with the sweltering heat in my studio and close to zero time for work than a lack of desire.  For the first time this summer, I've had a babysitter come in for a couple hours just so that I could get some work done.  And I have gotten some work done.  Now all I want to do is more...

But there is still a little bit of summer vacation left.  And I don't want to waste that. Ella starts next Tuesday and Ollie starts the week after that and then there will be plenty of time.  I have a little mother/daughter time this morning and as much as I would love to take her fabric shopping, I know that that really isn't the best way to spend our time.  Some day it will be, but not today.

So, there is a brand new batch of Lunchbox Napkins in the shop.  And hopefully another Reversible Roundabout and some Trick or Treat bags coming soon.  And after September 12th things should get a lot more regular around here.

Today I have a lunch date and some hair accessory purchasing to do with my 2nd grader.  2nd grader.  That just blows my mind.  And a Kindergartener, which blows it even farther.  I'll wait until they are both settled in and I am sitting alone in my house to think about everything that comes next...

Happy First Day of School

For us, summer is not quite officially over (O doesn't start school until Monday) but it certainly feels that way.

We celebrated with a Back To School Feast last night.  The kids requested home made chicken pot pie, mashed sweet potatoes, and the vanilla cake from this cookbook.  It definitely tasted like Fall.

This morning, E headed off to a brand new school for first grade.  Hopefully ending a yearlong saga of worry and concern.  We live in a city.  (I think) a great city.  In a fabulous neighborhood.  Unfortunately it is a city with a reputation for really bad schools.  We believe (and know) that they are not all bad.  And that everything is relative.  And we really hoped that our neighborhood school would work.

When E came home from her first day of Kindergarten saying she never wanted to go back and that she 'hated that place' we were concerned.  She reported that the Kindergarteners had been yelled at at lunch.  We waited.  Then she came home a couple months later looking conflicted.  Finally, after some prying, she asked "How come it's okay for my teacher say "Shut Up" but not me?"  But she loved her teacher.  And she was not getting yelled at.  Then after the winter break, she started talking about being bored with her specials.  A kid who loves art and music.  But we had no other options and while she was struggling with the envrionment she was making some good, good friends and excelling in reading and writing.

Then late last Spring we found out that they had a seat for her for first grade at a local charter school.  A highly ranked charter school.  The only one in the country to sit on the grounds of an environmental education center.  And The Dad and I sat and breathed and acknowledged once again how amazingly lucky we are.

Then we spent the summer deprogramming.  When anyone would ask her where she went to school she would say: "I'm going to ___  Charter School.  Where they're not allowed to yell or say Shut Up or Boy or Girl."  As in 'Get out of my face, BOY' or 'Sit down in your seat, GIRL.'

She had her first day of first grade today.  For Art they went outside and picked a tree ('We each got our very own special spot') and drew it.  She had a fabulous day.  No one yelled.

While I am not breathing my sigh of relief quite yet, I am almost there.  And oh so grateful.

Counting Down

It's amazing how quickly we adapt.  O has had his cast on now for 5 weeks and I forget what it was like before.  We've gotten used to accommodating.  He's gotten used to lugging it around.  We've gotten used to the once-a-week bath and he's gotten used to only having a couple inches of water in the tub.

But last weekend our swim club opened for the summer.  And we all began to anticipate the cast coming off next week.  So we started counting down.  And then I realized that the countdown to the cast removal coincided with the countdown to the end of school (for O at least, E will go for a week longer) and the true countdown to summer.

There is so much I want to do this summer.  Not so much of the 'let's go here and do this' variety - more of the 'Here is what I want to do better' and 'here are the experiences I want the kids to have'.  I've been reading Simplicity Parenting over the last couple weeks and loving it (and how much it is just the right time in my life to be reading it), slowly incorporating some pieces into our lives (and so happy to have some things we do already reinforced!), and looking forward to a new rhythm to our days when school is out.  So with this countdown (6 days!) I feel like I am counting down to a true transition (or two) around here.  I'll post more here to let you know how it goes - and to keep myself accountable!

Thanks for checking in.

Moving Forward

To be honest, I've been feeling a little paralyzed around here lately.  I apologize for the choppy entries of late.  For me, feeling overwhelmed does very little to spur on productivity.  I just. kind of. stall. out.  And that's what's happened.

But, thing are starting to move.  For the first time in almost 7 years, I am getting up at 5:30 am and working out with my husband.  And actually really enjoying it.  The trade off is that I'm going to bed at 9:30 so I don't turn into mean, growly mama bear around 3pm.  After multiple (failed) tries to figure out how to fit a regular workout into my day (and consistently making my health and fitness one of my lowest priorities), I bit the bullet and went back to the beginning.

Before I had kids, The Dad and I had a very regular morning routine.  We woke up at 5:30, rolled out of bed and went to the Y, worked out, came home and showered, and headed to work.  Once E was born, that just wasn't an option and The Dad went without me.  Then when O came along, it got even harder to figure out where to fit exercise in.

I am happy to see it become part of my daily routine again.  We actually work out at home - on a great enclosed porch far enough away from the kids that we don't wake them up but close enough that we can hear them if they need us.

I didn't mean to ramble on about exercise and my new routine, but I do believe that the way out of a rut is to just do it - and in this case, it means just writing.  So, the next few posts might be random but they are my way of getting un-stuck.  So follow along if you'd like, and thanks for hanging in their with me.

By the way, the photo above (which has absolutely nothing to do with the post) is my new mannequin.  Frustrated with poor photos of my work, we've added her to the family to help out.  E dressed her this afternoon.  Earlier today she looked like this:

Cheers!

Spring is Coming

O stepped out the door on Monday and exclaimed "Look!  There is grass!".  And really, there it was again.  A small patch of grass amid the slowly disappearing mountains of snow.  And all of a sudden, it is a bit easier to find color around here.  Aaaahhh...

 

  

 

Teaching My Children to Sew

I was a little worried about the snow day off from school and how we were all going to occupy ourselves with The Dad away in California (where evidently it is beautiful and sunny and he is driving a convertible) - we three can drive each other a little mad when we sit around only with ourselves.

  

And then our 10am playdate cancelled and I asked the kids where they wanted to go.

"I want to sew!", E declared.  "You've been promising you'd give me a sewing lesson."

The reason I keep putting this "lesson" off is because of O.  And his attention span (or lack there of at times).  And the fear of leaving E to her own devices (with needle and scissors) while tending to him. 

But he wanted to join us, too.  And oh how I was surprised!

I got him started the way I did with E her first time:  A not-to-sharp 'chenille' needle, an embroidery hoop, and embroidery thread.  I had an old tea towel, from an embroidery class I took back in Minneapolis, that was just porous enough for him.  He loved it!  And was oh-so intent, making "a pillow for dad for valentine's day".

E, for the first time, free-cut pieces and sewed them together.  She made me a doll that is not quite finished but that I will try to catch a picture of tomorrow.  She used regular thread for the first time, and little tiny curved scissors that came in a basket of thread and notions from an estate sale.  I offered her sharper, easier scissors, but she preferred 'her own'.  And the thimble.  Because she had to have a thimble - and sometimes more than one at a time.

So this was a first for us, the kids sitting and sewing together.  A successful one.  So fun.

The Fabric Covered Head Board - Take Two

A little over a year ago, The Dad built E a bed.  He did it over a weekend while I was away with the kids and surprised ALL of us with a great fabric covered headboard.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any great pictures of it.  I did at least get this:

It's a little hidden behind the pillows and multitude of stuffed animals, but it is there.  Pink batiked and embroidered fabric, taken from my stash, over a layer of cotton quilt batting and a piece of plywood.

I was very impressed.

Fast forward a year or so.  We have inherited a set of nice maple bunk beds and are setting those up for E, passing on her low dad-made platform bed to O.

Now, O is not really a pink swirly little kind of guy (unless he's running around in E's leotard and tutu).  I pulled a couple pieces of fabric from my stash for him to choose from (strongly discouraging his preference for the yellow flannel with monkeys) and ended up with this:

 So fun and so easy.  We actually did this one right over the other layers.  All done with fabric and a staple gun.  I think it took me longer to iron the fabric than to actually attach it!

It's A Crafty Advent - Day 4: In the Studio

When the kids started school in September, I really thought I had my chance to get sewing and get my little business off the ground.  O would be in school 3 mornings - giving me one to co-op (he goes to a cooperative nursery school where I co-op 3 mornings per month), one to volunteer at E's school for a little bit and get work done around the house, and one to sew.  Even 3 hours for studio time would be better than what I had.

I was wrong.  The three mornings a week somehow only gave me an hour every once in a while in the studio.

So, today O is starting a fourth day at school and staying all day.  Which means 9-3.  And I am looking at/hoping for 5 solid hours in the studio.

Unfortunately those 5 hours begin with digging my work table out from under this.

I'll see you on the other side!

To Play Outside Alone...

 

It sounds crazy when I actually write it out, but for the first time today my kids went out and played in the yard alone.  Without me sitting on the steps with a book or magazine or on the enclosed porch with the door open.

We sat in the dining room talking with friends after brunch, turning around every once in a while to look out the window and make sure they were still there.  And...  They were.

You see, I'm not afraid someone is going to come into the yard and take them.  We live in the city, but on a somewhat secluded corner lot.  Bordered by two streets.  Two streets I am just beginning to trust my children not to wander into.

So today was the first step.

They didn't last too long.  They were soon calling for us to come and join them.  And to fix the pulley system, since The Dad, in building it, had not anticipated that they would try to fit a child into the basket. 

They pulley is the latest addition to The Fort.  Now with a second story and recycled slide.  Hours of fun, I tell you...  Hours of fun...

30 Days of Summer :: Day 17 :: The Lunchbox Napkin

I haven't had nearly enough studio time since The Dad began working from home. It's much more difficult to keep the kids quiet enough up on the third floor while he is on the phone.

But I did manage to get about 20 minutes the other day to whip up E's first Lunchbox Napkin.

I hope to make a handful of these (I don't do laundry as often as I should) in different fabrics for her to take to school in her lunchbox. The napkin is double-sided, so it's thick enough to be a good little mat to spread out her food, as well as absorbent enough for any little (?) mess she may make. I'm sure it will eventually be stained with blueberry juice or the like, but that's what napkins are for, right?

She's having a hard time getting ready for Kindergarten. She's anxious and worried with lots of questions. I forget what a huge transition it is, going into a big school that you've never been to before with a teacher you know nothing about.

I hope that this napkin will bring a little piece of home to her in the middle of the day.

And save some trees at the same time.

Extended Vacation

Today is Day 3 of The Dad's 17-day vacation between jobs.

Tomorrow we head out of town for a couple days. To an island without cars or cell phone service.

To play on the beach and eat crab cakes.

Have a fabulous week.

Make It Snappy

Ahhh, my snap press. My reward to myself after the holiday fairs I did last fall. It weighs at least 20 pounds and looks so positively industrial. So, so, SO much easier and more efficient than the plastic snap setter and hammer I was using before.


And my overflowing pile of scraps.
There really is a box under there, attempting to contain it all.
The impetus for a new project to debut soon.

Things here are stressful, bordering on frantic. We have had some health issues with the kids, which seem to be all resolved, on top of The Dad changing jobs and the countdown (3 1/2 weeks to go!) to Art Star Craft Bazaar which I am feeling less and less on top of.

So, nose to the grindstone and a few more late nights coming up.

We're going to get away for a couple days next week - to a truly remote island with no banks or ATMs and no cell phone service! Just lots of time playing on the beach and exploring.
Then back for the home stretch.

Thanks for checking in!

Those Transitions...

The dresses are starting to pile up. I have very ambitious production goals for this upcoming fair but some changes in circumstances may actually make them doable! I'm hoping for dresses, bibs, skirts, and some fun little family home decor additions.

Now for those changes in circumstances. And the huge transition I alluded to here:

This week, The Dad gave notice at his job. Two and a half weeks notice. To be followed by two weeks of vacation, which will double as totally rearranging the house so that he can work from home.


Ahhh, yes. I said work at home.

He's thinking "Hey! Nooners!" I'm thinking "Hooray! I can shower every day!" But really, we are both incredibly realistic in regards to imagining a life where he works upstairs in a house with 2 rambunctious pre-schoolers that always want to be thisclosetoyou.

So, before we begin the transition of actually working at home, we do the physical transition of moving the playroom downstairs (and no longer in spitting distance of the office) and the den upstairs. I see this as a great opportunity for some fun and new decorating!

Anyway, my hope is that while The Dad is 'on vacation', between arranging these new spaces and moving furniture, I will be able to get some solid, consecutive hours at the sewing machine. And have everything done when he heads (upstairs) to work on May 26th.