Hello Monday - Details

Summer is winding down and I am attending to the details of the seasonal shift.

1. Untitled, 2. figs and lemons, 3. Rusty Locker 10, 4. orangey red mushroom, 5. Bunting, 6. happy friday. :), 7. the shapes and colors of summer., 8. shoe per diem august 3, 2010, 9. The Chain

Box of Happy

Not too long ago, a friend and I decided to do a trade. I had some things and she had some things and we agreed to send the things to each other. O.k., first let me say that this was an awesome idea! Secondly, oh what a box of happy I received! I am overwhelmed with silly happy goodness.

That gorgeous fabric is just screaming to become something wonderful for Pony Girl. It is from Nic of luzia pimpinella and it's called LOVEchirp, so lovely! And ribbon trims of happiness in all their glory.

Some goodness for Pony Girl included a much adored polka dotty tea set...

...the cutest wind up mama duck with 3 ducklings, which seem to have waddled off somewhere unknown, and a super fantastic skirt of Nancy's Studio Tantrum Laguna Skirt design.

And for me, more stupendous gifts of the vintage persuasion! Check out this vintage strawberry cannister, which looks to be from a soda fountain...

How cool is that? Also this beautiful vintage purse which now proudly hangs in my bedroom!

Oh, there was also some chocolate but, you can imagine what has become of that.

Dearest Nancy, I can not thank you enough. Everything was so perfectly perfect and brought us such joy! I am truly blessed with amazing friends. Such a lucky lady am I!

I hope you all have a groovy weekend, I'm off to contemplate a first day of school dress for the one and only Pony Girl.

Best Laid Plans

I want to thank everyone for your lovely comments on my last post. Your praise of the shirt, the pie and your supportive words about our girl going off to school. You are indeed the best sort of folks.

I had big plans for this weeks blog posts... more stitching, sharing of a most amazing gift received in the mail and other groovy things. Alas, what is that saying..."we make plans and god laughs"? So...yeah.

While things have gone topsy-turvy this week, I'm gonna roll with it and see where it all leads. And if I get stuck, I might just play with my food.

Hello Monday - Remake, Remodel

In these last days of summer, there is a sense of impending change. Change in the weather, change in the routine and change in life as we know it. Soon, our little Pony Girl will be entering a whole new phase of her young life...Kindergarten! It's hard to believe that it has come so fast. In keeping my mind away from thinking how quickly she is growing up, I am busying my hands at the task of school clothes making. Sewing for me makes things better, helps me make a little sense of this fast moving world.

This little number was made using Sew Liberated's Woodlands Shirt Pattern, which I have seen popping up all over the place on the web. Cute no? For the fabric I used this lovely lightweight printed linen (that was wonky like crazy to work with). The linen came from a skirt and top that my mother passed onto me thinking I could make something of it. The pieces sat for a long time and when I got this pattern I knew I could finally cut into them for a complete re-fashion.

Some notes on the Woodlands Shirt pattern:
The pattern is fairly easy with straight forward instruction for the most part.
If you plan to use the pattern I highly recommend checking measurements carefully, as it seems to be geared for a more petite child. Pony Girl is 5 with a stocky build, she wears a US size 6 in most store bought clothes with the sleeve length running a bit long. I traced the size 7 from the pattern (for room to grow) but, cut the sleeve and bodice length a size 6 thinking they would be plenty long. I should have checked the length of these pieces before cutting. The end result is that the sleeves and bodice were a bit short for my liking. Overall though, I will make this shirt again with the right lengths, I think it's a quick and versatile pattern for fall. It's pretty darn cute too.

In my last post I mentioned the possibility of pie, so here it is, a perfectly peachy peach pie! Made by the Engineer no less. He offered to take over pie duty after he heard me whinging about how I had done the laundry, dishes, watered the garden, made breakfast muffins...all before he had even gotten out of bed. He makes a damn fine pie I must say!

Oh how I do love pie!

I'm A Winner!

I've been meaning to post about what a winner I am for a bit now and I'm finally getting 'round to it. These days it seems that I am so far behind, that I have actually gotten ahead of myself. I have also been speaking in nonsense for days now.

So right, I recently won a giveaway over at Fox's Lane of a beautiful bundle of vintage sheet pieces! Aren't they lovely? Thank you Kate! Now I get to make something sweet with them.

Wait, there's more! One of my favorite blog sites is The Yard Art Game, I always get a much needed chuckle when I visit. Well, recently there was a giveaway and I won! I know, I know, I'm on a roll! I won this super duper cool solar powered Glow Stick! Check it out.

It charges during the day and then at night it puts on a little light show, and changes colors!!! I am way more enchanted by it than is perhaps "normal" but, I just can't help it. I am very entertained by such things plus, I am now prepared for my very own backyard eco-friendly RAVE.

Look at the colors!
It also does green but, I didn't capture that on film.

Right now it is placed next to the chicken coop so that the chooks have their very own nightly light show, maybe I should pipe in some Pink Floyd so that they can have the full experience.

Thank you to my generous gifters, you have made my days (and nights) a little sweeter.

As for you dear readers, I think that you are winners too! Have a grand weekend and I shall return with stories of stitchery and perhaps even pie!

Eat!

Fresh hand made sheets of pasta. We love our pasta! The deep yellow color comes from our eggs.

The best fresh ingredients. I love having everything ready to go in front of me. Then I can pretend that I have my own cooking show, he he.

Ready for the oven.

Now Eat!

Hello Monday - Heat Wave

We here in our spot on the planet, are full on with the sweaty palms and the stifling sleepless. A heat wave that presses down and makes tidying the house about the least desirable task imaginable...so there are ants in the kitchen and a general flush of messy. The garden scolds with it's fried blooms that need to be discarded and the lettuce that has bolted tall as a 5 year old.

Frizzled dandelion fluff drops and rolls - making it's wishes that will come true in a dizzying multiplication, the chickens are lackluster burying themselves in the dusty shade, and popsicles are mandatory by mid-afternoon.

A constant serenade of fans singing "flup flup flup" fills the little green cottage, syrupy peach juice fingerprints call the ants to new territory, and the Buddha Cat keeps infiltrating the cool dark of the basement where he does bad things.

Sheets are bleaching in the sun, fading vibrant florals to whispery hues, the red bucket gets filled again and again to quench thirsty new trees, and the tomato plants are big as buildings.

By 5 we are overtaken by a sticky ennui and a general malaise, a lethargy of spirit leads to absurd negotiations between the small grump and a tether-less mama (it couldn't have been me who was heard to say, "I've lost my tether altogether and don't know where to find it"). But then it is certain that cool showers are miracles at 6 in the evening. We call truce and set to the industry of keeping up with the ice demands, outside we will wait out the dusk into the night - whispering incantations to summon a breeze.

We'll sit quiet, unmoving - until one of us says, "It's supposed to be hotter tomorrow."

Just Showing Off

My gorgeous sister!

photo by Yona Appletree

Click here for a listen. I recommend the song "Carry Me"!