thrifted curtains, and shirts that make me swear...

I guess I can't have it all, can I? I bought all of the Simplicity Built By Wendy patterns at Joann's this week, as they had a $1.50 pattern sale. Second ONLY to the 99 cent pattern sale. I went a little crazy, but at a buck fifty, I guess I can afford to splurge. So, the first one I attempted was the shirt with the diamond shaped inset, pattern number 3964. Bad choice. I swear I have made so many stupid mistakes on this shirt. I have spewed a string of profanities a mile long while stitching and restitching that derned diamond inset. GAH!!!! I am scared to actually try the thing on. Thankfully I just used some dirt cheap calico for my first attempt, and I SHOULD have the hang of it next go round. I am not thwarted easily!!

The same day of the pattern sale, I scored this really cool vintagey valance at the thrift store, for a handful of pocket change. I love it! I may use it for a pillow, or trim along the bottom of a skirt for myself of the girly girl. The last image is just a killer sunset I took with my latest lens purchase. I love summer sunsets.

shoes for needy kids...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the baby and toddler shoe brand See Kai Run. Not only are their shoes adorable and super soft, but my little girly loves them too. I went to their site to look for a new summer pair for the littles, and I saw that they have an awesome promo going on. For every pair that is purchased in June, they will match it with a pair donated to a child in need. So, if you are looking for new shoes for your baby or toddler, give them a try this month!!

japanese crafty goodness, and a good mail day!

I hit the jackpot when the mailman rolled into town today. First, I scored 2 patterns I'd been awaiting from Oliver + S, then came the next package, some cool Japanese crafty stuff! I LOVE Superbuzzy, I think it's been my coolest website discovery this year. I adore the modern, simplistic, timeless styles in Girly Style Wardrobe, and so naturally I sought out more lovely Japanese pattern books. I fell in love with my latest treasure...Home Couture for Girls. It's filled with schoolgirl-esque smocks and skirts, little dainty tea dresses, and peter pan collars galore. I am smitten. The photos are very easy to understand, and the patterns, while a pain to trace, are quite simple. And to top it off, my superbuzzy package contained some little pieces of Japanese candy for my oldest son and I to sample. Green tea and milk flavored...hmmmmmm. Caleb's response to the candy?? "Japanese people make cool video games, but their tongues are WEIRD". :D

Father's Day...

In our house we really work hard at defying gender roles. I am the flippant, overlooker of all holidays that are sentimental (birthdays, valentines day, sweetest day, mother's day, and lastly, father's day). It's not that they are not important to me, it's just that I am of the school that "things" don't make the day any MORE important. By "things" I am referring to cakes, cards, flowers, chocolates, presents, and so on. My husband, on the other hand, gets downright grumpy when I forget or opt out of those things, so we are always at odds when it comes to choosing how we will celebrate something.

So, this year he pleasantly surprised me when he announced he just wanted a quiet (laugh!!) dinner with myself and the 5 kiddos, and then just wanted to spend time being their daddy. So, we had a great little evening wandering around the waterfront film festival, having a dinner of shrimp po'boys and crab cakes, a trip to the ice cream shop, and then we finished off the night sitting around the firepit with marshmallows toasting, and little firecrackers. The kids could not have been more pleased, and daddy was smiling from ear to ear. A perfect evening!

He is one of those daddy's who is perfect in his imperfection, loving, sensitive, and I cannot imagine life without him. I have held his hand in lieu of medication during labor, cried on his shoulder more times than I can count, listened to him softly read Peter Pan off of his palm pilot to our 1 pound twins as they fought for life in their NICU isolettes (and subsequently snicker over all the times Tink says the word "ass"), watched him weep as he held our daughter Mya when she passed away, and have seen the lines appear on his often furrowed brow as he quietly stresses and thinks about the well-being of his wife and children.

We have our ups, and we have our downs, and we have been through more in our short marriage than many people endure in years, and I am so happy to say that even though our story is not yet written, and what is to come is still and always an unknown, I am more in love with him now than the day we said "I do".

Happy Father's Day Lamont!!

This and that

Sometimes I have an ambitious week...I plan a meal list, a corresponding grocery list, and then I follow it to a "T". And sometimes I do NOT have an ambitious week. This week is the latter, all week it's been a little bit of this and a little of that. I had a craving for hot german potato salad, so we made that yesterday, it was so good. The only part that was to be dreaded, was the boiling of potatoes on an eighty degree day. Of course, yesterday was also bread baking day, so I spent the better part of the afternoon in a sweat. The perfect counter to the heat was a basket of fresh local strawberries from the outdoor market. However, the little boys in the back seat of the van who were "only looking at the strawberries on the ride home, somehow managed to look at the berries with more than just their eyes. I arrived home to find red lips and tongues, and a few random berries rolling around the bottom of the basket. Gah. So, I made it up to myself today, I went out thrifting and got a chocolate shake.

tricycles, zucchini, and buttons.

I can only take so much of the wiggles soundtrack, so my kids usually wind up listening to mommy's music. they're pretty big fans of Regina Spektor, U2, and The Beetles. So, I went on a quest to find cool kids music that we all like listening to. I stumbled across the songs Sometimes, and Tricycle by Frances England, and we were all hooked! You've got to give her a listen. My daughter now begs to ride her tricycle even more than she already did, and she sings the Tricycle song as she peddles away. If you listen to the song, you'll understand how impossibly cute this all is.


On to our garden. The garden that my kids talked about endlessly, but the second the seeds had been nestled in their dirt homes, the wee ones scattered in all directions and abandoned me to finish the job ob my own, "now that the fun part is over". :) Well, today the first fruits of my labor broke through the soil. The zucchini! The kids were thrilled! Possibly even thrilled enough to pull some weeds for a few minutes. I planted the zucchini specifically to use in a recipe for Zucchini "Crab" Cakes that I make every year. I prefer to bake them, as opposed to frying, and I serve them with a salad of mixed greens, and lemon dill sauce...


And the buttons you ask? In reference to the button picture, there is none, I just love buttons and was happy with my last button purchase. I cannot quit looking at them, or touching them, or setting them on random fabrics to see how quaint they look.

the game

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

a punk rock shirt for a punk rock baby...

I made this shirt for a friend of mine's little peanut-girl. This fabric definitely suits little Ellery to a "T". Her mama is going to give me some feedback on my seemstress skills, to see if I can hang with the pros on Etsy. I had my daughter model it in the last image, I cropped her head out because I may be reported if someone sees the crazy way I left her hair today. That's what rainy days are for, right?? Sewing and bad hair. Oh, and notice her inclination to wear her panties backwards so that she can look down and see the "Go Irish", nevermind that she can't yet read it. :D

summer makes me happy.

I love it, I love running outside with the kids, and not caring that all we are wearing are tee shirts and skirt or shorts, I love the smell of the breeze, the dirt, the flowers, sunscreen, barbeque, Lake Michigan, and the combination of all the smells and sights at the outdoor market. Summer just makes me happy. I think the best part of summer, after being tucked away all winter, is having the windows open, and bringing the outdoor inside on a pleasant day.

My only girly child has been defying any sort of growth spurt for eons, to the point that I actually question if she is sneaking espresso after bedtime. Well, be still my heart, she FINALLY grew. So, in honor of her added inches, and in consideration of our pocketbook, I have been stitching a few things up for her, mainly using scrap fabric and some random fat quarters. I love the tie top in (I think pattern F??) Girly Style Wardrobe, but couldn't get it to fit on a fat quarter, so I busted out the tracing paper and drew my own pattern. The skirts are elastic waist, improvise-as-you-go summer creations. Stella's only request is that one of them had a pocket for her "ponies and flowers" on the front. The desk pictured below is a thrift store find that the kids are loving. I painted the desktop with chalkboard paint, and nestled the desk under the ash tree.









and lastly a summer picture of my princess that I just adore...