Skirting Work

Several factors led to me sewing three skirts in one day. Leaving for vacation in a few days has kept us from grocery shopping as we try to eat everything we already have. That led to having some extra money in the budget this week. Then there was that big sale at the fabric store along with the coupons that came in the mail. Then patterns at Hobby Lobby were 99 cents, causing me to stock up. So I had fabric, patterns, and time. So than in less time it took a movie to play on my laptop, I sewed the star skirt and lemon skirt.

This was a really easy pattern, only one ruffle to gather this time.
For our 4th of July celebration in Texas.

I loved this fabric, but it was too expensive. But thanks to a sale, I was able to buy enough to make this skirt. The pattern was super easy and I will definitely be using it again! There are four panels along the bottom.

The brown skirt took the longest. It has a panel and two gathered tiers. Next time, I will add another tier. This is where a serger would come in handy.

During sewing breaks, I spent a lot of time holding the baby. She has a cold, making it hard to sleep lying down. Oh, and excuse the fake food all over the floor.

All of this sewing comes with a price (figuratively and literally). I'm spending today cleaning the house, as no dishes or laundry got done and the kids had the run of the house.

The Dark Side

I did it - I finally dyed my hair. I debated whether to put this on my blog, but in order not to shock friends and family when I see them, which makes me very uncomfortable, I thought I would go ahead and do it here. I went darker - the pictures don't quite do it justice, but let's just say it's dark. I wanted to have my hair match my eyes and eyebrows, which it never has. I feel very slovic with my hair this color. All I need to do is change my name is Syuzanna, get a see-through blouse (with a bra to match), wear high heels and call it good. Well, maybe not...

a little water in the face (and house)

After a little mishap getting the sprinkler set up resulting it hosing down me, the house, spraying in our front door and after a lot of running away and screaming (by me and the kids - Ryan set it up backwards), the kids were able to have a good time in the front yard. It was pure joy for them.




I had some good finds at Goodwill this past week. I found a couple of tees for me, a few movies that I wanted to get William for his birthday next month (by the way, if you ever want to own the movie "Titanic", our Goodwill had about 60 copies of it - all for a buck) and an awesome bed sheet circa 1970s for $2.00 in which I made into sweet lounge pants for myself. I had enough material to make another pair, and I offered Ryan to make some for him, but he turned me down. Oh well, we can't all have good taste!

No good 70s project is complete without rick-rack! Thanks again Goodwill!

I've got nothing

We spent the hot afternoon in the coolness of Claire's fairy room. She put on a show for William, Rose and I. I pulled out the camera and started taking pictures of my little girls, surrounded by flowy gauze - they looked sweet and thoughtful...

Then in my viewfinder, I see this...

Thanks to the 90+ degree weather, we have been spending a lot of time indoors. That means the kids, while good at entertaining themselves, have been looking to me for forms of entertainment. They spend a good part of their day surrounding me. I'm sure the photo below is a scene played out in many of your homes. Mom surrounded by the little ones.

It being another hot day, we will probably be playing a lot of legos, listening to music, watching an afternoon movie, reading a few books, and eating some popsicles. What do you do on these hot summer days?

William my boy, you're crazy.

What can I say? The kid makes me laugh. He says the funniest things - I don't know if that's the age, just him or a bit of both. I hope he doesn't outgrow it. For instance, I was mopping the floor and when William saw that the floor was all wet, he says in his usually loud voice,
"Hey! Mom! What you doing in here? What is this? Oh man, what a mess. I'm hungry mom. You clean it up?"

For those of you who know William, you can just imagine this being said in his funny deep voice.

He can also be exasperating at times. In the library (we went today), he cannot understand that he can't yell everything he says! He is SO loud. Then he won't stay with me, he likes to wander the isles and peek at me from behind books. I'll be looking through some books on a shelf and then I'll see this little arm poking through from the other side. "William, get over here!" Then I hear a low chuckle as he runs off again.

These pictures are classic William - shirt, underwear on backwards and my shoes - out for a romp, looking at the "toad-frog".

Laughing quietly to himself.

Showing me the toad buried in the mud, behind the compost bin.

Today William was sitting on the potty and started yelling, "Quaire (Claire)! I'm doing big poops! Uh oh! Mom, it's getting stinky - quick turn on the fan! Dank you Quaire. I'm almost done with my poops. MOM! I'm done! I'm DONE MOM! MOM!! I'M DONE! Thanks Mom. I flush it? Whoa - those were big poops. Mom! The poops are stuck! The water's getting higher. Come get the poops out mom!"

This is a typical example of my funny boy - his latest words to me as he brings me his little MP3 player..."Mom, it's bwoken. My stupid newsic (music) doesn't worse. ARGHH! I hate it! Oh, you fix it. Danks Mom. "

I love it!

More Projects and Pictures

I found this fun fabric and it made me smile - very retro 70's, I think. Anyhow, I made it into a dress for Rose. It's a pattern I've used before. I made bloomers this time to go with it - it's still a little too big, but I wanted her to have room to grow into it over the summer. The face Rose is making in the picture above reminds me of Claire as a baby. Something about the eyebrows.

That's the smile we all love!

She is so close to crawling - she gets on her hands and knees, starts to move forward, and then collapses on her belly.

We took off Friday afternoon, thanks to the great weather. We loaded up the bikes and stroller and headed over to Forest Park. The bike trails are great there, but a bit crowded. The people that frequent the trails there are usually St. Louis yuppies, out walking their dogs or WashU people riding their bikes between campuses. Needless to say, they didn't have a lot of patience for a family out for a joy ride. Claire did great, once she got started, William pumped his little legs as fast as he could on his "trike", I rode on my bike to keep up with Claire (she is FAST - wow) and Ryan pushed Rose in the stroller and stayed with William. We stopped at a great playground, played, and rode back to the car. Besides some nasty looks from childless couples and one rude comment from some grandpa speeding by on his bike, it was fun.

Rose had a great time on the swings - love that face!

William's face was red from riding his bike.

I didn't get any good shots of Claire. She was too busy sticking her head in the fountain. It made us miss St. Louis, (though we're right across the river), but not the people. The people in Illinois are great!

I spent Saturday cooped up in the house. I've discovered that I'm allergic to mold, so I was sneezing and miserable all Saturday. Then Sunday was Sunday. After a trip to Goodwill today, I have another sewing project on my table. That should keep my busy this week. Hopefully we'll have some crawling pictures before too long - or Rose is going to drive us all crazy! She is ready to move! It will put a major damper on the older kids' play - no more legos, polly pockets and playmobil in the living room (Hurray!!).

Typical Rose

I was sitting on the couch, working on my laptop when I looked over and saw this...

Rose's sweet, smiling face; peeking over the couch - just waiting for me to look at her.

Next thing I knew, the mouse was pulled right out of my hand. I sat up, looked down and saw this...

Eventually, my little pal was so tangled up in the cords, she was pulling the cords right out of the USB ports and getting angry at the attention the computer was getting.

How could I resist that smile?

How to Print Fa____

So I was curious on how to print fabric: how it's done commercially, ways to make your own, etc. Not real exciting, I know, but I was curious. So my next step was to Google it. I started typing in "how to print fa" and I stopped there, because all of these - how to say it - this list popped up of popular searches and you can just click on the search you want instead of finishing typing it in. Did that make sense? I was amazed at the list of popular searches "how to print fa-----" pulled up. Here's some of the best from the list:

how to print fake money
how to print fake id
how to print fake yugioh cards

Really? People are actually googling how to print fake money? If you have to google that, maybe you shouldn't be printing fake money. And it was the top of the list.

Girl Scouts Galore

This past weekend, I took Claire and Rose to Girl Scout camp in Missouri. Being the leader of her troop, I was obligated to go. We had 8 girls and 8 adults - the biggest group there. My girls are sweethearts and they were all so well behaved the whole weekend. The weather cooperated and the camp was beautiful. It was a great weekend overall and we'll do it again next year.

Claire in front of our cabin - we shared with another girl and her mom.

We spent an afternoon at the lake - we went canoeing and swimming. I waded into the water and that was enough for me - too cold! Rose enjoyed the sand, even eating some of it.

I love camp!!

Catching tadpoles

Thankfully, Rose loved the backpack. It came in handy for our hikes.

Camp food. The food was actually pretty good. I've been camping a lot - there is some nasty stuff out there.

"Mom, you're such a goober in that hat!"

Claire keeps longing to go back, so that's a good sign. Next year though, I won't be taking the baby. Hiking will be much easier without an extra 25 pounds on my back!

Fat baby in a little sink

So I tried bathing Rose in the kids' bathroom sink for the first time. It also might be the last. It was a tight squeeze, but she had a good time!

Claire is a pro at riding her bike. She goes around and around our house/island. Here's Claire, William, Ryan and Rose making the rounds.

I later got on my bike and raced Claire around the house. She got onto me about not wearing a helmet.

William's latest funny stuff:

After he sneezed at the breakfast table, "Mom! I bless-shooed on my cereal!"

While partaking of the sacrament, William held up his water cup and right before he drank it, he said, "tiny cup?" as he does every single week and then, "Wall E wants some" in which he proceeded to feed his little toy Wall E the rest of the water. Nice and reverent.

He puts up a fuss about "the purple" in his room and won't go to sleep until it goes away. "The purple" that he's referring to is a tiny speck of a reflection on the ceiling light cover of the light from the wipes warmer. Since we've owned the home, the light in his room did not have a light cover. So I finally went out and bought the glass cover for $4 at Lowe's and screwed it on. It looks much better, but now it reflects "the purple" and causes terror to young children (or just William). Seriously, this light is a tiny speck of purple on the glass - I can hardly see it with my contacts in. So Ryan finally had to take it down. Last night, William was nagging Ryan about making cookies (after he gave up on me) and Ryan was so tired of it, this was the threat Ryan made, "William, if you don't stop talking about cookies, I will put the light cover on, so help me!" To which William respond in tears and falling to the floor wailing , "NO! Not the purple, not the purple!"

What do I even say to that?

Double Thumb Sucker

When Rose is tired, she will sometimes suck her thumb. And in this case, both thumbs as she sings herself to sleep.

City Fun

I know, I know. What's my excuse this time? It's a combination of laziness, normal life activities, company and fun. So in the name of fun, here are some pictures of our trip to The City Museum in St. Louis. We took some friends of ours who were in town for a day and had never been to St. Louis. We hadn't seem them in a couple of years - so it was a great day!

Melissa and I struggling - Claire whipped right through

Rough on the backside

William waiting patiently for us to return - he was more cautious than Claire

Rose had a great time watching the action

Claire risking her dryness

The Skateless Skate Park

William loved playing in the balls

Melissa, Brian, Ryan, Claire and William

We went to the zoo afterwords. We had a great time but were totally wiped when we got home. It took us a good two days to recover.