WILL E

I hope this picture gives you a smile on this sun-shiny Wednesday.

Friday

Another favorite moment from our day. I asked the kids to make sure the fabric I was putting on the line had a lot of clothes pins due to the high wind. They took me literally. That fabric is going nowhere.

Happy Friday!

Images

Some of my favorite photos from this past week.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!

April Fool

Keeping with blogging protocol, I must post about our latest birthday. Much to William's disappointment, it wasn't his birthday we were celebrating, but Claire's.

I think she had a good day. I saw her all of two hours, maybe three that day. In a nut shell:

cinnamon rolls for breakfast, presents, new outfit to be worn that day, school, talk to grandparents, packing her bag, off to the hotel for a friend's party. They share the same birthday, so the cake had both of their names on it. Apparently, the party at the hotel was a blast and way better than anything we would have done at home that night. It sure made my life easier!

Sat was conference and birthday cake. It was one of my ugly, but tasty cakes. I really should take a cake decorating class or something...

"Better late than never" birthday cake

The denim tote (stuffed with goodies) I made for her friend's present - see previous post

I asked Claire to pose for me...this is what I got.

I have uploaded a new crop of photos, so I should have more posts this week. Things have been a little busy around here, to say the least. See you then!

denim blown wide open

Whenever I picture any of my school teachers from elementary school, they're all wearing denim skirts with matching vests either covered in buttons or little embroidered school motifs (rulers, apples, chalkboards, pencils, etc).

But when I got my copy of Heather Ross's book Weekend Sewing, I loved her "Everything Tote" p. 15. Seeing as how my current purse was dying and I couldn't find another one that I liked AND could afford, I set out to make myself one.

Enter, the denim.

I don't remember how many yards I got, but it wasn't more than 3 with a coupon at JoAnn's for $11. I got a very dark denim, nothing stonewashed, keeping with contemporary denim styles.

That $11 has served me well. With it, I made my "Everything Tote", me a skirt from Simplicity 2600 skirt D, a skirt for Claire Butterick B4722 skirt E, and a small tote packed full of treats for Claire's friend's birthday present. There's still enough denim to make something small (bean bags, quilt squares, pot holders, whatever).

I would say that's pretty good for $11. The only project that took any real time was the Everything Tote, seeing as how I had to adjust the pattern a bit. Considering I'm a "Stay At Home Mom", I had time in my quiet afternoon hours to do some sewing, and for the most part, I enjoy it. If I had the choice to either go to the store and buy some article of clothing or sew it, I would choose to sew it. I don't particularly enjoy shopping and as I get older, I like it less and less.

I have another couple of yards of a darker denim that I plan on making aprons for my two older kids for Easter. We'll see how that goes. Despite it's bad connotations of my early life, denim has found a place in my heart.

Pictures of projects to be posted later.

I meant to do that...

As a youth, I was considered "clumsy". I attribute it to the fact that I grew so much so quickly. Grace and poise has never been my strong point, so I have learned to adapt. I embrace those embarrassing moments, share them, laugh at them and hope people have short memories.

For those of you who live in the St. Louis area, Wednesday was very blustery; perfect for line-drying my laundry. My last load was our bed sheets. I kept an eye on them as they precariously blew on the line. I was standing at the back door when I witnessed my flat bed sheet (despite being held on with 8 clothes pins) blow up in the air, off the line, over the fence and into the road. I dropped the three-hole punch I was holding to the floor and ran out to save my sheet from being run over. It was about as embarrassing as the time I fell into the culvert while I was mowing the lawn (and a car stopped to ask if I was OK). Or the time I tried to hop my 4 ft fence only to pull a "Napoleon Dynamite" fence fall in front of many of the neighbors.

There is something to be said for a sense of humor and strong bones.

May the Force be with him

William has become my little entrepreneur. He went looking for his light saber the other day only to discover that I had thrown it out. But before you judge me and my throwing everything away habit, the light saber was broken. It took one too many beatings at playgroup.

So William has set out to earn the money to buy a new one. My kids don't get an allowance. I don't know if they ever will. They are expected to help around the house as being a part of the family and when they have a reasonable request, Ryan and I will help them pay for it. However, I think a replacement light saber is not a necessary item, so he's having to earn the money. Now I've been having to come up with jobs that I don't normally make him do (or I was planning on doing, but needed a little help). Here's what he's done so far:

• fold cloth diapers because I ran out of time to do it
• pull weeds from the back yard
• sweep the front porch and back patio
• vacuum the whole house and put it all back together

I feel like there's more, but I can't think of them right now. Some other possible jobs are:

• vacuum out the car
• wash the car
• sweep out the garage
• vacuum out the couch cushions (and he gets to keep any money he finds in the cushions)

I'm still trying to come up with new jobs. Any ideas?

Ryan told William that he would pay William a penny for every night he doesn't come in our room to sleep on the couch. It's working! If the time comes to purchase the light saber and he doesn't have enough, if I feel he's worked hard and saved, I will help make up the difference.