A Little Break

Just dropping in to let you know that posting will be a bit light around here for awhile. Grace starts kindergarten in just three short weeks from now, so I plan on savoring that time with her. In addition, I'll be spending my evenings sewing - she's requested a handmade dress for the first day of school. And due to some indecisiveness on her part in regards to the fabric (apples vs. owls), I'll be sewing two dresses simultaneously. I just finished tracing the pattern (that's what you see taped to the window in the photo) - so wish me luck!

Dog Days of Summer

Sophie has two favorite summer pastimes (perhaps three if you include eating) - napping on the couch and attacking the chlorinater. Surely, you get the napping part but I bet you're a bit puzzled in regards to the chlorinater. Well, you're not alone. She's long had an obsession with it, especially the one floating around Meme and Pop's pool, but it seems to be her sole focus these days. If one of us passes by the door which leads to our pool, she immediately jumps up from her sleeping position and assumes we're going to let her out. Lucky for her, we often oblige.


She's one silly dog I tell you - perhaps that's why we love her so!

Slow Stitching

Back in March I started stitching the "reverse-applique swing skirt" found in the "Alabama Stitch Book", written by Natalie Chanin. The entire skirt, which was made from cotton t-shirts, was stitched by hand. Yes, that's right - all by hand! And after four months it's finished.....


A close-up of the skirt's front side.....


And a close-up of the skirt's underside (I opted to place all of the knots on the reverse side so they wouldn't be visible from the front).....


It was certainly a slow process but I couldn't be happier with results. I actually enjoyed the project so much that I just started cutting the squares for the "sampler quilt". More slow stitching here I come!

Baby Gifts

Two of my coworkers are expecting little ones, well in all actuality one baby has already arrived. I wanted to give each of them something handmade.


For the little girl, Grace helped me select the book "Little Pea", written by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and illustrated by Jen Corace. Since it's a food related book I made a bib, embroidering it with the baby's name and a spoon with none other than the pea from the story.

And for the baby boy, who has not yet arrived, I made an apron since his Mama enjoys baking to the degree that I do. We also purchased several child-sized kitchen gadgets to tuck into the little patchwork pocket. I can see him standing on a "helper stool" from a very young age, just like Grace once did.

Mr. Eggshell Man

After a recent baking frenzy we were left with quite a few eggshells. We opted to spare them from the trashcan (albeit temporarily) and put them to good use by making egg heads.

Grace drew a face on each of the shells, added a bit of soil, sprinkled them with winter wheat, then spritzed them with water. In a matter of a week or so our egg people had full heads of "hair". At that point Grace decided each was in need of a haircut - which to no surprise was her favorite part of the process.



Mr. Eggshell Man got quite a trim wouldn't you say?

Chapter Book Success

Dean and I have attempted to read to Grace from chapter books in the past. It all started on a Disney trip when we neglected to bring picture books to read at bedtime. To solve our conundrum Dean decided to read aloud from the novel he brought along. It worked - Grace was content "imagining the pictures" in her mind.

With this success, Dean took her to the bookstore and they selected several chapter books - one being "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. When it was Dean's turn to read with her at night, he read from one of the books they purchased. But, boredom soon set in - so it was back to picture books.


Now with Grace being a bit older, we decided to give chapter books another try. We chose a book that had won a Newbery Honor and was about something she's very interested in, dragons. The book (well, it's actually three stories in one), "Three Tales of My Father's Dragon", written by Ruth Stiles Gannett, was a hit to say the least. Between Dean and myself we read entire book, all 242 pages, to her in five days. And as an added bonus, the book has inspired a wealth of discussions, pretend play and of course, artwork.

The next book we plan to read is, "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" by Grace Lin, who happens to be one of our favorite picture book writers/illustrators. It's a Newbery Honor book too (this year), so we can't wait to get started reading it aloud. Hooray for chapter book success!

Dessert Anyone?

Here's Grace's latest dessert creation, made from scratch in her kitchen - "Chocolate Chip Cookie Bread Pudding". Would you like to try a bite?