day off

*sigh* Facebook is down and nonresponsive *at least for me* just as Esme goes down for a nap. I tried to make a rag doll but one of the legs was messed up some. We were up at Grandma's earlier and she ran all over. Right after lunch here she fell asleep and I put her in her bed. Time to go make some coffee and sit down at the workbench see what comes to mind.

I got a lesson in french seams from a lady at work the other day, over our lunch hour. I'll try to put it to use but it will take me time to get it straight - 'think backwards' she said - everything is the same, but inside-out and backwards, then one more seam everywhere and right-side out... I think I'll start with a pair of pants - as they have fewer seams to 'turn back the clock' on.

running at the lake

A shot Mark took of Esme running at the lake yesterday when I was at work
Her smile is so great!

And when I'm not home she won't leave her hair ties in for ANYTHING... always hair in her eyes. About the first thing I do besides pick her up when I get home is find a hair tie and put it up so I can see those pretty blue eyes. She hates that. *sigh*

I am calling Bullshit on the CPSIA lead testing law - this isn't about safety it's about dollars

This is BS! This new law is putting thousands of small businesses out of work, including mine - for toys, clothes, bedding - anything - all items sold for children that the crafters can't get tested by an independent certified lab. These tests cost hundreds of dollars per item and destroy the item. All items have to be made from EXACTLY the same materials tested in order to sell to children 12 and under. If you change materials - even a different color - you have to get the new item tested. Again - this is BS for small handcrafters like me. Everything we make is unique! However, the nogs in Congress won't give _us_ a free pass even though we make very few toys out of widely availalble (and usually pre-tested) craft materials and usually for people who know us by name. NOW - Mattel gets to test their own toys in their own labs? Their lead painted toys 'made in China' made Congress pass a law in the first place! They're just putting the competition to rest now - this isn't even about safety anymore.

What did I get when I mailed my Congressman about this? A nice form letter that said 'I support the CPSIA law because it protects our nation's children. Protecting children is one of my highest priorities.' Nice way to sidestep the issue at hand and go back to playing golf.

link to a story at the Wall Street Journal
Actual law at THOMAS

back to work for a day and sweetness

I'm back at work for today with tomorrow off again.. weird scheduling after vacation. I have two pinnie dresses cut out ready to sew on Sunday if Esme lets me. She's going to spend a lot of time (Mark's words) looking for me today after having me all to herself for four days straight. I am also taking materials to work in my purse to start on a black-face sheep doll for her. She loves Shaun the Sheep - and I have some cloth that might make a mockup for her. White-faced sheep stuffies just don't do the trick, we have three of those and she doesn't believe they are sheep!

We got Esme some star stickers at the supermarket the other day because she was so interested in them. She kept saying 'stars' at them, and carried them for a good part of the day. She even tried to draw some on her magnadoodle - but it looked more like spirals -- everything she draws looks like spirals *grin*. Last night she was pointing at the ceiling and saying 'stars' - she wanted to go outside and look at the stars. I gave her the stickers (we never even took them out of the package) and she laid there saying 'stars' in her bed. I went downstairs to wash my hair and Mark strung Christmas lights up across the side of the wall so Esme could see them from her bed. So sweet :) He gave her the stars :)

of shoes, mail and kitties at the co-op

First off - thank you Elizabeth for the pretty package! We'll see what I can make of it for both of our girls :)

We went to the post office and the co-op today. Esme saw the co-op lady (we know her name now!) and then insisted on going to see the kitties in the back. They have gotten quite a bit bigger than last time, but seemed to remember her enough. Either they recognized her or they are just extremely nice kitties (cats now, instead of kittens) Esme talked to them quite a bit and said 'bye kitties' even when we were out of the parking lot on the way to the post office and fried chicken place. The co-op man in the loading dock was very surprised Esme remembered there were kitties in there. In fact - when I asked her what that place was as we were pulling in she said 'kitty!' and pointed!

Esme is in love with her magnadoodle drawing pad the last few days - she had to take it with us to town and is drawing spirals on it constantly and an occasional attempt at a star. Another cute thing she has been doing is pushing our cat tent all over the house and stopping every few minutes to wipe her brow and say 'whew!' So funny. It's such hard work!

At home I was looking for Esme's blue shoes all over the house. She has two pairs of shoes - and both have their pros and cons. tie-tie shoes are good for going out and about, but need to be tied often. blue strappy shoes Esme can get on and off by herself - but they sometimes get lost in stores because of this, and that can be a pain. The last few days we were out in town often so they were tie-tie shoe days. Somewhere in there the blue shoes got misplaced.

So - I looked for them, upstairs, downstairs, in Esme's toys - in my fabric I was going through (just in case), in the yarn box Esme was going through, in the laundry, under the bed etc etc... in every nook and cranny I could think they would be. Halfway through this I took the tie-tie shoes off of Esme because they were untied again. I put them up on a shelf and kept looking for the blue shoes. Then I stopped about ten minutes later (after complaining on facebook) and lo and behold -- the blue shoes are ON Esme's FEET! *sigh* I don't even know where she found them, or if she purposefully had them hidden. How much more classic can you get?

I cleaned up a large area of my workshop while looking for stray shoes - so there is fabric in the washing machine and my work clothes are in there as well. I have Saturday 'on' at work and Sunday 'off'

//what did I get done during the vacation?
2 pairs of shorts for Esme and the rag dolly
cut out two pinafore dresses
lots of laundry, organized some craft supplies
played lots of starfall with Esme
visited Grandma's several times with Esme :), library and thrift store and co-op
ordered some olive oil soap and blue ric-rac from Etsy

Rag dollies

Rag dollies - new larger size, 9 inches sitting, 12 inches standing.
in the shop

third day of vacation

This morning we went to the thrift store and library book sale again. I scored four size 3-5 patterns at the thrift store for 25 cents each. It'll be a little while before she grows into them (the 2 pattern is just slightly too big even!) but they'll come in handy.

Esme talked to a little boy at the library and played puzzles with him. It was cool to watch her use her new vocabulary with him - almost a real conversation. She also told a man at the library computers that his hat was pretty - which surprised him ;) it was pretty, it was a NASA hat with blue and red flames across the sides of it.

Then we went to the 'snap-snap' (grocery store) and Esme got stickers with stars on them. She was very happy about that - and is trying to say so many new words it's amazing to me! I say 'snap-snap' for grocery store because she recognizes it as what I say when I put her in the cart with the belt buckle. Today she tried to say 'snap snap' too. She tries to say library too, but it comes out 'brary' or some version of. There were lots of things I told her we were buying she tried to repeat. In the checkout line at the store Esme was threatening to eat the magazines with pictures of food on them. I knew we had to have lunch as soon as we got home!

At home we had yogurt (new brand - she doesn't like it as much but it's ok), ravioli (with a real fork) and lemon cookies. She hardly got any on her shirt. Esme found her own crayon box and started drawing on her easel which I found cool because usually she bangs on stuff and asks 'yea' instead of doing it for herself.

Now we are watching Galaxy Quest and she is bopping around the room. I am going through my fabric stash and separating out the 'tiny bits' from the 'probably can do something with this' pieces. Mark is on his way to a nap - he washed the dogs yesterday and between that and a lethal meatloaf overdose he is ready to take it easy now today with the library sale books he bought. Grandma gave us two pieces of fabric while we were up there yesterday - after the towels get done in the laundry I'll wash one of them and see what goes well with it to make something for Esme.

Heavy boots, lounging and pretend phones

This picture doesn't look like much - but Esme gets behind my sewing machine and grabs this old laptop carrier bag strap and pretends to call Grandma and Grandpa on it like a phone. She carries on conversations that I don't get all of but definitely sound like a phone conversation in structure and some of the words. Why does she pick this of all things? She even has a 'dead' cell phone with no battery in it but she chooses to 'call' on this. Does she think it's the seat belt in the car, a phone, or remind her of both?

Even better - she's done this enough that I've been able to catch pictures of it! She hardly ever repeats her pretends often enough for that!


wearing Daddy's big heavy steel-toed boots
a few months ago she would get in them but couldn't move at all!
now she goes all over the house and sometimes gets stuck in corners (she can't turn around yet without getting out of them) and cries frustrated until we come rescue or her or she gets out and turns them around with her hands


poking in the closet in the boots
don't know why but I liked this picture


completely transfixed by Shaun the Sheep
sitting and lounging on our bed pillows drinking watered down juice

She was so tired but really wanted to watch her sheep DVD - her ultimate favorite show so far. After Shaun was over she was completely crashed and went to bed with no fuss at all. That isn't usual for her!

All of this after completely going overexcited over Grandpa and Grandma giving her a KFC chicken leg at their house tonight ;) She ran around our house for a bit after we got home then when she asked for Shaun she started to droop more and more until she was nearly asleep!

Giant Rabbits sighted at our Lake (not really)

Those rabbits are getting mighty large!


Traffic jam

lake monster!

Finished making the second pinafore dress for Esme

I weep for literate humanity when I read articles like this one on 'how to make clothes for your toddler' But then, I know there have to be some people who need the precautionary elements like 'don't let your toddler sew clothes, it can be dangerous'... so maybe they're on to something. And for those that this kind of information is common knowledge, along with 'you will need scissors sharp enough to cut fabric' - we can have a giggle or two.

I finished the second pinnie dress, all but the buttonholes again. I put Esme in it to visit her grandparents and it fits much better than the first one - still some gape at the armholes but not as much. They said she looked like 'a real little girl' in a dress - she is a real little girl ;) but she did look like Gretel or Heidi wearing it, very cute and 'storybook'. Next thing will probably be some more shorts again. I like having a hobby that is productive.

There are a few things about making that dress that would make a USEFUL article - like how the inner facing of the bodice attaches to the frilly sleeve in such a way you can hardly see it yet it seals the edges in nicely. The same thing with the waistline but I haven't made that happen perfectly yet. There is a lot to learn from these older patterns.


details on the second pinnie dress

I only had a 'fat quarter' of the teddy bear and locomotive fabric. I've been saving my piece for a while - I bought it as part of a set of fat quarters last December. It's Japanese, but it says in French on it 'The train has arrived, we are going on a trip' and 'We will end and exit the train in a forest of apples' My translations are not perfect ;) but I think that is the gist of what it says! The plaid fabric was a pair of curtains in the remnants box from the yard sales. I used red thread on the cream bedskirt fabric to make fancy details on the sleeves and the waistband was hand sewn onto the bodice.

made with this vintage pattern

of forks and Shaun the Sheep

Esme just got done eating some ravioli with her little salad fork. I'm watching her closely but letting her have the metal forks more and more. The plastic ones don't pierce skin or her food... and she gets frustrated with them and starts using it as a spoon. She has the metal forks figured out. A while back (I can't find it now) we saw 'awful X-Rays' on Fark.com where one showed a toddler boy who had fell on a fork at a family picnic and it went into him just below the eyebrow and above the eye -- he survived and kept his sight but SCARY. How many of us, however, learned to eat with utensils and didn't have such an incident? Most of us. *go knock on some real wood somewhere*

Now, after a good amount of ravioli and apple juice, Esme is watching Shaun the Sheep again. We'll more than likely get sick of it sometimes this century - but it is her favorite. She can even ask for it by name. She asked for Starfall today, too - first by asking 'E, O?' to Daddy on his computer and then when I asked 'Starfall?' she nodded and climbed in my lap trying to say TA TA. Even though her words aren't complete she is trying to say so much more and it's communicative - we understand her etc...

I have all but the waistband, skirt and buttons done on the second pinnie dress. Going to go make some more coffee and decide what I want to do with it. This is the part I both have to decide what fabric to use for the skirt and also decide how I want to alter it so the armholes turn out better. Have to work tomorrow but then four days paid vacation off! Yay!



blurry pic - but this is the Shaun the Sheep style sheep toy I made Esme. She likes it and says it's a real sheep, compared to white-faced sheep that she looks at with confusion and says baaa? uh uh!

Raining Little Girl Blue ;)

We tried to go for a walk today before supper and it rained on us! Daddy had the camera and caught this picture before we went inside. Esme was so mad! She really wanted to go for a long walk.

Esme's blue crayon drawing went up for sale in my shop today. Mark said she might have a career ahead of her after seeing this on the easel.. haha we'll see ;) It's worth a try, it does have 'something' to it.

I worked on another pinnie dress today and went to Grandma's house for a while this morning. We watched 'Milo and Otis' again and I think Esme understood a lot more of what was going on than the last time we watched it. She was talking about the dogs and cats and other animals to us while she bounced between us on the bed.

Saturday morning

Esme just started in with 'real' copying maybe two weeks ago -- picking things up from one saying of it, etc.... Before that she would take a few times at least to pick it up - a common phrase like 'where did it go' or something we say a lot like 'juice cup' etc... Now she is picking up words from TV, repeating things we say to each other with pretty good accuracy and remembering them long enough to use it again in a proper situation. She is trying to have real conversations and come tell us stuff about things going on across the room - things she wants to do etc... she did that before of course, but more with signs and pointing.. now she is using words and using them pretty well to get her ideas across.

The other night with her 'move doggie butts!' comment was hilarious. And last night we were mimicking Mitzi's kittens going 'mew!' because their mom was out and they were being loud and noisy about being alone and Esme wakes up in her bed and says 'mew?' three times. I told her she was a good girl. Then when I gave her a diaper change she asked me for 'shirt (so I can go) outside' - and got really loud about that over the course of ten minutes. We finally did get ready to go "outside in the dark" and walked around with Daddy and the dogs and the flashlight for a bit. She was saying things like 'tree', and 'star' and 'doggie' and 'truck' and tried to say 'house' and 'upstairs.' She threw a tremendous fit when we put her back to bed after that... but eventually went to sleep. I told her we would bath and grandma's house in the morningtime... let's see if she remembers when she wakes up!

I bought some more plain tan poplin to try another pinafore - with some printed fabric from my stash for the waistband and embroidery on the front maybe... we'll see. Esme is getting bigger and I need at least a yard now to do anything except shorts for her -- my stash is shrinking in the terms of full yardage -- mostly scraps and half yards. The other pinafore dress was made from two stash half-yards and some other lining fabric to make up the difference. It was hard finding something 'pretty' to make it out of!

Blue ruffly dress

First attempt at the pinafore dress. It's a bit brightly colored ;) I was afraid the size 2 pattern would be too small - but actually looks like there is room for growing into it. Made with this thrift store pattern.

I measured and weighed Esme again today - mostly because she had smacked the scale against something and it was broken for a long time. She smacked it again today and I noticed it was working again (weird how that happens). She weighs 28 lbs and measures somewhere between 32 and 33 (wiggly!) inches tall. The height charts say she's shorter than average... but I think she's just wiggly. Everyone who sees her thinks she's so tall and older than she really is.

Busy busy day

eating popcorn with Grandma

Turn off the gravity Daddy!

I had the day off from work today and we did a LOT in town today. We went to the thrift store (my work jeans were getting bad - and wanted to check their patterns too), library, tractor supply, meat store, bank, post office and also to get fried chicken. That is a lot to do in one day!

We also stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's before dinner - trying to retrieve our puppy Iggy but it didn't work. She missed out on a pork chop dinner because she didn't come home! Grandma was making popcorn when we were there and Esme likes it.

One of the scores from the pattern section at the thrift store.

Simplicity 7197 toddler pattern 1975, pinafore, dress and pants
I like these old patterns because they are versatile. You can do so much with what they give for pieces and lengths. Plus you usually end up with a high-quality piece in woven cotton fabrics with facings and finished hemlines. A lot of the new patterns are one or two views with 'no thinking required', and corners cut all over the place. Add that to the nostalgia of these being things like my mother had when my sister and I were little and you can see why I lean towards these 1970 patterns :)

9/16/09 - worked quite a bit of the day on the dress in the upper left of the pattern - taking it to work to finish up the buttonholes tomorrow.

link to the post with the finished dress

Lake

Mark brought Esme down to the lake today and took some pictures. She was carrying around hickory nuts.




These are the cream cotton shorts made last night



Mark said this was a 'miracle shot' with his camera. The lizard was only about an inch long.

sewing machine fix and looking for ribbons

I took the sewing machine apart again after I got home, pulled out the manual - and put it back together correctly. Before I cleaned it the machine was collecting 'structural' lint and dirt in the carriage under the bobbin. That is a hard piece to get back in right after it is out. I think the machine wasn't working after that because I had the bobbin carriage not quite lined up with the spring that makes it work - and the needle plate was not screwed down entirely, which both led to too much free motion in the bobbin, which made the threads not lock together with the right timing. After fixing all that, it still didn't quite work right - so I took out a new needle from an unopened package and oddly, that fixed the rest of the problem.

I completed another pair of shorts for Esme - a nice cream colored cotton that had once been a fancy bedskirt trimmed with lace, but had ended up in pieces in someone's scrap pile at the yard sale finds. As I tried it on Esme she said 'oooh!' as if it felt really cool. I used a simple colored thread around the bottom of the legs in a decorative stitch - and it looks pretty on the plain cotton.

Doing simple decoration on the pretty cloth makes me want to find some interesting grosgrain ribbons and decorative embroidered ribbons. So often I resort to a pretty print or combination of two fabrics, and I'd like to try a few more 'elegant' things.

I bought some eyelet a few weeks ago I've yet to use. I'll have to look at the ribbon in the next few days to get some ideas. Mountain of the Dragon on Etsy has quite a few pretty embroidered ribbons and this ribbon is close to what I have in mind. This shop has some beautiful ribbons, including this green daisy ribbon.

sewing machine

My sewing machine was acting up last night - so I took it apart and cleaned it. It still isn't working quite right, but I'll have to wait until after work to mess with it more. Now the 'jumping' it was doing from stuff clogged in there isn't happening, but the stitches won't interlock either..... maybe I put the bobbin carriage in wrong? Maybe the needle is bent from using it with stuff clogged in there? Not sure... this is a case for Columbo.

so far so good

Feeling better today -- went to work and took it somewhat easy all day. Haven't felt nauseous again today except once when someone offered me a piece of pizza. Renee at work said I shouldn't drink milk if I've been feeling nauseous - only makes it worse. That doesn't work for me - everything else available when I thought of it made me feel sick - so I drank the milk anyway and felt fine. When I forgo coffee for milk though, you know I'm not feeling good!

Funny little things - Esme recognizes the 'Shaun the Sheep' song when Mark whistles it and she says 'sheep!' - she also tried to hum the tune herself. She seems to be feeling fine and is happily watching 'Shrek the Third' right now. She loves the kitty.

Jackson headache

I had to go to Jackson today for a training session. All day I've had a headache that just keeps getting worse. It was so bad it actually made me throw up tonight after smelling some soap in the bath. I hope this isn't the flu. We'll be watching Esme closely as well.

Green shirt and goggles

Green birdie shirt and pink goggles

Daddy wear them!

Mad Scientist Goggles!


Food please 'cook cook cook!'

Pitcher Hat

Caught these shots as she was running around the room today... silly kid! Mark thinks I should make her a tall pointy hat out of fabric and/or paper.

Notes: Too cute stuff:
green ribbon
green paisley fabric
green plaid fabric

I bought some scrap fabrics from one of the yard sales and found some interesting cream cotton with lace edging. Trying to make up Esme a shirt with it on the bottom.

Comparison of baby photos

My mom has this labeled 'four years old 1984' but it looks younger even than some of the others she has marked '3 years old'. Recently someone on Facebook posted a picture of our kindergarten class photo and my hair was much much longer in that picture and the three-year old pictures... so I'm guessing this is probably about two years old. This is also very similar to the dress (if not the same one) she has me in at my "first birthday party" pictures, which also makes me think it is younger than four!


This was Esme a few months ago - she's not quite two even now. She does look a lot like I did as a kid - but there is something in the eyes and cheeks that is definitely from Mark's side. She also has Marks' 'vulcan' eyebrows.


labelled 'Christmas 1983'


Kindergarten 1984-1985
can you tell which one I am?

Pics - apron prototype

It's just a prototype - and considering I've been cleaning the floors in the house and doing laundry with no care of what my hair looks like today I think Mark took some pretty good pictures. I won't say what he said to make me give him that look though! (HA)

I need to make it wider at the sides (the pattern was a size 'junior petite' and I did some alteration to it, hence the funny stripe in the middle where I tried to expand the bodice and then put it back together... ) The neck wasn't supposed to be piecemeal like that - just an accident of how much fabric I had left etc... I think with what I'm seeing here the next one would be pretty close to 'good' and I could focus more on finishing the edges nicer, decoration, pockets, fabric choice etc...

I had Mark's mom try it on, as she is 'petite' like the pattern was meant for - and I'd need to move the neck up quite a bit but lengthen the bottom of the bodice to keep the waist in the same place. For me, the waist could have probably been lengthened some as well. Also, maybe move the back ties to the waist but that was the best placement when I tried it on.. looks funny from the side.



Iggy Pop Pup is really growing up
love the 'caramel drizzle' effect she has going on
Mark is less kind, he says she's 'rusting', he should have bought the undercoating

Iggy Pup as a baby
Iggy in June (just three months ago)

Apron

Just finished my first prototype apron - no picture yet. I altered a 1970s shirt pattern that looked like an apron. I'm fairly happy with it as a functional item - but it needs a few changes before it can be 'my' pattern. I made it out of part of an old flat-sheet and a scrap piece of purple fabric, both in bold stripes. Mark says the fabric pattern isn't very flattering ;) but for a prototype, it doesn't have to be.

It took about two hours to make and a bit over a yard of fabric ... have got to think more about the amount of fabric needed and what kind I'd use if I would sell them in my shop.

I also had a lady customer where I work draw me an old type of clothespin bag she used to use and can't find anymore. I'd like to try to make a few of those, too.

thirty mile yard sale

We went to the thirty mile yard sale and got some cute things! A few clothes for Esme, a bit of electronic gadgeta for Mark and a box of sewing patterns for me. My goal was to find some sewing patterns and/or some old shirts worthy of recycling into clothes for Esme. Yay, I found both and a few tshirts and pants that will fit her now. I also found an old metal barn toy with lots of plastic animals (some are too small for her to have right now - but some of the horses are big and she likes them) Mark also found something his father and mother were trying to find for a while now.

A moment ago Esme was continuously getting herself stuck in the cat-tent pop up toy and then fighting hard to get back out... then getting right back into it. She has had three cups of juice today so I think that was a huge sugar rush showing itself. Now, after screaming her head off for about the fifth time not getting out of the tent - I've put her to bed and she is napping. I'll probably make chicken when she gets up and start some lasagna for tonight, maybe.

so cute things

The other night I had called my mom in Minnesota and Esme had taken the phone to talk to Nana, I told her after a bit it was 'time for night night' and Nana on the phone told her 'yes Esme time for night-night.' You should have seen the shocked and betrayed look on her face - the phone isn't supposed to say that! I did go put her to bed a bit after that.

Today I made her another shirt and she is sitting in her room after eating chicken - she is paging through her books and trying to eat food on the pages, neighing at the horses etc etc... She is so funny lately especially with things she says. She was telling the sheep in her Shaun the Sheep DVD not to climb on things - or go over walls. I can't duplicate what she says but it means 'don't do that' and sounds like DA NA but all run together. She kept shouting that at the sheep whenever they did something she thought was dangerous or when they were dancing in a way she thought was silly. When the DVD was done she said 'sheep all done'. I also love it when she sees something she thinks/knows is food and she goes 'chomp' with her mouth as if she is about to bite it. Silly kid!

I have to go to work in about an hour. Friday off - need to do a lot of work around the house but so hard to know where to start.

Temperatures dropping

It was 69 in the lower level of the house this morning (71 upstairs) and wow Winter is already trying to come upon us on the first day of September! I'm glad I'm starting to make Esme more clothes - will need to start using more warmer materials and putting on sleeves. It still gets to 80 and sometimes 90 during the day outside - but at night it's getting to pajama and blankets temperatures. At the same time that we don't turn our air conditioning on high in the summer we don't turn our heat on high in the winter. Nothing like the Paris apartment, though, where if you look back in the blog you would see 50 degree mornings inside and sometimes even less. Mark likes his heat much too much to ever let that happen! haha I often call him a 'creature of fire' and he kids that I am an 'Eskimo woman.' Maybe Esme will fall somewhere in the middle or have some super-hero range of temperatures she can endure (just kidding here)

I dug out one of Esme's old baby quilts last night and gently laid it over her in her crib. She still hasn't quite learned how to use blankets - should have started her earlier but was afraid of all the warnings about kids not having pillows or blankets in their cribs. She often wakes up and throws it off when I do put one on her. This morning she kept it on but was awake after a few hours.