bits of a Monday off

We had a good night's sleep last night - Esme was in her room with the lamp on, and she stayed there (as far as we know) all night and was still asleep in her bed at 7:30 am. We went to the store this morning to get Grandma milk and bread and a few other things. Esme had talked to me last night about wanting a DreamLites unicorn she saw on TV - but I told her I couldn't find that at the store, but we would look. They didn't have it but we found a bear in the toy section that has a light-up belly - and she said that would work.

I have worked on the winter quilt a bit more, and cleaned up the linen shelves in the bathroom and our bedroom area. With Esme's linens in the black rolly cart in her room now, there is more room in ours - and a LOT to sort through in general. Because of all the moves and changes my sewing area is a wreck, but that happens on a regular basis, so it will be something to sort out later.

I am about to go see if I can coax her down for fish sticks. She is watching cartoons with Grandma after delivering the milk and bread. I am hoping for a better mood for the rest of today, but we will see. I work at ten tomorrow.

//Alarm clock// I bought Esme an Elgin analog alarm clock as part of the order with the chair and bookcase. I put it in her room last night and she saw it immediately, and took it to her bedside table. I told her how it worked and that I would set it for 8 am and it would beep. If you push the button on top the nightlight comes on so you can read the time. She had a grand time with that, but I think she altered the time as well playing with it. She was already up and in the bathtub when it finally went off this morning at 8:30 bathroom-clock time. She pushed the snooze button and turned it off for four minutes. Then it came back on and out she comes from the bath again. I reminded her to turn the alarm 'off' on the back of it - and she did. But, she came and told me that specifically that she pushed the button and it went off, but the 'brown bears and zombies' made it beep again, and by turning it 'off' they couldn't make that happen again. *roll eyes*

Queen quilt, happy puppy and hooks

Warm puppies are happy

Mama has been warm, too. The quilt was finished being bound last night, which means no more pins in it, and I can quilt it as I see fit. It is VERY toasty - thick tapestry on one side will do that! It is about an inch thick, little less in some places. It is a 'rustic' quilt, with hand stitching on the binding all the way around and simple strip patchwork to bound pieces together haphazardly into a large sheet. Yes, part of the backing (which is 'up' at the moment, and may stay up) is a sheet that was a 'full' and would not fit our bed.


'tapestry' side

The tapestry and upholstery fabrics came in a trade on Ebay years ago for some of our hardware equipment. The man's wife owned an upholstery shop and wanted to get our hardware cheaper. Mark worked out the trade and I tried to use the fabrics as well as we could - some of it had monkeys and elephants on it.


A 'rusticly' bound corner
It is handquilting thread and all of the edges are bound inside, so it should wash


The sheet side
The blue and pink rabbit fabrics were scraps from Esme's baby blankets... seemed fitting to save them here


Esme 'painting ponds' on her paper
She loves the watercolors...


A new set of coat hooks

And I had a semi-catastrophe yesterday trying to hang up jackets and get toys for Esme on our storage shelf (6 foot plastic thing). Something up on the top fell down on top of my head and I decided that was IT. Our coats and hats and gloves have been sitting on a shelf there to keep the cats off of them - and the shoes have been in a box by the door, which the cats sleep in anyway.... We will try this setup and see how it goes. The hats and gloves are in the totebag, the scarves are hanging with the coats and Esme has her own hook down low with her things on it. The shoes are temporarily on some weighted crates and I hope maybe to build something better for them in the future.

As I bustled around doing these hooks and cleaning up things Esme proclaimed to Daddy 'Mom, she is BETTER. We are all busies!' Haha. Even as I am coughing up green still at times... it is obvious something may have turned over. I am doing things. Things are getting done. I hope that is all proof a road to this sick being gone.

Blue day dress and Esme 'helping' mama sew

Just another simple day dress I've been meaning to make for Esme. On the hanger it looks a lot like the one she is wearing in these pictures - although I used the pattern from her red dirndl without the dropped waist. The fabric is something I bought in Jackson in December and have really been meaning to use since then for exactly this type of simple everyday dress.

I put the zipper in and put white grosgrain ribbon ties on it after the picture was taken. The ribbon came as wrapping around the blanket sleepers at Christmas - but it is a perfect item for dress ties - just make a little postage stamp of edgebound dress fabric to zigzag securely over the front end and tie knots at the back of the tie. The Cinderella dress (she is wearing) has ties recycled from some other item's ribbon and they were a 'mock-up' at the time when my machine was acting up but have really impressed me in their durability.


sitting on my table
holding her feet after taking off her socks

I can almost feel her getting taller just looking at this picture!

She likes to sit here on the corner of the table now and 'catch fish'. She was pretending she was also catching Pinocchio like his daddy does in the last part of the movie when he is catching fish and catches Pinocchio instead. She said she was saving Pinocchio catch fish there you are! and pretended to reel him in and ask him if he was alright. She has an 'ow' by her eye here - did that yesterday when I was at work and Daddy wasn't entirely sure how because she told him she was 'alright' several times when she was klunking around the room as she does - and then he saw it later. Her expression is almost exactly like the 38months picture I took of her doing playdough - 'what are you taking this picture FOR?' I told her it was for Grandma and then after that she smiled but looked away from the camera and said 'hi Grandma.'


hi Grandma! *giggle*

We haven't been up because Mark is still down some with this cold and we definitely do not Grandpa to get any more of it. Also I was having a bit of a dizzy spell myself when I got home from work yesterday - and it lasted nearly until noon this morning before it let me go enough to start working on projects. I think I've had my head down knitting and sewing too much lately - and am feeling the effects that has on that nerve.



And here she is showing me how much she loves the fabric - and hugging it and trying to take it all over the room. I know it is hard to tell but I really have tried to organize this space some in the past week. I folded and tucked away a lot of the fabric into a plastic bucket, recovered what yarn I could from what had been shoved into a corner and organized the patterns some into 'usable', 'done for' and 'future use' piles. Some of the fabric would not fit, so it is still stacked on the chair, mostly lining material, but that corner there was nearly full of fabric stacked up to the shelf, before... not all of it usable. The plain blue fabric for the dress skirt was one of those stacked on top of the shelf - and it has actually faded a little in the sunlight coming in that window. What a lesson for me! I thought that was a worry only of the past. I probably need to invest in some sort of high-up double-door wall cabinet there for the good fabric to put in and then put a lock on it so Esme can't get into it.

I have tomorrow off as well - but we need to grocery shop. Esme went to sleep very well tonight after I read her four books on the electric blanket on the bed *hehe* that blanket is like knock-out juice for all of us when it is cold. I admit I turned it to medium on purpose while she was sitting on it with me in hopes it would make her settle down some and want to sleep. It worked. After the fourth book she was lying there nearly asleep. I was talking to her about what I was doing - knitting a sock, and then I said I was a mumum good at making things (she nods) like the sock I was knitting and making dresses and pants (nod nod) and I like to do those things. Then I asked her what was Daddy good at? We said Daddy was good at cooking pizzas and chicken and bread - he cooks very well, he is good at that and likes to do that. And I asked her what she was good at - and she thought hard - I said she was good at singing and playing? (she nods) And Daddy said she is good at making bad smells and being loud (she looks confused) I said yes - but we we like her singing and playing. (nod nod) And then I asked her if she was going to go to sleep and she said 'no sleep I play' while her eyes were closing even then.. and within minutes she had konked out.

I bet I'll be being asked to 'come come little feet' at about 6:30 tomorrow morning again...