A Handmade Dress for Esme

I love how the light catches her eyes here.

I saw a handmade dress similar to this one on Etsy - but it was far out of my price range. Plus, I can sew... so I found a pattern similar to it at the local store and made this up out of flea market fabric.

The buttonholes are handsewn, which was the most difficult part. I could do them on the machine if I could figure out which parts to interchange. Somehow I never get around to that and instead spend an extra 10 minutes to an hour handsewing them.



It is a 'swing dress', that is put on over her feet and then brought up and buttoned over the shoulders.



and, even in a 'real-world shot' (not the best lighting etc) you can see the dress still allows her to move around, standing or sitting and playing with her toes. She can even crawl in it without it hindering her movement - although the middle looks a little funny in some positions. It should fit her as a dress for another few months and then graduate to more of a shirt with a simple alteration of where the buttons are placed.

Also: The pants I made Esme a few months ago are still fitting and are in and out of the wash all of the time. Soon I'll need to make a few more pairs in the next size up! I also bought some Alexander Henry dragon fabric like the dress I saw online -- and hope to get a dress and a pair of pants out of it for a nice outfit :)

More Cotton Slug Attack pictures

More pictures of Mark and Esme with the cotton toy slug the other night. I really need to make more but won't get more time until this weekend. I've also got a request to make a 'plush foot' for a sandal company... which I've done one mockup for and need to make another.

Pogo's Children

'Mitzi'


'Alba'
went to a teenage girl and her mom at the flea market
known for melting wholeheartedly when scratched behind the ears

'Mike'
went to a family with a three-year-old boy at the flea market
Laid-back, liked to watch the world go by around him
and occasionally pounce on others in between naps

another shot without the vampire teeth

Gypsy and Mitzi are still with us
We're leaning towards keeping Gypsy because of her coloring
but Mitzi has her mom's attitude

Flea Market Day in Huntingdon

'Free Kittens'

Tuesday is Flea Market Day in Huntingdon. It was chilly this morning. We came prepared to give away Pogo's kittens and sell a few odds and ends. Mark took lots of great pictures with his camera. We came home with two out of four kittens. Here is a taste of the sights we saw (Mark's resolution is much higher but upload times require me to scale them down).


Esme enjoyed herself for the most part
watching all the people and listening to them talk


Kelba came along with us.
She likes to bark and howl at all the dogs.



Someone was giving away free puppies too.


This dog was just going for a ride...


Some gorgeous green iridescent ducks Mark found


And pink flowering trees for sale


And a lovely capture of some purple garden beans


and golden speckled chickens

Homefront

I've sent pictures from our MN trip to my Mom, and a CD of photos and box of toys to my dad in Iowa. We're getting ready to take Pogo's kittens to the flea market tomorrow and sell off some clutter as well. One of Pogo's kittens may get to stay.. we'll see.


Here's Esme emptying drawers.
Isn't that the opposite of what babies normally do? ;)

Every last bit...

Am I in trouble?

Mommy I'm bored now!

Esme is nearly walking around by herself now and is experimenting with lots of new sounds every day.

What Makes you Smile?

Beautiful bowls by a Fargo artist

Sometimes I feel like I need a skylight to shed some light on my head and a big hole in the floor to put all the clutter into until I can deal with it properly. It seems like there is never enough light, yet it is everywhere. And I am craving color - outrageous vibrant swaths of it - and even that is never bright enough. It must be the oncoming of winter or a lack of coffee. What makes you smile when the clutter and bland gets overwhelming?

I look at my desk space and it is cluttered with things that should be somewhere else. But their somewhere else isn't big enough, or has too many things in it that ALSO should be somewhere else. And I clear off a tiny spot to shine some light on and then the rest of it gets set aside for another day.

When I get stressed out I just want to tear everything down to the bare walls.

But in the realm of reality...

'gypsy jewels' bracelet made from Etsy beads
A simple stretch bracelet can bring color with you everywhere

And those wooden bowls made by a good friend in Fargo long ago... finally recovered from storage in Minnesota. A pretty piece of pottery to hold pens, also from storage. These little trinkets have both brought some happiness seeing them again and also made me wonder where else I can put some color and usefulness into my otherwise bland and cluttered workspace.