vacation bits with pictures

 patchwork pattern pillow

unusual shape but it was fun to make

 zinnias in pniks and yellows in our garden

 gladiolus that were in need of bringing in

simple turquoise dress for school

her closet is actually getting 'full' now.. maybe just a few more to go and we'll be well set.

Esme and I baked a pan of cupcakes from a scratch recipe, and I have two pairs of plain blue pants (with different scrap for pockets) on the table today.  I am building a castle in Minecraft which is something I would not normally have time to do...  soon Esme wants to bring some of the cupcake to Grandma and we'll see about how the rest of the afternoon unfolds...

vacation bits

Took Esme to the library today, then for a scoop of ice cream.  Sewed the turquoise dress for her school clothes today, worked on her blanket some, finished a patchwork pillow for our bed out of some scraps - pretty design, unusual.. will take pictures tomorrow maybe.  The gladiolus is blooming and beautiful.  I saw silks on some of our corn.  Got a good amount of food out of the garden, cucumbers, peas, beans, radishes, zucchini... more than one meal for me - cooked some turnips as well (from the store) and put them in a jar with the leftovers in the fridge.  Esme was a little sour that I didn't play in her room with her more, but even if I had played twice as much she wouldn't have been satisfied.  It was quite hot out, and we spent more time inside than she wanted.  We watched the first disc of Frontier House and enjoyed it.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Mark! - although I have to work today.  Esme would say it if she could read better but she means it all the same :)

I found a white peony bush at work yesterday as the non-official gift for him (we will have to look hard for the roasting pans during vacation!) and we will have to decide where to plant it.  Seven days off begins at five o'clock!  We were thinking of moving the zoo trip up to Tuesday because of free admission day... but Mark thinks it will be too crowded and unsavory at this point of the summer... and a chance of rain...  so we will probably still go Thursday.  I need to get a plumbing valve for Mark's mom as well tonight after work...*reminder* to do some work on her faucet.

Working ahead

Another dress for the school clothes.. the puppy has already put a hole in one sleeve but I think I can turn them under a notch and hide it.  I have some blue fabric that is set aside for another dress and then scrounge in my crates for some more to make pants out of.  Back to work today - vacation starts on the 17th.  After I had finished this and was putting the zipper in Esme inspected it and said 'Ok, now you make one for my baby from I grow up, ok?  Do that.'  Daddy and I told her she could make her own dresses for her babies when she grew up - which was a long time from now.. but she wasn't happy with that.  It takes a 'long time' and that is not something she likes now.  We watched Harry Potter again and I think she still has a false sense of how fast things should grow up.  She told me in the kitchen that plants grow up 'like this' (get down on floor and spring up).  And puppies grow up, but slowly... it takes a long time.  And then I asked her about how fast she grows up.. she said 'just a little bit.. a tiny bit.' 

She did get in trouble for doing headstands on our bed and knocking coffee out of my hands and all onto the blankets yesterday... we were just about to watch the movie and she was over-excited.  I rarely yell harshly at her but warm coffee (luckily not hot) on me, blankets and a notepad I was writing in did get my tone of voice where she was hurt by it even after apologizing.  She stalked off and took a nap in her bed for an hour. That was for the best, as when I got her back up and made food she was in a fairly good mood all night.. ate most of her dinner, played Minecraft, watched the movie off and on and then kissed and hugged me goodnight early and bopped off to bed with her Mr.Frog to feed him his bug dinner before sleep.

dress alterations: shortened skirt from last one, added pocket, shorter sleeves, split only back and side pieces and did not use front skirt piece.  Gathered one 'back and side' skirt across the front, split the other and gathered it across each back bodice.  This method worked really well last year and it still gives plenty of room without the 'gown' look of the full skirt.

Purple Gray dress for Kindergarten

 Probably a touch on the 'formal' side - she said it was 'just like a gown', but it is the same basic idea as the other dresses I made for her last year, and which she wore to preschool.  This was fabric I had on hand and a remnant from her other dress for 'pretty'.  I had some pink fabric I wanted to use but it wasn't washed and dried yet.  The fit is just about perfect so it should be easy to whip up a few more time permitting.

I played with the front pleats a little because the back pleats were SO full... hopefully it looks like a happy medium.  The sleeves on this work out the most perfect of any pattern (this is Butterick 3600 again, size 6 with very few alterations, copyright 1960).  The zipper up the back does make it really easy for her to put on - doesn't sound like it would, huh?  She can get her head and arms into it without any 'trapped' feeling and then come to us to pull the zipper up.  It fits on a hanger nicely and she is learning to pull the zipper down to get the hanger out.

A few more of these and she will be ready for K this year - and a few new pairs of pants.  As Mark said last night, she will be 'teased' by those kinds of kids no matter what she wears - and this works for us on all levels.  Until she asks for something else in particular I'll sew her some high quality well-fitting clothing and send her off in it and we'll see where she leads me about it.

For pants I'm using size 5 Simplicity 6583 copyright 1974 and it is a perfect fit, as well - just the right length and with a 21 inch elastic in the waist.

Interesting:  We are watching 'Colonial House' on DVD borrowed from Grandma, and I am examining the set of their sleeves, and the arrangement of pleats and tucks while I was sewing this dress up at the same time... ironic :)  I know that those clothes were made by hand by someone for the show - but I doubt they were made specifically for those people, just to a general size.  The people on the show think the clothes are uncomfortable...  I am making these dresses for Esme because they fit her better and last longer than storebought..

I'm sure the insides of the 'period' clothing are much less simple though.. and multiple layers would not help with comfort, and being in an environment full of bugs without air conditioning in the heat or heat in the cold adds on to that as well.

Garden Pictures

 A lovely bee in our garden enjoying the petunias and lantana

 The flowers are starting to bloom and spread... this is the 'pretty' part of the garden.

 Some smaller pollinator lifeforms enjoying the cucumber flowers.   We might even get some cucumbers in a week or so.. saw one or two just beginning.

Today's haul from the garden - this is the second haul of this type, sweet peas, beans, tiny zucchini squash.  It was a nice combination before cooked up.. going to cook it later.

In other news:  Mark and Esme and the dogs found a turtle up at the top of the road and Mark brought it in and put it in a box for the night to save it from the dogs and from his mowing this morning.  He took it back out this morning after we painted 'L2013' on the top of its shell in small letters in enamel paint.  I remember my mom said she did that when she was young and found the same turtle years later, still living there.  An hour or so after Mark had taken it out and released it back into the wild (where he wasn't going to mow) Esme came running through the front door with a purple clover plant saying 'I have a gift for the turtle!'.. but the box was gone.  She was so flattened.. stalked dumbfounded back to the door, out to the porch and sat holding the clover and looking at it like 'I didn't get to say goodbye'... what she told me when she came back in was 'It was a gift... it was a gift.'  So sad, and sweet.

Spud puppy is up for leash training.  It isn't working very well.. but we're trying.  He went to town yesterday and got everyone to feel sorry for him at the flea market.

I made Esme another pair of pants, and need to kick my butt into gear on the pink dress fabric.  She washed her feet in the bathtub all by herself yesterday (self sufficiency) .. which is progress.  She asked me this morning what 'passengers' meant.  After I told her it was anyone in a car, truck, train, plane etc that wasn't the driver she thought.. then came back with some story about all the passengers would crash and fall out, and die and the girls would be witches and the boys would be vampires and mummies, who were not mothers, but dead boys wrapped up in string - that is what mummies are... and we would all have to run away from the passengers.  ??  At least they are words, lots of words!  She is asking for a lot more definitions now and using them, which is excellent for her.  She also got into her Minecraft after I reinstalled the computer and is trying to rebuild things.  She asked me in her 'long rambling HUH' type fashion to rebuild the things I had before on my world 'The thing that is really tall and open and they fall and they are at the bottom and go WHEE they are hills and we go down and up them and you can build that one more three more times, ok?'  Hmm... well, I'll build something ;)  I think that means she wants my minecart system back...but that is what we are up against sometimes, still.