While She Naps

it's been crazy

Wow, this has been a nutty few days. Tons and tons of sewing - more sewing in a shorter amount of time than ever, perhaps.  Exciting stuff happening with all that. 

And it has been "camp Mommy" here. So far we've been to the zoo, Walden Pond, paint-your-own-pottery (actually going to paint-you-own-pottery seems to have proven for good to Roxanne that "sometimes dreams do come true!"), the aquarium, and the swan boats.  Plus lots of playground time, and home time and "crafting around" making projects together ("crafting around" is Roxanne's term for making stuff with mommy). Oh, and swimming lessons, too.

I got the kids white canvas covered magazine holders at the Container Store yesterday and we are going to spend some time drawing on them and decorating them today with the goal of having one in each child's room to hold all their library books at the end of the day.  We have this perpetual problem of having library books get mixed in with our own books and then not returning everything on time.  I'm really hoping they'll buy into this and it will save us on some library fines.

And this beautiful book came out. 

I have a pattern in here for a circus elephant

and another for a patchwork horse. 

I can't tell you how lovely this book, and the original Softies, is.  Great photographs, meticulously edited, just fun to hold. This book is published by Penguin Putnam Australia.  I'm not sure how people can get a copy other places, but if you know please leave a comment so we'll know.

Okay, the results of some of the sewing marathon. Five drab birds

and three blue birds. 

Yes, those feathers are teeny tiny hands.

All of these will be mailed to Three Graces Gallery in Portsmouth, NH, tomorrow for the opening of the Teeny Tiny Art Show next Friday, September 5. I will be there and I hope you'll come say hello. I am hoping to spend some time over at Nahcotta for the Enormous Tiny Art Show, too. 

I recently got this amazing book, The Art of Manipulating Fabric by Colette Wolff. I remember reading about it somewhere, maybe on Joybucket?  Seriously, I love books like this. I've mentioned here before that I cannot take a class at this time in my life.  I have to be home with my girls and that remains my biggest priority.  So when I find a book that is like a class, I go crazy.  Designing the Doll and all of Susanna Oroyan's books were like this for me.  I have only just begun savoring the pages of this one and thinking about how to experiment with all of these new techniques.  I'm so excited.

School slowly phases in next week for Roxanne, and even more slowly for Stella the week after next.  Most importantly, Wellesley College starts classes this week so my amazing babysitters are returning!  Ahhh.

a tidy studio

This is my desk today.  It is so neat and organized. Hooray!  I even took down my inspiration boards and cleaned them off and put up my current inspirational images.  And there is room to work.  To the right you can see my machine, off in one of the two window nooks in our bedroom. The other nook looks like this now

I seem to have a lot of glue. 

There are art supplies and books in there that I've held onto for nearly 20 years and that I still love.  And now I can see all of it!  We still need to get to Ikea for shelves that will line the other wall and will mainly store fabric and wood, but this was a major improvement. 

I have many, many pending deadlines now and I must get to work sewing birds.  I am very good at time management, but I must say I was a bit stressed laying in bed last night thinking of how many places need to get birds between now and November.  And then I have a spring show to think about, too.  But it is good stress.  Creative stress.   

back from Vermont

We are back from a great trip to Burlington, Vermont.  We rented a three-story loft downtown on Church Street and had lots of fun shopping (Sweet Lady Jane was my favorite store) and eating (Al's French Fries!), hiking through the woods

and swimming at North Beach.

Shelburne Farms was amazing.  Charlie lovingly held two live chickens (and one adorable Stella)

and Roxanne is now addicted to smoked cheddar made from milk from this cow's mother.

And coming home was good, too.  I gained renewed energy to clean out my studio. I'm almost done and it feels so good.  All the books are organized, including some great old sculpture and doll-making books I forgot I had.  I found my flower press!  Another hour or so of organizing and I will be ready to start sewing again. 

little girls in dresses

Let's just say the dresses were well received.  They are totally thrilled with them and it makes me so pleased.  This morning, before presenting them, I made each one a matching hair accessory - a fabric yo-yo with a fabric covered button as the center, sewn to a ponytail holder.  The combination of a new dress, in fabric of her own choosing, with matching hair tie, just about made Roxanne speechless.  A rare occurrence indeed.  And even prompted the above photo, an ever so rare (maybe twice in four years?) hug for her sister. 

half way there

Three of six drab birds are finished.  I think the next three will be warmer shades. I couldn't resist a few brown and taupe fat quarters at the fabric store on Saturday when Roxanne and I went to pick out her dress fabric. 

Speaking of the dress, it is also about half way there and oh my is it bright.  I'm excited to figure out how to make and attach the ruffle.  And I've promised my niece a blue dress.  As I feared, now that I've begun sewing children's clothes I cannot stop.  Any suggestions for super simple dress or pants patterns? 

drab bird #2

Slow but steady progress on birds.  As camp winds down I have only the evenings to sew, but they are lovely quiet evenings with my ipod and little piles of drab fabric. 

Roxanne saw Stella's dress and wanted me to make one for her to start school with, too.  We went to the fabric store together on Saturday afternoon and she picked out wild rainbow fabric with hearts and stars.  Four-year-olds have daring taste.  This dress will have the addition of a ruffle, in orange stripes!  She is beyond excited about it. 

Yesterday was my birthday.  I am now 33.  Strangely, I had forgetten how old I was mid-way through this year and thought I was already 33 so it doesn't feel a year older to me.  My brother and his family were in town yesterday so we had them over for lunch.  Then we took the Subaru to the dealership to drop it off for service and on the way there we saw a double rainbow.  It was the kids first rainbow and so perfectly formed and so clear.  On the way home we saw a fox running through our neighborhood. A good luck day.  And Charlie and I went out to Oleana in Cambridge for dinner.  Tasty.

a new dress for Stella

My littlest one is starting school in just over a month.  She will be at the same nursery school with Roxanne, but just two mornings a week from 9-12. And she is raring to go, asking me every day when she will be going to Room 8.  I feel that this is a perfectly good excuse to her a new dress.

I got this fabric on sale from Karaku Fabrics Etsy shop specifically with this purpose in mind.  And I added a wide linen strip at the bottom, which I think looks rather nice.  I hope she likes it.  Who could say no to cheerful bears riding bikes and scooters through town?

Okay, back to the real sewing stuff.  A second drab bird is coming to life, slowly but surely.  These are fun to work on. I have a great big pile of drab fabrics, some of them teeny tiny scraps that I've held on to for years.  Each bird will be different because I only have such small pieces of fabric left, but all of them will have the same overall feel and the same color palette. 

I don't think I've mentioned that I am back on Weight Watchers.  I've lost 15 pounds since the weather first started to get warm and I feel so good.  I am very nearly at my goal weight.  I am coming to learn after all these years that I need to be a weight watcher forever. I love to eat and I love food.  I like cooking, shopping, reading about food, looking at food.  And I am not a fat person, but I will help myself to too much if left to my own devices and slowly over time accumulate those extra 15 pounds.  So vigilance, people. As our meeting instructor says, it's the power of a 1,000 tiny choices.