We like celebrations. Years ago, when the boys were small we started celebrating 1000 day milestones. We don't have a big party - just a special dinner, cake, or pie - something special to mark the passing of the day. These celebrations are fun because they are not annual events. They are also at different times of the year than the person's birthday and sometimes even catch us by surprise. B has a spreadsheet on the computer to figure out everyone's 1000 day schedule but we do need to remember to check it every once in a while.Today, D, my oldest, is 7000 days old. We are off to take him out to dinner to celebrate. P will have her 2000 day celebration NEXT weekend. I recently passed a 1000 milestone but we won't say how many thousand.What special things does your family celebrate?
Hide and Seek
She says it is no longer a good tree for "hide and seek".
A Day at the Park
If the weather is nice,
P and I sometimes go to the park after school.
I find lots of interesting things to photograph.
I like the old paint and textures of the worn equipment.
P likes the park too.
Mondays at the park can also include an interesting "Bench Monday" shot.
Making Faces
I hope you all had a great weekend.We were busy with pumpkin carving,
trick or treating,
playhouse priming,
and a little quilting.
Fall Fun
We had a beautiful and busy weekend here. We got the inside of the playhouse painted. P says it looks like a dorm room inside now - small and white.P also did a little fall decorating. She put pumpkins on the porch and decorated the house with leaves.
She did this while the rest of us were on the other side of the house. I don't know where she gets her ideas, but I like it.
We also harvested some of the Indian corn, put our pumpkins by the road for sale, and made progress on a few other outdoor projects.I hope we have another good weather weekend coming up. D will be home for fall break.
Weekend Sewing
Last week I checked out Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing from the library. I have been reading about it and seeing projects made from it and wanted to have a look myself.I love that the pajama pants pattern includes sizes from child to adult. I made matching pants for me and P. out of flannel I have had for over five years. I think I get bonus points for using the old stuff don't I?
I used Kwik Sew 3042 for P's top.
I love the way these pajama pants fit. They have a trim cut and are not as baggy as some others I have tried.P is thrilled with her new pajamas!Today I have officially started my holiday sewing. I stitched up another pair of pjs for someone's Christmas gift!
I have my eye on some other flannel that has been in the sewing room for a while for some more pj pants for myself. I just may start to see some progress from this "cleaning up the slow way" business.I am still on the hunt for a pajama top pattern that I like for myself. I am not so good at scaling up a pattern from child size 5 to adult. Just ask D. I once made him a pajama top that was more like a tent.
Hand or Machine?
I finish most of my quilts with machine quilting. Sometimes I think a quilt is worthy of the time it takes to hand quilt it. This top already has many hours of work in the hand applique center and the pieced borders.I love the way the double saw tooth border turned out. It really is straight but for some reason it looks a little wonky there in the upper left.
I am leaning towards machine quilting this. It might be because I am feeling a little unproductive lately and want to finish up these lingering projects and start NEW fun things.One of my ideas for this is to machine quilt an old fashioned grid over the applique and everything. But, something in me sort of wants to hand echo quilt around all those flowers. But then, again, hand quilting the saw teeth with all of those seams does NOT appeal to me at all. Maybe I should let it rest for a week or two until I settle in to the new fall rhythm.The first week of school has just about done me in. I am NOT used to getting up quite so early. The bus comes just after 7:00. Yikes. That is early to get a five year old up and ready for school. The return bus gets here at about 4:00. That makes for a very long day for a kindergartener. You would think I would be able to get lots done during that time. But, no, I have been running around doing errands most of the time. Maybe I'll feel better about it after I am more caught up. I had saved up a lot of things until school started thinking that I could take care of them easier without little Miss P. So, I guess I have been productive, just not at the things I am wanting to do. One of those errands is an appointment with the eye doctor. Maybe some new glasses will help.How are you handling the change of season, back to school routine?
Memories
August 30, 1987. Mountain Lake, Virginia.Borrowed 1958 wedding dress.It is amazing that we still look JUST like this!
How'd That Happen?
Time sure flies. It is hard for me to believe that M will be a senior in high school this year. We had a little senior portrait photo session this week. I think they turned out pretty good but I think I could do better. He had is wisdom teeth out yesterday so I'll have to wait a while to try again.
But really, how did this little squirt on the left
turn into this so fast?
Fresh Picked
Nothing says August like fresh picked sweet corn.
College Tours
Since M will be a senior in High School this year we have been doing a little college campus touring. We visited Rose Hulman, Illinois University, and Purdue last week.
Rose Hulman was very small but had a lot of sculptures around the campus.
I really like college campuses. All of the touring kind of makes me wish I could go to college again.
I guess I'll have to stick to things like quilting and knitting retreats and experience college vicariously through my children.
The Color Purple
I did a little secret sewing earlier in the summer which I can now share with you.
This is a twin quilt my sister and I made for our niece for her high school graduation gift.
Between the two of us we had a lot of purple fabric scraps. We each made half of the blocks.
We hope she enjoys using the quilt in her dorm. She says it has ALL of her favorite colors.The design is the same as this quilt I made for my nephew a few years ago.
Attracting Fairies
This spring P and I started a flower garden over by her playhouse. She has been hoping that the fairies would like it well enough to move in. She has been working to attract them. She has put interesting rocks in the garden.
Most recently she added a shell.
The plants have started to fill in a little.
She is thrilled that some of the plants are getting more "fairyly".
Just look at these Jack-in-the-Pulpits. How could a fairy NOT like that?
And don't these hosta flowers look like little dancing fairy skirts?
The other day we found THREE mushrooms and the following flowers that we didn't even plant!
Johny Jump Ups must be very fairyly. Just the name sounds like it.
Little Miss Petunia is VERY encouraged.I'll let you know if we have any fairy sightings.
Beat the Heat
Everyone has their own way of dealing with our recent heat wave. P thinks it is good to wear wool tights when the temperatures are over 90 degrees!?! Doesn't she look cool?
Our not so beautiful ceiling fan in the sewing room becomes a truly beautiful thing.
Water is also refreshing.
Breaking the Rules
I told myself that I wouldn't start any new projects until I had worked my way through some projects in the UFO pile. Well that didn't last long.P's new baby doll was cold so what is a grandmother to do but make a socks and a hat for the baby.
I am OK with my rule breaking for the following reasons:1. It used up all but about 8 inches of the yarn left from Petunia's Rose Dress. (cleaning up the slow way.)2. The project was finished in a couple of hours and did not add to the UFO pile.3. The baby is no longer cold and Petunia is happy with the new items for her doll.4. The little socks are just too cute not to like.
P still wants more items for the new baby's wardrobe but for now these are enough. She has discovered that the new baby can also wear clothes from her other doll. They are a tiny bit big but they work. 
I also could not believe that in my huge collection of doll clothes sewing patterns I did not have a single one for a 12 inch baby doll. Not a single one. How did that happen?
A Couple of Raisins in a Cup
I really enjoy spending time with P. I love hearing her observations of the world around her.
After our recent rain the weather has been cooler and crispier. The mosquitoes have even been taking the days off.Yesterday, P and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon outside. We took the picnic blanket, a stack of books, the baby doll, some knitting, the camera, cups of water - you know, the essentials- out in the yard.
There we were, lying under the edge of the plum tree looking up into fluffy white clouds on a sea of deep blue. It was beautiful.P said, "We are like a couple of raisins on the bottom of a cup."What?She went on to explain that the air was the cocoa and the clouds were the whipped cream on top.Yeah, it was just like that, a beautiful relaxing afternoon outside.
We stayed out until the mosquitoes started to find us.While scratching the latest bites she said, "Putting bug stick (liquid antihistamine) on bites is a good thing to do... unless they are bites from a crocodile or something like that."Yes, she is a very wise child.Do you have any good childhood wisdom to share?In the mean time, I hope you feel like a happy raisin in the bottom of a cup.
Fit for a Queen
P said the other day that she wanted to make the space under the stairs a "queenly place" for queens, princesses, and fairies. I have helped her start the transformation.We went through my bins of thrifted fabrics and linens and found a green toile tapestry of birds and leaves to hang on the wall and she chose a few other fancy items for decoration. We also draped a large piece of red and white damask fabric across the opening.
D installed some hooks for her to hang some "queenly things." and B fixed a lamp for light.
She says she will draw some queenly things to decorate the backs of the stairs.M has fun getting in there and playing games with her.
Overall she seems thrilled with the space. It is fun to have a doorway to such a magical place in my sewing room.
Eventually it will be a storage space for me but for now, it will be a place fit for a queen, or princess, or fairy, (or maybe even a mermaid she says).
Bonus Room
Look what we found when D took the wall down!
It's a Bonus Room!
I think I could store a lot of stuff in there, although P has her eye on it as a play space. We shall see.Oh, and the fun never stops with the new sewing machine!
Pesto Time
We braved the mosquitoes yesterday long enough to pull the garlic scapes. We added some to our dinner last night but there are still quite a few left.
I'll be making and freezing some pesto today.I quilted some yesterday and finally got in the groove with the new machine but I ran out of the thread I was using in the bobbin. I will have to wait for more thread to get the whole thing finished but I like the way it is turning out. It is a beautiful thing when the tension is right and the stitches look great on BOTH sides of the quilt. Sigh.
Today is a cooler, crispier day so we are heading out for a bike ride around the block. Our block is over four miles round trip; not that far, really, but considering that I haven't ridden my bike for over five and a half years I think it will be far enough for me.
Easing into Summer
We've been keeping busy this week with some very important activities. We have baked and decorated a birthday cake,
Flown a kite,
Enjoyed the flower gardens (I love these salmony pink poppies),
And even worked in some sewing time. I had this top pieced, pressed, and folded just in time to take to my quilt club last night.
We are all looking forward to the end of school on Friday! I know M will be glad to be out of school like his siblings. I hope it will be warm and sunny for our annual Last Day of School Visit to the Ice Cream Shop.
