night night

i like how this photo conveys the dreamy softness of the nightgown. don't look too closely at the handiwork. and try to ignore the SLEEVES. do you see how gigantic the are? but the glorious thing is that i made them! once the pieces were cut out, you should have seen me trying to match them up to the body of the dress. even while sewing the second one together, i was sure there was a good chance i'd done it wrong. it just sorta muddled up my head for some reason. thank goodness warm weather is here and i can make some sleeveless tops.

lately

Alright, I realize that lots, maybe even most, of the online journalists whose sites I visit have children and still seem to get lots of brilliant things done. But I don't seem to fall into that category. My littlest is already 9 months old, but I feel like I'm still going through my days like the mother of a newborn. So few things get accomplished without it being in teeny little increments spread out over the day. And those things are just laundry and dishes and getting the kids fed and bathed and dressed and fed again. So I'm trying not to be so hard on myself about the lack of creative projects going on around here. And I know that I don't have to wait until I complete something in order to post, but I don't get around to doing much done at the computer right now either. A pair of tiny hands likes to crawl up next to me and push on the keys when he sees me typing. And a pair of three year old eyes spots me sitting down with the laptop and begins to request various videos or pictures she wants to see. I can't very well say, "Hang on, Mama has to write about how much stuff she has to do."

Moving on, I am eager to sew a few skirts and maybe a dress or two for Anna very soon. I decided I'd begin with a nightgown since she's eager for a new one and it's a good way to get some sewing practice in without putting too much pressure on myself. I wanted something super soft and lightweight. I was having trouble coming up with the right fabric and then finally came upon an old dress in my studio outside that's hanging around with a collection of household goods we got when cleaning out an estate for a friend of a friend. (We scored with that deal---even got paid for getting all of the amazing goodies out of the house!). So I took the old dress and did a lot of cutting and used the soft, soft, pale sea-green fabric for the nightgown and I worked in some elastic around the neckline for the first time. I sewed that part by hand, mostly in the car on various family excursions. Anna put it on yesterday and although she really likes it (which makes it successful in my mind) it looks like it's made for someone twice her size. I'm going to have to do a little nipping and tucking and hopefully I'll figure out a way to do this which will allow for me to undo my tailoring so that she really can wear it when she's twice her present size. **I'll have to wait til later to add a photo**

3 baby gifts

photo no. 1: i l*o*v*e this fabric. i ordered it from someone off etsy and now can't remember who. (the baby was sleeping and the bib is sorta big, so sometimes you have to do everything yourself.)

photo no. 2: this burp cloth was made from things i had on hand: a white flannel crib sheet and my favorite bird fabric. the back is made from a receiving blanket (see photo no. 3). the bird pocket was a last-minute decision but i'm happy with it. what's that? did you ask what one puts into a pocket on a burp cloth? oops, running out of time and must move on to photo no. 3!

photo no. 3: teeny bib made from soft soft receiving blanket. this blanket was one from a pack that i'd received for the second baby and i really really didn't need any more receiving blankets. but i thought, maybe i'll do something with them one day; perhaps a gift? and usually that just results in another bag of stuff sitting around waiting for me to do something with it. but this time, this time, i made good and i've used that polka-dot blanket for about 4 different projects already. hurray!

i suppose i should have photographed the snaps but they're not visually exciting. just snaps. and don't mind the pointedness of the second bib. anna likes to step on the pedal of the sewing maching and have me say, "Okay, go!" and then, "Stop!" sometimes, her foot stops a few seconds after my command and there are a few hints of this throughout. oh well.

with love from finland

fevers and croupy coughs have been haunting us for a while around here, but in between, i was able to throw together a few things to make me feel a little less unproductive. we were the happy recipients of a collection of dollhouse furniture from finland last week and when anna asked me to make blankets and pillows for the bed, instead of just talking about it and never following through, i went straight to the sewing machine and let her pick out fabric and push the pedal and even pull some stuffing out of the open cushion on the chair that really needs a foam insert rather than the leaking stuffing that she's always tempted to pull out. soon we had made the little wooden beds much more inviting. she and her daddy have been sketching out ideas for a dollhouse that he will soon make her. and now i'm on the lookout for some dollhouse figures that are halfway cute. they're all so creepy! there are a few from magic cabin that are okay but they're nearly $20 a piece! but even without a house or proper dollhouse people, anna is having fun with her new toys, setting up tiny teaparties for whoever will fit in the little chairs, arranging the pieces to resemble our house, and making up stories.

i also finally conquered the task of setting snaps in the bibs i made for a friend's baby. i never figured out the snap-setter tool that i once used years ago. so i pulled out an old wooden spool and a hammer and after two attempts, got the snaps in place and they look...real. and i finished up a burp cloth to go along with it. i'll post pictures tomorrow, God willing.

did i mention that i cast on 40 stitches while standing with an almost-20 pound baby on my hip the other day?

that's all for my accomplishments as of late. but i had to list them so i'd feel a little more upbeat about our recent state around here, getting so little sleep and always needing more from the store and barely getting dressed by dinner. i'm hoping for a week of healing.

new

i am finally using mozilla firefox rather than safari and i was able to upload a picture for my header. after how many months? safari was terribly unfriendly to me and i am so happy to say that we have officially broken up.

i never really intended on my first header to be a photograph of an air raid. how did i go from a sweet picture of anna's little red keds to this? i'm not really sure. i had to think fast and get it done and there it is. and am i at all happy with the placement of that title? no way. of course not. but do i have time to figure out how to change it? it doesn't seem possible to do it with blogger tools. or am i wrong? amy? help? i guess i'll figure this out, too. but i am so happy with firefox because the little icon for adding a link is FINALLY visible and i won't have to type in the code. hurray!

today is warm and sunny and i am so so glad. but anna woke up with a fever and has been in bed most of the day. she did come out to eat a popsicle on the front steps and pick a few dried pod-like things from the enormous butterfly bush which is begging to be pruned. and now she's back asleep.

today is DAY 2 of OPERATION MAKE ELI FALL ASLEEP ON HIS OWN. it's going fairly well. just to know that he can do it gives me hope, even if it does take 10-12 trips into his room to resettle him. and it seems to have caused his naps to stretch out as well as the time in between. we've suddenly gone from 3 naps to 2 and maybe soon i will be putting him down to bed and not waking him for a late feeding. this means that i will maybe be able to get to bed before 11/11:30 for the first time in almost 8 months.

Easter weekend was lovely. we went to the georgia state sacred harp convention. anna had an easter egg hunt in a cemetery and eli crawled in the grass without eating too many sticks and leaves. we saw many people we love. i suppose it is high time to write a bit more about sacred harp but i'll save that for next time.

one week ago today, i spent the last hours i would spend on this earth with my grandmother. i am so grateful that i knew that these might be the final hours. i'm not up for recounting the entire story, but i will say that i am feeling very peaceful about her passing. God's timing was perfect, as always, even if there are a few pieces in the plan that still seem a bit mysterious. i was able to hold her hand and sing to her, pray with her, stroke her hair, kiss her soft cheek, and lay my head on her lap. she remained so still and quiet, but gave me signs to let me know she could hear me when i spoke into her ear. i have to believe that she knew i had come.

i grew up next door to my grandmother and spent many days out of every week with her. in all of my 32 years, i have spent every Christmas and every birthday with her. and so many days in between. we were alike in many ways and she has influenced me greatly. she was my biggest fan.

success (rice)

i decided against the zipper pouch. or it decided gainst me. i haven't sewed in a zipper in about 10 years. the last one went fine but now i'm feeling quite intimidated. the zipper package has directions, the pouch pattern has directions and the manual for my sewing machine has directions. they're all a little different and all for the same task. this i do not like.

so i poked around and found inspiration for making a rice pillow at wise craft. (i'm still learning the etiquette that pertains to the blogging world so i hope this is the correct way to go about giving credit where credit is due.) a little ironing and a wrinkly few yards of material that came from who-knows-where resulted in some fabric that i now want to make everything out of. i'm horrible about liking something so much that i don't want to use it. (or is it that i selfishly don't want to use it for someone else but never make things for myself?) i altered the pattern a little, making the outer cover removeable so that it can be thrown in the wash. i was really pleased with the results of this first attempt at making a rice pillow so i went ahead and cut out pieces for three more: one for anna (who also liked the results so much that she slept with the first one i made and requested one of her own as i tucked her in), one for an out-of-town guest who was coming to stay with me for three nights, and one to have on hand for a last minute gift (!).

one of the best parts of this rice-pillow-making experience was how i was able to work while my children were awake and either involved or otherwise being helpful (well, eli wasn't all that involved or helpful). after the pieces were cut out, i wanted to get right to sewing but it was time to feed eli. i put him in his chair and perhaps my longing gaze at the project, all ready to go, inspired anna to offer to feed her baby brother so that i could get back to work. so for a good 10 minutes, i sewed away while she dished out the sweet potatoes and he smiled from ear to ear at the attention he was getting from his big sister. later, after he was cleaned up and in bed, anna sat at my side, asking questions about how the sewing machine works and working the foot pedal for me. only a few stitches here and there were a little out of control. i love my little helper.