Mushroom Villagers

We were able to get out this weekend and accomplish some major yard work- at least for us.

Livvie took a 4-hour nap so I was able to spend just about the entire day outside. We started off the day getting a load of dirt from our favorite dumping ground- Grimm’s. We took our hoop-D trailer and filled her up as much as she could hold. The kids love watching the huge loaders, trucks and mountains of dirt get moved around.

We headed home and got to work planting strawberries, peas (again, since our earlier planting hasn’t been doing well), begonias, impatients, and geraniums. We also cleaned out our front bed which I have wanted to re-plant since we moved into our house. I LOVE it! It’s empty, clean and ready for something new.

I wanted to show this picture because it shows Chris’ favorite yard tool- our plant mover. During high school, he worked at a small nursery which used old lawnmower bases to move around their inventory. After moving into our house, Chris immediately went to the recycling center and picked up an old, heavy lawnmower. He removed all parts except the metal base which is basically a large, flat surface. We have used this thing for many, many plant moves and I’ve come to rely on it as well.  You don’t have to move the plant high into a wheelbarrow or anything like that.  You simply scoot the plant carefully onto the base and wheel it where you need it to go.  It’s strong, stable and low to the ground.  We’ve just about moved every rhododendron, tree and shrub using this little contraption.

I’m getting anxious for summer and want to plant the garden and flower seeds, but it’s still chilly and the ground is very wet.  I can’t wait for some r & r next week with just my kids and after that, summer will be just around the corner.  I love May!  Vacation, Mother’s Day and my 35th birthday- it’s a good month isn’t it?

My plants have been ignored lately with all of us sick and I actually had one die on me.

I’ve had these african violets, christmas cactus and rosary plant for years. I don’t know why, but they like me. They bloom all the time, require very little maintenance and water- we get along well. Chris has given me a new violet with the birth of each of our kids so when one rotted because of too much water, I was crushed. I couldn’t believe it died because of too much water, but something was wrong. I need to re-pot all of them asap… as soon as I feel better.

Meanwhile in the next room, the legos have taken over the train table.

I know, there’s ALOT.  And if you can believe it, the boys still don’t think we have enough.  Say what?!

My blog is one! Wow. I totally missed my blog anniversary which was March 13th. I can’t believe it’s been a year already. I remember the night I discovered the world of blogs. What an eye-opener this new world has been for me. I have loved every minute of it and know that I will be a part of this for a while yet.

I look back at some of my sewing I was doing then and am sometimes embarrassed. I remember when I bought my first new sewing machine. I remember when all my fabric, batting, notions and patterns actually fit inside my cabinet. I remember when I posted everything I made…

Today, things are different. I’m drooling over a new sewing machine. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to buy one of those beauties, but a girl can dream right? (Really, the Bernina Aurora QE is THE one!) My Janome is great, but it’s a basic machine and has limits- like sewing through layers of fabric. I’m also seriously looking for a serger which I thought I’d never really need. I have so many projects going that I can’t keep my sewing table clean for one day. I’ve tried some embriodery, picked up knitting again and have written tutorials that other’s have actually used. I’ve met many talented people and continue to be inspired daily.

The best is having Chris plan out- on graph paper!- my own sewing/craft room which will eventually be in our unfinished basement. This means I’m sticking around this sewing world for awhile and am getting a wonderful permanent space to do it all in.

So thank you for taking the time to comment, read or just browse. It’s been a great year!

So have you planted your peas?

We had a great day on Sunday. We actually made it to Mass which is really an event in this house. I hope we can continue and make it more often. It feels good and I think it’s important for the kids and of course, for us. It just helps with everything, don’t you think?

The rest of the day was spent outside getting the garden beds going and planning out which veggies will go where. The kids’ favorite are snow peas so we must make sure those get planted and we almost didn’t make it this year. We usually plant in February, but you know, how that goes.

Ms O is telling daddy just how it’s done. Like everyone else, she enjoyed the warm weather getting downright dirty helping clear branches, rake and plant.

It’s supposed to rain the rest of the week, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny day. I can’t wait for Spring!

My little boy has become a t-shirt designer:

Augie drew this drawing of Great Grandpa. Chris added the lettering and screen printed the whole image on t-shirts for all 16 great grandchildren.

We gave these away when we had this year’s double-Augie birthday party.

I think they turned out wonderful.

Chris has gotten pretty good at these over the years. He made his own “press” using this book and also makes his own screens. Here he is in our laundry room which he has turned into his shop for this project.

The process seems to be pretty easy and fast, but I really don’t know too much about it. He started it the night before: ironing the shirts, exposing the picture and making the screen. Then the morning of the party, he whipped them all out with plenty of time for drying.

Yes, my man’s got talent.

I sure hope you and yours had a wonderful Christmas!

Around here, things were CRAZY! I was sewing right up to Christmas day and didn’t have time for anything including laundry, cooking, cleaning and least of all blogging. Crazy I tell you.

And yet, this has been the best Christmas I can remember. The kids really got into it with the decorating, cookie baking, and present making. The best is their total belief in Santa. We don’t talk much about him around here except to say that he’s a very generous man who brings every kid a present. We’ve never made them sit on his lap or brought up the naughty list thing. It makes things a little less complicated.

So, we got all dressed up and thanks to Auntie Mary, they ALL matched this year:

How cute is that? I kept thinking all night long, how darn cute they were all dressed up.

Christmas day was filled with lots of surprises and lots of chocolate. And if you live anywhere near the NW, you know that we got an extra special treat that morning- SNOW!

Chris claims that it’s snowed on Christmas day only one other time that he can remember so you can imagine the excitement. It snowed for about 3 hours and there was enough to have a great snowball fight, but everything melted by the time we got ready to go to Grandma’s for dinner. Perfect.

I hope your Christmas was great and filled with many moments of happiness.

We decorated this morning. After seeing so many Advent Calendar’s out there, I was really missing mine. Now before you scroll down to see the picture, know that this was made two years ago when I couldn’t sew a straight line to save my soul. It’s loosely based on a very loved one that my MIL has and that I’ve admired for years. I sat down and tried my hardest to copy hers, but came up with my own version:

No, the picture is not crooked.

It’s the calendar.

This thing is *seriously* off kilter, but let’s just call it good. It’s about 22″ x 36″ and made entirely out of felt (crappy felt, because I didn’t know there was any other kind!) The numbers are just glued on to the pockets and we use straight pins for sticking the figures on the tree.

The kids were fighting over who gets to see what’s in today’s pocket and so far on the tree we have the a star (that’s always gotto go first, eh?), a train and a razor clam “gun”. The rest of the pockets contain everything from presents, little animals, everyone’s initial, fruit, and of course Santa and Baby Jesus.

Since we are catholic, our calendar goes to Epiphany. We also have the four advent candles with tiny felt “flames” to be put up with each week as well. So all in all, it’s a very thorough calendar. Maybe someday I’ll make another, but I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of this one since it already has so many wonderful memories.

Another decoration I wanted to share are these teeny paper doll ornaments I found in Chris’ Grandma’s stuff years ago while sorting through boxes after a move. Everyone wanted me to toss them, but I couldn’t bare to throw out these mini little people.

I’ve never put them up before, but I found the perfect spot this year so out they came after I think many, many years in a box. (For the picture, they are in my kitchen on the “snack table”, but really they are displayed in my living room on a picture frame shelf. It’s too dark and rainy today to get in a decent photo in that part of the house.)

I’m so excited to see them out! Each doll has a hand drawn face and it looks like they just used a pencil. They stand less than 3″ tall and have pipe cleaner arms, but I can’t figure out what their faces are made with… maybe paper-maché?

On the bottom of each one, it’s just stamped “Japan”, but it looks like they were all riped off of something else that was paper. I wonder where she got them from? Grandma passed away this summer so it’s nice to finally get these out and remember her.

She was a Lady. Yep, that’s with a capital “L”.

After working on the Cap tutorial, I wanted to work on something that didn’t take much thought. Since Thanksgiving was over, I thought it was the perfect time to start decorating:

I almost gave up on these because at first they looked very crooked and sloppy. I thought about changing my idea to something more like this, but Chris vetoed the idea claiming that “flags” belong on “Big Ford car lots”. We argued discussed the definition of a bunting which I guess will always be just a bird in this house. I returned to my stars and with a little stuffing and pinking, I finally got something that looked good enough to hang.

I also was able to do a little bit of shopping on Sunday. It was hard with all three kids in tow and one throwing up all over himself in the car. (Oh, how I hate getting puke out of a carseat’s cracks and crevices!) BUT, I managed to get some fun stuff:

I love Martha’s colors and splurged on some very cute punches. I even bought a stack of printed paper at Joann’s who had a sale for only $.10 a piece! Maybe all this will inspire me to actually send out Christmas cards this year… maybe…

To all who came to our shindig on Sunday, a big no huge Thank You! We had a wonderful time visiting, celebrating and eating. Although the weather (IT POURED!) was horrible for cooking underground, Chris and Nana managed to pull it off with excellent results.

The Prep:

(click on photos to go to my Flickr for details)

The Lovo:

The Feast:

I think we had over 60 people crammed into our house or under “Tarp Town” on the deck. Ms O was such a trooper enjoying every minute of all the attention she received for her birthday.

Back to the sewing side of things:
As you can see, I was able to “fix” her dress if you can call it fixed. The neckline on this pattern is terrible. It calls for finishing the neck with bias tape, but the neck so wide, the fit is awful. You think I would remember this even after making this exact dress 3 times and all 3 times the fit was the same. But no, I forgot to add a little to the neck and cut it out before remembering. In the end, I added another inch like a cuff to the neckline and put in elastic to try and match the arms. The dress looks like a moo moo, but she’s so cute, she pulled it off … with her matching shoes. I also made the shirt I have on which is so comfortable and easy to make- Built by Wendy pattern #3835. This pattern was great because it was simple and fast. I was able to make two in one evening. The first one I made needed a few adjustments, i.e. snug in the bust- yes, everything is tight in that area! And a little too short in the sleeve length. I made the adjustments easily and love the fit now. I made one out of linen (above picture), and one out of Kona cotton. I never know what kind of cotton to get to make clothing since there are so many types- Kona, Egyptian, Quilting, etc.. Any suggestions on your favorite? I picked one based on the color and feel, but I guess that’s all that matters anyway.

So after all that, I’m itching to set up the studio again. Did you see my new badge at the top? Yep, July is “Bag Month” over at Sew Mama Sew so gotto get going on another one maybe something like this with patchwork and more pockets than my others. Have you seen this lady’s bags?- Amazing! They are all so beautiful and creative. I love her style and colors she chooses. I may be visiting my favorite shop soon so I hope to pick something out there for my new bag…

In the meantime, try a Lovo in your backyard!

Here’s a look of what boys think of Sorrel:

Hey, at least they were willing to try it! It’s like sour candy- makes you pucker up, but you keep eating it:

If you can believe it, they even went down to the garden and picked another leaf to eat!

Then we painted:

I know Eddie’s artwork looks like he has some “issues”, but I assure you, it’s just a cave.