Ever have one of those weeks where you can’t remember sitting? Definately there.

We did the lemmonaid stand for Anthem yesterday. I am not sure if this happens outside of Richmond, but kids sell lemmonade to raise money for Children’s Miracle Network. The girls had a grand time. I am pooped.

Earlier this week we did Peach and ginger preserves. We now have 5 1/1 pints. Amazing how 17 peaches can turn into so many jars. Today I am doing blueberries. Next week, tomatoes. Our are no where near ready, but my husband frequents the 17th street market downtown and has an in for a bushel of tomatoes. He could talk most anyone into selling something cheap…a scrounge that man.

So this morning I decided to sit at the movies. This morning the girls and I took the grandparents to see Kit Kittredge. A lot of fun, especially the clothes. Little sis had a hard time with the plot, but the clothes kept her interested. Just look at the button on the purple dress!! Here she’s wearing an amazing hat with a rose on it…hard to see, but it would be a lot of fun to try to do.

And does anyone else think the Kit doll looks a lot like my friend Becky from the 70’s? I wish the price was about the same…there really isn’t an affordable doll that looks like a little girls. Babies, yes. Prostitutes, yes. But nothing in between for those of us on a budget. Althought the bratz dolls would be ceap to sew for, not much in the way of fabric needed.

I spotted this book over on the Something’s Hiding in Here Blog. This is sooo Japanese.

From the Check and Stripes book

When my sister and I visited my brother last summer in Tokyo we definitely noticed we were overly colorful…everyone there in western style clothes was so muted. Navy, cream, lots of linen. The most fascinating thing was that a lot of the teenagers dressed in the traditional yukata when they went out to party. I have a few my grandmother bought when they lived over there…eventually I need to pull them out and do somehting with them.

I bought several Japanese sewing books while there. They are all incredible. The bookstores had huge selections. All of them are about the same size, and range from traditional to western. All for under $15 dollars US!

My favorite thing was that so many of the upscale department stored had sections that specialized in trims: lace and vintage buttons.

This is a total substitute today. I had planned on sewing all day, but Little-Sis was up all night with a stomach bug, which means I was up all night too. I have learned not to cut up things while sleepy.

I am in love with this dress:

It is from Bowden.

The funny thing is I wouldn’t hesitate to sew something like this for the girls, but I am totally chicken when it comes to sewing for myself. I’ll wear stuff I knit all the time, but somehow sewing on a bigger scale I see every flaw.

Which is a total shame, since I will not have $128 for dresses any time soon.

I have way to many knitting projects in the work as it is, then I had to go and spot this:

This is from the Ramblings of a Knitting Obsessive blog, which I love. Isn’t it cute? The directions seem pretty clear, so maybe once I finish a kids cardigan, some baby hats, a pair of socks and a new vest pattern I’m working on…

I really need a cardigan, my old one died, and I think this would look good in green….

I used to love laundry. Before the kids-BFK. Laundry was the one chore I could start, finish and put away, and not have to think about for a whole week. And it gave me an excuse to watch bad TV. Of course most chores were more enjoyable, or at least less constant BFK. Plus there was more bad TV.

My current embroidery project
Monday = Laundry

For the first few weeks after big-sis was born laundry was a dream. In my memories I am sitting on our sofa in a sort of Doris Day haze, you know, fuzzy golden light flowing around the new mother. I remember folding all of the onesies, and washcloths and socks and thinking how perfect it all was.

For me growing with the girls has been fast trip away from perfect. Not that that things were ever prefect before, but I had all these delusions of the perfect environ the girls would be raised in. Hah!

Inevitably I woke up one day and looked around. She had a lot of tiny onesies and washcloths and socks. For the past seven years it has been a never ending stream.

me doing laundry in July-try not to stare at those shorts, eek!

Over the years our laundry habits have changed. We recently have started making our own laundry soap-I’ll post the recipe and explanation tomorrow. I try to dry as much of it outside as I can. Over the summer when I am home with the kids I can get by with doing just one load of towels in the dryer, thank you very much. Not perfect, but manageable. And definitely much better than BFK.

There you are. Sale of the century. The perfect fabric is 40% off plus you have a coupon. But how many yards do you need?

Enter, the pocket sewing guide. This PDF has two pages to record your family’s measurements and four pages to record yardage information from your favorite patterns. I keep it handy when I’m heading to the fabric store, and I know exactly what I need.

Plus, you can tape in small snippets of fabric you need to match.

Pocket Sewing Guide

Print it out and follow the handy folding guide over here at www.pocketmod.com.

Enjoy!

I finished it a week ago, and here’s the shot:

I have worn it a bunch this last week. It’s been chilly!

I generally have a hard time finding pants to fit the girls. The lucky beasts are built like the husband…tall and thin. Keeping a pair of pants from falling off is a challenge.

In the past I have just adapted an old pattern and slimmed it down which never looks quite right. This year I decided to try a new challenge. I am making my own patterns.

I am posting about this here because my family is not nearly impressed enough with this. I felt better starting my Multivariable Calculus course I had to take in college. The husband tried to understand, but really he only managed to point out how messy and smudgy the patterns looked while I was working on them.

The girls like getting measured, but otherwise seem to think this just one more wacky mom project.

Sorry for the photo, it is hard to get a good shot of brown paper. I used old paper bags to map them out. Lots of fractions and percents to get each piece lined up.

We went fabric shopping the other day and picked out:

My plan is to make some capris to carry them to the end of the school year. Maybe a few pairs of shorts. I have been looking at all the sites for children’s clothing (gymboree and such) and Bermudas seem to be in this year, so we’ll try that.

If all this works out I’ll try to include the patterns in the May issue of Handmade Mom. I did enough calculations to get these worked out, someone else ought to get to enjoy them!

The girls and I have been relaxing this week. No school due to spring break.

We got to eat our first salad from the garden last night. Most of the lettuce is store bought, but there is quite a bit of spinach from the garden. We also thinned the radishes and used them in the salad…the whole plant. It is amazing how much the leaves taste like radishes.

Here’s the other big project for break:

I finally started on the girl’s spring wardrobe. I’ve spent the last few days making my own pattern for pants…more on that tomorrow!

I have been planning the girl’s spring wardrobe for several weeks now, but we’ve been so busy I haven’t had any time to actually sew. So I have been looking for something to give me a kick in the pants to get started.

Here it is: Primrose Design has been posting an amazing Stitch School. I love this. Her pictures are so clear. I used to collect all these embroidery dictionaries from Colonial Williamsburg when I was a kid. We visited my Grandmother in CWE every year, and they published these tiny books of stitches. I loved them. The instructions at Primrose reminds me of a lot of the stitches I used to find in these books.

I especially want to try the Italian Stitch along the edge of a pair of capris…or even up the side.