Britton's Quilt

Another one of my sweet, little nieces had a birthday this week! They grow so fast. I can't believe she's already four. Well, the last time her mama, Betsy, came to visit, she made me sew some of my scraps together. I thought it only fitting to make her daughter's doll quilt from them.


I cut out a few squares and rectangles from the scraps I had sewn together, sashed them with white, and added a little orange at the top....because I ran out of squares. - and now you know all of my secret techniques!


The really fun part is that several of these scraps came from Betsy's quilt.


So cute that my evil alter ego wanted to keep it.

Oh the Joy

It's been a busy week - to be blogged about later - so I thought I'd come and visit my parents for a little peace and quiet {wink.wink.}. Actually, I think I may just be trying to escape my purple polyester obligations - more about that later too.

My lovely Mother (pictured below with cousin Lulu) obviously sensed I needed a break. We got a babysitter and went shopping. What could be more relaxing than spending money. ...if your kids are at home, it is relaxing.


You have to hit those seriously child-unfriendly stores on such occasions, and there's a great one in Snohomish - Joyworks.


Me - perusing the shelves of Joyworks....and stop looking at my back fat! Do you see the pussy willow lights to the right of me? I didn't buy them, but I wanted to. When we're at Joyworks, we're mostly shopping for ideas.


Adoring cute party tables...


...wishing I had a more colorful kitchen (I have plans for that)...



...and planning Easter crafts.

I did buy a couple of things at Joyworks - not what I expected to and I will post about it LATER...quit nagging me! (How's that for a run-on sentence?) The thing I will admit to buying today is a new tire. While on our shopping run, mine went completely flat. Irreparable. Huge slit in it. So glad I have roadside assistance. Whose brilliant idea was it to bolt a spare under a car anyhow?

I never learn.

With how many times these kids have taken my camera and thoroughly documented their lives, you'd think I would look through and delete a few images before downloading my pictures. No. I never learn, and today it took 6 minutes to download all of their adventures.


I thought this might have been Jonny's own work (it would explain the fingers in front of the lens)...


...until I saw this lovely self-portrait. Definitely Boo's orange Thomas the Tank Engine shirt.


Remind me to clean my lens.

Cozette's Favorite Games

Cozy is growing so much and having lots of fun developing her talents and interests.

Lately, the thing she enjoys the most is unplugging my sewing machine. It's a great game. She pulls out the plug. I tug it away from her and plug it back in. You can imagine how much sewing I'm getting done.

Another game she has discovered is "fishing for toys". Here's how it works:
First, you reach up into a drawer that's too high for you to see into.


Then, you fish out a toy...


...and throw the toy on the floor, so you can see what you got. A cookie cutter! Yay!


I'm not sure what this game is called. Maybe something like "dump the cupboard"?


The one I actually look forward to playing (as it keeps her out of trouble for a few minutes) is the fall asleep in the high chair game. She was in there 3 minutes - max - before she was out like a light! I guess peas are boring.


The funny part is that James did the exact same thing a couple of hours later - but on the potty! I wish I'd gotten a picture, but I was too busy wiping his rear and putting him to bed.

Goodbye, Tart.

No. I wasn't talking to you. It's really more of a "Goodbye Tart".

Tony left to vacation somewhere Asian, and, while I was sewing the name tags on his new uniform,...


...he made me another Frangipane Tart - to say, "Good-bye. I'll miss you. Get nice and plump while I'm gone." (He says {I love you} with food. What I say it with is much less fattening.)

Anyhow, Sarah totally called my bluff on the last Frangipane Post. The link I provided did not lead to the recipe we used. That was total laziness on my part, and I feel obligated to right the wrong. The recipe we use is from the big, yellow How to Cook Everything cookbook that I made fun of Tony for buying. (It doesn't have a single picture of food in the whole book! What it does have: wonderful, reliable recipes.) I'm NOT going to type it all out, because it's SUPER long. Sorry.




I heard Tony trying to tell Boo that he was leaving the next day.

Tony: James, tomorrow I'm going to leave on a big airplane.
Boo: No, I go on the the big airplane!
Tony: No, Boo, I have to go by myself.
Boo: MY-BIG-AIRPLANE!

I miss you, Honey!

Spring Cleaning - Mamalia-style

Sometimes I think, "If I could just focus on the task at hand, I would get so much accomplished." ...but that isn't true at all. I really get much more done when I'm avoiding the task at hand!

Today, for example, I was supposed to be finishing recital dresses for the upcoming St.Patty's Day festivities. Instead, I spent all day gardening with the kids. Anthony and I replaced a dirty tarp with a fresh new garden bed. (I know, it's hard to see the cute little furrows in the picture.)


Annika helped me plant a dozen prim roses.


Jonny and James shovelled dirt every which way, but I think the end result is still rather fetching.


Really, how could I spend the day inside, when the siren voice of Spring was calling me?


(Those are my crocuses - aka - the embodiment of the siren voice of Spring.)

Only two questions remain.
1. When am I going to sew those dang dresses?
2. Why do I spend so much time on my side yard, that isn't even visible from my kitchen window? Maybe I'll start calling it the "hidden garden".


In other good news, my Irish Moss survived me forgetting to plant it for three months. It looked mostly dead last fall, but now it only looks partly dead.

Conversations with BooBoo

James has gotten a lot more talky lately. ...and everything that comes out of his mouth is super entertaining to me.

Yesterday I was scrounging through my closet for a shirt to run in. Since I'm disgusting AND don't like to do laundry, I prefer to wear whatever I ran in last (if it isn't too stenchy). It was.

Enter James.
Boo: What you doing, Mommy?
Me: Changing my shirt. This one is stinky.
Boo: Your shirt stinky? You pee your shirt, Mom?
No, I didn't. Can you tell we're in the midst of potty training?

This morning, as the littles and I were laying in bed, sunshine streaming in around us, James put his arm around me and said, "You the Mom."

I think that's something like, "You the Man!" - only a feminine version.

Then he said, "You not the robot."

I can only guess at what precipitated this. Dreams about an evil robot mom? General obsession with robots?

Regardless - it was cute.

RoboJon Sighting

Even Fancier

Oh. One thing I forgot to brag on the Green Turtle for...my salad wasn't even on the lunch menu (Tony had seen it on the dinner menu earlier - on the internet) and they made it for me anyhow! {love}

Fancy Livin'

Boo is getting his first taste of "fancy livin'" (in other words, eating at a restaurant without plastic cups). We took him and Cozy with us to The Green Turtle in Gig Harbor.


I'm not sure he's ready for it - since he dipped and licked his fingers in the cream that accompanied Tony's bread pudding.



Actually, I'm probably only slightly more well-mannered than Boo, since I dipped Tony's bread pudding in my creme brulee. (We almost always go halvsies with our food. Smaller portions. More variety.)

Besides, this...


...plus this...


= Yum!

I know what you're thinking - why are we eating out so dang much? I blame AM radio. Tony heard about Sound Savers on MyNorthwest.com, and he just can't seem to pass it up when those already half-price certificates go on sale.

I liked the Green Turtle. It was small, had a great view and a very good poached pear salad with curried walnuts.




Here's to fancy livin'! - I'm off to my extremely UN-fancy lifestyle!

Chloe's Quilt

For Chloe's birthday I took a request (from her mother, not her) and made a somewhat retro, feedsack-esque doll quilt, with a traditional pattern. I had been wanting to try some bow ties anyhow.


I LOVE the backing, which is courtesy of my lovely Mother-In-Law. She saw a good sale and ordered me some very cute patterns. I've no idea who they're made by, but they're called "Mama's Cottons". It even sounds perfect - I know!


All bundled up for gifting. These next couple of months are SUPER busy for birthdays. I honestly don't know how I'm going to keep up. Maybe I can outsource? ...or start my own sweat shop?


The incredibly lucky thing about this quilt is that I totally unwittingly matched it to my niece's bedspread! Complete serendipity!

Somewhat Bee-lated

Our family is afflicted by bad puns. It's entirely genetic. We can't resist the urge, so you'll just have to excuse me.

I got the Alabama Stitch Book from the library quite some time ago, but never got around to doing any of the beautiful projects in it. They've just been floating around in the back of my head for a while, waiting to manifest themselves somehow. Why Rachel was the target of those manifestations - no idea. Maybe I knew she was brave enough to wear whatever I made.

So...when her birthday came around, I started cutting...


...and sewing...


...and embroidering...


...but not finishing it in time for her birthday.

I gave it to her, a somewhat belated gift, this weekend.


...complete with name tag...


...and sleeves I stole from another shirt.

Happy Bee-lated birthday, Rachel Bee!

Workin' My WIPs

We just got back from Portland and fun times with family and ants in our hotel room (a few tried to stow away on Cozette's carseat - much to my horror) and I though I'd do a quick post about my WIPs.

Can I just say - it took me billions of years to figure out what W-I-P stood for! (I'm not super savvy. If you are slow and steady like me, it's Work In Progress.)

As for my WIPs, my house contains copious amounts of them at any one moment in time. We are never WIP-free. (It sounds like I should call an exterminator, doesn't it?) However, these are my deadline-less, recipient-less sewing WIPs. The ones that do not stress me out.

They're both made from "Jolly Packs" (purchased at the Fat Quarter Shop). Jolly Packs aka charm packs are an assortment of pre-cut, 5" squares, all from the same fabric line. If I buy a Jolly Pack for $8.50, I don't have to buy a fat quarter pack for $40-$60...and I still get to sample the wares.


WIP #1 is made of the blue, red, and gray squares from my Woodland Delight pack, with some Kona solids thrown in. I keep trying to lay it out and finish sewing it together, but every time I do, Cozy crawls right through the middle. ...and no, I can not make my bed and lay it out there.


WIP #2 is from my Nicey Jane pack. Soooo pretty! Too bad you aren't having a girl, Bets! Actually, I may keep this one.

I don't personally care for them as baby sleeping accommodations, but baby cages are a great place to hang up your quilt tops while you're thinking about finishing them.



I followed a disappearing 9-patch pattern for this one. It should have been simple, but I over-thought it. I wanted all of my favorite, large prints to stay uncut, every uncut piece to have a small coordinating square next to it, and I wanted all of the rectangle pieces to be white.

Too much thinking. It nearly ruined the whole thing.


Tomorrow I'll show you what I finished this weekend. Ahh. There's nothing like a long car-ride to help you catch up!

Frangiwhat?

Back in the day, I was a serious Jane Austen addict. (I still read Persuasion once in a while, but, for the most part, I've moved on. You kind of have to - there are only 6 books! Sanditon totally doesn't count.)

Anyhow!...back then, when I was totally obsessed, my husband thought he'd make me happy by baking me a period dessert. Bakewell tart. It turned out great. We promptly lost the recipe and could only remember that it somehow involved ground almonds.

Well, one of us (Tony or I - once again memory fails me)- blessed with a moment of clarity - said, "Aha! Bakewell Tart!" Even the hooligans loved it. Annika said, "Wow, this is so much better than pie!" (She isn't a fan.) Anyhow, we highly recommend it for your next Jane Austen moment, and, if anyone is interested, I'd love to serve it, should anyone wish to join me to play the Jane Austen board game Jeszie sent me.

...and you'll have to read the recipe to find out what the frangiwhat? is.

That Poor Frog

This has been going better lately. More pee on the frog. Less pee on the floor. Poor Froggy.