Sockies

Been wearing my Daiso "socks".

Cozy Rework #2

Back to my sewing -


I finished Cozette's 2nd outfit....

...complete with pocket, since all kid clothes require them. (She immediately stuck a toy spoon in it.)




It has two pairs of matching leggings - one green and one orange. A girl can never have too many pairs of leggings!

This one is from a shirt I bought at Goodwill (because it was just like a shirt I used to have and loved - 2007)...and then I never wore it...because thank goodness shirts are longer now!


So, I've been using a sleeveless summer dress of Cozy's for my bodice template.


I take the sleeves off, gather them until they fit the new armholes, and then sew them back on.


...and I made a big tuck across the back piece (cutting off the excess with my pinking sheers), to even it out with the front...so I didn't have to do ANY hemming.


Happy day.

Karaoke

All of the kids (with the possible exception of Anthony) wanted to share karaoke with Grandma. She thought she'd be too shy...until she realized that we were the only audience.

Sofia an great job sharing the microphone this time. (We told her she could have 2 solos.)


Grandma, looking for songs with Annika.


Anthony managed to bring a book, so instead of his usual air guitar backup, he did this...


Boring.


Everyone else had a lovely time.



-including Boo and Cozy.

Jonny gets dunked

As much as I have been dying to finish all of my little Cozy clothes (and share them with you), they had to go on the back burner while we threw together something much more important - Jonny's baptism.

He's been waiting since July, so that grandparents could come (something about weddings and Disneyland...). No thanks to me (who sort of lost track of dates and ended up having to solicit people to play vital roles - like pianist - at the very last minute), it all came together. Amazingly, the details didn't seem to matter. There was a wonderful feeling in room, as Jonny made this important covenant with his Heavenly Father. What a blessing.

Jonathan was baptised and confirmed by his father....see any resemblance?


It's that genetic mischievousness manifesting itself.

And, amazingly, even without a dozen cousins in the room, my kids were hooliganish. I always thought it was the sheer number of children at our family's baptisms, but all this time it appears to have been the influence of my children on other better-behaved cousins.

Anthony, even a seat away, kept poking Cozy and messing with her hair.


Sofi announced to the world that, "If my violin solo isn't good, it's because I started practicing it this morning." (Secrets, Sofia, secrets!) It was fine, or course.


When she wasn't crying about the brownies (that she knew to be in a basket at the back of the room), Cozette was up helping the chorister lead the music (quite solemnly, if you can tell).


Annika kept "contributing" to talks that were directed pretty much exclusively to Jonny, and James kept begging various member of the family to make him paper airplanes out of the program.

...and yet, it was still a beautiful, spiritual experience for me and my family. Will miracles never cease?!

Wardrobing

I have been very tempted to buy Cozette clothes (beyond the standard coat and sweater) for Fall. ...then I thought about all of the half-started refashions I've been planning for her. So now my plan is to make her a bunch of clothes and then flesh out her wardrobe with pieces she actually needs. I've missed sewing anyhow.

This shirt was my first victim. The picture is from 2007 (and that may have been the last time I wore it). It was always too low-cut on me...and I think my arms outgrew the sleeves. (Sad!)



I had planned on following Dana's shirt dress tutorial, but found that I wanted to preserve the collar...and the gathered sleeve...and it just didn't need the elastic around the waist. Random cutting and sewing became the order of the day.


I'm not sure I would recommend that plan, but I am happy with the results.


What it did need was leggings...that are cut from another old shirt of mine.


I tried to gather them at the bottom. That didn't work so well with the knit. I ended up rutching the bottoms of her leggings with a piece of elastic. Old reliable.


Cute and free - my favorite.

The V

We're expecting a very important visitor this week - my Mom! We're so excited to have her!


In the mean time, we have hosted a couple of tiny, adorable visitors.

SaturFun

I went exploring today. Hunting for my dream fabric store and a helpful nursery (that stocks the plants I want).

With all of the stores surrounding this area, it's amazing that I haven't found a Fabric Depot-ish sewing store yet. Our Joann's here is pitiful, and the Hancock's is even worst. Today I found my way to G-Street Fabrics. They had a lot to offer in the apparel department (especially fine, fancy stuff) and an entire room-o-buttons, but their quilting section was sparse and dowdy. Still, I did find some things I had to purchase....


Boo will love them...and they already match his room....to the degree that it's already decorated (which is not at all, really). It matches his blanket. Good enough.

I had better luck with Behnke's Nurseries (I had a friend with that married name in college - wonder if it's her in-laws?) They had everything I've been looking for (...since July)!

Catmint, which Sofia keeps trying to steal. She wants to lure cats to her part of the garden. (And which I'm feeling a little uncertain about. I wanted it...and now I'm not sure where to put it.)


Ajuga. I bought one that looked like it was trying to spread into all of the pots around it, split it into two plants, and sunk all of it's little runners around, where I want it's prodigy to go.


Once it gets established, it's going to be the weed-guard around our oak? tree out front. Plus, it's evergreen, so it will look alive in the winter, when that tree looks completely dead. (I really thought it was dead when we looked at this house in March.)

Mother of Thyme, for my flagstones...just in case the seeds I bought for next year don't work out. ...and because I couldn't wait for next year.


....and a few other things....but I did resist getting some plants. There are no ferns or black mondo grass hidden out back. Also, I did not purchase the very reasonably-priced river birch. Multi-trunked, peeling bark. It will be mine...eventually. I think I need to keep an ongoing plant wish list. Someplace other than my unreliable brain.

The mums were free...with purchase.


And, while I never would have bought them, I think they look spiffy on my front steps.

In other important news: Taco Bell has brought back their chicken flatbread sandwich...and they have a bacon/ranch version! Try it! It's like a mexican naan sandwich!

My New Mirror

I repainted a mirror - a gift from my MIL's garage. No one but her will be impressed, because I forgot to take a "before" picture. Green. The satin-finish brown I covered it with matches my dresser perfectly.


As you can see, my bedroom is in a state of flux right now. Some of those things are new and some are on their way to other rooms (or Goodwill). I thought I could handle those red poppies in my bedroom...but I just can't. They give me agida


I want to replace them with some homemade yellow silk ones. That I could handle.

Kids are entertaining - you should have one.

Rachel and Co. also sent gifts for the Hooligans (Tony included). Everyone loved their gifts.

Jonny loved and stole Tony's zombie wounds.

James is a pretty decent shot with that little dart gun, so watch out! ...and doesn't he look a bit like a bad-boy 70's cop with those giant glasses and the open shirt?


We did eventually button him up and make him look respectable (...because we were going somewhere.)



Jon said the funniest thing ever today. We were driving to the grocery store, when he asked me this....

Jon: Mom, do I have to do school on my birthday?
Me: No. Your birthday is in July. We don't do school during the summer.
Jon: If my birthday wasn't in summmer? Then would I have to do school on my birthday?
Me: Yep.
Jon: (Crying himself into hysteria) YOU'RE THE MEANEST MOM EVER! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'D MAKE ME DO SCHOOL ON MY BIRTHDAY!
Me: (between giggles) Dad goes to work on his birthday. ...and we'd probably do something fun for school that day....besides, this is all theoretical...since your birthday is in July.

He continued to rant and cry and be sad. And the harder he cried, the harder I laughed. I just couldn't help it. I laughed again when I told the story at the dinner table tonight....and he barely held back the tears. Maybe I really am a mean mom. :)

Shroomy

There was a huge mushroom in my yard. At first I thought someone had left a big dinner roll on the lawn.



It's in a bare, patchy spot where there was recently (before us) a giant tree...whose roots were attacking the house, limbs falling on the roof - that sort of thing. I'll bet it was cute. Anyhoo...the roots that are left in the yard LOVE to grow mushrooms.

There's a similar tree right behind our house. I love it. ...but it recently dropped a huge limb on the roof of our kitchen. (We thought the kids were being super rowdy and jumping off of furniture!) I think a larger limb could demolish the children's rooms (all upstairs, of course)...so it may have to go too. Bummer.

At least there'll still be plenty of shade to go around out back.

Summer Love

My sister Rachel Bee and her man Chet took the plunge this summer.


Despite being warned on the wedding invitation, we still didn't realize that they meant that literally.





I was stuck here, getting ready to send my kids to their first day of school (the next day) and enjoying hurricane season. Bleh.
In typical awesome Rachel party fashion, a soundtrack was provided. -enough copies that children could steal several from me without making a dint.


Thanks for the new tunes, Rachel! Sofia and my's music collection is heavy on break-up songs, so this will provide some a much-needed balance. :) I'm really diggin' tracks 4, 8, 9 and 6 right now! "...it's always better when we're together..."

...and, even though I ditched on her wedding, Rachel sent me the best birthday present ever - totally worth the wait! Tony didn't look very happy that I was jumping up and down, squealing about it being the best present ever...he wishes diamond rings and fancy meals rated as high with me as - ADORABLE PLANT LABELS! ...made from silverware! ....the joy!!



I've already put some of them in my flower bed.

When I saw this one, I turned to the kids and asked, "Ok, who's my favorite?" At first they were jumping up and down with their hands in the air...and then they seemed to reconsider...whether I might be planning to skewer them? ...so I stuck it in by my garden phlox.


...and seeds! Yea!! Thank you!!


I'm already counting the days until next Spring.

Tony's big Korean idea

I may whine about the traffic, and the weather, and the distance from my besties...but there are definitely some awesome things in our neighborhood. My favorite: cultural diversity. I don't mean that in a "we need a certain number of people from each race and cultural background to be a valuable society" way or an "every thing from a different culture is wonderful and acceptable" relativistic sort of way. ...it's more of a "every culture has something wonderful to offer" and we can all share and learn from each other....ok....it's a little give peace a chance-ish....so what?

What have I been valuing from other cultures?

Incentive. Odie wants to learn Spanish...because of the multitude of pretty girls who speak Spanish.(He will deny this - but don't believe him!) I think it'd be really funny if he got back to his roots and married a Hispanic girl. His kids might fit their last names. :)

More importantly: KARAOKE! FM Karaoke is within walking distance from our house. My brilliant husband took us their last night, and, for the price of a movie, we rocked out to all of our tunes in a private room with disco lights. As Sofia would say - It was epic.

And speaking of Sofia, she is a karaoke ninja. She will karate chop your face if you try to pry a microphone out of her hand. ....and, if you're sharing a duet with her, she will belt it out, so that no one even knows you're there. She loves it too crazy much. I'm going to sneak her a valum next time we go.

...and Sarah - they serve Milkis.

the cheese

Cozy knows her colors, but she doesn't feel like people did a very good job naming them. To put things right, she has renamed these colors "cheese" and "chocolate".


I'm not sold on the new system. It works fine when she's asking to wear the "cheese" shirt or the "cheese" necklace. Not so much when Cozette wants "the cheese" on her sandwich...and means mustard.

...and speaking of "the cheese", Annika and I marinated some mozerella, fried some chicken pieces, and made a super-yummy salad.