Birthday Dress

July is flying by!!  What a crazy month it has been.  We've been up to our eyeballs in summer camps, cleaning, gardening, and preserving. 

Sweetpea turns 4 tomorrow.  Hard to believe my littlest is going to be 4.  For her birthday, I made her a dress.

I'ts Simplicity 4161 and I have no idea what the fabric is.  I thought it was a cotton, but it may be a rayon or something like that.  It ironed funny...  I made her a size 5, but it was way too big at the top.  I had to take in the seam at the armhole down to the waist by a good good bit.

 (And I need a hook and eye.  That seems to be a downfall of mine - not sewing on the hook and eye.  So tedious!!!)

All in all, the sewing went well.  The pattern was fairly simple to follow.  And... I did my first buttonhole!!!  (Thanks, Nick, for all your encouragement!)  With such cute buttons, who could resist?

I'm hooked!  Or buttoned, rather, since we all know how i feel about putting hooks on dresses.  It was so easy, I can't believe it took me this long to try it out!  Way way way easier than lining up a zipper.

Happy Birthday my lil Sweetpea.

Spinning

I keep waiting for life to slow down a bit.  So I can do some of the things I've been meaning to do.  Like stare at the clouds.

Play in the creek.

Take my kids to the park.

Waiting for life to stop spinning quite so fast and give me a bit of time.

But life is stubborn.  Life plunges along whether you are holding on or not.

We are responsible for making our own time.  For doing those things we want to do.

For finding our own balance.


***Here is a note added by Nick in the comments.  I thought I'd share it with everyone in case you were looking for some clarity...
It's not clear from those pics (thanks to a fast shutter speed...) but that spinny thing was actually SPINNING.

And pretty fast, too...

And Munch could stand in the center and move her feet fast enough to NOT spin with it. An impressive feat - both physically and metaphorically...

Donating!

***  Warning:  If you are one of my sisters, and you want to be surprised by this in person, read NO FARTHER!!!!!!!  ***

A couple weeks ago, I was combing Sweetpea's hair after a bath and I said "your hair is down to your butt!"  Her response was "oooohhhhh!  We should cut it and donate it!"  Now, she is only 3, so you can imagine my surprise.  Munch has donated her hair twice in her 11 years.  But not in the last 2 years.  It seemed hard to believe that Sweetpea could remember her sister doing that.  They must have talked about it at some time or another.  Ya know, as sisters are wont to do even if there is an 8 year difference between them.

We decided to wait until after the recital was over.  So I could more easily pin her hair back.

Last night after her bath, we downloaded the form from Locks of Love, and set to work.

Sweetpea is having a great time telling how it all happened.  Here's her version of it (in her words, but without her little Sweetpea accent):
First, we picked out a rubber band.  A pink one.
And mama put it in my hair in a pony tail.
I had to hold really still.
Then mama cut the pony tail off!
[fit of goofy girl giggles]
The whole pony tail!!
[hand motions and more giggles]

12 inches.  Oddly, this was very difficult for me.  I sorta felt like i was cutting off one of her limbs.  Like it would hurt her or something.  Not sure why I felt like that.  I'm usually not one to be so sentimental about things like that.  But...

I'm loving the new look!

So fresh and cute.

I think she's loving it too.

What Happens When Life Runs Away With You?

This.  This is what happens when it is heavy planting season and the recital is coming up and the house falls into a spiral of disorder and...  This is what happens when you find your kids saying "salad [or sandwiches or eggs] for dinner again?

But that's all over now.  We're into garden maintenance mode.  The costumes have been gathered or made and danced in. 

I've got some po-ta-toes to salvage!

(Hey, no one can say I can't grow anything!)

A Sister's Garden

I have 4 wonderful sisters.  We get together often and have a great time.  Last week, while 2 of my sisters went on a trip to North Carolina (welcome home!!!!!!!!!), I got the chance to hang with another one of my sisters twice!  Twice in one week!  She lives an hour away in PA, so we don't see each other as often as we'd like. 

This year, she decided that she wanted to plant a garden.  Much to my excitement, she asked me to help her design and plant it.  Early last week, I took the kids to her place, had a sleepover, and then planted her garden the next morning.  'Twas really fun!

Her garden, being her first ever garden, is 3ft by 12ft.  She wanted tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers, green beans, and onions.  We chose 3 tomatoes - 1 Debaro paste, 1 Bellstar paste, and 1 Medford field; 2 sweet peppers - 1 King of the North bell, 1 Lipstick;  1 hot pepper - we had chosen a Hot Portugal, but a lil bunny ate it, so we replaced it with an Anaheim;  Provider green beans;  Black Eel zucchini;  and onions grown from onion sets. 

Right after planting.

Hurray for sprouting seeds!!!  Always one of the most exciting parts of gardening (next to harvesting the yummies, that is).

With bunny protection and replaced plants.

Isn't it cute?!  I think I'm just as excited about her garden as she is!  (Thanks for letting me be a part of it all, sis!!)

Gardening is a never ending spiral.  Once you start, you can't stop.  You constantly think of how next year's garden will be bigger, better, different.  You learn from your mistakes and from your successes.  Happy accidents happen.  Losses occur.  It's challenging and exciting.  Each year is different.  Gardening is dynamic.

This was one of the wettest springs I can remember.  We are just now caught up on getting things in the ground in our own garden.  Now that things have slowed a bit in the garden, I'm hoping to have the chance to take some pics of it and post them.  After all, this will be our last year of gardening at my sister in laws house.  Next year, we'll be able to garden at the farmhouse we bought.  Hopefully we'll be living there as well!  Right now, we are dealing with the challenges of buying an old farmhouse.  But!  We now have a working well.  That's some progress!

How does your garden grow?

Totally Hilarious!!!

Hi.  My name is Alayne.  And, I'm a geek...

There is this website with truly funny comics for the geeky person called xkcd.  Some of them are over my head, but some of them make me howl with laughter.  Nick forwarded me this particular comic today.  Ohmigosh!!!  I nearly fell out of my chair laughing.  It totally made my entire day (not that it was a particularly bad one, mind you).  I just want to share it with everyone I know.

Hope you enjoy it!  Happy Friday everyone!  And, have a wonderful weekend.

Cinnamon-Apple Fairy

She loves apples with cinnamon sprinkled on top.

She loves to dress up in her sister's old dance costumes.

I love her little fairy feet.