New Portraits of the Kids!

Do you ever have one of those days when your love of blogging does not necessarily provide you with an idea for a post? That is me today. Love you guys, but man, just can't think of much. So here is my best effort!

While we were in Utah I decided to wrangle new pictures out of my kids. See I love Targets portrait studio. I know just what to ask for there to get a good result and they are cheap. Cheap enough that my kids have always had their pictures take at least every 3-4 months. Until we moved. Target does not have portrait studios in my area. Very sad day for me. So they haven't had their pictures taken by anyone but me for the last year. So I haul them in. Forgetting that Joshua has not grown up like the other two, getting his picture taken constantly. He was a terror! Yeah, that kid that you see at the portrait studio and feel so sorry for the mom. That was us. It is amazing to me that any of these turned out and considering how upset I was at the time at him, I really like them!



I don't look too mad do I? Oh, yeah, the other two acted like circus monkeys the whole time too. No real smiles, strange cocking of the head. Oh, and Dad was still in California when we did this so we look like a single parent family. Oh well, it will still be okay for his desk at work.
Cute face, but not his real smile. I know, it is hard to look at those blue eyes and be mad at the kid!

Good thing this kid is cute. And that the Target lady had a really fast shutter speed on her camera. Notice there is not one picture where he is not being bribed with a car or ball.


Brittany's close-up appeared a few days ago when she posted her list.





But here they are hanging on my wall! All said and done I am still glad I suffered through and had them taken. Now if we could just get a new family picture...

The Parade of Denim Skirts!

Remember the denim skirt experiment from this post? Well I think it has become a disease around here! I can't seem to stop making them! The good news is that means three new skirts Brittany can have for school! I thought I would show you the variations I have come up with. This one was just plain denim that I appliqued flowers on. The colors are brighter in real life.
This was a pair of pink corduroy pants. The ruffle is made from a thrifted sheet.
This was one of our favorite pairs of paint. they had ballerinas on the leg. This way we were able to save one of the ballerinas and a bit of the cute trim for the insert. I added the hot pink ruffle in gingham of course!

She seems happy, and so is my bank account. All that school shopping adds up! I almost have the new dress finished to show you too!

Ethan Frome

I finally contributed to our online book club and reviewed Ethan Frome today. It is here.

Throwback Thursday Returns!

Don't you think this little guy Looks like this little guy?
It is my Uncle Bobby. While we were in Utah this summer my mom was telling me how she and my aunt had decided that they thought my Joshua looks like their older brother Bob. So that got me looking at old photos.
Here is Uncle Bob while he was in the service in the sixties. Isn't he handsome?
My mom's family, including my Uncle Bob and his family lived in Minnesota so lots of summers were spent driving to Minnesota to visit. This is my Uncle Bobby at the bottom of the pile of cousins. I am the one in the back with the blond mane.
This is Uncle Bob not too long before he lost the battle he waged off and on for years with leukemia, lung cancer and finally skin cancer. I am not sure why but the men on this side of my family don't smile for pictures. Ever. These are his handsome sons. So I guess the comparison between Joshua and My Uncle Bobby got me to thinking about Uncle Bob. He died about 6 years ago, I can't believe it. He was such a great influence in my life even though he lived so far away. He was fun, and smart and such a loving uncle. See that shirt he is wearing? It is from the 2002 Winter Olympics he and my Aunt Diane came out to visit us for. I am so glad they came, really a good memory. So I guess what I ended up thinking was that if the comparison between Joshua and my Uncle Bob should turn out to be more than skin deep, well that would be really okay with me!

Patchwork Purses!

Okay, so yesterday when I said I was working on the dress for Brittany? Total lie! I meant to, thought I would be, but then I became obsessed with cutting out squares and sewing them together. The little picture I posted yesterday turned into this:

I am so happy with this purse I can't even tell you! The colors are even brighter and yummier in real life! I reluctantly put it in the shop. I still may keep it for myself it doesn't find a home quickly. It is here.

And because I can never seem to make just one of anything I had to make this one. For my dark side I guess! I love black and white as much as color sometimes. It is here.
I really like how they turned out. They are a "hobo" style which I really like because it isn't too big and when I bend over to help my two year old everything doesn't fall out! They do have a little pocket inside and I stiffened them with a pretty stiff interfacing. I have plans for a red and blue one too.

Kit Kittredge and some projects

I have meant to tell you about this movie. Brittany and I had a little date last week and went to see this, just us girls. It was really fun! Loved everything about it. The plot and acting were actually quite good and it was just so fun to look at. I love the way they made the time period look. I think I will wear a pretty apron every day now!
While we were out we did a bit of shopping. Brittany spotted this fabric and said she wanted a dress made out of it. She is nine and the fact that she wasn't asking for a "tween" item or Hannah Montana shirt pretty much guranteed I would go for it! So I cut out the dress out yesterday and am working on it.


This is another project I started yesterday. I won't tell you what it is going to be, hopefully it will be something I can show in a day or two. Don't you love these colors?! Thanks so much for your help on deciding which dolls I should work on first. I think I will be cutting out some mini's and regular gals to get to work on soon!

Happy Birthday Miss Potter!

When I used my google reader this morning they had a lovely little image of Peter rabbit being chased by Mr. MaGreggor. Eventually I just had to google Beatrix Potter to find out why, and it is her birthday today! Well I adore everything Beatrix Potter, who doesn't? My favorite character was Hunca Munca for the Tale of Two Bad Mice. I loved that story, I don't know if it was the dollhouse, the cute image of Hunca Munca with her babies tucked in their little cradle or the fact that she got to wear the doll's pretty dresses but I loved the whole thing!

So thank you Miss Potter and thank you for sharing all your furry little friends with us! Happy Birthday Miss Potter, you would be 142 and we still love you and your lovely friends!

Sunday Update

Okay, so when William and I were both growing up Saturday was a day for getting things done, a Do-it day as my mom would say. You know, cleaning bathrooms, doing yard work, tackling some big project. They were often followed by some fun activity like a little shopping in my case, a barbecue in his. But still the idea was to accomplish something most Saturdays. Unfortunately this does not seem to be a trait either have us have hung onto. Especially since we came back from Utah and decided we need to enjoy where we live more there have been a real lack of Do-it days. But lots of fun adventures! So if you should decide to come visit us be sure and give 48 hours warning!
This Sunday update is really about yesterday, we didn't do much the rest of the week besides go to summer school (yeah!), play with friends, go bowling and just hang out. So I decided to show you some of the things I loved about my day yesterday.

Loved how much fun these faces had tromping around the rocky beach looking at tide pools.
Love this sad little face that is basically saying , "Come on Mom, enough with the camera! I have digging to get to!"
Loved fooling around with beach pictures in black and white. I don't know why but I love the beach in black and white, in color too of course.
Loved watching this kid try to out-run the waves.
Hated when she failed, you don't see a swim suit on do you? Use your imagination of what the next picture would have looked like had I not been yelling at her to get up and run.
Love the faces in color too. Especially when one is holding a starfish the same color as her shirt!
Love big brothers showing little brothers cool stuff like purple starfish

Love the nurseries on the way home where we usually find a treasure. Sometimes it is a cheap orchid for William, this time it was $5 a dozen roses in the prettiest pink.

And least you thing I am Pollyanna who always has a perfect day lets make a short list of the things that I didn't enjoy yesterday.

-Trying to figure out how to get soggy, sandy kids home with no change of clothes (they went home bottomless wrapped in towels!)

-The fact that the soggy/sandy kid problem was my own fault due to poor planning

-Cleaning sand off of every floor in my house all night-this one I really hate!

-Coming home to the dirty house we really should have spent the day cleaning

But having had my little gripe there I have to say it really was a great day, hope yours was fun too!

**don't forget to scroll down and leave me a comment chosing your favorite gingham girl to enter mylittle contest!

An award, a survey and a give-away!

I have been so lucky this week! Three lovely girls have all given me this great award and I have been incredibly slow passing it on. I am so flattered, thank you so much Adri, Janie, and Claire! Blogging is such an unexpectedly great part of my life, it has given me a great creative outlet and helped me form a great network of fun people I really enjoy but I would never have imagined that to be the case before I started. I am so glad I am a blogger and thank you for visiting me!

So the rules are you are supposed to share this award with seven other blogs but I am going to cheat and hope that if you are visiting me and haven't received this award you will consider yourself awarded. I am so grateful anybody visits me and my funny ramblings! I love all the blogs I visit so much I can't choose just seven!



This post title mentioned a survey and a giveaway, I need your help. I am trying to decide what dolls to start working on for the holidays and I just don't know which style to start on first. So if you don't mind would you help me decide? As an added incentive I will give away one of my pearl pendants to one of the helpful souls who leaves me a comment naming their favorite gingham girl. (It will probably be a slightly different pendant, I am just too lazy to take a new picture!) Choice A: Nesting dolls

Choice B: Full size Gingham Girls
Choice C: Miniature Gingham Girls
Choice D: Miss Muslin with the embroidered dress
Choice E: Full size painted doll

Wow, I can't believe I have that many different dolls I have made! So any help you can give me deciding where to start would be great. Leave my a comment and tell me which on you like the best. I will choose a winner on Monday at 1 p.m. pacific time.

**Winner! Congrats Kritta22! Send me your snail mail address in an email and I will get your pendant off to you! Thanks everybody for your help!

What do you do in the Summertime

A new idea for your kids today! If your kids are like mine they have been through all the board games, puzzles and coloring books by now. We tried this idea I found on Betz's blog and we loved it! I has all the requirements I love in a new Summertime activity; it is fast, easy and cheap! Oh and my kids really liked it too, that should be a requirement too right? This is the Foamerator as Betz called it. It enables your kids to make TONS of bubbles. Think a kitchen sink full. Here is the little cutie. All it consists of is a water bottle with the bottom cut off and a damp washcloth attached to the bottom with a rubber band. Dump some bubbles in a bowl, dip in your cool new Foamerator and off you go! The one thing we learned was that if you used flimsier bottles like these we had eventually you may experience a bottle collapse and have to reattach the washcloth ( I actually used old bibs). Oh, see this is even a green activity because we are recycling the bottles and bibs in my case!
The kids covered the patio table in bubbles!

And Brittany got pretty good at bubble snakes! Hope you have as much fun as we did!

I love my life!

Yesterday my kids had big long play dates. Lots of fun! But they got me thinking. Both kids have different family lives from mine. Brittany's friend's mom is a very brave lady who took her two girls and the one she was pregnant with and left an abusive husband. She just found out the house she rents is being foreclosed on and she has to find a new one by the end of the month. Matthew's friend's mom is also a single mom, she had him when she was really young. Both of these kids are terrific and so are their moms. But it made me think how much I love my life. I have these fantastic kids that I don't have to raise by myself. I get to stay home and play with them all day, although don't get me wrong, I am still loving summer school! Then I was looking at these fun pictures we took this weekend. How lucky am I that I get to have this much fun with my family?! Okay, I hate that my family is all in Utah and I am not, hate it often actually. But if I can't be there with them I do love being here with my little family. We went to San Francisco this weekend and had a ball. This cool old guy is always flying these giant kite at the harbor in Berkley and we had to see what he had flying Saturday on our way home. As you can see we were not disappointed!

My kids got to touch a stingray at the aquarium. We are having such a great time enjoying the benefits of living near the ocean. I loved when my kids went to Bear Lake this summer and I had to explain what it would look like using the ocean as an example. "Well, it is sort of like the ocean but a lot smaller". I love that! The ocean is what they are used to, lakes not so much. That is so cool to me!
There will probably never be another time in my life with views like this in it. I love this picture William took of Coit tower, especially because of that little flag waving near it. I love that I live in this amazing country.
Can you ever have too many pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge? I don't think so. I was gray and misty, and it still looks beautiful. Me on the other hand, lets just say I don't wear the mist so well.
With these three and William I am definitely the luckiest of the lucky and I am so grateful today that I have my life! It is almost frightening to look around think I have absolutely everything I ever wanted!

More really fun swaps!

I have had the best luck with swaps this summer! I have decided this is one of the best reasons to use google reader if you like to do swaps, I usually find out about these good ones after they are closed but I got in before they closed this time! Let me tell you absolute treasure appeared in my mailbox this last weekend.


First the vintage sheet swap that Elizabeth hosted. This girl really created an amazing swap! She had 2,314 fat quarters before she was finished! Can you imagine? I can't imagine the work she put in getting it all out to us. Well I was just thrilled with mine, can hardly wait to start using them. This is my favorite one, isn't is sweet. If I had this whole sheet I am sure I would wear it somehow!And this is my collection, great stuff isn't it?


Would you believe My Jewels of the Sea swap package showed up the same day? I can't believe the work Heather put into this one too. Lucky girl aren't I? This package was so amazing! Look how cute it was when I opened it.


The creations inside were so beautiful! My pictures just don't do them justice but I tried. I love them all and can hardly wait to wear and use them!

Thank you so much to Jenny, Jessica, Margo, Tonya, Kshutehnson, and Jullie! I love everything you made and so admire your talent and vision. I will truly enjoy every little piece!