KCWC: Day Three

Challenge fail, redux.

We were gone all day.  Mom and I took the kids out so that Richard could get some work done.

I was able to get in a bit of hand sewing late in the day, but still no finished product.

I WILL get this dress done!

KCWC: Day Two

Challenge fail.

I wasn't able to eek out even enough time to turn on the iron, much less get anything sewn.  Boo's half-done dress is just sitting here, mocking me.

In my defense, Boo needed way more attention than the dress.  She was very uncomfortable and cranky all day and needed to be held and rocked and sung to pretty much constantly.  Poor teething baby.  Two months is too young for teeth, I tell ya.

KCWC: Day One

I was able to put in maybe an hour and a half (somewhat broken) on the challenge.

I'm really close to having a new dress finished for Boo.  It's the same style as the last one I made for her, but I've made a few adjustments so that she should get a little more wear out of this one.  (She's already almost grown out of the first!  Yikes!)  Since I hadn't taken notes on the first dress when I put it together, I spent more time than I would have liked basically reinventing the wheel.  I've got at least one more planned and I expect that it should go together much faster.

If I get my hour in for Day Two, I should have a finished product to show off!

Kid's Clothes Week Challenge

I have SO much to post about - with pictures! - but have been having trouble finding enough spare time to blog it all.  This one's just going to be a quickie, so that I can get the goal out there.

I'm taking part in the Kid's Clothes Week Challenge, from Elsie Marley's blog.






Let's see what I can get wrapped up for the kiddos!

A Little Bit Beautiful

(I know, I never posted Library, Part II.  We're headed back again today.  There will be more library talk.  I'm sure you've been waiting with baited breath.)

So, we're still looking for a house.  It's been a long and rather frustrating process - looking at houses until they all start to blend together in our minds, making a decision, putting in an offer only to find out that someone else has put in an offer the same day and we didn't get the house.  Gah.

Bug has been pretty amazing through this whole thing.  We've been asking quite a lot of him, going to look at houses, spending hours and hours and hours getting into and out of the car over and over and over again.  He eventually gets tired of it and goes into toddler meltdown but, on the whole, I think he actually handles it better than I do some days.  He certainly doesn't let it color his observations like I tend to do.

At two, Bug has become a house connoisseur.  He's seen so many houses and heard so many observations that he'll walk up to a new house, look around and say "Nice yard" or "Nice tile" and mean it.  Some of the houses we've been into have been pretty nice.  Others...not so much.  Being two, Bug doesn't so much care about the not-nice aspects of the houses.  If they've got a big room and he's got some energy to burn, he'll run around and flop himself on the floor or whatever he needs to do.  More than once, this has resulted in a cry of "Not on the floor!  This carpet is yucky!" from me.

The other day, we were at one of the not-as-nice houses.  The house itself was pretty awesome, but it needed some massive overhaul, including the carpet.  Boo was fussy and hungry, so I parked myself on a relatively clean spot to nurse her.  Bug was running in circles and checking things out and eventually came to sit next to me.  He had a cup of tea that he popped the lid off of so he could dig out some ice and I asked him to please not put the lid on the carpet.

Bug: "Is this carpet yucky?"

Me: "Umm...it's kind of yucky."

Bug: (Looking around and surveying the room again.)  "It's kind of yucky.  But it's a little bit beautiful."

Me: "What?"

Bug: (Smiling.)  "It's a little bit beautiful."

And, just like that, I was able to see that the house wasn't so yucky after all.

I love that my boy can find that beauty in things...even if it is a hot, tired, cranky kind of day. <3



(Back to posting pictures soon.  Promise.)

Library, Part I

It's just after 2pm, but we're planning to head off to the library.  Soon.  Assuming that we can get Bug into clothes.  (He's having an "I want to be naked!" day.  With his newly updated cloth diaper stash, he's been enjoying running about in colorful pants and nothing else.)

I've been feeling a little guilty about the reading that I haven't done, but I'm putting those feelings away right now.  I've started on Persuasion, though I've been reading Bug's books more often.  As it should be, I suppose. :)  I've also been reading a few cookbooks of Mom's, and I don't feel that that's wasted time at all.  But the library books and impending due dates are starting to stress me out a little bit, so I'm just going to drop any feelings of failure and take most of them back.  I'm planning to keep Candide and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters for a little longer.

The plan for today is to look into some non-fiction, since fiction is feeling a tiny bit frivolous right now.  A friend turned me onto Friedensreich Hundertwasser, so I thought I'd see if I could find any books on him.  And hopefully something on the Gee's Bend quilts.  (Which is where the other conversation began.)  I was able to see the Gee's Bend exhibit when it went through Houston a few years ago and it was AMAZING.  I didn't have much appreciation for quilting at the time and (although I'm ashamed to admit it) wasn't expecting much.  It completely blew me away.  I could have gone to see them a thousand times and still been awed.

Here's hoping we come back with some awesome stuff!

Today I Love...

...that we spent last night catching up with an old friend and her husband.  (Oddly enough, who also just made the Houston-to-Phoenix move!)

...that Bug requested tomatoes for lunch today, and we were able to walk out into the yard and pick some for him to eat.

...that I get to spend this afternoon ticking fun things off of my to-do list with my family.  (We have planned: library, fabric store, storage building.)

...summer skirts, and that I'm wearing pre-pregnancy clothes again!

Totally Stolen Idea

I keep thinking of tiny little things that I want to post, and then wondering if it's worth it to put up a post for something so small.  I'm going to activly decide that, yes, it is okay to post something little.  Sometimes those are the cool posts. :)

I'm also going to totally steal an awesome idea.

Jeni, over at In Color Order, does this super-cool thing at the end of each blog post.  She lists things she loves and good things about her day.  I love that.  I love the idea of closing each and every post by taking just a moment to think about, identify and honor the little, good things that have happened.  Jeni also includes a picture of her bunny, George, in each post but I don't have a bunny.  I have four cats, but we're not going to go there just yet.

I'm also not going to steal Jeni's format (though it's a good one!).

So.  Here we go.

Today, I loved...

- A touching conversation with Bug*
- Having a fun and leisurely lunch with my mom and Bug while we were out running errands
- That there are pomegranate trees in the yard of the house we saw and put a bid on (!) today
- That I got to spend an hour-and-a-half with Boo while Richard took Bug to the park
- That I got up the nerve to RSVP to two playgroup events  (I'm terrified.  Really, really terrified.)




*The conversation with Bug...

We were at the store with my mom, headed to the register to check out.  They got distracted and stopped to look at something, so I went ahead to start checking out so that they wouldn't have to wait in line.  A few moments later, I heard Bug shout and, shortly after that, he and Mom came around the corner.  Bug came up to me and wanted to be picked up and said "I was sad and yelled and you weren't there."

Me: "Oh, I'm sorry.  You were looking at something and I knew you were with Grandma so I knew you were safe."

Bug: *giving me a hug*  "I'm safe now."

More Goodies

I got more good mail today. :)

In addition to some fun fabrics for bee blocks, I received...another block from the 3x6 Bee!  (I'm amazed that half of my group is sending things out at the halfway point.  Boy, do I feel like a slacker!)

This pretty came from Jennifer:



I was way too impatient to press it before taking a picture.

And look at this!  A bib for Boo!  It arrived at the same time as my sister's cancer diagnosis so I was a little distracted and didn't blog about it then.  Bad of me, because I really love it.  It's so cute!



I espcially love the squirrel fabric.



This was a surprise gift from Christine, who is also involved in the Sew Bee Wonky bee.  And, today, after I mentioned how much I liked the squirrel fabric, I received a second package from her - with the fabric scraps that she had left!  She even told me what it was ("Squirrels Treasure Map", from Timeless Treasures "Frolic" line) and where she bought it, so I can get more.  How awesome is that?