it had feet

but they got nixed.  max asked me to make him a jumper.  that's what we call these whole body outfits.  and he wanted it with feet.  so i found a pattern at the fabric store, in a trip in which i went solely for that, and made myself walk out having only bought the pattern.  that was huge, and i feel embarassed to admit just how huge, but whatever.  then, i sewed it up.  the feet were just wonky.  i used grippy fabric on the bottom, they were high quality, but flimsy.  they wouldn't stay in place, he'd end up walking on the side of them usually.  they were also the hardest part of the jumper to make, so it was definitely hard to admit defeat and what i judge as 'wasted time', and do away with them, but it was pretty obvious that i had to do it.  i wish i had thought to take a pic of them snipped off for drama's sake.    i thought the zipper would be the hard part, so i was very surprised when i got down to the footies and my brain just couldn't grasp the instructions, AT ALL.  i actually brought the pattern instructions on a sushi date with david, with the cut out fabric pieces, because i was obsessing about understanding it all.  i showed it to david, and he IMMEDIATELY saw where i was looking at the picture wrong, and dissolved the mystery for me in a flat 10 seconds.  i was blown away.  that was the best part about making the feet.  seeing my husband reading his first sewing pattern instructions, and understanding them better than me.  i can't believe i am admitting this, too.  being self-revealing is not easy, but i love it when other people do it, so i am making it a practice for myself.  starting with the easy stuff.  

resurrected

on mother's day, while i attempted to sew.  i love how they flock to wherever i am.  i really do.  i know someday i will wish it were like this again.   they are so sweet.  they are CHILDREN!   well, except for the man, who is a MAN!   oh how i loved this little moment on mother's day.  while i was scheming on how to turn this skirt and shirt into something new, they were just hanging out with me, playing lynyrd skynyrd.

a linen 'outfit' i found at the thrift shop.

cut up.  fabric fit on three wastes.  sewn and elasticized.  now we are matching girls, with the boy in his newly patched jeans.  you'll have to click on the picture to see the patches bigger i think.  this was a success!   i have a little fabric from the skirts left over, and i was thinking of making it into doll skirts.  it's totally fine to be this dorky and matchy, right?  it is actually AWESOME, and us girls loved wearing our tulip skirts together.  i need to get a picture of the boys in their patched jeans together now.....

from the archives

i just spent a long time going through my iphoto library.  oh my loves.  oh my babies.   oh everything that has ever happened.  oh my heart, my tender heart.  oh .  oh .  oh oh oh oh oh.  what are we all doing here?  all we are really doing is loving.  that was made clear to me in my flipping through the library this morning.   

look at little o.  that is just too good for words.

my bright idea.....

first, to use some dream catcher essential oil before i went out to garden, setting the intention to be dreamy while out there.  i needed some dreaminess to offset the mental mental-state i was suffering from.  and i immediately saw this lizard... which is cool to me because in the medicine card book, lizards are dream medicine in form.   (i need a zoom lens, hint hint)

then came my favorite idea from the weekend, to hang a kids size laundry line.   it wasn't obvious at first, where to hang it, so i sat out there, hoping the perfect spot would come to me....it took about 10 minutes.  and then i had just enough of a piece of line left over from something else.  i am in love with this simple little use of string.  probably more than the kids.  but olive and zhi have gone up to it and fondled the clothes.  but my thinking is that, they love to hang out with me while i hang the laundry up, and they will just inevitably begin to hang some of their own up, too, this summer, now that we will be out here almost daily....cause that's how much laundry we wash.  

we've been hangin

i got to keep juniper one morning last week, so she and olive and i went on a stroller walk.  juniper fell asleep, it was so relaxing to be pushed along on a bumpy dirt road.

how does this tree do it?  sometimes i feel exactly like this.  exposed, unsupported, and yet when i look around, i am tall and strong and healthy.  i just have to look around and stop obsessing about my exposed unsupported part.  there are many many of my other roots getting all the ground they need, making my life work just fine.  and look who get's noticed and photographed and  who inspires others.  take that, all you lucky trees with stable roots!

dreamy dreamy dreamy and relaxing.  

hits and misses

this table cloth amendment worked so well.  all the pieces are from thrift shops, and when put together they are the perfect size for our table, and they look awesome.  like best friends.  they compliment each other.  they were pretty alone, but now they serve a purpose all together.   

so lovely, huh?

this shirt finally came together last week.  and look how cute it looks on.  yes, and guess what i did to it while i was ironing the neck casing.....

i burned it.  so now it looks discolored on the left shoulder.   bad.  i learned that buying what you think is linen at the thrift store, may be a poly-linen blend, and it may burn at the iron VERY quickly.  will i sew with thrifted 'linen' again?  probably not if it will require ironing to construct it properly..... and the shirt really doesn't ft so well, there's a tightness around the shoulders when i try to do large range movements.  so i really don't feel free when i wear it.  i cut it on the size i thought i was, the smallest one on the pattern, that's usually me, the smallest one.  oops, not the case with this one.  i guess i will also take measurements from now on, and base my size on those.  lessons learned.  but it is still such a bummer, cuz look how much potential it had.  and something strange, to add, is that i was outside a lot this day , not realizing at all that my back was getting sunburned.  i had on a loose-necked shirt that exposed a lot of skin on my back.  i got burned pretty bad.  and then how strange that the shirt i sat down to make that same night, got burned to, right in the same area of my body.  it wanted to match me.  how sweet.

what we wants

h~  feminine moonbeams, clarity, healthy gardens, outbursts of laughter, and musical epiphanies.  

d~  friends to come over and play.  parties.  a new umbrella for the patio table.....the wind blew ours away and broke it.m~  to be a wild animal in any way possible.  smash, break, hit, destruct......and then he feels soft, and wants to snuggle and play gently.  (do we all relate, or what?)

o~  boobmilk,  to tease mama by saying no when i ask for a kiss, thus making me (pretend to) cry, and then delivering the kiss with many giggles, and whatever z wants

z~  high heels, costumes, art supplies.  and unicorns, either hard or stuffed.

melting

olive calls max, boy.  i think she must have just figured out that there are boys, and there are girls.  and now, he is known as boy.  

the snow is all gone.  it rained all weekend.  it did not snow.  the snow is gone. 

can i celebrate yet?