August | 2010 | little cumulus

Archive for August, 2010

the halfway house

Published August 31, 2010 crafty , mama , sewing 4 Comments

Thanks for all the love on the video! I made it with iMovie — totally my new favorite software. I’d never used it before, but the idea for this video came to me so forcefully that I knew I had to at least try it — and I’m so glad I did. The program is super user-friendly, smart, and exciting. So if you’ve been avoiding eye contact with iMovie (if you have it), avoid no more — make friends!

I feel like I’ve been living in a state of partial completion for the last little while — half-sewn shirts, half-eaten leftovers, a half-painted chair (a birthday present for Lizzy! isn’t it cute?), a half-clean house, half-done laundry. I don’t mean that as a complaint, really — but I must admit that it’s catching up to me and starting to make me a little crazy. I tend to take on too much — and I have serious craft ADD (is there a group somewhere for that?), which doesn’t help.

So, I busted out my sewing machine during naptime today with one goal: knock out as many finishes as possible. My to-mend/fix/change/finish pile has been growing at an astronomical rate, mostly because there’s always something so much more exciting to work on than mending Lizzy’s Superman T-shirt that she didn’t even realize was missing. But mend it I did — along with four other small-job finishes. It felt good.

Big Miss turned 3 yesterday — hip, hip, hooray! We had an awesome day: we spent an hour at our favorite park, played with some friends, made cupcakes together, went swimming, and had dinner, cupcakes, and presents with Daddy. She even got to stay up late to play with her new train set. 3 is going to be a good year. I can feel it.

Peacock feathers and black netting — my latest craft ADD binge. Muahahaha.

the most intriguing sewist in the world

Published August 30, 2010 giveaways 24 Comments

So, have you heard about the giveaway SMS is running for a brand spankin’ new Husqvarna Viking serger? To enter, all you have to do is answer a simple question: How would your life be better with a serger?

Well, SMS, here goes nothin’.

my wife went to california, and all she brought back was this lousy rice

Published August 29, 2010 food 3 Comments

I’m sure something to that effect has passed through my sweet husband’s mind over the past couple of weeks.

Whenever I visit my parents, I love going to Whole Foods for to peruse their exotically wonderful (and exotically priced) selection of goods — a rainbow of gorgeous produce, mouth-watering cheeses, drool-inducing sausages and grass-fed meats, and a dizzying array of prepared foods. Sometimes I splurge on something bring something back with me; this time it was a sampling of rices — pink, purple, and black — from the bulk section. We tried the purple rice tonight.

It was more fun to look at than anything else, and it turned completely purple as it cooked. It was pleasantly chewy, but didn’t have an especially different flavor from our usual white rice (wouldn’t it be fun to have a rice tasting party?). It also looked really pretty with the rest of our dinner.

And the rest of dinner is what you really should know about: Lime-Grilled Chicken with Cuban Salsa. It was, like, mind-blowing. You can’t go wrong with lime and mango (which I wrote about once before). The juicy mango and black bean salsa was so delicious alongside the grilled chicken. We loved it, and I’ll be making it again soon.

Happy Sunday; I hope your week is off to a great start!

something new

Published August 27, 2010 etsy Leave a Comment

I’ve shaken up the shop a bit; instead of having everything pre-made and ready to ship, there are now two additional sections of made-to-order items — one for women, one for girls. I’ve also added the rainbow twirly dress to the girl’s made-to-order section (as well as to my blog header!). Wahoo!

epic mess update

Published August 26, 2010 mama 5 Comments

Today during nap time/quiet time, I peeked into L’s room to find her sitting in front of her bookshelf, reading — with just three or four books on the floor by her side. When quiet time was over, I opened the door and found L sitting on her bed with her doll — and all the books put away. I praised her for having cleaned up without me asking her to, and she was so proud of herself. I’m trying not to speak too soon, but it appears yesterday’s drama had at least some impact!

an epic mess

Published August 24, 2010 mama 11 Comments

We’ve been having this issue lately where Miss L likes to pull off all the books and puzzles from the bookshelf in her room and throw them on the floor. Not because she wants to play with them. It’s just for fun. And it makes me crazy.

The easy thing would be to make fewer books and puzzles accessible, which is what we were doing, but then R made a good point — she’s three years old. She has to learn sometime.

I have reasoned. I have threatened. I have begged. I have yelled. I have ignored. This morning, I tried something new: I handed it back to her, a la Love and Logic (fascinating method; more info here). I told her she could come out of her room as soon as she put all the books back on the shelf.

Surprisingly, she didn’t put up much of a fuss. Every once in a while she’d poke her head out with a request for a drink/breakfast/potty break (she was wearing a diaper)/a nap(?!), and every time the answer was the same: “As soon as you’ve put all the books back on the shelf.”

Guess how long it took her? No, really. Guess.

No. Longer.

Seriously. Even longer than that.

Four hours, people. That girl didn’t get out of her jammies, leave her room, or have a bite to eat until 12:30. But you know what? It worked out really great. Nobody got mad (though I may have lost my temper at the very end), both girls played/cleaned up quite contentedly, and Mommy got tons accomplished. Normally Lizzy is fairly clingy, so it was really weird to have her play independently for such a long time.

Once the last book was finally put away, Lizzy was completely ecstatic and proud of herself. I’m hopeful that this incident will put a stop to further bookshelf-upsetting shenanigans, but I suppose that remains to be seen.

the rainbow twirly dress

Published August 22, 2010 sewing , vintage sheet love 11 Comments

Ta-da!

Don’t you just want to drink those colors? (Which, now that I think about it, reminds me of an extremely creepy book we had when we were kids called The Rainbow Goblins. So scratch that.)

Evelyn had the idea for this dress and asked me to make it for her sweet little girl. All the gathering for the rainbow tiers took some time, but I’m thinking about adding it as a made-to-order item in the shop.

The design is based on the much-beloved Molly Peasant dress. This time I tried using fold-over elastic (FOE) on the neck and arms, and I am in love. It is way faster and way easier. I have really grown to dread making casings and threading elastic through them. FOE is like a magic wand — poof! No more casings. (Happy sigh.)

Have a great weekend, everyone!

scrap it up

Published August 20, 2010 etsy 1 Comment

I’ve had a few people ask about when I’ll have more scrap packs in the shop. I dug around in my scrap bin this morning and found some fab scraps for a couple of green packs — lots of botanicals this time — and one pretty pink pack. Available in the shop now!

seven happy years

Published August 20, 2010 retrospection , true love 8 Comments

Saturday marked our sixth wedding anniversary (and over seven years since we met and started dating). Time keeps flying by; we are more in love now than ever. I never knew I could be so happy — so content — so complete.

R and I spent a happy hour on our anniversary looking through old photos from our days in Logan. This photo was taken in 2005 at Grand Teton National Park in the midst of an unforgettable two-day wild ride with our BFFs through the Tetons, Yellowstone, and a Galactic show where we rocked out with the rest of the pseudo-hippies in Jackson. It was such a happy, carefree time — we knew we had it good (we had free rent, for crying out loud) and that life would probably become more complex in the days ahead. But we’re learning — whatever else might happen, life is really only as complex as we make it — and in the end, all we really need is our faith and each other.

(Although we do miss those mountains.)

Here’s to us, love. You make life so very sweet.

for tonight

Published August 17, 2010 mama , sewing , sisters , vintage sheet love 6 Comments

A new stack of pretties, all ready to be packaged up for some very special little girls.

A vintage rainbow for Evelyn (more on that soon!).

Ready to pounce the moment the chicklets are in bed tonight (I like to cut by day and sew by night).

And I forgot to put this in yesterday’s post — remember the Little People likenesses from last year? Lizzy gave her baby sister an update — no longer the baby, Maren is now a little girl with brown hair. I came upon Lizzy one day at my parents’ house, with her Lizzy/Maren likenesses sitting together in chairs, having a very civilized conversation.