Back to school crafting

Every Thursday we have a concert in the park at Southlands. Savannah had a blast dancing the night away on Thursday with her friend Gracin. The two of them are like peas in a pod when it comes to dancing style...they easily move between disco, break dancing, interpretive, air guitar and something resembling the Scottish Highland dance. All this dancing is interrupted by fits of sudden chasing. Pics of these smooth moves to come if I can get some from my paparazzo pal Kiersty.



After a good night's sleep, we made some back to school crafts for her cousins, who we will see in a few days on a quick trip to NY. For my nieces we made tissues holders and matching handbags. For my nephew, it was harder. I never know what to make for boys. I considered a superhero cape or a pirate bandanna. But then I decided to stick with the back to school theme and made a matching tissue holder and pirate pencil case (although it could be used to hold treasure maps equally well!) Arggh! Hands off me treasure scallywag, or you'll walk the plank to Davey Jones locker.

Waldorf Apron in Freshcut

Here' s an apron from the new sewing book I love, "A is for Apron: 25 Fresh and Flirty Designs". This was hands down my favorite pattern from the book even if it is a little less practical than others with pockets, etc. The designer who contributed this apron was Erin Harris from House On Hill Road, one of my favorite craft/designer blogs.

The apron was fun to make although I must admit I fudged her pattern a bit rather than photocopying it. It is called the Waldorf. The fabric is one I've been waiting to use - Heather Bailey's Freshcut. I really like it but I think this apron would look much better on someone with less of a curvy figure than I have. The pattern really accentuates curves, which is great if you haven't got many, and is very feminine. So, I'll have to leave the stylish, twirly aprons to the skinny girls. (Sigh.) And will try another pattern for myself. Maybe something more practical with pockets for collecting fresh eggs or clothespins or quilting scraps...

We put our new aprons to the test while making eggplant parmigiana today and pumpkin bread, one of Savannah's favorite things. She eats any pumpkin straight from the can that I'm not quick enough to blend into the batter, then polishes off my mixing bowl while my back is turned towards the sink...

Caught! Orange-handed!

...and she knows how to dismantle my stand mixer too.

Tissue holders - getting sick in style

My babysitter has strep throat on top of allergies. She's not contagious anymore so we've stocked the kitchen full of tea, chicken soup and popsicles for her. Since I already had the fabric out from yesterday, I decided to try this fabulous tutorial from stardustshoes for making a pocket or purse sized tissue cover. It was very easy and Savannah liked the idea so much she thought we should make one for everyone. (Everyone!?) So watch in the mail if you get sick! I thought I'd use up some of my Kaffe Fassett scraps and give Destiny a choice. Turns out she liked the first one I made for her the best, the one with cupcakes! We made four in under an hour. Fun! Someday I'll make matching zip-up pouches as well.

Destiny's favorite tissue holder - and she's already making good use of it! We want to make her a cool back to school bag or purse as well for September and who knows, maybe she'll get matchy, matchy gifts for her senior year.

Tissue holders made from the Kaffe Fassett fabric - possibly my favorite fabric designer.

A, B, C's to reading!

Wow! We've just had the most incredible evening! I've been very slowly introducing Savannah to the SRA DISTAR program for learning how to read. It is based on sounds, rather than on letters since reading is learning how to string sounds together, not letters. Tonight we reached Lesson 7 of 100 and suddenly something just clicked for Savannah. Before I could finish giving her the instructions for certain tasks, she was literally reading the words off of the page! "Well, Mom, she'd say, I already know that word is "man" and it rhymes with "tan.""


She was so excited she ran around the house waving her arms in the air shouting "Sat is spelled "S", "A", "T"!" Then she ran to her chalk board to write the word and decided that since she could spell "Sat" she could also spell "Cat", "Hat", "Fat", "Vat", and "Bat"! Then we spent the rest of the night sounding out and spelling words together. She was so excited she was literally running around and jumping into my arms to give me hugs with her whole body and screaming the spellings of words as loud as she could. She spelled "poop" and "pee" while sitting in the potty as well as at least three dozen other words. When we read her bedtime story tonight she insisted that I stop to let her read some of the words so she did! She read "go", "in", "on", "so", "too", "men", "can" and a few other small words in the bedtime story she picked out. She said she couldn't wait to show her Dad all the new words she could spell and write and read. He will definitely be thrilled and excited for her when he returns from Beijing at the end of August.

AMAZING! I am so amazed tonight. It was incredible watching whatever it was just click inside of that clever little brain of hers and fantastic to see her total thrill and excitement about learning how to spell and read words (and she wrote a handful too!) Wow, I will definitely continue with this program and who knows, by Christmas she might be reading her own level 1 books by herself.


I am so excited for her. When I first learned how to read it was like a new light turned on inside of me and I can already see how excited she is to be able to read on her own. I don't know if I ever had a celebration dance, run, scream fit like she did all over the house today (think Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone!) but I'm sure I experienced the same pure inner joy no matter how I expressed it. Oh, my baby is growing up...



We have been using this book that I found on amazon. It is great and really slowly paced, not too much for kids to do and the lessons take 15-20 minutes each and it's no big deal if (like me!) you skip a few days at a time. Just be sure to read the 27 page intro to yourself and practice once before you start with your child to be sure you do it right the first time with them. I almost didn't and that would've been a big mistake.

Savannah's new apron

Today Savannah's babysitter was sick. Since I knew I wasn't going to get any work done, we decided to spend the day making things instead. I recently bought a new book called "A is for Apron: 25 Fresh and Flirty Designs" and wanted to try some of the patterns out. We decided that Savannah should get the very first apron so she picked out her favorite fabrics (and I think she did a great job!). This cute little apron took only 1 hour to make including 15 minutes of photocopying the pattern to get it the right size. I think she's happy with it too! Of course, now she wants me to make one in the same fabrics for myself but we'll see; I have some other fabrics in mind...

This is a fun little book of patterns with easy to follow instructions. I'll be making quite a few aprons from this book!






Stirring, stirring, this is her favorite kitchen job (other than breaking eggs).






Just think of all the new recipes this little chef is going to whip up in the kitchen with Mommy now! Probably starting with...um, cupcakes!

Little Miss Sunshine

"Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves."

-JM Barrie

Savannah is so incredibly kind and thoughtful. Often in the morning she will get herself dressed, go potty, go downstairs without waking me, make a card for me and then come upstairs to present her thoughtful piece of artwork to me with a good morning hug. Today she went through that sequence except when I got up she was still downstairs brushing our cat (our feline companion is a 16-year old tortoiseshell Maine coon named Sage). I asked her what she had been up to this morning and she said she got dressed, and went potty, washed her hands and then brushed and pat the kitty and made her a card. I was in a hurry to get the house ready for a showing but thought it was funny that she never showed me her card to receive my usual compliments. Right before we left the house, I went down to the basement to check that it was in good condition for the showing. Sitting there at the bottom of the stairs, was the card Savannah had made for Sage, opened up for display so Sage could see it. She drew a little girl brushing a kitty, Sage's favorite thing. Melt my heart!

Savannah brushing Sage-y Bear.

By Savannah, Age 4

A few days ago I bought her a T-shirt that says "Little Miss Chatterbox" on it. At the time I wished that the store had had the "Little Miss Curious" T-shirt because while Savannah is a chatterbox, curiosity is perhaps the prominent characteristic of her personality. Now I'm thinking I should have gotten the "Little Miss Sunshine" T-shirt.

I am thankful to have a daughter who is smart, healthy, and curious but most of all, I am grateful that she is kind.

Kenpo Karate - Little Dragon in Training

We were so proud of Savannah today. She earned her second yellow stripe in karate class with her awesome instructor, Mr. Fred. With the opening of Kung Fu Panda, which is so hysterical, we've seen it three times already, she's extra enthusiastic about karate class. She practices her star blocks at home and it's great fun to see the awesome power this little girl is putting behind her punches, as long as you're not in the way! The best part is that she is learning how to protect and defend herself as well as what to do in certain situations, using her brain.

Peace and friendship, the karate promise.

KIA!

Peace and friendship, horse stance.

Savannah's sky blue poncho

Last night I finished Savannah's sky blue poncho in the big and bulky wool-blend yarn she picked out for herself. Here she is modeling it (while eating an apple!) I think it goes well with her blue eyes. I can't wait until the weather is cooler so she can wear it around the house and out for walks like a sweater.

Tres belle! The pattern for an adult version (called the Arrowhead Poncho by Pat Walker) can be found here. I didn't follow the pattern but followed the picture after measuring her arm length and cast on 37. I love simple cables since they give such a finished look to clothing and this poncho couldn't have been easier with bulky yarn and making two rectangles that I stitched together. There are tons of other free knitting patterns to choose from for ponchos here. Have fun and send a picture if you make one!

County Fair

I LOVE County Fairs and why I have never entered a quilt or photograph in one of their annual contests, I do not know! I should! The challenge would probably be fun for me.


Here are some of the things we saw this year. I am so excited that Savannah is such a farm girl at heart because we are moving from the suburbs of Denver to rural New York where we are building a zero-energy home in just a few months.

Savannah fishing for trout with her dad at the fair. She got three nibbles but didn't hook one.

Savannah drives her motorbike like a pro!

Here's a Thimbleberries log cabin style quilt that I liked.

And a Halloween quilt that I could definitely see myself making! Halloween and autumn are big deals in our house!



Here Savannah feeds the calf hay by hand and the calf seemed to enjoy the attention!


Savannah LOVES the pony. And her Daddy just MIGHT get her one eventually to keep her too busy for dating boys!

All tangled up...

I just finished up a bunch of half-finished quilting projects as well as a quilted wedding gift for someone. Here's a quilted table runner I just finished up. It's very bright and springy - not for everyone.
Springy quilted table runner - far away and up close.


And suddenly I find myself in the middle of a knitting frenzy! I recently purchased a camel peacoat for next winter. It was on sale since it was off-season and I figure I'm really going to need it since our family is moving from Colorado to upstate New York in September. So, I decided to make some new scarves to go with it. The first scarf I made is with a really simple pattern knit in threes, found here. The second pattern I designed myself and it's so soft and luscious I've actually been wearing it around the house in the evening if it gets cool. The beauty of it is that it simply wraps around your neck right inside the collar of a jacket and then tucks through a little flap to stay in place. Nothing hanging down in the way.

Savannah in bubblegum pink.


Savannah's Bubblegum pink neck scarf with slot for loose ends. Super cute on her too!

My new pink scarf (in organic cotton/bamboo blend) in cameo faggot knit pattern. It will look great with my camel peacoat next winter.

Here's a picture of the new scarf on the coffee table to show the cool texture.

As soon as Savannah saw my scarf she wanted one JUST like it, so I made her one out of a soft Bubblegum pink yarn that she picked out from Berroco. Now I'm making her a matching hat but if I end up running out of yarn for it, it'll turn out to be more of a headband/ear warmer instead.

Next I'm trying to make a cute poncho for Savannah in a bulky sky blue yarn she picked out for herself today. I'm also in the middle of a shrug for myself but I've kind of become bored with that for a while. Maybe after making a quick (I hope) bulky poncho I'll be interested in finishing my shrug.

I'm also planning to steal my knitting mother-in-law's time the next time we have a vacation together so she can teach me how to make socks from one of her time-tested knitting patterns. Will my plot work? I hope so!