there's less time for sewing...

when school's out.  But there's still a lot to love about summer:

 































































































































































::small-town parades
::cherry picking
::walking downtown to the Ferris wheel...
::and the view of your house from the top
::farm camp
::a quilt at the car show
::caterpillars
::shaved ice
::bubbles
::looking forward to two more months.

when it's 60 degrees in March...

you might decide to eat lunch on the porch.  You'll wear a sombrero, and bring Curious George along to enjoy the sunshine.  You'll share a little bit of that delicious mango, but not too much.

Marching

This is March to me: mostly shadows, a little sun.  Not quite spring, but getting there.

In March, I suppose we should be looking toward shedding winter gear, but the hat I just needed to finish is finished.





















For now, we're calling this particular model the Monsters, Inc. Cap, but the "pattern" is called Tweedish because that's just how it looks to me.  I'm planning to write up a tutorial one of these days, because it's kind of a cool technique, and a good way to use up scraps of different yarns.

Interest really started to develop when I got out the pompon maker,





















in an effort to work a little bit during playtime, and it actually went pretty well.  I am now a devotee of this tool (I actually bought a bunch of sizes with coupons and another project in mind), and once we noticed that the colors matched favorite characters Mike & Sulley,
















he's barely taken it off.































These blocks are for ASB--mailed off to the UK this afternoon.  Very springy, even if the weather's not.  This quilt is going to be gorgeous.

under (and prisoners of) the weather

Of course we're not the only ones to be dealing with fever, coughs, sneezing, and etc., but a few days home from school, cooped up with a foot of snow outside (plus an earthquake!?!), sure does make it feel that way.

Symptoms aside, he feels fine, so at least we've been keeping busy.
















Heart crystals (also above).
















Beads.  With which we make bracelets for each other, with names.  I personally am proudly sporting a princess bracelet and a Celia bracelet, which look almost the same.  Very definite ideas about which colors should be used.  Next up for Alex are a fireman bracelet and a fire chief bracelet (not sure how, or if, those will differ).
















Stamping, for Valentines and just for fun.  "I choosed black and red for the ladybug because ladybugs are black and red."  Later, for a funny joke, a purple and green ladybug was made.  As an aside, taping down our paper with painters tape is my smartest idea in a long time.  I'm sure I'm thwarting some kind of keep-the-paper-still-on-his-own developmental skill, but the decrease in frustration trumps that for now.
















Chalk.  We (I) also drew a bug house and a monster house. Very definite ideas about furniture. Note the Mike bracelet.

All with our monster soundtrack in the background, including songs from Justin Roberts, Laurie Berkner, Sesame Street, and of course, the movie.  Dancing was interspersed.

Tomorrow, a quilt.

these boots get a lot of wear.

Occasionally, they're firefighter boots, but recently, they're Santa's boots.  Santa's been getting a lot of attention around here, more since Christmas than before it, actually.  There's flying in the laundry basket sleigh (strictly with Dad, that game), lots of ho ho hoing, reading and rereading of many Christmas books.  And ever shape-aware, if a slice of bread comes to resemble Santa's sleigh as it's munched, all the better--except when you have to keep eating it.

Tears erupted, full-on, like I had taken away his yellow bear forever.  Things got even worse when I said no, he couldn't take the bread-sleigh up for naptime.  Racking brain, racking brain.

















That's a paper towel, everyone. Cut into a sleigh and accessories.  In a fit of "genius", I cut some slits so Santa's boots fit into the sleigh and the sack fits onto his back.  He's upstairs sleeping with it right now.
















I wish I'd had the video camera to capture the delight.  A tinkly giggle that I never want to forget.  I'm sure he will have moved on in a day or a few, but really, that's my favorite thing about blogging--I took a minute to take the pictures and tell the story, so long after this time, when he can still be consoled by something so simple, I (we) will remember.

to the Christmas tree patch! (and a winner, too...)

Really, to the Christmas tree farm, but when you're three years old and your last u-pick-it experience was here,

in June,

it's the Christmas tree patch to you.

We really had to earn it--a tollway bottleneck (but don't worry!  It's the best road construction project of 2009!), a just-as-slow alternate route, and a missed-sign-induced backtrack--but by the time we got there, we had the place all to ourselves.

Tools of the trade:

Cutting it down (it didn't take long at all!):

Following Daddy back to get it bagged up:

A small disappointment because the popcorn machine wasn't up and running, but they did have a much healthier snack (kidding!  But he did love them.  Who remembers this bag from the 80s?), and a juice box is great for improving a preschooler's mood.

Look what they let me take home for free!  Here's hoping I'll be able to turn them into what I'm picturing in my mind.  More on that in a couple of days.
***
Now, onto the real-er deal.  I was delighted by the response to my SMS giveaway...thanks so much to everyone who visited.  The surprise is indeed finished, except for finding the perfect button (hoping to do that tomorrow on my marathon trip to Joann; photos then too, when there's some sunshine!).  Now, can you believe this?:

Has this ever happened in the history of the RNG?  I guess it just goes to show that random is random!  So Kari, check for the comment I posted on your blog.  If I haven't heard from Kari by Wednesday morning, I'll choose another winner.  Again, thanks to everyone who visited!

I am a Godmother

Again, actually.  I'm guessing that two will be my limit, but the two I have are darling so I'm OK with that.

I finished the blanket.  Just in time.  Wove in the ends this morning.

It wasn't a gift for the baptism, but today was the right day to give it.

I am 80% pleased with it.  Blocking certainly helped it along, and I think it would have benefited from another round, but see above.  There's a sort of unintentional wonkiness to it that I don't adore, but it's soft and warm and cozy, which is all a baby cares about, I suppose.

I decided to crochet the panels together, because Jared Flood knows everything, and I think I'm pleased with the result.  Unlike his gorgeous blanket, I think there's definitely a wrong side, but the other seaming options I tried just weren't cutting it--plus the stretching Jared talks about was a real concern here.  The border is four rows of garter stitch, which necessitated weaving in eight ends instead of two (knitters, if you think about it, you'll know why), but I just wasn't sure I'd have enough yarn to do five.  Of course, I have an entire small ball left--always the way.

I had planned to make his actual baptism gift, but am trying to be more realistic about my to-do lists and decided that something handmade by someone else would be lovely and just fine.  I wanted it to be traditional but not stodgy,

and I think this qualifies.  It's from this wonderful, accommodating etsy seller, whom I would recommend in a heartbeat.  He basically worked his tail off to make sure I'd have it in time (because who doesn't order an important gift on Thanksgiving when the event is a week away?).

 The air was cold, the kids were cheerful, and the church was gorgeous.

A beautiful day for a baptism.

it's Friday...

and life is super.

I've got some pumpkin bread in the oven...
I joined another bee (someone stop me!...I can feel an addiction forming!)...
and I get to go to this tonight; can't can't can't wait.  Can't wait!

 Happy weekend!

a special kind of solitude

Which for me, actually, comes in a very public place.

I love me a train ride.


Not sure I would really love a train commute, but my once-in-a-while suits me just perfectly.  Maybe because I'm wearing something a little more interesting than usual.  Maybe because I'm guaranteed a little bit of quiet time.  Maybe just because it means I'm going into the city (miss living there, kind of), and am about to do something fun (like this time, which turned out to be a great dinner followed by my best experience in a theater, ever). 

But no matter where I'm headed, I think I might look forward to the train ride the most.

There are train ride rituals: a snack, some (audio and in this case kind of gratuitous) reading, some knitting, and some being alone.  I always bring a notebook, planning to make lists and draw craft ideas, but usually don't get to it...just having it along is what's important.

This trip, I finished (finally!) the first knitting project on my kind-of-long list.  Cast off ten minutes before I got off the train, and thought dropping the stitches would take a couple of minutes (don't stitches seem to drop in an instant when you don't want them to?)--just kidding, took me the whole train ride home too.  No matter, it's delivered now.

 I love it.  I hope my mom loves it too.

in the wee hours...

not quite, but it sure feels late to me. 

Just have to finish that O and I'm off to bed.  First thing tomorrow: sewing some keys. 

I love Thursday!...

primarily because it's the almost-the-weekend day, but also because in our town, it's farmer's market day.  There's a whole new dimension to that now that I'm dropping Alex off at school on Thursday mornings, and this morning had to park illegally since all the marketgoers had *stolen* my parking spots, but we made it work.

Anyway, after school, we walked the half-block to the market, played in the park for a bit (where I saw a smattering of people I knew but who didn't know each other...kind of awkward and definitely tough to manage all three conversations at once!), and bought this monster, which I present on my pizza peel for scale (doesn't everyone use a pizza peel for scale?).  I should probably apologize for the dishes in my sink, but let's just get it out in the open right now that there are often dishes in my sink.

So, some zucchini bread is on the way--the super-nice guy at the market (I love people who are unnecessarily but deliberately nice to my kid, and he was) assures me that that's what zucchs of this size are good for.  I need a recipe...I'm planning to use something from here so I can turn right around and add in some chocolate chunks, guilt free.

Today I was super-productive during school time (bill paying, paper managing, that kind of stuff), so tomorrow, my treat to myself will be sewing during those few hours.  I'm set to start my first quilt, a Christmas lap quilt made of fabrics left over from the swap hosted by modernJax.  The top in my mind was inspired by this, and I'm thinking of a randomly pieced back à la this beaut, but with more white space--or maybe just different white space.  And a pieced binding for sure.