Back from the city

Yesterday was my friend's 35th birthday. She is a teacher and says that when teaching rounding numbers, at 5 you round up. She got a lot of happy 40th cards! Her husband surprised her with a car for the evening that drove us (6 moms) across the bridge and downtown. Lonny was our driver for the evening. I think he should be sainted. There has to be amazing patience in someone that can drive around all night with a car full of women singing bad 80s songs at the top of their lungs! Even though we only played 1 cd (for 3 hours) our birthday girl was genuinely surprised each time a song came on! So much fun. We ate dinner, went dancing...acted silly. Not to shabby for a Monday night, and I think a great way to welcome in a 35th year.

Time to take a deep breath and jump in the pool

So, the costumes...They are DONE! I am so proud. I had mixed emotions when I turned them in, lets just say that I found out that if you iron acetate at a high enough setting to fuse the bonding tape, you can really melt it! Yeh. At 1:00am that is exactly what I did. The good news was that it was sitting on the inside of a button band, so nobody but the poor little 10 year old wearing the costume will ever know. So, yeh...I was a bit nervous to hand them over. I walked into the studio and 4 adorable kids ran squealing over to me. They all were desperate to try them on. Right there in front of me, they tried them on. I held my breath...Each one fit each girl perfectly! Like it was made for them, which in fact, they were. They were giddy! I was too! One kiddo even asked her dance teacher if she could borrow it to wear it out! (I guess she likes that shiny look.) All in all, it turned out better than I expected it would. Now I am back to knitting little toys for the business and for friends having babies. Seems like almost everyone I know is having a baby right now. It's pretty cool. So, knitting and swimming. We have gone through a ridiculous heat spell these past few days, and all we could do to keep sane was stay submerged. Tomorrow the heat is supposed to break a bit, but well, once you start going to the pool, you just want more and more and more. It's my summertime addiction.
So, knitting, swimming...Oh, and driving. This weekend is my Gramma's 85th birthday and the fam and I are driving up to have brunch. Its going to be a blast. My Aunts and Uncles and Cousins -- I know, you aren't supposed to capitalize those words, but they are important to me, so I am giving them the big letters -- are going to be there too. It's been about a year or more since I have seen any of them, so YEA! Can't wait. Also, I'm not going to be doing the driving or navigating, so I get to knit! That's right, 1 hour 45 minutes up and 1 hour 45 minutes back. If that sentence were a movie, it would be a 1950s Hollywood musical! Can you hear the knitting show tunes? "I could have knit all night, I could have knit all night, and still have knit some more."
There you have it. I'm going to add some pictures once I charge my battery. The camera just pooped out on me.

Got my work cut out for me

I'm making costumes for the 10 year old girls at my dance studio. I grossly underestimated the amount of time it takes to sew an eight-paneled swing coat -- for four! -- go figure. So, now I have that cramming-a-semester-of-class-into-a-week-of-studying kind of feeling. You know, the feeling that if you make elaborate schedules broken down in 6 minute increments and you forgo sleep and food, you maybe just maybe can do it. All I can say is thank goodness for fusible hem tape. It's not cheating. These coats aren't couture, right?

This week is a fun one. Little one has a birthday party to go to, and at this age, I get to go to! We are going to take a ferry (yea boat rides!) over to a playground for a picnic. Sounds like a good time, no? Wednesday is dance class (DEADLINES LOOMING!!) Thursday is Lunch-Out-with-the-Kiddo day, and Friday we have a baby shower. Just when did my schedule get so busy? Crazy. Fun though. You may have noticed that I left off Monday from my list of fun. Well, that's because the termite guy is coming to check for creapy house eating bugs. It makes me itch just thinking about it. So, Monday...not fun.

Last week was rainy. Very very very rainy. We did manage to squeeze in a trip to the Manor to hang out with the residents and help them build their kitchen garden. Lots of herbs and tomatos and petunias. Very proud of that teepee. I made that!

Thanks for this Joe. It made me laugh so hard I snorted.

YEEE-HAW!

Little one and I and our friends went to a farm today. There were so many wonderful animals to see...a bunny, a goat, a dog, a zillion cats and 3 beautiful ponies. So, little one and her other teeny tiny 3 year old friends climbed on the backs of these ponies and rode them all over this farm! What a sight! She was laughing the entire time. On the way home, she retold the story of the pony ride. In the rocking chair before naptime, she retold the story. In bed before closing her eyes at naptime, she retold me the story. I think this made a big impression, don't you?


Another plus was getting to see a real cat, up close and personal. Might not sound like much, but little one LOVES cats (or as she calls them, yiiies.)


I think this was the only time all day that either one of them sat still. So happy I had the camera out.

Special Dinners

Mom and Dad and Gramma came over for dinner last night. There was chicken on the grill, homemade sweet potato fries, a big green salad and brussels sprouts with mushrooms (no, little one wouldn't eat the brussels sprouts, but Dad and I love them.) Little cute chocolate mini bundt cakes for dessert. No special occasion, just dinner on a day that ends in "y." But to have Gramma over, and Mom and Dad, well, that felt good. So we ate in the dining room (!!) with the pretty antique lace table cloth from my Great Gramma. Little one made napkin rings for the occasion.

She painted a paper towel tube and added glitter. I cut them into rings for her. She was very proud and so was I. I think we should use them often for fancy dinners with the 3 of us.

The paper towel tube was the last one in our house -- hopefully for a long time. In an effort to stop filling up the world with our trash, the fam and I have tried to eliminate most paper goods from our house. Ok, I say most, but even as I type this, I know that's not exactly true. There are some paper things that I have no desire to ever stop using. I have never been a Sears catalog kind of girl, if you catch my drift. Anyway, we are using little cotton washcloths instead of paper towels. It's kind of cool. I make them from this fabulously cheap yarn. I have a this book and I just pick out a stitch pattern and try it out for 5 inches by 7 inches. Useful and instructive. While we are talking about yarn, tomorrow, the Moms and I are getting together and I am going to teach them to knit. I am so excited. The more knitting friends I have, the fewer people that will be annoyed by my constant chatter about fiber content and process vs. project oriented knitting. The bonus is that we are going to take all of the squares we make and sew them into a blanket to donate to the kids in the local foster system. So, all in all, a great idea, right? *Nice bonus: to practice teaching people how to knit, I used my husband as a guinea pig. He has just finished his first 3 rows! He was going to put it down to go pick up some stuff from the store and he says to me, "Just one more row." Be still my heart!

Found this book today at Mom and Dad's house. My Gramma read it to little one. It was my fave book when I was 3. Cool.

happy happy happy

Happy Mother's Day! Today started with a lovely brunch with 4 generations in attendence. So much fun! Now, I am reading my new books, this and this, with a belly full of chinese food my husband picked up for us. Here's wishing you your perfect day, too.

Missed you.

Time has flown by. Little one turned three last week. There was a flurry of fun leading up to the day, and then she had the extended birthday celebration WEEK because her birthday fell midweek and her party was on the weekend. So much fun.

We went to the zoo on the actual birthday and saw a ton of animals. Her two faves: an ocelot, and the buffalo. I think I may have influenced the second favorite animal. You see, I had never seen a buffalo up close and personal. Their faces are HUGE! I mean, I know they are big animals, but their faces...in proportion to their bodies...staggering. I think it should become a unit of measurement. Bigger than a buffalo's face, I tell you. Anyway, I went on and on about the buffalo's face so that became a fave story for little one, too.

Saturday was the purple party day. So cute. 5 little kids running around the backyard shaking pompoms and covering themselves in sand from the sandbox. So much fun to sit back and watch them all. I can't believe my tiny little baby is 3. The time is wizzing by.

So, today I started cutting out the material for the costumes for our dance studio's spring recital. 4 little Madeline coats. It's fun. I'm trading sewing for ballet classes. What a great deal for me. Do something I like -- get paid by doing more of something I like. Perfect situation!