greenclogs

she finished

With a lot of perseverance and a little help from her mama, Annika finished her skirt. 

She did such a nice job! I hemmed it for her and sewed the decorative stitching on the apron since the power of the Rocketeer scares her a bit and I was itching to try out the decorative stitches (yes, Grace. I know berninagarcia has them too. It's not the same.)

She added this sweet applique from some fabric that Melissa gave us this summer. Those little details are so important, don't you think? 

The pattern is the Evelyn Apron Skirt by Jona Giammalva, and I would highly recommend it. Jona's innstructions are very clear and she has clever construction methods that really work - you can tell she knows her way around clothing construction. We have all of her patterns and I love them. Jona is local to us and is a friend, but my love for her work has nothing to do with our friendship. I'm just lucky to have talented friends.

The gingham fabric is from Ikea and frays a ton, so if you use it, be forewarned. I love what Ikea is doing with prints right now, but it requires very finished seams. The mushroom is Heather Ross, of course. I'm using what I have sparingly. The dots are Moda, if I remember correctly. 

She's ready to start a new project, so that means this one was a success. Next up - an art bag for her watercolor supplies. We have some outdoor painting to do. It's winter in Arizona after all. 

random sickly thoughts

I'm coming down with a bit of a cold, so I don't have much to say. I feel full of The Stupid with the cold medicine. I haven't done much other than fold laundry and lay on the couch catching up on Weeds and Project Runway. I'm starting the big studio reorganization so that it can really be called a studio instead of a hodgepodge of a craft room. I'm juicing a lot of limes. 

I've been working on a photography project and I can't share the pictures, which is really hard. I'm excited to tell you about it once it's all wrapped up though! 

Okay, back to playing with paint chips, finding places for things and finishing, finishing, finishing. 

One thing is finished and out the door. Grandpa Paul, avert your eyes. 

The kids made this for their grandpa's birthday. He likes crab. A lot. We hope he likes the shirt a lot too. 

Time to order new tie dye stuff. I think we'll branch out from rainbow this time and see what else we can do. 

Hopefully I'll be less stuffy and more interesting tomorrow. Crossing fingers....

finishing up and moving forward

I just had to delete all of my typepad cookies in order to be able to sign in to update today. Ugh. Corrupt cookies are a bad thing.http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=991

You want to see completed tie dye tshirts, right? Right.

They're both quite happy with them, but now they have the tie dye bug. I guess I'll be placing a Dharma Trading order soon. We made 3 more shirts tonight that are marinating - I'll be able to show them off on Friday along with our volcano eruption results. 

Also finished up today were the other half of the gocco cards. I used the same image on a different color card with different ink. 

The green paper is really hard to capture. It's a very mossy green with the ivory and brown bike printed on it. This one has a much more rustic feel than the other one. They'll all be packed up and shipped out tomorrow. 

The mental health day seemed to do Annika a lot of good. We discovered yesterday that the main source of her angst is that she is a first grader so she should not be in second grade math. So we talked that out and she had a much better day today. Ah, school with its propensity for sameness. Even in a school like ours, where everyone's individuality is respected and encouraged, the little ones all try to fit in. At least now we know what the problem is so we can support her in feeling good about herself and her abilities. Thanks for all of the support you all gave me. It's hard to know what to do in those situations, but I think that keeping her home honored her need for some Mama time and gave her the space she needed to work through her feelings. Her teacher also said that Monday was not a good day in class, so I did them both a favor by not sending a fragile ego to class that day. 

In other finishing up news, Annika's room is finally nearly completed. We'll show that off tomorrow. I do need some more cute artwork for one of her walls and I'd prefer to buy prints from independent artists. There are some Black Apple prints on her wall now. Who else on Etsy do you like besides her and Belle and Boo? I'm open to other suggestions that have a similar vibe. Thanks!

inky

We had a very inky day yesterday. With some deadlines looming for Valentine's day (and the Valentine exchange) as well as the mid-winter gocco swap, Gunnar and I had work to do. First up was Gunnar's project. On Saturday, he completed his design. He went into the photo archives for inspiration and chose this photo from our last trip to the zoo.

In Photoshop, he turned it into this

We printed the image at 3.5x5" and he put in on the lightbox, tracing the elements that he wanted to use. Then he chose light blue cardstock for his paper and brown ink. Here's the final result.

I am so proud of the work he put into his artwork and of the result. He's pretty pleased too.

Tomorrow, I'll show off my work. Right now I have to package them up and send them on their merry way. Prepare for way too much print gocco this week, since my swap images should start arriving in the  mail soon. One has already arrived and I love it. Hooray!

kid craft

We had a mellow afternoon today. I made cinnamon rolls and we baked them when we got home, so I think the kids and I were in a cinnamon, brown sugar and yeast induced stupor. We moved a little slowly.

However there was a puppet show

and G needed a new puppet so he made one with leftover wool felt and a glue gun.

Oh, and I finally let Annika get near her new drawing tool. Now she's as obsessed by it as I am.

The teacher meeting was postponed because she's out sick. Part of me is glad that I get an extra day to gain perspective. We'll try for Thursday. Thanks for all the sympathy! There's nothing more awkward than a teacher conflict. Tomorrow is a short day, so we're going to visit the zoo and post our findings tomorrow night. Good night!

valentine exchange

One of my favorite parts of writing a blog is hearing from other people and exchanging ideas based on what I wrote in a post. After seeing Annika's valentines that were created on Hooky Friday, Molly emailed me with a great idea. She asked what I thought of organizing a handmade valentine exchange among our kids and opening it up to whomever else wants to participate. I thought this was a fantastic idea, so I'm throwing it out to the rest of you.

Here's how I see it working:

• Please leave me a comment if you're interested and tell me how many kids will be participating and their ages. You may sign up until January 20.
• I'll compile the list and match up families based on the ages of the children. If you're a prolific procreator, you may be matched up with more than one family to get the right age matches.
• I'll email you the contact email and kid info for your exchange partner(s) by January 25.
• Please contact your partner by January 28 and exchange addresses.
• Handcraft a valentine (yes, gocco counts, so long as it's designed by the child) and mail it off to your partner by February 10 to allow adequate mail time. Don't forget to take a photo of the beautiful creations!
• Post your photo to the not-yet-created Flickr group so we can all see the inspiration and creativity of our children.
• If you have a blog, post the received valentine on your blog.

That's it! I don't see this being a big gifty exchange - getting it together on the Valentine front is enough work in my book - but be as creative as you'd like to be. If you and your exchange partner want to take it further, then go ahead and do so as long as you both agree. Just make it about fun and connections for kids. If I get organized enough, I may even make a (gasp!) badge for your blogs. And Molly, I'm all over it even if we get no takers - I can't wait to see what you'll do.

Valentine production line 2007

Let the Valentine production of 2008 commence.

scatterbrained

We've been crafting on many fronts around here - often multitasking because we want to do it All. Right. Now.

Totes! Many thanks to Sarah for the replenished tote supplies.

Sweaters! Going a lot faster now that I have a long enough circular needle to put it on.

The sleeves and the body are joined - I have about 2 more inches until I start the yoke cable. Annika needed to insert her foot into the photo.

Shrinky Dinks! Go see Molly for the coolest information about Shrinky Dinks from recycled containers. In this house, it's life altering. No more doling out the plastic like it's a national treasure.

Fimo!

First, Gunnar's rendition of the Captain Underpants characters for a diorama.

Next, Philip's new musical instruments. So he can "rock out loud" as he likes to say.

I think tomorrow I'll try to be a little more focused. Today, I discovered that I was doing too many things at once when we forgot Annika's backpack. I drove back to school to deliver it about an hour later and  halfway there for the second time, I realized that I had walked out of the house without it AGAIN! Turn around, retrieve backpack, succeed on attempt #3. I truly would leave my head behind if it weren't attached. Tomorrow is a more organized day!

it's starting to look a lot like Christmas

We pulled out all of the Christmas decor today and put most of it out. We still need to find the candles for those empty candle sticks and hang the stockings.

Gunnar and Annika set up the Dickens Village on the buffet on the entry. When I went over to inspect, I discovered that it had been infiltrated by Ninja Peas and Sumo Tomatoes.

Luckily, Batman is there to protect the villagers.

Gunnar spent all weekend making those little Fimo veggies after we scored a Fimo sample pack at Joann's for 50% off. They're all about 1/2" tall - there's even a Santa pea with a bag of toys. So cute! I love giving them tools that will fuel a weekend full of creation. I can't wait to see where they crop up next.

making memories

and tote bags! The tote bag count is at 5 complete, and 5 more in partial completion. We're a little behind, but have big plans for the Thanksgiving weekend. Big plans!

Now let me distract you from tote bags.

Today we made a test batch of holiday cookies using the Cookie of the Month from Martha Stewart December and Jeff's Grandma Nori's cookie press. Yes, that's 3 sticks of butter that you see in the background. Martha doesn't mess around. These are a traditional spritz cookie like my mom and my grandma used to make when I was a little girl. In fact, they still make them. We used to sprinkle them with green and red sugar crystals, but I don't have any of those so we went with Martha's suggestion of a cinnamon sugar mixture. We made a few wreaths, but mostly we made camels and dogs.

It took a while for me to get the hang of the press again, but we had a great time experimenting and eating our mistakes. Mmmm. We're taking the rest with us to the family Thanksgiving dinner. I'm sure there will be a lot left by Thursday.

Staying in holiday mode, the kids cut out and decorated turkeys. The turkeys will be officially unveiled on Thanksgiving.

We're spending the week cooking and creating and talking about family traditions - those we've inherited and those we have created for ourselves.

In blog news, this morning Jade left the 500th comment on my blog. Since I see this as quite a milestone and was very tickled, I'm sending her a little gift along with the ones from my 100th post drawing that I, ahem, haven't sent out yet. Lots of boxes are going out this week. So Jade, I'll be emailing you. Thanks so much to everyone who comments - I love every single one.

Last thing if you're still reading. And fair warning - it is not sweetness and light so if you're feeling warm and fuzzy from cookies and turkeys and blog comments and want to stay that way, then you'll want to stop here.

I'm having a mommy problem and I need advice. My son went to a birthday party last night. Another boy was at the party who is very protective of his relationship with the birthday boy and intensely dislikes G because of his close friendship with the birthday boy. He has in the past physically attacked G just for playing with him at recess. G is scared of this boy. Jeff picks him up from the party and the parents tell him that the other boy pushed him - it was clear that they were very angry at the boy, but we don't know what was said/done. The boy was still there (had it been my house, he would have been sent home). G was very quiet in the car, came home and said "well, W___ still doesn't like me" and burst into tears on my shoulder. Apparently, when G was by himself playing with a toy, the boy grabbed him by the arm and threw him across the room where he hit the wall. He's bruised on his arm and shoulder. I am pissed off beyond belief. Given that I can't exactly go beat the crap out of that kid myself, I'm trying to decide what to do. Do I:

a. Let it go, knowing that I've said the right things to my son, and hope this doesn't happen again
b. Have a discussion with the boy's parents, since this is not the first time that he has assaulted my son (he has a good 6 inches and 15 lbs. on G) and has done things like throw basketballs directly in his face.
c. I don't have a c. I'm so spitting mad that I can't think straight.

Ideas? Advice? Sympathetic fury?

playing with color

Today was playdough day. Since Gunnar is still recovering, we spent the day at home and I made playdough to keep them occupied and away from the screens in the house. I made a plain batch, divided it into 6 balls, and squirted food coloring into each ball. The kids kneaded the colors into the balls, and added color as they needed it.

All of our hands are covered in colors of green and blue and red.

The kids spent about 2 hours at the table armed with dough, some implements and their imaginations. A beautiful thing.

Earlier today, I rowed in a racing shell for the first time. I was in the bow seat of an 8x for a teambuilding exercise for the crew team board of directors. Lindsay was the coxswain of the boat, and it was really fun to listen to her take charge of a team of adults and steer us all down the lake without mishap or spills. She never ceases to amaze me. She took the fall off from crew, and after today is ready to go back in January. I'm thrilled to see her going back to the sport that she really loves and that has given her so much.

Hope everyone else is having a great weekend too.