the sky is pink

Yesterday there was a surprise in my mailbox. A good surprise. A very good one . Joanna sent this monogrammed zippered pouch (which is so yummy -- love that fabric!); a pair of fabulous earrings (they are to die for); and some personalized labels (I'm almost too afraid to use them!). I was secretly coveting her zippered pouches and was so surprised and pleased when I was the recipient of one. So talented is she. Thank you, Joanna, I love all of it! It made my day! This is a little children's ironing board. We picked it up at the swap shop last week. It has a wooden top. The cover and padding were ripped, so after hosing it down with Lysol, I removed the cover and added a new one: I've been wanting to craft lately, but have been finding that I have little time and energy to do so. This is one project that took minutes. All of the kids love it (even the boys) and want to iron, which is good, because I don't like to iron. (And the toy iron was found at the Swa...

Here is secret, exclusive footage of the Swap Shop. (This is the "outside." I say that because the building really only has 3 walls. It's really like an outside room.) This is the front of the building. (If you look closely, I am just below the yellow sign with my hand in the box and I just found something cool -- see bottom photo.) Oh, and here I am again. Joe wanted everyone to see the funny rules of the Swap Shop. We love the bottom sign. Now a peek of the inside. (Some pictures didn't turn out. I felt kind of dumb with my camera in there. I was trying to be discreet, but when the flash went off, the whole place lit up. My secret was exposed.) A pile of craft books. I found a few cross-stitching books for my friend, Brinda. (It was so cold that day that I went through the pile as quickly as possible.) The box of Christmas ornaments with spaghetti was still there. Trash has been added since. Some other nasty stuff has been cropped out of the photo. And, ...

On Thursday Joe had to go out of town for the night. Since the boys only had a half-day on Thursday and no school on Friday, we went with him. We were in Nofolk, Virginia, and visited the U.S.S. Wisconsin battleship. The boys loved it. We went into the Nauticus Museum and the children enjoyed the "touch tank" where they touched live starfish, horseshoe crabs and a few other things. The had boat races. They saw how the shoreline is shifting. And they went inside this circular ribbon "room" that spun around and around. I did not go inside. I only stuck the camera in to grab a shot. I was dizzy from the outside of that spinning madness. There was also a maze we went through. The boys loved it all. And before we left for our trip, we stopped at the Swap Shop. Here are a few of my treasures. On the left one plate, on the right a set of four melamine plates. The look very 70's-ish. Two Christmas ornaments and a small tin. (Joe says the angel has a moustache. It'...

Christmas Eve 2004 we made snowmen out of our children's feet. I always loved seeing my kids footprints and how they grow each year. Now with Sawyer here, it was only appropriate that we do it again. So, on Monday night we did it. (I wanted to do it before Christmas, but this was one of the things that was crossed off our to-do list.) This time I used a lighter blue fabric (duckcloth). The edges are straight, even though they don't look like it in the picture. We used brown for the stick arms (I couldn't find brown fabric paint when we did them the first time). And a glittery paint for falling snowflakes, which are kind of hard to see. I used a dowel rod in a pocket the first time. I was thinking about attaching 3-4 ribbon loops at the top instead. What do you think?

Since Joe was out of town all of last week, he took off yesterday and today. So, what else do Joe and I do best but visit the Swap Shop? I think this was my funnest trip ever. Joe usually goes in first and looks around (it's a three-walled outdoor shack that is too cold and dirty for the children). Then it's my turn. By the time I went in, I was the only female and I'm pretty sure the only English-speaking person. Being the only female, I had my pick of most things that men aren't interested in. One of the boxes I was digging around in had Christmas ornaments and lights. When I stuck my hand in the box, I saw the little Santa ornament. Then I started digging for more. As I'm digging through this box of mostly junk, I realized that the box had dried, uncooked spaghetti thrown in it. I was digging amongst food for my treasures. It was worth it because I found three of the ornaments. Then I spied this adorable little red bag. Leather. At the Swap Shop you just k...

I decided that I needed a new skirt to wear to church on Sunday, so I whipped this up. You may recognize the fabric from my banner. (It's not photograhing well.) I hemmed the skirt in light blue bias tape. It was a last-minute decision. I had originally planned to do a double-rolled hem. I'm happy with the blue bias. And I had just enough left over from the baby's bunting . I used Simplicity pattern 5505 again . I'm going to try something new soon. Really. I promise. * * * * Yesterday Mason wanted to play in the "snow." He went out alone, as Spenser was napping and it was too cold for Sawyer to be outside. He was under strict orders to stay in the backyard. When I couldn't find him out the back door, I went to our mudroom door and saw this: Mason stuck trying to climb over the gate! He was crying, too. And asking me not to take his picture. * * * In case you didn't know this, today is the birthday of someone we all know and love . Go wis...

Many many years ago my mother gave me this shirt for my birthday. It was large. Shapeless. And it served its purpose. (You probably can't read it, but under the flower it says, "You are my sunshine.") I think when I first saw the shirt, I thought it would make a neat pillow. I had forgotten about it for years . Before Christmas, I found it with some craft stuff and decided it was time . I re-washed it and sat it in a WIP pile until Friday afternoon. That's when I decided to just do it. After years of thinking about it. After years of planning it in my mind. And, boy, I was nervous. I had never sewn a pillow with a zipper. And then my friend, Christy, talked me into using piping, too (which I had never used before). I only had one chance to do it right. One. Chance . Uno. I was getting ready. And more nervous ... It didn't turn out perfectly. But I love it! And so do all five of the older children who fought over it Friday night. * * * * * It's n...

It's a snowy, wintry evening in our part of Maryland. It's the first snow we've seen this season. And it's not much. The children and I watched the movie Snow Day for our Friday-family-movie night. They are all hoping for a snow day. After all, " any thing can happen on a snow day."

On Saturday I primed my wooden high chair . It was warm. I was barefoot in the grass spraying along. Then it started to rain. I moved it to the porch to let it dry. I forgot about it, even though it was sitting on our front porch and I saw it a few times a day. On Wednesday I decided it was time to paint it. By then, it was freezing. Freezing . What a drastic change in temperature in just a few short days. Anyway, I painted the chair. I think it was too cold to paint. The paint kind of bubbled in places as it dried. Or maybe I didn't paint it evenly. Who knows. And Joe's not around to ask. (Although he will be home tomorrow night.) Now I'm wondering if I should have painted it black or red. I always go the safe route and paint everything white. We have a lot of white-painted wood furniture. When we went to the library for Jack's art show last week, we picked up a children's book on yoga . The kids have been having fun doing the positions. I read the ...

My grandmother believes that all babies need something to hold. She has been known to give babies hankies and washcloths to play with. Sawyer is 3 1/2 months old, but cannot hold rattles safely yet, as they are too heavy and he bonks himself in his head. I decided to make something that was lightweight, small, and visually stimulating . Thus, this small patchwork baby blankie was born. It was sewn from scraps of black and white polka dots and red fabric. Squares on one side; stripes on the other. It has cotton quilt batting in between the layers, which makes it a little bulkier than I intended, but still nice to hold onto. (And absorbent to catch drool and spit-up.) It's pretty small. The finished size is approximately 12" x 12". He loves it. (Why didn't I think of this 10 years ago when Taylor was a baby?) I now have plans to make one in different textures. I have some terry cloth, minky, chenille, a stretchy suede-like fabric, and flannel all in baby blue and white...

First I need to thank you for your kind words about my pillow . Really, you were way too generous in your comments. But, thank you. (Maybe it was trick photography?) Now onto the thrifting. Joe had a four-day pass this weekend, so we headed to the swap shop (swap shop = free thrifting). It was the busiest I had ever seen it. People in and out. I did manage to find a few things (above pix). The little Christmas tin without its lid is now the home of Jack's dry erase markers. The little figure with the broken-off legs reminds me of half-dolls from years ago. She's sitting in a teacup in my cabinet. The book Read-Alound Horse Stories claims to be a book of "gay, merry-go-round of stories every child will love to hear and read again and again." Who could resist that? One lonely mug. Two rooster bowls that have some chipping along the edges. One little china bowl (has a small chip). The swap shop had a lot of junk there on Friday. For example an animal cage with beddin...

This weekend we attended Joe's grandparents' 65th wedding anniversary party. 65 years! What an amazing accomplishment. In honor of their anniversary, I made them a patchwork pillow. Because I waited until 2 hours before the party to work on it (about the same time I came up with the idea), it didn't turn out quite how I would have liked. The quality of work suffered because of my rush. I had rotary cutter problems. Well, actually Lera problems. The rotary cutter veered off and I cut some of the already-embroidered squares a little funky, resulting in not-level-not-squared-squares. I didn't have time to fix it. (See the date is not level.) At the party, Mason was trying to rollerskate. He has been wanting to do this for so long. We don't have a place at our house for him to try. And cobblestone sidewalks certainly aren't safe or easy for little ones. One of Joe's sisters bungeed a pillow to Mason's bottom to cushion his repeated falls. Kudos fo...

Saturday was dubbed Carter's "Best Day Ever" (by Carter, of course!). Carter was baptized on Saturday morning by Joe. In our religion infants are blessed and children (at age 8) are baptized . We believe that infants do not have sins and that the age of eight is the age of accountability. Joe (like most men in our church) holds the priesthood, so he is able to perform the ordinance himself (as he did for Sawyer's blessing ). Both must wear white (church-owned, we don't own any funky white jumpsuits) and Carter is fully immersed in water (our baptismal font, below), as Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist (but in the river Jordan, not an indoor font). Carter was in the best mood all day. He was so sweet (sweeter than normal). If I asked for help, he jumped up and helped right away. And he stayed very close to me all day. It was his best day ever. He even wrote that in his journal.

Last night we attended a prestigious art show for local artists. Young artists. Very young. Elementary-age artists. My little Jackson was one of the artists: My budding artist. He is very creative and loves to draw, cut, hole-punch, tape, staple, glue, decorate, embellish, and use every available medium to create pieces of art. We are very happy for him that his piece was selected for display. I finished a mailorder bonnet for Spenser. I was having a bad day a few days ago and decided I needed to sew for a few minutes to get in a better mood. It didn't help. I had massive lint in the shuttle, which resulted in my machine making loud, scary noises before it stopped working. After three attempts to clean it out, it started working again. Until operator error caused another problem, which resulted in an intense workout with the seam ripper. And then I quit. I was in a more discouraged mood than when I started. I just finished it this morning. Spenser tried it on for 2 sec...

Every morning I dread packing school lunches. Each of the three older boys have different preferences. It's a zoo in the morning before school and I feel like a short-order cook. I have come up with a few things that have made it easier for me. In my pantry I have 2 crates. One for sweet treats/fruit (above) and the other for salty snacks. Each of the boys gets a sweet treat (cookie, pudding, granola bar) and a fruit (applesauce, diced peaches, mixed fruit) and a salty snack (PB crackers, chips, Doritos, "dipping things"). (Of course they get a sandwich and 100% juice box as well.) It still isn't a smooth morning. But at least it's somewhat more organized. And on Fridays. Well, I love Fridays. Fridays are always pizza day at school and the boys buy lunch! Come on , Friday!

This morning, I had just finished nursing Sawyer when my bedroom door opened and standing in the doorway were Carter and Jack. With breakfast in bed for me. Trix yogurt and a s'mores granola bar. The bowl is empty because Carter was holding a bag of cereal (that he chose) for me to pour. They are so sweet to me. They did this often while I was on bedrest . What loving little boys. I had interesting conversation with Carter yesterday after school. It went like this: Carter: I have a new girlfriend. Her name is Laura. Me: That's a nice name. ::smile:: What happened to Kayla? (The love of his life for more than 2 years.) Carter: Kayla picks her nose and eats it. Me: Oh ... ::gagging:: Carter: Kayla likes Justin. Me: Oh. Carter: Laura likes Justin, too. Carter in his short 8 years has had many girlfriends. But he has adored Kayla continually since kindergarten. She's a pretty girl, but she just strings him along. Accepting his gifts. Telling him he's her boyfriend ... one o...

... that, not only did my little man turn 3 months old on Christmas Day, but that his first tooth has broken through his gums! (Mason and Spenser put these Superman sunglasses on Sawyer one afternoon while I was fixing their lunches. I cringe to think that they might have poked him in the eye!)