Life With The Crew

Skirts, Skirts, My First Skirts

The rain came down, the dogs were quiet, my babe slept, the dirty dishes sat, and I sewed a skirt.  Hooray!  I actually sewed my first skirt yesterday, but it is a little too long for my daughter right now, so I can't get the satisfaction of seeing her wear it.  The second skirt is the right length, a bit too snug with the cloth diaper on perhaps, but it will do.  I'm thinking that she will wear it to her birthday party this weekend, so I can toot my own horn a little bit.  The fabric is an adorable collection of prints from the Monaluna "Free Range" collection.  I love that it is organic cotton and the farm animal prints are perfect for kids, especially for my little babe who is learning her farm animal sounds right now.

I didn't have any elastic and I was too impatient to wait, so I grabbed a pair of bloomers and used those as the base for the skirt and just sewed onto them.  The first skirt was a learning experience with scrap fabric and then I tried to really concentrate on the second skirt.  I did not follow a pattern and I don't know any sewing techniques, so it is just stitched together "Katie style", which is go with the flow and hopefully it turns out okay.  (I use this approach for baking also and occasionally the chickens are very happy birds!)  

Skirt #1 - Learning Experience

 

Skirt #2 - Barnyard Babe Skirt

I have wanted to sew for a couple of years and am glad to have an outlet now for some crafty ideas.  My new addiction might be looking at fabric websites!  If you have a favorite website for fabric, especially organic material, feel free to share!

 

Thankful Tuesday - 10.8.13

I am going to try to get in a rhythm with posting.  "This Moment" is on Fridays and I would like to start a "Thankful Tuesday" post (on Tuesdays!)  So here it goes:

I am thankful for the late season heat wave that brought us a warm and beautiful Friday afternoon.  I am thankful that we have a local dairy that doesn't treat its cows with hormones and makes yummy ice cream.  So combine those together and it made for a great end of the week treat for my husband, daughter, and I.  (ice cream already eaten in picture)

 

I am thankful for family that was able to come help us with various projects this weekend, including my mother-in-law who showed me how to use a sewing machine.  My babe is wearing my first project below - a pair of leg warmers.

Totally simple, nothing special, but this first time sewer is proud!  I noticed that when I go for walks with my daughter in her carrier, her pants ride up and her ankles are exposed.  It hasn't been cold enough for the one piece fleece bunting, but it is chilly in the mornings.  So I've been thinking of making her some elasticized leg warmers, but I found this old wool mix scarf in my scrap bag and it was the perfect size.  Just had to cut the length and sew the tube together.  Of course, it was raining today so we didn't get to test them out on a walk, but she looked just as cute wearing them inside the house.

 

I am grateful that I have a husband who loves me and treats me right.  After our long run on Saturday, he brought me a raspberry cream filled donut from the farmer's market, without me asking for it.  Totally yum.  I am also thankful for the healthy Lentil Soup in Acorn Squash that he made recently.  Helped soak up all that hydrogenated goodness.

(No picture.  I will let you imagine me with a face full of white powdered sugar and purple cream filling.)

 

What are you thankful for today?

This Moment - Play Time

*This Moment*

Joining the SouleMama club.  A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week.

Memory Keeping

My husband and I did a fair amount of traveling in our pre-baby days.  We were lucky to be able to take an extended honeymoon and travel around the country, including hopping a plane and going to Kauai.  We have since been to 49 of the 50 states (Alaska still awaits), though we have not been to all of the Hawaiian islands (missing Lanai and Molokai).  On each trip my husband would try to cram a sandy water bottle or plastic bag into our luggage and I would complain and roll my eyes.  When we got home, he would eventually transfer the sand into glass bottles, normally after they sat and started to smell skunky and I complained some more.  We found an old spice bottle set that worked perfectly.  We have since maxed out that set and have moved onto current glass spice bottles, which aren't so pretty, but do the trick.

I've been doing some Fall cleaning and rearranging and moved these dusty bottles from our office into the bathroom where they look really pretty on the window ledge.  I guess this is a public apology to my husband for all of the eye rolling in the past.  I really enjoy looking at these bottles every day now and they are daily reminders of all of the cool places that we have been together.  The multi-colored rocks are from the Texas desert - remember the flash flood signs that were higher than our car that we laughed at because there wasn't a drop of water in sight?  The famous black sand of Hawaii that you got at the Waimea River mouth?  The black and white peppery looking sand from Kalalau Cave - we won't go into the details on that one!

Now that we have a daughter, I also look at these bottles of sand as learning opportunities for when she is older.  I look forward to admiring all of the different shapes, sizes, and textures of sand with her and then telling her a story about where the sand came from.  Hopefully we can continue collecting sand from all of the places that we will travel with our daughter and she will learn to treasure these small glass bottles filled with memories of our trip more than she would a plastic souvenir.

Do you have a unique way of saving memories from your travels?