Ah, Fall!

Thanks to some cool weather and blogless Erin's request for some pumpkin colored yarn...I came out of my knitting slump! When I turned to my stash I found that I had lots of pumpkin colored yarn, as well as some green and brown (although not the right gauge for Erin). I found a simple pumpkin pattern on ravelry and now I have my first Autumn decoration of the year.



Finn holding it to give you an idea of size...



I only got one quick shot of the lone pumpkin before my assistant lay claim to the squash and would not allow me to continue, so I guess he likes it despite the look he's giving me in the photo. My yarn was bulky, which worked just fine for the chunky pumpkin, though the pattern did call for worsted. If I make more of these for myself, I'll probably do them in different sizes and try some light green and/or cream to make them more Fall and less Halloween-y. Now...I just may cast on my gray yarn and have another go at that sweater.

New Favorite Jammies

I know we all like to hang out in our jammies every now and then, but I think my latest sewing project has put the Tot over the edge with his own desire to lounge. Well...he'd actually like to wear them in the sand box and all over town, but I've drawn the line.



These whipped up rather quickly using only supplies I had in my stash. I sort of winged it on the top and the result is a rather large neck opening, but he doesn't seem to mind. I was going to make the bottoms short, but kept them long because the try-on for size revealed how cute they are full length. The light fabric makes these the perfect summer jammies. (Albeit flammable for any safety freaks out there.)



I must say...it makes me so happy that he seems to love these over the store-bought jammies with the toddler-enticing, drum-playing dinosaurs on them.

Oh...and the vintage child's hanger in he first photo was my father's.

the model

Ask and you shall receive...







And I was so pleased to get these vintage shoes from my mom's stash. These would have been one of my brother's from the 60's...well worn, but so much nicer than the crap they sell today. I even got another, less worn pair in a larger size for future use.



Now, I'm going to try not to stare at these photos all day because I'm supposed to be packing, but darn, isn't he cute!?

Dapper Dan

Well, he's not a Dan, but I must say that Finn looked quite dapper when I stuck this on him for his cousin's wedding last month. However, he does share his middle name with his great grandfather who was named Dan and he ALWAYS wore bow-ties. Still no sewing machine (getting it back in working order this weekend!), so I stitched this up by hand.



Yep, that's the seersucker from the fabric fair extravaganza. Just the touch needed to finish off his linen suit.

A lesson for you

The tot cannot stress enough the importance of keeping moisturized during the winter - the heat can be so drying, not only to your skin, but to your hair as well. A few squirts of Aveeno should do the trick.









Later the same day he managed to completely soak himself with water and then in his third outfit of the day, he ended up covered in flour from head to foot. This is how we stay busy in winter.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

as read by the Tot


Egg.
Leaf.
Pop.
Food, food, food, food, food, food.
Cocoon.
Butterfly.

The End


Isn't that beautiful? He often insists on reading his books to us after we've read them to him. Sometimes it's the same series of mumbled sounds repeated page after page, sometimes it's a few choice words or a single one, and sometimes it's a lovely poem. Almost always, it ends with "The End."

Holiday Recap

A few quick tidbits:

The holidays were lovely. Finn was definitely into Christmas more this year, but was still a little overwhelmed, I think. Understandable, considering the magnitude of Christmas morning in our family can be overwhelming for an adult. We do "our" Christmas morning at my parents separately, before everyone converges for the big family Christmas morning . We set up at one of the smaller trees that my mom decorates. This year Santa brought Finn a new tricycle. He doesn't quite have the hang of it, but some of his older cousins gave him a demonstration.



He's sporting his Christmas jammies that I made.

Additional handmade gifts included two scarflets. One for my mom...



and one for my sister-in-law...



details on ravelry, folks.

I also made some lovely ornaments for the girls, details and photos to come.

And, I haven't forgotten the "share your treasured ornament" request from the Spice lady. I didn't do a full size tree this year, so I didn't have all of my ornaments out. There is one from my childhood, a Paddington Bear glass ball, that was always special because it made me feel special. Most of the ornaments on our tree growing up were my mom's, but this one was mine and none of my siblings had a similar ornament to claim as their own. It needed to be hung at the top of the tree so that it wouldn't get broken and this required my dad to hold me up so that I could hang it. I felt sooo honored to have my ornament displayed at the top near the star. I guess when you're the baby of 8 kids, it's these little things that make you feel special.

As an adult, I think some of my favorite ornaments are the ones that have been made by my sisters or mom. Here are a few from recent years:


this one made by my sister from an artwork postcard...



this one received from another sister this Christmas, made from a vintage paper spoon that came from the grocery store that my grandparents used to own...


and here's a little birdhouse made by my sister-in-law a few years back...
and the first of what I'm sure will become great memories, a puzzle ball ornament that I made for Finn this year.



It was made using the fabric from last year's Christmas pajamas and this year's Christmas pajamas. I plan to make one each year using his pajama fabric and he'll have ornaments on our tree that he can play with as well as a set of balls to take with him when he sets out on his own... a long, long, long, long time from now : ).

Week 1

I have loads of catching up to do and I hope that it will happen soon, but until then I just wanted to put this out there in the hopes that maybe I can recruit some others to play along.

If you're a flickrite, you've likely heard of this or other similar groups. 52 weeks - my kid(s) and me. The goal is to take a photo of you with your child(ren) every week for one year. I've thought about doing this for a while and now I'm going to attempt to make it a reality. So here's my first week...two pics, but whatever.



I got a remote for my camera for Christmas and you can just barely see in the second photo that the tot is the one holding it, so he actually took both shots.

If you've got a child, I invite you to give it go, share it on flickr, share it on your blog, share it wherever it is that you do your sharing. It doesn't have to be fancy and you can have someone else take the pic if you need to. No pressure, just encouragement to capture some of the daily moments that you share with your little ones. Hey, my first week is no make-up, straggly haired me and the tot in jammies - anything goes.

Me too, me too!

Well, it would seem there is a post explosion amidst some of my blogging friends today, so I feel obligated to say something. Not to mention it's been for-ev-er.

The tot and I are sick and it sucks, but at least it's happening now rather than next week during Thanksgiving and the tot's 2nd birthday. He was sick for his first. I am rather unprepared for the event. Well, I am mentally prepared, just not physically prepared, so I guess I'm half way there.

Here are some tot tidbits:

- He says "yarn" and "knitting" and likes to select knitting needles from my case to use as drumsticks. He's most fond of the long, metal, pointy ones - good 'cause I rarely use those inherited suckers and bad 'cause they're long, metal, and pointy. Despite his interest in yarn while I'm knitting, if he sees a piece of yarn or thread or anything similar on the floor or couch...he says "Eeew!" and has even resorted to getting a tissue to pick it up and dispose of it. Must work on fiber friendliness.

- I think one of his favorite words is "nice". It's really nice when he says it when we are snuggled up on the couch or in bed.

- He is in LOVE with Olivia...as in the porcine heroine in Ian Falconer's children's books. He cannot get enough. He can even say "Olivia". We only have two Olivia books, so I'm pretty sure that he will be getting more for his birthday and/or Christmas so that we don't go too insane with Olivia and her band which seems to be his favorite.

- This is more about me, but I've come to the conclusion that his haircut is really bad. I've been cutting it myself and I think it gets worse with each cut. Part of me thinks I should just take him to a pro so he doesn't look like a dork and part of me is reluctant 'cause I'm just a DIY kind of gal/mom. Hmmm...where would I even take him? Thoughts? I don't know if I can do it. Maybe I'll just get some real haircutting tools and keep at it.

That's all she wrote. Taking the rest of the night offline for once. Sorry, no pics - it feels wrong, but I think we'll all get over it. :)

Don't miss it!

So, I think most of you know I'm now responsible for two blogs. And since the "other" blog allows me to post pics bigger and better than this one...you'll have to go take a look to see what the Tot and the Boss have been up to. I think Ms. Spice Rack and I both about peed our pants when we saw this development. I'm told there was also some hugging going on between the two this week and I think we know what's next.

Still here...

still driving cars...



and learning how to get dressed...

Summer Sweetie

Today most of the local kidlets are off to start the new school year and it has me thinking about summer coming to an end. I'm completely looking forward to Autumn, but trying to savor the remains of summer for the next month or so. I shared some shots of this little girlie on the photo blog, but thought I'd share more here. They make me completely jealous of those of you with little girls and I hope you had the chance to let yours run around barefoot in the grass in light summer dresses.








I love this shot with the bubble perfectly poised above her head.



She looks sad, but I think she's just plotting to catch the next bubble because this next shot was seconds later.



The dress in these last shots is a continuation of my vintage children's clothing obsession. My 18 years older sister had some really darling dresses when she was little and now about 50 years later my niece can wear them. You have to check out the full size photo for the detail, but it is a light pink sheer cotton dress with embroidered tulips on it. More little girl jealousy from me right there! At least I get to photograph her prancing around in them.