Thursday Life

Some random photos of our life recently, organized by pretty/happy/funny/real, the blog round-up that Leila and Rosie do.

Pretty:

These might be my favorite hotpads to date.  I did list them in the shop, although I'm still thinking of yanking them out and keeping them.

I just love the colors together.  I'm on a hunt for duck-egg blue, which is very hard to find - a kind of calm blue-green, a kind of muted aqua?  It's hard to describe and find, but if I squint at these hotpads, I see it.

Also, I love the handmade wonkiness in these.

Happy:

Ben is 7 now and he thinks he had the best birthday ever.  Granny and Grandpa took him up to the cabin to meet some cousins for a weekend of fishing and endless (junk) food and paddle-boating and no chores.  Then, at home, he had a birthday meal of his choosing that ended with his favorite Banoffee Pie.  He was so disgruntled at having to go to school on his actual birthday that he put on his pajamas when he got home, even though I reminded him that Grandpa and Grandma were coming for his birthday dinner.  So much for the dignity of dress that I referred to yesterday!

photos by my husband 

Funny:

The boy and his daddy read books in a cozy pile on the sofa in the evening.  Ben is devouring chapter books at a crazy speed, several a week, sometimes re-reading old favorites until I can get a new batch.  Thank goodness we live a block from the big library because I would be loathe to purchase all the books his appetite needs!

Real:

This is the vintage bassinet given to us by former neighbors of my parents.  My handy mother-in-law made a new flannel lining for it  just before Ben was born, and I put together the plain white skirt.

 Genevieve and I both agree the bassinet gives us the urge to play dollies.  Well, we are waiting for our real little dolly to be born any day now.  I thought I was in labor yesterday, but I feel quite normal today.  Such is the end of pregnancy sometimes!

Late Winter Happiness

Here's a catch-up of some of the things we've been doing.  I'm linking up with Leila and Rosie's collection, pretty/happy/funny/real.

Pretty: I showed the children my Pinterest board of simple valentines, and they politely turned away and made their own with no assistance. They did accept my offer of stopping at AC Moore and each picking out a sheet of stickers (of course we used a coupon).

 They each have about 25 kids in their class, and I fretted that they would lose steam after making a few cards and not have anything to take to school the morning of the card exchange.  

Well, as you can see, they made very charming valentines for each kid in their class, and I insisted on taking photos because I wanted to remember their diligence and sweetness.

Ben stuck one of those heart candy stickers on my wool sweater and I went around for several days before I noticed enough to take it off.  Yes, I wear the same sweaters for days in a row, even when I'm not pregnant.

Happy: We observed International Ice Cream for Breakfast Day.  The children were happy for obvious reasons.  I think Ben actually put syrup on top of this pile-up after I took the photo.  We didn't have sweets the rest of the day.

Funny: We've had lots of snow and cold for weeks now.  The children routinely wear their snow boots and snowball each other on the way to school.  They routinely sled on the ice and snow in our back yard and the park (it's the city kid version of ice skating when the sun melts the top layer of snow but the serious cold keeps it icy).  

Once, the snow was even wet enough to pack together a snowman; generally, it's been so cold that the snow is just powder (the high temperature today is supposed to be 12 F).  And the highlight of their day was when I gave them each a carrot for the noses and let them eat it.  Boy, I am stingy about snacks.

Real:  This is 29 weeks of pregnancy, dear reader.  Suddenly, my baby belly is big and can only be housed in maternity clothes.  I was wearing the same blue shirt in the blog announcement photos - how far can it stretch?  

I'm still feeling pretty good and after a bit of drastic anemia, I'm taking Floradix in addition to everything else and recovering some energy that I thought had evaporated due to the third trimester.

photo credit to my husband one morning as I mixed up daily bread after a shower

photo credit to A, in her lovely farmhouse one afternoon

I hope you have some late winter happiness, too!  I'm afraid most people are really tired of this deep freeze and the cycle between cold, wind, and snow that we've had.  I'm still enjoying the hibernating, though.

Daily Life

(Joining up with Leila and Rosie's roundup of pretty/happy/funny/real)

Here are some pretty glimpses of Rebecca's farmhouse.  Photos taken while the ladies relaxed inside on the fishing trip (see below).

This was happy.  I read Molly Wizenberg's fascinating book, Delancey, and immediately decided to make the Vietnamese salad.  I put the components on a platter - so pretty!  I even made fried purple onions, which are surprisingly easy and stupendously delicious.  The whole salad is excellent and quite easy.

This was funny.  Ben had begged to go fishing, but we don't fish.  Finally, my husband had the bright idea to ask Rebecca's son to help Ben fish.  Ben loved it, but he was repelled by the cleaning part that readied the fish for the frying pan.

But he couldn't look away.  Maybe the basic human response to gore?

Here is the real (which is also pretty).  My cousins showed us their cabin in a holler in Virginia. It is a charming spot full of memories, but the cabin needs extensive, expensive work to keep it functional.  The cousins are taking it on, but the old melting away before the new makes me melancholic.  My uncle and aunt are facing similar decisions about the cabin, I know.

 I don't know what I would do if I owned one of these beautiful, dilapidated old memory houses that relatives considered sacred without being responsible for the upkeep.  Sacred usually gives way to pragmatism and safety.

Well, I snapped some photos for the memory bank.

1940s linoleum the cousins are hoping to match

Building Things and Selling Flowers

Ben keeps building boats.  He sometimes goes directly from his morning bed to the yard, where I'm sure the neighbors hear the hammering and think a contractor has begun work at the usual hour of 7am.

First the boats were flat, and they did not float well in our friends' pond.  Now they "have sides."  I tried to tell him about how Noah coated the Ark with pitch, but I'm not sure he heard me; what's the modern-day, average- family equivalent of pitch, anyway?

The children also work on their Calico Critter houses. I save lids (which can't be reycled) for the creative reuse store, but more often than not, Ben raids the stash to make things for his Critters.  I also flatten cardboard and chipboard to be recycled, and that stash is constantly raided and the scissors constantly dulled for the Critter houses.

These houses are ugly by Pinterest standards, but I know the ingenuity and care that went into them, so I enjoy looking at them.  I get tired, sometimes, of the prettified images of life on Pinterest (and some blogs).  It's so easy to think my life is ugly when, in fact, I am living my life with all its attendant dirt, disorder, and unsightliness that doesn't photograph well.  Maybe I need a break from my Pinterest feed. . . 

Genevieve loves to set up shop, whether it's selling things she's gathered or made.  We are frequently invited to a store and commanded to buy something with real money.  Oh, that girl!  

I bought this sweet bouquet for a dollar.  (A real dollar that she lost in a broken vending machine at the pool with a shrug, until her daddy marched her up to the counter and made her ask for it back because "this is not a game!  This is money!")

I've been feeding these interests with targeted library books and some tools.  I've bought them nails and a hand drill.  I wonder what they will get into next. . . 

(linking up with Leila and Rosie's pretty/happy/funny/real)

Just Before School

Dear Genevieve and Ben,
School's about to begin, and I had such a good summer with you.  We went to the pool so often that I put together a pool bag for the first time.  I let you pick out your own junky cereals for vacations (Ben:  Cocoa Pebbles, Genevieve: Fruit Loops, omigosh).  We went camping, creek stomping with friends, swimming in the ocean, and biking around town. We climbed the Statue of Liberty.  We got stacks and stacks of library books, especially before a car trip when I wouldn't let you read your new books until we were actually in the car.  You learned more chores and proved to be big helps around the house to me. You were interested in the Titanic, woodworking, headstands, making money, gardening, fishing, knitting, and babysitting.  Some days you whined and complained about being bored and we all got mad at each other.  Some days we stayed home the entire day.  I tried hard to answer your questions and enjoy you both.  The enjoyment part was easy - you are both delightful - but some of your questions, I can never never never answer, such as what makes a ship unsinkable and who I like best, Barbie or Skipper.  You two make my life sweet, and I'll miss you when you're in school even though that means I can make appointments (massage!) without arranging childcare.

love,
Mommy

the pool bag

junky cereal at the beach cottage

the kid-crafted go-cart that broke down a lot

linking up with Leila's pretty/happy/funny/real - pretty sure all these photos qualify for each adjective

That Patching Post

Here is the patching roundup I mentioned, with all the projects categorized by Leila and Rosie's collection of pretty/happy/funny/real.

The pretty patches: 

My hotpads were looking pretty sorry and then I went and scorched one, so I made a new pair from my cutter quilt.  I covered up some split seams with patches and highlighted them with handstitching in red perle cotton.  It's so nice to work with pretty things that are also useful!

The happy patches: 

This handtowel went from serviceable to wonderful when I patched up a hole and a stain with some vintage kitchen curtains.  

And Genevieve can wear her tights again!  I darned a hole with matching green thread.  I'm so pleased to extend the life of these tights.

The funny patch:

I offered to cover up the brand name of Ben's backpack with an applique.  He loves the patch because it has wheels on it, I love it because it's a little offbeat. 

The real patches (so many of these!):

Apparently, the vintage pillowcase that I used for my pajama waistband was rather weak.  So holes are appearing in the waistband.  For now, I'm just slapping patches on them, embracing the shabby chic look, and hoping for spring pajamas.

Then there is the patchwork tablecloth.  

The mystery terracotta fabric gets very heavy and stiff when it's wet, so some of the seams of the patchwork have pulled out from the stress.  Also, I don't use wide seam allowances, so there wasn't much communal fabric for each seam (I can just picture each partner yelling and clinging to no avail. . . ).  So, I stitched on lots of patches to help the torn seams.  

The back of the patchwork looks rather cool, now.  Maybe I'll flip the tablecloth to get longer wear out of it between washings. . .