The Madras Skirt I Wanted to Wear On Vacation

In June, I was packing for a family trip to Niagara Falls and the Finger Lakes in New York when I realized I did not have a fun skirt I wanted to wear. (Related blog posts I have toyed with writing: Why Do We Get Tired of Our Clothes? And what can we do about it? Also, Why Do I Loathe Packing So Very Much? Really, why? Maybe I should find out why some people enjoy packing to shed some light on my loathing?)

It was late at night and I was not nearly done packing, but the ding-dong pandemic has ridded me of some pragmatism, so I went immediately to my fabric shelves to see what was "fun." Madras! And also unbelievably soft with the wonderful intersections of colors creating new colors. I googled "madras skirts" and spent some daydreamy moments in our trip designing the madras skirt I wanted. 

I found an image of a Ralph Lauren skirt that fired my imagination, so I modified a simple wrap skirt pattern I had to add the ruffle and make a tie closure instead of a button. I inserted some pretty little scraps in the ruffle and tie for the patchwork fizz I like, but then when I saw the ruffle in the mirror, I unpicked the biggest pieces and took them out. Just didn't like them - patchwork can be so surprising. I left the smaller pieces intact. 

I had enough madras left to squeak out a tank top (another Sorbetto tank). I love wearing the skirt and tank together for a dress look, or mixed with other shirts and skirts to hopefully avoid clothing boredom. 

The madras is a dream to touch. Truly the best thing float off sticky sweat in hot weather. However, it is really lightweight, almost delicate, and I did not add a pocket to the skirt because I was unsure it could handle the stress on the seams. I also could not quite figure out where to slap a pocket on a wrap skirt. Bummer. I really rely on pockets.

Back to packing: I have noticed that it does bring my clothing collection into focus when I pack for a trip. Suddenly I see that I have tons of navy, or that my tank tops are stretched out and sad, or that my favorite sandals need to be replaced soon. Or that I want a fun skirt! So that is a good thing I can focus on for future packing. . . 

My Florida Skirt

This post has literally nothing to do with COVID-19; it is just me getting around to blogging this skirt I made in January.

The best everyday tablecloths I have found are twin sheets from thrift stores.  And one day in November, I came across this ridiculously wonderful queen-size flat sheet with lemon trees, orange groves, egrets, bunnies, and red-roofed Spanish-style villas.  I held it in my hands and could not even guess what I wanted to do with it, but it had to come home with me.  

In December, my husband wangled a way for me to go to Florida with him on a business trip in January.  Suddenly, I realized that I needed to wear that sheet somehow.  I chose a full circle skirt to get as much of that declarative, whimsical print on display as possible. 

I've made half-circle skirts before, but the volume of a full circle skirt really gave me the giggles.  I used an entire package of "spruce green" bias tape on the hem and had to finish with a scrap of blue, which means the bottom circumference of this skirt is about 6 yards.  Six yards of swish at my legs!  Delicious.

The little scraps left from hemming.

I really like the side closure on this skirt that includes the pocket.  It was fairly easy to do. I had some difficulty getting the waistband just the right size - first it was too tight, then I pieced in some ease and it was too big.  But this print serenely disguises lots of things and keeps up the blue sky.

I got to wear my circle skirt for a beach walk and dinner on the deck, although I was shivering by the end because Florida in January is not really balmy and there was a sharp breeze off the Tampa Bay.  But I'm a Northerner and I wanted to wear my Florida skirt in Florida.  Spring is gently rising around us, and I am eager wear this skirt soon again.

Our Family Trip to Seattle and ONP

Back in June, we went on a family trip that we had been anticipating for a long time.  My husband and I had been saving money for years, funneling money into a savings account whenever we could, sometimes only $50 a month, sometimes nothing for a while. We wanted to take this trip before Genevieve started a job (that could happen very soon, friends! she just turned 14!) and after Phoebe was independent of diapers and naps and strollers and such. This summer was that perfect window.  Let's look at our trip through the thrift lens.

We chose Olympic National Park just west of Seattle because it looked like "Acadia of the west" according to my husband, and last summer, we had a super-successful family trip to Acadia in Maine. Our family does well with a location that allows slowing down and deep playing and gets us out in nature, so we lean towards national and state parks for vacations right now.

The kids adored flying on a big airplane to get to Seattle (my husband and I tried not to dwell on the environmental cost of the flying).  We booked our flights months ahead of time on Spirit Airlines - we only paid for two checked bags.  We did not pick our seats or take carry-ons.  Instead, we each had a personal item - a backpack filled with snacks and entertainment - and I chose all Air BnB houses in Washington that had washing machines so we could take limited clothing and shoes in our two checked bags. We flew out on a Tuesday, and home on a Wednesday, the cheapest days to fly, and the Wednesday happened to be July Fourth, so we got a free, beautiful fireworks show when our plane took off from Seattle at 10pm. It was perhaps not the smartest choice to fly a red-eye flight against the time change from West to East Coast, but we suffered through the first day back with coffee and early bedtimes, and then we were fine.

Because my husband travels a lot for work, he had saved up his rental car points.  We were able to rent a car in Seattle for 10 days for a little over a hundred bucks. Before we rented the car, we got around Seattle by bus and by Uber, which thrilled the kids.

We chose our activities in Seattle and Olympic National Park carefully, considering what really sounded fun and interesting to us. Some of the activities cost a lot of money, but that's what the savings were for!  We went on the Great Wheel of Seattle and on an under-the-streets walking tour; we explored the Klondike Gold Rush Museum (a national park - free!), and watched boats and migrating salmon at the Ballard Locks (also free!). We stayed with dear friends in Seattle, such a treat. We had to take a ferry to continue our drive to ONP and thoroughly enjoyed the wind, the wake, the novelty of the ferry from top to bottom. We loved the Forks Timber Museum and Makah Museum, but eschewed the (expensive) hot springs at Sol Duc for looking like a regular old swimming pool. We hiked and hiked and hiked - stopping to play in the water, pose in the trees, and just generally luxuriate in the crisp air and gorgeous sky and mountain views.

I had done some brainstorming ahead of time for meals that I could easily source from any grocery store that would be nourishing, cheap, and relatively easy to make, especially with the unknown kitchens in the AirBnBs I had booked.

This is what I did:
Breakfast 1: eggs, toast with butter/honey, fried mushrooms or oranges, coffee, milk
Breakfast 2: peanut butter/honey toast, bananas, coffee, milk
(We rotated between these two breakfasts)
Lunches: all eaten on the go from our backpacks around Seattle or ONP: bread, cheese, sardines (sometimes), pickles, granola bars, apples, seltzer
Dinner 1: jarred spaghetti sauce, spaghetti, steamed fresh broccoli
Dinner 2: grilled salmon with lemon, baked potatoes + butter, lettuce + croutons + olive oil & balsamic
Dinner 3: grilled kielbasa, pierogies sauteed with onion, (frozen) peas
Dinner 4: pasta + canned white beans + frozen spinach + garlic, roasted fresh cauliflower
Dinner 5: grocery store fried chicken, mashed fresh potatoes, sauteed fresh (local!) spinach with lemon + butter

We did eat four meals out when it was otherwise not possible to cook (travel days) or there was a really cool local place we wanted to try, and we also had some ice cream snacks and espresso and such along the way.

Fun with pipe-cleaners while we wait for food; the backpacks eased the tedium at other times, not just the flights

We ate every last scrap except a half-jar of peanut butter before we boarded the plane, and the security people threw our peanut butter away because it was classified as a liquid and thus illegal to take on the plane. Peanut butter as a liquid!

My plane buddy after the red-eye flight, 3:30am in our bodies when the plane landed.

Overall, this trip was a huge success. We did not actually use all of our vacation savings, and we have immediately started building it up again.  I was worried that Phoebe was still too little to benefit much from the trip, but oh my goodness, if you ask her, she will still tell you about the Great Wheel over the ocean and about nurse logs in the Hoh Rainforest and when she rode in the canoe with Mommy and Daddy while Genevieve and Ben had a kayak.  She was perfectly behaved and occupied on the 6-hour flights (another worry of mine), and occasionally she and I stayed at the AirBnB in the afternoon so she could catch up on her naps and mama could, whew, do her introverted thing. Now that I've actually sorted through my photos, I'm going to make a photo book to go with the travel journal we kept - using a coupon for a free book, of course!

A Shirt Dress with Swiss Buttons and a Favorite Color

Many years ago, in our first year of marriage, my husband and I went on vacation in Switzerland, where everything really does look like the postcards.  At the time, I did not have a sewing machine or knitting needles or anything like that (I also did not have children or a teaching job or a house, just to orient you to how much of a baby I was).

Nevertheless, in Neuchǎtel, Switzerland, we went shopping in the market square, and I was drawn into a Bernina store. I bought bright buttons like someone buying candy.  All these years, they have been in their little paper Bernina bag in my button collection, where I take them out occasionally and finger them happily. In the meantime, I became the proud owner of a Bernina sewing machine and started to sew and make things in earnest.

As I do, I began to hunt through my fabric this fall in search of a dress. I settled on this plaid from a thrift store as a classic shirt dress.  And then, the Swiss buttons made perfect sense: a whimsical olive color, but not Too Much Drama with the plaid.  Oh, it made me so happy to use them after all these years!  I had just enough buttons for the front placket, so I used two pretty brown tulip buttons on the cuffs.

I made two additions to the dress that were not included with the pattern. I added side pockets to the dress - one of the perks of making clothes for myself!

Photos of me in this post courtesy of my husband

Also, I lined the skirt of the dress to make it even easier to pop on instead of hunting for a slip to keep the dress from sticking to my tights. My husband says these tights do not match the dress, but piffle: they go with the dress. Actually, lots of colors go with this dress, and I have the cardigans to prove it.

Gradually, it dawned on me that perhaps gold is also a favorite color of mine?  Look at the golden yellow trim on my house - I chose it.  Look at the turmeric benches at my church - I chose their color, too. I have mustard-colored pants, a yellow wallet, yellow sandals, on and on: obviously I have been choosing gold for years while saying blue is my favorite color.  Oh, I crack myself up.

Are you having a color crush currently? I might be having a tiny crush on purple, but no acquisitions to prove it.

The Last Straw

I was at a school meeting where a meal was served on styrofoam plates with bottled water and plasticware.  One of the dads casually whipped a reusable fork/knife/spoon set out of his work bag and avoided the plasticware.  I was thrilled. All the plates, plasticware, and water bottles were thrown away as trash, of course (which drives me crazy - our city has an excellent, comprehensive recycling program and has made recycling mandatory!! but enforcement and education lag behind, of course).

However, this dad inspired me to think about how I could replace the plastic trash with reusables when I go out. I have napkin rolls that already make potlucks and picnics easy - I'm going to start carrying them more places.  I've seen Zoe (on Instagram) take her own containers along to restaurants for any food leftovers.  And I have stopped using plastic straws (more education at this website). 

I made this little roll-up of metal straws to keep in my purse.  I bought the set of straws at a local store, and the handy cleaning brush came with them.  I got this set up before a big vacation to Maine (another post for another day!), but I am planning to be straw-free at home, too. 

The other day, Genevieve wanted to make a little project with plastic straws, and I had none whatsoever in the house.  But when I went for a little jog around our neighborhood, I found no less than 4 straws among the rest of the litter and brought them home to sterilize for her to use.

The thought of all those dumb plastic straws out there as litter is maddening. I'm going to try to do my part, and I might even turn into one of those people who decline the straw and then furthermore try to educate the person offering the straw. Might.

Phoebe at the Cabin

After I was sick for a week, we went to the cabin with family.  I also picked up a new freelance editing job.  And Phoebe, although she looks cherubic here, is demanding her independence with destructive results as only a 2-year-old can. Oh, that girl.  So all of these explain my blogging break, but I'm back.

Just a Little Older (Beach Girls 2017)

In the past year, none of us beach girls has lived out of the country, had a baby, moved, or . . . well, actually, I'm not sure of the other categories because the years have started to melt into each other.  This past year may have had job changes and health crises, or maybe it was the year before.  The years just puddle together. 

For sure, we ate well this year and didn't bother with a restaurant.   Sprinkle some fresh tomatoes and feta on your fried egg and add a basil sprig; it's divine (the bacon and potatoes help, too). We settled into long intimate conversations whenever we felt like it, wore our jammies maybe as much as our clothes, and ate ice cream whenever it occurred to us.  Bliss.

East of Eden

I took the kids down to Eden, NC to be spoiled by my aunts and uncle.  That and the craziness that is August accounts for the blog silence here.

My parents drove us down in their van that has a blessed TV/DVD with headphones, and altogether the kids were outnumbered by adults so that made for a good vacation.

 I asked Aunt Maggie to model the apron I made her (so charming with her gingham shirt).  Here she is standing next to a giant rosemary bush that is the envy of my Northern, newbie-gardening heart. Her gardens are full of whimsy and fun, just like her.

 Uncle John David grows fantastic melons, among other things. He let Ben drive the tractor. The kids also had access to any number of tablets and phones from the indulgent adults, and that plus the uncounted s'mores make a great vacation for them.

I got to go schnausing with my aunts and mom in the afternoons, while Dad reigned over the kids back at the farm (I have the best dad!).  Schnausing is a family word (I think) that means driving around looking for cute little shops, pretty towns, pretty scenery, snacky eats, and hijinks; in my extended family, this is done by the women on vacation.  It's the only time I shop for entertainment, without a list, and in the company of my mom and her giddy sisters, it is so fun. [Edit:  Aunt Maggie says the made-up word is spelled "snausing."]

 We also take walks, and sometimes burst into hymns.