Our Yellow House

1 Skirt + 2 Shirts = 1 Skirt + 2 Dresses

I am tempted not to show these photos because of the ridiculous state of our mirror. It looks as though Frannie made out with it after eating a huge bowl of yogurt. Sorry about that.

Here is my skirt in its unaltered state. Long lovely pale pink linen that has gotten a lot of wear. But not only did it have a large coffee stain along the bottom it also wasn't particularly practical at this stage in my life.

So I hacked off the bottom and rehemmed it. Now I wear it, I'd say, about every third day. It's perfect.

This simple alteration happened a number of weeks ago. I saved the bottom portion with plans to make the girls matching skirts. Then yesterday inspiration hit! I had a stack of little shirts that I made a while back to sell and decided to make them into dresses. Each girl got one but Fran wasn't in the mood to wear hers today. Here is Eleanor's.

This week I have managed a number of small sewing projects. None of them taking more than an hour but each one cute in its own way. I haven't purchased supplies in a while so I have depended on fixing old stuff and using what I have. Eleanor has been the recipient of a lot of it. Here is one more pair of pants. Again with the FOE at the waist and ankles. We have been calling these her "genie pants."

We are leaving town again on Friday, this time to the Adirondacks. My posting will remain pretty sporadic for the next couple of weeks. Until then...

Cape Cod Vacation

Perhaps there was a bit more rain than we had hoped for and the transmission on our car decided it was done but that didn't stop us from having an incredible time on Cape Cod with family.

Visiting the ocean was a first for these girls and they fell in love. Their smiles and squeals of delight were unmatched by any of the adults. This was unlike anything they had ever seen. Matt and I hadn't been to the ocean since our honeymoon in Maine so we were pretty psyched too.

Matt was buried and we turned him into a mer-man complete with pecks and a six pack.

We brought bikes (which I haven't ridden in years) and a kid trailer, ate a ton of seafood, and finished our evenings playing cards.

We are home this week for just enough time to unpack, do laundry, and pack up again for another trip. Woo hoo! Summertime!

Our Weekend at Old Songs

I look forward to this weekend every year. Ever since I can remember I have been attending the Old Songs Festival. There is incredible music, contra dancing into the wee hours, inevitable rain, hot sun, yummy potato pancakes, guitar workshops, face painting, toe tapping, and many friendly faces.

We volunteered backstage which is traditional (last year was the exception).

It feels really special to give the girls this experience that has been so influential in my life. Folk music has been an important part of my family for generations. It is so cool to see yet another generation growing to appreciate it.

One of the highlights of the festival is getting to see Roger the Jester perform. What a silly man! I giggle my way through his performances every time.

We came home this afternoon mud caked, stinky, and a little sunburned. Then we fell asleep for almost three hours (heh heh).

We are heading out of town this week too so I won't be in this space until we get back. I hope you are all enjoying your summer as much as we are. Cheers!
 

Radishes As A Trap Crop

Before planting my zucchini and cucumbers earlier this spring I read in Great Garden Companions that radishes could be used as a "trap crop" to deter cucumbers beetles and squash borers. So I planted many around my mounds of both crops. Earlier this week I discovered the radishes are doing their job.

Here is a picture of our zucchini plant with the radishes in front. This photo is just of whole mess of green, there is also a tomato, a renegade sunflower and a raspberry peeking in but can you see that the radish leaves (the long ones towards the bottom) have many holes in them?

This is what the radishes look like underground.

Nasty. Underdeveloped. And with little white larvae. I think they are cucumber beetle babies. Anyone?

The adult cucumber beetles are quite attractive, though I have hardened my heart to squishing them. (Mom, I know you are chuckling. Everyone else, I made a t-shirt once that said "Save the Bugs" with a very sweet, smiling beetle on it.) I am usually kind to bugs and other critters but I no longer see them all as sweet and smiling. I suppose they are just doing their job, but so am I.

My zucs and cucs are looking beautiful. Their leaves have very little damage and I would like to think that the radishes have helped.

I welcome bugs in my yard. They just have to be the kinder ones.

Coloring

Eleanor often asks me to draw pictures for her to color in. Her number one request these days is for fairies but I also get requests for big and little sisters, heads without faces, fish, dragons... When time (and Frances) allow for this I love to do it. It gets me drawing without the pressure to produce a masterpiece.

For those times when dinner is being prepared or a dirty diaper calls, I found this great coloring book.

The illustrator has a number of other coloring books too. She draws the scenes and wonderful outfits but leaves out the bodies to be completed by the children. The details are great and yet allow for lots of input from the kids.

The results are quite magnificent. I love the groom with the shrunken head!

Clown Pants

Eleanor announced the other day that she wanted to be a clown when she grew up. That comment inspired me to make her these pants the other day while she was napping.

I used some fabric that I purchased at Purl when I was there in the early spring and black pom pom trim that I had buried in my supplies.

Do you remember culottes? Do these qualify? Wide leg. Not quite shorts. Not quite pants. Maybe now they are called capris but I seem to remember calling this type of garment culottes. That's what I make these girls. Let's bring back the word culottes!

Neither of these photos show the clowniness of these pants but trust me they are a little silly. It's hard to take pompoms seriously.

Here is the fabric up close. It's Aunt Grace Backgrounds but I can't find the exact print. It is a reproduction of an old print and I was drawn to the color combo.

Strawberry Jam :: Just inTime

On Sunday morning I got to sneak away for a couple of hours with my mom for some strawberry picking. I took the girls earlier in the week but they only lasted as long as it took to fill up their bellies so another trip was needed. I brought home six quarts and I wish I had an other six.

Last year I didn't get the jam making courage until blueberry season but this year I was poised to begin earlier. Yesterday I made my first batch of strawberry jam.

 
I am happy to say that we made it through the fall, winter, and spring without purchasing any jam. I opened the last jar of peach jam just over a week ago. We ate all our own, supplemented with a couple of gifted jars of both homemade grape jelly and strawberry rhubarb jam. Not bad eh?

I would love to think that maybe I can get another batch put up before these sweet red berries are gone for another year but I will have to play that one by ear. It's pretty exciting to start the winter stores now. We have fairly recently used up the last of our frozen tomatoes and pesto. I say we do have some delicious but not very popular pickled beans still taking up precious shelf space though. This year I want to try canning tomato sauce. Have any of you done this? It seems a bit more risky and you need to use citric acid to maintain the acidity. Oh I have some time before I have to really worry about that as the tomato plants are just now starting to produce their little yellow flowers.

Do you have any plans for preserving food this season? Please do tell!

The Beginning of Summer

Pardon me for being absent from here this week. We are settling in to our new summer schedule. Eleanor is finished with school for the year and our daily routines are changing. We wake up a bit later. Go to sleep much later. And move a lot in the in between.

Today we got to spend the day with one of our favorite people in the world, Sarah. We laughed and tickled and chatted all morning. We took time to look for water bugs and many other forest and water critters. By the end of our walk our species list was quite long.
I am really excited about our summer. We have a couple of long family trips planned and the girls and I have some other day trips planned with friends.

I am open to outing suggestions. I am dying to visit an alpaca farm. Does anybody know of one within an hour or so of Albany that welcomes visitors?

Phew. The day is over.

Today felt like such a dud, beginning with Fran's early morning "harvest" of many of our herbs and continuing through the incredibly long bedtime that felt like it would never end.

I take the blame for the day. An unmotivated mom who wants to knit and drink coffee all day doesn't make for much fun for the kids. No wonder they were clingy and whiney. I was too, though I was clinging for dear life to a sock that I began last night and they were clinging to my leg.

It's interesting to look at today's photos after feeling the way I do. It doesn't look so bad.

Fun even. Maybe they didn't even notice.

I am thankful I took these pictures and I am thankful that tomorrow's another day.

I am also thankful that there are more of these frozen banana treats (I got this idea from Mixing Bowl Kids) in my freezer and that Sense and Sensibility arrived in my mailbox today.

The socks are calling!

Refashioned T-shirt

More fun with Fold-Over Elastic!

I started with a standard "boy's" t-shirt. I cut the neck nice and wide and the sleeves quite short.

Then using FOE I finished the edges. I stretched the elastic, but not the t-shirt, to its fullest while I folded it and sewed it on using a zig-zag stitch. This took very little time.

It has a pretty high cuteness rating.