Five and Feisty

 August is our busiest month with 3 (hopefully 4 ;) birthdays, our anniversary and school starting.  We like to pack it all in, I guess.  One thing my kids think is the best treat is breakfast in bed.  You know, anything out of the ordinary, even if it makes for crumbs in bed.

 Clover repeatedly asked to have her breakfast served to her in bed, but finally settled for sitting beside Azure's, accepting any morsel thrown her way, like a puppy.

 Azure requested balloons as well.  I love these simple (and easily fulfilled!) delights.

We headed out to the park to meet some friends, ladybug wings and all.

Although Azure has 2 years on her younger sister, her younger sister has 2 pounds on her.  It always makes for an interesting confrontation.  Clover can certainly hold her own.  These two have a love/hate relationship and I fear Clover will be heartbroken when her "sisters", as she lovingly calls them, return to school.  After lunch is when she always starts asking, Can we pick up my sisters now?

And yes, those are snow boots Clover chose to wear to the park where we were all sweating like a freshly taken shower after 15 minutes of being there.  It's exhausting to have so many strong opinions all the time, but also makes for amusing stories to tell Ryan come pillow time.

Azure especially gets over-heated and sunburnt easily: Our little cheery cherry Azure.

 But, of course, it was worth it to be with friends.

 She requested a white cake with raspberries.  

Our favorite feisty, friendly, fun-loving, frank, freckled five year old:

A whole handful of fingers!

Love you, Azooray. 

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Do you love those metal letters?  I am digging the uniqueness instead of the usual fabric buntings you see everywhere.  I think they would also be neat hung individually, but that might take a while.  You can get any combination of letters from my parents' etsy shop here.  I figured all I have to do is change the number! (unless, of course, this little baby dill happens to be a boy...)

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Also, the $100 gift basket giveaway is open just 2 more days!

I went to the circus yesterday.

There were ferocious animals,

oh so strong muscle men,

clumsy cowboys

 silly clowns,

and

the cutest tight rope walker.

Her tutu was too too big.

It fell down mid rope.

But she was stoic

and carried on.

These

are the days I will miss.

When they are too big

for such things as make-believe

tight rope walking.

It passes like a blur.

Azure is 4

I should really listen to heed Ryan more often.  He says ONE gift is all they need for a birthday. I agree, but then find just a few more things to wrap.  I even had Azure with me when I was shopping and she failed to notice anything I put in the cart.  When we got to the check-out stand she asked if she could have a box of tic tacs.  I said no, but snuck them onto the moving belt.  Guess what was her favorite gift.

Divine Ruffled Bloomer Tutorial and Giveaway--Closed

Remember how so many of you wanted to know how to make 

Divine's Ruffled Bloomers?

Surprise!!!

I've put together a tutorial, but there's more.  I have a source for the fabric over at Ruffled Fabric.com who is generously offering 2 winners 1 yard of their lovely ruffled goodness and 1 yard of matching colored elastic each!  AND [I know, it just keeps getting better], for those who aren't one of the 2 winners, they are offering 10% off your order [use promotion code 10percent]!  

Christmas in Joo-ly is right!

Supplies:  Ruffled Fabric [1 yard] and elastic [1 to 1 1/2" wide]

1-Making sure the bottom of your fabric is evenly cut, lining up the ruffles, cut two pieces on the fold, using inside out leggings as a guide, including 1/2" extra for seam allowance.  

2-I didn't taper the bottom of the leg, and I cropped mine as well. [No need to hem it, yay!]

3-Open up both pieces, making sure all the ruffles are down, put right sides together [not shown] and stitch with a slight zig-zag from the waist to the crotch on both sides, as shown in the photo.

4-Pull the two seams together and stitch around the length of the legs, making sure ruffles match and are all facing down

5-Stretch a length of elastic around child's waist.  You want it snug.  Overlap ends and zig-zag stitch.

6-Pin elastic on the inside [the wrong side], overlapping 1/4".  You'll have to stretch the elastic a little bit to make it fit.

7-Zig-zag along the overlapped portion of the fabric.

8-Turn elastic under and stitch in the seam across the length of the elastic in front and back to keep the elastic down.

Azure loves her new leggings--can you tell?

Doesn't the color remind you of Baskin Robbin's Daiquiri Ice?

Ever had it?  It's yum.

To enter the giveaway, visit rufflefabric.com and come back to tell me what you'd love to have in your fabric stash [they even have polka-dots!] and perhaps your plans for it?

Giveaway goes through Monday, July 5th, winners announced Tuesday.
10 % off promotion goes through Friday, July 11th. 

Four Down, 3 to go.

This dress has done a 180.  

Literally.  I turned the back into the front because it was just plain boring. I imagined the braided neckline would be just so elegant it wouldn't need anything, but then the back turned out so much more interesting, I flipped it.  I had to add the extra gathered panel since I originally made it lower in the back.  If you have a 3 year old, you know they just like easy, slip on clothes, which is what I did here, using elastic thread on the eggplant panel and gathered the sheer overlay with 3/8" elastic.  The neckline was made by loosely braiding strips of the sheer fabric cut on the bias.  The cap sleeves don't cover the entire armhole, so I finished it with a strip of bias as well.

Love her face

I love that every time I ask my kids to try on an article of clothing they ask, 

"Are there pins in it?" to gauge how careful they need to be putting it on.

Seamstress's daughters.

Will I make it?

Close Out Sale!

Remember this dress I made last year?  Well, the pattern is on close out and is 50% off!

Through the end of the month, go here to purchase and enter coupon code PD2010 at checkout.

Hurry, before they're all sold out!

Pearl bought her lunch today

which means Azure has full reign of her lunch box.  She brought it into the kitchen to inform me she had made her lunch.  It being quite heavy, I took a peek.  I think she was planning on sharing it with me because there were two spoons packed at the bottom. 

What a thoughtful girl.

Those Japanese

have a good thing going.  

I need to learn their language.  I took 2 years in high school and all I can do is write a few characters, say My name is Katy, and count to 10.  Ryan, on the other hand, is fluent.  The baby dills think, after our trip to Japan, that he knows all languages.  Wait until we go to France.  Then who is going to be ordering the panini and crepes off the street and those melt in your mouth baguettes?  Who is going to navigate Le Metro and take us to the Louvre?  Where was I going with this, oh, yes.  The Japanese.  They have a pretty plethora of these books full of patterns.  And I don't use the word pretty lightly.  The only problem is there are very few translated into English.  Jordan, my sister, gave me one of these books for my birthday a couple of years ago and I opened it up thinking, no problemo.  Then I actually opened it up and could only pine after all the simple, yet sublime silhouettes I wanted to make, feeling overwhelmed with the patterns and directions.  I pulled it out again recently and even ordered two more of these books a couple weeks ago, determined to figure them out.  Success!  

Ryan and I poured over them last night, he'd point out things like "front" or "skirt".  Making progress.  At one moment, I pointed out a character to ask what it meant.  Ryan replied, "Katy, that's an English letter."  oh. Once I finally mapped out which pieces were needed (among 4 giant sheets of overlapping, foreign-written pattern pieces), I traced them and studied the how-to diagrams.  Some pieces I just had to measure out and cut.  Then I wondered what size I was even making.  90 cm?  Then I questioned whether or not the seam allowance was included.  That's when I turned to the internet.  If you've never discovered Purl Bee, now is the time.  I found a tutorial on reading these perfectly pretty puzzles and, VOILA!  

First use of my Korean buttons

My conclusion. 

It took me longer to figure out the pattern than it did sewing it, but now I have a whole new world of patterns for my hungry fingers.

I think working in centimeters is dainty and becoming.  Those ugly old inches are awkward and confusing.

Turns out, size 90 cm is just right for Azure, though I was actually aiming for Clover Pie.

Next time.

What We Do

Each evening during dinner, we ask the kids what their favorite part of the day was. When it's my turn tonight, I'm going to say, "chasing Azure and Clover around with the salad tongs." I'm telling you, the three of us have an awful lot of fun.

The Emerald City

Have you watched this recently?  

You should.  

It's my dad's favorite movie, and that's saying a lot.  

It's Azure's most recent favorite.  

She was hiding in my closet when Olive came knocking.  

Azure swings open the doors and says, 

"Who dinged that bell?" 

in just the right tone.

That Azure.

New Etsy Items!

Is it just me, or do you love ORANGE, too?