Pearl's Pearls

Do you ever go through your photos and find little treasures that you never posted or forgot about?  I found this from a couple of months ago that I think belongs in a frame.  I love how Pearl is looking at her reflection, watching her dress float up with a gust of wind, the sun illuminating those beautiful locks.

Each year the girls' school holds a little Christmas shop where the kids can buy gifts for family and friends.  Everyone else counted up their change and stuffed it in their backpacks, hoping they had enough for everyone on their list.

Pearl decided that she was going to make her gifts instead.  That's my girl. 

 Out of all my kids, I never would have guessed she would have been my one who has latched onto sewing like she has.  She can thread a needle, tie the knot, work the sewing machine and do hand embroidery.

After I made that Rollie Pollie for my kids, she wanted one for her doll. She asked if I would make it, but couldn't wait, so she just made her own.

There are quite a few of these laying around, too.

This one is my favorite.  A velveteen rabbit with golden whiskers.  Right now she's working on a fish.  I can't wait until she finishes it, because I have a feeling it's going to be quite spectacular.

Harold and the Purple Crayon--The Inside Story

Welcome, welcome to Once Upon a Thread!!!

How very rude of me to be late to my own party.  It's mostly my fault, I'll admit, but I had a late night vomiting child, plus some technical difficulty thrown in just to make things even more exciting.  I'm glad it's finally here, though!

If you are playing along, make sure you add your projects [1-2 photos of each] to the Once Upon a Thread Flickr group!

Meanwhile, I give you, the inside story of Harold and the Purple Crayon:

This is a fantastic book because, although it is geared toward children, the drawings and verse are witty and enjoyable for adults.  Never read it?  It's about a boy and his purple crayon who decides to go on an adventure.

He draws his own adventure full of a dragon, picnics, hot air balloon rides, until he decides he just wants to go home.

He can't figure out where home is.

Until he remembers that his window is always around the moon.  He makes his bed and draws up the covers.  

All in purple crayon.  

I love it.

You might be wondering why I would make a wool jacket, a plain, gray wool jacket for a girl who lives in warm weather?  Well, sometimes the A/C in buildings during the summer is colder than the winter around here!  I made it simple [using an Oliver + S pattern for both the jacket and skirt] so she can wear it with multiple outfits.  But what little girl likes plain?

That's where purple ribbon and Wonder Tape [which Lindsay introduced me to during Project Run & Play] comes in.  My Divine Grace dress could have used this stuff!  What Wonder Tape does is hold things in place without being permanent [water soluble] and without the need for pins.  When doing detail work like this, you never know which direction you'll be sewing which makes removing pins the wrong way truly annoying [like drawing with a stubby, broken crayon]!

All it takes is unrolling the tape and removing the paper backing.  It is sticky!  If I left any portion showing my presser foot would get stuck on it, and though it's not supposed to have this side effect, it did gum up my needle, but all in all, it was my hot air ballon, saving me, and totally worth utilizing.  I found mine at Joann's and it's a bit pricey [$6.50], so use your coupons!

Inside the plain, grey jacket I recreated the story of Harold, but with Pearl as the character.

A pocket with a little wooden "crayon" draws a tale for the girl.

The lining* is just cotton, but I did line the sleeves with something slicker to ease in putting it on.  I used the same fabric** as her skirt for the collar facing, just because I'm normally not a print kind of girl, but this one batted it's lovely eyelashes at me, and I admit I was smitten.


*The Brunch Jacket pattern does not have a lining included in the pattern, I added it for this project.
**echino collection by etsuko furuya for kokka [quiet ground]

A whole building full of windows....

A very hungry moose, helping with leftover picnic pie...

And a Pearl pillow, tucked into bed.  I just printed her photo on photo transfer paper and made a long skinny pillow, attached to a ribbon and threaded through an extra large button hole.

The crayon is a bit of dowel, shaved to a point by my rotary dremel, a drilled hole to thread the ribbon and painted PURPLE, of course.

The big picture.

And a mighty pleased Pearl.

Come back later to find out the winners of LiEr's patterns!

Up Two

We've been celebrating birthdays around here.  These two cute kids.  Except one's not so much of a kid, but I do love their Kindergarten pictures side by side.  You cannot deny Pearl's gene draw.  That, and she was the only baby born in our car that day, so there wasn't the possibility of a switcheroo.  

She: as much drama as she creates and is, I would not trade her for anything.  Or anyone.  She can out think and question us all and is more stubborn than a rusted hinge, but we'll keep her forever and ever. 

He: the one word, simple answer to the question I frequently get, how do you do all that you do?

We recently bought this piece of artwork that depicts us quite nicely, flying through this life, holding onto the Word of God, and each other.

He brought home some celebratory pussy willow branches when I told him the news of Project Run & Play.  He's learned I'm no red rose type of girl.

We invited four fine fellows to join in eating the massive amounts of food.  And I tell you, if you ever want the most peaceful, beautiful spirit in your home,  I guarantee these are the visitors you want.  Even if they just stay for dinner.

I've learned he's not a cake mix type of guy.

Happy Birthday to my two February loves.

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• Are you ready for Once Upon a Thread?  The flickr group is already humming! You can also find it on the sidebar.
• Today is the last day to enter the sexy lightbulb giveaway.  You know you want to enter, just so you can say to your guests, pointing to the light fixture, "That there is a $50 lightbulb!"
• LiEr's ikatbag pattern giveaway is also open for one last day--you know you want that pig and all her little piglets!

Sand Tales

Scrolling through these photos,

it looks like we had a weekend of pure fun,

but you will notice a conspicuous lack of Pearl photos.

Our hotandcold child was having a very frigid afternoon.

While Ryan dealt with her mood, the rest of us tried to enjoy ourselves.

Olive always makes friends immediately, our social butterfly.

Clover claimed she didn't want to go to the park, but I think she might have changed her mind, what do you think?

Azure was intent on sprinkling sand all along the edges of the whole playground.  She took her job very seriously and then tried to feed the birds the remainder of the sand.

Divine was content to be alone, but people are usually drawn to her, and she ends up entertaining anyway.

This photo might look incriminating, as I don't drink alcohol, but we stopped by the farmer's market and bought some homemade [non-alcoholic] ginger beer with money I borrowed from Pearl, who happened to have some cash.

Those curls, those cheeks, and those eyes: I'm a sucker.
  Sure, one more cookie, one more book, one more kiss.

By the time we left,

Pearl was back to her normal self,

We're not quite sure what to do with her.  Maybe more prayers?  She has a will of steel, that one, which she'll need as she gets older.  Dealing with it, in the meantime, will certainly temper her parents who love her dearly because she has a generous heart and a constant craving for cuddles.  I suppose that's what they call tender mercies.  If you walk next to her and your hand accidentally rubs against her, that little hand, like a magnet, will suddenly be in yours.  I'm glad it is, for holding little hands is one of my top ten things, right up there with really hot showers and late night bowls of strawberries and cream.

Coiffured Creature

We found these giant strawberries at the grocery store this week and knew they had a higher calling to fulfill: 

dipped in chocolate.

Fingers and spatulas were licked,

but we had to wait until that chocolate hardened just a bit.  Plus we needed some ingredients for Ryan's lamb pitas.

So we took a walk.

I admired these shoots preparing for Spring.

We dug in Ryan's wallet and found some cash to take a walk on the pier.

We enjoyed the view,

we bothered the fishermen,

and we bothered the fake surfers.

To come back for an appetizer of a most appealing kind.

The weekend, however, was almost ruined for this equine enthusiast.  Azure gave Whinny a bit of a mane cut to which Pearl responded with big sobs that her heart was crushed and life was not worth living--my words, not hers.  

She finally agreed that making a hat for Whinny just might be an okay fix.  

A strapping remedy for the freshly coiffured creature. 

But, more importantly, it made my hotandcold child warm up once again, which is very important indeed for this household.