Mary, Mary quite contrary....

7.30.2006

how does your garden grow?

Here are some pictures of how the garden grows. We have also planted tomatoes, radish, carrots, broccoli, and a bunch of herbs. Maddie keeps picking green tomatoes and taking a bite. Last year they ate all the beans straight off the vines.

I think we may have a bumper crop of brussel sprouts but the corn is only 2 feet high and has tassels, that's not so good, right? Oh well, at least the girls can see a corn plant. We did harvest our first zucchini, yummy.

I also had this big idea to plant a "sunflower tunnel" for the girls but the bunnies kept eating the sunflowers so now all I have is two dirt patches in the middle of the lawn and a not too happy hubby.

Happy harvesting.

Mama Says Om: Tumble

7.25.2006

When either of my girls takes a little tumble I usually hold my breath and my reaction for a moment to see how they will react. I wait to see if it is a "big girl, you're ok" tumble or the "come to mommy and let me see moment". Thankfully, we have only had one "oh my goodness, can you take us to the hospital moment".
People often comment on how tough the girls are, falling from a slide or tripping on the sidewalk with hardly a tear. I was always a tough little girl and I think of myself now as a strong woman. You don't go through childbirth with out earning your tough badge. Most of the time this is one of my personal traits that I am most proud of. I know that my strength has helped me to be a better sister, daughter and wife.
Being a mother is being strong. There is no longer time for recharging your physical and mental strength. What once was plenty for one is now divided among 3. I now need the strength to prop up not just myself but also my two girls. But sometimes, I think I forget that you don't always have to be strong. Part of my job as a mother is to show my girls that it is okay to lean on others, to ask for someone else to carry the load for a little while. We all have little stumbles we take throughout our day and there is usually someone around to pat us on the back, a send us on our way. Sometimes even mommies need someone to call us over and take a look after we take a big tumble; someone to have the strength to carry us if just for a little while.

Thanks to all of you that carry me from time to time.

More on tumble at Mama Says Om.

Catching A Tumble

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Thrifted Goodies and Vintage Pattern Giveaway

I snuck away for a bit of thrifting while in Wisconsin and hit the jackpot some cheap craft goodies. There were hundreds of patterns, knitting needles and tons of notions. I kept throwing stuff in my basket until I realized I didn't know how much the patterns were. So here are some of my goodies.



5 pairs of knitting needles, 10 bits of rick-rac and binding, some great vintage fabric and other fabric odds and ends,3 skeins of embroidery yarn.




14 vintage patterns including a great set of 15 "bazaar crafts" for kids. I also got Annie a pair of Hanna Anderson Clogs for 50 cents, 2 books including Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel in spanish and the game Perfection. And 2 vintage yellow stripe pillowcases destined to skirts.

And the grand total for all this goodness...$13.68. Not bad. I love a big bags of goodies for under 20 dollars.


In celebration of my score I thought I would share with y'all. So here are 4 patterns from my outing.



Pattern 1-Dresden Plate Pattern, includes directions to make an apron, a quilt,floor pillow and more. Uncut

Pattern 2- Size 141/2 Dress and Ves Pattern (37" Bust) Dress patten is cut but it appears intact.





Pattern 3- Butterick Embroidery Transfers "Ethnic embroidery transfers; eleven different motifs, more thatn one of each" Unused.

Pattern 4- Girls size 10 (chest 28 1/2") Sleep-suit in two lengths with front-wrap robe and hat. Cut but seems intact.


See one that you like? I'm giving them away. Leave me a comment with the Pattern # (1,2,3, or 4) you are interested in and I will contact you to get address etc. (Please only request one pattern and I will send to the first person who requests) and send it out to ya.
Alright, I think that does it.
Have a great day.

7.22.2006

The girls and I spent the early part of this week in Wisconsin visiting my sister-in-laws and their families. We had a really wonderful time, hanging out and visiting. The kids loved seeing eachother and I had a great time chatting and relaxing. The drive took about 5 hours each way so we kept ourselves entertained listening to these old stories and songs I downloaded and burned from the site KiddieRecords.com which you should go and check out. Annie really liked the Carrot Seed and Madison let us know that "I NOT LIKE THIS" as we played Robin Hood.

After a few hours of this it was time to mix it up a bit...

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i love the Beastie Boys

and this...


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not sure what station it was but you can get some polka here.

I loved watching all the kids play together, I wasn't as fond of putting my girls to bed (Annie was up until 11:00 p.m. each night and up at 6:30 a.m.)

We had a bbq.

Checked out a Ty's sanke


Cried a little.



Played gameboy alot.



Ate yummy eclair cake.



and lastly, had lots and lots of fun.



I myself got away for a bit of thrifting and will have more to share on this soon. To our great Wisconsin family
Thank you and we Love You.

Mama Says Om: Relax

7.21.2006

I was going to write this whole long post about nt being able to relax, yada yada yada and then it occured to me that if I just put a nice picture of my cuties relaxing up then I would have more time to relax myself. So enjoy my cuties relaxing, because that's what I am going to go do.

Mama Says Om: Whimsy

7.14.2006

When Annie was younger she had an Elmo doll that was her regular playmate. Often I would find Elmo dressed in a veil and wedding dress happily swinging in the baby swing or strapped into the baby carseat. I would call this Elmo's Adventures in Annie's World.
As Annie has grown she has brought new friends to play in Annie's World. I now discover little remnants of her whimsical play all over the house, a teddy bear wearing a tiara and wrapped in toilet paper, Little People perched precariously on the edge of the sink. These little leftovers always bring a smile. I am not usually allowed into Annie's World, it is a solitary activity.
I know when this whimsical play is going on because her voice changes. A sing-songy, high pitched voice replaces her usual robust one. She explains everything she is doing and both asks and answers the questions.
Naptime has given way to rest time and with it an hour or so of time for solitary imaginative play and the playmates have become little Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shops and other random bits and pieces she finds in her toy box. The magical, whimsical quality of the play has stayed the same and when I come upon these little scenes I often wonder what adventure they had been on.
I know that one day soon the visits to Annie's world will stop and so when I can I take pictures of these little vignettes. I want to remember that sweet little imaginary voice and be able to one day remind Annie that she led a childhood full of whimsy.







For more whimsy see Mama Says Om

Craftapalooza, well sorta

7.12.2006

Today I decided we needed to play hooky from all the things we were supposed to do and have a "craftapalooza". It wasn't quite as crafty as I had hoped, we didn't get around to painting, but it was still a great day.
We started the day off baking the yummiest molasses cookies (recipe here at Everyday Food)
to bring to the firefighters that led our 4th of July parade.



After that we worked on some banana bread because I had 8 frozen bananas in my freezer. It is wonderful and I have to stop myself from eating it all in one sitting. The girls especially enjoyed the mashing.



After that I brought some clothes pins to make clothes pin people. I have been seeing these on various blogs lately and thought it would be fun for the girls to do, the only links I remember and can find are here and here and The Small Object has some whimsical ones for sale. I took out a bunch of fabric, buttons, yarn and markers and oh, yeah glue, lots and lots of glue. The first half hour was spent just making fabric glue things Annie called "squishies" and Maddie just made a lovely collage.




After that Annie got down to business and started making dolls. We ended up with 6 great little dolls and added a little car to boot. The car and doll contraption reminds me of game pieces in Life the game. It was a wonderful activity and the Annie can't wait to play with them.





(the little guy on the right is wearing a tie-dye)

Annie wants to make them a house "out of wood". I said maybe they can move into your dollhouse, it's made of wood. "Oh, yeah, but we can make one too."

And just because I have your attention.....

We were at Chili's the other night for dinner, Annie was eating pasta and stops....

Annie- "Wait, wait, this, I know this", takes another bite, licks her lips, stares at the bowl of pasta and then "wait, this, this is from our garden, the stuff you know, in our garden."
Me- "You mean the basil?"
Annie- "Yes that."

Totally amazing.

A knitted princess

7.09.2006

I haven't knit anything in a while and had been wanting to start a new project. I had a gift card to Kool Knits that I needed to redeem. The idea behind the gift card (from Dan for christmas) was me going to the yarn store on my own. I had to bring the girls and it was on a day that Maddie spiked a fever. So I ran through the shop and picked up the Summer 2006 Interweave Magazine and a nice pair of new size 4 dpns. I wanted to get yarn for this little project from Magknits but couldn't remember what I needed. (honey, I am taking a raincheck on the day out at yarn store sans children). So, there was this cute little free pattern in the mag
Just what every little girl needs.....

A Knitted Crown

(I've been wanting to try something other than hats to knit.... do you think this counts?)

I used some thrifted yarn and Annie picked and placed all the embellishments. It was an easy pattern and got to practice my increases and had to cast off with a crochet stictch, egads! I have visions of knitted knights in my future.

Other knitted crowns can be found in AlterKnits, The Natural Baby Village, Little Turtle Knits (scroll down)

Here is a crochet crown pattern.

Mama Says Om: Treat

7.06.2006

In addition to having daddy home for 2 extra days, we had my niece Ally here for 3 days. What a treat it has been to have her spend some time with us. She is an absolute sweetie and such a trooper. I have 15 nieces and nephews and this was the first time any of them has stayed on their own for more than a night. Annie and Ally have been having so much fun and Madison loves following the girls around.
I have been trying to keep the girls busy so we have taken a bike ride to the grocery store, a big hit with Ally, to buy strawberries to make jam. We made the jam, yum, and had it on bagels for breakfast.

Today, we went to our favorite rolly-slide park and stomped around in the creek. The afternoon was spent at the fabric store so Ally could pick out fabric for her own tote bag. Now the girls are curled up watching Finding Nemo (the only kids movie we own) and eating popcorn. We are hoping to head to the zoo or waterpark tomorrow. Not bad for a few days with 3 girls under 5.

All of this time with Ally reminds me of when I was a little girl and we would go stay at my cousins or our friends house for a few days. It was always such an adventure and I still remember all the things we did, a hot day and the sprinkler at Aunt Kathy's and my first sunburn, walking to the corner store in the city at Charolette's, a trip to the Ben Franklin for $1.00 toys with my grandma and many nights with my grandma amy and aunts.
It is great to think that my home will be a place of adventure for my nieces and nephews and that my girls will have their own tastes of independance when visiting cousins. And it won't hurt that mom and dad will get some time alone. That's a whole different kinda treat!

For more on treats - Mama Says Om

A Big Thank You

7.05.2006

I wanted to thank everyone for sending such kind messages in the last few days. I agree with everyone that it was hurtful and a bit creepy. We had a lovely barbeque at our home on the 4th and everyone wanted to know where the neighbor lived so they could do assorted things to them. Many people have said I can track the email address, but I really don't want to know who it was. My favorite idea is to bring my brothers pop-up trailer over and park it in the backyard with a nice awning, some tikki lights and rusty furniture. We can then add all the pink flamingos, plastic santas, etc. Maybe I'll finish off the summer with a big ugly backyard party.
So many people told me they were upset for me all day after reading the post or hearing the story and I feel so grateful to know there are so many caring people out there that can appreciate a purple, yellow and green playhouse.

So to all of you considering doing something wild in your own backyard, I say go for it, the worst part is you get an ugly email and the best is you get a bunch of great emails and support from really kind people all over the world.

Mail....

7.02.2006

I've had a couple of fun things come in the mail the last few weeks so I thought I would share. The first is a little treat I bought for myself, the lithograph "Skipping Rope" from the artist Margery Niblock. I was introduced to her work on the SouleMama blog. I loved this print and it was so resonable. I may need to buy a few more.


"Skipping Rope"

I also did my first little fabric swap with three green apples on flickr. We each had a pillowcase of the same vintage fabric in different colors, so we swapped. She sells great stuff go check it out here. The fabric is crying out to be a dress for the bear or kitty out of the new Wee Wonderfuls Put Together Book that came on Monday. It's wonderful and has been keeping me busy all week. Here is a picture of my goodies.



and yes, that is a ZIPPER foot you see in the picture. After three different feet being mailed and lots of phone transfers between parts and customer service, I finally have a zipper foot and a manual for my machine. Yippeee... look for lots of zippering stuff in the future.

Introducing our 2 new little ladies....



hot off the machine. Out of the above mentioned Wee Wonderfuls Put Together Book. The girls love them. I had such fun making them.