angry chicken

toy for the 3 year old

We were able to make a homemade toy for Liddy's birthday—a Princess and the Pea Play Set. This was a collaborative effort by myself and her older sisters.

The basket of peas (painted wooden beads) are clipped on the bed with a mini clothespin.

The doll, which was a drawing by Delia, was scanned and printed onto fabric. We then made it into a soft doll.

The bed was made from the very handy kit here (I was thrilled to find this! It made this project so easy)  We painted the wooden bed gold and glued on the lace trim. Then we sewed about 7 mattresses from fabric scraps. Old cloth diapers were used for the mattress stuffing.

A book was written and illustrated by Sadie.

The story.

This was my favorite part of our birthday celebration for the 3 year old. I have seen these type of Princess and the Pea toys before, on Etsy and other blogs, and have always loved them and their play potential.

I asked the girls a few weeks back what we should make for Liddy and we came up with this. It all hinged on the bed, which was quite the score, I think. Then everything else came together very easily. Delia was all about the doll and the bed decoration and Sadie was more into painting the bed and making the book. Both girls gave this to Liddy and showed her how to play with it—and it was so sweet. Liddy LOVES it and the girls couldn't be more proud.

This reminds me of how we do Solstice gifts—we come up with an idea and help the girls make them. I am really laid back about the process, so if they get bored, lose interest, or only finish it half-way, I never worry about it. I just finish it up for them and they love it. Even if I am sure they have lost interest in it, they haven't. Everyone that has walked through our house recently has been shown this toy, the girls can't stop talking about it.

They are so used to making toys, clothes, food, and just stuff now. It's heartwarming to see their minds working, trying to figure out how to make something. The other day when I was finishing up Delia's nightgown and was adding the lace, she asked if she could use a color other than white. I said we only had white lace right now and she asked if we could dye some, like I did in my book. Ha!

Really, I know I am bragging here, but I love these kids. And I love watching them learn and grow and just exist.

wide elastic waist and some links

I sewed this skirt back in March. It's got a 3" elastic waist. I found this fabulous elastic locally at Mill End and bought it, not knowing what I would do with it, but had to have it anyway. I ended up cutting it to fit my waist, stitched it up, and then cut out a skirt with a slight A-line (just a front and back, no shaping) slightly wider and stitched the elastic to the skirt pulling the elastic slightly. I used a zig-zag for this.

This is pretty down and dirty sewing. It's great to just pull on and go. The fabric is a cotton silk blend from Fabric Depot. I wanted to make a skirt that looked like it was belted, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. The key was using a thin fabric. I'm wearing a full slip here (I love full slips and wear one almost every day) because the fabric is a bit on the sheer side. I just serged the bottom edge. Done and done.

Unrelated:

• I recently bought Wilson, by Daniel Clowes and am thrilled to have it. I have all his work, including the original comics from ages ago. I think it's funny people still complain in the reviews that his work is depressing. I mean, when was it ever not depressing? It's like complaining about the flavor of milk. That's just the way it tastes.

• I have really been enjoying Andrea's blog, book scout—all about young adult and kids books. She's a wealth of knowledge.

• There's a good post over at MommyCoddle about summer games. We already bought some she wrote about and they are a huge hit. The personality traits that come out in the girls during game playing is hysterical! I am not taking Sade to Vegas, that's all I'm sayin'. She's all or nothing.

a gift box.

A friend of ours turned 4 recently and we put together this little wooden box for him. I buy these empty unfinished wooden boxes at Michaels. I had a supply of cigar boxes, but have used them up. (Local Portland folks—you can buy empty cigar boxes at Rich's and they have some really cool ones.)

I keep these boxes on hand and fill them with paper dolls, or stamps, or small books. That kind of thing. I've used them for making sewing kits. I used a deep size here to make a wooden box-purse.

So, in this box we have:

• Homemade blank books made with images printed from Agence Eureka's amazing vintage ephemera collection. (I asked her first and use them for personal use only.)
• A few fabulous pencils from The Small Object.
• An absolutely awesome stamp set from Yellow Owl Workshop. They have several styles, all of them very cool. My kids LOVE them as do I.
• A little stamp pad.

The ombre paper came from Martha's craft line. I think I got it two years ago. I tried to find an image over at Martha's site (wow, it's so hard to use!) and got too grumpy and instead found a very complete selection here, but not exactly what I used. The letters on the top of the box are stickers I have had forever. I'm not even sure where I got them. The map on the inside from the box is from a real map we had.

I love making toys and kids gifts so much. I try to make them only with items I already have in the house. This means I need to probably get out more and that I have a scary amount of awesome supplies in my art room.

Happy Summer Solstice today! And Happy Birthday Grammie!!

a variety of tarts

Lemon curd with strawberries and coconut.

Sliced red grapes and raspberry jam.

Lavender caramel with sliced banana and chopped almonds.

A larger lemon curd tart with strawberries. (This time without the coconut, but with powdered sugar.)

All getting along splendidly.

It seemed I had an abundance of curds, sauces, and sliced fruit on hand and wanted to use it up—but couldn't make a decision as to how, what combinations, and all that. So, I made several small tarts and had a stupid amount of fun filling them all differently. For the tarts, I used a recipe from Barefoot Contessa and used tartlet pans. I filled these four and then froze the remaining shells, (already baked) to use later when I make chocolate sauce. I am really happy with these and love the idea of having already cooked tart shells in the freezer, ready to fill with summer goodness.

Recipes (of sorts) of what I used:

• tart shells (I used this recipe for one tart and just made several small sizes)
• lavender caramel sauce
• homemade lemon curd

outdoor art fun

Since we moved I had yet to set up a chalk drawing area outside for the girls. In our old house they spent hours with chalk and a very small blackboard (shared, grudgingly) and loved it. The easel-style blackboard didn't move with us—so there was no chalk fun. The driveway/street chalk drawing just wasn't cutting it.

I got some chalkboard paint and had plans to get wood and then about 7 months went by and the sun never came out, you know how it goes. But then, a few days ago—we got summer! A quick trip to the lumber yard provided us with these 2 big pieces of plywood. The girls painted the boards themselves with the chalkboard paint (They keep talking about how amazing it is they made their own chalk boards!) and we are good to go.

I added their favorite accessories, wet rags for enthusiastic cleaning, (I think this is what they like best) 3 spray bottles, a lot of chalk, and cups of water to make "chalk paint" which they making by dipping the chalk in the water to make it soft for maximum coverage. They crack me up.

These boards are huge, about 4' x 4'—just leaning on the side of the house in the back under the eaves, so they won't get rained on. I was thinking about how to mount them to the house but realized they are so heavy, they aren't going anywhere. If they just lean, we can easily store them in the winter and also move them to different ares of the yard if we need to. Like, if one artist needs to be alone to work uninterrupted by her sisters, who might be cramping her artistic vision, let's just say.

She is almost 3.

We have a birthday coming up. I can't believe my baby is turning 3. I have squirreled away some gifts already, like this absolutely stunning dress which came to me from Olive Juice. After I wrote about them a bit back, they inquired if I would like a dress to review (um, yes please!) and it is just exquisite. The smocking is so lovely and the dress is so well made. The cotton is crisp and light, very high quality. The dress has some wonderful details, like bound sleeves and a clever self fabric lining. I need a get a little cardigan to go with this. It's just dreamy. They are having a really good sale right now. Here's this dress and I am kind of freaking out at the sale price. I want to get one for my middle girl now. I bought two dresses from them about 5 years ago and they have held up really well—through all three girls with heavy duty wear and play.

Edit: I originally posted this for a few hours on Friday, but the Olive Juice site went down. It appears to be up and running now.

She also is getting a Josef Original Birthday Girl. I have all of these through number 7. I have written about these before. They are the vintage ones, not the ones you can buy new now. I had a 5 when I was little and it was a prized possession of mine. The girls have to share them—I'm not sure how they will divide these up when they get older, but I'm not going to worry about that now.

And she is getting a little bisque doll. One of her own. Her sisters both have one. They are usually wrapped up in a toilet paper bed and tucked away where they can get easily thrown away. Or misplaced. They also get broken. And then there is a whole hospital event that happens with nurse hats and lots of slings and some super-glue. It's pretty great.

I want to make her a toy. I'd love to make her something like this, which she recently found and is obsessed with, but I am running out of time. I do need to give her something soft and unbreakable, 'cause come on. These items don't exactly scream super fun for a three year old to me. But of course I love them. I happen to know that a certain person (Grammie) is getting her a real metal mini shopping cart, which will be a HUGE hit. Hopefully we won't get another ant farm from her uncle.

animals and nature and stuff

This robin's nest is visible from our kitchen table. We were watching her build it about two weeks ago and peeked inside the other day. Excitement!

There has been a lot of animal adventures in our neighborhood. We live only about 5 minutes from downtown Portland—up in the hills in a ton of trees. There are lots of squirrels and raccoons and there are coyotes living in a protected wetland park behind our house. So, our neighbor has lost 2 chickens and the stray bunny that was living in our backyard (who had been christened Minty by the girls) was taken only about an hour before we were all ready to trap it. I actually saw the coyote with the neighbor's chicken in its mouth! The brazen thing—it was about 6:30 AM.

Happily and less violently, now we get to watch this mama robin sit on her eggs every morning. It's very cool.

Unrelated to coyotes and chickens and robin's eggs:

I am very excited by this post by Melissa regarding the old-timey vintage inspired lingerie sewing patterns over on the Bolt blog. They are just the style I have been looking for to compliment the tap pants I made. This bra pattern from Collette patterns is outstanding.

asparagus leek soup (with some fennel)

I was looking for some new ways to eat asparagus besides roasted or grilled, which are my favorite, and found a great recipe in Love Soup. I need to say again how much I love this book. I was looking at the Asparagus Bisque with Fresh Dill recipe when I made this version.

I changed it a bit. Here's what I ended up using:

• 2 bunches leeks
• a bunch of asparagus
• one big fennel bulb
• 3 small new potatoes
• a bunch of herbs from our garden (dill and chives)
• juice from a lemon
• salt and pepper
• cream just to change the color (optional)

I cut up the leeks and sauteed them in a little olive oil and salt and pepper for about 10 minutes. Then I added the chopped asparagus, fennel, and potatoes and poured in water until just covered. When it came to a boil I covered it, turned it to low, and let cook for about an hour. Then I used my stick blender on it and added the lemon juice and herbs and the tiny amount of cream. I served it with rye bread toast with chevre. Delicious. If you really blend this until super smooth it makes a wonderful chilled soup. And the fennel taste is very subtle, so if fennel isn't your best friend, don't worry. This soup tastes even better the next day.

I would like to tell you I use homemade broth, but guess what? I don't. Almost never, and my soups are awesome. I just have to say this. If you ever feel like you need a veggie broth to make a good soup, you don't. I mean I know you are supposed to make a huge batch and freeze it and all that, but then you have to know to thaw it and I just don't know that kind of stuff. I decide to make soup and I make it—and thawing frozen both is just not something I can be down with. I don't use purchased broth because of the sodium, plus why buy it when a little water tastes just fine? I think for me the key is to barely cover it with enough water. Also, I make pureed soups about 99% of the time. If I made broth based soups with big old hunks of veggies, I would use a homemade broth for sure.

My other rule is that I never use more than one pot for making soups. So if there is sauteing, or caramelizing onions, or cooking greens, or any of that— it all happens in the soup pot. I know this is not how Love Soup does it, but I still have made delicious soups from that book using my super lazy method of one pot and no broth.

A gossamer nightgown.

Sadie wanted a new summer nightgown, in a lightweight white fabric. She wanted long. Too the floor. With Lace. Okay, then. She actually is normally not so specific when it comes to clothes, unless it's for a dress-up character, which this is. It's her Little House on the Prairie/Little Women nightgown. It's sewn from the McCall's 4547 pattern which is a great costume source—bloomers, bonnet, dress, all that. It's nice to use for everyday clothes, too, like this nightgown. I stock up on patterns when Joann's has the $1 sale on them. Are they really $1? I don't remember, but they aren't much, I know that.

This is a cotton/linen blend. I saw it and bought 5 yards 40% off, either at Joann's or Fabric Depot. I can't remember now. I am sensing a theme here with my memory. I love having a lot of this type of fabric lying around—it's good for so many things.

Sadie cut this out—there is just a front, back, and two sleeves. She stitched the side seams together (with my foot on the pedal and her hands guiding the fabric) and was done and wandered off to read a book. I finished it up, adding the lace trim and buttons.

What is it about these lightweight style nightgowns? I just love them. She just floats in it. It's so lovely and airy and when she is sleepy and it's dark out she looks like a little Victorian ghost child. There have been requests for 2 more, of course. Although baby still sleeps in her random daytime outfit more often than not. Baby will be 3 years old in 2 weeks. Where did my baby go??

Stuff and Stuff:

• The tie one on gallery is up! It's the Alice theme this time and is incredibly sweet. Please take a look.

• I am almost ready to write about how I am printing all 5 years of my blog, at home, (from several inexpensive pdfs compiled by a 3rd party) and binding them myself into hardback books. Yup, insane. Yet industrious! I am developing a system. A long arduous system, but it's working. My alternative is to get them all professionally printed and bound after hours of formatting and spending like $165 per book. And I would need 6. So even with all my crazy—this is worth it. I have made 3 books already and I have 3 to go, because my first year need to be split into 2 books.

• I'm ignoring the rainy weather by sewing a white cotton eyelet dress for myself. So there.

 

pretending it's summer

It's really rainy here still.This photo was from a few weeks ago at the beach when we had a few days of sun. This is a crazy-house sprinkler run. The goal is to run around the beach house, through the sprinkler, and scream.

I feel like we will never have summer here, so I am looking at these beach photos to remind myself we will. Our May was the third wettest in the history of Oregon.

Anyhoo, some links and important items:

• Thanks for all the pencil sharpener info! I was oddly riveted by this video on how to sharpen a pencil. Who knew!?

• I am thrilled to be attending Miss Emily Martin's art opening this Friday, here in Portland, at Land. You can see some of the amazing paintings over at Inside A Black Apple. I have had rumors of a cotton candy machine at the opening, Friday, June 4th at 6:00pm. Excitement!

• The Tie One On gallery is almost up. The Alice aprons are so good. I think it will be ready by this weekend. In the mean time, you can check out the newest theme.

• There is a wonderful post about what the heck you would use double sewing machine needles for over at the Bolt Blog written by the super knowledgeable Sally Hess. Also, the classes at Modern Domestic look very good, perfect for summer fun. I sure wish there had been a cloth diaper/covers class in town when I had my babes. (Thanks for these tips, Melissa.)

• We saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and it was very entertaining. So funny and thought provoking—really a hoot. Here's a review about it, although it's not overly positive, it gives you a good sense of what it's about. If you are a fan of Banksy's work, you have probably already seen it.