Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Marcia Brady Dress and some other sewing stuff

There is a huge stack of works-in-progress on my sewing table, most of which is for my eight year old.  I hope to finish it all before warm weather is here to stay. 

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This fabric reminds me of the Brady girls and their groovy room, which isn’t so bad.  Molly likes certain prints and I like certain prints and if Marcia Brady green and pink is meeting halfway then all is well.  The dress pattern is from here.

The truth is I really fell in love with this yellow fabric, Molly didn’t like it at all.  But chance had it that I found myself in the same store for another reason just a few days later so I bought it and made her another dress. 

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She likes it now :)

I’ve made her some other things like pull on pants and easy stuff that she can lounge and sleep in.  The clothes in stores for her age group alarm me, I want to keep her cute and little as long as I can.

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That is why she has rainbow pants and the modern day Dorothy pant outfit…because she is cute and little and loves color and singing Beatles songs while she rides her bike up and down the driveway. 

Eight years old is a great age to be.

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Friday, March 16, 2012

a little color for a misty March day

The kids have the day off from school,  it is a lazy day to say the least.  A day in which a nap is inevitable. The younger ones and I were nestled under my favorite red plaid blanket reading books, when unbeknownst to me I woke with a stack of Berenstain Bear books aside my face and no children to be seen.   These children must be getting tired of their  mother.  Do they remember me when I was a bit-o-fun? When I splendored in glitter crafts and paint?  When I didn’t hobble around like an old lady in a ski accident?

Anyhow whenever I feel worn out I always revert back to the days of yore and what all the women before me went through.  They had so much everyday work just for regular meals and clean clothes. Often I look through the ephemera saved by my great-grandmother and it never fails to inspire me.  She went through so much in her life but still managed to find beauty everywhere.

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These images are from her scrapbook from 1900-1915. 

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Now I feel like I have the energy to put the clothes in the dryer, start the dishwasher and listen to it whir and rattle as it cleans my dishes.  And maybe if I’m really ambitious I will send a note to my husband at work and ask him to bring home pizza for dinner. Being a spoiled modern housewife is such hard work!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

heavyweight

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Our rooster is conceited and ornery. 

I tried so hard to like him.  But he’s such a creep!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

10 Things I love

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Friday, March 9, 2012

trying something new

I have been wearing the same tiny flower hairpin forever.  It’s lavender and I’m not sure I even like purple. When I saw on Etsy how inexpensive cabochon flowers are I couldn’t help subscribing myself to another craft.  It was painfully easy and I’m embarrassed how much I paid for my original hairpin. Now I have a rainbow of colors to choose from, they are so small and delicate- even though they are colorful it is just  enough to add a hint of femininity to your outfit.  Even if all you’re doing is staying home and catching up on laundry.  It always helps to feel pretty, doesn’t it?

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There are endless supplies to choose from, I tried some rings…my girls like them.  They are my testers to see how well the epoxy adheres before I start giving them away.

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I hope you are having a good day, I’m slowly working on some sewing projects.  It is always good to feel productive!

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Thursday, March 8, 2012

my hips don’t lie, either

I feel as though I stepped off time.  And  I can’t tell you I’ve done anything exciting.  Thanks for your inquiries and kind words, I still have some time to go before the wee babe is here but trust me I’m counting the days! This might be the most I’ve read in my life as I’m hauling around a big belly on top of a bad hip. Hopefully someday I will laugh at the amount of time I spend perched on the yoga ball with a book in hand. With spring around the corner I find my spirits awakening from their slumber. It has been a long winter and the best part is right around the corner…I’m grateful for that!

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Sometimes in life people have full circle moments and recently I found myself in the midst of one of my very own.

It started last spring while house hunting. Driving through Concord MA (a town I knew little if anything of) we drove right by Orchard House, the home of Louisa May Alcott. It was as if appeared out of nowhere.  We abruptly stopped and parked in front and I cried.  I don’t know why I became so emotional.  Little Women was probably the first classic book I read on my own accord when I was young and like so many other young girls I loved the March sisters and was instantly bonded.  I suppose I didn’t know the house was actually real and there it was looking exactly as it should.

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Since that day I have been back to Concord many times as it’s where my Doctors are.  Aside from the Alcott house I instantly felt at peace in Concord.  I told my husband early on “I’m not sure why I just love this town.” I love the streets, the old houses the eclectic little Main St shops.   Henry and I go to my appointments and roam around aimlessly.  Inevitably we end up at the too-expensive toy shop where I buy him a Lego guy that costs $3.18 (with tax) and he plays with him on the long drive home.  We’ve been in Orchard House, it was what I wanted it to be but at the same time it spun me into a frenzy of reading and wanting to know more.  I had to hold myself back as I couldn’t stop asking the tour guide questions. 

Recently my dad told me Concord is where his mother grew up. I never knew that, I have always wondered about my grandmother.  It never felt balanced to be so close to my maternal grandmother yet not know anything about the other.  I can’t help but feel it’s no coincidence to fall in love with this town and by pure happenstance to have my baby there. 

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That’s my full circle moment.  Maybe it’s weird or silly and you’re wondering why I don’t know much about my Dad’s family. I’m not sure why I don’t, his parents had him late in life and were gone before I knew them.  My Dad is kind of quiet about some stuff, I guess it’s just always the way it’s been.  To make it even more interesting Ralph Waldo Emerson lived across the street from the Alcott’s house and that’s my maiden name.

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And if you don’t mind me blabbering on, did you know Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry David Thoreau lived just down the street? Can you imagine what that was like?  All those transcendentalists with their new ideas and writings?  We quote them and refer to their brilliancy when in my mind they were kind of like modern day hippies. They took such risks.   Which is great really, it’s too easy to look at history and think glossed over thoughts.  They struggled and bumped their way along their paths in life. Just like you and me.