Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A List.

 You may remember this color palette if your are friends with me on face book.

This is the color palette I chose when I embarked upon the Colette Pattern Fall Sewing Challenge. The first step, pick your palette. The second step, sew some fall clothes with this palette in mind. I'm doing all right but am beginning to feel the squeeze of so many sewing ideas in my brain and Christmas is beginning to creep up. I like lists. Lists help organize my brain and make me feel less crazy and gives my body permission to stop thinking about the projects.  So I'm making a list; it includes the items from my colette sewing challenge but also includes other sewing projects I want/need to do in the near future.  Some of the items were already done when I made the list but I wanted to encourage my self by giving me some things to cross off, a couple of the things were actually finished after I wrote the rough draft of this post.

MY LIST OF THINGS TO BE DONE NO LATER THEN CHRISTMAS
PREFERABLY MUCH SOONER.


Rooibos Dress from Colette Patterns

Bolero Jacket


Skirt

Fingerless Gloves

Scarf

Purse for Mom


Horses for Boy's Christmas present

Baby hat for neighbor's soon-to-be new baby


This is really cute isn't it?

















As soon as I finish actual pieces of clothing I'll do a more in-depth post on those. This was just a list, nothing but a list. What's on your list these day?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

This is the most fragrant rose bush I've ever known.
And she just keeps blooming, it's incredible!

I hope these two boys know how much I love them.
And, I hope they grow up with the fondest memories of this place.


Summer is winding down, maybe it's already gone I think today is the first day of fall. And, while I was mowing the lawn, I got to thinking about Brian and my home. How it's ours (sort of, we probably own like the front stoop and the bank owns the rest) and how there are so many responsibilities that come with that.  Like, mowing the lawn. Lot's of other things too. I thought about how it seems like most of the things we do for our home we do in the summer, and in the winter the home is doing most of it's things for us.

Brian bought me these window boxes this year.

That probably doesn't make sense, but all spring and summer we mow and weed and garden. We do all major projects in warm weather, like painting and redoing bathrooms or basements.  In the summer we stain the wooden swing set and this year I replaced half of our screens in our windows. In the winter we mostly shovel snow and thats it. In the winter the house is responsible for keeping us dry and warm and giving us things to do (or at least it's more important in the winter).

And with all the responsibilities comes a really good feeling (at least for me). Every time I mow the lawn, or garden or kill grubs, I feel good like I'm being a responsible grown-up and it's for MY house.  Doing the upkeep makes me feel, I don't know, like I really do own the place, that I really have arrived. I am creating and maintaining a warm loving, unique home for our family.  Maybe this is something our countries founders understood, ownership. I sound like a realtors commercial "home ownership" but for me it's true. We've lived in lots of nice places but this is the first place we own and even though it's small it just feels different. It feels right.  I am blessed with a quaint home, that is sturdy, with good neighbors and a nice yard. I am grateful to God for that.


This geranium is my piece de resistance 



Any way this was unusually rambley but enjoy these outdoorsy summer shots from my home this year.
He is such a good helper!

I've had this plant since spring and now that it's going to frost it finally gets it's first pepper.

My FIL gave me the seeds to start this vine when we first moved here. Now look at it!

My garden is a little wild, and that's how I like it.  Oh, that mum plant 
it's five years old!



What about you? What motivates you to mow the lawn, or cook dinner, or shovel the driveway?







Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Winners!

It was so fun reading about every ones favorite comfort foods.  I chose two winners at random and they are: Beki who said "my favorite comfort food overall is mahed potatoes made in the butteriest, creamiest way possible. As far as sweets go, I' d say cinnamon things made from leftover pie dough." and Rebecca M (I knew her as Becca back in the day) "hands down mac&cheese. or maybe cheesy potatoes... butter, cheese, and carbs- you can't go wrong!" Oh yum I agree with both (and I thought the fact that the two winners names were forms of Rebecca was sort of funny). congratulations you two I hope it will bring cheer to your kitchens. Send me a message with your mailing info and I will get them to you as soon as possible.

So here's a question for all of you lovely blog readers. Michigan is strange, it's freezing cold one day and HOT the next (sometimes even the same day) especially this time of year. I want to be able to wear my hand made dresses as long as possible because I worked hard on them and they're cute. The question is: does this work?

 This is the birthday dress paired with a
hand-me-down jean jacket from my Aunt.
I've had the jacket for years and LOVE it.
Was so happy to fit into it again after
Conner was born.
This is the other dress I made this summer
Same jacket. I think the Jacket looks better with this dress.


Now that fall is here I could also wear a pair
of red heals with this dress (I have
a pair with a flower on it even) instead
of sandals.
So what do you think. Does the jacket work at all? Is one dress yes and another no, or do they both look cute? Would different shoes make it translate into autumn better, or am I just totally off base? I need your help readers because I love to sew and I love to thrift but sometimes I need help looking stylish.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Give-A-Way!



Autumn is now upon us. Where did summer actually go? I'm sitting here drinking coffee wearing a sweater of all things. I didn't get to go back to Lake Michigan like I had planned and have barely been to the zoo.  It just seems like there is too much to do in summer and it is as hard to grasp as pool water.
Gertrude is modeling these for us. I wish the apron
were a skirt b/c that is a super cute outfit.
Sweater is a thrifted Ann Taylor.

The only thing to be done is embrace fall. I do love fall, the smell and crispness in the air, the taste of tart apples, the way the light is all golden, even the sound of leaves skittering across the drive.  And what is the best thing about colder weather? Comfort food that's what!

I love that the shirt pocket get's used on the apron.
I hate cooking in the summer but as cooler weather approaches I find myself wanting to make and eat hot soups, roast beef, cookies, home made bread, cookies and more cookies.  So, to continue to celebrate the Second Time Challenge and as a symbolic gesture that I'm accepting the changing season I made these two aprons to give to two lucky readers.  They're made from mens dress shirts (I bought one at a garage sale and one at Good Will, how thrifty is that?) and were super fun and easy to make. All you have to do to win is leave a comment (on this blog) telling me what your favorite comfort food to make and or eat is.  Let's get inspired to spend some time in the kitchen, and you may end up with a cute apron to make it even more fun! The contest will run through Monday, just leave a comment, and if you sign in as a guest (so you don't have to have account) be sure to leave your name.  Good luck!

My favorite thing to cook is soup btw, I love to chop it and drop it. To get you started cooking this is a recipe for the best bean soup ever!
Here is a picture of it on a person. Oh and that's a "new" sweater
I'm going to get a lot of wearing in.

This is the other apron it's got pin tucks.  Gertrude is getting out the tea pot, she's so thoughtful that way.



Thursday, September 15, 2011

My Annual Fair Round Up.

SuperH took this and it's pretty good! I'm in front of the local dairy stand.

I made this shirt. I like how it turned out. It's the free Sorbetto
pattern from Colette patterns. It was really easy if your looking
to learn this would be a good one to start on.
Oh, the buttons are vintage!

If you've been reading this blog for a while you know I love the fair. In fact, it's the fair that got me back into blogging after my long hiatus when Conner was born. We go every year with my parents in celebration of Hunter's birthday and it's just such a golden time.

baby cows!
Cute!
Because we never know for sure when my parents will be visiting we just go to the closest fair that is going while they're here. This year that was the Allegan County Fair. We've never been to this one and while it wasn't as clean as the Centerville Fair it was really nice and had some interesting features.  What it didn't have was a spot for classic tractors. That was really disappointing as I like to get a yearly picture of my dad and the boys in front of an Alice Chalmers.  Why have a fair with out old tractors?

Any way, they did have a section of the fair devoted to old buildings that are permanent structures there. It was like a mini Green Field Village and it was fabulous. Of course I loved it, seeing those buildings all decorated. There were two homes (one was a log cabin) a doctors office, a one room school, an old church and even an old merry-go-round the kids could play on.


The church was cool. I don't want to hear any one complaining about being uncomfortable in a modern church! This building was all about function. SuperH got up in front and we sat in the very wooden, hard pews and listened to his first sermon, which consisted of the hymn "pop goes the weasel" a prayer for an "old lady whose house burned down. Let's pray for her and give her money" and then the blessing and dismal to go eat "ice cream for a snack".  It was very moving.
This could have been our life 100 years ago.


 


This year my sister Heather also went with us and it was just so fun. And it was the first year the boys went on rides. Conster is such a serious rider! Hunter is in his element imagining something as soon as the ride goes. We ate way way too much, saw so many cute animals (Conster's favorites were the horses) fed a camel, saw great quilts and spent much needed quality time together. That's what the fair is really about; community and family.


Indeed they are loony.

Strike a pose.




This is what happens after a day at the fair (before we even got out of the parking lot).

Check back tomorrow for a chance to enter another give-a-way! 

And now, more cute animals.
He's my animal.


Gives new meaning to the species being called "hare".

"Help, my ears are so big it's trailing in the water!"

Why is this guy sitting in his water dish? So the other's can't use it?

I love donkeys so much!

This guy is definitely a rock-n-roll chicken with a british accent.