S ... is for sewing

And there has been a lot of it this year.  Hand sewing and machine sewing.  Now truth be told, I made a skirt during high school with help from my mom and a tree skirt during my senior year.  I sewed simple curtains for the kids rooms in our last house and made window seat cushions (I used safety pins instead of a zipper because I couldn't figure out what a zipper foot was). Recently I made my daughter's baptism dress.  This time we picked a simple pattern.  Simplicity Sewing for Dummies. This time we moved one of our big white lifetime tables in front of the TV.  We don't have cable or dish or antenna but we do watch movies.  We watched a few baby einstein videos, and then Incredibles, oh and Cinderella 3 while we worked.  We moved the ironing board downstairs too. My son had a blast playing with his slide with us nearby.

I cut out the pattern and ironed - that was it - oh and I made my own larger apron while she made her child size apron.  She did an excellent job and only had to pick out one spot.  

The rest was up to her.  She placed the pattern on the fabric and pinned it into place.  Then she cut it out and marked it. She pinned the pockets on. We added ribbon at the top of each pocket for fun.

She reinforced the tops of the pockets.

I was so nervous about her sewing. But she was really careful and did wonderfully.

I had her top stitch the ties so that they'll stay nicer looking after this thing gets washed.

I love her tiny little fingers in these photos.

Here she is learning to keep the fabric straight.  

We used D rings for easy adjustments.

Cute pockets for tiny hands!

Where the ties attach

The perfect bow and ties that ended up upright after all (on HER apron).

And here you can see the finished product. She was so pleased with it.  Daddy couldn't believe that I let her use my sewing machine and that she completed the entire project herself.  I could hardly believe that it went so smoothly.  My apron wasn't completed so easily.

I added ribbon at the top to cover up all the picking I had to do.  I got the completed apron on and guess what?! It was too wide at the top! I even chose the child size 18-20. It was a great length and the pockets were in the right place.  So I had to pick out all the ties and d-rings and cut the arm holes and re-sew almost everything.

And guess what, I sewed the lower ties on upside down!  I'm leaving them as a reminder to check the pattern on myself first before I stitch anything.  And so - here we are together with our cute aprons.

Her apron is hanging in the closet until the fair and then she can wear it. I wore mine last night while making wheat free crepes from Irresistibly Gluten Free. And I am grateful for a daughter who enjoys time with her mom.  I feel like we have really reconnected this summer - for the first time since I finished chemo.  I feel so much better and she has become such a big helped which gives us a little more time to work on projects like this one.

I've also decided when I finish my next ReneePearson.com class, I'm going to take a beginning quilting class.  I love cute fabric and I love creating simple things just for the beauty of it. So now I better finish editing my class.

Busy Sewing

These were super easy.  After going to one of my husband's client's homes (she's a grandma and doll collector) for a day of American Doll play I realized I need to make some of our own fun things to add to the collection.  So I made these blankets.  They are made from 'Fat Quarters" from Jo-Ann's.  Super easy and simple!

Here is the reversible blanket that came with the bed.

Here are the others that I made:

Stripes and swirls

Chocolate and Blue

I still have a pink one to make.  But we got caught up in making something for the fair. I'll share that soon. I hope you'll enter something in the county fair.  I think that the prizes are great.  I don't think I'm going to enter the photography contest this year.  I have a nice cross stitch I want to enter. We use the money to buy more crafty project pieces.

doctor!

okay, so my daughter stepped on a nail on Monday (thankfully we have aflac for that - need some, contact my husband). So it was off to the doctor.  My son had his well child check up on Tuesday.  I had put it off long enough and made that appointment a week or so ago.  Then my husband had a doctor's appointment but changed it to next week so that he could help me with a client who was coming over to book a wedding (we do wedding photography - see here). Then I met with the lung doctor yesterday.  He says my upper two lobes of my lungs are swollen from the radiation and it's permanent and there is nothing they can do for it.  He says that I also have reactive airways - so in other words I have allergy and exercise induced asthma.  I am now trying out an inhaler I take once in the morning and once at night.  He said that should reduce the swelling in my airways and make things better. It's the combination of the two things that makes it difficult to be active.  He also wants me to have an ECG to make sure there is not a case around my heart because of the significant amount of radiation that I received.  So that is on the same day as Tyler's appointment.  I am truly grateful for doctors and modern medicine.  I'm just not so happy when I receive the doctor bills.  I did enjoy spending the rest of the day at my parent's house and my children played so well with their cousins.

Veggies in my garden

This is the red onion going to seed.  Something knocked down and broke several of these.  I'm sad but still hoping to have enough seed for this next year.  Maybe you remember these?  That's how they start out and then they turn into this beautiful tall stalk covered with blooms.

My tomato plants have reached the tops of their cages now and there are signs that we might actually get some tomatoes this year.  I really want to freeze some garden fresh salsa - which reminds me - I need to head to the store and buy their freezer jam quart size containers for freezing salsa in.

And here is the last of my lettuce.  I need to eat more and will as soon as my throat is all healed up.

And here are the peas.  They should be nice and fat now.  Time to pick some more!

My cucumber plants.  It's taking its time growing.

I love how pretty cabbage looks in photos.

yes, here are the weeds next to the pumpkin plants.

Flowers in my garden

So right now it's one of those gardens that looks best photographed on an individual plant level.  Or in other words - it's kinda sparse.  And there are lots of weeds.  You see, every year I begin with good intensions. Those intensions are to not get sick.  Between severe allergies and some virus attacking my throat I am again behind.  Although the mulch in the front garden beds is helping tremendously, they are still sparse but they look good because of the mulch and lack of weeds.  Just close your eyes as you walk past the other garden beds on your way back to the vegetable garden.

I received this plant at church for Mother's Day.

I actually purchased this pin cushion flower.

This is the yellow columbine from my neighbor.

These are the day lily transplants from my mother in law.

Mom- these are the shasta daisy transplants you gave us.  Thanks so much!

Here they are getting watered just after dusk.  Click on it to see it larger - I love the drops of water hanging on the leaves.

Depth of field is essential when photographing your garden.  I like to photograph it just as the sun dips behind the horizon (or the mountain in my case) - the light is soft and directional. 

garlic and cabbage

Just getting ready for some stir fry.  I mixed in Garlic, Cabbage, Kohlrabi, and Green Onions from the garden. I can hardly believe the garlic turned out so great.  It probably needed another week to dry but I was too anxious to try it out in my cooking.  This is the first year I've tried to grow garlic. It was a success. (those results aren't typical for me - the first year I try something is met with a lot of mess ups and mishaps.) 

And this time the ear wigs didn't get to the cabbage before I did. It was very sweet too.  I can't wait to try it in other recipes.  Have any?

A Mid-Summer's day hike

With my husband and our two kids, my sister in law and her 5 boys, and two kid backpacks we set of for a hike in the woods to Cold Water Lake.  Uhm, here it is (about 90% of it in this picture) - it's barely big enough to be a pond but I thought this photo turned out ok.

The sides of the mountain were covered in wild geraniums and roses.  This photo was my favorite.  We were hiking at the wrong time of day for good photos so you'll just have to use your imagination.

I enjoyed holding my nephews tiny hand and helping him down the mountain side.  My son didn't want to hold my hand and fell and cut his hand.  His daddy carried him the rest of the way along with another nephew on his back in the Kelty kids pack.

wheat free chicken pot pie - a success story!

First of all, sorry about the use of flash - there is a serious lack of natural light in my kitchen.  This dish took a while to make.  It was so yummy.  So worth it. I haven't had pot pie in over 3 years. I think I can say this is an official addition to the wheat-free dinner list!

How are you staying cool?

This was so popular with the kiddos last year that they still had all of their treasures saved.  So I talked them into doing it again this summer.  It takes 4 days for 4 layers.  I even added a few coins this time around.  The neighbor boys came over and helped.  They had so much fun pretending the shells were fossils or buried treasure.  The list goes on and on.  I think if Grandma is willing to get out her super slide, I'm going to borrow the kiddy pool and dump in 10 bags of ice and time the kids to see how many ice cubes they can get out with their toes in 2 minutes.  I've been aching to try that one.  

Make sure you use old toothbrushes and it's a good idea to run them through the dishwasher first.  

And have some icy fun this summer!

Photogs: Don't forget to get a close-up of the action as well as the people.  

I like more than just vegetables

I also like my fruit.  I'm not allergic to apples, or grapes, or citrus.  So today we stopped by the apple store...

I'm going to have to add this to our Summer ABC's.

(sorry, I'm a geek, I know.  I just couldn't resist)

And ...

The kids have been saving up their birthday money & Christmas & pennies, nickels, and dimes from chores. They were so cute.  And they loved it. My son hasn't been to build a bear since he was a few weeks old, so this was a fun thing to do with him. 

Hopefully now he'll remember, "No more monkey's jumping on the bed!"