Kids Made This: Splatter Art

I wish you could have seen the concentration that went into this! Picture a child kneeling on a tall wooden chair, paper in front of her, intense concentration on her face, and a fat marker grasped firmly with both chubby fists and held high over her head...to be brought down BAM BAM BAM BAM! See? Splatter art :)

Popcorn Popping

I know, I know.  I normally don't mix the kids up into this crazy place (much) these days, but seriously how could I NOT?

In celebration of the pear, plum, and cherry trees that are bursting out all over town...enjoy the first efforts of Mimi.  She rocks my world.


Popcorn Popping from Myrnie Twin on Vimeo.

Have Scissors, Will Destroy Clothing

Ernie had a little too much with with some orange sidewalk chalk last summer (why YES it takes me a long time to start projects- why do you ask?) and orangified her very favorite "bow shirt." A pair of scissors got ride of the stained bodice and sleeves, and a bit of scrap jersey became a tube skirt, with a big 'ol pleat in the front.

It took me THREE TRIES to ge the silly skirt and shirt sewed together so that they both faced out at the same time. Thank you Aunt LoLo for finally setting me straight.

I think Ernie likes it! I'm not sold on the length (I measured her neck-knee...and then cut a skirt of that length. Yeah. And I'm in charge of raising children??) but she loves long skirts so I think we'll keep it. It's a good play dress for indoors, not great for parks. But with the number of rainy days we have, I think she'll get good use out of it!

Arrgh?

OK my lovelies- cast your vote. Pirate wench? (Booo!) Or crafty boehmian? (Yaaay!)

***Oh YES- More bathroom shots! I seriously need to get a full length mirror, so I can stop checking out my outfits by standing on the bathroom stool...or counter if I want to see my shoes. Am I the only one who does this?***

I recrafted this shirt from my husband's cast off dress shirt- cut off the bottom, trim the sleeves, cut a new neckline, with elastic in a casing. (The tutorial made the rounds last year- if anyone remembers who started this, I'll link to it!) I threw it aside in disgust as soon as it took shape, and in a leap of faith today finished hemming and elasticizing to see what would happen. So far I have 1 vote for "yes." I'm undecided...I wore it all afternoon, and none of my students/parents openly gawked at my fashion choice...but I have a secret dread that I'm ACTUALLY making a fool of myself :) Then again, it's super comfy.

You Know I Love You

When I show you this. Oh my snargled trouser socks. Will you look at that mess?

Randrom dresser, dragged home after a run with my friend. Check.
Ironing draped over multiple surfaces. Check.
Piles of to-be-remade clothing stacked everywhere. Check and check.
Stack of boxes for the recycle bin. Check.
Boxes and boxes of fabric to be sorted. Check.
Random items from the house tucked into the last "baby lock on the handle" room in the house. Oh yeah, baby.

Finally, a promise of a room to stay in when my husband's aunt comes to town. Yeah. Ummmm.....yeah. This is it!  Just kind of screams "We're so glad you're here!" doesn't it?

Fabric is sorted now. See? Cottons- prints and solids.

Ducks, denims, jerseys

All things plastic- polyester, rayon, wind-stop, fleece. Oh, and flannel too.

Boxes are recycled, trash is trashed, the dresser is moved to a proper spot...just need to stash away the boxes of things for our next garage sale, and get the ironing done.  Maybe organize my beading supplies that are slowly flowing over the entire window ledge.

Oh, and make a curtain for the doorway of that closet.  Because a storage closet is NEVER a pretty thing.  And gee- I think I have enough fabric to do it!  Heh.  (Oh yeah- there are two more filing boxes full of the BIG pieces.  Sheesh.)

"Summertime" and what happens when you put me on a stage

Lovely music lovers, another video for you!  The church show was tonight- it was great fun, I spent the day convincing myself I was a fool, a hack, a menace with no talent (per usual), and had an absolute blast.  I even moved my hands, to stave off the numbness I always get in my extremities when I perform.  It worked!  I only lost feeling in two fingers on either hand :o)

So sorry for the quality of the video- ggrrrr.  We used the larger camera, and it recorded in a format not compatible with my movie editor, and was too large to upload to Vimeo by just TWO MB.  So Youtube it is, although it's not a great file format for their system.  The sound came through alright.  If I can figure a way to edit it down by 2 MB, I'll repost.

If it WAS clearer, you'd have seen that I wore actual make up tonight.  And earrings I haven't clipped on (yes, clips- I don't have holes punched through my head.  Heh.) since my wedding day.  And Aunt LoLo, I still have your blue skirt.  I don't think you can have it back, I love it so.  My lovely, lovely mother accompanied me tonight, which I was so grateful for.  We haven't performed together in a very, very long time- I enjoyed it immensely :)

Enjoy, lovely friends.

*edit- if you can only see a portion of the picture, please click over to YouTube to view.  Also, if you change the resolution to HD/the highest setting you'll get a clearer picture (if your computer can handle streaming an HD video.  Which mine can't :)

To Infinity, and Beyond!

Gosh, I couldn't resist that title.  Well, maybe I could have.  Maybe I just didn't want to! :)

Anyway.  My friend Su made this adorable dress recently called an Infinity Dress.  Instructions can be found here on Rowena's Stitching.  In its simplest form, it's four pieces: a donut of jersey, two long strips of jersey, and a waist band.  You lay them all together, sew around the waist, and you're done.  Tempting, right?  Su added a tube top for extra coverage.  (She also cut down on the bulk of the skirt.)  The straps and skirt are as long or short as you want them.

(Photos of Su, courtesy of Vively Online.  Used with permission.)


Here's where your part comes in, o my fabulous and fashion savvy readers: Could I pull this off with a fitted tee underneath?   There are a 101 ways to wear the long ties.

I've seen girls wear fitted tees under strapless dresses, and thought it looked sweet.  But...I'm not going to prom.  I'm going to church.  And I'm not a teenager anymore.  But it would be cute, and easy to make, and fun.

So.  That's the sound of MY brain tying in knots.  What's yours saying?

I Made This: Refashioned Cardigan

First piece of "can't wear this any more" clothing bites the dust! I've had this (cotton/acrylic) fitted sweater for...a long time. A really long time. My ten-year reunion is this summer, and I wore this sweater in high school. Oh dear.

I finally had to admit that it was too short to wear with jeans, and threw it into my pile. A quick snip up the middle, hem either side, and I have my new favorite cardi. No buttons (it was fitted before, and now with the inch of hemwork in the middle, it would look atrocious pulled tight), no frills. I'm looking through my jewelry stash for an enormous gaudy brooch! I love the fitted sleeves, and that this doesn't add much bulk to my profile. A definite plus :)

Gosh. Are you just LOVING my kids' bathroom after all these shots? *gack* We have so much painting to do this summer :) This room is on our list! (And so is the light fixture. Florescent bulbs?? EXPOSED bulbs, since we took out the yellowing plastic covers. Double gack.) I do love the bright colors and the white in the tile, though. The counter is a teal formica, and there's no way we're replacing it until the kids are grown :)

Things I Want to Do

• Dance more.  I spent half an hour with my brother tonight, learning some basic salsa spins and steps.  Man, it's been a long time since I've done any real dancing.  I miss it!
• Plant my cool season vegetables- tomorrow should be sunny, I'm going to get out and clear the back garden box and fill it with kale, chard, peas, mustard greens, and beets.
• Sew more.  I want to make tops and skirts.  I want to refashion some clothes that aren't wearable anymore.  I want...you know, something that FITS.
• I want to open the Etsy shop back up with dolls.  I fell in love with the dolls I made for Christmas, and my heart melts every night when Mimi snuggles up to her baby doll to go to sleep.  I think little girls (and boys) should have dolls that look like them, no matter what they look like.

What's on your "want" list right now?

More Magic

My Magic Shirt

I have a magic shirt.

Watch this!


Not pregnant.

Pregnant*

See? It's MAGIC!!

*Backstory: Friends have complimented me on this shirt, so I wore it to a family get together recently. As I stood in the background, snapping photos, my grandmother's voice rang out and said something that stopped everyone: "Is there something you'd like to tell us, Myrnie?" Ah...no....just a big shirt, Grandma! Just a big shirt! I laughed SO HARD- I've never gotten that question before! What a funny memory :)

**With apologies to Jane Austen, "...as everyone knows, a woman with a toddler MUST be in want of a baby."

*** I saw a friend today for the first time in months. She confided she had EXPECTED to find me three months pregnant.

****I am not pregnant. Mom? NOT pregnant :)

***** If I were to BECOME pregnant this month, my two youngest would be... 27 months apart. When will I stop constantly calculating that number?

****** If we were to start TRYING this month, our youngest would be... 30-36 months apart. If history is an indicator.

******* Is pregnancy a "pre-existing" condition?

******** Did I just talk myself into our next baby?

********* Ernie told me the other day that Mimi can share her bed with her, when she's bigger. And the next baby after that can, too, when he's big enough. And when she runs out of room in her bed for all the other babies, they can sleep on her floor with pillows and sleeping bags.

Build-A-Bear

Ernie made this- she was so proud of herself! She got the kit at a friend's birthday party- Costco was selling five-packs a while back- and she finished it this week. It had been lost inside the cavernous "art cabinet" which was completely emptied and organized during a recent, 2-hour-long, forced march cleaning of the playrooms.

It was a cute kit- the bear is sewn together at the head, and two pieces from there down with holes punched along the side. The kit came with a plastic yarn needle and lots of thick floss (and of course a plush red heart to stick inside, and fiberfill.) Ernie stiched up the sides and stuffed- I came along afterwards and patched up a few loosely-stitched spots. A fun little project, and she's been inseparable from this bear. Amazing the pride in making something :)

WIP: Front Yard

Here are the "After" shots. I'd rather start with the good stuff, wouldn't you??

This is the result of...4 Saturdays of work? We had four extra hands and 3 extra wheel barrows on Saturday- we made some progress!

My civil engineer brother kept harrumphing and shaking his head and grunting "This is SO illegal. Should have a blah blah grade, and blah foot of drop for every blah feet" and all I heard is "illegal" and I SO want this project to finish! Granted, it's only going to be that steep for another few days until we get out there again on Saturday. I'm calling rock guys this week to build the retaining wall- we've gone as far towards the house as we intend to.

We'll move more to the right- there will be a change in the slope, and a partial retaining wall at the corner. I'll dig up all the daffodils and move them when the time comes- for now I'm just enjoying their blooms and grateful they're easy to move! I KNOW it's just $20 worth of bulbs, but...they're alive! And I love them! Anything that blooms in Spring is my FBF (flowery best friend.)

Ah, this is where we were before the extra help on Saturday- Wonder Daddy finished clearing out all the grass, so we could see where to dig to.

I never realized HOW MUCH dirt there was to move until I saw the cliff we made on Saturday. This little slope doesn't look so bad! :)

And yes- this is going to be gardening/landscaped veggies. Tomatoes, peppers, cool season veggies, summer squash, melons, beans...I have pumpking seeds, but knowing that a SINGLE pumpkin vine can take up 5 feet of space, SQUARED...well, I don't know that we'll be growing any pumpkins this year. Sad, because I love pumpkin bread. I love zucchini and summer squash more though, so I'm hoping those do well!

Saturday Update

My goodness, I just kind of...faded there, didn't I?  Or, are you like me these days (BUSY) and didn't really notice?

Me neither- here I am Saturday night, and I haven't said bumpkuss in days!

My grandma is sick.  My grandpa is sick.  (My dad's parents.)  They're in and out of the hospitals more than usual lately.  It's kind of been all-consuming in an always-on-the-back-of-my-mind, and updates-daily kind of way.  So pretty much always actively thinking or passively ruminating.  Grandma turns 80 tomorrow, and I found out this morning we're all invited down for a birthday party- yeah!  Depending on how things go, and where we meet, and how many people are there, we might get to see her for half an hour, or it might be all afternoon.  Since it's a 7-hour round-trip car ride with two small children on a Sunday (we'll see how my sanity is doing after 7 hours of listening to classical and Mo-Tab) I'm hoping we can have a nice visit :o)  Anyways, I could talk for miles on this subject.

I'm up to my ears in garden planning, too.  We're still busily moving our front yard to the back yard, wheelbarrow-load by wheelbarrow-load.  We made HUGE progress today, with 2 extra Strong Men helping.  (Is that Strong Men that are extra, or Men that are Extra Strong?  Yes? Both?)  Big, big thanks to Dad and my brother for helping out!  I'm pretty sure we owe you something a little more awesome than barbecued polish dogs (that YOU provided), although it WAS a tasty dinner.  Man.  Am I lucky, or what?  We're to the point in this project where the little girl in my head is yelling- I didn't mean it!  Put it all back!  Hit undo!  This will never end, this will never work!  I don't need gardening space, I can't possibly keep them alive!  But, inner hysterics notwithstanding, Wonder Daddy continually assures me that it will be great, he has a plan, and everything will be FINE.  What if the sun never shines there?  What if it all comes crashing down? What if the slugs eat EVERYTHING, and our neighbor's dog tramples the rest?  If you want to see more about what we're planting this year (and it's a BIG list) I talk about it at DIY Mama.

I heard back from the talent show gals- I'm in, with one song, with an accompanist please.  I'm excited that my mom agreed to accompany me- we haven't performed together in years.  She's a genius at reading chords and making up an accompaniment, which I'm excited about.  Most showtune accompaniment is just the melody plus chords, and it's so distracting to have the piano playing my notes!  (Especially if I decide to mess around with them.)  So we'll do "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, nice and bluesy and slow.  With everything else going on, this hasn't seemed quite the Big Deal it did back in February when I auditioned, but I'm excited and it will be fun.

I looked around the house today and realized there are a few projects we've done that I haven't shown you- oops!  Watch for updates on those :)

I cut it!

I keep waiting for a sunny day and photo-staging inspiration to strike at the same time- I received the most gorgeous, the sweetest, the nicest present in the mail. But neither has come, and I sit here like a bum not telling you guys about how wonderful it is. BUT, I'll make it up to you- until I get my sunny day and my photo-staging inspiration, you can run over here and check out my gift's twin sister. It will make you happy! And hey, if it just hops into your cart, it will make you even happier every time you look at it! (Bobbi's such a lovely artist, you really SHOULD go see what she makes for her shop!) We put ours on the piano, but Mimi was convinced it was a scarf. So now it's up a little higher. Which will work until she grows, but judging from how much the child has been eating the last few days shouldn't take long.

Speaking of growing, check out that little sprite up top! When did my baby, my first-born, become a sparkling pixie girl? She's been begging for a hair cut- (pointing to her bangs) "I want these up here "(pointing higher on her forehead) "and I want these bangs" (touching the rest of her hair) "up here" (touching her shoulders.) She wanted to be just like Kiki.

Her dream is fulfilled. Oh my goodness- I think I chopped off a bit of her soul and threw it away. The part that was serious and quiet. She's been like a rocket all day, posing, flipping her hair, shaking her head back and forth, twinkling those huge blue eyes at us and flashing half-cocked grins. She's light as a bird, and loving it. She can't wait to go to school tomorrow and show her friends. As I tucked her in tonight she said excitedly "Maybe my friends will loooove my new hair, Mom!" Maybe, sweet pea. I think they love YOU more, though.

I admit though- I found extra trash to put in the can (which, in our house, is difficult to do), just so I couldn't see her beautiful hair lying in there.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, I'm in the preliminary stages of planning our kindergarten curriculum for Ernie's first school year at home. You can see it here at my other online nook.