We've lost a tooth!

Not much sewing has been going on around here but there have been a lot of loose teeth! Noah finally lost his first one, and the top two are scheduled to come out next week via the dentist. We definitely could have used the Lord of Portland house around here this week!

The reason not much sewing has been occurring is that we have been out enjoying the sun and preparing for my surgery next week. I'll be having my 3rd ear surgery, and while I'm grateful for modern medicine that can correct these problems, I'm nervous about being out of commission for a couple of weeks. So, I will be offline for a couple of weeks while I recuperate, but prayers and good thoughts would be appreciated. When I come back, summer fun, reenactments, and sewing can begin in earnest! I can't wait!

Back online!

I am back online with a new laptop, thanks to a wonderful, loving husband. I have missed all your blogs and am sure I have a lot of catching up to do! Here is what has been new with us the last month or so:This is modern Spring Wardrobe piece #1. Its a double circle skirt in a cotton lawn from the same Hip Skirts pattern I used in the fall. Man, I love this pattern! Lots of versatility and very quick and easy to make. I was in a vintage mood so I bound the edges with bias binding, and added some at the top for decoration too.

We also have two new additions to our family! Meet our fish Jaune and Sol. Noah has been wanting something to be responsible for, so we decided he could try out big kid responsibilities with some fish. He is very excited and has an interest in foreign languages lately, so they ended up with French and Spanish names. They certainly brighten up our fish-themed bathroom!

I had an mid-19th century underwear weekend this month, sewing drawers for the boys and an underbody. I've never made an underbody before, but one of the tunics I plan to sew for summer is a sheer lawn, and it seemed best to have an additional layer underneath that. We'll see how that works out once it actually gets sewn (boys tunics are the next project on the sewing table).
I finished a boy's wool jacket from an original Godey's pattern just in time for our Queen Victoria's Birthday celebration. Combined with the vest and trousers already sewn of the same material, this makes up Noah's formal suit for the season.

I am also working on a yoked summer sheer (design post to come soon), we are putting together research for a historical "Ghost Tour", I have several more modern Spring pieces planned and/or cut out, and we *may* actually camp in period style for the first time this summer!!
It should be a fantastic summer of history and fun - can't wait to share it all with you!

A Linen Summer Waistcoat

We are back from vacation and I have finally scratched an unfinished object off the list!! I began researching and working on this vest last summer with this post. It has only taken a year, but by golly, I did finish the vest!! It is made of white linen with a white pima cotton lining & back but without the goat hair interlining, so it should be cool in the summer weather (assuming that summer ever arrives here to stay that is - today's high was around 70 degrees).

Next, the plan is to work on a summer tunic and short pants for Noah. I really like the look of the tunics that Sarah Jane has done in this post, and I have some reproduction lawn, so I may try a short-sleeved tunic. I have the mock-up done so we will see how far I can get this week. Next week is VBS, which should give me a good chunk of uninterrupted time to sew.

We had a great time at the lake and perfect weather, so I will have some pics up tommorrow for Wordless Wednesday. We also discovered over the course of vacation that our kids can't swim and are terrified of water, so today they completed their first swimming lesson! We finally found a private pool with very small classes and despite my stress over it, the kids did fantastic!! I'm so excited for them that they will now be able to enjoy the fun of swimming! Lack of swimming lessons has been one of my biggest "mommy regrets" over the years since we have so much water nearby. I'm glad to have the safety aspect of swimming addressed and I'm hopeful that the kids will burn off some of that endless energy in a healthy way!

Our 10 year anniversary is also this week, and I can't wait to share the memories of that day! Also, if you get a chance, please be praying for Noah this week as he undergoes allergy testing. He has so many allergies (including very high responses to dogs, which we have) and so he will be starting allergy shots. As anyone who has a 5 year old, or has been a 5 year old, knows this will be a very difficult weekly experience. However, we want him to know the joy of pets & animal companionship, and allergy shots seems like the best option to allow him this possibility.

I'm hopeful that summer weather is just around the corner, so here's to the sun!!

It's back on!

The sewing machine is back and working beautifully. I always love how my machine sews right after its been tuned. It actually was really broken this time, so I'm glad I took it in.

The weekend rain afforded me some time to finish my plaid silk bodice. I'm pretty happy with how the sleeves turned out. The top sleeve is a two piece shirred down to a fitted lining on both sides. I'm a bit crossed-eyed, but the plaid is mirror-imaged on sleeves and bodice, biased and matched (with the exception of the underarm sleeves and side seams), whew!

The bottom bell sleeves are lined with white silk (not sure exactly what type, probably chiffon or habotai, courtesy of the Sew Expo remnant table) so as to show off the eventual white undersleeves. This is my first dress using custom and/or completely drafted patterns, and wow, does it ever make a difference in the fit! The bodice is drafted with 1/2" ease, compared with 2-3" of ease in a modern garment, so it can be tricky to get a good fit with that little wiggle room!

Our Northwest winters are quite rainy, so we headed out with the kids to our local museum's family day this weekend. The kids loved the fossils, dino footprints, replica dinosaur teeth and toys!

The rowed in their very own Native American canoe, inside the local tribes exhibit (which also had a nice display of various Hudson's Bay Company beads I wished I could use for reenacting).


The museum also had a furnished 1886 classroom (our school district is one of the oldest in the state, and while I'm not certain, I believe this was an original classroom). The kids found their seats and Nate started doing his "work." The books on the shelves were many that we have in our own home for study.

There was also a "pioneer" area with half a covered wagon, a general store and a place to try on some clothes. I almost wanted to volunteer to sew them some things, but I can't even keep up with my own projects! It was a fun family morning though, and the kids had a good time.

I'm off to keep plugging away at my dress, I'm gauging with tiger tape this time, so the stitches and gauging "pleats" should be my most even yet! Hopefully, this dress will be finished soon!

True love looks like...an igloo!

Why else would a full grown man stay up until 3:30am building a marshmallow igloo so a 5-year-old can learn the concept "I says ih" in a hands-on way? I love my hubby :).

Paperback swap

I'm still working on my technical kinks (see what comes of frugality and not upgrading your computer!) so I thought I'd share a site I discovered this past week: Paperback swap. If you are a bibliovore like me, this website is the best thing since sliced bread! You can upload gently read books you no longer need simply by typing in the ISBN# (can we say Twilight anyone?), and then when requested, mail them to another member and get credits for books you want to purchase. Other than the cost of shipping, which is just media mail, it is free!! You can also buy additional book credits if you get caught up in all the wonderful book offerings online for less than the cost of shipping at Amazon or Bookfinder. It is used book selling/trading at its best! Economical and fantastic for the environment!

Amazon also has a great sale right now on Live Butterfly Gardens, which include a coupon for the caterpillars, and since I mentioned them in a previous post, I thought I'd better let you all know! We will probably wait for next Spring to get our caterpillars because I'd like to let the butterflies go in our backyard after they change (metaphorphize? - I'm so not a science girl :). They might even be good for our garden!

Speaking of gardening...I've gotten very inspired by those of you who grow your own vegetables, so we are thinking of trying it out next year since I've managed to keep the herbs alive this long :). If you had only minimal space - say 6-10 feet for a garden, what would be your choices for home grown veggies?

I'd best be off, I'm stealing time as it is from birthday party preparations for Mr. Noah who is turning 5, and I'm needing to make dirt and worm cupcakes for a bunch of little boys and a girl. We're also prepping for a couple of big reenactments events at the end of next week -including a 1859 celebration of faith for Oregon's 150th anniversary. Pictures to follow soon - I hope! Have a great weekend!

Don't let my silence fool you...

...we are having technical issues. As in all of our SD cards (and maybe the card reader) have gone out so uploading photos is a real challenge as of late. Add to that a nasty case of croup and some bad colds and we are just feeling under the weather around here. Hope to be back up and blogging soon!

Whirlwind week

Oh my goodness! This week has completely gotten away from me!

We went to our homeschool convention and wound up with loads of books. I ordered a science program from Sonlight so we will get to mess around with experiments and read about bugs, botany and physics next year. (I think we might order caterpillars and watch them hatch into butterflies!) I also ordered RightStart Math. This is a very light, hands-on math program that uses mostly manipulatives and games. I don't want to push the reading thing, so while we are doing tons of reading aloud, we won't be doing any "official" reading teaching. Noah shows no interest and is still really young, so I just want him to have fun learning without a lot of pressure.

Friday night our church rented out the movie theatre, so we saw Disney-Pixar's UP in digital 3-D. Noah was less than enthusiastic (what did I really expect from a kid who tells me normal life is "too real"?) and spent the whole time sitting by the exit. Nate, on the other hand, put on the 3-d glasses and said "I like it." Two minutes later, he shouted "I LOVE it!" in the silent movie theatre :). It was a cute movie and a fun family time.

Saturday brought our Big Huzzah at the Fort and we had a blast with the new camera. I'm still sorting through all the pictures but they will follow soon! Hubby actually said he was really glad we had gotten into reenacting because we have been spending more time together just being a family and helped him to feel closer to us after being gone so much at work. That comment made my day! I will bring him around yet! (We've started researching a new impression for next year and he is super excited about it!)

Saturday night we had tickets for the Broadway tour of the musical RENT in Seattle, and it was amazing! The two male leads of Roger and Mark were the original Broadway cast members and had some of the most incredible male vocals I've ever heard in a show. Everyone in the cast put on a fantastic show and I don't think you could have seen a better performance west of NYC.

We spent Father's day celebrating with my in-laws, although my poor father-in-law had to run between the lightening strikes to the BBQ! Everyone was safe and we had a good time, but it was some pretty crazy weather! The thunderstorms rolled in out of nowhere from a perfectly sunny & warm day, and you could see the sailboats down on the Sound scrambling for cover!

This week is Sports camp for Noah, and after one day, he has already declared that he would like to play soccer (which will probably change tomorrow when they play basketball :). For now, we are catching up after the events of the past week, and learning to work our new camera, so keep an eye out for photos soon. Hope you all are enjoying the early days of summer!

Older Boy's Linen jacket

Here is the older boy's version of a linen jacket, completed at last! The pattern is an original from Godey's Ladies Book and the trim is based off a fashion plate in a private collection. The jacket is bag lined with polished cotton, although I learned post-project that a summer jacket should be unlined. Fortunately, it doesn't get really hot here, so even with the extra layer, it should still be comfortable. I'm finishing up the pants as well, so the boy's suits will make an appearance at our Big Huzzah event this month.

Did I mention there is nothing more amazing than a strong man who is also a loving father? Summer time means lots of family time and I so love my boys! All three of them!

A breath of fresh air...

Well, dear blogland, I will be leaving you for a bit. I'm off to a 19th century sewing conference this weekend and from there to a much needed Spring vacation. I'm so excited to spend some focused time learning sewing techniques, and some quality time with family. I'll be back with you the first full week in April to share what I've learned, our adventures and to join you all in admiring your new projects. Happy Spring Break!

Vintage Lace

I meant to post these earlier, but the kiddos have caught a stomach flu this week. I am taking a breath of fresh air and thinking about lace! I found some lovely vintage lace at the Sew Expo last weekend.

My favorite is this beautiful tulle lace we found at an antique shop booth from Steilacoom. I had to fight Nona for it, but she got the last of the tulle lace from the Cotton Lace vendor, so all is fair in love and lace, right ;)?

There were some fun wagon-wheel lace strips that I am dying to try inserting into a petticoat with some tucks...

And some pretty edgings for the mounds of drawers and chemises I have yet to tackle!

I normally am not a huge fan of flowery laces, but this simple, pretty little lace made me feel so girly and may end up on some of my creations as well, depending on my whim!

Outside of sewing (which lately has been my creative outlet and stress relief), our family seems to be feeling squeezed. There is a tendency to focus on the best parts of life on blogs, but reality sometimes intrudes. Hubby has been working ridiculous overtime hours due to state budget cuts in other areas of social services. This places a maxiumum responsibility for everything else on me. In addition, the local community college system has cut all funding for the kids preschool and our parent education program, which was one of the primary places I went to take parenting classes and get support. Our church has had to lay-off pastors and other staff as well. So much of our community is affected, and we both feel like we are being asked to give or do so much more on less resources (which I'm sure is a familiar situation for many).

If any good is coming of all this meltdown, it is that we are having to clarify our family values. We plan to talk this weekend and set out "A Mission Statement" of sorts for our family. Because as much as I would like to help out every organization that needs volunteers as they lay off paid staff, it won't amount to much if our family goes down the drain while I am busy saving our community. I would love to hear from some of you as well. Have you been impacted by budget cuts in your communities? How have you personally adjusted to the "new reality" of the economy? Any input would be welcome as our family makes some difficult decisions in these next few weeks!

For now...

I'm sorry it has been so quiet around here lately. To be honest we have been having a lot of parenting and behavioral difficulties with our 4 year old. If you could keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we would appreciate it.

I will still be posting sewing and creative updates as I can, although I have really had to minimize sewing time because so much energy is being put into parenting right now. Keeping up with it all is getting kind of overwhelming. Hopefully, this is just a phase and life will return to a new normal soon. For now it is time to put family first!

The Post-Christmas letdown

I don't know what it is about the after Christmas letdown, but we are definitely fighting it around here. Holidays are lovely because they break the routine and let us have more family time together, but today there is something in the air that lets us know this time is coming to a close and everyone is feeling tense.

I've heard you are supposed to do "Spring Cleaning" but around here we always do it in January to spruce up the house during the dark winter months and make it feel new again after we take down the Christmas decorations.

Our major project for the weekend besides all the cleaning and painting, was this bookshelf for the kids. We got the idea from Jim Trelease's Read Aloud Handbook, which incidentally, is one of my favorite parenting/educational books of all time. Not only does it present all the research on reading and child brain development, it also includes a fabulous "treasury" of the best read-aloud book titles for your child at any age. The shelves are just plastic rain gutters with end caps, bracketed to the studs in the wall with gutter clips. A relatively easy and inexpensive project!

Take that winter blahs! Now, there will be reading and good books! Lots and lots of books!

Christmas Cookies and the Wonder of String

If you don't hear from me for a bit, I'm probably under a pile of flour! There are so many upcoming holiday preparations - gifts to make and wrap and cookies to bake!

We spent a lovely morning baking cookies with a dear friend and her son. It was her first time ever baking Christmas cookies so it was a lot of fun to share the tradition and the results are delicious!

And in this season of appreciating all that we have, it appears that I have seriously underestimated the value of string. This may be because I have lost some of the joy of childhood, but thanks to a 4 year old, I am relearning that a bundle of string is an unending source of amusement.

Our humble ball of string has alternately become spagetti, a fish net, a headress for a superhero, a worm, and the starting line for races between trains and racecars. I am just waiting for him to discover that he can use it tie up his brother :)!

Wishing you joy with all the simple pleasures in your life!

Christmas Event

We held our annual 19th Century Christmas event at the Fort this weekend and the good news is that it went well. The bad news is that it went so well I was swamped with hundreds of school children and didn't get a chance to take any pictures. Our cornucopia craft was a big hit though and we actually ran out of supplies because we had so many guests! Hopefully lots of children will take away the experience that history can be active and fun!

We also got our tree up today amidst two very excited little boys who refused to take naps because they were so overwhelmed! So I'll sign off now because I'm pretty worn out! Hope you are enjoying the joys of the season!

The Romance of Haypenny Bridge

Today is the 9th Anniversary of the day I got engaged!! We like to celebrate it around here, because it really is the most romantic story!

The story begins when I was studying abroad in Oxford, England and Crusoe was scheming to ask me to marry him. I had mentioned in the past that I wanted to get engaged on a footbridge because that's how Gilbert proposed to Anne in Anne of Avonlea, which is my favorite movie of all time, but I didn't think he would remember.

Bless his heart, Crusoe called all over Oxford looking for a footbridge and he couldn't find any in town. He was coming to visit me and we planned to go to Ireland and then see some sights back in England. I didn't realize it, but there is a famous footbridge, Haypenny Bridge, in the center of Dublin.

Haypenny Bridge also has a fantastic historic past. The bridge opened in 1816 and the toll to cross was a half-penny or haypenny. The walk on the opposite side was called "Bachelor's walk" where Bachelors would have to leave their sweethearts and walk home after taking a romantic stroll across the bridge together.

On this famous bridge, dressed for a fancy 4 -star dinner, in the center of bustling Dublin, my Beloved dropped on bended knee and asked me to be his wife. I was shocked and shaking, but I mumbled something eloquent like "Of course!" Crusoe was so nervous he was afraid he would drop the ring in the river Liffy, but somehow he managed to get it on my finger!

We took our own romantic stroll to the restaurant, where we were gifted with champagne by the owner. The ring sparkled in all the Christmas lights at our table and around town (remember this is Ireland, so no Thanksgiving to celebrate first). It was the best and most magical time of year to be engaged and in love!

We spent the next day touring the monastic ruins of Glendelough and strolling through the sleepy country walks and woolen mills of the Irish countryside all the while knowing we would come home to plan a wedding and begin the rest of our lives together!

Our engagement and time in Ireland was one of the most romantic journeys of my life! I can't wait to take our children there someday and show them where Daddy asked Mommy to marry him. I'm so excited for our date night tonight where we can remember the shared joys of our youth and look forward to the dreams of our future!!

Nate's 2!!

This post has been much delayed, seeing as his birthday was a week ago, but my baby is 2!! This was most definitely a train birthday. Nate quickly got the hang of opening gifts:

It was so cute to see his little face and his excitement that the celebration was for him! Nate loved his Elmo Live from Nana Banana and Grandpa:

I don't think he could get over that it sings and tell stories! You can tell from his face that he is enthralled!

Both boys were excited to open the Geo Trax train set that has now become a permanent Living Room fixture and they are continually busy concocting scenarios where the train breaks down on the bridge and the pilot has to come rescue it with the plane. (For those who don't know, Geo Trax includes little figures and has realistic features like beds in the sleeper car, seats in the passenger cars, etc.) Their little imaginations are so wondrous!

Then we were off to the train show as a family to explore the fantastic set-ups of model train enthusiasts!

The Lego and Playmobile train scenes were an especially big hit:

That evening we celebrated with Nana and Papa and Great Grandma. I was inspired to bake this fantastic dark chocolate cake for the occasion and it was incredible! Definitely adding that to the recipe repertoire!

I'd say from the happy, messy face that the cake also passed the Nathan test!

I love you Natey and I'm so blessed to have you in my life! I'm so happy for you that you are 2!! I can't wait to see the boy that you will grow to be and I am praying great things for your life!!

I'm alive I promise!

I really am okay! I've had a hard time shaking this cold and now I'm behind on everything, so hopefully I will be able to post more in the next few days when I get caught up.

Most of my current dilemma centers on trying to find an indoor gym or someplace for the boys to run around in a town with yards the size of postage stamps. The rambunctiousness is entirely too much for our little house. I'm looking into several options, all of which seem to cost $$$. For those of you who have raised active little boys in rainy climates and found good solutions, I'm all ears!

Kids and the Election

Kids + Elections = Funny results!

The election "game" of the states turning red or blue was immediately embraced in our house as the best part of the TV coverage. Blue was decided upon as the preferred color (irrespective of any political relevance) and much rooting and cheering occurred whenever a state turned blue on the large TV maps.

According to the (nearly) 2 year old, the candidates were "Bama" and "Cain." These were shouted with glee whenever either man's picture appeared on the screen. (which, I might add, happened A LOT throughout the evening :)

And the number one comment of the night, was when the 4 year old announced we had just elected Optimus Prime, transformer, as the next leader of the Free World!

But on more serious note, political policies aside, no one could fail to miss the emotion and significance of this historic moment.

The reality of an African American family entering a White House on steps built by slave labor is an image too powerful for any student of history to ignore. Symbolically, we are finally freed from the haunting legacy of slavery. Thank God Almighty! We are free at last!

And in this one way, I am both humbled and proud to be an American tonight. God Bless America!

Celebrations galore!

Sunday is a day of rest in our house and boy are we grateful for that rest this week! After 4 birthday, Halloween, and Harvest party celebrations this week, we need a break! Because I just can't resist, here are some photos of the boys in their costumes this week.

Noah and his friends were adorable as various superheroes at the Moms Club party. They are at that cute age where they all think they actually become the superhero when they put on the costume. Noah specifically asked me why he couldn't fly like Ironman. I mumbled something about not having a jet pack as I tried to control my laughter. The kids all ended up trying to fight like their superheroes too and the action noises were pretty hysterical.

I decided not to dress up for the church Harvest party and I regretted it when we arrived because many of the adults were in costume this year. This gave me the great idea to try the Sense and Sensibility e-patterns for next Halloween. I have always wanted to try a Regency pattern, but I have never had anywhere to wear them, so maybe if I get my act together, I can have a great costume next year! Of course, I will need lots of help from you Regency experts on the correct fabrics and such.

So, right about now I am pretty tuckered out from all the celebrating, and it appears that Nate felt the same way, since he fell asleep on the way home from one of the parties. Hope you had a Happy Halloween, Harvest, or whatever you celebrate! Here's to the beginning of a fantastic holiday season!