my pink life, mi vida rosada

Well. It's been a rough transition back into the work-world. And so I'm transitioning back out. Due to a combination of factors, the most significant of which was my family needing more of me than I'm currently able to give while simultaneously meeting work obligations, I have chosen to remove the work obligations from the table.  My family needs me most.  I'm not exactly sure what the near future will look like, though I imagine it will be a little bit like last year: I'm eager for serious advancement on a variety of projects currently awaiting time and brain-space, plenty of trips to the park with my children, and much less stress. I'm anticipating cooking vegetables again and going to the grocery store and walking into Target every once in a while instead of only being able to squeeze in the drive-up. I'm planning to sit with my sister and her new baby (soon to be born!) in the new year. I'm dreaming about some time consuming house proje...

My girls are in a wedding in a couple more weeks.  They are super excited, and personally, I think they will be the CUTEST flower girls in all the land.  My oldest has plenty of experience -- this will be her fourth time to be a flower girl (but probably the first time she is old enough to remember it!).  Miss middle was an honorary flower girl when she was 6th months old....but I'm not sure that counts. So way back in the spring, when the lovely couple got engaged, I volunteered to make the dresses for my girls. And then I put it up on my "to do" board. And chose to do other things off the list. I didn't want them (mostly miss Middle) to outgrow their dresses before the wedding.  (She grows faster than her big sister, Peanut, of course.) So towards the beginning of October, once it was established that I was not making any Halloween costumes, I began working on the dresses.  Here and there, a tiny bit cut or sewn or thought through....bits of progress...

Y'all.  Back to school is no joke. It is kicking my tail to keep up with an elementary school teaching schedule with an elementary school non-existent planning schedule. I'm trying to remind myself to get off the technology, up and moving, doing something, anything!, to feel like I am still moving forward with house care, laundry, being a decent mom, and taking care of myself.  My husband has been very encouraging through this time of transition.  I'm really hoping that it will feel less like a transition soon -- it still feels terribly difficult to walk out the door first in the morning and often return home last each day, and to want to be providing the childcare but relying on someone else to do it, and to want to be the one finding the deals at the grocery store and cooking for the family, but not physically be able to be that person right now.  And it is hard, too, because going back to work, and in this capacity, was sort of a choice -- sort of not. ...

Well, my season of getting it done seems to be drawing to a close, since school is back in session and kicking my rear. Fortunately, I managed a couple more successes (and a couple misses) before heading back into the chaos that is the most disorganized school I have ever worked in with the most stressful start up due to said disorganization.  So...I made a washi dress for myself, and then decided that I should try a few more clothing items, too.  My public library has a subscription to creativebug, so I decided that I should try another Rae Hoekstra pattern.  I made myself a lovely polka dot chambray Cleo skirt.  Next time I will make the pockets deeper, but overall -- I love it.  And it goes with lots of things already in my closet, which is fantastic. I had *just* enough fabric left over to hack a skirt for each of my girls, by attaching theirs to a pair of stretchy shorts they already owned.  And yes, we wore them together the next day and matched. ...

I did it!  Just in time for our trip!  I made myself a washi dress !  I had my eye on this dress pattern for a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time.  When it was first published several years ago, I didn't think I had the skills.  And honestly, back then, I might not have had the skills necessary.  Also, when it was first published, I didn't think I had the time.  (Ha!  I had comparatively all the time in the world!)  And when it was first published, I definitely didn't have the commitment or follow-through to get a project like this accomplished. So I made the two test versions as wearable muslins -- a shirt and a dress, both out of an old sheet formerly used to cover one of the yellow chairs that is now grey. (Ok, one chair is grey, the other is about halfway there.)  Both indicated a tiny bit more tweaking of the pattern to fit me the exact right way was necessary....I tried a size smaller, since I still had a lot of gaping at the neckline, but th...

Well, here we are, nearing the end of July... The "done" list is getting longer, ever so slowly.  With sweet hubby out of town and a Peanut who doesn't nap, there is little time for accomplishing tasks. I've had a few really fun (and helpful!) visitors, too, but can't accomplish much (other than spending time with them, of course!) when they are here.  So, without further ado, I've finished: 1. a pair of garnet gingham geranium dresses, for Peanut and Miss Middle 2. a "now and later" baby gift: two burp cloths and a size 18 month baby bubble 3. Embroidery of a baby's name on a quilt for a baby gift (for someone else to gift) 4. New bloomers (monogrammed) for Miss Middle 5. (finally!) hemmed the white dress into a white shirt; added a new front bodice 6. Attached the inner seat back to the grey chair, and 10 of 13 buttons, too 7. Monogrammed a set of towels for a wedding gift (and the wedding isn't until November -- I feel...

Summer. Spending lots of time with the munchkins. Super slow progress on the creating.  But yes, progress. My plans to get all the things done last week in my few precious hours of alone time at the house were met with small obstacles....some overcome, some thwarted. I successfully embroidered Miss Middle's name on her new lunchbox. I also finished making her a sweet little dress, using up a piece of double gauze leftover from making the "baby" swaddle blankets before he was born.  Again, thanks to my sister for the assist with button holes, since my machine won't do them. And today I finished up a nap mat for the "baby," since he will be heading to day care in the fall.  For both the dress and the nap mat, I was able to use fabrics (and notions!) that have been in my stash.  It doesn't stop feeling satisfying to use up things that have been sitting around waiting to be used.  For the dress, of course, it was the leftover gauze, combined wi...

It's a lot of stop and start around here....fits and bursts, and not a lot of anything complete. It's also one of my two weeks this summer where I have a few mornings to myself with no one else in my house!!!  This is, perhaps, more exciting to me than it should be. Sweet hubby is making progress in his recovery from the acute back pain associated with his degenerated disc.  He continues to attend physical therapy and to do all sorts of recommended stretched throughout the day.  He and our two oldest are participating in VBS this week, and the "baby" is attending "camp" at his nursery school....and I am trying to make progress on the get-it-done list. I will have a total of three mornings to myself this week.  Each morning is approximately 2.5 hours long. It's not a lot of time. But it is SOME time, and that is more than I usually have. So today, I finished hemming the re-make of the white dress.  It's not perfect, I'm not sure I'll w...

So, not too much to report, since the last getting it done update was only two days ago.... But I've got two new baby bubbles for my "baby".  He might be getting big, but until he can really talk....I'm going to pretend.  And the best way to pretend is to dress him like he's a baby, in a summer bubble. So I put together a quick pattern by tracing a bubble that was already in his closet.  As I worked on the first one, I jotted down measurements for elastics, straps, and the order of steps.  The first one took me about 4.5 hours; the second only took 3.  Clearly I'm not the quickest maker -- but that's ok, since I'm still getting it done, and I'm still satisfied with the results. Both of these bubbles were also satisfying (as was the elephant dress ) because they used up a few things from my stash.  I bought zero supplies specifically for these projects -- I just used things I already had on hand -- making these "free." The f...

Well, I've set aside one project that grew beyond what I had originally planned (cutting a dress shorter, hemming it as a tank top somehow turned into taking the dress apart and remaking it, but longer, and also reclaiming most of the original dress fabric as a tank).  Hopefully by the time I tackle a few more of the pending projects on the project board, I will have a better idea of how to proceed, whether that is re-assembling the parts I already deconstructed or proceeding with the plan to remake the dress, but longer, and also some kind of top, or just remake the dress, and re-claim the original dress fabric for something different. In the meantime, sweet hubby, now about 85% recuperated from his recent back pain episode, allowed me ample time in the sewing room over the past few days.  I completed a set of towels for a wedding gift (I added the monogram). I added some embellishment to Miss Middle's pinafore.  She received this as a hand-me-down from a family...

The frog quilt is done!  It's done!  It really is! I am so happy that I decided to go ahead and send it off to the friend-of-a-friend long-arm-quilter.  My skill level is nowhere near capable of quilting these lovely, free-hand, loopy all-over flowers. In fact, my skill level would have made for some very messy stitch-in-the-ditch trying to follow the diagonal lines of the quilt top -- nothing near as beautiful as what this long-arm expert came up with.  I was not originally planning to put this quilt on my own bed.  In fact, I believe that some 15 or 17 years ago, when this quilt was first started, that perhaps I promised it to my mom as a gift?  But of course, that didn't materialize back then....and as uncertain as I am that it is to my own taste, I am even more certain that it isn't to her taste (other than the fact that I made it -- she is so lovely a mom that she would oooh and aaaahhh just to make me feel good about it, even if she didn't r...

So sweet hubby is still mostly in bed. The kids are mostly out of school. My house is mostly a disastrous mess. The loaner washer-dryer will be ours forever, so very soon (this evening, I suspect) I will start to put the laundry room back together again. And once all the laundry room stuff is back in the laundry room, I'll start to clean up/out the kitchen and dining room. And once the dining room table is cleared off, I will finally wash the table cloth from valentines day. And then the rest of the bed sheets. And then, of course, more clothes. Peanut has her last (half) day of school on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to the kids not waking up quite so early, although I think it will be hard to maintain early early bedtimes if they aren't waking up as early every morning. Sweet hubby finally has a diagnosis for his mysterious and sporadic back pain -- a degenerated disc.  We learned on Friday that he can "look forward" to unpredictable, intermittent...

It's been a series of mishaps over here, and all of them are putting me into a funk. The two littlest children in my family finished nursery school on Thursday the 16th.  I climbed in bed early that night, exhausted from all the fun and festivities of the last day and last swimming lessons.  Sweet hubby had gone out to see his former students perform in their school concert.  The phone rang -- unusual in these days of texting -- and my dad informed me that sweet hubby needed to go to the hospital in an ambulance for back spasms. Therefore, I needed to go to the hospital.  My dad (the best!) came over to stay in my quiet house with my sleeping babies while I accompanied sweet hubby at the hospital.  The medicine they gave him did not ease his pain.  The x-rays did not show anything.  The CT scan did not show anything.  The extra medicine did not seem to provide any relief. Finally we left, anyway, and got home at 3:00 in the morning. On the "ni...

Well.  Yesterday was an interesting day. The dryer broke (it's shooting sparks!) (but it didn't start a fire!), so we'll be replacing the washer/dryer combo. Delivery estimate is 8 days.  Good thing we have a clothesline outside!  And, does this give me a reasonable excuse for not keeping up with the laundry over the next week?  I believe so.  Also, Miss Middle has decided to act like she is four.  Not in a good way.  She is getting in to all sorts of stuff that she would have left alone before, and blaming her pretend daughter (Kelsin -- no idea where she got the name), and trying to skip her nap.  It is no good. (She will be four this summer, but I was not really mentally ready for this!) And then we went to a graduation party for some family friends, and as I parked the car, I totally busted a tire.  The whole thing will have to be replaced.  One hundred percent my fault. I have the best husband.  He didn't fuss at me (be...

So.  I submitted my contract to teach in the 2019-20 school year.  I have mixed feelings about it. I'm a good teacher. I know a lot. I like to do things well. I am kind and compassionate. I have a lot that I can offer the kids in my classroom. Teaching is not a well paid profession.  It requires long hours (sure, the contract says 7:30-3:30, and then it adds this lovely little catch-all of "and other duties as assigned" that really means work all the hours, all the time, even when you are supposed to be on a day off or you are sick or whatever, and come early to keep kids safe at school and stay late to plan for tomorrow and stay for this special event and this meeting and all of these extras that oh wait hey you thought we were paying you for teaching? We really meant come spend your whole life here at the school working!) and has high demands (be a counselor! be a professional! turn in all these forms!  go to all these extra meetings!  prove that your st...

Few projects to report, as spring has sprung and the busy season known as the month of May is upon us. I'm counting down the few days I have left with child care (8.5) and trying to squeeze in as many errands and projects as possible.  However, I'm only capable of so much, and there are only so many staples I can pull out of a chair at a time.... So yes, I've started in on de-construction of yellow chair number two. I'm trying to pull a few staples every chance I get, because my wrist strength is not such that I can sit and pull staples for more than about 10 minutes at a time. Here's what I've been getting done, this time: 1. Beginning de-construction of yellow chair number 2 2. Embroidery (design from Urban Threads ) on my round casserole dish cover 3. Two more monogrammed pillowcases, to complete the sheet set 4. Rally signs for the teacher's protest on May 1, in favor of fully funding education. (The one in Spanish says, "Our students de...

So....I keep making progress on getting the frog quilt ready to go to the long-arm-quilter, and I keep coming back to this question, "Is it worth it?" Is it worth it to pay two cents per square inch to quilt this giant (queen sized) quilt?  This giant quilt that I wouldn't have picked out in the store to buy?  This giant quilt that doesn't go with the decor in any of our bedrooms?  This giant quilt that is so ruffly around the middle and the edges that I'm not sure it can even be quilted nicely, even by a professional on a long-arm machine?  It is worth it to spend all this time adding (ruffly, unfortunately) borders?  It is worth it to put together a backing?  Is it worth it to have the pillow sham sizes quilted to match the rest of the quilt top?  I am inching closer and closer to calling this project "finished" -- but I still don't have an answer.  I finished up (what I am capable of finishing) the backing, have pressed the pillow sham tops...

I'm back from a fantastic trip to Bangladesh, where I witnessed the everyday life my friend has been living for the past year and a half.  I had the pleasure of celebrating Bengali new year with my friend and her family.  I visited the kids' school, went to church with my friend, met her coworkers, ate at the cafes and restaurants she likes to eat at, and so on....it was truly a vacation for me, being away from the responsibilities of taking care of my own family, and an adventure, since I do not speak Bangla. Since my return, the things I have been getting done have mostly been mundane, and less craft-project oriented, although I intend to get back to the crafting/sewing/completing in earnest tomorrow. But I have been getting the terribly boring-but-necessary tasks taken care of, slowly slowly slowly, over the past couple of days: 1. sorting through the Easter debris/treasure and re-locating it to a more functional location, i.e. putting the candy where we keep all oth...

I'm getting ready to travel, and it is exciting! I'm headed to Bangladesh, to visit one of my best friends, and I'm leaving behind sweet hubby and all three munchkins. I'm totally unprepared, and it will all be fine. I spent a fair amount of time this past week working on a quilt top that I started probably 15 years ago -- I no longer own the book I got the pattern and directions out of; I stopped it at an awkward size but think I had originally intended to make it a full/queen size.... So I bought some coordinating fabric and added some borders.  The final dimensions are about 93"x100" and I'm convinced that there is no way I can wrestle it through my sewing machine with batting and backing and have anything close to a decent looking final result, so I'm very strongly considering sending it out for long arm quilting.  The trouble is, I don't think I would buy this quilt if I saw it in a store....I liked it when I started it, but it is entirel...

The first of the two chairs is finished!!! It was a sort of long process, but it feels very rewarding to be sitting on the chair as I type this.  I'm going to take a few days off of being productive on making things/finishing things/working through the UFOs from many years ago in order to prepare for a trip to Bangladesh and summerizing my kids' wardrobes (it's hot here, y'all, and they keep insisting that they want to wear shorts already) and getting the Easter baskets ready....But I have identified a quilt top I put together many years ago and the backing fabric that I purchased way back when as my next non-chair big project.  I'm also planning to start on yellow chair number 2 when I return from my trip. So, here we are, a before and an after: Anyone who works in upholstery can probably immediately spot a few things that aren't exactly right in my re-making of the chair, but most of the people who visit my house are not upholstery experts and will...

Part 10!!! I feel like part 10 should merit a celebration -- here we are at the end of March, and I am actually still sticking to my resolution to get things done! Yes, some weeks have been more productive than others.  Yes, I still have to constantly remind myself of the "rules" and to put the phone down....but overall, I know I am accomplishing a lot more in my project room, and I'm feeling really good about being able to continue to make progress, even after the kids are out of school for the summer and I go back to work in the fall. Will the progress slow down?  Of course.  But the backlog is getting cleared out, and the new projects will hopefully be fun, inspired, and timely (or time sensitive!) -- to keep me progressing. So, part 10: 1. More mending.  I believe as soon as I clear out the mending pile, the clothes and the things conspire to make this a never-ending process. I mended the "Anna" dress, a play silk, the dining room rug, and the hem of...

The first of the two yellow chairs is in progress.  It is going more slowly than I had hoped, mostly due to my husband and I taking turns being out of the house at night (book club!  supper club!  mom's night out!  guys night away!  choir practice and yoga class! and on and on and on!) and also him suffering from ALL THE POLLEN and wanting to go to bed very early most nights.... So we have stapled a few parts, but not as many as need to be stapled, and I have sewn all the parts I can sew (on the first chair -- though they are identical, I don't want to start the second chair until I have finished the first, so I can see what I need to cut out/sew differently the second time around). I am currently feeling discouraged about covering the buttons for the tufting of this chair....Should you happen to have a favorite trick for using a thick fabric (upholstery velvet!) with the buttons you can cover yourself, I would love to know what you do to be successful....