KCWC - Day 1

Happy Kid's Clothes Week Challenge everyone! You'd think that since I jumped the gun by a week (I was fully convinced that KCWC started last Monday) that I'd have gotten a head start. No dice. The flickr group is already filling up with amazing things, but all I have is washed, dried and folded piles of fabric. Mountains, really, and such wonderful mountains they are.My project list might be a bit ambitious, as evidenced by the magnitude of my fabric piles. I'm so excited though, so why not shoot for the moon?

Moomin Mail

My cousins Annie, Erik and Kimberley in Norway are easily some of my favorite people. There are few people on this great earth that I'd rather spend time with and I miss them like crazy. I've been thinking (and talking) about them so much these past 2 weeks. I've been telling Beckett stories of when we were kids, and using some supplies that Kimberley gave me and just generally feeling so lucky to have them in the world. Sappy, I know, but I can't help myself.So yesterday, out of the blue came this package. It was from Annie, her husband and her 2 boys (who are the same age as mine!) and it was filled with Moomin goodies. It's so sweet and so well timed I can hardly stand it! It made my day, and the boys' too.

Hitting the Ground...er... Walking

While I did do some pattern drafting and cutting today, piles of pencil smudged dot paper don't make for the most charming KCWC photos. So here's this, which counts for the "kid's clothes" bit - but is from last friday - so misses the "week challenge" bit.A couple Christmases back, I took an original Beckett drawing and screen printed it onto t- shirts. These shirts are still pretty popular 'round these parts, but B's drawing style has become so incredibly expressive - such character and imagination - that for Tall, Dark and Husbandy's birthday I figured it was time for a B sketch tee redux.I used the drawing fluid method to prepare the stencil. It's not the most sophisticated way to screen print, but it's fantastic for children's drawings. I printed 2 grown up sized sweatshirts, a kid sized t shirt and a baby long sleeved tee. Then my parent's caught wind and quickly tossed another few shirts into the mix. Preparing the stencil took about an hour,then I left it to dry overnight. The printing took 30 minutes or so. Perfect. Quick, simple, perfect.

***I'm an idiot. I totally thought KCWC started today. Oops! It's next week! I guess I got a little head start on my pattern making, huh?***

Hello Fall!

Last Spring my rain boots tore in some secret place in the seam, creating a one way valve whereby water sloshed in with every step, yet never sloshed out again. Here I am, many months later still without a pair of boots. So yesterday, when Fall flipped a switch and breezy warm became deluge, I rolled up to preschool in a rain coat and my saltwater sandals. Pathetic.

I had been saying to Tall, Dark and Husbandy that duck shoes might suit my purposes better, but where to find them for less than $80? So, while I stood at preschool in my saltwaters, in walked the new, fashionable mom at school sporting duck shoes. She said Marshall's. So to Marshall's I went. They're Sperry Top-sider brand, awesomely comfortable, and were on sale for $25. If you're looking for duck shoes - hit up Marshall'sSince Fall seems here in earnest we've been listening to a lot of this. An homage of sorts, I guess. Thanks for the great Summer, sunshine. Now onto leaves and sweaters, cinnamon and acorns. And, of course, Halloween!

Gnome Sweet Gnome

Preschool started yesterday. I've been looking forward to settling into a cozier Fall routine, to earlier bedtimes, and indoor play. And of course I've been looking forward to the preschool hours off. Time for work and reading and sewing, and even posting a few completed projects that I haven't shared with you all yet. Well, yesterday was the big day, so here's one of those yet unposted works.It's a gnome hat! Sorry for the lame picture quality, but even blurry this was way cuter than any photo of Old Helen (or old me - even without a head Helen is a better hat model than I am! Ha!)

I made it from this great pattern, available for sale on Ravelry. I made in a weekend, but a faster (and less distracted) knitter could probably bust one out in a few hours. This is an adult size, but the shape of it is very open and it seems to essentially fit all 4 of us Brewers. I think I'll cast on fewer stitches to (maybe 4 fewer?) to make one for B. He says he doesn't want one though.

He wants this, and I don't blame him. But this gnome hat was so quick and fun to make, and so full of whimsy that he may get one whether he wants it or not. I'm thinking stripes. Maybe with a big button instead of ties? Maybe he'd be down if there were a knit mustache involved. Hmmm... not a bad idea...

Get Up and Go

Hi everyone! What a crazy few weeks we've had. I've stumbled my way through a series of crises and I'm sorry to say that my mind has been just about everywhere but here. But this afternoon, after a wonderful morning at the Northwest Trek Wildlife Park, I checked in over at elsiemarley and found this:Ah! I can't think of anything better to get me back into my old worker bee self than Kids' Clothes Week Challenge! I'm thrilled. It doesn't hurt that Beckett will be back in school by then, that Calder has started napping (mostly) regularly and that I'm finally feeling something like "at home" in our apartment. It's been a crazy Summer, but I've always loved Fall best anyway.

Huge thanks to Meg of elsiemarley for hosting KCWC. Click on over there and check it out!

Post Ocean Blues

I came back from the ocean feeling a little brainless. Like if you held your ear up to my empty head you'd hear the sea? We just had the best time and I can't get myself back to landlubbing norm. Kites and sand dollars, dune grass adventures and driftwood hideouts are on my mind. And the waves. I swear standing knee deep in crashing waves is the best possible power source for my human battery. But more than any of this, I loved having my family (particularly that handsome, hard working guy I married a few years back) all to myself for a few days.
I could have stayed for a year. But we're home and I'm feeling bratty about sharing my boys with the world at large. I'm really not complaining. There are worse things than discovering that you rather enjoy your family! But as I said, I am feeling brainless and distracted, like some part of me is still beachcombing.

Off to the Beach

We're heading out to the ocean for a few days. So if you'll be on the Washington coast this weekend, watch for sand Grokes!

Be back next week, folks.

Stitchless Summer

My grandma always said that Summer was not for sewing. I thought she was crazy. With all that extra daylight there should be plenty of time for playing outdoors and sewing indoors, right? Yet here I am, run ragged from outings and adventures with nary a stitch to show for it.Our house is slowly coming together. Slowly. We're all sunkissed and bruised from swimming and climbing trees and playing at beaches and parks and exploring various shores. We've ridden ferries, seen dinosaurs, watched air shows and hydroplane races, but no sewing. I feel like I blinked and July was gone. To be fair, I am 4000+ pages into George R R Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, so I've obviously found a few minutes to myself here and there. But my fabric piles, all washed and pressed, all summery and stripey and filled with boy picked prints, have sat for months.Wah wah. I'm not really complaining. How could I? My life is filled with wonder. It's just that sometimes it doesn't feel like my own. But if I have to live someone else's life for a few years who better than my two imaginative, playful boys?

Seedy

I'm a little obsessed with vintage seed packets right now. I know I mentioned them before, but since then I've bought this book. Amazing. It's so inspiring just to look through, and the jpeg and TIFF files are nice, high quality images. My first little project was to print off a few small images onto adhesive paper and stick them onto canisters and jars etc in my work area. I love having all of my supplies organized in an inspiring way. Small space living makes it kind of a necessity. I need my supplies to be ready to go for when I find a minute to myself, but for the other 23 3/4 hours in a day it all has to look like part of the dining room. So a little charm goes a long way.There are some etsy vendors who sell digital downloads of similar images for a dollar or two, if you'd rather not buy the whole book (which is only $15 on amazon right now.) And there are free versions floating around the interwebs, perfect for smaller scale, but maybe not the best for enlarging.

OH! And I'm a big fan amazon's free shipping? It says 5-8 days, but my order got to me in 48 hours! Such a pleasant surprise.