as cozy as spring

Sunrise with Francis Meilland

I prefer wild over cultivated when it comes to flowers but could not be more smitten with my new addition to the garden. 

Summer is settling in here and it's been amazing so far.  I'm going to the grocery store and preparing meals for my children.  The baby has the opportunity to nap.  The house is clean.  I am even sitting down from time to time.  It gives me a little stomach ache to think of how much more smoothly our lives run without extracurricular activities to stress me through the day and eat up our family time in the evenings.  I'm the mom I desperately want to be without them.  This should be a comforting realization but it's not.  It makes going forward much more troubling, especially as the demands are only going to escalate as the children grow.

But for now, I'm going to put those thoughts on the back burner and enjoy the heck out of this summer.  I normally shun the pinterest world, but to bear the Texas summers we need as many pinteresting ideas as I can summon.  Ice cream cakes, campfires, tie-dye, water balloons, and dew kissed garden roses.  

Morning Blackberries

Every now and then I wonder if blogging isn't just a giant waste of time for someone like me who (look away, husband) has no interest in monetizing.  But it makes me so happy to see the same posts appear year after year.  Today, I waited patiently for my son to awaken and led him sleepily out into the garden.  That big smile spread on his face as he saw the first handful of ripe blackberries.  His favorite day in the garden.

(1/125, F 4, ISO 200)

'Mama, I think I'm going to go back to bed with my blackberries and my comic book.'

I love everything about that little boy.

Joining Sarah for Manual Mode Monday- I really worked hard on staying in manual mode all weekend and took some horrendous photos!  It's hard to constantly adjust (very quickly) at a party and think that probably a party calls for aperature priority mode because I miss too much fiddling with the settings.  

Around the House.

In the Schoolroom: We finished math a couple of weeks ago and have little motivation to wrap up the rest of the year. We have a bit of grammar and reading comprehension left, along with a lot of history but no one cares at this point.  On the other hand, I've been in deep thought about next year.  I've been listening to a bunch of podcasts via IEW whilst I sew or iron my husband's work clothes and the children play outside.  I had mapped out what I think is a beautiful and balanced year and then this weekend my husband said, "Put them in school."

The fact is that this year has been really hard.  I'm happier than I have ever been but I'm also overwhelmed and exhausted.  When I was begging God for a baby the past 7 years, I forgot to specify 'pleasant demeanor' or 'sleeps from time to time'.  We did receive one of the sweetest, most beautiful babies ever but she is challenging. We also rocked the whole attachment parenting thing and she is keen to be attached to me at all hours of the day and night.  I'm not bothered by it enough to change anything but I cannot be as present as I would like when it comes to my children's education.

But on the other other hand, they are OK, thriving even.  I've received numerous good reports from all outside sources.  My son, who I think desperately needs more guidance, is reading The Hobbit to me now, which I think is a good accomplishment for an 8 year old.  He's taught himself multiplication.  My 12yo is teaching herself Latin far beyond what I can comprehend.  So am I dropping the ball completely or raising independent learners?  Can you see the merry-go-round in my mind?  It is frantic and flashing and  I want someone to take my hand and just tell me what to do.

In the Garden: Still slow going!  It's been downright pleasant for May.  The summer heat has yet to set in and I'm bewildered by it all.  The berries are still our most promising mini-crop.  Of note: Lizards - everywhere.  Big giant lizards.  I'm fascinated.  I've seen a huge increase in population all over the neighborhood.  Was it the warm winter?  Curious.  They are too quick for me to get an ID but I'm on the lookout.

In the Kitchen: Tamale Pie for Mother's Day from the Make Ahead Cook's Illustrated (Good issue, recommended).  Lemon Bars from Ina for my sister's visit.  

In the Car: Lots and lots.  Ballet and baseball wrap up in the next couple of week, praise God.  I get my evenings back!  Family dinners and post family dinner family walks!  And post family dinner-walks-read alouds.  We are all on board for my husband to read us The Lord of the Rings books this summer.  One of the happy developments from having a fussy little baby is that he took over some of the evening read aloud time and he's such a pleasant reader. 

 Mother's Day bouquet, carnations from church (my son participated in May Crowning, sniff, sniff) and flowers from the garden.  I got a baseball glove, y'all, so I can play catch with my boy.  I never thought I'd be so happy to get a baseball glove as a gift.  :)  OK, gotta go.  This post received only a cursory proofread so forgive all typos, friends.

Recycled 2+2 Blouse

I never thought I'd say this but I'm a little addicted to sewing right now.  Usually it just frustrates me and during every single project, I shoot a colorfully worded email to my sister about how much I hate sewing. But since I really started focusing on technique and proper fabric choice, it's gone much more smoothly.  Something my sister recommended through all those conversations was the Oliver+S pattern line.  She couldn't say enough good things about them but the most appealing to me was this, "I learn something every time I use one."  I normally only buy patterns when on sale for $1.00 but her endorsement and Elizabeth's Easter dresses convinced me.  If I was going to invest in better fabrics, I was going to benefit from better patterns as well.

I found the 2+2 pattern at a local (adorable!) sewing shop.  I didn't think I had any suitable fabric for the top until I went digging through my dresser and found just the thing.  A never worn, flowy cotton gauze shirt I purchased years ago.  I loved the fabric but the fit was terrible.  Was it a maternity shirt?  I don't know.  It wasn't even flattering when I was pregnant so I didn't hesitate to chop into it.

I cut all the seams carefully to preserve the maximum amount of fabric.  It was a size medium and I had plenty to sew the 12-18 month size shirt.

It went together easily and quickly and oh, I'm so happy with it.  This has been on my must sew list for years and it is one of my favorite finished projects.  It's the perfect little camping shirt.  It's a bit big for my baby right now but it should fit this summer and fall.  I really like the softness and drape of the gauze.  I switched to a finer needle before beginning and it was a breeze to sew.  I especially love that it is recycled!  I'm giving all of those rarely worn clothes a closer look now...

In the Garden This Morning

I spied this little black swallowtail chrysalis on the tippy top of our second-year parsley this morning.  They are usually hidden away so this was a nice surprise.  While I was snapping this photo, I saw a predecessor flitting about the garden laying more eggs on the neighboring parsley.  They stop and bend their bodies ever so slightly and you can find the translucent eggs on the undersides of leaves or tucked in the folds.

I was re-inspired to learn more about moths and butterflies after finishing A Girl of the Limberlost.  I'm not big on fiction but if the author presents a rich setting it will stick with me for life.  A Girl of the Limberlost was a wonderful story, particularly to those of us interested in the Charlotte Mason philosophy on education with its emphasis on nature study.  It was a bit too romantic for my 12 year old, but I would definitely recommend it for teens as for its sensible, ladylike portrayal of courtship.

Thanks for all your great comments yesterday!  I could talk Little House for years.  One of the most important lessons in The Long Winter, IMO, comes from the muskrat house.  The ability of animals, and observant humans, to predict these weather conditions.  This means they can be known (without a radar) if you just look closely enough.  I so want my children to learn to look closely enough.

An Accompaniment to The Long Winter

Last week, I began searching for meteorology books for my daughter and I followed some links and found Dan White's The Long Hard Winter of 1880-81: What was it Really Like?.  I've frequently wondered about some of the details in this particular book, most especially: Did Pa really just sit there and eat the pancakes and ham and not take any home for his starving family?  I mean, really?  And did Pa tell Laura that he just sat there and ate the pancakes or did Almanzo tell her later, "Yeah, your Pa came over for pancakes all the time!"  I need answers about the pancakes, y'all.  I've talked about it here before, I know.  It bugs me almost as much as the mind numbing description of the what-not.

More interesting (just barely) is the winter itself.  I was so happy to find White's book. It uses The Long Winter as a jumping off point but recounts how the weather conditions that winter impacted the rest of the country as well.  It's fascinating and an excellent accompaniment to the book itself. 

Then via this article I found Wilder Weather; a website written by meteorologist and Little House fan Barbara Mayes Boustead.  She examines aspects of the stories from a scientific point of view and addresses so many questions I have had since first reading the books.

Sadly, the pancake question remains unresolved. 

Happy Monday!

Voile Peasant Dress

One of the first fabrics I ordered when branching out a bit was voile.  It's thinner, silkier, and more transparent than a quilting cotton which was exactly what I wanted.  I ordered a yard of a Valori Wells print from Hawthorne Threads (incidentally, their shipping is super reasonable and consistently speedy). I had planned on lining it and still think that would be advisable though it wasn't quite as sheer as I expected.  I adapted a basic peasant style dress, adding longer sleeves and full lining. 

This is such an easy style to sew and wear.  The fabric is wonderful.  The fit is not great, but all things considered this still goes in the win column.  

And that wraps up the parade of summer dresses for now.  My goals were to polish up my work a bit - I found myself pinning far more than I ever have before - and to explore different apparel fabrics while I could still get by buying one yard increments.  I learned a lot about different fabrics and it was well worth the effort.  

There were many I didn't try, so stay tuned for round 2 later on this summer!

Double Gauze

First up in my experiment with different cotton fabrics: double gauze.  I didn't write about it first because it was the most disappointing.  I've heard people talk about it in such reverential tones that I expected something amazing.  And it's super pricey so I hoped it would be worth the investment.  I ordered a little over a yard of this Nani Iro print from Superbuzzy.  I waited for the order to arrive and read and read and read as much as I could.  There's a good introduction here; What is Double Gauze?  

Gauze is a lightweight, soft, and open weave fabric that is usually quite sheer. Because it allows air to pass through freely, gauze can be used in garment sewing for clothing worn in hot and humid climates. However, it can also be quite impractical because it is so sheer - slips, camisoles and other undergarments may undermine the properties of the gauze. Leave it to the Japanese and their clever industriousness to perfect double gauze fabrics! Double gauze is literally two layers of gauze that are woven simultaneously.

 My favorite use of this fabric is this little jacket.  This is another lovely use of the fabric.

***

To be completely frank, I kind of don't get it.  It's very pretty and soft but not as gauzey as I hoped.  It also wrinkles like linen.  In fact, it reminds me a lot of linen in texture too.  I haven't heard it described as such by anyone else so I might be way off base, but I'm sticking by it.  

So, on to the sewing.  I washed and dried it gently and had very little ravelling.  I had a pattern already picked out before I received the fabric.  This was a mistake.  I chose a classic little baby dress (Simplicity 1701) which is just too formal for this fabric.  I pressed on, not wanting to be indecisive.  I held up the finished dress and the texture and drape were all wrong.  I mean, it's passable but the goal in this little experiment was to better match my sewing projects to my fabric choices and this was a big fail.  I'm not ripping it all out... yet (though I think it'd make a cute romper).  If I can find a pretty royal blue velvet ribbon to stitch around the waistline then it might really fix it all but at this point the dress is a bit big anyway so I'll mess with it over the summer.

(My china cabinet... Wedding set, holy card, tiny broomstick skewers, and Peanuts glasses circa 1980 McDonald's - pretty accurate representation of our family)

This fabric called for a more casual dress.  I grabbed a little Gap sundress from the laundry and set to work on a knock off with my leftover remnant.  It came together with minimal swearing and in just a couple hours.  Aside: How many years must I have sewn before I stop inadvertently sewing wrong side to wrong side?  So, this worked better and she stayed in the dress all day long.  It's a bit roomy but I can see this style and fabric working through the summer months.

Bottom line though, I don't love the fabric so I wasn't going to love any of the finished pieces.  I always leave a little wiggle room to change my mind but I have no plans to reorder double gauze right now.  It's too pricey and too wrinkley to work for baby clothes (IMO).

Still to come: A voile peasant dress and a corduroy skirt.  I have plenty of more cotton fabrics still to explore - pique, lawn, and shirting are next on the list but not currently in the budget.  I need to do a thorough assessment of supplies here pretty soon as well (because before I order shirting, I need to see if I already own shirting..)

(My photos are posting washed out and weirdly gray - what's up Typepad?)

May Approaching

May seems to be busier and more expensive than Christmastime.  Fortunately, this is no longer unexpected and I'm doing my best this year to get my stuff together before May dawns tomorrow morning.  I have already procured a Mother's Day gift for my mom.  I have two gifts ordered for my husband's birthday.  Tickets for the ballet spring show are on my desk (or rather, my husband's desk because he does not trust me with small pieces of paper - totally justified.  Perhaps if it is not incessantly asking me for snacks, I will forget about it).  Flowers ordered, tights and leotards are in hand.  Summer programs are lined up.

I'm also slowly, mentally preparing my game plan for next school year and I think it should be fun and rich.  I am not yet ready to evaluate this year.  In some respects it was great.  The children did everything I asked of them.  In most respects, it was ugly.  I was short tempered and distracted every single day.  This high maintenance little baby has taken a toll on all of us and our relationships this year.  It's nothing irreparable, but I can't deny that it is so.  But we learned.  They are ahead in most subjects.  I have a better idea of how they learn after this year and thus, feel more prepared moving forward.

Right now, we are focusing on art and science, as we do every spring.  The children begin the day exploring a musician (meaning listening to clips on youtube) as they draw or paint.  Then we head outside where they tend to their pet projects in the garden.  It's been a odd spring with strange and bitter cold snaps from time to time.  The garden has gotten a slow start and I'm worried about getting that crucial period of establishment before the heat sets in.

I've seen these plants in a bag with the Mother's Day displays around town.  My husband happened to bring a sample home for me earlier this spring.  I initially dismissed it as gimmicky because it's seriously dirt and seeds in a bag.  Do we really need a kit for that?  But then I opened it, watered it, and completely forgot about it until yesterday.  Whaddya know?  I still have basil growing.  Fun!

The roses are in full bloom and larkspurs are blooming in random places all over the backyard.  They are one of my most treasured possessions, seeds gathered from my grandmother's garden by her very own hands and given to me in a little ziploc baggie.  I can't for the life of me snap a good photo because they are so tall and wispy, they tremble in the slightest breeze.  I'm less interested in flowers than my fruits and veggies.  So far, it doesn't look to be a great year for tomatoes or peaches but we might just have record yield on the blackberries and blueberries.

OK, must be going!  Have a lovely Tuesday, friends!

Sunday Dinner

It was a most beautiful weekend.  We celebrated my son's First Holy Communion and it was such a joyful day for us as a family.  The children also wrapped up their year of CCD - and their first experience in a classroom in a good long while - and it was a wonderful experience for all.  We love our parish. I know there is some debate about sticking it out in a parish that is less than ideal but I did that for 10 years and I'm going to say that it's very easy to be a lukewarm Catholic in a lukewarm parish.  We never were lukewarm exactly, but we're just far more active now as a part of the community.  But more to the point, this is my opportunity to secure for my children the experience of a proper liturgy.  The move was the absolute best thing we did for our family last year.

Enough about that, I popped in to post a recipe!  I made dinner yesterday and I wish that didn't feel like such a big deal but it is lately.  With everyone being sick it was just a long stretch of sandwiches.  My sister recommended pasta bolognese and it was a big hit. I served it with a fresh salad and have leftovers for tonight.  I wish I could link to a recipe but I had about 7 up in different windows and probably used all of them in some form.  

I do have a new cookie recipe.  I took the Snickerdoodle recipe from Martha Stewart Cookies and halved it and *tweaked* it and it is now one of our top ten favorite cookies. They are less overtly snickerdoodley than say Smitten Kitchen's Snickerdoodle Recipe (and oddly - we started with the same recipe).  Fragrant with butter and cinnamon with a slightly deeper brown sugary flavor, these stay soft and chewy long after baking.

Snickerdoodles: Small Batch

• 1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cups brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla
• 2 tbs white sugar + 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.  Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until fluffy.  Add egg until combined.  Reduce speed to low and add in flour mixture.

Stir together white sugar and cinnamon.  Shape dough into balls and roll in cinnamon mixture.  

Bake cookies... you know, until they are done*?  It's like 10 minutes or so depending on how big you roll them.  

*Look for the 'as cozy as spring' cookbook to be released alongside my pattern line!  Coming April 34th, 20Never!

Happy Monday friends!