Linking

So what do you think? Super Dad says I need to ask permission to link to someone's blog. I think he may be right, but haven't done it yet. It is a little creepy not knowing who is linking to your blog. Better get right on it.

Sorry to all those I linked to and haven't asked yet. Please forgive me and let me link...

Laura,Laura,Laura

Laura my cousin....I lost your e-mail address and your blog address. I lost it a while ago. Remember when I called a couple of months ago.... I kind of lost the nerve to tell you that once again I had lost it. But.... part of it was not my fault, both our computers broke down, we couldn't get any information off of them before they died, well that's not entirely true, Ben was able to save his doctorate work.

Please, oh please if you haven't lost my blog address or e-mail will you please send them to me.

You may ask why I don't call, well, that is a good question, I don't know why I just don't call except it seems so much easier to expose myself to the blogging community as the ditz and phone-a-phobic that I really am!:)

Blog/Kids

There is very little difference in having a blog and having kids. I feel like I'm talking to myself.

birthday fun

So far today the kids have played on the nintendo and their gameboys, we've found a fun park to play at while looking for the blueberry park, we also saw a ton of geese and some sunbathing turtles, while looking for the blueberry park and we found the blueberry park. The blueberries weren't ripe yet so we'll go back in a week or two. Super Dad is out grilling the hamburgers so we can have an early dinner. More pictures tonight of the party cake and birthday boy!

Another Burial Dress

This is my second little burial dress within a week. The Relief Society President knew I had just made one and asked me to make another just in case the little family did not have one. This is their first child. I started it late Monday night and finished it Tuesday morning. The Relief Society President told me yesterday they already had a dress for the little babe, so we'll put the dress I made in our RS closet as insurance that it won't happen again.:) I'll also be making a little boy outfit to put in there too.

My camera does not do this little dress justice. It is actually much prettier. My house gets terrible light.

I'm glad that I can make these dresses in hopes that it provides some comfort, but I think I'm done making these for people I know. It's just too sad. Brings my families past right up to the future. All I can see, while making these dresses, is Jonathon's birth, death and burial. And while I do think of all the good things, I think of all the sad and angry parts too. It's just to hard.

At least my next sewing project will be the full apron swap. Something fun is needed following these last two projects!!

On a happy note it's Super S' birthday and I'll have some pictures for later!

Science Camp in Review

Monday: Making Airplanes and Taking Measurements
Tuesday: Experimentation and Observation with water, ice, salt, sugar, sun and heat
Wednesday: Inventing balloon gondolas, Failing and succeeding
Thursday: Following Procedure, making silly putty
Friday: Using cabbage powder to discover what is an Acid and Base. ROCKET LAUNCH!!

The kids spent a little time everyday working on rockets.

We had a BLAST and I think all thirteen of the kids did too!!! There were some days that I forgot to take pictures. The Rocket Launch was one of them. Bummer

I finished the burial dress late Tues. night. I planned on adding embroidered flowers on the skirt of the dress, but couldn't find my embroidery floss. I do think it really needed something at the bottom, but I just didn't have time to look and spend more time on the dress. :(

I'm not entirely happy with the sleeves. My friend asked, after I had cut out short sleeves, to make them longer to cover the baby's little hands. I didn't have enough fabric to recut the sleeves so I cut the bottom in a bell shape sleeve and added it to the top. What I forgot was the top sleeve was meant to be gathered with elastic. I should have tapered the top sleeve down and then added the bottom sleeve. At least the mistake will allow the mom to easily slide the babies arms in, it sure does look a little funny though.

I like how the wrap turned out. The back and the top crossover are gathered at the skirt and the underneath crossover was sewn on straight without gathering. The skirts are just long rectangles. As I was putting it together I was wishing I had cut the skirts in an A-line shape instead of rectangles, but again did not have any more fabric to recut. I'm not sure that it really matters though, because the baby is so small I don't think it will make much of a difference.

While there are a couple of things I wish I could change, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, especially since I didn't really have a pattern, and I was deciding how to put it together while I was doing it. I told my friend if her cousin didn't like it that I wouldn't be hurt and would donate the dress to the NICU. My friend told me today that her cousin thought it was very pretty and wanted to keep it. The baby will be buried on Monday. My thoughts and prayers are with the family in this sad time.

Ups and Downs

We started Science Day Camp today. It didn't go as well as we hoped, but it wasn't horrible either. One little boy fell off the big toy and landed smack on his head and face, and a couple hours later this same boy gets shot with one of those pressure guns right in the eye.

Some kids worked well together, some didn't work with others at all. And most of them wanted to get their science stuff done and play.

Favorite things; trying to figure out how many balloons it takes to lift a toy, and electron tag.

Dislikes; measuring the paper airplanes and measuring the distance in which they flew.

We were done an hour early, so tomorrow we'll plan more for the kids to do. I think most of the kids had fun.

After camp, I took a couple of min. to start on a burial dress for a baby that was stillborn. I think it's fitting to make this dress after the post about the lilies. The kindness of others is what we remember most about the death of our little boy. I'm pretty much making up my own dress. I wanted it to be kimono style so it will be easy to get the baby into. I also wanted it to be pretty and look a little like a baptismal dress. I hope it works! I'll be working on it tonight and will hopefully finish tomorrow night after camp. I'm thinking the funeral may be Wed. or Thurs.

I've just been so sad lately, in the past couple of weeks a friend of mine lost a baby to a ectopic pregnancy and another will most likely lose her baby right after birth to a severe heart defect and then this. I should say that I don't actually know the family who's baby daughter just passed away, but I do know her cousin, who is helping to make the arrangements. I offered to make this dress, because I know how hard it can be to find burial clothes for a tiny baby and how expensive they can be. And really who wants to be shop for burial clothes for their little baby?
Wish me luck that it will do justice to this little angel.

So, after returning home from returning the helium rental, and trying not to cry for all of these families who are struggling with death and loss, I came home to....drum roll please...

MY SWAP PLACEMATS!!!!!!!
WOOHOO !!!!!!!!

What better way to snap me out of my sad little thoughts!!! And guess where they came from?? All the way across the Atlantic, across the United States and across Washington State to me in the Puget Sound. Yes, all the way from the UK.

Debbie,

I love, love, love them. They are so me. And to prove the point they are totally me, my neighbor came over to see the placemats and declared they looked just like me!!!! They really are so pretty!! And look how beautiful they look on my table!!

View sammonluraammon's map

Taken in a place with no name (See more photos or videos here)

How in the world did you know I love lamb!!! I don't have it very often, but I love it when I can get it!! I can't wait to try the recipe. I think you must be partly psychic to have made and sent things that are sooo perfect!!! Tell me truthfully...what's in my future???:)

The kids loved all the goodies you sent. My oldest, who turns 11 next week, picked up the Tudor book and declared it a really cool book and will be reading it for bed time tonight. The three younger kids loved the pencils! They are so great. We've already picked out a couple of recipes we want to try from the Devonshire recipe book. We just have to wait until the weather is cool enough to turn on the oven. You were so sweet to send my family little gifts! Thank-you!!! I hope the person who gets my placemats loves them as much as I love mine!!!! So when are you coming to the United States to visit??? I'll make sure all my laundry is put away, and that holey old couch is out of the room, and you can stay with us! !!! We'll go see the Washington Rainforest and Pike Place Market in Seattle!!!

Lots and lots of Love,

Sarah

Couch Love and Hate

This is my living room. Don't mind the mess, I made the kids move out of the picture so I could take it. I love this sectional. I got it from an Ikea garage sale thing a couple of years ago. It fits really well in this small living room. It also goes really well in the garage that was converted into a family room before we bought the house. I love it!





This is what's in the family room now. It's a well made hand-me-down, it's comfortable, has down feathers, my mom is allergic to it , it's to big for my house (it's a very large sofa)and has looked like this for the three years. Yes, you heard me right, albeit it's been in different stages these three years, and it's not like I wasn't really busy with a horrible pregnancy, baby in the hospital and homeschooling two boys and entertaining a child who should've gone to kindergarten (missed the cut off day by a couple of days) and a toddler.

When I began the holes in the cushions weren't that big and every cushion had a cover. Now I'm missing one cover and the holes are getting pretty large.






No more. I want to get rid of it. I don't care that it is a good couch with good bones. I don't care that it can be reupholstered, (obviously not by me) I don't care anymore that I've bought it two sets of fabric to make it work, because it would be cheaper to fix it than buy a new couch. I don't care!!! I just don't want to look at it anymore!!I just don't want to feel guilt about it anymore!!! I want it out of my house!! And just so you know, I've been feeling this way for a while! I just can't make it work! There are a lot of things that I can make work, but I can't make this work, just can't do it, and don't want to try anymore. I want it outttttt!!!!

If any of you want it feel free to say so and come get it! Just leave a comment and it's yours!! I'll save it for you instead of tricking someone to help me put it in my friend's dumpster if she has room.

I remember my grandma once told me that she took a summer and reupholstered a couch and by the time she was done she wished she had just bought a new one. At least she finished it!!

Lovely

This is what I woke up too Friday morning. Some little monkey got a hold of my glasses!! Let's hope when I take them to be fixed they can fix them or have an extra pair laying around!

Luckily the day ended with shooting off rockets. We couldn't find our camera, but trust me when I say...It was really cool!! Unfortunately, Super Dad's parachute worked, gliding it into the blue yonder in which we could not find it after it landed. Fortunately the boys rockets exploded and crashed and we were able to bring those home safe and sound to use another day. A little ironic, don't you think?

Day Lily

Do you see this lily? This lily was given to my MIL, by my aunt, after our first born son passed away. My aunt gave one to us, but we were college students and our apt. was tiny, and this flower, while really pretty, is extremely stinky! We ended up throwing it away after a month or two, because it was a stinky reminder that everyone around us had beautiful children and we had nothing.

My MIL planted it in her front yard and when she moved she dug it up and put it in a pot. Every year we couldn't believe that it kept coming up. Last year she insisted on us taking this plant home. Super Dad took a couple of the corns (really small bulbs) and planted them in other places. Some of them bloomed this year and some of them are too small and will bloom next year.

What really surprised us is that in years past the lily always bloomed white and it usually bloomed in April right around Easter, but this year (it was a cold, rainy spring) it didn't start blooming till the beginning of July and the first blooms, bloomed this beautiful dark pink color, the later blooms a lighter pinkish/white. They are gorgeous!!! And instead of a terrible stinky reminder of something we had not, it is now a reminder of the kindness of my aunt and many others who showed kindness to us in that time, and the care that my MIL took in taking care of this beautiful plant, waiting for the time when we could love and appreciate this beautiful flower.

The Swap is in the Mail!!!

I'm all done! The last three weeks have been crazy busy! The first thing I started this month was the swap placemats and the last thing I did this month was the swap placemats.

I am so glad they are done! I hope my swap partner loves them! I did want to add a table runner, but with having to start all over again, I just didn't have time. Oh well. I do think it was worth starting over I like these so much better!

They're not perfect but done!! What a relief!! I was surprised at how stressed I was picking fabric and such. I was paralyzed. My swap partner said her kitchen was muted red, orange, green, blue with black and white. I'm not exactly sure what muted colors are. That really stumped me. So I sent an e-mail back, but didn't hear back 'till just a couple of days before the swap was over. *sigh* I hope she still likes them! I was thinking you couldn't go wrong with strawberries and daisies in the middle of summer.

This project was a big pain in the beeeeehiiiiind!! !I do wish the book would have had the yardages or the amount of fabric needed for the projects. That would have made things a lot easier. When I started figuring out how much yardage I needed I was shocked...shocked by how much fabric I needed!!

I think the grid on my cutting board is off. My rectangles look so crooked, but when I place them back on the grid they are right on. I took a lot of time trying to get the placemats more square. I did an okay job, but again not as nice as I would've liked. At some point, you just have to send what you have and chock it up to experience!

It may be time for a new cutting board, but they are really expensive and the one I use is only about 2 years old, maybe less and I bought a big one. I think that was a big part of the frustration for me! I should not have had screwy rectangles.

Alright, I'm done complaining now. I am now wondering if I cut all my threads off. I'm not sure that I did. I was so busy Monday trying to get the swap finished and having to do a bunch of other things that day that I'm now wondering if I got everything cut off. If I didn't ( and there's a good chance I didn't) please swap partner forgive me!!!!

On to other subjects Super Dad and I are holding our first ever Science Camp next week. We are soooooo excited!! We'll be playing with rockets, helium,balances, graduated cylinders. We are going to have a great time!!!

Swap disaster

Here's my preliminary placemat for the swap.

It's much cuter in person. It is green twill on this side with a strawberry pattern and blue jean on the other. I'm not sure that I like how crooked it is, although it's not as noticeable on this side as it is on the other.










You can see just how crooked it really is. I'm not sure what happened. I am usually so careful when cutting out. I think the fabric may have stretched out quite a bit while rotary cutting.

My choices thus far are:
1. Try to straighten it up.
+ I don't lose all that machine
embroidery that I spent the last
month on.
- I lose sizing.
2. Keep the front and go get fabric for
new back
3. Scrap it all and go get new fabric that
won't stretch at weird angles.

What do you think?