Rainbow Dress

Addy spotted this fabric while we were at Joann's and begged to have it.

Mom said "no", so Addy and I waited until Rachel was distracted and then we "snuck" back to the fabric department and bought it. Addy loved being sneaky with grandma (and Mom, of course, knew exactly what was going on. Moms always do.)

This is a 'cheater' dress - the shirring and skirt are all one piece - so, in theory, one seam should have seen it done. Riiiiiight.

Several hours and another trip to the fabric store, this time Hobby Lobby, to get fabric for a ruffle and straps . . . plus glittery tulle* (because it was there)

and a Clover Kawashi flower maker (because I saw one on Emily's blog and wanted it)

and rhinestone buttons for the flower . . . the dress was finally done.

Addy wore it to Grandpa Jim's birthday bbq today and pronounced it "perfect", telling everyone that her grandma made it just for her. What greater compliment could a grandma possibly get?

 

* glitter from that tulle is everywhere. It falls off by the pound and sticks to anything it touches. Next time, I'm definitely getting the non-glitter variety - and I'm leaving all these glittery leftovers at Rachel's house!

 

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Pantry of Awesome

Whenever we visit Colorado, the conversation inevitably turns to home renovation or remodeling. The apple didn't fall far from the tree where oldest daughter is concerned. She and Pop toss around ideas, sketch designs, price building supplies, for everything from putting an addition on the back of Rachel and John's house to tearing out walls and enlarging existing rooms.

This trip, Pop came up with an idea for adding a pantry to the kitchen. And he wasn't going to let little things - like all his tools being in California - get in the way.

Materials and a few essential tools (who knew a "dowell jig" was a must-have??) were purchased Thursday, and early Friday morning he started making a mess framing.

Addy and I wisely stayed out of the way,

but both Rachel and John were put to work at one point or another.

By late dinner time, the doors were on,

shelves were assembled

and Addy had pronounced this project a success.

Sanding, staining and handle installation still needs to be done, but for the most part, our pantry-in-a-day is complete.

 

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Grandma of Awesome

When Addy was in the hospital with pneumonia (she calls it "ammonia" - cracks me up every time), she asked if I would send her blue roses. You know what happens when you ask a florist for blue flowers? ~crickets~

So with the help of Mr. Google, and in between all the antiquing

and sewing we've been doing,

we made our own blue roses.

Turns out it's really simple to do. You buy the last sad, half dead bunch of white roses at Walmart, along with food coloring and a pretty vase.

Bring them home, fill the vase with water, and let the 6-year old go crazy adding blue food coloring; then trim the stems with scissors and immediately plunge them into the water.

Addy wanted me to have some purple roses, so we put half the batch in a separate vase with blue and red food dye.

Addy isn't impressed with the brownish color that resulted but I love it.

The flowers really perked up once they were in water. We trimmed the stems again today, hoping to get an even deeper shade of blue (and brown.)

Our little experiment also gave me a chance to play with the super-macro filters hubby bought me recently - up to 10x increase in magnification! So awesome.

Addy loves her blue flowers; I love making good on my promise. And the time we spent together working on this? Priceless.

 

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My Elise

This pattern has been in my Ravelry queue since about 2009. 
I loved the look, but something always seemed to push ahead of it when it came time to pick a pattern.
 
Until I bought the perfect yarn recently at Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara - Louisa Harding's Amitola.
 
The pattern is a simple, 2-row repeat. I made a couple of modifications - left out the oddly placed triple crochet, and made it longer - but otherwise did it as written. 

 

Love how it turned out. And the yarn is stunning; soft, easy to work with, blocks beautifully.

  

Leanne was kind enough to model the finished project for me.

 
She was feeling a little better Easter afternoon and enjoyed getting out of the house with me for a few minutes, even if it was lightly raining. 

 

Leia and Addy have both modeled shawls for me, but this was Leanne's first time.

 
I think she did a pretty nice job. 

Fore!

Matt recently bought Leia a golf set - and sent it with her to my house, rather than taking a chance on things getting broken at his house, the bum. 
 
It sat in my car for a week while Leia was sick, but she finally got to spend an afternoon practicing her swing.
 
You gotta love the shades and flip flops.
 
The rules were she had to stay on the grass; keep the ball away from our cars; 
 
and most important - no chasing a stray ball into the street. 
 
(Before I'd let her outside, I asked what she'd do if the ball went in the street. She looked at me like I'd lost my mind and said "umm, go get it . . . " Umm, wrong!)
 
Can you read what her shirt says? We told her "Diva" meant "Princess." Which it does. Sort of. Princess with an attitude anyway. 

Easter Dresses

When I was growing up, my mom made dresses at both Easter and Christmas for all seven of us girls and a vest or some such for my only brother. I've always loved looking back at those photos but now that I've got the little-girl-dress-sewing bug, I'm also much more appreciative of the time and energy she put into sewing for us every year.
Naia got a new outfit too, just not a grandma-made one. 
 
I'd been thinking about making Easter dresses for Leia and Leanne (Addy will get one when we visit her next week) but when I walked into Roxanne's a week before Easter and spotted The Perfect Fabric, it went from 'maybe' to 'done deal.'
 
Leanne's dress was up first.

I made her's (almost) according to the pattern I used for Addy's dress (Fat Quarter Pillow Case Dress from Mother Huddle - great pattern.) 
 
And since she flat refuses to wear it (she's still sick and grumpy), all I have to show are on-the-hanger shots.

Leia, on the other hand, was more bribe-able amenable. For a small fee (3 "mints", aka Tic Tacs, her favorite treat), she was willing to model for the camera. 
(Please excuse the pajama bottoms in the photo; there was a limit to her cooperation.)
 
In fact, Leia liked her dress so much, she wore it Thursday for our modeling session, Friday while we ran errands, and Saturday while playing with friends and dyeing Easter eggs in Arrowhead.

While Leanne's dress was made almost according to pattern, I just winged Leia's. On both dresses, I wanted a wide center panel to showcase the fairy fabric, with multicolor sections on either side, and the magic wand panel as the bottom band. 
 
I was short on fabric for dress #2 - the pieces I had were either too short or too narrow - but I was determined to work with what I had since the fabric store is an hour's drive from here, each way. 
 
By making narrower panels on the back; increasing that part to 5 sections from Leanne's 4; and making a ruffle rather than a double-sided band for the bottom, it worked out just fine. 

And if you have a new dress, you have to have new shoes, right?
 
Leia picked out her own and helped me decide which ones to get for Leanne. 
The fabric flowers are super cute.

And while Leanne may not like the dress (yet; I live in hope) she **loves** the shoes. Leanne loves ALL shoes. A trait she inherited from my mother.