Sew Special: Finishing Up - Tutu, Mittens, Bibs, Quiet Book

For some reason pregnancy gives me "project anxiety"(more than usual).  I have to complete as many things as possible each day. This week I was working through my "half finished" sewing and mending pile.  I won't show the mending things (boring), but here are some things that I finally finished up:

1. Bibs -- used the cute goldfish one that my good friend gave me as a template to turn some unused burp cloths I had laying around into soft bibs. I thought baby S might like them better than the vinyl ones... Nope.

2. Doll Clothes - My neighbor gave me this little Dianna Effner doll to use as a model.  She wants me to try to sell some more doll clothes outfits for her shop. I made this one from bits of fabric that I had on hand.

3. Sweater Upcycled to Mittens-- One of the sweaters I made a few years ago somehow made it into the washer and was felted/shrunk. I finally remade it into some toasty mittens using the pattern from Little Things to Sew. I adapted the pattern by adding the pieces of knit ribbing to the wrists, so that they stay on/keep the snow out better.

4. New Dance Tutu -- Perfect timing for the start of another season of dance class. This pattern is also from the Little Things to Sew book, but again I did not follow the directions! I wanted to use up some nylon mesh fabrics leftover from making doll dresses and did not have the many yards of tulle laying around which the pattern called for.  So it is soft and drapey instead of full and poofy.  No complaints from my product tester.

5. Quiet Book #2 -- When I was pregnant with S I think I finished the quiet book that I started while I was pregnant with M and so here we go again! Another baby expected and another quiet book finished.  A group of ladies from church and I did this one together actually.  We each did 2 sides of pages, replicated it 5 times and shared with each other. That is the part that was finished when I was pregnant with S.  I have had these cute little pages sitting around waiting to be sewn to a backing and bound together.  I made the cover picture with printable fabric paper and powerpoint. 

 Noah's Ark

 Lehi's Dream of the Tree of Life

 Nephi Building the Boat (the pocket has tools in it and the boat pieces velcro on)

 Joseph Smith Hiding the Plates and Esther

 The Mormon Trail with Wagon Car (this is the one I did-- each state has a different fabric texture)

 I also made a pioneer pocket for the back of the book to keep the wagon and other stuff in.

Family Schooling Summary

School stuff this week: Fancy Nancy (I Can Read versions), writing practice, math problems, telling time, and another lesson on Native Americans, per big sister A's request. We got our official response letter from the county that they have accepted our "Notice of Homeschooling" for big sis A. It is so regulated around here!

We also had the Orientation Meeting for Joy School at our house this week. It starts on Tuesday. And big sister A started her dance classes again.

Here are the kiddos after our regular Monday night swim (FHE) -- chowing down on another cantaloupe from the garden:

Portrait of brother M taken by big sis A:

Making a mess with popcorn at family movie night. We watched "An American Tail".  

Recommended Reading: Holes and Medical Anthropology

This week I finished 2 great books. I highly recommend them both.

1. Holes by Louis Sachar

I have been meaning to read this book for awhile. Our library had it on cds, so I listened to it in the car with the kiddos as we were going about our various activities. The story is full of funny interconnections, some that I did not think of until hours after listening to it! It would be a great read for girls and boys interested in adventure stories, probably appropriate for about ages 8 and over.

2. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

I am planning to have the students in my anthropology class read this book as part of the sections on health & illness and religion & spirituality.  It is a sad story, but so well written. The author tells it in an unpretentious and personal way.  She identifies and defines important aspects of cultural context, but does so using peoples' stories, humanizing the book and making the Hmong perspective easier to understand. 

Family Schooling Summary

This week was pretty similar to the last couple weeks of reading and math. Big sister A does great reading the "I can read" books, but she misses the ease and familiarity of the Bob books. We got a fun book from the library about Cleopatra, and also had a field trip to the midwives for my monthly appt. The kids love looking at the posters illustrating how the baby grows and looks inside the tummy. They also like to hear the heart go "thump thump" on the doppler.
I have been working away on the syllabus and curriculum for the 16 week Cultural Anthropology class that I am teaching for our homeschool co-op.  Since their are a lot of articles and excerpts from various text books I decided to make a "Course Packet". It is huge! It will be double sided and bound when I get the copies made for my students.  They will have weekly reading assignments and focus questions on each set of readings included in the packet.  They will also have a big final "Ethnography Project" on a cultural group of their choice.  It has been a lot of work to prepare, but I am hoping that having it all put together (mostly) ahead of time will make the week-by-week preparation a lot easier.

My class is for students ages 13 and up.  And while I am teaching and helping teach other classes, all 3 of the kiddos will be enrolled in their own classes. Baby S will just do nursery type classes, but brother M and big sister A are going to have some great science, math, and music classes.

Speaking of music classes, we just finished our last "Music Together" class for the Summer.  Daddy joined us and we had ice cream at 16 Handles afterwords.  I tried not to get any of the other kids/classmates in the pics, since I was planning to post them online.  This instrument extravaganza is one of their favorite parts of the class.  Baby S also loves the box of shaker eggs.  I think big sister A loves the dancing with scarves and marching songs the best.  I like the musical theory behind music together and I thought our teachers very "laissez-faire" attitude was nice and allowed each child to approach the music at whatever level they were feeling interested.

Garden Progress: New Wheels on the Chicken Coop

While the coop itself is pretty easy to move every 3-4 days, the run has been a bit of a hassle.  Hubby decided that it was time to address this issue with some new wheels.  

The chickens STILL have not laid their first eggs yet. We are all waiting anxiously for them to start. They are getting better at scratching (tearing up the grass looking for bugs) and I think the fertilizer is doing good things for the lawn. 

The County Fair

Going to the fair each August has become a tradition in our family. As the kiddos have been getting older they are interested in more and more aspects of it.  This year was the first time they really paid attention to the rides.  Big sister A especially wanted to ride the ferris wheel.  After brother M's fear of the merry-go-round last year I was afraid that he would not want to ride anything.  But he felt safe with daddy and had a great time.

Way up high on the ferris wheel.  Little brother M looks a little bit less calm than his big sis.

A long standing tradition is the caramel apples.  They are sold near the exit that we usually use. So we get them at the end, take a few bites, and bring the rest home for the next day.

Sew Special: Hats and Dolls

During the flurry of hat making a couple weeks ago, brother M asked me every time he saw me knitting if that was HIS hat.  Finally, I finished the other things I was working on.  He requested a big pointy gnomey hat. Fabulous. I love those. He chose his favorite colors - blue and blue. 

I also completed another Karen Ballerina (Madame Alexander) dress for one of my neighbors doll store clients.

Garden Progress: Melons!

We are doing our bi-annual "no-shopping month" right now and so all the garden produce are extra valuable and appreciated, particularly the fruits!  This melon was perhaps the best cantalope that I have ever tasted. So fresh and ripe.  I am out there daily watching for the others to ripen too!

 

We also finally have a homemade granola recipe that everyone likes. It's from this favorite book of mine: The Homemade Pantry. In case you have not heard my rant about this yet, I despise store bought cereals, both for their empty nutritional value and high cost.  But granola, especially this recipe made with oats, almonds, sesame, sunflower seeds, coconut oil, and maple syrup, is fabulous.  The kiddos were eating it warm off the tray while it was cooling.

Family Schooling Summary

More reading, work on clocks, addition and subtraction puzzles, history lessons on medieval knights, AND parties with friends!

Our old friends from Joy School came up for the day on Saturday and we had a fun time playing with them and picnicking.

We also had international night at the church.  The kiddos and I all dressed up in costumes from various parts of the world.  We had a display on Russia and Honduras.  I also made a big pot of Borscht and a Farr Breton. 

There were a lot of African foods and countries represented. The kiddos liked the beignets and fried plantains the best (of course).  I had some nice foo foo and ndole.  It is great to live in a place where they get to meet with so much cultural diversity.

I was proud of them for going up on stage a couple times.  Once to show their costumes off; and then again later to participate in the African Tribal dance lesson.

Sew Special: More Practice with the Serger and a sweater

Big brother M is in this phase of changing his clothes any time he gets a little speck of water or food on them.  That includes his underwear. So... he has been running out of unders quicker than I can/am willing to wash them.  Aunt H gave me some leftover knit fabrics and several knit patterns awhile ago and I showed the fabric choices to M.  These are the two that he chose -- trucks and puppies, that is so like him.  I made 10 pairs in little bits of time here and there over 3 days.  The Serger is very good at assembly line style sewing.  After the first test pair, I cut out 9 more pairs and zoomed on through. 

The nice, albeit time consuming, part of this underwear is that it is fully lined. I chose the lining fabric. It is a thinner knit with colorful pug dogs. I decided the lining was probably a good idea as it is a bit more absorbent and that way these will be useful when I start potty training little brother S.

This little cardigan was supposed to be a "Baby Sophisticate" for a little boy.  I held the yarn double for extra thickness. That was great on the stockinette stitch part, but made the garter stitch collar way to big. It was my first time making this pattern and a relatively quick knit.  I think it is now more of a cowl neck girl sweater and put in the baby clothes box for the new baby sister.