i have to say...

a spring favorite

I just love when rhubarb starts showing up at the grocery store.   What a lovely fruit (vegetable?)

Last night I made this rhubarb bread and I feel compelled to tell you to go get some rhubarb now and make it for yourself.  Simply delicious!

Rhubarb + Brown Sugar = A Match Made in Heaven

Don't you think?

growing slowly but surely

Because we are impatient, we bought some potted tomatoes and herbs just to watch something grow.  Every morning I put them outside and every evening they come back inside. I am very happy to say that some of the herbs have already doubled in size and the tomatoes are growing nicely too.  Only a week and a half until planting-day arrives!

Along with our family co-op garden we will grow a few things here in our backyard.  We eat too many tomatoes to rely on our co-op alone.  Doesn't a fresh, garden tomato sound heavenly after months of grocery store yuckiness?  And a bowl of fresh salsa sounds over-the-top good, if you ask me.

Our kitty has been getting in on the garden action.  She likes to follow me outside to roll in the dirt and act all wild and crazy for a minute, until she realizes that she is much too delicate to be anything but  a housecat.  This is when she frantically scans the room for someone to rescue her by opening the door:

How are your garden plans coming along?

the dress---let's be quick about it!

Yesterday I asked Aubry to model her new dress for the camera and she was less than enthusiastic about it.  She didn't mind wearing the dress (she loves it), it was the camera part that didn't sound fun.  I told we would make it super quick--3 minutes or less--and then she could call it quits.

The sunshine was pretty cooperative which more than made up for my not-so-cooperative model.

I used one of the new Modkid patterns--Frida--by Patty Young and I loved it.  There are lots of photographs of the steps and the design of the dress is just adorable.  Flower Power and Bijoux fabrics were our final choices, although there were numerous bolts of fabric on the table when we finally decided.  I always have a hard time narrowing things down.

Sewing clothes still scares me a little bit, but I am getting better about trying new things.  Aubry wants one of the Lil' Chef sets, but she will have to wait until Micah gets a pair of pajama pants and I get going on my Darla quilt.  It is always nice to have a few things in the works as long as they fun projects like these ones!

This is what Aubry felt like after our 3 minute photo-shoot:

Happy Monday!

not my usual topic

My gardening clogs have been hiding under the couch all winter long and I was very glad when I found them since today is gardening day.  Onions and lettuces are popping up and we need to do some more planting as well as some weeding. 

In an effort to further our co-op garden by keeping the deer from snacking on it while we are not looking, a friend and I drove to the zoo to purchase some zoo-doo. 

"What is zoo-doo", you ask?

Well, zoo-doo is composted predator poop.  Herbivorous animals such as hippos and elephants contribute to it, and apparently the deer can smell their scent and won't come near. Or at least that is the idea.

Zoo-doo is quite the bargain:  $15.00 for our whole gardening season.  This beats the motion-sensitive sprinkler system we were thinking of trying.

When we arrived at the zoo, Jamie the zoo-doo man, asked us if we were planning on going out to lunch or running any errands after leaving.  Of course, we said "yes", and he suggested that would not be a good idea unless we didn't mind our car smelling like predator poop.  Being that we were two moms with a free afternoon we risked it and all turned out fine.  We didn't have to drive home with a brown cloud of stink in the car, although that might have made for a funny story, ya know?

Today is zoo-doo application day and I will be stopping at Walmart for a heavy-duty pair of plastic gloves.  There is no way these hands are going to touch the doo.  Actually I am considering letting one of my boys do it. This is one of those things that would be worth a small cash bribe, don't you think?

girl style

All three of my girls have style.

When my oldest was 2 years old she felt compelled to wear shorts all the time. This was in spite of the fact that it was the middle of winter and we had a foot of snow on the ground.  I will admit that the battle that developed became one of epic proportions until I realized that letting her wear short in the house while we were at home was no big deal.  She agreed to wear pants when we left the house.

A few years later she banned all dresses from her wardrobe and this lasted until about 3 years ago.  I knew she was head over heels in love when she wore  a dress on a date not to long ago.  I guess these things come around in their own time.

My daughter Emily took things to a whole new level.  Fairy wings and a mermaid costume were her daily choice for fashion.  Once in a while she even added a tutu that she wore on her head to make herself look like a flower.  Since I happen to be a person that doesn't like to attract a lot of attention, this was definitely a challenge for me in the grocery store.

These days Emily is making almost all of her clothes by hand and her sense of style is just amazing.  You will find her wearing a tutu occasionally, but not on her head.  Now she wears them under skirts, where they belong.

Aubry is kind of a mix between my two older girls.  Princess dresses one day, chucks and a skirt the next.  She is lucky in the sense that I don't really care anymore about how she dresses.  If a snow storm calls for shorts, why not simply add tights underneath?  Mismatched clothes?  You bet! 

You only live once.

My style is less noticeable, but I do wear pink shoes on most days.  It's called "girl style".

I learned it from my girls.

a basket, just because

A couple of friends and I attended a quilt/fabric expo recently.  The show has become our traditional girl's getaway and it always comes just when I most need the break.

We met a lady who made these adorable fabric baskets and she was kind enough to show us how to do it ourselves.  My friends and I got together once again to attempt to make them.    At first, we were all a bit ridiculous about the whole thing, but the baskets were very simple once we got the feel of it.

This one is now sitting on my desk next to my sewing machine holding a few of my necessities.

I found a tutorial that shows how to make the baskets here.

Really, it was fun to make something different from my normal.  And we can all use another storage basket, right?

Have a great Monday!

shop notes: modkid patterns are here!

Oh boy, are these patterns cute! 

I am in the middle of making a Frida dress for Aubry with some Flower Power prints and one Bijoux print.  It is a bolder fabric mix than I am used to, but I think it is working just fine.

As soon as I finish it up, I will show it off!

Have a nice weekend!

blogger's quilt festival!

Amy at Park City Girl is hosting a Blogger's Quilt Festival starting today and running through next week.  There will be lots of quilting/sewing/crafting inspiration and there will be giveaways---fabric giveaways! 

At some point during the festival I will be giving away any pattern from my shop plus the fabric to make it.  Fun stuff!

Today, in honor of the festival, I am posting a photo of the favorite quilt that I have made.  It has to be this one that I made last year for my cousin's baby:

It was too much fun playing with all of that fun fabric!

Go check out Amy's blog to find out how to join the fun!

Have a great Friday!

little girls and purses and picnics

Aubry and I stopped by the Dollar Store yesterday--just for the fun of it--and we found these adorable little purses.  We got one for her and her friend Christina who was expected for a visit.

The girls were so excited about the bags that they went on a picnic in the backyard.  Purses were filled with apples and baby necessities and off they went.

The trees become a playground and the little mommies took great care of their babes. 

The weather seemed nice enough for a sprinkler run-through, but that only lasted for about 2 minutes and they came to their senses and decided that 72 degrees just wasn't warm enough.  The tease of summertime was enough to make us happy.

I am thinking that my pots need to be filled with something soon:

In spite of the fact that we have a winter-weather-watch tonight, I am loving spring.

And little girls and purses and picnics.

let me clarify

Thanks for all of the craft/fabric room love!  I really do think it is amazing and I smile every time I go downstairs.  My hubs is a peach!

I wanted to clarify something.  In yesterday's post I mentioned that, as far as the room is concerned, "I could not have done this without his help".  In reality, he did the whole thing.  I was more of an idea-creating, screwdriver-fetching, cheerleader-type of helper.

Anyway, I just want to make sure that I give credit where credit is due!

A few months ago I bought this adorable print from the Tollipop  shop on Etsy:

It is just adorable.  I gave it my 18 year-old daughter when she moved out because it reminded me of her and Aubry.

Well, Tollipop is having a fantastic giveaway on her blog!  All you have to do is leave a comment on her post and you have a chance to win this cute little trio of pictures:

I'm in. Are you?

Have a great day!