summer 2010 pic recap.

just some random summer pics.....


sam and lilyanne having a spot of afternoon tea


"do you think they'll believe that we're staff?"


austin and dimi.


sam and gabby.


this is the way we wash the dog, wash the dog, wash the dog.....


austin @ operation purple camp.


operation purple camp. austin, pulling dimi on the swing (as opposed to PUSHING her on the swing)


samuel the gladiator.


about to bring down his worthy opponent.


making a splash!


big boxes can be LOADS of fun....especially when you put a big dog in them!


my cute boy.


BFFs :)


katie &hearts



thanks for looking!

key peninsula.

yesterday we went on a drive to the key peninsula. i don't know why we've never been there before when we've lived here for over 5 years and it's not even an hour away. i guess it is just a testament to the amount of gorgeous places that this part of the great northwest has to offer. we drove over the bridge and the first thing i noticed was the clear, blue-green water by the shore. odd for these parts, it looked almost tropical. we drove on the key peninsula highway through towns that were little more than a speck on the map (if that) that consisted of a general store, a laundromat and a few houses. we drove until we came to penrose point state park where we stopped for a snack, potty break, and to toss around the frisbee for awhile. it was a gorgeous park with a really long beach area, along with lots of grassy areas and trails. there is also a sizeable campground that we may have to go back to check out one of these days.


taking a break from frisbee for a minute


apparently, frisbees make her laugh.


austin. whom we had sent down to the beach to retrieve a runaway frisbee.


my studly husband ;) look at his form.


a pretty shot that i made nathan pull over to the side of the road for.



thanks for looking!

hanna knock-off jumper.

i saw this jumper on the back of the latest hanna andersson catalog and fell in love. i love the ruffly layers and the tonal colors.



what i did NOT love is the price. granted, the $28 sale price is better than the $40 regular price, but still a little too spendy for my thrifty nature. so i picked up a few t-shirts at the thrift store, and for a whopping $3 made this:


my daughter could not keep her eyes open to save her life. i was too lazy to hem all the layers, and besides, it's knit, it doesn't fray, and it "adds character" that way, is what i tell myself. if i could go back, i'd place all the layers up another inch or so, as you can see the top of some layers peeking out from the bottom of the previous layer....but hey, live and learn. the next one i make will be better.


a detail of the yoke. i cut leftover strips of material and made bias tape to finish the arm holes.

overall, i am really happy with this, since i totally had to make up my own pattern as i went! thanks for looking!

an example of our twisted senses of humor; OR why my kids will need years of therapy later.

so austin left last sunday for a week-long camp. i guess it took katie til tuesday to realize her brother was gone, as she had not been around on sunday when i took him to camp. she asked nathan where austin was, and he totally deadpanned: "he was being bad, so we sold him to a family in wyoming."

coincidentally, i happened to find a bed to put in his room this week as well. i thought we'd get the old one out (which he never actually slept in anymore) and the new one in, get his room all clean and organized for when he gets home. so while i was gone picking up the new one, nathan was at home disassembling the old one.

when i got home, nathan told me what he'd told katie. i laughed, not thinking she would actually *believe* him. most of the time, she'd call him out...."daddy, you're just kidding!" or "you're teasing me!" awhile later, i looked over at her and she had big huge teary eyes. i said "katie? what's the matter?" and she cries the most heartbreaking cry: "i-i-i w-want m-my b-buuuuuubbbbby b-back!" i could not help but burst out laughing. i said "katie! daddy was just kidding! we didn't *really* sell austin." and she replies "well then where is he and why did you take away his bed?" it was so sweet and funny and poignant and sad all at once.....and it reassured me that no matter how much they bicker, they really DO love one another.

"go green" upcycled dress.

i love how this dress turned out! it started out as a junior's x-small hoodie, and the bottom part was a shirt of my husbands back when he was a junior leader at a scout camp in high school :) it was SO simple too! i just cut off the hoodie right above the pocket, measured how far down i wanted the skirt to go, and then cut that much off of the bottom of my hubbie's shirt! since i used the bottom of the shirt i didn't have to hem it, either. his shirt was much wider so i gathered it first and then pinned and sewed! took a total of *maybe* a half hour? a fitting second chance for this "green" shirt!




(uh, yeeaaah. my son started walking through the pic with his popsicle. i took some others but as chance would have it, the dress turned out the best in THIS one. *sigh* just wanted to show off the length here, it goes to right above the knee.)

thanks for looking!

t-shirt recon.

yesterday i purged my kids' closets/dressers to determine what they still needed for school clothes. i had austin make me a pile of whatever didn't fit/he didn't wear/didn't like. there were 2 hanes t-shirts in the pile, a black one and a grey one. i decided to recon them into a skirt for katie. i wanted more of a tiered twirly skirt, but i was lazy and didn't want to do any more cutting/piecing than necessary so the result is more of a colorblock look. then i decided she needed a shirt to go with it, so i pulled out this white shirt that was stained on the front and covered some of the stainage with some flowers from the leftover shirt remnants. so for exactly zero dollars, i reconstructed/revamped 3 old shirts into a new outfit for katie. it makes me feel good to give new life to something that would have otherwise been headed for the trash or goodwill!




(close-up of flowers)

thanks for looking!

dino apron.

my friend tiffany's little girl gabby turned 3 last week. she is such a funny little thing, with her own quirky little personality, which i totally love about her &hearts she's not your typical "girly" girl....but rather her favorite thing right now is DINOSAURS! i wanted to make her an apron for cooking or art projects or PLAY-DOH....and when i came across this fabric at the store i knew it was destined to be gabster's apron. it is bright and colorful, just like her. i used this pattern by kymy over at "everything your mama made and more".


(disclaimer: my model *may* have been eating a sucker when i was photographing it....we apologize for any sucker remnants/slobber that may have gotten on it :)

thanks for looking!

vera bradley-esque purse.

i had a request for a purse, and i was given the "artistic freedom" to choose whatever fabrics i wanted. i found this fabric at joann's and immediately knew that was it. it is called "isabella serafina", i am not sure of the designer but i LOVE the print, it totally reminds me of one of my vera bradley bags. i used the phoebe pattern that i always use; i hope the recipient loves it!







thanks for looking!

strawberry fields skirt.

so this post made me want to hurry up and make something for katie out of this strawberry fabric i had laying around, before summer is over and it's too cold for lil' seersucker skirts.







i used this tutorial *again*, i know, she has like 20 of these skirts LOL (okay, not really) but it really is a great tutorial and super-cute style with the side-tie and all. plus TONS of twirl-a-bility :)

thanks for looking!