all buttoned up.

And We Press Onwards.

I've been mostly writing on the weekends-- or on the cusp of the weekends-- since that seems to be the time when my mind is mostly in order.  I say mostly because I have been lacking a good amount of order and decisiveness in my week which amounts to a lot of staring into space at the end of the day.  It is my free time, but dang it if I can make a good decision about how to use it these days.  For me, it has been one of the  only differences between having one or two children.  With Sam, I was still capable of a good amount of focus and energy at the end of the day-- I also worked part-time up until Augie came  home, which makes me think maybe I should start doing that again. 

I am sure fatigue has something to do with it.  I am also quite sure that the dynamic of brothers and all their violent love for each other has a little to do with it.  They tap me out, Man. 

Generally speaking, I can muster a little stick-to-it-edness on the weekends and so here we are:  Friday and full of determination.  (And if Tuesday's election results aren't going to kick me into gear, I don't know what will.**) 

Miss Four is having a little shindig this afternoon and Sam picked out the greatest/creepiest book for her-- Fairy Houses and Beyond.  I don't know if Amy is going to like me more or less after she sees it.  The pictures are kind of crazy from a technical standpoint and we probably should have gotten her the first one, since the  "Beyond" part makes it sound like you stepped in the middle of something.  Seriously though, I can get down with a good fairy house and their website is somethin' else.  Do you have a fairy house?  I need to get Sam on this STAT, before he get even more gender specific with his play

We made her a flower crown, too, from my stash of fake flowers.  I wouldn't say that I'm the sort of person to have a stash of fake flowers, but there you go.  They make sweet little bouquets that get the preschool set all excited.  Plus, they are cheap to make and they last forever (I'll admit, the forever part is creepy in the whole save-the-planet sort of way).  

Other girlie gifts in the same vein:  The eeBoo catalogue is very, very nice.  We got the paper dolls (they are actually the vinyl sticker kind) for another birthday party this weekend and the Sketchbook/Pencil page is also quite good.  Spending a half hour at a toy store looking at all this stuff is about as girlie as I'm able to get these days.

** And now for Tuesday.  It was a good, good day and I am still surprised at how quickly it all happened-- surprised and so relieved.  There is so much to be done and murky results would have wasted so much time.  This whole Proposition 8 business is no good however, and I'm devastated that fear and misinformation won out in  Arkansas, where single parents will be denied the opportunity to adopt or provide foster care to children who need safe and loving adults in their lives.  I feel like we should be able to do better than that. 

But back to Friday.  I've got work to do.

This Week.

This is the sort of week I started dreading last week.  It's full of things I'd rather not think about.  This last weekend was a good one, though. 

Blair came.  Good friends are life-giving.  We went to the Life and Limb for the 3191 opening.  I really love that book, and besides that my arm and right boob are featured prominently on page 116.  You're welcome.

Halloween.  It was Paul's first time home with us, the weather was perfect, and Sam wore his costume from last year.  EASY.  Plus, my sister and her family was here, and there's nothing much better than a baby in a beaver costume.  Oh wait-- two babies in beaver costumes. 

We got two days with Cute and Cuter (my niece and nephew).  They all did so well together, which is saying something for 2 babies (one of which who thinks he's not a baby), a 2 1/2 year old, and Mr. Social.  Sam is getting to be such a big guy.  He's becoming smart and kind and maybe, maybe we're seeing the end of the whole selfish small person thing.  It is good. 

The rain has come.  This is a good thing even though, despite our best intentions, we didn't get all (any) of our leaves up.  So we are yellow for a while which is just fine with me.  

And lastly-- NUMBER 114, Jennifer W. won the free bags from Delight last week.  Thanks for commenting everybody.  I put that coupon code to good use.

Just Call Me Kevin

So what is today-- the 6th?  Okay.  By the time this is published it will be the 7th and I'll be a week into what was supposed to be post-a-little-every-day October.  Hah! 

Starting NOW. 

The Eggplant and I are taking a pattern drafting class at PCC this fall and I'm pretty excited.  The teacher is good and very knowledgable and I am already geeking out on some of the preliminary stuff we covered last week.  Our second class is tonight and I have high hopes.  This, considering I forgot the single most important tool for our last cutting and pasting class-- my scissors, AND considering we both think the instructor assumes I'm a bit slow.  I'm not sure if all my smiling was taken as cluelessness, but she kept looking at me and saying "it's okay if you don't understand all of this right away.  We'll go slower."  Awesome.  

Summer's Last Stand.

It's very warm outside and I feel wholly guilty for spending so much time thinking about apples and pears and corn.  We killed half of that list this weekend by heading out to Hood River and returning home with nearly 100 pounds of apples that needed dealing with (I only kept about 40lbs... the rest were cut, frozen and sent to good homes).  We were a little early (just so you know, Portland, you'll have plenty of time to get going with the Fruit Loop.  We were told that the cool nights are keeping the season nice and slow right now.) but that just made the choices easier-- Gravenstein and Tokyo Rose for freezing and new Galas for eating.  The Bartlett's were beautiful, too.  Sam has been limited to eating two pears a day until they are gone. 

To freeze: I just peeled, cored, and sliced the fruit and put in freezer bags with a little lemon juice.  For the applesauce, I cooked a stock pot of apples down on low with a little water (just to get them started so they don't burn on the bottom) and a little bit of sweetener.  I went a little overboard on the sauce thinking the kids could eat it all winter.  Of course, as soon as I was finished and Sam tried it, he declared it "not good".  More for me, I guess. 

**

Ink and Peat was beautiful.  Jen, your work looked great. 

**

The weather is great for building my confidence on the Bakfiets.  The love affair continues.  Carrie put up a really nice bit on Apartment Therapy's Ohdeedoh and Re-Nest yesterday.  While I hadn't anticipated Paul's responsibility as a parent being called into question, I'm not too surprised that there have been comments made regarding helmet safety, etc.  Helmets for babies are very tricky things and that's why we've chosen to strap August into one of the safest carseats on the market.  Putting a helmet on him forces his neck/head forward and into his chin which is not only uncomfortable but dangerous.  Many families in town have made a similar decision.  As for the grown-ups in the family, we generally wear helmets any time we bike outside the neighborhood.  Don't even get me started on the crazy stuff we both used to do as kids.  I'll just say that the safety of our children is paramount and we wouldn't knowingly do anything to thrust them into harm's way. 

Things To Do: The Autumnal Edition

• I love September nights.  I love October nights.  Spend lots of time outside during both of these months.
• In that vein, go visit the Swifts next week.  Who's game?
• Teach a Freezer Paper Stencil class on October 16 at Bolt.  I hate to say it, but the gift giving season approacheth.
• Hoof it to Hood River this weekend and drive the Fruit Loop.
• Make and freeze applesauce this week.
• Stop in at Ink and Peat on Saturday night and pine after Jen's latest work. 
• Get to work on Olive and Archie (try to make Hillary proud).
• Say good-bye.  Cry a little. 
• Cry a little more because baby boy is walking and will be a year old way too soon.

Thwarted

I'm going to do some sewing today which I'm very excited about and might not happen at all since I continue to be distracted by the gorgeous weather, freezer jam, my no-sleep baby, and finally, a hit-and-run the other night which totaled our parked truck.  See?  Some good and some bad keeps things from getting dull around here.  And it's very zen, I think.

Erin's post did me right in with the jam and her pictures are the ones I wished I had taken so there you go.  Here's one of Mr. 11 o'clock bedtime though.  I'll spare you a picture of the truck.  She hit four cars-- three parked in front of our house-- pinball style and then a fourth car up the street. I'm not sure she knew what happened and just kept driving, which proved to be difficult as one of her tires had finally come off.  In the words of her insurance agent, "wow.  She must have been wasted".  Yes.  Yes, she was.  Another agent told me that the whole thing was crazy.  It's kind of exciting to get Insurance people all riled up.

So, I'm going to sew today and hopefully finish something by tonight.  I made this little seersucker skirt a few weeks ago.  The top is from Tea and both things need to go in the mail to a sweet, sweet baby girl in Tennessee.  I like combining homemade and not-so-much with clothing gifts.  Kind of like a good news/bad news gift depending on ones gift preference.  The skirt is just a gathered tube with a contrasting hem and ric rac trim.  I'm throwing in some Babylegs in lieu of sewing underpants.

***
Andrea figured out the picture thing for me, and I think I finally have it squared away.  'Course, there's always room for screw ups, so I apologize in advance for crazy monster-sized-way-too-small photos while I stumble through being an Html dummy.  For those of you still mad at typepad:  I go into flickr, hit "all sizes", choose a download size, and cut and paste the code that shows up at the bottom of the page into the "HTML"  compose editor.  So far, so good. 

sweetness and light

We visited a garage sale around the corner and after two trips came home with this rocker for the boys.  The seller had reupholstered it about 40 years ago for her son and it hadn't been used since.  I paid 20 dollars for it which I thought was a lot but would've kicked myself HARD if I'd left it alone.

It has become a major player in our Antiques Roadshow game where Sam drags it across the room and proceeds to tell a long sad tale about his mother in England who bought it for him and died because she was mad (yeah, I know).  He's watched the show a couple of times and apparently it's stuck.  He insists on flipping it over to show me the wood made of metal worth at least 4 dollars.  "Thank you for bringing it in to show me."  He somehow plays both parts but insists that he's the "guy" and one of us is "the people", so I don't know.  The funniest part is that he only brings me things that he's decided are old or antique-ish or whatever, and I LOVE how he scorns the idea of shiny and new.  Those things are just not roadshow worthy. 

Other sweetness making things go 'round:

• My friend Hannah has a show in KC on Friday night.  I wish I could be there to see it and her.  If you go, introduce yourself and say that you don't read her blog.  That would be awesome.  Better yet, introduce yourself, tell her you don't read her blog, but tell her that you read mine.  And if you chicken out and don't introduce yourself you can just pretend you're there to look at all the awesome shoes.  It is good to have a contingency plan.  
• One of these little bowls came to me from Bridgman Pottery and it is so delicate and utilitarian and good.  Molly wrote about hers and Melissa was good enough to let me know when she had more ready.  Pretty, pretty.  Berries (all the fruit, really) are a good three weeks behind here in the Northwest and I am chomping at the bit to go u-pick.  Our little neighborhood Farmer's Market was so pathetic this week
• The Depot is having their Outdoor Sale and they have a ton of cute knits (lightweight solids especially), great denim and then piles of crazy stuff for very cheap.  I got sucked in.  Big time. 

Good Medicine.

Friday was nearly disastrous.  NEARLY.  Bad things were goin' down.  I got in my car and drove to the two happiest places I could think of at that moment.  Wouldn't you know it, Ella Posie topped my list.  I met the warm and lovely Alicia who really is that great-- somehow lacking a single bone of pretention or insincerity (this is Portland, after all), instead-- HAPPINESS!  CHEER!  PRETTY THINGS!  (and drinking a Big Gulp no less).  If I had the time, I would show up at her place every afternoon for proper tea and total distraction from getting any and all important things done.

I picked up the above little business for my sister who is nearing the end of pregnancy and thus, a normal life.  If she doesn't love it as much as I do, I will take it back for myself. 

Then on to Bolt to spend some gift certificate cash and check in on their first big sale.

I got home far happier than when I had left, ready to face what would turn out to be a really really good weekend.  There is trim going up! Sewing project that are actually getting finished!  Time with friends! And today, a trip to buy Japanese Craft Books with somebody elses money.  Does it get any better?  Add a little chocolate, and I think not.