A gift for Shepherd

With our son Shepherd on the way very soon, I wanted to make him something handmade by me. I've made Ruby many dresses, but I feel like boys clothes are a bit more of a challenge. I love the thought of my kids having items from their chilldhood that they could easily hold on to and pass down to their children. My mom has actually made me three quilts that I've now given to Ruby, who always uses them for her tea party blankets! Seeing that I have never made a quilt, or have the time to make one, I opted for an easier route.
          Last year I checked out a few books from the library on how to make stuffed animals. The one inparticular that I liked was called Sew me, Love me: Best Stuffed Friends to Make by: Hsiu-Lan Kuei. It had great patterns that involved using scraps of fabric, which I had plenty of! So I chose the fox pattern and got to work. I did change a few things on the fox when I was constructing it, but overall, it turned out just like I wanted. Here is Shepherd's long legged friend.

As I was making the little fox, Ruby kept asking where hers was. I dug through more fabric and found some that would work for one more long legged friend. And since every little girl loves to dress things up, I made a denim skirt and scarf for the female fox :)

Anytime I attempt to sew something, I have a great idea in my head, but I always rush the process because I am so excited to see the outcome, or I am just very impatient and so the important details are not thought through. This time around something changed in me. I was able to really take my time going through each step...and I never had to use my seam ripper! I think that might be a first for me!

Countdown: 1 day left

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E

Nothing compares to waking up from the sunshine.Today I got my wake up call from Ruby. She climbed up on my bed at 7am yelling "Are you AWAKE, are you AWAKE?" How did I respond? Well, I got up and decided we were going to make delicious mickey mouse pancakes! She ran to her stool and started to drag it over to the counter. We began mixing and pouring the ingredients together.

There were many attempts to licking the spoon and sneaking a handful of flour :)

After an extensive amount of stirring on Ruby's part, I got our pan hot and began pouring the batter into the shape of mickey's head.

We finally were ready to eat...And the hardest part for Ruby was having to cut up our creation. But I think she didn't mind too much, she ate 2 mickey pancakes!



Countdown: 2 days left

First Day Away

Our family has been experiencing a lot of first in these past few months. The most recent one is actually the reason behind my desire to blog. Just over the mountains, in Seattle, is a wood shop where my husband is working on job for three months. This requires us to stay put in Yakima, while he hunkers down there during the week, only getting to see us on the weekends. We are expecting our second child sometime in the next few weeks, which is why I am not doing much traveling...even if it is only two and a half hours away.

Today was Jeremy's first day on the job, meaning it was the first full day with him gone. During his call home at lunch time, my daughter Ruby talked with him briefly and asked "did you get me a present?" I am not sure why she thought to ask that, so we reminded her that daddy is working, not out buying presents :)
For our first day on our own Ruby and I got to enjoy the sunshine with our friends outside. She played in the pool, washed her toys, and did an all-time favorite...covered herself with dirt and mud!

The count down for this week has begun. 3 days left.