This Week

We are still getting plenty of use out of the easel that Mom and Dad gifted to us a while back.  Luci made a checklist of things for her to do during her day:

Slep  (sleep--get out of bed in the morning)
Et      (eat)
Play   (I think you can figure this one out!)
Slep  (sleep --go to bed at night)
Chorz  (chores)

Please, someone tell me:  How can she spell phonetically but not be able to read?

Luci grabbed my camera and had a photo shoot with her Barbie and Ken dolls...

Not too shabby of a photographer, huh?

I've been canning or freezing many things that John has grown in his garden.  I learned that I should not have cut the banana peppers because it looks a lot like canned calamari.

We have so many pickles (the cucumbers did quite well!) that I told John, "No more!"  He brought in two dozen cukes last week and I nearly cried.  We've started giving them away.

Sew much fun!

Luci wanted pajamas for her Barbies.  The last time I sewed for Barbie, I used an internet idea that used t-shirts--cut a circle, cut a head hole and arm holes, and viola.  The first time I sewed for Barbie, I nearly went mad, hence the t-shirt/circle idea.  Here is that post about the first time:  Harder than it looks. 

This time I hunted for free Barbie patterns on the internet, and found this page.  The patterns were fairly easy to follow.  I used the pants pattern (but made them larger in the waist and added elastic), and the crop-top (making the crop-top longer for modesty's sake).

Since we were hunting for "a little bit fuzzy" fabric, I also got a pajama pattern for Luci and made her a pair of pajamas, too.  All in all, four Barbies have pajamas now, and one real-live doll has pajamas.

To solve that problem of "which side is the front, mama?" I put a button in the front...and what do we call it?  A belly button!

Harder than It Looks

I don't know how my mother did it.  She made the most gorgeous dresses for my Barbie (and for my sister's Barbie, too--can't forget Janet!).  I remember one that was golden and had an overlay of something gauzy that was just incredible.  At the waist, there was a little rosette made from shiny golden rickrack.  Amazing.

So, that was the standard I had in my mind when Luci begged pleaded sweetly asked me to make Barbie dresses for her Barbie. 

Today we went shopping, found a pattern with six different Barbie-type outfits in it, and found "the perfect pink fabric, mama!"  I was thrilled that Luci could see a red dress on the pattern envelope and decide it would be even better as pink.  Not that I'm so in love with pink (it is a fine color, don't get me wrong) but happy that she could imagine it different, and better in her eyes.  It is a true blessing to be able to see "what can be" instead of only "what's there."

Here Luci is pinning the pattern piece for the bodice to the fabric.  With seventeen pins.  SEVENTEEN, y'all!  And every single one of those pins (did I mention there were 17 of them?) were pinned through the material and directly to the tablecloth below.  Which is exactly why we have a cheap plastic tablecloth.  Because we have kids.

Don't you think Luci looks like a real fashion designer, with her side-pony tail and flower in her hair?  She thinks she looks the part!

It got pretty exciting at one point.  I was pleased with myself being all calm and everything, letting Luci "help" me pin the seams, tie the bow, stuff like that.  Until.  Until I noticed Luci crawling under the table, near the sewing machine's foot pedal.  It took me a few seconds to realize that she was getting awfully close to the foot pedal and then ZOOM!  The machine sewed the most delicate seam on the dress like a bunny rabbit!  No more calm mom.  When I got done yelling, I hugged Luci and told her she could help me, but NEVER touch the foot pedal again.  She walked away muttering something about a "psycho mom." 

The finished product.  I am so happy that Luci's happy, and that you cannot see the flubs in this photograph.  And that she chose the simplest dress from the six in the envelope for me to make.

Yes, that's the ironing board blocking the front door, and a water gun on the dining room table.  Not a big house.  And filled with KIDS.