Clothes for Chloe August 11, 2010

I don’t think a day passes that R. doesn’t bug me to make her some doll clothes for Chloe…

but today she made some of her own!

And she even took Chloe, the Waldorf doll I made her last Christmas, outside for a photo shoot (all of these pics are hers!)

She took one very old doll shirt and we printed out my new embroidery pattern from A Little Sweetness HERE

on some transfer paper for our printer that I bought a while back with a coupon at JoAnn’s

(I just knew it would come in handy)

and we transferred the design to the shirt and then R. colored it in with her fabric markers.

She also recently asked me to cut off a pair of jeans with a hole in the knee to make her some “Cut-off” shorts

(which by the way I think she set a whole new record on how many days in a row she could wear the same shorts in one week…

but sneaky as I am I washed them a few times while she was sleeping HA!)

and fashioned a little denim skirt with the bottom of the pant leg and a safety pin

(oh how I love how easily she is pleased with her designs!!!)

and dazzled it up with some glue and glitter.

Voila ~ Chloe has a whole new outfit and I barely had to lift a finger =0)

I’m thinking of a MILLION possible projects to make with that transfer paper that will keep R. entertained…

Happy sewing,

Colette

DC Trip April 12, 2010

We had an amazing time on our trip to DC this past week!

By far my favorite museum was the National Portrait Gallery.

It provided us with air conditioning on a 98 degree afternoon, was devoid of the huge crowds of the more popular museums (seriously it was so crowded that R. was pushed and had her hat knocked off while viewing the Hope Diamond at the Natural History Museum!) and made for a fantastic History lesson for R (this trip was perfectly timed to go with our homeschooling American History unit we just finished).

Saw an Andy Warhol portrait of Marilyn Monroe, an Edgar Degas painting of Mary Cassatt, a huge portrait of LL Cool J, a photo of The Grateful Dead (Jerry was thin and beardless!) and this (pictured above) super~fantastic license plate piece with the Preamble to the US Constitution.

We thoroughly enjoyed walking the charming area around the White House!

The architecture of the old buildings and monuments was so beautiful and very very clean (not sure why I was so surprised by this?)

Of course no trip to DC would be complete without seeing the White House.

The girls (my Mom flew out from CA and brought my niece with her!) spotted the “First Dog” Bo playing out on the lawn near the White House front door and I think that was the highlight of their trip!

We were so lucky that our trip coincided with the DC Cherry Blossom Festival ~ there is something like 3,000 cherry blossom trees in the area!

Even saw some beautiful blossoms at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, MD.

I don’t look anything like my Mom do I?  Ha ha!

Our trip came to a close with a lovely tea party for R.’s 9th birthday!

We had ventured out to Amish country in Pennsylvania the day before and picked up several tea cakes, cupcakes, breads, etc. from some local bakeries to put out for her tea party.

Of course, R. loved her Semi-Fantastic Mr. Fox I made her!

As much fun as we had…its always nice to return home.

Happy travels,

Colette

Change of Scenery March 25, 2010

Blogging has become one of my favorite creative outlets (I passionately love writing!) so when I saw a “call for writers” on one of my favorite homeschooling blogs, I jumped at the chance to send over a couple of my favorite pieces in hope of becoming “published” somewhere other than my own blog.  I am delighted to share that I am one of the new contributing writers over at the Lessons Pathways Blog!  Please visit the blog here to read my latest post “Change of Scenery: Schooling at the Library” AND you can even read about my “superpower” (ha ha, really…I have one!) on their Our People page here.

Happy schooling,

Colette

Fairy Tale Fridays! February 26, 2010

Princess complete!, originally uploaded by sew’nquilt.

Fridays around here are also known as homeschooling “Fairy Tale Fridays”. While perusing the classics section at our favorite local bookstore, I came across the Calla Editions of “Stories from Hans Christian Andersen” with illustrations by Edmund Dulac (here) and “East of the Sun and West of the Moon Old Tales from the North” illustrated by Kay Neilsen (here) and just had to own them!

I can’t describe in words how enchanting they are to pick up and read with R…we really do get lost in fairy tale land.

The illustrations are so beautiful that I would love to buy another set and frame some of them up in her reading nook.

I also came across these beautiful embroidery patterns (The Princess and the Pea pictured above) over at the Follow the White Bunny blog (here) and instantly fell in love!  Nicole Vos van Avezathe designs are available here in her Etsy shop Kloin (although it is closed until next week) or on Magpie Patterns here. As soon as I finish my Mother’s cross stitch I am going to start on this to go with R.’s Far Far Away Charm School quilt from Alewives Fabrics (here)…I am thinking it would make a beautiful pillow if I do some patchwork around it.

Wishing you a lovely weekend!

Happy sewing,
Colette

Emily’s New Blouse February 10, 2010

While I was busy sewing at my machine, R. was busy designing a doll blouse for Emily.  I love how creative kids are…when they want something ~ they just make it without worrying or fussing about it!  She drew a pattern of her own, traced it onto fabric, cut it out, and we sewed it up (together).

We are talking basic-basic sewing…no finished seams…we just threw a quick zig-zag stitch around all of the edges so that it would have that “unfinished frayed look” and used some no-fray on the edges of the sleeves to seal it.

She finished it off with a large white ribbon we had stashed (it was the ribbon that came around a pair of folded Christmas PJ’s) in the craft armoir.

Emily’s dress is reversible and has the same neckline (v-neck) on the back with a seam down the middle (ha ha I told her to “cut the front on the fold”, she did and then preceded to cut it down the middle…but she had “wanted it that way!”)

I think I might have a future seamstress on my hands???

Happy sewing,

Colette

A Little House Night! January 19, 2010

Last night we celebrated finishing the “Little House in the Big Woods” for homeschooling by having a special dinner dedicated to recreating a night like Laura and her family might of shared.  The plan was to have R make sweet potato fritters with fresh pineapple salsa from “The Meatless Gourmet” cookbook (with Daddy’s help) along with freshly baked bread (all from scratch and using only fresh ingredients just like back in the 1800’s), turn out all of the lights and use only candlelight (after the meal was prepared of course!) and R would play us songs on her violin (because music was such a big part of the Ingalls’ life), and share stories with us.  All in all it was a perfect night!

We started the morning off by making “Judy’s Board of Directors’ Cinnamon-Raisin Bread” from the book “Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day”.  This lovely book was given to me as a birthday gift last year by my dearest lifelong friend, Molly.  It started with a yeast and buttermilk base and I changed up the recipe to make it a bit more hearty and healthy by using Hodgson Mill’s  5o/50 white and whole wheat flour (it is blended for you for better baking!) and it turned out delicious.

I have to admit I have this fear of deviating from the recipe and thought it would turn out brick hard, but it didn’t.  I let R do most of the work (we did cheat by using my Kitchen Aid stand mixer) and I have to say she did a beautiful job.  It was a lot of work though!  Fortunately, another gift Molly gave me for my birthday the year before came in really handy, making it a breeze to roll out the dough to the 8X16″ rectangle and roll it all without sticking to this lovely handmade rolling mat!

It is made of a 17X23 1/2″ piece of unbleached cotton canvas, is hand-embroidered with “Pies by Colette” and three cherries and has a hand-embroidered red stitch running around the edges (edges were finished with the sewing machine) and she used a protractor and her sewing machine to make the center circles (8, 10, & 12″).  Clean-up is a snap ~ simply brush it off and throw it into the washing machine on delicate and hang dry.  It then rolls up and is tied with a ribbon for easy storage until the next time it is needed.

Can you tell how much I love this gift?  She gave it to me along with the “Sweety Pies” cookbook.  I just might have to make this for a few gifts this year!

I really enjoy giving a book along with my handmade gifts in part because I am a complete and total bookworm and I love to share my favorites with my friends and in part because I love putting together theme gifts.  I mostly purchase gently used copies (when available) from Alibris.com or my local Library’s book sale room.  I by no means attempt to pass them off as new…I simply prefer reusing items that have so much life left in them.