Onesie Refashion

We are blessed with an attic full of hand-me-downs for Lucy, so moving to the next size of clothing means opening the next box. But because of her big cloth-diapered bottom and homemade longies, Lucy sometimes needs different clothes than we've got. In the 6-9 month box, I've been wishing I had a few more dresses. So it was time for another onesie refashion.

I pulled out a few long-sleeved onesies that seemed like they'd make nice dresses. One of them was patterned, and I didn't have fabric that I thought went nicely with it. But then at Goodwill one night, I spotted an adult t-shirt I thought would look great with it:



I love the combo, and thought it would be so easy: cut off the bottom of the shirt, gather the top, sew it onto the onesie, and it's done! It would already be hemmed! But then I took a good look and realized there wasn't enough width to gather it. So I cut the shirt into two pieces, split them up the side, sewed them together into a bigger tube, and gathered that. But now the front of the skirt was hemmed, and the back not. And there was glittery serged stitching on the front, not on the back. So I dug through my vintage trims and found white bias tape with a pink scalloped edge, to cover the mess and tie the top of the dress visually to the bottom. And laboriously picked out all the original stitching. But now, I'm really pleased with how it looks:

Bowls in waiting

I love the Waldorf idea of a nature table, which inspired me to set up a seasonal arrangement on top of our CD cabinet. It was time for these shells to make way for fall. I set out one of my favorite Autumn books (I always use the books from this series with my seasonal displays; I love them all.) And I added a collection of wooden bowls, and my beloved wooden acorns. But I left the rest empty, as a provocation (an idea from the preschools of Reggio Emilia, where teachers set up something compelling to provoke children's thinking.)

By the end of the day, this is how it looked (above). The children and I had filled one bowl with a variety of seedpods from the garden, and another with various nut shells (we'd intended acorns, but couldn't find any. Where are they this year?) We'd also added a vase, to hold the dried fern frond we'd picked. One of the children told me he knew of a park where there are lots of acorns; he said "I'll collect some for you when I go there." We're thinking crab apples and colored leaves for some of the other bowls. And the rest? We'll see...

Independence Days challenge, week 22

Time again for Sharon's Independence Day's Challenge:


Lucy comes for a bite of pear as Andi preps them for canning, arm-chair style.

1. Plant something: No. Must become a better gardener!
2. Harvest something: Eggs. Goldenrod.
3. Preserve something: Canned 9-1/2 qts. grape juice, 1/2 pt. jalepenos, 12-1/2 pts corn relish, 4 pts. ketchup, 9 qts. pears. Dried goldenrod, 3 pts. tomatoes. Froze 2 lbs. broccoli, 4 lbs. tomatoes.
4. Waste not: Same old, same old.
5. Preparation and storage: Re-organized canning shelves into clear categories (pickles, ketchup/salsas/chutneys, canned fruit, jams/jellys/syrups), tomatoes/tomato sauce).
Got a big pile of future homeschooling books at a book sale.
6. Build community food systems: Blogged about how we organize our food storage inventory. Continued canning "lessons" for friends.
7. Eat the food: Nothing new here.

Orange biography mystery, solved at last

This weekend was one of our favorite annual book sales. I maneuvered myself, Lucy in the sling, and my two rapidly-filling tote bags through the crowd around the children's book table, and then all around the room, and came away with a lot of treasures! I didn't find as many picture books as usual, but I got a bunch of good books for the future. (I justify my book hoarding because "it's our children's education!)



These were my most exciting find. When I was in elementary school in the 70s, I read every one of a series of biographies in my school library. I remember their orange covers. I remember where they were on the shelves. I remember loving them. But I haven't been able to remember what they were! I finally figured it out when I spotted these and recognized them instantly (under those dust jackets are the orange covers). They're from the "Childhood of Famous Americans" series. Now I remember that what was so engaging about them was that they were about kids, and you got to see what made them into the adults they were to become. I'm excited to get reacquainted with them and see if I still like them as an adult. If so, I'd love to collect more of them for our children.

I also found two other 1970s books that I would have loved had I known of them back then (who am I kidding? I love them now!).

The first is Kids are Natural Cooks, which was written by a parent-coop nursery school. It perfectly suits the way our family cooks now--it's organized by seasons, emphasizes whole foods, and teaches children how to make things (yogurt, sprouts, even gelatin) from scratch. And--how cool is this?--they set up a table of ingredients for the kids, let them choose what they wanted, wrote down the recipe they created that way, and then cooked up their concoctions. Some of the yummier creations ended up as recipes in the book. Awesome. I've got to do that some day.

The other one is Miss Patch's Learn-to-Sew Book. This book makes it look so easy, and yet doesn't talk down to kids. In fact, by the end, she's got them sewing doll clothes and even clothes for themselves from patterns they've drafted! I needed this book long ago!

There's more...lots more. But those were the ones that really thrilled me.

Rockabye, baby...

...on the clothesline. Best nap all week.

"Goes where the fun is...year 'round"

Here's a lucky find from the Goodwill last night (It was $1! I love their prices on linens.)



It's super soft and cozy, and gives me inspiration for re-doing the couch and chairs for the fall. Yes, I just made new pillow covers, but they are summery. Now I want to make more. Hmmm...what fabric would go with this color palette?

I love the tag in the corner:



Let's hope it brings lots of fun this fall!

A silent invitation: before, during, after