Earth Day

My kids had lots of activities this week for earth day. Since Annie attends an environmental school--it was deffinately EARTH WEEK for her. For Beech, they celebrated earth day with a fashion show of outfits made out of recycled materials--so cute. Girls had garbage bag dresses and box hats with flowers. They also had a Lorax contest because the Lorax "stands for the trees". Beech and I went to Joannes to hunt for some eco-friendly fabric, something made out of recycled plastic. We found some great faux fur made out of plastic bottles. It was so cool, except Beech kept asking where the bottles were.

We spent some time in my studio this week working on his costume. Unfortunately, there were not directions online anywhere about how to sew a Lorax costume. So we had to make it up. Really, we just folded the fabric lengthwise and used a small plate to trace a circle for the face. Beech did most of the work and I helped here and there. He had to sew around some curves and that was more challenging for him--but he did it. The costume itself came out OK(I think we could do more shaping and darts on it for next year) but for his first costume that he made--I was so darn proud of him. Sadly, he did not end up being in the contest at school after all. As some little kids do....he was having a tough day and thus never made it down the recycled carpet fashion show runway that his school had constructed. But, the costume is now hanging in his room as a reminder of something he made.

Beech wanted to take some of his own pictures in the studio

One is of Beech taking a picture of...Beech. The other is of me sitting at the sewing machine

Auction Time for IHM

I had a lovely thing happen today. I drove to one of my dearest friends kids schools to donate two aprons for their school auction. When I took the aprons up to the parish building, I was greeted by four lovely ladies who had all been working on the school auction. One of the ladies, Gloria has been planning the auctions for over 20 years--can you imagine...Having just worked on my own sons school auction for roughly three months, several hours a week, I had a bit of insight to Gloria's world. It is truly a labor of love that comes with tons of work, follow up, lists, spreadsheets and tax info(I never would have imagined) Anyway, it was great to meet a veteran and also to be greeted so warmly--my aprons are a small donation for IHM that came with a very warm and grateful welcome--which makes the donation experience all the more special.

Since I have now narrowed down the fabric selection for the aprons I sell, I wanted to create a special combination of fabrics in the Modern Day Pinafore especially for this particular event. Something special for one of the most special, brave, caring, kind, compassionate and really...REALLY smart boys I know. So T-Man thanks for letting me donate these to your school and I love and admire you dearly.

XO
Nicey Ness

Getting Ready for Spring Craft Shows

I am starting to get ready to do a few craft shows in the next few months. I am trying to collect some new accessories for my table displays. It is really fun to hunt for some pretty spring trinkets. I will be doing a craft show on May 1st for the BMC Flea Market. I am really excited because I used to be a BMC mom and they are a lot of fun to hang out with. I think I want my table displays for this Flea market and other craft shows to be reflective of spring--lots of color, flowers, pretty containers and birds. Here are a few little display ideas I was playing around with today for storage on my tables. --I am just so excited spring is here.

I will also be doing a few fairs in Calaveras County this summer, in Murphys. It is a darling little town and I decided that I wanted a new form of transportation to get around town. So, I used some birthday money that my dad gave me and kicked it up old school--I bought a Schwin cruiser bike. I hope to have lots of lovely bike rides this summer into town to man my craft tables and to simply go get coffee and curl up with a book. Here is a picture of my new bike---ain't she a beaute!

Better Balancing Today

Just a quick post. I was able to make it back into my studio today to work on some aprons and re-take some pictures. It was a wonderful place to retreat to since I was lost in thought about my little boy who I feel really disconnected from. He is changing, no longer my preschooler. He now attends elementary school and I feel I need some direction...perhaps from a parenting class or book. I started reading, "The Wonder of Boys" by Michael Gurian today hoping that I will get some good insight about where his little mind is at and how I can understand him more. Anyway it was a pleasure to be able to escape into my little sewing studio as a distraction from my other job of being Beech and Annie's momma. Here are some new pictures that I took of the Alexander Henry, Juicy Lemons Pinafore and half apron--in a big sister/little sister set.

Balance

I am heading into new territory with trying to balance two busy kids and my little apron business. What I am learning is that there are days where I feel I am doing really well at one OR the other. But, I seem to be having trouble successfully working on both areas of my life in unison. For the most part, this is ok because I can make up sewing time on the weekends. However, I feel the kids are getting busier with their school schedules and upcoming spring craft shows will soon be here and I am going to have to be more diligent about learning to balance my time better; which is not an easy task for me. Anyway, one strategy that seems to be helping is trying to blend family and my MAD world together more.

Lately, when I have been working in my studio, Beech has wandered in to do some sewing too. So, together we hang out and work. He is getting pretty comfortable running my little Huskystar. It has three speeds which really allow him to gain control over his sewing. There I am working on my little aprons and he works on whatever project he seems to come up with and I manage to balance family and Mad Stitches time. And so it goes...Here he is sewing up an ipod case.

Hopefully, I can keep finding creative ways to blend the two most soul filling parts of my life together...

Mario Cart Fans

Just a quick post here. Back in February, my godson Jesse celebrated his 5th birthday. In their typical fashion, his parents(my brother) and his wife have these amazing parties--one year a carnival, another year was starwars and karaoke--and my sister in law and her bff make these crazy cakes that take days to make. Anyway, this years party was a dress up bowling party! So cool! As part of my present to my Godson, I made him and Beech Mario Brothers costumes.

I was so thankful to find a blogger out there who had posted how they constructed their sons Mario halloween costume, Debbie in Minniapolis. http://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/coolest-homemade-little-mario-costume-41.html  Thanks to her , I was able to get some good construction ideas for sewing the boys costumes. Similar to her attack, I found a Burda pattern for boys overalls (this was not easy to find since many 6 year olds just don't wear overalls anymore). Since I was in a time crunch,  I used fleece so I would not have to do much hemming. Debbie gave great directions on how to make the hats too. Anyway, here are the Mario and Luigi costumes which I made for under $14 by using my Joannes coupons...not bad.  Now I just hope they might want to wear them again for Halloween because then I would actually be a head of schedule for once! Thanks again to Debbie in Minniapolis for posting all of your GREAT directions!

Many Rounds of Dying

It has been busy around here getting ready for the Easter Bunny. We started a few weeks ago with dying easter eggs. I was the art parent at Annie's co-op and I thought it would be fun to dye easter eggs(somehow I romanticized this activity in my mind to go differently). Anyway, I went in armed and ready to teach Annie's class of two and half year olds to color eggs using the philosophy that my mom taught me..."a well planned attack begins with a well planned retreat".

                                                 Round 1
 At Annie's co-op, ALL of her little buddies circled around the table ready to dye eggs. I had brought in 2 dozen boiled eggs, but half were the brown eggs...it NEVER occurred to me when I boiled them that the brown ones would not be that easy to dye...yeesh...ya live and learn. Anyway, It was crazy and went quick--Each little toddler had their own way--some carefully placed their egg in the dye bowls, while others dropped their eggs in the dye. I also thought it would be a "good" idea to bring in bowls of glue and glitter for the eggs-- forgetting...my students were 2 years old. BUT...with the help of their moms, they managed to adorn their eggs. The activity lasted all of about 12 minutes, but I think they had fun.

Round 2

We did another dying activity at Annie's other preschool---again I was in charge (I do get myself into these things...). This time, I brought in all white eggs, a few different types of dye--oil and vinegar based. Some of these little kids were older, ages 3-5years old, so it was calmer. Again, each kid approached their egg dying differently--some were more careful than others and others were dying for the first time. All in all, it went a bit smoother than my first round of preschool students.

Round 3

Alas, we did one more round of dying eggs on Saturday with our family and cousins. FINALLY wising up--I put out a few crates of white bolied eggs and four bowls of simple vinegar dye....made some coffeesat down to catch up with my sister in law. In the end, I realized that you don't need many bells and whistles to entertain kids--a few eggs and some colored water will do JUST fine......

Happy Easter