Happy Birthday Elaine June

My friends Carolyn and Dave will be celebrating their daughter's third birthday all day today. Happy Birthday Elaine June. I made this outfit for her after finding the best fabric in Santa Cruz. It is farm print, they are organic farmers in New York, and there are VW Bugs driving all around the print, Carolyn once drove an orange Bug. Party it up and we hope to see you and your family someday soon.



Carolyn sent me this updated picture. The two of them look like they were made for each other.

Darn Andrew!

Andrew is always sending me emails with links to things I probably didn't need to know about. Today, he played the cute card. He knows I am a sucker!

From http://www.zooborns.com/zooborns/ , I now present to you some of the cutest baby animals from different zoos. Of course, I just wasted 15 minutes clicking through the baby animals, listed alphabetically, oh'ing and ah'ing. Now I want a clingy baby. Oh wait, I have one of those.

Manitoba Kangaroo

Baby Hippo



Baby Aardvark

Now go back to being productive members of society (Andrew).

Club Houses

We stopped at the Stanford Shopping Center the other evening and found all these clubhouses mixd in between the stores. They are part of an auction that takes place on June 6th. The pictures are really small because Andrew took them with his phone, but you can see some pictures of the clubhouses at the website:

http://www.rebuildingtogetherpeninsula.org/pages/dh_gallery_2009/dh_gallery_2009_02.html

I always think of my mother when I see these things because to this day, she still yearns for one.

Blake Talking

Birthday Confection

Since I helped Eliana make cupcakes for her birthday I thought I would make her a cupcake shirt for her birthday. Oh how I love this pattern. I tried to get her to try on the pear shirt to see if the sizing was okay and she refused. When she walked by the pear shirt she said, "yucky." So hopefully she will say "yummy" to this one.



Close up.

My New Camera

For Mother's Day, Blake and Andrew bought me a new digital camera so I could keep churning out videos of my child growing and exploring. They ended up getting me a Canon PowerShot SD1200 IS. I wanted a bare bones Kodak, but Andrew talked me into a few more features.

Now for some footage.

Baking

Last night I started reading the book A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. I am only writing this post to make a proclamation about baking (not trying to copy, I promise). Women across the world talk about how great it is to knead bread. To them, kneading bread is a way to connect with generations past while also allowing an outlet for frustrations.

Well, I hate it.

I hate the mess. I hate the sticky. And most of all, I hate that I actually get itchy between the fingers even after I have washed all the globs off my hands.

I guess I will have to stick to sewing because that actually makes me feel good from beginning to end.

My great friend Carolyn's Pizza Dough recipe:
Makes 2 Mid-Size Pizzas
1. Dissolve 2 1/4tsp (or 1 packet) YEAST with 1tsp honey or sugar in 1/2 cup warm water (between 110-115 degrees) for 5 minutes.
2. Mix 3 cups FLOUR*, 1tsp SALT, and a few Tab. OLIVE OIL in a large bowl
3. Mix the dry ingredients with your hand then pour in the yeast water, kneading with your hand. Add warm water to get the dough to stick together (it will be wet).
4. Knead for a few minutes, form a ball.
5. Cover in an oiled bowl.
6. Let rise for 1 hour
7. Split into two balls. Form the crust with your hands.
8. Bake in a 500 degree, hot oven for 5-10 minutes.

* Flour substitution: 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
few Tab. wheat germ

I didn't have any spelt on me so I used 1.5 cups all purpose plus 1.5 cups whole wheat pastry flour. I will let you know how it turns out tonight.

Here is the pizza (next time I am going to do a chicken/veggie pizza, but all I had was pepperoni). Delicious.

Meet Ella Kat

I had the great pleasure of meeting my friends Dara & Jason's new baby Ella Kat Smith. The picture was taken with the old camera so I look like I just gave birth. I actually started crying when I held her for the first time. She is perfect in every way and smelled so heavenly. Blake didn't get jealous at all and just wanted to touch and play with everything around their house. Jason is 6'7" so Ella has some legs on her. I love how I chopped off half of Jason's head. I didn't want to sacrifice any of Ella Kat so I made him suffer. I am tyring to give them space before I show up on their doorstep again!


Dara, Jason, and the wee one.

Vintage Sewing Patterns

I visited my family in Sacramento a couple of weeks ago and my Nana passed on some of her children's clothing patterns. I was so excited and once I finished a girl's birthday outfit (can't show you now because her mommy reads this blog) I got right to sewing this pattern. There isn't a date on this pattern, but I am guessing it is early 80's if my Nana was sewing for me or my sister? I love the pattern and only wish I had one in every size.



I found this fabric at Joann's after searching high and low for a modern/decent print. The whole wall of their Calico Cottons now have a warning saying, "Prop 65: This fabric contains formaldehyde." What next?

Anyways, I loved using the print and messed up because I didn't cut the piece out correctly, but the front pocket kind of makes it look less pieced together.


The back.


This dress will be given to Laurel, who I babysit, for her third birthday. I hope it fits. I still don't know if patterns are true to ages. I know I usually give kids clothing in one size larger than their age. Time will tell.

*The pictures are blurry because I had to hold Blake in one arm and take the picture with the other. Our little camera is very sick so the screen on the back shows red, wavy lines and I can't tell if my object is actually in the frame.