Summer Skirt

Happy Midsummer Day to you all! In our home, we leave a little tea party for the fairies tonight. They have been very obliging with little gifts in the past, so we hope to be able to share them with you tomorrow!

Since it's now officially summer, I felt that I really needed some new attire befitting the season, and so I present the first of what I plan to be a series of at least five new summer skirts:

I whipped this one out on Tuesday night, and added the ruffle in a bit of mojito-induced slap-happiness which kicked in when I noticed that the two fabrics coordinated perfectly. (Is inebriated sewing recommended? Don't answer that question ~ I assure you it is purely rhetorical.) By the next morning, I was feeling a bit of ruffle regret. But I think I like it now. So, not to worry.

Then I added one of my most cherished vintage buttons to the waistband, for good measure:

Now all that's left for me to do (besides making the other four skirts, I mean), is to kick back, put my feet up,

and enjoy a bit of this:

Happy Summer!

{Edited: The skirt "pattern" is a simple straight skirt with a zipper and button waistband, which I made using the instructions in Sew What! Skirts: 16 Simple Styles You Can Make with Fabulous Fabrics.}

A Quilt for Claire

Elisabeth has had a little piggy bank since she was born (well, actually it was part of a game at my baby shower when I was pregnant with her, so it was actually before she was born), and although she doesn't have an allowance, we often give her change to put into her bank. Several months ago, she became really fixated on buying this doll bed for Claire, and since she had more than half of the money for it in her piggy bank already (five years of change, you know), we told her that she could buy it once she had the full amount in there. (I kind of cheated and gave her extra money from time to time.) She was very patient and never wavered in her resolve to save for that bed. So several weeks ago, she finally had enough change, and we ceremoniously brought the contents of her piggy bank to the bank to be counted in their machine. She is too little to really grasp the value of money, but she was so very thrilled to be able to buy this bed all by herself, though it doesn't matter to her if it was $7 or $70 or $700.

She was a little dismayed, however, when it arrived without the quilt, but more than satisfied when I told her that she could pick her own fabric and I'd make a quilt especially for her and Claire. I finished the quilt at the end of last week, and although it's not perfect (my first solo quilting project -- the big quilt with my mom having been set aside for the time being), she is so totally thrilled.

(These two photos are showing up really poorly in my browser, but clicking on them takes you to their individual Flickr pages, where they look more clear.)

The embroidery image is from a little paper-doll-girl rubber stamp that I stamped onto the fabric (using a fabric marker to ink the stamp). The quilt is self-bound with the backing, which was my lazy "this-is-how-I-make-blankets" way of doing the quilt binding, and a mistake I will not be repeating. Then I just ran it through my machine for some quick stitch-in-the-ditch quilting, and voila! A quilt for dolly.

up in the air so blue

How do you like to go up in a swing,
   Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
   Ever a child can do!

-Robert Louis Stevenson

{I remember my mom reciting this poem ~ a favorite of hers, and mine ~ many times throughout my childhood.}

Daddy's Day - a day late

I hope all the daddies & families out there enjoyed as lovely a day yesterday as we did.

Although I am generally quite cynical about "Hallmark holidays", I will say that it's nice to be reminded to take a day to really say how much we appreciate all that this man does with us and for us every day of the year. Sometimes we don't tell him enough what a truly funny, generous, humble, loving, hilariously funny, really funny, great daddy (and husband, and mojito-maker, and dishwasher extraordinaire) he is. Thank you, my love, for everything. 

A Little Boy

I've got this little boy now. Sometimes he is still such a little, wee baby boy. And sometimes he is such a big toddler boy:

And I've been thinking a lot lately -- a lot, even though it seems like a silly way to spend my time -- about this "internet name" he has: JJ, his first and middle initials; so uninspired. I hate it, and I think the first few posts I wrote, I referred to him as "the baby" in order to avoid coming up with something. Anyway, the more I think about this "JJ" name, and the more I get to know the real boy who is my son, the less I want to use it. Would it be too terribly confusing if I changed it? If I promise to go through my archives and change it on the whole blog? Because I really think I need to. For my mama soul.

{I have now gone through all of my archived posts and first changed his name from JJ to "Jem," inspired by the eldest son of Anne of Green Gables, and now, finally, I have replaced both children's internet names with their real ones.}

FAQ

My name is Grace, and I started this blog in November of 2006 as a way of recognizing and keeping track of positive and beautiful things in my daily life. As a pretty crafty person, it also became about cataloging my creative work.

I'm married to a musician and teacher, and mama to three sweet wee ones.

Sometimes I get questions about our life or the equipment I use, and I thought I could answer a few of the more common ones here. If these answers give you even more questions, please don't hesitate to email me! I can be an inconsistent emailer, but I'll do my best to answer your questions! You can contact me at uncommongrace@comcast.net.

*What kind of camera do you use? I take all of my photos with a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi (also known as the 400D). I have several lenses for the camera, including a 30mm prime lens, a 100mm telephoto lens, and a 60mm macro lens. A few of my friends have debated heavily between purchasing a Canon and a Nikon when upgrading to a "big" camera, and inevitably ask why I opted for Canon. I had a few reasons -- I had read a lot of favorable reviews for the XTi, which was brand-new at that time (and is most equivalent to the D80 in the Nikon line). Another was that there are more lenses available in the Canon line, especially for the mid-range DSLR's. Many people who are better photographers than I will say that the difference between two similar cameras can usually be summarized with which has the better lens, so a wide variety of lenses from which to choose was pretty important to me. Another thing that I have noticed, when I see a big bank of photographers at the Olympics or something, is that so many of them use Canons (and the signature white Canon telephoto lenses). So, I figure, if Canon is good enough for them, it's definitely good enough for me! ;)

I don't have any "official" photography training. Most of what I know is from reading the owner's manual to my camera, looking at photos on Flickr to discover what appeals to me visually, and by trial and error -- I do lots of experimentation! I try to do most of my photography in natural light, and I never use the in-camera flash.

*What sewing machine do you use? I bought a <A href="http://www.berninausa.com/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTprd_id=845524441868388&FOLDERfolder_id=2534374302025051&ASSORTMENTast_id=1408474395181831&bmUID=1192125341965">Bernina aurora 430 in August of 2007. It replaced a mechanical Brother machine that I'd been using since I started sewing "again" as a mother. I learned to sew as a girl on the machine my mom has had since she was 13. I agree with those who have said that having a nice sewing machine has changed the way they sew for the better -- and the smoothness and ease of operation on my Bernina make sewing such a pleasant and relaxing experience. However, it really is more machine than I need, and if I were going back in time, I might choose a less-fancy model.

I also have a Baby Lock Imagine serger which I use for finishing seams on garments and doll clothes. I upgraded to the Baby Lock after a year of frustration on a 20-year-old (also Brother) serger that I'd gotten from Craigslist. I used to roll my eyes a little bit when people said that a bad serger is worse than no serger at all, but now I think I'm singing a different tune. Having a better serger has definitely saved me time and a lot of frustration. I probably use the sewing machine more than the serger, although they are both useful and special in different ways.

*Do you sell your dolls? I have a whole FAQ devoted just to doll questions here!

*Can you talk more about your approach to homeschooling? I do get a fair number of questions about this, in particular about our Waldorf approach to homeschooling. It hasn't figured heavily into the content of this blog for a couple of reasons -- one being that in Waldorf pedagogy, formal "schooling" doesn't begin until 1st grade. Before that, the focus is on living daily life in a rhythmic and meaningful way, an aspect of our lives that is pretty clear in my blogging. The other reason is that this is not a homeschooling blog, per se, and so many of my readers are not homeschooling families. In an effort not to exclude my non-homeschooling readers, I haven't talked too much about it. Now that my oldest child is officially school-aged, I will probably include a few homeschooling posts here from time to time. In the meantime, I invite you to visit Christopherus Homeschool Resources, which is the primary curriculum resource we use.

*Can you share your experiences about having grown up as a homeschooler? I would be happy to engage in a one-on-one discussion with anyone interested in hearing about my experiences. I do not wish to scare anyone off, but I am open to answering any questions you may have. Sometimes when people ask me about my experiences, I sense that they are surprised and even a little disappointed by what I have to say. Being homeschooled was not a "magical" solution that prevented me and my three siblings from making mistakes in life. But I would not trade the experience for anything, and that's one reason that we chose to homeschool our own children. I'll briefly summarize my experience here as follows: Although I wasn't aware of the term "unschooling" until I was an adult, my parents definitely used an unschooling approach and were followers of John Holt. I was very happy with my homeschooling experience, although my three younger siblings all have varying levels of satisfaction with the experience. Were I to do anything differently than my own parents, it would be to seek more support for parents as well as children, use an educational philosophy (for me, it's Waldorf) to inform our exploration, and use public high school when the time comes in order to avoid many of the issues (mostly around extracurricular activities, not so much social opportunities or academics) that my sisters in particular felt regarding having been homeschooled.

*You have mentioned that you are a Christian. Why do you celebrate the Winter Solstice? We are a Christian family, and most of our celebration throughout the year does focus on Christian festivals. However, I find that everyone in our home -- the children and adults alike -- benefit very much from observation, awareness, and closeness with nature. Experiencing the changing seasons helps my children follow the passage of time in a very tangible way. We began celebrating the Winter Solstice a few years ago as another way to balance out a holiday season that had become too frenzied and hectic. Marking the universal importance and beauty of this time with a bit of extra reverence (we like to celebrate the Solstice by decorating an outdoor tree -- inspired by this book -- and spending a cozy evening before the fire sharing stories and taking a pause from the rush of preparation for Christmas) has become so very special in our home, but is in no way a "religious" observance. I don't feel that it conflicts with our Christian beliefs at all -- rather, I think that it compliments them rather well.

*Who is this mysterious husband of yours? Are you really married? Do you get along? (Yes, this is truly a question that more than one person has asked!) And, yes, I really am married. I do try to keep my husband's identity as private as possible on the blog in an attempt to keep certain details about our lives private. I think everyone has a certain comfort level about how much they are OK with sharing in such a public forum. For the most part, I try to keep our location and last name private. Sometimes, not sharing things about my husband and his successes in his music career feels a bit strange, but it's a decision I have made in order to keep the lines between public and private a little more clear. So, though his absence here can sometimes feel like a glaring omission, he's here, if a bit behind the scenes. We met in college, were married less than two years after we started dating, and though we have the occasional things that we bicker about (like any married couple), we are fundamentally very similar and we really do get along quite well. :)

*Is red your natural hair color? If not, who colors it for you?! Sorry, ladies, it's natural. ;)

More about me here and here.

from the recording studio

These are not my photos, but my husband's, from his recording session last week. He gets so much less opportunity with the camera than I do, but I am always impressed by his captures. He has such a good eye, and for the most part, only tries once. (Not like me. A girl who has taken 5000 pictures in 7 months. Wouldn't it be funny if that were a joke?)

I want to go on and on in my rambling way about music and being musicians and what a cool opportunity it is to live that life and the amazing things that music has brought into our lives. (Like one other, n'est-ce pas?) But I really will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

summer corners

We are loving the colors of summer, and the spaces that suddenly present themselves as bits of home ~ a planter that was barren, empty, and ignored all winter; a post out front suddenly come to life with vines.

I love that these corners quite literally come to life in the summertime and that our definition of "home space" expands to accomodate that, just as I love the contraction of wintertime and the coziness of that time. But winter is a long way off from today!

I also love the constant, predictable rhythm that our seasonal table enables us to establish all year round. Its contents remain very similar throughout the year -- a seasonal doll, some postcards, the tree -- but it is a really organic process, too. Elisabeth adds bits to it frequently, and though it's quite bare in its early summer state, soon enough I'm sure it will be adorned with many discoveries from outdoors: pretty stones, flowers, leaves, shells, and even small pieces of a fallen wasps' nest have all found their home here in summers past. I can't wait to see what beauty this season and my children will welcome and bestow in this little space over the coming months.

Happy weekend!

just pictures

My husband is in a recording session this week and has my camera with him (oh, take care of it, my love!), so I have no photos of new projects to show you. So instead, please enjoy the summery goodness of these photos from the weekend.

end of spring, beginning of summer...

Today is the "official first day of summer" in our home. Elisabeth began swimming lessons, my husband is finished with work until he starts his new job in August, and we are outdoors most of the day -- and into the night!

{Pants by me, anklets -- from pants scraps -- by Elisabeth.}

Last week, as the last week of spring, also marked the end of an arts class Elisabeth has been taking. It was a great experience, incorporating visual arts, dance, drama, and music. Elisabeth's favorite parts were drama and dance, of course. ;)

While this class was a fabulous opportunity for her, and one which she really enjoyed, we are all looking forward to more outdoor activities as summer swings into gear ... more outdoor meals, camping, swimming, and general basking in outdoor goodness.

Oh, Summer, how I love thee!

new cousins

When my sister got married a while back, two little girls joined our lives and family in addition to a new brother-in-law. I admit that at first I didn't know how to react to having two new nieces overnight. But it is turning out to be even better than any of us (adults) could've hoped. Elisabeth is so thrilled to have two new cousins so close in age (my husband's nieces and nephews are all a lot older than our children), and it has given my sister and me something new to share with one another.

These shots are from a recent afternoon when the younger of the girls spent the afternoon with us while my sister took the eldest to a birthday party.

It feels like it has been such a long time that I have been doing the "mama thing" while my three younger siblings have been going to college and doing the "20's thing." So it's been really fun to reconnect with my sister at the zoo, over sprinklers (that the kids are running through), and through naptimes and bedtimes. Her experience as a (new) step-mom is different than my mothering experience, but there are a lot of things about the day-to-day joys and challenges of being with children that we share.

wreath of flowers

Last weekend, while Daddy had a long day of rehearsals and work, I took the children to a local Waldorf school May faire. We had a wonderful time crawling through a castle maze which had been constructed with dozens of refrigerator boxes -- complete with turrets, dead ends, and secret passages; enjoying an all-organic lunch with compostable plates, cups, and flatware; dancing around a May pole; and weaving this crown of flowers. I was pretty annoyed with myself for most of the day because I forgot the camera (cardinal sin, I know), but the flower wreath is really the best part, so here are a few pictures of it. ;)

And one more from that afternoon, blurry and all, of my two wee ones who are beginning to interact more and more like friends. It just makes my heart skip to see their relationship -- their play, their companionable ease together, even their bickering. I'm so happy to just be their mama; to quietly observe them. Together.

hello!!

Hee, hee, I told you I'd be back pretty soon! I just can't keep away. ;)

I cannot thank all of you enough for your kindness, generosity, support, and encouragement over the last couple of weeks. It has really helped me. A lot. Words are really failing me to express my gratitude to all of you. Thank you again and again!

Updates, updates ... hmmm. Well, first, my husband took a job. It's nothing great, something he'll probably try to use as a stepping stone to something more desirable within a couple of years, but at least now we are in a position of knowing. We'll be fine, we don't have to move; he'll have a bit more of a commute, but he's OK with it.

Next, I still haven't sent my camera. My warranty expires in October, so I better send it before then! I just can't part with it, you know?

Anyway, I know I promised some time ago to share the last of the April birthday gifts. Please forgive the lighting on these ... it was one of those times where they just had to be photographed -- right before they were gifted, you know?

So, these gifts were for the first birthday of a very special little one. She's sweet C's baby sister, and was born just 5 weeks after James. It has been such fun to have these two babies so close in age and to see them grow.

The smock was made using a half-made dress (I'm thinking from the 1970's or 80's), the source of which I will talk more about soon. I designed the embroidery myself, after baby R's mama raved about the embroidery I did on Elisabeth's birthday pinafore. The doll is a very simple design which I made up myself. It is made using organic colorgrown cotton fleece. Lovely!

I really, really wish I had taken some pictures of beautiful baby R with her gifts. She is really a gorgeous baby. Perhaps her mama (a blog reader!) will indulge me ... ;)

Lost

We found out today that my husband didn't get the job at his school. He is looking into other options, although it's a dry year for music positions in our area, so we don't know what's going to happen. We are reeling from the blow. I just don't know what to say. I think now is going to be the time for me to finally send my camera in to Canon for a repair and take some time off from the blog for a while. I'm sure that I will come back to it when the stress level goes down; right now just dealing with daily life feels really hard. The children still have to be fed and cared for no matter what stress we're experiencing. If you would like me to notify you when I return to my blog, please leave a comment and I'll add you to an email list. You're also welcome to email me at the email address listed in my sidebar, as well. Thank you, and goodbye for now. I know I'll be back ... I don't think I can really stay away all that long. ;)

Pants

I am pretty sure that I can't be the first person to have thought of this, but this spring when I received the Mini Boden catalog, with the VW bus t-shirt, I immediately thought of the VW bus fabric by Heather Ross. Anyway, I mentioned that to my mom in passing, and she thought it was so cute that bought the t-shirt for James, and I made him these pants. It is probably a bit over the top to wear a VW bus t-shirt and pants, but, you know, the coincidence was too much fun for me to ignore.

I also just had to add -- look who's walking! He started taking some steps soon after his birthday, but it was really in the last couple of weeks that he really took off. It's so much fun! My baby is a toddler!

I want to thank all of you who left encouraging comments or sent emails over the last, very anxious, week. We won't have any news regarding my husband's job until the end of this week at the earliest, but I will surely be on here right away when we know anything.

I also wanted to add, as many of you have asked and/or guessed, that Elisabeth's beautiful princess gown was indeed made by her friends' mother, my dear friend Laura, who is very clever and crafty, thank you very much. Especially impressive to me is that she adapted/drafted her own pattern for the dress, which is truly more stunning in person than even in the photos!!

A Request

As I alluded in my last post, we have been feeling a lot of stress lately with regard to my husband's job. In addition to all of his performing, he's an assistant high school music teacher. His current position has been eliminated for the fall (budget cuts), but that's OK because he was already applying to replace the music director at his school, who has decided to pursue other things in life. But as the application and interview process is becoming more and more drawn out and convoluted, we're beginning to fear the worst. And I've been experiencing some physical symptoms of stress (stomachaches and so forth), to which I'm particularly prone, being so Type A and all.

So, my request of you is: if you have some positive energy & good karma, will you send some our way? If you pray, will you include our little family in your prayers? I surely would appreciate it.

Thank you, dear friends.

Deep Breath

This blogging break brought to you by:

:: a bit of embroidery & sewing :: the world's longest lingering cold :: a bit of computer confusion :: snow, rain, and a bit of flooding :: trips to the zoo :: some cooking :: indoor grass :: more than a bit of stress, worry, uncertainty, and waiting regarding my husband's job for the fall :: a whole lot of laziness

I'll be back in a day or two to share some of my sewing and embroidery projects, the last April birthday gifts, and some vintage treasures.

Peace, my friends.

Birthday Crowns

A large number of the Google-generated hits to this site are from those of you looking for birthday crowns in some form or other: patterns for birthday crowns, birthday crowns for sale, paper birthday crowns, handmade birthday crowns, Waldorf birthday crowns.

So, I thought I'd share a bit of our Birthday Crown history. I originally got the idea of using a special crown on birthdays a couple of years ago when Gymboree had little plastic tiaras that had ribbons and the words "Birthday Girl" on them, so we ended up getting one of those for her and we used to set it out on the dining table the night before her birthday for her to wear throughout the day. It was always a fun surprise and way for her to know that it was her birthday, since she was so little and the passage of time wasn't very concrete. But as we've gradually decided to eliminate plastics from our home to the degree that we're able, the plastic birthday crown was donated, and I decided to make some of my own.

There are many people making and/or selling their own versions of felt birthday crowns; I imitated an illustration of a child wearing a crown on the cover of The Birthday Book for my design. I used plant-dyed 100% wool felt for the front, and plant-dyed wool-rayon blend felt for the lining (because the plant-dyed 100% wool pieces are not large enough for the entire lining). Using plant-dyed felt seemed very important to me for this project. Not only is it just lovely, special, earthy, and so appropriate for the significance of a birthday, but it is also thicker and stands up a bit better than a standard felt (even 100% wool) would. Edited to add: My favorite source for all of my felt is A Child's Dream Come True. I have occasionally purchased wool felt elsewhere. But for quality and consistency, I do prefer A Child's Dream Come True.

The ribbon I used came from two different sources. The ribbon on James's is just from JoAnn. I really struggled with ribbon for his, because I wanted it to be special and "regal", and not overly feminine or juvenile, since I'm hoping my children will wear their crowns for many years of birthdays. I don't love what I ended up with, but I think it will work well for him as he grows. It was much easier to choose ribbon for Elisabeth's, obviously. The ribbon I ended up using on hers is vintage, which I did purchase online, although there is a local source for vintage and specialty ribbon where I have gotten most of the vintage ribbon that I have.

And our Birthday Crown tradition? Well, we always set the Crown and the birthday ring (similar to this) at the birthday child's place at the table during the night before his or her birthday. We light the candles on the ring that morning at breakfast, and the Crown is available to be worn all day if desired. It is then packed away with the birthday ring for the next year; it's not a plaything in our home, although we do have other (similarly-made) crowns, which are for play.

Birthday party fun

Elisabeth had a little birthday party for five of her friends on Monday afternoon. Sometimes even the low-key birthday parties that we do feel like a huge undertaking, and I was grateful that one of my friends ended up staying to help.

Anyway, it was a lovely party, although I didn't get as many photos as I wish I had -- too much else going on, I think! But here are some highlights:

Birthday wreath

Goodie bags

The cake

Puppet gnome

The birthday girl and buddy

Enjoying some of the day's gifts

(Click on the individual photos to get to the flickr pages ... more information on each photo there.)

Spoiled

Your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a high-speed modem to go with the broadband internet that my husband ordered just to be nice to me, even though we can't really afford it. We're going to make a few changes in order to afford it. But I am so excited! Wow! Hopefully this will mean I'll be posting here with more regularity. ;)

Thank you, sweetie.