Project 12: Please god, Poppies.

I am a gardener, like my mother and my grandmother before me. If you visited my mother's home you didn't get a tour of the house, but, you did get a tour of the garden. I've been mostly a vegetable gardener until this home. Here's what did it:

A tree peony. My mother never grew peonies. I had never seen one before. I was in love. I've since planted a gazillion herbaceous peonies and officially started a collection. 

THEN I found out that there is a variety of poppies that flowers like a peony. What the what! I'm attempting for the second year in a row to grow them from seed. Most of the information says to just scatter the seeds. That didn't work last year. I'm trying direct seeding, greenhouse seed cells and presprouting this year. Please god, poppies!

Project 11: Playroom Redo

We have a great space for kids play in our home. I've added a climbing wall that looks like a tree, gymnast rings and even a swing inside. As the kids get older a shared space was less and less fun. More fighting over toys than actually playing with toys. After becoming utterly frustrated for the umpteenth time I decided to redo the playroom. One space into three custom play areas. One for each kid. Charlie's space is all about his hot wheels and action figures. Lili's space is dominated by her huge dollhouse that keeps her entertained for hours. Josie's new passion is the drums. They are each in charge of keeping their own space cleaned up and have only one bin for toys. Crossing my fingers that this keeps the chaos to a minimum for a while. 

Project 10: Toto

I did a previous post about the munchkin attire project that I did for my daughter's play. She was Toto in the Wizard of Oz in her elementary school Drama program. I searched for the right material for her Toto costume for a long time. I finally found the answer in a men's robe at the thrift store. Fuzzy enough to be animal fur but no shed to make it easier to sew. She loves it so much she even sleeps in it now that the play is over. I think it helps that it resembles her puppy, Ginger.

Project 9: Greenhouse

I love spring. But more than spring itself I love the chance to start again. Rebirth. As a gardener that means starting seeds. The promise of a garden to come. I've tried starting seeds inside with terrible results. Over and over again I've tried. I'm not attentive enough.


The greenhouse solved that. When  it's dreary and cold the green house is warm and inviting. It's just a cheapy plastic thing that I bought at the end of the season on clearance. But right now it's my refuge. A space to think, plan and create.

Project 8: Birthday T-shirt

My oldest daughter, Lili, is a leapster. As in, she was born on a leap day. She is a special girl and I love that she has a special birthday. Typically we celebrate on March 1st as I always draw in the 29 on our calendar. This year however, there was a special movie night at her elementary school on the 28th. Lili has intellectual disabilities so I worried she wouldn't be able to communicate to her peers that it was her special day. I decided to make her a special birthday Tshirt that would make it clear to everyone. She was so excited after she saw it she wanted to sleep in it. She has even worn it after her birthday. I used fabric markers for the tshirt and colored in the letters in an ombre style. I then decided to make her a paper badge to let everyone know she was turning 10.

Project 7: Munchkin Attire

My daughter, Josie, is a drama queen. So naturally, she loves acting. She was recently cast as Toto in her middle school production of The Wizard of Oz. I volunteered to help with costumes, specifically the munchkins and of course, Toto. It was a nice challenge as I don't typically sew much from scratch (hemming not withstanding) and it's been a while since I put in hours at the machine. I don't have photos yet but I also volunteered to take the official production photos and design a "meet the cast" board with all of the actors photos. So they will be coming shortly!

Paczki Day 2014

Since we moved to the West Coast we can't find Paczki polish donuts anymore. We tried making them ourselves and it has since become a family tradition.