Thursday, July 21, 2011

Long Day, Pink Tomatoes and the Kindle Cozy

Why is it that the first official day of summer for the Bean had to start prior to 6:00 am? Most Thursdays I am force to cajoling, bribing and finally dragging her out of bed for school and today she bound into my room just as Daddy closed the front door to go to work at 5:45. Sigh, I guess that's the joy of  children, right?

At least our day started nicely with pink heirloom tomatoes from the garden with breakfast!



For a day that I thought we had nothing planned, it ended up exhausting, partly because I had forgotten about her intake interview at the regional center. Oh, and swim lessons! Our journey to the regional center started especially early as we had to stop by the pediatrician's office to pick up a letter stating that the Bean was in need of speech therapy - which the DR had forgotten to do. Luck was with us as her regular Dr was in the office and took the time to have a 10 minute conversation with me while having one of the women at the desk write up the letter. I love the kids' Dr - seriously!

Back on the road, we made it to the regional center's office right on schedule and proceeded to wait for 20 minutes... during which time good behavior descended to poor. The second we set foot in the interview room, the poor behavior went further south to absolutely abysmal. But if anything is going to help us get services, it's a really bad day, right? So now we're back waiting for the next step. It has taken us since December to get the initial interview and it's now an additional 120 days before they have to complete the evaluation. Here's to help for the Bean in 2012 - at least we hope!

Oh, and because of poor behavior, the interview took forever and we missed swim lessons.

To finish up the Kaffe Fassette Kindle Cozy - here are some pix of M's finished cozy - which her oldest (and the Bean's BFF) has claimed as her own! You can make your own using the free Ravelry pattern courtesy of designer Amanda Pacheco!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Been Awhile

We're settled - once again. We've finally moved out of corporate limbo and into a little house on a hill. Boxes are all unpacked and everything is put away. I"ve finally had a chance to get my sewing machine and knitting needles out without feeling guilty...  Now that the Bean is out of summer school, I hope to build some "craft" time every day.


After a visit from my good friend Sarah, I've got the creative bug again. The day she left, I made a patchwork pillow for Bean's reading tent. Using three different fabrics the Bean picked out, I cut a series of 3" wide strips and further cut them into a wide variety of lengths. I then pieced them together into 5 long patchwork strips which I sewed together to make "fabric." I finally stitched up three sides, stuck in a pillow form and viola! Happy Bean!


 After the pillow, I started work on a dress for the Bean using fabrics she picked out -( I've also learned that it is a big mistake to take the Bean fabric shopping, I spend way too much!)  I used a pre-gathered fabric and cut it to size, added straps and a skirt (we just love owls in this house!).... hemmed the bottom and insta dress! I think it took me a whole hour.








The other little project I just completed were two sets of 8 coasters - one set for us and one for my Mom... again a super easy project that took a short period of time. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the finished products. Hopefully, the kids will let me continue on this productive streak. Fingers crossed!

Moving, Kaffe Fassette and Kindle Cozies

So much has happened since we left our lake side home in PA. The Bear turned two, Bean learned how to write her name and has settled into an amazing preschool that is addressing many of her Asbergers and sensory related issues, we've sold the house by the lake and bought one here in suburbia.

And, the icing on the preverbial cake, we're moving into our new California-style stucco home on Wednesday!

As to projects, I haven't been up to much as our two months (at most) in temporary housing turned into 8 months and all my sewing/knitting gear is sitting in a storage unit in Hayward. But this time next week we'll be reunited!

I did splurge recently on some gorgeous Kaffe Fassette fabric to line the knit Kindle cozies I'm in the process of making. One of the (numerous) things I love about his fabric is the myrad variety of  colors it contains. As a result, I've made three cozies (my first one appropriated by the Bean for her flashlight), one for my friend M. and finally one for myself - all of which I'm lining with the fabric.

Yay for low-tech pouches for high-tech devices!