Fabric Intervention

Oops, I bought more fabric. Thankfully I sew a lot, otherwise I'd be a contender for an episode of Hoarders with my fabric collecting habits. But if I use all the fabric I buy then it isn't really hoarding, right? Right. 

I found myself (somehow) at Olla Mae's Dry Goods in Oberlin on Saturday. The very first sewing pattern I ever bought (before I even knew how to sew) was at Olla Mae's. I had just decided that I wanted to learn and already had the sewing machine and some fabric. I bought a pattern for a small purse but didn't end up making that purse until earlier this year since it had zippers...and I just recently got over my zipper sewing phobia. It's a small shop but is packed with patterns, notions, and lots of high quality fabric--including a lot of 1930s reproductions, which I love.

I had to get this one for my girl since she loves kitties so much...I'm thinking of making her a fall jumper out of it. The line is called "Pillow Purrfect" and it's by Michael Miller.

Other fabrics I recently collected from Fabric.com, courtesy of their huge sale last week, which included a yard from a line I've had my eye on for a long time, Out to Sea by Sarah Jane for Michael Miller fabrics. This line is getting harder and harder to find and will no doubt be sold out soon. Thankfully this wasn't :)

I've had large panel of Strawberry Shortcake fabric to make a blanket for Charlotte and Fabric.com had the yardage for the backing in stock and on sale. Double win.

And let's not forget about these:

I couldn't pass up the strawberry buttons...they'll be perfect for a dress I'm making Charlotte for next summer with strawberries on it. Yes, I said next summer. She's got more than enough dresses and summer clothes in stock for this year so any summer sewing I do now has to be for later or she'll never get a chance to wear everything enough. And the pattern on the right is a new one from McCall's for a portable fabric dollhouse. It looks super fun. Oh, and all the patterns were on sale for $1.00 so I couldn't pass it up. Clearly.

But I haven't just been collecting mass quantities of fabric. I've got a few projects underway and just finished this today:

This is from the same pattern I used for the shirts in this post . I found the fabric at Joann's and since it was the end of the bolt (and surprisingly, the exact amount I needed) I got it for half off. Between that and a coupon, this shirt ended up costing me about $3.50. I left out the elastic in the sleeves this time. I kind of like the fluttery sleeves look without the elastic. Also, it's much easier since sewing elastic casing around those little sleeves is a pain.

68 and partly sunny tomorrow, or so I've been promised. If so, I don't plan to be inside much at all. I can't wait.

~Stacy

Prettiness

Just some things I thought were pretty, so I took pictures. That's all.

New fabric is always pretty. Especially piled up all over the dining room table :)

This is what happened when I told her to pose for the camera. She's delicious.

And this. Even though it was rainy and cloudy today and I couldn't go outside to take any pictures, I took this through my dirty window. See that grass? It's green. Ahh, spring...

~Stacy

Biker Baby

Over the weekend Charlotte got to try out her first bike (I count a tricycle as a bike). It's the smallest tricycle I've ever seen and her legs still aren't quite long enough to pedal. But she likes to sit on it, push it around, fill the back storage compartment with stuff and wear her helmet around the house. Hopefully by the time the summer months are here she'll be able to pedal it around outside like a pro.

Another post short on words. I spent the day at a conference about health insurance reform. You'd be speechless too.

Have a good week!

~Stacy

Spring Saturday

This one will be short on words (I'm tired). These photos are from Saturday when we went to Peninsula. It was warm enough to walk around without coats--gasp! We walked the trails, saw the "choo choo", had lunch and did a little shopping. Lovely day, lovely weekend. Much better than the spring cleaning we did all day today :) Though it helped having another gorgeous day that allowed us to open all the windows and air out the whole house. Thank you, spring.

See that strawberry wreath? I want that. Anyone know where I can find realistic looking fake strawberries so I can try to make one?

~Stacy

A Few Good Things

This week is the start of something that will continue to be a pain (literally) for the next month or three: teething. Sigh. I was hoping those two-year molars would hold off a little while longer but it doesn't look like it. Teething is always garbage, but when it involves four molars it is extra crappy because they take forever to come in. But there is a bright side (there's always a bright side): this is the last round of teething she will have because all the teeth will be in after this! Yay!!!

So in the midst of crankiness, both on her part and ours, it is especially important to focus on good things and not let the sleep interruptions, poor napping, and general surliness get in the way of our ability to still have a good day. So here are a few good things from the week.

These delicious delights:

My little explorer:

This adorable print that I ordered from her Etsy shop:

A walk up to the beach (the first time we've been able to walk the whole way and not drive since October! Welcome spring!!):

Swings:

And forgetting about the crabbiness for a second to watch her sleep instead:

Dear molars: don't be jerks. Come in fast and give me my fabulous sleeper, great napper, and always happy little girl back! That is not so much to ask. Until then, Orajel will be our friend.

Have a good one,
Stacy

Easter

This post mainly consists of cute pictures of my girl in her Easter dress and not much else. Enjoy!

Chad's sister sent her a bunch of goodies for Easter, including a play lawn mower which she thought was the coolest thing. Now in the morning she comes downstairs and takes it out and says "I mow?" and pushes it all over the house.

Later in the day she had a little Easter egg "hunt". Now I'm afraid she thinks that all eggs have cinnamon Teddy Grahams inside of them :)

That's all. Have a good one!

~Stacy

I Caught a Groundhog and Other Weekend Highlights

Ahh, it's April. April, no matter the weather, never feels like winter. It seems weird not be celebrating Easter in April this year though...it was really early this year. Did you have a nice Easter weekend? Ours was great, mostly because Chad was off for a couple days and the weather was beautiful so we were able to do a lot of things outside.

On Friday we went to Lake Farmpark. It's part of the Lake Metroparks, about a 45 minute drive from our house. There are several barns and stables with animals: horses, sheep, cows, pigs, chickens, even a few alpacas. You can walk right up to the animals and pet them (or get traumatized by a loud sheep, like Charlotte did). There's a facility you can tour where they do maple sugaring, they have cow milking demonstrations where you can actually milk a cow yourself (no thanks), and a cafe on site to eat lunch. It's a fun place to take kids to for an afternoon, especially if you're looking for something on a smaller and less crowded scale than the zoo.

The next day we went to the zoo (because why stop at scaring her with sheep, right? Go all in!). It was a gorgeous day and the zoo wasn't crowded at all. Her favorite parts of the zoo? The playground, the large ball in the monkey cage (which she ran to saying "oooh, a ball!" as there's a giant gorilla sitting next to it that she totally didn't care about), and trying popcorn for the first time. That's my girl :)

And in keeping with the whole animal theme of this post, let's talk about this little troublemaker:

See the look on her face? It is of shame and guilt. At least it should be, considering all of the headaches she has caused for the past year and a half. Oh yeah, this is the same groundhog we were dealing with last year. Well, the second one since the first one (lovingly named "Gilbert") disappeared, but a couple months later the lovely lady pictured above, AKA "Gladys" took up residence. She left for awhile and went to live across the street, then we didn't see her at all so we thought she was gone. Then in the fall she was back, so we called a pest control company. For the sake of anonymity, I'll refer to them as "Schmorkin." So "Schmorkin" comes out and charges $125 just to set the trap. And the trap they used was the exact same one you see above that I purchased on Amazon for $45. This amount only covered the trap--had the groundhog been caught, it would've been an additional $80 for it to be removed and disposed of. Oh, and this was only for a one month contract. And the bait they used was an old apple, which we ended up replacing every few days since Schmorkin only did it once a week.

Needless to say, no groundhog. So after getting kind of "schcrewed" by Schmorkin, the groundhog disappeared again then resurfaced this winter with an enormous new hole. This time we consulted with a guy Chad works with who does this kind of thing regularly. If you have a groundhog causing you trouble, here a few things we've learned along the way that might help:

• Groundhogs are notoriously hard to catch. They are leery of traps (unlike squirrels which bound right in like total fools and skip around until you free them, only to do it again the next day). It helps to scuff up your trap so the light reflecting off the metal doesn't deter them completely.
• They can be serious divas about their food--no old produce for these gals, no sir. I've read and fresh green beans are one of their faves, but we used fresh cantaloupe (seeded and cut into 2 inch chunks). We put several pieces in the back of the cage, then rubbed the metal with cantaloupe juice. We also squeezed juice onto the dirt all around the hole and set several more chunks outside of the cage and near the hole entrance. Replace with fresh food every day if possible, or at least every other.
• They breed around this time of year and start having babies in the spring. This is a big reason why we knew we needed to catch her, and thankfully we did because she was hugely pregnant.
• Do NOT plug up their holes until you're sure they are gone. If you plug before, you won't block them in. They will dig a new tunnel around and find a new exit--and they totally will. These suckers can dig, and they are fast.
• Feel free to try any of the various items on the market that promise to deter groundhogs, such as stakes that emit a noise that is supposed to drive them away, or lights around their hole that are supposed to keep them out because they hate it, or moth balls, or ammonia soaked rags. None of these worked for us at all. We wasted a lot of time and money on them and dealt with moth ball/ammonia smells for months for no real reason. 

As for the fate of one Ms. Gladys?

She is now living where she belongs: the woods. Chad drove her to a her new home and set her free where she can live among other woodland friends and out from underneath my porch. We still have the trap set just in case she had a boyfriend shacking up with her, but we are cautiously optimistic that we are groundhog free.

More tomorrow about Easter Sunday and a baby in a cute dress :)

~Stacy