handmade...cathygaubert

authors, designers, a fabric rockstar, an editor, ANTHRAX, guadalajara, (and wade, too!)...or, remember that one time at quilt market??!

2011-11-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

the full details, coming soon...
oh, and today is the day that my book is released! yay!!
xoxo

pretty in patchwork: doll quilts + lark + sew, mama, sew! = one super sweet contest

2011-10-27T11:51:00.001-05:00

what better way to celebrate the release of pretty in patchwork: doll quilts than to have a contest? the lovely ladies over at sew, mama, sew! are hosting the contest for us! click on "the contest" link to get the full details, but why don't i give you a little sneak peek at the prizes, hmmmm?

♥ 1st prize: $100 of fabrics from Sew, Mama, Sew!, a handmade softie (a surprise from me), and a signed copy of Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts

♥ 2nd prize: handmade dolly (a sister to the one featured in the book) and a signed copy of Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts

♥3rd prize: handmade softie (either a bunbun or a dragon) and a signed copy of Pretty in Patchwork: Doll Quilts

of course you can expect that there will also be a little extra special bundle of patchwork happiness (from me) packaged up for each winner!

and, because we know that there are so many fabulous doll quilts out there in existence already, you can enter a previously-made quilt or a brand-new one (actually, each person can enter 2 quilties!). ahhhh, you crazy-busy people out there, that got your attention, yes?!

there's a flickr group set up already...here! the deadline to get those sweet little quilts entered is november 14th...i am so (sew!?! sort of lame, i know.) excited to see the doll quilts that you “piece, stitch, and love!”

be well and do good patchwork! xoxo

countdown to our 3rd annual birthday party trifecta

2011-10-13T03:24:00.000-05:00

october has always been hectic for us (rather, me!) for the past 8 years. a birthday, followed by another birthday, followed by another birthday (and wedge an anniversary in there for good measure)all within a span of 10 days, then quickly followed by halloween (and let's not even stress ourselves out about how thanksgiving and christmas come tromping so closely behind. look away...quickly...before they notice us trembling!).

traditionally, october has always involved a lot of planning.

traditionally, not much usually gets done until the last minute.

sigh.

this year is no different...except that i have a book coming out (eeeeee!!!), and there are book-related things to do. and there is market to think about (but honestly there's not much planning for that; i am just going to roam about there, gazing wide-eyed, and trying not to drool overlymuch on fabrics or booths, or become a blathering fool when i actually meet internet friends in the flesh!); and as always, there is sewing just waiting to be done.

{i just have to jump in here to say, "dang! i ♥ french knots and black+white stripey tights!!!"...even on cats!}

oh, and there is that pesky matter of, ahem, last year's birthday party (theoneineverbloggedorflickr-d). what to do (ohmygoshiamrunningoutoftime), what to do?!
so, i'll be back early next week to share last year's birthday party (in glorious pink, red, and aqua) right before i share *this* year's party (roygbiv!). that'll work, right??

and i will sleep a little easier tonight.
even though it is after 2 3 a.m.

and we go with lily on her field trip tomorrow...along with a hundred-ish 2nd graders.

nothing like a route 44 diet coke at 8 o'clock in the morning...good times!!!

p.s. obviously these photos don't mesh too well with my words, but just go with it if you can (pretty please?). i've included a few peeks at 2 of my doll quilts from the book, my hallowe'en trio stitchery from feeling stitchy's september stitch-along(that needs to be turned into a doll quilt or a pillow), birthday invitations (with the original waiting to be made into a doll quilt. hmmm, are we sensing a theme here?), and eme's actual birthday.

p.p.s. before (after??) the birthday post(s) next week, i'll fill you in on what's coming up bookwise and the giveaway that i am going to have (i still haven't gotten my big ole box o' books!!!)...i can't wait! thank you, thank you, so very much for taking the time to share in my (our?!) excitement about the book! xoxo

Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts...and me (oh my goodness), the author!

2011-10-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

what?!?!?!? a book, you say?

i know!!!!!

oh my gosh...it is still hard for me to believe that this book actually exists.

and will be on a shelf in a real bookstore.

and comes up when i google it...on amazon!

and is beginning to arrive on the doorsteps of the crew who contributed to it (you'll recognize a lot of them, i think)...ack!! i hope that they, and you, will have a little smile when your hands run across the cover...

and when you open the book...

(but i'll leave that last little bit as a surprise for you!)

those 18 lovely ladies and 1 fabulous fellow are listed over there on the right. yes...right there! it may take a while to visit them all, but i promise that you will not be wishing you had that time back. inspiring, funny, talented, amazing people...all of them.

i have so much to share with you about this whole wonderful (and sometimes daunting) experience, but i think that i am suffering from a bit of stage fright. really, i started writing this post earlier today, and it's taken all day to get here! strange and true.

i think i need the quiet hours of late night to pull my thoughts together. after all, that's when i wrote (and re-wrote. and re-wrote...again!), pulled fabrics from my stash, drew, cut + stitched, and emailed (and emailed. and emailed...again!) the very best editor-friend in this whole wide world. amanda carestio, i still thank my lucky stars every day that we are in this together!!!

so, i'll leave you with some details and then come back to tell you more when the girls are in bed for the night:

lark crafts is the publisher of Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts, the first book in the Pretty in Patchwork series (which will explore the sweet spot where sewing and quilting come together...the second book is being authored by a certain someone who appears in my book, and i couldn't be in better company!)
november 1st is the release date, and the book can be preordered here and here!
inside you will find 24 little quilts to piece, stitch, and love (made by 19 top designers...and me!), along with instructions, helpful illustrations, and a basics section offering a crash-course on piecing, quilting, binding, and more (like a sweet dolly apron, made by amanda; you'll also be able to stitch up the dolly, dragon, and bunbuns that i made for the book...more on that later!)
here's a little sampling of the names of some of the quilts (from the back flap...i ♥ the flaps!): A+ Doll Quilt, Arches, Mushroom Hunting for Baba Yaga, Catherine Wheel, I Spy, and Scrappy Asterisks (this mod log cabin with my bunny girls shows up in all kinds of handstitched goodness on that back flap...which i ♥!)

speaking of the back flaps...i can't even begin to tell you all of the little details of this book. i was truly overwhelmed when i held it in my hands for the very first time. the photography of the quilts is just so good; i love that there are close-up shots of bits and pieces of the wonderfully crinkly quilties. the fact that lily, eme, and cate are in the book, too, makes my heart so happy (many thanks to a hometown girl for coming to clotilda for a photoshoot!).

and this...

um, wow!

in which i discover that, yes...my blog does still exist; and, today is the first day of school

2011-08-10T15:15:00.000-05:00

lily, the second-grader

the trio, soon to be a duo, and on friday...cate will be solo

new kicks for a new school year...gray chucks with purple laces

watching the buses from the car (and lots of begging from the back seat...they so want to be bus riders, but it is so not likely that this will happen. maybe.)

she really is so ready to be back at school, and that makes me a happy momma.

playing the sister's dsi

staring contest

back home for breakfast and a 'deep' metaphysical conversation about how we have so much love and such big hearts that pieces of us can always be with the ones we love, brought on by eme's words (after we dropped off lily), "momma, i think i am now missing a piece of my heart." that girl always seems to have the perfect words for any given situation.

and now we are off to pick up our girl. we cannot wait to hear all about her first day in second grade (twice..we'll get the second, likely abbreviated, version when poppa gets home this evening).

with fresh-baked cookies in hand, we are just about to walk out the door.

gosh, 4 months and 2 days was a long time to be away from this space. i've missed it, but i didn't realize just how much until now. well, summer vacation is over for me, too...yay!

friday musings (and possibly not-so-random photos)

2011-04-08T17:45:00.004-05:00

♥ i don't know why i have never made pancakes from scratch before! well, that will not be happening again. i am so happy that cate insisted on pancakes, even though the little red box (a certain lady jemima) in the cabinet didn't have enough mix left to make the teeniest of pancakes. a quick search of allrecipes.com, and we were on our way to good old fashioned pancakes (with blueberries thrown in for the last 3). seriously, so good and so easy...i think i'll mix up a couple of batches of dry mix to keep on hand.

♥ today, driving to school was a much better experience for all involved (i've already blocked yesterday's shout+cry-fest from my mind). most days the backseat discussions keep me totally entertained. this morning, eme launched into her list of "lifelong dreams to make come true":
1. walk on the ~~sun~~ moon.
2. milk a cow. [this is actually the *secret* lifelong dream, so shhhhhhh...don't tell anyone, okay?]
3. hang something (ANYthing, momma!) from the rearview mirror.

♥ lily *loves* to read, and this makes me one happy momma!

♥ some mornings it is pointless to try and clothe cate. i suppose that you can only "be a naked babyyyyy!" for so long, so why not? and the cuteness factor is through the roof.

♥ i don't visit with friends enough. yesterday was double-the-fun...we spent time with verena and her duo in the afternoon and got to see beki and her little pixie in the evening (with sneak-peeks of the book, of course...beki is in it, after all!)

♥ i have one day left to get my dqs10 quiltie done! it took me a while to get going on it, as i so often second-guess myself in this swap. i think i'm good, though. fingers crossed!

♥ i need to set aside time for my blog...among many, many other things, of course, but i'm thinking you get what i mean, yes?

♥ taking daily photos for my 365 has been a really nice. now if i could just upload them daily, i'd be golden.

♥ as i sit here typing (while lily + eme are at school and cate is drawing right beside me), i wonder if my blog-y/flickr-ing friends feel pulled in a million different directions on a daily basis??? and if you, like me, do feel this...how in the heck do you make it all work? yea, i know. there is no pat answer, but suggestions are always good. and maybe comisseration is better?! but not nearly as productive. meh.

♥ we surely do have a busy weekend. ack...so much to do!

♥ be mindful that beauty is where you find it.

random sweetness from september 2009

2011-04-07T14:03:00.003-05:00

this just popped up in my new flickr app on the sidebar.
oh my goodness...look at that sweet, chubby, little baby-cate!

eme and cate + one sweet stella are in the playroom with zoobles while i clean up the makings of banana bread. in a little bit, stella's equally sweet mami and little brother will be joining us. hmmm, the quiet playing won't be so quiet then! we may just move this party outside so that we can share some coffee + banana bread and look over the galleys (thank you, theresa, for the correct terminology!) of my up-coming book. well, i did indeed enjoy typing that! i promise a decent tell-mostly-all post soon.

happy, happy, sunny spring day to you! xxx

april 1st...

2011-04-01T03:04:00.009-05:00

and i am back.
no fooling.

um, actually, i'll be back later on today. it will be april 1st all day long, right? on friday.
not monday.
really, whoever would make a silly mistake like that?!
ahem.

so, it's 3 a.m. and...
i've finally caught up on my 365 photos (90 days already!),
i've finally changed this poor little blog's header (so long winter),
my left arm is about to fall off (how much does a sleeping 2 1/2 year old's head weigh anyway??),
and i'm not very good with this one-handed typing gig anymore.

i've missed being here.

~~p.s. so in the month i was gone, has blogger decided that i can no longer skip lines if i want to? or put my photos where i want?? rats~~.
edited to add...i apologize blogger. it wasn't you; it was me. as eme would say, "get with it, sister!". it was high time for a little overhauling! and now i know how to do a strikethrough, as evidenced by the above p.s. really, the simplest things can make me happy.

valentine win, blood donor fail

2011-03-08T23:52:00.000-06:00

sorry, y'all. i started this post over 3 weeks ago when i added all of the photos. i couldn't bring myself to write about the whole blood donor episode (obviously, i survived it so it couldn't have been that horrible, right?), so i didn't write anything.
and now it's almost a month later.
ugh.
i think that i will let the sweet photos speak for me instead.
oh, and happy mardi gras, from the person who did not attend one parade nor take out any decorations this year.

2011-02-11T14:33:00.003-06:00

two friends lost a part of their hearts today.
their horse, baby j, was a sweet, beautiful fellow, and at 30-ish years old, quite the gentleman.

back in november, baby j and one of his stablemates, checkers, came to our cousin sam's 4th birthday party to give rides to all of the kiddos. lily thought the stripes across his 'knees' were cool, and eme thought that he was the most awesome horse ever (she was rather fond of checkers, too). on our way home that evening, eme told us that it had been one of the most awesome-est days of her whole life.

i think i can be confident in saying that my friend spends more time with her horses than lots of people spend with their children. seriously. my heart is so sad for her and her family (the four-legged ones, too), and i can't even begin to imagine how much baby j will be missed.

2011-02-10T13:01:00.007-06:00

lots of dreary, chilly skies, a warm home, good food to eat (those kiddos said they needed something cold after the yummy, hot gumbo!), and bright, happy color wherever we can find it...these have been the past seven days.*

the nights (and the wee hours of the morning) have been filled with coffee+steamed milk, writing, editing, laundry (a load a day...it is actually working for me!), not nearly enough sleep, and plotting the many sewing projects that i can't wait to find some time to begin. the list is getting shorter (slowly), and the feeling of accomplishment is pretty darn good.

how is it almost valentine's day already? that surely crept up on us. we're still waiting to hear if 1st graders can exchange valentine's day cards, but eme's preschool does. saturday we're breaking out the glue, glitter (much to their delight and my dismay), cardstock, and markers. if that goes to you-know-where in a handbasket, we still will have time to pick up cards at the store!

are you and your kiddos going the handmade/homemade route for february 14th? and do you have a couple of packs of store-bought cards stashed away just in case??

*since this is my happy little place, and i don't want to dwell on all of the bickering, fussing, yelling, stressed-out-momma-meltdowns, and insert-whatever-else-negativity-you-can-think-of-here, i'm not going to. just know that this is no perfect place, and those things definitely do exist. ugh.

our icicle...a portent

2011-02-04T00:49:00.005-06:00

liberated,
brandished,
dropped,
fussed for being so cold,
and dropped...
again.

i went to bed (early...not by choice, but my body seems to think that i actually do need sleep) wednesday night, looking forward to an extra hour with eme at school (p-izza and p-unch to celebrate letter 'p' during lunchbunch!) which would mean an extra hour for me to *try* and get some writing done. the deal was that if i could get something accomplished by 1 o'clock, we would have friends over to play for a bit before we had to get lily. of course, lily was a bit miffed that she wouldn't be here.

fast-forward 11 hours (see, apparently i did need the rest)...wade is off to work, and we are none too happily dragging ourselves out of warm and cozy beds. of course, i hadn't put the last batch of clothes in the dryer (dangit, why did i fall asleep and stay sleeping until morning?! who does that??), so into the dryer go lily's khakis. but wait, the dryer is full (double dangit!). out comes that rumpled, horrible mess, and in go the pants. i am prodding groggy school children along as cate stumbles into the kitchen in need of some good-morning hugging (but wait, didn't i just sleep with you all night long?? no problem, i love to hug this sweet, cuddly child...and of course the other two, also!). hmmmm, maybe i'll quickly check email while we snuggle under my sweater-blanket.

and that's when i discover that there will be no school on this day.
i'm not even sure if i can put into words the range of my emotions.
cue the sound of plans flying out the window.

so, i didn't even come close to getting done what needed to be done today.
instead, i made a huge stack of pancakes and a big pot of hot chocolate for the girls' breakfast.
i gazed balefully at that horrible mound of clean laundry piled on top of the washing machine (and averted my eyes from the equally horrible, but not clean, pile in the hamper).
i sat at the computer for a little bit, here and there.
we had our friends over to play (and they brought yummy cookies)
the kiddos had a fantastic time and the two mommas got to visit (and enjoy the soup that not even garbage people who live in garbage land would eat).
a surprise phone call, and one more sweet kiddo was walking through our door as the other two were leaving.
more playing, more cookie-eating, lots of laughing (super grover can be exceptionally entertaining when he starts talking about pottying).
one poppa home to stay, another poppa picking up his little miss to take her home.
supper (and a quick dash to the grocery store), jammies, silly games with poppa, and an email informing us there is no school tomorrow either.
so, it was off to bed for them, and up late for me.
i have some work to do, and i am purposefully ignoring the mocking laundry.
in fact, i just shoved it all back into the dryer.
i think that i'll just re-wash and re-dry it tomorrow...we have all day.

it was a good weekend

2011-01-30T22:28:00.006-06:00

when the girls left for a sleepover with mimi and pops on friday night, eme had all of her teeth firmly rooted in place. upon returning home yesterday afternoon, she had the wiggliest tooth ever (she had been wiggling it ever since she discovered saturday morning that it was loose!).
well, we were all quite surprised when she came into the kitchen this morning minus one teeny pearly white. little miss five year old lost a tooth!

and yes, she actually did *lose* the tooth. we're not sure if she swallowed it, or if it accidentally was flushed down the potty. she's very sketchy on the details, and the toothfairy really is not a stickler for details. with poppa's help, she drew a picture of her tooth to leave for the toothfairy, just in case some dental evidence is needed tonight, you know? she is so excited to go to school tomorrow as she is the first person in her class to have lost a tooth. thankfully, the toothfairy is well-stocked on dollar coins...our's is decidedly old-school.

it was such a rainy day that we stayed in our pj's all day long; well, except for wade who made it to the gym and the grocery store. monkey bread for breakfast (and lunch!) and a yummy potato + leek soup for supper. actually, the girls had little ham sammies on fresh croissants. they would not even go near the soup, although they did have some very opinated comments about it..."ewww it's so stinky"," it looks like garbage that you blended", "not even a garbage person from garbage land would eat that". truth be told, the color was not very appetizing (and it was pureed), but it was sooo delicious. oh well, more soup for me (wade wasn't really a big fan either; in all fairness, he's not a big fan of any soups). i'll spare you a photo because i am thinking that on looks alone, you would side with the girls. i probably would, too.

it really was a good weekend.

the fact that i had some uninterupted time friday night (on into saturday morning) to finish up my projects for the book was such a huge bonus (yay for mimi and pops!). no rest for the weary (or is that 'the wicked'?), though. there is writing to be done. i can't wait to spill some of the details! suffice to say that come november 2011, i will be a published author.

i'll leave you with this little bit of wisdom...stripe-y socks make *everything* better.
edited to add...croissants make just about everything taste better, too!

behind the scenes (without giving too much away)

2011-01-27T23:24:00.009-06:00

days of quick 'meals',

stolen moments,

mishaps,

and allowing children to have waaaay more unsupervised time than they should have

(especially this mischievous little one who managed to 'trap' herself by winding countless yards of thread around her body. "help, momma! i trap me!" she calls out. 'help, momma' is right! she makes me want to fall over in fits of laughter, that silly goose.),

have finally led to this...

it may not look like much now, but this is one big stack of happiness!

and it's getting packed up and heading out into the world tomorrow afternoon (or at the absolute latest, saturday morning...*thank you* mimi + pops for having the girls for a sleepover tomorrow night!), with a couple of little friends stowing away in the box. fingers crossed that the journey is short and safe!

2011-01-21T09:13:00.008-06:00

i've never really shared 'my studio' before.

my studio...this is where i go to get away from it all; this is where the magic happens.

and by 'my studio', i mean the kitchen.

and when i say 'get away from it all' i essentially mean the children (and really, i don't get very far as they are just steps away...in fact, i hear them now...truth be told, one is gabbing in my ear. soooo hard to type with someone whining about wanting candy -halloween candy, at that!)

so, back to the 'magic', and that would be sewing.

the end.

where do you 'make magic'? i'd love to see!

a few notes to append:
1. i adore my children, of course!
2. i do crave time to myself, of course!
3. i do like to 'make magic' in the midst of it all and would not want a more secluded place (i just wish that i had a way to shelve all the mess of fabrics...in the kitchen...but, at least it's pretty to look at).
4. i LOVE my doll quilt from aneela (she could not have made a more perfect quilt for me...seriously...go here and read a bit about it. i think that she included every single thing i said that i loved. it still amazes me daily)!
5. i LOVE the hank holland painting (a gift from mom+dad for christmas). i brush my fingertips across it every time i walk by...it's a little bit magical, i think.
6. i am so lucky to use (have?!) my mom's bernina 1130! it's 24 years old, weighs almost as much as cate, and is *awesome*.
7. a walking footis a gift from the gods.
8. you, too, can make that sweet little whale! he'll be in an up-coming book (from lark, who else?!) full of felt-y goodness coming to a bookstore near you.
9. i love the yellow walls of my studio, i mean, i love the yellow walls in our kitchen. thank goodness i listened to wade and chose the 'other' yellow.
10. the 'magic' isn't only just the sewing. the magic is everything...the simple, the mundane, the extraordinary, the good, the bad, and yes, even the ugly. really, isn't it all magical, this 'one wild and precious life' ?

random

2011-01-18T22:44:00.007-06:00

while i tried to catch up on some little quilties this afternoon, eme was drawing cakes that she wants me to bake. cate was drawing circles, polka dots, mimi + pops, and whales + snails (with my pincushions as models), mostly in marker and sometimes in 'invisible marker' (she never would let me snap a photo of hers).

i really am enjoying this 365 project.

the afternoon basically went to hell in a handbasket.
i had my grouchypants on while i spent half an hour typing out a catalog of the ways in which the afternoon did indeed spiral down.
and i just deleted it.

and i feel better, because i am looking at this photo of em, day 18 of 365, and how could i *not* feel better?

so, here goes the rest of the random:

yoda
tiny embroidery hoops
bat diving at night - islands -dove*
red & white mushroom
stamp elephant
forest party
little red riding hood song
sherbert pips fabric moda
pics of snapdragon stem
cake bites
may the force be with you
elephant stamps
bias tape tote tutorial
mushroom candy
hello cate
fa la la la felt
gnome party hats and
chocolate toffee butter icing
gingerbread
長頸鹿 (which i gather means 'giraffe'. i hope.)
gajah dan jerapah (again with the elephants and giraffes)
gnome party favors
print gocco
m collage
petting zoo
the smocket

these are the phrases that came up in my flickr stats for today, january 8, 2011.
interesting.
absolute randomness.

as if i don't have other things to be doing at 11 o'clock at night.

actually, i am happy that i was reminded of the yoda drawings. i may need to pull out the gocco and print up some valentine's day cards with that one. i *love* those yodas that lily and eme made back in 2009!

i love the fact that i took photos of them before we gave them away.
i love the fact that our children's drawings can remind me to step back, take a deep breath (or thirty-five), and be a kinder, more patient momma ("use the force" and all that jazz).

random, i know, but thank goodness for random some days.

*i am quite puzzled by this one. i mean, how do you decide that you just have to find information on bats diving at night in the islands with a dove (or do you think that refers to the past tense of 'dive'?)?

well, it must be time for DQS10*

2011-01-17T22:24:00.021-06:00

i've made my inspiration mosaic for Doll Quilt Swap 10 (DQS10), and this is some of the goodness that i dream of...

(rats! i always forget that blogger cuts off the right side of my photos, so if you don't click the above photo to take you over to flickr, you are missing out on 5 sweet things. anyone else on blogger who can tip me off on how to fix this?)

it is customary to gather together some of your most favorite things from flickr so that your secret partner has an illustrated starting point. when i signed up for round 10 (there was a lottery! and not everyone was going to get in! the dread! i had my fingers crossed! i got my acceptance + secret partner email! excitement! stalking commences!), i added this hodgepodge of loves for my secret partner:
::linen
::gingham
::hand embroidery
::lots of little handstitching
::freshly washed, dried, and puckered quilts (i'm in the minority on this one)
::fairy tales
::forests
::trees
::birds
::green with a touch of red
::aqua + red
::gray + yellow
::white + lots of different prints (tana lawn liberty...sigh)
::sweet, but not cutesy
::with a touch of darkness (think neko case's, fox confessor brings the flood, especially)
::gees bend-ish quilts
::impromptu quilting
::making do with what one already has! (seriously. do not go out and buy any special fabrics for me. do not. unless you absolutely must. and then i totally understand.)
::a bit of vintage thrown in for good measure
::children's drawings
::and what the heck...rainbows can be cool, too (think sarah of the small object)
::odd little creatures
::oh, and hexagon quilts...can't forget about those lovelies
::and pink...how could i forget pink?!
::polka dotty goodness
::and wonky...intentional (or usually for me, *not* intentional!) or serendipitous, a little wonky is a good thing.

i'll say it here once again (secret partner, if you are quietly peeking about), but what i love so much about this swap (it's really the only one that i do, and i have done it now 6 times...it's *that* good) is that i am totally open to what my DQSer wants to make. really, i see my "likes" and mosaic as an inspiration but surely not a prescription. i adore all 5 of my doll quilts that i have received in this swap, and i am going to be soooo excited to add a 6th one to our collection (sweet secret swapper, dear heart, you know this, right?!).

i almost sat out this round simply because i know how much time i pour into it, and i have some other *really big projects* that are at the top of my list...but it seemed just so wrong to not be making another doll quilt. it will all work out, you'll see. ;) (more on that at a later date!)

oh, and secret partner, we do actually use our doll quilts in this house. most days the quilties are pinned to the walls of the kitchen, playroom, living room, and bedroom (which is why i simply use quilting pins to pin straight through the corners of the quilt and into the wall. easy peasy.), and DQS9 is clipped to the lower shutters on the breakfast room window so that cate can play with it (okay...let's just be honest here and say that it is rare that we actually eat at the table in the breakfast/dining room --and really, should i even call it that? that makes it sounds all fancyschmancy, which it absolutely isn't. it's all just one good-sized kitchen...with a table to sit at, or not-- it's the counter/bar in the kitchen for us. good thing this is agreable to everyone because really people, i need a place to sew. and lay out fabrics. and cut fabrics. and iron fabrics. and sew. and sketch. and write. and sew. i think you see where i am going with this. we've thought about moving it all to the playroom, but not. the kitchen is where i need to be; it's the heart of our home, and that, i think, is essential. um, wow. if you followed all of that, give yourself a gold star. whew.). and so yes (really, i am making you work for this, aren't i?), we like to use our quilts. the girls also use strips (3 inches wide, selvedge to selvedge is the perfect doorway hammock!) and pieces of fabrics to snuggle up the stuffeds + dolls. so, dear secret partner, if you have too much time on your hands, a teeny little quiltie (x3) would go over very well around here. ;)

*820 views...that's what i saw when my stats came up on flickr this evening! anyone who is part of DQS10 saw their stats shoot up (way up!) recently. it's all that excited stalking at the very beginning of a swap!

p.s. i am totally not asking for someone to make me three doll quilts!!

hello, 2011...it's been a good start

2011-01-15T17:36:00.011-06:00

we're two weeks into the new year, and so far this organization thing is looking pretty good (those who know me really really well must nod their heads in agreement; i could use the encouragement). it was a bit rough when the girls first returned to school as we tried to get back into a routine, and there have been many mornings like this...

when it is just sooo hard to get going, especially on these 'brrrrrrrr-rabbit' days we've been treated to. it just seems wrong forcing them out of their jammies when i tend to stay in mine (lots of time spent between the computer and sewing machine makes this necessary. i am quite sure it is written in a rulebook...somewhere). thankfully, lily and eme adore school, so this makes it a tad easier. also, the novelty of seeing ice along the way helps.

we noticed this fountain on the way to eme's school the other morning. luckily i had decided to pull on boots (with my jammies) that morning which made the treacherous walk over icy ground a little less treacherous. not only did i brave the tundra (slight exaggeration here) but also the odd looks from many a passerby (not an exaggeration here) to get 'the shot'. really, frozen fountains in south louisiana don't happen very often, and i didn't want to miss out on a possible 365 photo.

ah, 365...another way to shore up my desire to be more organized in 2011. these crafty folks are all doing it, too, and i have to say that i look forward to their photos each day. for the past few years (even before i began this blog, when i was using flickr as my mini-blog) i have wanted to do the whole three.six.five thing. of course, i was always late. it never felt right to *not* begin on january 1st. this year, though, i was ready, and i have my 15 photos to prove it (and i've even managed to get my photos onto the computer on the actual day. this may not seem like a lot, but to me, people, this is big!).

so, this photo is 15/365...

how can you not want to hold this dear, sweet, sick child?? how can you not want to give her just one more peppermint stick? you can't, which is why those peppermint sticks were quickly broken to bits (lily and eme weren't buying it, though). no fever, just a yucky cough, runny nose, and watery eyes (all offset by this kiddo's sunny disposition), and our fingers are crossed that the rest of us will stay well.

we have 2 more days left to our 4 day weekend, and tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy, dreary day. i foresee lots of wii-ing, dsi-ing, drawing + cutting (lily is into making iphones for everyone!), football watching (poor wade! he's the only football watcher in the house. there is football on, right?), sewing, and dqs10 stalking.

what's on your list of things to do?

and here we are...ahem...again

2010-12-31T01:29:00.010-06:00

...with less than 24 hours before we say our sweet goodbyes to 2010 and happily greet 2011.

our tree usually lasts until the ephinany but not so this year. we took one last look at our warmly glowing little christmas tree tonight before we stripped it bare and carried it outside (for fear that it would be glowing and bare for a different reason!). i will miss curling up and knitting in the evenings (and early hours of the morning!) with the tree in the background, though. well, time to set down the knitting for a bit. these two projects will be the last of 2010 and the first of 2011...fitting, i think.

i am determined to get one last post in. i was hoping it would be the one for the girls' birthday party (finally), but that just is not going to happen. and i am okay with that (there's always another day...fingers crossed).

i treasure this place that i have here, and i cannot even begin to put words to how much i treasure all of you! i know it sounds trite, but it is true. so, in an effort to not totally fail this little blog (and any of you who still pop over to peer in the windows and say "hello") in the waning hours of 2010, i put together a mosaic of what i have made this year,

and as i was going through flickr, i realized that i either had not taken photos of lots of things that i have made this past year, or i did indeed take them, but i have yet to edit or upload them.

apparently, i have found my new year's resolution.

sadly, there is nothing 'new' about it. each year i dream about the same thing and tell myself that *this* is the year that i *will* manage my time better and be more organized (i know, i know...it borders on pitiful and it is so mundane.)

well, i think that this really will be the time i finally stick to it. lots of big things are happening this year, my friends. i want to be ready (and not so very anxious!).

this has been a very good year, and we have been given some unexpected opportunities to go down paths that we didn't even know existed and to meet people that we didn't even think to wish for.

some of it has been slightly terrifying at times, but in the end it is all goodness.
it also helps to know that there are steady arms waiting to catch and hold you if you fall.

so, be brave...a shiny new year is upon us! may you embrace it and all of its possibilities with the fullness of your being.

wearing a cute hat and pink+red stripe-y socks while doing so gives you triple bonus points. ;)

xoxoxo

and here we are

2010-12-23T19:43:00.014-06:00

it's less than 48 hours until christmas.

there are still a few presents to be wrapped, there is yummy food to be made, there are two projects on knitting needles (those don't have to be done for christmas day, thank goodness! a fast knitter, i am not.), and there is a poor, pushed-aside blog that needs a little love. thanks to the gentle nudgings of two sweet ladies (yes, i am looking at you mariam, and you, too, ruthie!), well, here we are.

i've yet to share the girls' birthday party (it was lovely...and it was almost 3 months ago!) and three other birthday parties (all wonderful, too!), some truly lovely packages that have arrived in the mail, news about the book that i am working on (in a bookstore near you fall 2011!!!!!), and the just-about-daily silliness that those kiddos get up to.

i keep telling myself that i will catch up.

and i will?

i will.

but right now, there is the business of christmas.

the grinch is on, and i have a date on the sofa with my favorite people. and i may be knitting. oh, yes...i will be knitting (there are those two other projects, you know?).

may you spend time with your favorite people, too, in the coming days, and do have yourself a merry little christmas (and maybe even a small miracle or two).

xoxo

there will be no allusions to moby dick here

2010-11-05T22:53:00.006-05:00

i'll admit it. i've never read melville's 'great american novel'. i'm thinking that maybe i should have. i'm thinking that maybe that was the class that i kept dropping way back in the college days. well, no matter. i suppose that i will get around to reading it eventually.

eme's whales are way cuter anyway.

i really do adore children's drawings, and i am quite partial to my *own* children's drawings. i love the untrained wonderful-ness of it all. lately though, we have entered uncharted territory as eme wants everything to be the dreaded 'p-word'.

perfect. (shudder)

so much so that there have been tears...lots and lots of tears, a few of which have been mine due to frustration. not frustration so much with em, but frustration with the whole idea of 'perfect'. sigh. and here's the thing...i do *say* the word "perfect" quite often when i am talking to the girls! when i say it, though, i am really describing how happy they make me with something they have done. we've had long talks lately with me trying to make the distinction between lovely, warm feelings and super-straight lines with no smudge marks. i do find myself saying the 'p-word' less often, too. it's hard, though.

today, thankfully, was not one of those days! wade took the day off and went on eme's field trip (to the grocery store) with cate in tow. lunch and the playground afterward meant that i had a good chunk of time alone at home to get some projects wrapped up. what was supposed to be a quick phone call with a certain miss turned into an hourlong gab-fest (and i am so not complaining as that was time welllll spent!), but eventually, i got that little whale right where i wanted him. he is far from perfect, but that's why i think he is so great.

and those whales that eme drew? well, those are going to have to be stitched up sometime in the near future.

gosh, is the first week of november almost over already??!

halloween mash-up...

2010-11-01T00:00:00.005-05:00

of costumes, that is.

and thankfully, the girls were as okay with that idea as i was.
so, cate was a ballerina (thanks to rachel for the hand-me-down dance recital costumes), eme was a royal angel fairy (with a dash of imp), and lily was a royal gypsy sorceress (the gypsy bit - or maybe it was more bellydancer-ish? - courtesy of one of celie's globetrotting adventures).

they joined forces with 2 lsu cheerleaders (one who sustained a nasty fall before the festivities even began...she was a trooper, though, and went on to trick-or-treat with us) and someone related to, but definitely *not*, boba fett (brandon gave me a very in-depth description of his character, but really, i only know the original starwars guys).

it was another wonderful hallowe'en with the bourgeois and einsel families, even though we missed mimi + pops (who were off to wish a dear friend a happy 80th birthday).

now, while the kiddos are snuggled up in their bed, i need to cull the candy so that we won't have to say, "no, you may not have any candy right now" a bazillion times starting november 1st at 7 a.m.!

oh, dear! i am just realizing that we never did carve any pumpkins. maybe the girls won't notice?

happy hallowe'en

2010-10-30T17:40:00.005-05:00

a baby bat that visited us last year, and

a super-quick 15 minute fabric brooch/1st prize ribbon/corsage thingie tutorial (also from last year)...that's about all i've got.
i searched for the brooch to wear to eme's halloween party yesterday, but i gave up after 15 minutes (the irony), so there you are. the tutorial is still right there in the sidebar if you would like to craft you own.
life has been a whirlwind lately, and life is good...weird and unexpected, at times, but good nonetheless.
happy hallowe'en!

oh, happy day!

2010-10-22T23:21:00.004-05:00

that smile, my friends, is for a few reasons...

a contribution for fat quarterly, finished and photographed,

a husband home from a week away, bearing gifts,

a gift from a friend across the sea, by way of texas,

and happy, happy girls who went on a dinner-date with mimi + pops (when mimi + pops are here, those children don't stay still long enough to photograph) and then came home to a very muchly-missed poppa.

it's been a long week, and it was a good day.

the house is quiet again, just like it has been at almost midnight for the past 5 nights, but wade is home with us, and that makes a world of difference!

there will be photos forthcoming of aneela's sherbert pips fabric, i promise. it is even lovelier in person than i would have expected! moda sent out samplings to some of us lucky ducks, and i still can't believe that i have a layer cake (i'm new to this phenomenon...10 inch squares of every fabric from aneela's line!) of this sitting right here in front of me. oh, what to make, what to make??! something for the girls? something for the book? something for the girls to wear while holding somethings for the book??? well, whatever it is that i do, i need to go and do it!

a walk in the woods...and pumpkins

2010-10-19T20:10:00.006-05:00

so this is sort of how i feel right now...
up + down,
exhilaration + trepidation,
high expectations...

maybe it is because wade is gone away for work this week,
or because i have a million projects that i want to start on right now,
or that i have one very, very important project that i need to be starting on right now (i haven't really talked about the book yet, have i? oops. that was a bit of a tease maybe?),
or because i love these girls so, but, oh. my. word. can i get a little bit (a lot?) of uninterrupted time, please?
or maybe it's because change is both exciting and scary (i am such a sucker for little red riding hood's song from into the woods)...

and likely it is a combination of all of those things.
and more.

anyway...this is supposed to be about woods (friendly ones) and pumpkins (lots and lots of ones).

this is also about adventures, and the beauty of the earth we inhabit, and the sweetness of siblings, and cute corduroy (thanks, amy!), and looking up into the sky...

and dreaming.

a little peek into this, that, and the other

2010-10-17T14:14:00.020-05:00

john (of quiltdad fame), was so kind as to ask me to be a part of the next issue of fat quarterly . here is a little glimpse at the beginnings of my contribution...

a little bit of hand embroidery, a little bit of fabric applique (or not?), all sewn together into a log cabin-ish block to be displayed in a hoop (or made into a pillow, or a mini quilt, a tote, or...well, you can decide). maybe if i stitch up an autumnal scene, cooler weather will follow? one can only hope! so, this little bit of goodness will be in the next regular issue of fat quarterly, available november 9th, along with tons of wonderful projects. i've purchased the first 2 issues (loved them!) and i just downloaded the holiday special issue (which hopefully i can look at tonight after the girls have gone to bed! this will be the first of 5 nights as a single parent. sigh. thank goodness this doesn't happen often. em has already fallen apart twice, and wade hasn't even crossed the la/tx border. double sigh.).

i don't know what happens to time around here. sometimes i feel as though i live in a vortex that accelerates and sucks up time. it's cate's birthday today, our 11th anniversary yesterday (i just re-read last year's anniversary post. i really don't think that i can improve upon it, so i won't even try.), and lily's birthday the day before. i barely got photos taken for their actual birthdays (i finally downloaded the photos from the party and have yet to edit anything), i didn't do a birthday post for each kiddo like i did last year, the grocery store trip didn't happen, and we waved wade off this morning (without too many tears).

on the brighter side of things, mimi + pops were here on friday to take the girls out to eat so that wade and i could go out to dinner for our anniversary, i scored some ridiculous fabric deals at amelia's (sadly for baton rouge, she closed up shop and is headed to washington state) and got to visit with beki while doing so (then i went back to pick up some fabric to send to sarah and of course bought more!), i finally got to put up some halloween decorations, we spent most of yesterday outside, there was an unexpected email and subsequent phone call that hopefully will be the beginning of something wonderful, and wade got to spend this morning with the girls drawing zombie princesses (i did sketch this one out for lily, though).

now that i'm reading this, i can see that the good definitely outweighs the not-so-good; i hope that you can say the same for yourself.
xx

the list

2010-10-05T10:51:00.008-05:00

oh, october.
how can it be october already??
it seems as though i just sketched up the invitation for the girls' birthday party. um, yes...on september 1st. where, oh where, did the month of september go?
so many things to do and plan and make, hence the list.

print, gocco, sew, mail/hand-deliver the invitations done
choose fabrics and cut out dresses for the girls' birthday party done
finish sewing up the linen (i know, but we live in south louisiana) dresses that i cut out for the girls so that i can be sure that they fit (hmmm, maybe that should have been #2?) just got those done
sew birthday dresses (that's 3 dresses) and hand-embroider each girls' "girl" (again, 3) onto dresses in progress
decide on the cake...to bake or not to bake, but can i really order what i want?? undecided, but i am thinking a carrot cake
the party goods...tablecloths, buntings, teeny bunting for the cake, party favors, food, etc.
get that super-secret big, huge thing back into focus details soon, i hope
stitch together some felt-y cuteness for an up-coming book i have ideas...now i need time
finish planting the winter vegetables and flowers partially done last evening with everyone's help which makes it even better!
list some gocco-ed fabric squares in the etsy shop
finish those halloween-y projects that i started too late last year
decide on cupcakes or cookies for eme's party at school on friday
remember to balance that dang checkbook
check in with amanda (see #7)
get to the bottom of the pile of laundry, cook for my family, pick up the piles of "in-progress" projects (we won't comment on how long said projects have been in-progress, ahem), sort and file eme + lily's school papers, take out the halloween stuff so that the kiddos stop saying that we will miss halloween and "how come we are the only ones who don't have our halloween stuff up, momma??!", organize all of the new fabric that has been coming into the house (and find somewhere to put it!), catch up on uploading photos to flickr, get into a routine with the blog (and exercising. ha.), frog and re-knit that cute little vest for cate so that she can wear it for more than one year (and in doing so, totally rewrite a knitting pattern and cross my fingers that it will come out okay. have i mentioned that knitting is so *not* intuitive for me. what am i even thinking?? this is ridiculous. and have i really had the better part of a 2l of diet coke today?! it's not even noon yet. )

i think that i can almost see you snickering at the computer screen.
really, it's understandable. outright guffawing is totally acceptable, too.
actually, i am doing it right now.

well, i'd better get back to working on ticking things off of that list and picking up em so that she is not "lucky last" again today!

oh, and sarah... i could almost be annoyed with you that you are making christmas goodies already. almost. i can't though because you are just too darn nice!

so, what's on your list? is it ridiculous or sublime?

hey there, little red riding hood...

2010-09-15T23:15:00.014-05:00

i think that this moment just about sums up my thoughts on dqs9...

do you see that twinkle in eme's eyes?
well, that was just serendipity.

as i was waiting for my doll quilt to arrive, i keep peeking into the flickr group, watching as some of my most favorites were delievered one by one to other people's doorsteps. i wasn't worried, though, thanks to the most wonderful swapmamas...i was especially lucky to have tacha (the paper-pieced fox quilt she made is so, so good!), who assured me that mine was traveling on its long, long way.

so, when this arrived at the front door,

i almost could not contain my excitement!!! i didn't know it at the time, but a comment that i left on a simply marvelous w.i.p. doll quilt was about to become a reality. when i began to unfold it and saw one of the treetops, i *knew* which quilt had been oh-so-lovingly folded and sent on to our home! after all of the rushing to get to this point, i became a snail as i continued to open it. really, some silly part of me was afraid that this precious quilt was going to morph into something else right before my eyes. of course, it did not (but i held my breath anyway!).

ohhhh, the happiness!

and then i read louise's lovely note. she had my heart at the first sentence. by the time i made it to the p.s., i was ridiculously teary. crazy, i know, but i also know that so many of you absolutely get it.

louise (aka, lululollylegs) is totally made of awesome, you understand.
she braved tendonitis for me.
seriously. can you imagine?
*everything* is hand-quilted.
oh my goodness.

cate was with me when i opened it, and i couldn't stop smiling as she danced back and forth singing, "i so happy, momma! i so happy!". that child is fearless. she cannot get enough of the big bad wolf (she really likes his tongue!). she alternately fusses him for being bad and then "picks" apples from the tree to feed him. vegan wolf? hmmmm.

when cate and i went to pick up eme from school, we brought the quilt. cate talked and played with it the entire time. still smiling, i listened to her and eme telling me stories of little red, wolfie, the sleeping owl and grandma's house.

the quilt took a second trip to school when we picked up lily. of course, there was much discovering to be done with the quilt...the fabric louise choose for the back is so sweet. remember when i used to wish for time in car-rider line? not so much anymore since neither girlie wants to nap, and now cate wants to get out of her seat. *not* good times. anyway, telling stories with the quilt helped to make the time tolerable.

lily's favorite bit is on grandmother's house. she loves the climbing roses. the extra fabric that louise sent along are much adored, too.

so after a whole afternoon with this incredible little quilt stitched from bits of favorite fabrics, luscious linen, and love, wade walks in the door and says the words that bring it all home..."hey there little red riding hood, you sure are looking good..." (this song gets played almost nightly... sam the sham knew what he was up to with this one. this is wade's and my favorite version, and the girls are partial to betty boop.)

you see, this quilt could not be any more fitting for us.
all 5 of us.
now i'll bet that louise never expected that.
in fact, i would venture to say that in the whole of the flickr doll quilt swap (200-something quilts sent), no one else received a quilt that spoke special words to each person in the family.
had i mentioned previously that louise was made of awesome?

of course, words can never fully express the feelings that i have when i look at this quilt (which is still clipped to the shutters in the kitchen window, low enough for cate to play...even though in the photo it is not). you all understand, though. from one momma who is a maker of things to another, i know that louise understands the depth of my thanks.

and in a lucky twist (or actually, a very well thought out matching-up of participants), the quilt that i made (and loved oh so much!) went to a star amongst stars in the doll quilting realm (and a supremely lovely lady, too!)...lucinda!!!

i must say that this is the one and only swap on flickr that i have done more than once, 5 times, actually. to say that it is special is such an understatement. really, everyone puts his and her absolute best out there, and in the instances when there is an extraordinary connection between the one making the quilt and the one receiving it, well...that is just magic, my friends.

truth, absolute

2010-09-10T16:37:00.010-05:00

so, i saw this photo on flickr today.
something so simple.
something so powerful.

sharpies abound in this home, so i wrote a message for the girls, and for wade, and for me (and my sisters, one across the country and one across the sea)...really, for all of us.

before we picked up eme from preschool, cate and i stopped in at sonic. when our "have a beautiful day"-dude brought the daily route 44 diet coke to the car, he noticed my hand. i showed it to him; he just smiled and nodded his head "yes" for what seemed like a minute. i think we were both grinning like fools by the time he finally said, "have a beautiful day. i know i will because of you. i'll be sure someone special gets this message." and that, people, is one of the reasons that i go to this particular sonic. well, that and the route 44 diet cokes.

the lovely grace is passing this reminder on, too.

thank you, grace and sonic dude. you both made my heart unexpectedly extra happy today.

and i can't leave here without giving you eme's two observations on this sentiment. this is what she told cate and me on the way to pick up lily from school:
-i love you so much i could explode like a balloon but without the spit.
-i love you bigger than any number, like google plus infinity.

all it takes is a sharpie.
or a blog post.
or a beautiful voice.
a silly, but serious, voice can do it, too.
(edited 10.16.10 to add that an out-of-the-blue email and a phone call that you never, ever, ever knew that you would have, well...these things can do it, too.)

we *all* need to know that love is there for us, without measure.

xxx

p.s. yes, cate is eating on the floor. isn't that where you would eat if you were a puppy?

beauty in unlikely places

2010-09-09T00:41:00.009-05:00

suprisingly, eme discovered this moth in the grass the other morning. it's amazing to me that this creature wasn't trampled as the girls ran willy nilly about. she was so well camoflaged in a pile of leaves, that at first i didn't see her when eme pointed her out.

carefully, i would daresay reverently, eme picked her up (we didn't know she was a 'she' at the time, though). we all marveled at the texture, the coloration, the size, and the markings of our newly deceased find. at almost 7, lily acknowledged the beauty but was ick-ed out by the moth being dead. cate wanted to pet her. eme wanted to keep her for always (and bring her to the first day of school). i wanted to keep her, too. and really, with the 18 martha stewart shadowboxes that i bought at a huge discount a few years ago, i knew that i had the perfect place for her.

after a quick phone call to uncle (as per eme's suggestion...uncle has a gorgeous collection of butterflies that he had collected years and years ago), i settled our polyphemus moth (love that reference to greek mythology) into a shadowbox and arranged her wings. of course, i did have to put a pin through the thorax, but no pins in the wings...never, never, never. thanks to google, i discovered that we had to place and pin thin strips of paper over the wings to hold them in position until the moth fully dries out.

it is beyond amazing to me that wings so ridiculously fragile can bear a relatively large fuzzy little body (that does, incidentally, remind me of a stange wee bear). i'm glad that we found this one when we did. when i held her up to the sunlight, i noticed just how ephemeral these creatures are.

today, as i post this, i am acutely aware of the restorative power that occurs when finding beauty in unlikely places.

oh, just in case you are curious...the male's antannae are much, much bushier and its coloration much brighter. one more bit of information...she really is *that* large, almost a full 6 inches from wingtip to wingtip.

dqs9 (and promises, promises)

2010-09-05T23:17:00.014-05:00

hmmm, so the last time i was here, it was over a month ago. i had a story to share about a magical meet-up of three families (the gauberts, the lamberts, and the sims), a little christmas-in-july sugarman handsewing project, and a promise to play catch up around here.

i have yet to finish any of those things, and then of course we've had a whole summertime go by and school start again. what's a girl to do?

well, this girl is just going to move on (and be incredibly grateful for mini-blogging on flickr!). i have the photos, we all have the memories, i'm not any closer to getting the last two years of this blog into book format, and that's okay with me. pretty much. the goal now is to get the first year printed up, i'll continue to fill in empty spaces for the second year, and i will try to not let this third year get too far behind (starting now!).

which brings me to dqs9 (doll quilt swap 9 on flickr...so wonderful!), and the quilt that i will be ready to post on tuesday morning (which also happens to be eme's first day of her 3rd and final year at her preschool). ahhhh, excitement abounds!

of course i can't say much of anything yet about who i made the doll quilt for as this is a secret swap, but i can tell you that i was very excited but nervous about this one. i can also say with a good bit of confidence that when this certain someone returns from her mailbox later on this week, she will be happily surprised. i mean, really, i literally gave the shirt from my back on this one. that could have been avoided if i only would have remembered where i put that white linen that i bought earlier this summer. it's all good, though, as i always like to use a bit of repurposed linen in my sewing.

i adore patty griffin's voice, and her lyrics are so very often beautiful and heartbreakingly sad all at once. we listen to "impossible dream" almost every day as we wait in car-rider line for lily. it is not surprising to me at all that words from these lines of "kite song" made their way onto a quilt..."little sister just remember as you wander through the blue, the little kite that you sent flying one sunday afternoon, made of something light as nothing made of joy that matters too, how the little dreams we dream are all we can really do."

as with just about everything else that i sew (or knit), this little quilt was mostly worked on in the presence of my children (aren't we all rather clever at the whole multi-tasking bit?). i love a handsewing project that i can set down at a moment's notice. 'momma, can i have...? momma i need...! momma, lily/eme/cate (fill in the appropriate verb)...!' sometimes, it gets set down, not to be picked up until very late in the evening, when the house is quiet.

i know you know what i mean. this is why i love handsewing so much, and i swear that i feel the more time i spend with fabric and needle + thread in hand (and the sounds of children...the good, the bad, and the occasionally ugly!), the more precious the project becomes. it borders on magical. really. it does.

i finished up much of the handstitching this weekend as we got our first taste of the fall that is to come.

the final bits were done earlier today, solitary, with only birdsong and then later, the avett brothers, to keep me company. it's not often that happens, and when it does, i appreciate wade even more (an overdue visit back home with family, especially cousins, was the adventure of the day)! pssst...quick sidenote here...if you have never heard of the avett brothers (i had not...thank you so very much for this post, alicia!), well, go on over to amazon, here, and download their album, "i and love and you" for only 5 bucks during the month of september. you'll thank me later. just beautiful. truly.

i even tried dropping the feeddogs on the bernina for a bit of freemotion sewing...i haven't had much success with this technique in the past.

it looks soooo much easier than it actually is. amber's dqs9 label inspired me, and i just had to give it a go. i'm happy that i did. this whole freemotion thing is totally *not* intuitive to me. it's like trying to draw (sew) by moving the paper (fabric) instead of the pencil (needle). this takes time and practice, and i usually don't have time, and when i do, i don't want to practice. so, chances of me mastering this are pretty slim. i do like it, though.

this time around, i have not one single clue as to who will be sending a doll quilt to me. in fact, i can't quite remember what i wrote in my original email to the swap mamas, so educated guesses are out. oh well, i will be happily surprised also, i am sure, and i hope that it gets here soon!!!

have you ever seen sweeter clothespins?? thanks to suesue, we have a whole flock of them...red, aqua, green, and orange! i think that this is exactly what she had in mind when she gave them to me. perfect!

one more day off with the kiddos, and then we hopefully will fall into our regularly scheduled programming around here. ahem, there are big things in the works, and an organized cathy is very much required (wink).

christmas in july

2010-07-26T07:47:00.008-05:00

gosh, i've been away from this space for too long (there's a story to be shared once i am able to find a way to make all of the magical bits translate into words...if you can't wait, you can find beki's eloquent version, here)! the end of july has just crept up so sneakily. how does that always happen? this time last year, i had sent a little bit of my heart (in the form of some sweet little felt christmas goodies) off in box to the always amazing amanda in asheville. a couple of weekends ago, a little piece of me returned in a big way...a copy of Fa La La La Felt (from kathy sheldon, no less!) hand-delivered by jade (miss craft hope, herself!)!!!

my little gingerman on the spine of this book just makes me ridiculously happy. i want to see 20 books lined up on my bookshelf with 20 of those little guys looking back at me.

the book should be in stores next week starting august 3rd. sew mama sew is doing a whole week of "christmas in july" beginning today. there will be interviews with some of the designers from Fa La La La Felt (i'm up today!) and also free pdf's to download (my "sweet trio" project is up today!). of course, 5 copies of the book will be given away (thank you, lark books!) along with a fantastic bundle of felt (thank you, sew mama sew!).

go on. what are you waiting for? christmastime is indeed the stealthiest creeper-upper of them all!

oh...please do come back later on, too. i was supposed to have a new little christmas-y project ready to share with you all, but so many of us know how that all goes! i'm working on it now, though. that little gingerman's sugar friend wants to be in the spotlight a bit, too.

sadness + hope

2010-06-07T13:25:00.012-05:00

i really don't even know what to say about the debacle off of our coast that is creeping inland. i try not to think about it too much, because if i do, i have to think about the possibility that the land that we love (and those that live here) will be forever changed.

this is a photo from last summer, at the lsu lakes in baton rouge, but the flora + fauna here are similar to what is found in the marshes that are being threatened along our coastline.

sadness, indeed.

what can we do? what can we possibly even attempt that may make a difference? really, i don't know if any of it will be good enough in the long run. but then i push that down and try to let hope come in and fill up that space instead.

3 years ago, we stood on the beautiful white sand in destin, florida as the girls marveled at the color of the gulf.

hope.

we do have a way to make a difference. we do.

so, come and help. *anyone* can help. repurpose a cotton tee shirt by cutting it up into 10x10 inch pieces. those old towels that you want to replace? now is a perfect time for it. cut those up, too. 14x27 inches is a perfect size. pack them up in sets of 10 or 20, add a bottle of dawn liquid, and send this bundle of hope off to the coast. the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies will be sharing the donations with the Audubon Nature Institute and the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge so that dolphins, turtles, other marine mammals and birds can be rescued and rehabilitated.

courtney, suesue, beki and i are ready to pick up our scissors. won't you join us? not to sound overly dramatic, but our earth needs us.

please.

visit craft hope's site for all of the particulars of craft hope project 8.
and jade ...you amaze me.

inspiration...but this time, it's me!

2010-06-06T00:17:00.004-05:00

i am always so inspired by flickr and the blogs that i adore (even though i haven't been spending much time at either, lately). so, imagine my happy surprise when i discovered that *i* had actually been an inspiration for someone! well, can i tell you that i have a silly grin whenever i think about it? really, the simple things can make my day.

can you get over how absolutely sweet and teeny these are??

let me introduce you to krista (who not only has a way with a needle, but a paint brush, too!). she only has just begun her blog, but you can catch up with some of her loveliness on flickr.

go.

be inspired.

and be inspiring.

xxx

sew...whatcha doin'?

2010-05-26T21:37:00.004-05:00

i have been wanting to get my hands on natalie chanin's two books, alabama stitch book and alabama studio style, but each time i consider the $35 a piece pricetag, i end up buying fabric instead.
you understand this, i am quite sure.
on a whim, i decided to see if our library had these on the shelf, and sadly, they did not. but...requesting books from neighboring libraries and libraries throughout the state is my new favorite thing to do, so i had both books in my hand within 2 days!
gosh, i have always loved the library, and libraries in the summertime can send me back to my childhood in an instant. our girls have a deep love for the library, too, and for this i am so glad. forgive me my gush-iness about the library, but come on, libraries and librarians equal awesome!

anyway, i am totally enamored of natalie chanin's aesthetic and her story. i always have some sort of handstitching with me, usually hand embroidery on repurposed linen, but i have been aching to cut up some super-soft tees (thanks, celie!) and make a skirt like beki's for me and skirts or tops for the girls (i *love* this one found on flickr!).

so, if you are feeling a similar ache, and yearning for some "slow summer stitching", follow me over to beki's and join in on her stitch-along during the months of june, july, and august. and don't be jealous because she and i get to run away once a week for a couple of hours to sit and sew together. okay...you can be a little bit jealous, but in a nice way. i know that i always am when i read about you lucky girls who find time to spend with each other sans kiddos.

p.s. i wonder, in a few years, will my children still get the "phineas + ferb" reference if they read my blog?
p.p.s. wade, if you ever *do* read my blog, i am telling the whole of the internet how wonderful you are...without you, there would be no running away without kiddos once a week for a couple of hours to sit and sew with beki!!! xoxo

i make the rules

2010-05-07T09:26:00.007-05:00

this blog is my creation, right? so why do i sometimes feel like i *have* to do this or that or feel guilty when i've only posted 7 times in the past 127 days?

silliness, i suppose.

when i first started this blog, i was pregnant with cate, eme was soon-to-be 3 and lily, soon-to-be 5. i had been following some really amazing blogs, kept by some ladies who are truly made of awesome.

i was inspired.

most had a couple of small children crawling + running around the house, and i was in awe of how they found time to write about it and share photos of the lovely things they were magically creating.

i was inspired.

and i still am.

"mommy vases" made by me (under the instruction of the wonderfully rock star-ish, alex williams, of potsalot in new orleans) way back before i was a momma

and i know that the magical creating is often a lot of smoke + mirrors (for me, surely).

and that is totally okay.

if you would have seen cate yesterday, after she had basically made a meal of a bright turquoise marker (washable, of course, because, according to eme, that is how we roll), you would know exactly what i mean.

there may be some sleight of hand around here as posts from the past pop up from time to time. i have so many unfinished posts with goings-on and projects that are waiting to be added.
i really want to print up these almost-two years of my blog into books (has anyone used blurb? any other suggestions?). so, since i make the rules, i'll be playing catch-up around here for a bit.
i have no delusions of grandeur that hundreds of people read what i write, but for the 6 or 7 of you who do come by to see what we are up to, i wanted you to know that all is well.

and that i suck at time-management. but you already knew that.

so, it's march 31st...

2010-03-31T16:42:00.003-05:00

and it is a gorgeous spring day, and one of the reasons why i haven't been around much lately.

we have had so many lovely, cool, sunny days that i don't want to miss any of them.
i have so much to catch up on here, but i need more time than i now have to do it.

so, i will leave you with this...

and a wish for a happy easter (if that is what you celebrate) and a wonderfully sunny weekend!

so, it's march 1st...

2010-03-01T22:05:00.004-06:00

and it's a cold, windy, and rainy night.

but i'm not complaining. there's no place that we need to be other than right here,
warm, cozy, and home.

we have all of the entertainment we could possibly want.

that wade. while i was picking up after supper, he was giving cate her very first itty bitty pigtails. to say that she was killing us all with cuteness is a definite understatement.

seriously. how cute is that? and the fact that those are poppa-made (a little bit lopsided with one green and one pink elastic), makes the moment all the more endearing.

of course, moments never last for long, that's why they're moments, right? (and that puts me in the mood for into the woods...if you've seen it, you know exactly what i am talking about; i love joanna gleason as the baker's wife!)

i feel a bit like heidi klum here..."one minute, you're in. and the next minute...you're out!"

hmmmm, i am sure that this is the only time i will ever type the above sentence (and the only time that i will ever feel like heidi klum!).

of course, it all became a family affair after that. lily and eme adore cate, and they adore her even more now that she is getting big enough to do sisterly things like visit the beauty parlor in the bathroom...

where mammals of all kinds are welcome.

i hope you and your mammals are all warm + cozied up in your own little homes tonight, too!

ahhh...the car rider line

2010-02-25T22:53:00.010-06:00

the carpool line,
the pick-up line,
my little bit of heaven...

whatever you may call it, some days i positively live for it.

it's the only 45 minutes or so in the busy day that i have "to myself" where there is no laundry to be done, no house to straighten up, no snacks/meals to be fixed, no potty breaks to help with (although, there was that one time...but i'll spare you the details), no questions to answer or requests (demands?) to fulfill.

of course, this only really works if i have two sweetly slumbering childern in the backseat. and lately, my darling eme has not been so agreeable with the whole nap thing. but anyway, on a perfect day, both kiddos are asleep, i am listening to npr or something on cd (lately, tracy chapman, patty griffin, indigo girls, neko case, and ben harper), there is a route 44 diet coke close at hand, and i am stitching or making hexagons (and sometimes sketching + planning + jotting down ideas).

bliss, i tell you.
is that sad?
possibly.
oh how things change when you have kiddos! my love for them is boundless, but i am sure that you understand the need for quiet. time. alone.

some days, we leave the house really early so that i can be sure that em (who is so into showing me that she is independent, that i carefully and strategically pick my battles) will zonk out. she's starting to not be onboard with the whole "close your eyes and pretend to rest so that cate will, too" routine. i am not kidding when i say that i know every new development in the area, which houses are for sale, and which roads are often travelled by cyclists. one of my favorite stretches of road passes through swampy land with groves of cypress and oak on both sides. it was especially beautiful the other day.

a perfect little piece of storybook woods, albeit partially under a couple feet of water.

yesterday was one of the not-so-perfect days when neither eme nor cate fell asleep. so, i crossed my fingers and we pulled into the line to wait for lily.

eme and cate kept each other amused with a little super grover doll, a book of masks, and rice cakes. a "read between the lions" book on cd (chick-fil-a does have decent "prizes" in their kids' meals) replaced npr, but that was okay. i got to stitch for a bit, nobody was crying, and all was right in our world.

lily really does want to ride the bus, but there are so many reasons that we would rather she not. it may be selfish, but this precious time is one of those reasons.

maybe you don't sit in a car-rider line. maybe naptime is your precious time of the day. what do you do during those times when no one needs you?? and do you guard that time of the day like crazy?

i *need* this time. i really do. it makes me a better and more patient momma, i am almost surely convinced.

a happy medium

2010-02-23T13:42:00.009-06:00

does such a thing exist? i am sure that it does, but i don't think that i am capable of finding it. really though, i suppose that is just a big ole excuse...a way for me to avoid prioritizing and organizing and scheduling. blech, even as i type those three words, i get all stressed. i don't think that is normal, actually. it should be that those three things make life easier. i suppose that would be true, and maybe i would find out if i could motivate myself to try it.

it's the weather. yes, it's got to be. i'm blaming it on the weather.

i am so ready for spring and green and outside and "new". i'm not the only one, either (and beki is far more eloquent about it than i am). the kiddos are stir crazy with this wacky weather we have been having. yesterday was warm enough for short sleeves, and today it's back to bundling up again. tomorrow we are expecting more of the same with possibly some sort of "wintry mix"...seriously? oh, spring! can you hurry up and get here? we need to see the soft, chartreuse-y baby leaves popping out all over the bare branches.
we need the sun.
*sidenote* lily and eme are into the sun + planets and space in their drawings lately, along with rainbows. the color indigo is discussed on a daily basis around here...as in, does it actually exist, and why does no one ever talk about it unless they are talking about rainbows? thank goodness for tmbg and youtube! for a bit, this was enough to make me forget the blech-y weather. really, you must watch them. i promise that you (and the kiddos) will thank me.

i have been so absent from here lately, and truly, i miss it.

i like taking pictures.
i like writing about what i am making.
and what i want to make.
and what i should be making.
i like sharing my lofty goals here (recording it here makes me keep it a bit more on the realistic side, i think).
i really, really like hearing what you have to say.

so, i'm going to try and be back often. probably not daily (lofty, unrealistic goal), but maybe. you never know. i have the embroideries for the hoop up swap that i have been working on, my quiltie for dqs8, the embroidered button swap hosted over on feeling stitchy, and assorted other things to share. and hey, i may actually get myself prioritized, organizied, and schedule-ized. hmmm...typing that again didn't stress me too very much at all. progress, perhaps?

oh...i know that the photos in this post really have not much to do at all with the actual written content (which now that i am re-reading it sounds a bit on the whiney side; sorry about that), but i couldn't possibly return without sweet pictures for you, right? at least the photos relate to each other, though...sweet girls, red + white, and polka dots.

love is...

2010-02-14T14:10:00.002-06:00

sometimes the simplest of things, like breakfast with your sweet little family and the beauty that is paper + glue + markers + stickers, courtesy of budding writers.
have a lovely day!
xoxo

cate, live, one performance only, at The Fireplace, friday night

2010-02-07T22:57:00.001-06:00

twinkle twinkle little star
Originally uploaded by cathygaubert

this is what people with children do on a friday night.
i wouldn't want it any other way. and leave it to eme to insert a totally random comment...she does it in every single video. and i wouldn't want that any other way, either.

craft hope :: hope for haiti

2010-01-18T11:53:00.008-06:00

"spreading seeds of hope, one stitch at a time"

this is the mission of Craft Hope.

founded by jade sims, and "designed to share handmade crafts with those less fortunate. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world."

in order to help the people of haiti in their hour (and days, and weeks...) of need, Craft Hope set up an etsy shop... HERE...which has, in 2 days, raised $7,000 for Doctors Without Borders with 100% of the proceeds going to them. edited to add: as of tonight, the total is approaching $10,000!!!!

with the memories and aftermath of hurricane katrina still fresh in the collective consciousness, especially for us here in south louisiana, hearts everywhere break for the people of haiti . and when i think of the children, the babies...well, it makes me hold mine a little bit tighter+longer and tell them even more often how precious they are to me. and then of course, i have to explain the tears in my eyes. our nightly prayer (which lily and eme created) has been amended (again) to be: "god bless everybody we love, and peace on earth, and peace on our home, and peace and a home for the people of haiti who had a terrible earthquake." as much as we shelter them from the actual "news", this is something that they need to know about. to be expected, they wanted to know if we could send blankets + food + stuffed animals to the children, and that will go, too, but now what is needed most is money.

so, if you have money that you want to send, but you aren't sure how you want to send it, consider Craft Hope.

two (even though there are so, so many more) of the lovely, lovely ladies who are donating their crafts+time to the shop are beki and sarah...we can never thank you enough, and i am so lucky to call you friends.

"ursula, the eldest" and the "lilybird chandelier" embroidery pdf patterns are soon to be in the Craft Hope shop (you can find them in the "printables" section...instant gratification). if you would like to purchase one, now would be the perfect time.

i'd like to think that the symbolism of the two are very appropriate to the cause...keeping your true home close to your heart even when it seems lost as with ursula and the beautiful light (love+kindess)that is intensified by the crystals (all of us) of the lilybird chandelier.

so exciting...

2009-12-15T11:25:00.002-06:00

lil's b'day photo book
Originally uploaded by jenndocherty

to see one of my projects from FaLaLaLaFelt used in such a lovely way, made by the hands of none other than the incomparable miss jenn docherty! her sweetie, little miss lil, just celebrated her first birthday, and jenn made this perfect little birthday photo book...what a great idea! if you are lucky enough to have one of jenn's felted wonders (i do...he's here!), you can imagine what a thrill it is to see my design crafted by her amazing hands. i'm hoping that jenn will add her photo to the flickr group. yay, jenn!!!!!
xoxo

Fa La La La Felt

2009-12-01T02:22:00.004-06:00

after months of wanting to burst with the mostly-secret excitement that some of my designs would actually be in print...now they are!

the book, fa la la la felt: 45 handmade holiday decorations, was released as an e-book (lark's very first e-book) the day before thanksgiving.

add that to my list of what i had to be thankful for!

an e-book...how cool is that? you don't have to brave yucky weather, mobs in malls, and terrible traffic in order to get it! you just click on over, here, and for $14.95, 132 pages of loveliness is all yours. of course, you can wait to get the actual, hold-in-your-hands book, but can you really wait until august 2010? hmmm, today is december 1st, and i hear my little clock tick-tick-ticking.

there are so many wonderful projects in this book...i know because i have been grabbing every little bit of computer time i have to look through it! i feel so incredibly fortunate to have had 6 of my projects picked to be included in fa la la la felt...i am in some amazing company, surely. (i promise to come back later on and link to some of the other contributors after i find their links in the book!)

perhaps the most triple-awesome (i *love* eme's word!) of them all, amanda carestio, is also the author of fa la la la felt, and an editorial assistant at lark. amanda was ever so lovely throughout this whole amazing process, and i am forever grateful to her for her encouragement and rapid-response whenever i needed her! three cheers for amanda!!!

so, if you would like a sample of what is inside of the book, lark books has a free pdf download for you! it is an ornament version of my little redcaps, the holiday toadstools. i hope that you enjoy making one (or seven!). if you sit in the carpool line to pick up the kiddos, it's the perfect thing to keep you happily waiting.

here are a few photos from back in june when i sent all of my goodies off to amanda. cate was so little then!

and these were the trees that inspired it all! i sent these off to amy for her annual ornament swap (i think that was the 1st year, and now this is the 4th). on flickr, this is one of my photos with the most views...7459 times, and 329 people have it marked as a favorite! amazing. i have been giddy since i first got the email last week and learned that my trees were on the cover. hmmm, i wonder whoever got my little trees and where they are now?

thankful...

2009-11-24T08:14:00.004-06:00

for so many things:

sweet girlies in footed pajamas
steamed milk from the new-to-me espresso machine
birthday celebrations, near and far (ceec, i know you love london, but we miss you!)
those lovelies out there who believe in me (you know who you are!)
preparing special requests for thanksgiving dinner
healthy, lovely babies, madelyn and william
the best news possible for my dear, dear friend (i love you!)
the drawings lily + eme make that can be found all around our house
a certain 13 month old's tight hugs and very wet kisses
a husband who is without compare
friends and family
and all of you!

we have so much...
so very much to be thankful for.

happy birthday, mr. gaiman... happy birthday to you!

2009-11-10T09:21:00.006-06:00

today is the birthday of one of my most absolute favourite + remarkable authors (and just an all around wonderful human being). if you haven't read his novels (for young + old + everything in between) and graphic novels...well...you must, and you can find him here.

a petting zoo picnic party (x 3)

2009-11-01T00:22:00.003-05:00

birthday girls...i adore them.

and birthday parties are just so much fun.

call me crazy, but i actually do love having the girls' birthdays so close together (october 8, 15, and 17). i will probably be singing a different tune in a couple of years, but for right now (at 4, 6, and 1 years old), it's a good thing.

so, we had a petting zoo picnic party this past weekend.

after lots of rain and crazy warm temperatures for october, the day was gorgeous!

(i love this photo of us. i had to flip it because blogger cuts off the right side of photos, so poor cate was missing! the original photo is here.)

it was such a good time with family, a few friends, yummy treats + food, and the most wonderful bring-it-all-right-to-your-own-backyard petting zoo around.

i think that the kiddos (and a few of us grown-ups, too) had the best time with the animals.

for having so many littles together in the early afternoon (prime naptime for most), the only time a few tears were shed was when the realization hit that the animals were not party favors and would be going back to their own home with miss ashley.

if baby bunnies could have fit in pockets, believe me, i would be typing this post right now while two tiny black+white ones gamboled at my feet.

i've wanted to have chickens for a while now (really, with all of the eggs we eat, it would be a good thing), and this just about sealed the deal. the fact that eme told a ridiculously detailed + believable story recently about a chicken visiting her school makes me love this captured moment all the more.

and here's a bit of randomness...a wallaby, mixed in with all of the farm animals. he (or she?) was so sweet. the tail amazed us! it was so long + heavy. when he/she had enough of the kiddos, back into the little bag he/she hopped. i could actually have carried him/her in cate's sling, as he/she was practically the same size (except for that amazing tail).

i was a maniac with the camera (as i am sure that you have noticed by now!), but i wanted to have at least one shot of each kiddo with his/her favorite animal. unfortunately, i missed abby + jeffery (one because she is so quiet and the other because he never stays still!) holding an animal. if anyone out there took a photo of either of the kiddos, please let me know. i wanted the photos to add to the party favors i made.

we've been singing "five little pumpkins" around here for the past month, and that seemed to fit perfectly with the stack of five little animals that i gocco'd onto the invitations, so the "birthday celebration poem/coloring book" became our party favor. really, it was one more excuse to use those chubby little animals that i drew...love them!

they also made a handstitched appearance on pockets on each of the girls' dresses. lily + eme picked the lamb for cate, and then lily took the pony, so eme decided that she would have the rest, the chick + rabbit + piggy. i found this pattern on etsy (mindy blogs at froglegsandponytails and i don't remember how i actually found it, but it was a link through flickr, more than likely), and it is right up there with this pattern on my list of quick + cute dresses (along with this one, which i still need to sew up!). of course, i didn't give myself enough time, considering that i was making 3 birthday dresses, but the last one was completed a couple of hours before the party, so i would say that pretty good for me! on a side note, i'm thinking about making this pattern a pdf like my lilybird chandelier pattern, and it's on my short list of spoonflower contenders (which i have yet to actually do!).

no cake could rival last year's, so we went with delicious lemon doberge + a chocolate-lovers'-dream cake from a local bakery. but, we needed some sort of edible cuteness, so sugar cookies, cupcakes, icing, and brownies became "burgers + fries". (i'm still trying to remember where i first saw these, and when i do, i'll add in a link. ahhh...here, of course! )

i think that edible cuteness was achieved, and they really did taste good, too! my big tip here is to get that tray/box of pre-made brownies from sam's and scoop out (no cutting here, just quick + dirty!) enough to roll into a little ball in your palm. press that ball flat, and you have a "hamburger" patty. many, many thanks to wade, lily, + eme who helped to assembly these much quicker than i thought possible!!!

a quick note about the dollhouse that the girls got as their gift from their cousins...it really is very fragile and not made for actual playing with, it seems! as cute as it was, part of it arrived broken (replacement parts were shipped the next day), another 2 parts broke as wade was putting it together, and then the same 2 pieces (but on a different door!) broke within 35 seconds of it going from tabletop to ground. the day after the party, i packed it all up, spent 45 minutes on the phone with a lovely magic cabin employee, and ordered this as a replacement (which looks much, much sturdier, and the girls say they like it better!). this is one more reason that i will continue to order from magic cabin (we all love cate's new ride). their customer service has always been wonderful, and they (in my experience) totally stand behind their guarantee of 100% customer satisfaction.

whew.

now all that is left are the thank you notes (more gocco-ing of my little animal stack soon!).

i'm thinking that next year's party will have pumpkins and of course, buntings (applecyder's tissue flags totally inspired the bunting on the girls' invitations!).

maybe i can actually NOT be last minute next year?

and i suppose that this little piggy might just sprout wings.

ahem.

if you have 15 minutes...

2009-10-30T14:06:00.006-05:00

then you may want to give this a go.

please do let me know if you do.

the downloadable pdf is right there, yes...right over there in the upper right corner, under "download tutorials here". hopefully, i will get some more unfinished tutorials done soon and add them to the sidebar also. um, i still haven't completed the ones from last year's forest party. yikes.

moving on...

i have finally (finally!) actually come through on a tutorial for you. of course, i say that it only takes 15 minutes, and that, my crafty, fabric-stash-loving friends, is true. i whipped up this little number this morning before eme's halloween party. cate couldn't keep her hands off of it, so i'd say that it was a hit (it mesmirizes babies and it's sturdy, too!). now, making the tutorial on the other hand...way more than 15 minutes.

and right now, i have no clue where to put the pdf so that you can download it! wade is sleeping (it is after midnight), so i can't ask him. edited to add: i'm using scribd...it seemed like an easy one to go with. if there is a better option for blogger, please fill me in, my blogging friends. i hope that it is okay. these sort of affairs always make me nervous which could be why it has taken me so long to complete a tutorial to share.

oh, one more thing...because no halloween post would be complete without a bat. the cutest, teeniest little baby batty bat, at that!

we discovered this sweet thing late one night after arriving back home from a weekend at mimi + pops'. he was hiding in the leaves on our carport.

thankfully, he didn't appear to be injured, just a bit unhappy to be all alone, i think. or maybe he wasn't overjoyed at the paparazzi treatment i was giving him.

at any rate, he scuttled away under the deck.

some evenings at dusk, we see bats dipping + diving (not nearly as many here though as there are at m+p's house on "da bayou"). we like to think that he is one of those guys.

amazing.

i am more than a little bit in awe of bats.

the girls were a bit sad that they didn't get to see him, but wade + i have long ago learned not, under any circumstances, to awaken sleeping kiddos.

since it is officially the 31st now, happy halloween from us and our wee batty bat...and also from lily's one-eyed screaming alien lolly!

(and now back to the trying to pull together this year's birthday party post.)

one whole year

2009-10-17T19:39:00.007-05:00

cate is 1.
can one whole year really have gone by already?
can we actually be the parents of three (three!) children?
yes and yes.

this is the face of one of the happiest babies i know. lily and eme love to see cate wake up in the morning because she is just so darn sweet and snuggly! finally those top two teeth have made their way out to join the other two (she wasn't too happy or too sweet while that was occurring, though).

this baby is a daredevil. really, i am lucky that the only mark on her right now is a tiny, almost-healed scratch on the cheek. cate is a climber. she uses anything that she can to climb onto the sofa + chairs, the end tables, the girls' tea party table, the window sill, the sewing machine case (and when she gets onto that, she yells because she is stuck with no room whatsoever to maneuver). so far, there have been no major injuries, but it has not been for a lack of trying.

catherine elisabeth gaubert...you are our "sweet baby cate", the fifth member of our lucky little family. you are so loved by your big sisters! really, they absolutely adore you (and so do we). you are so happy, you actually take naps, you love to give kisses (which basically entails covering our noses with your wide-open mouth) and pat-pat-pat us when we hold + hug you. you don't have a lot of words yet, but i swear that you can just about sing parts of "happy birthday". you do like to say "duck" while you nod your head when we show you a duck (or a dog, and a pig, and just about anything else). you love blueberries, strawberries, melon of all kinds, and cheese. you get so excited when we pick up your sisters from school and when poppa comes home at the end of the day. you are silly. you make us laugh when you cover + uncover things while saying "ta-da". you rather shake your head "no" than "yes". you are very interested in other little kiddos that are close to your size, and you are quick to want to hug. you often carry a little basket on your arm, just like a little lady going off to market. you can spend quite a bit of time at your little kitchen + pantry shelf. you can play the harmonica (well, not really...but i swear that i am often surprised at how good it actually can sound when you are huffing + puffing into it) and you enjoy music, especially dan zanes and elizabeth mitchell. it seems as though you have been walking forever, thanks to your must-be-followed older sisters. sometimes i look at you and are amazed that you can be getting so very big when you are still so small.

you are our lovely baby girl, and i am so blessed to be your momma.

plush you! 2009

2009-10-16T22:42:00.007-05:00

well, plush you! 2009 seemed to be a great success this past weekend. i so wished that wade and i could have made it there, but travelling 2550 miles away from the kiddos is so not happening around here anytime soon. the artists' reception last friday night seemed to have been packed full of plush-loving people, and it would have been really cool to have gotten a chance to meet some of the creators that i so admire. dawn of plush-a-holic fame took a ton of photos, along with shots of many of the individual plushies, and her adorable girlie went all out for the event with a cotton monster head! the ever-so-lovely kristen, proud owner of schmancy, is one amazing (and super sweet!) lady; she does an incredible amount of work to make each year's show a bigger and better success than the last. i feel honored to have been a part of it.

the camera's self-timer and i were at odds, so the photos aren't the best...sorry about that.

these are my redcaps on a hill. they seem to be sharing some sort of secret.

another little redcap turned up in the arm of a gingerman.

and this is charles a. squirrel, his ears (which i absolutely adore!), tail, and legs courtesy of my dad's stylish togs from the 70's.

seriously. most of my repurposed wool has come straight from my dad's closet (he saves everything, likely due to the cost of his wardrobe over the years...quality is worth it!). i really did feel a bit of guilt cutting into some of the pants and coats because of their fine condition, but cut away i did. when i showed this guy to my dad, he remembered that coat (it was one of his favorites) and told me how years and years ago he saw a friend of his in the airport, and they both had the very same coat on. well, i am happy to make his favorite coat live on in a squirrel(s), a soon-to-be fox (for you, sarah!), and a few pumpkins.

all of my plushies were 100% handstitched by me and made without patterns. they were also made from recycled/repurposed materials (linen, wool, wool felt, silk, and even stuffing). oh, and the gingerman and the redcaps will be making a slightly-altered appearance in a book sometime next year (and possibly a pdf this year; i'll let you know if and when i find out anything new)!

here they are together before they journeyed off for the big show...

my little guys were in some great, great company in seattle. unfortunately, i can't post photos of my absolute favorites here, but if i had unlimited funds, i would have snatched up plushies from superninon, penguin and fish, cate anevski, margie oomen, and cotton monster.

kristen is adding pieces from the show daily here. my guys aren't up yet, but it seems as though charles a. squirrel is already spoken for. i am sure that he is going to a lovely home!

2009-10-16T13:01:00.007-05:00

uuuuuyuy7hjh7h77yuuuuuuuuuuuuu68uhj8y7u77777juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuiy7uuuuuuuuuuuuu7u87yu8888888888888888888888888888888y7u98f7uyyyyyyyyyyyy

the above is what happens when you drop guacamole on the keyboard, right between the y and u , while trying to finish typing up the post devoted to your 10 year wedding anniversary.

fyi, a knife with a scrap of fabric covering the tip does a wonderful job of cleaning up the mess. i knew there was a good reason to always have fabric scraps lying about!

and now back to whatever it is that you were doing...

hail, hail to the good times

2009-10-16T11:17:00.008-05:00

funny, i really didn't think that ac/dc's for those about to rock would supply me with the title for a blog post on our 10th anniversary (it was on in the car when i brought the girls to school this morning). really though, it is so very appropriate. ten years married (and a total of 22 years together!) is quite a while, so why not hail, hail the good times (and the not-so-lovely-but-never-nearly-bad-times, and the mundane-day-to-day-times, and the really-triple-awesome-times, too)?

october, as many of you know, could be considered a busy time for our family. truly, it is my most favorite month of the year. how could it not be with 3 birthdays and our anniversary (and also c + g's anniversary, too!)? as an added bonus, today is the first really cool, gorgeous day we have had this fall.

so, what are our plans to celebrate this milestone?
why, supper together at home, with our 3 lovely girls, of course!

on this date a year ago, wade picked up supper, the girls decorated the table, and we enjoyed our 9th anniversary meal together as a family of 4. later on that night, i was thinking that i would possibly have to call in a favor to our dear friend, jennifer. a couple of hours later, i decided that i definitely would need to call in that favor! shortly after that phone call, and a very quick trip to the hospital, we became a family of 5.

this anniversary is a special one, indeed.

i know that last year i said that we have been together for so long because we are amazing + realistic + meant-to-be. i really do believe this to be true. and so does the ever-elusive mr. cathy's husband (as sonia called him recently!), otherwise known as, wade. he doesn't make much of an appearence on the blog, or anywhere else online for that matter. in fact, when i started to look through photos for this post, i could barely find him there either. he's way worse than me about being in front of the camera.

i did find two photos which i love of us (and the girls, of course). one is from my sister sally's wedding which took place on a mountaintop in colorado in early fall of 2004 (lily was not quite 1 year old yet),

and the other is from this fall, early september actually, taken at my mom + dad's home (in this one, cate, not quite 1 year old).

this guy i married.
what can i really say about him that would be adequate?
well, simply put, he is the best husband and poppa, and we are just so very happy to have him!

upward and onward in this very good life together.

xoxo

and now we are six

2009-10-15T22:01:00.012-05:00

lily is 6.
wow.
i find it so hard to believe that we are the parents of a 6 year-old (even though at 38 and almost 40, we could have a child in college instead of kindergarten!).

and what a 6-year old she is! this child of ours, this first child, is so like me in so many ways. maybe it's because she is the oldest daughter out of 3, and i am the oldest daughter out of 3? maybe it's the hair, especially when it is in pigtails, as more than a few of my long-ago kindergarten friends have suggested? it could also be the constant drawing + "markering" on every available piece of paper.

lillian florence gaubert, our lily...you are the oldest of the cousins, the biggest sister, a bit bossy at times but i suppose that comes with the territory. you seem to have a magnetic personality, pulling girls and boys alike into your circle of friends (and you are friends with everyone!). you are sweet + kind (except for the inevitable sisterly stuff sometimes) + thoughtful. art, especially drawing is your favorite thing to do, and of course you and eme love to dress up in costumes and put on dancing shows. you are so independent already. when i picked you up early from school today, you didn't want to hold my hand; "not at school, mom!" you said. sigh. at least you said it was okay when we got outside. you are beginning to read and wanting to spell everything out and write it all down. you can cross your eyes like nobody's business, and you are still quite the silly, lily goose. and yes, i will continue to call you that, even though you are 6.

you are our lovely girl, and i am so blessed to be your momma.

this is what 4 looks like

2009-10-08T18:57:00.006-05:00

eme is four.
four.
it seems so unreal that our middle child (that we can actually say, "middle child"!) is four.

this is what "four" looks like right after a breakfast of birthday brownies.

and these are the faces of my most favorite four-year old as we are rushing out of the door to get the first child off to kindergarten...

emilie catherine gaubert, our eme...you are comical and silly, sweet as can be, very very stubborn, a snuggler, a storyteller, the very best little + big sister, fiercely independent at times but also "missing being a baby". you love honey mustard pretzels + chocolate milk and your sad-little-bush-baby-eyes look slays me every time. you savor candy/sweets/dessert like no one i know (lily and i are both gobblers) and do not like to be rushed ever (even though you arrived 3 weeks before your due date). you are my big helper, cate's playmate during the day, and my front-seat companion while we sit and wait in the carpool line. you are good-natured + easy-going, but you have a will of iron, and there is definitely a mischievious sparkle in those beautiful blue eyes. you are clever and thoughful, but you do not like to have to say you are sorry. i smile everytime i hear you ask poppa, "so, how was your day?" you tell the best chicken stories ever.

you are our lovely girl, and i am so blessed to be your momma.

plush you 2009, a peek

2009-10-03T07:33:00.005-05:00

time.

where does it go, and why do i never have enough of it?

well, i am lucky that a long carpool line is my friend, as i get at least 45 minutes in the afternoon to have a little bit of time to myself (thankfully, eme and cate enjoy naps in the car!).

for the past two months (seriously), i have been working on my plush you guys and also a ton of fussy-cut hexagons during these daily 45 minutes. of course, that means that everything is handstitched, which i especially love.

no patterns (excepting my paper hexagon templates, of course), not too much forethought, and a whole lot of experimenting...i love that, too.

just a little peek for now, but i promise a full reveal of my three pieces on friday when the "plush you" show opens.

according to the calendar, fall is here...

2009-09-24T12:25:00.005-05:00

would someone please inform mother nature?
i know that we're in south louisiana, but really, do we need temperatures in the low 90's with a ridiculous amount of humidity?
i think not.

the girls have been after me to take out the fall + halloween decorations, so on monday i did. on wednesday evening, the kitchen table looked almost the same as in the photo, minus me and a naked cate. thankfully, today the decorations are mostly up and/or off of the table (although it's still a bit early for me for the halloweenie ones...those would be scattered throughout the house, thanks to 3 little imps).

i had big plans for today...finish up some quilt blocks for my quilting bee girls, follow through with some ideas that i have been mulling over lately, make a trip to the mall (ugh) to return something (double ugh), and spend some time outside swinging with cate (and then, later on, lily + eme).
unfortunately, none of those things have happened. what did happen, instead, began like this:

{8:40 a.m., after dropping lily at school, we are almost(!) back home to pick up eme's snack which i left on the kitchen counter}

me: (singing the wolf's song, "hello little girl" from the "into the woods" soundtrack to distract cate from her horrible lot in life which is how she views being in a carseat each morning)

eme: momma, my tummy hurts.

me: do you want a rice cake? i'm sure it's because your tummy is hungry. this is why you should eat in the mor...

eme: bluch, blech, blooorp, (please feel free to insert any other sounds that you associate with vomitting), spluch, splash...(you get the general idea, i think)

me: oh, no! em! oh, no! hold on, we'll be home in a few seconds..........

literally, we were home in 3 seconds. 3 seconds, people. i was turning into the driveway just as eme was done. too bad it was about 30 seconds too late. i'll spare you any more gory details, but suffice to say that apparently, i have a very strong stomach. any of you who have had a child get carsick (which is what this seemed to be...it's the 4th time in 3 years that this has happened to em) can feel my pain.

so, now it is after 1 o'clock, the carseat and all of the straps + buckles are washed and dried, em is absolutely fine (and was fine about 10 minutes after the whole ordeal), i got nothing accomplished, and now i have to put the carseat back together again. really, it would be easier to put humpty dumpty back together again.

thank goodness for carpool line. i think that we may even leave earlier than usual today. i am looking forward to sitting in a quiet car (eme + cate both fall asleep every single day at this time...yay!), doing some handsewing, and drinking a huge sonic diet coke (yay for happy hour!). oh, and did i mention that i am sick. well, of course i am. otherwise, none of this would have happened today! today, i am a glass-half-full sort of girl, it seems. i could make a really disgusting joke right here, but i will not.

blech. i am done whining. thank you, internet, for letting me boohoo and stomp my feet for a bit.

maybe you thought that you were having a rotten day, and now that you have been here, you're thinking, well, maybe your day is not so bad.

now go back and look at that photo for a bit.
how can you not be happy when you see that?

(apologies to any of you who, after reading the title and seeing the photo, were led to believe that this would be a nice little post about the joys of the beginning of the fall season. if you have gotten this far, you know that it absolutely was not such a post. i do promise that in the coming days, and with some cooler weather, there will be such a post here. xxx)

it's monday again? really.

2009-09-14T16:59:00.002-05:00

so much to do, so little time...the story of our lives, right?

happy bench monday to you all. hopefully, i'll get some time later on this evening to do a proper post on dqs7 (doll quilt swap 7, here, on flickr, for the uninitiated). can you spot the one that was received and the one that is almost ready to be sent? and yes, the deadline is tomorrow, and i will be on time!!

bench monday, the labor day edition

2009-09-07T22:04:00.005-05:00

it could also be titled the "drag the furniture outside for a quick couple of shots before the rain begins" edition.

this is our homage to the end of summer and the beginning of the school year (although lily has been going for 3 weeks now, eme begins tomorrow). it really is a magical time of year...so many possibilities along with new adventures + experiences. and girlies in fairy skirts, swigging pixie stixs, atop a transformed school desk...well, there's definitely magic in that.

here's an outtake. lily + eme think that this one is the cuter one.

happy bench monday!

oh, and those pixie stixs? eme must have taken at least 3 dozen home from the party on saturday. lily, on the other hand, ate all 86 pixie stixs there. good times.

if only i could succeed when i drop the feeddogs

2009-09-07T13:17:00.009-05:00

it really is frustrating when you know (or at least think that you know) that what you are doing is correct, yet the results continue to be less than stellar. hrmph. i suppose that i need to take the bernina in to someone who knows how to free-motion quilt. i just know that there is some super-simple step that i am missing.
feeddogs, dropped...check.
darning foot, on...check.
free-motion quilting, here we go...
or rather, here we don't go.
grrr.
(and i won't show pictures of that train wreck)

anyway, i am proof that you can "free-motion" quilt with the feeddogs up and a regular foot on the machine. it's just not easy. at all, really. thank goodness for the knee lever thingie so that i can lift the foot and maneuver the fabric around without even thinking about it.

can i tell you how much i love this woodgrain? well, i will, because i do. and the shingles? my heart goes pitter-patter. sometimes, it really is all about the simple things in life.

this makes my heart go pitter-patter, too.

i was never one to put big bows and headbands and things on the girls when they were babies. but now, i totally understand why people do it. the cuteness factor is through the roof!

we had the pleasure of attending a birthday party for the sweetie of a dear friend. it was a fairy garden party, and it was absolutely lovely in every single way. how can you not have wonderful dress-up things when you are a dance teacher? the headbands, wings, wands, and fairy gardens were a hit, miss celeste!

this was our package, wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, well, actually gingham ribbon.

i made a skirt using this easy peasy tutorial by oliver + s (i adore fine wale courdoroy!), a little tee with 4 flags (it was a fourth birthday), and added a sweet redcap and friend to a very nice little sweater that i picked up at target. i hope that it's not too late to find 3 more in the girls' sizes.

here's a sweet little surprise...sort of a cute way of saying "tag goes in the back".

oh, and while i was typing up this post, cate woke up from her nap with bedhead...sweetness, indeed!

oh, and any hints from you feeddog-dropping sewing mamas out there would be so appreciated!

now off to enjoy the rest of our day. em goes back to preschool tomorrow, and we have a few things to get ready for that.

i almost forgot! raggedyowl is having a giveaway of heather ross awesomeness...fabric bits and an autographed drawing (from the artist, herself!!) of the sweetest snail you ever did see. if you'd like to sign up, you have until saturday, september 12 at noon.

dqs7, and robots, and a kindergartener...oh my!

2009-09-01T11:24:00.004-05:00

well, finally i seem to have been able to pick out the fabrics for the quilt i am to make for dqs7 . last minute? no, not me! i don't have to have it in the post until the 15th (i think) of september. this time around, i have been paralyzed with indecision. serindipitously, i came across this blog post. it seemed like a public service announcement especially for me. so, i made the decision to quit with the indecision and move ahead. now i just need some time to actually start cutting + sewing, oh and thinking, maybe i should do the thinking part first as i am once again winging it...no patterns here. fingers crossed that it all works out. when i take a look at that stack of fabric again, i am pretty sure that it will.

in other make-it-up-as-i-go-along news, we had a birthday party to attend for a super sweet little 3 year old we know. i wanted to make a tee for him, and lately robots seem to have been inhabiting my subconscious. so, J3 was born:

isn't it amazing what a little bit of repurposed denim, wool felt, and thread can accomplish?

and i think that i almost love the back more than the front of the shirt, all the more so for the threads that are here, there, and everywhere. i really do adore him!

as you can see from the back, i didn't use any sort of stabilizer...partly because i couldn't find where i had stuffed it, and also because i was in a hurry (imagine that). i didn't put any iron-on backing onto the robot pieces, either (once again, the can't-find-it--no-matter--i'm-too-much-in-a-hurry-to-use-it-anyway method). i drew him out on paper, cut up his bits, held the fabric + paper robot bit in my hand, and then cut the bits out. thank goodness for the trusty ole school gluestick in the drawer. a little swipe of glue onto the back of the bigger bits, and then i stuck them to the front of the shirt and was ready to sew. now, as far as the sewing goes, i'm sure that there is a much easier way to do this, what with dropping the feeddogs and free-motioning it and all, but i sort of stink at this. maybe i just need to actually practice it. so, anyway, i just stitched around each bit, nothing fancy. for the joints + bolts + things, i just went back+forth, back+forth, back+forth. easy peasy.

the girls loved him so much that i have promised to make them their own robots...with pigtails.

we have another birthday party this weekend for a sweet little 4 year old friend. she loves fairies (and so does her mom...happy birthday to you, celeste!) as do my girls, so there have been a surplus of ideas for her birthday gift. speaking of which, i need to make wise use of my time and get busy on that, too!

we've been trying to get into the whole school routine, and i must admit that it has me a bit stumped. eme goes back a week from today, so hopefully in another week, we will be settled into a routine that works for us. lily is into week 3 of kindergarten, and she wakes up each morning looking forward to her day just as she did the first day. that girl loves school, which makes for a happy kindergartener and a happy family, especially a happy momma who drops her off each morning.

the art of using what one has

2009-08-27T14:09:00.003-05:00

i so admire mimi kirchner. i feel fortunate to have met her here in the blogisphere. i treasure the pieces of art of hers that i have, especially one made just for me (from the very awesome paperbag project dreamed up by theresa) of my three girls. if you don't know about her, you should. so, here you go...

if you would like the chance to win one of her whimsical tiny worlds, visit her blog here.

i heart this on so many levels

2009-08-24T17:08:00.001-05:00

thanks to amy + mimi k. for turning me on to this bit of whimsy.

one year + six days ago

2009-08-06T11:53:00.009-05:00

july 31, 2008 is when i began this blog.

to say that i have loved having this space here is an understatement.

we baked a batch of cookies this morning. no brown sugar in the cupboard and only a bit of butter in the fridge, so a favorite recipe (i can't find the exact post, but it's somewhere here...i'll try to find it later) got a little make-over. lily + eme thought these were really delicious, and i did, too. you can try them, if you like.

yummy cookies...

1 stick of butter-flavored shortening (1 c)
2 c sugar
3 t vanilla extract
1/3 c milk
2 c all purpose flour
1 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
3/4 t salt
2 1/4 c old fashion oats
2 c coconut flakes (unsweetened)

preheat oven to 350 degrees. cream butter + sugar. add milk + vanilla. beat for a couple more minutes. add the rest of the ingredients, continuing to mix on low speed. on a baking sheet covered with a silpat mat, scoop + drop 12 balls of dough. bake for 10 to 11 minutes, and the cookies will be chewy in the middle and crisp on the edges. makes about 32 cookies (approximately 3" in diameter).

be sure to taste one (or seven) as soon you can pick them up without burning your fingers. sooooo good.

we took a trip to new orleans...

2009-07-24T23:57:00.013-05:00

to the aquarium at the foot of canal street.

we hadn't been back since hurricane katrina devastated it. lily had only been once before when i was pregnant with eme, so for eme and cate, this was their first time (although technically for eme, not really).

it was beautiful and surreal, just as i had remembered.

one thing that it was not, however, was quiet and uncrowded.

maybe if i watched the news more often, i would have known that there were going to be 38,000 lutheran teens in town for a convention! even with so many more people there than we had expected, we had a wonderful time. this was largely due to the fact that my parents have an audubon membership, and we didn't have to wait in line.

38,000 lutheran teens, 1/3 of whom were at the aquarium + late morning, in july, in louisiana + 5 adults (me, mimi + pops, beck + mike, and emily), 3 strollers, and 8 children under the age of 6 (lily, eme + cate, abby, sam + sophie, and virginia + owen) ...well, we don't even want to think about what could have happened.

we walked beneath the sea,

saw sharks,

and other fish (and even a guy in scuba gear cleaning the tank),

and energetic penguins.

there were smiling rays,

and smiling babies,

and smiling children, too.

orca fins were climbed on, a baby shark was petted softly with two fingers, and we were able to rub the back of a sociable ray (it felt like wet velvet or a shitake mushroom. really.)

lunch was pizza + meatballs and dessert was courtesy of emily, virginia, and baby owen...butterfly and flower-shaped rice krispy treats!

we parted ways at canal place, but not before the girls rode in the glass elevator one more time.

mimi +pops helped us get loaded up for the trip back home...

along with the two newest members of our family...nola and poydras, the penguins.

thanks for the lovely day, our aquarium crew! can you believe that we made it through with nary a meltdown, lost child, or injury.

a lovely day, indeed.

oh...danette (if you're reading), this is for you...

i had no idea that venezia was still in existence! we had the best meal there with you and geoff oh so long ago. we'll have to do it again...the eggplant parmesan was sooo good!

bench monday, the ghostly edition

2009-07-20T19:28:00.003-05:00

dqs7...these are a few of my favorite things

2009-07-15T12:44:00.008-05:00

sign-ups for dqs7 are going on right now. already there are 78 people, i think! get on over there if you want to join in the fun.

i made a mosaic of a few of my favorite things...

(psst...you'll have to click on the photo to go to flickr to see the whole mosaic. see that venn diagram on the last row? awesome.)

::linen
::gingham
::hand embroidery
::lots of little handstitching
::freshly washed, dried, and puckered quilts
::fairy tales
::forests
::trees
::birds
::green with a touch of red
::aqua + red
::gray + yellow
::white + lots of different prints (tana lawn liberty...sigh)
::sweet, but not cutesy
::with a touch of darkness (think neko case's, fox confessor brings the flood, this, especially)
::gees bend-ish quilts
::making do with what one already has
::a bit of vintage thrown in for good measure
::children's drawings
::narwhals
::unicorns
::and what the heck...rainbows can be cool, too (think sarah of the small object...see what i mean?)
::odd little creatures
::oh, and hexagon quilts...can't forget about those lovelies
::and pink...how could i f0rget pink?!

is that totally random? i think that it most likely is. but such is me.

xxx

let's take a walk by the lakes...

2009-07-15T10:13:00.006-05:00

we'll collect feathers and feed the ducks + ducklings.

aren't they sweet?

oh, but what do we have here?
"look, momma! it's a beaver!!!"

um, not.

this, my dearies, is a nutria. a little, wee, young one. who is not really cautious of humans. hmmm.

"look, he has webbed feet!"
"he's so cute!"
"will he eat bread?"
"can i touch him?"

sure enough,
uh huh, isn't he though,
probably,
and not going to happen (he is a wild animal, after all).

i just know that this guy was thinking, "what... just because i'm not as cute as a duckling doesn't mean that i can't beg for bread, too. hrmph."

so, ducks, ducklings, nutria, and a couple of pesky pigeons all shared lunch (thanks for bringing the bread, beck!).

cousin abby wasn't too sure about the whole nutria situation.

she put her "no, no, no" finger on and gave those two nutria a stern talking-to. i think that they still had water in their ears, because they didn't seem to hear her.

well, abbs had had enough of that ridiculousness!

and through it all, cate sat watching the show and chomping on her fingers.

the walk back to becky + mike's new (old) home, was something to see. beck's pregnancy brain and my scattered brain failed to foresee that we would have four really tired + hot kiddos (with two of them having to walk back home. "it's so hot", "i'm so tired", "hold me!!!"..oh, the horror!).

and i think that it was shortly after midday.
in july.
in louisiana.
yeah.

just so you know, it is possible to fit 4 kids into 2 strollers made to only carry 2 kids. and we were very, very careful, wade and mike.
promise.

the next time we have lunch with the critters out at the lakes, it will be when the temperatures are in the low 70's and not approaching 100.

sounds like a plan.

bench monday, the almost-solo edition

2009-07-13T13:48:00.008-05:00

in which i give up trying to take a bench monday photo with three girls who have totally different ideas of what "hold still for just a moment!" actually entails.

so, junkerjane's trio of not-quite-so-unruly mates got in on the action instead. that shifty little crew over there came to us at christmastime...pirate pansy, owl giselle, and pirate pippi. i'm not entirely convinced that those are their true identities, however. suspiciously, they seem to be quite comfortable hanging out in front of that painting of a valley in switzerland (painted by my late, great uncle roy, my paternal grandmother's only brother). really, i think that the whole pirate gig is a ruse. anyway, the latest issue of stuffed a gathering of softies has a few of their monster + pirate peeps on the cover and in the first 5 or so pages...yay, junkerjane (and, psst...that's not really her name, either)!

oh, and it looks like cate snuck in on the action, too.

just so you know, the girls were sitting on the sofa telling me to be careful, yelling that it was dangerous, and asking me to stand on one foot. so much for being careful. of course, i did not stand on one foot, as that would have been dangerous. ahem. the table, by the way, is maybe 2 feet wide. a tiny bit of danger was involved, truth be told.

i've been so terrible about keeping up with things lately. our computer was on the fritz for a bit, so that didn't help either.

we had a 1st birthday party for a sweet little friend of ours on sunday, so i'll be back with photos of her present (and maybe a quick tutorial if i can get my act together) and of the girls from yesterday.

it seems as though i'm almost at post #100, and my first blogiversary (still not sure if i like that word or not). i'm thinking that i will wait until post #110 to do something special. hmm, do you think that may buy me some time?

oh, yeah...between this post and the last, i became 38. yay, me!

i can't really join dqs7 if i haven't shared dqs6 with you, now can i?

2009-06-26T09:34:00.005-05:00

it seems as though my quilt for doll quilt swap 6 was happily received, even if it was super late! miss chickenfoot deduced that i was the one sending a quilt to her. and really, an actual chicken could have deduced that, as i was the very last one to send a quilt, and she was the last one to get one (excepting those whose quilts had gone astray in the post).

i tried to get a picture of me holding it, but that didn't work out very well.

susan has better photos of it, really. but i have cate in mine, so that should count for something, right? i think maybe my favorite little bit of the quilt was the label that i stitched for the back. funny how those things happen.

well, i have to admit feeling like i was the luckiest dqs6'er of them all when i received my package from holly of twocheeseplease! she not only made me an amazingly fabulous quilt/portrait, but she also carved some stamps of my little redcaps...sweet. if you go on over to her blog, she is doing a whole month-long series of how-to's on stamp-carving.

i adore her french knot freckles. really, what could be cuter? oh, and the girls have named her "holly". i'd say that's perfect.

signups for dqs7 (that's Doll Quilt Swap 7) are going on right now. of course, i had to sign up. can you blame me? the deadline to send the quilt to your person is in september. i should be able to handle that!

fingers crossed.

teeny tiny things

2009-06-19T13:15:00.002-05:00

i know that there is a fairy tale-ish story here, waiting to be told.

at long last, dqs6 is on its way!

2009-06-17T00:06:00.005-05:00

do you see that look that cate is giving me?
tsk, tsk. even she knows that i over-extend myself.
i won't spoil the surprise yet, but really, the cat (or rather, chicken) is out of the bag, and susan has been waiting oh so long for her quilt to arrive. when she gets it, hopefully by thursday, i'll have some more photos to share. but for now, i'll leave you with a few outtakes (and a confession) from this morning.

hello...my name is cathy, and i am an overcommitter (which may not even be an actual word, but it perfectly describes what i do).
see me? i am so sheepishly admitting it that i cannot even face the camera.
overcommitters anonymous?
anyone?

bench monday, the morning edition (followed by the unofficial afternoon edition)

2009-06-15T11:32:00.007-05:00

ah, i'm not at the last minute today...for bench monday, anyway. it's just me and cate while the girls are at dance camp this morning.
so what am i doing? putting away breakfast dishes? folding laundry? picking up in the backyard? putting the finishing touches on the top-secret project (if you take a closer look, you may just get a sneak peek), or finally getting ready to mail out my dqs6 (to a lovely, patient lady who more than likely knows that her very tardy quilt is coming from me)?
no, no, no, not at the moment, and later on this afternoon.
instead i spent an inordinate amount of time finding a spot for bench monday's photo. have i mentioned here before that i have a problem with time management? and a lack of benches?
oh, well.
so go out and find a bench (or table, or swing, or couple of chairs, even a potty) to stand on. take a photo. or don't.
but do smile and please, do be happy!

edited to add...when the girls got back home this afternoon, they were not pleased that cate and i did bench monday without them. so, here are our unofficial photos, since one can only have a single photo in the flickr group.

now, off to get snowballs. that should buy me some time, no?

i'm know that i'm not supposed to be here, but you must see this!

2009-06-11T14:51:00.005-05:00

isn't it the absolute best?
man, i adore gingham.
go see ulla, and she'll tell you more about what she's up to.
hmmm, i'm thinking that another flickr group may be in order.

okay...now back to work. can i tell you how hard it is to draft a pattern and write instructions that other people can follow without scratching their heads, or worse, pitching the whole thing across the room to a soundtrack of not-so-nice words? it's not so easy. but i am doing it, oh yes, i am! and i'll tell you more about it when i can. xxx

i've finally started a flickr group

2009-06-09T08:49:00.006-05:00

the girls' forest party for their 5th and 3rd birthday celebration inspired kirsten to make a fairy ring cake of her own for her sweet girlie, which inspired me to start a flickr group, forest party...cakes, decorations + goodies. i hope that you will join us!

i'll be absent for the next couple of days. i am packing the girls up and bringing them to mimi and pops' house so that i can have some uninterrupted hours here and there during the day (and lucky wade gets some quiet nights to himself). i need some time to make some magic happen! are you curious?? i'll share as i get a bit more ahead of the task! hmmm, i may have to see if i can borrow a spot in suesue's lovely room!

hbm...

2009-06-08T19:35:00.001-05:00

or, happy bench monday!

finally, the winners are revealed!

2009-06-04T15:55:00.008-05:00

it seems like forever ago when i introduced you to angie of prettyme. i feel like such a tease that i left you hanging for so long, wondering if you had won one of the prizes or not.

well, finally (finally!) the girls have picked the winners.

cate was the first to pick for the winner of the pound of scrap-y fabric goodness. and that lucky lady is...

mommymae! i just know that you will put these to good use. and how do i know? because jenny is part of our busy little quilting bee, and she is awesome!

next, lily and eme pulled golden tickets for the winners of the lilybird chandelier tanks...

liligo and solidia! congratulations to you, girls!!! let me know which size you would like your tank in.

and then cate decided to eat a handful of golden tickets. can you believe that she happened to grab two tickets with nicole's name on them? i couldn't either, so i decided that nicole deserved to win a lilybird chandelier embroidery pattern. i hope that she likes it (and i think that she will. it is rather appropriate as she is the one who inspired me to make the pattern available as a pdf! serendipity, i say.)! and one more pattern goes to the person with the most entries/tickets...isabel f.! i hope that you two will be surprised when you receive a pdf from me in your in-box (i'm sending them before i finish this post!).

and i must share this picture with you...

my lily, beki's lily, and eme, all ready for crazy hair day at cheer camp. beki and i (and part of our crew) got to visit at her home on monday morning. we had plans to take the six kiddos to the spray park after we picked up the 3 girls at cheer camp. the spray park was closed, though, so we all came back to our house for lunch and visiting. can i tell you how lucky i feel to have a blog-y friend practically in my own backyard?! very lucky, indeed.

two more pictures before i go. the first is of the top of the crazy hairdos, specially requested by lily + eme...

and this one is of rapunzel and her handmaiden...

just to let you know, it all went badly after this (you kind of get that feeling from the motion in the photo, no?). there were tears (both), and rapunzel's braid ended up five feet away from where the girls were standing. i'm still not clear on who pulled it out and who threw it. one in the same? maybe so, or maybe not. the unsolved mystery of the day.

many, many thanks to all of you who took the time to leave a comment and/or suggestion for me! i would respond individually to all of you, really i would, but unless i can come up with a way to clone myself or add more hours (child-free ones) to the day, it probably won't happen. but do know that i read each and every comment and usually respond to you in my head. does that make me weird? oh, well. it seems as though the redcaps were very well-liked. i do have some embroideries in the works, so i will keep you posted on that. i actually did turn mine into fabric-covered buttons recently, but i can't seem to remember where i put them. rats, i hate when that happens. hopefully, they will turn up sooner rather than later as i have plans to list some on etsy. we shall see.

xxx

we're still here...

2009-05-27T15:40:00.003-05:00

or rather, there, in mathews, where we are halfway through the second week of swimming lessons. all i can say is that eme is not a fan of having to put her head underwater.
i'm working on getting all of your comments, links, etc. counted up and thrown into a hat (edited to add: i just counted up and there will be 101 golden tickets in the hat!). we should be ready to draw winners in the next day or so.
it's been a bit of a rough spot lately with all three girls passing around a horrible cough/cold thingie. and yes, they gave it to us, too. what can i say? they love to share.
sorry to those of you who were worried about me. sometimes i forget that i can be "missed" when i'm away from the computer for a while. you are all so sweet! xxx

the chances of you winning a prize are looking very good

2009-05-13T14:18:00.005-05:00

did i get your attention?
well, you have 2 more days to leave a comment and earn some extra chances to win.
i hope that you all enjoyed the interview and angie's beautiful, happy clothes.
and that annie...is she a stellar photog or what? of course, having such a gorgeous sweetie to model helps.

or

could be arriving in your mailbox soon!

i've been so happy to read all of the suggestions for future pdf's.
i hate to say, "no selling anything made from this design" (you must be shaking your finger, nonono, as you read that). as of now, that is how i have it stated in the pdf and on etsy. i would prefer to allow those of you who purchase the pattern to use the design on things that you would sell on etsy and other smaller venues, but i really don't know how to word it. any suggestions from those of you who have sold/bought something similar? i'll give you an extra chance for the giveaway if you share! ;)

introducing...

2009-05-11T11:30:00.032-05:00

3 exciting things, with 2 very silly little things helping out...

first up an interview with one of the loveliest ladies i know, and then my very own pdf pattern in my sadly-neglected esty shop, and last but surely not least (right?? right!), a giveaway for 3 lucky readers!

on to the first...i am ever so pleased to introduce you to angie, the creative genius behind PrettyMe! this is the first interview that i have done here on the blog (or anywhere really, save maybe once or twice in high school and college), and i hope that it will not be the last. so, without further ado, here we go...

me: what (or who) inspires you on a daily basis?
angie: I'm inspired everyday by my sweet and ceative children Jove and Chloe..otherwise known as "the littles". Gorgeous fabrics, fashion and home dec magazines, fashion catalogs..LOVE Anthropologie and all of the urban shops, fellow indie clothing designers, etsy artisans, fave fabric, fashion and home dec designers, music, nature...

me: tell us about your creative process & how on earth you do it all.
angie: It usually begins with a sketch and fabrics. But rarely does the final design reflect the original concept. There is no method.. it's all madness for sure!!

me: how did you come to be an indie girls' clothing designer?
angie: I began sewing for my son and quickly progressed to sewing for girls...much more fun! When my cute Chloe arrived..there was no stopping me and I had to start selling as I couldn't justify keeping it all for her.

me: i adore the way you put fabrics together! which designers are your favorites right now?
angie: Thank you sweet Cathy!!! My fave designers are Jennifer Paginelli, Tina Givens, Amy Butler, Tanya Whelan, Anna Maria Horner, Heather Ross, Heather Bailey, Sandi Hendeson...am I forgetting any???

me: tell us a bit about the newest collection.
angie: Sweet Cate was inspired by your lovely chandelier design, Cathy. And, of course, your Sweet Cate, Eme and Lily have a special place in the collection as well.
(me: blush! xxx)

me: what will you be working on next??
angie: Just wrapped up early fall samples and will be sending those off to be photographed this week. Did I share how blessed I am for my amazing photographer friends?!?! I am SO very grateful to work with them all!
(me: be on the lookout for photos of angie's fall collection in small magazine)

me: where can we find your lovely, sweet clothing for our own hip girlies?
angie: My clothing is available in my etsy shop - PrettyMe - Also several boutiques, a list of which can be found on my 'profile' page at etsy. Just want to say a special thank you to each and every one of my customer friends. I appreciate you all and think about each and every one of your little girlies when I create their clothing. Lot's of love goes into every package, that's for sure. so...Thank You! :)

(all photos of PrettyMe's Sweet Cate collection are magically created by the absolutely incredible annie of ellasophiephotography...pure loveliness, indeed! thank you annie for allowing me to use these. and do go to her blog to see the full photos as mine are cropped due to flickr and blogger.)

i will be the first to attest to the fact that angie's packages are bursting with love!!! her skirts and dresses (of which we own a few...eme has one on in the blog header photo!) are so very wonderfully made (by angie, herself) and are often the go-to favorites around our house. the tanks (with my little lilybird chandelier!) are top-quality and can take many (many!) washings.

angie, thank you so very much for allowing me to interview you and also for inspiring + encouraging me to go out into "the world"...you are such a dear, sweet friend! xxx

now, on to the second thing i have to share with you today...my very first pdf hand embroidery pattern! while i do love to stitch up other people's loveliness, i often draw, and sometimes get around to stitching, my own. i had a few ideas when angie asked me to collaborate on a logo for her new collection (which she named after our very own sweet cate!), and once this was drawn up, i knew that i had to stitch it. so, out came the linen and floss. handstitching is so very easy to carry around and also to work on when cate is playing/nursing/napping that it always seems to be my own go-to favorite. as soon as this one was done, i knew that i had to send it to angie!

if french knots are a favorite of yours, you can find the pattern here. as i have been typing this, i see that ulla has bought the first one! and through the wonder that is the internet, she now has it in her hands (from louisiana to denmark in only a few seconds...amazing!).

finally, it's time for magic number three...the giveaway!!!!!
angie has so very generously offered up 2 of the lilybird chandelier tanks (in sizes 2, 4, 6, or 8) to 2 lucky readers AND one of her extra specially fabulous scrap packs (1 pound of designer fabric scrappy goodness...i promise, you will be amazed!) to 1 more lucky reader.

so, if you have never left a comment yet, and especially if you always do, here is a golden opportunity!

and this time, there are a few rules (and also a few ways to earn more "golden tickets", as the girls like to call them!):

1. link back to this post from your own blog and earn 2 extra chances (you can leave the link in the comments section so that everyone else can visit you too!)

2. link back to this post from flickr (oh, heck...facebook, too!) and earn 2 extra chances (once again, post the link in the comments section).

3. buy one of my lilybird chandelier patterns and earn 100 extra chances....oh! wait!!!! sorry. i didn't mean to actually type that out. okay...scratch rule number 3, please! ;)

4. how about this one...in your comment, tell me what other hand embroidery pdf's you would like to see me draw up. this will earn you 1 extra chance (easy peasy, no need for any linkage-know-how!)

5. and last but not least, leave a comment. simple. and that gets you your one chance to win something.
lily and eme will help me cut up some golden tickets, i'll write your names (oh gosh...technically, i suppose that you can have as many as 6 chances, if you do everything!), the girls will throw them into something (hat, bowl, pillowcase?), and then lily, eme, and i will each pull one name. you will get to pick your prize in the order that your name is pulled, so if you don't have any littles who may need a tank, cross your fingers that you'll get to pick the scraps!

we're really busy around here this week as it is the last week of preschool for lily and eme, which means teacher gifts still to be done, a field trip to the zoo (we went last week by ourselves, too!), and the end of the year party (complete with blown-up waterslide. hmmmm. we'll see how that goes.). i'll leave the giveaway open until friday midnight. this may help those of you in other parts of the world...look for baton rouge (and really, i've never been one to be strict on adhering to deadlines!).

on saturday, we will reveal our 3 winners.

oh, yeah...cate is now crawling!!! happy mother's day to me as she just started yesterday. she is so sweet! it's really more of a frog-hoppy sort of crawl where she pulls both knees forward in unison...cute. i'll try to get it on video. things are about to get reeeally interesting around here!!! especially since she apparently can now pull herself to standing. using the desk, cabinets, stools, and chair. oh, yes. we've been looking forward to this day with anticipation, and a little bit of dread, truth be told.

and in the interest of full disclosure, it has taken me all day long to type this post (especially since the electricity went out for about 2 hours tonight, due to a rough bit of weather.)

toto jane, we loved you well

2009-05-07T13:54:00.005-05:00

what a sad day for my tender-hearted girls.

when we woke up wednesday morning, wade and i had a feeling that toto jane would not be long for this world.

the girls went to school, non the wiser, and when i picked them up, they were so excited to be meeting a friend at the park. they played, cate was content, and kellie and i got to visit...so nice. we stopped for ice cream afterwards, and those 3 funny girls had us grinning. they sat at their own table (cate was stuck with us, but it won't be long...oh, it won't be long!) and pretended to be "old people" reading their newspapers with their legs crossed. i wish that i wouldn't have forgotten my camera! i love it how we are the "old people" now.

we returned home late in the day, and as they went about their business, i peeked in on toto jane.
dead.
no question.
his beautiful red scales had already begun to fade.

i gently told them the news. there was crying. much, much crying, especially by lily who seems to be a bit preoccupied with death lately. there was hugging and consoling and explaining (as best as a momma can). there were cries of unfairness and wishes for toto jane to be undead (at this i had to stifle a smile...toto jane, the undead. cue the flashes of lightning and claps of thunder). oh, toto jane, why did you have to be dead at 6:00 in the evening, after a long day of school, park, ice cream, and a drive-through supper, on the one day that wade decided to play golf after work? inconvenient, surely, but the way things are, just as surely.

so, with fussy cate, heartbroken lily, and ready-to-get-a-new-pet eme, we found a suitable spot, dug a hole, added some leaves at the bottom so that it would be soft for toto jane, said a prayer, and buried him. by this time, i think that we were all crying (each if us for a different reason). the girls wanted to find sticks to make a cross and some more moss to cover the dirt. red thread was chosen to remind us of toto jane's bright red scales. together, they stuck the cross into the dirt, and then we each said our most favorite thing about this fish, their very first pet.

"i loved how toto jane would jump up for his food," said lily.

"i loved that toto jane liked the forest that we made for him around his fish home. and the fairies. he was so happy," said eme.

"i loved that toto jane was so loved by you two. i love him the most for that," said i.

even as i type this now, my eyes well with tears. i will always love this little $3 fish for being our first experience with losing someone they love. i will always be thankful that this sadness, this overwhelming grief that makes my child sob like i have never heard before, will have been experienced first with the loss of a fish. because i know that it will be experienced again on an infinitely greater scale. and i am not ready. no. but i hope that maybe they may now be a little better prepared. a little.

when wade got home, we all went out, flashlights in hand, to say goodbye again to toto jane. a prayer was said, and we all believe that toto jane is in heaven. as a friend said, "all good animals go to heaven where this is plenty of food and no predators." thank you, jeff.

rest in peace, toto jane. we loved you well.

redcaps, redux

2009-05-03T23:59:00.008-05:00

just a little (literally, little...a u.s. nickel covers each and every one of them up) something that i am working on. i started these guys when we were at mom + dad's this past week (cc, we miss you already. sal, we hope to see you again tomorrow.). most of them were stitched up while sitting outside in the grass, visiting, and watching the kiddos play with cousins. this is the perfect project to be able to pick up and then put down at a moment's notice. like when you have to quickly stop experiments in dirt/rock throwing, rescue a child from a tipping-over tractor trailer (sam is a maniac with that thing, and lily loves it!), pull clover flowers out of a 6 1/2 month old's mouth, and be the swingset police.

ah, isn't life grand? truly, it is.

there are oh, erm, 17 1/2 projects in the queue as of tonight (dqs6, you're right up there at the head of the line!), and i can't seem to work on anything other than small things like this that can be done as i hold a sleeping/nursing baby. obviously, typing is another thing that i can do as i hold cate; it can't be done too quickly, though.

so, these little redcaps are tiny two-dimensional versions of the softies that i did a while back for the mushroom swap. i adore them. once they are all stitched up, i will cut them out and make covered buttons with them. some will be used on dresses for the girls (oh, round neck dress pattern by that*darn*kat , how i love you!), some will be going into the sadly neglected etsy shop, and some will be off to my partner for dqs6 (doll quilt swap 6). yea, i know that i should have mailed that out on the 1st, but i'm crossing my fingers that my partner will be holding out hope that the reason her quilt has not come yet is because it is so super awesome (hmmm, no pressure on myself, huh? i'm still working on it...shhhhh, don't tell on me, please.)

here's a question for you. how many times can you lose a needle on the sofa/chair/bed/floor/seat of the car without your husband getting a little bit upset with you?
in all fairness, cate is not quite crawling yet.
and i always find the needles.
edited to add...look at what i found! gosh, i love the internet. (thanks a.g. for creating it. that was snarky, wasn't it? i really don't mean it to be...it's all in good fun.)

oh, and there's this...

2009-04-23T01:24:00.006-05:00

well, have you guessed yet?? i think that all will be revealed next week! i am so excited to share it with you here.

my poor blog has been a bit neglected as of late, but time just seems to keep capturing + running off with me. i have some projects that have gotten finished, some that still need finishing (dqs6, first and foremost!), and some that have just gotten started (because really, if you don't have 17 projects going at once, then you have too much free time, right?).

the girls did a trike-a-thon for st.jude's recently, we had a church fair and company picnic (pink-sprayed hair caused a melt-down here...mine, unfortunately, but the face painting was fine!), and we also went to the strawberry patch (which we will not be going back to...more on that in the next post).

next up this week, visiting with cc before she returns to london, visiting with aunt sal + uncle seth (when they are done with jazzfest), and our last field trip of the year (to the baton rouge zoo).

i hope that the rest of your week is going to be just as fun! see you soon (with lots of pictures)...

three IS a magic number...oh, yes, it IS

2009-04-19T16:54:00.004-05:00

so, after all of the hullabaloo with the trio, things have gotten a bit better. (i'm going to pretend that we didn't have a VERY trying day yesterday with eme's 1 hour long argue-cry-fight trifecta and lily's hour and 15 minute rendition of "i'm going to my room and never coming out if we can't go to the park right now". see, this is in parenthesis, so i'm acknowledging it, but not really...at least, this is how i am viewing it. moving on...)

monday we had a lovely day with mimi and pops. they came to visit while i went off to register lily for kindergarten. very exciting! the fact that she will be at a brand new school was a bit worriesome (and in school...what??), but the fact that the principal used to be my partner teacher right across the hall at gonzales primary definitely has me smiling! britt was an amazing teacher, a wonderful partner, and a pretty cool guy. i am sure that he will rock as a principal. friday we get to go for a visit. i will be sure to report back.

so while i was away running a few errands, mimi and pops took lily, eme, and cate to the mall.

THE MALL.

this is how lily and eme say it, all in caps, as it is rarely a place that we go. some may think that i am depriving them horribly, and that is okay. anyway, ice cream in ginormous candy-dipped and sprinkled cones (for lunch), carousel rides, and the opportunity to touch all sorts of glittery, beckoning things is truly a job for grandparents (and mine surely are grand!).

a wonderful package sitting on our doorstep (more on that later!), swinging on the playset poppa is still building, topped off with supper at the coffee shop (and more ice cream), and life with 3 is getting better again (except for that glitch that i mentioned earlier...bygones).

and then cc came back from london. how excited were my girlies? the chatter was non-stop! the show-and-telling was warp speed! we finally made it to the park (and let me just say here that there are some people in this world who should NEVER have the awesome responsibility of being caretakers, or parents, of children!)! it was hard for them to let celie go out to dinner with friends tonight, but a promise was made of a slumber party thursday night, so that made it easier. and there will be pictures with the cc because i know that you miss her, g.

i think that maybe i am letting go of some of the notions (some very unrealistic ones, admittedly) that i have about what i need to do (and what i want to get done). some times this is easy, at other times, not even remotely. oh, well...time ticks on. i can never tell you all "thank you" enough for taking the time out of your own lives (time from your own homes + responsibilities, some filled with kiddos, and some not) to chime in with your own stories/experiences/bloggy high-5's. thanks. truly. and really...the rough patches surely don't seem so bad when i have these silly gooses running around!

so, we have some things to share later on, maybe next week some time. there will be a giveaway (dang...don't i still owe people from my first giveaway?? yes, i do. but i am working on that. soon, very soon.) and an interview with an amazingly wonderful, sweet, talented lady. are you curious? i hope so! i know that you will love her as much as i do. xxx

in which cate sounds like a piglet, and lily goes on about some sort of ghost-mummy, and cate tries to roll away

2009-04-16T01:36:00.001-05:00

the lily and cate show
Originally uploaded by cathygaubert

unfortunately, this does not include the part where lily begs for a box big enough that she can fit inside with her head sticking out so that she can do a magic trick where she fits in a box with her head sticking out.
and eme isn't in this one because she is otherwise occupied in the bathroom (i think that i cut out her yelling a little too much information to us. i hope.)
i don't make this stuff up, people

no babies were harmed in the making of this video...

2009-04-16T01:35:00.001-05:00

the lily, eme, and cate show
Originally uploaded by cathygaubert

i promise.

so, today is the day i decide that having 3 children really is NOT as easy as i have previously believed (and led others to believe)...

2009-04-15T23:37:00.010-05:00

seriously (in the most irritating meredith grey voice that you can muster).
seriously, people.

3 is NOT a magic number right now, no matter what the schoolhouse rocks song tells us. although after listening to it on youtube, i am happier right now. really, how can you not be after that? it's okay...sing along. i know you are. i am, too (and probably will be all night long). oh my gosh, i can just go on and on about those songs, but i digress.

it has taken me the past couple of days to come to the realization that having 3 children (at their ages) at this point in time is rough. rough, i tell you.
cate (at almost 6 months old) is happy, sweet, funny, and curious, but she is also a never-get-out-of-my-sight-or-put-me-down-for-longer-than-it-takes-for-me-to-draw-a-breath-or-i-will-cry-and-cry-and-cry-and-just-when-you-think-there-is-no-possible-way-that-i-can-cry-some-more-I-WILL baby. do you feel stressed after reading that? yeah, i feel your pain. and eme. ohhhh, eme. i know that persevering and having a strong will are admirable qualities in a grown-up, but in a 3 1/2 year old...breathe slowly and count to 10 (or maybe 3 thousand and 10). you do know what i mean, don't you? deep breath. lily, the biggest sister, is so very wise at 5 1/2 years, but sometimes that wiseness can really get a girl in trouble, you know?
so, for the last 3 nights, our bedtime prayer has been amended to be: god bless everyone we love and peace on earth and peace on our home AND please let us behave in a nicer way tomorrow with no fighting (sometimes we need to expand upon the whole "peace" thing) . does tomorrow ever come? so far, not.
here and now, though, i am vowing that it WILL be a better day 7 hours from now (and dang it, i am getting rid of 80% of that easter candy! but i will eat the last reese's peanut butter egg, because throwing that out would almost be a crime.).

but, don't think that there haven't been some good times around here lately. most of our morning was spent outside in absolutely gorgeous spring weather. 3 children swinging and laughing surely is a good time. bubble-making, baby rocking, and a little bit of handwork does make for a happy morning, also. so, i'll leave you with a few photos that hopefully will make you smile. i'm smiling thinking about them right now, and i know that tomorrow will be a better day. yay, positive thinking!

i hope your easter was a lovely one...

2009-04-13T22:33:00.008-05:00

ours surely was.

lots of eggs were hunted (after mass on palm sunday and then again at the girls' m.d.o. and then once more at mawmaw + pawpaw's easter sunday).
much (MUCH too much) candy was consumed.
gifts were finished at the last minute.

and sunday services were attended (sans the little ones).

of course, the food was delicious and the company wonderful...just as it should be.

the only complaint i have is that the easter bunny forgot to leave me a week's worth of extra hours and my clone. however, the necco giant malted eggs did help me get over that disappointment. oh, and mrs. bunny (sweet suesue) dropped off three lovely little knitted easter eggs for me. um, for the girls. right. for the girls.

and my apologies to any totally creeped out by the bunny mask.

just peeking in

2009-03-27T23:02:00.003-05:00

hello.
it's been a while.
we're still here, and well, just busy, doing.........
what?
everything.
anything.
nothing.
i have so many things to share, yet never enough time to do it (i'm terrible at prioritizing and allocating time, honestly).
i know that you understand. maybe you live in that same place, too? and if not, then how do you manage to do it all? you're probably much better at being focused then i apparently am.
oh, well.
thank you for still coming by to see what's going on around here. and thank you so much to those of you who have taken the time to email me to say "hello" and "i hope you are well...you are missed." that means so very much to me. more than you will ever know.

the cutest giraffe to have ever been sewn has taken up residence at our home, all the way from the uk. cat, i promise that there will be a proper post soon, but i just wanted you to know that she is right here in the thick of things with us! and your guys have been patiently packed up and waiting to make it across the pond to you. soon.

the threads that tie us together, explained

2009-03-08T19:29:00.015-05:00

almost a month and a half ago, i posted some w.i.p. photos here...photos only, no explanation.

you see, this was a secret project...a project dreamed up by the ever-so-amazing margie oomen. if you have never "met" margie, you really, really must. i started experiencing the wonderfulness of Resurrection Fern a little over a year ago. this post is the first one that i read, and i have been back almost every day since. "amazing" really doesn't seem to come close to describing this mother, artist, physician, friend, and daily-inspiration. so, go and visit margie. please, tell her that i sent you.

appropriately enough, today is international women's day (edited to say that technically, when i began this post last night, march 8, it was. and here i am finishing this post up on march 9. but anyway.).

one of the threads that ties us together here is womanhood (no offense, guys.). that thread continues on in some of our lives to bind us in motherhood, also. there is a thread for creativity, one for inspiration, one for joy, one for loss, one for love, and many others that we notice and acknowledge, and so many more that we do not. these threads, the warp and weft of life, are what make everything worthwhile. i see this whole blogging community (that i am but one thread of) like one big, fabulous piece of fabric. fabulous, viewed as whole cloth, but only that way because of the individual threads that have made it so. you and me...we all make it what it is.

when margie asked me to become a part of this amazing group (lisa, elsita, sonya, cathy, patricia, maya, geninne who made the most perfect card, and of course, margie), i was so humbled and more than a little bit flattered to be in such company.

then, i continued reading the email and found out the who + why behind it all, and i freely admit that before i got to the end of that email, tears were coursing down my cheeks and my heart felt as though it would burst.

the following synopsis in no way does justice to rane's experience, but i hope that she may begin her own blog soon and tell you about it herself. in a nutshell, rane lost her sister-in-law and her parents in a car accident caused by a drunk driver, and then recently her brother (who had lost his wife and parents in that accident) succumbed to cancer...all in the past year. their two children, rane's neice and nephew, joined rane and her huband, along with their 4 children. a terrible, terrible loss followed by a remarkable gain. there are now 6 children (4 are 4 years old and under) living and loving (and being loved) under one roof. unimaginable, on so may levels. if your children are near, hug them now, please.

what in the world could i do for rane and her family? really, what could any of us ever do that would be enough? the answer to that is nothing and everything. seriously.

so, i made a flock of birds...bluebirds...of happiness (you can see them all, starting here). one for each child, and for the oldest brother (the protector of all), i made an owl, wise and kind...stern when necessary, as i imagine an eldest brother must be.

and for rane. as i said before, nothing and everything.

for rane, a patchwork scarf (and all of the connotations that go along with it)...recycled wool and linen, fabric with matryoshkas (and all of the beautiful connotations that go along with that simple doll), and the word "nurture" handstitched with love (the unbelieveable amount of love that can overcome you when you feel it for someone half-way across the country, someone like you in so many ways, and in so many ways not, someone you have never met, someone who is a momma, too).

in retrospect, i left out "mr.rane" who indeed must be a remarkable person himself. mr. rane, please accept my sincerest apologies. i have a feeling, though, that we all may have given you a better gift than we ever could have made and packaged.

and my girls made gifts, too. drawings. of hearts and of the children, as lily and eme imagined them to be. and rane, your children...all six of them...gave us an inadvertent gift, too. the chance to talk about losing people we love and loving people even more than we did before in times when they need it most. we've talked about you all a lot in the days since we first packed everything up to send to margie. i can't wait to show the girls the pictures that you have taken of the contents of the box.

"it's only when we give that we receive" and "every little bit counts". there are few phrases that ring truer.

you and me...we all make it what it is.

xxx