Emma's Closet

And so the Rain Continues

Since last Thursday, we have been in a mode of try to stay dry, try to get well, and try to really clean out the spare bedroom/crafting room.

Last Thursday I had to pick Em up early because she was running around 102 temp.  Luckily I got her into the dr, and sure enough, strep throat.  Apparently it is going around right now, which is completely the wrong time for it.  She is doing much better, thank goodness. Since she did not feel too well, I put the air mattresses in the living room floor and we slept there.  Friday was not too bad.  Then Saturday morning I was awakened to the sound of thunder about 4:30 am, which lately has not been an unusual occurrence.  I went back to sleep and then was rudely awakened to a complete downpour about 7:30.
We went to look outside and even my gutters could not handle the amount of rain we were having.  There was flooding in town, and we even made the national news.  I know at my house, I had 3.5 inches of rain in the space of a few hours.  We are so water logged, the earth takes forever to soak it in.  I keep wondering if we moved the Pacific Northwest.. waiting for lots of pines and ferns to spring up and all of our grass to rot.  They had to close quite a few bridges in and around town.  I even saw children swimming and canoeing in a baseball field that was about 3-4 feet under.  It was just amazing.   We are still having rain.  I just checked weather.com and there is this huge mass of rain over us right now.  So far our total for the month of June as of yesterday is 9.08 inches, and the total for the past 90 days is over the 20 inches mark! I just wish this silly front that is causing this would move.  I mean really, it could go vacation around Lake Tahoe, they actually need the rain. 

Em has Vacation Bible School this week, and I know a lot of their activities have been changed due to all this rain.  But Emma is sure having a lot of fun, which I am glad.  Something different to do over the summer.

I better get ready for work, but I will leave you with some pics from my cell phone I took when we took a drive Saturday evening, after the rain stopped for a little while.

Fireworks stand and floating porta pottys.  Bet they won't put the stand there next year!

This is Swan's Dairy.  What you are seeing above is there dairy cattle field, which is now a big pond.  It has since "soaked" in, but I am sure since I have lived in Claremore, I have never seen it made into a pond that lasted for 24 hours.

And above is what I did while it rained. I have posted them in my Etsy Shop.  I made tote bags, that is until my Singer CG-590 quit on me.  Murphy's Law - I have had it just over a year and my needle will not move, and I cannot turn it with the handwheel.  Oh yeah... I still have yet to take it into the shop.  I am just not happy about this, and having panic attack withdrawal issues now.  If it will stop raining long enough today, I will take it in to get it fixed.  Anyone had this happen to them before with their machine?

Cupcakes

The above pictures is from the Cupcake Swap from Peptogirl.   This is what I sent out to my partner, which I really liked doing this swap.  I even went out and found a vintage cookbook to put in (since I love cookbooks). 

My Cupcake swap partner sent me all kinds of wonderful goodies.... a cute little bag with cupcake pocket..fabric.. wonderful mini cupcake/muffin papers,sprinkles (oh yes, all girls love sprinkles), the cutest little ceramic B with cupcakes on it, cute little Martha scarp booking stickers, AWESOME cupcake tape, bath fizzies and the most wonderful Cupcake cookbook, which will be put to use, believe me!!  Emma can't wait to get it out, use the sprinkles and muffin papers.  Stephanie did just such a wonderful job with everything!!!!  Thank you Stephanie!!!!!

I am not sure if who all subscribes to Crochet Today, but oh yeah, you must get the lastest issue.  They renamed the issue and did a July/August issue. Well, for all of those of you that just love Miss Posie Alicia you will want this issue.  She has a pattern in there!!!! It is the Baby Blues dress and it is wayyyyyyy cute!  You did a great job Alicia!!!!!I would post a picture, but I think I will just let everyone go buy the issue yourself : )

Well, it is time for me to go to bed.  When I go to bed I go to sleep and do not notice the retainer like things in my mouth that contain Zoom!  It does not bother me, but I feel like a character from the Carol Burnett Show.   I have these "retainer" things over my top and bottom teeth with bleach in them, I have a lisp and have to drink through a straw shoved far back in my mouth.  This is my second night.  I only have one more night to go... YEAH  But, my teeth are whiter.  I have wanted to do this forever...  but like I said, I feel Tim Conway should be standing behind me saying "Mrs. Wiggins". 

Catch and Release

Last week was Emma's last week of pre-k.  My how time flies.  Just seems yesterday I took her to her first day.  Oddly enough, I made her dress for the first day of pre-k and apparently for her last day of pre-k.  The dress she has on above was a "first try" out of an old sheet.   Guess I am going to have to get busy and plan for her first day of Kindergarten.  She has grown so much over the past year, physically, emotionally and mentally.  She is not a toddler anymore.  She is a little girl.  I miss that toddler, but boy do I have fun with my little girl!

On Memorial Day, we found a baby aligator snapping turtle, um, in the drive way.  So I waited until Emma was home and then we took him to Claremore Lake where she could set him free and he would not get run over.  This is the first snapping turtle I have seen in our neighborhood in AGES.. thank goodness.  But where there is one, there is more.  We have a pond in our neighborhood that is a true pond.  Perch, turtles and who knows what else is in there.  I know this, you could not pay me to go swim in the thing.  No way!
Emma was very good about letting him go, but when we got back in the car it was "my turtle, I want my turtle, I miss my turtle."  But, she got over that quickly enough and we went home.  Alls well that ends well.

Brooch Swap

Wow, I did not realize I had not posted in so long.  I have just had a very busy past week.  We are still cleaning out my parent's attic... Lots and lots of suprises, but I will save those for another day.

I received the most wonderful package on Saturday from Roxanne.  It was from our brooch swap with Claire.  Roxanne sent me the cutest brooch from her soldering adventures.  It is just wonderful.  I am totally impressed with her soldering capabilities.  I would be scared to death. In addition - she sent a note pad and some cards from Carly's Wish, a list pad, darling measuring tape, a cute little butterfly applique, purse frame and the most darling little bag for Emma (and the Lifesavers went to Em as well).  She loves the bag.  She stuffed as many little animals and dolls in that she could and carried it around most of the day.

Below is an up close view of the brooch.  I am just so impressed.

I have a lot of other things, but I spent most of the weekend CLEANING... yuck, how I hate this.  Cleaning should be a 4 letter word.  But I have some shiny hardwood floors now... I have to find some silver lining in cleaning and that was about it.

What I did on my three day weekend

This is what we all felt like around the house by Sunday afternoon.... pooped out. My dad came over to see Emma, and they ended up playing horses and then falling asleep for a quick nap. It was too funny.

I took this picture of this beautiful sugar Maple tree on my way out of the neighborhood on Friday.. before my multiple doctors appointments.  I made all of my appointments and then, of course, made my way to Goodwill and to the fabric stores.. what else would you expect on my day off.  I need to really take pictures of everything I bought, but of course forgot to before I dove into everything (except I did get a Peter Pan Golden Press book from 1950 for Emma for $1!)

Saturday made the rounds at all of the Antique stores in Claremore.  I was quite dissappointed, or maybe I just can never find anything please to my eye.  Either way, Miss Alicia, if you moved here and opened a booth, I would be broke and you would rolling in it!  LOL  She has a way with presentation like none other.  The people in Claremore could take a few pointers for you.  They have no overall theme, it is like they just buy stuff and then throw it into their booths.  No rhyme or reason... oh well.  The day wasn't a total wash.  I bought 10 old buttons for 98 cents and then two really cool prints, which I will have to show later.

I also did some sewing this weekend.  I cut out the following this weekend;

• 2 felted sweater bags
• Archie from Wee Wonderfuls (Make A Long)
• Pajama bottoms for Emma
• Reversible Apron for Emma for Christmas
• Reversible XMAS apron for Me
• Cream and brown wool purse
• Olive and Archie's hoodie and pullover
• Emma's dress for Christmas, which really need to finish so I can get her in for pictures.  I will take a picture of the pattern because it is way 70's but I love it

What I finished sewing;

• 2 felted sweater bags
• pajama bottoms for Emma
• Archie
• Wool scarf

I am keeping the green felted purse for myself, so I will probably put the other one on Etsy, or I may try my hand at puttin it on my blog site this weekend, along with the scarf above.  I made it, and then realized I bought my new coat.  I found some more skirts and things to tear apart at Goodwill on Friday, so I may be making a new one for me.  More of the caramel, pink and cream colors....  not sure because I found enough wool to make an black wool/red silk one(s) too.  We will have to see what the week/weekend brings

Sewing while cold medicine drug induced

Even through the fogginess of the cold medicine I sewed this weekend.  I made two things..  Emma's new skirt, the one out of the skirt I found at the Salvation Army.
I love it on her.  I wanted to get it finished before Tuesday, she has pictures at her daycare.  She has a brown shirt, tights and new shoes to wear with it.  I need to take her in and get her hair trimmed as well.  Her hair is almost to her rear.....  she loves it long and so do I, but man, it's just too much.  Anyway, I finished her skirt, which was easy, and then went on to make a Fall/Halloween purse.  It is Butterick pattern 3799 .  Fairly easy,
but sewing through all of the interfacing and fleece was a little challenging.  It is kind of big for a purse, but I can live with that.  Next weekend is Emma's purse to match her skirt and aprons for the both of us (I know it seems like people really do not use them, but when I fried bacon the other day I kept thinking... "why do I not have one sewn yet?").  With all of the cold medicine, it was slow going, but all turned out okay.  Just frequent rest stops for more meds
and mentholatum for my sore nose.  Today was a good day to be sick, it has been raining and colder today.

I am trying to stay up because Under the Tuscan Sun is on right now, and I have such a hard time NOT watching this movie.  It sounds like something I would do when Emma's grown... just leave, go buy a house in Europe.. Italy, Provence region of France.....  I sure hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Thrift Store and United Way

Today was a "go to Salvation Army Store" kind of day.  I am not sure why I was so determined to go.. but when I got there, all clothes were 50% off!  Now to just find some useful items.  Well I got this chocolate brown corduroy skirt and little orange and yellow flower skirt.  The corduroy skirt will be transformed into a skirt for Emma.  I will use the ruffle trim from the orange skirt for a ruffle on the corduroy skirt and use some of the other fabric for pockets...  what is leftover will be made into a purse for Emma.  Ever since I saw this post on Angry Chicken I have wanted to make a cute skirt for Emma.  The kind she can wear with funky striped tights and clogs : )  Both skirts were $1 a piece.  I also found a Banana Republic 100% Merino Wool skirt...camel... it has now been felted!  I will have to take a picture when I am finished with it.  It was $2.  So, all in all, a good day at the Salvation Army.  Then, on to more pressing matters...  getting my groups baskets ready for the United Way silent auction we are having at work.  We have two baskets...  One is "A tisket, a tasket, a little knitting basket" and the other is "Dinner for Two in a basket".  The knitting basket is self explanatory, but the dinner for two is cool.  It is...  two bowls, two mugs, two gourmet soup mixes,
oven bread mix, gourmet salad dressing, Starbucks coffee, hot pad, 3 kitchen towels, a crochet dishtowel, 2 Laura Ashley place mats, 2 Laura Ashley napkins and a gift certificate for Marie Calenders for a pie.  I think there is more than that, but I cannot remember right now... LOL   too tired.

Emma has a BAD cold and the past two nights have been not a lot of sleep since she is restless and stopped up...  hopefully we will get some good sleep tonight.. 

Things that go through your head on a call

Today, while on a phone call regarding the fact my email at work is not working (Lotus Notes... why oh why?) I had an idea........ so I started thinking and drawing in a notebook where none of the guys could see... (they have us in "pods" until they build out the first floor) I came up with a great project to make... I am not telling what it is, all I will do is show you some of the materials that will be used.  And if it works out the way I want, I will be making multiples.  I really wish I had more time for this.  I love to make stuff, but I do not always want it for me... I just like to make things, well, to make things.

Projects Completed

I finally finished Em's quilt and Amy Butler kitty pillow today... whew..  I had to put the sewing machine away because I was just waiting for it to go on strike.   Note the flannel I used on the kitty's face..  this looks like one slightly irritated calico kitty (maybe I shoved the bone crease tool too far when I was working the corners...N'est pas?).  The material I used on the face looks like it has eyebrows?  Must be a calico Siamese : )   I then just worked on tracing out some patterns on my pattern paper (mainly Japanese patterns)... including my 12 new vintage apron patterns.  I cannot wait to get started on them.  They are sooo cute.  I will definitely take pictures as I make them.

I spent most of the weekend sewing, crocheting and cleaning the house (eewwwww, not my favorite thing to do).  I also cooked.  I ended up having a lot of veggies that I did not know what to do with... mushrooms, tomatoes, green onions and zucchini.  So I cut them up and sauteed them, thinking I would make stuffed tomatoes...  I get the first part completed only to find out my big tomatoes were, errr, well, aged...  so I made this goulosh stuff.  Was not too bad, but I really wanted my stuffed tomatoes.

Em had a large tea party in the living room Saturday morning.  It was soooo cute.  Even though I think this is only about 1/32nd of all of her stuffed animals.  We have had to actually box some up in rubbermaid containers and rotate them out....  really!  Grandpa buys her new ones all the time.  This weekend I lucked out though.  He just bought her another horse.  The ones made in Germany....
I thought it was too funny....  her elephant (and the thing with the white nose/pink body is a HUGE pink Unicorn) with his snout in a plate : )  Em is just too adorable.

YEAH for the Weekend

Another weekend ahead of us...  tomorrow we have to get up early to go enroll in Dancing for the Fall.  I bought Emma a new black leotard and pink tights today.  Think I am going to have to crochet the 1945 Loop-The-Loop Snood .  This pic looks like a woman with a lot of hair, but I think Emma can beat this woman with her hair.  I cannot even French braid Em's hair, my hands just get lost in the shuffle!
After dancing, we are going to the grocery store.  I am going through the Barefoot Contessa to make muffins.. I am going to try some before school starts, since I am going to start making muffins for during the school week. There are 3 recipes - Banana Crunch, Cranberry Harvest and Raspberry Corn. Then home to finish dresses, and I bought some flannel to make Emma a blanket out of the groovy sheet I bought at Salvation Army.  The sheet is the third one from the left.  I bought the first two materials the other day...  the yellow will be a shirt and purse for Emma.. the second, a fall straight skirt to wear with boots for me.. and if there is enough left over I will
use it to line a couple of purses.  The fourth  material is another sheet.  May make Emma another peasant dress/nightgown out of it.  I am supporting 5 4 3 2 Etsy, I bought a pattern today.  I cannot remember why I remember this robe, but boy I do.  For some reason it conjurs memories of watching Family Affair (BTW, I still have my Mrs. Beasley doll and paper dolls...for some reason.

I forgot to post pics of my Amy Butler "In Town" purse I finished.  I decided
not to use interfacing to help with the shape.  I used canvas, only used 1 pocket on the inside, and used a black and white button on top of a felt flower from Posie Alicia  .  I found material at Hancock's and found some more of the Flea Market Fancy for here and there.