Welcome to Brenna’s room!  11 year old girl heaven complete with a (recently shingled) dollhouse, a non-pink quilt, and lots of dragon pictures and keep-out signs on the door.

Yep, I’m finally posting about Brenna’s new bed.  I’ve referenced it several times– that it was in the plans, that it was in the works, that it was in her room… The thing is, I have been blessed with a daughter with the same room-keeping-tidy skills as I have (next to none) and so getting good pictures of her new bed in her room has been a little tricky.  We accomplished the mission today– and I learned that I’m not fun when I just nag and point out every last little thing on the carpet.  (Note to self– I really need to work on that and cut her some slack.  She knows just as well as I do that I’m just as messy as she is.  The thing is, there isn’t anyone living here to boss me around.  I just need to remember that no matter who you are it’s not fun to be bossed around.)

Anyway, we got the free plans for this bed from Ana White.  Her website is a pretty amazing and extensive resource for building your own furniture.  The plans we used are right here.  Barry did about 99% of the work with a little help from Brenna reading over the cut list, holding pieces steady as he drilled, and sanding.  Brenna picked the paint color and the two of us did most of the priming and painting.

You can see that the end near the ladder is missing the bottom brace to keep the legs square because the original plan was to build the big book case, but once we got it up in her room and were figuring out exactly how furniture needed to be arranged we realized that it would be either the book case or the doll house, we couldn’t fit both.  Quite naturally, the doll house won.  It is plenty sturdy and stable as it is– and so convenient to wheel the doll house table in and out the open legs.

She already had a desk, so we didn’t need to build one.  It fits just perfectly under her bed and she loves to hang out there and draw, sort sea shells, read, type…  Her desk has actually gotten a lot more use.  I think it must be that everything seems more fun when it’s in a fort.

We made a couple of pillow cases that match her quilt and some cute throw pillows.  I was having fun making yo-yos from scraps, so there’s the rectangular pillow with lots of yo-yos and the round one (which I made using this pattern from Cluck-Cluck Sew) with little yo-yos in the center.

Now here’s how she really made her bed–

with all her loves– her baby blanket, the monster Jonah designed and helped make her this past Christmas, Julie (the doll I made a couple of years ago), and Buttercup (the teddy I made her a LONG time ago).

Now to get a crib and dresser and rocking chair crammed into that little room.

Did I tell you IKEA is opening here this week?

Remember the quilt Brenna and I were working on?  It’s done!  Instead of basting and free motion quilting it myself I decided to go with plan B.  I sent the finished quilt top and back fabric to my mom who lives near the best quilt store I’ve ever been to.  She can rent time on their long arm quilting machines and the work she does is always amazing.  This one is no exception.  Brenna LOVES it!

My mom even bound it too.  It’s a truly 3 generation project, the 48 blocks pieced by Brenna, everything squared up and sewn together by me, and then finished to perfection by my mom.  What a treasure.

Here’s a shot of the back:

The girl room is coming together.  I think we can fit another one in there.  During Barry’s long June the loft bed got built.

We’re getting there.  About a month to go.  The hot days go by so slowly, but the weeks are whizzing by.

With the anticipation of our new little girl we’ve been scheming how we’re going to rearrange bedrooms, acquire the needed furniture and all that.  Once she’s 4 or 5 months old Eva will get to move in with Brenna.  Right now Brenna has a full size bed, a dresser, and a desk in her room with absolutely no room to add a crib,  and the crib is still being used by our climbing monkey of a two year old.  The solution I’ve dreamed up is that we’ll make a twin over full bunk bed for Hunter and Ian and a twin size loft bed for Brenna.  That way we won’t have to buy any new mattresses.

To get ready for a new bed we naturally decided that some quilt making was in order.  Brenna and I browsed simple quilt patterns and fabric together and I gave her full creative license.  The only stipulation I made was that whatever pattern she chose needed to be simple enough that she could sew the blocks with minimal help from me.  She chose the Juice Boxes pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew and a smattering of fabrics from Amy Butler’s Soul Blossoms collection.  I modified the pattern just a bit.   Since it was for 6 inch squares she would have needed to make 150 or so of them– so we enlarged it to 12 inch squares.  48 of those were much more doable.  I did the cutting, she did all the sewing of the blocks, I did most of the pressing, and then I trued them up.  It took a couple of months, but the blocks are done!

I’ve actually got the top all pieced together and the back made too.  I was hoping to have it done for her birthday on Monday (11 years!!), but I don’t think getting it basted and quilted by then is very realistic seeing that I do have to do school, clothe, and feed people.  We’ve got a good start, though!  And great memories of collaboration will be harbored in the finished product forever.

Just a quick post today.  I thought I’d show you the cute little bunny Brenna made for a friend’s birthday.

She made the pattern and did most of the work.  I helped with sewing some of the tight curves and turning those skinny feet right side out.

And check out the cute little tail!  News is that he is much loved in his new home.

In Ohio we belonged to a wonderful CSA and got boxes full of produce every week.  We haven’t joined one here, but this year I’ve made a goal to find farms where we can pick our own produce and do as much of that picking as we can.  I think its important for my kids to learn where real food comes from and that it takes hard work to get it.  I’m hoping to find some orchards in the fall where we can pick fruit too.

A couple of weeks ago, after swimming lessons and lunch and a little rest, I took the kids out to Berry Patch Farms on the opening day of strawberry picking.  They opened at 8 AM, but we had to go in the heat of the afternoon after people had been combing through the 7 acres of strawberries all day.  I had a baby on my back whose left shoe must have fallen off in the garage as we were leaving our house, so he had to stay on my back.  There was a big thunder storm the weekend before, so the tractor couldn’t give us a ride out to the field because of the mud.   We had to hike, the organic fields were full of thistles, and the strawberries full of holes from hail damage.  As you can imagine, that led to a lot of whining on the boys’ part.  I don’t think Jonah picked a single strawberry because he was too hot and they were too hard to find.  Brenna was a splendid picker, though.  She combed through the plants and found the best berries there were.  After her and I (with a baby on my back who wasn’t super excited about all the bending over) filled up 3 little containers full, we called it a day and good education on how expensive food really is and how hard it is to be a farmer.

I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of berries we had, and promptly gobbled up, after that outing.  We needed more, so Brenna and I got up early Saturday morning to comb through the fields on their final day open.

We got there before the sun was high and hot, and the hail damaged berries were long gone.

In half the time we spent picking on our last trip we filled an entire flat.

Brenna had fun searching for the tiniest ripe berries she could find.

I needed the quiet time out there finding sweet treasures with my girl.

When we got home, Barry and I made homemade strawberry freezer jam– one of my very most favoritest foods ever.

Here are the kids at work at their new favorite pastime– making stop animation videos.  Last Sunday Barry downloaded a trial version of boinx iStopMotion onto the old lap top, gave the kids a few instructions, and they’ve been at it all week.  They started with paper cut outs, then moved on to animating their toys.  I can’t even tell you how amazing it is to watch their creations.  I am so surprised by how fun and creative their little movies are– all without any adult help or input.  Today Barry sat down with them and used iMovie to add sound to one of Brenna’s favorites.  Here it is, I hope it makes you think my kids are as cool as I think they are!

We had a hard time thinking of a good gift for Brenna’s birthday.  She’s 10.  My little baby is right between being a little kid that loves to play with toys and a big kid– you know, one that just wants clothes.  I did really consider getting a Playmobil set, but I just hate having the big plastic things.  I don’t mind all the little pieces– they are the things that get played with, but the the big hunks of plastic that are the buildings I could really do without.

Then I remembered the constant asking for a typewriter like Kit who, in the books, wrote a newspaper with her typewriter every day.  The typewriter stars aligned for me and I found the perfect Smith-Corona Corsair Deluxe portable typewriter on eBay.  The clicking and clacking from her room only stop for her to go to the bathroom and eat.

Seriously, my budding poet/novelist is in love.  She is flying out to California today to meet her dad who has been out there judging the International Science and Engineering Fair.  Her typewriter is in her suitcase.

I couldn’t think of a good reason to say no.

Ever since we put up our bird feeder, there has been more birds around the neighborhood (Team Sparrow who live in our big pine tree, some house finches, grackles, a few dark-eyed juncos, and one or two chickadees). I guess two house finches saw this as the perfect spot.   Anyway, my next-door-neighbor-best-friend Holly was over to play and we decided to play out front. As we were walking out the door, Holly spotted something fly away when the door opened.  Then we saw it. The Nest.

Now, I mean today, mom went out to see if she could get a picture. This is what she found.

We looked at a bird book and it says that one pair of house finches will breed up to 2-5 times a summer, and egg clutches are 2-6 eggs, and that our front-door eggs will hatch in 13-14 days.

Looks like we have new neighbors in the neighborhood!!

I am playing catch up here…

We got a lot of snow on March 25th.  Over a foot.

Which gave the kids the opportunity to try out Jonah’s invention– the Rocket Chair.  It’s made from a broken dining chair and a pair of old cross country skis.  Oh, and a rope to pull it back up the hill with, of course.

Now for photos.  I think I’m done with the words for this post.

We’ve been battling a very, very, gross stomach bug the past 2 weeks, but I think it’s safe to say that we’ve beat it. Phew!  I’ve got lots of posts up my sleeve.  Let’s see if life will cooperate with my plans of regular posting.

Another Christmas book I got was Design it Yourself Clothes by Cal Patch.

And, truth be told, I spent a big chunk of my Christmas vacation with a list of measurements, a roll of newsprint, a ruler, pencils and erasers.  I got Brenna in on the action too and she drafted her first skirt pattern.

Then it took me awhile to get any of the sewing done, but here they are!  Super simple a-line skirts that fit (almost) perfectly (I’ve lost some more weight since I measured it seems.) cut from my stack of designer home-dec fabric.  I had only just barely enough, so we skipped hemming them and I just made a lot of green bias binding.

I learned a lot, even with such a simple design.  Like– it’s much easier to put in an invisible zipper with an invisible zipper foot, and french seams are easy and pretty.  Brenna even sewed her own.

And it looks cute with my warm boots– my snuggly warm Colorado winter boots.

I’ve done some preliminary runs through my basic t-shirt pattern and have visions in my head for that button down shirt.  Now to find the time…

(Thanks Barry and Brenna for humoring me through the photo shoot!)