Thursday, March 21, 2013

Spring Break Projects!


Yesterday Lily and Rowan and I worked on new dresses for their dollies.  They both helped some, watched some, listened some, and took breaks to do other things while I sewed and ironed.  ;)  I didn't get any photos of Lily, but she was very anxious to do as much of the sewing herself as I would let her.  Sewing is not my most favorite thing, but I hope that my girls will learn and enjoy it, so I tried to keep sighs and negative comments to a minimum.



Rebecca and Gwen model their new dresses.  Gwen's was sized incorrectly when I printed out the pattern, so it turned out a bit, um, flirtier that we were expecting.  You can get away with that when you are an 18" doll, I guess.  The free pattern can be found here.



I think children from large families have such hard lives.  No one pays enough attention to them.  I know they must feel sad and lonely much of the time.  Do you think Eli would agree?


This is his 'Cheeeeese!' face.



Oh my goodness, he makes me smile.


This morning I prepared a special breakfast of honey-nut cheerios.


I am always so impatient to buy flowers by March.  Last Friday was a gorgeous day, and I went ahead and bought some annuals for my front porch.  Saturday and since have been cold, cold, cold.  Yesterday I thought my poor little flowers might like some outdoor afternoon sun, even though it was cold, so I set them out.  This morning I suddenly realized that I forgot to bring them back in last night!  I rescued them and though they look a bit rough, I'm hoping they'll revive.


I am redoing Keely and Annes' room, and I couldn't settle on art for Annesley's side, so I decided to create some for her.  I printed out lots of things that she likes and decoupaged them onto an $8 canvas.  I thought decoupage was fool-proof, but turns out it can be goofed up.  The pink ink from the 'Keep Calm and be a Princess' page ran everywhere!  I'm going to try to salvage it by adding some pink paint elsewhere and then covering the whole thing in glittery stuff.  Annesley likes it, so I suppose it's a success anyway!


I have just discovered the treasure trove of free printable art to be found here!  I picked up this frame several weeks ago for $3.  The stand on the back was completely missing, but I knew that it would look nice on a picture frame stand.  The butterflies image is from the NYPL digital library.  I love it!  This spot needed a little color.  And I am kindof into butterflies right now.  :)

So, this week has been full and fun, and it's not over yet!  Tomorrow we'll get ready for dinner guests and try to savor our last day of break.  Hope your week's been great, too!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

As always, you absolutely astound me with your energy, creativity, and passion for your kids. All of your projects this week look beautiful! Glad you had a great week and I hope to see you at the MPE conference--lunch with all of us, right? Love ya! Summer

Anne said...

Fun pictures, Candice! :) Maybe you can teach me to sew...my mom tried YEARS ago and I was never interested...I think I am interested now, but that could pose a problem if I actually learned how. ;) We need to get together and catch up...I feel like it's always a 'hi' in passing. I STILL want to come and watch one of your school days at home, if you're willing.

Andy and Amy said...

I'm going to have to check out some of that art. Sounds like a great inexpensive source for pretty things. Frames are always cheap at Goodwill, and I even some a box of frames that I could repurpose. Thanks for the inspiration!