Inspired Mouse

We are in one of our favorite places in the world, enjoying the sand and sunshine and ocean. 

My boy made a fish print with a real fish and some acrylic paint, along side his Great Aunt and Grandpop. Thanks A.P.!

Sometimes in the summer when it’s hot and the day has had a bad moment or two, it’s time to pull out my best parenting move: ice cream for lunch!

I adore this knit fabric – of course – since it has mice on it. But the cream color background is brutal for my complexion. Solution? PJs!!

This gave me the opportunity to try out the sizing on the Alabama Chanin t-shirt pattern. I lowered the neckline a bit, and added length, but otherwise it’s unaltered. That said… I think I will need to make some changes. 

Nearly every pattern I make, and most ready to wear with a high neckline, gapes in the center back. I need to learn to correct for this. Not there yet, but I’m circling in on a solution. 

We made homemade silly putty today. It’s very white, not like the kind I had as a kid. The boy has been having a great time with it! 

My boys gave me sketch materials for my birthday, which is perfect because I’ve started a CreativeBug class called Basic Line Drawing with Lisa Congdon. (CreativeBug and Craftsy classes are a great way to pass the time while on the cardio machine!)

My boy was inspired by signs he saw at the Democratic convention. 

Go Hillary!

All three of us made shrinky dinks this weekend. You can guess which one I made!

Dad and boy were inspired by the new Star Trek movie (we saw it — super fun!). 
The boy made the castle and the koo koo all on his own. 

Inspired by stories of Salvador Dali, my boy painted a scene from his dream. 

Watercolor and Ink

About 9 months ago I attended Camp Workroom Social, a sewing retreat/weekend sewing school at a YMCA camp in the Catskills. 

Campers received a bag of goodies that included swatches from Wooden Gate Quilts, a fabric store in California. The swatches included instructions for turning them into a mini quilt. 

This was a fun little project. Since the fabric selection was a bit random, I enlisted help from my boys. First I set it all out. Then Oscar needed time to sleep on it and shove all the pieces onto the floor. My boy picked it all up, then helped design the layout with Dad’s help.  Finally, when it was all complete, Felix blessed it with a nap.

The new crop of South Jersey blueberries are in, so I found what remained from last year in my freezer and baked up my favorite blueberry buckle recipe. 

The blueberries are courtesy of Mom, who lives in the heart of blueberry country and supplies us with an enormous amount of the best blueberries each year. The recipe is an old favorite from Cook’s Illustrated. 
It works well as both dessert and breakfast. Yum!