sweet thing(s)

here i am

in Vermont, visiting my parents. 

i haven't posted in forever but i am coming back!  all is well, but i needed to take a blog vacation for a bit.  i'll be back home next week, so please check back then. 

i do miss this space.

Maxine's birthday party

it was a lovely little garden party.

the birthday girl:

friends:

cousins:

decorations:

birthday cake:

a few notes: the cake was honey layer cake with guava paste filling and rolled marzipan topping and marzipan polka dots- it was so hard to roll out!!  i had to get my man to do it for me.  is there a trick?  i made the fabric bunting with a few new fabrics, but also some from my stash and some vintage pillow cases.  my hope is that it will never look dated and we can use it every year to decorate for Maxine's birthday parties.  i still didn't finish my gift for her and the house is a wreck, but it was all good fun!

bench monday

on my way to a sewing class at The Workroom- taking a Reverse Applique Corset class- from the Project Alabama book.

video i liked

great video about how kids should be able to do dangerous things- via Sew Liberated

today is Maxine's birthday!

here is Maxine when she was a baby.  she weighed 9 pounds 1 ounce, dropping into her father's hands in the middle of the night after 22 minutes of labour.  

her exciting arrival was a preview of what she would add to our family life...

Miss Maxine is a mischievous little monkey.  Last night i came upon this scene. 

am I a bad mum for grabbing the camera first instead of the toddler?!

we are so lucky, and happy to have her! 

happy birthday Max!

oh my, haircuts!

big changes around here this weekend.

Asa has been wanting a mohawk forever (Lee has had some very strange hairstyles),
so he went from this:

to this:

BUT the biggest change is...
Lee wanted a haircut (i think he just felt like a change) so he went to our very own Island salon- Alice's House of Big Hair- with a picture of Professor Indiana Jones.

he is going to donate his hair to Cuts for Cancer, so Alice had to was and dry his hair first.  Her cat Creamy sits on all her willing clients' laps.

here's Lee before:

and after:

he is so pleased- he can't stop smiling at his reflection.

embroidered t-shirt for Asa

i made this for Asa for his birthday- from a drawing he did recently of a car with a tailfin.  i got the idea from a shirt Lucia made a while ago.  i think he likes having his own art on a shirt!

my creative space

lilacs are my favourite flower.  

i have loved them since childhood, but even more now because the time that they bloom on the island is the exact time of Asa's birthday.  the day that he was born my man filled the house with lilacs and the heavy scent of them will now always remind me of my sweet baby.

my creative space today:

lilacs and a lilac-coloured sweater for a custom-order Sweet Thing(s) sweater

guess what?  here it is 3 days after i made this post, and i realized i have a heart in my photo- the leaf of the lilac.  there was a 'challenge' this week to hide a heart in your picture, and i had already taken the photo when i read that, so i kinda ignored it- but there it is!  how cool.

a royal birthday party

14 kids+ a gorgeous day+ a knight themed party= a Royal birthday

we had a Quest to recover the Royal Jewels (treasure hunt style with clues leading back to the garden and a craft table to decorate the Jewel Boxes),

a Royal Feast of Roasted Meat from the Principality of Frankfurt,

Pin the Tail on the Dragon,

and a Castle Cake (Sour Cream Chocolate Chip with Cream Cheese Icing)

Happy Birthday!

indiana jones

i've written before about how much Asa loves to dress up (here).  my man had the idea of an Indiana Jones costume.  I bought the hat and whip (!!- what were we thinking?!- it is now an outside only toy) at a costume shop, and put the rest together from thrift stores.  here's the birthday boy getting his annual tuba happy birthday serenade from his godfather, Grahame.

happy birthday Asa Blue!

my sweet Asa Blue is 5! 

funny little baby

mischievous
energetic
loving
gorgeous
strong-willed

boy

i love you so much!