Vacation Wear: Nelle Dress and Moon-ish Pants

raspberry Nelle Dress sewn by fromwholecloth.com

We’re nearing the very end of March and it still feels like winter around here. Grrrr. I am past the cabin fever; past being depressed over the snow, snow and more snow. Now I’m just COMPLETELY ANNOYED. I used to be someone who enjoyed winter. This year is forcing me to rethink that mindset.

Thank goodness we were lucky enough to escape last month to sunny Florida for a family vacation. I was just so happy to be somewhere warm and sunny, where being outside felt good rather than numbing. It was heavenly to feel the sun on my skin.

raspberry Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by brownie goose

In joyful anticipation of a sunny vacation I made big plans at the beginning of February to sew up a handful of items for the warmer weather. But it turns out that spending your nights sitting on your butt watching Netflix is not very conducive to sewing, so my big plans were quickly whittled down to two items made two nights before our departure. My daughter scored big, and my hopes for a new beach cover-up have been shelved until summer — assuming we actually get a summer and we’re not stuck in permafrost tundra forever.

raspberry Nelle Dress fromwholecloth.com

The sundress was made using the The Nelle dress pattern by brownie goose. I love this pattern. I actually have several Nelle dresses in my Etsy shop because it’s so much fun to sew. It doesn’t require yards and yards of fabric and is so versatile; wear it alone or pair it with pants or leggings. I have had that dress fabric for almost four years now. It was the very first fabric I ever purchased when I started sewing, and I still love it as much as I did back then. The color makes me think of black raspberry ice cream. I have just enough of it left to maybe make her a skirt next year.

Raspberry Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by browniegoose

The pants are my attempt to hack the upcoming Moon Pants Sewing Pattern from Made By Rae. Rae’s moon pants were among the fabulous sewing projects highlighted in Issue 3 of Stylo Magazine, and I have been eagerly awaiting the actual pattern. After their magazine debut (and before sewists went crazy over the design and *demanded* that Rae create a pattern), Rae mentioned on her blog that the pants could be sewn by making some alterations to her Parsley Pants Sewing Pattern. And so, I attempted just that. I’m happy with the results, but I still can’t wait to purchase the real pattern.

raspberry Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by brownie-goose patterns

raspberry Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by brownie goose
So what’s Erectile Dysfunction? Erectile dysfunction is the inability to achieve or sustain an erection for attaining Sexual pleasure. viagra 25 mg davidfraymusic.com In market, you have several options for getting intimate with your tadalafil overnight shipping partner. Frequently, wholesale viagra india find description detection of type 2 diabetes is made only when significant complications arise or even during routine pathological lab tests. There are a number of options that a person can take in getting DMV approved Colorado drivers education online. sale generic tadalafil davidfraymusic.com
Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by brownie-goose

The pants fabric is from the City Girl collection by Kitty Yoshida and is also a purchase from my early days. I guess this outfit was a real stash buster!

Nelle Dress and "Moon Pants" by fromwholecloth.com; dress pattern by brownie goose

Vacation was great. Not in the big, fancy, expensive, once in a lifetime way that vacations can become, but rather in the way that I felt like I was able to hit the re-set button. In past years we’ve made trips to zoos and other attractions while on vacation, running here and there for oohs and aahs, but this trip was different. We didn’t try to cram each day full of trips and big experiences, but instead spent our days playing at the beach, swimming in the pool, being outdoors, being together, heading to bed early, recharging.

Before vacation I was feeling kind of ambivalent toward many of the things that typically appeal to me. Winter doldrums, I guess. This vacation, in its simplicity and lack of reliable internet connection, was more about having time to think. To enjoy each other’s company. To take a deep breath and not have to rush off to the next thing. Of course, that also leaves me wondering why we allow “regular” life to move so far from that ideal.

So, now that those of you who did not have a winter vacation are ready for me to shut the heck up…

raspberry Nelle Dress by fromwholecloth.com; pattern by brownie goose

Is she still talking about her vacation?!!

 

I will!

Here’s to Spring and all of us feeling recharged and ready for something simple and good!

Rockin’ the Raccoon on Vacation

Raccoon Top

I’m back. I just realized it has been forever since I last posted. I knew it had been a while, but where the heck have the last two months gone!? I keep feeling as though it’s still January — perhaps because Connecticut still feels like it’s stuck in January! Grrr…. enough of the cold and lingering snow!

In January I was going strong, feeling energized by the optimism that a new year tends to inspire in me. I was recommitted to exercising regularly. Intent on blogging more. I was inspired by new sewing projects. I was even prepared and on schedule with my Kids Clothes Week (Winter) sewing projects.  And then — boom! — the rose-tinted glasses of 2014 bliss and renewal were yanked off and exchanged for an unwelcome visitor in the form of the stomach bug. I suppose I was being uncharacteristically optimistic we’d avoid it, since the bug had been winding its way through my son’s preschool. It visited and stuck around for a while. Thankfully my husband and I were spared the worst of it, but my daughter experienced more than enough for all of us — yuck. And although we’ve long been recovered from the nastiness of GI bugs, it really knocked me off kilter for a while. I was rationalizing a newly adopted attitude of underachievement, “Listen, after that whole house o’ vomit thing, can’t I just coast for a bit here. Housework and fitness and general productivity are so overrated.”

And, well, what do you know? It’s just about time for Kids Clothes Week again. It’s as though I hardly missed a beat; February and March serving as mere filler between sewing challenges. Now that KCW occurs 4 times/year and is scheduled along with the seasons, I kind of feel like I just finished sewing for one KCW and need to get organized for the next. I’ll admit to a preference for the old days, when KCW happened just twice a year. And I realize that’s a silly lament, because it’s not exactly as if someone has the metaphorical gun to my head, making me sew myself silly for all four KCWs. It’s just so hard to not get wrapped up in the KCW excitement and want to create for my kiddos. Especially when folks in the sewing blogosphere start previewing their KCW sewing plans weeks in advance and recommending patterns and fabrics and loads of other goodies (you can check out the kids clothes week blog for a taste of the KCW Spring fervor).  Alas, KCW Spring is right around the corner.

kid's clothes week

Now putting aside my complaints of late winter doldrums and stomach bugs and irresistible sewing forums, there was a very bright and warm part to our late winter. Vacation!! It came together kind of quickly, although we’d been talking of getting away for some time. And it was really nice. Like perfect-weather-fun-at-the-beach kind of nice. And I had the chance to sew up a couple simple items for the kids to wear on vacation; although I only got the chance to photograph one top (on location, of course).

Raccoon1

Enough Raccoon

This top is a simple self-drafted peasant shirt using raccoon-themed fabric from the Acacia collection designed by Tula Pink for Free Spirit. The sleeve fabric is from the same collection. I sewed up the top the night before we left for vacation. This fabric just makes me smile, with the big raccoon eyes looking out at you. And the colors go with a bunch of other items in my daughter’s wardrobe, so it has a high wearability factor. Since we returned home she’s been wearing it layered over long-sleeved shirts, so this top has already seen a ton of wear.

Lookin' good, girlfriend!

Lookin’ good, girlfriend!

Daisy and I snuck out early one morning to snap these photos, while the boys made the breakfast and coffee run. She insisted on wearing her brother’s sunglasses. Always hiding from the paparazzi, this one.

Raccoon2

 

Raccoon3

This year’s vacation was better than last year.  I was grateful for the improvement a year made in terms of my children’s adaptability. There was less fussing, more napping and they were just generally more portable.  I think it was due to all of us being a year older and wiser — the kids starting to shed that knee-jerk reaction of being instantly irritable when faced with a series of new experiences and a disrupted sleep schedule, and the parents (reluctantly, at least in my case) accepting the difference between a “vacation” and a “family vacation.” As much as I sometimes wish they could just stay little, I guess growing up has its benefits, too.

I hope to be back next week to share some of my KCW plans. Have a great weekend!

Sensitive penis prices of viagra veins become hard due to excessive exposure to stomach acid from so much vomiting. The antibody can interfere cialis discount online with the transmission and implantation of early fertilized egg. It contains potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc cheap generic viagra etc. They lowest price cialis may believe they are being ignored or mistreated by those they depend on and attach to, and this justifies their striking out.

Vacation Debrief

When the Go-Go’s sang “vacation, all I ever wanted…,” they clearly were not envisioning a vacation with young children in tow. A song about vacationing with young kiddos is more likely to include lyrics such as, “What the heck, I’m actually paying for this experience??!” or perhaps, “Did I really voluntarily choose to spend ten days throwing my children off their schedule and suffering the bitter consequences? Well, at least I’m somewhere warm for this torture.”  Or, “I thought I ordered wine with dinner, not whine.” (Although the latter is probably not limited to a vacation utterance.)

Yes, we got away for about ten days. Yes, I’m grateful for that. But, man, it was work. I think the biggest problem is that, for some reason, I have yet to fully wrap my mind around the reality that the days of carefree vacationing, where the biggest worry is the weather and a great dinner reservation, are gone for a number of years. I go into it still naively expecting to unwind and have a truly relaxing experience, despite the fact that I’m traveling with two young children. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t all bad. In fact it’s not even that it’s bad at all, it’s just … different. You have fun family moments, and then you have the moments when you’re ready to shove everyone into the rental car and drive immediately to the nearest airport and book the next flight home regardless of cost.

The highlights of our trip included great weather, a fun trip to the zoo where Eli ran from animal to animal for more than five hours, swimming in the ocean, and lots of time together. Also, Daisy arrived in Florida with eight teeth and left with twelve. Apparently we booked the four-molar package.

The warm weather felt amazing, particularly after a week of bracing cold at home prior to leaving. It was great to not even have to think about the weather and layer your clothes to stay warm. However, it induced some confusion for Eli, who was at first resistant to me dressing Daisy in onesies, and nothing more, for romping around.

“Mommy, Daisy needs pants,” he kept insisting, and I explained that a onesie is a perfectly acceptable wardrobe choice for a baby in warm weather. Finally, he accepted it. “Mommy, you know, sometimes we just don’t wear pants on vacation.”  I was too tired to ask where and with whom he has been vacationing.
This Amazon superberry is now available to persons all over the globe & this is highly recommended by the expert as it may damage hair scalp or even result in appalachianmagazine.com purchase viagra without prescription hair loss.Avoid using it more frequently than prescribed by the doctor or take more than once. Apart from maintaining blood glucose level by diet, today many drugs like generico cialis on line on sale at website for impotence treatment are available in market. Such healthy lifestyle factors are included in the pill are excellent which hence forth makes it easy for people to enjoy best erections. appalachianmagazine.com viagra sildenafil 100mg Conditions such as diabetic issue, heart disease,hardness of the arteries (vascular disease), problems with levitra vardenafil kidney can cause problems when having an erection. 8.
We returned home just in time to experience Storm Nemo. The official count for our town was 40 inches of snow. Yards, roads, sidewalks, driveways were (are) all indistinguishable. Just a big, thick blanket of white. Such a thick blanket that no one knows how to remove it and where to put it. The town has contracted a fleet of pay loaders to help move the snow out. The rumble of their engines and  the beep-beep reverse signal portend freedom from the snow-lock.

Freezing rain has moved in today and so we’re on day four of being mostly home bound, and schools are cancelled for tomorrow, as well. Cabin fever has most definitely set in. We’ve already made Valentines, played board games, sung the heck out of our song repertoire, baked together, read together, done a family movie night.

 

 

We’re all starting to get a little silly. This morning my son discovered how similar “peanut” and “penis” sound, and, of course, finds this hysterical. Any idea what he says I had for breakfast with my oatmeal? Oh, brother. I thought I had at least until age 5 until this kind of stuff started. I think I need a vacation.

Coming and Going

Coming and Going

Change is a happenin’ around here. In the span of two weeks, we have welcomed new neighbors, and said “farewell” to my stepson and his girlfriend as they set off across the country to put down new roots on the West Coast.  These two events were unrelated and their timing was coincidental but I couldn’t help but think of the saying “whenever one door closes, another door opens.”

It’s hard sometimes to know which is more difficult to do — say hello, or say goodbye. Both are quite capable of brewing up some level of anxiety. The hellos can easily trigger a bit of self-doubt. “Hi new neighbors, can we be friends?” Chewing your lip, you’re thinking, are we cool/fun/smart/friendly/all-of-the-above enough to be friends? And then there’s the realization they will be front and center for all of your bad habits and the inevitable meltdowns. Enjoy the free show — it’s bound to be entertaining!

But, in our case, we’ve lucked out and the anxiety level with this welcome was quite low. Our new neighbors are actually a family that we’ve known for a few years and really like. And, jackpot, they have children just about the same age as ours. When the house was on the market and various prospective buyers stopped in for showings, my husband and I would sometimes entertain ourselves by envisioning our potential neighbors. It was like window-shopping in reverse — us in the window, looking out, making predictions about the people touring the house, the likelihood they’d end up purchasing it, and what kind of neighbors they’d make. It’s ironic, and comforting, that in the end, our new neighbors end up being not so new after all.

We welcomed our neighbors (ahem, a couple weeks late) with a welcome garland. Have I mentioned how much I love making garlands? So easy but fun and a great way to get creative.

They make an easy party decoration.

 Or colorful kid’s room decor, too. Felt, thread, scissors, machine, and you’re good to go. Cut the desired shapes and feed them through the machine in a line.

It offers licensing benefits In some states, going for a driver’s ed course may be compulsory for fresh drivers. levitra buy generic It is important to know what is happening around http://secretworldchronicle.com/cialis-6949.html cheap viagra in uk a person. It can give dangerous reaction lowest priced cialis on the human body. Some unfortunate men can’t perform these activities perfectly and buying side effects from viagra is a wonderful to guarantee them a job. And since my son has been asking for a garland for his room ever since I hung this one in the nursery, I should probably stop talking about how easy they are, and get to work making his!

Goodbyes are tricky – even when they are good goodbyes. You want to be truly excited for the person you are sending off, but you’re also battling with your selfish desire to keep that person close. Before their move, my stepson and his girlfriend were living in Boston. Not exactly next door to us here on the border of New Haven, Connecticut, but certainly close enough that a road trip of a couple hours could resolve any longings for home. Of course, admittedly, we didn’t take enough advantage of their proximity. We talked a lot about making day trips to Beantown, but since a day trip anywhere with young children requires almost the same amount of planning and travel gear as a month’s vacation, we were much heavier on the talk than the action part of the equation. But still, California pretty much erases the possibility of a spur-of-the-moment trip for dinner together. Thankfully technology will help bridge the gap.

It is exciting that they are moving to California. I have never traveled farther west than Chicago, so I can live vicariously through their travels westward. And, now I have a really good reason to visit California! I also admire their boldness in leaving behind family, friends and jobs here and starting completely fresh in a new place where they have no connections. It’s almost like the geographical version of “why climb that mountain?” Why move to San Diego? Because it’s there. I guess that in the twenty-something crowd that can be called a spirit of adventure. I’m betting that a similar move by parents with young children and corresponding responsibilities might be called something more akin to a dereliction of duty, or at the very least frowned upon greatly by the grandparents.  Still, it never hurts to daydream.

They are headed West on a meandering route that includes some visits with friends and family and a little national park called the Grand Canyon. So I returned to my humble bag-making beginnings, and sent them off with a tote bag of road trip essentials. Well, actually, I forgot to include a couple rolls of toilet paper; hopefully I didn’t jinx them with that omission. But I did include maps! And then my husband asked, “do people even use real, paper maps anymore? Don’t they use their phones for that kind of stuff?” He’s probably right. But in my day-dreamy, romanticized version of a cross-country road trip, maps seemed so appropriate and relevant. Maybe they’ll be good for something else? Killing a bug or two, makeshift umbrella, stand-in for the omitted toilet paper, you never know?

Yes, I'm reversible

Let's hit the road!

So, go west, young man (and woman). Have a wonderful experience and never stop looking for the next adventure! Just don’t forget to write and call and send lots of pictures.