Yes, I Photoshop. . .

Warning: This image has been photoshopped. Everyone was upset when a photoshopped Kelly Clarkson appeared on the cover of Self magazine, so I'll be completely honest upfront. . . I photoshop. I photoshop all the time. The day was beautiful, my butt is not. So I photoshop. I really should have just worn my spanx that day, but c'mon! I was out walking! and we stopped to play for a bit. . .

Besides the obvious corrections, I've also been playing with Pioneer Woman's actions. . . Here I used "soft & faded" from set 1.

But thanks, Analeis, I don't have near enough photos of Lucy and I together. I love this one, or, the one with the new butt at least!

baby, baby. . . quilt, quilt

This little white quilt with pink and orange is for Baby Layla. . . her family just moved back so we're neighbors again. They have two little boys that Lucy adores (and doesn't hit!) so we're glad to have them nearby.

Someone I WISH was nearby but isn't is my sister and her family. This quilt is for my new little nephew Cody. . . he's the fourth little boy in the fam and was almost named "Bear" so I used my little bear design as an applique to represent the little quartet of brothers.

While making this, I kept thinking of the old Hudson Baby wool blanket we had growing up, so beautiful and simple and striking. I think I'll be using this idea more and experimenting with different colors. With a big feild of white or cream, you could really throw any combo of colored stripes in there and it would look good!

little red riding hood

(The pic above shows Lucy holding up the costume parade at preschool while she stops to admire herself in the mirror. . .)

I used one of her little summer dresses for the pattern but added the pockets just for fun. I thought it needed something. . . I was having a little Project Runway moment.I followed these instructions for making her little cloak, but smaller of course. I found trim at a little shop here in Salt Lake called The Lace Place which specializes ribbons, bows and lace.

And for some inexplicable reason, when I went to photograph the dress this morning, there was birdseed in the pocket. Maybe our Little Red Riding Hood has actually been out in the woods. . .

I almost forgot to name this post. . .

Lucy's little pre-school went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch the other day. She was excited because, well, she's excitable. . . she knew where we were going had something to do with her buddy, Aidan, and pumpkins so she was sold. I was excited because, well, photo-op! So I had her all dudded up and cute and my entire camera bag in tow and we went to the pumpkin patch.

There were a million things to look at and do, so the kids were in heaven. The camera toting moms on the other hand, were frustrated and disappointed. We couldn't pin the kids down long enough even to auto focus. . . they kept moving into direct sunlight or chasing the cat or wandering into the motion-sensored cackling animatronics portion of the pumpkin patch instead of the haybale/morning shade/bumpy pumpkin backdrop we'd been dreaming of (I wasn't the only one who came prepared for the ideal photo shoot. I saw at least 4 other Canon Rebels. . .)

Here's the only good pic I got. . . It's Lucy and Aidan in a good moment. Haybale (check!), Morning Sun (check!), Bumpy Pumpkins (check!), freakin' cute smiles (check!), Teepee in the background (check. . . hey why is there a teepee at a pumpkin patch anyway? And even with a short depth of field, I can totally tell the rest of the stuff in the background is just the non-autumn seasonal stuff they had to cram behind the teepee to make room for all the pumpkins.) Oh, well.

So, I couldn't let this cute, fall outfit and me having the camera out of the house moment go to waste and we went down to Sugar House Park to do one of Lucy's favorite things in the world. Throw rocks in the river.

I got my ideal photo shoot afterall. . .

Yes, there is cherry sucker on her face in that one pic, evidence of the pumpkin patch. No, there was not even a possibility she was going to look at the camera, she was way to focused on the rocks and the river. And, Yes, that last one really is blurry but I like it so I included it anyway.

it worked!

I planted a garden. . . and it grew! I owe it all to one friend who mapped out where to put what, two friends who helped me dig and plant, a toddler who likes mud, dirt, water and shovels, and a very rainy June. (I think I need a punctuation refresher. . . I use ellipses way too much and I just had like a billion awkward commas in that sentence.)

Hoping all these tomatoes can eek just a little more heat out of the low October sun.

Ok, the big one is a ringer, but all the others are legit.

Things don't always go as planned. . .

Thought I'd confess to a couple failed projects. . .

First of all, I have this darling Japanese craft book which has been translated into English. There are drool marks on most of the pages. The projects are darling, the instructions are charming.

I've been meaning to try a bunch of the patterns, but settled on this one. . . tiny stuffed bears for babies to gum and teethe on. I thought, PERFECT! I have the most fruitful bunch of friends and family imaginable and I always need baby gifts. . . Here is the picture from the book.

So cute, right? Here are the two I made:

Not so cute. . . it's really hard to work this small! These little guys are only about 4 inches tall. I did the blue one first and then tried the brown one scaled up to see if it was any easier. Nope. Horrible. I won't be giving these to anyone, its too embarrassing. I think I probably should have used stretch terrycloth, but it didn't specify. I may try again in the future after the pain of this failure has faded.

Project Failed.

Then, there was this darling t-shirt idea in Family Fun Magazine. Get a solid color t-shirt, sketch your design in chalk and then do the final with a bleach pen. . . let sit for a bit and then wash. Sounds easy, right?

I thought this would be a great project to do with my nephews when I was visiting this summer. I pictured me sitting down one on one with each, they'd dictate ideas that I would easily draw in chalk and they could trace with the bleach pen. The kids would be really proud and excited about the t-shirts they made and it would be a fun Auntie Jul memory. Well, that was the plan.

It started going wrong in our brainstorming session. . . all three were coming up with a million ideas all at once.

Jake (8) decided he wanted two specific clone troopers in the middle of hand-to-hand combat.

Jesse (6) wanted a spider. . . shooting a bow and arrow at a target.

Sammy (3) wanted a dog lying on the ground dying because he'd just eaten a poisoned stick.

So Auntie Jul had to disappoint her eager nephews and break the news that she's not THAT good. Jake got a clone trooper mask. Jesse got a tank. Sammy got a monkey. And the whole let-the-kids-trace-the-outline-with-the-bleach-pen idea turned out to be very stressful. I know, I know, it seems obvious. Kids and bleach don't go together. They shouldn't even be in the same room. It was kind of a mess.

I didn't get pictures of the boys t-shirts. But here is the one I did for Lucy.

I thought it was cute. . . I was going for a kind of tattered tattoo look. When hubby got home, he said, "Why the Southwest Airlines logo?"

Project Failed.

The Exquisite Corpse

Who knew the Library of Congress was so hip? They're everywhere these days: starring in Dan Brown's new The Lost Symbol, uploading amazing, copyright-free images on Flickr for graphic designers and history buffs everywhere, and now hosting this awesome reading adventure. . .

Our "Exquisite Corpse Adventure" works this way: Jon Scieszka, the National
Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode. . . He has passed it on to a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who must eventually bring the story to an end. Every two weeks, there will be a new episode and a new
illustration. The story will conclude a year from now. -- from Read.gov

The Library of Congress obviously has dusted off it's old, tattered leather covers and is showing its younger, more colorful content!

Read the first episode here. . .

Find educational links and ideas to go along with it here. . .