talking to baby sister

making

I've been on a sewing kick. Rudy and I made new place mats this week. He drew with fabric crayons on canvas and after setting them (by ironing over paper) I sewed the edges. SO easy and it makes for such a happy family table. We didn't forget that baby sister will need one in about 7-8 months!


Becca told me about a great book called Bend the Rules Sewing. It's been inspiring to read and have someone say "Here are sewing basics and here's a simple pattern sketched out and now use it as much or as little as you want". Very freeing. I made the painting smock (from a pattern in the book) for Rudy (below) as he has been wanting to paint every day. I have to say he picked out the lady bug fabric and I took a breath and just went with it, although I did add the striped pocket!

Maine & Manor

I was really happy to finally launch my etsy shop this past week. The shop is called Maine & Manor, named after my two favorite places in the world. Here's a teaser of a few of my designs.
Writing of my business makes me think of Triona's business Lovely Lazy which has been really taking off. You can find her at the Real Food Festival in London, May 8-10. I know that Mum, Tri and Becca spent hours this past weekend making about 120 bags of granola and 120 of meusli!

Easter Sunday

Hello and Happy Easter. We had a beautiful, but chilly Easter here in Chicago. We all threw off our coats to take these pics and quickly ran inside afterwards! Rudy is wearing his $150 designer linen outfit that I got (tags still on) at a church rummage sale for $4. I bought it when he was 3 months old and have been waiting for the summer when it would fit him. It's not all I've been doing with my time, I assure you! As for me, I barely fit into anything I own so I'm scraping the bottom of the barrel. I just can't bring myself to buy maternity clothes when I've only got about 8 weeks to go!




note: the daffodils are FINALLY blooming!!!

warm-cold

We don't have many photos of our grandparents weekend in St. Louis, but here are a couple of Rudy with his grandmothers. We spent a fabulous day at the zoo where we rode on the miniature train the whole way around the zoo twice! We also went on the carousel and saw the seals being fed. Rudy has finally really figured out who's who of his grandparents and it's just so lovely to see him grow in his love and appreciation of them.


It was so balmy in St. Louis that both John and I forgot to bring our winter coats home with us as they were stuck in the coat closet the whole time we were there. When we got home, however, we really did need them. This is hopefully the final snowman of the year built just last weekend!

Rudy and Mama having a 'picnic' with R's picnic basket from Big Poppy and B. Note: Mama is now 7 months along and getting bigger every day. Little girl is kicking like crazy as I write!

On Sunday Rudy woke up from his nap and wanted to read the 'newspaper', which is his paper with all the different Thomas the Train characters on it (it has been repeatedly taped to hold it together). He probably sat in his chair at his easel in complete concentration and silence for about 10 minutes (a lifetime in toddler time)! This morning he told me he had been dreaming about diesel trains.