Portabellopixie

Birthday Cookout

I have a busy week ahead of me, but it is the best kind of busy I know.  I am in full design/art mode as I have a week-ish to finish up a collection if I want to debut something at Fall Market.  And I'd like to.. Attending market is sort of like the prom of the fabric world.  I've attended lots of times, but if I don't have a new collection to show, I sort of feel like I'm going stag.  And I want a date for fall!  I have a dress picked out and everything, so..

I wanted to share pictures from a quick trip we took up to the mountains a week or two ago.  It was Ambers birthday, and as tradition seems to be dictating, we snuck on up to Pattee Canyon for a cookout.  Pattee Canyon.. might be my favorite place on earth.  This is where I feel in love with my husband, learned to drive my jeep (for what it was made to do) and went folfing for the first time.  I have spent so many hours in this canyon, and I never grow tired of it.  

Anyway, tin foil dinners were the menu for the night!  I started with some leftover spanish rice..

Then added a hamburger patty-

Then piled on veggies from the farmers market - (hallulah for fresh garden carrots!)

I assembled the whole thing inside a tupperwear container which made wrapping it up a sinch.

I also took a tin foil container from the dollar store and filled it with broccoli, onion, salt & pepper and then threw some cheese curds on top.  I added a little bit of chicken stock to the bottom and hoped for the best, but not having any idea what to expect.  (It totally worked, see the pictures at the bottom..)

Then, head on out to the mountains of your choice.  If you happen be celebrating a birthday and have orange pants with pink cowgirl boots, extra points for you!

 

Yes, summer is treating us well so far.  A few of my Instagrams of late..

xo

Sandi

Summer Quilts

Anyone else having problems uploading photos to typepad?  I have been trying to post for the last 5ish days, and my photos wouldn't load.  I tried clearing cookies and caches, but no luck in firefox.  Finally was able to upload using Safari, not sure why the technical issue through Firefox though.  Suggestions?

OK, on to fun stuff!

I recently emptied out my entire scrap bucket, color sorted the smallest pieces and set them aside for my first summer quilt.  I want to make quilts all summer.. and then finish binding them as the first cool breezes roll in this fall.  Then, when winter rolls around, we can wrap up in quilts that hold the memories of summer with them.

This one is going to be a crazy quilt.  Not even sure if there is a method to this madness, I'm pretty much just sewing random bits together whenever I have a spare few minutes.

It has really been a walk down memory lane.  Some of these fabrics are long out of print, they are fabrics that I bought and sewed with before I started designing my own.  It's been really interesting to look at my stash, remember what I made with that fabric, hold it in my hand and weave it into a new project.

Fabric takes ahold of something inside of me.. the prints and colors imprint themselves with a memory.  Similar to how smells bring back memories, fabric does the same thing for me.  I'm pretty sure that is why I got into designing fabric.  I just love it.  Folding, ironing, sewing - just looking at it.  Each piece of fabric has potential and holds a little memory of something, and combining them all into a quilt to wrap up in is sort of like creating a memory book without words.

I think that is also why vintage quilts and items draw me in so much.  They've already lived and taken ahold of memories, but we don't know what those stories are.  We just get to add our own to the history.

So many of these prints are the tiny remainders of scraps I had from sewing my kids clothing when they were much smaller.  Probably why this is so sentimental to me already.

Dustin brought me flowers..  good man that one.  :)

And yeah.. the walls of my sunroom sewing nook are purple.  Nope, I don't love it.  But I'm making do.  :

Chop Chop - Cooking with Kids

Before I am reported to CPS, let me say, this was highly supervised, after a thorough lecture about knife safety.  And they went slow...  A little bit about knife safety-use a SHARP knife.  It does the job of actually cutting the food and doesn't bounce away, causing injury. 

OK, bases covered.  Lets talk dinner!

I am a firm believer in food.  Its kind of necessary anyhow, so no biggie.  I learned the hard way to have a healthy respect for food though and I would like to teach my kids from the start about healthy eating and being physically fit.  Enjoying food isn't bad.. I think our society tends to look at "eating" as bad.  This is a stereotype, for sure - but the vibe is definitely there.  I do think its getting a bit better, more healthy body role models popping up (thank you Jennifer Lawrence, you are my hero.) 

I got off on a tangent there.  So, food=good.  Respect for food=necessary.

Part of having a healthy respect for food is learning how to cook.  Preparing food as a family brings everyone together.  Put on some good music and you have a really great night ahead of you.  And kids are waaay more likely to eat a salad full of veggies that they chopped than a salad that is just placed in front of them.  (Although in the desire to keep it real here, I found out after the fact that Eliza didn't eat any of this salad during dinner.  Not sure how that slipped by yet..)

Why are we teaching them to chop with knives bigger than their heads?  Eliza went to a Montessori preschool and they taught families to use real tools.  If your son wants to play hammer and nails, give him a hammer and nails.  Its something we have tried to incorporate wherever possible.  And it makes sense-we are trying to raise children to live, not to pretend.

So our kids have dinner duty, and dishes duty.  Its pretty awesome.. and for the most part, at the ages of 6 & 8, I can safely say that our kids have developed pretty good food acceptance at the dinner table.  Of course we serve things they "don't want."  But if they want to EAT, then that is what they get.  We don't prepare kid meals and adult meals.  End of story, moving on. 

What healthy eating rituals do you incorporate into your family life?  I'm looking for new things to try.

Getting Garden Started

I don't think I have mentioned it here yet..  ?  We are living with family right now while we search for "the right place."  Our last home was crumbling beneath our feet and begging thousands upon thousands of dollars of repairs that were not being seen to by the owners, so we hit the road, Jack.  It was sad, really.  We loved the space, but the house is what you live in and if you don't own it, there is little you can do if it is falling apart.

Moving on.  We are living with gracious family whilst we search for a new home.  (Anyone in Missoula have a house to rent for the next few years?  Lemme know.) 

I had hoped upon hope that we would be in our own place come spring, so that we could have a garden.  When I realized it probably wasn't going to happen in time to plant a full on plot in our own space, I withdrew into a bit of self-pity-green-thumb-depression.  I was feeling mighty sorry for myself.  Last year, I had a mini movement going on in my yard.  We supplied ourselves with eggs, herbs and veggies..  all spring, summer and fall.  It was bliss.  We journaled the whole thing in a family watercolor book. 

The idea that I couldn't carry it on this year was heartbreaking to me.  And the kids..  When we moved there were several nights that Ethan would cry himself to sleep on my shoulder over the loss of his chickens.  (All chickens were found happy new homes, and we get to visit our favorites.  :)  It was heartbreaking to watch.  I felt horrible.. even though we knew leaving that house was the right choice.

So when spring finally rolled around and the green stuff started sprouting out of the ground.. instead of jumping for joy, I found myself feeling sad.  "Poor me.."

The kids started talking about "our garden" for the year because it has just become.. normal to them.  Of course you have a garden in the summer, why wouldn't you?  I started panicking with mom guilt.  I knew we wouldn't be moving in time to prepare a garden, and my in-laws weren't up for adding a garden plot to the yard. 

Weeks rolled on and I finally realized I was only making myself miserable.  I was able to pull myself out of the garden pity party and look at different options.  We decided to go with containers, which we already had anyway.  We stopped at my moms house and dug up sections of her herb garden, and so with containers already in hand and free plants, we have a nice little herb garden going at no cost.  We have added to it with some tomotoes and lettuce and a few other plants, I'll share pictures when it fills in a bit.

When I really started thinking about it all, I'm quite happy with our pint sized garden now.  My kids cant swim or ride a bike.  All the summers in the past where we would have done that were consumed with big gardens and yard work.  It was a blast, but this summer will be filled with bike rides to the park and trips to the pool.

We will still journal the whole thing and honestly, we just might have a fuller summer.

xo

Sandi