Weekly Rewind
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| Kids enjoying a tour of the brand new post-Katrina fire station. |
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| After lunch at the Blowfly Inn. |
With the busyness of relocating to California for the summer I am behind with updating the blog by several weeks! The weekend before we left Mississippi we had a brief visit from my good friend Joy and her daughter Sofia. Joy and I met in DC when Grayden and Sofia were just a few weeks old and quickly bonded through our experiences as first time moms. Joy relocated to Texas around the kids' first birthdays but we've stayed in close touch and have seen each other a lot over the last three years. She has already been to Mississppi to visit three times this past year! She is expecting baby number two in September and I think it will be my turn to visit her in the fall.
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| Picking apples off Grandma's tree. |
The weekend Joy visited, Audrey was very fussy, unusual considering her normal mellow personality. The day before we left she was still cranky, crying a lot and generally miserable. I was getting really nervous about the five hour plane ride and thought maybe she had another ear infection. Late in the day Grayden complained that his mouth hurt, which I dismissed as a canker sore or perhaps he had bit his tongue. We had too wake up at 4am to catch our flight and upon waking Grayden noticed he had blisters on his hands. It all started to add up and I realized the kids probably had
hand, foot and mouth diseases. Knowing that it is a bothersome but relatively benign illness we boarded the plane and made it to Los Angeles without any major incidents. Over the next few days Grayden could barely eat due to a huge blister on the tip of his tongue that finally healed up in time for our trip to Hawaii. Good news since he was really looking forward to eating tons of pineapple.
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| Audrey getting to know Spunky. |
Once we arrived in California we enjoyed seeing family and friends for a few days while we settled in at my parents' house. The kids and I have the luxury of having the whole house to ourselves while Mom and Dad have moved out to the guest house for the duration of our stay. It is nice for all of us to have a little extra space, though it would be even nicer if I was staying in the guest house and the kids were here with my parents (hah!).
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Class of 1990 with Coach.
Can't believe it has been 21 years since we graduated! |
One of the fun reunions I had upon our arrival was a dinner set up by an alumna of the Nordhoff High School cross country team as a surprise for our retired coach, Ken Reeves. It was nice to see some old friends and also chat with Coach and reminisce about my running days. It has almost motivated me to try and get back into running shape (almost).
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| Grayden at the reconstructed Libbey Bowl. |
After a week in Ojai we packed up our bags again for our long awaited trip to Hawaii to meet up with Joe on the Big Island. My parents, sisters and their spouses joined us for the adventure to make it a true "family reunion." Details to follow in my next post.
The Project
- Fabric: Top: 2 yards cotton Swiss dot, $4 ; Shorts: 1 yard cotton pique, $7
- Pattern: Top: McCall's 6080 $1; Shorts: McCall's 5391$1
- Notions: zipper, $1; skirt hooks, Mom's stash
- Time to complete: Top, about 4 hours; Shorts about 4 hours
- Total cost: $14
Finding time to sew with all the chaos of travel was hard. The good thing is my mom has a fully stocked sewing room with multiple sewing machines and every gadget you can imagine. I was able to put in some late night sessions once we arrived in Ojai and I made two items for our Hawaii trip, a tunic to use as a bathing suit cover-up and a pair of basic black shorts. The tunic went together without any major difficulties once I wrapped my brain around the construction behind the collar band and facing. I had picked up four yards of this fabric for $1.99 yard in Gulfport with the idea of making a beach cover-up to replace a ratty shirt I had been using for the past year or so. I figured I'd use the extra fabric to make a dress for Audrey or maybe a blouse for me. I used view A which is the shorter version of the pattern but in hind sight should have made view B to give me a little more coverage on my legs. It is a comfy easy pull over that will surely get a lost of use.
After the ease of constructing the tunic the shorts proved to be more challenging. The pattern claims to be easy and in reality it is, I just kept messing up the zipper and never did get it right! Instead of a fully constructed zipper fly like I made on my last two pants projects, this pattern called for a "mock-fly." On my first attempt I put the zipper in backwards and on the second I didn't align the zipper properly. The result is the zipper shows on the front instead of being covered by a small flap of fabric. It also has about a half-inch gap between the zipper and waist band so there is a lovely view of my glowing white stomach. Neither of these things is a problem as long as my shirt is long enough to cover the front. I made view A, lengthening the inseam by a few inches. Surprisingly the final inseam is only 4.5 inches so I can't imagine how tiny they would have been if I did not lengthen them! I like the cut of the shorts and may try to make them again knowing now how to install the zipper correctly.
Finding time to sew with all the chaos of travel was hard. The good thing is my mom has a fully stocked sewing room with multiple sewing machines and every gadget you can imagine. I was able to put in some late night sessions once we arrived in Ojai and I made two items for our Hawaii trip, a tunic to use as a bathing suit cover-up and a pair of basic black shorts. The tunic went together without any major difficulties once I wrapped my brain around the construction behind the collar band and facing. I had picked up four yards of this fabric for $1.99 yard in Gulfport with the idea of making a beach cover-up to replace a ratty shirt I had been using for the past year or so. I figured I'd use the extra fabric to make a dress for Audrey or maybe a blouse for me. I used view A which is the shorter version of the pattern but in hind sight should have made view B to give me a little more coverage on my legs. It is a comfy easy pull over that will surely get a lost of use.
After the ease of constructing the tunic the shorts proved to be more challenging. The pattern claims to be easy and in reality it is, I just kept messing up the zipper and never did get it right! Instead of a fully constructed zipper fly like I made on my last two pants projects, this pattern called for a "mock-fly." On my first attempt I put the zipper in backwards and on the second I didn't align the zipper properly. The result is the zipper shows on the front instead of being covered by a small flap of fabric. It also has about a half-inch gap between the zipper and waist band so there is a lovely view of my glowing white stomach. Neither of these things is a problem as long as my shirt is long enough to cover the front. I made view A, lengthening the inseam by a few inches. Surprisingly the final inseam is only 4.5 inches so I can't imagine how tiny they would have been if I did not lengthen them! I like the cut of the shorts and may try to make them again knowing now how to install the zipper correctly.
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