summer sewing: sundress

The babe *needed* one more sundress before we take off for our Family trip to Hawaii, and I cam across this fabric, and wanted to find a use for my elastic thread, and the stars aligned, and voila a sweet bohemian sundress for N. I love the way the vintage velvet ribbons look on her shoulders, they're a bit dramatic, but c'mon, who's more dramatic than a two year old?

I've been sewing like crazy this spring- and I have more stuff to finish up or photograph, and I'm trying to talk myself out of making a reversible bucket hat for the girl, I really want to- but I have stuff for myself to finish up prior to our trip, and I guess I'd better do it soon because it's time to start packing the bags, and I'm not packing thread!

Garden 2011

my helper- after a quick change and milk break, looking dejected despite her  bribe snack of "shoupla choups" a.k.a chocolate chips

Well, the garden is mostly in the ground, we finally decided that waiting for a dry spell is not the way to get the garden in this year, so we scraped aside the layer of algae (seriously) and stuck some plants into the mud,  which is good- I think- I'm glad they're in there and not in my house , but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about them. I think they'll do fine- they'll toughen up and learn to push through the mud and they certainly won't be wanting for moisture.

I was going to write more but I'm tired- that mud makes everything harder and it's hot here today- planting the garden with N was interesting as well- I love that I'm raising a child who will have no doubt where food comes from, but it makes it a bit harder to work when that child is traipsing all over the onions you just planted. As I type this it's raining outside- a fairly gentle rain, but still- we got it in just in time- hopefully things don't get washed away.

the Lilacs are here!

Finally- the harbinger of summer has come- and bloomed, everywhere you go around here the houses are filled with Lilacs this time of year, there's nothing quite like the smell of them, sweet and heady and fresh, and so fragrant. I love them, and we have quite a big hedge so I cut as much as I want- also, because they're so fragrant the cats leave them alone, they nibble on the green leaves- but leave the blooms alone, so they can actually sit in areas that the cats can reach! (does anyone else have cats that pick at flowers? is it just mine? Nelson will run through the house with a flower in his mouth like a demented tango dancer- ridiculous)

Anyhow, I've been wondering if the lilac obsession is a regional thing, something that only people in Manitoba go crazy for, some sort of regional bacchanal celebration that doesn't occur elsewhere. Maybe because we have such extreme seasons, we Manitobans tend to go a little nuts over flowers, almost all of us have flowers, in planters or beds, apartment balconies, wherever- it's like we have to make the most of it, and lilac season is the same- we all bring them in- anyone with access to lilacs has them in their house for sure. It's part of why I love Manitoba- one of the sensory memories that has always stuck with me, even when I lived elsewhere- the smell of Lilacs is nostalgia itself for me, bringing me back to my old house, and my mom- and I hope it's the same for my sweet girl.

Daffodils

These Daffodils were a complete surprise to me, I bought a variety pack of bulbs in the fall, and these little three headed monsters (each stalk has three flower heads) showed up this week, I had thought all the spring blooms were gone, but I've been gratefully proven wrong, and am utterly charmed by these sweet stripey flowers.

Rain again here today- I got a few seeds planted into the muddy mess that is my garden, the rest of the plants will need to wait until we can cultivate, we rototilled it not long ago- but then it rained a good four pounding inches on it- and it'll be like mud brick when it dries. Because I started so many plants from seed this year- I'm not too worried about waiting a little bit, I'll get the squash and peppers and tomatoes and eggplants etc. in the ground sometime, and they're still growing inside- so that's fine, but I am missing my early produce- the Swiss chard, and lettuce, and spring onions- those will be late this year, but I suppose that will have to be fine- a lesson in patience.

Gathering Aprons

N and ducky- hard at work.

Now that I've spoken out against mother daughter matching- I have to come clean and show the gathering aprons I made earlier this spring. They seem fantastically optimistic at this point because Spring 2011 in Manitoba has been more like November in Vancouver, and nothing has been happening in the mud bog vegetable garden, so these aprons got their first use yesterday- when we picked four(!) stalks of asparagus, and did a little more transplanting from the doomed rock garden.

N's apron has just the one big pocket in front, and mine has five pockets that snap down at the sides, and can open out to bring in more, I can put my scissors, and gloves, and seed packs, and hopefully a little produce in there and have both hands free for kid wrangling. I cut both aprons short so that they don't get in the way when we're working, and they're made out of tough washable canvas- a vintage print that used to be curtains somewhere, but my mother-in-law can't quite remember where (yay recycling!).