Suzannah has become interested in the American Girl dolls, especially since we saw the Kit Kittredge movie.  And, because she is Suzannah, wearer of dresses, she wants to wear the calico and feedsack dresses of the depression era.  Can love for certain kinds of fabric be genetic?  I remember long talks with M. about what colors of fabric we liked.  We liked very similar things when we’d go to antique shops.  We liked shabby stuff before it was chic to like shabby stuff.  We liked orange and robin’s egg blue.  So, after the movie, when Suzannah mentioned wanting about ‘100 dresses like Kit and her friends’ I had a real sense of continutity between us three generations of girls.  It’s all come together over fabric of all things. 

So, now I’m on the hunt for patterns to make Suzannah dresses like this.  It’s funny, I thouht it would be a simple task.  I’d find something on ebay or at one of the many cool online fabric shops I drool over.  But, nothing yet.  But I have the fabric all ready to go…she wanted the first one to be aqua…

…the last one on the right.  My personal faves are the two orange ones. 

If anyone knows how to get ahold of patterns for dresses like these…please let me know!  They don’t have to be authentically vintage.

Zannie asked her, “Can I have a hug?”

and she came right over, laid down and gave

her a hug.  Then, she just stayed there and it was

quiet for a long time.  It was so incredibly sweet and I

don’t think I’ll ever forget this moment.

Me, sometime last year making my famous pilaf.  This is more cleavage than I usually post, but I’m living dangerously lately!

This, from the ever-lovely Margie at Third Mom is inviting others to do a one word meme.  I edited it a bit to add in my four parents and I hope that was alright to do. So…here goes…

1. Where is your cell phone? Car
2. Your significant other? Snoring
3. Your hair? Auburn
4. Your mother? Gone
5. Your father? Stuck

4a.Other Mother? Hiding

5a. Other Father? Connected
6. Your favorite time of day? Night
7. Your dream last night? Cooking
8. Your favorite drink? Tea
9. Your dream goal? Acceptance
10. The room you’re in? Dining
11. Your ex? Mean
12. Your fear? Loss
13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Here
14. What you are not? Lazy
15. Your Favorite meal? Chez Panisse
16. One of your wish list items? Serger
17. The last thing you did? Clean
18. Where you grew up? California
19. What are you wearing? Jeans
20. Your TV is? Stupid
21. Your pets? Fish
22. Your computer? Inviting
23. Your life? Tapestry
24. Your mood? Keen

25. Missing someone? Horribly
26. Your car? Zippy
27. Something you’re not wearing? Tattoo
28. Favorite store? Oilily
29. Your summer? Smoky
30. Your favorite color? Green
31. When is the last time you laughed? Morning
32. When is the last time you cried? Morning
33. Your health? Robust
34. Your children? Heartwarming
35. Your future? Opportunities
36. Your beliefs? Strong
37. Young or old? Pffffft
38. Your image? Changing
39. Your appearance? Momish
40. Would you live your life over again knowing what you know? Yes

Giving credit where credit is due…the title of this post is lifted from Suzanne, over at Straight Down the Mountain, who waits for M. to come home from Kyrgyzstan.  Anyway, today was a marathon change from what used to be the Pink Room into the more mature, more 7 year-old and ready for second grade Suzannah room.

Purple with aqua. 

I made the quilt and pillows myself.  Above the bed is a little decoupage Flower Fairy thingy that I made.  Suzannah knows lots of flowers’ names thanks to the flower fairies.  Curtain from recent shopping trip to Target….

I stole from the bathroom the aqua beach glass cups.  I took food coloring and painted a white shade purple, then took out the ol’ glue gun and put on the daisies.  Ribbon may follow…not sure yet.

On Suzannah’s book shelf I found myself remembering when I bought the little porcelin sleeping baby girl in Ireland in 1999 when we decided to start trying to have a baby.  Suzannah was born 3 years later.  Next to it is one of my favorite pictures of the two of us, she is about 2 months old there.  Then there is what Suzannah believes to be the most beautiful Matryoshka doll evah.  We bought that in Bishkek or Moscow…memory fails me.  This picture represents a lot of how hard things have been in the waiting for us to be a family, and the joys of now being a mother to my daughters.  

Now here’s something you’ll really like…noodle sisters…

Isabel’s favorite food group is the Noodle group.  Suzannah is seen here offering noodles from her own soup and Isabel is refusing them.  This is a first.

I awaken from my beauty slumber to strange noises and then the papparazzi took my picture for their own personal gain.

The morning became more civilized after taking tea from my favorite mug

Isabel just isn’t her best self if she doesn’t get in her sunrise yoga time.  This is ‘downward puppy’

Isabel then decided to show you all her sign language skills.  Here she is with her favorite sign ‘more’

This is the completion of her saying ‘more’

“Where’s your head?”

“Where’s your nose?”

It was a very full morning indeed.

Moments after a particularly delicious cupcake

In Target, while coveting rainboots, Izzy is seen sipping steamed milk

“That tooth was special…”

“I’m glad it’s all over now”

 
<img src=”http:// ” alt=”najupicmo” />

I totally just invented this, but I’m excited.  Here’s the selling point…sooooooo much easier than NaMoBlahBlah… whatever that thingy is.  Anyway, the ideas is that July is for posting pictures.  Post one picture a day.  No text necessary!  Take a picture of your vacation, your breakfast, the sweater you’re knitting, your bathroom renovations, the progress your teeth whitening strips are making, your sunflowers in the garden, the plums you brought home from the farmers’ market,WHATEVER! A picture a day…it’s all we ask. 

I fully understand and appreciate that I could have and should have thought of this and promoted it beginning about two weeks ago, but better a tad late than never.  So…I’ll kick things off by posting pictures of our Kyrgyz picnic and get-together in San Diego. 

Lyudmilla with Izzy!

Judge from Tokmok

Izzy enjoying the teacups at Disneyland

So, tomorrow I’ll be back and see how many of you are doing this!

42 As a 1930s wife, I am Average Take the test!

I saw this on Shea’s blog and thought it was hysterical. I’m only average, but given the questions, I think it’s a good thing. I think you get taken down a peg if you:

Wear red nail polish (I do)
Wear your slip crooked (I don’t own one…)
Chat too much during bridge games
Don’t praise marriage enough to young women
Smoke in Bed (I’m assuming the literal translation here…)

Anyway…take the quiz!