Early Easter

I love this kind of interesting stuff. This is from an email forward (although I did correct one figure that snopes.com said was wrong).

Do you realize how early Easter is this year? As you may know, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Found out a couple of things you might be interested in! Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22) but that is pretty rare.

Here 's the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here's the facts:

1) The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2160. The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

2) The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285. The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

What Does It Mean...

What does it mean when you start looking up vintage 50's dress patterns, try talking your boys into learning the guitar, and your 2 year old can sing Johnny Cash duets with you?

It means your mother-in-law let you borrow the movie Walk The Line.

I love this movie! I play it not so much to watch but more for the music. And the dresses, I love the dresses that Reese Witherspoon wears in it. Oh, and Joaquin Phoenix doesn't exactly do a bad job either.

Sadie's Easter Dress

Here it is! Normally, I would only post this on my sewing blog ,but since I've talked of nothing else lately, I thought I would post here. I kept the stitches simple with cable stitches and wave stitches. I can't wait to start something new so I can use some different stitches. It's definitely not perfect, but considering it's was my first time smocking and I learned from a book, I'm pretty happy with it! Happy enough to let my daughter wear it on her first Easter, and if you know me you know that's a big deal :)



The blue dot is from the camera, not the dress.

Snow and Smocking

We have snow, lots and lots of it. It hasn't been too cold, though, so the boys have been spending plenty of time outside. The best part? The three older boys can completely get themselves ready. I thought that day would never come. Jonah usually stays in with me because he refuses to put snowpants on. And boots. And mittens. And a hat. He is willing to wear a jacket though. Those two years olds, they are always willing to meet you half way.

The reason my blog has sat idle since Saturday? Smocking. I LOVE it. I practiced putting fabric through my pleater several times. The instructions clearly state that if you mess up do NOT try and turn the knob backwards because needles will break. Instead you have to continue putting all the fabric through. Still, when I messed up at first I could not stop myself from turning the knob backwards. It was just like an instinct. A needle did break. So I learned how to both replace needles and ignore my brain when it screams "you made a mistake! Back up! Back up!"

Anyway, the pleating is only the first part. The smocking is the fun part! I'm working on Sadie's Easter dress. Time just flies when I am working on it, I have put several hours in every day. I will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow. I now know why they call it heirloom sewing. When you put this much time into making something, they better cherish it and pass it on. Or else.

Two Special Things About Today...

Sadie is nine months today! I can't really think of anything she can do this month that she couldn't do last month already. She is learning how to annoy Jonah by getting into his stuff when he is trying to play on the floor. What goes around comes around is all I can say.

I love this little jean skirt on her.


The other special thing about today is the package that was delivered. My pleater! For those who don't know, "smocking" is essentially embroidering on gathered fabric. You see it mostly on little girl's dresses, Christening gowns and other fancy baby clothes. This pleater will gather fabric so it is ready to be smocked. The book I ordered along with it seems to have some clear instructions and good illustrations. The video that came with it was very helpful too. The other thing is a magnetic rod for winding the fabric on and feeding it into the machine. It's also the perfect size and shape to be a magic wand (a la Harry Potter).

Happy Valentine's Day!

I made this dress especially for today so, of course, we needed lots of pictures!







And here are some more Valentine sweeties with their sweets.

Fox Super Bowl 2008 Declaration of Independence

This was my favorite part of the Super Bowl. Gotta love YouTube.

Overheard

Jeremiah: O X...OX.

Sammy: Is that like when you make a mess? You have an oxcident?

Lacing Cards

I found another cool art book the other day. One of the crafts in it was lacing cards. They are really easy and very non-messy. Just find some cardboard, draw a simple picture, punch holes along the pictures (we used a knitting needle), use yarn to lace the picture. Wrap some tape around one end of the yarn to make a lace. True to their nature, the boys enjoyed punching the holes more than anything.

We're Back...

and you probably didn't even realize we were gone! We made a quick trip up to the U.P (AKA land of the 10 foot snowbanks). My dad works for "The Block" and gets to do 5 tax preparations for $20 and we were one of the lucky 5. It was fun to to watch the Super Bowl with my family too. We stopped and saw Jeremiah's mom on the way home.

Most of our tax return will go in savings but we will spend a little, we're not that boring. I'm thinking about buying a pleater machine for smocking. I'm not sure though. I would really love to see one and try one out first but I don't know anybody with one.

It only took a week, but the new glass was finally installed in our window today. You know the old "Broken Window Parable"? We don't buy it.


Last but not least I wanted to share this picture of my little superhero.

Art

Sometimes you just have to skip the fancy projects and do some good old fashioned -washable- painting. Yeah okay, I didn't get around to planning anything else. The boys didn't care, they love to paint.







I love this picture Elijah painted of a car on a bridge.