Hey wait! I'm not too late, right??

A handsome little pea-pod. Hey come on! It's gender neutral! (can you believe how much they look alike??

Madame Josefa.


Sir Allan with the fam...

(I know, I know...also a repeat. I just didn't want to worry about it this year!) Thoroughly Modern Miriam. "If you've got it, you've got it."


And obviously I don't got it.


Caramel apples to her heart's content.

The three boy cousins. (All born within two months). Gabriel (Cory's--who is normally an incredibly happy boy), Merritt and Owen (my bro Merritt's)

Giving it a whirl...

Ok, so when my sister told me that they were having a design contest over at Shabby Apple, I thought it would be fun. And it was! Ever since I was a little girl I've liked to draw pretty girls in pretty dresses. So here's my Dress design for Shabby Apple dresses:
And here are the specs: First of all, I wish I knew what to call the ruffle the comes down either side of the bodice--for lack of better name, I'll call it the PollyAnna ruffle. So anyway, the bodice, PollyAnna ruffle, the waist, the skirt, it's all in a uniform color. Because of the interest up top, I think one color makes it more cohesive. The bodice is drapey like a tucked-in-shirt would be, and the sleeves are half-circle sleeves that give them a lovely flowy look. The PollyAnna ruffle that goes down the front of either side of the bust and then around the back is meant to fall over the sleeves, giving them a tiered look. There's a lace applique (in white or perhaps a lighter hue of the overall color) with buttons, on a circular boatneck. The waist begins slightly higher than the natural waistline, and continues down to the abdomen arc (about 3 inches below the waist). It's subtly ruched (not too much!) and again has a lace applique with buttons on the waist. The buttons look dark in my drawing, but I've been imagining small pearly ones. It would definitely have a side zipper.

As far as colors go, I imagined it in a nice soft buttery yellow because that's one of my favorite colors. The design kind of lends itself to those soft vintage colors, so I think it would be stunning in a pale pink and slate gray. But I also think that bolder colors like blue and purple and even turquoise would make it especially fresh and youthful.

A word on fabric. This dress would be beautiful in silk of course, but a good silk/cotton blend would be lovely, and even a light drapey cotton by itself would be okay I think. but it has to be good and drapey.

My inspiration was PollyAnna herself. Josie has been watching it a lot lately, and the other day I noticed the dress she arrives to Harrington in. Aunt Polly says "WHERE in the WORLD did you get that dress?!" To which PollyAnna innocently replies "It came in the missionary barrels." Aunt Polly does have a point in that it's not especially stunning, BUT I saw the potential in that ruffle! Love it!

So that's it. I would love to make this dress! I haven't seen anything like it, which would make it even funner to wear because it feels special and unique, yet in a flattering classic style.

Finding the Chance

I wanted to give a shout out to my bro Cory, who just wrote a book!!! Woohoo! Isn't that cool?! It's such a sweet and touching story, and I'm super proud of him for making this happen. Check it out here!

Peter's Finally Home!!

Now Adam leaves on the 28th to Rankagua, Chile. Ahh!!

Now when I sit down to sew...

I have a lovely little corner of art to serve as my muse. When I rearranged my living room, I created a little nook for my sewing stuff. I bought a desk, and gathered a few paintings and photos of all things sewing. I also created a few pieces myself! Very tactile. Here are a few of the pictures:

I cut these gems from old vintage patterns, and then modge podged it all on blank canvases.


This is by Edouard Vuillard, and I LOVE the detail in her dress. His mother was a dressmaker (the woman is his mother), and he grew up around his sisters and mother SEWING.


Mary Cassatt. Growing up, we had an art history book that had several of her paintings including this one, and so she's always been a favorite. I love how the little girl is just chilling with the mother. That's just like Josie. Sometimes she just stands behind me on my chair while I sew. She's always near me, whatever she's doing.

I love this painting by Edward Hopper for two reasons: Firstly, the vibrant reddish orange color that makes you feel the warmth of all that light shining the through the window. Secondly, doesn't it look like she was getting dressed, but then she noticed something that needed altering on her dress and so she skipped over to her sewing nook to fix it before her she got dressed? Many a Sunday morning can I be found at the sewing machine fixing something real quick--

PS I'll take a picture of the desk plus art when I finish the desk...

Shake it like a polaroid

My kids are getting huge. This past summer Josie has grown like a weed right out of her pants and shoes (In fact we measured her right at 24 months--kids are supposedly supposed to double their height at two--and according to those calculations she'll be 5'10''). She's grown an inch since then. Merritt has gone from infant to bouncing baby. He cracks us all up with his laugh (see video below), and makes more squeaks and squeals than a rubber ducky. He's diligently trying to roll over, and casually trying to sleep through the night.

Conference this past weekend was brilliant. I ate up every single word with gusto. After it was all over, I just had this warm, happy, buzz and felt so thankful because I knew it was all true, and that felt good. I re-watched Elder Holland's talk today, and yep, it's just as powerful the second time. I loved them all, but especially Elder Bednar's talk, President Monson's, and Elder Cristofferson's. Which were your favorites?


My friend Martha started a new blog on which she talked about Rollip--a website that changes your photos into polaroid-looking pictures. Fabulous!! Here's me going crazy this afternoon...

President Monson

Timpanogos Temple

And here's a gem from the other night. You don't have to watch the whole video, because it's pretty much the same thing for two minutes. But I always say you can never have enough giggling from a 5 month old.

Tri Tri Again...

WOO HOO!!! Yesterday I completed my second triathlon! It was so great. I mean, it was really so great. My first one was right after Josie was born, and Emily and I made up our own course. Fun. This time I did it with Eirene, and we did the Powertri Yuba triathlon out in Levan Utah. We even got a t-shirt! It was so thrilling to race with other athletes, and I loved the spirit of camaraderie between everyone. People would just yell "Good work!! Keep it up!" as they passed you. We definitely felt super amateur compared to all the serious athletes, but we finished, and we had a blast. We did rent wetsuits however, for the open-water swim, so yeah, we were pretty cool for that part. And I was feeling pretty good about myself when I get out of the water 'cause the two dudes that were finishing with me were these super fit looking twenty-five year-olds. Boo yah! The race was a 1/2 miles swim, a 13 mile bike, and a 5k run. We did it in just over two hours. I was surprised to find that running a race is very similar to the feeling I had when giving birth (racing isn't near as intense as birthing), but you feel that high-as-a-kite, on top of the world feeling. Eirene and I were comparing the last few hundred yards of the run with the last few pushes. Eirene was like, "Ok, now the baby is crowning!...now we're just pushing out the placenta!!" TMI? Ok. But really, it's more similar than you'd think. Anyway, so fun. can't wait to do another.

I can't really believe that I'm posting this chin shot, but...enjoy.

I'm in there somewhere.

Me.

Rene.

Eirene doing a victory leap!

Eirene's battle wound. The turnaround point was horrendously dangerous.

Adam came to support us. Allan and Ben and Rene's kids were there too, FYI.