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moko!

Okay, it’s sticking. Kitten’s name is Moko. Here’s how we ended up introducing them, after about a week of sequestering Moko in the bedroom I put a baby gate across the doorway and opened the door. Didn’t work so well because Moko just kept scaling it and climbing over. So the next day we just brought her into the fold. Hazel was pretty cool about it. Not freaked because she knew there was a kitten on the scene and actually seems sort of into her. They wrestle a lot but no one is getting hurt. Hazel is totally fine with Moko sleeping on her chair and on top of/under her. So they seem acclimated. I hope they’ll be buddies. I’m so glad we did this. I think Hazel was definitely lonely for some kitty camaderie.

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our newest addition

No, we're not crazy cat people who are going to get a new kitten every Spring but Hazel needed a pal and our friend's cat just happened to have kittens. What can you do? Here's our newest cutie. Name suggestions welcome! Also introducing cats to each advice welcome. We've had new kitten sequestered in our bedroom for 2 days now. Hazel has worked up to sitting at the door hissing at her. And that's how that's going.

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sorry, were you looking for me?

I was outside. Weeding, watering, planting… here and at school. Things are looking good in our garden at home. I got antsy and moved a bunch of stuff but nothing has died yet so that’s good. We have a few more plants to buy to fill in and I think, at least part of the garden, might be right this year. We’ve dug a new bed in the front yard so we have that to screw up from scratch – exciting! And Tim built us a new path around the bed in the back. It will be so much easier to weed now. Yay! And we’re going to put a tree back there. Tim’s liking a pagoda dogwood. Anyone have love/hate input on that?

Things are chugging along slowly with the school gardening projects as well. We were able to get funds from our PTA for our school garden and are going to start building the raised beds this Summer. Right now my friend and I are weeding through the craziest mulched over mess to make space to plant annuals for our gardening class at Exploremore Day. Do you have this at your school? It is so much fun. The kids sign up for their favorite picks and spend the day going around from class to class. The classes are taught by parents, people from the community, dance/karate schools, etc. I just love it. This year is our first year teaching a gardening class. I really hope we can make it fun for the kids! I’m looking for a garden marker craft to supplement the planting activities (or to keep them busy if god forbid, it rains!). Any ideas for me?

Man, I’m full of questions today!

my mother’s day flowers

lettuce!

allium

ferns and their friends

lily of the valley is just about done for the year

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kids artwork album for mother’s day

One of the things I picked up at Ikea as a possible mother's day project was this album with a tree embossed on cover. I thought it was a photo album, and I guess it is, but it's just plain paper not plastic inserts for photos. I thought instead of photos I'd fill it with artwork for my mother in law for mother's day. The kids dotted flowers on the tree with the Martha Stewart paint and pencil erasers and then I painted over the tree trunk and branches because they were really hard to see. We pasted kids artwork in about half the book and left other half blank so we can mail her updates to fill it in.

some of Phoebe's work…

and some of Oscar's…

I want to make these for myself. Right now I have all kids artwork in bins. I think it'd be lovely to have them all bound up in books. Oh! and I finally framed one of Oscar's paintings from when he was little little that I just loved. I have it in his room. I'll snap a pic and put it on the ww facebook page.

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dress with a big bow

For my last kcwc project I went big and made a ….. yep, smocked dress. Okay, so I didn't tackle anything challenging this year. But I did make a top, a skirt, 3 pairs of shortie shorts and a dress. Not bad. I like sewing for girl in the Summer. Quick and easy! Fast and dirty. Serged and ready to go. 

The idea for this dress came from this one which I spied on Pinterest. I wanted to do a big bow. So I made one, tucked it into a pleat and then cheater smocked the rest. Here are some directions on how to do the smocking. Really easy and awesome. The part I always forget is to stretch or not stretch the elastic thread as you're winding bobbin. Not stretch! Then spritz with water or stream and it'll shrink up like magic.

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ballerina top for Phoebe

Still chugging along with kcwc! Have you seen all the cute stuff in the flickr pool?

I have one more dress planned. Just need to run out for elastic thread. Then I think that'll do it for me. I made this top yesterday while Phoebe was at school, without a pattern. I had just a fat quarter of that beautiful ballerina print and was happy to have a good use for it. And Phoebe is happy with it because it's pink.