try, try again

A concept that’s such an ingrained part of my character … partly through hearing my parents say it approximately one million times during my childhood and partly soaked up through stories and books I read … t is for try, try again.

The hand embroidery didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped yesterday, but I was determined to personalized Rowen’s hand-me-downs to her taste. After the jeans, I tried my hand at a gray pullover – what better than a snail, which is my darling daughter’s favorite beast? This picture still shows the remnants of my “magic” fabric pen, but Rowen snatched the shirt away from me before I could properly iron it (which removes the pen marks). She is sleeping in it now…(and no, it is not a pajama – LOL).

Then I tried another pair of pants, but before beginning, I pulled out a very old embroidery book to see if I could glean any extra tips. The book was part of my first-ever eBay purchase, just as an odd side fact. It’s in Dutch so I can’t provide the correct English names of the stitches. Anyway, I tried the chain stitch differently, as diagrammed in the book, and all of a sudden, it worked! I’ve added an extra holding stitch to the flowers because this is children’s clothing and will be worn rather roughly. Here’s a closeup of one of the flowers (simply a loose chain stitch with a buillion knot center):

And a picture of the embroidery now decorating the area just below the left pocket of the pants (a variation on the chain stitch to create the vine):

The right leg has a row of flowers at the bottom (a Y stitch with buillion knots):

And the shirt that will go with the pants for Friday’s ‘blue’ performance in the school play (a chain stitch with buillion knots):

I also used the hem stitch to create flowers on a green pullover, but I forgot to take pictures of that one and I’m too tired to do it now.

happy earth day!

This afternoon, the kids and I gardened. Finally. Yes, even our neighbor – who usually overlooks my haphazard gardening attempts – came out to to comment that it was about time we got our front yard into shape. The first job was to dig up all the weeds that were thriving, which caused the displacement of one toad, countless snails, and a great many earthworms. Rowen became shepherdess to the snails, lining them up by shell markings and speaking quite sternly to them whenever they broke ranks. I put the earthworms back so they could keep doing their good works. I kept quiet about the toad, after an unfortunate experience Nicky had with a toad or frog at school that resulted in yet another conference regarding his … liveliness. Max trimmed the buxus hedge – I’m not a perfectionist, and I sort of enjoy the wave-like appearance it now has. After everything had been turned over, cleaned out, and levelled, I put in four big lavender plants, two lilacs, one butterfly bush, one rose, and one wisteria. Oh, and one tiny tomato plant – the only one that made it home from the garden center unbroken. I suspect it will happily feed a number of Rowen’s snails. No pictures, as I was far, far, far too dirty to touch the camera. LOL.