My little girl had a little birthday. I won't get too sentimental (at least not now), but I will say that she is now halfway to 18. If the second half goes anywhere near as quickly as the first, I am in big trouble.

Nine is a funny age for parties. You still need some structure, but little kid party games aren't going to cut it. I asked Eva if she wanted to play Hot Potato at her party, and she almost died of embarrassment at the thought. I can't say I blame her. I mean, really? Hot Potato? And yet, Simon Says is still OK. Where is a parent to draw the line?

We did a craft—gluing eyes and beaks on to pom pom chicks and putting them in eggshells. We may have mostly done them because I wanted to make the pom poms. It's not entirely on me though, because this was supposed to be a Nature and Chicken themed party, and I did not invent the theme.

I used the party as a good opportunity to use the Martha Stewart test tube containers I got on sale post-Halloween two years ago. They are way cute filled with "magic" jelly beans. However, I did get chided by the resident scientist for buying plastic test tubes when real glass ones could have been had from the lab. Hmmm, don't know about that one.

Buying the jelly beans was even more fun that I thought it would be. I went to the mall on my lunch hour and filled a bag with all the light green and light blue Jelly Bellys that come in flavors we like. It was like a mini version of picking quilt fabrics—a little happy for the middle of the day. I also stopped at Gap kids and picked up a few summery sale things for Eva (two tops and some leggings). The jellybeans cost as much as the clothes. What does that mean?

It can be hard to find the right present for grandmothers, especially when they've told you that there really isn't anything else they need and there really isn't anything else they want. This year, my maternal grandmother, Lib, was particularly hard to "shop" for. Her eyesight is not very good, so she can't read all the books that I know her retired librarian self would enjoy, and her memory is bad, she has Alzheimers, so I don't want to get her anything confusing, and she has never really liked clothes and she feels like she has Enough.

But, she (just like my other grandmother) is very giving. In my head my grandmothers are like the two faces of charity–one giving locally, and fund-raising, and setting up organizations to continue helping people in the community into the future, the other giving internationally, thinking of herself as a citizen of the world. Lib is the latter of the two. When I was a girl, she always answered my letters on Unicef stationary, she had the AFSC calendar on her walls, and was the first person to tell me about Heifer, and that was ages ago. And also, Lib taught me how to knit, the first time when I was seven, the time it didn't stick, but perhaps laid the foundation for my future success. (wink)

I decided to give to someone who gives by giving. I made the mittens above for Afghans for Afghans, and brought them to our Christmas celebration and shared then with my grandmother along with a letter of explanation and love. It's a risky sort of gift—the person doesn't actually get anything in the end, you could be misunderstood as being cheap, and it involves and awful lot of explanation—but, I think it was well-received. I hope that she got what was at the very bottom of it—that I love her and that the person she is has left a mark on me.

This is where I depart from the sentimental and give you the particulars on the mittens. They were made from this kool-aid dyed yarn using this mitten pattern. They were my first mittens ever, and there will probably be more, but not this year.

Actually, I know exactly what you've been up to, all you folks who have been able to have a December and keep your blogs going. Hooray for you! I have enjoyed seeing all your Christmas, Channukah, and Solstice posts so much.

Eva made me the little mushroom for a Christmas present. In a totally non-biased parental way, I think it is the best. She actually did it one Sunday morning while I was still sleeping, but then she couldn't keep it a secret and she woke me up with it. Handmade cute present! Best wakeup evar!

OK. I am actually really happy to be back, But I will try to tone down the enthusiasm and use fewer exclamation points for the rest of this post.

We went away for Christmas and Channukah and visited the vast majority of our family in New Jersey. I ate soooo much good stuff, including pot roast, which I haven't had since before I was a vegetarian, which I no longer am. I am going to buy a slow cooker (crock pot :-)). Also, I found it liberating to call and order my favorite pizza ever whenever I wanted to from the place down the street. Why not? (In case you're wondering, it's floppy crust, fold in half, slightly burnt crust.) I also had the yummiest cottage cheese at Elie's sister's house. They get it fresh from a farmer and it is all whole milk and oh yum. I wish I knew a farmer like that.

And speaking of yummy, check out my new yarn. From my dad and mom I got yarn and Anthro gift certs respectively. I burned through them in one very enjoyable morning. Projects to come!

Love,
Dorie

Halloween. Done.

Eva wanted to be Galadriel this year, you know from Lord of the Rings (LOTR if you want to get dorky). She was way into getting her costume together. She picked the trim, used buttons from her collection, chose and elfish necklace, and remembered the silver choker (as headress) from a box of ebay jewelry my dad gave us. I made the dress. You will note that it has the all-important flowy sleeves and skirt. It's made out of a cheap nylon knit from a princess pattern. I had been thinking that I might want to try sewing with knits, but this Halloween costume reminded me that I really don't. I mean, wavy seams are all well and good for dress-up, but I don't not think I I want to mess with getting them straight for something to wear for real. Wovens—Ah!

So, if you've been trying to view my blog and it's been what we in the industry call "jacked up", I'm sorry. Having a major CSS error on your blog is the digital equivalent of having your underwear showing. People are not sure if they should tell you or pretend not to see. Thanks to my dad for clueing me in, and thanks to Brendan for reminding me that it's really unacceptable, because yes, I did let it sit a week between the time that I was told and the time I made the fix. Sry. :-)

I've blogged the progress of the quilt some, and here it is, actually done. I started it when Eva was only 9 months old, and I was very new to quilting. I just fell in love with the folksy, yet detailed red stitching. When I was a stay-at-home mom during Eva's first couple years I used to watch Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson—I really think she taught me how to quilt—and I know she did an episode on redwork and I remember seeing some way back in a Country Living too, but, these were both after I had already started the quilt, so I'm not sure exactly why I decided to do a redwork quilt. I just did.

Here it is in situ.

It's a double Irish chain pattern and I hand quilted it all, but first I did the embroideries—thirty-one of them to be exact. Many came from this book (as did the pattern), but I started to get bored with them and some of them were just too old-fashioned and weird, so I started doing animals from a Dover book, plus a few literary characters (Little Bear and Mother Bear, Frances), and some random other animals. It's mostly animals, plus a nameplate and a lily of the valley. Oh, there's also the square that lists all the cats we know. I call that square The Becats.

It's odd. The quilt is already so old, even though it's just been finished, that it already has history in it. The pug dog has "Rosie" embroidered under it after my stepsister's dog who was alive then, but has gone now. Half of the Cats We Know are also gone, and we know a lot of new ones. I held off doing the signature block for a long time before I finally embroidered my name on it. Then, Elie and I got married and now my name is a bit different. It all makes me smile a little and maybe cry a little.

I had thought that there would be a moment of elation when I finished it and that I would put it on Eva's bed with great pomp and pageantry. But no. When it was done I left it on the couch for a while, until we had an extra chilly night and I used it to cover Eva up in bed. It had been living along with us that whole time I was making it. It has so many bits in it—all the years of my baby's life, all our progress. I like it a lot, and in the end, I'm surprised to say it was about the process.

I went out early to get milk. When I got back this note was on the table. I will keep it forever because it is just so sweet and so Eva at age eight. I know I can't keep her where she is right now, and I wouldn't want to—she just keeps getting better—but responsible little notes about doing storybook childhood things? I could keep that forever.

And what fun we had there.

My sister lives in San Francisco, and we finally saved up enough airline miles to go out and see her. It was great! We got to meet her boyfriend, Brian, who is awesome, and we stayed in cute her place with windows that latch and a living room with a picture rail. (I love old places!) My dad was out there too so we got to see him and my stepmom. We had a day of nature stuff (Mt. Tam), a day of sightseeing (Alcatraz and Chinatown) and a day of shopping (just my sister and I).

Thanks to Bitter Betty and Futuregirl, I knew some good places to hit for crafty purchases. I went to Britex. Holy crap that place is amazing! So much nice fabric, and a wall of Liberty. I had to ask one of the Britex people if it was really Liberty, like it looked, and she was so funny and understanding. "Oh, yes that's real Liberty. You may feel the Liberty...you may caress and admire it." "Can I take photos?" "Yes, if you'd like, I'll take your photo with the Liberty." Really, they are so nice there. I think six different people asked if they could help me, and the store was quite busy.

Then to Japantown, which has so much stuff, but you'd never know it because it is all inside! I bought some Japanese craft books, including the popular Girly Style Wardrobe. I want to make Eva a little linen jacket and then force her to wear it. (Impossible! My child doesn't like layers.)

I also ate all the delicious food that I could. Oh, man. I have a new food love--Burmese! It's like blending the best of Thai with the best of Indian. My sister took us to Burma Superstar and I am forever grateful. Their food is the best, and their logo is also really cute, which never hurt anybody.

Ah, it made me miss city life. A little. Not too much. Actually it made me want to travel more, but I guess travel does that.

No, it's not drag night at the Schwarzhold. We (Elie) have begun keeping bees.

The bees arrived last night, which was also Eva's Harry Potter sleepover birthday party. Timing is everything, let me tell you. Being the procrastinator than I am, I was icing a cake, sewing a beekeeper's veil, and threading the ties through dress-up capes all in the 5 minutes before Eva's guests showed up. All turned out well, except for the Potter cake. It was supposed to have the gryffindor crest, but I had an icing malfunction. I include the picture below so that everyone knows that things do not always turn out beautifully in blogland. Fortunately, renaming it "gryffindor poo" made it just fine in the eyes of my soon-to-be eight-year-old.

Back to the bees. We're keeping them for honey. (Maybe that goes without saying?) They came in the mail in a meshed create. There were 15,000 of them in a 18 x 6 x 12in. space. Having them there in a box on my porch was revolting, terrifying, and completely interesting. Elie dumped all of them into the hive (best party show ever) and didn't get stung once. He sprayed them down with sugar water first, so I guess that really works. Amazing. Creepy. Bees.

Actually, that's a fairly good-natured face-making. The quilt is moving along, and it's nice to have someone to hold up the chained strip flags for a little photo as I go.

The above helper also lost a front tooth today. It has given her a lisp, which is funny because she's always had really good diction for her age. It's also funny because it brings up questions about whether or not the Easter Bunny will meet the Tooth Fairy in the middle of the night. Who can say? I suspect that at this point it's more of a funny idea than an actual wonder.

I have been loving all of moonstitches' in-progress shots of her quilt-to-be. The progress of quilts, particularly block quilts, is so interesting because while the beginning might be simply beautiful by itself, the mystery of the placement, arrangement, and size of the growing and final quilt is fabulous. I guess I love a reveal.

I'm starting a quilt. (See?) I've also been working on Beebs' quilt enough that I have sore hands. I don't think I will ever hand quilt another bed quilt, but I am glad I am hand quilting this one.

This picture is just so I can show how how much Beebs' cat loves her. She likes to sleep on her neck, especially when Beebs hasn't been feeling well. Oh, terrible cuteness.