Fabric choices

So, I like to think that most of the time I'm pretty good at choosing fabric for my projects.
Receiving something like this in the mail just makes my day.

I take so long fussing over my choices at the fabric store that it drives my family crazy. Sometimes, though, things just go wrong.
Remember this picture from Christmas?

Yeah.. Flannel was on sale at JoAnn's so I thought it would be a great idea to get cute coordinated fishies for the guys and kitties for the girls. Only I forgot that fishies are sorta cutesie and Joseph would be wearing a man-sized pair of fish pajama pants in bright cotton candy blue. He still wears them occasionally because he loves me but they might disappear one day.

And see this lovely row of stockings we have?

I like most of them, but take a look at this stocking that I made for myself 5 years ago.

I have no idea what I was thinking when I chose that patriotic fabric for the cuff. Yeesh.

And Miss Emily is well on her way to making awesome fabric choices just like I do, with her couch dress and Mystery Mobile dress.

And... sorry, there's no real point to this post, other than getting this annoyance off my chest and out in public.
The family's good. I'm going to bed now.

Field Day

I had to post this picture of Em that her teacher just sent us.

It was field day today and great weather for it!

Piano Lessons

Well over a year ago, our little Casio keyboard started acting funny.  The volume knob simply stopped working.  It was loud enough that we could still play; so we just dealt with it.  But then it started to get quieter.  Eventually, I had to plug in some external speakers that we could crank up to be able to hear the keyboard.  Then we couldn't hear it at all.

So, I opened it up and tried to figure out what was wrong.  I know quite a bit about computer programming, but not much about electronics.  Still there was a little piece that seemed to be the culprit: Casio Board 404-CNB4, the volume knob assembly.  These are hard to find on eBay.  It seems that PacParts is the only place to get Casio pieces from?  Maybe not, but I placed the order.  

In the mean time, I hooked a midi cable from the keyboard to our laptop and sent the audio to the external speakers.  Unfortunately, this tended to introduce a tenth of a second or more of delay between pushing a key and hearing the note.  It made playing fast sequences of notes incredibly difficult.

Six months after I placed the order, our part finally arrived.  I'm glad it came, but it could have been a bit more speedy.  I don't think it's necessarily PacParts' fault.  It seems that Casio dragged their heels in sending it.  It came with a couple extra pieces.  Now I have some backups in case those buttons fail too.

It seems that the keyboard is designed to be difficult to open.  To get at the electronics, one must first remove about a hundred screws from the back. 

Several of the screws are under the mechanism.  I do love having weighted keys though.

Finally, we've got the top off.

This little board on the left has a knob connected to a variable resistor that controls how much sound gets through to the speakers.  Ours was set permanently to zero.  The new one has more options.

Replacing it just involved unplugging the old piece and plugging in the other.

A hundred screws later (putting them back is harder than getting them out), our keyboard works again and we don't have to worry about damaging the kids' sense of rhythm anymore.

A few pictures

This little cupboard is a favorite play place for the kids. They build all kinds of towers and castles with the canned food and occasionally line the inside with pillows and blankets to curl up in. Pretty crowded quarters here.

I took this picture when I looked outside and was struck by how often I find all four kids within three square feet of each other. More often than not they all choose to play in the same room, and usually in the same corner of the same room.

This picture shows off some of Jacob's crazy.

Caleb and Jacob at the piano.

I looked back in our piano notebook today and realized it has been a full year since we started doing piano lessons with the kids! Our first official lesson was on 4/25/2012! They have come a long way.

Sewing Roundup

Well, here we are, just home from a Rabies Awareness Potluck (don't play with dead animals. just don't.) and I got to thinking about all the cool things I've been doing lately. I cycle through interests. Usually reading, exercise, and sewing. Right now it's sewing and I have been loving finishing up these projects that have been in progress for months and months.
Here we go.
First we have these Oliver+S pants I made for Caleb. Super quick and easy, and apparently super comfy, since he reaches for these whenever they're clean.

I'm frustrated about these pictures because I know I took some specifically of the pants, but I couldn't find them and now Caleb's in bed so this is what I have. I really like the fabric though.

The next project I finally finished was Elinor's elephant quilt. I love this little quilt. This is the first quilt that I have used a pattern for, and I have to say, it made things a million times easier. It was designed by Melissa Lunden with Birch Fabrics. I really like her style and will probably use another of her designs for Jacob.

Backing pieced together from scraps of the front fabric.

It is a crib-sized quilt. Emily and Caleb's were smaller, and I will probably do twin size for Jacob now that I realize that kids really do grow up super quickly.

These chairs. They were in sore need of reupholstering, and they are finally done! I used laminated cotton, which has been really nice for spills, but they will probably have to be redone in a couple of years in a sturdier fabric.

And, here's another of Em's dresses. A step up from the couch dress, I must say, but still not something I would have chosen.

Emily noticed and loved the fabric as soon as we entered the store and would not change her mind, even after going through all the other fabric they carried. I was very surprised by her passionate stubbornness. Joseph says it reminds him of the Mystery Mobile.

She chose the dress pattern too. When will I learn?

And finally, Elinor's dress. It is the Oliver + S ice cream dress (two sizes too big). I chose the fabric and the pattern for this one.

She might love the pockets.

And she also got bangs.

This picture with Em in the back playing photog cracks me up.

And this lining might be my favorite part of the dress, which is a shame because no one will ever see it.

So, I have another dress in the works, and hopefully a quilt for Jacob soon, but I feel good about what I've done. I really like that I started most of these so long ago so I can feel super productive spending a few evenings working to get all of these finished products. Ha!

 Quick side note - I may be addicted to Oliver + S. Em's dress was Butterick or something and the whole time I was working on it I was swearing under my breath and vowing (out loud to poor Joseph) that I would never make any other clothing that was not Oliver + S. I wasn't really swearing, but I was pretty frustrated. Try Oliver + S. They will make you love sewing.

More Jacob and some Pizza

Sometimes we make pizza for dinner and it is so yummy. My family didn't do much homemade pizza when I was growing up, so I never really understood when people said homemade was better than delivery. But I totally get it now. Last time we rolled out individual pizzas and let everyone custom-make their own and it was so much fun!!

And also Jacob likes pizza.

And notice the diva bib that Caleb is also sporting in his profile picture on the sidebar. It's been a good, solid bib.
the end.

Easter

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to say a word about Easter.
We had a nice time celebrating it as a family this year. First we went to visit the S.A. Coopers and had our annual hunt there. The kids love visiting their cousins and playing with the dog.

Hunting, hunting...

This is not a good picture of Caleb, but Ralphie's little nose int he background cracks me up. He so wanted to join the hunt.

There's my cute caleb. Plus husband's feet.

And here's my other son. I do have one, we just have hardly any photographic evidence of it.

Me and the baby. Suzie's feet.

A week later we decided to do some of our own stuff. We had the kids plant jellybeans Friday night and make little markers. We were very clear about this only working one day in the whole year.

 Saturday morning rolled around...

Ha! I love Em's face! They grew lollipops! Emily mostly thought it was just silly because lollipops don't have roots so they obviously can't grow. Caleb had high hopes for some Cadbury mini-eggs that he planted  the next day. Elinor just appreciated the bonus candy.

We had a playgroup Easter egg hunt and an apartment hunt which were a lot of fun.

Doesn't Caleb have the manliest Easter basket you've ever seen?

We always set treats out for them the night before. We have a hard enough time with the whole Santa Claus thing that we've never even tried to have the Easter Bunny visit us.

 We dyed some eggs and decorated them with these cool velvet-textured designs and some pretty blingy rhinestones. The eggs got pretty banged up in the process.

The girls definitely approved of the jewels.

And really quickly (I know this post is getting long), while we're on the subject of artistic creations, Caleb has finally started to draw a little bit. It has been really fun to see his progression.

The one on the left is one of his earliest. The one on the right is slightly later. I love how none of them have bodies. Just really long legs and turned-in feet.

A little more advanced... The one on the right is one of his latest and Joseph and I love it. No head, no body, but it still works. I love the little pigeon-toed feet and the stick hands. And the mouth-neck and floating eyes. Caleb is pretty awesome.