Pillow Covers

So, this post was supposed to be about the new pillow covers that I'm sewing...but then Levi had to get his cuteness all up in the pillow photo shoot :) Seriously, as soon as he saw me taking pictures of the new pillow, he climbed right up on the bench and started modeling for me. So now you get to see just how darling Levi looks while snuggling on the new pillow cover. I ordered this fabric online from a seller on Etsy, and I swear it was the last half yard of it left for sale on the whole internets. I fell in love with it and am really happy that I got it...the seller is based in Japan (it's a Japanese linen/cotton blend fabric), and it felt so exotic to me to have a package arrive in the mailbox all the way from Japan...until Jared tried to remind me that I buy things from China every (well, certainly hopefully not every) day. Oh well, I still think it's really cool. I've made one of two pillow covers so far, and it was by far the easiest thing I've sewn to date. I don't feel up for learning how to sew zippers yet, so I just went with the envelope style closure on the back and it's just fine. For reasons that still remain unclear to even me, I made this for an 18-inch size pillow although the nice feather pillow inserts that we have are 20-inch sizes (actually, the half-yard wasn't going to be quite wide enough for a 20-inch pattern). So the cover is kind of bursting at the seams and the pillow has a bit of a funny shape (no doubt helped along by my less-than-straight seams), but I'm learning to embrace imperfection (ha). Some day I will replace them with 18-inch pillows and make new covers for the 20-inchers to use on the couch. I'm feeling very turquoise-ish (or perhaps aqua-y) in a retro way lately, and I've been daydreaming about adding some color to the house. I spend a lot of time in here these days, you see :)

Last Day of Preschool

Today was Parker's last day of preschool--well, he will be off for a month and then will go back for a three-week summer school. Then he'll have a month off until he starts kindergarten! I really loved his teachers this year, and he made his first best friend :) Reece gave him this picture frame today with a picture of them together in it, Parker loves it so much that he carried it (along with Rainbow Fish) around the neighborhood today while we took Levi for a walk, and held it up in the air like he was showing it to people. Crazy kid. But it's cute. I really loved Parker's preschool, and once again find myself saying how thankful I am that he was able to go there for the last two years. He has grown and blossomed so much, and I just always felt so happy and comfortable taking him there every day. He was always happy to be there, too, which is just as important. Now we need to figure out how to fill our days with activities so that we don't drive each other bananas!! 

Finally a Sunny Day

Not to sound spoiled...but it sure has been gray here lately. We finally were blessed by a day of sunshine today. I also managed to give Levi a bit of a much-needed "haircut" (quote unquote) while he stood on a chair at the kitchen sink playing with water. I only managed, however, to really get one side and the back pretty good, since I couldn't really properly reach the front and the other side. The photos here were thus taken kind of mid-cut while his bangs were still looking a little wonky...to be honest, I think they're actually still kind of wonky, but he's certainly not taking too kindly to my coming at him with scissors anymore!

Bass Pro Bros

Good thing we found this little sized Bass Pro Shops hat for Levi during our pit stop on the drive out to Zion! We got Parker his big green hat there when he was about two and a half on our way out to Lake Powell for the first time. Definitely a good look for both of them.

Pirate Parker

Here are some pics from one of the many random things we did today that kept us busy (and kept me busy doing things other than cleaning the house...). Parker insisted that he and I put on pirate costumes and engage in a sword fight during Levi's nap. It actually was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. 

Slugger

I seriously think Parker has got some natural baseball playing skills--he's a fast, far, accurate thrower, and just the other night he was nailing Jared's pitches with just this skinny little stick of wood in the backyard. Imagine the things he could do with a real bat ;) He and I played a lot of baseball in the backyard today, and I spent some time explaining some of the basic rules of how to play the game. I swear I saw his eyes and face light up, and I could clearly see a boy beginning to love baseball. He happily put on some of his Padres gear and gave me some of his toughest Slugger poses for some photos this evening. We definitely have to get this kid to a Padres game, pronto!

First Blocks

I'm happy to say that I've begun sewing my squares into 12-inch blocks of nine squares each, and so far everything seems to be working out well! I'm relieved that this project might actually be successful...I've made 3 blocks and am secretly hoping to make 30...on one hand, I should probably just make a small blanket, but on the other hand I want to end up with something that I really love (like I love it so far), so we'll see. I'm also secretly toying with the idea of paying someone to finish the quilt for me (once all of the blocks are complete and sewn together into the quilt top)--I've discovered that there are people who offer this service, they do all of the quilting at the end, sewing all of the layers together with a special "longarm" quilting machine. But I also know that this will end up costing more than I should admit to (considering that I would also like to purchase some more fabric for it), so I will just keep on trucking along and enjoying sewing my blocks together and will deal with finishing it off when I get there :)