Pixie Playhouse Blog

This is what I’ve always said. I’ve always thought that maybe I just wasn’t built for running. I can walk for days but running …two steps and I’m done. A challenge has been posted at my favorite forum to try a Couch to 5k program so, in spite of the 100 degree in the shade weather we are having, I am going to give it a shot starting next week, August 2nd.

What prompts this you say? Well maybe its time to stop making baby weight excuses or maybe is because vacation eating was WAY too good this year (I’ve got a new “this is not health food” post forthcoming)

So why delay a week? Well first of all thats when the blog challenge starts and second Scott is gone for work part of this week

I will be following this program from CoolRunning.com with podcasts for my ipod. Since we are so close to the park

Here is the blog I’m following.

oh and one more thing


hopefully I can make some progress

AMAZING! We celebrated Katie’s first birthday along with her little cousin-in-law and birthday buddy little miss Ry. We rented a room at the local recreation center which was a fantastic idea. The theme was butterflies. I had a cake made instead of making my own this year but made cupcake in case anyone needed a chocolate option. Refreshments were simple, just chips and punch in addition to the cake but everyone seemed to have a good time.

It was in that dreaded 2pm time slot so the birthday girl arrived still sleeping.

This little cake just for Katie was used the day before for her birthday portraits but she was so dainty with it that I just propped a pinwheel against the side to hide the smushed spot.

I had planned to make more of the decorations but decided to save my energy for other things.  I did make the crown using this tutorial.

And of course a hand made birthday dress. I was sure I had the Oliver + S bubble dress pattern so I waited until the last minute to start putting it together. Well in all of my foresight I bought the 2T and up pattern last year rather than the NB-24 month pattern. I didn’t feel like attempting to size down either so I started hunting through my patterns and came across the issue of Stitch Magazine I had just purchased which happened to include an O+S shirt pattern that went as small as 18 mos. It would do just fine for a almost dress length top with a tutu skirt.

A really neat thing about this pattern is that these ruffles are cut on the bias and are really intended to be left raw making this extremely fast and easy to put together. I, however, have this small ric rac obsession so I used my edge stitcher attachement and Featherweight to add a ric rac trim. It made a sort of picot effect on the edge.

And yeah … about that tutu skirt… well after pulling out the nylon chiffon heap AGAIN and getting a little spinny in the head looking at it I went to Target.

And coming sooner or later (probably later) some back-blogging.  I have all sorts of pics to accompany currently imaginary posts. 

I live  in a neighborhood that is just country enough for people to feel comfortable ditching their animals here.

So this story starts back in maybe October 2008, when I came home to discover a deceased kitten on my sidewalk.  After freaking TOTALLY out for several minutes I discovered that I…well my car, in fact, was the cause of the kitten’s demise.   That day had seriously sucked already and Scott was in Florida on business. So my preggo self ended up burying a kitten in the back yard trying to prevent Alyssa from figuring out what I was doing.

Apparently, someone had dumped a lovely calico who had taken up residence with a rather stupid looking (his eyes are too close together) gray cat under my house and they produced 2 kittens.  I’ve spent the last several months trying to catch the remaining kitten.  The mama calico I only even laid eyes on twice and it has been quite a while.  Papa cat, in his defense, stayed around for some time but has been notably absent lately.  Other visitors to the porch include an orange cat as well as a giant fluffy black cat that Scott and I refer to basement cat.  We already own one cat, a stray we took in when we moved in, who is a fixed indoor cat and at times seems like one cat too many already.  Anyway, survivor kitty is just friendly enough to come up and speak but not let us pet or catch her.  For the past several weeks I’d seen less of her and she was looking pretty bad …then I realized… the poor thing has had kittens!  She is just a kitten herself, not even a year old!  I started keeping my eyes out for kittens.

So today I was in the yard in a short lived attempt to play in the sprinkler with Alyssa.  It was too hot and she was scared of the sprinkler.  I saw the big orange cat flouncing across the yard and noticed he started acting weird when he reached the steps. I looked past him and there they were 3 kittens under the front steps.  In an attempt to break the cycle I scooped them into a box and called Animal Control who will pick up stray cats if you have caught them.  While waiting for the officer I found a 4th kitten under the lattice of the porch and I hope that is all.  Mama porch cat appeared at the same time the officer did, so I put some food down so he could snag her too.   Despite the hook she kept coming to the food so he managed to catch her.
So please spay and neuter your pets folks and don’t dump them in my neighborhood anymore…plskthnks!

A basket cover!!  I didn’t use a pattern, just traced the bottom on some plastic and measured for the rest.  I probably could have used on though becuase the inside it a bit wonky.  Some playsilk easter grass fixed it right up though!  I was pretty proud of myself for pulling my embroidery attachment out for th first time since Christmas!  Alyssa carried it around for the rest of the week calling it her “dolly baseck”

It held the haul quite nicely

We were very serious about Easter morning.

Egg hunting with the cousins

After I pulled that fabric out I remembered how much I liked it!  So I stared at it for a week and decided it was time try the Round Neck Top/Dress from That Darn Kat.  It’s a little big on the skinny kid but she’ll be able to wear it for quite a while.  I was unsure of how these fabrics would look together, even though they are from the same series (something Alexander Henry but I don’t remember what).  Now that it is all together I just love it!  We are calling it “The Zoo Dress” so I guess now we need to go to the zoo!

My but she is SERIOUS!!

This is how it goes with South Carolina weather.  It can be a bit undecided this time of year.  We had some summer last week with a touch of winter over the weekend and the first part of this week.  I think it might be spring today.  It reminds me of an animated movie I watched when I was little where the bird said “Autumn!!” and suddenly the season changed.

So with the momentary onset of summer I decided that it was time to break out the pansies and dirt and a little bit of summer sewing.

First of all the dirt

And now the heat has melted us

But we have flower boxes!

This is a project that I started last year.  I finally talked my serger into working properly so I could finish it.  YAY for rolled hems!!!

SWING!!!! If someone would stand and push her in the swing 24/7 I think she’d stay there.

Next time …spring in Hopeland Gardens!

But I’ve got a big work in progress!

And a quick peek back at this winter’s projects

These cuffs took entirely too long to finish!   She actually loves them though and even insisted on wearing them before I had a chance to weave the ends in.

And this set could have been for Christmas but it took me too long to finish so it was for Valentine’s day instead!

She’s so cute with her wee hat!

And finally… remember back to SAFF? Here is the handspun worked up into Alyssa’s winter hat!

So this is an assignment long over due but I felt like I really couldn’t go on to new stuff until I went back and hit some highlight of the summer.  Also only just this week the weather decided “Oh hey y’all lets have FALL” so I feel like its really not completely over yet.

This year waaaaay back in July we went to Black Mountain, NC and stayed in a lovely rental home called Thompson’s Tuckaway.  It was just the right size with real live AC, internet, and most importantly, baby gates. They also didn’t try to fool you with the number of folks you can comfortably house by claiming the living room couch as a sleeping area.  All sleeping areas were real live bedrooms with amazing fiber fill mattress toppers.  Even my sister, who hates all beds except her own, loved those.

The view from the deck

Geranium, thy days are numbered…

On the way in we stopped at the Asheville farmers market and got these fantastic heirloom tomatoes which became tasty sandwiches.

One tradition of mine is to go to Montreat Conference Center’s  Sally Jones Pottery.  This usually is the highlight of my trip but was a major downer this year.  The staff was grumpy almost to the point of hostile.  This is not the norm for them and the staff tends to turn over yearly…at least I hope they do.   The master potter was an ass and there was some idiot red head who WAS the proverbial bull in the china shop.   I am harboring a secret suspicion that it was she who broke some raku greenware of mine and quietly tucked it away for me to find in the clay waste bucket the next morning.  I blame it on the overabundace of under-chaperoned teens there that week but I hope there is a different staff there next year.  Otherwise I’m going to have to find myself a new vacation tradition.   Oh there was one exception, Ann, who is there every year and is a joy and a beautiful wonderful patient person who let me stay late to play un-harassed on the kick wheel.  My nerves were so jangled by the whole experience that I produced nothing I am willing to photograph and share.

One day we made it into Asheville although it happened to coincide with a major craft show so parking was at a premium.  We managed to hit the highlights of yarn shops including Purls, who still was my friend even though my stroller attempted to shoplift a skein of bulky hand spun on the way out of the door.  They even suggested the Early Girl Eatery right next door for lunch.

And this kid is ready for it.

The main reason for picking this particular week this year was to see David Lamotte as he completes his farewell tour.  We have tickets to his final concert that happens to fall on our 5th wedding anniversary.

Hangin’ with the cuz, listenin’ to some tunes…

I think this kid likes peaches

Photo op with David

By the way I have 10193480239840234985 pictures of ducks that S took.   This one just happens to include me and the babe.  I guess he likes ducks. *shrugs*

I knitted!  Here is a “skirty” made from Sugar n Creme cotton.  Of course it can’t be worn as a waterproof diaper cover but it gave me a chance to work out my pattern.   I got this loud stuff on sale for about 20 cents a skein and honestly, what else was I going to do with it?

Bye bye mountains … see you next year!

During many summers of my life my family has taken a trip to the beautiful mountains of Black Mountain, North Carolina. This is a tradition that goes back for generations. A newer tradition is making peach cobbler while we are there. I thought that I would share it! Any fruit can be used but for me, fresh peaches from Cook’s Roadside Market on Augusta Road in Trenton, SC can’t be beat. For an added bonus, this is prepared and cooked in one dish so clean up is easy!

A disclaimer: Cobbler is not a health food. Yes, it contains fruit… fresh fruit even, but this does not make it good for you. It is a dessert. If you are looking for something healthy then go eat some broccoli and leave my poor little recipe alone. Also, please do not “tweak” this recipe. If you think its too easy then go make creme brulee or some such complicated item. Do not decrease the sugar. Again, this is DESSERT and is SUPPOSED TO BE fattening and bad for you. Actually if you choose a more tart fruit you may want to add even more sugar. This would be OK. Replacing the flour with wheat flour will also not make this a healthy dish but instead will leave it heavy and you’ll have to figure out the leavening (salt, baking soda whatever) since to my knowledge they don’t make self-rising wheat flour, so you may as well find someone else’s recipe to goof up.

If you think you can handle it, here ya go

Easy Vacation Cobbler
2 cups fresh fruit (peaches, blueberries and blackberries work very well for this)
1 cup self rising flour
1 cup sugar (or more for tart fruits)
1 cup whole milk
1 stick butter, melted (don’t even think about using margarine or some goofy olive oil stuff)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
I use a glass baking dish but any glass or metal dish, including those disposable aluminum ones, will do. Dump fruit and sugar into this dish and stir to coat fruit, dump flour over this, then pour milk and butter over and stir with a fork until everything is moistened. Don’t overdo it…the lumpy bits add character.
Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour. The top will be brown and bubbly when its done. This is supposed to serve 8 but this week its been serving 4. This recipe can be doubled.

Enjoy!

How did this happen????? Its been a whole year and I can hardly believe it. Here are some pictures of her first birthday. I did a ladybug theme. In case you are a relative of mine and you are reading this and get your feelings hurt if you weren’t invited I AM SOOO SORRY!!! I basically ran around town on the Wednesday and Thursday before with some invites I printed on the computer. I’m tellin’ you this thing just snuck right up on me!!!

And the cake … here’s what 2 pounds of refined sugar and food dye looks like. And I made it myself!

and this too

not too sure about this red thing … I’ve never eaten anything this color before

I think I’ll just pick out the black spots

PRESENTS!

Leave it to Granny… this was her favorite thing!

eating paper

wee ladybug shoes

Really … where did a year go?

Not long ago we returned from sunny Cocoa Beach, FL and Alyssa’s first beach trip. After I got over the disappointment that her first beach would not be a South Carolina one, we had a pretty decent time. As Scott points out, “Its all the same ocean”.

Now, this child is the miniature clone of her daddy and now, in addition to looking like a clone, she is developing his quirks as well. This child who will eat any bit of floor lint without regard absolutely HATED putting her hands down in the sand. She would cautiously touch the sand then immediately wipe her hands on the skirt of her bathing suit. It was hilarious.

Also on the beach her Mimi taught her to drink from a water bottle.

Well we will see a SC beach before the summer is over!