Pixie Playhouse Blog

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!!

I love this garden and can’t believe how long it had been since my last trip there.  It is a wonderful setting for photographs.  My sister and I had our wedding portraits taken here and many shots taken for my photography classes in college were done here.  Some of these are by me and some by my sister.

I didn’t make the babe’s dress for this one.  It’s Gymboree and to be honest I didn’t like it at all when I pulled it out of the box.  It grew on me until I decided to actually put it on her and I think it turned out very cute.  It is by wild chance that she let me put a bow in her hair.  Most days she won’t even let me brush it!

The little pond is full of silvery little fish and a few gigantic …well…. monster somethings fish.  Maybe they are some kind of carp.  I tried to get a picture but they flashed away too quickly.  Although who really wants to look at carp?  How about this instead.

Sometimes I get used to looking at her and forget how tiny she is

Something very Alice in Wonderland about this I think

Kissin’ baby sister

I hate to just shove this here at the bottom but if you need a comfy way to carry your baby or toddler this is a mei tai made by Silly Goose Baby.  It is so very comfortable even being so pregnant.  This one was made as a custom project from Alexander Henry’s Tillbrook Sprites line of fabric.

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!

All hail!

And the fairy dragon

Ok so who dresses up thier precious little girl as a dragon?!?!  Well it’s just that somehow when she was learing animal sounds (you know….”what does the cow say?”  MOOOO) somehow “what does the dragon say?” got thrown in there.  So you say “Alyssa … what does the DRAGON say?”  and she says “grrrrrrrrr” deep in her throat with her little nose scrunched up.  So I had to make a dragon costume.  She sort of hated it …oh well.

Oh yeah and the cousin is cute too!

What is SAFF you ask?  Well check out the info here but its the Southeastern Animal Fiber Festival, which takes place near Asheville, NC.  Now that I’m not working every.weekend.of.my.life I decided to make a day trip of it.  Scott declined the invitation to go with me, instead volunteering (VOLUNTEERING I SAY) to keep the babe… a declaration which he tried to recant at about 6am the morning of … no such luck babe, sorry.

I had great ideas to blog this on my return but found when I hit the “gone too far to turn back” point that my camera was at home tucked safely in my laptop bag.  An attempt to take a picture with my phone resulted in my phone near loosing its mind. I mean really…who wants to read a blog with no pictures.  humph

So there were alpacas and bunnies and llamas there and if there were sheep or goats I didn’t see them.  I have decided that my sister needs to forget about horses and start an alpaca farm.  They are so cute AND they produce a crop!   Other than the animals there was a building full of vendors offering every imaginable yarn and fiber product.  I caved to peer pressure and bought a drop spindle and some pinkish/blueish/reddish roving in a wool tencel blend.

I also found red and black sock yarn, 2 bargain bin sock yarns one in  green and one pink, and a big skein of homespun in pink to be made into a hat for the babe.  At that point for the sake of actually paying my bills this month I had to stop.

Before returning home I made a side journey to the Asheville Farmer’s Market, open year round, where I found local muskadines,  apples from Easley, SC, candied pecans, and sausage made from ingredients you can acutally pronounce.

It was a heck of a day trip.  Next year maybe we can make a weekend of it.  Look out llamas …next year I’m taking your picture!!

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?

I started writing this post back in MAY and due to a demanding 11 month old and an even crankier web host, here it sits, weeks later.

Rock ‘n’ Roll is the theme for June at The Whole Shebang so I thought that tie-dye would be just the thing!! Now the Rit-and-rubber-bands method from high school was just not going to cut it though, so after Googling for some ideas here is what I came up with.

First off is a guitar tie dyed lap tee with matching board shorts in Kona Cotton and Michael Miller’s Groovy Gutiars.

This is a 12 month set with appliquéd jeans to match the tee.

The ultimate achievement in tie dye …the peace sign!!! This was actually tied and dyed and not sewn, stenciled, painted, or droppered. And you thought you’d never use geometry in real life!

Pretty nifty huh? Its not as hard as it looks too. I’ll just say that amazing things can happen when you follow the directions, an ability which I do not normally possess.

Also in this series is a little peekaboo back sundress made in Groovy Guitars print with a guitar appliqué.

This though is the coolest thing. I thought I had an original idea but no, its all over the net. Here is my version of record cuffs! These are made from football shaped pieces of old, scratched, uncool vinyl LPs. They are painted with a plastic compatible spray paint then sealed for durability. I love them!

This one features the Art is Resistance flag designed by Trent Reznor check this out to learn more

Rock star

a back view

Anyway … there is plenty left in stock so happy shopping. Look for a beach party at the Pixie Playhouse coming in July!