A package!

Finn has gotten many gifts from so many of you. And until recently, it was usually Tyler and I oohing and ahhing and tearing open the paper. But, today he got a package from France and he's big enough now to sort of have his way with paper wrapping. In fact, as you may have experienced with little ones, they don't always get beyond the paper.



OOH! It's a doudou for napping! Nice work, Tifenn. So sweet and cuddly.



Yea! And a book about DIYin' my stuff. Another score.




Woops! And Finn sure devoured the note that came with the package.



Also enclosed is a paper fish that inflates when you blow into it! I can't wait to do it. I might save it until New Year's Eve or something. Maybe Finn will understand a little better then. Thank you Tifenn! What a treat.
Oh, and I can' forget the darling carpet Finn is laying on. That came recently from his cousin Boston and his Aunt Lisa and Uncle Andy. It's a world map. All Finn has to do is roll over once and he is a world traveler!

I've been published!

I took a large format photography class while in Landscape Architecture school. The main project (which I think I have blogged about before) was to use historic photos from the Alaska Yukon Pacific Exposition taken on what is now the UW campus and try to figure out exactly where they were taken and rephotograph them. The result is a then-and-now type comparison that, when taken in as a whole set of photos, is a pretty cool picture of how the campus has transformed since the fair.

Anyhow, the majority of the photos focused on buildings, but I found this cool one that looks out from behind the track hall, over Union Bay Slough and out onto Laurelhurst. It's a landscape shot. I don't think I found exactly the location that the original photo had been taken but it's a good scene-match. You can read the old blog post I did about this by clicking here.

The book came out and my picture is in it. Near the back. I think John put it there on purpose because lots of people pick up books, then flip the back, run their finger along the pages and let them flip to the front. I think he wanted people to see my picture first!

I saw the book for the first time at Elliot Bay bookstore and I was at the register when Tyler brought it up and said, "Hey Susie, it's your picture!" The lady at the counter was nice and got excited like me and we all giggled. And then I asked if she wanted me to sign some copies and she said, "No thanks."

Here's a link to buy the book.

Happy Halloween!

I'll be staying home with Finn and a few friends on Halloween, but he'll be dressed in his glow in the dark ghost onesie. This shot, however, has something really halloweeny about it to me. Kind of zombie-Addams Family-esque.

Tyler has been cooking up an idea for an art piece on the bike path near our house. He went out on a really beautiful evening recently and took a bunch of photos of this spot, adjusting the shutter speed and aperture to let in as much detail as possible. The photos make the bike path look like a dreamy summer evening.



Jennifer turned 30 recently and I made party hats for her surprise party. Finn was a reluctant model and might have contributed to the design flaw all that hats had--the strings to hold them on were choking everyone!

Here's Finn in Command Centra--as Mat and Becca used to call this.

Tyler discovered a really good distractor and potential teething toy--an apple with a bite taken out.

Woah! The afterburners on roof outside our window caught on fire. It happens from time to time, but this one was big enough that the fire dept. was called. Of course, no one was hurt and no harm was done, but it sure was a good show. And, boy does our fire alert system work well!

Here's Finn in a jacket his grandma made him and a super cozy sweater onesie from Melanie. He's lookin' like a hipster in the making!



I used the very last of the beef I bought last year from Carman Ranch to make beef stock and then beef stew. It turned out great and I have a tub frozen that I will probably eat in a few weeks. That beef is awesome. I can't wait for this year's shipment. I am really gonna work on my pot roast technique this winter.

Flexi-quilt Construction Kit

I did it! Well, my Mom helped me (thanks mom!) ad I finished the little fabric shapes in time for Art Walk. It's silly that I don't have more photos, but I took lots of pics with real film and they are still in the canister waiting to be sent away and developed. But I've got this here photo that another artist posted on facebook of the little guys so that'll just have to do for now. I named it the Flexi-quilt Construction Kit (Thanks Justin Gitlin for the name brainstorm!). (And while I'm on this parenthetical thank you journey, thanks to Tyler for building the shelves in hall and thanks to Alana for hosting the show and thanks to Tonia for giving me the idea to use Timtex so the little pieces would stay stiff and thanks to Finn for being small and inspiring me to make kid's toys.) End parentheses: I think might make little Kits up and sell them on Etsy for fun. (Thanks Noal for the Etsy idea). I better end this now. Goodnight blog-post with by far the worst grammar and punctuation ever.

Another hat!

I am really starting to carve out a niche with this hat stuff. This one went to Miss Olivia Skye Lakeman, a fetching red-headed 2-year old with a come hither kitty face! And she hates hats. BUT, she loves flowers. So, I was really tricky and made a flower pin that I put on it and I think she's coming around. This one is made from two pairs of kids shorts from the Goodwill.

Finn's eating a bug!

Finn's grandma Hattit got him this cool toy bug--she drives a real one. And after a month in parking garage, Tyler got it out today to see if Finn might take like to have a ride in his grandma's car! It's the type that when you roll it back, it's wheels wind up and take it away.

First, he reached out to grab it.

So i pushed it a little closer for him.

Then he got his gums around it.

But oh no, it's starting to slip away

And bump, the bug escapes the jaws of death. I think it was a hit! Or was it a hit and run?!
AND, what's a blog post without a few more highlights of the last month? So, here goes:

That little ghost glows so bright, you can see it through his swaddle at night!

That is a laugh, not a shout of terror coming out of Finn's mouth.

beach flowers

tyler took this at the oregon coast. isn't it lovely? oh, and have i told you that finn can roll from his back to his tummy now, all by himself? usually he has to want to attack some plush object to one side in order to get the motivation to roll, but boy, he's doin it!

Laundry BAg with Porthole

Feeling kind of smug because I think I did a really good job on this one. Finn is probably going to abuse it and treat it as a basketball hoop for dirty diapers and stuff, but at least for now it can be a precious little ocean liner laundry bag!

Projects!

I have been a busy bee and there is more to come. First, I made the dress a few posts down, then I made these cloth napkins. Now, I am almost done with a laundry bag that will hang on Finn's crib. (When he gets a crib!!) For now it will hang on the dresser next to his channging table, that, after all these projects has far less fabric in it!

I mentioned a few posts ago that I was going to try and make interlocking fabric pieces like the paper in the picture and I just went through all my quilting stuff and pulled all of the solids. This what I've got and I think it's going to be a great palette. The only this I need to go get is some stuff called TimeTex to make the pieces stiffer and more structural. I did a first run and they were ultra flimsy, so I am hoping timetex will solve that. More on that soon.

My mom made all the bridesmaids in Annie and Kevin's wedding bags and this is mine. I LOVE it!

I bought this fabric in New HAmpshire without a plan for it, then got really excited about making a shirt, then realized there's not quite enough. So...not sure what is going to happen with that. Maybe it will be an apron.

And one last shot of the guy. He is super giggly lately and has so many new tricks. He grabs his feet, makes noises like is a dinosaur going extinct (over and and over and over as if he were practicing to play said dinosaur role in a play and wanted to get it PERFECT). He rolls from his tummy to his back. He reaches out and grabs things, swings them around, then releases them across the room. He likes to scratch stuff with his finger tips and this is particularly fun for him while he is nursing--argh! He seems like he'll be sitting up pretty soon and we are going to give him a plastic cup to play with so he gets used to putting it to his mouth--exciting. I can't wait to have him at the dinner table with us. That will be really cool.

Finn's first vacation(s)

We just got back from two weeks out of town which included many car rides, a canoe ride, a ride in a motor boat, 6 flights, a great grandma, a great grandpa, both sets of grandparents, several aunts and uncles and Finn's first swim! We started in Squam Lake, NH at Tyler's grandpa's place with a bunch of family and lots of swimming and boating. Then we headed south to Hilton Head to visit T's grandmom and we ended the trip in Pacific Washington with my family. Here are just a few shots from the trip.

New pajamas from Grandmom covered with undersea creatures. We took him out on the town in those that night and he was a huge hit!

The four of us on our last day with Grandmom (T's mom's mom, Mary Jane)

Finn meeting Effie, Grandmom's dog

Finn in the sink at Great Grandmom's after we feasted on Beef Bourgignon a la Julia Child

The girls and Finn

Back to no coffee so this is what the mornings are looking like these days.

The woods on the way to the beach

A new dress

A while back I said I wanted to make a dress, I think, or at least something new for me to wear and I did it! And one of the best parts of this dress is that it turned out great and it was super economy! I got the pattern at a garage sale at a gas station in Eastern Washington for 25 cents and the fabric came off the remnant table in Berlin for 9 Euros. Woohoo. That second picture you get an idea of the fabric and stuff and I wish I ahd a better one but that is all I've got right now. Plus it shows Finn's new interest--wagging his arm all over the place while he eats which drives me crazy. Oh, I made the middle view(green).

Melanie's Etsy Shop

Wow. Melanie started a business call Plum Cushion. She makes cushions and pillows herself out of really beautiful fabrics. She made a shop on Etsy and if you are in the market for some pillows, she has a bunch up now and does custom orders, too. They're very well made and the fabrics she chooses are very beautiful and high quality. And oh, I love this pillow. Nice work, Mel

Two ideas

picture from oh joy!.

First, I really want to fix up the bentwood rocker that Melanie passed on to us. She was in search of one, found one really cheap but it has a busted seat so I am deciding whether I want to replace the cane seat or put in an upholstered (which I already know how to do). You can still sit in it and rock, but any day now I might drop through the seat and land on the floor! Then, I just across this picture and I think I want to paint it black, too. Actually, I know I do. If I paint it black, I can fill the all the little attempts to fix it with wood putty and paint right over them!

Second, my neighbor is organizing an art show for October involving fiber arts and I have an idea! See those paper cut-outs on the bottom right? I am going to try and make similar things out of fabric for making little bugs, houses and so on...interlocking pieces that are a little bit stiff/structural. I'll keep you posted.

i just couldn't resist

I was combing through some photos and came across this funny one of me in the final weeks of pregnancy. Tyler took this one of me shocked at my own belly. When I saw it the other day it reminded me of the little guy of a friend whose name is also Finn (though everyone calls him Huck) and we seem to make a similar expression of surprise.
Here's huck and me compared. And boy, get aload of that belly! The time when I could barely see my own feet to tie my shoes seems very distant now.