Happy Elephant Yoga Shorts hit Cape Cod Bay

In preparation for our holidays I made a dramatic departure from my expected routine of only making Skaters, Tanks and Dolmans and rustled up a new pattern for shorts.  As I've mentioned since time immemorial, Maia is wovens-averse. And elastic-averse.

And in the genetic lottery, the recipient of not only her share of rear-end but the whole family's.  That makes for tricky trouser / shorts fittings and rules out almost all store-bought bottoms without alterations.  It took three muslins with adjustments to the back width and rise before I was happy with the fit.  In comparison, my sylph-hipped niece:

(DRAMATIC SCENE CHANGE)

Perfect fit right off my original draft!  Poor Isla had her heart set on a Rainbowphant dress (haven't we all?) but only a small piece in the stash meant it had to be shorts.  I love how little fabric shorts require and wish we lived in a climate where we could wear All The Shorts.

(DRAMATIC SCENE CHANGE)

Shorts and tanks and dolmans and skaters were donned for our nature walk in Cape Cod Bay.  We saw lots of creatures and even some hot, hot horseshoe crab loving.

There was much flailing and splashing to cool down.

And even a mid-expedition Roly-Poly switcheroo from Elephant side to Sakura side for reasons I can't remember.

Jamie schooled his young cousin in the art of brooding.

 

Nailed it.

 

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To the Power of Four

In today's installment of Things That Happened A Month Ago, here are some pictures of our family trip to Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.

The only new make in the kids' sartorial expedition was this butterfly skater for my niece. We love wearing butterfly dresses to the butterfly house in this family.  Their brightly coloured clothes did cause a bit of butterfly commotion.

The girls are close in age and just a tiny bit different in height but I officially graduated Isla into the 7/8 so she can still wear it next summer.  Maia is wearing her Summer Forest skater in 5/6 from last year.

My nephew's tank top is also one of my last-summer makes.  For my tank tops I use my sleeveless skater bodice lengthened and it's good to go.  So quick to make, which is lucky as I do all my pre-holiday sewing the night before we leave.

Last but not least, Jamie is sporting last year's Dolman.  It was pretty slouchy on him last year but now it's a perfect fit.

Of course, the approach to the zoo (and all of the great play equipment inside) were just as much fun as seeing the animals.  If not more.  Kids, amirite?

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Peacocks in Americana

I find it so hard to get back into the blog after a lengthy holiday; jet-lag, lack of childcare, the inevitable crushing post-family-time black dog.  I make too many things.  We do too much.  I take too many pictures.  Having a camera and a brain that simultaneously synchronise and (occasionally) take reasonable pictures is of course a joy, having a new camera that takes eight frames per second and a trigger finger means that I have thirty six hundred pictures from our trip.  Obviously at least 3500 of them are blurry.  Anyway, the conclusion to this very sad tale is that I'm hoping to blog them in bite size chunks as-and-when I find the time. 

So.  Cousins, amirite? Always wanting coordinating peacock skaters to stand on stumps. And who am I to deny them?

Purple trim to match the new purple sunglasses!  Or purple sandals if you're that way inclined... 

These pictures were taken at the playground behind the library in my parents' town. Just because I don't think I have before, I thought I'd share some pictures of the town where I grew up!

For those outside the US, a slice of small-town New England Americana.  For those inside the US, a chance to say 'Meh, no big deal.'

And finally, in Things That Are Meta: Maia bought a Farmer doll at the Farmers' Market. 

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Snowmaggedon

After a week of everywhere else in the UK getting snow and Edinburgh cruelly not, we finally got our just desserts.

One glorious inch of it.

Thankfully we got out for snow-jinks early yesterday morning as it was all gone by the afternoon.

It was just enough for a spot of light sledding.

More than enough for snowball fights.

And plenty for snow angels.

With more on the way this week, I hope we get some more play time.

Without the schools being closed, Edinburgh Council.

** If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend heading over to Capturing Childhood's post on how to take great pictures in the snow.  I'm glad I read it the night before!

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Christmas Sewing: PJ edition

I hope everyone had lovely holidays.  We've been very busy doing nothing around these parts; Jamie got the lurgy just before Christmas and is on the mend but still fairly lethargic. The up-side to this is that we've all slept until at least 9am every day this week!  He normally wakes Maia up for a companion between 6 and 7, so the extra couple of hours is a blessed relief.  Steven and I were actually the first ones up on Christmas, and swithered about whether to wake them.  We waited :)

I didn't do a huge amount of Christmas sewing but I did whip them up matching pajamas to give them on Christmas Eve.

The tops are the raglan style that I use for my normal tops and the bottoms were a quicky-and-dirty cuffed slouchy bottoms traced off existing pjs.  I may at some point work on a slouchy bottoms pattern if there is interest, but I'm pretty sure there are eleventy million slouchy bottom patterns so it would most likely be a redundant exercise... agreed?  The only change I made to the slouchy bottoms I make for toddlers was to switch from a cuffed waistband to an elasticated waistband (which, incidently, was a thing of beauty since I tried the serged elastic / topstitch method for the first time rather than a channel).

The fabric I used was an organic cotton knit from Lillestoff; as usual, the quality and handle are amazing.  In news that will madden you (and maddened me at the time), I received a gigantic order from them the night before the UK Christmas posting deadline.  There are some very special prints that I know you'll love and some more coordinating solids for your stash!  It's the very best stuff, and I'll get it listed shortly.

We had a pretty chilled day, after the initial excitement of opening presents was over there was settling down on the couch with books, soft-toys for Maia and a Sonic Screwdriver for Jamie. That boy has the most serious Doctor Who fever.

Lots of cuddles with mum and dad.  If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that not a minute passes where at least one child isn't sitting on top of me or in my grille.

As per perverse expectations, it wasn't the biggest or most well-thought-out presents that were the best received, it was the practical joke stocking stuffers.  That whoopee cushion will be the death of me.

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Reflection

I had a tutorial ready to put up last night when I heard the news of the terrible tragedy unfolding in Newtown, CT.  This is a small town fifty miles from where I grew up; I had friends and teammates from Newtown, my high school principal is currently their First Selectman.  No event like this is ever understandable, but the proximity has me reeling.  I've always put growing up where I did on a pedestal: these things don't happen to us, these things don't affect people I know.  In respect for this heartbreaking, unfathomable tragedy, I'm having a moment of internet silence and sending so much love and support to Newtown.

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Oslo Debrief: How to have fun on the semi cheap

As pointed out yesterday, I made a sly trip to Oslo last weekend. Steven had a milestone birthday last month (*cough* 35 *cough*) and as we hadn't been on a solo trip away since having both kids, I surprised him. I snapped up the flights on the super-cheap, and only realised afterwards that Oslo is pretty much the most expensive place on earth. I admit I panicked, but I did a lot of research and we didn't end up spending a fortune.

As we normally do, we stayed in an apartment rather than a hotel. Beyond being cheaper and having more space than a hotel room, it's also a lot more pleasant to hang out in and you can make some of your meals in. One of the most expensive things (relative to costs elsewhere) in Oslo is drink. So we bought a bottle in duty free to bring over, and stayed in at night gorging on Sons of Anarachy. After being out all day in -10deg weather, it was no big deal to hang out in our warm flat.

We didn't have a sit down meal while we were there; street food and cafe food rock. We pretty much ate pastries and hot dogs all day long; I regret nothing.

The one place we absolutely wanted to visit was Vigeland Sculpture Park, which is completely free to get into.  We did take the tram there but it was a fifteen minute walk back to the centre after.  The public transport system in Oslo is amazing; there are buses, the underground, and trams.  A single ticket gets you an hour on any / all modes of transport within the zone you pay for.  For a city-centre population only a little bit bigger than Edinburgh, the transport is amazing.  Side-eyeing you so hard, Edinburgh Council.  Anyway, Vigeland Park is fantastic.  There are more than 200 statues ranging from the sublime to the WTF.  If you like to see naked people doing strange things, this is your Mecca.

Or if you like to see fully clothed people doing strange things with naked statues, this is also the place or you.  So many shenanigans.

Other free and lovely things include the harbour...

And the Opera House.  This is the number one Building That Would Never Be Allowed In The UK.  The roof is on a slant upwards from the ground on both sides, and then once you climb that, on a slant upwards from the middle to the top.  It was covered in snow and ice and there was nary a security guide to make sure people were behaving themselves.  The views across the water and city are amazing.  I only fell over and was helped up by a Chinese person once.
 

Like we do most places, we just walked around and around and around without a real plan.  Here's a graffiti enclave we happened upon courtesy of me having a map fail.

We did pay to get into the Viking Museum and it was interesting but there's a limit to how much time you could spend there.  And that comes from someone who did a degree in medieval history and literature.

And also next door we paid for the Folk Museum; between the two we spent the better part of the day. The Folk Museum had a gigantic Christmas market (which was bigger and better than the one at City Hall) and traditional Norwegian handicrafts like knitted Justin Beiber hats.

And lest you think that we only took pictures of things, we also took turns taking pictures of each other in front of those things.  Despite carrying my 18-55mm lens around in my handbag the whole flipping time, I shot everything on my new 50mm f/1.8 lens and it did a really great job.

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Collect the Moments: Redux

As the Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments photography course finished while we were still on holiday, I didn't get a chance to properly share my thoughts on it. Or picspam you with some of my favourite holiday shots. So let's kill two birds with one stone...

I can't overstate how happy I am to have been on the course; the instructors were knowledgable and accessible, the modules informative and well-rounded, and the community of people taking the course were so engaging and supportive. Like many people, my photography was predominantly focussed on a 'look at me / look at the camera' remit which can produce good shots but also lots where the kids looked forced or unnatural. This course really challenged me to look at the camera as a bystander or a witness: to capture the mood, tell a story, show the personality of the subject.

These are my favourite shots from our day at the Connecticut Science Center (which by the way I highly recommend if you're in the area!).  Rather than lots of 'look at the camera / show me what you're doing' pics, I was trying to capture Jamie and Maia caught in the wonder of all that science.  The only picture that is 'staged' I re-focussed so that while he thought I was taking a straight-up shot of his creation, I was actually taking a picture of his fiercely proud face.

This collage tells the very sad story that the rules of baseball are hard.  From the back it just looks like a very sweet shot of friendship but by orbitting around you can see that two year olds, despite their reputations, are indeed capable of extreme compassion.

Or how about the story of 'I (deliberately) got my glasses wet, my eyes are all wet, ergo I don't need to wear glasses on the beach or probably ever'?  Nice try, Maia.

Two girls sharing a hula hoop, boys playing in the background. 

Pictures oozing with the personality of the subjects, but still natural.

And the technical information about lighting, focus, movement and framing were clearly helpful too.  Man, I really needed some technical help.

I think one of the biggest lessons I took from Capturing Childhood was that the journey to a picture is often just as good than the resulting picture. I think I love the shots of everyone reaching out to help Calvin onto the lifeguard's chair more than the posed one as it shows the dynamic in our family of closeness despite our distance.

Disclaimer: I received nothing in compensation for this review, I just couldn't recommend it enough!  Capturing Childhood: Collect the Moments is just about to start a fresh session if you're interested.

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