Teacher Conference

Tamlin's been going to pre-school for the entirety of this school year and now that it is spring, it's time for conferences.  Yes, we go to a parent-teacher conference for my little four year old!  Tamlin's class consists of four and five year old kiddos, so he is one of the youngest boys in his class (and the smallest of the four boys).  We already know he'll have another year before he starts kindergarden because of his late November birthday.  Because of all of this, I was ready to hear that he was behind in things at school because he's so young.

With my schedule this semester, I was able to join Brian and attend the conference.  Well, I was quite surprised and pleased to hear about his progress this year!   Our little Tamlin is doing wonderfully well!  I was really impressed to see samples of his writing and drawing from September and then its improved versions from March. Notably, he can write his name and it's recognizable :-)  He recognizes all of the letters and knows about half of their sounds.  They have been working hard at this in school utilizing "Zoophonics" program. However, he doesn't quite sing the alphabet song...his version goes A,B,C,D,E,F, O, G and he's done. He recognizes numbers at least to 10 and he can count to 20, though sometimes his voice moves faster than his fingers on the objects being counted.  He has really improved at listening, retaining directions, and following directions, and is very good at helping out others and sharing.  We also learned that when given the option, he draws cars instead of people or writes stories about cars (nothing new).  

What Tam needs help with is a bit of finger training and dexterity.  He tends to hold his pencil with all four fingers on top, which I had noticed too.  He also is pretty poor at making scissors work correctly, but we knew this too since we don't really let him use scissors at home. 

Overall, Tam's teachers (Miss Susan and Miss Ronda) had very nice things to say about our son especially about his friendly, happy personality.  They also said that he is well on his way of being prepared for kindergarden.  Our little first born is growing up so quickly...and well :-)

Project Runway

Even though we have dropped cable TV in our house, many of our favorite shows are posted online for our viewing pleasure.  One of my "guilty" pleasures is watching Project Runway.  The premise of the show is having fashion designers design, create, sew, and show their work each week on a runway in front of judges...with the threat of going home if they do poorly.  I am thoroughly sucked into this show each season that it is on.  I love watching the designers creative processes and how they come up with their ideas based on the week's theme.  I love to see the final products on the runway and trying to decide which one will be the judges favorite and which one is the loser.  And, now that I have been sewing more myself, I have been more engrossed in the actual construction of the garments.  Plus Tim Gunn, the host, is awesome and impeccably dressed...and always tactful in his critiques.  Oh, if I met Tim, I would wish to run up and give him a hug, but I would fear mussing his suit!

This week's episode had all the means of being fabulous.  The designers had to create looks for...not stick thin models, but...gasp...hot, hunky, male strippers (The Thunder from Down Under).  Oh, yeah.  They were cute and built like Thor. 

Now I agree, that sewing shirts and tailored pants are tricky...much trickier than making a pillow-sack-like dress for a lady.  However, the designers were spectacular failures at this!  The clothing was ill-fitting, tailored like it was for women, or just plain boring.  What?!  I mean, one guy couldn't even make a button-shirt with a collar.  When the judges asked if the shirt had a collar-stand, he was just confused.  What?  Dude, don't you wear collars?  Haven't you ever looked at one?  I attempted one once, hated it, and now avoid them and opt for the easier mandarin collars (which don't fold down).
Sheesh.
There should have been more coolness...more silver studs...more manliness...or more James Bond-ness.
Sigh.
I think this was the first episode that I felt I could have done something a bit better than the amazing designers that are part of the show. Way to disappoint...the judges thought this too and declared no winners this week.
At least the hot guys were interesting to look at :-)

Oh well...at least there is another episode showing tonight!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday : Easter Dress

Sewed from a pattern from The Lily Bird Studio.  The interesting bits is that this has princess seems instead of top/bottom seem and the back has a cut-out with a tie at the top. The beast was zig-zag finishing the overlay seems (ugh). The pattern and instructions were great, with only a minor mistake, and I would certainly use it again in the future.

For this dress, the overlay is a pink organza-like material with the flowers.  The main fabric is blue with sparkles, which combined with the pink gives it the purple appearance.

Finished and shipped to Ciearra this week!

Easter Eggs

 Easter is just around the corner...

So it was time to bust out the eggs to be dyed.  This year Jude was old enough to try a couple himself, much to his delight.  The past couple of years, we have used kits that had gel-like dye which was rubbed on the eggs in a tie-dye fashion.  However, this time around we went with the more traditional little pellets and liquid dye.

Jude was in charge of checking out the dye cups and making sure they were all in tip-top shape.

 

 

No one in the family are big fans of hard-boiled eggs, so we blow out the eggs instead.  The innards were then used in the making of popovers and a egg/stuffing bake. A consequence of using hollow eggs is that they float in the dye bath!  The boys had fun pushing them under the water and letting them bob up again :-)  

As you can see, this did lead to very colored fingers.

 

 We had a total of 11 eggs to color...
Tam had fun experimenting in putting the eggs in more than one color and trying out the wax crayon on the eggs.  Jude's attention span was a bit shorter, maybe completing three eggs, and he kept trying to lick the dye off his fingers.

 Daddy even helped out with the action!

Tam was a bit disappointed when he saw that all the eggs were gone...

He asked "Are we all done?" and "Can we make more?"  

Nope...we have to wait until next year for more...

  

But the eggs turned out great...especially once they were topped off with a bit of sparkly glitter!

Easter Bunnies

 As somewhat of a tradition, I sew bunnies for the boys' baskets for Easter.  I say "somewhat" because I have only done this the past two years...and who knows how long it will continue depending on future free time :-)  Throughout the year, the Easter bunnies hang around and get various amount of love/ cuddle time from the dudes.

Last year I did bunnies from knee-high socks...

This year, I just completed the

HUNGRY BUNNIES

 Nom, Nom, Nom!  

How fun are these guys!  I love them :-)  I love that they have zipper mouths...and can eat CARS!  I love the miss-matched buttons from my stash.  I love the crazy fabrics that give them their crazy personalities.  Super Fun!

They are based on the tutorial from Lil Blue Boo Blog. (I used her tutorial for the sock bunnies last year too...so creative.)  I added pipe-cleaners to the ears so that they are bendable.  I also added stuffing behind the lining to make them soft and cuddly.  Lastly, I added the whiskers and a button tail on the back to complete the bunny look. And they fit with my craft ADD...finished in two nights and a bit of hand sewing between church services.