Happy Nanny Day to Me!

So ... today marks four whole years that I have been "Nanny". In other words ... today is Miss Dub1's birthday. Her fourth birthday. Four years that I have been the luckiest Nanny in the whole wide world. Happy Birthday to my precious Dubster! You are smart and funny and wise and talented. I. Love. You. I love this picture above which so accurately depicts her "Pippi Longstocking-ness". It seems to say, "I have got some serious moxie going on here."

Since I am celebrating my Nannyhood, let's see what the others have to say:

Miss Dub2: "Yes, I am a lovely fairy princess who just happens to indulge in the occasional marker for a snack."

L'il Miss Gee: "Power to the Babies!"

Lil Mr. Gee: "Seriously ... what IS that smell?!?"

I sure do love being Nanny. Can you really blame me?

~ Coral Singing ~

So ... furthering my goal to keep my sewing room neat and tidy ... I have resorted to hand work.

Specifically, hand applique on these colorful blocks ... the final design/destination of which is still a big mystery to me.

I just like 'em.

And you?

~She told me so ~

So ... you may have noticed (if you actually care and you may or may not ... care) that there has been a distinct lack of posts about sewing. Or anything else that is interesting. Truth be told I sort of packed everything up when I had my sewing room painted over a month ago (do you miss that pink and green stencil from the early 90's?) and I haven't had the heart or the gumption to find everything I need. Or to mess it up.

Or to sew.

But I did have this one project on my to-do list that was mentioned here. It involves miles of sewing straight satin stitched lines on a bedskirt.

Mi-les.

When I first blogged about this project, my oldest daughter warned me that it would be the most boring project ever.

E-ver.

And boy, was she right. Of course this is the girl who would not be deterred by such a project, and in fact when faced with one ... taught her Bernina to Sew. By. Itself.

The proof is here. See for yourself.

And I don't know which is worse ... the fact that she can so honestly tell me "I told you so" or that I never could find my seam ripper and had to resort to using my embroidery scissors instead.

Huuummmph. I should have just left well enough alone. That room was so dang clean before I started messing with it.

Please tell me it will be worth it.

~ Fall Forward ~

So ... I hope I'm not premature in saying so but ... believe it or not ... we may actually be saying good-bye to the blasted heat that was the Summer of 2010, here in the Land of AZ. Last week: still in the triple digits. This week: rockin' the 80's. You won't hear too many people bemoaning the absence of the 90's in this equation. Let's face it, the 90's are so overrated.

This evening we are even enjoying a bit of light rain. Not summer "the wind blew my neighbor's pool into my pool**" monsoon rains, but a lovely light mist.

Along with the aforementioned advantages to Fall, look what I picked up today at Marshall's on sale because of it's obvious summer overtones? Sweet. (You know how much I love dots! And you know how much I love blue!)

Welcome Fall. Please don't toy with my emotions and revert to your old sweltering ways. Please don't make me beg.

'Cause I will.

** There was an evening this summer when I came home to find a rather large inflated child's pool ... floating in my pool. No lie. Some of my patio furniture was also at the bottom of the pool. It was a pretty big day for my pool.

~ OCD: One Crafty Diva ~

So ... my friend Kelley ... aka Glamma Fabulous has started an Etsy Shop. Kelley loves Halloween like no one I know, in fact it just may border on the weird. But who cares! She has channeled her obsession into these fabulous paper mache pumpkins and as you can see no detail has been left unaddressed. Go ahead ... you know you want one. Just click here.

Then start your own Halloween obsession. It's the perfect time of year for it.

Don't it make your brown eyes ...

So ... I like blue.

Seriously.

~ The Sisterhood of the Travelling Necklace ~

So ... you may or may not have remembered that in the midst of my globe trotting ways as of late ... I won another GiveAway. Seriously people, I do not know why my odds for this sort of thing are so high, but I find it best not to ask questions. I made my entry for this one while on my trip to Chicago-land almost a month ago. When Gina informed me that I had won, I was eagerly awaiting the arrival of my L'il Miss and so I told her to send it on to SoCal-land, which she did. Please keep in mind that it was mailed from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. I can feel breezes just looking at it.

I am currently in the middle of a "project" that is taxing my psyche as well as my back and my sweet, breezy, coral necklace serves as the perfect inspiration.

Thank you, Gina and Isolabella. 'Cause it was 107 degrees when I got off the plane in the Land of AZ and breezes are in high demand.

~A Fabulous Forecast ~

So ... I just got back from a week in Sunny Southern California. Can I tell you how much I love it there? Can you guess why? For starters ... Li'l Miss Gee is a precious, happy, beautiful, baby. I loved, loved, loved nuzzling her. She really smells go-ood. (It's also 30 degrees cooler there, but let's stick to the important stuff.)

I also loved hanging out with this boy and his dog, Ralphie.

I am in serious withdrawal. Do you blame me?

~ Nanny X 4! ~

So ... L'il Miss Gee arrived yesterday (at 4:15 p.m., weighing in at 7 lb. 1 oz -- exactly the same as her brother, although she was 2 weeks early) and she is more precious than words can say. I will actually get my Nanny-hands on her tomorrow. For now I must risk shorting out my computer as I drool/cry onto my keyboard on a regular basis.

Her big brother, Mr. Gee thinks she is pret-ty special.

He's a smart one, that Mr. Gee.

~ Seeing the Sights ~

So ... I have been gone for a bit. To the Windy City Environs. The scenery was beautiful, as is rather obvious.*

But I must be perfectly honest and admit that it was the scenery below that particularly caught my eye ... and my heart.

Sigh. I sure do love being a Nanny.**

* These two top pictures are of Lake Michigan, taken from a beach in Wisconsin.

** "Nanny" is what they have named me. I am related to them and have not been hired to take care of them ... although I would do it in a heartbeat for free.

*** While I was gone ... I won another GiveAway!! I know it seems to be unfair that I apparently have a gift for this sort of thing. Just accept it. This particular bit of unexpected bounty is a beautiful coral necklace from Isola Bella. Check out her work. It's yummy.

Is it a Surfboard, or is it a Table?

So ...

Voila.

White Whining

So ... have you ever read an article in a shelter magazine where the homeowner extols on the virtues of her white slipcovers and mentions dropping them into the washer with the amount of energy she might use to say ... brush her teeth? Yeah. Yeah. Let me just say that what she isn't mentioning is the back breaking work it takes to ...

1) Unbutton and unzip everything and then struggle to pull the cushions out of their hiding places as if live birth is taking place. (Getting the big piece off the couch is actually easy ... stuffing it into the washer is another matter. The seat cushions are not bad, but the back cushions are killers.) 2) After washing them and drying them enough to get drippy water off of them, I always like to stuff the "innards" back in while they are still damp so that they are sure to fit. More stuffing, pulling and groaning ensues. 3) I do this in the AZ summer so that the drying hours are fewer, but must live with them scattered and propped about so that the maximum amount of air can circulate. With a sofa and a loveseat, this is two full days of living with the upheaval.

The end of this (incredibly boring) story is that I was thrilled with how much whiter they look (thank you, Mr. Clorox) and I wanted them to be done so that they will best showcase my new coffee table. I found it at a thrift store and thought that a) it had very interesting lines and the longer, narrow-er shape I was looking for and b) would look fabulous with a coat of blue ... yes, blue ... paint.

I blame my friend Kelley aka Glamma Fabulous for sending me a map of thrift stores to peruse. I say "blame" because moving a table to the garage to make way for the old trunk which will make way for the new table ... caused me some back pain. Not to mention the aforementioned pain from the slipcovers.

Whine, whine, whine, whine, whine.

It was all absolutely worth it. I cannot wait to show you the finished product.

And, um, thank you my friend.