Summer Dresses

I love to make my girls one-hour dresses. That seems to be all the time (and attention span) I have these days. So I look for patterns with only three pieces--a front, a back and a sleeve. This pattern by New Look was a winner. I whipped 'em up this afternoon while the girls played computer games. They look so cool you'd hardly know it's 90 degrees today!

The Touch, The Feel of Cotton

There is nothing I love to sew more than a cute cotton blouse out of awesome fabrics. I go to quilt shops and look at all the gorgeous designer cottons, but I'm not really tempted to buy them for quilts. Nope, my weakness is buying the 2 yards necessary to make myself a cotton blouse with a cute mandarin or rounded collar. And I've timed myself--2 1/2 hours to make this blouse from cut to finish. Not bad for something I'll wear for years. This pattern by Simplicity has been my favorite over the last year. I've made it three times now--as seen in these three photos. (Zoom in) I love the gathered sleeve--it's feminine and it gives enough room in my shoulder area so that I can twist myself into a pretzel position while buckling Hallie in the car. I'm trying to cure myself of my addiction to all things stretchy and wear more woven cottons. Ah cotton, the fabric of our lives.

Fabrics top to bottom: , yellow fabric is from Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, Pink Coriander by Amy Butler, polka dot by Michael Miller (I think)

Batik Quilted Purse

I've been meaning to make myself a colorful purse for summer. Well, you know the phrase, the cobbler's children have no shoes? It's taken me forever to make something for myself and not for my store. I bought a few of these hand-dyed batiks from a fellow etsy member's shop--A Stitch in Dye--good grief her stuff is gorgeous! I've used some of the pieces for an overly-ambitious queen size quilt I'm working on (stay tuned) and the rest for this gorgeous bag. (The other two Batiks I bought from that horrible chain store that shall remain nameless.)

Last night after dinner I had had it with my kids--their messes, their fighting, and arguing. So I retreated to my studio to make myself a new bag. I quilted this assymetrical bag with feather stitches, a modified zig-zag, and plain ol' straight stitches. I finished it off with a canvas lining with plenty o' pockets and a magnetic snap. Two hours later I emerged with this bag and a smile on my face. Hello, summer!

Meringue Designs Goes Global (Sort Of)

I was interviewed for an article in Utah Valley Magazine called "Work it, Mom". It's about mom business owners, or mompreneurs. Yup, that's me on page 38 of the July/August 2008 issue. You can read both pages about me here and here. Or you can buy a copy, you know, so I can autograph it, or so that you can make a decopauged pencil holder from the glossy pages and see my lovely face everyday.

Adventures in Babysitting

(Here I am in 1989 with James and Nisi Hester, long time clients.)

Paul and I are very popular these days. We had three outings this weekend, which meant getting a babysitter three times. (My sister helped out one night so I only had to hire two sitters for the other nights.) Score!

Seeing as I’m the big P in my ward over the young women, I know all the teenage girls in my neighborhood pretty darn well. So I know who is responsible and well…..who will eventually be responsible when they grow up. I like to pay my babysitters well (by Utah standards at least). I pay $4 an hour because I want them to come back. I think most girls charge $1 per hour, per kid, and since I only have three kids I guess I figure I pay 35% more than others. This calculation assuages my guilt of still paying less than minimum wage. I only earned $2 an hour back in my days of babysitting glory--what a crime!!

One of the girls who babysits for me regularly is afraid of Peeping Toms or creatures that go bump in the night because she always closes all the drapes in the house when she comes. Bless her heart, I can totally understand this. When I babysat, I usually babysat for poor Mormons like myself who didn’t have cable. So the only shows on Friday night were 20/20 at 10pm. So I watched that dang show every Friday night and then freaked myself out because it was usually about axe murderers or prisoners who escape from the state penitentiary. (And Chino, CA is the home of a large men’s prison!!). Funny thing is, now I am back to those days of childcare. Hey, where’s my $2 an hour?

Gifts that Keep on Giving (Giving Me Pain)

We pride ourselves on not buying many toys for our kids--they get 1 toy on their birthday and 3-4 at Christmas time. That's it. The rest they get from relatives with good intentions. Now, I'm not going to name these relatives (but they are fellow bloggers so you can guess who they are) nor will I get into the reasons why I think they give such destructive gifts to my children, and believe me, I have theories about these saboteurs. I will simply point out the current gifts that are giving me grief. You be the judge whether these toys are evil gifts.

1. Musical Sit and Spin: Yes, the vomit vortex is back from my childhood. Only this time it is updated with the ability to play horrific music whenever you so much as tap the toy with your foot when walking by. It plays awful music trying to impersonate rock, hip-hop, and country. We have deemed it an upstairs only toy. This rule is broken all the time.

2. Water Sprayer Duck (seen in photo next to Water Spraying Darth Vader which never worked). The water spraying duck caused me havoc just today. When you attach the hose to the duck, it sprays water all crazy-like through the snorkel. Cute right? Wrong, the girls opened the back door while the water duck was doing it’s thing and water was quickly sprayed all over the wood floors in the dining area. This led me to mopping and swearing at the same time.

3. Manicure Kits: Who are the ad wizards who thought giving small girls permanent oil based paints in the form of nail polish was a good idea? I don’t really need to explain this any further, do I? It simply fuels the fire behind every small child’s desire to be a grafitti artist. That also goes for the 3-D Glue Bonanza. That "washable" label is a joke meant to frighten mothers all around the world.

4. Paint Sprayer: Our kids have received this gift twice now! Creative and crafty right? Wrong! My kids have turned on the sprayer before without the shield on thus spinning hot pink paint (not washable) around the room and landing on my white slipcovered furniture. Come to my house and I’ll show these stains that occurred at least 3 years ago. I didn’t have a personal photo of this toy because I have thrown it away.

5. Doodle Bear: (Seen at top of blog.) In theory this is a good idea. Give a child a special marker for her special bear. Child can scribble away to her heart’s content and then mother can wash bear all nice and clean. Child can repeat process. Wrong! This only teaches the child that scribbling is ok--especially on her own body. She will then scribble on walls in her bedroom, French doors, supporting beams on front porch, etc. Evil toy.

Please, I am begging the offending gift givers out there. Just give my kids what they really want—cardboard boxes, loads of Scotch tape, and plain white copy paper.

Ode to Summer

Summer has finally come, rejoice with song!
I’ve been dreaming of you for oh so long
Warmer days make me elated
'Cause winter made me mean and jaded

All of a sudden life seems carefree
My kids stay in the pool away from me
Windows open, breezes blowing
I was beginning to wonder if you were coming.

Give me the heat oh any day,
Snow is evil please stay away
So here’s to sandals and shorts, this is my plan
Poolside days and soon dark tans

I love the heat so much it’s true
I rarely run my A/C cooler
For when summer is here
I want to fry like Sizzle-lean
May it last long and fill my happiness canteen

Synopsis of YW Camp

Lots of snow and mud….40 degrees by day, 20 degrees by night……all day campfires to stay warm….all day smoke inhalation of said campfire burns lungs and eyes day in and day out…wind galore chaps face…..went through 2 tubes of chap stick….extreme cold keeps me in three layers of clothing at a time….backpacked and hiked in snow….stuffed foot warmers in shoes after hike to thaw out feet…..peed on a rock in the wilderness like an animal…..getting a sore throat…..sore ankles the next day from sinking in snow while hiking…..sore between my knees from ‘chattering’ with the cold….one of my campers got very sick…..life threatening…..life flight….helicopter finally landed due to our prayers to calm the winds…..drank more hot chocolate this week than entire life combined….learned more crazy camp songs like ‘mormon boy’ and ‘wienie man’ that will surely come to haunt me on my deathbed in a state of delirium……realized sore throat turned into bad cold with constant coughing and nose blowing….had a great time getting to know the girls better….hoped I helped them increase their testimonies of Jesus Christ….great testimony meeting…..came home and took hot shower for 45 minutes….slept…..ate Café Rio for dinner….slept through the night in my warm bed without a ski hat on…..nursed my cold with cough medicine....happy I went.

Missing My Parents

I'm a big girl, but even big girls need their parents once in a while. I haven't lived near my parents ever since I was 18 and moved out of their home. (Paul's parents live in Chicago so they're even farther and we see them even less.!) I'm pretty independent but every once in a while I miss my parents so much it hurts. Now that I am a parent and my kids are getting older, I seem to be missing them even more. Here are the top 10 reasons I wish I lived closer to my parents:

1. All kids should get to hang out at their grandparents home eating homemade cookies from Grandma and flying model airplanes with Grandpa.

2. All daughters need a break from cooking dinner once in a while. Nothing makes me more jealous than to know that my sister and brother go to my parents house every Sunday night and eat fabulous enchiladas or gorditas. Aye, yo me gusto comida preparada de mi Mama. I'm sure I said that wrong. Sometimes I just want to cry on Sunday nights when I hear about my friends who are heading to parents/grandparents for Sunday dinner. Sigh. What would it be like to have someone cook for me? I can't really fathom that.

3. My dad is a great handyman. He's taught me how to put up crown moulding, change my spark plugs, and use a compound miter saw. If he lived here I would be learning even more from my amazing Dad.

4. My mom is good at doing hair and nails. She is a cosmetologist. If she lived closer, my girls would have cuter hair. Hallie refused to let anyone cut her hair for 6 months insisting that only Abuelita could touch her hair. Also, she gives the best manicures.

5. Lunches with my mom. Sometimes when I am starved for adult conversation during the day I beg Paul to meet me somewhere for lunch. If my mom lived here, Paul would get more work done because I would bug her and not him.

6. Great conversations--my dad is a great conversationalist. Luckily this one isn't too much of an issue because we chat on the phone--lately during his L.A. commutes home at night. We talk about McCain, Obama, racism, the price of gas, etc.

7. Shopping. I hate to shop, but my mom seems to find bargains wherever she goes. If she lived here, I would go shopping with her--as my good luck charm.

8. I still need to learn how to make Carne Machaca and Chile Rellenos (not the healthy ones, the fried ones) from my mom.

9. My Dad could help Nathan win the pine wood derby. Ok, so I don't really care about this one, but Nathan does. He's always saying, "Grandpa can fix anything!"

10. Kindness--my mom is so kind to me. I'm sure I would be a kinder mom if she were here to rub off on me.

I feel a trip coming on to California.....

I Thought I Lived in A Desert?

As a Young Women leader in my church, I get to/have to/am privileged too/am forced to go to Young Women's camp. And aren't we lucky? This is my third year in a row going to camp, but the first year I am going in June. We are the first stake/congregation going--well, technically we are the second stake to go to camp this summer--there was one other stake going the week before us (this week) but it was cancelled due to the all the snow. I got word Sunday that we are definitely going to camp next week--even though it has been snowing for two days in the mountains. Camp Mia Shalom is located up Fairview Canyon and the elevation is over 8,000ft. These pictures were taken just a few days ago.

Now, if you know me, you know that the only thing worse than being hungry for me is being cold. As I sit here typing this on my laptop (in my warm kitchen) I am wearing a light coat because it is only in the 50s today--and I'm only at 4,500ft! Dang this cold spring! So wish me luck, wherever you are in the world, during June 10-14, as you eat a popsicle and wear shorts. I'll be wearing mud-caked shoes and a heavy coat. I know, wah wah, where's that tiny violin when I need it?

Cha-Ching!

Dear Wal-Mart,

A few months ago I would've cursed your store for having so many self-checkout stands and cutting way back on your oh-so-friendly employees thus forcing them to go to the other friendliest place in America--the DMV. But life is all about turning lemons into lemonade, so instead of clenching my germ-filled shopping cart handle when I can't find any checkers with lines shorter than Disneyland, I now let the kids have a blast at the check out stands.

So thank you Wal-Mart for letting my kids play cash register in real life. The three of them have a whole assembly line system each time we go to your dreaded store. One physically scans the items, one is quality control to make sure the item was actually charged, and the youngest child is the bagger--a true division of labor. They are very good at it. I just stand by now and read a trashy magazine while the child labor is being performed. Now that's progress.

Sincerely,

Cynthia

Mother Extraordinaire

Memorial Day, Thanks Dad!

Thanks Dad for serving our country during the Vietnam War. I love to hear your stories and read your blog from those days gone by--this one is my favorite. Recently you told me that you were exposed to Agent Orange during the war as it was your job to load it onto the planes you serviced. That probably explains some of your recent health problems--at least our government agrees with that much. So thanks Dad for giving so much to serve this great land of ours.

Front Page News

I was featured on the front page of etsy.com last Saturday. The front page features items for sale, usually with a theme, and it rotates every 30-60 minutes from what I can tell. It brought a lot of traffic to my shop. Out of 178,054 sellers on etsy, I feel pretty special. Sweet deal! (Zoom in to see mine better)

Feeding My Son's Star Wars Addiction

Am I a cool mom or what? Nathan wore this shirt again today. He gets compliments from teachers and students alike. Feed the ego, oh yea.

Chain Reaction of Chores

Cleaning house is evil. That's why I avoid it so much lately. How come when I set out to do something simple like mop my 1,000 square feet of wood floors (ha, ha) it turns into a 2 hour cleaning escapade? Case in point--I needed to mop yesterday. But to mop I need to pick up all the garbage the little creatures who live in this home leave scattered all over the place.....then I have to move all 10 chairs and barstools to the area rug in the family room.....then I have to vacuum sweep my floors.....then I can finally mop. It's a chain reaction of chores just to get to the task at hand. I know, whine whine whine. (Marcia, marcia marcia!)

Not too long ago, I was talking to my mom on the phone:

Me: Ugh, I need to mop these floors mom. The sticky spots have now been covered by dust so they are hard mud-caked black spots now.

Mom: Oh Cynthia, don't be so hard on yourself. Spend time with your kids, don't worry so much about cleaning. They grow up so fast. (This is always my mom's pep talk to me when I complain about all my chores.)

Me: Mom, it's bad. I haven't mopped in 2 months.

Mom: Oh...welll...hmmm....now that is bad. (chuckle, chuckle) Go mop.

See? My mom is a kind soul and really chooses to think the best of me as a homemaker until I flat out tell her how dirty I let my floors get before I mop. You'd think I told her I took up smoking. Maybe I would mop more often if it didn't take 2 hours. Nah, maybe not.

(Yea, I know if you zoom in on the photo you can see my roman shade are all falling apart. You know the phrase--the cobbler's children don't have any shoes.)

Fun Find

I found the cutest vinyl decals from a seller's shop just called "holly" on etsy.com. Does this describe me or what? She's local too--just up the I-15 in South Jordan. It sure adds a little life to my red van. Too cute!

The Search For Perfect Waffles

I’m very picky about my waffles. (Ok, so I’m very picky about most of my cooking.) For years I scoured through cookbooks trying to find the ultimate waffle recipe. I knew they had to be light and crispy with lots of flavor. I tried the recipes in all my favorite cookbooks: Favorite Comfort Food by Martha Stewart (by the way, her book has the best pancake recipe ever), How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, The Joy of Cooking, The New Best Recipe, and several recipes on the food network website including Alton Brown’s recipe. All produced good, but not the best waffles. The hunt continued.

Then I bought CookSmart by Pam Anderson a few years ago and fell in love with her waffle recipe. This was it. The perfect waffle. Sometimes I buy cookbooks and find a winner of a recipe and think, "Even if this was the only good recipe inthis book, it was worth the money." That's how much I love this recipe. I modified the recipe just a touch (I didn’t see much difference for whipping the egg whites separately and then folding them into the batter.) The only drawback is that they are high in fat, but I guess that’s what makes them so crispy and good. I think the high oil content and using cornstarch is the secret. This recipe makes a lot but I love leftovers heated in the toaster the next day. (Makes 13 round waffles or 20ish square ones.)

Best Waffles Ever
2 ¼ cups flour
¾ cup cornstarch
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ½-3 cups buttermilk
¾ cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Whisk the dry ingredients, whisk the wet ingredients. Stir them all together. If your waffle iron (like mine) has different settings, Set the iron to a high setting for crispy waffles. As waffles cook, place them in the oven on the rack, in a single layer for 5 minutes. Do not skip this step or your waffles will steam and get soggy on your plate.

It's Illegal to Kill Seagulls

At the end of dinner is when we read our nightly verses/chapter from the Book of Mormon. So last night we were reading Alma 1—you know the chapter all you LDS types out there—it’s all about Nehor and how he is executed because he murdered Gideon. Our kids love anything murder and gore. (Don’t all kids?) This of course led to all sorts of questions—

Nathan: So why was Nehor killed?

Paul: Because he murdered Gideon. It’s wrong to murder, so he paid with his life.

Nathan: Does that happen today--you're killed if you kill?

Paul: In some states yes, including Utah.

Ilene: Is it wrong to kill animals?

Paul: Do you think it’s kind to go around killing animals? (Mind you we are eating chicken at the time. Hee hee. We ain’t no vegetarians!)

Ilene: Is it illegal to kill the state bird of Utah?

Me: (laughing out right) Ilene, where is this coming from, have you seen someone recently killing a seagull?

Ilene: No, I just want to know if you’d go to jail or be executed if you killed the state bird.

Paul: (exasperated and ready to end this weird conversation) Yes, you’d sure get in trouble with the law, maybe not jail, but there’d be trouble.

(Ergh...am I the only one who can't get spacing right on blogs? Frustrating!!)

The Feminist In Me Was Dying

I love it when the kids watch old movies. Why? Because I can actually stand to be in the room when they watch the movie. I love old movies and hate all the new kid movies. I’ve never seen Shrek and definitely not a single animated Disney movie since The Little Mermaid. They all drive me nuts. But my kids are getting old enough that they can appreciate a little bit more than talking cars and blue genies in bottles.

So....last weekend we watched the old Freaky Friday with Jodie Foster. I remember watching this movie as a kid and liking it. But I also remember I couldn’t tell if Jodie Foster was a boy or girl. Anyway, as I watched it with my kids I realized some sexist comments that made me cringe. The mom is trying to give her husband some pointers on a speech or something to which he adds: “Ah, don’t worry about that honey. You don’t need to say anything. You just show up and look beautiful as usual.” Gasp!! Women are seen and not heard? I wanted to stop the movie and explain to my kids what an ignorant fool the dad was, but that line seemed to slip past them so I let it go.

Then just on Saturday night we watched “Yours, Mine and Ours.” I love Lucille Ball and Henry Fonda and have fond memories of this movie. What I didn’t remember about this movie is that Lucille Ball is 55 in this movie but she has a newborn baby. Shah, right. That was way before in vitro fertilization baby. But I digress. What made the feminist in me cry out and turn to Paul audibly groaning was when Lucille Ball is writing a letter to her hubby who is overseas and relates to him that "our daughter has finally stopped eating because she noticed a boy. What us girls won’t do for our men. As you can see by the enclosed photo, she still has a few pounds to go before her date Friday night.” Gasp again!! Worse, they show a picture of a normal sized girl!! Once again, I thought I should stop the movie and explain the cruelty and injustice of what just happened, but I didn’t. Both of these movies were rated G, or not rated at all, but I swear I’d rather have swearing than sexism in movies anyday. Serenity now!

Make A Statement

I've avoided blogging about such a very frivolous topic, but I can no longer avoid it. I bought a new sewing machine (or as the Bernina company now calls it) a sewing computer. It's the Bernina Aurora 435. It's an embroidery machine along with the smartest sewing machine I've ever used. (It can go from 0 to 5 buttonholes in 2.3 minutes.) It's kind of embarrassing at how much it costs, so I have refused to even mention here as of late that I got a new machine. (It makes me feel better that I bought the low-end model as far as embroidery machines go. It was sure tempting to buy the $6,000 model, shah right.)

But I'm taking the cat out of the bag because I must share with you all the new creative outlet I have now discovered due to this new sewing computer. Wise, witty, sharp, whatever you want to call them sayings are new being embroidered on aprons and such. Oh sure, the ladies down at the Bernina shop are all into embroidering gorgeous landscapes and their grandkids names (I'm the youngest in my classes by at least 20 years) but I'm most excited about embroidering my sarcasm onto cloth.

So if you have anything sharp and witty that would be great embroidered on an apron, pillow, t-shirt, toaster cozy, doggy sweater, whatever then send it my way. I'm achin' to embroider it. My next aprons I embroider (once I get rid of the virus that ate my lap top) will say "If you don't like it, starve" and "Because I Said So". And possibly a pillow that says, "Don't drool on me." A subliminal message t-shirt for my son that says "I love to play the piano" and a t-shirt for Ilene that says, "I Love to Clean My Room!" It's not cheaper than therapy, but it's a whole lot funner.