Autumn Begins

Cabin in the North Woods ~part 3~

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Smocks for little Button Rose

I have ordered a pattern to make little winter smocks for my Greta and am so excited to have them for her! I found the pattern through Jewels' helpful link here. Yesterday I was able to go to the fabric store and get enough to make three of these little play dresses. The pattern's "View 1" is fully lined and I am hoping that that will translate into being fully reversible (for expansion of wardrobe possibilities and all).

The Lord was kind to me yesterday as I went to the fabric store. We don't get to a good shopping center very often because of today's fuel prices, so we rode along with Caleb's dad who had other business in town (I tried to be as efficient as possible because others were waiting on me, but it always takes me a bit to make the one right choice for dresses to wear everyday!) I ended up going to a different fabric store than I usually go to and found to my delight that they were having a huge sale. Two of the prettiest fabrics were $0.99/yard, the denim was 75% off, and the other three prints were marked considerably down. This was such a relief to someone trying to make lovely clothes for her little princess as frugally as possible. You can see in the picture which will go together: teal and sage with roses lined in pink, denim lined in tan with rose wreaths, and red flowers with gold stripes lined in gold with white feathery leaves. She has a couple pairs of cotton cable-knit tights to go with these, and I hope to figure out how to make some warm little bloomers for her to stay extra warm with.

I am listening to a most beautiful and autumnal playlist this afternoon. If you want a delicious "scroll" through the sights and sounds of beautiful autumn, visit The Button Willow Chronicles. I did earlier this afternoon and just left it in my taskbar so I could enjoy the lovely music.

Greta is taking her nap now. I have potatoes boiling on the stove for supper and pork chops in the oven. I used my lovely suribachi to grind some dried herbs for the top of them before I put them in. It smelled so nice freshly ground like that. I showed Greta what I was doing and, instead of swishing around in the herb powder like I was going to let her do, she thought the bowl itself was pretty nice.

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The little bouncy seat that Greta has spent many hours happily watching me keep house from is no longer much of a help. She has figured out how to get out! The minute she's in and free from the strap she starts twisting over and crawling out. She is such a busy little girl. I think I'm going to have my hands full. She wants to explore everything. The Ergo is a wonderful option if I need to leave the room she's in. She can ride in the back now, which makes laundry and dishes and such much easier.

:: egg yolks and a growing girl ::

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Greta's very first mouthfuls of solid food were had on vacation one morning during breakfast. She sampled some of my egg. (We got a picture of it, of course; maybe I'll post it later with my other vacation pictures.) She is growing fast and is getting more and more eager to eat our food. She leans forward to have a drink whenever any of us is drinking something and always wants to grab the food off our plate during meal-times. This morning was the first that we attempted to have a real breakfast time for Greta.

She sat in her highchair and wore a terry bib. I need to sew a sort of belt for her chair to keep her from sliding right out (we improvised with her blanket). She seemed to enjoy the experience of this morning's egg. I think she ate three little half-spoonfuls. She sucked all of it right off of the spoon, and then I let her chew on the spoon by herself a bit. Do you see anyone who looks like she'll be left-handed? Of course when all the excitement of chewing on her spoon was over she filled up her tummy with noonies. She likes that best of all. So... here we begin another daily rhythm with the Rosebud! ~'::

Cabin in the North Woods ~part 2~

The Lake

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Cabin in the North Woods ~part 1~

Our Cabin

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..~.o.~..

Back Home

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September

The weather is getting chillier again. It was 46 degrees outside when I woke up this morning. I shut the windows and started a fire in the woodstove. I was glad for the warmth of coffee and fried cornbread in front of the stove with my man before he went to work. Greta woke up early (maybe it had something to do with the fact that the smoke alarm was going off again because of some candle wax on the stove), so we snuggled and got her dressed in some good layers for the day. She’s supposed to be napping again—we’ll see how long that lasts!
I have the iron on and am going to go make my way through the pile of wrinklies. I am working on getting things put together for our vacation. We’ll be spending time in a cabin with my family and some good friends on a lake in the north woods. Yes, indeed, farther north…we’re thinking woodstove, sweaters, canoeing and hot chocolate. It should be lovely. We’ll all fit in one big cabin, and there’s a pickin’ porch on the front for siblings and friends to play their bluegrass on. I believe it will be relaxing and enjoyable!
Off to my ironing. “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” is playing from my itunes library. Instigorating.

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::'~ Later:

Greta was watching from her bouncy seat as I made dinner this noon. She was all snuggled under a fuzzy blanket, hugging her dollie--such a little sweetie. We were listening to 101 Strings Orchestra's Gershwin CD while I kneaded the dough for some rolls, and I was imitating Ella singing "Foggy Day" (complete with pizazz) to her. She thought that was hilarious. She giggled and giggled!

Ripening

We planted a dwarf honeycrisp apple tree on the hill next to our patio early this summer. It has been growing well and has produced one lovely little apple. It is beginning to turn red now. We're just hoping a bird or bug doesn't get to it before it's ripe enough to pick!