The white dress

Attempt number two of camera phone to blog.

In case you're curious, I'm trying to send photos directly from my phone to the blog. The first method I tried yesterday involved sending a text message. Apparently, blogger will take a text message and publish it immediately, but NOT if it includes a photo.

I was able to email my blog address from the phone, but that saves a draft so I had to go back and tell it to publish. Like a week later when I finally remembered to do it :)

Anywho, here is Charlotte in her white dress from last week.

Quick photos of Chsr in her white dress.

My yearly masterpiece

(I hope the photo link works OK. I have no idea what it looks like through Facebook. You might have to actually click through to see the entire thing, the twitpic link seems to be cropping funny)

I used to sew a lot more than I do. I've made drapes and upholstered ottomans, quilts, stuffed animals, clothing, even my baby sister's flower girl dress for my wedding. I did stop short at making my own dress (though I still have one pattern that is gorgeous...I just need an excuse for a ball gown...).

Before my daughter was born, I imagined myself sewing all sorts of clothes and home decor and crafts for her. I have books and patterns and even piles of uncut fabric stocked in my office. Ok, other working moms, stop laughing at me. Really, now. Stop.

Actually what killed my sewing hobby wasn't Charlotte's birth, or the fact that my sewing room became her bedroom. It was that my new sewing space (our home office) shares a wall with Charlotte's bedroom. For years you could barely sit in a squeaky chair in that room after bedtime without waking her up. And then came her little brother.

In the past twelve months, I have sewn exactly two items. Charlotte's white dress for Kindergarten and now, as of last night, Charlotte's white dress for first grade. She goes to a Catholic school and for special mass days throughout the year, the girls all must wear an all-white dress. With sleeves. And not a beaded-satin-and-chiffon-mini-bride white dress. Something so "basic" that no store bothers to sell them :)

But I can sew, so sew I did. I had no time, and no space, and was up till the wee hours of the..oh wait, till 11:30...that's still late for me :) Her dress is done. Its adorable. I'm biased. I only had to cut the front out twice thanks to a little help from a scissor-wielding 3-year old. I did my first invisible zipper ever (something other sewers/sewists/seamstresses might understand...and that's a whole sewing-geeked out post of its own).

And I have no idea if it fits because my darling daughter was sound asleep when it was finished. And it still lacks the finishing touch: a good coating of stain repellent because white dresses attract chocolate milk like kittens to a crystal vase of flowers.

Photo of the completed dress on its new owner shall be forthcoming. First white dress day is tomorrow.

Kiddie Candids

Until recently my kids had one of those "kid-proof" cameras. The kind whose commercials show kids dropping them down the stairs. Yep, I'm pretty sure this one went down the stairs once or five times. And that's not what killed the camera.

I was going through the memory card looking at what all we'd managed to salvaged. Judging by the kids faces, outfits, and haircuts, we had about a year's worth of pictures. In the first photo, Trystan looks to be about two and a half. And he's clearly upset. If I had to guess, I'd say that his sister had just taken the camera out of his hands.

There were tons of unrecognizable blobs among the shots. And some funny ones, like this series of Charlotte clearly attempting a self-portrait. 

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(Last One of the Charlotte Series)

For some reason, this scene was a popular one. This is the corner of our bed (yes, unmade). The same shot was included in several different groups clearly separated by time.

Feet are also a popular subject. These are Trystan's.

On the same day as he took pictures of his feet, he was photographing our deck. This shot is looking down on the patio and our massively overgrown garden. Its not a bad shot, actually.

You might be wondering just how a kid-proof camera does actually die.

There might be more than one effective method. Ours drowned in the bathtub. Overnight apparently.  Yes, a big person got scolded for leaving water in the bathtub overnight. And a couple of kids were scolded for putting the camera in it.

The camera was toast. The batteries leaked. But the memory card was salvageable (after Windows' checkdisk repaired a file).

This last photo is the last one for the old camera.  I have no idea what this last actually is. Could be an extreme close up of a nose. Could be the bottom of the tub.