kirstencan

Tutus

Swan Lake went really well!  These girls worked way hard, and after a couple technical glitches Friday night they ROCKED Saturday. 

Last year I couldn't stay for all of dress rehearsal, but this year I was able to.  I must admit I kinda love dress rehearsals.  The energy is high (the stress, too), the costumes are everywhere and it's crazy.  But fun.

And I love getting to walk around with my camera, since of course I can't during actual performances.

Oh, I forgot to mention the twirling in the halls.

That's my girl above.  Their costumes were so sweet this year!  And I got really good at fixing those headresses on all of them!

Swans were everywhere.

And our Odette was absolutely stunning.  So of course I loved shooting her again, too.

Sorry if you're sick of ballet posts, but this should be the end of them.  At least until the June recital!

Where I'll be this weekend

Dress rehearsal is tonight - fun stuff (but LONG)!  I do love watching my girl perform.

I'm sure I'll have some photos to show you later.

Random

Sorry I haven't been here more lately.  Just busy.   I've finished up all of the things I was working on for the Swan Lake performance, and basketball is over, so I should have more time... when?

My birthday was great - thanks for the comments!  We had a fun morning out, a chill/relax/watch Project Runway afternoon, and tried a new-to-us restaurant in the evening.  Nice.

(photo by Thomas)

I've been super motivated to teach art lately, I'm excited to show you the Monet unit we've been doing!  I wish I could teach my kids art every day, but there just isn't always the time/energy.

I just ordered these earrings.  So excited!

We're studying space now (hooray for netflix having space documentaries on demand!) and we painted and put together this mobile of the solar system.  It's supposed to hang in the boys' room, but to get it out of the way Aaron hung it over our table.   And we all kind of dig it there, schoolroom-looking or not.

Speaking of Netflix - been enjoying that for the past couple of months.  We're currently watching Prison Break and That 70's show.  Oh, and we finished Bleak House (bleak!).  Between Netflix and Hulu we never watch 'real' tv.  In fact, we just disconnected our antenna even.

Took the girl to Old Navy to shop the sales a little while back.  She needed sneakers, so I told her to go look in the boys' section.  She was all 'Whaaa?' (cuz you know, ew, gross, boys) but she did, and found these rockin' kicks.

Which I'm sure weren't designed to go with stripey tights, but we're digging it.

Alright, I'd better get moving.  It's a taekwondo, copy shop, costco, dance, copy shop (again), library, pack meeting and primary presidency meeting day.

Busy.

But good.

How are you?

 

35 today

A big, round-ish number.

Yikes.

However.  I'm so happy where I am. 

That is good.

And a lot of my friends I've met online are a bit older than me and such wonderful, creative, beautiful people they are.  They're still cool.  Makes getting older less scary, really.

I just wish the little gray hairs would stop popping up.

Also, I had two cool age-related compliments recently.

Yesterday, one of my neighbors who knows me fairly well called to tell me early Happy Birthday and asked 'Are you even 30 yet?'

Booyah.

A couple weeks ago I was getting my hair cut at a new salon, and tried to bring up 'my 10 year old daughter's hair' to get some free advice (because oh my goodness, her hair is... a lot).  My stylist stopped and was like, "You have a 10 year old??  How old are you?"  And was surprised.

So that's good.

My big present (besides couches, which we're having the hardest time shopping for) is Aaron taking the day off work.  Right now he and the boys are off getting my birthday donuts.  I'm going to head downstairs and check out the banner the kiddos surprised me with and then get a nice sugar high.  Then we're off on a field trip to the planetarium, and later out to dinner together. 

Because my birthday is a family holiday. 

Liberty Jane

So I'd heard of Liberty Jane a while ago, but I just got around to trying out some of their patterns.

Doll clothes are fun because since the pieces are small, they go together quickly.  They are not fun, though, because small pieces are fiddly.  But it's good practice for me to use an actual pattern sometimes, right?

The first pattern I tried was the Ruffled Tee-Shirt dress.  I used an old t-shirt of mine. Besides being a little tighter on Emily than I expected (more of a tunic than a dress), it turned out okay.

There are several rather glaring mistakes though, so just don't ask to see the back.  Let's just say that attempt #2 turned out better.  Also, in several places the directions say to fold under and then fold under again - which is REALLY hard to do with knit, so I just folded it once. 

Love the leggings.  Again, mine are quite shoddy workmanship, but for my first try they work.

My girl doesn't care about my mistakes, she just thinks Emily looks adorable.  So that's good.

By the way, both girl and doll are done with their headgear!  Wahoo!

Here's both of the leggings/dresses, which can mix and match:

Poor Molly has been laid up with a broken leg for a couple of weeks.  My girl takes all of these things very seriously (like the headgear) and I'm pretty sure Molly will be in a cast for the full six weeks.  Please don't tell her I undid her cast to get the leggings on her for a photo - I think that's cheating or something.

Here's the next pattern I tried:  the UK holiday top.

A few changes I'd make next time, but I think it turned out pretty well.

Even with too-large elastic, because apparently, I don't like to look at the sizes when I buy it.

The denim skirt is handmade (years ago) from an old pair of jeans.

I think I will attempt the polo dress, and the Wrap-top dress, but the Heritage 30's dress will get passed to my mom I think.  So I don't mess it up. If you have a Kit or Molly/Emily doll, you really need that pattern.  SO cute. 

If you sign up for their email list, you can download a couple of free patterns, just so you know!