Jane Austen

Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors. Her books have inspired incredible screen versions. Fortunately, for us Austen fans, PBS is featuring her films on Masterpiece Theater. Hooray!! Sunday's movie was Persuasion.

I've never seen previous versions of the film, nor read the book, but I do have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Next week is Northanger Abbey. My goal is to read the book before Sunday, so that I can watch the movie and compare how closely it follows. For those of you who want to watch, check your local listings for Masterpiece on PBS Sunday nights! More updates to come as the Complete Jane Austen on PBS continues!

Progress, at last!

So, despite my sewing machine going on strike last week, I was able to get a few more pages finished for the Quiet Book.

This is page six of the book. I wouldn't have been able to finish it, because I didn't have any lame (I guess it's pronounced la-may, although it looks a lot like lame. haha). Thanks to Lola for providing the lame for the wings! The wings aren't pinned down to the page, so Marshy can play with the cool texture and make the butterfly "fly".

This is page seven. The dog house took me FOREVER! The hardest part was using the double fold bias tape around the dog house door. I have never used bias tape before this, and it was quite the experience.

I was going to make the dog out of white felt, so that it looked like Sparky, but forgot and started to make it out of brown. I would've started over, but I ended up liking the brown puppy better anyway!

I'm almost done with page eight, and then I get to put everything together! I'll keep you posted with more updates as my work progresses.

Sew much FRUSTRATION!

I want you all to meet my sewing buddy: Janome Harmony 2049, a Sears exclusive about 3 years ago. That's when it was given to me. I told my mom I wanted to start sewing, and she got me this beautiful machine. I was "sew" excited!

We had a really great relationship for about a year and a half. Then things started to go south. Whenever I wanted to sew, it didn't. It would do whatever it could to make sure that I got frustrated and put it away. I think it was trying to get back at me for not using it for so long, but really, if you think about it, it was its own fault!

Lately, things have been really good again with my machine. I have used it to make and bind 5 quilts in the last few months, in addition to my little angel's Halloween costume, a skirt for me, and now most of my little angel's Quiet Book.

Then, today, something went wrong. I don't know why, but my machine is being difficult to work with again. None of the settings have been changed since last night. It wasn't left on by accident again. It wasn't even put away, but left out on the table where I use it practically daily.

I finally finished the fifth page in the Quiet Book (the nest is velcro-ed on, and comes off to reveal 5 baby blue eggs), and had sewn most of the elements together for page six. All I had to do was baste the batting to my page background, and then attach the elements to the page. Then I would be off to work on pages seven and eight. It was when I began to baste that all went wrong. My machine stopped working with me, and began its vicious cycle of work-frustrate-frustrate some more-work.

If only it would cooperate with me. My goal was to finish the Quiet Book by Sunday, so that maybe, just maybe, I can sit through all of church. Well, sew much for that! There's just sew much frustration. :(

Hoarding

My little angel has enterd the "hoarding" stage. That wonderful stage where he feels that everything is his. I no longer have a sewing machine cover, as it has become his "stash box". It sits in the middle of the living room, turned upside down, overflowing with items that my angel has felt needed to be "put away".

This is how full the sewing machine cover is.

It is almost to the point of overflowing, but it is definitely time to empty it!

Periodically, I'll dump out the lid and put everything away, but before I know it, it is overflowing again! Today was one of those empty and put away days. You'll never believe how much stuff he can fit in there!

He had two of Grandma's books (we are currently residing in Grandma's house while she and Grandpa are serving an LDS mission), one of Grandma's cowboy action figure toys, 9 mini tonka cars for his race track, the lid to his block shape sorter, the zebra cart for his Fisher-Price Animal Train, his baby cell phone, a rubber crab and a rubber fish that go with his baby magnet blocks, a remote control, an empty water bottle, baby powder, an American Idol Coca-Cola plastic glass, Mom's craft bells, Mom's sewing measuring tape, Dad's mini-mag flashlight, Sparky's toy hedgehog, and Sparky's toy ball. See! I told you you wouldn't believe how much stuff he could fit in there!

Precious

This is my little angel. He was so tired this afternoon while we were shopping that he actually fell asleep in the cart! I had to make my cashier wait while I snapped a quick pic with my Verizon Juke.

Snowed In

Today it has been snowing on and off all day. Since I don't have to work today and I can't really go anywhere because the roads are bad, I decided to veg out at home with Marshy and Sparky. Sparky slept on the couch most of the morning.

Marshall wanted to watch a movie, so we popped in The Jungle Book. It has been ages since I have watched this classic Disney film. Marshy was so good to sit so nicely in his chair and watch the movie.

While he was watching the movie, I took the opportunity to get some more work done on my quiet book. I got another page done! It was hard to do the zipper, but at least I got it looking somewhat decent, considering it's my first zipper EVER!

About halfway through the movie, Sparky wanted to go outside. It had stopped snowing for a few minutes, so I let him out. About 15 minutes later, this is what showed up at the back door:

He looked like he had marshmallows glued to his legs! Poor little dog was so weighted down with snow. When he came in, I had to help him pull the big chunks of snow off of his legs and belly.

I got most of the big chunks off, and what little was still stuck on, I let Sparky lick off. There was so much snow on him that it made quite a large snowball when I was done picking it all up! This experience, of course, won't deter Sparky from wanting to go play outside in the freezing cold snow for a while. At least it has started to snow again, so I won't have to let him out for a while!

Sparky and Marshy, BFF

I was watching Marshall and Sparky play last night, and I realized that the "professionals" are right! I read in one of my parenting books, What to Expect: The Toddler Years, about how pets, especially dogs, help toddlers learn responsibility and to take care of something else.

Up until now, Sparky has really not paid much attention to Marshall. But now that Marshall is walking and crawling and playing all over the house, Sparky loves to play with him! Even when Marshall pulls his hair, he's really trying to pet him, Sparky still licks his face and curls up next to him on the floor.

It amazes me that this little 9-lb dog can love my little boy so much, and they actually get along all the time! I'm so glad that my two "boys" play nice all the time!