I said I’d take pictures of the girls’ dresses, but we got busy with the new school year starting. However, I received a special request from a certain grandma to present pictures as soon as possible, so I jumped on the ball this morning and shot some quick pictures.

This is my favorite picture, but the sun was directly behind them which made the camera quite mad.

Here’s a better view of the dresses from top to bottom.

I’m happy to report that the girls absolutely love these dresses (they never seemed much interested in the other dresses I’ve made). It really was an easy dress to sew up, and I’d like to make more of them with different color schemes/patterns. We’ll see if I can find another group of cute fabrics and find the time.

I didn’t think it was going to happen, but I actually got a project completed while the girls were away. And just in time for the girls to return to be surprised by these fun dresses. I can’t wait to see what they look like on all the girls. Glee!

While visiting Door County I happened across some milkweed and spotted some caterpillars. I pointed them out to Mike, and he excitedly replied that they were monarch caterpillars. This was good news as we had been mourning the loss of our other caterpillar pet (he ran away when Lucy knocked his “home” over, we don’t dare imagine that Lucy would have eaten him). We decided right then and there that we would be taking one home with us to make him part of our family and watch the stages from caterpillar to butterfly.

After much consideration we named him Russell. It was actually Mike’s choice, and there was no convincing him otherwise even though Annie and Mimi really wanted to name him Sparkles or some princessy sounding name. By the way, we have no idea if “he” is a boy or girl. For all we know, every time we call him Russell he could be cringing with shear agony of being thought of as a boy.

We made sure to take care of Russell during our drive home from Door County. It occurred to us that we’d have to take Russell to Minnesota with us to stay with Grandma while we went to SD. Grandma seemed to be okay with taking care of this particular pet instead of Lucy. Her only responsibility was to feed him new milkweed leaves every so often. Russell did appreciate Grandma’s care, but he was so thrilled to have us back with him again.

Meet Russell.

Not long after arriving home from MN we noticed Russell had attached himself to the top of the netting in his bughouse via some white webby-looking substance. The next day we saw he was hard at work getting himself ready for the pupa stage. He had made a little bubble around himself, and we could see him squirming inside. By the end of the day he was a full-fledged pupa. What’s even more beautiful about Russell the Pupa is that he has gold sparkles. Maybe Annie was on to something when she came up with her name choice. According to the internets, Russell will be in this stage for about 10 days. Oh, we can’t wait to meet Russell the Monarch Butterfly.

Russell the Pupa.

Like any proud parent, we filmed Russell while eating.

The summer field trips continue with a trip to Alpaca Art. It’s a paint-your-own-pottery studio, and they offer 1/2 off the studio fee for kids on Wednesdays. The Johnsons have been wanting to try this place out. I’ve been reluctant to go because in the past I’ve had bad luck with these places in which I broke my painted pieces both times on the way home from the shop. However, I decided to give it a go, and I’m hoping this time will be different. We met up for lunch first at Trolley Dog, and then headed on over for a day of painting.

I thought it would be fun for the girls to each have their own fancy, dinner plates, so I “forced” them to paint a plate. Annie was really drawn to the fairy, princess, and animal figurines, but I vetoed all those **hideous** ideas and stuck to my guns to have the girls paint those durn plates. Mimi could have cared less what I gave her to paint, so no arguments with her (yet).

After many re-do’s (thank heavens that you can wipe those plates off to a clean slate which we did numerous times) the girls finally decided what designs they wanted on their plates. Annie wanted to do something French/Paris-themed, so we came up with the poodle idea for her plate. Mimi agonized over what she wanted, and after I suggested the princess crown idea a dozen or more times Mimi finally gave in to that concept. All in all, I think the plates turned out darling and will be even cuter once the bright colors show through. It was a very chaotic afternoon with a squirmy baby and toddler, but the kids still had a lot of fun and will certainly be pleased once they get their projects back.

The artistes.

The artwork. Julie and I ended up having to commandeer Alex and Mimi’s plates because they both kind of gave up and the work involved was a little too intricate for their chubby fingers.

Chloe did surprisingly well considering she was made to sit in her stroller much of the time. She got to paint two magnets, an ice-cream cone and a puppy dog.

Desperate times called for desperate measures, and yes, I gave Violet her own lollipop. Poor Violet had nothing to do other than be patient for 2 hours. When she’s old enough I’ll take her to make a project.

Good times!

E.T.A.: The girls insisted on wearing their crocheted hats after they dug them up from the basement. And they also kept saying they wanted to be twins today.

The girls don’t have nearly enough to wear especially in the dress department, so I was compelled to make them more (tongue is firmly planted in cheek here). Once again the Matilda Jane knot dresses have been the inspiration for me to make these dresses. I was very surprised at how easy they were to put together and cut out which is always the lengthiest part of the project. Many experienced sewists may gasp at this statement, but I used the rotary cutter for the entire cutting out of the pattern pieces. However, the front and back yokes were the only non-rectangular parts of the garment, and there was only one curve to those as well. My new serger also made the project much more streamlined and easier to proceed through the project (thanks, Mike, for my early birthday present). The girls were very excited to try on their new dresses and got to wear them to church today. I already have another project lined up to make for them, but I don’t know if I’ll have time this week to get them finished due to our upcoming trip to MN. Make sure to check out the gathered pockets I also added to each dress (the 3rd picture shows the detail).