summer radio silence has ended!

been super busy this summer.  after the birdy mobiles, i baked these oatmeal chocolate chip cookies

and this blueberry pie.

eric and i then went to montana to meet up with his friends, float down some rivers, and go camping in a tent!  omg so fun.  we also went fishing a lot, but caught nothing but some tree branches hehe.  on the last night, i baked a pie for his friend who hosted us.  pie in a square dish: i feel like that's an oxymoron!

eric's friend florence gave us a bunch of rhubarb stalks from her garden in bozeman.  we carried them home and i baked them into a strawberry rhubarb pie.  so beautiful isn't it???

here's the pie, baked!

eric and i started a huge garden in our backyard this summer.  it has yielded many gigantic summer squash:

perfect for baking into squash/zucchini bread!  (we currently have 6 loaves in the freezer... eric would like that number to get up to 12...)

here's a meal we made from all homemade or homegrown goods:  swiss chard, amaranth, cabbage, peppers, tomatoes, kale, chives, and beef dumplings (those we folded... they don't grow in gardens unfortunately!!)

bunks turned 8 this august.  8!  we're growing carrots in the garden, and i accidentally pulled this one too early, soooooo, the teeniest carrot for the wee birthday bunny!

faye, eric's niece, has her birthday the day after mine.  i thought i'd sew her a bday dress, as she's super fly and adventurous.  i bought the southport dress pdf pattern from true bias and printed it out at 89%.  (i calculated that faye, at size 10 kids, is 89% of an adult size 0!  and who said fashion designers don't need math!)  pdf patterns suck.  you have to tape all the pages together and then cut out each pattern piece.  SO tedious.

bunks was so bored.  grumpy boy.

because i bought the adult pattern and not the kids one (so that i can print out more copies in my size or in sizes of my adult friends hehehe), i wanted to make sure the neckline was a little more modest.  i raised the neckline for faye's version:

my friend shirley always thinks i sew with perfect finishing.  here's proof that i'm a dope and sewed the bias binding too tight.  since i already trimmed the seam allowance, i ended up just separating the 2 ends and stitching them down flat.  i know, i could have redone it, but that would have taken FOREVER.  otherwise, the other armhole is nice!

here's the finished dress!  there's a drawstring at the waist and a waistband casing to enclose most of the drawstring.  you may recognize this fabric as being the same as the one i used for my sleeveless parent-teacher conference dress from 3 years ago.  my coworker carin gave me this vintage fabric from her mother's collection.  it's soft rayon.  i love it.  i still have a little left and plan to make mom a top from the rest!

eric helped me choose both the fabric and the buttons.  2 hrs he spent on button selection!  2 hours!  he also suggested that i do 2 close together at the top and the rest spaced out farther.  i dig it all, and i think the buttons are perfect.

here's the back.  the dress was a little long on faye, but fit her quite well across the top.  she'll grow into it!  she wore it to school today for her first day of 4th grade!!  i'm so flattered!

and finally, here's the peach pie i baked with the peaches eric's dad picked from his garden for my bday.  so delicious!

work starts next week!  i hope to do more sewing in the afternoons after i get home from school!!