Family Fashions

It all started with Aunt Bert showing me funky little mismatched outfits and patterns for baby Hattie (her granddaughter).  The more we looked at them, the more we realized these fun, free-spirited fashions were right up Maggie's alley!  Grammy Karen Dutton has been sewing Maggie skirts for several years now and she wears the dickens out of them; one is almost transparent and still she loves it.  We're all about unique, one-of-a-kind couture, especially if it's made by someone we love and admire.

So, Aunt Bert decided she'd work with Maggie on a design for an outfit.

They started with a basket of fabric and loads of enthusiasm....

Maybe these two pieces would look good side by side.  (You can see Maggie just got home from school because she's sort of frazzled.  You can ALSO see that her fashion choice that day was a little Bohemian, anyway!)

Here's the preliminary drawing, with the tiny little swatches attached.  This would change in about 10 minutes...

Ooooooo! I know it's supposed to be mismatched chic, but this is actually coming together sweetly!

Considering the options....

They worked really hard at making every piece of fabric work in the design.  One of the funny things was that Maggie was big into the symbolism of the fabrics.  "This one is an animal print, because I love wildlife."  and "I think a summer fairy would be better in this fabric, don't you?"

Each swatch was numbered and each number assigned a layer in the design.

Taaaaa-daaaaa!  

Here's the final design, all sewn up with love by Aunt Bert, modeled by her co-designer Maggie!

It's absolutely perfect for this little girl!

(And she feels beautiful when she's wearing it.)

Last night, we played "Fashion Show" and this is Maggie's pose.  She is so proud of the design and the process!

See the skirt?  There was fabric left over from part of the outfit, so Grammy Karen sewed a little skirt to go with it!  It's PERFECT with the top and adds another option for summer...

A more sedate picture of the same ensemble...

But wait...there's MORE.
We found this fabric in Billings at the end of our family vacation this year and Grammy Karen sewed it into a wonderful twirly skirt that matches the tie-dye.  You can't imagine how fun it is!

Happy girl with new duds and ideas for more...except this time I'm going to work with her on sewing her own.

Thank you, Aunt Bert and Grammy Karen!

(She's wearing the designer duds today to the Art Center to show her friend and artist Jordan.)

What's YOUR super power?

I was at a birthday party a few weeks ago where the mom had done a spectacular job (as usual) decorating her daughter's birthday cake and pulling together a really fun time for the kids.  One of the other moms complimented her and then asked me what my "Mom Super Power" was.  She had noticed that each mom in the community seemed to have a special talent for something....cake decorating, organizing occasions, games, making people feel comfortable and at ease at functions.  And she wondered what I thought my super power was.

Well.
Um...

I really didn't know what to say!
I make a decent pizza from scratch?

It took awhile, but I finally figured it out.
I can play.

When our little school took our field trip to Helena, I was Coral, Queen of the Mermaids every time we went to the pool. If you've never been mermaid royalty, let me tell you...it's one of the best gigs going!  All the splashing and diving and boiling of little shrimp in the hot tub; that's good stuff.

And at school, I'm Queen Seabring of the Fairies.  I'm a summer fairy, which stinks this time of year, but all the little wizards and fairies help me through the cold, dark months until once again, we shine.

I've been a monster, a wolf, a troll, a patient for the nursiest nurse around, a mail woman...whatever is needed in the game at the time!

The ability to completely suspend any sort of dignity and just BE someone or something else is a super power, I think.  My kids' birthday cakes leave something to be desired and I'm always running late on the decorating for holidays, but we have a wonderful time in our own little world(s)!

What's YOUR super power?

It's my opinion...

There's this thing going around Facebook right now where people are sharing "little known" facts about themselves according to the number that a friend gave them.  At first it started with itty-bitty numbers, but now it's outrageous...one person came up with 24 "little known facts" about herself and wanted to share more...more....MORE!  There's almost a desperation to reveal all these little things about themselves to the world, to appear interesting and likable.  And the Facebook peoples are eating it up!  More! MORE!

I was thinking about this when I ran this morning...

Couple things, here...

I know people love to tell about themselves.  And I love to hear their stories!  But it feels rather cheap to me to put it on the billboard of social media.  Not only that, but then it's triple-double shared via Google +, Twitter, and other formats I'm completely ignorant of.  (And gratefully so...)  Is it that important that absolutely everyone you've ever come in contact with knows you're scared of spiders? (Little known fact #1 on most lists that I've seen.)

Perhaps it's silly, but I like a little mystery in relationships.  I like discovering things in people without them telling me everything up front.  It's fun when something comes up and there's a sort of mutual confession...
"Honestly, I'd rather have onion rings than dessert any day..."
"You WOULD?!? I love onion rings, but only if they're done right!"
And so forth.
Sometimes those are the places I figure out little known facts about myself, too.

I don't want to make anyone feel badly about revealing their stuff on Facebook, about playing the game with everyone else.  I guess I'm just thinking out loud on my blog, explaining why I won't be joining in.  After all, Crazy Mary posts give you w-a-y more information than you need all the time! (I don't know why my blog feels more private, like a mutual journal, but it does...)

Goodnight, Moon...

When I was young, the night really scared me.  I liked seeing what was coming, liked the surety of life in the light...it's a hay bale, darn it! not a big hairy, scary thing waiting to pounce on and devour me. (You know..those things exist in every child's mind, don't they?) My family didn't go camping and we sure didn't light fireworks very often, especially in July when it was hot and dry and likely to start fires, so we didn't spend much time outside in the night. I read a lot; anyone who reads Nancy Drew knows that the bad stuff goes down in the dark. Wicked people lurked in the night! And wolves!

*shivers!*

After I had kids, I stopped sleeping.  Not stop-stopped, but there was no more of the secure, deep sleeps I had known when I was younger (and more naive, maybe).If something woke me up in the night, I was A-WAKE.  There was no going back to peaceful slumber...my brain was going and I had to be up, because goodness knows one cannot just lay in bed with a busy brain and a still body.  

And I'm still that way.  

BUT...

I found out that I love the night.

I love BEING in the night. 

There's such a peace I've found being out with the stars, with the moon in all her stages.  

It's going to sound really strange, but I love going for walks with friends in the dark because when we talk, there's nothing to distract from the thoughts that are shared.  It's somehow safer to share things...it feels private and insulated.  

It's easier to share things with God at night, too. 

I've given up trying to put myself back to sleep.  I've been given all sorts of advice on brain tricks; how to bore yourself into rest...apparently, my brain is too weirdly wired to be able to hypnotize itself like other people's can.  I usually end up getting up and letting the dog(s) out, wandering around out in the yard if it's a nice night saying goodnight to the moon and trying to breathe in the starlight.  Then, I go back in and read whatever strikes me and sometimes pray a little, wandering back to bed around 3:30 if the book is boring or making coffee at 4:30 if the book was thrilling. 

Last night, I stood out in the gorgeous dark with the big, sweet old moon and twirled slowly, thinking about how many people before me had seen those same stars in the same patterns, thinking of people I love and those who need love....

Then, Tessie bumped around my legs, telling me it was time to go back in...all the cats were accounted for...

Goodnight, Moon.  

We go for a big walk...

Before you see the photos from the walk, you MUST watch this little clip from Looney Tunes.  Then and only then will you have an idea of what Twilla and Tessie are like when they're together...

Chester and Spike

"Let's go find a bird, Twill! You wanna find a bird, Twill? We could find a bird, Twill!"

(This is moments after the "Aaaaahhhh, shuddup..."  You'll notice the contrite ears on Tessie...)

Somehow, she got behind and is hurrying as fast as her little legs can carry her to hassle Spike again.  I mean, Twilla.

"Want to run in the grass, Twill? We could run in the grass, Twill! You'd like to run in the grass, Twill!"

Finally...worn down by all that exuberance....they go for a run in the grass, to Tessie's absolute complete delight! I love the ears.

Occasionally, she pulls a really elegant, poised look, an a-l-m-o-s-t point...
Isn't she pretty?!

A-a-a-a-a-n-d then we break to this.
In fact, almost 1 out of 10 pictures of Tessie has this "action shot" sort of feel.

This is a rare, special moment where no one is getting chewed on, scratched, barked/meowed at, etc.  It won't last long.  You can see it in her eyes.

Finally, when she can take it no more, she collapses into a snoring puppy pile in Maggie's lap!

That's the puppy report for this week!

Book Report!

Okay, so it's not REALLY a book report, because I'm still reading it and no one assigned it.  (Although, if someone had told me 20 years ago that I'd be reading this sort of book voluntarily, I'd have laughed!)

Our book club is doing cookbooks this year as a genre.
I KNOW....how odd is that?
We've been in the book club business for 14 years, now, if you can imagine, and some years are trickier than others.  We nearly folded this year because there was rumbling about how no one had time to finish the book before the next month, no one had time to meet once a month, etc.  But because everyone in our group loves to eat and are wonderful cooks, we decided to do cookbooks so there's no plot to follow and they're useful long after the meeting.

I was looking for something interesting, even though my turn isn't until February, and stumbled across....

It's not a cookbook, but it has a couple recipes in the back.  It's basically just about how Thomas Jefferson went to France after the American Revolution and before the French Revolution to drum up money for the new United States (since France was a key ally in helping us gain our independence from Britain), and dug around through the French culture to see what was useful to bring back to America.  

The book talks about the culture of the colonies at the time (austere and proud of it), the culture of France at the time (excessive and not ashamed of it), slavery (illegal in France), cuisine (see descriptions of the cultures), fashion (see descriptions of the cultures), personalities of the Founding Fathers (Ben Franklin was fond of kissing everyone in France, John Adams not so much) and so forth.  I can only read a little at a time because I don't HAVE time to sit down and read right through.  It's a little dry...no John Grisham here, folks...but since I just finished a novel about Marie Antoinette, it ties together rather nicely and I'm already there in my head, setting-wise.

(Every time I read it, I think of my friend Sara Hagedorn Calvert...)

Now then...

Any ideas for cookbooks?  Leave them in the comments!  So far, we've done a self-published Montana Silversmiths cookbook, Gooseberry Patch, and a Southern Living "Off the Eaten Path".  I was thinking of maybe doing a cocktail party in February, a la Breakfast at Tiffany's, which would mean canapes and cock/mocktails...what do you think?  

Tessie Lou

 

She's VERY busy.

First morning, she had a lovely point...on the pink flamingos in the yard.  Today, she gave them a good talking to, when they wouldn't play with her.

Alice-the-Cat has reservations about puppies.

And with good reason!
The funny thing about Alice is that she doesn't use claws, just sound effects and a good strong right hookless hook.  Tessie didn't use her teeth, just licked her.
Today, they're pretty good pals.
Jack Sparrow-cat. now, makes a big honkin' scene and acts as though he's facing the Big Bad Wolf, which makes chasing him very fun.

Very busy, very important puppy coming through...

This is how she looks when I'm unloading the dishwasher or stirring something on the stove.  She's always about a foot away from me.  Even now, as I type, she's snoozing on the floor under my chair.  Maggie looked over and smiled and said, "Just like Molly..."
It's bittersweet.

Gotta be a bird around here, SOMEWHERE!

Maggie and Tessie are really good friends!  Mags has been so good about playing with her and walking her around the yard...and snuggling her on the couch.  That's a pretty tough job, but someone has to do it...

Twilla and Tessie.
It's not going smashingly, but it's not going awfully, either.
As long as Tessie doesn't try to get in her face or on her couch, Twilla is cool.  She growls, but has only snapped once.  Tessie can't understand; doesn't EVERYONE want to be her friend?!?

You see a theme going, here.
Maggie really thought it was important that Miss Tessie wore the team colors and had a team bowl.  It's appropriate and poignant since THIS is the year that THE RED SOX WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!

It's so wonderful to have a Brittie-ful house, again...

Halloweeny Stuff

Here are my little hobgoblins!

Maggie THOUGHT she was a leopard, but after watching a big cat show on the Discovery Channel, she discovered that she was a jaguar. Either way, she was fast and elegant, even with her pink Bogg boots. The best part of the costume, she informed me, was the detachable tail.  

Angus, now, was some Star Wars guy called General Grievous.  That's about all I know about his costume. He and his buddy Ben are SERIOUSLY into Star Wars: The Clone Wars, so that's where he got the idea.  Everyone asked him what he was dressed up as.  He very patiently told them and explained it, but by the end of the evening, I think he was kind of wishing he'd gone as a pirate or something just as transparently identifiable....

And here are the pumpkins they painted at school!  Maggie did the cat pumpkin and Angus did the....
Okay, YOU get to guess what it is, because I got it completely wrong.

Angus's pumpkin is:
A. A cow
B. The moon
C. Dalmation dog
D. Ghost

We went trick-or-treating around Cohagen and it was so much fun!  There's only three families who trick-or-treat in Cohagen; the rest go to Miles City or Jordan, which makes total sense because the folks don't have to drive 60 miles to hit 10 houses.  But we really like seeing the neighbors and I dearly love Helen Green's popcorn balls.

The answer to the pumpkin quiz is (B), by the way.  I thought it was an adorable cow pumpkin and told him so, which rather insulted the little artist because it's OBVIOUSLY a moon...any fool can see that!

The Not-So-Great Pumpkin

My friend Susie K. hates mums.  Apparently, in New England, the minute the calendar says "First Day of Fall", buckets and pots of mums cover every porch, table and mailbox in Massachusetts.

It's not charming, it's monotonous.

I feel the same way about the crazy autumn pumpkin mania that sweeps the entire nation.

Starbucks has a pumpkin spice latte, IHOP has pumpkin pancakes, Italian restaurants have pumpkin gnocchi, risotto, spaghetti.  All the recipes on the internet and in magazines are for pumpkin-themed foods.  The seasonal candles are pumpkin spice.  

And there are so many other cozy fall flavors that could be celebrated!  

Maple.

Apple.

Rum.

Butterscotch.

Toffee.

It's not just the barrage of pumpkin products that drives me a little crazy, but also the insistence that I embrace it.  

Example:

(Coffee shop)

(NOT the one in Jordan)

"Hi! I'd like a short triple breve' with caramel flavoring, please."

"Sure.  We have Pumpkin-palooza, too..."

"REALLY? (little sarcastically said, maybe) I think I'll stick with the caramel, thanks."

"Do you want to try Pumpkin-palooza WITH the caramel?"

"No...I really just want the caramel.  No pumpkin anything in my coffee."

(And here's where the tone turns frantically insistant...)

"But Pumpkin-palooza is only here for a LIMITED TIME!!"

Thanks be to God.

Shipping 2013

The neighbors show up bright and early with their trailers and wheelers.

We reward them with coffee, rolls and breakfast burritos or sandwiches; I think guys that have had a little something warm to eat and good conversation to start the day out are happier and friendlier to work with. 

First bunch is in and ready to sort.  We sort the calves off of the cows, then sort the heifers from the steers.  The steers are the only ones who get to go for a ride on the trucks.  The heifers are weaned in our corrals, then wintered here on the ranch.

So, SO cold and frosty the morning we shipped! This plow is gorgeous in the frost, though...I always stop and admire the curves and angles of this particular one.

We have a bunch of pairs that we sort at a different set of corrals, then haul to the main place to be weighed and loaded on the trucks.  It was bright and sunny, there...same morning!  I don't have time to take pictures of the actual sorting and loading process because I'm part of it, but afterward, I took a couple pictures of the mama cows looking quite concerned that their babies were no where to be found.  (This is Daisy's bunch.)

I love how the old barn and corrals look in pictures with the cows, but to actually use them is sort of a pain.  The guys have been replacing gates and pens gradually, so that has taken some of the sport out of the whole thing...in a GOOD way!

Confession: Maggie stayed home from school for the morning so she could be part of shipping.  She ate about three cinnamon rolls, drank as many cups of cocoa, chatted with the neighbors and truck drivers, helped sort cows down at Jacobson's, froze her toes, then went back to school for the afternoon.

Here are some of the steer calves, yelling for "M-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-h!".  Aren't they stunningly full and even?  653 pounds was the final pay weight.  Every year, they seem to shrink before my eyes the week before shipping until I wake up on shipping morning just hoping beyond hope that they'll break 600 pounds.  Every year, though, they somehow manage to fill back out just in time for shipping day!

Another group of mamas...you can just FEEL how cold it is by looking at the color of the sky, can't you?

The Boss...
I think he must have had a Valium cocktail for breakfast because he was pretty cool on shipping day! Either that or he was like me, up at 4 a.m., and was so tired he couldn't work up the energy to be frantic....

Neighbors who are telling great, gossipy stories...I just KNOW it...but the minute I get close, they get all proper and discuss the weather.  Some year, I'm going to do a "Mic'd Up on Shipping Day" with Dennis Green and that will be some serious entertainment, folks.

Trucks, on time for once, ready to be loaded with prime beef...

Zee Local Brand Inspector and Scale Guy, running a bunch to the portable scale to weigh.

Here's the scale that we rent for the morning.  A guy brings it out from Miles City, backs it up to the loading dock and we weigh the calves.  The benefit of having the scale right here on shipping day is that the calves won't "shrink" (lose water and manure weight due to stress) by being hauled 10 miles to the next nearest scale.  3-5 pounds of shrink can make a big difference some years!

See?  It's certified by the great State of Montana to be all legal and everything!

She doesn't trust paparazzi...

This picture is crazy and typical to me, all at once.  We live in a black and white world almost all winter, with little patches of accidental color to feed our eyes and souls.  Even this tiny piece of blue sky feels like a treat on such a grey day...

Frost on my mother-in-law's tree...

Frost on the barb wire....

After lunch, when everyone else went home, the Boss, the Farmer and I worked our tails off setting things up, tearing things down, fixing fence and fighting stubborn cows who insisted on breaking through gates and fences to get back to their calves.  

It's always such a good feeling, though, to have the steers on their way and be buttoning up the fall!