Velveteen House Creativity

I knew Dawson had come home ... and with friends. Monte and me were watching a movie. When done and I came downstairs, they were in my studio. My initial feeling was "PANIC"!!!!! I have this initial feeling too when coming down to the kitchen in the morning after Dawson and friends have been active into the night. I try not to be a kitchen witch. But I have asked that they clean up - and my preference: I don't care about stuff in the sink, but I like clean counters. So we went to bed and they carried on into the night in my studio. The next morning, all was clean ...

I took some pics to capture their process. Dawson was at the sewing machine. Tim had left material and scissors on the dining room floor (he'd tried making himself some pants - it didn't work - didn't ask Dawson's advice ... Dawson knows, he's tried the same thing). Having given up, Tim was serenading them with playing Dawson's metal cello. Splarah showed me her iPad - showing a kids apron and chef hat pattern, and was cutting out the pieces, giving them to Dawson to sew.

It was Splarah's neighbor's birthday - turning 3. Splarah's mom was giving her Splarah and Abby's old little kitchen set, so Splarah wanted to make her an apron. Dawson said, "don't go get fabric, my mom's got a 'fabric store' in our garage. He knows - I've given him free reign of the boxed material in the garage - which he's made use of for years. They also made a chef hat and apron for her 5 year old brother.

When I came down in the morning, there were the hats and aprons! Notice the contrasting material used for the apron back? The pink one has a pink check for the apron back. The chef hats have velcro in the band for tightening and expansion fit around their heads. Didn't they do a great job? and SO cute!


Why did I title this "Velveteen House"? I did posts about our Velveteen House several times in my old blog. Remember the Velveteen Rabbit book? Remember the classic dialogue in the book about 'What is real?' ...

"What is REAL?" asks the Velveteen Rabbit of the Skin Horse.
"Real isn't how you are made" (they were looking at all the fancy toys surrounding them in the nursery). "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real."
"Does it hurt?"
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful, "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up, or bit by bit?"
"...You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand."

... Well our home has been well-loved, lived in, and worn. Lots of wonderful memories bounce from our velveteen house walls.

Tie-Dye

Knowing we were going to be gathering for 4th of July AND I needed to use up all my old dye, I tie-dyed a bunch of stuff: T-shirts, camisoles, and bamboo socks, and too, some summer onesies I'd got for the Grandbabies. So yesterday everyone got at least one shirt with matching socks.

Also, it's fun to see people using things I've made and given them. Last Christmas I tie-dyed aprons for gift-giving. Travis wears his apron all the time when cooking - especially grilling, as he did 25+pounds of ribs this 4th of July, using my mom's dad's bar-b-q sauce recipe.