End Of Season Dance

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This weekend, it was time for Frida’s End Of Season Dance. The little ones don’t have to wear anything special, but most of the girls wear a nice dress, and Frida and I decided together that it would be a good day to get out the bridesmaid dress once again.

The end of season dance is quite an event. Loads of children, parents, grand parents, and costumes all over the place. The air is tense with expectations, and there may just be more cameras present, than there is children. I’m personally not quite sure what I think about it – I love the dancing, music, energy, and joy, but I’m not crazy about some of the things that come with it. 9 year-olds that know more about how to look cool, and put on the right make up than I do. Or is it their mothers? And young women with so much make up on, such glossy hair, and such a fixed smile, you have to ask yourself if that’s the right way to show your joy for dancing.

However, this particular dancing school does amazing work with the little ones – their teacher has just the right balance between authority and warmth, and she never ever seems to run out of energy with the children. She is actually also the one that taught Mads and myself to dance our first dance at our wedding. She’s good! And whether I like the game or not, the children love dancing, and Frida was a joy to watch. (As usually, I’m biased…)

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

End of season dance 2012

Strawberry Shortcake Dance

This last shot is from their Strawberry Shortcake-dance (Jordbær Marie for de danske læsere) – Frida is the little one in the front.

Easter Holiday

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Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We are so enjoying our Easter break here. It totally popped up at the right time! Yesterday, the first day off, was a day of painting Easter eggs and spending time in the garden. The weather is awesome, and for a few days now, Frida has been almost completely back to being the happy girl we had before her surgery, and it’s just a joy to see. She manages the arm splints brilliantly, and does just about everything she normally does – they really don’t seem to bother her much during the day. They only mess up her sleep a bit, but still, everything is so much better now, and we can only be happy about the way she’s coming round.

Ronja and I painted Easter eggs yesterday. Mads and I blew out the eggs, washed them, and left them to dry – and Ronja just couldn’t wait to get started with the paint! So check it out – before:

Ready for some paint 

During:

Ronja and Mom at work 

And after:

Colourful 

We had a lot of fun, and Ronja was actually a more patient painter, than I would have expected. I love the eggs she made! Afterwards we fetched some branches from the garden to for them to hang on, and I added some of the Easter stuff I have already.

Easter eggs on Easter branches 

We spent the afternoon outside – we still have to keep Frida from colds, but the weather was really warm and not too windy, and she absolutely loves being in the garden – as does Ronja!

 No room for Dad on this motorcycle!

I haven’t been getting around to do any sewing since I made nightgowns for the girls, but yesterday evening, shile Mads was playing with his motorcycle in the garage, I got around to cutting the fabric for a tunic – for me, myself, MOI! Yep, that’s right – it’s kind of a test drive really. The fabric for it comes from my stash, and I really want to check if the pattern is good, before I move on to possibly purchasing fabric for the next version of it. I hope I’ll be able to do some sewing tomorrow.

Hibernation

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Our garden is white at the moment.

Winter in the garden 

Ronja gave me this little bird feeder Christmas before last, and it has been hanging there in the Japanese Cherry Tree ever since. I love the colours on it, and when the rest of the world is white it really comes into its own! I think I’ll go put a new fat ball on there a bit later - now that there’s snow all over the place.

Ronja’s swing set has hibernated for the day.

Winter in the garden 

And I wonder if this will ever start again?

Winter in the garden 

Maybe we will have time for a sled ride with the girls this afternoon, when I’m off from work? Let’s see…

Winter in the garden

Light and shadow

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The snow is falling. Trucks go by to salt the roads every now and then, and the weather forecasts predict more snow in the days to come. Don’t get me wrong, I like snow – really! In December, when it provides the Christmas decorations and lights with a certain atmosphere that reaches beyond commercialization from the tradespeople and hectic Christmas preparations. And in January, because that’s really one of the few things that the dark month has working in its favour. I love the sound of my boots in the crunchy snow, and to go sled riding with the kids.

But hey – I was ready for spring! It’s almost light when I leave for work in the morning now, and it’s not yet dark when I come home. The birds have started singing several times a day, and I want to sew stuff for spring.

Light and shadow 

This picture was taken Sunday in the afternoon after Fastelavn. I should mention that we – almost literally – haven’t seen the sun for weeks. And the few times that we have, it has been a glimpse through the grey, grey clouds, and then gone again… However, Sunday the sun was shining from a blue sky most of the day, and it was wonderful and much needed. It just has that incredible effect on your state of mind. Ronja was playing with shadows, and I grabbed my camera to catch it. I love this picture.

Now we go back to looking forward to the next sunbeam. In the meantime, if the snow stays, I’m sure Ronja will be thrilled – and Frida just might as well!

What’s in a name?

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Ronja has been having lots of fun writing the name of her new cousin. This was her first attempt…

Writing the name of her new cousin

She’s really into writing at the moment – constantly asking about letters, spellings, and finding the letters for her own and our names everywhere. I love the fact that she’s learning for fun – you go girl!

Apple blouse for Frida

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I received some wonderful fabric earlier this week – some of the designs from Sandi Henderson‘s new line “Farmer’s Market”. And today I could not help myself – while Mads was out cycling, I made a little blouse for Frida. There’s nothing to it – it’s so simple. But you just gotta love it, because of the fabric. It’s such a cheerful, lively and sweet design, and yet so simple.

Apple blouse for Frida 

I serged it together which went really easily, though I must say I find it a bit harder to be accurate when I’m using a serger compared to my beloved sewing macine. The blouse went together quickly, and the only difficult thing about it was that I didn’t have a pattern for it – or actually I did have a pattern, but it was nowhere near Frida’s size. So I used an Onion-pattern for a size 92 and downsized it to something like a 68/74 - taking into consideration that a baby’s proportions are not the same as those of a 2-3 year old. That went well – initially the sleeves were too long, but luckily that’s one of the easy things to fix. I was thinking about adding elastics to the sleeves, but I decided that I like the loose look for a summer blouse, so I’m going with this. If I change my mind, the hems on the sleeves still have room for adding the elastic.

Apple blouse for Frida 

Now that the work is done, another great thing is I can use the pattern I drafted for the similar peasant blouse I wanted to make for Frida’s pants. However, that’s gonna have to wait a bit.

While I was sewing, Ronja was sitting next to me, writing!

Writing her name  

She now only needs a reminder here and there to write her own name, which I think is so cool – and she’s totally doing it for fun, which is even more cool. When I’m sewing, I also allow her to play with the pins – it does get out of hand once in a while, but as long as it doesn’t, we’re just having a really nice time together.

This is the 2nd day of our vacation, and given that maternity leave is not the quickest way to fortune, and since we still need to get away for a while, we’re looking at last minute travel deals. At the moment it looks like we may be going to Greece in a few days – but we’ll see… In the meantime the weather here is marvellous!