“China grass” dress

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The weekend gave us fantastic warm weather in a way you don’t usually see it in the middle of May. But yesterday, it was rather chilly again, Frida decided to take a few naps, and I finally got around to do some sewing.

I made the “China grass” dress from the latest issue of Ottobre for Ronja. I wanted it to be a bit more relaxed than the version in the magazine which is very dressy. I used plain linen combined with Amy Butler’s “Lotus Wall Flower” in the apricot colour. The dress came together nicely and the only thing that did give me some trouble was the zipper. This is the first time I apply a zipper, and it’s a hidden one. I found it a bit hard to align it, but after undoing the stiches and trying again it ended up looking just fine.

I’m quite happy with the dress – if there’s something to notice about this pattern, it would be the fact that the bodice is rather wide and I should probably have gone down a size in the bodice for Ronja, even though she is usually a size 104. I’ll post a modeled picture when I get around to it – then you can see for yourself. :)

Our family as portraited by Ronja The sun

Ronja did a drawing this weekend portraying our family. I love the fact that the sun wouldn’t fit on the drawing, so it had to go on the back – what an observation! The weather has been so amazing that we have been barbecueing each evening this weekend, and the garden has been the extension to the house that we love during summer.

Our house so far!

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Our house is finally starting to look the way we imagined it some 4 years ago. It isn’t finished yet, but this past weekend it has definitely been taking shape. Sometimes it feels like we have been waiting way too long for this to happen, but then again… During those 4 years, we have had our 2 girls, rebuilt the entire 2nd floor, installed new windows all over the house, and quite a few things more than that. So you see, we haven’t been “waiting” – we have just been busy doing other things.

The house so far

While the girls and I have been on a nice long weekend at my Mother’s, Mads has been working hard helping and preparing for the masons. It’s amazing to see the difference it makes – and we haven’t even added colour yet. As always, the entire process of our renovating can be seen here. The pictures are sorted with the newest first, and seeing them all does require a bit of patience with all the work that has been done.

Sunday afternoon we had time to drop by some friends of ours who live just a street away. With the weather we’re having we decided to play croquet, and afterwards barbecue in their garden – I just LOVE the fact that it’s almost summer! I think Ronja does too – she ran around barefooted with her croquet mallet and had the best time!

Playing croquet in the garden at Rikke and Martin's

Our sandblasted house

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 Saturday the girls and I were banned from the property due to the house being sandblasted. The awful noise it creates is not for kids (or anyone else for that matter), so we decided to go to the ZOO with Sandra from Ronja’s mothers group and Sandra’s younger brother Benjamin who was born 1½ months later than Frida – and of course their mother. ;) We spent most of the day there, having a wonderful time on yet another day with amazing “drop-the-coat” weather! Two girls aged 3½ sure do know what they want – and finally we gave in to their very persistent wish to get their faces painted.

At the Copenhagen ZOO At the Copenhagen ZOO

When we arrived home late in the afternoon, Mads was washing the house – rinsing off all of the sand and dirt from the sandblasted bricks. It looked like – well, I don’t know what it looked like! You certainly wouldn’t imagine that there were people living in that house – it looked like a building due for demolition! Mads told us it was a good thing we had been away – he had been wearing earplugs, and he still had a ringing in his ears long after the sandblasting guys left. Our cat, Freja, wasn’t too fond of the sandblasting either.

Sandblasted house 

Mads has been working really hard washing the house and cleaning up sand for the rest of the weekend, and now everything actually looks ok. I don’t know if it’s just me, but even though it still needs the plastering and colour, I actually think it looks so much better than it has for the past years with the fake brick facing.

More pictures from the sandblasting are found here. Now we’re on to the plastering of the house next weekend.