The Grass! The Grass! The Tall, Tall Grass!

1973

2010

The title of this post is from Tiger Flower, by Robert Vavra, my favorite book back in August of 1973.

T-Shirt Skirt for Little Witches, Vampires, Pirates & Fairies

This has got to be the easiest skirt you can make.  A three year old could make this skirt.  It requires NO SEWING, uses materials that you already have in your house, and is a great way to recycle an old t-shirt.  It looks brilliant in black or stripes, and would be perfect for a Halloween witch or pirate costume.  You need:

It is so soft and comfortable... perfect for flying!

WAIT!!! GO OUTSIDE!!!  NO FLYING IN THE HOUSE!!!!!

Some Tips & Tricks:

I used a men's medium shirt in these pictures.  I think it would fit most kids aged 2 - 10.

An XXL shirt works just as well, it will be fuller and can be made a little longer.

If it is going to be worn a lot, I recommend using elastic in the waist.

A t-shirt that doesn't have seams on the sides works best.

The bottom of the skirt will tend to roll up a little bit.  If you're going for the jagged look, don't be shy, you can cut it pretty severely.

Big men's t-shirts are available in many colors at most thrift stores for around one dollar.

Use the sleeves of the t-shirt in exactly the same way to make a matching doll skirt!


You can see some more costume ideas in the "Dress-up" category.

Why, Oh Why?

I tried to look up "Why don't my Blogger comments work,"  but Google suggested all kinds of new things for me to worry about. 

It's Google's very own neurotic inner monologue!  Are those really the top 10 things people wonder about that start with an M?

..........

If you have any ideas about why some people cannot post comments here, please share them.  Have you tried to leave a comment?  I've noticed on a couple of Blogger blogs that my comments won't post from Firefox, but they will from Safari.  If you have the answer, and your comments don't work, please email it to me!

Camping

We stopped for apples on the way.

I love being there in the off season.  The weather was perfect, and the tourists gone.

The first night, we had the campground to ourselves.

The tidepools, new moon night sky, tumbling on the dunes, empty campground and new binoculars were perfect.  So were the roasted marshmallows and cold root beers.  And my heart soars when I think of the way the boys fell over themselves about the sea caves at low tide, climbing big rocks (and throwing small rocks), and watching the bats and the sunsets.  We learn so much and sleep so deeply when we camp out.

Doesn't it all look so effortless?  It wasn't. 

But it was so wonderful that we'll do it again and again and again.

Now We Are Six

And off to first grade.

Happy Birthday, my darling boy!

For Bill

We saw it in the sky.

This perfectly illustrates how we feel about our dear friend making it back to L.A. after his terrifying trip to Malaise-ia.

Cutbacks

Last night, in the twenty minutes between dinner and bath, we decided to take the kids out for a quick run around in the meadow.

We wanted some fresh air and to let them lose themselves in the tall grass.

Okay, by now anyone familiar with Los Angeles is thinking, "Huh?!"

We've had some budget issues in our city, and as far as I can tell, one of the cutbacks has been not cutting back the grass in the middle of one of our major boulevards.  All summer, I've been driving past these miles of traffic islands that are normally mowed like a golf course, and I've been watching the grass get taller and taller.

It is now quite tall.

This is a wide traffic island that many years ago had a trolley track on it.  It is now so beautiful that I wonder why they ever mowed it in the first place.  How quickly nature would reclaim it completely, if given a chance!

I grew up roaming boundless acres of uncut grasses and wildflowers.

 

 This is not that, but we will take what we can get.