Stash to Treasure: Completing the Set

Scoot likes to be organized.  Kind of.  Not enough to, say, keep his room clean.  That is, he claims that all his things are put away, and blames the mess on the Caterpillar.  It's mostly true.  Anyway, Scoot definitely likes to know where his sports equipment is.  Thus, when we received a promotional drawstring backpack from a pro soccer team, he immediately laid claim to it.  He packed it with shin guards and gloves, and used it well.  That bag inspired me to sew similar bags for Rollo and the Caterpillar.

But there's only so much use a cheap nylon bag can take, and it reached its limit last fall.  So I sewed a new bag for Scoot, out of the usual old denim, purple fabric left over from some long-gone maternity trousers, and the cord from his original bag.

I forgot to take a picture of it, probably because I had promised to sew one for D2, also, and intended to display them together.  D2 was at the very beginning of his sports career, and needed to hang onto his shin guards.  But suddenly it was the end of the soccer season, and I hadn't gotten around to his bag.  And he didn't seem to need one very much, until Dandelionslayer signed him up for tee-ball this spring. 

Tee-ball.  Where kids learn to swing at the ball and hit the tee, dance in the outfield, fight their teammates for possession of said ball, and throw it in the general direction of the first baseman, who is looking somewhere else.  The sport's only redeeming value is the cuteness of the children . . .

which is undeniable.

Guillemot Cove

We didn't go very far afield during the boys' spring break this week, but we did take a little hike one day. We visited Guillemot Cove, which I was afraid to pronounce when I told them where we were going. It just looks so French.

 According to an online dictionary, the pronunciation is not that bad: gill-uh-mot, almost like it looks.  It is named after a kind of bird.  The Pigeon Guillemot is supposed to live up and down the Pacific coast, but we didn't see any.  We did see a Great Blue Heron fly up and perch in a tree--kind of a weird sight.  And we saw robins, and a hummingbird, but they wouldn't stop to pose.

We hiked this trail once before, when D2 was a babe in arms and the Caterpillar and Scoot looked like this.

They're still on top of things, but a they were a little taller this week.

The Cove was so marshy we couldn't get to the beach.

So we ate a picnic and looked for signs of spring,

 like currant blossoms,

and, um, this.

This tree is probably more interesting without any leaves, so I'm glad we caught its curly branches in early spring.

It was a nice little excursion.  Where have you found spring?

Dragon Tongue Tee

Rollo recently attended a friend's belated birthday party.  Since this friend likes to play dragon games with Rollo, and it was a knight-themed party, it seemed appropriate to give him a dragon shirt.

I found a Dragon Head Silhouette by Kuba at the Open Clip Art Library.  What a fun resource!

Then I used scraps of red flannel, yellow satin, and something white to make the different parts.  I was quite pleased with the print I found for the eye.  I appliquéd the dragon to the tee shirt with a zigzag stitch, and sent it off to the fray.