Wah-hoooo, I think it worked!

The twinsies, I am told, love bright colors like orange and yellow and are outgrowing their clothes so I finally actually tried something I'd been thinking about for a few months.

I dyed a couple of girls tee shirts (okay, actually undershirts from a package) a not-too-bright orange and then gathered on skirts from some left-over VeggieTales material that was tucked away in my fabric stash. The tops seemed to need a little something extra so I cut "Bob" and "Larry" from a scrap and tried my hand at machine applique.

Another advantage to the appliques is that it will be easier to tell which dress is for the taller twin and which for the smaller. The dresses turned out pretty well, I think ... especially if you like orange ... and you're two years old ...

Cook, bake, freeze, dye, cook, bake, freeze, declutter, cook...

That's the story of my life lately. With seven people including 5 little ones coming soon and back-to-back family reunions, I've packed the freezer with the food that I've been busily cooking and baking. And I've been dyeing shirts for the children and have started today sewing fabric onto the dyed shirts to make dresses for the girls. Then, of course, there's all the decluttering, child-proofing, and cleaning that has to be done...plus the usual day-to-day responsibilites.

And I'm probably certifiably nuts because I have just said "yes" to Gram's request to stay here next weekend so she can attend some church meetings.

Busy, busy, busy

It seems like I've had someplace to go virtually every night for the last couple of weeks with no end in sight. For example, Tuesday night was band practice, Wednesday night was church nominating committee, last night was a band concert at a church with delightful acoustics (and it went surprisingly well, thank you very much), tonight there's an advocate for religious liberty speaking at our church, tomorrow night there's an ice cream social in honor of a young church member who just graduated from our local college and will soon be moving away, and Sunday night several of my young friends will be performing in an end-of-year recital of The Magic Flute. Monday night the nominating committee meets again and Tuesday night brings us back to band practice. Okay, okay, I'll stop with the litany already!

Anyway, after getting back late from the concert last night, I stayed up waaaaay past bedtime enjoying a long phone conversation with C, then was up this morning after only about 4 hours of sleep. So far so good today, though; I've been taking advantage of today's cooler temperatures and made a couple of pans of lasagna (one for the freezer for when our house fills up at the end of the month and one for tonight), got a batch of yogurt going in the yogurt maker, baked 6 loaves of bread and mixed up a bowl of carrot/raisin/pineapple/walnut salad for potluck. Oh, and, just for good measure, rinsed out the two kid-sized shirts I tie-dyed yesterday afternoon and, in a nod to summertime vanity, took my first stab at using a chemical self-tanner. How that actually turns out remains to be seen...