Look – my Witch Hazel is blooming! I think this is the nicest flowering I’ve seen from this shrub. It was damaged by a cold winter a couple years ago but now it seems to have bounced back with the help of this mild winter. It’s such an odd plant. It feels amazing when you see actual blooming flowers on the third day of March.
Claire has been excited to wear the things I make her lately so I’m motivated to get back into my sewing room.
She requested a dress with a bow on the hip. She’d stick her little hip out and point, “a bow right here mom”. So I tried a new pattern, the Croquet Dress from Oliver + S. The cutting out was a bit frustrating because I only had a small amount of fabric and I wanted the stripes to vary direction for different parts of the dress. I used every last bit of that seersucker. It will be nice to see her wear it with some sandals this summer (instead of those loud striped tights).
Is it too early to bring out the Spring decorations? I don’t think so. We got out all our bunnies and baskets and everything Springy over the weekend.
And we made a couple new bunnies to add to our collection. Bea and I sewed these two little happy hares and then colored them with fabric markers.
The snow is blowing outside right now but I’m sure Spring will be here soon.
Ahh that sun and warmth felt so good! I think we will all sleep well after taking in lots of fresh air today.
I haven’t had much sewing mojo lately, but then I got inspired at a little antique store that I like to go to. It’s a store that is fun to go to because it has really reasonable prices and I can always find something for just a few dollars that cheers me up and makes my day. This time I found an beautiful apron and decided to make Claire another apron dress. The apron was only $4.00 – I could hardly buy a beautiful bit of fabric for that little at the fabric store.
I used the very basic and easy Playtime dress pattern from Oliver + S. to go under the apron. I shortened the sleeves of the pattern to make it more springy. The apron was just the right length so all I did was sew it along the top to attach it to the dress. Simple. And I used the automatic button hole maker on my new sewing machine for the first time. The button holes look so much neater that the old ones I’ve made!
We had a nice walk in the woods beside the Chicago Botanic Garden over the weekend.
Claire is trying to read a sign in these photos. She has suddenly become a reader in the last couple weeks. She’s constantly seeing words around her and picking out the ones she knows. It’s fantastic to witness.
The botanic garden was having their orchid show so we stopped in to warm up. Nice to see a little color.
We had a busy birthday weekend! Mom came on Wednesday evening and helped us get ready for Bea’s sleepover. We planned a scavenger hunt around the house and we got pillowcases ready that the girls colored with fabric pens. Here’s the party planning committee – they’re working on a candy rainbow for the end of the scavenger hunt.
We had seven girls over for the sleepover! They slept in the basement and watched a movie. The basement floor was sprinkled with popcorn when I looked the next morning. It was a little crazy, but I think Bea loved it. Here’s her cake. Mom and I laughed as we made those funny little penguins out of gumdrops and marshmallows.
It’s hard to believe she’s 9. Here she is opening her presents and then having cake number two with just family. I’m so glad Mom came to spend the birthday weekend with us. That made it extra special.
My latest inspiration comes from cartoons. Mostly from the episodes of Tom & Jerry that Bea watches every morning. I’m drawn to the idealistic scenes of old houses. I’m not distracted by the action I just love seeing the details of the rooms. I found lots of illustrations on a blog called animation backgrounds but I’d love to find more.
I can’t seem to get a normal pleasant face when I take pictures of the girls lately. They’re always sticking their tongues out or making grouchy faces whenever they see the camera.
Oh well.
Here’s Claire wearing goggles while she helped me in the kitchen. It think the goggles were because I was cutting a bunch of onions and it was bothering her eyes.
Here she is all dressed up for Fancy Friday at school. They seem to have a lot of theme dress up days at school. She was so excited – she even put on some big clip-on earrings that we had around. Then when we got to school – I was dropping her off in the car – she watched as the other kids went in and it seemed like no one was dressed up. She waited and watched and got more and more upset because she didn’t want to be the only one dressed up. It was time to go and tears started coming – poor thing. Then at the last minute her best friend showed up with a pouffy sparkly dress and she dried her eyes and ran in. Sigh – peer pressure. It turns out many of the kids did dress up (the boys wore their little bow ties) you just couldn’t tell because they were bundled up in winter things. She was all smiles after school.
Here she is with a crown to celebrate 100 days of school. Very color coordinated!
And one more funny face – a possum was hanging around in the back yard one day.
We had an architect over to look at the possibility of removing the stupid post that sits in the middle of my kitchen. The architect was very thorough and he was very complimentary about our house. He said because the house is built so sturdily it makes removing the post more difficult. I’m starting to think I might have to make friends with that post.
The architect looked at the old blueprints for our house and it got me wondering about the original owners and about the architect. So here’s what I learned.
As you can see above the house was built for Mr. Howard J. White Jr. and the architect was Marvin G. Probst. As I searched online I found more information about these two men. It seems that both men followed in their fathers’ footsteps and were part of a very influential Chicago architecture firm.
It was hard to find information on Howard White Jr. but I did find the obituary for his Father, Howard J. White Sr. He died the same year our house was built, 1936. He was a member of the architecture firm Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. His obituary appeared in the Chicago Tribune and said:
Mr. White was widely known for his work in America and England. Noteworthy structures he designed include the Field museum, the Wrigley building, the 310 South Michigan Avenue building in Chicago; the Selfridge store building in London and the Union Trust building and the Union station in Cleveland.
Next I found the obituary for our home’s architect Mr. Marvin Probst. He died in 1970 at the age of 69. Here’s what the Chicago Tribune said
“Mr Probst was president of the architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White, Inc., 201 N. Wells St., a 96 year old firm which has designed many of the city’s major buildings. Among the projects designed by the firm are the Merchandise Mart, the Lasalle National bank building, Field museum, Shedd aquarium, American Dental association building, Morton Salt company building and the WGN Continental Broadcasting studios.
Mr. Probst joined the firm in 1922 after his graduation from the University of Illinois. He later succeeded his late father, Edward Probst, as head of the firm. The company traces its origin to a partnership founded by Daniel H. Burnham, father of the Chicago plan, in 1873.
Here is the Wikipedia entry for the Architectural Firm. It’s hard to tell what specific buildings Mr. Probst designed, other than our house, he seems to be mentioned mostly in reference to succeeding his father. I’d like to stop by our historical society to see if I can learn a little more. And I ordered a book all about Graham, Anderson, Probst and White. I wonder if there are other residences designed by Mr Probst.
Anyway – I find it fun and interesting to look back. It makes me like our house even more to think of its past. I would love to know more about the family who lived here. Maybe see a photo of them. It makes me want to take good care of it and be sensitive in our renovations.
Laowai 