Friday, August 17, 2012

The Color Purple... and some magic!

In our family, we love purple. Well, Kyle loves purple. When we got married, our "color" was purple (lilac, to be exact). I thought it was only fair that on a day where, let's face it, I got what I wanted, he deserved to have his favorite color showcased.
As soon as people find out that Kyle loves purple, and that's pretty easy since he doesn't go out without his signature purple sunglasses, they start buying us purple things. So of course when we started having kids, friends and family gave us lots of purple baby clothes! Leah at 2 1/2 months old...
Naturally, we now tend to just gravitate toward purple. Last summer I wanted to sew Leah a new dress so I bought some fabric that jumped out at me: purple, believe it or not. I never got around to it. Fast forward to now. A very dear friend of mine is about to get married (read about it here if you're interested) and I decided to make my girls matching dresses from a tutorial I found on pinterest. I thought that it might make sense to have a trial run of sorts before I use the pretty fabric that I ordered. So last night I stayed up and made this lovely dress with that fabric that had been sitting so patiently in my stash. I still have to add buttons, but it turned out so well, although I will have to make some adjustments for the next set of dresses I make (it's a little too low for my taste, but I think the buttons may help- I will certainly make the straps shorter next time!).
And then there was yesterday. Some friends gave Leah an adorable purple romper for her first birthday and I've started putting Elyse in it now. It's a little big, 12-18 months while Elyse is 8 1/2 months old, but it's so sweet I can't bear for it to not be worn again! At any rate, it was the outfit of choice for the day:
Now I am the type of mother who lets her kids get dirty without worrying about the ramifications. That being said, there are still some outfits that I would rather not get stained. Well, as I sat knitting with Leah and Elyse as they finished their dinner, I clearly didn't think at all about what may happen if I gave them frozen berries for dessert. I looked up, and there was purple (and pink... and blue...). Everywhere.
I had to laugh. And once I realized there was no going back, I went ahead and gave her some more berries.
Once she was done, I started to clean up. I kid you not: Purple. Everywhere. Her face. Her hands. Her whole outfit. The table. The porch. And I was disappointed at the thought that the purple romper was stained forever. So I did the only thing there was to do: I googled it (what did mothers do before google?!). So, friends, if you ever find yourself covered in berry stains and want to get them out, here it is. Boil water. Keep clothing taut (I taped it over a large metal bowl as there was no one to hold it for me). Pour water. I kid you not, I watched strawberry, blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry stains disappear. That romper is now spotless. Magic, I tell you. Magic.

3 comments:

  1. You are magic! It is not a coincidence that purple is also my favorite color... making you, your husband, your beautiful children, and your purple-collared dog my favorite family and friends.

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  2. Sweet dresses and thanks for the tip.. we have a lot of berry stained clothing.

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  3. What adorable pictures! My daughter's favorite color is purple. Great tip for removing berry stains, I will have to keep that in mind as Blackberry season has just started around here. My kids are in their teens and we didn't have internet until they were 3 and 4 years old, I often wonder what I did do before google, beside looking at tips in books and magazines and sharing tips among friends it was rather hit and miss, I really appreciate the ability to "google". Very cute post, stopping by from The Magic Onions link up. :)

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