The spring of the year you were born was a beautiful spring. In March, the winter winds faded and green mists draped the branches of the trees and crept into the brown earth, whispering words of life to it. Soon, millions of tiny flowers and baby grass stems pushed their way up through the dirt to see the sunshine, which smiled on them.
In the spring of the year you were born your brothers were little boys and every day they would stop their rough boy-play to press their ear against my belly, where you were growing into a beautiful woman-child. Sometimes you would move and they would feel you move and they would ask me how much longer it would be until you were born. Your influence on your brothers was gentling and tender, even though you were not here yet.
In the spring of that year your brothers loved to look for flowery things; in the clipped green yard, in the herb garden, in the pastures where the grasses were allowed to grow tall and wild. They would bring me their findings with smiles and quiet words of wonder at each delicate stalk, or thin-veined petal. They asked if you, too, would like flowers. And I felt you move in my belly, and I said yes.
So they spent one morning in that spring looking for perfect flowers for you. From the ones they brought to me we chose the prettiest and pressed them between books; books that your brothers love and that maybe you will love too, someday, when you read them.
For weeks we let the flowers press until one day in early summer we took the books down and opened them to find the little blossoms ready for you. Your brothers carefully arranged them and glued them to paper and we put them into frames to hang on the wall in your room.
Now they ask me, how much longer will it be, Mommy, until our little Anne is here?
Not much longer, I say. Before the summer ends.
They tell me they miss the spring, and are sad you were not here to see it. But for you, they have preserved a little piece of it; these flowers from the spring of the year you were born. Because every princess needs flowers to pave the way for her arrival. These are yours.
Love,
Your Mommy
This little outfit was made using up the leftover fabric from the older boys’ tunics. The little jacket is made from scraps of the green linen, and the gathered dress is made from the (great quantity of) leftover blue and white cotton.
Malachi seemed to like skirts. Floofery! Frillies! Handfuls of crisp clean cloth to grab onto and wave around! He has a separate button on petticoat that goes with this strapped petticoat. I also made that last year for Judah but honestly, we ended up hardly using it. It kept wanting to come unbuttoned from the strapped petticoat and the strapped petti gives a nice amount of “pouf” even without the extra petticoat buttoned on. 
The dress is a basic gathered style. I love these little dresses but feel like I’m cheating somehow when I make this style, since they are just SO easy to sew up and very quick, too. The short sleeves were cut with a curved hem and then drawn up at the shoulder. You can see his undershirt sleeve peeking out from beneath but oh well, that is a period look. :P The skirt has a 75” sweep and is gathered tightly to a 1” wide waistband that is piped on both sides. Inside the waistband is faced with white cotton. The neckline is also piped. To close the dress, there is a cloth covered button at the waist and at the neck in the back. 
The dress really is a bit too big, all around. But I made it that way on purpose. After three children, I have learned to make things Big. When little David was a baby I made his dresses to fit him exactly as he was a the time I was making them. He only got to wear each gown a time or two before he outgrew them, but since I didn’t have any other children to clothe I enjoyed making him new dresses before each event. When Judah came along, I began to make things a little bit big, but not too much. If they got a few months worth of wear out of them I was happy. Now with Malachi, I’ve learned. It’s Got To Be Big. The clothes I am making this spring are intended to last at least until next spring, if not longer. Hopefully.
The little jacket took me the longest time to make. It is a simple style and is unlined yet it took me three weeks before I finished it. Why? I don’t know. I had just enough linen left to cut a small coat. I originally made three quarter length bell sleeves to go with it. For some reason though, the sleeve head came out too small to be set nicely into the armscye. I don’t know why this happened. But it did happen. I despaired. I went through four sleeve evolutions before I came across the KayFig pattern for a toddler dress and coat, and the little coat on the pattern cover has short ruffly sleeves! I decided that it was fate, and so I put a short ruffled sleeve on the coat.
The coat was meant to almost meet in front, and it does, when laid flat, but on Malachi there was more of a gap across the chest than I had intended. I might put a concealed hook and eye at chest level, to bring the edges of the coat together in the front at that point. We’ll see. 
Some may think me strange, but I think I will have Malachi use this for his Easter outfit. I think it will be adorable. The boys will wear their green tunics and if I get my bum in gear I want to finish my sheer dress to wear for Easter Sunday and we can all go to church a la 1860's. I originally wanted to make a 1790’s style round gown but I just lack the motivation. I don’t have all the undies I’d need (I have the linen for my shift but haven’t even cut it out yet!) and it would just be too much, all at once. Plus if I make my sheer dress I’ll have lots of use for it after Easter is over with.
I got quite sick late Wednesday. I've been working on a sewing job for a customer but since I was so sick I decided to put her things up for a little while so I wouldn't spread germs to her gowns. Instead I started a new day dress for myself. After all, it is getting colder and colder and so far I have only made one new dress for winter time. 
This one I wanted more of an early 1830's style. I used the same basic bodice pattern as for my pink gown but am making the sleeves a tad bigger. Instead of gathering the fashion fabric at the waist, I darted the lining as usual but tucked the fashion fabric and tacked the pleats down by hand. The sleeves have a slender undersleeve with a full puff sleeve mounted on top of that. 
I'm hoping to finish it up today. All it really needs is the skirt attached and the hooks sewn on. Then hopefully I'll feel well enough to get back to my work sewing once more.
Malachi got into the green mood by lying on the green side of his quilt today. He enjoyed the bright color, and shared some space with me while I got out my mandolin and practiced Little Red Haired Boy. 
If I am very lucky, and stay up very late, I will even have a new green skirt to wear tomorrow. The fabric is a beautiful green-on-green shimmery stripe that right now is washing. Don't you hate it when you go to start a proejct, only to realize the fabric neatly stacked in your fabric bin has not been washed and dried yet? Grr. That was my lot today. And I had so carefully planned out this time to sew!
I had to hang it with stout quilting thread for the time being. David isn't sure where his clear fishing line is, so for now, you can tell it hangs from the ceiling. Hopefully we'll find the clear fishing line soon since I think that will make it look much better. I'm pretty happy with how mine came out, although its a bit more primitive looking than Meg's cheerful and whimsical one. Ack, that's just my personality I suppose. Dismal plaids and dark calicoes rather than bright prints and perky polka-dots! I hope the boys aren't too freaked out by the eyeless birds that gaze solemnly over their sleeping quarters.
And at night I can draw them across the window and they work effectively to keep people from seeing inside. Which is handy, since little David has become quite fond of Stripping and that is not something I want people to see if he happens to climb in his window before I find him out!
The boys room is not really a real bedroom. It is a closetless room off the kitchen. I think at one time it was a side porch since it sits a little lower than the kitchen and you have to step down into it from the kitchen. It doesn't have a door in the doorway and there is no closet. But it is large and roomy and has four windows and a door leading to the outside. We put a shelf in front of the door for the time being, to keep the toys up and to prevent people from wanting to use it as a door. The boys use the closet in my sewing room for their clothes so they have plenty of space to play on their floor.
As aforementioned, the boys like to yank pictures off of their walls. The things I *do* have up they thankfully haven't disturbed (yet). For a little decoration, David made each of them their names from some old wooden blocks. They sit on the top of each window. Since their are four windows, we have one apiece for David, Judah and Malachi. The last window has the word "Love". 
Here is a plaster mold I did of little David and Judah's feet last year. How much they have grown since then!
And a beautiful cross stitch that my friend 
From the ceiling, David suspended a planetary system with the central light fixture representing the sun. Here is my oh-so-naughty baby boy, climbing in his window to try to pull Uranus from orbit. Since the blinds are out of the windows, he finds the ledges very desirable and convenient to climb upon.
Judah knows when Little David is doing wrong. He is especially good at those times and especially attentive to me, as if to instill in my mind the superiority of his behaviour over that of his elder brother. "Look, Mama. I'M being good!" 
