Friday Night

Sorry for the absence, it's nice to check out of your computer life for a little while. I've been making a little more effort to spend less time online and more time in the dirt, in play and in our bookshelf.

I made plans for tonight - a little street festival held on the last friday of the month each month. I also made plans for tomorrow - a sheep shearing party and a milk-in. All these plans are quickly slipping away because I just want to stay home with my family. The nice weather pulls me in so many directions these days, there is just too much cool stuff happening around me. I can feel myself getting sucked into it all but sometimes, like tonight, I have to step back and remind myself that the coolest thing that's happening is at my house - my life.

Tonight I'm enjoying life with a glass of wine, crusty sourdough with goat cheese and a good (albeit fluffy) book.

Wordless Wednesday - Picnic In The Park

Easy Peasy Homemade Hooded Towels

Q is getting to be a wild man these days and his curiosity and endless energy means a lot more baths, hence the need for more towels. I found a towel at the thrift store a while back that had a washcloth sewn coming off the side in the center, it was sewn down to create a pocket and it got me thinking about how I could make one that would work for Q. I came up with 2 variations and so far we're liking them both. These are super easy to sew hooded towels

I got some cheap-o bath towels and coordinating hand towels at wal-mart, they actually had a bunch of colors on clearance when I went, score!

so first I folded and cut the hand towels in half vertically. Then I found the center of the bath towel and pinned and sewed them together.

I chose to sew them on top of each other instead of a turned seam because these were both finished edges and I didn't want the turned seam edge against Q's neck.

For version 1 (which is sort of like what I found at the thrift store) I folded the hand dowel down and sewed 2 seams at a diagnal, closing the hood but also creating 'ears' on either side of the hood that would not only be cute, but keep the hood snug on his head.

I love the way this one came out, I want to make another one in more puppy dog colors for my little dog lover

For version 2 I sewed the top section of the hand towel together width wise

which created a classic hood

Planting Dandelions

spreading their seeds is such an important job. Thank goodness I have such a good helper.

Fourteen months is such a fun age, so curious, so active, so loud and into everything. I just love him with all my everything.

Cookies

A warm pick-me-up to combat a fussy baby.

I have tried so many good chocolate chip cookie recipes and when I need the classic, easy peasy, 'just give me some damn cookies' chocolate chip cookies, I use the classic nestle tollhouse recipe. mmmmm. yum.

Gardening Snafu

I love spending time outside my little guy, but I have to be watch him closer and closer each day as he gets more and more curious and mischevious.

Taking pictures of our new snapdragon kept my hands distracted for just moments, but that's all it took for a little hand to creep sweetly into the shot and turn this

into this

Homecoming (& an FO)

Remember this past WIP (Work In Progress) Wednesday? Well it was finished in the wee hours of Thursday morning and went home with the sweet baby girl it was made for when she left the hospital Friday.

It's a very simple little hat but it really meant a lot to me to make it, finishing rows in between mom's contractions. Binding it off when mom reached 8cm dilated and admiring it during those last few hours when I thought of the little head that it was about to fit on and how soon we would be meeting her.

Attack Of The Pollen

yellow pine pollen has taken over our world lately. we've all been sneezing and rubbing our eyes and amazed at how much and how quickly it has taken over. EVERYthing is yellow. It looks foggy driving down my street and it looks like dust is kicking up behind you when you drive. Damn pollen.

New Baby

I was honored to attend a friends birth today. It was incredible. Seriously. Awesome.

A Very WIP-y Wednesday

I'm spending this hot and sunny Wednesday in the hospital with a friend who is in labor with a little girl - Lorelei. I'm sure I'll have many hours to kill so I'm taking along a little project. A little newborn hat for little Lorelei.

The color was chosen in honor of the wisteria that is blooming all over town right now

Meal Plan Monday

It's been a long while since I've done this but it really helps me to write it out and so here we go

Monday - homemade chicken noodle soup

Tuesday - noodles, beef, veggies - my made up version of hamburger helper

Wednesday - rice and beans

Thursday - leftovers in tortillas with sauce - enchiladas a la leftovers

Friday - pizza night or grill night depending on weather

Happy Easter!

I hope it was a wonderful day for you!

We spent the day at the always amazing Sarah P. Duke Gardens. It was gorgeous and we were lucky enough to have both of Q's grandmas with us. No shortage of loving on the little one. The tulips that fill one of the main sections of the garden were absolutely perfect today so here is my favorite easter snapshot for you

Easter Eggs! Pt. 2

...and now for the pretty eggs.

I always forget how quickly egg dying goes and wish that I was dying 6 dozen eggs since there are just so many possibilities for colors and combos and designs. After they are dyed you get so many more ideas and want to do it over again!

There were so many amazing posts out there in the blogosphere this year about natural dyes or making your own dyes, but you know what? when it came down to it, I was in the grocery store thinking about the mountain of laundry and tasks that were waiting at home for me, staring down at the Paas easter egg dying kit that was half off and went with it. I had grandiose ideas about making my own beet and blueberry dyes.... oh well. Maybe next year.

Here's what we came up with


I think this one on the end is my favorite

Easter Eggs! Pt. 1

My easter egg blowing and dying supplies have been sitting on the kitchen table this week, and in true procrastinator style I didn't do them until the last days before Easter.

First, here's a little guide to our egg blowing process. I have this great tool that we got when I was a kid for blowing easter eggs. It made it so easy to blow the eggs!

first you drill a little hole in the bottom

and then you insert the blower tool

pumping air into the egg makes the guts squish out

once they are all out you add water to the egg, swish it around and empty it to clean it out.

and now we have our eggs ready for dying... and unlike hard boiled eggs, we can keep these as long as we want. Maybe until next year...