My Siblings!

There's something about spending time with my siblings that does my heart SO MUCH GOOD. It just so happened that both of them were able and willing to come and visit me on the same weekend. And, it was Willem's birthday weekend, so we had something to celebrate!

In typical sibling-style, we had to play a game and it may have been a bit competitive! The sheer desire to defeat our own kin runs strong in our blood and so our towers got pretty tall. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WILLEM!!!

We headed out for a delicious dinner at one of our favorite restaurants in town. Mom & Dad, though not able to join us, gifted Willem with this dinner out with us. Willem ordered a massive sicilian pizza for us to split. It was yummy! It's not often that the three of us sit and have purposeful conversations with each other, so this was a nice chance to move out of our usual sibling activities and really chat. Thanks, Mom & Dad!

So, I get some sister points for baking the cake, but I forgot the candles. We improvised & Willem was a good sport!

He was a happy guy.

The next day they indulged Leif & me by going on a walk with us at our favorite local park.

As a baby shower gift Phoebe gave me white baby onesies, a swim hat, and a swim diaper and a tie-dye kit! So, we had a little sibling craft afternoon and decorated Baby B's clothing.

 

They turned out really well! Baby B will have a bright and colorful wardrobe. It's so special to have onesies made by one of his/her aunts and uncles. Jim wasn't able to make any with us during this visit (due to continued night shifts), but we also had a mommy & daddy craft day later.

And it wouldn't summer for Willem without a watermelon in the fridge...

But what REALLY made his weekend was the fact that Joss Whedon's "Much Ado About Nothing" was playing at The Lyric. He loved it. Happy birthday, Will!

Phoebe stayed a few extra days and it was so nice to have quality sister time. During her visit she got to hear the baby's heartbeat, which thrilled her, and she got to see a very quick ultrasound confirming that the baby's head is down.

I'm so bad at goodbyes, especially with these two. Thank you for a wonderful time! It was awesome to have you around. Looking forward to hosting you when your names have changed to Uncle Willem & Aunt Phoebe!!!!

Simple Gifts

I cannot live without sharpies; I absolutely adore the packs of MANY sharpies with every color imaginable and I use them ALL the time. So, when I saw this post on Pinterest I knew that this was a project for me.

And, what better time to try it out than for a three year old's birthday!?

Materials:

- Blank mug, bowl, plate. etc.

- Sharpies

- Oven

Steps:

1) Choose your blank mug, bowl, plate, etc. For this I used a plate!

2) Layout your design on something you don't mind ruining!

3) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

4) Draw the design on the front of the plate. Don't forget to write the date, occasion, or little note on the underside/back (Like I did!)

5) Pop it in the oven for 30 minutes.

6) Let it cool!

7) Then use or wrap it and make sure to choose pretty paper or use newspaper ;) Fortunately this three year old didn't mind!

A fishy plate for a fishing birthday party!

I see many more craft projects like this in my near future. Easy and fun. Thank you to Pinterest for the idea and thank you to Hazel for having a birthday and a reason to get crafty!

Faux Chenille Blanket

Ever since we learned of my injury I have had this strong desire to make a quilt. I decided that this summer was the time to do it and, now that the summer is here and already two weeks underway, I knew that I had to get it done SOON! I was yearning to make it and just could not settle myself completely until it was underway. You can ask Jim- I was antsy with anticipation!

Well, I did not end up making a quilt with batting and the whole nine yards because much earlier this year I saw a tutorial on one of my favorite blogs, MADE, and saved it for a time when I could reteach myself how to use the sewing machine. The tutorial showed how to make a "Faux Chenille Blanket" and I simply fell in love.

Dana Willard, the author of this blog, writes directions that are so explicit that even this sewing novice feels comfortable attempting to gather the resources and set about creating! She has many incredible tutorials and her three children are super cute models. Her blog is also where I found the Chevron baby blanket I made earlier this year.

Anyway, on Sunday I went to Joann Fabrics and chose my fabrics. I'm crazy about batik and so I went with that for the back fabric and then pulled the other three colors out of the pattern.

Then I set up my grandpa's drawing table for the project ahead and I sewed line after line after...uh.... line....

If you look very closely, you can see the twist-tie I rigged to help me sew my lines 1/2 inch apart. That was a project-saver!

 Listening to some good music helped the somewhat tedious steps go by :)

And then I snipped and snipped...

 Leif was a great project buddy. He barely left my side and NEVER got in the way.

 After cutting the corners into rounded edges, I added the satin border.

 This is what it looked like before heading into the washing machine:

And this is what it looked like when it came out of the dryer! They say that the frayed edges just get better and better with each washing.

 Next time I will try to make my lines closer together- you live and learn!

 It's about 45" x 45"- a fairly good size.

 I couldn't walk back inside without snapping a shot of this beautiful lily!

We hadn't planned on putting this blanket on the couch, but we both think it brightens up the room. Little did I know that the pillows I sewed last summer would actually match this blanket. Let's just pretend I had that in the plan all along, shall we? I'd prefer that over the fact that I am stuck in an interior design rut :)

What a fun project this was! It definitely satisfied my desperately yearning crafty side (for now!). Perhaps next time I won't have to teach myself how to thread a bobbin all over again and one day I WILL make a quilt ;)

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I've been on three slow hikes with lots of breaks in the past three days! Woohoo! Life is good.

Delaplane Strawberry Festival

There's one festival and weekend that I look forward to all year long. This year it happened to REALLY be a weekend I was yearning for since it was the official start to my summer vacation! But this festival is so much more than a festival to me; it's a celebration of service, compassion, and tradition.

You see, the Delaplane Strawberry Festival is the work, toil, and sweat of a very small church. Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Delaplane, Virginia puts together and runs this two-day festival and over the years this festival has grown considerably in size. The tiny congregation has worked together to create a beautiful & family-friendly festival filled with crafters, hay rides, children's games, cake walks, performers (including SCORE), strawberries, strawberry shortcake, cheesecake, and sundaes, and more! This festival makes for a wonderful experience for all ages.

After volunteering for years, greeting old family friends, smiling and talking with familiar vendors, and taking in the beauty that was around me, my heart was filled with glee and I was "home."

My dad refers to this festival as almost Brigadoon-like and he couldn't be more right. The festival gets set-up in a day (Friday), stays for two days, and at 5 PM on Sunday it starts to disappear. It's set at the beautiful Sky Meadows State Park, set in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, with the view of a pond, and rolling hills. People come from all around Virginia, some visiting from out-of-state, and then we all return to our lives. But we know that it will return again...

The proceeds of this festival go to SO many good causes; it's an honor to be a part of such a significant and powerful event.

This year was not unlike any other year- I worked at the strawberry tent. I love selling strawberries! It was fun to work and sell the berries, while working side-by-side with my mom. I also LOVE getting to smell the strawberries all. day. long.

And, I can never resist a few, slow meanders through the craft vendors! I always walk away with something and I always start dreaming about what it would be like to have my own stand... perhaps one day! :)

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I have so much to say after this last week, but I am going to try to spread it out over a few posts. This is a good problem, eh?

Busy Hands

A glimpse of what my busy hands have been up to these days. I made one chevron blanket (seen below) and it was simply ghastly. There were bulges here and there, the lines weren't straight, and the bottom was MUCH wider than the top. 

I was attempting to learn three different, new (to me) kinds of stitches, while also counting stitches. This was my first project ever in which I actually had to count stitches and that was certainly hard to get used to! It's incredibly hard to count stitches while holding a conversation, running to grab a ringing cell phone, or attempting to get every last detail out of what's on the screen. My impatient, "I'll-fix-it- later" attitude wanted to plow forward and that's very apparent in the blanket. Let's be real- there is no way to fix it later in knitting!

Here's the start of my second chevron blanket and it's looking to be much more successful. I've learned how to count stitches without having to back-track, and I've learned enough about the ssk, k2tog, and kfb, to be able to identify just where I left off the last time. Hopefully I can keep this up for the duration of this blanket. Watching the news, movies, and TV shows is so much more fun with something to do with your hands!

I also had some fun making a faux-aboriginal drawing of a lizard on a card. Very simple and mind-numbing after a day of work.

Who'd like some mail? Post the first comment and it's yours, if you want it :)

Happy Easter!

Normally I go crazy dying eggs for Easter! This year I boiled the eggs, I purchased the egg-dying kit, and then I left them both to sit as my creative side couldn't stop in the middle of different project.

For about four weeks now I have slowly, but surely, been working on a baby quilt. Initially the quilt was going to be tiny, with just a few squares. That soon changed when I spoke with my cousin Marianne (of Kasch Blog) who has a 1.5 year old child. She suggested that I make the baby blanket bigger because its period of use for the child and the parent is relatively short if it is small. In fact, she recently sewed a few of Annaliese's baby quilts together so that they could still enjoy them.

Well, I took her advice and added another two weeks of work to my project... thanks Marianne! But I am so grateful that I did because we love the finished project. The gestational period was about four to five weeks, but it was worth it.

I think that this is the biggest, longest craft project I have ever completed. It couldn't have come at a better time...

During these days, when all I can do is sit and relax at the end of a long day or on the weekend, I needed something to do. I often can't/don't feel like reading because my headache is stronger at the end of the day, so I watch TV on the internet.

Quite quickly I realized that I needed something productive to DO while I watched show after show; my therapy came in the form of knitting.

The basic stitch is about all I know, even though I've been taught to purl, so I decided to knit a bunch of squares (15 x 15 stitches). At first my goal was to use up all of the yarn in my craft supply and, fortunately enough, all of the yarn was the same size and type. After speaking with my cousin, I needed to get a few more reams in order to make the blanket bigger. And, once all of the squares were done, I decided that the blanket needed to have a border.


As you can see and tell,
I did not start with a clear picture
in mind and so this blanket is pretty country-bumpkin, but we love it.

So, this blanket has been my relief over the past few weeks. Each day I looked forward to coming home and knitting- it's been a blessing.

Family & friends have asked who will be receiving the blanket and each time I reply that I wouldn't feel comfortable giving the blanket to someone else because it is so rag-tagly put together. But the main reason is that Jim has fallen in love with this blanket and wants to keep it for the future.

So instead of dying eggs, I sewed the squares together and snipped all of the loose strands of yarn until 10 PM last night. We'll still enjoy the eggs, they just won't be decorated today or maybe at all this year.

We hope that you and yours have had a wonderful Easter! For us it's been a day of hope, friendship, and peace.

My Evening Outlet

Do you ever receive a gift card from someone and then wait 9 months before actually using it? Eek! Well, I do!

Today I went and purchased beads, clasps and stringing wire to make some new pieces of jewelry to jazz up my wardrobe and outfits, as well as to feed my creative urges.

Walking up and down the bead aisle in Michaels is such a fun thing to do! The colors are beautiful, grouped in warm and cool colors, brights and naturals, plastic and glass, wood and stone; a true feast for the eyes and to the touch.

If only my tastes weren't for the most expensive beads... Fortunately, there was a sale and I had a gift card.

So, after spending an hour on that aisle and two hours at home, I now have one new necklace and three new bracelets. Playing with combinations of colors and beads and then stringing and restringing made for a fun evening.

In the end I have discovered that simple is still my style.
I still feel like I am playing dress-up sometimes.
I am, after all, only 25. Right?



****Speaking of which.... HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY to my dear cousin, Julie! I hope that you are having a wonderful square-dancing jamboree this evening!!! Wish I could be there. Love you.