This Moment

Joining Soulemama for {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

The Quiet

I sit this morning writing this blog post in complete silence...It's very strange, no extra long legs crawling into my bed last night, no early morning sword play or loud pop music, just quiet.  I know I should enjoy it, and I do, but still I miss them.
This past weekend we took our annual trek to drop Miss Molly off at summer camp and Corey to his grandmother for his trip to Georgia. It was a wonderful weekend:

First there was time spent with some very dear old friends that my heart aches for.  I can't explain the joy of seeing all of our children playing together while the dads played music.  It's such a normal part of life for all these kiddos, "dad plays music while we play".  How fortunate they are indeed.

Next there was a bit of family time, we met a new cousin for the first time (so sweet), everyone went out on the boat while I enjoyed the view with a napping baby on my chest....oh it's been too long, that was wonderful!

 We dropped Molly at camp for the 4th year in a row!  She's growing into such a lovely confident young lady...I am proud.

 There was a first ice cream cone ever, and a first out-of-state ice cream cone of the season.

 And finally a hug and goodbye to our sweet boy as he heads off to "grandparent camp".  Our ride home was fun, lonely and silly.  We laughed about the trips we took before kids, we talked about how lucky we are to have such wonderful family and friends, about the rest of our summer and the joy that it will bring.

This Moment

Joining Soulemama for {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 Have a great weekend!

Backyard Adventures

When we have extra little friends over we often go off on adventures throughout the coast, fun is always had and the unknown is exciting.  Sometimes though, it's nice just to stay right around here and enjoy what we have at our beckoned call.

It always starts with pillows and blankets heading out the back door..."what are we doing?" I ask.  "Building a fort" comes a response in unison from 3 little boys.  I love that with them on this particular day there were knights, horses and even Corey's first Waldorf doll "C-Rob" is his name, I made him when Corey was 4 and he still plays with him...warms a mama's heart and soul.
Of course, 1 fort can be a bit crowded for 3, and some feelings can get hurt so I came to the rescue with a little tepee fun!

Talk about cute!  This one even got the girl involved.  It was super simple, there are plenty of tutorials out there for a more permanent structure (which I'd love to try), but for a temporary afternoon this was perfect.  I took some garden stakes I had around (5 I think), tied them together at the top with some twine and stood them up in a tepee shape.  Next I just wrapped a full flat sheet around, tied some more twine on the top, used a clothes pin for the "door latch" and voila happy children.
I love these days, when for the most part I am busying myself with what ever chores need to be done and the kids are outside laughing, playing and just entertaining themselves.  Of course it's never long before somebody announces they are hungry.

I've been setting up this little space for them quite regularly, such a sweet little setting in the shade for a lunch time break.  The table is Corey and my first woodworking project together a couple of years ago, it's from this book, which we have made a few things from.  The carafe of lemonade is the biggest hit of all, amazing how they love to pour their own drinks and serve themselves.

Spending time with these extra little people every week has been such a blessing.  First there is the fact that their mama and I have been friends for over 20 years now (long before I met the hubs); this fact in itself warms my heart beyond belief. But also in this busy world we live in it's easy to loose track of the ever important "village" that makes child rearing so special.  These little guys learn every day from the "big kids" and my "big" kids learn so much from them.  Of course we as parents grow and learn with each other as well, and sometimes having another grown up to chat with can make the everything just a bit better.  With immediate family spread out in several states having friends close by makes growing up together memories every day.  How lucky we are.

Weekending

A bit of fun with the hipstamatic today:

This weekend was filled with sunny days,

Big gymnastics galas,

babies being born,

love and laughter from family and friends,

house projects, garden projects,

a bit of knitting,

and finished off with a BBQ at our favorite little farm.

How lucky are we?  Yes I am grateful for this wonderful life we have.

How was your weekend?

Linking with Amanda

This Moment

Joining Soulemama for{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 Have a lovely weekend!

On a Rainy Day

I did a lot of planting yesterday, the garden beds are pretty much full at this point so I was quite happy to see rain today.  A bit of netflix and a bit of crafting took hold without any plans.

Flower fairy supplies were unearthed, something we haven't done in a while but had such fun with!

 Corey is trying his hand at a bit of woodworking, he got this cool 4 in 1 tool for Christmas...it's fantastic for learning to work with wood!

A peony rested on the steps

 The boy took a break to play outside (weather never slows him down)

And some fun things were made at the end of the day.  Though Molly is creating an entire wedding party here so I have a feeling you haven't see the last of this little project.  She learned how to make fairies from Salley Mavor's book Felt Wee Folk, it's got great ideas and instructions for both kids and grown ups alike.

All in all it was a fun and productive rainy day, thank you mother nature, the gardens are happy...now I'd like the sun back in the morning please.

Some Instant Gratification

First off, thanks for the emails and love, I was down for a week with a pretty nasty virus that prevented any sort of real-life communication.  I've tried my best to pop in on blogs that I frequent often, but trying to post on my own was just too much (not to mention the photos would have been of my bedroom ceiling).
Anyway, I'm back!  Feeling great and eager to make up for lost time with some fun projects that I hope to share here with you all.

I much prefer knitting to crochet, I find the act of knitting very therapeutic as I'm sure many can relate.  My knowledge of crochet is very limited to a few basic stitches, but I do love the instant gratification that crochet brings. Simply put, it is so much faster than knitting!  I recently found myself with a pillow form with no cover (the blasphemy of it all), in the yarn stash I knew there were some bright colors left that I had used on these birdies and all the color would be perfect with these pillows.

So here is a quick simple pattern:
crochet hook size doesn't really matter nor does any sort of gauge...I just kept measuring my work next to my pillow form and when the sizes matched up I was done.
Basically this is a granny square.
ch 4, join together with a sl st to form a loop
6 dc in loop, join to first dc and ch 3 (counts at dc)
2dc in same loop, ch 2, 3 dc in same loop (1 corner made)
dc in next 2 dc, 3 dc in next dc, ch 2, 3 dc in same loop, cont. around 2 more times, you should now have 4 corners finished, join in top of ch 3.
sl st to corner, change color, ch 3 and form corner in the same way as previous, dc in each dc until the next corner, form corner (3dc,ch2,3dc).
Continue in the pattern, changing color as you wish until the desired size is reached.
When the last corner is joined turn the pillow and begin sc into front loop only for the back.  sl st when you reach the other side and turn, continue on down the back of the pillow changing colors as you wish and joining the sides with sl st.
I went about 3/4 of the way down the pillow and then finished off, turned the pillow around and started on the other side going about half way so that the flaps overlap but I could remove the pillow and wash the cover as needed (gotta love super wash baby ull).
I got a little fancy on the last row, doing sc, hdc, 2dc, hdc, sc just to give it a finished look.

Hope this little pattern makes sense and if you give it a try I'd love to see the end result:)

~Angie

This Moment

Joining Soulemama for {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

 Have a wonderful weekend!