Spring Break-- it looks a little like winter!

In between 2 weeks of travel, I was able to convince Big Daddy to take us over the mountains for a little break.  I wanted to go to see this quilt show.  Kristin is such an amazing quilter.  We met SO very long ago in one of Tonya's quilt alongs. (I am betting that Kristin finished her quilt and mine is still hanging out in the craft room somewhere.) Last summer all three of us were able to hang out in Sisters during the Quilter's Affair.  FUN FUN FUN to meet cool people online and then find that they are cool in person as well.--- more on this show on another post.

We were able to find a cute little house (isn't my brood cute?!) (Brownie and his rocker hair-do!) a block from the park and just a short walk downtown.  Sometimes the best trips come together at the last minute, just how I like it!

We went to the sno-play park for the first time!!!  Yes, I have lived here for over 20 years and this is my first "serious" sledding excursion.  It was GREAT!!  Everyone had a wonderful time.  Did I forget to mention earlier that another reason we went away for a few days was to mark Blondie's BIRTHDAY!  He is now 6 years old!!!  He was so at home in the snow.  Since he was in-utero I have thought that he was going to grow up to be an extreme sports enthusiast.  His antics on the sledding hill told me that we need to get that boy a HELMET!  On one trip up the hill to meet me, he "accidentally" dropped the sled and had to retrieve it 3 times... endless energy.  What a little bundle of love!

At one point I looked up the  (Big, BIG) hill and saw Big Daddy getting ready to slide Mango down the hill on her snowsuit.  Of course I gave that the big "NO" frown, only to find that it was all "little" Mango's idea.  She saw a big boy going down on his snow pants and she thought that she should too.  The only thing that I can come up with is that we get these kids A LOT of supervised snow experience while they are young so that they can be somewhat savvy when they get older and Mom is not around.  I am going to have totally white hair by 40!

No trip to the high desert would be complete without a tortoise shot?  A man brought a tortoise out for a walk to the park.  It was just really funny.  Weird, but funny.

The joke of the whole trip was my never ending knitting project.  I have finally realized that I like the knitting almost more than I like the finished project.  I also am a HORRIBLE gauge swatch knitter.  I am just always off and not too consistent.... blah blah blah.  A few birthdays ago I bought this BEAUTIFUL yarn for myself.  I finally knit is up in to a simple cowl, wore it sledding, and decided that it was too wide.  My husband was kind of shocked when, on the way back from the mountain, I unraveled the cowl and began to re-knit it in a smaller width.  I think that if I could just keep knitting that yarn for every project I would be a happy girl. (I should just buy another skein or two and be done with it!)

Brother Jon's served us some mighty fine grub and their sentiment is sweet and direct!  A new motto for me!

In the meantime I have been working on some patterns and tutorials... you know, just trying to figure out my way in the world.  March was my month in the EMQG bee so I came up with this to make an "X" block.  I always like to find a way to "liberate" another quilter!


I am a little reluctant to say it, don't want to jinx it-- but I feel like I am more accepting of this "new normal".  The normal without my mom daily in my life.  I finished the session of grief classes that I talked about a few months back.  I made myself go to the first three (it felt REALLY awful), but then I continued for the next four.  It was really nice to have a place that was really safe to express how sad I am about losing my mom.  A place where I am not worried about scaring my kids with my grief.  It was so nice to hear from other "eldest" children about how responsible they feel for all the little details of their parents affairs.  It was comforting to learn about how other people are struggling with their own "new normal" and to just not feel crazy.  My class was through hospice care at the local hospital.  I am going to continue when it starts up again in May.  I would really recommend trying it at least three times.


So many times the past few months I have thought of these lyrics by Mat Kearney-


... fear is an anchor
time is a stranger
love isn't borrowed
we aren't promised tomorrow

we'll never be ready if we keep waiting
for the perfect time to come


--JMB

Well, this was unexpected...

It is all spring on the inside... but last night winter decided to come back for one last visit with over 6" of snow.  That is A LOT for us valley people.

We plowed.

I tried to save my plants from this wet heavy snow.

Then it was frozen fryer-pa-looza...  all three of the black ones got out this time.

Luckily, Blondie is on the case.  So much for "Spring"

-JMB

Leap to it!

Where am I, and what have I been doing?

Mostly just trying to get a handle on the sugar consumption around here...

Yup, it has been a crazy month-- I am going to have to catch up around here in March.
JMB

New member of the family!!!

My new family member is not the baby...she is staying in for a few months yet.  I finally bought myself a DSLR!  I have been saving up for about 2 years and I have been waffling about which one to get. Well, Canon (I am a die hard Canon fan) came out with one that has video AND all the other non-professional bells and whistles and I had to get it.  
It is the Rebel T1i and I love it.  It did take some gentle prodding from my nice husband (have I thought of a nickname for him yet?) because I hate parting with large sums of money, especially on technology items. (It seems like as soon as I buy something, the next day it comes out faster and cheaper...)
It was time, so I did it, I went and bought my first camera.  (It seems so silly to me, but all of my other cameras have been presents from my in-laws or my husband, they are good to me.)
Our garden is growing beautifully.  Two years ago I received a "Scent garden" from Schreiner's Iris farm. (I didn't realize that bearded irises were scented, let alone had many different scents.)  At first I was thinking where am I going to put these....arghhh more work, blah, blah blah.  Eventually I put them right in our food garden, but close to our dining room window.  
This year I have fallen truly in love with them.  Each color has a different scent and they are the most beautiful colors. (This is a calla lily that I planted for my husband.)
(These are the only ones that I had from a different year.)
(Nope, this is just a shout out to all of the weeds that got pulled this weekend.  The ability of weeds to propagate never ceases to awe me.)
Here is one...
Here is one that I thought was going to be ugly, but it is so lovely.  I love the way the sun shines through the ruffles.  I can't decide what the scent is, but it smells nice.  The dark purple/almost black ones (above) smell like anise. (which I like the smell of but NOT the taste.)
I especially like the way this new camera does faces....I think my little (but getting SO BIG ) Blondie is so sweet.
I must get on to some sewing for my pattern making class.  I only have 2 sessions left this term.  It is so great, but I am so challenged in this area.  Really challenged.  I am also a bit sad that I will probably not be able to continue in the series of classes until next year, because I think with the baby coming I am going to be sorta busy.  We will see.

I have an exciting anniversary coming up, so stay tuned, there will be a give away.  (Who doesn't love a give away?!!)

Peace this week.

JMB

Horseplay and DQS6, finished and sent!!!!

Here is my latest offering to the swap gods...  Man, I had such a hard time starting it, but once it got going, it was finished before I knew it.  I decided that I could share some of my vintage rickrack, because it was just the perfect color for that Moda repro fabric.  I love rickrack, my friend Emily recently posted a fancy way to zest up your flops.  I might do the same...love the rickrack!
Here is a tiny peek of another swap... I have to say that I felt like these two quilts were on the "sweeter" side of my quilting talents.  I don't venture over there very often, but I did like visiting for a while.

To be honest, I had picked my fabrics for these swaps and for weeks I got NO WHERE.  I just kept staring at the fat quarters and they were mocking me with their cute matchy-matchy-ness.  Finally, I just made some 9-patches, really a great block.  A wonderful block that has really stood the test of time....oh the 9-patch, I sing to the a song of thy greatness....

OK, lost myself for a moment.  But, if you are every having a quilting block (no pun intended!!) I think, MAKE a 9-patch---you will use it sometime!

Horseplay:

My mother-in-law has befriended the lovely Teddy (pictured here).  This is amazing only for the fact that she has been afraid of horses for the last... well, her whole life.  Well, she has been doing a bit of horse therapy and is loving it.  Teddy is an old dude, but very friendly and understanding of people who have been less than horse-crazy.  She goes out to the barn a few times a week and grooms him and enjoys the outdoors.  Last week we got to go out with her and the boys were just tickled to play with the horses.
They both did such a great job of quietly feeding Sparky. (a friend's horse)  We all liked him because he is a very delicate eater, he has very gentle lips and I was only a bit terrified that my blondie's tiny fingers would get munched off.
See, look at those lips...very delicate!
Here is my most recent horse crush.... Odin.  HE IS SO GORGEOUS!!!!  He is (I believe) half Friesian and half Mustang.  He is very young, but SO pretty.  (Small background... I always wished for a horse when I was a kid, I read every book and magazine I could get my hands on...I would even wake up in the morning and peek outside with the hope that my prayers had been answered and a horse was tired to our tree.  Long story short, when I was 11 (?) we moved to the country and bought a pregnant horse.  It was a dream to have a horse to ride AND a baby horse to train.  When my parents got divorced we had to sell them and it was pretty sad... I still miss them.  I love to go and visit barns and things like that for the great smell and getting to be around these beautiful animals.  Someday...someday again...)

It was fun to share my horsey love with the boys, but it also made me wonder how on earth my parents let my brother and I ride up in woods alone?  It was great, I loved it... but I don't know if I could let my kids do it.  It is probably all about baby steps... maybe after they learn to ride a bike.

JMB

Scenes from a sunny week!

Heaven is...

Laying in the hammock and watching the wind blow petals out of the pear tree...
Doing puzzles in the sunshine...in your pajamas.

Having unlimited time (and patience) with an "I Spy" book,
Watching a boy and a dog enjoy being together,
Eating graham crackers in the cool, cool grass,
Waiting and then seeing the garden wake up,
Having two boys that really enjoy the finer things in life...like trying out the massage chairs at Bi-mart.

Discovering on Thursday morning that you are going to have a little girl!

I hope you all enjoyed your week as well... there wasn't any sewing going on around here, but there were plenty of other things...

JMB

Mute Monday... easing back in to it...

JMB

Some spring, some eyes and ears....

Last fall I finally got around to planting some croci...I have always thought that they were sort of throw away bulbs, the losers...BUT they are so early, and I love the glowy color in the cold of February.  Not losers... very pretty.
I have been in a photo rut.  The light here during the winter is funky and I have started to get snotty about my camera... But then I thought that I would just take a bunch of "whatever" pictures and "come what may" pictures and I remembered how much I like stealing little shots of my boys faces.  How the next day they will have changed and how their ears are only going to get bigger...you know, you better go and take some right now.
This is totally my youngest son...chapped lips and all, he is SUCH a card!
This perspective of my older boys eye...it could be me before I started plucking my eyebrows, or it could be my brother....but actually not with those lashes.
He really wanted me to take a picture of his ear... and he really liked that it looked like a "curled up baby", yes, where does he come up with this stuff
All of our eyes in the hammock. (It was SO cold, but sunny...hey, there is my first ever quilt...we've come a long way baby!)
Sometimes I can get us all in...

Sunny moments, you've got to get them while you can!

JMB