Tuesday Stuff

Thinking about a lot of fun stuff today…  Katherine and the kids will be over in an hour for lunch and playing, we have a crop coming up this Friday, and I’m planning our last summer trip to Colorado which will include a fishing weekend for Scott, a night out with Debbie and Lisa and a visit to this place http://www.ecrackpots.com/about.htm , some back-to-school shopping.  We’ll have a ball!

Already thinking of my next quilting projects, even though Miranda isn’t close to being finished yet…  I want to make each of my boys a small/lap quilt, using blue minky fabric and primary colors.  I found this quilt on www.etsy.com and immediately knew what I wanted my little boy quilts to look like… Isn’t it just beautiful?  If you’d like to check out more of this Etsy shop, their name is ThreeFrenchHens.

I’ve done enough hand-quilting now to know that I’ll be taking my 18" square frame back to the store.  It’s too big and the corners are hard to work around.  I’m in the market now for a 12 or 14 inch wooden hoop.  Any advice, Huckleberry?

Not sure what I’m going to play with today, while Katherine’s here…probably my latest sock  or might start on another knitting Christmas project…  hmmm

I have so many scrapbook pages running thru my head too…gotta get down here and get ready for the crop on Friday!

In closing, just wanted to share a couple silly, cute pictures…

I always suspected that my boys would have been pretty girls!  lol  Found these little bonnets on sale at Chimney Rock Visitors Center and couldn’t resist trying them on.  Will and Scotty played right along.  What good sports!

I love this shot of Dood, reading this warning sign, at Chimney Rock.  We weren’t lucky (or unlucky) enough to actually see a rattle snake.  I think the boys really wanted to run into one, though.  Crazy nuts!  And speaking of reading—OH MY GOSH, our little first grader can read!  We are constantly amazed at how much he learned at kindergarten!  He’s a very bright little boy!  I love him so much!  That’s Chimney Rock in the background, just in case you were wondering…

And finally…we had no idea that our youngest had his own hamburger joint in Scottsbluff…  Cool, huh?  I dig the cool, retro design too…

I’m off to do Mommy stuff.  Have a great day. 

Very Quiet

It’s very quiet around here today.  Grandma and Grandpa took off, to go home this morning.  So, I’m catching up on housework, getting everything back in it’s place and because it’s kinda melancholy, I’m thinking of things that make me happy…like: These new stamps.  Both are from retired Stampin’ Up sets that I was able to find on Ebay.  Love ’em.  (Thanks Tracey!)

And crafting with my mother-in-law.  She got me started on hand quilting and helped me to piece my batting.  It was fun.  I’m going to be playing around with that stuff a bit more this afternoon.  I can’t wait to work on the quilt, who from hence forth shall be called "Miranda", with Katherine again!  WE CAN’T WAIT TIL SCHOOL STARTS AGAIN, KATHERINE!  I’LL GO NUTS!!!  (My mother came up with the name and I just love it!  She’s going to be beautiful!)

Happy, happy–finally have a GREAT picture of my mother and his mother together!  This one, for sure, is going to be a scrapbook page!

Mmmmmm, our first red Romas!  I quickly chopped them up and made bruschetta topping for a piece of toast and we munched-out on it, right before dinner.  We were able to share our first little tomatoes with Grandma and Grandpa!  They were yummo!

Baby strawberries!  Need I say more?

And more crafting with Sandy, which will be cute art for the boys’ playroom and practice for me and a new stitch.

Scott grilling and eating dinner on the deck.  It was breezy and really nice…very fun.  As usual, Scott blew me away with his choice of seasonings.  He’s really a phenomenal cook when he has the time to do it.

And finally, I’m so happy that Grandma and Grandpa and Scruf were able to come visit.  We all had a great time!  Can’t wait to see you again at Thanksgiving! 

Sunday afternoon

I can’t believe Grandma and Grandpa are already leaving tomorrow.  We’ve had a great time with them.  The boys have loved having them around too.  What a short week it’s been.

We had a little party for Scott’s birthday on Wednesday.  The food was great (thanks, honey–yep, he cooked his own  birthday dinner–don’t you wish he was your husband?  lol)  Had his favorite cake:  chocolate/chocolate chip with cream cheese icing. (  I baked it, thank you very much!)  Yep, the candles say "30"…  WHAT?

He got spoiled with some great gifts too.    I think he had a fun day, with friends and family here to help celebrate.

I love you honey, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

More to come later about fun, crafty stuff and site seeing with the in-laws.

Saturday night

Such a nice,quiet time, right after the boys go to bed.  I love Saturday nights at home…  I’ve been crafting and looking at crafting blogs and my honey’s been taking it easy this evening, playing X-Box–he isn’t feeling to well, battling a summer cold…  Sure hope the boys and I don’t get it.  I’m kinda watching Little Miss Sunshine, which is proving to be a lot funnier than I ever dreamed… 

So, the boys and I got home yesterday afternoon, from Colorado.  I got unpacked and cleaned up, went to the grocery store today and we’re all set for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa any minute… The boys are so, so excited for them to get here.  We’re even planning a little birthday party for our Daddy on Wednesday with both sets of grandparents and friends.  It’s going to be great.

As much as I love packing up and heading off to Colorado, it’s good to get home too!  This past week at my Mom and Dad’s we had a lot of time to stay in.  They were doing a little remodeling and had to stay close to home.  Mama and I got a lot of knitting done, the boys played with Duke, it was all good!  So, here’s the progress on Bee’s Christmas sweater:   I’m really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I can feel the sense of accomplishment already, for having completed my first sweater!  I’m hoping to get all the knitting done before we head to Colorado again, first week in August.  I’m hoping that my mother will help me sew it all together while there next.  One Christmas present down!  Probably will start on Bee’s Christmas stocking next.  So, I ran out of the beautiful Aran yarn for this sweater, or I would have gotten alot more done…  So, I was forced to steal some of my mother’s yarn and start a sock that was completely unplanned…   I’m going to play around with the pattern and do some knitting thru the back that I heard will make the sock stronger and maybe even double the yarn on the heal…  Just going to experiment and have fun.

Also got to Hobby Lobby while we were in Colorado and found the fabric for the back of my quilt. I can’t wait to work on it again.  May be a while…  I think it’s going to be so gorgeous and I think I’m already addicted to another craft!

That’s it for now.  I’m off to have a Mike’s Hard Berry! 

I hope you’re having a great weekend too!

Oh, can you believe I didn’t take one picture while we were in Colorado?  Not one…what’s wrong with me?  Have I lost my inner scrapbooker?

It’s Sunday night and I need another weekend

I guess a week in Colorado will have to do, though…  It’s been such a busy weekend that I can’t even tell that I slept til noon on Saturday!  lol  The boys and I are leaving tomorrow, after we have lunch with Daddy and we’re going to be there all week.  We’re stuck at Guh’s house the first three days (they’re having some remodeling done at the house) and I think that’s just what I need:  mandatory down time! 

So…  are you curious as to what the heck I was doing all weekend?  First of all, Friday night I went quilting and with Katherine’s help, we completed the top of my first quilt and it’s BEAUTIFUL! I had decided to just bite the bullet and order some of that gorgeous Heather Bailey Freshcut fabric for the backing…but when I went to pay for it and the total was over 50 bucks for 5 yards, I had second thoughts…  I think I’ll look at HL next week, with my mother…  I just can’t wait to work on this again and especially to cuddle up with it for the first time.  It’s so girly and pink, I just love it already.  I really enjoyed the process so much too…Katherine and I had a blast.  I already have a couple more (smaller) quilts in mind for my boys next year…  Also Friday night Katherine gave me a wonderful gift…  cuttings from her thriving, gorgeous strawberry plants!

They’re so beautiful in my front window.

So most of Saturday we worked and played in the yard and then went out to dinner and to see the new Harry Potter movie.  I thought it was pretty good.  I think Will was a little bored and Scotty fell asleep the last 40 minutes.  It was just too long for a 5-year-old.  He had great fun eating his popcorn and drinking his very own coke, though.

So then today started out with some exciting news…  Our Dood lost his second tooth!  Daddy’s got to sneak in there in a little bit with fairy dust and money! 

We spent most of today outside too, playing and working in the yard.  It was 95 degrees here today and very low humidity.  It was really great for… hanging clothes out on my new clothesline!  I’ve wanted a clothesline for so long and Scott finally gave in!  Thanks, honey!  It was so much fun, hanging linens out there all afternoon…reminded me so much of when I was a little girl, helping Mama hang the linens on the line.  We used to do it pretty frequently when I was little.  I feel so grown up and I told Scott that it makes me feel like a good Mommy.  Am I crazy?

So just a couple more pictures to share: I couldn’t stand it anymore.  The Nguyens’ carrots are just too pretty, so…  I planted my own.  I know it’s pretty late in the season, but I couldn’t help myself.  Scott bought these cute little blue and green pots for me.  And I have a little black poodle on the top stair, keeping watch over them…  silly little KC followed me in and out all day, a hundred times today.  My little shadow, since my Jo passed.  He even woke me up this morning, snoring, just like Jo!  It started my day off with a sweet memory and a smile! 

And finally we have another new arrival in the garden…

My first strawberry!  I know you aren’t supposed to really count on berries the first year, but I’m very excited to see blossoms and berries!

My bell peppers are growing beautifully too.  I’m going to make stuffed peppers for my honey soon as they’re ready to pick and he’s going to love them…or else!  (kidding, honey.  I bet you like them, though.)  Maybe I’ll get to use our Roma tomatoes in the stuffing too…  I’m so excited!  I can’t wait.

Well, I’m outta here…  Can’t wait to see Mama and Daddy again and knit my little fingers off!  Have a great week everyone!

Eye Candy Friday

Gardening, as with most things in life, are a live-and-learn matter for me.  This summer I’ve learned that there are no flowers prettier that the little purple ones that grow on thyme and I can cook with the herb.  I’m going to have whole flowers pots next year of just thyme.  After checking out a friend’s garden, I now know that I want to fill a couple flower pots (next summer) with carrots too.  I never new the tops were so beautiful and Katherine tells me they eventually get flowers too…  They’re really gorgeous!  I’m already harvesting marigold seeds for next year… I may not have to buy anything next year…  that’d be nice.

So after my downer post yesterday, I’m feeling really good today.  My housekeeper came to help out this morning and the boys and I went and did all our errands and groceries and stuff.  We even took a swim in our pool, before it got all cloudy.  It was really nice. 

Now, I’m off to shower and I’m going quilting tonight.  I can’t wait to get started.  IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING, huh Huckleberry and Sandy?  (I’ve been talking about quilting for at least three years now…)

Postponed the trip to Colorado til Monday and we’ll be gone all week.  I couldn’t stand to leave my honey all by himself all weekend.  So got a couple more days to play at home.  I guess that’s it this time.  Hope you’re having a fabulous day too.

A little sad…

I never dreamed I’d love summer like I do now.  I’m very hot-natured, grew up in Savannah, GA, where we never got snow and it was summer year round.   One of my main requirements regarding where we can live now, is that it must snow there.  I’m not kidding.  I don’t like the heat and my first 35 years I didn’t like outdoor stuff, unless it was up in the Rockies somewhere…  But as for gardening, taking care of plants and lawn and playing outside…not for me…until now.

Having Will home everyday, not having to go to school…  wow, what fun we’re having!  I like to fill their days with activities, make them good, fresh things to eat, have friends over every day to play, take full advantage of summer break!  I think Will likes staying home too–I don’t think he appreciates it like he will in the future…  the kid loves school so much, he’s going to be very excited to go back at the end of August too.   He’s been counting down the days, nearly since summer break started…

This fall, however, the baby goes to full-day kindergarten too.  I’ll be home alone.  I don’t even remember my life alone.  I used to enjoy time alone and I’m sure I’ll grow accustomed to it again, but it’s going to be a strange and unwelcome transition for me.  (I’m not sure Bee’s going to like it much either…he’s quite a Mommy’s boy.)  I know I can still fill up my days with wife/mommy stuff.  I know that when school starts up, so does scouts, flag football, and a myriad of other kid-related activities.  I know I can stay busy and keep my mind occupied.  But I’m very sad about the passing of the little-kid-staying-at-home-with-Mommy phase.  I can’t believe how quickly it got here. 

For Scotty’s sake especially (since he’s the one who’s a little aprehensive about new situations, new people and places) I’ll make a big, happy deal out of the fact that he’s going to school with his brother this year.  We’ll have fun, buying all the stuff on his back-to-school supplies list.  He’ll have a handsome new shirt to wear on the first day, just like his brother.  Mommy will take a zillion pictures.  But inside, I’m going to be a little sad…

Tuesday Morning

Looks like we are going back to Colorado this Saturday.  Not sure if we’re going to have time to play in the mountains this time, though.  So, thought I’d share some of the  beautiful places we played last time. Also including a picture of Duke and his favorite boys. 

And, I finally got around to finishing up my altered star (from www.itkitstudio.com)  I think it turned out really cute.   Soon as I get this last load of laundry caught up, I’m going to go do some knitting.  I’ve decided on a couple new, fun projects that I’ll be sharing later.  I’m pretty excited to get started on them.  Also, Katherine has convinced me to enter some open class competitions at the Cheyenne County Fair this summer!  I can’t resist…  I’m going to enter the scrapbooking and a couple of the baking competitions.  (God knows I have taste-tested recipes, huh everyone at CPS, who got to taste and rate a hundred recipes when I was working on opening a bakery)  Also going to enter some of my veggies from the garden and since the boys have been helping out with the garden’s care, I’m going to enter them under the boys’ names.  Thought that might be fun for them.  I am not, however, going to enter anything in the knitting category…  don’t want to compete with my quilting instructor Katherine!  lol

So, gonna go knit or swim or something…  in closing, here are some pictures of the before mentioned veggies:  for the record, the red, orange and green bell peppers all start out green.

We have our first strawberry blossom–seriously doubt we’ll have berries this year, though.  Gives us something really special to look forward to next summer, I guess…

I think we’re going to have *hitloads of Roma tomatoes in another week or so…   We’re going to be so sick of salsa and bruschetta!  Gotta get some more stakes for these babies.

I’m outta here.  Have a great day!

Home again

Finished (if you can call it that) my first Fair Isle sock today…boy, what a giant pain in the butt it’s turned out to be…  This is my first attempt at Fair Isle and ripping it three times to do it looser and it’s still too tight to fit over my heel…  and to make matters even worse, the toe decreases are on the top and bottom—not the sides…misidentified my dpns…  WHATEVER~!  I’m just glad to have it off my needles and you know what, my puppies are going to have a hand knit Christmas stocking!!!   My Dood is modeling for me.  I love the look and feel of this yarn so much, that I’m going to find a lace sock pattern to use it and I’m really looking forward to getting started so that I’ll have one sock to make a match for at Socktoberfest! 

My honey tried it on too, said the toe of the sock felt really good…hmmm…wonder if he’d like a soft, cozy pair of socks for Christmas…hmmm…

Got a bunch more done on Bee’s Christmas sweater too…  I’m nearly done with the front and want to start on a sleeve this week.

I think the boys and I are probably going to try to go back to Colorado next weekend, so I won’t have much knitting time at home this week, most likely…

I know, I know, we just got back from Colorado, but I just realized summer break is already half over and we’ve only been to the swimming pool in Longmont once!!!  We gotta get busy having fun, man!

It was so wonderful to come home to thriving veggies and flowers and happy puppies.  My dear, sweet friends who helped me out, THANK YOU!!!

So, I’m off to enjoy some peace and quiet while my three boys are out to see the new Transformers movie.  Here’s a fantastic shot of my Dad with the boys.  Three of my favorite men in the world!

Last minute prep

So, I was outside this morning, showing my friend/neighbor what all needs to be watered while we’re gone, and made some observations…first of all, we finally have baby bell peppers.  Aren’t they adorable?  I’m so excited! There’s even a bug in my picture, pollenating another for me…  I can’t wait to have stuffed peppers out of my own homegrown bell peppers.  I have three plants:  one green, one red and one orange…  I wonder if they all start out green or if this is the green plant?  Anyone?

Another observation…  my Iowa marigolds are blossoming!  These are sentimental because they’re seeds from the marigolds that we planted in our backyard in Iowa.  Planning to harvest seeds from these for next year too!

Also…why are my squash not growing?  They stop growing, turn darker yellow and shrivel up…  Might they be getting too much water?  I pulled these this morning…my plants don’t need to waste energy on these little guys anymore…

And finally, my thyme is thriving too.  I’ve never done thyme before, but I’m finding it quite therapeutic…it’s soft and thick and very pleasant to touch and smell and I had no idea that it has beautiful, little purple flowers on it.  We started the summer with three bunches, but this is the only one to have survived the last trip to Colorado…so it’s very special to me too…I absolutely love how it cascades down the side of the container…  I’m not so in love with the African Daisies that I bought for the first time this year.   They’re just tall, straggly looking things to me, unless you’re looking at them from straight above and all you can see is the blooms…  I probably won’t do them again. 

I guess that’s it for now.  Gotta go pack and get ready to go.  Trying to keep my mind off a very sad anniversary today–that I’ll write more about later, when I’m not so, so emotionally raw.  Just trying to keep busy with Colorado preparations right now.  We’ll be back on Sunday.  I hope everyone has a fabulous holiday and weekend.