Weekending!

April 28, 2014 by Summer

Saturday morning was spent at the farmers market and then an Earth Fair down by the ocean side. We listened to a drum circle, hula hooped, bought Ellie an upcycled skirt and enjoyed some fresh pressed juices from a truck. A fun, crunchy morning. The afternoon was spent with Gramma and Grandpa downtown for dinner. (And we were quickly reminded why we don’t go out for dinners with our almost two-year-old).

It was my middle sister’s birthday on sunday, so we spent the day with her, in my hometown. A local production of Spring Awakening (my first musical outing since before Ellie was born), sloppy joes and birthday cake. Happy Birthday Katie!

-joining Amanda for weekending!

Portrait Project

April 26, 2014 by Summer

17/52

eloise: I thought of these lyrics when I saw this photo…
“Sweet Eloise, sing the birds in the trees
When she is near you can hear them
Singing sweet melodies
They’re just for my Eloise.”

-joining jodi and the 52 project!

{this moment}

April 25, 2014 by Summer

“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. “

– joining SouleMama.

Making + Listening

April 25, 2014 by Summer

MAKING: Projects in the works… the first being Ellie’s Busy Book that I should have started a year ago (because it looks like its going to be a LOT of work) and I’d planned to have it finished by her second birthday (which is four months away). I’m really hoping I can work and work and work and get it done in time. Here’s what I have so far.

And I’m being super ambitious and I joined a Facebook sew-along group. One pattern was chosen and we are all making the same pinafore dress. I’m hoping this will help me start sewing clothes (which I’ve always wanted to do but never felt I could). I’m hoping with the online support of other ladies around the country working on the same pattern and giving tips and help along the way, I may be able to pull off my first dress for myself. We shall see.

I bought a sheet at the flea market to practice with. I didn’t want to buy any fancy fabric just yet in case I completely botch it up. If all goes well, I will try my hand at it again with some nicer linen.

I just love the picture of it. It makes me want to buy a farm and feed the chickens and pick flowers in it.

LISTENING: Our music repertoire is consisting mostly of this record (and c.d. in the car) and lots of this song and this song over and over. Oh and we borrowed this on tape at the library. Ellie is loving it!

-joining Dawn for Making and Listening!

Happy Mail for Ellie

April 22, 2014 by Summer

After having a wonderful time working on handmade goodies for a blogger swap and then receiving lovely gifts from this wonderful blogger for myself and Ellie, I had to join in when Marcela suggested a kids blog swap. I know Ellie is very young for these kinds of things but she genuinely loved getting her handmade nature bag from Christina and I thought she would love something from another little one too. I was very right! We got the most adorable package from Meg from FourWildBlueberries and her son Asher.

Ellie received a beautiful purple watercolor card, handmade fairy dust and a set of darling bean bags, just perfect for her little hands. She was so excited to get a present in the mail! I went onto Meg’s blog and found a picture of Asher to show Ellie who had sent her such wonderful things. She smiled and told me a story in her toddler gibberish. 🙂

The postcard watercolor and the bean bags now have their regular spots here on Ellie’s table. (I’ve since hung the watercolor up on the wall too). Thank you to Asher and Meg! This was such a fun gift to receive!

Here is what we sent off for the blogger swap.

Weekending: Easter Edition!

April 21, 2014 by Summer

A surprise baby sprinkle for one of my oldest, dearest friends!
Dyeing eggs while watching The Wizard of Oz.
I actually tried dyeing with natural dyes (blueberries, red onion skins and an assortment of green things like avocado skins, asparagus leftovers and kale bits). The natural dyes didn’t go over too well (except for the lovely yellow the red onion skins produced) so we added some food coloring for the rest. Next year I will try and be more prepared for dyeing eggs.
Easter day was full of fun.
I hurried to finish up my Maggie bunny from this lovely blogger’s kit. I had bought it a year ago and never found the time to finish it (until now). My bunny turned out a bit haggard looking (in fact, I messed up so bad on the dress, I had to dip into my fabric stash and add some different fabric for the arms of the dress). Despite it’s appearance, Ellie didn’t seem to mind. She seemed to love it up! (Ellie’s basket also had a lovely spring green play silk from this lovely lady and a few Ostheimer animals as well as some wooden eggs from here).
We had many egg hunts. One at our home. One at Gramma and Grandpa’s house with the cousins.
I made carrot muffins, asparagus and avocado salad (one of my favorite spring recipe’s) and Jeff made his famous roasted potato salad (from here).
We ended the day with a walk and a bit of kite flying.
A very happy Easter indeed.

-joining Amanda for Weekending!

Portrait Project

April 19, 2014 by Summer

16/52

eloise: four months shy of two years old. Your grandmother said to me the other day, “Is she always this joyful?!” And yes, you certainly are just that- joyful. This week before we set out on a walk, you got your shoes, picked out a hat, put on your satchel and wanted to also wear this bib (from your first birthday). I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything More joyful.

-joining jodi for the 52 project!

{this moment}

April 19, 2014 by Summer

“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.”

– joining soulemama

Spring time Egg Suncatcher

April 15, 2014 by Summer

I’ve been wanting to introduce some type of activity with clear contact paper for some time now. I thought Ellie would enjoy sticking things onto the contact paper and she’s getting older to where projects of this kind may be of more interest to her. I stumbled upon this easter craft on pinterest and thought it would be a lovely way to bring some natural elements into the home as well as enjoy a lovely walk with my little girl.

We took a walk around our neighborhood and I explained to her that we were going to collect flowers to bring home for a project. She wanted to carry her nature bag AND the little gathering basket we sometimes take on walks and we talked about only picking the flowers we found that were NOT in our neighbors yards. Luckily for us, we discovered a whole new world of weedy flowers I never knew existed until now.

I let her pick a few flowers from our yard and we found some flowers and petals that had fallen off the plants too. So we came home with quite an array. I cut out an egg-shaped piece of contact paper, taped it to her table and we worked together to place the flowers on the sticky side. She liked laying all her flowers out first and then liked pulling petals off of flowers and sticking them to the contact paper.

When Ellie was done, I stuck another piece of contact paper against it and then stuck it up on our back window with washi tape, to create a stained glass flower egg.

Weekending!

April 14, 2014 by Summer

We started out the weekend with a bit of spring cleaning and then off to the farmers market (it’s become our Saturday ritual once again, which we like).
Eating fresh strawberry’s.
Listening to local fiddlers.
And then off to Gramma and Grandpa’s house where we ran Gramma ragged climbing trees and chasing Ellie around.
Sunday morning I spent with a good Mama friend, making crafts for the kids (A Mama crafting morning). Ellie seems to be enjoying her color matching game. (Thank you Heather for all the hard work you put into these and for the lovely morning!)

Then we spent the afternoon down by the Marina with Gramma and Grandpa, flying kites, drinking afternoon coffee and tasting a bit of ice cream.

How was your weekend?