In Other News...

....besides vacation! Today i re-fashioned/purposed a old dress for Avery into a pinafore for 'prairie days'...something i am going to do with her over the next few weeks. I was trying to figure out what i was going to use and then i came across this old dress, that was just a little too small for her.

It was already on my sewing table, because i planned on making it into a skirt for her. So i just got out the sewing scissors and cut a straight line as best i could. No marking, no measuring...i just eyeballed it.

I quickly hemmed the now raw edges and she looked adorable. And as a bonus, because it was lined she can wear it either way, but i think she is partial to the layered look she is showing off here.

These pretty things were in my mail today. I recently won a contest on Red Pepper Quilt Blog. Rita was so nice to give these Flea Market Fancy blocks away, they are 10 inches square. I already have them laid out on my floor, as Avery and i contemplate how they are all arranged at the moment. I hope i can do them justice. If you love quilts you should check out her blog, she makes beautiful quilts, and fast. Thank you so much Rita, it was a thrill to win!

Snail Saga

Oh what a sweet little man my Mitchell is....he loves creatures and he loves them dearly, and he grows attached very quickly. This little snail suctioned his way into Mitchie's heart immediately. He was so excited that it loved him enough that it would connect itself to him so fast. I hated to do it, but we broke the news that this little guy could not come home with us because he would never make it alive.

He hunted and searched for a new home for the little guy, and was devastated to have to leave him behind. He talked to it and kissed it, and told it how much he loved it....We did this one other time with a earthworm and he was hysterical for half an hour.

He refused to leave him. The tears were unbearably cute, and so sad. He loves deeply that one. In the end the snail did go back to the ocean unharmed.

The Beach at the Bottom of the Stairs

This beach was a great first stop...there were so many beautiful treasures, aka rocks and shells, to be found way, way down at the bottom of those stairs. My favorite treasure of all was my heart shaped rock.
They look this cheerful because this is when we were on the way down...
Look how far down below that beach is...i think we lost our minds temporarily. But the kids had so much fun!! Testing the water and seeing what they could find and digging in the damp sand.

I love that Chris caught Avery running from a wave! All i had to do was shout, "WATER!!" , and those kids would move fast...pointlessly trying to avoid being wet, because by the time we got back they were soaked and the folded up rolls of their pants were full of sand.

A little beach art...and is it wrong to post a picture of the boys crack!? Crack kills, you know!

Block Island Vacation

I am finding all three hundred and some of our vacation pictures to be pretty overwhelming. I did not want to take the computer and blog while we are there so now i am trying to sort it out a little so that you all can see what a beautiful and amazing place this is.

We knew before we got there that Block Island was going to be something special but we really had no idea how special until we stepped off the ferry(Avery used to call them Fairy Tales!!). This picture, above is the view from our hotel room. In my opinion, it could not have been better.

We explored on our first day there, taking the 15 minutes to drive the whole island....not a big place! On the open ocean side we found this beach(above) and yes it is as far down as it looks....we took the stairs. Not so bad going down, but going up was a whole other story. I think those might appear in another post.

And these two pictures are of what they call the town beach and the view to either side. I think if you click on the picture you can see all the beautiful old victorian hotels....the whole island was like a step back in time. Amazing!

Our DADDY Rocks!!!

Before i get into our vacation photos....because vacation was awesome....i wanted to tell you how great this daddy is. He is so great to our kids, and me. We just love him a whole bunch. He is a great provider, a fun dad and and all around wonderful. He plays games with the kids, skips down the street with them, and lets them get in bed with us when they have a bad dream. He gives these kids opportunities and experiences that lots never get, or only dream of. He fixes all our technical problems and kills all our bugs!! He is wonderful. Our DADDY rocks!!! Happy Father's Day...because this week i know what day it is. :o)

The Results

These are the results of me losing my impulse control while my husband was gone for the week in San Francisco. I started this post before we left on vacation but was way too busy and distracted with packing to finish.

Much like the blenders in a previous post, i could not resist these aprons and if you are going to pay for shipping, you can't order just one right? All of these were from the fat quarter shop, as well as the Hello Betty Layer cake from Moda. They have great prices and super service.

I love these ones...and again i was after one of the fabrics but when i saw the companion fabrics i knew that they needed to come live at my house too. It is so bad but so fun! These are the Darcey fabric line that i ordered from Sew mama sew shop. I love their shop...they have so many fantastic deals and beautiful fabrics. As you can see it was too hard to resist, again.

And these layers cakes, what can i say? I have been wishing for some swanky for some time now, and was excited to find it on sale at the twiddletails store.

I have visions in my head for all of these. I have very nearly pitched my current WIP's to start new things but i am trying to keep myself in check and go one(or two or three) projects at a time. I hope i will have something lovely to show for all of these soon.

Visitor

Can you see who came calling today?

Yup...a young black bear. One off the first real signs that we live in the middle of nowhere smack in the center of a bunch of "mountains"...woods all around. This is not something i have had to think about before, in terms of backyard safety for the kids.

The bear was not a thrill in Avery's book. Poor thing had a heart attack. She was playing behind the house in the playground when one of the other mom's spotted him and called for all the kids to go inside. She came tearing through the house shouting about a bear. I thought she was playing a game....so i stepped out onto the front porch and oh my goodness, there really was a bear.

She was upset about Chris still being outside taking pictures, crying in the upstairs window, in fact. She actually got closer than any of the rest of us, but she did not know this until after he was gone and she calmed down a little. She and the bear came around the house together just on opposite sides of the street. I suspect he will be around again...he is perched on top of all the garbage cans in this picture....looking for more free food.

Daddy's Home

Our Daddy came home from a week long trip to San Francisco. We missed him. This is the first time he has been gone for any length of time in Mitchie's recollection. Made obvious when he told Chris that he was glad that we lived in the same place again. I caught these two wonderful boys cuddled up on the couch the afternoon he got home and then realized they matched...from the color of their shirts to the color of their hair. Love them.

We had smoothies with lunch and i could not resist how Mitchie was using that straw. He had trouble with how thick it was so every time he sucked the straw he would suck in his whole bottom lip. So cute!

Playing new games on my iPod touch. Daddy came home with some apple stuff for the kids...among that was this hat Mitch has on that he has not had off yet. He calls it his apple dapple hat.

And look where i found him this morning.....Chris was making blueberry pancakes and Mitchie was happily playing games. I have never had a kid on the counter before but today it was his new favorite place. Not sure how i feel about that!

Cute Fabric Friday

This is from an older fabric line called Nature Walk by Teresa Kogut. Isn't it adorable? I was thinking about doing this regularly...anyone else interested in sharing? It could be a fabric that you are using in a current project that you are totally in love with...OR...One you are hording, i mean stashing, for a special project, as yet undetermined...OR...just one you have in your stash that you love...OR...one that you really want. Anyone could participate, even you sister. I know you have fabric in your house! So if you think it sounds like fun...let me know and then i will have my honey figure out the technical parts so we can link to each other and see each others fabrics.

Gettin' all Nerdy (A Blog-jacking)

So I've recently been learning how to write applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It's part of a cadet project that I'll be leading next academic year. In an effort to learn in other ways than on my own, I found the Apple World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. That's where I am now. I've been here all week, and have really been enjoying myself and learning a lot with just over 5000 other nerds. The one thing I've got to say is that Apple doesn't scrimp when it comes to putting on an event. Of course it wasn't cheap to be here, but Apple definitely made it worth it.

Since I'm here as an instructor at West Point, I get to use government rates for everything, so I had the privilege to stay in a very nice hotel. Below, you can see the view from my room.


On the last night of the conference (Thursday) they had a big bash at the Yuerba Buena Gardens, right across the street from the conference center. This being my first time at the conference, I wasn't sure what to expect from the bash. I had planned to get some free dinner, have a drink or two, and then go back to my hotel and catch a movie or something. But then they announced who the entertainment for the evening was. This being a big nerd conference, I was a little doubtful as to the quality of the entertainment.

Then Cake walked out on stage and started playing. Cake, really? I didn't know that I was going to get a free Cake concert out of the whole deal. (I'm sorry to those of you who don't know Cake, so you should check them out.) If you look to the left of the band in the picture above, you'll see a bunch of people hanging over a railing beside the stage. Well, that's where I found myself in short order to try to get some better pictures.

All in all, it's been quite an enjoyable week. It's definitely an interesting mix of people. In fact, I snapped the picture below while I was sitting here writing this blog. As much fun as it's been, I do miss home, and am looking forward to getting there. It's going to be a long night on an airplane, but I'll be home tomorrow, and then we have a nice week of vacation next week.

Messy Fun

The thrill of fabric is not lost on my son. He just has a different spin on it!

Today was rainy, again, and we were in the house, again....so, the scrap bucket came out.

Who knew it would be so much fun?

Not me! He had more fun than i anticipated. I brought it out for my baby niece but she was scared of the fabric and the noisy 4 year old in combination. When he(and Avery) started throwing it around i thought about saying no, but they were having so much fun and i really want to be a better "yes" mom ( I have been thinking about this and have lately been inspired by this post on this lovely blog, mommycoddle) that i let them do it on the condition that they clean it all up.

There was much whining, and it was not easy but it did get cleaned up.