She likes orange...

For a special graduate ~
Amazingly finished in time...well, the morning of her graduation.

A stacked coin inspiration in hopes of abundance in love, health, happiness and finally, peace and contentment. Wrapping her in love as she travels along her new path.
In times of quiet or solitude, may she remember how loved she is...

Singing in the rain

I love it when they ask to go out in the rain...



and find shelter where they pretend to be hiding from the storm, even when they are just feet from the front door...



I especially love that they still stop to notice how everything looks different in the rain...shiny and new



Btw, those are some finished pants, happy day ~

Hankerin'

Crafted up some "Bits of Goodness' for the playfood swap ~

Super simple but my kids sure like them so I figured some other little ones might too...

Ginger and Lemon Cremes anyone?



How about good old pb&j?



Or maybe some Tea Cakes?




All made with wool felt and stuffed with more soft wooliness.
Hope you enjoy, little friends!

Whirlygigs

While doing the dishes, I looked out into the backyard to watch my girls and saw them running around, laughing and trying to catch things so small that I couldn't see them.

I just had to find out so I joined them.

Soon our eight year old was joining us to watch maple seed pods spinning from the sky.

He was even inspired to try and recreate some of his own. After a few tries he discovered that it was the rounded tip that gave them their twirl...


Magical, simple little gifts.

Rethink that

Sometimes as parents we have to ruin all the fun, just for our own sanity ~
We have a crawler now... correction, we have had a crawler now for months. A crawler who is now also a stander and can reach up to pull all manner of basket filled goodness from the shelves.



And for months I have been chasing down chokables from her mouth and refilling baskets...
What is that Einstein definition of insanity about doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result?...Ummm, yes - it was time for a change.

So today, we whipped up some zippered bags to hold the goodies in. We tried just popping the bags onto the shelf but it looked messy so we placed them in their old baskets instead. This way, the kids can dump them into the baskets if need be and put them back in the bags when they are through.


I had a little helper who enjoyed picking out the fabrics for the bags...and some for a quilt for herself...




Little one still enjoys pulling the baskets from the shelf and now can even enjoy the jingling sounds from the zippered bags as she jangles them about.

Happiness abounds.

Under our noses...

While playing in the yard...

The last of our bleeding hearts...

Mosquito muncher...

Surprise strawberries! We made a little stone wall around them so we would remember not to step on them

Ctitter hunting...

A little exploring and we didn't even need to leave the yard ~

Choices

What has mightily been a bane of my existence (how lucky am I that this should be it!) - let me introduce...
This couch:

Aside from the loud....err, personality of the fabric...which I could possibly live with...if it were not for the fact that it's completely worn on all the seat cushions and the arms - these cushions are constantly sliding down off the couch. This hand me down from our in laws does have some charm though. Its length is such that we can all - yes all sit on this baby at once. A definite plus for sure. It is also very comfy (that is, when the cushions are properly placed of course).

A while back, we bought a cover at the thriftstore and called it good - it was a tradeoff...the cover hid the horrors beneath but the cushions slid off constantly and were hard to adjust with the cover on.

Hence the pining for a new couch. Usually we go with used for most everything but a couch (unless we knew where it was coming from) was something we were a little reluctant to do used. Still I looked - and never found. So, we started looking at new ones. For months. Yet, I just couldn't see the sense in spending all that money for a new one. I felt....guilty. I mean, that's a lot of meals, a lot of medication, a lot of something necessary for some folks, somewhere. This couch was not necessary...but oh so wanted ;)

We came up with a plan. How about, we would reupholster this old couch and use the money we would have spent to do some good with? It was a plan - and it all came together. We found some fabric that wouldn't show too much dirt over time and was sturdy for, get this - $1.99 a yard.




Yes, we do love our Marden's here folks. This was also on clearance hence the incredibly low price...I bought the bolt. Well, what was left of it, 14 yards. So for under $30 - and some time and effort we will have a new couch. Oh, and that money we were redistributing? Housing deposit for a young friend who worked their tail off to get into a good university and just needed a little help. Such goodness all around.

So now, we have all the cushions covered. Now just to tack the sides and back. Think I might need some help for that one...just a little ;)