a jumble

I've been absent for a reason...We just returned from a basketball trip to Lynchburg, VA where the Varsity teams competed in the East Coast Homeschool Basketball Championships.  The weather was great and the games were even better.  I'm all in a jumble...trying to get back to our routine.

 The girl's team took the 2A Championship and brought home a banner (along with plenty of bruises!  I don't care what anyone says....basketball is a contact sport!) Our boy's team came in 2nd place in their division.  Everyone got along and it was a week full of memories and special moments.

I always take along some projects to work on while traveling and I found this cute scarf pattern on Ravelry. The directions said to divide the yarn into two equal balls.  I had a huge ball of the sock yarn all ready to go!

  Since I didn't have a digital scale, I improvised and used my second grade balance scale.  I was pretty proud of myself!

But after all that cleverness, I barely stitched 3 rows on my scarf....I would come back after the games and crash...you'd have thought I was playing ball for as tired as I was by the end of the day.  (It's a lot of work being a good fan! )

I did manage to work on my cross stitch while we were riding down to Lynchburg.  I picked this out in January...it reminded me of summer days.

And speaking of summer, we have been enjoying some gorgeous spring days and now that I'm not sitting in the stands with a camera in my hands and a prayer on my lips, I found some time to get outside and capture some of the beauty of the season.

When we were traveling down to Lynchburg, everything was brown...but on the way home, the trees were covered in soft fuzzy green buds!  It was amazing how fast everything popped with a week of warm temps!  

I can't believe it's the middle of March and we're enjoying May like temperatures.  Everything is blooming or sprouting....hopefully the frost and cold temps won't be back.

I feel like we missed winter....like I took a long nap and when I woke up it was spring.  Sort of like Narnia, but in reverse.  Strange.  I'm not complaining though, I love this weather.  

So...there it is....a jumble of things going on...a wonderful jumble!   Enjoy your days!  

(Oh and John noticed the curtain...after he read my blog!  he he) 

it only took 10 years

I think it's been ten years that I've had the same kitchen curtain up over my sink....but I'm not exactly sure.  When we first moved into this house, my kitchen was Americana....red, white and blue with lots of flags and punched tin.  nice eh?  When I was pregnant with John Samuel we began the process of knocking out a wall and making our kitchen and dining room into one room.  I remember feeding him with the sounds of construction going on and that's how I know that it's been about 10 years.

We torn down the wallpaper and I put away the flags and the punched tin and made a curtain to go over the sink (above).  I've always liked the fabric and never felt the urge to change it, until this past week.  On Monday I had some time to kill while the girls were at basketball practice and I was alone (unbelievable!)  So, I went to Joann's and milled around for a while.  I came out with fabric and the idea to redo that curtain.  Tada!  Wild I know!

Here's a close up of the fabric.  It's a ticking stripe in browns, blue and greens.  Very classic...

I'm laughing because even though it's not a big change...(I didn't choose the rooster fabric or the Hawaiian print that I pushed around in my cart for a while as I was deciding),  I'm not sure my husband has even realized that there's a new curtain up.   Guess he needs to spend more time at the sink, right!?

Good thing this is what my sink looks like most of the time....

sweetness times two

My cousin and his wife recently had twins.  They live way up north in Minnesota and we never get to see them, but this summer they were in the DC area and we got to have lunch with them and catch up. Becky was pregnant and glowing....it was so exciting to watch them knowing that they are heading into the next best phase of their lives.   The next time we see them, their family will have doubled in size!  I sent off some goodies for the babies....

onesies with their initials  (Jack and Grace)

and burp clothes for all the fun stuff that comes with parenting

I used soft cotton flannel on all the gifts.  The initials are wonder under-ed on and then blanket stitched around the edges for durability.

The burp clothes are simply seamed flannel on top of the center panel of some white cloth diapers.  I pre-washed and doubled rinsed everything (diapers, onesies and flannel) before sewing.

When I opened the package of onesies I was surprised at how small they were...makes me realize how big my kiddos have gotten.  Although I'm long past the days of babes and burp clothes, there's something irresistible about sweet baby items.