This Moment--Tea party!

A moment from the week that I want to remember!

Joining Amanda at SouleMama.

Fun mail!

This week I got tons of goodies in the mail! 

 This package was from Elizabeth & the ladies at Squam. All because for March's double dog dare I learned to embroider! I now have a new, wicked fun hobby and they sent along a package as a "good job!". It totally made my day to get this.

 Quite a few weeks ago I entered a giveaway on Elizabeth's blog for a set of playsilks from Sarah's Silks. Ree loves blankets & these are going to be loved I am sure! The purple one is going to be used as the "grass" in her Easter basket. The other 2 will go in there as well.

And lastly (that actually arrived first!) came this shawlette from Robyn at She Makes Hats. A few weeks ago she posted a photo of her current knitting project. I commented on how pretty it was and she offered to send it to me! 

I love getting nice surprises in the mail. They make life happy!

Yarn Along...Easter Shrug

"Two of my favorite things are knitting and reading, and the evidence of this often shows up in my photographs." Ginny's words describing the yarn along!

 Ree has discovered the joys of taking books out of the library. These are the ones we took out this week. I'm not sure what the dishtowel is doing but I'm sure it had a purpose! Her favorite activity right now is to "play" library. She stacks her books, puts them in a bag, checks them out with her cash register then repeat. It's so cute to watch!

Momma is also reading but my book was upstairs & I'm lazy in the morning. I started How to Eat a Cupcake. Two best friends since baby hood had a falling out their senior year in high school then circumstances bring them back together 10 years later. It's very good.

I cast on for a project last Sunday! I still haven't decided what to have the yarn from last week be, but realized that Ree needs a shrug for her Easter dress. I finished the arms last night so now it's just the (short!) back and the border. It's going quickly & I should still have time to knit up a few other small projects I have in mind before Easter.

What is everyone's Ravelry names? I'm JeninRI over there!

Mister Seahorse

A few weeks ago I pinned an idea I found on Ginny's blog Small Things. Her kids had read Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle and then painted a picture of a seahorse. I loved the idea especially since we are into watercolor painting right now.

 It just so happened that the last time we were at the library they had Mister Seahorse on display so we took it out. Ree loves it. She loves reading it and picking out all the colors and seeing all the fish.

Yesterday morning I finally got out the watercolor paints and drew a seahorse on paper and after we read the book again Ree went to town painting. She is so proud of her "dinosaur" aka Mister Seahorse. I know when she's done with her crafting because she says "Momma hang it up now". She's always so proud to point out her creations on the wall!

Weekend

Weekends go by way too fast!! On Saturday we got outside and cleaned out all the garden beds and worked on building raised beds for our vegetable garden. Then we had a surprise dinner visit from parents.

Yesterday we didn't do much besides go to Church, hang out at home & my sister-in-laws and I began knitting an Easter shrug for Ree. That's about it. Kind of what damp, cool Sunday's are for!

I'm sharing my weekend over at Amanda's at Habit of Being!

Friday night walk

After supper last night we took a walk around our yard and the cemetery next door. It was a little chilly but so beautiful. I can't wait for our nightly long walks around the neighborhood to begin! I hope everyone has a good weekend.

This Moment--Relaxation!

Linking up with Amanda for this week's This Moment post!

Woodland creatures

At the beginning of the month I joined the others at Squam in Double Dog Daring myself for March. As I wrote about here, I decided I wanted this to be the month that I learned how to embroider. And I did! Still about 10 days left in the month and I am almost done with my first little set of patterns that I wanted to accomplish. The patterns are from the Doodle Bug Stitch Along that took place about a year ago.

 My first little embroidered people

 My little mushroom house

 A little tree stump house

And I'm almost finished with my grandfather gnome. 

It is so fun and portable! For these little patterns I think I'm going to make a mini quilt to hang on the wall. Although each one is different in size so I'm not sure how that'll turn out.

Next up I want to embroider a table runner for our dining room table. Something with bright, cheerful springy flowers. To put vases of fresh cut flowers on!

Yarn Along

There really hasn't been knitting going on here for the past few weeks. For one, because I found that I love embroidery and I have about 10 projects lined up for that that I want to do. (An undated embroidery post will be here tomorrow).

Another reason is that I started the baby t-shirt vest a few weeks ago but I'm not that into the pattern. Maybe because it's not for any intended baby. Or it could just be I don't like the pattern. I may end up frogging it and using the yarn for something else. It's Cascade 220 and I love it! Maybe a shawlette or cowl or something. I'm not sure but I do know that next week you may see the yarn as another project!

I haven't been reading anything very interesting since I finished The Violets of March last week. A WONDERFUL book recommended by my sister. I highly recommend it too. Yesterday my brother-in-law brought me the second book in The Hunger Game series so I was excited to start that last night (and stayed up way too late reading).

Jump on over to Ginny's to see what everyone is knitting and reading about!

Last day of Winter

On this last day of winter we:

...started our seeds
....spent HOURS outside
....got a little bit of sunburn (Momma, not Ree)
....had every single window in the house open all day. It smells lovely in here.
....went around photographing anything in bloom/budding
....painted our toenails
....got a parsley plant
....wore ourselves out completly by spending so much time in the fresh air. It's wonderful!

I cannot believe that it is only mid-March. I'm a little afraid that our New England weather will throw an unexpected blizzard on us. Or that we will have extreme heat and humidity before May. But for right now I'm totally enjoying the warmth, bare feet, short sleeved shirt, tiredness of spending so much time in the fresh air!

A Spring weekend

This weekend:

....Ree & I had stayed in my bed reading & watching "Curious George" on my phone

....made a key lime pie

....everyone was proud to be Irish (whether they were or not!)

...spent lots of fun with the sisters; parents; niece & nephew

....had a delicious corned beef & cabbage dinner

....found the first blooming flower in the yard

....took the Christmas lights off the front trees

....sat in the on the deck embroidering

....had delicious pizza for dinner

....watched the premier of Frozen Plant on Discovery. It's awesome!

Linking up this week with Amanda at habit of being.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I can't believe St. Patrick's Day is here already! I had so many decorations I wanted to make and crafts to do with Ree. I managed to make 2 decorations. Ree & I haven't done any crafts! I had better start Easter crafting tomorrow!

 

I had pinned this simple shamrock banner from Simple as That awhile ago. Then I came across an adapted version of the banner at Lil' Luna's blog. I ended up using the neat maps of Ireland she posted as the background and her idea for the 3-d shamrocks. I backed the map with green cardstock; and strung it all on white ribbon. I like it on our mantle.

 I knew I wanted to make a St. Patrick's Day wreath for our front door. It took me almost all month to think of something to do. A few days ago I traced shamrocks onto watercolor paper then painted them with different shades of green watercolor. After they dried I cut them out. I then hot glued them to a wreath frame and voila! I like the way it looks on our front door. Simple but easy and I used everything I already had. All in all it probably took an hour to put together including the drying of the watercolor.

This Moment--Relaxing!

Linking up with Amanda

A full weekend

A weekend that was full of ordinary, normal moments. I took time to realize that the extraordinary is in the ordinary & normal.

 Play doh with the little one

 Pumpkin bread cooling

 the candle lit at the end of the day

Supper cooking 

Seeds bought

This weekend we had:

...2 family movie nights

...music class

...grocery shopping trip

...a major play doh session

...Daddy home for the 2 full weekend days

...baking time

...Momma went to the library alone

...a delicious spagetti & vegetable dinner

...a delicious corned beef & cabbage dinner

...a trip to the nursery

...plans for the garden taking shape

....and so much more!

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. 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.

Visit Amanda at Soulemama for so many more beautiful moments!

Yes you've seen this picture before just a few days ago. But I couldn't resist putting it as Friday's "This Moment". She was so excited to get her own momma made socks that she kept asking "done now?" The whole time I was knitting them. And we both were so excited that I had my own matching socks on the day I finished hers (not planned that way!)

Double Dog Daring

Each month at the Squam blog everyone is invited to name a goal they want to do for the month. They "Double Dog Dare" you to choose something to focus on for the month. Either exercise, cleaning, organizing, creativity, food, whatever it is that you need a little push and friendly cheering on to accomplish.

This is the first month I've joined in and considering it's only March 8 I'm pretty darn proud of myself! I've had a basket of embroidery things all put together (along with a pattern to try) for a few weeks now. I wrote over at Squam about how I want to learn to embroider.

In comes Amy who volunteered to teach me and give me tips. So we got together and I can now check "learn to embroider" off my "want to do" list.

 This was my window this morning. And honestly the hardest part of it. Trying to get the pattern from paper onto my fabric. But I did it.

And this is just a few seconds ago. It's not perfect but I think it's so cute and I'm wicked proud of it! 

The pattern is from a Doodle Stitch along from last year. There are 4 patterns and I think I might make them all up and make them into a mini quilt. 

I now think I need to create an embroidery board on Pintrest! 

Yarn Along

I finished Ree's socks. I happened to have my socks on that match. I used the leftover for her socks. She thought that was pretty neat! She had them on for less then 5 minutes before she started asking for "another pair please!" 

 This is my pile of books/magazines/catalogue to read. There is never enough time in the day to read and knit as much as I would like. (Never mind dishes, cook, laundry, clean etc!) But I've got a happy little girl a pretty neat house and spring is coming! 

Joining Ginny's Yarn Along! 

Right Now....

enjoying having the kitchen cleaned up before 7!

watching Ree comb her baby dolls hair

smelling the cinnamon candle 

looking at the toys all over the floor

wishing her imagination will always stay this active and fun

hearing Ree singing "Wheels on the Bus" as she plays with her doll

feeling tired

noticing the sun is staying out longer; I head birds singing yesterday that only sing when spring is coming; the lilac buds are getting bigger. Spring is coming!!!

knitting almost done with Ree's second sock. I'm not knitting fast enough for her liking.

inspired Amy's blog; Heather's blog; the Squam blog and a whole bunch of books from the library I am too lazy to link to

thinking I am ready for spring and fresh air. 

We've been busy the past few days with new friends; date night for Momma & Daddy; loads and loads of laundry; family time with the extended family and lots of other good stuff. Busy busy!