Pardon Me While I Gush?

 Carmen sent the sweetest care package, and I've been having so much fun with all the crafty-goodness!   She is so dang funny...that little post-it note says "Yay!  Plastic bags :)  Hope you like them.  Just kiddin".  ha!  I was cracking up, because yes, indeed, the treasures were packed in amongst some plastic grocery store bags.  ha!  Cutie-pie.

Speaking of cutie, she completely constructed and decorated this little box ~ with compartments! and wee little pin cushion! and buttons! ~ out of plastic canvas.  Really, now!  Some people are so clever.  :)  And thoughtful too!  Look at Tippy the Turtle!  He grows 600% when you put him water (which I can attest, is true) and she sent it along knowing that my boys would love it.  Too true.

You know, there was a time in my adolescence when I went through a "phase" where I used a bunch of little boxes like this to organize the drawers in my dressers and desk.  Everything had to have a little nest.  Goodness...what would I give to have that kind of time on my hands now?  As things stand, this little fellow sits on my sewing table and, because it is totally stocked for quick mends and buttons, it will no doubt save me time (and my sanity) in the very near future.  For now, just sit there looking adorable, please.

Could you just die?  Seriously.  An amigurumi turtle and this custom-made post-it dispenser...they are going on to my desk at school immediately.  Do you love that little "B"?  It's for my last name!  It's funny, because Carmen and I kept laughing about all our similarities, and all the funny little ways that we'd "accidentally" hit on each others' quirks and preferences.  This was definitely one of those cases!  I am obsessed with post-it notes.  Any office supplies, really, but my extensive post-it note collection (which knows no bounds on color, size, and shape) is impressive to say the least.  Good call, Carmen! 

But this turtle takes the cake...I think he's flirting with me.

One of my favorites (oh, really, they're all favorites!) and for many reasons.  First of all, they are perfect little coasters.  Second of all, they have this mountain/Colorado theme, which will always remind me of Carmen.  And last but NOT least...they are something made out of something else!  I LOVE something made out of something else!  These used to be a tea towel (the fabric is fantastic, trust me) and she thrifted it and made it into these coasters.  Swoon!

Yes, it's still going!  This was a box packed with cute, let me tell you.  She made these cards!  I can tell you for free, scrapbooking and card making are an art...ones that I have no access to, by the way.  These cards are very stylish, too, with a little fold over (do you see the turtle button on the green one?!?) and the sweetest details.

This is the kind of thing I'm talking about.  See the "s" on "thanks"?  When you look closely, you'll see that the 's' sticker is upside down.  It's such a small detail, but doesn't it add a lot of personality?  I love stuff like that!  And, I appreciate it even more, because I know from experience that whatever that bone is, that says "this would be visually so interesting if I just _____"....that bone?  I don't own it.  But I know it when I see it.  Love these cards!  I'll eventually use them (not the turtle though!  I'm going to frame him!) because that's why she made them, but I'm going to hold onto them for as long as possible first.  What?

I know, can you believe it?  Still more!

I pulled this apron out of the box (kick pleat!  look at those fabrics!) and I tied it on, and literally, I haven't taken it off.  I am wearing it right now as I type this.  I've worn it every day since she sent it.  I think it's adorable!

Didn't she just nail it!  So much functional beauty, so quirky, so incredibly crafty and creative.  I love everyday things that are made to inspire, to be used (for sure!) but also to be appreciated.  And I do!  I appreciate her thoughtfulness so much.

Happy sigh!!!!  Tomorrow I'll share what I sent her, too.
Edited to Add:  Carmen wrote the best backstories for all the swap items at her blog!  You can find it here,  and these stories make me love each item even more, if that's at all possible....

Lines

There are a lot of people where I live, and I assure you that they are all in my way, all the time.  Whenever I'm checking out at the grocery store, or the local Costco, or switching lanes to get to the FastTrak terminal on any of the three bridges I'm routinely crossing, I see these people....  They are all jockeying for position, willing to go to any extreme to get one car-length ahead of me or anybody else.

Everyone is trying to make sure that they aren't in the slowest line, the longest line, the worst position for whatever the current circumstances dictate.  They will run over your cat, flip your mother the bird, honk in your ear (making you jump out of your skin) and cut you off so hard that your arm instinctively flies out (to save nobody, usually, since your kids will all be in the backseat) as you slam on your brakes.

I could save these jackasses a lot of time, a lot of frustration, and a lot of heartache.  Because the truth is?  No matter which line/lane I'm in?  I can guarantee that it will be the longest and slowest moving. 

Here is my advice, and I promise you that it will add years to your life:  Stay out of my line/lane, and you will sail through, unhindered by my bad luck.

So much to share! Let's Start with Easter

We spent a quiet (except for my kids), rainy, perfectly lovely Easter at my mom and dad's house with my brother.  We didn't even hunt for eggs ~ believe me, a first in my lifetime!  My boys dyed some eggs that morning (*cough*) but we never got outside at all.  I think we'll have an egg hunt later this week, weather permitting.  Of course, if the hail yesterday was any indication, it could be awhile.

When we go camping, I often bring those plastic eggs that people sometimes use for jelly beans or to put coins in?  And I hide those and the kids look for them.  Sometimes, I put little toys in them, and hide them when they're asleep.  Then, in the morning I tell the boys that the forest animals left them presents and they find them all and spend the rest of the day using pine cones to construct makeshift homes for miniature animals, or digging out wee little burms for the cars they've found to race around.  Good times.

Point being, neither of my kids thinks it's weird at all to randomly have an egg hunt!  Why limit these celebrations to the holidays, that's our philosophy.  I'm all about the food on the holidays, and this year I have some rather fun news to report on that front!

Food poisoning.  Aw, yeah!  Erik and I (only Erik and I!  What the what?) both started feeling sick on the way home from my mom and dad's.  And both of us were violently ill for 24 hours.  Erik was way worse off than I was.  Whatever it was, he must have eaten more of it than I did!  We don't think it was anything from Easter, but maybe the day or night before?  We mentally ran through a list of what we'd eaten over the entire weekend, cross-correlating for what we had in common, eliminating what didn't make anybody else who ate it sick, and in the end...we couldn't find a single culprit.  I assure you, though, that it was not in our heads.

I was in charge of the desserts, and we have no reason to believe that the strawberry bread or the cinnamon twists were to blame.  Thankfully!

I am on Spring Break this week with My Boys, and as of today we are all set to enjoy the rest of our time together.  When my brother heard I was on Spring Break, he rather drolly inquired as to whether that meant I would disappear from my blog for a week...again.  Wait.  What?  He reads it!  I'm so excited!   The whole reason I started this blog was so that friends and fam could see pictures of the boys and keep up with our little lives.  I even have a link to this thing in my Facebook.  It's not a secret journal!  So, sometimes, I'll be talking to somebody in Real Life, and I'll say, "oh there are pictures of Tommy doing that on the blog" or something similar, and the responses I get have been....mixed.  Most people say something along the lines of, "Oh, I went and looked at that once and _______ ".  Fill in the blank with "it exhausted me" or "then I forgot about it" or "I couldn't figure out why you do that".  Or some other uplifting comment that lets me know how compelling my life is for my loved ones!  haha!  Everyone else says something like, "I don't even know how to check my email."  What can I say?  I know an inordinate number of Luddites.

Anyway, this one's for you, J-Bird!  And, all kidding aside, for all my lovely friends (bloggy and Real World alike) who visit here and invite me in to visit them, too.  My life is so much better because of you!  Maybe my life is not so great that you feel like reading about it, but that's a story for another day.  :)

One Little League Game Later

Carmen offered to do a "swap" several months ago, and I hurriedly volunteered....I just love to read Carmen's blog (note to Carmen:  please update daily) and after some sleuthing (read: exchanging emails) I knew lots about her likes and dislikes, her address in Colorado, and we even had a deadline date.  March 1st, to be exact.

Here it is, April 1st, and I'm finally sending out her package.  Hoo-boy.  One month late!  Part of the problem is that I wanted to sew some stuff, and I'm not a good sewer.   The other part of the problem is, well, I'm me.  I'll post some pictures of what I worked on, but I'll wait until after I know she got the box.

In the meantime, here is a (kind of!) picture of me wearing a shawl I made at the baseball game last Saturday.  That's right, you heard me, this shawl* was started and finished in about 3 hours.  What what!  I am kind of in love with it, and I was even able to enjoy it on the breezy, sunny days that started this week.  For the last two days I've been holed up under layers of fleece, blankets, and wool socks, preparing for the flash floods.  Out like a huh?

I just love this yarn.  It's no special fiber, but it's soft and I just adore that brick-orange color.  (I have no idea who makes it, or anything else, because I bought a few skeins second hand, and they were not labeled.)  And, because I used  2 skeins to make this shawl, it must be noted that it cost less than $1.00 in materials.  Which is good, because I spent about $20 on that shawl pin when I was in Ashland, Oregon last summer.

Thus, we conclude, with one of the (many) paradoxes of being me...frugal; except not....especially when it's cute.  :)

*  The pattern is free.  You have to 'sign up', but it's nothing and they've never spammed me or anything like that.  The shawl worked up FAST and easy.  They have it listed as 'intermediate', but it was super easy, so I would recommend it even to a beginner.  There was a wee bit of controversy in the comments about how small it worked up for some folks.  I used N hook with normal worsted weight yarn (on the thin side, if anything) and it was fine.  Keep your tension loose, that might solve it!  It's meant to be lacy, so don't be too stingy with your stitches.  If it seems small to you, there are suggestions in the comments on how to continue the pattern.  Still easy!  So I declare.

Spun

My kind of mess!  I took a yarn spinning class last weekend and it was too-too-too fun!  (I didn't bring my camera, so these...pretty...iPhone pictures are all I have.) 

I went with my friend Monica.  She had her own spinner and used to spin a lot, like, 20 years ago.  Like falling off a log, though, she was soon enough on her way.  Spin, Mo, Spin!

Unlike me.  Here I sit, cranking away.  There were six of us, and we went to this woman's house off Grand Avenue in Oakland.  She was such a kooky hippie, and I really was grateful for her!  She knew so much, and like anyone who loves her art, she had such a gentle way of bringing us along in something that, quite frankly, is an experience of about 90% frustration.  (Yes, Kelly, I'm looking at you, too!)  It was only at the end of the three hour class that she sort of reflected out loud (and apologized) for putting on me on the hardest spinner to use.  Everyone else had essentially brand new, double treadle spinners...I had the hoopty version, wobbly wheel and all.  To be fair, it hardly mattered, as the ultimate outcome was unavoidable. 

So.  Which pile is my spun yarn, and which pile is a bunch of leftover fiber?  haha!  I know you know my "skein" (harumph) is the one on the left, but it's pretty clear that a perfectly good spinner would have been little improvement on my mad skillz.

It was so fun, and I was so jealous (in the best possible way) of her wee little log cabin, perched on the hill behind her house, that was her studio.  Oh, swoon!   And, as much as I loved the spinning experience (and will definitely have more to share, soon, on that front ~ no, I didn't buy a spinner, though!) I was especially grateful to meet her because of this:

Right there in her living room (no way to get this beast up that hill into her studio!!!) was a gorgeous leclerc loom.  And, wait for it...she gives private lessons!  Oh, yeah, and she'll come to my house to give the lessons on my own loom!  I just can't wait.  Every month or so, I try to look up the community colleges and see if anyone is offering a class on looming (or even textile arts) because I know that Kelly's college is where she did a lot of weaving.  But no, nada.  So I am so HAPPY to have found her, because I so desperately need a class.  And being a class of one?  I can tell you from experience, that works for me. 

Here she is, modeling one of the jackets she wove.  My sights are set considerably lower, honestly.  But spinning reminded me so much of looming (right down to the sore back, oh my bad posture) that I just can't wait to get started.  Make that re-started.

Hot and Cold

"It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade."
- Charles Dickens

Oh, March.  Pink shoulders on Saturday, from baseball in the sun, to freezing winds and rainy yesterday.  I love-love-love this quote from Dickens, and it just about perfectly describes the past three weeks.

Because the outside weather is so unpredictable, I decided to bring some of spring inside, where we could enjoy it at our leisure.  In your face, March.

These beautiful calla lilies were given to me by my dear friend, Linda (yes, Laurie, our Linda!) when we went on a walk at the lake.  I love her so much...this is a direct quote:  "I brought you a little something....yeah, these grow near my garbage cans.  I can't rid of them, so, I thought you might like them."  haha!  She was so right.  :)

I asked Tommy if he'd like a vase of flowers in his room too and bless his pea-picking heart, he did.  Love that kid.

Thank You, Matt!

"Character, Courage, Loyalty."
Little League Motto

As a Baseball Mom, I often get discouraged.  I feel bad when Tommy misses the big play in Left field, or when he strikes out at the plate.  I am often too hot.  Or too cold.  Or trying to watch the game and keep Scotty out of harm's way at the same time.

  Here's "Gandalf", as Erik calls him, with one of his many sticks.  

Fortunately for us,this pretty much keeps him entertained for a couple of hours.

But there is another side to this whole baseball thing, too.  For every time I wince and my heart breaks for Tommy, there is another time that my heart fills with pride for him, too.  He does plenty that makes me happy for him ~ he makes The Great Play with a diving catch, or I am amazed by his eye (he really knows hw to keep his eye on that ball!).  But I feel so much pride for him because of the way he behaves when he doesn't do those things.  I love it when he chases down a ball that just tips out of his glove, the way he pretends to catch, throw, or hit the ball when he's playing left field (always with his head in the game, even when not much is happening out there!), the way he keeps his head up and hurries back to the dugout after a strikeout, and I love it when he really plays his position by backing up the third baseman or calling out where the next play is ("second base!" while waving two fingers).  

Tommy checks the line-up.

This weekend, I finally had those same feelings of pride for the little league experience in general.  You always hear about (and I often experience) the overly enthusiastic parents (ahem) the overly aggressive coaches (oh my) or the under qualified teen-aged umpires (cough).  Each of these things makes me hold my breath for a moment.

At Saturday's game, we only had 8 players.  We have 12 players on the roster, but two were scheduled to be out for conflicting schedules and two were no shows.  You don't have to forfeit with 8 players, but it isn't that fun, either.  You basically have to play with no center fielder, and left and right have to run like bunnies to keep up with the action.  


But you know what happened?  There was a boy from the opposite team who played with our boys the whole game.  He was good, too!  He played center field, first base, and third base.  He hit too.  He had serious hustle and he played just as hard for us as he would have for his team.  His own coaches and teammates cheered for him when he got a base hit (the first base coach gave him a little fist bump as he took his spot :) and Tommy's teammates gave him a 2-4-6-8-who-do-we-appreciate style "thank you Matt!" at the end of the game.

I have to say.  The whole experience went a long way toward creating the kind of good will necessary to get me through a whole season of hard benches.