{Yarn Along}

I'm joining Ginny of Small Things today for her Yarn Along link up. It's always so much fun to see what everyone is working on and reading. This is just a sneak peak at my project, it's my sister's graduation gift so I'm trying to not give it all away. I just bound off last night...which was sort of a funny story. You see, my larger knitting needles are still in various boxes and locations in the sewing room/nursery... that wouldn't be much of a hang up, except I only ever think about it when Nomi is down for his nap or already tucked into bed. So after a desperate search of the house, I wound up using one of Bobby's chunky handled paint brushes to achieve a loose bind off. I wish I could say it was the first time I've done something like that, but there have certainly been instances of a pencil or chop stick being used in a pinch. Do you ever find yourself in this situation??

The books were a birthday gift to myself, and they just arrived last night! I'm looking forward to diving into them, I've heard good things in the blogging world about all of them, so they should be leisure time well spent. The shawl just needs blocking and then I will have better photos to share...I'm going to really focus on Nomi's green sweater next, and perhaps start a scarf for myself...? Thanks for stopping by, please say hello in the comments, I love hearing from you!

{Weekending}

{my babies made me a cake}

Friday's Fancies #1

{dress ~ shoes ~ camera strap ~ hat}

I'm joining my sisters {Eliza and Olivia} and {av} of Long Distance Loving with Friday's Fancies...the theme is European Adventures and in my dreamy world where I am wandering the streets of old cities, gazing at painted ceilings and tasting wine in beautiful vineyards, this is most definitely what I'm wearing.  

Crispy Bliss

{Blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, rainier cherries, and some black apricots}

{3 cups oats, 1.5 cups sugar, 3/4cup flour, 1/4 cup cold butter} 

{Two sweet helper boys}

 {pre-made crusts...shhhh}

 {so, so pretty, and it smelled like summer in a bowl}

{That much topping made enough for two apple + the berry ...it's really the ratios that matter}

So much to do lately, we just needed to stop and do something just for fun this afternoon. The pump in our well seems to have died/been hit by lightening (!!) so our landlord spent the afternoon diagnosing the problem and seeing what would need to be done to fix it. He got a crisp. :) Did I mention the 100* temps he was working in?? I know it's his job and all, but I still think he earned a crisp! We needed to use some of the fruit up before it spoiled (it's so hard to keep produce for more than a few days, even in the fridge...this heat is just dreadful). 

Tomorrow is grocery/errand day, and then a quiet weekend ahead with my birthday on Sunday! I anticipate a lovely day at home, with knitting and baby hugs, and there are rumors of cake and surprises. *wink* I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the well pump will be all taken care of tomorrow so that we can get caught up on laundry and cleaning...I'm going a bit crazy and now that the water has been shut off over night, I'm feeling smothered by the urge to WASH THINGS. That's just the way it goes though, isn't it? Instead I'm forcing myself to focus on menu planning and grocery list making and the always exciting job of organizing school supplies...oh yeah, and there's that unpacking thing too...nearly finished with all of the boxes....really just those odd storage/out of season things and my crafting supplies are left! Both need to get weeded out again, even though we cut way back when we were moving. Less (stuff) is more (space for sanity) in the lovely farm house of ours...every box unpacked and every shelf tidied is another space that feels more like home than anywhere else we have ever lived...it's a good, happy feeling. And now it smells like apple crisp and new crayons so really, I think this day has been an overwhelming success, don't you think?

Busy...

{snow flakes in July}

This week I'm busy....

~taking Muffin to the vet

~changing our address on lots and lots of things

~organizing new school supplies

~hanging out with my sister

~grocery shopping with my whole gang

~FINALLY watching Once Upon a Time and LOVING it

~finalizing some potty training with a certain someone

~finalizing some potty training with Muffin

~crossing things off of my list before my birthday--I want to start my fresh year with a fresh list!

~missing my hubby...I always do around holidays and birthdays...and everyday

~knitting away on Nomi's sweater and my (other) sister's graduation shawl

~cleaning the house up before the landlord comes tomorrow to fix a few door knobs and show me how to change the water filter (hopefully that will fix our water pressure problems! Oh to be able to shower and do laundry...heck even to wash dishes AND flush the toilet would be great!)

~marveling at my fresh pedicure...I just love this black cherry color

~unpacking thank-you notes so I can drop one in the mail for the yummy dinner our friends/new neighbors just brought us!

What things are keeping you busy right now?

{crafting on}

Inspired by my friend Melanie's post last week, I decided to go ahead and get started on the children's fall and winter woolens. Although he has received several mama-made items, Nomi has never had a sweater all his own! Obviously this had to be fixed first, so after an indulgent evening on ravelry I have settled on the Greener Pastures pattern. I just love the garter between the rib on the front, I think it will be wonderfully squishy over his oh-so-squishy belly. I decided to make the 2 year old size, he's growing so quickly and I think it will increase the odds that he can actually wear it all winter. The oh-so-yummy yarn is from Sweet Basil again, I love, Love, LOVE her colorways and yarns! I am hoping to have enough yarn left from this project to make his dolly-to-be a matching sweater. I have big waldorf style doll pans for this fall. I've only made one before so I'm very excited to dive into a little deeper and create special babies for my special babies. 

I am thinking of using the same pattern for Bobby, but I want to see how the proportions turn out first...he's pretty skinny, but wears a "ready to wear" size 5, and the size 6 sweater says it has a 30" finished chest measurement...which seems huge? Maybe? I think I need to measure one of his current shirts and base it off of that. Jenny will (finally!) be getting her Phoebe sweater. I got it about 75% of the way done last winter, but then it got too big to knit on while I was nursing Nomi and it's way to warm to sit under right now. But that will be a quick finish once it starts to cool off a bit. My birthday is this weekend, and after that I'm really over summer. I'm a fall girl, and this month's upper nineties/low hundreds degree temps has really made me ready for it! Especially in this new house in the woods...the colors will be gorgeous!! Off to make great headway on the rest of the unpacking...I have declared that we will be completely finished, organized, and decorated in six weeks--before school starts! 

Head over to my friend Nicole's link up to see more crafty goodness!

Weekending

{feathering my nest}

{this moment}

Linking up with Amanda today...in her words...

{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.

Exhale

{Anne, me and my sister on one last girls night before she got back on that plane}

{Mr. Bobby, feeling mostly better now, showing off his new sunglasses and shoes!}

{Ignore the unpacking in the background, just look at that morning hair!!}

So...okay, not quite every day, there are tons of posts swirling around in my head...it's just that we got hit with a stomach bug on top of this cold...not fun. We have spent the past few days consuming a staggering number of crackers and peppermints, trying to take care of each other, and keeping our fingers crossed that we will never ALL have a stomach bug at exactly the same time EVER again. We're still pretty worn out, but with that big rush of energy that comes right after a bug...just before your body is strong enough to actually *do anything*. There will be lots more tea and resting today...but I'm hoping to see everyone back at the dinner table this evening. Thank you all for your sweet comments on the last few posts, I love hearing from you all!

Parenting Milestone:: First ER Trip

I had every intention of posting last week...I had a plan, not a huge one, but a plan at any rate. The first half of the week was kind of a wash because we were coming down with a cold. And there might have been a few hormones...and a taste comparison of herbal PMS teas...*ahem*...and it's a good thing we have two jars of nutella in this house...at.all.times. Wednesday was fun and exciting with dinner at my family's house and an unexpected fireworks show viewed from our driveway, with a thunder/lightening storm rolling in behind it...that was a breathtaking highlight for sure! I missed my fella though...fireworks are our thing, and I have been seeing them with him for the last...10-ish years...(I should do an "our story" post sometime...it's dorky and cute!) Thursday was a nice simple day...we caught up on "So You Think You Can Dance" at my mom's house (we don't have dish, or even a tv at our house)...and Bobby got sick. By the evening the "emergency room" words were getting tossed around, but I was reluctant...he has always gotten colds badly...often having croup-like episodes, but without the panic and that awful cough. I decided to try our usual vaporizer and vitamin c before bed routine and see how it went. I'm not one to go to the hospital if I can help it, and I didn't want to expose him to any nasty(er) germs if it could be helped...but by 6:00 the next morning, it had taken a turn for the worse and couldn't be helped. My sister and I loaded up into the car and headed over the mountain with a very sick, alarmingly pale little boy. By the time we had made a pit stop for potty breaks at my mom's (because at the very least we were going to avoid the hospital bathrooms!! YUCK) we got there and the waiting room was blissfully empty. An excellent round of nurses later, the doctor determined that we were dealing with a full on asthma attack, and set us on the usual rounds of nebulizer treatments and steroids. This little man was *amazing*. He chatted with the nurses (once he had enough air), had me read him every single label he could see, compared his rainbow-y phoenix tattoo with the doctor's less-temporary tribal ink and and made the x-ray nurses giggle at his delight at having his bones "pictured". He even ate the red popsicle -post-medicine- without freaking out that it wasn't orange. (No small deal in his usual world.) Once home he was the cool kid, sharing his great life adventure stories with everyone. Nomi is completely taken with the nebulizer, thinking that if possible, Bobby has gotten even cooler. *wink* Oh these boys of mine...it's so fun to watch their interactions as they grow closer and transition into their own sibling relationship. 

~By the way, I was wondering if any of my readers use instagram? I'm mackenzieh87 if you want to follow me!~

{Telling Daddy ALL about it}

Here's my current getting-back-in-the-groove knitting project. I haven't done anything since late May and I'm going crazy!! I'm making Zilver, with yummy Sweet Basil yarn. I'm loving it so much...it's incredibly simple, which is perfect for going with some embarrassingly...um, twaddle-y netflix shows, a divine sampler from my friend's latest endeavor, lots of hot tea (because of course we now all have this cold), and a bit of window shopping. I'm hoping to re-start my posting every day plan, but while we recover from this cold it will likely be fairly simple. Tomorrow is the last full day of a three week visit with my dearest, oldest friend...so I'm off to go soak up these last few hours before we send her back to the west coast! 

xoxo, M  

July 1, 2012

*~Down to just a few of these~*

*~I documented the first day I didn't wear "moving clothes"~*

*~The first thing I unpacked~*

July. How did that happen? June is a total blur, but over all I would say it's a good blur. So much living happened, but not a whole lot of pictures happened...so I don't have much to show on here. July however, is one of my favorite months...my birthday, my best friend's annual visit from CA, and this year, the worst parts of moving are over and now we get to feather our nest and settle into *HOME*! With an important birthday coming up I have been doing a lot of thinking (as any introvert would), and I have decided that one thing I really want to work on is this blog. With my hubby away right now, a move, three little kids, and just so much *LIFE* happening, I really want to document these days...and most days my hubby can see the blog, so it's a nice way for him to keep up with our busy little life. So I've committed to blogging every single day in the month of July! I'm very excited to get started. I am hoping that after a month I will have found what time of day works best for my blogging, and have played around with style and content enough to have settled into my groove. So I look forward to seeing you here more, please leave a comment if you don't mind...I *LOVE* hearing from you!! 

xoxo, 

Mackenzie