new addition.

Introducing the latest addition to our family. Gus. The only name our two year old daughter would finally agree to. He is a St. Bernard cross (though he looks pretty darn St. Bernard!), and in this picture he is ONLY seven weeks old!! He is going to be HUGE. But that's ok, we love him. And he loves us.

a rockin' weekend.

These are the happy faces of a couple who are about to thoroughly enjoy a night out on the town--that's right, a real-life grownup date!! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of FINALLY going to one of my husband's shows. I haven't been able to go to any of Karl's concerts with his new band, since he joined back in January when I still looked like this. We had a lovely time, and I loved getting to watch my husband rock the stage.

this and that...

Pardon me for not posting any updates for awhile. I've been up to no good... mostly knitting...

And making granola.
(A lovely addition to homemade yogurt.
Also yummy to eat by the handfuls while sipping a mug of coffee.)
And comparing the color of my toenail polish to the roses.
(An exact match!!)

And gardening with Madee.

(Please excuse all the weeds. Note that my style of gardening is mostly just admiring the real flowers that accidently survive among the weeds.)Hey, speaking of gardening... remember my little seedlings that I was so proud of in previous posts? Remember me saying how Madelynn helped me plant them all with tender love and care? Remember that they were doing so well in my house? Remember my excitement when I finally put them into the ground?

Well, they died. Dead. All of them.

Ok, almost all of them--yay! for the cucumbers and squash.
(though they are looking quite flimsy and small, aren't they?)

Feeling rather pathetic about my gardening flop, I whined to my mother about how I would have no tomatoes to can this year--which I had been looking forward to ever since I made my canning debut last year with jam and pears and applesauce. And so, (probably just to shut me up) my wonderful parents came home from Costco last week bearing beautiful gifts.

They brought me these fantastic heirloom tomatoes, peppers, and winter squash. Plants which are already much bigger and slightly less delicate than my originals. Then, to top it off, my stepdad let me use his very own garden cages to protect my precious green babes from the neighbors' pesky (or is it "pesky neighbors'"?) cats. Let's hope I can keep these beauties alive!!

question...

When the boy is on your back, how do you retrieve the binky...

...which has fallen next to the daisies?

sewing...

Last week I posted about how I made a skirt for Madelynn. Well, she initially loved it because of the colors, but was disappointed when she put it on and immediately tested its twirlability. It was not a good spinning skirt. So, to please my little darling I decided to make this skirt last night. Both of these patterns are really well written and easy to follow, though the latter one is slightly above my skill level. It was definitely a challenge, but I was quite pleased with the end result, and Madee is currently enjoying this skirt's twirlability. I was really on a roll last night at the sewing machine and also decided to try my hand at sewing a narrow ribbon along the bottom edge of the first skirt. Like I said before, my skills can use some fine tuning, but I am really enjoying the practice.

the finished products.

the skirt for twirling.

the twirly skirt in action.


the tricky ribbon detail on the first skirt.

simple pleasures.

I kind of have a thing for tiny toes.
Especially when they are attached to a two year old who is in to high fashion, or a teensie baby boy with cute, chubby feet. Too bad I wasn't fast enough with the camera yesterday to catch
Madelynn playing tee-ball in her high heels. She hasn't taken them off all week!

Here's Max sporting his cute little sandals, which I'm kind of jealous of. I've wanted Birkenstocks for years, but haven't been able to justify spending that much on a pair of sandals. Although, I do wear sandals year-round... and my feet HAVE stopped growing... I wonder how many more posts will include that blanket... ok, now I'm really wandering...

lots of stuff a brewin'.

Some lovely things are happening at my house these days, and I wish I had pictures to share. I learned how to make whole wheat sourdough starter and will get to bake my first loaf in a few days (I'll post recipes later), I whipped out my old Brother sewing machine and threw this skirt together for Madelynn (thanks for directing me to the pattern, Echo!), and the garden has some things that are finally growing. However, being the novice that I am when it comes to gardening, I forgot to mark where I planted everything. It will be neat to discover what I have that is actually growing when and if my darling little seedlings begin to bear fruit.

We are also enjoying the fact that Mama Rhondi is in town. Thank goodness, too... She helped me everytime my doggone sewing machine screwed up. I think I'm already beginning to develop a love-hate relationship with my Brother.