this moment.

::inspired by SouleMama::

giant slide.

 I haven't been on one of these slides in ages. I forgot that I am actually a teensy bit scared of heights, until I was up at the top of the stairs with two children who don't want to hold my hands--which were full of burlap sacks anyway--and guarded only by a rickety chain-link fence.

 It was really fun!

 This is about the point where I realized I was going REALLY fast (don't heavy things go faster than lighter things? yikes!) and tried to hide the fact that I totally thought I was going to crash into the nice helper lady and small children. I had to consciously refrain myself from yelling, "move, move, MOVE!" Also... I wish these photos were high enough quality to zoom in on Max's face.

This is where all my adrenaline made me feel a little weak in the knees and goofy for being so afraid. Madelynn could sense I wasn't myself... Doesn't it look like she's calmly checking on my well being?

And here's where that nice helper lady is thinking, Ok, CrazyRedPants, you can get up now... those kids at the tops are waiting reallllly patiently. This is also where Maximus, after clenching my arm so tightly his little claws felt like there were breaking skin, exclaimed, "let's go again!!"

a contest.

I just found a super fun contest on one of my favorite blogs, which lead me to finally discover how everyone is making those super cool photo mosaics (yay!!). The contest is a fabric mosaic in which you choose 12 fabrics from Fresh Modern Fabrics to depict your interpretation of the phrase "Softly Against Black". The winner gets a fat quarter set of their fabric mosaic. What fun! This is the first time I've created a mosaic and I had a ton of fun. I'm thinking this will be a great tool for sewing/decorating inspiration and can't wait to use it more.

What I first thought of after reading about the contest was actually my own painting that I recently hung in the kids' room (does that make me egotistical? wait. don't answer that).

I am also super inspired by the soft color pallet and whimsy that is captured in these art prints, which are on my wish list for my kiddos' room. Imagine them hanging on a gray wall... "soft against black."

1 2 3 4

Anyway, after looking at some amazing fabric, here is my mosaic:

Don't forget to hop on over to Stitched in Color and join in on the fun! 

booooooties!

love, love, love his wobbly little steps. he is getting more solid on his feet by the minute!

I just finished Milo's new booties. He had a pair when he was itty bitty, and I love the way they look in Noro yarn. I had to size the pattern up a little bit to get these (notes on my ravelry page), which is pretty easy and straight forward, and I also used a heavier weight yarn than called for. 

Oh, and the pants he is wearing (not sure if I blogged them or not) are from Anna Maria Horner's book, Handmade Beginnings. Love!

farm filled weekend

::harvesting veggies from the local farm

::bees! the kiddos got to see who makes our honey

::the biggest beet and blackberry in all the land!

::a thoughtful (or tired?) pause

::Asian pears from right out the front door

::we'll have rows someday, too

::standing on his own two feet

::they say his name is Dalai

::hay ride!

::15 minutes a day

::sweet corn teether  ;)

We had the priviledge of enjoying a lovely weekend full of summer's harvest. From picking the fruit off my dad's trees--thanks, Dad!--to visiting our local CSA farm's open house, to canning salsa for the first time (yay!), we feel blessed to enjoy the simple pleasures all around us.

weekend in photos

about that dress

Here's a little more info about that flower girl dress my pretty girlie wore. The bride had the following photo pinned as flower girl inspiration, but envisioned having it in her orange and pink wedding colors. 

source

It didn't take me too long to figure out that it is one of the ever-popular (so google searches and etsy tell me) "tutu dresses". Luckily, there are tutorials all over the 'net so I'll spare you my own. I will say though, that this took so much more tulle than I thought it would. About 16 yards to fit my 6 year old! Most of the tutorials I found have you simply making slip knots with long tulle strips over a piece of 3/4 - 1inch elastic. I used 2 inch elastic and used regular knots so I could pull them a bit tighter, making them less noticeable. For the sash, I simply used satin blanket binding. And, because one of my colors of tulle had glitter (which I will NEVER use again. I am still finding hot pink glitter all over my house, and the dress hasn't been worn since the wedding!), it was pretty doggone itchy, so I simply bought a hot pink tee at Walmart for $3.50 and cut it at the armpits so that I was left with a perfect tube of matching, soft material to line the top of the dress in. It was super easy, and I finished it about an hour before the wedding so that my girl could walk down the aisle without having an extreme itchy/sweaty (it was HOT!) melt-down. 

an unsolicited pose. she just felt fabulous.

here's a shot to show you the lining. i definitely recommend lining it.

and here's a shot in natural light to show you the colors a little better.

tutorials/inspiration can be found here and here.

last weekend's wedding

Last weekend we took a (long!) road trip down to our nephew's wedding in eastern Oregon. It was a super fun trip, and we were glad to see family that we don't get to see often. The wedding was beautiful (shame on me for not taking any photos), and we were happy to be a part of it--our girlie was the flower girl, Maxi cruised down the aisle with some cousins (after much convincing and possibly some bribery), and Karl sang a Blue October song during the ceremony. The whole thing was fantastic, especially that last part. Swoon.