oh happy day!

out and about

Hello there...sorry for a wee lull in the posting. I had to take some time to recharge my batteries and just hang out by the kiddie pool. Well briefly hang out by the pool. We have had so much rain here lately, I have mostly been holed up inside watching the weeds in my garden grow from my living room window. Not a very nice June. Hopefully July will be better and we can get to the beach, tackle some weeds, frolic in the sun and indulge in all things summery.

Here are some pics from a little fun Victorian Weekend thingie we attended the other day when the sun was shining...

 Hunting for fairies!

 Of course there was some spinning on the front porch. I wonder how much spinning the wealthy Victorian ladies who lived in the house would have been doing, though, right? Maybe.  But the girl was wearing a lovely dress and some shnazzy shoes.

 
Here's Lil in a  jaunty hat. She looks like a little servant, all dressed up in her fancy hat for her Sunday afternoon off.

 
Then we headed over to a historical working farm, which was so picturesque and perfect. Big-eyed Jersey cows lolling about in the shade, with their bells clanging. Fat pigs lounging in the mud under a sprawling shady maple. Horse drawn plows manned by guys in fitting attire. Clara got to grind some corn and feed the chickens. We saw some baby turkeys scurrying about as their mama tried to round them up by the vegetable patch. It was such a nice day. I only wish Clara had her bonnet.

pillowcase fun

Everywhere you look, people are using vintage pillowcases to make fun stuff. I remember forever ago, like 5 years or so, everyone was making the little pillowcase skirts. I did make one. Although I kind of always just felt like it was indeed a pillowcase with a drawstring waist. But Betz White's new book, Sewing Green has me rethinking the pillowcase projects, as well as a few other people who have done some cute things with them.  
Here are some cute repurposed pillowcase projects:

This adorable picnic quilt over at Sew Nancy I really love this. It is so airy and sweet and nostalgic, and perfect for summertime.

This simple bag on Martha's site...the perfect little beach bag, carryall

 

The shirred summer top on Betz's blog is super sweet, and such a great idea for little girls, too.
Oh, you know what would be fun, too. I am always a fan of granny nighties in the summertime. It would be fun to take a vintage sheet in a wacky print and make a long, shirred granny nightie/mumu thingie. yeah! I can see myself schlumping around the house in such a thing.  

 

strawberry season

 

 

 

Strawberries were plucked, goods were baked. Rapidly. Strawberries are so completely perishable, I had to act fast. I did end up freezing some, though, since I was exhausted by the end of the day and couldn't carry on with any further making/baking.
I made a quick strawberry jam, strawberry muffins, the ubiquitous strawberry shortcake, and some strawberry honey butter (which is particularly nice on the strawberry muffins). I plan on making a strawberry cake and some strawberry bread as well. I'm bummed I forgot to bake a pie. I imagine frozen strawberries won't work very well for a pie. I did mention earlier that I was forgoing sugar, but I forgot about strawberry season, so I will resume that next week.

I also made some yogurt, which is something I've been meaning to do for quite awhile, and was inspired after I got this book from the library. Very tasty with the jam. I feel so industrious!

 

New animals!

Here are some pics of the new animals that will be for sale tonight, on ebay, in a 3 day auction starting at 8pm EST

 

 

 

 

 

my website

link to the auctions (there won't be anything here until 8pm (EST)  

finally!

 

There will be some new animals for sale on Monday, 6/15, that's tomorrow!
They will be available in a 3day auction on ebay. I'll post a link here tomorrow, and I'll also have the link on my site. I hope you'll take a peek!

 

dollhouse

I looove these Lundby dollhouses. They are so perfect. When I was little, all I wanted was a realistic dollhouse. These would have fit the bill to a T. They were around then, of course, but a bit too lavish for our family's funds.

 

 

 

 

 

More info here. Check out the house with the pool. Someday...if the girls are good! :) Then I can play with them of course.  

bye rug

I have pulled up our living room rug, and I feel liberated. These are the things that excite me these days.  It had gotten peed upon, spilled upon, painted on, too many times. It was a natural fiber rug, and really hard to clean. I felt that it was infested with funk. Now it is so clean and nice! Here are the kids digging the clean floor.

 
Ummm...where did the rug go?

 

Now I just have to put the furniture back. Much better! I dare anyone to piddle or poo or paint or puke (cats) on this shiny floor!

4 years ago...

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago, we were on our honeymoon in Harbour Island, in the Bahamas. Sigh. So much has changed in 4 years. I've just been perusing our pictures and feeling nostalgic.  It is rainy and dreary today, I am enjoying the thrilling task of housecleaning, and I  can't help but wish I could just take a little break, and head back here for awhile...

 
 

Here's us on our wedding day. We got married in our garden. Man, I was alot skinnier. Although I thought I was plump at the time.

 

So young and innocent! Ha!

right now

We are eating our first salad from the garden! So tender and peppery and delicious. yum.
 
The peonies are finally starting to bloom. The tree peony has already bloomed in all its gorgeous-ness. Now these lovelies are starting up. My favorite flower. Lilacs are second. 



pardon the dark pictures...it's a dreary day

Fiddlehead ferns...Since I have banned sugar from my diet for a good month, I am missing getting excited over baked goods. Now I get excited over salads and other veg. I sauteed these with some garlic and they were rather tasty. I hadn't had them before, and they were sort of asparagus-y, I guess. Pretty good. Lovely to look at, and fun to eat something that unfurls from the forest floor.

Oh, and right now, there are actually some animals being made. Here is proof! I know it has been AGES since I have offered any work for sale, but I have been finding it really hard to tear myself away from the kids to get anything done. I am really enjoying just sort of immersing myself in staying at home with them, and I tend to get all flustered and irritable when I am torn in two different directions. So having fun with them has been my primary focus of late. But I need to start getting back into making stuff, because I miss being creative. I really miss it. But I am really tired after I put them to bed at night, too. sigh. How I envy all of these prolific crafty moms. How do they do it?

this and that

Here are a few pics from the past week..

Lil and her crazy hair. It will not lay flat. I think she looks like a little bird, perhaps a cockatoo. Hence her nickname, Lilli-bird.  Or Yinny-bird, a derivative of YinYin, which is what Clara calls her. What a little love bug. This is from a wee picnic we had by a babbling brook on Memorial Day.
 

Here, Clara hams it up with an Iris. She is getting so silly with the photo sessions; tons of funny pics. 

  
On the way to the farmer's market for the first time this season, we happened upon a little fawn, all huddled up by a guard rail, who must not have been able to make it over when his mama jumped. So we stopped and Jay helped the little fellow over the guard rail, and then over some barbed wire into a field. He perked right up when he was back in the field, so hopefully he and his mama were reunited. We were scared that he might not be found, and considered bringing him home to try and feed him, but soon realized this would not be wise.  As much as I thought it would be a romantic notion to have a mystical pet fawn, best to leave him there, since his mama was probably looking for him. Oh, the poor little thing. He was so new and so fragile. We named him Lou, as in Deery-Lou, of course. I hope Lou made it...