Baby Gifts

I was invited to (count them) 3 baby showers this week. ('Tis the season I guess). Anyway, it was two girls, and a boy - and I wanted to break out of my mold of doing a hooded towel, or nursing cover. So, they got fancy onsies. The girls got ruffle butts (gotta love 'em) with a matching hair clip. And the boy got an awesome yellow submarine (very loving it) and a Binky clip (no hair-bow for him). I actually had a lot of fun making these, and am kind of proud that they turned out as well as they did. Now, let's just hope the recipients like them.







And just to have in my files:
Some tutu's I made and donated to my sister's preschool classroom.

Blackberries

So this is, literally, just outside my back door.

Aren't we lucky? That entire hillside is completely covered in wild blackberry bushes. They grow like a weed here, they are everywhere. It's fabulous. Free blackberries, and they taste awesome. Can't you tell:

He picked a ton, and ate way more than ended up in the bowl. Gotta love the purple stained fingers.

Anyway, Sunday was stake conference for us, and since we are used to 1:00 church, we weren't quite sure what to do with the day when we were home by 12:30. So, we walked outside and picked blackberries with Grandma and Grandpa.

Showing off their purple faces.

The kids had a great time, and we got enough to make (and can-I'm totally getting into this canning thing) a batch of Blackberry syrup. (My kitchen smelled amazing.).
MMMMM. I think we are going to be eating a lot more pancakes. The best part...There are so many berries that I will still be able to do jam, and they will be on 'till almost the end of September. Now, if only we had Raspberries that were the same way.

I love where I live.

Deception Pass

They speak for themselves. Mostly.

Hiking (actually more like a sort of steep nature walk) down to the beach.

Looking up at the bridge, from the beach.

View from the beach.

They're "fishing" (for pokemon)

I finally gave up after 6 attempts at getting a good picture. This is the best we got.

Showing off his fishing pole.

Trying to get a picture from the bridge. Didn't work out so hot. I think we were all a little nervous to be up that high.

This picture could be titled "Mom, trying not to have a coranary". Don't let him fool you though. That bridge is up really, really high. He stood there long enough for the picture, then - he was ready to leave. And we were on the edge - pretty close to solid ground. I don't think I could have bribed him to go to the middle if I tried.

So, I have to say - This place is absolutely stunning - beautiful. The day couldn't have been more perfect either. Not to hot, but sunny. It made the fog (that is, I guess, nearly constant there) stand out even more prominently. Amazing. I am almost ashamed to admit that we have lived here for 4 years, and never been to deception pass.

We came home across Whidby Island, and rode the ferry home. The boys loved it. Once we got back to Mukilteo we stopped at the lighthouse for Grandma (she loves lighthouses) and finished off the day with dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant. Awesome day.

Riding the Ferry.

From the top of the lighthouse.

Grandparents Weekend

Catch up. Yes, I know. The story of my life. In my defense though, not much has been happening. We know our days of freedom are coming to an end, so we are squandering them-doing very little, and just enjoying being together. If you are interested, a snippet of our goings-on can be found at my picture-a-day blog, linked on the sidebar.

And now onto the rest of the post.

My parents came this weekend-one last chance to see the Grandkids before they leave the country for 18 months. We had a great time, mostly just visiting, but we did make a great trip to deception pass (separate post), and picked blackberries for syrup (also separate post-sorry, it's how my OCD brain works best.) My mom also consented to allow me the use of her serger while she is gone (still trying to figure it out- way, way, more confusing than my sewing machine), and brought a bunch of canning stuff, and a project that I will be working on for Baby Sister's Christmas (Stay tuned). Overall - really good weekend. Thanks for visiting Gramma Gramma, and Grampa Grampa.

The boys, with Grandpa.

Voices

Beefy is getting a cold, and when I mentioned to him that he sounded sick he looked at me and said, "I'm not sick, I'm just talking like a girl."

Vinyl Crazy

I've been cutting a lot of vinyl lately for my sister who is a preschool teacher. She is getting ready to go back to school next week, and needed some stuff for her classroom. Well, me being one who hates wasted space, added a few of my own vinyl projects onto her leftovers.

I hate it when garbage ends up in my recycle bin - which it does, a lot. Hopefully this will help.

Sign for the boys room. The part above just says their names and denotes it as their room.

Lighting in the kid's bathroom sucks.

Pretty Kitchen Aid. I love it even more now.

My friend Melissa came over one day, and we made some vinyl for her too. You can check it out here.

I have a no soliciting sign too, but it's pretty basic and boring, so no picture.

YW Handouts

I wanted to share this idea. I think it turned out kind of cute.

So the lesson I'm teaching in YW today is on obeying the laws of your country, and patriotism. I wanted to do a cute handout to go with it, something patriotic that still tied in with the lesson. This is what I came up with.

A vinyl cutout on a piece of 1x3x3 scrap wood, painted red, with the related scripture mod-podged onto the back. They were alot easier to make then they looked, and the girls have a cute little patriotic decoration they can display now.
I also made a bigger version on a 2x6x6, to display during the lesson.

Thanks for reading.

Cute Fabric Flowers

I made these a while ago and have been meaning to post them. They are embarrassingly easy and super fun and there are tons of tutorials online (a good one is here). Anyway here is a sample of what I've made, with some tips I've learned along the way.

First off - Fabrics I've used are Tulle, Organza, and Taffeta. I've tried satin, and it didn't work so hot, but I might give it another try. I think I just wasn't paitent enough.

With the tulle, I used almost 20 layers for each flower. It's pretty thin, and it takes that many to make it look right.

I had a candle lit, and sitting nearby so I didn't have to keep using my lighter, much easier.

Also, I sewed my layers together instead of gluing. I think it looks nicer.


The rhinestone centers are just cheapo ones I found at the craft store for like 99 cents a pack. The others are from an antique brad set (love them) that I got from Stampin' up.

Can I just say how much I am loving this headband. I took 3 small flowers and glued them onto a $1.95 ForLove21 headband. Super happy with it. (The headband I mean, not so much the picture- but my husband thinks I needed a shot of me wearing it.)

Can't wait to make more.

Chips

A while back we had the good fortune to come into the possession of a food dehydrator. Right after we got it, we used it a bit to dry some fruit and make some jerky but it has sat in our closet not being used for a few months now.

I pulled it out again this week to dry some apples that the kids weren't eating, and some bananas that were going bad. Well, apparently that is all it took. They downed the first batch of apples within minutes (literally) and we had to make a second batch. They helped with that one.
These are definitely going into the school lunch rotation. Now if only I can come up with other ideas to keep his lunches interesting. (Feel free to add your ideas in the comments!)

Look how domestic I'm becoming (good grief). I've already done strawberry jam this year, now I'm drying fruit - and this week we are canning 50# of peaches (minus the ones we've eaten), making blackberry jam and syrup and just might try blueberry syrup if I can get some picked in time. If any of you have good syrup recipes you can share them too. ; )

Just call me Martha!

While Mom's Away...

...The boys will play.

I went to girls camp for a day this week. It was fun, and going for a day (then coming home to shower) is kind of a nice thing. Anyway - Daddy and the boys have a tradition when I am gone, of making bready guys. It started out as bready bears, then last time it morphed into bready Yodas (we were in a Star Wars phase) and this time - bready Sonic and Pokemon guys. It's a good thing they have good imaginations I guess.

Pikachu and Drifloon

Amy and Sonic

Ready to be baked.