{this moment}

A Friday ritual started by Amanda Blake Soule, of Soule Mama

"A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week

A simple, special, extraordinary moment"

my mom's birthday gift

i'm so happy to finally be finished with my mom's birthday gift. a few years back when we were still living in idaho, she sent me a pattern for this jacket.  she didn't ask me to make it, she just said "oh, i thought this pattern was really cute and thought you might be able to do something with it."  it's her subtle way of telling me she'd like me to make it.  last april i had planned on sewing it for her birthday and had her help me pick out the fabric.  well, i started reading the directions and got totally lost in it and completely overwhelmed, for the life of me i couldn't figure it out, so i just put it all away.  a year later i thought i'd better try it again.  i don't know how many hours it took me to finally figure out the instructions, the fact that i'm a total novice to sewing didn't help, but one evening i had given up from frustration and decided to go to bed, while brushing my teeth something finally clicked and i that was when i understood what the directions were saying!  this darn jacket has 3 layers of fabric, i had to cut out over 60 pieces for it which took me over 8 hours!  just clipping all the darn seams so that they would fray took over 2 hours and i'm not sure how many hours it took to actually sew it, but yes i am finally finished with it, YEAH!  hopefully she appreciates it even though it is a little late.

froggy went a courtin'

one of my favorite springtime sounds are the chorus of spring peepers.  since we live in town, i don't get to hear them as much as when we lived in the country.  our new favorite CD to listen to in the car is The Calls of Frogs and Toads,  by Lang Elliott.  i didn't realize how different the calls were for each species.  don't all frogs say "ribbit, ribbit?"  the theme for The Three Muses this week is "music, music, music."  my spring peepers are doing their "advertisement  call" for the lucky female in the tree.

"I feel pretty"

the theme this week at Mixed Media Monday is "i feel pretty."  here's my entry which is a collage made with paper, paint and old tin on wood.  i think she still feels pretty even though her dress is old and worn and made of scraps.

bicycle bag

Fischer has a birthday party that he is going to tomorrow, so i whipped up a little bicycle bag this afternoon from some scraps that i had lying around.   a nice little bag to put all sorts of treasures in.

willows and wings

my entry  for The Three Muses is a little late this week we've been spending so much time outside playing and gardening, I haven't had time to paint, the theme this week is hats and crowns and wings and things.  i went for the easy out and painted a little goldfinch on some pussy willows, which incredibly are already leafed out.  spring came a little faster than usual around here. 

Look what I found!

i don't know how many times over the last week or so that i've heard "mom, look what i've found!"  digging in the garden and compost pile we've found lots of worms, centipedes, spiders, ants, slugs, larvae and other unidentifiable bugs which the kids love to look at and touch,  i really don't mind them as long as they don't touch me.  i just love the enthusiasm that the kids have when they find these creepy crawlies, amelia's favorite is the ladybug, fischer likes the spiders.  This is my piece for Mixed Media Monday where the theme is "look what I found."

{this moment}

A Friday ritual started by Amanda Blake Soule, of  SouleMama

"A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week

A simple, special, extraordinary moment"
 

bike ride

the theme this week at The Three Muses is maps.
there's nothing like a little cruise on a bicycle along a path, flowers in bloom, with a little friend to share the ride.

spring blooms

 

tiny, blue and beautiful blanketing my neighbors yard

April showers

we finally had some much needed rain this past week, actually some parts of Wisconsin had some snow the night before last, thank goodness we didn't see any of that by us.  with all the gloomy and rainy skies, i did a rainy day piece, another collage from newspaper.  sunny skies are upon us now with warmer temperatures on the way to make all the flowers and trees just "pop."

spring greens

since moving back to wisconsin, we have made it a point to eat locally produced food as much as we can, even through the winter.  this past month i have found it to be a real challenge.  i've grown tired of all the roasts and stews that we ate through the winter, lots of potatoes, onions, carrots, squash, canned and frozen goods, and trying to come up with new ways to use them, arrgh,  but now the spring greens have started popping up!  an amish family that we know have a greenhouse and have had spinach most of the winter, which has been a wonderful treat, but now the salad greens are ready.  what a welcome relief, and to top things off, the watercress is also ready.  tonights meal was a nice change of pace, potato and watercress soup from the cookbook From Asparagus to Zucchini:  A Guide to Cooking Farm-Fresh Seasonal Produce,
a salad and homemade bread (which is a staple anytime of the year.)  i'm looking forward to more of springs treats, morels and asparagus!

little black birds all in a line

The challenge at The Three Muses this week is "bye bye blackbird."  I love it when I see little black birds  all lined up in a row on fences or the telephone wire, many times they are all facing the same direction, waiting, resting, chirping, ready at any moment to move to their next roosting spot. 

little kitty

I made a quick little kitty for Amelia for Easter.  I have a huge stash of pink corduroy from a thrift store that I used, which sort of makes it look like a pig, but when Amelia saw it her face lit up and she said "titty tat" and immediately gave it a hug.

Baby blanket

There's nothing like waiting until the last minute to get me moving.  My sister has been pregnant for almost 40 weeks and I didn't start the baby blanket until 3 days before baby Evan was born.  My sister has 2 boys already and they each got a handmade blanket from their auntie.  Sometimes I'm so good at procrastinating.   I usually love to sew, but lately I've been too obsessed with drawing and painting to even want to use my sewing machine, but I was able to finish it, just in the nick of time and I'm pretty happy with the results.  (and my little nephew is so darn cute.)