n o d d y b o o m

organized collection

Collection of rocks from the beach. 

We are still very much in a "tidying" mode around here.  Still getting ready for our trip (we leave in three days).  Very much enjoying summer and all it has to offer.  I hope you are too.  ;)

afternoon delight

Well, I don't know about you, but I came twice. 

(Uh...sorry,  husbands of my friends who occasionally read my blog, to get x-rated, and about wool, but sometimes these things do happen.  These kinds of books are porn all porn to me).  Oops, typed in "porn" twice.  Ahem.

I'm very inspired now.  We leave for Colorado in less than a week for a two week jaunt and I will definitely be bringing a bag of wool and some needles with me.

Cheers, everyone!

a bit cleaner here

Marley has been asking for a desk in her room for a year and I haven't been able to find one that I like or that was affordable, so I've given her mine.  We're both happy.  She's happy to have her own "office/studio" and I'm happy to have a bit more room.  There are, naturally, inevitable piles that need to be sorted through (from all the things I used to have in and on that desk), so I'm making due in my own creative space, weaving through all the *stuff* and making those hard decisions about what I truly do and do not need.

photo trade

 

My submission for The Photo Trade :: Into the Light.

Looking forward to a weekend of beaches and nurseries, organizing, browsing through my new pile of Japanese magazines, drinking iced tea, playing with the kids, eating yummy food and enjoying family and friends.

Hope you have a nice weekend too.

things to do :: moss

Found a new home for my moss.

There are still loads of things I want to do with my garden and with bringing plants indoors, but there never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to do, (including the things I want to do with my garden and with bringing plants indoors - I've never been brilliant at that indoor plant thing, but I have high hopes), but anyway, I was happy to get even this far on this particular day.  The plant seems so happy in there, at the moment, which makes me happy every time I look at it.  I am inspired to be creative with more plants in more containers and to be more open-minded about what goes in what.  It doesn't really take that long to do this sort of thing and it can all be set out the night prior, ready to go the next morning, so the kids can join in.  It's all about planning and organizing and thinking ahead, isn't it?  Sometimes, anyway.  Sometimes not.  This moss in the teacup was actually a whim that took two whole minutes once I'd thought of what I wanted to do (and it was born of pure necessity - the poor thing was sitting in its store bought container on my windowsill since March and I just couldn't bear it anymore).

web-browsing

these recipe cards

this printable paper toy theatre

this espresso machine

japanese pattern help

kind of unique black and white striped sheets  remind me of this clever black and white striped fabric, plus I love, love, love her other fabric and that site she mentions where you can design your own fabric.  Very cool.

salt water sandals

Okay.  One two bites of chocolate and I'm off to bed with a vampire book.  I'm inspired because I, just the other night, mustered up the courage to watch I Am Legend (I had held off forever because everyone told me it was the scariest movie they'd ever seen, etc.) but it was sooo brilliant and Will Smith is brilliant.  Definitely one of my favorite actors at the moment.  I watched it on a small t.v. with all the lights on, so it wasn't terribly unbearable (plus I looked down at my crocheting, if I thought a scene was going to be particularly scary) but it was just brilliant, the whole way through.  Truly.  And not gory.  Not overdone.  With such great sets and oh just everything about it was really great.  Anyway, now I'm reading the book the movie was based on.

Pleasant dreams!

happy father's day...

school's out for the summer

There has been a lot of running around these past few days and we still have quite a busy weekend ahead of us, but at least summer has officially landed, ie: no more school.  I am pleased as punch, coming off a particularly busy/challenging week.  There is already a chorus of happy children's voices singing in the house and I have loads of plans for resting and relaxing and gardening and reading and hiking and going to the beach and doing absolutely nothing, etc.  I'm burying the alarm clock in the front yard tomorrow.

Tonight I plan to watch the next twenty minutes of this u-tube video, "How it feels to have a stroke".  I realize that sounds like a strange thing to be watching this first night of summer (it's not really the first night of summer, I'm just calling it that because school ended for us today, which means summer in my mind), but it really is interesting and gets into how the brain works and seriously, just give it a go.  I can't even begin to get into it here.  It's too complicated for me to try to explain, but it makes a lot of sense when you watch it.  I don't watch u-tube that often, but there are quite a few gems floating around.  This seems to be one of them.

Besides, I've finished watching all the episodes of Lost Season 3 and Season 4 doesn't come out on DVD until December and as far as I know, there's nothing else on.  Well...  there probably is, but my knowledge of what is and what is not on t.v. is limited because usually when I turn it on it's just commercials, which annoy me and so I just turn it back off again.  I'm more of a book-reader.

Oh, but - one more gem, for everyone who needs a good laugh, watch this.  There's nothing like a happy baby to get those euphoric brain waves vibrating and, oh my goodness, I've never seen a baby laugh like this.  Pretty hilarious.

amidst the busy-ness, i did this

This recipe didn't work, but never mind (completely uncooked in the middle after sitting a half hour longer than requested in the oven, in case you were wondering, and not incredibly tasty).  I still love this book so much, despite the failed bread, that I've decided not to hold a grudge against it and figure that it was probably my screw up anyway (leave it to me to try to bake in the middle of the last week of school with three plays, two recitals and two all-school-eurythmy performances, not to mention a puppet show, Griffin's celebration, Chris's birthday, French lessons, Cello lessons, ballet class and ice skating.)  I might try the recipe again sometime, when I'm more calm, but I might not because the other apple cake recipe from Apples For Jam is just so darn foolproof and delicious, why change?  Indeed.  But I am attempting this no-knead bread recipe (without the lemon - I have no zest, at the moment) because, really, how can I fail?  You hardly touch it.  It practically makes itself!  I have the dough brewing as we speak. 

But really, I'm writing to say that I'm very excited because I have indeed been accepted into the Photo Trade swap for June!  I wasn't sure if I was, because I hadn't heard anything and wondered if my email had gotten lost or sent to spam or forgotten, but it wasn't, happily, and now I'm scrambling to get prints of the photo I took so I can mail it to my recipient on time.  I'm trying three different online printing services.  I'll let you know which I prefer (I'm very picky about the paper my photos get printed on).  I'll post the photo after I've sent it (I have to check the rules on that one, but I think they're pretty lenient).

Two more days of school!

the fruit whale, continued...

I managed to snag a photo of that whale-ish fruit bowl this morning:

Ta-dah!!! 

It's the best I could do. 

I nixed the "spout" idea, because no matter how I placed them on top of the whale's head(?), they just looked like ears or weird eyebrows or extra fins or something.  They didn't want to look like a spout, but never mind.  We didn't need them.  Griffin was pleased and that's all that matters.  I was just thrilled that I made it all the way to school (driving with this thing on my lap) without spilling the entire contents all over my pants and sweater and car (that part of the adventure could have used a wee bit more planning - where do you put a watermelon bowl full of fruit in the car without it rolling around, anyway?). 

Thank you Gods of watermelon travel.  You were with me this morning, it seems.  Thank you. 

a pirate patch and a watermelon bowl

Griffin keeps tearing large holes in the knees of his leggings (his pant of choice at the moment).  I can't bear to just throw them out, so I've mended this pair with a "pirate patch" (knit fabric with a skull and cross-bone pattern - I can't remember where I got it, it was so long ago).  Look at that photo.  He's not sure how he feels about this.  Can you tell?

Tomorrow they are celebrating his birthday at school (his birthday's not until the end of August, but that's during summer break, so they are celebrating it now.  Kind of weird, but he's looking forward to it).  I'm meant to bring a fruit salad, and watermelon is in season, so for sh*ts and giggles I decided to make a watermelon bowl.  It's (kind of) a whale. 

I couldn't really get a decent shot of it, but there you go.  In the morning I will fill it with fruit and try to balance those two jagged pieces at the top left, there, on top to look like a water spout (and maybe I will remember to take a picture).  Hopefully it will work.  I love carving fruit (and vegetables) every once in a while.  It's rather fun and satisfying (as long as you don't get too picky about the end result) and you really don't have to be brilliant at it to make a child smile.  Plus it's easier than carving a watermelon  pumpkin (oops).  But now I have an entire bowl of scooped out watermelon in my fridge that I need to find something to do with rather quickly (it just never fits back in the watermelon, once you've cut it up and added other fruit to it).  I wish I loved watermelon juice, but I really don't.  So, I guess we're all going to be eating watermelon for breakfast, and for lunch and for dessert tomorrow.