Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Sweet spring

April has been a beautiful month. On top of the blessings of singing birds, yellow tulips, and 70 degree weather, I've had two weekends with road trips! Visiting Jenny in Indianapolis without kids was wonderfully refreshing. One double cheeseburger in my lap, a CD of Sherlock Holmes stories in the stereo, and a sunny open road. I was trembling with happiness. We visited the art museum, went out for dinner, went to the Feist concert. The concert was absolutely perfect---Feist was better in person than on CD, and it was delicious to just relax and listen.



A couple from church gave us their bike trailer, and the girls love to ride around in the "carriage". It's nice to be able to get out without our klunky double stroller. Phoebe's mickey mouse helmet does strange things to me. You know that feeling you get when your child cannot possibly get any cuter? That violent I'm-going-to-EAT-you feeling? I have to stop myself from totally smothering her.


Last weekend we went to Grammie and Poppie's to collect the rest of the bunk beds and see Aunt Kim's high school's musical. Eowyn decided to accessorize from the dress up trunk before we left. The nice thing about Phoebe is that she doesn't mind being attacked with love when she's being cute. Eowyn no longer appreciates this. So here she is, looking smashingly cute and funny, and I'm supposed to act totally normal about it. I guess I'm going to have to learn some motherly self control.

Favorite recent website finds:

Jango.com. Because I have a lot of work on the computer, I listen to a lot of music. We try not to download music illegally....(I say *try* just because I cannot be absolutely certain that there isn't some unpaid-for mp3 floating around here). I listen to music a lot, and yet the last time we actually bought music was...a very long time ago. It's just not in our budget right now. This site lets you create your own "radio station." You pick the artists you want to listen to. The more you've picked, the less it plays its own "recommendations." You can rate songs, and if you give it a song a bad rating, it will stop playing it. I have about 10 artists picked out, and it now rarely plays anything I haven't picked.

Hayden He opened for Feist. He played the harmonica. He won my heart....or at least my listening ear. Help me, I like indie folk rock.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

1, 2, 3, 4

I have anticipated Friday for a long, long time. On Friday I am going to be free of younglings. On Friday I am finally visiting my sister in law. On Friday we are going to a Fiest concert. I am so, so psyched. (!!!!!!!!!)

In celebration of the event I made myself and my sister in law new purses. This is the second and third purse I've ever made.


I really like the pattern (found on the sidebar); each purse only took an afternoon to make. I had to claim the first one as mine (pink). It had all the mistakes (top stitching isn't as easy as it looks, and, since it's the last step, I went way too quickly). Hers is prettier. Sigh. It seems like you have to do every project twice to learn from all the dumb mistakes you did on the first. Oh well. Feist, here I come!

And I am so excited to report that making your own laundry detergent truly works! My dad bought me eight bars of Fels Naptha, and now we have sweet, thick, CHEAP, detergent that seems to be doing a good job. New purse. Cheap laundry detergent. Life is good.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

My Secret Weapon

A cheery spring hello to my five faithful readers. May you be blessed for stopping by to read the bits and pieces of my life that randomly happen to land on this page. A brief review of the last month: we all got sick, we had a lovely Easter, I painted the kitchen for the third time. Oh! And my wonderful brother in law just happened to have a genuine copy of Photoshop CS2 that he lovingly sent my way. Good thing he didn't hand deliver it or I may have had to kiss him, and we all know that kissing brothers in law can make for a real awkward moment. I think it's a necessity that everyone have a bonafide techie in their lives. It makes for great hand-me-downs to those of us who have not been to Circuit City in the last decade.

One of my one good ideas recently (unlike the first two kitchen colors) included this handy thing, and I pass it on to you aspiring Proverbs-31-like-a-merchant-ship-ladies like myself.


This notebook is like 3 by 4 inches and is now an indispensable part of the pit I carry around with me, also known as a purse. It's really a mini address book I bought for $3 at Wal-Mart. If your house is like mine, every room is slowly evolving into something that you actually really like. One day it may look like Pottery Barn, but, ahem, not today. When I am out and about, I tend to forget things. I find a fabric on sale that I like, but have no idea if it would look nice with the wall color, nor how many yards I would need to make curtains. This is my solution. Each little divider has each room's information on it---a paint chip that matches the wall color(s), measurements of each window and how much yardage I'd need for a new treatment, and other information. The page above has fabric scraps from the s' quilts so I can whip out the color scheme.

Of course it helps to have pages of other things I will never be able to remember, like my husband's shirt size, what clothing we need, how big our table is and what size tablecloth it takes.

Doesn't resourcefulness just make you happy?

 

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