pack it up pack it in

taking the circus out west.
colorado specifically.
here to be more exact.

the man has a show and the family is making a great big road trippin' vacation out of it.
i've been packing and cleaning and doing laundry in a caffeine induced fervor.

so grateful to be able to stop and see friends and family along the way that we don't get to see often enough.
excited to be going somewhere new and see a change of scenery.
pretty sure we won't want to come back ; )

lot's more to do - we're off in the morning and not even half way ready to go.

we'll be absent for a couple weeks. hope to have lots to share when i get back!
(think good thoughts for us!)

***sound of jaw hitting the floor***

~swoon~
thank you two black sheep for letting me know i am not crazy for wanting to knit half of the beauties in the new interweave knits fall preview.
boy, do i feel greedy.

hey, i made something!

i spent saturday evening sewing. my plan was to make the boy some pants to take to colorado. it's very difficult to find pants that fit this kid. even ones with adjustable waists are too big. he was napping when i made them and when he woke i had him try them on and they were HUGEmongous. luckily, they were big enough i can take them apart and try again.

well, i felt the need to redeem myself with a quick project. we have a lot of babies coming into our lives soon. friends who are more like family are expecting (right after we leave from visiting them!). and we have a new cousin coming any day now, and a sweet niece making her debut in november. so i tried a baby bib using one of bea's for a pattern guide. somehow the neck hole was a wee bit too small. i was disappointed, so i tried again. the pattern looked great. then the machine decided it wanted to battle. i'll just say the machine won. i gave up and decided to try again in the day light.

i'm glad i did! maybe the machine and i just needed to get some sleep because in the morning the problems with the *ahem* machine were gone.

result: a super cute baby bib with yellow stripes in cotton flannel and a blue print in cotton.


i am so pleased with this little piece. most things i have sewn require a straight line only. i am mastering the curves. and it feels good! (and it looks pretty good, too!)

if you give a bea a bean

a walk in the woods for a dip in the lake

photowalking

saturday i participated in my first photowalk by joining the scott kelby worldwide photowalk. i was pretty excited and a bit nervous. i had high hopes of meeting some new/local people with a passion for picture taking, yet i can be shy and a little introverted. i got there about 10 minutes late so i missed the initial meet-up spot (i thought i was signed up for a different locale, so ended up leaving my house too late. not to mention waking up late since i got only about 3 hours of sleep because bea was up all night).
so, i entered oakland cemetery alone and stayed that way the entire walk. i noticed there were other people who were loners, too, so that made me feel a little better. it's a beautiful place and the morning was gorgeous! almost no humidity, just amazing. and the bluest sky. after strolling through the cemetery i made my way to cabbagetown. i was a little disappointed in this area. it reminded me a little of downtown savannah (a former home of mine), but wasn't as eclectic or busy with pedestrians. since i didn't know the area too well i was a little timid to wander too far from the group. it was similar to savannah in that there were newly renovated homes right next door to boarded up condemned ones. people with (what i consider)money & young artists sharing space with the homeless and crazies. most everyone was friendly and said hi (mainly the young ones and the crazies) and seemed willing to have their photos taken, though i didn't take any of them.
after that i headed back to the final meet-up spot, a pub called six feet under. yes. it is right across from the cemetery. and the food was good. i had the blackened shrimp tacos with fried leeks and a cucumber wasabi sauce with a yuengling. very good. here i finally met some people, the three who sat with me at my table. though to be honest we didn't exchange names. and we didn't really talk about the walk or photography. it was a little awkward to be honest-but again, they were nice people. i did get one of the guys to talk about the software he uses, but since i don't really use any or have any knowledge of it that was a short lived conversation. we didn't share our photos with one another, but this was fine with me. i felt really out of my element in these two locations and wasn't happy with most of my shots. i learned that i need to challenge myself more. i am more comfortable taking pictures of my family and my immediate surroundings and need to branch out more. that was the best thing that came from the walk. i know i want to do more and get out more with my camera.

no one flickred that i met and that was disappointing. i would love to know someone (in 'real' life) who gets flickr. i really was hoping to connect with someone that shared this interest with me but this walk just wasn't the time or place. i'm sure it will happen and i do look forward to next years walk. if you'd like to see some of the shots i took you can go here.

one of those days when i'm not sure why i bothered to get dressed.

meet mr. owl

a couple weeks ago maya*made had a little giveaway that i just couldn't resist entering. and lo and behold, i won!



she asked that you leave a comment telling her where you would travel to that instant if you could just up and go. well, italy has been a hot topic around here (no, we are not off to italy). it's a dream of ours to get there and spend a substantial amount of time there and we've been discussing as of late how exactly to pull that off. so, in the meantime, we are going to be heading to colorado in a couple weeks. matt and i, the kiddos, and every piece of sculpture cooped up in this house. ROAD TRIP! we are nervous (hope the kids and the car travel well), excited (to see several old friends that we don't see often enough and meet their families), and hopeful (big whammy, big whammy!) that matt sells many pieces and makes some new clients.

anyway, back to that giveaway. while i was entering the giveaway, henry walked by the computer and saw the picture of the pillow and stated he wanted "that". sweet maya addressed it to him, so henry could barely contain himself when he found out that the box that 'the lady' (the mail lady) brought was for him!

*this seems like a good place to interrupt and mention that we have the most awesome mail lady ever according to henry because everything she delivers he thinks is from her. netflix movies? 'the lady' got them for him. box with handmade pillow? ditto. and so it goes. sometimes we try to explain, sometimes we don't.*

the pillow has been well received and already much loved. i thought for a moment that henry's frog, who he has a history with, was going to be pushed to the side but i was thankfully mistaken. i was informed though that frog and mr. owl are best friends. and the pillow and mr. owl get toted around the house often. he hasn't slept on the pillow and honestly i don't know if he will. this boy is particular about his pillows. the pillow he has now is a travel pillow and when he moved up to the 'big' bed we tried giving him a regular pillow. he kept it in his bed but didn't use it. i put (non-matching) pillowcases on the 2 pillows and the boy wasn't having it. i thought it was because they didn't match or something because he would rip the cases of to show me that the pillows matched each other without them. so, i attempted to sew matching cases. still wasn't having it.
so, part of the beauty of maya's pillow is that there is no need for a pillowcase, yet it is still pretty to look at! and the non-matching isn't an issue. for now, he sleeps on his old faithful with his new pillow next to him and mr. owl tucked snugly into the pocket.

pickled pink

who knew homegrown pickles could be this easy?
what's hard is restraining myself from eating every. last. one.
and the onions? oh my.

list + video

not much to say here (really it's lack of time more than it is lack of words), just wanted to pop in and show you all that we are still alive and kickin'.

lola and ava at two black sheep did a meme that was pretty fun so i considered myself tagged. especially because i didn't know what would show up on my ipod. i don't remember the last time i listened to music on it. since i don't spend much time in the car anymore i listen to all my favorite npr shows on podcasts and that is what i mainly use it for. so this was a nice reminder for me that there are other things out there for me to listen to besides fresh air and this american life.
so here are the rules (and play along if you like):
Turn on your MP3 player or iTunes on the computer. Go to "shuffle songs" mode. Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist.

Beastie Boys - Shake Your Rump (live Amsterdam)
Uploaded by Chrims. - Music videos, artist interviews, concerts and more.

storm coming - gnarls barkley
chapter 6 - harry potter and the deathly hallows
don't pass me by - the beatles
slow & low - beastie boys
mama boulet - leftover salmon
blue bayou - cox family
double play - bela fleck
the same boy you've always known - the white stripes
i hear music - billie holiday
evangeline - emmylou harris and the band
bullfrog shuffle - bela fleck
every time i go around here - frank black
the new pollution - beck
ungakhohlwa - ladysmith black mambazo
la bayamesa - buena vista social club

(can you spot us?)