create:: spring bucket bag

After finding this great tutorial for Lisa Lam's reversible bucket bag (from The Bag Making Bible), it was only a matter of time before I found just the right fabrics and made one. It's so cute!  Now having made one, I'm already dreaming of color schemes for the next (blues and greens)...and the next (red and white and black).

Its a great pattern, and it highlights the fabric so well that I know that each bag will be truly different from the others.  The size (which is hard to tell from the photos) is perfect for a largish handbag, the kind I like...that can hold a book, a journal, or even a small knitting project!

This one is a tribute to spring...easter egg colors which brighten up even the rainy day we are having today. Thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew! for this great pattern and tutorial!

He is risen, indeed!

A lovely family Easter, here.  Doughnut breakfast, wonderful church celebration, Easter baskets (our bunny knows we go to early church and so comes while we are gone), and off to my parents for the afternoon. Egg hunt, ham dinner, relaxing with family.  Even a melt-down by the little boy on the way home didn't ruin the day.  And an evening finished out with popcorn and a movie.  I think some of our Easter books before bed and we'll call it a day.

We live with gratitude to our risen Savior, Jesus Christ! He is alive, and He lives in me. Happy Easter, everyone!

spring break fun, part 3

Yesterday we took a trip to the Smithsonians other Air and Space Museum, the Udvar-Hazy museum outside of Dulles Airport. I'm not a plane fanatic but it was a very impressive collection of aircraft...hundreds...large and small, and the Space Shuttle Enterprise (which never went into space but was used as a prototype and for testing).  All in one giant hangar. We had a fun day.

In the evening, we did the annual dyeing of the Easter eggs.

Happy Easter!

beautiful scandalous night

This song helps me remember why Good Friday truly is good.

Go on up to the mountain of mercy,
To the crimson perpetual tide.
Kneel down on the shore,
Be thirsty no more,
Go under and be purified.

Follow Christ to the Holy Mountain,
Sinner, sorry and wrecked by the fall,
Cleanse your heart and your soul.
In the fountain that flows,
For you and for me and for all.

 
At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree,
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me,
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white,
On that beautiful scandalous night.

On the hillside you will be delivered,
At the foot of the cross, justified.
And your spirit restored,
By the river that pours,
From our blessed Saviour's side.

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree,
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me,
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white,
On that beautiful scandalous night.

You carry the sin of mankind on your back,
And the sky went black.
Go on up to the mountain of mercy,
Go the crimson perpetual tide.
Kneel down on the shore,
Be thirsty no more,
Go under and be purified.

At the wonderful tragic mysterious tree,
On that beautiful scandalous night you and me,
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white,
On that beautiful scandalous night.
On that beautiful scandalous night,
Beautiful scandalous,
Miraculous night...

[words by Bob Bennett, performed by Sixpence None The Richer and Bebo Norman, on the album, "City on a Hill: The Gathering"]

spring break fun, part 2

I love the zoo. Probably more than the kids..but the three of us had a great time today. It was sunny but breezy and a bit cool; we finally shed our jackets after lunch.  A great way to continue our great spring break week. Its so hard to pick "just a few" photos... so many things to see. I think my favorite photo is of the kookaburra. It brings back memories of the song we used to sing in Girl Scouts:

Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,

Merry, merry king of the bush is he.

Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, 

Gay your life must be (ha ha ha ha).

Enjoy the photos of spring, and of wild things...mine and the zoo's!

 

spring break fun

I feel like its been a long time since I posted last week. It's been a busy time...mostly good. I did feel like I spent about 3 days in the trenches as we fought the girlie's bronchitis/walking pneumonia at the end of last week, and I am so thankful that she is nearly completely recovered.  So spring break started a few days early for her, missing school Thursday and Friday. 

The FUN of spring break started yesterday, however, with Grandma taking the kids to the U.S. Naval Academy (I was working).  The report I got was: "We saw cannons, and boats, and a kayaker, and great-grandpa." (Great-grandpa's picture is up in their athletic hall of fame, he was an Olympic gymnast and a USNA grad). 

Today's fun was (yet another) trip to the Natural History museum in D.C.  The girlie was only a little put out that we went a couple weeks ago without her.  So we saw dinosaurs, and mummies, taxidermied animals and lots of skeletons, African artifacts, and lots of other cool stuff.  The crocheted coral reef was still there (it goes somewhere else next week) so we saw that again, too.   And then we finished the day, above, with our ice-pops on the mall. Joy!

Stay tuned for more spring break adventuring...

spring is sprung

This afternoon is drizzly and cool, and I am feeling dreary and tired.  To cheer me (and you?) up, here are some photos of my tulips from a couple of days ago. Enjoy! I'm off to the sewing machine....

garden journal 4.11.11

Carrots are up too! You just about need a magnifying glass to see them, but I swear they are growing!

garden journal 4.10.11

I still haven't figured out quite how to keep my garden updates. For now they'll just appear here, sporadically.

So here's the "dirt" (couldn't resist that one!) on what's going on:

All my seeds came from Botanical Interests, which I was able to purchase at my local garden center. The strawberry plants are seedlings from Chef Jeff's, purchased at the garden center as well.

4.1.11 First planting:
Pea- Shelling, Green Arrow, approx. 30 seeds.  5-10 days to emerge.
Carrot- Carnival Blend (fun! orange, white, purple, and yellow carrots). One 4' row.  10-25 days to emerge.
Lettuce- Mesclun, Farmers Market Blend, One 4' row. 5-10 days to emerge.
Lettuce- Leaf, Salad Bowl Blend. One 6-7' row. 5-10 days to emerge.

4.10.11 Second planting, first emergence:
6 strawberry plants went in the ground today, they are Ozark Beauty Everbearing strawberry.  I really pondered the June-bearing versus the everbearing types...and decided we like strawberries for a snack more than any other way, so it might be better to have fewer berries at a time, but all through the growing season.  The kids helped me plant.

The lettuce is up, both kinds, about 1/4" tall.  Today there are 2 small pea shoots up, I'm hoping there are many more to come.  No sign of carrots, yet, but its still early for them.        

  

the greatest show on earth

It must be more than 20 years since I was last at the circus. My loss! It was so much fun to go yesterday.  My parents treated us to this wonderful adventure, and the adults had at least as much fun as the kids, probably more!

adventuring is best with friends

Yesterday we had a great spring day and nothing on the schedule, so a great day to head into D.C. for some adventuring, taking along some friends for extra fun.  Four kids aged five and under meant Natural History (which, I'll admit, is my favorite, anyway). Here's our fun!

Does anyone know where we're going??

Four cuties

M. loving on a dinosaur bone while the other boys wonder why...

Who do you see in my crystal ball?

riding the Metro is half the fun

we're following the leader...

On to our next adventure...tomorrow...the Circus! Hope you are having an adventure-filled week!

create:: spring headbands

 Spring must be the season of crafting...oh, wait, I think that is every season around here!  Lately it's been clothing and accessories, and these reversible headbands are the latest in a group of projects for the girlie and me. I found the pattern and idea at The Long Thread, which is a lovely sewing and crafting blog that also provides lots and lots of links to other crafty spots in the blogosphere.

The pink and denim headband is for my lovely girl, her hair is shoulder length and hides the elastic, but mine is longer and often tied back, so I put a gathered fabric sleeve around the elastic on mine, which was easy almost painless. Anyway, I'm quite delighted with the result, so there may be quite a few more of these forthcoming. Now that I've ironed the kinks out of the process, they go together quickly (which means, less than the time between when the boy goes down for a nap and when the girlie gets off the bus)! A perfect sized project.