Summertime Friends

The Man-Cub was happy to see his 'Summertime Friend' - she comes every summer to visit her grandparents...

Her Grandma is an avid knitter - so while this bout of jumping is going on - we're on the back porch knitting - YAY - Fun for everyone!

Hearts and Hands - A Card Tutorial

This is an easy and fun project - I'm sure you can do it with children even younger than the Man-Cub (i.e., 10)...

First we cut some card stock (8.5 x 11) in half and folded those to make a nice size card. Then we drew the hands - I actually did this part - just using a regular ink pen - but thought the Man-Cub might draw some really cute hands too - this time he was pretty much only interested in the stamping part...

Then we cut a heart shape out of craft foam - just the regular old craft foam that you can get at Stuff-Mart - check the size to make sure it will fit between your hands the way you want it to...

Glue this - wrong side down (if there is a wrong side) to a piece of scrap wood - I guess this isn't entirely necessary but it will keep the fingers cleaner...

Then get out your water color markers - they definitely work better for this project than anything else - but you might use watercolors and a paint brush to a nice effect as well...

We used Orange, Raspberry, Pink (Rose), and Red. Just color on the stamp with the different colors - it won't dry before you stamp it and the colors get all mixed up...

Make some practice stamps first...

Then carefully press the heart stamp in the middle of the hands...

I think the effect of the mixed colors and the lines and ridges left from the mixing is very pretty...

Repeat for each card...

The Kepi Hat

The Man-Cub is a huge fan of the old Rat Patrol series - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060018/. His favorite character is Hitchcock who wears a Kepi hat. You can read more about the Kepi here:
http://www.apparelsearch.com/definitions/Headwear_Hats/kepi_hat.htm

So as a sort of graduation present - the Man ordered him a Civil War reproduction of the Kepi.

It's hardly been off his head...

A New Toaster Oven

My old toaster oven died - I say old - but it just seems like yesterday that we got it - it was a DeLonghi from Williams and Sonoma that we got sometime before the Man-Cub was born and I really liked it a lot - it had convection. I hate to throw away things...

Anyway it couldn't be fixed - so off we went to Stuff-Mart in search of a new toaster oven. The Man-Cub got some 8" sqare and 9" round pans from another shelf to make sure they'd fit. We brought it home, washed it and heated it up to get all the stinky new smells out.

I miss the old one - but I'll get used to the new one...

We baked some bread in it and it turned out fine - even without the convection no areas got too brown.

It's an old bread recipe - I've posted about it before - http://affectioknit.blogspot.com/2007/07/bread-i-love-my-bread-maker.html

Brown Socks

Brown Socks

There's that title again - they've actually been finished for a while - I've just not gotten around to photographing and publishing them. This is also published at the http://vegansockkal.blogspot.com/

I love them a lot - but they go with a pair of brown winter trousers - that I probably won't be wearing for a while.

A New Lawnmower

The human kind - The Man-Cub mowed the lawn for the first time yesterday!

And like a lot of things we teach our children - it would have been much much easier to have done it myself.

I followed along behind him (taking pictures - of course) helping him make turns and showing him how to get the left side of the mower right up against trees etc. without damaging them.

He'll still need some supervision for a while, but he's certainly an enthusiastic mower!

See a need - Fill a need

That's the motto of Rodney - a robot in the movie Robots - sometimes it's my motto too!

I've needed a new ironing board cover for ages.

This tattered cover has been on my ironing board since my earliest married days (it wasn't tattered then) - and we all know that was 25 years ago - right!

Now here's my pretty new cover -

...it almost makes you want to do some ironing - NOT!

The Completed Bella

I can't remember if I ever posted a photo of the completed Bella Blouse - so here it is...

Someone on Ravelry asked about it - I love it a lot!

A Spring Hike

We went on our first spring hike - it was a perfect day - high about 72 - a nice breeze that didn't knock us off our feet - hehe - come along with us...

We started out here in the lowlands near the lake...
The Man-Cub asked for the camera to take this picture - he said 'it framed what he saw perfectly'...
The sky and the newly green trees were lovely...
The pretty meadows starting to turn green...
Just a pretty grassy slope - good for rolling down...no - we didn't...
Starting up a trail...
I just love trails meandering through woods...
and turning bends where you're sure to see something beautiful and surprising - they always make me think of my favorite Robert Frost poem:

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Two very different bees on two flowers...
We saw this bird and the Man-Cub wants to put it in his Bird Watchers book - we'll look it up and log it...
The same big dead tree I always photograph - nothing in the big nest yet...
Driftwood alongside the lake...
Moss sprouting...
An anthill...
A burned stump from a fire long ago...
A fallen tree...
A lone violet...
A woodpecker's work...
More woodpecker work - there must have been a lot of bugs in this fallen tree...
A bog...
A beaver felled this tree - but must have forgotten to come back for it...
Some dainty wildflowers...
We saw a lot of wild strawberries - maybe we'll pick some later in the summer...
Another view of the bog - from the other side...
A beaver dam...
Some more pretty wildflowers...
A stream...
A way across...
Footprints...
A smaller stream...
More beaver's work - fairly recent...
Even more recent...
The view from the ridge...
The lake in the distance...
The way up - it always amazes me that you can't see the scale in a photo - this was a very steep climb...
I could have laid on the grass and watched the clouds for hours - but we didn't - we had 21 ticks in all when we got home - so laying in the grass was out of the question...
Finally on our way out we saw some bison...
They are really large...
Some sweet babies 'though...
...This one is just getting a kiss from his Mama...thanks for hiking with us...