It has been awhile since new fabric has arrived at our house. I have been busy saving away for some landscaping for our front and backyard. Our goal was reached for the yard and while there are a few more things that I would like to do I really needed a fabric shopping spree. Okay, need isn’t the word. . .wanted! Many fabric places have been having great sales this summer but there were some older fabrics that I really wanted that many were out of. Fabricworm had some great stuff and it was hard to narrow it down but I did have to use some kind of self control! The goodies arrived today in the mailbox and I cannot wait to get sewing soon. . .just after I finish up the 4th of July outfits for tomorrow! What can I say, I love last minute projects!

I have had a pillow case dress pattern for a very long time but I had never tried it. The perfect occasion arose so sew I did! I am excited about the way they turned out! These are for a friend but I am anxious to make one for Sister now. I am hoping to use Sandi Henderson Farmers Market Apple Dot Fabric to make Sister a first day of school dress. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish that before school starts. Our local fabric shop has a 40% off the end of the bolt on the last day of every month so I was super excited to find 2 yards left on that bolt!!! I know 40% off! Wow! Stay tuned hopefully I will sew that up soon!

I hear the word, again, often these days with the garden in full bloom. It seems as though we have an abundance of squash and there are only so many ways a person can make squash. I am still in the camp of, it is delicious! I am surprised but I am really not tired of it yet. Maybe it is because I am the one who gets to go out to the garden and chose the veggies that we have with dinner and it is still amazing to me that I could grow our food. I do love it! The kids are in the camp of, for real mom, I mean we have had this a million times! Hubby is in the camp of, again, but hey, it is free and good for us! Ahh, just wait until the okra is going full force! It could be worse I tell them! I am the only okra lover here but that is okay! I will sneak it into their meals somehow! They will be thankful for the squash yet again! The garden is well. The sugar snap peas are dying because the squash has begun to grow over top of them and it is threatening the peppers as well but I am willing to take drastic measures to keep it out of the peppers! The green and yellow beans are slowing down a good bit. The zucchini plant for some reason is a super slow producer. He is not happy about something I am just not sure what it is. The tomatoes are nice and green so I am hopeful for some sweet juicy redness soon!!! I did pull a carrot out last night as I just wanted to see how far along it was. It was super cute but they are still not ready yet. Does anyone else feel weird about sometimes eating what they grow in their gardens? There is just something about the carrot growing in the dirt that totally weirds me out! I cannot explain it! We have a whole row growing so at some point I will break down and eat one! Even sister is weirded out by it! Well, I am off to deliver more squash to the neighbors!

Yes, it is not officially here yet but the kids are out of school and the days are warmer so the feel of summer is in the air minus the humidity (it shall arrive soon though). We have been busy out in the backyard this spring working away on jobs and just getting the backyard to a place where we can really enjoy it. I think that we are headed into the years with the little ones where we will be spending much much time out there.

I had a small garden last year just to try it out and see if it seemed doable and this year I decided to go a good bit bigger. After planting about a month ago I felt super stressed out and was feeling a little done with the garden. . .I know not good to feel that way at the start of something. After a lot of work and weed control this has been the first weekend where I feel like it is at a place where I like it and can really enjoy going out there to pull just a few weeds and check on everything. For now no bugs are eating away at anything and the weeds are under control etc. It is a happy place! For now we have Carrots, Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Sweet Peas, Jalapenos, Green Peppers, Yellow Peppers, Pimentos, Squash, Zucchini, Cucumbers, Yellow Beans, Green Beans, Okra, Sweet Basil, Cantaloupe, Watermelon, Honey Dew, Sunflowers and some other flowers from seeds. Whew, we shall see what of that actually grows well but so far the squash and cucumbers, peas and green beans are all coming in. A few others have begun flowering so it is exciting!

Another purchase this spring were our rain barrels. I am super excited about these!!! It just takes a good rain for them to be overflowing so I am sure that we will add more in the future but for now I am very happy with two! They are very handy and hopefully they will save us some on the water bill when it comes to watering the garden this summer.

Last but not least yesterday Brad and his dad worked hard to install some post (set in concrete) in the backyard that we can attach hangers on for bird feeders. We have had one feeder for a very long time but we have all (even the kiddos) greatly been enjoying watching the birds come so we decided to add a few more. It has been fun to pick out some new feeders and I am hoping to plant some flowers underneath the feeders as well. We hope to add a few more plants to the backyard as well but for now it is all coming along. It has been so much fun to make our backyard our very owns space and bring a bit of restoration to it!

Brad and I escaped a few weekends ago to Asheville NC. It was a wonderful little getaway! We ended up staying downtown and having a yummy dinner at a local Italian resturaunt which was super tasty. I was hesitant to go to Biltmore as we have been in the past but I did really want to walk through the gardens there. We ended up buying tickets, as that is what one has to do even if they just want to see the gardens, so after a speed round trip through the house we hit the gardens and spent a large part of the day walking around and seeing many beautiful things. It was really wonderful to just be with Brad and to be unhurried. We both love taking pictures so we spent a lot of time doing just that throughout the garden. I love that we both enjoy pictures and I love that we both see things so differently. Looking through his pictures I gained a new appreciation for some things that I might of passed by as I was able to see them through his eyes. I am much more of a zoom in, close up kind of picture taker and Brad is a whole picture kind of guy which is actually how we are in real life as we deal with things. He is great at seeing the picture as a whole. He can take in the whole story of what is taking place. I however tend to get really intense with the little tiny details of the story. I love that God chose to put us together and I love getting to walk through life approaching things differently and learning from each other.

We got to celebrate brother this weekend and although I do not have any pictures of his finished quilt (he is all cozy with it in dreamland right now) I do have some pictures from his firetruck party! It was a fun little party with friends, sun, fun and cupcakes. It is hard to believe that the little man is another year older. I feel like time is flying by. A few of our friends have wee little ones and just to flash back to that time is amazing. It is overwhelming to ponder going back to night time feedings, bottles and burpings. I loved it when I was there but I love these stages as well. I think that every stage will be my favorite. Each stage is hard with new adventures to conquer but I love learning to be present where I am and where they are. I want to be where they are. I am not great at it but I am learning. My time with these little ones is passing faster than I ever imagined possible. I want to drink deep, I want to teach, I want to love well. I know, I have had this conversation and these thoughts before but it is true! I want to be and remain fully present for each year of life! I am thankful for the princesses and firetrucks that we have celebrated this month. A year will make a huge difference who knows how we will celebrate next year but that does not matter yet. . .what matters is here, today and this moment! So hard! So fun!

This was my second shirt of the day. Yes, it looks bad but the first one looked equally as bad although it had no blood on it! The first shirt spent the morning in the garden and then got caught in a rain storm in the middle of mowing. The second shirt baked cupcakes, helped clean blood off of brother’s mouth after he fell lips first into the hard cement floor of an office supply store (he is okay but has a swollen lip to show for it) and last but not least helped install our new rain barrels (more on that in a later post). Hubby always says that I am rough on my clothes. . .not sure where he gets that idea from!

With sister’s quilt done it is time to move onto brother’s quilt for his birthday. I was a little burned out after sister’s birthday quilt and I had fabric that I loved for brothers quilt that I did not want to cut up so his will be pretty simple but super heavy on the quilting.

I am quilting along each side of the roads, yes, I am crazy but I really like the look of it. There will be a million tiny strings to cut when I am done as well, maybe hubby and I can have a sting clipping party one night (what do you think hubby???). I found this fabric (Michael Miller Merryville and Street Stripe) well before Christmas and knew that it would be perfect for brother so I added it to my wish list and was super excited when I unwrapped it. I am pretty sure that brother will be excited about all the trucks, airplanes and people. It will definitely be a fun surprise! Well, I am off to sew more roads!

This past week I got the incredible privilege of attending a luncheon with some friends where the guest speakers were Ron Hall and Denver Moore who are the authors of the book, Same Kind of Different As Me. Many wonderful people in our lives worked to make this possible as my mom offered the table at the luncheon, Brad’s mom kept brother and Brad picked up sister from school. It was a lot of juggling but all totally worth it! Thank you to everyone who made it possible plus a HUGE thank you to hubby for taking your lunch to pick up sis!!! I am starting to sound like I won an award! It felt like it being able to meet Ron and Denver. If you have not read the book it really is a great read. It is a true story of one woman’s obedience to God and how she changed many lives and still continues to change lives to this day. It is also the story of Ron and Denver as they interact with this woman which just happens to be Ron’s wife. It is a story of lives transformed! Ron is a great speaker as he pretty much retold the story of the of his wife’s obedience. Denver is an amazing man and he shared two songs with us and spoke a little as well. Denver is a man who uses his words wisely and powerfully. He tells it how it is and does not mess around. It was incredible to hear these men speak, and to actually meet them and speak with them in person! Incredible! If you have not read the book I do highly recommend it (as if you could not tell)!!!

Yes, odd title for a post but it speaks of the day! The sunshine greeted us this morning which was wonderful everyone needed another break from the rain that we continue to have. After rest time (I was gone this morning but I will post on that in a little bit) we headed outside to soak in the sun and paint! We really enjoy painting outside because you can be messy and it is okay. . .lots of inspiration when painting outside and lots of freedom to be messy. It was fun watching the kids enjoy mixing the colors and dipping the paint brushes way to many times in the water. It was fun to watch them giggle and enjoy each other even on the same piece of paper (wonders never cease). While outside the grass reiterated to me that it really needed to be mowed. With all the rain and our crazy weekend it was very shaggy. I did get a chance to mow tonight so restoration has taken place. Whew! It was really really shaggy. Poor hubby has a doctors excuse currently to not mow as his allergies are horrible. I actually enjoy mowing the grass so it works out well for us. We are hopeful for another sunny day tomorrow. . .the garden needs weeding and I am sure that the kiddos would love to paint some more.