Leif at Work

Here he is, working the garden soil yesterday.
We've been spending most of our time outside, digging. Today, though, is a rainy stormy day, so we've spent it inside, drinking tea (me) and trying to get over our colds (both of us - and Jason is sick, too!)

Working my arch-nemesis, Play-Doh.

I love it because he loves it (and so do I - really, who doesn't like Play-Doh?) but I can't stand it because it crumbles all over and gets mushed into the carpet, where it dries in to the fibers or the rug, never to come out again. And, it stains things. Sorry, I'm ranting now. But really, total love-hate relationship with that stuff.

Leif uses cylindrical crab mallets to roll out the dough, cookie cutters to cut it out.
We have precious few cookie cutters (I'm so picky about them that I never buy them, which is rather odd of me) but the heart one he is using is from Aunt Katie's Bridal Shower, I think. He's been lovin' makin' hearts lately! Dig that concentration!

New haircut, chubby belly, sweet little pinchable cheeks - working his play-doh while the rain pours down outside.
Love that little guy!

PS.  While I was typing this post, he took the time to dump all of those crumbly pieces of Play-Doh on to the carpet and then stomped on them with his feet.

Night. Mare.

But I still love 'im!

Things I love:

Things I Love:

:: The smell of freshly dug earth. Almost as good as frying bacon, or a freshly-washed babe. Mmm...

:: Sore muscles created by hard work.

:: Calloused hands. 

:: That deep deep sleep caused by physical work.

:: Being outside when the birds are twittering on a bright sunny day.

:: The prospect of new things springing to life by your very own hands.

:: The thought of fresh summer tomatoes.  The smell of a tomato vine is up there with bacon, babies, and dirt!

:: The funny stories and giggles coming from a certain three-year old who is "helping" his Momma dig.

Hmmn...can you tell the Gardening Fervor Season has begun around here?

While most folks are still buried under the snow, we're turning earth and prepping the soil for the summer veggie garden. 

The picture above is one part of the garden where we've been digging.  All day.  Yesterday, we dug for over an hour.  2-3 feet deep in spots. 

What comes up when we dig that deep is pure beautiful white sand. 

Absolutely gorgeous. 

Looks like snow. 

Of course, I go and mix it in with the darker sand, the mulch, and the composted mulch. 

Not as pretty anymore.

But I'm thrilled.

Because that mixture means new possibilities in the garden this year.

Last year, in a rush, we scooped loads of peanut mulch onto the ground and planted directly in that.

This year, I'm digging below the mulch, deep into the sand below, and mixing it up.

Then I'm going to add composted cow manure and mix that in, too.

Never thought I'd be so excited about cow manure.

But there you have it.

I am.

Ver' ver' ver' excited.

Desperately want some chicks to go with it.

Not so much for their eggs, although that would be good, too.

But for their garden-cleaning ability. 

 Snatching up weeds, weed-seeds, and buggies. 

Dropping their waste on the garden, fertilizing the soil. 

O, Pioneer!

I haven't decided exactly what I'm growing yet this year.  

But I am expanding the garden.

And working on the compost pile.

I can't get my hands on enough gardening info right now.

Magazines, blogs, websites, books, you name it. 

I'm all over it.

I'm practically foaming at the mouth for a new subscription to "Organic Gardening" to arrive.

My potting soil will be here today, so tomorrow, Leif and I will spend the day planting.

And then we'll work more on the soil. 

 Digging, mixing, dumping.

Leif is in his perfect element!

Leif + Dirt = Perfect Happiness

Play trucks, diggers, and excavators are all just bonuses.

:)

What are you planting this year?

Mulch Pile Fun

Leif loves playing on his mulch pile.  He plays there every day, scooping mulch with the digger, loader, and dumptruck.  Then he moves it all around the yard with his wagon, wheelbarrow, shovel and garden rake.  Yesterday, he played for hours outside, and I decided to take a few pictures :)

 

He's also been very in to stacking things...again.  Here, he's ver' pleased with his water tower he built on the coffe table (aka piano bench).  I think it's interesting how kids become interested in something, then drop it like a bad habit.  Then, much later and out of the blue, they're all over it again.  Kind of like the progression and regression in learning.  Ver' interesting.

 

This was a loader that he ripped the loader bucket off of and now uses like a tractor.  It isn't broken, thank goodness (these are toys from Christmas, so they're new!) and when he is ready for the loader again, we'll pop it back on.

More...

Giving the tractor/loader a good inspection.

Love those ears! :)

I think he got the hands on the hips thing from me.  Looks so much cuter on him! :)

This morning, he taught me how to make coffee.  I had never ground the beans (in this grinder) so Leif showed me how to do it.  He helped me through the whole process!  I couldn't have made the coffee without him.  He stayed and watched it brewing (by sitting on his old high chair tray!) - he was fascinated by it today! (That's the coffee machine right behind his head).

Leif funnies:  When he gets something caught between his teeth and needs to floss, he'll go into the bathroom, get out the floss, and take care of it.  He says he has "chicken bones' in his teeth that he needs to get out.  Doesn't matter what it is, it's always chicken bones!

Smiley One

Blurry, but I still like-a.

His hair is long again. I need to cut it. Will do, once I get up the nerve!

Jason bought him a new toothbrush and he loves it (it has a suction cup on the end so he can stick it to the mirror, or thw coutnertop or the...well, you get the picture.) Yay, clean teeth. He wasn't smiling like this to show me his teeth, he was just smiling. :)

Naps and Letters

Showing off his muscles.

Jason tried to get Leif to come snuggle and nap with him one afternoon. But Leif refused.
So, I put Dumbo on for him, and shortly after the opening credits were done, I peeked in on him and this is what I saw: Asleep at the computer! He was so small and elfy! I picked him up and brought him to bed, where Jason was already sleeping, and I snuggled him in.

Mmm...doesn't that look snuggly sweet? Even Giraffe seems content!

This picture, I took today. It makes me laugh every time I see it because of his expression.

Yesterday, Leif and I went to Nana and Papa's house to visit. I packed up the car with a lot of my childhood things: dolls I had collected (Madame Alexander) and just little things - some of which I'd completely forgotten about, but was happy to find again. We ended up cleaning out the closet of my old room, which had become the toy closet for all of the grandbabies as soon as I left it! It was chock-a-block full of toys - all cluttered and jumbled together in a big mess. I found something I'd been looking for for a long time - my russian nesting dolls that I'd bought at a Russian Czars field trip in the early 90s. Only part of the doll was there, so I kept going through the laundry basket of little tiny toys hoping to find the rest. As I was doing that, I sorted out the Legos, Fisher-Price toys, matchbox cars, etc. in to little groups. Before I knew it, I was pulling everything out and sorting and decluttering. A few hours later, the whole closet was cleaned up.

One of the things Leif brought home, although I didn't want him to, was this giant set of magnetic numbers, letters, and shapes. We already have sets like this at home, so -sigh- more clutter.

But today, I was kind of glad we had them because he started gathering all the little pieces, and began to place them very strategically on the fridge. It took a good part of the morning, examining each piece, telling stories to himself as he put them up (I heard him talking about people and sidewalks, elephants and countertops, although I wasn't sure what he was saying about all of it together), and re-arranging them until he stood up and proudly announced, "Ta-da! I'm finished!"

I found the whole thing very interesting - how he'd put such careful thought in to each piece. The only thing I really understood was that the big set of shapes on the left (closet to him in the pic) was a picture of him (he kept saying his full name - first middle last - while he was building that part) complete with, as he told me, his "sandal shoes" :)

Personally, I think this little color "drawing" on the fridge is indicative of his comprehesion level stepping up a notch. I can't put my finger on it exactly right now, but I think in time, I'll understand it more. I've noticed lately that his behavior has changed (for the better) - finally, Bye-Bye Terrible Twos! (knock on wood) and that he listens more (if I say "Stop" there is a chance he might actually stop whereas before? No way!)

This change excites me because we're preparing to start homeschooling soon, so I feel like the time to strike is now - while the iron is hot. I think he is entering a sensitive phase (although for what exactly, I'm not sure) so I'm going to try to take every advantage of that.

And if nothing else, he's clearly not colorblind. ;)

More Views from our Yard

Yesterday was a stormy morning that bloomed in to a beautiful sunshiney afternoon. These (and the pictures in the two posts below) were all taken after the rain but before the sun, hence the foggy misty greyness. In the afternoon, I looked out and all of these little oyster bars (they're naturally made out of crushed oyster shell) had mostly disappeared underneath the brilliant blue water, their little tops cresting bright white above the blueness. It looked like a totally different place from these photos I'd taken earlier, but it was in fact, the exact same view. Ver' strange.

That is something I've always noticed about this area, even before we moved here...it's always changing and never the same. Before, I thought it was because I just saw it at different times of the year, since I only came here every so often. Now, I realize, it changes so drastically hour to hour, that I'll never see the same scene twice!

Seems as if this place is a geographical equivalent of the snowflake.

I framed this shot a hundred different ways, but decided that I liked the stakes coming out of center, like you see them here, the best. That's not my normal thing - I usually stick the subject off to the side like Herr Seagull below.

This isn't the same picture as the post below, although it may look like it because the colors are all the same muted lovelies. This is, looking out from our yard, further to the left. Yes, we have a ginormous view that spans, oh, easily over 180 degrees just from our backyard so I've plenty of fodder for photography without leaving the yard!

Aside from obvious cropping in the top shot, and some straightening in the bottom shot, these are all undedited.

Leif's Quotes of the Day:

::  Around 5am this morning, Jason was up and checking on Leify who was fast asleep in bed.  He pulled a pillow from beneath him so Leify wouldn't wet it accidentally.  As he was pulling the pillow out, he heard  Leif mumble,
"No, not time for a pillow fight" in his sleep. 

:)

::  After a long blanket fight that ranged all through the house, I plopped down in my rocker for a rest.  Leif came up, all crazy-haired, and asked, out of the blue, "Momma, can I mow the lawn..." and then, like a magician with his rabbit and hat, pulled a stuffed animal into view,
"With THIS?"
It was a horseshoe crab. 

:)

Have a good day!

A Little Bit of Paradise

A view from our backyard. If you click on the picture and enlarge it you might be able to see the faint outline of the osprey sitting in the osprey nest in the back left of center. Don't you just love the colors - they're all moody russets and greys and quiet greens.

Jason told me to run outside and get this heron and his reflection in the water. My one lens couldn't quite get close enough (as you can see, this is the zoom maxed out on that lens) and when I came back with my zoom lens, he was in moving water, so the reflection was waffly. But I still thought the stillness and greyness was pretty, even if the composition and clarity were not.

An Ibis eating breakfast. Love me some ibises!

Grasses at the waters edge. Took me forever to get the camera to focus on what I wanted it to focus on, but finally, voila.

PS. These photos are all unedited.  I'm lazy. :)

Seagull Fun

Seagull 1

Seagull 2

Seagull 3

Seagull 4

I went outside to take pictures of a heron earlier today, and I snapped a quick shot of this little seagull, thinking, "Ladeeda, boring seagull..." and of course, I ended up liking the shot of the seagull more than any of the heron.

Go figure.

Anyway, I played around with the picture a bit, as you can see.

Which is your favorite (or do you hate them all? Be honest, my feelings are not so easily hurt!) :)

Returning to the Blogging Bandwagon

Some cards I've been working on lately.

I fell of the blogging bandwagon a while back, and I'm attempting to climb back on with this post. I've taken precious few photos of anything lately, so I thought I'd show you a few of the things I've been working on of late.

The top photo is of some cards I've made. 2p gave me some crafty material goodness for Christmas, so I've been all over it. I've made other cards, too, but forgot to take pictures of them, and they're now mailed out to their recipients! The cards were fun to make, and it will be especially nice to have a ready stash for all the letter-writing I've been trying to get into lately! :)

Here is a bit of a gift I sent away a while ago to the new baby in the family. Well, okay, it was nearly all to her Momma, and none to her! But I'll send her something shortly! :) In the picture is a diaper clutch I made (that blue thing on the left) - actually, the picture is of the first one I made...I made a second one and sent that to her.

It was a grand experiment for me - and a lot of firsts: fusing fabrics (and the lady at the fabric store said it couldn't be done on the material I was using - vinyl - it can!) making snaps (busted out some leatherworking tools for that), working with cloth in general (I generally stay away from cloth, although I love it, because I don't know how to sew) and working with vinyl.

Come to think of it, I had never done anything this little clutch required me to do, so it was pretty nerve-wracking and scary, especially when I was buying the fabric and the lady cutting it was discouraging me and telling me it wouldn't work. But of course, that made it totally exhilirating to have a finished product. Ask Jason, I was literally jumping around the house for two days.

And as soon as I made one, I had to make another to perfect it. The first one took hours of planning, agonizing, and actual work. The second one took less than an hour from start to finish. Schweet.

Here's a picture of the inside:

This is the one I actually sent. Of course, I had to have a pretty lining (many a purse in my closet was purchased solely for the lovely lining!) and Jason helped me pick out the polka dots of all the fabrics I had in my stash. The purpose of the clutch is to hold a few diapers and one of those little containers of wipes so that you don't have squashed diapers in the bottom of the diaper bag. It's all contained. Presto - change-o (literally!)

I kept the first one for me...I had followed the directions to a T on the first one, and the snap was originally misplaced, so it had a small hole near the inside snap. The fabric lining wasn't perfectly flush with the vinyl in all places, either. So, I have it in my craft armoire, filled with the little leather-working tools I now have and the little snaps to go with them. :)

OH - there are other things in that picture, too! Ummm...I monogrammed the bag with an initial that I had printed out on freezer paper, cut out with an x-acto knife, and then stenciled on. It was a little more smeary than I would have wanted, but oh well. I also painted a doily around it...it actually looks much better when it is partially filled and standing up, but I didn't take a picture of that. Ah, well....

Those little rings with numbers on them are closet organizers for Baby clothes. The numbers are the sizes. They hang on the dowel in the closet between the different size clothes. I hemmed and hawed about making these because Closet-Maid (or similar) systems don't have a place where you can thread the little rings on. It took me far too long to realize that a pretty ribbon could be used to tie them in place and it would work the same exact way. My hair isn't blonde for nuttin'!

I started out with a yellow theme for the clothes organizers, but then was bored with all subtle-graphic-yellow, so I threw in some bold graphics that still coordinated with the yellow. After all was said and done, I liked the bold graphic ones more than I did the yellow!

If I ever get pregnant again, I'm definitely making a set of these for myself! They would have been great to have for Leify's armoire back in the day!

And some more cards...

I did several like this with all random colors, some in a single colorway (orange), and also did some in the same style, except with little birds. I like the elephant (or "tat-tat" as Leify used to call 'phants) for baby gifts, and the bird for everything else! :)

And last but not least:

The oddity I ended up loving. A simple deep brown card with brown envelope. And a single silver elephant shining in the corner.

The little silver elephant was actually tin foil/aluminum foil/silver paper (as we call it in our house!) that I was using to sharpen the cutting edge of the craft punch. On a whim, I placed it on the dark brown card, and fell in love. It's one of those understated, classic type things that makes my heart swoon. And it's tin foil. Doesn't it look like something Gap would have in their baby section? It reminds me of their Baby lines a lot. Hmn...

Anyway, that is what I've been up to lately. Have been trying to resurrect my passion for Manual photography of late. I'm getting tired of keeping my camera on Automatic all the time (or near to it!) and I'm trying to remember all the little details and nuances of manual photography.

So far, I've had some fun practicing (on nothing interesting) working with natural light. I'm aiming to become a natural light purist once again (I used to never use a flash ever! Flash = abomination!) but perhaps with chilluns, who move very quickly, that isn't quite the feasible task it used to be :)

Anyway, got to get back to the kiddos! :)

Happy Days.