Races

The summer mountain bike race season has started for David.  We try our best to go to as many as possible.  Before the boys were born I would trek to different parts of the race course to try and get as many great pictures as possible.  Now it's not as easy with the boys.  Ryan is at a stage where I have to really watch him and keep him from darting out into the race course.  I take the pictures I can at a spot that's the easiest to entertain the boys from.  And a lot of the time I end up taking pictures of them instead of the race.  For example -  the pictures below were taken at a Wednesday evening road race.  I didn't manage to get any good ones of David.  But I did get some good ones of the boys.

"Is he coming yet?"

He'll really love me for this picture one day!

Hooray for dad!

Sadly, this is the only semi-good picture 

I managed to get of David in the race.  

Stay tuned for more race day pictures.

Blowing Bubbles

The boys got bubbles in their Easter baskets this year.  We had to wait for the weather to get better to use them and then we forgot about them.  We found them the other day and the weather was just right for blowing bubbles.

Ryan ended up spilling most of his bubbles and chasing after Adrian's bubbles instead.  I'm just glad it's nice enough to go outside an enjoy the back yard.

Introducing Betty

Look what came in the mail today!

Meet Betty.  

That's what I've decided to call her.  Isn't she pretty?  After a long deliberation, I have decided to stick some of my sewing things on Etsy.  We'll see how it goes.  I'm a little nervous they'll just sit there and not sell.  But I've got nothing to lose I suppose.  

In comes Betty.  She is going to help me model a few of the things I've made to help give them a little more of a professional look.

This morning Betty and I had an impromptu photo shoot.  Here are a few samples of some things I'll stick in the shop.

Infinity scarf

(or circle scarf, or tube scarf, or what ever you want to call it.  I've seen it labeled several different ways.)

Vinyl Oilcloth Bag

Lined with a French Vintage Cotton

That's all for now.  What do you think?  Cute enough to sell?

A Tulip Update

Well, it happened.  My tulips FINALLY bloomed.  Here we go.

Here's a bird's eye view.

And view of what part of the front of the house looks like.

 After this picture I had to go inside.  It was raining and the camera was getting wet.  

Easter Eggs

I couldn't find good 'ole plastic easter eggs here.  However, I stumbled upon these that are just as good and I think I like them even better.

They are little metal eggs.  They also open just like the plastic eggs (well almost) so you can hide things inside.

 These, however, came with a bad jellybean look alike.  Believe me when I say they were terrible.  They looked pretty, but tasted pretty gross.  I dumped them out.

I replaced them with these.  Wonderful, Swiss chocolate eggs.

In they went for Easter day.

The weather wasn't so nice during Easter weekend so we had our Easter egg hunt in the living room.  It was still fun.

A new shirt

I have recently entered the world of Pinterest.  I think it's pretty neat.  And I am proud to say it hasn't occupied my time as much as I was afraid it would.  It's a nice way to share ideas and get new ones.  After all of the "pinning"  I finally tried something I found.  I've wanted to try and draw a design on a plain t-shirt with a bleach pen for a long time.  However, it wasn't going to be possible to do this living here since I wasn't going to find a bleach pen anytime soon.  My mom was kind enough to send one to me, and I got right to work.

You need a plain t-shirt, some newspaper, and a bleach pen.  My computer is there in the corner because I needed some decoration inspiration.  I wasn't really sure how it would turn out, so I decided to copy someone else's design first.  I'll try my own next time.

You stick the newspaper inside the shirt so it won't bleed through to the back.  And off you go.

 I got started and was just going to draw with the bleach pen and then thought better of it.  I got out my fabric marking pen and drew it first.  Then I traced over it with the bleach.  Next you let it sit for 30 minutes and then rinse and wash.  

When it's all done, put it on and enjoy your fancy new t-shirt!

After I did this I felt a little bleach pen crazy and that's all I wanted to do.  I started thinking about all the boys old play shirts and how I could spruce them up.  I think I'll save that for another day.

A Tulip Update

Since my last tulip update the weather has finally turned warmer and spring is officially here to stay.  We've been out doing yard work, trying to spruce things up.  I've done some weeding and a little planting.  My tulips are taking off, but no signs of blooms yet.  Maybe in a week or so we'll see some results.  Here's the flower bed in front of the house.

This is above the flower bed on a hill that goes up to the back yard.  If you look really close you can see little patches of purple flowers here and there.  I planted those last spring and I thought they had died.  I was too lazy to take them out.  But look!  There they are coming back to life.  They are going to look so pretty when they are in full bloom with the tulips.

That's it for the front of the house.  I haven't been so diligent with the back yard plants.  I cleaned out some leaves and a couple of lavender plants that didn't make it through the winter.  Will post about that part of the yard another day.