This Moment....

I think this is my favorite photo this year:)

A simple beautiful moment from our week to cherish and remember.
Following along with Soulemama.

Happy Birthday Sweet Ben!

I am so very thankful for my wonderful husband. He is my best friend and a loving Papa to our children. He is a hard worker and is very patient. He has been so helpful during this difficult pregnancy, he never complained when he took on my half of the load as well as his own. I love him so.
He isn't a big Birthday guy, he doesn't want to make a big deal out of his Birthday or to do anything out of the ordinary. But it is a little hard for me cause I love making Birthdays special for the people I love. My kids Birthdays are my favorite days of the year and I love making a big deal out of it.
But Ben is happy with a homemade chocolate cherry cake(that I make every year) and a hand knit hat, usually blue, his favorite color. He wears his handmade hat like his wedding ring as soon as he gets it and doesn't take it off until he loses it or the next summer comes along. See, he likes to wear my handmade hats, I am so lucky:)
This year I searched the Flock and Fiber Festival(see previous post) for the perfect yarn but everything in his color was super itchy and not good for a hat. So after being at the festival all morning I visited a Portland yarn shop in our neighborhood and found the perfect most luciouse yarn, very soft and a gorgeous blue. It is called Road to China and is made from camel,baby alpaca, cashmere, and silk. A real treat to knit with and I even have enough left over to make a pair of newborn socks:) But I am sure Ben could care less about the fancy yarn and would be perfectly happy with cheap oily acrylic yarn, but I've got to sneak the special treatment somehow, he deserves it:)

(hat pattern is the"Regular Guy Beanie" by Chuck Wright)
I am sure the hat will look a lot better on Ben, but I haven't given to him yet;)

Flock and Fiber Festival....

Check out the smile on the guy in the middle:)


Imagine the sock drawer this yarn could create..






slightly creepy.....





This is my third year attending the Flock and Fiber Festival in Canby,Oregon, but the first year I was able to go alone with friends without bringing the kids along. I could hardly believe my luck as I hardly ever go anywhere without one of my kids along.I felt a little guilty about visiting the animals without them, but it was so nice to be able to look at everything without being rushed or worrying about sticky fingers on hand spun yarns:) It was so great to have a little mama time.
The weather was beautiful and I brought home some beautiful wool roving for a future project.

This moment...

A single photo.A moment from our week to savor and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Twining trees....

I wanted to share a finished knitted project I made earlier in the summer. Ben and I went to the Redwoods to celebrate our 10th anniversary this year. Afterward I made this tree wall hanging to remember out trip (this was before I found our about our little souvenir coming in February:)
I found the pattern on Ravelry and noticed that several other people used this as wedding gifts making blankets and pillows. It is pretty symbolic of two lives becoming one, and fit perfect with our Redwood tree theme. I thought the pillows were really cool and may make them in the future but I decided just to make a single panel and weaved it over a branch to hang it on the wall above our bed. It was my first time reading a pattern chart, I did okay but made a few mistakes, it was easy to lose track of where I was, especially when knitting around children.
The yarn is Patons wool and much darker brown than the photos show.

This moment...

Joining with Soulemama for this moment. A simple moment from our week to savor and remember.

Knit Along...

Since this was both a productive reading and knitting week I though I would join in with Ginny for the knit along. I am still working on my star afghan baby blanket and think it might turn into my big slow going project for this fall as I work on smaller knitting projects from time to time. My goal is to finish it completely by the end of October. We will see though. You all can hold me accountable and remind me come Halloween time how it's going;)
I also knit a few washcloths from a fun pattern I found on Ravelry. I got on a deep cleaning kick and got the urge to knit up half a dozen or so washcloths for the kitchen to replace the nasty old raggy ones we have now. Plus I have a ton of cotton yarn in my stash.
I also started knitting fingerless mittens for toddlers to sell on my Etsy shop and in local childrens stores. They did so well last year I knit over 60 pairs and sold every one. I had planned to start knitting them in July so I would be stocked up for fall/winter, but well.....you know how that goes.
I am currently on the last chapter of a book I found at a thrift store called Icy Sparks by Gwyn Hyman Rubio. I think it is very well written and I have had a hard time putting it down. Honestly I was drawn to it because I liked the cover picture, but it was good :)

September swimming ....

My first time swimming this summer was this past weekend. September has been hot so far, like hottest temperatures of the year. I am thankful for the chance to jump in a river, at least once before the summer ends. I am trying to get the summer experience where I can so I don't feel too shocked this fall when I realize it's already gone, and I missed it. So I feel good old mother nature is taking pity on my situation and giving me another chance now that I have strong days where I can get out and enjoy it. For that I am very thankful.
I don't think I have ever swam in September before, like there was some kind of unwritten rule that once the school year started swimming was no longer an option. But this year I decided that is quite silly, especially when it is in the upper 90's and we live in an upstairs apartment with one fan.
Now I can fully welcome the fall, my favorite time of year and jump into the rivers as long as I can get away with it. :)

The Street Fair..

We look forward every year to having a little fun in September at the Belmont Street Fair. This year it was super hot and I wasn't feeling well most of the day so we headed to the fair during the late afternoon, unfortunately the hottest part of the day.



The year the beloved red trolly and banjo player that usually drive up and down the street were replaced by an air conditioned eco-bus. Not the same, but hey, a free air conditioned ride to the fair?
This sick pregnant mama will take it!



Ah, now that feels good!




Don't be fooled that was mama's shaved ice, but it was big enough to share.

I am pretty sure they had fun.

It's hot work.....

blackberry pickin', that is...

This moment....

(First day of 5th grade, with a creepy fake smile.)

A moment from our week to cherish and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Finding our Rhythm...

I always think of September as a fresh start. I think it is from memories from childhood of the school year starting. But for me September feels more like the beginning of a new year than January does. A chance to start fresh. After a very weird summer with unexpected illness,cancelled vacations, too much t.v. , and way too much indoor time we have lost all sense of daily rhythm and routine. I am looking forward to building a better rhythm for our family now. Papa was overloaded with working all day and then coming home to have to feed and help with the kids while I was too sick to take care of it myself.Papa also has his own way of doing things that changed our old routine drastically. Now he is laid off from work and we have a lot of time together, but it seems like each of us is getting less accomplished during the days because of this.
Sophie started school today and it feel like a good time for all of us to get the rhythm back into our days. Time to end the chaos of this past summer and find some peace again.
I spent Labor Day weekend deep cleaning and organizing our apartment. I spent a day on each room and still have several to go but it feels so good to start fresh and start to get rid of the clutter that I feel I have been drowning in in the past months. Seriously it got so bad I was afraid the producers from the t.v. show Hoarders was going to come knocking on my door.
Here's to fresh starts whenever we find them.....

One last hurrah......

As I mentioned before I won a trip to the Coast for our family and we had one last hurrah before the school year starts this Tuesday. I didn't have much of a summer at all this year due to being sick in bed. I am thankful for the early summer Redwood trip we took in early June but that seems like it was ages ago. Especially after watching summer pass by out my window for two months. But now that I feel more like a normal pregnant human I am wanting to savor every last warm sunny day we have. We do have a few more day trips planned for the weekends, but it was nice to be well enough to use the trip we won before summer was over.

We drove down the coast the first day and stopped along the beach to camp for a night. Sollie had been talking about sleeping in the tent with a flashlight and roasting marshmallows all summer, I am so glad we were able to make that happen for him. Due to my illness he missed out on a lot of summer fun too and had way to much indoor time. I was glad it was only one night. I forgot to bring a pad and the ground was hard. I sleep on my stomach and can still get away with it if I have a bed to sink my belly into. But my baby bump didn't sink into the earth very well. I wish we could just put our tents up right on the beach, sand would be great padding. But it was lovely falling asleep to the sound of the Ocean and after I did I had a wonderful dream that I was walking in a forest chatting with Ram Das. I woke up feeling very thankful, and the chorus of birds and chipmunks made it even better.

The mornings started off cool and foggy and we had fun playing in the Dunes near Florence, Oregon.

Even Papa got in on the action..

Then we walked around the town and took touristy pictures....

Then the sunshine broke through and we enjoyed some cool windy beach time......

Beach belly....

We found a creek that emptied into the ocean with some huge driftwood logs . Natures own sculpture garden.

Now that was a big driftwood log. I kinda wanted to haul it back home and put it in the garden, but it was bigger than my yard anyway.

I even got a few moments on my own during the last night to knit out on the deck and watch the sun set.

Ahhh...

Goodbye Summer......

This Moment....

(He was waiting for this moment all summer!)

A moment from our week to cherish and remember. Inspired by Soulemama.

Sandboarding adventure....

I won an Oregon coast vacation package that included sandboard rentals for the Oregon Dunes recreational Area that is 40 miles long along the Oregon Coast. Sandboarding is pretty much like snowboarding on sand. Since summer is nearly over with Sophie starting school next week and me feeling a bit better, we decided to use our vacation while the summer sun was still shining.
I left the sandboarding to Papa and Sophie since I didn't think at 4months pregnant that would be the best idea for me. I did however climb around on the dunes and it was quite exhausting, the pictures don't really show how huge the dunes are, the last photo of Sollie climbing up gives you the idea though. Everyone was pretty pooped out after climbing up the dunes all afternoon. Sollie got in on the action too riding the board like a sled with Sophie. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to coming back not pregnant so I can give it a try too.