Maryland Sheep and Wool 2012

I said I was going to behave before we headed over to Maryland Sheep and Wool, but this might have been my last fiber festival for a veddy veddy long time. So, that's my excuse and I think its a pretty good one. The real reason I came back with all this loot was that I could NOT resist the cheerfully bright and scrunchy soft skeins; alpaca/cashmere at Flying Goat Farm and superwash merino from Roclan's. Those turned out to be my kryptonite.

We also spent a lot more time at the festival (Arta, my mother Blogless Sharon, and myself) than we expected. The quality of the vendors, the ideas, the inspiration, and the beautiful sheep were amazing!

We discovered a few new and rare breeds of sheep.

Listened to bluegrass music.

Knitted while waiting in line for lamb lunches.

Drooled over gorgeous bundles of batts.

And drooled some more.

I took these pictures for inspiration, to throw in my project wish-list.

Amanda, starting out Little Bird Fibers, was handing out free mini-batts over in the large barn. What a cute idea! I promised myself I would check her out at littlebirdfibers.etsy just on pure principle.

Melissa Jean's booth was stunning, with all those gorgeous buttons. After elbowing my way through all the admirers I picked up an adorable beaded bracelet kit. After I try it out for myself, I think it might be a useful skill with all those nieces I have!

Good thing my boys weren't here. We did all the things I tell them not to do-touching things, pulling and stretching the items for sale, and at times stamping our feet in frustration. I'm pretty sure more than once I even whined "I waaaaaaaaant.' Bad bad behavior.

Ain't nothing wrong with a little yarnstache.

Happy

If you're happy and you know it, wave your hands.

Grandma is coming to visit!

Supersize Sunday

Toddler Trot Contender

 Wow, what a Sunday! We woke up at crack o' dawn and drove to Maryland for an action-packed morning. My husband (and about 2,999 others) had a 10K challenge, which I must say he ran easily, followed by a fun run with little P and a 'Toddler Trot' for Nate. It was so much fun, and such a gorgeous day that we drove in to DC, still in our running clothes. Not that I could have parted my oldest from his award and running shirt.

The National Mall was lively as usual. Um, those people on the left DID have clothing on. I swear.

I had to take a picture of the boys, I was so proud of them today. There would be racing pictures here, but if you follow me on Facebook, it would be overkill. You can thank me later.

Dramatic Moment!!

I never take anything seriously....

We walked to the Enid Hauptman Garden and took a nice break there. This Magnolia tree smelled amazing, so amazing I started snapping pictures of the flowers on it. You might have thought I was crazy, but EVERYONE stopped at this little tree. It was positively entrancing.

Inside the Freer Gallery of Art, we quickly perused the Asian artifacts. Which was perfect with two active boys. The pieces were few and carefully selected, so it wasn't overwhelming or boring. Some were even whimsical.

Like the 'Shrek' urn.

Dreamworks, we are on to you!

A Food Journal

We currently live in temporary housing. Its not bad at all, to be honest. There are a ton of activities for the kids, a nice fitness facility, and housekeeping once a week is included. On the other hand, space is limited and we were only able to bring 700 lbs of our things in addition to whatever we could fit in the car. So what that boiled down to was our basic clothing needs, child-items that take up a bunch o' space such as strollers, and the dog. We said goodbye to everything else for the next year. Which presented a lot of challenges. Our favorite books and cookbooks got packed away.

Now, I read a lot of my favorite books over and over. And I used to make our favorite meals repeatedly. But what if we got rid of our tried-and-true holiday cookie recipes and the reliable BH&G cookbook and struck out on our own? Would it be fun, frustrating, or an epic failure?

Luckily for us, all four of us are adventurous eaters (which I know will come in handy no matter where we get sent to live). So I came up with an idea, not from Pinterest mind you! We grabbed a large and sturdy sketchbook at the nearby craft store and started a food journal to document our adventures in DC and scribble down the new foods we tried to make in our very limited galley kitchen. I mean seriously-we didn't have a potato smasher or a muffin tin for the last five months!

Its been a lot of fun-even my hun does a lot of pages. We find recipes from the internet or magazines and try them out. Then we paste them into the journal alongside different reminders and maps and tickets from the hundreds of things we do and see here.

Sometimes we scribble on maps to remind us of the family days that meant so much to us. Like our miles of walking around downtown D.C. and the discoveries we made. The best place for cupcakes. Not the place on TV, but so far our fave has been Crumbs. So. Good.

We record our daytrips outside the city, like our hikes out in northwest Virginia and all the battlefields around here.

And now that the weather is milder, we are on a running kick, so there are quite a few race bibs and documentation of our post-race meals. So far, the journal is half-full and we have just a few months left here, so I think this may continue into our life in Thailand. We have our time in Virginia to thank for our new favorites; fresh juicemaking, quinoa, and spicier food. I can't imagine what food adventures we will have in BKK. But thanks to the food journal, I haven't missed my cookbooks at all!

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for, and greatly missing the family farm.

It wasn't so cool when I was younger, being all smelly and filled with random animals.

Something unexpected was always happening. Tractors interrupting your studies. Animals on the loose. Someone always wanted to give birth in the middle of the night. In a blizzard.

You could whatever you wanted on all that land. But only after your chores.

But then you grow up, bring your own children, and you realize that is the best part.

You also realize your youngest brother might be mildly insane.

Kite Festival on the National Mall

Sooooo beautiful!

A sky full of kites is amazing, but a sky full of kites surrounding national monuments is positively surreal.

Clowning around on the grass.

My handsome man, also known as superdaddy.

Love Comes in Many Forms...

I know its terribly rude to brag about gifts, but will you please pardon me this once? Its about knitting anyways.

I received a special treat in the mail last weekend. A bit o' love from my mom and dad.

Some scrunchy yummy superwash blended with silk, sparkles and recycled sari silk from Enchanted Knoll Farms.

And at last, interchangeable needles!! Why oh why did I not have these before??? Happy dance!

And now we shall celebrate with cupcakes and skinny girl 'ritas.

What 38 Is Like

Friday we celebrated a little event. Another birthday for me. And now that I'm on the slippery slope towards 40, its time to just give in and embrace it. So I threw all reluctance aside, put my hair up in a pretty braided bun with some sparklies, strapped on some new heels, tried to apply fake lashes (epic FAIL), and accompanied my gorgeous boys to dinner. My escorts looked particularly handsome that night.

We went to 1789 for a fantastic dinner-DC is full of wonderful eateries, so it was hard to decide which one-thanks to my sweet husband. The maitre d was pleased to tell us how POTUS had been there for dinner, as well as the Clintons, in the very same dining room. He did not receive the excited response from us that he had expected. Oh, that ship sailed LONG long ago. But it was charming all the same.

I thought quite a bit this weekend about hitting age 38. In the weeks leading up to this weekend I was pretty upset about hitting my "late-30's" but looking back at these pictures of us together I feel pretty fabulous. If the boys keep me smiling as much as they did in these pictures, it is quite possible I have found a way to prolong youth!

Thankful Thursday

Before we go out and enjoy the sunshine, I want to thank my lucky stars for another blessing we've been granted: my sweet little Nate.

He's a bright spot in any day. A joker. A snuggler. He's one of those children who is so positive, so silly, so happy, that when he is NOT you know something is seriously wrong.

When he came into our lives, I remember wondering how I could possibly love another child as much as I loved Philip. Not that I used up all my love on our first, but that if I felt so much love. Twice. as. much. I thought I might burst from all that emotion.

And its true. I do. Sometimes I fall into tears because its so overwhelming. And they love me back just as much. Its such a gift. And little Nate? Well, he brings the laughter into our home. He's a wit. A goofball. And very often, a prankster.

With those dimples popping out all the time I swear I could just eat him up. Sometimes I just tackle him and we snugglefest. And those little giggles just light up my whole world.

The Spoils of Another Fun Weekend

Things that made this weekend completely awesome:

1) Being together. Still hasn't grown old, after years of being apart and then almost a year together again. Its just amazing. And I know a few families who are going through the 'apart' so it makes me appreciate the 'together.'

2) Friends. Phil had friends in VA coming into this phase. I had maybe one. But I'm meeting some fantastic people, especially lately. And we've been lucky to have their company. I'm happy to be around such sweet genuine women.

3) Shopping-I don't like it very much, unless I successfully find exactly what I need. Which, in this case, was easter outfits for the boys, a killer red lip gloss (NARS in Norma), and a cool kitchy silver plate from the Old Lucketts Antique Store. Not exactly an antique, but I found this silver plate, a hunt trophy that is engraved "Spur & Stirrup 4-H 1980" among all the butter trays. It makes a neat little tray for my favorite pieces of jewelry, though I can't claim to have won it.

Some Things Change, Yet Stay the Same

Any warm night after dinner, when we still lived in Plymouth, we always cleaned up the kids and went for a walk. We took advantage of every last bit of sunlight. We stopped off somewhere for dessert. My two skinny little boys would relish a scoop of ice cream, or a sickly sweet popsicle. Sometimes we spent an insane amount of money (but really not that much) on a single cupcake at Cupcake Charlie's.

Here in Virginia we live around the corner from a great Vietnamese shopping center. The spring arrives a lot earlier. In force. So we clean up the kids, put away the dishes, and walk.

We stop to pose by a statue or two perhaps.


We stop in a market and manhandle some massive sticky buns. Wonder what "mung bean cookies" really taste like.


And for about the price of a cupcake, we get the kids each a "bubble tea." We have all become accustomed to the odd black tapioca pearls. I really wish they were blue or something...

But they are really REALLY yummy. Nate goes wild for the watermelon.

I go wild for that adorable smile.

Vintage Finds and a Home Decorating Idea

Sundays we do anything we can to be outside. This weekend that involved a trip to see maple syrup being boiled down at an old mill. Since that was pleasant, but over quickly, we decided to take a trip further outside the city to a place we had been told was pretty cool. Turns out, it really was.

This is outside the Old Lucketts Store. I would only loosely call it an antiques shop, because it is anything but a crusty old junk shop. On the property they even have a 'design house' which is really nifty, and so cool I wish I took more pictures because I would decorate my house JUST LIKE THAT. If I had a house.

So I behaved myself, but walked away with a few gems. Like these iron pieces from an old fence. Can you just see the potential?

We happened upon a box of old keys too, so I picked a few for a little project. There's a lot you can do with old keys, according to Pinterest. So I came up with this:

It took me just a few minutes and about $25 to find a few pretty frames, some light batting, and a scrap of Waverly fabric at the craft store. I think a cream brocade would have been really cool, but I wanted to get this done so I grabbed what caught my eye.

People must have thought me a bit strange as I walked around, waving rusty old keys at the bolts of fabric, though.

I removed the glass from the picture frames. Then I cut a piece of batting slightly smaller that the cardboard inset and glued it directly to the cardboard. I cut a generous piece of the fabric and centered it carefully over the cardboard and batting. Flipping it over, I glued it to to the back of the inset, keeping it taught.

After I did this with both picture frames, I replaced the now cutely upholstered inset into each frame. Then I got to play with the placement of the keys.

I didn't want anything too orderly, so I decided to display the chunky key by itself.

Glue gun the keys in place, being careful to not use too much so it can be concealed behind the key. I used a piece of tweezers to remove any stray pieces of glue, and they were ready immediately to display. A very cute and conversational reminder of our adventures in Northern Virginia.