Sprinkler Fun

There is something very iconic, and yet redneck all at the same time, about running through the sprinkler on a hot summer day.

Maybe America is just a little redneck.

We pulled ours out recently. And by "pulled out" I mean dug the OLD ONE we used to have out from a pile of forgotten summer toys in the garage, realized it was busted in about six different places, ran to Wally-World to get another one, and ended up buying a completely different SPRINKLER we had seen at Field Day at Eli's school.

It's the small things, folks.

I'm not sure Little Tikes had this in mind when they designed this little beach ball.



I think they were envisioning precious, little toddlers running around behind it.



Not big, giant, expressive boys finding yet another way to give his mom apoplexy.



Really, though, don't you think a big beach ball just invites this kind of play?



Especially one squirting water.



No teeth were harmed in the taking of these photos. :)



Even Phoebe manages to make a calmer approach look fierce.



She's not quite as fearless as Eli when it comes to throwing her body around,



...but even she can't resist taking a hit at the big beach ball squirting water.



And she's not going to let it get the best of her, either.



She'll show that ball who's boss!



You know, in a much "girl-y" way than her brother.



It's nice that my children are still easily entertained. I'm not looking forward to the day when simple water no longer holds the appeal that it does now. It's going to be a dark day, indeed.

Devastation

Last night from our attic window, we watched as wildfires raged across North Amarillo.

Families were evacuated from their homes, probably wondering if they'd ever walk back in the door. Some were only damaged, at least one was completely lost. This isn't how the residents of that area imagined they would spend their Memorial Day.

Your world can change forever in a second. And it will. Watching the black smoke reminded me of that yesterday.



Today I think I'll hug my children a little tighter and remind myself that my house is just a place.

More Crap I've Made

This week, I have spent an inordinate amount of time at my house. KU is over, and we haven't been out of town in several weekends so I've just soaked up being at home.

I used all that new time to finish up several projects that were just sitting around. And catch up on the last several seasons of BONES.



When I bought this shirt, I didn't know what I was going to do with it or even if I'd keep it. I bought it online and I thought the turquoise and white. When it got here, I had to live with it for a bit before I decided and then I had to decide how I wanted to fix it up. I intended for the accents to be a little bigger and a little "more", but I just couldn't figure out how to make it work and I love how it turned out. It was as if the shirt was telling me it needed to simpler and more streamlined.



I also made the necklace I'm wearing. I needed something that was long and silver, but I couldn't find exactly what I wanted. Jewelry making is new to me and I'm not so sure I like it or that I'm very good at it. I made some necklaces for teacher gifts this year and while I know the recipients enjoyed them, I'm not sure the necklaces were something they would have bought on their own. It takes a different part of your brain to make jewelry, I think. It's more artistic and linear...and I never could find exactly what I wanted. Fabric is my medium.



Thanks for letting me play show and tell. Since this is my "scrapbook", it becomes the place where I document the stuff I've made.

Happy Memorial Day!

Cinderella Superhero To The Rescue!

She cooks!



She flies!



She fights the bad guys!



She saves the world!

Not bad for a day's work.

Show and Tell: Mrs. Summers' Quilt

Mrs. Summers is a biker chic.

I know because every party we threw for her this year had a "Harley" theme. And Eli talked about it. A lot.

So when it came time to make her an end-of-year-thank-you quilt, Eli was adamant about a Harley quilt. "But Eli, wouldn't a lovely FLORAL quilt that matched her house be pretty? Or a quilt about READING, you know how much Mrs. Summers loves to read!" But no, he was sure that a Harley quilt was the way to go.

So I put on my thinking cap and came up with this quilt. I think it turned out pretty awesome...especially for a biker quilt made by someone who is soooo totally not a biker a chic!



Harley Davidson does not license fabric. They probably don't want people making decorative hand towels to ruin their bad image. Or quilts. But I found a range of fabric that gave the quilt a rough-around-the-edges-but-still-feminine vibe.



Especially the purple tie-dye. Turns out, purple is Mrs. Summers favorite color! I totally planned that.



Here's the back.



The binding was the motorcycle fabric from the front and back. I probably would have made a scrappy binding, but the pattern called for using the focus material so it was just easier to do that.



The label was a thank you that Eli wrote all by himself. I did the same thing LAST YEAR and, while I'm not usually a fan of quilt labels, I do love this one.



It reads: "Your (you're) the best teacher in the WORLD! Thack (thank) you for being my teacher!" I left his misspellings intact...I find it endearing. I hope Mrs. Summers does, too.

She seemed to love it.



I just hope it conveys the gratitude (even just a little bit) that we owe her for a good year. Despite our homework troubles, Mrs. Summers worked hard and gave Eli her time and energy. She blessed our family and maybe this quilt will bless her just a little bit back.

Show and Tell: My "Vintage" Tray or The Project Where I Super Glued My Fingers Together

My table has been looking a little bare these last few years in our new house. I'm not one big on centerpieces, and with children sometimes it seems like an accident waiting to happen.

But my table looked sad...and lonely. It needed something and since my favorite things are beautiful and functional, I figured a tray holding mealtime "necessities" would be perfect!

And yes, chocolate chip cookies are a necessity.



I used an old picture frame from the attic that was missing its glass and back. I bought new glass at Hobby Lobby and had the condescending helpful man at Lowe's cut a piece of plywood to fit the back. I painted the back and adhered it to the frame with heavy duty gorilla glue, sandwiching the pretty fabric (bought several years ago and in my stash) and the new glass between the two. This is not where I glued my fingers together.



That happened when I was gluing the little furniture movers on the back of the tray so it wouldn't scratch my table. And it wasn't the kind of glued together that I could kind of pull apart with a good yank. No, my fingers were really glued together. Actually, it was my first finger and my thumb on my left hand. A little Goo Gone and skin loss took care of it though. :)

I plan on keeping some kind of "goodies" in this jar at all times. Oh, and I didn't make this jar. I bought it at Pier 1 with a gift card.



These little gnome salt and pepper shakers actually inspired me to get this whole tray ball rolling in the first place. I found them at a little shop here and fell in love. I needed them on table and fast!



The napkin holder came from Etsy. Although I would have loved to buy THIS one for $49, I just couldn't quite justify it. But I'm happy with this little $5 purchase.



I love my little tray. It was an easy project that brings me great joy.

It's the simple things, folks.

First Father/Son Backpacking Trip

Guest Blogger Brad here.

Jordan asked me to "blog" about my weekend adventure with Eli. Yep, folks....Eli and I just finished our first (of hopefully many) father/son backpacking trip into the wilderness. It has been a dream of mine for many years to take my son backpacking. I have been debating whether Eli was ready or not. In fact, I made a veiled attempt at our first trip last Labor Day but ultimately chickened out and decided to spend the nights in a house instead of a tent. If I was slick like Jordan I would give you a hot link back to that post (I think the last time I wrote).

Well, a couple weeks back my friend Eric told me his son Vance would have two weeks in Amarillo between the end of his freshmen year at ACU and his summer job as a Trek guide and wanted to know if I wanted to join them on a weekend trip. Vance was in our huddle for all four years of his high school life and is one of my favorite kids! In fact, Vance and the rest of the clan from the group we graduated last year is why I went on Trek last summer only 5 weeks past my hernia surgery. Anyhow, I digress. So, I told Eric I was in and told him it would be a lot easier to go if I could take my son. Then last Sunday night I was still on the fence regarding whether I would take Eli or not when I mentioned something to Eli about going somewhere next weekend. He asked me where I was going? I told him I would be going backpacking. Immediately
Eli smiled wide, put both hands in the air with fingers crossed, and said expectantly "can I go, please, please, please?" How can you resist that? So, I said probably and spent the next few days gathering extra gear preparing for the quick trip. What follows are the pictures. I hope you enjoy them!

Here are the four of us leaving before dark! Eric, Vance, Eli and me!

Despite getting up early Eli was too excited to sleep on the drive. I also think the bag of chocolate and powdered sugar donuts didn't help either!



Here we are at the trail head with our packs on and ready to go into the wilderness. Notice Eli's gloves. When we made it to the trail head and started gearing up it was 39 degrees and there were occasional snow flakes falling. Eli was asking for gloves and I couldn't find his (they were buried in my pack). So, I made use of the socks he wore to the trail head.



Before we left Amarillo Eli asked to take his Coon Skin cap. I cannot even remember where or when he got it. Jordan was adamant he couldn't take it and I said it was okay. I didn't think he would wear it beyond the car ride. I was wrong. He pretty much wore the thing the entire trip. He said it was warm...but I think he just liked the look of it! Doesn't he look funny in this picture wearing it?



Here is Eli and Vance in the first mile and half climbing to the top of the mesa. After a few adjustments to the great little pack Eric had from when Vance was little, Eli was off and running!



Yet, he was happy to take a little break for lunch as he just laid on this rock for 20 minutes.


We finally made it to the top of the mesa and walked on this flat area for a mile or two. In the distance you can see some snow covered peaks. Eli kept commenting that he saw people skiing up there! I had to continue to explain why I knew that wasn't the case. The peak on the left is Truchas Peak. It is the second tallest peak in NM.

We finally started our descent into the Beaty Flats -- our destination. The last mile of our trip was down hill which was nice going but not so nice coming home!

We came across this big tree that had been uprooted. I told Eli to go stand by it because it was huge.

This could be one of my favorite pictures of the trip. Eli was trying to negotiate this little "water crossing". Vance was great with Eli. He is such a great young man. Eli was feeling so big right about this part of the trip (probably mile 5.8).

And here is mile 6.3. We had this pretty camp site along the pecos creek. Eli and I stayed in this yellow tent. Probably the best part of the trip was after we all went to bed our first night. Eli and I played card games (slap Jack, war, go fish) until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer (about 2 hours). While we were playing, it was snowing on us and the wind was howling. It was a cold night. About 6 a.m. to stay warm I put Eli in my sleeping bag and we cuddled. We stayed in our tent and sleeping bag until the sun was on our tent and it was about 9:00 a.m.


This picture was taken on our way home. I forgot to take the camera while we fly fished. So, you will just have to imagine them. Eli was broken hearted when it was time to leave because he hadn't caught a fish. I caught one about the size of a hot dog...so it wasn't like I tore it up or the fishing was phenomenal.

Here is a close up. Notice Eli is still wearing his skin hat and I still have his sun glasses on my hat. I wore them there the entire trip as Eli never wanted to wear them. Oh well.

....and we made it 1000 feet up and to the mesa on the way home. Notice Eli isn't carrying his pack. Vance was nice enough to carry it out for Eli...and me!

We made it back to the trail head in a brisk 2 hours and 45 minutes. Going in it took us a leisurely 5 hours. All in all, I was very proud of Eli. I don't know many 7 year olds who could have hiked 13 miles in the wilderness in two days time. So, it looks like a I have backpacker which means there will be many more father/son trips to come. Now I just have to work on getting him to leave that skin cap at home!

Hope you enjoyed the post.

Brad

This Child Is Made Of Rubber

At some point, his bones are going to harden up. I can only hope that he's learned a little fear by then. :)