I was sitting back and letting yet another month go by without submitting something to Loobylu’s Month of Softies, but last night I decided to just do it. I broke out some pants full of holes and made some bean-bag monsters. Their hair is made of scraps of handspun yarn and their teeth are handmade wool felt, then I got an old bag of lentils out of the pantry and stuffed away.

This is Abenya from the land of Abanar (ask Brenna for details). She especially loves the sweet smell of cherry blossoms, and the view from up here.

This is Jonah’s monster Mo. He’s a little scared of heights, so he’s soaking in the spring air here among the lilly of the valley.

The kids have been playing with them all day– and they should be good for a game of bean bag toss too.

I’ve still got this one. I realy like the shiny shell button.

This was the first one I finished. I still have it.

This was my favorite. I made the flower with angora/ lambswool blend felt that April and I made together. It sold, so I’ll have to make another one.

Even though I didn’t put a button closure on it the felt lies open when you want it too, but the book stays shut too.

More little angora/ lambswool felt flowers.

This one will be a birthday gift for April (tomorrow!).
(She has dial-up, so I know she won’t be reading this.)

We got a new YMCA a few months ago. The best thing about it is that there is a pool. A pool in which I can swim laps. I didn’t know I loved to swim until after Brenna was born. I decided for the rest of my life I would need to be in the best shape of my life before I had a baby. Just after I got pregnant with Brenna (unbeknownst to me) Barry and I rode 150 mile on our bikes from Stanley, ID to Boise. So, after Brenna was born I needed to out do myself, so I decided it would be worth a try to train for a triathalon. Problem was that I couldn’t really swim and I hate to run. I never got over the hate to run part, but I signed up for a swimming class (I was still in college then). The first day I thought I was going to DIE. I couldn’t even swim a full there-and-back lap. But, the wonderful patient husband that he is, Barry would go to the pool every now and then and give me some pointers.

Anyway, this is getting really long. I learned how to swim and could swim laps all day if I could. I did a sprint length triathalon for my “I’ve been un-pregnant for one year” celebration and accomplished a goal.

So, what I started out saying was that we have a new YMCA. it has free childcare and a pool. I packed up the kids and dropped them off to play and I swam 1100 yards while little grandmas did water aerobics in the other half of the pool.

I liked it.

In the midst of our game of hide and seek tonight Jonah called Barry a, “Liar, liar, fire on pants!” I’m so happy to be his momma.

Now, here are some cutie-cute-cuties. My friend April has been busy devloping the pattern for these rabbits and their clothes. She spun yarn, dyed it and knit away. I’m so excited that she found something so fun to do that she is so good at!

Here’s a detail of my favorite. I wish I could remember her name. She’s knit out of handspun angora/lambswool and feels heavenly soft and snuggly. She’s got a hooded sweater and her ears fit through the hood, I just love it!

If anyone wants the book she made of the pattern just e-mail me (jessica at seedpodbooksandart dot com). It’s well worth the $8!

Remember the felt I made with my kids? Here it is in book form.

This book makes me smile. Why, you ask? Because the cutest ladies in the entire universe bought it. I guess the Smuckers sisters are a bit of a legend in mid-Ohio. They are little Mennonite ladies that are older than dirt (late 80s, early 90s) and cuter than anything else I can imagine. They wandered around the show with their cute bonnets and rain coats, their skinny little ankles showing under their hand made dresses. Their backs were a little hunched, their eyes twinkled. They stopped at my booth and oohed and ahhed over my books. “We make books, you know,” one of them said to me. They loved the button on this one, inspected the paper, told me how they write poems, and keep journals and how you just can’t get by in life without a sister. I’ll never forget them, but I wish I had taken a picture of them!

Today was the Mid-Ohio Fiber Gathering in DeGraff, Ohio. April and I were packed up and on the road around 7:30. It started out cold and rainy, then became cold and snowy… and we stayed cold the whole day long. Ohio cold is different than Idaho or Utah or New Mexico cold. This cold soaks into your skin and settles in your bones and stays there. It is damp and clammy and bitter.

But enough with the cold (even though I am bitter with this trick Mother Nature has subjected us to after a couple of weeks of short wearing- playing outside weather). We had fun. I had my usual “Learn to Spin” drop spindle kits and Niddy-Noddy-Nostepinnes. Even more exciting for me were my felt books.

Barry just updated my WordPress and now I can’t figure out how to post images. I’m pretty bummed out about that because I want someone out there to see my cute new books and April’s awesome knit bunnies. But, alas, Barry is bowling with the Elder’s Quorom tonight. Maybe Monday. Bummer.

I like to look at crafty blogs. I get jealous when they get mail. I’ve got to figure out how to get in on it.

It’s all in the works.

The fiber gathering is this Saturday in DeGraff, Ohio. I even talked my friend April into sharing a booth with me. She developed a pattern and has been knitting stuffed bunnies like crazy. I can’t wait to get pictures of each of them to put up here because they are so cute I can hardly stand it!

Here’s some yarn I spun yesterday so that I can put my “Learn to Spin” kits together. Jonah helped me dye it. It’s black cherry, grape, and orange.

Things I love about our back yard:
cherry blossoms
new grass
sand box
gold finches
red buds
baby oak leaves

The weather has been beautiful. The kids are out there every second that they can be, digging in the new sandbox Barry built, climbing tress, picking dandelions (which I strongly encouge)…

On my list of things I want: a hammock to string up between trees.

Today we sat outside in the fresh spring air and finished reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. It’s kind of like coming full cirlce. Just before Brenna turned three she pulled it off the shelf and brought it to me saying, “Read this! Read, read, read, read…” Well, I took it and opened it thinking, “She’ll last two seconds and then I can go get something done.” But, instead, we finished the entire book in two days. I figured she wasn’t really getting what was going on, but realized that she was playing with her plastic animals calling one Aslan and asking for protection from the White Witch.

I’m glad that I’ve kept up with the reading novels, even though my kids are so young. I think adults often underestimate what kids are capable of understanding. We also think they’re not listening when they really are. Jonah has not been one to sit on my lap and listen to a book without pictures, but he knows everything that happened to little Sophie in The BFG and loves Harry Potter. He normally plays with toys and comes and goes out of the room as Barry or I read, but he gets it none the less. I love it that his play is based on Shel Silverstien poems rather than Bob the Builder or Dora. I’m thankful that this is something I stumbled upon and stuck with it.

Brenna’s almost five now. I thought it’d be fun to post a list of the books we’ve read since the first time we read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Charlotte’s Web
Stuart Little
Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
Farmer Boy
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Trumpet of the Swan
Black Beauty
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
The BFG
Peter Pan
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Matilda
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (w/ Dad)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (w/ Dad)
The Magician’s Nephew
Where the Sidewalk Ends (w/ Dad)
Falling up (w/ Dad)
A Light in the Attic (w/ Dad)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I’m not sure what we’ll start next. We may just continue with the Chronicles of Narnia, but Spring is getting me itchy to read Laddie again and share it with my family.