SweetPod update

Have you looked at the SweetPod flickr group lately? Well, I’ll give you a few of the highlights, but you really should just mosey on over and look at them yourself.

Isn’t this such a great manly carrier with the denim and the scooters? (from Sew She Sews)

Speaking of scooters, here’s another fantastic one:

I absolutely love the fabric choices on this next one from Liz. I think I need to make myself one.

I can’t get over how cool it is to see how people are using my pattern. Really, you guys are awesome! It is so fun to see how people put together fabrics and lug around their cute babies. I’m so excited that people out there are as excited about the SweetPod as I am.

So, about the Saddle Bag pattern. Many of you have been asking when it will be ready. It is still in the works. I’ve got the pattern pieces digitized, I’ve got instructions typed up, but those illustrations are holding me up. They’ll get done, but I can’t say when. It seems I have a very hard time holding myself to a time line. Things like reminding a little boy to go potty, cleaning up the mess when said little boy goes potty in the wrong place, and doing laundry have taken precedent. Not very exciting, I know, but my life does revolve around bodily fluids and not sewing contrary to popular belief. I wish I could be more specific, but I seem to totally misjudge when I can get things done and feel like a loser for not keeping commitments, so I’m just going to keep it vague for now.

In the mean time– keep sewing your SweetPods!! It is SO FUN to see them!

strawberry pickin’

In Ohio we belonged to a wonderful CSA and got boxes full of produce every week. We haven’t joined one here, but this year I’ve made a goal to find farms where we can pick our own produce and do as much of that picking as we can. I think its important for my kids to learn where real food comes from and that it takes hard work to get it. I’m hoping to find some orchards in the fall where we can pick fruit too.

A couple of weeks ago, after swimming lessons and lunch and a little rest, I took the kids out to Berry Patch Farms on the opening day of strawberry picking. They opened at 8 AM, but we had to go in the heat of the afternoon after people had been combing through the 7 acres of strawberries all day. I had a baby on my back whose left shoe must have fallen off in the garage as we were leaving our house, so he had to stay on my back. There was a big thunder storm the weekend before, so the tractor couldn’t give us a ride out to the field because of the mud. We had to hike, the organic fields were full of thistles, and the strawberries full of holes from hail damage. As you can imagine, that led to a lot of whining on the boys’ part. I don’t think Jonah picked a single strawberry because he was too hot and they were too hard to find. Brenna was a splendid picker, though. She combed through the plants and found the best berries there were. After her and I (with a baby on my back who wasn’t super excited about all the bending over) filled up 3 little containers full, we called it a day and good education on how expensive food really is and how hard it is to be a farmer.

I wasn’t satisfied with the amount of berries we had, and promptly gobbled up, after that outing. We needed more, so Brenna and I got up early Saturday morning to comb through the fields on their final day open.

We got there before the sun was high and hot, and the hail damaged berries were long gone.

In half the time we spent picking on our last trip we filled an entire flat.

Brenna had fun searching for the tiniest ripe berries she could find.

I needed the quiet time out there finding sweet treasures with my girl.

When we got home, Barry and I made homemade strawberry freezer jam– one of my very most favoritest foods ever.

swimmin’

We went swimming tonight so the kids could show off their new skills to Dad. Just as we were heading out to the pool an evening storm rolled in, so we ended up finding a random park with a shelter to eat our picnic at and went swimming indoors at our nearby rec center.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend!

(Underwater photos by Barry and the kids.)

completely pooped…

We’ve been going to swimming lessons every morning for the past 2 weeks. I couldn’t wait to get Ian into them, but we had to wait until he was 3. Since he was little tiny he’s been a little fish with absolutely no fear of the water. He was just 1 when we started our move from Ohio to here and for part of that time we lived in an apartment in Montgomery, Alabama. It was hot and humid, so after hunkering down for a day inside an air conditioned apartment we would head to the pool. The second he could he would run to the water and tumble in head first. Very cute. Very scary, but very cute.

These days I think his daily morning swim is wearing him out.

What do you think?