InstaFriday Time

Here's my week in iPhone pics. Share yours too over at InstaFriday on Life Rearranged and link up!

With the coming of June, the weather finally caught up to the calendar and we have enjoyed a beautiful week. Playground time!

Everett rocking his signature scowl (in between giggles of glee!)

He comes by it honestly. His sister, mom, and dad ALL had the same look as babies.

My grandma called me "Stoneface". Nice. But true!

The wonderful world of boys.

This summer is going to be a glimpse into the years ahead for me with my sweet little E.

I love how he is so adventuresome. (Just a tad different than sister Alora. She's utterly terrified of anything new.)

Every moment is an opportunity to discover something new, by putting it in his mouth of course.

Dirt.

Bugs.

Sticks.

Rocks.

I love his dirty, sweet little hands and that joy of discovery on his face after a day at play.

Justin had to travel this week, so while we missed him, I was able to spend a lot of time in my studio after the kids were in bed.

Such a retreat.

Paper piecing my strip quilt blocks

Making progress

I actually finished all the blocks and assembled the entire quilt top the other night!

Yippee!

I'll have pics up soon. I am planning on going hunting for the perfect binding today.

We have this awesome fabric store here in our little small town called Material Girl. Just lovely.

Making dinner at home as the weather warms is one of my favorite things.

The bounty of the earth becomes more and more prolific and we enjoy every bit we can.

Proof that cellulite can be cute.

Only on a baby bum though!

This naked dash is a new common occurrence in our house during diaper changes since the advent of E walking.

Just try and get that thing on me mom. Ha!

Alora is at that sweet age where she loves to cuddle.

Precious moments indeed.

She has also developed quite the affinity for drawing monsters.

She is such a great big sister and what a helper even at 3 years old.

Warmer days have lead to longer naps!

Play hard, sleep hard! Sometimes, he doesn't even make it to his bed.

The couch will do for now!

Sleepy girl too!

I'm looking forward to seeing what all of your weeks have looked like too. Now go link up!

InstaFriday

There is something freeing about not caring if the exposure, shutter speed, aperture and lighting are "just right". Sometimes the best pictures are just snapped in that raw moment of fleeting life. Then I take that grainy, imperfect shot and Instagram makes it transform into the way memories look in my mind's eye.

Love.

So, thanks to Jeannett at Life Rearranged, I'm linking up with InstaFriday.

so can you!

Can you say heavy? Gritty WWII novel that I am slowly working my way through. Really good. Would be consuming it much faster if it wasn't for...well...life.

Who knew a little jar of thick gooey dairy goodness could evoke so many squeals of delight.

Ever since we went to England two years ago I have been on the hunt for this over here in the states.

Little giddy dance in the market when I found it!

A little smear on a fresh from the oven cranberry orange scone?

Heaven.

Love this stage. I can see glimpses of the little boy he will become.

Yet still totally surrounded by sweet chubby baby cheeks.

We had an interesting week. (aren't they all?)

Valuable Mommy lesson learned: bathroom breaks for Mom aren't allowed during craft time.

Paper project quickly turns into hair cutting experiment.

There was a massive pile of hair. This is the one we kept for evidence sentiment :)

Happy Friday!

Work in progress...

Okay. So here are my complete 10 blocks I mentioned in my Inspiration Workshop post.

So. Excited.

{Summer Snuggling} Week 1 - Inspiration Workshop

Maggie, the lovely crafter/blogger behind Gussy Sews, came up with a great inspiration workshop for the summer. While I usually don't have trouble finding inspiration and struggle more with inspiration ADD (read: multiple unfinished projects), I thought this might help bring some focus to all those 'great' ideas. I also LOVE seeing what inspires others and what they create with that inspiration.

This week's inspiration is "Handmade".

There is somethings sacred I believe about curling up with two tiny warm, sticky, summer bodies, one leggy, one chubby, underneath a blanket wrought with hard work and love from your own hands. Just as the Lord knit those two together in my womb, now I am able to smell their sweet hair and they lean on my chest, legs wrapped together under a cover of handmade family love. Quilts are so much more than just a piecing together of fabric and thread. They are a piecing together of us.

I recently discovered Film in the Fridge, and she has one of the largest quilt resumes I've seen in a while (not that I have spent that much time looking!) While my own quilt CV is a grand total of...wait for it...(almost) 1, (see inspiration ADD above), I have been seeing so many great modern quilt designs in the blogosphere that I have had a major itch to make one again!

I found this great fabric the other week and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it.

Now I know! The turquoise, orange, brown, tans and whites in my fabrics are the perfect ingredients in a lightweight quilt destined for summer snuggling. I just started piecing the top the other night after cutting my strips.

I already have about 10 blocks out of the 30 completed already (pics to come)! Here is how it's coming along. Yippee! I am following one of FITF's tutorial's. LOVE the design.

So here's my handmade inspiration photo, from FITF:

photo credit

Head over to the workshop at Gussy Sews to find some of your own inspiration and see what other's have found! (There's a button to the right on my sidebar for more info on how to join the workshop)