geburtstag!

wir hatten einen tollen geburtstags-tag fuer elias und ph unser gotti/goetti-maedchen.
fuer elias war es der 10. geburi und ph's wurde 2 jahre alt.
da elias zwei show's hatte heute nachmittag und abend, beschlossen wir das ein brunch das richtige ist und so genossen wir den morgen hinter dem haus auf unserem deck. mit allerlei feinem essen... elias wuenschte sich "pancake" mit schokolade stueckchen drin und natuerlich strichen die kinder auf diese pancakes nochmals eine gute schicht nutella!!!

elias war begeistert ueber seine noten, es war eine ueberraschung fuer ihn. (bela bartok 44 duetts fuer violine)

ph erfreute sich ueber ein paar lederschuhe, sie erfreute sich und ihre aeltere schwester sogar noch mehr. danke j & a fuer euren besuch.

our room

i have been spending a lot of time in our room over the past half year. it was mostly good nursing times and more or less quiet night hours.

thank's to the wonderful hammock thea is loving and often falling quickly back a sleep after nursing at night. the closet door frame served us fine and it was two steps from my bed.

mei tai

i still owe you the photos of the finished mei tai. here they are, i'm so happy about the look. i love the aqua blue "dot" on thea's bottom, it really looks cute.
i did skip the hood, i'm not sure if i will soon be attaching one... so far i don't think we need it, but it's just a good cozy feel when thea is asleep on my back, we will see.
i like the tibetan tying in front, it feels really comfortable and takes the pressure from the sholders. thea likes to ride in it. the front is not as enjoyable to me. i will still keep using the moby for front rides...
i got a remote controll for my camera! yeah this is a fun toy...

waiting in the rain

waiting for the T, there is not much more to say.
i think joel did a wonderful job in taking this photo!

Bubble Blowing Skirt and Top

Bubble Blowing Skirt and Top GIVEAWAY at Grosgrain!!!!

action figures

our neighbors have bucket's full of action figures.....
my kids don't own any, so this is some great new playing for us!

lot's of colourfull frogs belong to the collection and they of course have to be implemented into the game. it was fun to watch as frog armies were attacking soldiers. tarantulas "devouring" tanks and the game went on for hours. lot's of imagination when five boys and one girl have a few hours those figures and a sunny deck to play on!

birthday cake

celebrating birthdays is great, lots of friends, lots of good food...
what a wonderful party, thank you b for celebrating this with us. and then the cake! rhubarb- greentea-lavender with white chocolate frosting, it was so good.
(it's the birthday cake baker in the photo, b's sister)

wash up

the painter needs to keep his utensils clean... yes she does and loves to do this.
i remember to like the washing of brushes a lot too. getting the most fun colours into the sink, mixed with water and little dried up blobs of paint. every time the sink looked different and it's still the same now...
some things just don't seem to change.

crying baby

i just could not resist, i have to show you yesterday's baby crying.....
thea was scared of the camera and could not stop crying for a few moments. more likely until mama could resist taking photos of her and put the camera a side.

thea's teeth!

see my two wonderful teeth!

more painting

elias wanted to work again on his new challenge of painting "a mood", i was struggling with taking photos, we were on the deck behind the house the sun was bright and elias was having his shadow on the canvas pannel.... but never the less here a few shot's of naomi working very hard.
she was using some of elias's mixed paint, as he didn't use it all up...

i remembered again, how much i love the look of a full painters palette. it's so rich and creme and it's texture is great. love it and will go back to oil paints any moment...
not just bricks were painted, there was paper and plastic to be refashioned too!

paints are out...

it was a rather cool day and we stayed mostly indoors. the paints came to the rescue!
we started to talk about feelings when we look at certain colours and how the different shades and hues look next to each other. what is going to happen when you add a little or a bit more white...
what's going to happen if you pick two colours and mix them in the middle...
it was fun and elias chose to paint with cool-water colour!
naomi of course caught on to the stripe theme...

and then joel was on a photo spree yesterday. just around the kitchen and trying all kinds of settings and objects. i really like the following one. it's a 6 year old photo, still hanging on our fridge. it's a photo of my parents and the boys in the garden...
i love the photo on the fridge and i also like this one...

atc

this month's atc theme is choices. i was pondering the theme for the past two weeks and then stumbled upon some illustrations of all kinds of jays.
i remember vividly the last time i was hovering over a bird guide book to come up with the right choice of species! here we go, the choice of jay's!
and by the way i started and finished the mei tai, but photos have not been down loaded yet, please be patient...

Bubble Blowing Skirt and Top GIVEAWAY!!!!

Bubble Blowing Skirt and Top GIVEAWAY!!!!

strick kuenstlerinnen

heute bin ich ueber nachfolgenden artikel gestolpert. wollte das einfach teilen mit euch!

schaut euch mal diese strick kuenstelerinnnen an, das ist fantastisch!

fragrant readings

there were no lilies of the valley plants around the house when we moved in over 5 years ago. our friend r went out into the woods and came back with a few plants in a bucket. they got put into the ground in a little corner of the front yard. the past two years i started to transplant them all around the house. the past few days were warm and brought out all the beautiful little bells and the wonderful spring fragrance.
naomi was wondering around the house this morning and came back with a bunch of flowers. she also asked me, if we could pick some lilies... so we went together and had a perfect moment. both of us very happy and that lasted well into the afternoon.

our avid reader...
the inn book at our house as of friday last week is the diary of the wimpy kid. both boys read the it within days, we had to order the sequals at the library and sur enough the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules" was already waiting for pick up by tuesday. we love our library and i can not imagine not doing our weekly trips and having a constant pile of library books on hand.

erdbeerblueten

ein bilderbuch- fruehlingstag, die blueten sind toll und wir freuen uns auf die beeren!

first harvest

we went to our garden with the intent to pull weeds. what a wonderful surprise as we discovered our radishes! i knew we put the seed in right on time early april, but i would not have expected the radish harvest so soon... there were plenty of red little plants. we passed a few bushels on to order gardener families who were tending their plots. and of course took a big bushel home to top spring greens in the salad bowl or just snack on them. they turned out rather hot, but naomi commented: "i love them they are soooo yummie!"
good job mother earth and thank you.

mama's day

it was not just mama's day, it was beach day too.
i was so happy to get my wish, the whole family got loaded into the car and unloaded at the beach!
we spent all afternoon including not eating the packed picnic, as it was to sandy...
absolute enjoyment for all of us. thea liked it too, she didn't mind the sand in her mouth at all. naomi went into the water, she was also swimming in the sand... elias saved a little boy's kite out of the waves... what better can happen to me then happy beach kids, digging and building with papa.

graduation!!!

there is really nothing more to say, then congratulations joel!!!
(you are a master now... "of arts in theology")

next project

the little flowers cover our front yard wall wonderfully, i love those little purple flower heads.
they will last just about two weeks, but it's all worth it. the rest of the year it's a plain green ground cover plant.

this fabric will be worked into a mei-tai for thea. i love it's organic way of combining the colours. the decorator's weight fabric for the wide band's should arrive soon and i have been looking around for patterns. there are many patterns and tutorials to find on the web. i guess i will go with this one and take what ever i want from some others and my own two cents of sewing experience. o and then i found this addition, a nice little sack to go with it... i will let you know how i'm progressing, with the beautiful weather we are enjoying at the moment, it will take a while...

eco cup

city feed and supply our neighborhood store! is using "corn cups", i'm not a regular iced coffee drinker and was surprised, when i got this cup today. as soon as i ordered my iced coffee, i realized, that i didn't bring my own cup. usualy i do this, but when i left the house today, i was not really thinking of getting a hot or cold beverage from around the corner. my focus was more on the kids and walking to the boat house on time for elias to do some sailing with his friend.
anyway, naomi and i ended up at city feed and supply and i was really hot and thirsty. i ordered an "iced decaf americano" and got it in the "compostable cup"! this really made my day and i'm so happy that we are able to compost coffee cup's to go.
for myself, i will still bring my own coffee mug to drink take out beverages, i still prefere the non plastic version to drink from!

the ring

this is such a lovely ring, and the rest of brass hussy looks interesting too, take a look in her etsy shop
grosgrain give-away

after the rain

the day started out with rain, and we really didn't think that it would stop. but never the less the skies lighted up around noon and we went outside after lunch. barefoot and without rain gear! lovely unexpected sunshine and an almost empty playground was the best thing happening. playing tag, climbing trees and just enjoying the day!

standing in front of a japanese cherry tree in spring is a bit over whelming...

one of my neighbors has a little front yard, all filled with tulips. it's an eye candy at the moment!

8x10 spring

it has been a lot of fun and exciting for me to work on a little piece for the 8x10 spring swap. this has been my first swap in that area and i loved working for it. i knew from the beginning that i wanted to work with fabric and was rummaging through the bag of scraps. and ideas started to come up and get tweaked and tangled in my head. the next idea was, to incorporate some wool roving, as one of my things i want to do this year is needle felting.
i posted a few days ago, the inspirational part of amos's coin production...
here is the result of me converting the paper idea into a fiber arts piece...
the front with its "tulip" garden, red and yellow was required to be part of the piece.

i wanted to have a simple edge, nothing too perfect as the whole piece is just a "garden" a bit wild and growing.
front and back panel have a yellow fabric sandwiched in between. the edges of all pieces are zigzaged and i'm very happy with the look.

a detail view with the free stitching of the garden-lines.

i used the same fabrics for the back panel. just stripes, as it is the back. but a finished look to it, which i'm pleased with. i hope my swap partner enjoys it as much as i do. i had a bit a hard time to put it in the envelope and send it off. it's fun to take a challenge and run with it and at the end keeping it and enjoying it would be the thing i liked best. but it is also something to pass on and enjoy the moment of letting go and giving.