Weekend Inspiration

If you're looking for a great weekend project, look no further. I have been feeling so completely inspired by this book lately. Lots of great general sewing tips and tons of fun projects; even the complicated projects are presented in such a way that they seem totally doable (even for a beginning sewer like myself).


I've also been feeling super inspired by the online scrapbooking class I'm currently taking at Big Picture Scrapbooking: Yesterday & Today, taught by my favorite scrapbooker, Ali Edwards. I wavered back and forth for quite a while trying to decide if I really wanted to take this on right now (it's a 12-week class), but am SO glad I signed up.

(I had to put this on hold while focusing on Permaculture for the last couple of weeks, but am planning to dig back in to the class this weekend, and am hoping to post some pictures in the next couple weeks as my album starts to come together.)

Permaculture

Last week I had an amazing opportunity to take a Permaculture Design Course. This is something I have dreamed about doing for the past several years, but until now had only found courses offered in other parts of the country. So when I discovered a course being held at Natures' Nest Farm in Montrose, only 20 minutes away, I knew I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. I found out about the class only a week before it started, so that week was pretty hectic around here, working on all the prep work for the class and also getting things ready at home as Chris was going to be pretty much on his own with Ada for the entire week of the course. This class was going to be intense - Sunday-Friday starting at 8:30 am and going until 9-9:30 pm each day, and a half-day each on the Saturdays before and after. (Did I mention how amazing my supportive hubby is??) The certification course requires 72 hours of instruction - basically cramming a semester's worth of class into one week. I was SO TOTALLY excited!!

There were just under 25 of us in the class, with a pretty diverse mix of backgrounds and goals. It was so great to hang out with a group of people that are as excited about Permaculture as I am.


The week was a mix of classroom time, hands-on outdoor activities, videos, and even a talent show (enough said on that). :) Ada got to spend the day with me on Wednesday, when we went on tours of three permaculture sites around MN.

Instructor Mark Shepard


Checking out the world's coolest chicken coop at Welch Permaculture Gardens

On the last morning of class I got my certificate - I am now a certified Permaculture Designer! (At least on paper - I still have lots to learn!!) :) My mind has been in overdrive and I feel like I now really have the tools to dig in and work on our yard - so excited to start planning and making changes!!


More on Permaculture

The word was originally coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970's; it's a combination of "permanent agriculture" and "permanent culture" and focuses on designing sustainable human settlements. The three underlying principles are Earthcare, Peoplecare, and Fairshare (reinvesting surplus).

From Tagari, on Permaculture Design

The philosophy of Permaculture is to reduce the impact that human settlements have on non-renewable and renewable resources, while creating an abundant living environment, catering to the needs of all living creatures.

Permaculture is a science developed through the observation and analysis of natural systems. Through this analysis set structural patterns common to all natural systems emerge. Permaculture design then applies these “Patterns” to the development of sustainable human settlements, harmoniously integrating landscape and people while providing food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.

Special Delivery

Ada's first "special delivery" arrived yesterday:

The Box

The Note

The Unwrapping

The Aftermath

The tissue paper was definitely a hit
(and Mama loved oohing and aahing over all the cute clothes)

Aren't grandmas wonderful?

4 (and 3/4)

Looking back at 4 months...


Loved this progression of photos from our "4 month photo shoot" earlier this month:

Love that smile!

Other favorite photos / memories from this month include:

Sleeping on Papa after a bath.

Playing air guitar and giving Mama "a look".

Our little "night owl" in the morning...

then helping Mama read her scrapbooking
magazine before dinner...

and taking a little cat-nap on Papa
not too long afterward.

Getting together for our "Bradley class" reunion now that
we've all had our babies.
(The little sweetie behind Ada is Rebecca, with TONS of hair
that's a few inches long and stands straight up off her head.)

And a group shot of those in attendance; out of 8 couples 7 of us had girls!
The little girl on the left is Ruby, then Hazel June, can't remember
the next little one (still so tiny!), then Ada and Rebecca.

Ada's favorite new passtime - blowing "raspberries",
and looking super cute. :)

Sitting up all on her own.
(at least long enough for me to snap a picture)

Looking so cute in the new little hat I couldn't
resist buying for her,

and then taking another nap on Daddy.

And finally our sweet Ada-bee smiling for the camera in an outfit
she only got to wear once because she's growing up so fast.
(Something that's become a trend just lately and is making Mama sad.)

What a great month. I've been a little sad just lately about feeling like I'm not taking that many pictures of Ada now that I'm back at work. It's so great to see that we've actually been capturing so many wonderful moments with her.

6 Years

We spent last Saturday, the 29th, celebrating our 6th(!) wedding anniversary. We didn't have a sitter for Saturday, so went out Friday night on our own to dinner and a movie - our first "alone" date since she was born. :) Saturday was family day, something we intend to start having on a regular basis. We decided to take Ada to the Arboretum; we haven't been there since our 2005 anniversary:

Just the 2 of us, Aug. 2005

We had a really good time, with Ada taking her first ride in the stroller. We weren't sure if she was ready, but she seemed to be having a pretty good time, holding on tight and looking all around.

Love this picture of her all ready to go. :)

Close-up of some very cool bark.

My favorite part of the day was showing Ada the fish:

and

We had a picnic lunch and then went to their new learning center - very cool. We can't wait to take Ada back when she's older; lots of interactive stuff to play with.

Love this picture Chris captured of Ada and me. Totally us, and definitely a keeper. :)

A very cool pitcher plant we saw in the touch 'n feel greenhouse.

We had two sets of batteries with us that day, and both died at the arboretum - this was the last picture we managed to take:


No 'couple' shot, and no family shot. Pretty bummed about that. Somehow we remembered to take pictures of Ada though. :)

We wrapped up the day by making two other stops; I got to go to a quilt shop I'd never been to, and Chris got to go to the computer store. :)

All in all, a wonderful day spent together as a family of three.

Thankful

Looking through a bunch of pictures I just loaded on to the computer, and feeling so thankful for family,

and for being able to capture and preserve moments like these:

Love you Chris.

Love you Ada.

So lucky to have you both in my life.

This is Life

Crazy. Exhausting. Wonderful.

Wow. Where has the last month gone? I've been writing this post in my head for weeks, and every weekend that goes by without posting means it keeps getting longer and longer. So get a snack and a refreshing beverage, put on something cozy, curl up in front of the computer w/ a blanket and then read on.

Since getting back from our North Carolina trip life has been moving full-speed ahead around here. That first week back was pure craziness as we finished setting up plans for daycare and started Ada on bottles. Luckily all of that went smoothly, with Ada taking her first bottle with no problems. Totally breathed a sigh of relief after getting through all of that.

I went back to work the following week, on August 3rd. The first week was okay. I really wanted to be hanging out with Ada instead of being at work, but I handled leaving her at daycare pretty well - no tears on my part, and of course Ada was just completely fine with everything. The tv seemed of much more interest than comforting her traumatized mother.

So hard to leave her that first day.

I had Thursday and Friday of that week off, which made it much easier to get through those first few days. Thursday morning was Ada's first dr. appt. She got her hearing tested, and her first vaccinations. I think that was more traumatic for me than it was for her as well. I had to stop myself from asking them to just give me the shot instead. Luckily the nurse was super-quick and Ada cried a bit, but was pretty good after that and didn't have any kind of fever or general crabbiness.

Afterward Ada and I did a little shop-hopping as part of the statewide quilt shop hop, stopping at Quilted Treasures in Rogers and Cottage Quilts in Elk River, and picking up a few little goodies along the way of course.


The rest of Thursday and Friday was spent hanging out at my mom's. Got the tomatoes picked and made her up a batch of fresh roasted tomato sauce. Grandma and Ada spent lots of time hanging out together.

Saturday Ada and I hit the road again for more "hopping", making time to stop at a couple of my favorite antique shops before heading out of town. Our first quilt shop stop was in Kimball; normally I really like this store, but there didn't seem to be anything new so I was a little disappointed. Our next stop was a shop in Paynesville that I hadn't been to before. It was cute; I think my favorite part was the beds they had made up with coordinated quilts and pillows. I'll probably stop back in if I'm in the area, but don't think I'd make a special trip just to go there. Our last stop of the day was at Gruber's in St. Cloud. They had rearranged since I had last been there so it took me quite a while to figure out where everything was (the store is enormous). They had several samples made up of Aardvark Quilt patterns; I hadn't heard of them before, but really liked a couple of the quilts so am excited to see what else the designer comes out with.

Sunday turned out to be an eventful day. I went back to my mom's to help in the garden; picked a ton of green beans and got all her onions picked and laid out on screens to cure in the garage.


Chris went to the dr. and found out he had Shingles. In the end it turned out that he ended up with a pretty mild case of it, which we were very thankful for, but it was still pretty unpleasant. The worst part was that the whole time he had it he couldn't touch Ada since she hasn't been vaccinated against chicken pox, so the next couple weeks were a little stressful as I took on full-time Ada duty. Chris tried to help as much as he could, entertaining her from a distance, and helping w/ extra housework. I think Ada was pretty happy when she finally got to play with Daddy again. :)

Hanging out in snuggly jammies. Love them!

Other highlights from the last couple weeks include hanging out w/ extended family on Chris' side, 2 date nights(!), more antique shopping, more vaccinations for Ada (no crying at the dr.'s - seriously!), and she's started rolling over.

Sitting in her new Bumbo chair. Lots of time spent in this recently.

Got this awesome laundry cart and pretty chenille blanket at an antique store downtown. The huge old drying rack was found at an estate sale.