Baby Boy Gifts #2

Lately I've been using my iPhone to take pictures of things I'm making rather than using my real camera.  The quality definitely suffers but it's SO convenient.  I tried to doctor up these photos before posting them.  The color is still a little off and you don't really see the corduroy applique.  I also used minky dots as trim on the top and bottom edges and on the back. The blanket is pale blue, white, and chocolate brown not teal, pale pink, and black.

This blanket would be just as cute for a girl with a slight change of color or cute font.

What Makes Me Smile

 I often wonder if what I try to teach Sarah Beth hits home.  When we drive down the road we look at clouds and trees and animals and talk about them. Todd and I always ask her, "Who made the (object of God's creation)." She knows the answer and gladly spits it out.  She knows a few Bible verses too.  She also happens to know where people were first called Christians. 

Yesterday I was sitting on her rocking chair checking email on my phone and she was setting the table for a nice tea with her animals.  She asked me to get her some napkins from the kitchen so off I went still checking my mail as I got a hand full of napkins.  I sat them on her table and she started passing them out to each guest.  I was reading something about embroidering on my phone when all of a sudden I heard, "Jesus please bless this food. Amen."  I had tuned out all the other conversations she was having with them but when she prayed, I heard it loud and clear.  It wasn't more holy or louder.  I just heard it and it melted my heart.  At that point I exited my email and took this picture with my phone.

Her prayer may be ritual now but one day it'll sink in.  I try to take as many opportunities to observe and verbalize all that God has done for us so that she will someday develop a heart of thanksgiving, knowing that all she has, even her breath, is from Jesus who created and saves her.  Her little prayer gives me hope that this part of her growing up will be one of my most treasured memories.

Deut. 6:5-9
5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

Baby Boy Gifts

No! Not ME!!! My two sisters are.  I should join the crowd I guess. 

I've been having lots of fun making stuff for them.  I'll try to post some pictures as I complete some projects.  Katee has chosen to be surprised at delivery rather than finding out the sex ahead of time.  My gifts for her will be more maternal than for baby brother/sister.  She wants a sling. 

Crystal is having a boy.  Even though she's due after Katee, I feel more focused on making her stuff because I know what it is and what she plans to name him.  Here are two so far. 

A wipe case

Store-bought travel wipe case, hot glue, spray baste, ribbon, scrap fabric, and batting. 

 Hector the Turtle which is really just something to lay on other than the dirty floor.  

A little detail about Hector: 

• His underbelly is just as cool as the top but completely different.
• He's very masculine in spite of the fact that his head, legs, and tail were cut from a dress.
• The top looks messy because it's a rag quilt.   Once Hector gets washed a few more times he ought to be nice and fuzzy.
• His eyes are made from the letter O and a few other shapes using machine embroidery.

I love making something cool without spending any money!

It's Your Day

To the sweetest man alive, my Todd. 

Happy Father's Day. 

SB could not have gotten a better one if she hand-picked him.

Beach Photos Part II

These are some of my favorite photos from our beach trip.   Here's why:

Sarah Beth is obviously not cool with the sand because it makes her dirty and she doesn't like to be dirty.  Lisa and Dale are doing their best here trying to show her that it's fun stuff to play with.  Even the last day she hated it.

I just love the colors in this photo and her sweet little pose.  She wouldn't sit anywhere where sand was touching her.  It was kind of nice because I didn't worry about her wandering off.  That yellow beach towel was like a cage.

I like this one because we look like we're having a great time.  Really she was just being bribed to take a photo smiling.

I like this one because it looks like a magazine ad for some super sunscreen.  See - we've been in the sun all day and look - still white as a ghost but in a fashionable way.  And the reader of the magazine would think..."Yeah, I want to be as porcelain as they are.  They look like they're having a great time and aren't worrying a bit about skin cancer."

Eric and Lisa

Brother-in-law and sister-in-law who own the house we stayed in.  Very generous to take us on such a nice trip.

Who wouldn't want to look back a this picture in ten years and say, "You see how sweet you were?"

Shelby and Erica - Sarah Beth's cousins who are in college.  Sweet girls who make the best cousins.  Sarah Beth loves them. 

Another cool image caught by Uncle Eric.  I just like the whole shot.  Never mind the fact that Sarah Beth wanted me to pick her up the whole time because she didn't like to feel the sand on her feet.  You swear she was walking in a never-ending pile of ants.

Shelby and Erica insisted that I take photos of them jumping.  I like this one best.  I like the fact that from their knees down, their legs form a nice continuous diagonal.  As far as photography and art go - the Rule of Thirds is very clear here.

I got a little jealous and we all joined in the jump fun... except for Eric and Sarah Beth.  Eric took the photo.  Sarah Beth obsessed about her sandy feet.

Yes, this is still the beach.  It was behind me as I took this picture.  I just love this shot.

Maybe some more beach pictures later, but maybe not.  We'll see.

Budding Artist/ Obsessive Hygiene

So if you know my girl then you know she hates to get dirty.  That being said, we had some time to work on her obsession with personal hygiene.  Being an artist myself, I really want some of my strengths to come through in her so we took a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought some tempera paint (paint I have never owned due to it's cheap, temporary quality.)  For this, however, tempera was just right - no permanent stains, easy clean up, quick wash off the hands in the event of a panic. 

In the left photo, the hand holding the brush is obviously smeared with red paint.  She's not that messy.  I smeared it on her to break the ice and let her know that it was ok to get a little messy.  It took some convincing and some fake laughs on my part but she was ok.

In the right photo she's wearing Daddy's white tshirt whenever she gets the fever to create. She calls it her "paint dress".   She likes it.  You can see that there is a paint brush for every color and that none of the colors are mixed and dirty with other colors.  We established that rule early on so that colors would stay pure. 

She follows the rules gladly talking to herself as she goes along... "Now blue.  Ok. Let's put blue on the page.  Oh beautiful.  Now green.  Get the green brush.  Ok.  Oooh.  So pretty.  I love to paint."  Then, when she gets a dot of paint on her hand...  "WIPE IT OFF!  WIPE IT OFF, MOMMY!"  Once I wipe them clean we're back to, "Ok.  Now the red one..." and so on.

More beach pictures to come.

Hello and Goodbye, Beach

Dear Rosemary Beach,

Thank you for a wonderful visit.  We loved the water.  We loved the house.  We loved seeing and spending time with family.   We hope to visit again...unless you get smeared with tar. 

Love,
Sarah Beth and Kim



This is one of my all time favorite photos of Sarah Beth and me.  The wild hair, big smile, white skin even after three days in the sun.  More beach pics to come later.  Thanks Eric for the perfect lucky shot!