Three Big Little Adventures

Adventure #1  Goats!! No, they're lambs... Sometimes it's hard for city kids to tell.  We went out to a friend's farm for a visit and the kids loved seeing the lambs, baby kittens, and pigs.

The ones we saw were the bottle-fed crew, and we got to help with their feeding.

Adventure #2  Nolan and I took the bus downtown.  Other than the park and ride shuttles going to the soccer game last month (a coach and a school bus), Nolan has never ridden a bus, so this was a big deal.

Our first stop was at the downtown library.  They have different toys than our usual branch!

We went and sat in the park to have our (healthy) snack, then walked through the Farmer's Market.

And then ate the cookies that we bought there.  That's why the healthy snack on the front end!

A stop for a photo in a fun tree, then off to the playground!

Waiting for the bus home.

Adventure #3  We went to the Farm Progress Show with Dad's Exhibitor's Pass on Friday.  Nolan had fun climbing up on the massive machines, and seeing in person all the machines he reads about in all the books we get out of the library.

It's been a fun June!

Studio Shots

The kids and I were downstairs playing after lunch and it struck me as funny, all the different things I had on the go on my sewing counter.

This is a custom order camera strap cover I just finished.  There is a fitted version of this in the shop, but this girl wanted one of the scrunched styles.

A baker's dozen coffee cozies.  I've had this fabric sorted and ready to go for a long time, but finally got around to putting it together.  They just need buttons.

These are going to be mini zip pouches.  They are from basic grey charm packs, just like the coffee cozies above, which means narrower bags than I've been making, and each side, and each side of the liner inside, will be a different print.  I hope they turn out as fun as I think they'll be.  They are cut and interfaced and just waiting for zippers.

This stack will become handwarmers eventually.  I'll sew a few here and there and hope to have them all done by the fall.

I found this jellyroll at my local fabric shop yesterday and thought it was perfect for camera strap covers.  There will be 10, and they will have different prints on each side.  Can't wait to finish these and show them off!!

And a pile of magic bag covers to sew up.  I've made at least one of each fabric, so they're all listed, but I would like to get them all sewn up and ready to ship off.  I have to keep up my stash of the actual wheat filled bags, too - those were also out and sitting on the bucket of wheat on the floor.  Oh, now what to work on next.  That's the fun part of this 'job' - I get to pick!

I've also got this little bit of inspiration sitting out there as a reminder.  Thanks for coming on the little tour!  What are you making these days??

The Last One Ever!!

We've hit quite a milestone today - Madeline has her last piano lesson ever after school today.  She's been playing for 6 1/2 years, because we started her in the middle of the year, and we decided that she could be done with the mandatory 'discipline training' lessons that are oh-so-good for you even though you can't see that in the moment...  I sure hope she's like so many others and is grateful for them in the future.  In the present, though, she is ecstatic to be done and I am pretty happy about it myself.  She is a very musical girl, but sitting to play is just not how that flows out of her.  Get her singing along, maybe, but then she's more likely to stop playing and just sing.

One more week of practicing, a recital next Tuesday night, and then she's finite-o.  Whew.  To celebrate, here's a look at the girl and the keyboard over the years.

First recital.

Halloween Recital.

New keyboard.