Today, I bring you WAM

Wow, What a Monday!

If this is any indication of what this week will be like, bring it on! You know when you wake up refreshed and the sun is shining. And when the baby is in good spirits and naps well, it's all good.

Yesterday was incredible.

The sun was shining and gorgeous.

I worked in the garden. Finally planting some of my bulbs that were beginning to sprout.

Finn got a bath, which always takes longer than I think. These days it's really a squeeze to fit in a little play, lunch and a bath between naps. Which is why we do *not* do it every day.

The bonus is that while Finn splashed about I managed to fold a whole load of whites and hang another load of cloth diapers. Reminder to self: the purchase of an old english style from the ceiling drying rack is getting more urgent. Finn splashes about so much in his little bath it would be really handy to mop when he is done without all the drying racks standing in the way.

I ironed at least 6 pieces of clothing, something for everyone in the family.

We had an amazing lunch, leftovers from the previous night's dinner .. it involved a favorite for everyone. Butternut squash for Finn, quinoa for me and spinach for papa with a liberal heap of garlic and leeks to boot. Yes all in one dish. It was Delicious, with a capital D. I'll try to write it down .. man, that's the 3rd thing I want to tell you about kitchen-wise. Must get going on that too.

I ended the day purely in my element ... teaching a class, 

the first in over a year, or maybe even two. 

The first in this house. 

It was fun and wonderful. 

My students are the best!!

It's also one of my best classes, some of you know it 

and love it as much as I do. 

Think old-school with modern tools. 

The ins and outs, whys and what fors. 

This photo taken of a few years ago of Pearl's blocks
during a discussion about colors and setting options.

Skills-building ... if you've taken this class I'd love if you'd leave a comment and tell us what you thought, learned and / or enjoyed about it. I'd be over the moon if you sent me a picture of your quilt!

Today wasn't much different. 

Although I feel a tad less accomplished, the weather was gorgeous and I did work in the garden while Finn napped. It's warmer than yesterday which makes me a little sad. 

I'm still hoping for snow. 

I was hoping to see / experience our first snow on This * Little * Farm. 

I was hoping Finn would see his first snow.

He's even dressed (to sleep) like a snowbaby 

and was having a sweet moment with Mr. Snowman ...

That said, I do remember that our worst/best/most snow last year 

was actually after he was born so maybe there is still hope.

It's hard to imagine that we're coming up on a year ago already. 

Axel brought this basket of daffodils to the hospital last year when the boys were born. 

And now .. we're already into February, 

before the month is over 

my little itsy bitsy baby boy 

will turn 1 year old.

I'm maybe a tad in denial. 

A tad sad. 

But ooooh so excited.

Today I took pics of him in his little bed, a beautiful antique loaned from a friend. He really outgrew it a while ago but I love it so much and since he isn't rolling we've stuck to it, but now it's really time.

The gorgeous quilt is a gift from our friend Lisa.

On the left Finn is 2-1/2 months old, on the right 8 months.

Hand projects in the evening are still mainly my Randjes per Week, but I might have to take a break and knit Finn another hat. We're kind of wondering if he's allergic to wool and that cute hat I made him. I would be sooo sad if his is ....

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A very special Garden

Three months ago today our babies were born. 

They were four months too early. 

It all still seems so unreal, so surreal.

The day they were born was definitely the most difficult day of my life. 

It was also the most beautiful.

I became a mother. 

My husband a father.

There have been a lot of ups and downs since then but with each passing day I have found even more beauty in that day. You don't always recognize compassion, caring and love when you see it the first time in somebody you don't really know. But we were blessed with some of the most caring nurses I have ever met, an understanding doctor and a very young social worker who did her best to walk us through some very difficult decisions. She left us with a booklet to read through, things we might want to consider. Funeral arrangements, announcements, ways to deal with grief, etc.

I remember my first reaction. No way was I going to send out "blank" announcements - I still can't use the term that was in the book, suffice to say it is opposite of what new parents should be sending out.

My babies were BORN that day! 

That will always be how I remember and celebrate that day. 

As their Birth Day.

Strangely, I wrote the words for the seed packet 

the first week we were home. 

The card followed shortly after. 

We designed a card,

printed, cut and folded it ourselves.

We chose seeds and filled packets.

It's taken awhile to build up the strength to send them.

And we'd like to send one to you.

Your words and thoughts have been shared

and received with love and appreciation.

You have all given us so much support.

If you will drop me a quick line with your mailing address 

I would be so happy to put a card and seed packet in the mail for you.

It is a comforting thought to know that Saskia & Arne 

might be playing at your house, 

in your garden 

today ...

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Fresh Tomatoes

I can hardly wait ...

Not only will I get them from our local CSA but I have plans to plant quite a few in our garden too.  You can never have enough tomatoes in the summer.  Heaven knows store bought in or out of season never tastes the same.

I think I'm going to piece this up to hang in my kitchen!

If you'd like the pattern for my tomato, 
leave a comment (be sure your email is available)
and I'll email it to you :)

If you'd like to design your own, visit the V&A, it's very cool and I could play way too long.  But nope, I'm off to lunch then work ... today is one of those days when I absolutely LOVE my job!

This was one of my first big juicy toms from our garden in Schellebelle.

I do love my toms!!

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Lettuce Pause

Two weeks ago I bought the tiniest of lettuce starts on a local market. 10 for 1€ ($1.43) so we bought a variety and I planted them up in window boxes in the kitchen. Look at them .. they're huge!

Tonight's dinner? Salad! (Check out The Little Grey Cookbook to find out what we put on it.)

It looks like we can finally stop buying it - hip-hip hooray!

Do you yearn for fresh vegies too but don't have a garden of your own?  Have you thought about joining a CSA (Community Shared / Supported Agriculture)?  I am so excited that we have one near us.  It's the first year but capacity often fills up fast so we jumped on in.  I know -we have a garden- but now I can concentrate on some unusual things and stuff to preserve, etc.

So ... if you live near Kalken ... be sure to check it out.  Here's an email we received today from our "farmer."  There's more info on the website but be sure to contact Rony he'll answer all of your questions!

Hoera!!! Het heeft geregend, en het werd tijd! Al wat gezaaid werd de vorige weken, is gekiemd of staat zelfs al boven: erwten, spinazie, rucola, meiraapjes, raapstelen, tuinbonen, ..., het gras op de paden. Ook de ajuintjes die voor de regen geplant zijn, beginnen al te groeien.  Totnogtoe nog niet teveel onkruid ... hopelijk blijft het zo.

Alle ajuinen en sjalotten zijn geplant, de aardappelen nog niet ... nog 30 kg pootgoed te gaan. De rogge die we in het najaar lieten zaaien heeft de grond schitterend doorworteld, maar is nu redelijk lastig om zonder drastische maatregelen weg te krijgen ... redelijk arbeidsintensief. Ondertussen staat het plantsysteem hier ook op punt, en loopt alles redelijk vlot.

Een deel van de aardbeiplantjes zijn ook al geplant. Mmm. En Eva heeft een hele resem kruiden gezaaid in trays, lijst zie volgende nieuwsbrief.

De tomatenplantjes groeien dag na dag  ... we moeten dus dringend de tunnel plaatsen. Een aparte oproep volgt. Het is een grote klus, en we kunnen zeker wat helpende handen gebruiken.

Iedereen welkom op het veld !
Groetjes,  Rony & Eva 
www.oogstgoed.be

If you're not near us .. then check out where one is locally in your area.  There are so many reasons to do it:

• no packaging
• fresh from the ground and into the pot (with a quick rinse of course)
• many CSAs are bio (ours is - yippee!)
• your kids get to see where there food comes from

I apologize for the multiple posts today .. but I've been having problems with my photos showing up in google reader and on facebook.  This seemed the only way to check ... hopefully I fixed it :)

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Things are Growing!

It's been busy busy around here ... we've had a few good days of sunshine and the wind / temperatures were mild enough that I managed to do some weeding in the garden. The 265 bulbs I planted in the courtyard really made lots of progress this week ... I can hardly wait for the mini daffs to open their sunny buds.

Monday was an amazing day here. It actually got too warm in the car ... whatta feeling! I took Axel to work in the morning so I could have the car to go by the garden center. I stocked up on primroses and spring bulbs and planted up two meter-long planters for our kitchen window sills. It's a wonderful feeling to come down in the morning, open the blinds and be greeted by an explosion of color.



Whisper and I were just talking the other day about how much easier this winter was. It seemed to go by much faster ... she thinks it's because we didn't have that very deep freeze over the new year. But I think it helped that we always had blue skies when we looked out the shop and kitchen windows into the courtyard.

Evenings are spent with Dots ... lots and lots of dots. I can't tell you how much I am enjoying this project. It's contagious and addictive. The layout here is not right, for that you need to look at the sketch in the right column of my blog but for now I'm one dot away from having 17 blocks finished. And I've trialled the Bowl Block, here's a close-up.

And Angéle has finished her table runner! Isn't it scrumptious. She chose not to quilt it so just hemmed a really long (over two meters) length of fabric then used the Dots template and overlapped the first row of dots each time to get this fantastic centerpiece. Yes, I'm drooling and seriously contemplating a 3rd dots project ... yes, I know, crazy! Third you ask .. oh yes, I still need to show you pics of my bright and cheerful dots blocks.

I have lots more to show ... another mini project, the beginnings of an Amish swap with Liz, new pillowcases .. and .. and .. and ..  I have been busy ... the spring bug has hit :)  But I might be a little AWOL the next little while, you see we're going to paint our bathroom and then our kitchen.  Both are huge jobs as both involve panelled ceilings and the bathroom has tons of really ugly tile to cover up.  So when I re-surface, I promise there will be more updates.  And if I get a chance I'll drop by with a few pics here and there.

Happy Spring, Happy Sewing!  xox Jovita Pin It Now!

My Dad - My Inspiration

Today is my Dad’s birthday.  He would have been 80 years old.   Dad grew up in a tiny, tiny town in the back woods of Mississippi.  He was the oldest in his poor family and to help the family income planted peach trees around the property when he was 12.  He tended these trees, picked and sold the fruit to the neighbors.  I also remember stories of stealing watermelons from the neighbor and hunting squirrels.  As a young man he helped on his Uncle JR’s peanut farm.   

He was the first to graduate high school.  After which, he enlisted in the Army Air Core (which later became the US Air Force).  He served 20 years, living in five countries while raising six children.  A year before I was born, Dad retired from the service and settled in Everett, WA.  He had flown through Seattle a few times during his service years and had always thought it looked like “a nice place to live.”  He hired on at Boeing but that quickly ended with “the big layoff.”  He then hired on at Everett Community College, beginning as a janitor.  He ended up founding their Audio Visual department – repairing, planning, fixing and locating all AV equipment on campus.  I have fond memories of going to work with him – working at the counter to check out materials to students and falling off the high stool with a huge crash, driving through the library after hours on the electric cart which would only go if your butt was firmly planted on the seat, but then my legs were too short so Dad would stack a pile of books up behind me and of course his desk, a huge pile of tangled wires, parts and tools (but he could always find what he needed, hmmm, a chip off the old block?)

Dad took care of three gardens when I was growing up, the largest was at my oldest sister’s where the corn, beans and who knows what else was.  In our front garden grew peas, strawberries and the biggest crop of chard one year that none of us will ever forget.  I always thought it was spinach but later found out it was chard – that’s why it kept growing back.  One row of this stuff meant it was on the dinner table nearly every night that summer.  Yuck!  I still can’t eat it just cooked – a mess of slimey greens and I’ve learned to cope and cook with it in other ways – but I don’t grow it!   I still have his work / gardening hat …

If Dad was here today, I would take him for a walk in my garden. I think he would be proud of my tomatoes, give advice on my beans (they’re still straggly) shake his finger at me for not eating my peas fast enough before they got too old and bemused by my need to grow so many flowers – no matter how she asked, he would never plant them for mom.      

Dad was a quiet man – unless he had a good story to tell, he was extremely resourceful and could fix anything you threw at him.   He didn’t get involved in the raising of us very much – that was Mom’s job.  But he loved to be around his grandchildren.  He could tell you all 20 of their birthdays and probably even the weather the day they were born.  And he had a knack for settling them when no one else could.  He was also a thinker and had an incredible mathematical mind.

In 1997, Dad quit smoking so he could fly to England for my wedding.  I told him if I knew that’s what it would take, I would have gotten married years before.  A few months after our wedding I flew back to the States and met Dad in Mississippi for a week’s visit.  It was a great opportunity for him to show me around all the old haunts and share family stories.  I’ll always treasure this time spent with him.

Two years later he was diagnosed with cancer and he went quickly.  He was a remarkable man who touched many lives, but none so much as his youngest daughter’s.

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Getting Down and Dirty

Thank goodness for sunshine!  I think someone was watching out for my state of mind and delivered the first day of Spring when I most needed it.

Yesterday I spent the whole day fighting with my computer.  I had recently bought Microsoft’s most recent version of Office for the Mac and was all excited to draw up the diagram for the Toybox children’s quilt that so many of you asked about at the Quilter’s Anonymous Show.

Well - I don’t think I ‘m alone when I say I wish they wouldn’t mess with a good thing!  Last week I spent quite a bit of time drawing the quilt diagram and writing up the construction notes.  Saved it, moved on to something else and came back to put the finishing touches on it yesterday.

Lo and behold, the colors of the quilt diagram and all changed - willy nilly, no rhyme or reason.  What used to be red was now lavender, what was blue (to resemble the marble fabric) was now white with little blue polka dots.  

Needless to say, I was ready to throw things and my husband looked for places to hide.  This morning I remembered that I hadn’t junked my old version of Word and am almost back on track.

However, in the meantime I woke up to sunshine this morning . . . lovely!  We’ve been needing it.  It snowed here in Belgium too, the week after Easter.  Yes, I know Easter was early but snow that late?  Yuck.  Except it looked so pretty.

So after a bit of housework, another hour of Toybox and reading my emails - I headed outside to weed for the first time this year.  It was lovely and one thing led to another when I thought it was a good time to clear off my potting bench and found 100 daffodil bulbs and quiet a few tulip bulbs that never got planted.  Yikes.  They were actually sprouting and one was nearly ready to bloom.  

What the heck - into the ground and various pots they went.  It will be fun to see how many materialize and if we still have daffodils in June . . .

Now, it’s back to that computer . . . for a good fight until the Toybox pattern is complete

. . . wish me luck

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