I think I knit this hat last spring - I am fairly sure anyway (there is no pattern - I just made it up). I was browsing through some old photos on the computer and just came across this one. Do you keep all your photos on the computer? My son loves it when I print out photos for him (some times he picks photos I would have deleted, but if it makes him happy...). Kids like to have photos to put in an album, put on the refrigerator, hang in their homework space... so I make the effort. This summer I think I have done an extra good job of taking photos (and handing the camera over to him) AND then going to the store, sticking the chip in and printing out a batch. Plus, I am going to make him a "Summer 2012" scrapbook. NOT that I have time to make a scrapbook, so I will be transferring our favorite photos into 1 album on the computer and then uploading them to Snapfish. Love Snapfish!!! There you go! A nice, little photo book of photos that mean something special to him that he can show to friends, keep in a desk draw, whatever. It won't live in .jpg land forever!
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But where was I going with this post? Oh yeah, my thinking cap. I just ran across this photo of the hat and it made me think of my Mom. She liked to say... "put your thinking cap on". I was 28 when I lost my Mom to horrible cancer. But I know she is watching over me and telling me - "put your thinking cap on". And I have this sweet guy (who is a great bear-hugger) counting on me...
we have a complicated international living situation (this is not really through self-choice, immigration issues are complex), a declining economy for the self-employed, rising airline ticket issues, my husband who had a 3 kilogram cancerous tumor in 2009 just hasn't regained his energy (although he remains cancer-free, thankfully!), AND I am running the business and going to school to get a teaching degree (so far I have been able to maintain a 4.0 GPA in hopes of getting scholarships), plus making sure I get a lot of quality family time... I am not complaining believe me, but at times it gets to be all a little bit overwhelming for me... especially as our family time is rapidly coming to an end and soon we will be in different countries again. Hopefully the plane tickets go down in price and I can go visit, at least over the Christmas holidays. I guess the message from my Mom is to put my thinking cap on about how to improve our situation a bit even though I feel like I am doing everything I can! So stay tuned - I am going to put my thinking cap on!
He is making a face because he hates the flash! Guess who is sewing? This is his 2nd sailboat block.
I was trying to steer him toward a large nine-patch or something, but no such luck! He loves a sailboat pattern. At least it had a checkerboard segment, but look how tiny the pieces are!
We went to Marden's and these are the fabrics we came home with, plus we are adding a bit from my stash. And we aren't 100% sure we will use everything he got... but he does want to make it bigger than the pattern, so we just might need all of it!
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I need help! The next few blocks are applique. My machine has a nice blanket stitch (yeah!) so I am thinking we can fuse the fabric down and applique around the pieces, but what kind of fusing is the softest? He doesn't want it to get "crunchy". We are going shopping later this week so if I know what to get, we can move onto the next blocks. Still a few sailboats left to go, plus I think I will encourage him to make a some "filler" blocks to help make the quilt big enough to cover him... but those scary applique blocks are coming. Please let me know what you recommend! Thanks!
A favorite activity this summer when the cousins all got together - catching frogs! The kids spent hours playing in the water, walking along the edge on the lookout and building elaborate frog houses - all frogs released at the end of the day so no worries!
On this day I think they had 16 frogs in various "houses". Some of the frogs were really pretty good sized, but not as big as another pond nearby.
My camera isn't always focusing anymore, but look at these 3 on the log!
This is a beautiful pond - one of my very favorite ponds to swim across. I grew up swimming in ponds (they are not mud ponds either - these are very clear, sandy bottomed ponds). I really don't like swimming in pools and counting laps - just let me swim across a pond! My sister loves to ice skate on the ponds when they are frozen over and she says the same thing about ice skating rinks - she likes the ponds!
