This Kid Cracks Me Up!!

I found nearly new, way too big for him, Land's End rain boots at a thrift shop last week. They screamed to come home with me, and for $3 I couldn't pass them up. They were secretly stashed away in the closet--at least I thought. Why do I think I can secretly stash things with this silly munchkin around? Especially shoes. The boy loves shoes...possibly more than I do.
Last night, Nana came over to help me get him ready for bed--really to give me a few moments of peace while I got ready for bed. Well, Levi found the boots, and insisted on wearing them. The outfit was so stylin' I just had to take pictures...Giant bedtime diaper, fancy pants (as Nana calls them), and rain boots. And, let's not forget the spade. We found that one in the Target dollar spot. He loves it almost as much as he loves his boots.
When he's not wearing them, he thinks it's pretty spectacular to wander around the house holding them by their handles.

A Walk Through The Garden

Our garden is finally beginning to look like a little more than just dirt! After Levi's birth, the garden went sadly neglected for quite some time. It took a good bit of effort just to get it back to the dirt stage, and I'm so happy to see little signs of edible life popping up all over the place. We've rearranged a bit. The asparagus is much happier in it's new location. We moved the compost heap, and put the asparagus where that used to be:
I planted some radish seeds last Friday, and they had already popped their cute butterfly shaped heads through by Monday!
This is really a weed, but it looks rather like a radish seedling. I couldn't resist snapping a pic. I left a couple of them just out of curiosity. We'll see what they turn into:
Oregano makes me happy...the smell is heavenly. We have loads more herbs in the garden, but no pictures of them...yet:
Our first teeny, tiny tomato popping out with a couple of lovely little tomato flowers:
Our lone bell pepper plant:
He will soon have a couple of cabbage neighbors as well as a few nearby onions, carrots, and beans. What's popping up around you...in your yard or garden?

Happy Mail!

I love a good piece of mail. Unfortunately my box rarely contains such delight. Last Friday, as I came inside from working in the garden, I found this waiting patiently at my doorstep:For her 100th post Bek at Red Chocolate gave away a family portrait, and yippee, I won! This sweet little portrait did quite a bit of travelling to get to my door--coming all the way from Australia. Can't wait to find a frame and a permanent home for it. Thanks so much Bek for brightening my day!!

Simple Joy Sunday

I'm on a roll. This will be my 5th Simple Joy Sunday. I haven't forgotten a single one yet! Of course, now I've gone and jinxed myself, so just watch me forget next week. Alrighty then, on to the simple joys of the week:
1. My garden--which I have yet to take pictures of, mostly because it looks like dirt with a couple of tomato plants and some herbs. The basil is still microscopic, and the beans, cabbages, cilantro, dill, carrots, radishes, onions, etc. have yet to make an appearance seeing as I just put the seeds in the ground a few days ago. Levi cracks me up trying to help me. Although I hear he might have annihilated my dill while outside with my dad. Way to go "Baw-baw" for keeping an eye on him. I love to dig and plant and watch things grow, but one of the best parts is anticipating the harvest. This year looks promising with blueberry bushes laden with unripe berries, nine tomato plants in the ground (some already beginning to flower), tons of beautiful blackberry flowers, and more herbs than we can shake a stick at. We're working on another patch of dirt for some cucumbers, squash, and a few more carrots.
2. How could we have a Simple Joy Sunday post in the midst of spring without flowers. New ones pop up every day this time of the year. Like these Indian Paintbrush flowers:And these lovely weeds (I think they are called Fleabane or something like that.):
And these wild Louisiana Irises:
3. On the list of simple joys for Levi, we've got sticks, stones, and mud. Seriously, those three things have topped the best toys ever list.
If you want to join in on Simple Joy Sunday head on over to Cool Zebras. Hope y'all have a joyful week ahead!

Eeeek!!!

Last night, right after logging on to Twitter, Levi woke up with quite a howl. A bit of comforting later, and back to my desk I went only to find a large black spider lurking underneath. Normally, I would get a glass and a piece of paper and escort the eight legged critter out the back door. However, this one looked kinda funny--like a possible black widow. And she was also in a very bad spot for catching. So I smooshed her with the nearest shoe, and then.....what appeared to be hundreds of tiny black sugar ants appeared all over my floor. For a brief second I actually thought, "How strange. What are sugar ants doing scurrying all over my floor?" And then it hit me. Those aren't sugar ants. Those are about a kabillion baby spiders! That's when I let out a shriek and started dancing all over the place trying to make sure they weren't on me. Yeah, it was a pretty scene. Me freaking out and trying to scream as quietly as possible so as not to wake Levi. I grabbed the phone and dialed my parents house. My dad answered.
Me: "Can baby spiders live without their mommy? Please say, 'no.'" My dad: "I don't know. Why?" Me: "I just squished a spider, and babies went EVERYWHERE!!!" I could hear the smile in my dad's voice from there on out--even when he asked "Why am I on the phone with you?" To which I responded "For moral support." Although, I'm not sure what kind of moral support he could possibly give, considering he thinks this kind of situation is funny. When I asked him if he thought I'd have a spider infestation in my studio his response was a nonchalant, "Depends on what they find to eat. Maybe they'll come after you." Needless to say, I didn't go back to twittering. I went to bed (on the other side of the house) where I prayed the spiders wouldn't come and find me.
I'm blogging with my feet up in the chair, just in case. The idea of that many spiders wandering around my house is completely giving me the heeby jeebies. Do any of you know if a kabillion teeny tiny baby spiders can live without their mom? Please say, "No."
Oh, by the way, it was just a run of the mill garden spider. Found that out in the postmortem inspection.

I Think We've Got a Farmer On Our Hands

These are the belated Earth Day pictures. Unknowingly, I presented Levi with the perfect Earth Day present-his own shovel. I figured it would keep him from stealing mine which he is apt to do. In reality it just encouraged him to dig his own holes in exactly the wrong places. Sigh...I guess we all have to start somewhere.
Doesn't he look like such a little farmer? He just needs a straw hat and some hay stuck in his teeth.
If only he had been content to just dig up the grass.

Visitin' (Round Here G's Are Optional)

Levi and I spent the morning at a local tennis court watching my goddaughter, Makayla, test out her tennis chair and catching up with her momma, Miah, and little sis, Ainsley. At the very end of our visit, my brain kicked in and I remembered to take photos. More like to try to take photos. We wanted a pic of all three munchkins together. This is what we ended up with.
Nice, huh? Levi was none to keen on being held by anyone but mommy. Can somebody say, "Momma's boy!" We did finally get a halfway decent pic of me and the two oldest kiddos--baby Ainsley not included.
We even got a couple of cute ones of the two girls...In Levi's defense it was VERY close to nap time, and he was quite worn out from the days adventures.

It Was An Earthy Kind Of Day

Until about an hour ago, I had no idea that today was Earth Day. How do I miss these things??? Despite having chatted with a friend this afternoon about Earth Day, it still managed to escape my notice that...duh...that's today. Granted, that knowledge probably wouldn't have had any real effect on the day's goings on. Except that I might have posted this much earlier and probably wouldn't have left my camera at my moms. Sorry guys! This one will be pictureless.
Most of today was spent in the garden digging and planting and digging and planting some more. Oh, yeah, and chasing Levi and re-digging holes that he filled in and trying to convince him not to pull up the tomato plants that I just put in the ground and then chasing him a bit more and on and on and on. I can say with some certainty that while we were out Levi indulged in a little dirt munching. The ring around his mouth gave him away. Reminds me of something we used to say as kids. Anyone else remember this one? "God made dirt, and dirt don't hurt!" What's childhood without liberal quantities of mud and dirt? Hope y'all had a down and dirty good time today. Happy Earth Day!!

Bubbles, Bubbles Everywhere

Some of y'all were wondering how I made my bubble solution. The recipe came from the Little Window Shoppe. For bubble wands, we used cookie cutters and the wire egg dipper leftover from an Easter egg dying kit.
I wasn't entirely impressed with the solution and hesitated to post it, but so many of y'all made requests. It does work and is great in a pinch. However, the bubbles aren't quite as prolific as the store bought variety. I've got a few ideas for tweaking it a bit. We'll see if I come up with anything.

All Cozied Up

Excuse the dark and blurry photos. For obvious reasons I didn't turn the flash or the light on.
The day he decides he wants to sleep like a big boy (i.e. without his mommy), I think I'm gonna cry. Hope y'all are having a cozy Monday!

Simple Joy Sunday

Bubbles topped the simple joy list...at least as far as Levi was concerned. We "cooked" up a batch of bubbles and then blew to our hearts content. It certainly made for a fun way to spiff up an otherwise dreary day:
The bubbles were full of good clean fun, but our week did hold a few more simple joys worth mentioning. The number one being that my sewing machine and I seem to have finally come to an understanding. We've always had quite the love hate relationship that bordered more on hate than love, but as you might have noticed here and here we've been getting along rather well of late. And, this week has been smooth sailing for the two of us.
Now, I don't know how fond y'all are of crawfish (mudbugs, crawdads, crayfish, crawdaddies...whatever you want to call them), but I think they are absolutely heavenly. Friday I started having a serious craving for some crawfish yumminess. My dad surprised us by taking us out to eat at one of our favorite local spots, and, lo and behold, they had a new menu item--boiled crawfish. So, of course we ordered, 10 pounds of them and ate to our hearts content. Yum!
Hope y'all have had loads of simple joys worth celebrating this week. If you'd like to join in on the fun the head over to Cool Zebras.

Happy Weekend!

Over the weekend, I was hoping to do a whole lot of this....
But it seems that our nature adventures might be curtailed by some nasty ole' storms heading our way. Luckily, I'm armed with leftover plastic eggs for indoor egg hunts (who says they're just for Easter?). And...if the weather isn't too dangerous, I've got sidewalk chalk, a homemade bubble solution, and a screened porch. Wish me luck! Hope your weekend is shaping up to be a fabulous one!!

You See A Skirt--I See A Potholder

I think the Easter Bunny stole my potholders. Seriously, they are nowhere to be found. As I was searching high and low for them, I spotted this skirt in the giveaway pile . . . .
And, I had a light bulb moment. The colors totally match my kitchen, and since the Easter Bunny (or more likely Levi) has absconded with my potholders, this little skirt would certainly make some mighty cute replacements. So, here's the story of how I turned that into these...
What you'll need:
A skirt (or any old piece of fabric)
batting
6 inch ribbon
coordinating thread
*Note: do make sure that you aren't using materials that are prone to melting. Stick with natural fibers.

What to do:
Cut an 8 inch square out of a piece of paper. This will be your pattern. Draw your pattern onto your fabric. I can never find my washable fabric pencils, so I just use a ball point pen. I know...how terrible of me! You'll need to cut two squares of fabric. I cut one from the top of the skirt and one from the skirt's lining which was blue. You'll also need two squares of batting.
Once everything is cut out...
Place your fabric right sides together. Then sandwich the fabric between the two pieces of batting. So, you'll have batting, fabric, fabric, batting. Fold your ribbon in half. Place it in between the two pieces of fabric at one corner. Like so:
Pin everything together.
Sew around the edges leaving an opening for turning. Trim and turn:
Iron everything flat, making sure that your opening edges are neatly tucked in.
Top stitch around the edge. This will close your opening.
To finish, machine quilt. I just quickly outlined some of the major shapes. You could do a simple grid or even just a few straight lines. Voila!
I also whipped up a couple of smaller ones for Levi. Same idea as above except with only a 6 inch square of fabric and only one layer of batting. Please excuse the backdrop. Levi's kitchen is in serious need of some tlc. I found it on the side of the road and have been meaning to fix it up.
These are seriously easy to make and can be done during nap time. I'm thinking a couple of these little kiddo potholders and an apron or a chef's hat would make a terribly cute gift. Hmmm...now I'm going to need to figure out how to make a chef's hat. Oh, wouldn't Levi just look too cute for words?!!

Sweet Surprises

This weekend held many wonderful little surprises. For Levi, they took the form of colorful eggs, (mostly) handmade treats and toys, and loads of lovely sweets. For me, the surprise was in the joy that my little fella' got out of this lovely holiday. His delight over hidden eggs and fuzzy little bunnies left me beaming. It might be quite some time before he gets the true meaning of Easter, but in the meantime I'll just sit back and enjoy his beautiful curiosity and his terribly cute squeals of delight over a found "eck" (a.k.a. egg).
I was convinced that he would spend all of his time doing this...plucking the heads off all the flowers.
But he was truly enthralled by the whole egg finding adventure. Plucking flowers didn't occur to him until all of the eggs had been found....
...and dumped out and found yet again.
Oh, yes. Let's not forget they all had to be emptied of their contents as well.

Simple Joy Sunday--Easter Style

We had a truly blessed Easter weekend with no shortage of simple pleasures. The first being our risen Savior. A close second being His beautiful handiwork (2nd and 3rd flower photos courtesy of Annie, my little sister).



Other simple pleasures...little Easter bunnies that hopped into Levi's Easter basket late last night. Have I mentioned my crazy tendency to feel the uncontrollable urge to whip things up at the last minute?
Of course, I have to mention Levi's latest simple joy: gardening. He loves mini gardening tools and is quickly gaining quite a collection. This rake, though, is an old favorite.
I pray that each one of you had a very blessed and wonderful Easter weekend. If you'd like to join in on Simple Joy Sunday then head over the Cool Zebras' pad. She'll get you all linked up!

P.S. I nearly forgot! Levi said his first official multisyllabic word today (unless of course you count ma-ma and such). At lunch, while eating potatoes, he said "badaydo." Then he was hooked, and said it over and over. . . .possibly because we were so excited. Talk about simple pleasures!