Yay, summer!

I'm loving this summer. We are having so much fun at a pace that's not too overwhelming. A good balance of activity and relaxation. Walter is becoming more and more independent, which helps with the relaxation part. And we are steadily checking things off the summer list. I've been relying on my phone for photos lately – it's always on hand and is easier to carry when we're biking around town. Here are some snapshots from the past week. (If we are Facebook friends or you follow me on instagram, you've probably seen many of these already.) 
An afternoon spent at the beach.

Walter gets new shoes and learns to tie them!

French toast flipper.Walter also cooked us up some chicken nuggets, from scratch, this week. I may have helped a little. :)

We finally started using our fire pit and cooked up some s'mores.

Walter got the itch to sew again. This time a two-tailed giraffe.

A few from this morning's bike ride and kite-flying adventure. We accidentally all wore orange shirts. We're dorks. :)



And here's a little video from the park. Not too exciting, but I think it's cute.
Dizzy from Stephanie Billmeyer on Vimeo.
I hope you are enjoying your summer too!

From the weekend

The camera was filling up with photos so I figured I better put some up here. Our weekend was spent mostly outdoors – soccer practice, farmer's market, garden planting, and just hanging out in the yard. I think it's so peaceful to just sit outside and watch all of our creatures. The chickens are back to being free-range during the day. So far, so good.


The bees are out and about, collecting pollen from anything they can find. Mostly dandelions at the moment. It's so fun to find a bee in the yard and know that it's our bee. 

Molly is enjoying the new smells of spring. She's rolling in all kinds of gross stuff and bringing all kinds of dirt and bugs (ticks!) into the house. But we still love her. 

Walter can't get enough of the outdoors. Chasing chickens, popping bubbles, playing baseball, riding bikes, hitting golf balls. There's just so much to do out there!



The garden was planted on Sunday. I'm hoping the weather stays nice and things actually grow. I feel like I may have jumped the gun a bit this year.

In other project news: the scrap map is done! Not just done, but framed and hung in my sewing room. 


Hooray for fun and productive weekends! 

Sunday

Building, visiting, crafting, and photographing. My kind of day.
LEGO building in our pajamas is becoming a Sunday morning tradition. And I'm giving you another little peek at the playroom re-do. Maybe by next Sunday I'll have it cleaned up and ready to show off. No promises though.


I spent the afternoon putting some more scraps to use. I can't wait to see how this scrap map turns out - I got a pretty good start on it today. Those big blocky western states went together quickly, but the northeast is more challenging. It's hard to keep track of all those little guys. 



I hope your Sunday was as productive and peaceful as ours. 

It's a quilt

This quilt is done! And it only took me a week. I had no idea it would go so quickly. I probably did it all wrong by real quilting standards, but it looks like a quilt to me. A cozy, cheery, little, lap-sized (or Walter-sized) quilt. My scraps have never looked so good.

A peek into the sewing room

Since the success of the art table organization, I decided to tackle my sewing room. It doubles as a guest room and it is a collection point for all kinds of junk. I could barely walk in there, much less sew anything. I've spent a good portion of the last two weekends cleaning it up, cleaning it out, and organizing supplies. And just like Walter at his art table, I found things I didn't even know I had. Like this zebra, tucked in the bottom of my scrap basket, just waiting for some stuffing. I don't remember when or why I abandoned it, but I finished it up and it quickly settled in on Walter's head, like so many projects before it. 

Sorry, he refused to stop drinking water while I took that photo.
Also in my scrap basket: a ton of scraps! Imagine that. Scraps and a clean workspace led to the start of a quilt. I've never made a quilt before. It won't be big and it won't be fancy, but it's already been so much fun. Walter helped me piece it all together with the rule that no two of the same squares could be next to each other. An excellent project for a four-year-old.

The sewing started today and is going pretty quickly. Another weekend or two and I just might have a quilt. As long as I don't abandon this the way I did the zebra. Keep me motivated! Hold me accountable!


I don't have before and after photos of the room, but I have a few bits and pieces to share. 

A little something for the boy

Walter got a guitar for Christmas. I think I've tuned it about 50 times in the past two weeks. I don't know why. He doesn't care what it sounds like. He just strums crazily and within minutes, it's out of tune again. But he loves it and he asked me to make him a strap so it's easier for him to hold while he's crazily strumming. I love it when Walter commissions a project. This sort of thing is so fun to work on. It's new to me - I've never made a guitar strap. It's like a puzzle. What materials do I need? Can I use something I have on hand? How does it all go together? Plus, my little client is happy to help and easy to please. We decided to use this bicycle fabric, purchased two and a half years ago. Two and a half years it's been sitting in my stash, waiting for just the right thing. I think we put it to good use. He is ready to rock!

p.s. - If you need a custom guitar strap, I'm your girl. :)

Ahoy, Matey!

And Happy Halloween!

Triple word score

Walter chooses his own clothes each morning. He has some very strong opinions about what he will and will not wear. So when I made him this shirt for his fourth birthday I wasn't surprised when he said he liked it, but then said he would NEVER wear it. Once he decides he will NEVER do something, he pretty much sticks to that decision. But today he surprised me. Exactly three months later, he appeared in front of me this morning wearing his new birthday shirt!


It seemed to work well for all of his adventures today. Now for the real test: will he wear it again?

Weekending

Phew! Another great weekend in the books. Nate was working all weekend, so Walter and I were on our own to find some fun. I have to say, I think we nailed it! A friend from work invited us to a fire department celebration on Saturday afternoon. There was a giant slide, tons of vintage fire trucks to look at, and you could use a real fire hose to put out a (fake) fire.

Patrick gave Walter a full tour of the ladder truck and we got to ride in the fire truck parade! He made our day! That's Patrick on the top left, answering all of Walter's questions.   

Walter says his waving arm got tired during the parade.

After all that fire department fun yesterday, we decided to be homebodies today. We spent part of our morning sewing paper dot garlands. These are so easy and fun. We used a big circle punch and some old paper samples. I set the sewing machine on slow, and Walter fed the dots through, one after another. We decorated the porch and had a festive lunch. 

A little gardening, a little cleaning, a little outdoor play. We spent the evening making 'welcome home' artwork for Daddy with sidewalk chalk. 

I love my weekends! I hope yours was great too!

Mustachioed

Walter's old Brewer shirt had gotten a little small and a little worn, so he and I spent our Sunday afternoon cooking up a new Brewer shirt. From a pile of blue and yellow knits, he chose the shades. He also helped me pin the fabric together and then sat on my lap and wiggled while I tried to sew. (Sometimes "helping" makes things take twice as long.) But we got it put together and then added a little freezer paper stencil to the front - a nod to our mustached mascot, Bernie Brewer. 

Walter's strong man pose:

And his "I don't want you to take my picture" pose:

I think he's ready for a game. Go Brewers! 

Walter's frog

Walter: Can we sew a frog, Mama?
Me: I don't think I know how to sew a frog.
Walter: I'll make you some instructions.

We followed them as closely as we could.



And, in case there is any confusion, here's the explanation I got:

Turns out, frogs are good for balancing on your head, too.