blueberry jam

the plethora of blueberry picking has led me to jam making. i have never made jam before, but i read about it here and was inspired. i got a few books from the library and read as much as i could about preserving fruits and making jam.

i found a recipe in one of the books for blueberry jam that did not require any pectin (since i did not have any). then i set to work. lucky i was on the phone with crissy as i was making the jam because she is an experienced jamstress and answered all of my questions. it smelled delicious as it was cooking. just the sort of summer berry smell i was hoping for.

i filled the bottles and boiled them shut.

ready and waiting for a cold winter day when i need that warm berry smell to remind me of summer.

feeling gifty?

this is a sneak peak at two gifts i just got into the mail. the first is to my little bako boy.

these two little gifts match this blanket that i made for him just after he was born.

i also got this belated gift in the mail:

i loved making this. (it has not been delivered yet... so i am being a bit vague as to what it is) it is an adapted pattern from this book. i did two things i had never done before: make my own bias tape and use fabric ink to stamp letters onto fabric. both came out awesome and were easier than i thought they were going to be. i foresee lots of bias tape making in my future. i used the fabric ink pads that i got at the renegade craft fair (from the small object).

also, speaking of gift giving... i really want someone to gift this book to me. maybe for my half birthday, which is aug. 25th? just saying...

sand & water

i have a hard time buying big toys for calvin. we don't have a huge house and i like to be able to put his toys in a basket and have them out of the way when he is not using them. the few biggish things that he has are played with a lot and can grow with him. and when his interest in something wains, i put it away for awhile.

as i have blogged about before, calvin is very into dirt (and water, especially the hose) so a few months ago we got this sand/water table for him. i chose this one because it is just a simple tub on a stand. i hope that we can use it for many years, filling it with a plethora of different things (sand, water, birdseed, cornstarch & water, playdough, maybe even a seasonal table like i saw in the creative family).

for now it is filled with sand and calvin can't get enough of it.

ps. calvin is also very into sweeping so i just ordered him a broom from here (i love this store. the stuff is well made and so frickin' cute!). it is another 'big' thing but something that i know he will love and will (hopefully) be in use often.

junk drawer

organized.

cross it off the summer to-do list.

(yippee!)

put a little guac on it

this is one of calvin's new favorite treats. guacamole on a tomatoes slice. (it may be hard to tell the scale there, but it is a small grape tomato slice) he has not been too into tomatoes and i was talking with a friend about how her daughter will eat anything with a little guacamole on it...then it came to me. put a little guac (can't decide if i love or hate that abbreviation) on a tomato slice and voila! he loves them. also i just found little 100 calorie packs of guacamole at the market! these are so cool. just enough for what i need and i don't have to deal with day old brown guacamole.

in the sewing arena... i am trying to take advantage of the summer and get to all of the little projects that i have not had time for in the last year or so. i made these little cafe curtains for our kitchen eating area. the sun comes in super strong in the morning, but we really like the morning light so i settled on a light cotton that still lets most of the light through, but mutes the sun a bit so we don't feel like we need sunglasses as we eat breakfast.

i used this sorta retro looking fabric that i got from a local fabric shop. i cut off the salvage so i don't know who made it (sorry). it is orange with a bit of yellow. they go well with our orange retro fiberglass chairs that we got at the elephant's trunk flea market last year.

photo booth

i love to get pictures taken at old black and white photo booths. we took this last week.

their innocent little eyes melt my heart and make me laugh simultaneously.

hearing aid

when mason was here visiting i made three new headbands to hold his bone conductive hearing aid. my sister picked out some great fabrics (the gray is cashmere) in very boy colors (he is often mistaken for a girl because he is wearing a 'headband').

i added five inches to his current headband, so that it will grow with him, but after i fully constructed the first one and tried it on him, it was way too big. I cut off about three inches from each one and now they fit. they are still a tad big, but wearable so *hopefully* they will fit for awhile. at 5 or 6 years old mason will probably get this so he will not need the headband anymore.

here is mason wearing the brown one i made him last december. it was already getting too small.

these headbands were fun to make and pretty easy. jessica said that they are hard to find, especially in boyish colors, so if you are looking for one email me.