another ben baby quilt

Yes, Ben is a popular name in my office!  This Ben, and his wife Courtney, are expecting their third child, but aren't finding out the gender.  This is always a fun challenge for a baby quilt, because gender-neutral tends to just wind up looking "boy."  

I'm not a purist who says boys must have blue and girls must have pink, I promise you that!  I decided on the flowering snowball pattern because I had just finished piecing the same pattern in a lap-sized quilt for myself.  That quilt went to the back burner so that I could work on some baby quilts.  Baby quilts are so much faster, and when you just want to have a finished product, baby quilts are the way to go!

The middle squares are green (Kona Grass Green, maybe?) and the white is my tried-and-true Kona White.  I knotted navy yarn in the middle of each four-patch, and added corresponding navy-patterned binding.  I stitched around the white circles, and left much unquilted so it would be all crinkly and lovely.

I found the backing in the clearance section of Joanns.  It's a Denise Schmidt print, and just the softest fabric I've found in a long time.  I loved how the print was just enough to not compete with the strong patterns of the fabrics on the front.  

Two baby quilts down, one to go!  

a trip to the farm show

The hubs and I like to take little trips, just us, and a couple of months ago the hubs was reading about this huge farm and machinery show in Louisville, Kentucky.  We decided it would be a fun getaway, and it was only a six hour drive.  Last Wednesday we left the kids with Memaw and headed down.

I don't know that either of us really knew how big this show is!  It's held at the Expo Center, and covers over 27 acres!  Everyone at our hotel was there for the farm show, and we found people from as far as Germany and Sweden.  There were license plates from almost every state you could think of.

The hubs loved getting to get into the tractors.  In what other place can you try out every brand of tractor?  The hubs was a kid in a candy store!

Some of the machinery looked like transformers and tanks.  Look at how big they are!

We noticed a crowd at one booth, and went to check it out.  This lady had a bald eagle!  And she was feeding the bald eagle dead mice, which was really icky to me.  

The hubs and I put off lunch until noon - big mistake!  The food area was ridiculously crowded, and we ended up finding a back hallway with a food station.

Look at that crowd!  After lunch, everyone trickled into the show, and it became hard to move through the crowds.

We left soon after, and decided to go see some Kentucky landmarks.  Hello Churchill Downs!  

At the suggestion of a co-worker, we went down to the Maker's Mark distillery for a tour.  Even though neither the hubs nor I are big drinkers, it was an absolutely amazing fun time!  I would recommend it to anyone going near Louisville.

These huge vats of mash and yeast are twelve feet deep.  And people have no buoyancy in them, so if you fall in you'll sink to the bottom!

All of the buildings are black with red shutters.  The shutters have a bottle shape cut out of them.  Learning about the history of the distillery was truly eye-opening, and just so interesting.  The matriarch of the family, Marge, insisted on the black buildings for aesthetics.  And she decided on the red shutters because when she polled the town, they favored red by 60%.  Marge even designed the bottle, and came up with the wax seal and name of the bourbon.  

We did get to try samples, but I didn't finish mine.  I'm not a huge fan of liquor that isn't mixed with fruity sweet mixers to mask the taste!

As a gift to themselves, Maker's Mark commissioned this Chihuly art piece.  It includes four angels, who catch the "angel share," which is what they call the bourbon that evaporates from the barrels while it is aging.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to dip my own bottle!  We got a bottle of Maker's Mark 46, and it's sitting on my dining room shelf right now.  I'll never open it.

These are the huge aging houses (rick houses), where the barrels sit for up to seven years.   They rotate the barrels by hand - all six levels!

We had a great time, and I loved getting to see Louisville.  I would like to visit the other distilleries in the area, and discover even more restaurants and things to do.  My recommendations - Village Anchor Pub - the truffle deviled eggs are no joke!  And Quills makes the best coffee I've ever had.  Louisville, we'll be back!

how do i love thee, valentine?

Let me count the ways.  The hubs and I had a quick getaway this week, and raced the snow back home this afternoon.  I had to get to my other little Valentines!  Before we left on our trip, Britton just needed some butterfly face painting.  We've all had those days, I'm sure.  And then she wanted a butterfly on her hand, and below is my very bad blob attempt!

Monkey see, monkey do!  No way is Britton getting her face painted without Boy Wonder getting in on that action.  He did a great job!

I had to prep the kids' Valentines before we left.  I had cardstock and felt on hand, and when I stumbled on these from Mer Mag, ding ding ding - we had a winner, folks!  I made them for both Britton and Barrett's classes, and while I colored in the hats for Barrett, Britton colored in her own.  I cut out heart eye patches, then sewed them on with blue metallic thread.  I love how they turned out!

barrett: 21 months old

Is this boy almost two years old?  Wow, time is flying with Barrett!  This poor thing has been sick since last week. It started out with a fever, then throwing up and congestion, and now he's starting to emerge from the yuckiness of being sick.  He's such a trooper though, and downright snuggly when he's not feeling well.  Being sick no doubt leaves him frustrated, because he just wants to play and go outside and torment Sadie.

Some stats - last time we went to the doctor, he was 35 pounds and 35 inches tall.  Barrett is in 3T clothes, size 7 shoes, and size 5 diapers.  He's been finicky about food lately, and while one day he will love a certain food, the next day he refuses it.  He does consistently love pasta/noodles, pizza, chicken and waffles, all fruit, corn, peas, and fish.  His vocabulary is blowing up, and he's learning and remembering new words every day.  Barrett loves to have books read to him, play with his blocks and little tractors and cars, and do any activity outside.  I can always count on this boy to start dancing when I play some Laurie Berkner Band!  We still haven't cut his hair yet, mostly because we don't even notice how long it has gotten!

Likes:  playing with Wedge-Its, any Little Tikes toy, his popper, petting Sadie, anything Britton is doing

Dislikes:  his sippy cups (he so badly wants that lid off), staying out of the trash can

#1 laurie berkner fan over here

We're big into Laurie Berkner over here.  Big time.  Mainly because I can't play the radio in the car, and not get a ton questions I don't want to answer.  Things like, "I don't know why her anaconda don't want none, Britton."  So, the Laurie Berkner Band CD stays in a constant loop.  And, truth be told, some of her songs are pretty catchy.  One of Britton's favorites is "Party Day."  The lyrics go like this:

One little ladybug
Called up a banana slug
A cucumber beetle and an ant

They drove to the beach
Where each one of them
Taught that little ladybug a dance

A banana slug?  Heck yes!  A cucumber beetle? I'm all over it!  Britton was looking at the CD case the other day, and noticed that the banana slug, cucumber beetle (and its purple guitar), and the ant all make an appearance on the front.  Below is the banana slug.....

Britton is in love with the banana slug.  Seriously, in love.  And she and I started coming up funny things you could put a picture of a banana slug on - a shirt, a book, and Britton suggested a pillow.  Actually, she said, "On a really really really soft pink pillow, with googly eyes!"  Ask and ye shall receive, Britton.  I picked her up early from school today, and we hit up Joanns for some pink and orange tie-dye cuddly fabric, felt, and of course, googly eyes.

I admit, this pillow turned out way cuter than I thought it would!  Britton snipped threads while I sewed it, and she helped me glue on the eyes and sequins.  She even sewed some of the bottom where I sewed up the opening!

Britton is currently asleep on the pillow, since the cuddly fabric requires her to snuggle with it!  Seriously, who would have thought that a banana slug could be so darn adorable?

the ben baby quilt

Have I mentioned that I have three co-workers with pregnant wives?  Whoa nelly, I need to make sure to never drink the water at the office!  One co-worker, Ben, is usually in the field.  So, slowly but surely, I've gotten some details out of him when he's visited the office.  And I found out he was having a girl, and his wife is due at the end of February.

I instantly thought of a granny squares quilt for him.  It just seems like such a sweet, fun pattern for a baby quilt, and it's not overly girly.  Ben doesn't strike me as the kind of guy that would coat everything in pink just because he's having a daughter.  The backing is a beautiful flowered print and the binding is leftover Kona Lagoon.

A close-up of one of the squares.  I quilted it with a straight-line stitch in the ditch on either side of the center rows.  Then I stitched some rows around the outside border, about 1/2 an inch from each other.  Simple, which left the quilt so soft.

I'm planning on giving it to Ben after they have the baby.  It's all washed and folded and ready to go!

66 months old

Have I mentioned how much five years old rocks?  I can find something good (and bad) about every age, but five is turning out to be one heck of an awesome year.  There is a sense of relief, that life has just gotten easier and we didn't even know it.  Britton does such "grown up" things that just surprise me - asking if she can be excused from the table, taking her plate to the sink without me asking, and she distracts Barrett when all he wants is my cell phone.  

Britton's current love is art.  Her teacher had some Mr. Sketch smelly markers, and Britton asked if she could please please please get some too.  It's funny because every time I pick her up from school, another kid has acquired the same markers!  Pretty soon every kid will have their own set.  She loves coloring and drawing, and I end up keeping every picture she makes.

Britton "hearts" Valentine's Day

And animals!  Britton is smitten with the Wild Kratts television show, and she has learned so much about animals.  We're still doing a lot of reading.  We've started reading the "Mensa Kids" reading list, and I have discovered some books I never read as a kid.  One book is "The Mouse and the Motorcycle," which kept Britton enthralled through all 158 pages.  And we're making our way through "Where the Sidewalk Ends" by Shel Silverstein.

Likes:  wrestling with the hubs, playing in the snow, baking with me, playing with her dolls (especially when they get to dress alike)

Dislikes:  wearing pants, getting up early

off to the slopes (of my backyard)

It feels like it's been snowing for a week straight.  Heck, maybe it has!  And since we get home and need to get upstairs so I can make dinner and then it gets dark so soon, I put off taking the kids out in the snow until the weekend.  Come Saturday morning, a high of 18 degrees, and I put it off until the afternoon in the hopes it might warm up a bit.  

The tube is the new favorite this year.  We also have a sled and a saucer, but the tube goes the fastest.  And once the hubs and I built a ramp in the middle of the tubing path, it allows you to fly into the air.  Britton rode the tube right into a thorny bush and popped it, and as usual we had a back up ready to go.

Barrett woke up from his nap in the middle of our sledding, so when he came out to join us he was pretty confused.  He wanted to try out the tube too, and had fun time flying down the hill!  I suspect that Barrett would enjoy the snow more if he would wear gloves.  Alas, this kid won't wear them longer than the time it takes for me to turn around.  I'm tired of him leaving a trail of gloves in the backyard, so he's no longer required to wear them.

Sledding is so exhausting!

Today, we were all waiting for the big snow storm to hit.  Finally, sometime after lunch, the flakes got big and I had to go shovel the driveway.  Once I got to the end of the driveway, the part I started first was covered again!  Britton wanted to do more tubing, so we did.  Then the hubs and Britton set up their own Everest expedition, courtesy of a tent on the deck!

Britton got such a kick out of the tent!  The hubs has now promised to set it back up in the summer and camp out with Britton.  She tried to convince him they could camp out now, but the hubs wasn't buying that.

Sadie came out to check out the tent, but wanted none of this snow nonsense.  

It's only the first day of February - statistically, we have so many more snows to go this season.  But this was our first big dump, over six inches, and I must say, it was magical.  I love when the sun hits snow and there's millions of diamonds covering the lawn.  I love how the snow hangs in these evergreens and makes a scene most Christmas cards would envy.  Sure, I curse the snow if I have to drive in it or the kids track 15 pounds of it into the kitchen, but I didn't have much snow growing up.  I still love it.  I'm not tired of it, and I hope I never am.