String Theory

Big Kid's Birthday Wrap-Up

We celebrated the big girl's 8th birthday yesterday! It started with the traditional sibling-made crown. Girl #2 made this one.

We had present opening and dessert picnic-style at the new house. (More pictures of the house are coming, I promise!)

Waiting so patiently while mom dishes it up.

The girl opted for tart instead of cake. This one is basically a lemon raspberry tart baked on top of shortbread. It's amazing.

I don't think anyone told the 9 month old that he's not supposed to eat things like this yet.

But the most exciting part of an 8th birthday? It's the year of the pocket knife. The big girl got a pink Leatherman that her dad picked out for her. She also got a long list of advice about how and when to use her knife. 

She has been anticipating this day for over a year now. We'll see how she does with her new responsibility, but knowing her, she'll do very well.

Happy birthday, big girl!

I love you!

wedding dress

i just realized that i never blogged about the dress i made to wear to jared (my hubby's brother) and shannon's wedding last month.  i used a pattern from my stash-New Look 6644. part of the instructions were missing- the part i needed.  thankfully i was able to read the instructions for the other "view" of the dress and use those plus my previous dress-making knowledge to figure out how to put the bodice together.   i added a built-in three layer tulle "fluffer" because i feel that gathered circle skirts need fluffing.  great idea in theory, but next time i will add a lining with tulle over it so that the tulle isn't against my skin.  it wasn't itchy, but it got really static clingy and i had to keep rearranging it.  i made this dress in a hurry (no big surprise there) so there are a few fit issues that i will work to correct the next time i use this pattern.  the neckline kept gaping when i was sitting down and i'm sure more than one person got to see my undies that day. eek. my apologies to anyone i may have flashed. other than that i really liked this dress. it was comfortable and i was able to wear a normal bra with it which is always a bonus. i used the same batik fabric that i used for the skirt i posted about a little while ago.  i just really like it so i decided to use it again. an unintended result was that the fabric matched the blue that the bridal party was wearing so dave and i match.  i'm not thrilled with this next picture. i feel like my chest is looking oddly concave.  i know i'm skinny, but i don't think my sternum is malformed. anywho, it shows the whole dress. i included the second pic of the dress because it shows the skirt in it's proper "fluffed" state.

  

Yarn Along

This week I started the second sleeve on Camilla Kid using some intense orange Madelinetosh Tosh Chunky.  It's going to be for the big girl, probably for Christmas. It's a little early for me to be thinking about Christmas gifts, but I needed a break from working with fine yarn!

I just borrowed Up: A Mother And Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure from the library. I don't remember how I heard about the book, but I downloaded the sample chapter to my Kindle, and after reading it, knew I had to track down the rest of the book. Thankfully, there was one copy in the county, and I happened to request it first!

 I'm joining Ginny for the Yarn Along today.

π d(irt)

I really need to figure out a way to stitch the garden photos together. I think they look a little wonkier every week. 

Anyway, we harvested some salad fixings this week from all of the green back there.

The greens are starting to be seriously attacked by slugs. I've started spraying the plants with cold coffee in the evenings, and as soon as I get some cheap beer I want to try baiting them with that. I'm really not sure what is the most reasonable way of getting rid of slugs, but they CANNOT have my lettuce!

This is what the strawberries looked like the morning I went out to take photos. Apparently, it's called "guttation", and it just means the plant is releasing some extra water. 

Trillium Trail Hike

 Like Tammy, we went on a wildflower hunt this week. It was the fastest walk ever through the Trillium Trail, since we went with friends this time and the kids were way more interested in chasing their buddy than looking at flowers. My sweet husband took charge of chasing 6 kids (well, 5 plus 1 in a backpack) down the trail so my friend and I could take a few pictures. 

Non-violet violet. Maybe Downy Yellow?

Viburnum. I think it's "Hobblebush" aka "Mooseberry", but correct me if I'm wrong.

Phlox. So pretty!

Wild Geranium with ant.

Our "Spot The Wildlife" game. Can you find it? :)

White Trillium and a Christmas Fern.

A defiant Red Trillium.

Unfortunately, we were too late gettting to the trail this year to see the Bluebells, Trout Lily, and Spring Beauty. Sigh. I love that Spring Beauty. 

Next year we'll hopefully be more on top of spring wildflower hunting without having all this house buying stuff going on at the same time. Still, I got one Trillium-gazing walk into the schedule, so I'm content.

Bowman's hike

The hubs took today off so I decided to take a break too and we took a morning drive along the Delaware River to Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve.   Bowman's Hill is in Washington Crossing Park, site of the historic crossing of the Delaware River by George Washington and the Continental Army on Dec. 26, 1776.  So there's some U.S. history for ya. We went in search of trillium even though we knew we were a bit late to catch them in full bloom.  We managed to spot several different late bloomers in addition to a truck load of jack in the pulpit, azalea, may apples, ferns, bluebells and the find of the day, a lady slipper! There were a few other plants that we couldn't ID, so i'll post them here in hope that the amazingly plant-savy Ramsay family will be able to help out.  Oh, we also saw two deer (see if you can spot them-look for the black noses) who managed to get through the deer fence and heard a very noisy gobbling turkey. 

THESE PLANTS NEED SOME IDENTIFICATION:

These kind of looked like carrots...

π d(irt)

We haven't spent much time in the garden this week because it's dahlia tuber cutting time! 

They survived in their buckets in the basement very well this year. Sometimes they can get too dry or stay too damp and don't all make it. This winter they seem to have had ideal conditions, so we have a LOT of cutting to do.  

We will only be able to plant a fraction of what we have, but it's good to have too many. It means we have a lot to give away, and we're always happy to encourage other people's dahlia-growing habits whenever we can.

We're hoping for a good growing year with armfuls of flowers!

 

A Little Loupe-y

The kids and I recently spent a day outside looking at flowers and bugs with loupes and magnifying glasses. I thought it looked like a perfect opportunity to play around with the camera.

Dandelion fluff.

Wild Strawberry Blossom.

This is my favorite- creeping phlox.

p.s. here is a link to the loupes we have. They are made for kids to play with. I bought a set of 10 of them a few years ago, assuming the kids would lose or break them periodically. They were an excellent buy, and we usually take some along on hikes or when digging for bugs in the garden.

Pockets

The author of lori times five, a beautiful blog that I follow, is going on a trip to Namibia next month and is knitting up little pockets to take along and give as gifts. 

I spent some time this past week knitting a few too so that Lori can have a few more to give away. These were all made following her pattern, which you can find on this post. 

Of course, I had to make one for each of my kids too. So far the game has been to see how many toy animals they can stuff into one pocket.

I'm not sure what the record number is. I'll have to ask.

Friendship Bracelets

The big girl and I spent a day working on friendship bracelets, and I got a little carried away with it all. It started with the usual ones made with embroidery floss. I pinned the bracelet to my jeans, just like I remember doing during class in fourth grade. Yes, during class. That's the kind of school I attended. 

Anyway, the embroidery floss was fun, but I wondered how a bracelet would look made with yarn. I used two colors of Berroco Comfort dk, which seems to be my favorite non-wool at the moment.

The chevron stripe was nice, but I wondered what else I could do. That's when I went online and discovered a whole site dedicated to friendship bracelet patterns. I found a fun pattern with a wave and tried it out.

The pattern worked, but I didn't especially love the way it looked in the end. I think it's because, unlike the chevron pattern, these knots weren't going all lined up and going the same direction. The result is that it just looks messy.

So I wondered if crocheted waves would look better than macrame.

This one was crocheted with two strands running together so that it would be double-sided, and I didn't like the way you can see the the other color under the one that is supposed to show.

The only other option I could think of was a knitted version, and I had to learn double knitting to make it look nice on both sides.

This results in two layers of knitting back to back that are knitted at the same time. I think this is closer to the look that I want, but the wave shape isn't right. It needs better curl, so I'll have to make a new graph and start again.