free motion quilting

Oh my goodness, I never knew quilting could be so awesome...

You must check out these free motion quilting designs - I love them!

Especially "Shoo-fly"

Beautiful!!!!

This is also a great sewing website: modern domestic

Visit with Candice

I am back from a weekend in Utah visiting Candice. It was great, we both had a lot of fun together even though it was strange for it to be just the two of us. It was our first sisterfest (of many more to come) without Briana. Candice has set up her new house very cute (see above) and we ate fresh veggies!

Our main objectives were to be together, to sort through some of Briana's boxes in storage, and to visit with friends and have a birth party for me!

Here we are at the first SLC farmer's market of the season.

Candice was dog-sitting a dog, so we took her to the market. I love Candice's train pants!

Salt Lake was having beautiful summer weather (something novel for me)

Here are some photos from the Birth Party:

Sara and Candice in the kitchen

The quilt top I made and brought for everyone to embroider-quilt.

Rachel, working on embroidering a cute design.

Analiesa and Candice, sewing away....

Gritty Pretty, and her cherub-son, Ezra

The mushroom garland Gritty Pretty made last year that I fell in love with. Sewn mushrooms in rainbow order...? Too wonderful!

Ian in Seattle

My brother, Ian, came to visit me and Adam about a month ago - in May.
It was wonderful to see him, even though we had just spent 2 weeks together after Briana died.

We found out April 7th that Ian will be serving a 2 year proselyting mission for our church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) in Quito, Ecuador!
We are very excited for him and the learning, growing, exploring, serving, and teaching he will do - but of course we will miss him terribly.

Ian leaves July 13th for the Provo MTC (Missionary Training Center). This visit will be the last time I see Ian until he comes back in July of 2013! He won't get to see our baby (except in photos) since we're expecting it at the end of July, but Ian said he's glad he'll be home for it's 2nd birthday - when things get really cute (and feisty).

We had wonderful, sunny weather for Ian's visit and squeezed in as much as we could into 3 days.
Ian arrived by train from Portland after visiting his friend, Ben.

We walked around Seattle together, went to one of our birth classes, climbed at Marymoor Park and the Redmond Vertical World, went to the Seattle temple, and ate quinoa salad at the Kirkland Waterfront:

Here is our last photo together:

I love you, Ian! I'm going to miss you so much. Good luck in Ecuador.

Here is a funny video we made of pregnant me, dancing:

(hang on, I have to go find it on another computer...)

Lopez Island

Last month, following advice from Adam's sister, we went to Lopez Island for one night to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary. It was a wonderful overnight trip not far from home. Lopez is one of the San Juan Islands and can be accessed by ferry from Anacortes, Wa.

(We ate french fries on the ferry!)

The day before we went, we made a reservation with Lopez Farm Cottages. It turned out perfectly - we got a tiny, one room house with a hot tub outside.

Here is the inside:

I was a little bummed to miss the annual Seattle Cheese Festival, but we serendipitously arrived on Lopez Island for their first ever Lopez Lamb and Wool Festival - even better than cheese!

We saw fleeces and wool for sale, spinning wheels,

weaving looms,

dye demonstrations,

a butchering and lamb roasting demo,

and baby lambs to hold in the parking lot.

We walked a block to eat at Vita's Wildly Delicious deli.

I liked their idea or serving homemade mac and cheese cut like pieces of cake...I thought it was carrot cake at first.

I also loved their patio with creative seating arrangements like this antique ironing board for a table:

After our wildly delicious food we were still hungry...so we ate lamb and Lopez Island beef burgers at the "Pharmacy." Lucky we were at the pharmacy because we also ordered a cookie dough shake and then needed lactaid:

After eating ourselves silly, we checked ourselves in at the Lopez Farm Cottages and didn't see anyone on the grounds the entire time (only about 20 hours).

It was a lovely and relaxing rainy weekend together - a wonderful 2nd Anniverary :)

pregnant side-shot and breakfast in the jacuzzi!

Then we packed up and ate sandwiches on the ferry ride home:

cloth storage buckets

Anyone interested in some home sewn cloth storage buckets? I have a surplus leftover from the Punk Rock Flea Market and even though they are great for storing items...it turns out they are hard to store themselves.

They have either denim or canvas outsides and a variety of cotton prints inside.

I was selling the small (4" cube) for $10 and the large (5.8" cube) for $12 - but I'd be happy to work out a special deal.

:)

Flea Market report

Oh, my goodness...look what I bought for $5 at the Punk Rock Flea Market!!

It's a bundle of antique scraps from a kimono store!

A lot of these are handwoven silk and a lot of these are shibori dyed in indigo! I love indigo and I love shibori - I flipped when I saw these scraps.

I see an indigo sampler quilt in my future....wouldn't that look great? Then I can showcase each of the prints emphasizing the variation in texture and results from just one dye. I think it would look awesome with red-orange stitching/ties and binding. I can't wait to make it. More photos to come - each scrap is absolutely beautiful and deserves documentation.

Here's me at our Tree Peeps booth.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day - the first day we've had temperatures over 70 degrees since last August...and the whole city almost died of heat stroke (including me)! Hilarious.

A sampling of our wares (above) and the rock star seller beans and rice (below) I love how well this goes over every year :)

Punk Rock Flea Market, Seattle

Hello! It's the summer Punk Rock Flea Market tomorrow in downtown Seattle.
I'll be selling handmade goods and gifts as well as beans and rice!
Photos from: June 2010 Market and December 2010 Market.

the second trimester in review

(25 weeks or 5 1/2 months pregnant)
The second Trimester was from mid-January to mid-April, but I hadn't gotten around to writing about it before Briana died.
In summary, it was uneventful - I have had a really easy pregnancy.
In detail:
-I continued to get larger everywhere, but finally more on my stomach than my legs.
-I started going to the bathroom more than 2 times a night.
-I tried to go walking every Monday morning with my pregnant friend, Micah. I also walk most mornings about a mile uphill to the bus for work, so that helped keep me in shape.
-I went rock climbing (mostly at the gym since it was the winter) a few times a month. I was able to climb reasonably well at 3 months, but by 5 and 6 months, I switched to easier routes because it was uncomfortable to strain and push myself because my ab muscles were out of commission and I had gotten out of shape in general.
-It became more difficult to get in and out of bed (loss of stomach muscles), so we rearranged our bedroom furniture to facilitate. One thing we haven't done, but sounds nice, is to put a step-stool on my side of the bed :)
-No ankle swelling - a big surprise because I typically have swollen ankles when I'm not pregnant.
-Baby started moving around 18 weeks (end of February). It was very small "bubble" feelings but has grown to full somersaults and twists (or so if feels)!

(23 weeks or 5 months pregnant)

(25 weeks or 5 1/2 months pregnant)