Recent Craftiness

I kept busy this past weekend... I can't seem to find hats with large enough brims for S, so I have started making them. (He inherited my coloring so he never goes out doors without SPF 50 slathered all over him and a hat - K as well, though she got her father's coloring.) So this weekend I made the bee hat for S, the lady bug hat for K, and the three hooded towels (tutorial here) for my nephews. The first one I made without the serger (what was I thinking?), but the second two went much faster with it. Now that I have the darn serger, I just have to remember to use it...

An Island Fourth

Such fun... The kids and I headed downtown yesterday to celebrate the Fourth. We took Papa a picnic lunch and then all headed to Windermere Point for the holiday festivities. We watched the International Stone Skipping Contest (the winner had more than 20 skips!) and the sack races, enjoyed the face painting, and explored the fire trucks before nap time beckoned...

The later-than-usual nap was the only reason S and K made it through the fireworks. (We are above the 45th parallel, so this time of year it is still dusk after 10:00 pm. Our fireworks didn't begin until after 10:30.) This year marks the first time I made a serious attempt to photograph them. I must admit, I am pleased at the result. (For those who are interested: ISO 200, f/11, & approximately a 10 second exposure.)

Liz of Green Gables?

My house may not have gables, but I can imagine it does...

Megan Follows as Anne of Green Gables

BoufMom9 began a Biblical Meme a few weeks ago, she invited Mum-me to play along, who invited me to play along. So here goes:

As my friends know, I am not really a biblical person. So I’ll have to go with literature on this one…

The classic literary character I am most like is Anne of Green Gables. (She is one of my all time favorite characters!) Anne is head strong, hard working, imaginative, and one of those girls others perceive as just a wee bit different. She adapts quickly, is full of joy, she lives on an island, and she hates her hair and her freckles. Anne always seems to get herself into trouble (though unintentionally) but things always seem to work out in the end. Then, there was the time Anne broke a slate on top of a boy’s head after he teased her; I used a social studies book instead...

Here are the rules of the game:

1. Choose a person in the Bible or classic literature who most represents who you are.

2. Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration, scripture or story if you like.

3. Link to the person that tagged you in your post and to this original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere.

4 .Tag five more blogs with links.

5. And don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play!

I'm tagging Katie, Maggie, and Susan. I know that isn't five, but it is the best I can do today...

Image from http://greengables.tripod.com/

Practically Perfect in Every Way

What a fantastic weekend...

To start with, everyone who stayed with us shopped for us, which was great since the closest decent shopping is a 20 minute boat ride and a two hour drive away. L & D brought a hose reel from Meijer, K & D brought diapers, spices, and 50 pounds of dog food from Wal-Mart. M & S brought insulbright, more spices, fabric, and shoe bags from Ohio. C brought the mother load - toilet paper, paper towels, laundry detergent, kleenex, bleach, shampoo, dryer sheets and diapers from Costco. All of which made my life much much easier. (Thanks guys!)

The eighteen of us had an absolute blast. Friday night's boat ride may have started out with a downpour but it ended with a rainbow and a lovely sunset.

Saturday's visit to the fort was a hoot. (It was the first time the kids had been there since infancy.) S loved the "Kid's Quarters," specifically the dress-up section. K, on the other hand, loved the Concert of Military Music, which S didn't get to hear because he wanted to try on every outfit.

Then, on the way home for nap time, Papa caught a garter snake. K belly laughed every time that little guy stuck out his tongue. He he he - I'm laughing again just thinking about it. (Don't worry, we let it go after we finished investigating.)

The reunion dinner at the fort on Saturday night was wonderful. We got to reminisce with lots of old friends, we got another spectacular sunset, and...

surprise fireworks.

Not much beats surprise fireworks!

The only bad part of the weekend was Sunday afternoon when everyone had to pack up and head for home. And believe it or not, the only things left behind were two gigantic toothbrushes...

Smiling

Miss Chris over at Pink Picket Fence is posting things that make her smile this week. Right now my gardens are making me smile...

this morning's dew

coral bells

a molting fish fly

a wee daisy

Plus I have 13 people coming to stay with me this weekend for the fort reunion. That will make a total of 18 of us, nine adults and nine children, in my four bedroom house. We may be sleeping like cord wood, but we are going to have so much fun! I hope you have a great weekend too.

Life, the Universe and Everything

1. And the winners are...

Jacquie, Shannon, and Marcia. Email me your addresses so I can get those tulips heading your way. (I know I needed a photo of a tulip, but I am in Indiana spending the week with my in-laws, and I only had pictures of irises on my camera - so it will have to do.)

2. The kids and I are having a BLAST this week with Grandma and Grampie down in Southern Indiana. Partially because it is warm here! When we life the island it was 48 degrees and we could see our breath. Down here it is in the 80s and sunny. We left Northern Michigan at 5:30 am, and got to see a beautiful sunrise.

The next day we went to the Indianapolis Zoo with my MIL, SIL and her three boys. Fun fun fun! S and K favorite part was watching the seals swim.
The next day we were off to Holiday World... more about that another time.

Tulips For Everyone

OK, maybe not for everyone, but for a few... A few posts ago I mentioned how the hotels on the island pull their tulip bulbs each summer, well this year I hit the jackpot! I happened to be riding by on my bike just as one of the gardeners was pulling them out. I filled my basket as well as my cart.
I managed to get so many that I'd like to share. Just leave a comment (and make sure I can email you) and on June 20th I'll draw three names - each of whom will get some flowery goodness. I'd love to ship them to anyone, but I doubt customs will let me ship outside the US... I know a few of the bulbs are purple, but other than that your guess is as good as mine. (Most of the petals blew off in a storm, but I know that hotel had red, orange, white, yellow, purple and salmon.) In my experience most of them come up in the spring, but obviously I can't guarantee it. Even if they all don't come up, they're still worth the price. :)

They Were Everywhere!

Being the geeky science person that I am, I really enjoy a good bug. I like watching them, taking pictures of them, catching them, and showing them to to S and K. But not when they are literally everywhere!

There were so many of them flying around while I was trying to get a picture, I had to hold the neck of my jammies tight so they couldn't fly in (after getting one up my sleeve - yuck!) My dad said they were June Bugs and that they are quite common. I've lived in Michigan my entire life and I can't ever remember seeing a swarm of them!

There were trout everywhere too... We stopped at the fish hatchery on the way home from my parent's house on Sunday to feed the fish. As always, the kids loved it... well most of it. About every three minutes K said, "I go swimmin." She just didn't understand why she just couldn't jump right in with the fish.

We made it back to the island just in time to enjoy the rain... Not that I am complaining mind you - my gardens love the rain!

Spring Cleaning

Over the past two days I have made good progress on my list! Before you look at the "before and after" photos I feel I need some kind of disclaimer or something. We really the giant pigs that the before pictures imply... really, we aren't! The end of the school year gets amazingly crazy around here! Between recovering from the senior trip, being sick, report cards, getting the car fixed, a wedding shower, two productions of the school play (The Magical Land of Oz - which was amazing by the way,) ordering all my school supplies for next year, packing up everything in my classroom, and trying to get my gardens in order, the inside of the house has basically been ignored for the past three weeks. (For some reason Blogger isn't letting me type an enter...So imagine I am starting a new paragraph.) I started by tackling my bedroom. Between my unpacked suitcase, laundry and piles of stuff everywhere - it seemed like the best place to begin...

After

Then it was on to my son's room. He's been itching to have his "baby bed" taken down for some time now. I usually have the kids help when their rooms need to be cleaned, but today I just dove right in and did it myself...

After

The living room was also atrocious! The five of us (we have a friend, M, living with us this summer) spend a lot of time here and it tends to get trashed daily. As I sit in my nice clean room, I can't believe how bad it was! Dear God...

After

In addition to cleaning those rooms I also cleaned the entry way, organized the hall closet, cleaned my bathroom, organized my bedroom closet and the bathroom closet, washed and put away six loads of laundry, got one bag ready for the thrift shop, got another bag ready for the dry cleaners, went through all of S' clothing and packed away the too-small items to hand-down and unpacked all of his handed-down summer things.

I'm not sure how much I'll get done over the next few days as I am headed to Traverse City on Friday (which means I have to leave the island tomorrow) to get my Bernina serviced and to hopefully buy a serger. Then we are off to the Charlevoix Renaissance Festival (we've never been before) on Saturday. Have a great weekend!

Summer?

I took this picture on June first. June first! Even for us this far North, the tulips are usually a lot farther along by the beginning of June. In fact, the hotel where I took this picture usually has the tulips pulled out of the ground before school is out. Not this year... It is wonderful that the hotels in my town rip out their tulips each year. Once they start to look a little ragged the grounds keeping staff pulls them out of the ground - bulb and all - and throws them on the compost pile. Every tulip I have in my garden came from that lovely little pile. Since they pull out the entire flower I can usually tell what color I am getting too. Don't you just love hand-me-downs... Summer for me starts today! For the next two weeks my children are going to the sitter's house so I can get projects done. I hope by blogging about them I am more likely to get everything finished! My plans are:

• clean the entire house, and I mean the entire house
• catch up on the mountain of laundry
• sort through the kid's off season and next-size-up clothes
• paint the kid's bathroom
• paint K's room
• organize my sewing room

Wish me luck and productivity. I'll try to keep everyone posted on my progress. If I get really brave I might even post some before and after photos. (We'll have to see about that one though.)