{friendship bracelets}

 

{source}

So I joined a friendship bracelet swap!

Do you remember those? You probably made them 
when you were in junior high school?

I have vague and fuzzy memories of them 
but the memories are warm and fuzzy at least. 

It is being put on by the delightful girls from 
Modern Marigold and Ruffled Sunshine!

As you know my love of embroidery means I have a little more than my fair share of embroidery thread just hanging out around my house. I've been pretty uninspired on the embroidery front lately so this is a very fun little diversion to use some of it up!

I've been assigned three swap partners - three gals 
I've never met and don't know anything about.

Three gals I can't wait to meet and get
to know a little something about!

 

{source} 

Source: blog.lonnymag.com via Courtney on Pinterest

Apparently there is waaay more to making these babies than back in my day. I think I probably just used the highly complicated and impressive braid technique. Now they do chevron stripes and things I don't even know the names of! 

 

Source: purlbee.com via Courtney on Pinterest

But I'm totally inspired. Looking at all the gorgeous color combinations and the designs that are so far beyond braids it isn't funny....I'm inspired. I have no idea what I'm going to do yet and I have no idea how it will turn out but I'm inspired.

In case you didn't get it - I'm inspired. 

But to be totally honest with you, I tried following a tutorial on the chevron stripe...like three different attempts.

Yeah...still haven't figured it out.

Sorry Amelia. Sorry Christina. Sorry Alex.

It may not be pretty but it will be made with 

lots of enthusiasm and lots of love!

{totally random}

 

Totally random thoughts for a Monday....

*I really, really want to have a garage sale this summer and am spontaneously thinking this weekend. 

But I have a CRAZY amount of work to do to get ready for it!

Should I do it?

*My biggest (who is seven) is on a very strange and unusual (is that redundant?) cleaning kick right now. 

Cleaning his room over and over, bringing dirty laundry downstairs often, vacuuming!

*All three of my kids are in swim suits playing in the 

bath tub right now.

Is it bad that I'm too lazy to go outside in the heat, slather on sunscreen and fill up the kiddie pool?

* Just signed up for an online photography course....crazy? no, cool!

*Had the best time and created one of the 

top summer memories with my fam last night. 

We all...and I mean ALL (dog included) piled on the hammock under Great Grandma Susie's quilt and watched the stars come out. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that didn't doze off for a bit too (dog included).We were forced inside by the sudden smell of skunk!

*Got the weirdest sunburn on my back this weekend....couldn't reach those spots by myself!

* I'm still in my jammies but doing lots of laundry..

*Had GREAT cherry clafoutis Thursday night with my girlfriends...and it was the recipe from the family cookbook...go figure!

*My daughter had fallen asleep in church the 

last two times we have gone. 

Time doesn't seem to matter...one was morning, the other evening.

*I've been off facebook (as in - deactivated my account) for hmmm...

two weeks now? Totally surviving and just barely miss it.

*Missing my Mom. She is headed to the wilds of Canada this week where there is no good cell coverage. 

I've also been missing her visits. This is the first summer that she lives a little too far to visit often.

*Finally got out of my house on Friday with this friend to garage sale...both of us in our post Farm Chicks haze have avoided all such things. Funny thing is - there really wasn't much out there. 

* Went to this store after garage sales and drooled a bit on everything.

The baby walked around barefoot and fell down on the stairs

because he was walking with his hand in his pocket.

He got a goose egg.

And I got a parking ticket. 

What were we thinking? There was 8 minutes left on the meter when we pulled up.

"oh, we'll just go in and come back out and plug it."

What? So unrealistic. So my ultra cool steal of a deal of a camping table got technically

bumped up in price a bit.

Totally lame.

{buckets of cherries}

 

Life around these parts has been buckets of cherries lately not your proverbial bowl. 

Yesterday I met my friend Becca at our friend Amy's house to pick from her two gorgeous cherry trees!

No fruit farm for us...no siree! We got free fruit and good times with friends to boot!

 

Amy rented a REALLY tall ladder to help us reach REALLY high in her trees.

Since Amy is pretty darn pregnant with her third, Becca and I had ladder duty.

 

 

We quickly filled one three gallon bucket 

and then picked some more!

 

The trees were so pretty and the cherries so red!

 

When I first moved to the Northwest from Alaska for college I was amazed that people had fruit trees in their very own yards! What a novelty it was to me! It's actually still a bit of a novelty because we have never had fruit trees in our own yard! 

In fact, we barely  have a tree in our yard!

 

The kids played as we picked and later I discovered that the big boys stuffed cherries in their pockets for later...great. I even pulled a cherry out of my two year olds pocket as I put him down for a nap in his crib. He is always watching the big boys you know...

And food in pockets always makes me giggle and think of that tot scene in Napoleon Dynamite...know which one I mean?

So I got home and pitted a gazillion cherries. 

It takes a looong time to pit cherries without a special cherry pitter tool. 

I just cut them in half and dug the pit out. 

Does anyone have any better suggestions?

I made this -

A Cherry Clafoutis!

My family has made a lot of clafoutis in their time...and by family I mean my Mom and Sister..not me. 

We even have a Strawberry Clafoutis recipe in our family cookbook but I decided to search for an actual cherry recipe online. I found a couple and settled on this one. 

It was good but I think I put too many cherries in it because it never really got done enough. 

I'm going to make it again tonight for a get together with my girlfriends but I think I'll try an alternate recipe. 

What do you do with cherries? 

Please share your recipes because I have lots of them!

{lake fun}

 

We spontaneously went to the lake again this past weekend.

This is starting to look like a trend. 

Next time we are actually going to plan it 

and spend more than 27 1/2 hours there.

Really.

 

We had a campfire....

 

We got a little bit sooty....

We roasted....

 

We ate....

We got frustrated.....

We ate obscenely large marshmallows...and giggled at the teeny tiny "normal" sized marshmallows...

We woke up to this view...

 

And hiked to see this view...

 

And this...

 

We boated...and slept...

And saw an island actually called Cottage Island...

I just had to snap a photo of that one!

We saw gorgeous homes owned by little old ladies...

And half finished castles...

We swam in really deep water in the middle of the lake (scary!) with big bad waves from other boats....

and my honey was apparently really ticked at something..check out his mean face!

We went to the beach and collected really cool rocks and driftwood....she collected the baby ones!

He searched for good skipping rocks...

 

I sunned myself....kind of like a lizard on a rock from the looks of this photo...

He swam like a little fish...a little fish in a 

life jacket and with a noodle..

 

And watched a beautiful sunset on the way home...

feeling so blessed by the beauty of God's creation and super duper blessed we have the opportunity to enjoy it like we do!

{scenes from a lovely wedding}

 

Last night we attended a lovely family wedding. 

The bride and groom picked seven ~ fourteen because those are their favorite numbers!

We were late but we thought we were early. 

There was a little mix up on the time.

Totally embarrassed.

Not like we are an interruption or anything...there are only five of us.

The wedding was held in the bride's parent's backyard. (Did I get my grammar right there?)

 

Their home and property is gooorgeoso!  

I've always thought it belonged in a magazine spread...hello BHG!

When we first moved here with our week old first babe we moved right into that cute little apartment above their very large garage. Except they don't call it an apartment. 

It's their carriage house...don't you love that? And it's very, very nice. 

We were blessed by their niceness for two years to be exact.

We got to look out over the balcony onto the BHG gardens for two years people!

Back to the wedding...

The bride was beautiful (she is my husband's cousin).

As I type, they are on their way to Hawaii....lucky ducks!

Hence the beachy decor....don't you love that they brought in sand?

They had little beach balls everywhere. Guests threw them at the bride and groom as they walked down the aisle instead of rice. They became a fun toy for the kids during the reception!

Here is my girl playing catch with a favorite cousin!

This guy is going to be my soccer play I just know it...he kicked that ball around like a pro!

 

 I think he just got hit in the head with one....

 

beautiful, beautiful.....

Cake pops for the kids!

Cutting of the little cake! 

I thought this was a great way to do it...who needs a huge wedding cake?

They served a delicious cheesecake and had little sweet treats as well!

This little man kept getting tricked into having his picture taken by another fun cousin...here look at yourself...click, click...

The bride's brother in law and nephew...remember these..

they were for him!

(And he was totally sleeping in his Daddy's arms that way....so cute!)

Did I mention they are right along the river? 

Sigh...I know....

Grandma and my boy...with cake all over his face...or was it berries by this time?

Anyway, I wore white capris and miraculously walked out of there stain free!

Getting sleepy watching the dancing..

It was a lovely wedding for a really lovely couple! My  husband has a whole gaggle of girl cousins in the marrying age group. I have a feeling we will be attending many more of these events in the next few years. 

(Which is kind of nice because most people in my age group are waaay married with 2.5 kids.)

And I know I'm not the only one who dreams about the kind of wedding they would have now if they could do it again....admit it....things have changed sooo much in the last ten years! I bet some of you would pay money to get to plan a new wedding....to the same husband of course!