the swell season

We had a big night out on Monday - hit Carafe for cocktails and dinner - so frency french with the covered but still outside seats, facing the street - just like in Paris. Even the same uncomfortable wicker chairs. What was very unfrench was the super tangy lime mint jello in the bottom of my straight up mojito. I might be in love with that drink.

Then we went next door to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova - they starred in the movie Once and are touring now as The Swell Season. It was swell. So swell. They make such beautiful music together. Lots of stuff from the movie mixed in with Glen's songs from The Frames and new music. The best was a Van Morrison cover of Into the Mystic. I think what I love best about their music is their ability to sing about love in every song from such an authentic place. We saw so many friends at the concert - all of them people I love and would totally expect them to love the same music. I left completely inspired to sit at my piano and bang out some awkward music - which is exactly what I did this morning before work. Here's my shaky video from the night:

fair isle legwarmers done

I finished Em's fair isle legwarmers - just in time for spring, hmmmmm doesn't make much sense, does it? She's such a glamazon that I don't think we'll make it to fall with this dress fitting so we have to wear them out soon! She wouldn't sit still for a great shot but here are a few action moves:

an outing before parting

Nana headed back this morning to Wisconsin. The four of us are on our own for the first time in three weeks. I am not sure if we'll remember exactly how to take care of ourselves.
We took a quick trip with Nana to Silver Falls State Park - truly one of my favorite places in Oregon. The waterfall is 177 tall and so powerful that the mist sprays back up almost halfway back up the edge. It is just insanely beautiful.
I love walking back behind the waterfall - there is one spot where the mist doesn't spray up - I would like to park myself right there with a camp chair and a book.
Here's a video of the falls for all you water junkies:

changing of the guard

So Jonesie had to leave after a lovely 10 day visit and Nana came to take his place. We had about 36 hours with both of them in the same place. We planned a Mexican fiesta with the Cedros clan but they were hit with the stomach flu too so Nana and I had to drink all of the margaritas. Sorry Marfie!

We inoculated Nana with a 24 hour bout of the stomach flu. I don't know how Tall House, Double Cup and I have avoided getting sick but we are holding on.

em's birthday quilt

I've been taken with the idea of making a quilt out of Em's baby clothes after seeing Rory Gilmore on The Gilmore Girls (all-time favorite show) have one on her bed. Now I've decided to try to make one for Em's first birthday out of clothes from her first year. And her birthday is in about 7 weeks.
OMG - I have to get going. First I had to sort all of Moo's clothes out of the mix -which was a lot. Marfie kept us dressed in style - but we need to pass those back to her. Then I picked through for similar colors - the unifying clor will be pink, of course. Now I am snipping and chopping and using my rotary cutter like a real crafter and trying to figure out how I can keep the quilt loose and free form without it looking like a mess.
Here are some sources on quilts made out of baby clothes . . .

Oscar's Baby Clothes Quilt

Flickr search on baby clothes quilts

Willow Creek will make your baby clothes quilt for you!


Jelly Beans will do it too.

knitting update

While t-ball and illness have been the priority in our house lately, I am plugging away at two knitting projects.

I found this really mod dress for Little Miss in a very "un-baby-like" colorway and knew I had some yarn in my stash that could compliment it so I am working on yet another pair of legwarmers for her. I am doing the pattern free form and will definitely make the pattern of the second leg without looking at the first leg so they can be wildly different and all Pippi Longstocking-ish. Em is so tall and amazon like that I have my fingers crossed that she can wait until fall to wear this.

This is Em's Little Red Riding Hood jacket - a riff on a Debbie Bliss pattern. I don't know if I'll have enough yarn to actually make the hood so it may turn into more of a swing coat if I can decide on a color. It's a really pretty red cotton from Abundant Yarn -I think it's their own house yarn. Still needs to be blocked and sewn up once I resolve how to finish the collar.

illness update and more t-ball

What are two never-ending parts of our lives this spring? T-ball and Little Miss being sick.
Em's been sick for nine days now - that's an awful long time for a ten month-old. Tall House, Double Cup took her to the doctor this morning who reported a suspected viral infection. Poor sweet thing. Jonesie is our official "Manny" - completely holding down the fort for us and making it possible for us to keep our jobs.
E's been happily trying out all the positions on the t-ball team. He reported that the catcher equipment was "really heavy" and that he likes playing pitcher best. I missed his game on Monday night to keep Little Miss home and inside but THDC reported his team got their first out. A real triumph for his team!
Unlike any other sport he's tried, E seems to really like baseball and wants to stick with it. I think the slushies all the players get after each game is a big motivator!

house project

We bought our house almost 7 years ago. Each year we've done a significant project to the house:

2001 - bought the house

2002 - pulled carpet off the second floor and painted floors

2003 - finished the basement

2004 - built back deck

2005 - remodeled upstairs bathroom and added master bath and closet

2006 - added kitchen built-in nook

2007 - put in new back fence

So this weekend we knocked out the first of our 2008 project - painting the front retaining walls. We've also got a lovely landscaping crew overhauling the yard but it's hard to count that since we are paying to have it done.

The painting project worked out perfectly - just enough work to exhaust me but great results. I chose a lovely "slug slime browny-grey-green" - dirt color really - in hopes that we won't have to scrub the walls as often as the previous light yellow walls demanded. Bring on the moss! Bring on the slugs! Some before and afters:

Future wishlist: add woodshed and storage area for playthings, add on covered front porch, re-side the house, remodel the kitchen . . . move to a house with another bedroom.

happy boy

What's almost as good as a chocolate milkshake AND a giant lollipop? Having Jonesie visit for 12 days! I am sorry to report that Jonesie caught the stomach flu the kids had (how did I avoid this?) but was down and out for only a day. Little Miss is STILL sick. Three teeth coming in this week doesn't help.
But we had a big weekend that I'll update with pictures later today.

there's a pox on this house

Don't read this entry if you get squeamish about poop, barf or the disgusting combination of the two: porf. This is way more descriptive than I would usually be - this blog is about happy family fun and knitting, right? But it's late and this day needs documentation for it's absurdity.

If anyone out there was doing bad voodoo on me about 24 hours ago, guess what? It worked. I am up the creek, I am in the weeds, I am covered in porf. I have not one but two children with the stomach flu. I have a husband out of the country. I got my period today. And I have huge work projects getting completely ignored (see previous three sentences).

Little Miss was home sick today because of explosive poops. She seemed happy and normal, just insane poops. As the day wore on, she got increasingly worse. Near the end of the school day, I got a call that E had just thrown up. I put a very tired Little Miss in the car and headed to get E, hoping she wouldn't throw up or poo on the way there. I successfully got E into the car and was pulling back into our driveway when I heard, "oh no". E turned toward Em and threw up all over her. As she started screaming, he turned to the middle and threw up all over his bucket of books that sits at his feet. As I am scrambling out my door, he turns to his and throws up again all over it. Finally, he staggers out of the car and does it once more on the garage floor. Em is SCREAMING in her car seat, covered in . . . well, you know. I get E out of his clothes in the garage and go back into the wretched car to get the baby, to discover her diaper has exploded with poop all over her seat. No lie. Voodoo.

We spent the rest of the night in recovery and after I got both clean and to sleep I had to face the car. The car. Ack, the car. I won't even begin to describe. I knew that someday I would be able to laugh about it, to tell a story to the kids when they were 10 and 15. But in the real moment of today that was only a little comfort. I am going to go purge my memory in an extremely hot bath and hope that this voodoo curse wears off before midnight so we can start fresh in the morning.

urban farming

I was seriously thinking about becoming an urban farmer and adding chickens to our lives so E and I went to a chicken festival at a nursery in the neighborhood. I guess there are a TON of people on Portland raising chickens. I've seen it on some mama blogs and know a couple of people doing it. The festival was packed with would be farmers. The chicks were expectedly sweet and for some reason, E insisted on bringing his accordion and "playing" for the chickens. I did learn that it really is too much work and responsibility for us to do this. If I didn't work full time - then maybe, but for now, no. We left the nursery and stopped by the pet store to check out the hamsters. Much less work.

rite of spring

We joined the Cedros clan for our annual rite of spring -a trip to the tulip festival in Woodburn. Little Miss cooperatively rode in the backpack - maybe next year she'll get in the group photo.

The rain held off so we could run around the fields, do the pony rides and tractor rides and eat the yummy donuts Marfie brought along - what a great bribery tool those were!

Not all the tulips are open yet but there was a great swath of red and yellow perfect for photos.

I think I like the outtakes from trying to get that one great photo of my kidlets:

opening day

Today was opening day for E's t- ball league. It was such a blast. The kids got their team shirts and hats - E kept his on ALL day - over his jacket - ALL day. He got lucky #13 - just one numbers off from the one his dad wore in little league back in the day. There are over 300 kids in his league - the whole event was huge and just so exciting. I am all over this baseball stuff. I am already imaging the hours I can spend outside, watching Mr. Big and knitting him sweaters with lightning bolts down the arm.

E has a really nice coach and Tall House, Double Cup is the assistant coach which I know E loves. The best part of the day was when each team got to run past the others for high fives. The big kids were yelling and cheering super loud for the t-ballers which made E and his teammates feel really good. You can see raindrops on my camera in this video because it wouldn't be opening day without rain in Oregon.

happy birthday Nana!

Today is Nana's birthday - no joke! We had an early morning birthday call but I can't resist shouting out happy birthday one more time on the blog. We love you so very much Nana and miss you when you stay away from Portland for too long. There is no one I'd rather get pedicures with and no one E would rather tell him stories. You have a singular style to your life that no one could replicate. Love from pdx!