Sunday, March 20, 2011

Lawn and Garden Show and Eco Friendly Jewelry

We have so many different projects that we have had on one "to do" list or another for a few years now. Things like getting quotes for fences and a patio and FINALLY putting river rock in the landscaping around our house. So as we were talking about it after breakfast, I made a comment that I wish there was a home show so we could go and then get a "home show" discount. Come to find out... the Lawn and Garden Show was going on down in Des Moines at the fair grounds. So, we pack up and head out.

As, we were walking to the building, Evie points to a building sign and says, "there it is, is says FA-lau-EHRS. Flowers." Um, no, it says 'Des Moines Register'. She has been so funny lately, sounding out letter sounds in words. On the way into the parking lot we have this conversation,

Evie: "L starts with slide" (she says it backwards, so cute!),
Me: "No, slide does not start with L, it starts with the letter that says SSSSSSSS. Do you know what letter says, ssssss?"
E: "Snake, says ssssss."
Me: "Yes, but what letter is that?"
E: "S"
Me: "YES!"(almost jumping in my seat) Then we went through L, I, and D, and she got them all! Then I wasn't sure how to prompt her for the E at the end and the little smartypants says all of a sudden, "Is there any thing more?" Like she knew that there was another letter... anyways, I thought it was really neat to see her get it! I LOVE it!


There was only one fence place and one place that did patios... it seemed a lot smaller than normal and there were a few really unexpected vendors there. One that was pretty neat was Terra Natural Designs, this is a newer website and so is still in development. The old website that has a lot more pictures is here. The beads of the necklace are made from hard seeds found in the Amazon called Tagua or Vegetable Ivory. It is a renewable natural material that they sand and polish and can also color using natural plant pigments.
The green necklace/earring set below I got for half price (gotta love a great deal) and the little brown beads are acai seeds. The necklace can be worn long or doubled...
Then, we had a weak moment and Evie got to pick out a bracelet to get... and she picked the one below. She loves it. I think it looks like little carrot pieces.
Another necklace style I really liked is shown here.

SO, to recap... not a lot of landscaping progress, BUT, I got some awesome jewelry!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Quilt Tree

Last week in the mail I got a letter from the grandma of a friend and when I opened it, this is what I found...
 With it were two different purple squares (the top two). The bottom two are the ones that I managed to find in my stash, thanks to my sis in law passing on some of her grandma's fabrics. So, I am to pass them on to the first person in the letter and 4 people I know. I have thought of 2 or 3 and am having a hard time coming up with more... soooo, if you read this and would like me to include you please comment with your email (I won't publish it) and I will get in touch with you.
I will keep you all posted on how things progress... some day, maybe I will have a quilt. Or quilt top. I hope... someday :)

Maybe.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Day of Green!

So, I thought we would check out the St. Patty's Day parade in downtown Des Moines this year. So after we donned our green (Stinky Baby too), we headed down to find a spot.
 This was our little photo shoot to get a pic of her green...




 We got there not quite half an hour early and it was packed! We managed to squeeze in behind some super nice people who let Evie sit next to them on the curb and me sit behind her in one of their chairs!
 Hanging out, waiting for it to begin. Note how everyone is gathered nicely at the curb... just wait.
 Moving out a bit and being surrounded by bigger kids.
 Now the grandmas move in too. They actually brought their grandkids up and then stood right in front of Evie who at the time was still hanging back by the curb. I let her venture up for a while...
 The madness continues. No, the parade is not over, these people are just migrating further and further into the street. They were all the way to the center line and still creeping - parade drivers tried with no avail to move them back quite a few times...
 Really?
 Still, during the parade...
When it started getting out of control, I brought her back to the curb and she had a snack, then I put her on my shoulders for a while before we took off early. I don't think we will venture to this parade again. We will stick to our Ankeny Summerfest parade and small home town 4th of July parades where she can actually see what is happening!

Monday, March 14, 2011

In Between Seasons!

March 1st was beautiful! Then on the 2nd we decided to go find some ducks/geese to feed. It was SO COLD that day. We should have gone on the 1st! Evie loved it though because they came right up to her since I was standing back taking pictures!
These guys look cold! She kept asking me which were the girl ducks and which were the boys. We will see if she remembers next time...
Then the next week (March 8) it was cold and rainy during the day. E talked Daddy into going outside with her so she could play in the rain and puddles! That girl would go outside in any kind of weather :)
This was later that night... yep, snow! Ha ha!
So we went out and made a snowman the next morning... our first (and probably last) of the season. It seems that the snow had been too dry every other time we played outside this winter so we could never build a snowman. The scarf and gloves were in our family stocking from my mom (she always thinks of fun stuff like that) and the eyes, mouth and buttons are actual charcoal that was from our firebowl, and of course the nose was a carrot!
Had to give him a hug before going inside...
I warned E ahead of time that it was going to be nice the next couple of days so the snowman would start melting and go away. This was day 2...
And day 3, it was windy.
This whole week it is supposed to be around 50 to 60 degrees so I am hoping to get to the zoo one day and play outside too! We are looking forward to spring getting here!