16 Sunday Sep 2012
Posted in family, out and about
The skinniest, baldest, and–dare I say–the cutest? apple picker in the orchard yesterday:
I had so much fun taking pictures, and then even MORE fun playing with the photos in Photoshop. I downloaded the Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop Action Sets and had just. a. blast. last night.
I’m super-late to the Photoshop Action party, but I have a feeling I’ll make up for lost time this week.
27 Friday Jul 2012
Posted in family
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Oh. my. gosh. Two weeks since my last post! There’s no excuse. But, in my defense, we’ve been busy. Good busy, corn-on-the-cob busy, Old Town Hill busy, biscuits-and-honey-and-brand-new-quilts busy:
But we’ve also been plenty of bad busy too. Lucy had a minor infection that required a week of antibiotics. She didn’t feel well or eat great because of it, and I also had to clean the house–WITH BLEACH–from top to bottom. Several times. I’m just now getting my feet back under me. Lucy’s back to 100%, thank goodness for her kind pediatrician, sulfa drugs and Elmo On Demand. (Needless to say, we’ve been indulging in a little too much television.)
I was able to finish my green She Also Smiles quilt, and gifted it to a friend who is moving to Portland. I think she was pleased. 
I had a heck of a time getting a picture of it, because when Lucy hears that camera beep, she’s pretty sure she’s supposed to be posing. Also, she’s got this thing about walking on differently-textured surfaces, so she loves to have a quilt spread on the floor to play, sit, and watch television from.
Today? More cutting. I have a new quilt top to show you sometimes this week (as soon as I can snap a toddler-free picture of it) and I’m already ready to start a new project! Here’s hoping to avoid any baby-illness-related unexpected hiatuses. 🙂
09 Monday Jul 2012
Posted in out and about
and oh, so sad we are. Somehow one can never drink enough pool drinks, enough pitchers of Bud Lite, soak up enough sun, or laze and read enough books, to justify the huge pile of laundry one must face upon vacation’s end. We spent seven days on the GA coast (one of the Golden Isles), with a day trip to Savannah thrown in for kicks.
Because I’m new at this and didn’t quite manage to plan ahead, things have been quiet here on the blog front, and quiet on the sewing front (one can’t expect to bring one’s machine to the beach! one has toddler chasing to do) but geez oh man what a pile of reading notes I have coming! Stay tuned. This week has me digesting the eight (or so) books I’ve read in the past ten days, cutting into two piles of fabric for two different quilt projects, rushing to finish hand quilting the green quilt, and…I mentioned the laundry and toddler chasing, right?
Maybe I should just buy her a wading pool and park her in it so I can get my work done, eh?
29 Friday Jun 2012
Posted in out and about
One of my favorite places to visit in the Boston area–really, in the whole WORLD–is Halibut Point State Park in Rockport, MA. A mere $2 will buy you a day parking pass; a short walk through the woods brings you out to an old quarry and a fantastic view of some very New England coastline. You can see our favorite beach from the scenic overlook, and you can even see Maine on a clear day! Nate and I bring all of our visitors here to show off.
We “discovered” this park back in 2009, before we left Boston. Even though Boston’s not a big city, it can get to you. The trains, the noise, the crowds, the smells. A body needs to get outside and see some green, hear the ocean, smell the salt. I always leave Halibut Point feeling well, like I’ve been fed, and I can go on tolerating the asphalt. It’s a great place to take pictures, too.
My sister Mary caught this picture of Lucy and me. It’s maybe my favorite picture of myself, ever. Love how the light makes Lucy look like an angel! She’s not. But…pretty close.
Halibut Point: take 128 North into Rockport, then take a left at that intersection in Rockport instead of taking a right to park down in the town. Drive about a mile, and there will be a sign for the entrance of Halibut Point on your right. Allow about 1.5-2 hours; the walk isn’t very long, maybe a mile TOTAL, but you’ll want plenty of time to gaze at the magnificent vistas.
25 Monday Jun 2012
Posted in family
I’m not particularly invested in teaching Lucy to act “ladylike.” I think it’s much more important for her to learn to act “kind” and “polite” and “respectful.” But on a warm evening walk, she pulls a move like this…and I have to bite back my “little girls don’t sit like that!” words. What, Ma? It’s hot. Don’t want my legs to stick together.
23 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted in family
When Lucy was born, she looked like me. The midwife traced her tiny newborn brow with her forefinger and said, “Yeah, I think she looks like you. Your eyes, nose, brow…” When she smiled her first smile, there was no doubt she was MY KID. Poor Nate couldn’t find any resemblance to himself. These days, as Lucy starts to make more expressions, and as her face becomes more a kid face and less a baby face, she favors her daddy more and more.
This is a good thing. After all, Daddy is pretty much Lucy’s fav these days. She asks about him all day long, from the moment she gets up (pointing, from her changing table, towards our bedroom: “Daddy?”), through every meal (pointing at the door: “Daddy?”), all day long until Nate calls to let us know he’s headed home from work. She knows when the phone rings between 5 and 5:30 pm that it’s Daddy coming home!
You couldn’t ask for a bester set of buds than Lucy and her Daddy.
17 Sunday Jun 2012
Posted in family
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Nate isn’t much for making a big deal out of…ANYTHING. Father’s Day is pretty much a bother for him. I could make a big deal out of any made-up ridiculous holiday, i.e., “the sixth anniversary of the night you came to my dorm room because you forgot your mug and I had it in my purse and I thought OMG you might like me.” Not Nate. Nope. So, I’ve learned to ask him what he’d like to do to celebrate his occasions. Often the answer is, “Pie.” More often, the answer is “Nothing.”
For Father’s Day 2012, the answer was, “Hiking.” We bought a Trustees of the Reservations sticker this year, and have been exploring the reservations near us. Today we checked out Old Town Hill in Newbury, and it was amazing. Didn’t hurt that the temperature was about 60 degrees while we hiked. Plenty of woods, plenty of low land marshy flats, and a view of the ocean, too. Happy Father’s Day to my wonderful husband who always carries the baby backpack. (And who doesn’t mind when the baby pokes at the back of his head during the hike.)
16 Saturday Jun 2012
Posted in family
is that now she can wear dresses gracefully. No more looking ridiculous. No more anger or crab-crawling when she can’t get around because of her cursed skirt.
Or is it that she’s finally developing a sense of humor? You’ve never seen a kid who loves Chicken Butt like she loves Chicken Butt. Dogs? Swings? HILARIOUS. And the facial expressions that are coming with her budding personality crack me up. 
In all seriousness, my number one favorite thing about my new toddler is that she is so independent, all day long, but when she feels like she needs some love, or has some to give, she simply swings by me on her path through the apartment (gotta do those laps), wraps her little skinny arms around my legs, and buries her face in my knees. Baby hugs! The best. Of course, I swoop down and grab her and probably hug her too hard, and kiss and smell that little place on the back of her neck that smells like soap and, because it’s summer, sunscreen, and spicy-warm baby smell.
Says Nate, “Well, you CAN’T eat her.” Oh, yeah? 🙂
13 Wednesday Jun 2012
Girl, you better work.
Because it’s Tuesday-impromptu-beach-day. Where else can you live that you can do the park in the morning, the beach in the afternoon, and it’s not 107 degrees and a million bazillion people? Lucy loves the beach. She loves the (frigid, oh my gosh) water, she loves the waves, she loves the sand. She also loves to people-watch and seagull-chase. She’d stay all day. Or, until she gets so tired and hungry that she ends up face-down on the beach blanket tantruming, NOT that we know anything about tantrums.
When he looked at the pictures, Nate said, “Were you the only people there?” Pretty much, yes. There were enough people that we didn’t feel weird. But we had a plenty big patch of sand and shore all to ourselves. This beach sticker is going to be the best $60 we ever. spent. No lie.
11 Monday Jun 2012
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Has it been a week already?
We’ve been away down South at a wedding. Lucy had her first flower girl gig, and she also had a blast walking laps around and around the wedding venue in her little white linen pants. Mostly she was a blur.
As has been this week, friends. Life didn’t stop for us to leave, and we arrived home to a flurry of everyday life, a pile of laundry (those little white linen pants got awful dirty), and a spate of minor disasters that has left us a little drained. Suffice it to say, I’m glad we’re all safe and alive and fairly healthy.
I’ve been away from both books and sewing machine, and my encounters with the kitchen have been limited to cheese toast, macaroni, zucchini (that kid), and the cake I baked for book club and then dumped on the counter.
I have, however, managed to get this small lovely finished.
Oh, but it looks good in my chair. Sad. Because it’s not staying there. I’m shipping it off to a friend in Pennsylvania whose birthday is today. And that’s what friendship is about: understanding when those who love you send late gifts because of ridiculous flat tire-ER visit-flower girl-airplane flying weeks. (And it’s also about not keeping gifts you made just because they are just real cute in your own house, drat.)
