one afternoon

You may know, that the heart of our dining room is a beautiful large table, which comes in quite handy for formal dinners (once) or homework (almost daily) or crafting/painting with the kids (often) or crafting/knitting with friends (once a month).
When Amanda, aka Mrs. Soulemama invited her readers to think about the highlight of our week it took me a moment. Then I realized that my favorite time last week was a painting event at said table a few days ago. Not just did I thoroughly enjoy watching the kids do their artwork, but also did I love that we all worked on something similar, we all painted.

Here are the kids finished pictures, water colors combined with oil pastels. I don't think it is hard to guess, who did what.

But it was not just this creating in harmony, that made the afternoon special, but also what I was working on.

For quite a while I had been wondering what I would like to make as a larger design in rug hooking. And the idea of a rug that incorporates designs/pictures of the kids was just the "rough draft" until it hit me how I wanted to do it.

I started going through boxes with old artwork. I found pictures that used to be my favorites, others that symbolized important phases in the kids' lives or typical drawings that I've seen over and over again. The Giant Squid. Lewis was obsessed with the Giant Squid for a while. Snakes, another object of fascination for him when he was five, frogs, too. Halloween, everyones favorite. The little girl, always drawn by Fiona with the hair growing out above the ears. The green horse, a framed picture on the wall. The butterfly, for a while Fiona drew nothing but butterflies.

The idea how to put it all together came naturally.

And now I guess it is obvious, what made this afternoon so memorable. A feeling of being connected in a desire to create, at the same time remembering what we have shared in the past and to get a glimpse of where we come from and maybe also of where we are going.

I really don't know if mine will ever become a rug, but all these paintings will always remind me of a very special afternoon.

the good and the bad

The itch was real bad after Amber got her fabulous new double treadle Lendrum up and running. So this weekend I finally pulled my wheels out and got spinning. I spun up some batts of wool-alpaca-silk blends and plied the gorgeous rusty mohair yarn, that I had spun a while ago. Yarn is wet from a brief bath, so pictures have yet to be taken. Fun.

There was also a date with husband, which brought us to Old Town and - what a lucky "coincidence" :-) - to the relatively new yarnshop Fiber Chicks. They have one whole wall dedicated to consignment yarns and part of my newly spun yarns will soon be available for sale there. Good.

On Sunday then I had a visitor from my Maryland past, my oh-so-talented friend Dalis, here on Ravelry! I was thrilled that she made time for me, even brought me some fiber goodies! If your travels ever bring you to her area in Maryland, just north of D.C., you have to visit her little shop with a big selection of high quality yarns, fibers and related items on her farm or checkout her beautiful handdyed yarns available on Etsy here.

Time flew by and she had to leave too soon.

- Travel safely, friend!

Ready for the bad part?

Here is a look back to last summer, when Lewis tore a ligament in his foot just the day before we flew to Germany. Trampoline injury. Splint and crutches, pain and real bad swelling. Fortunately grandma owns this little cart and this is how we'd wheel him around.

Yesterday, total deja-vu, other kiddo, trampoline, After Hours Pediatrics, Emergency Room for X-rays, fortunately no fracture. And here she is today, foot up and swollen real bad, little Miss Bigfoot.

Spends the day on the sofa, ice on as much as possible, getting spoiled by her mama.

My kids and trampolines don't go together. We don't own one and never will.

Not compatible. Period.

embarrassed

I stand corrected by - ahem - not by my German, but an American friend (thank you, Amber), who kindly informed me, that what I named the Reichstag was in fact the Brandenburger Tor.

Ooops.

My house is dusty and will stay dusty for a week longer than anticipated. The company that delivered the wood messed up and we ran short. But well, we have not gotten the oil finish yet either, a product from Germany, that seems to be sold out all over the US at this point, so what the...

At the same time normal life somehow goes on and Fiona's fieldtrip brought us yesterday to Wagner Farm in Corrales. Don't we all love pumpkin pictures?

There is some knitting happening, too, almost finished fingerless gloves from handspun 2-ply yarn. I just need to weave in the ends.

A new project was started from bulky 2-ply handspun, a buttersoft blend of kid mohair and romney, to become a sleeveless vest in a design that I have been breeding over for quite a while now: long, just one huge button for closure at the neckline, the details will be developed as I go.

Sewing machine and ironing board found a current home in the low dust kitchen area and I was able to finally finish the birthday gift for my friend Mitchi in Maryland, this zippered pouch: vintage fabric, hand emboidered initials on linen, dark green velvet lining.

Doris, who will be taking off for Germany today, got a private lesson on sewing zippered pouches and surprised me yesterday with this lovelyness:

Thank you, Doris, and bye-bye 'til next year!

celebrating

Among all the exciting things that happened last week was the 8th birthday of my little girl.

She loves gymnastics.

She loves Webkinz.

She loves Build-A-Bear-Workshop.

She draws and paints beautiful pictures.

She loves all things artsy and crafty.

She adores her big brother.

She stands up to her big brother, too.

She loves school.



She loves to cook and snack on the ingredients.

She loves broccoli, peppers, tomatoes and carrots .

She loves icecream. No, that's a huge understatement. She could live on icecream.

She's a good sport - except when she's tired.

She loves the dresses that Oma and me make.

She loves animals, stuffed and real.

She loves her Oma. And her Opa.

And she loves her family.

We love you, too, baby.

the boy

Last week was quite emotional for me.

My baby, my son, my first born turned 10 on the 13th. He was impatiently looking forward to the day, mostly because of the presents. This is how it has been for as long as he has realized, what is going on. However, I see the changes in him, a lot more consciousness of self, growing maturity, and I get a glimpse of what's to come.

I can very well embrace the change, being the woman that fell in love with an American and started a new life and family in the USA - you probably figure. However, looking back at those days of innocence and little-boy-being makes me so sad, because they are forever gone.

Just a few days old, born at 10 lbs. 4 oz:

About a year old with uncle Ralf in Germany:

On his 4th birthday in Maryland, when we still lived in our very first house:

On his 7th birthday in Maryland:

In 2007, after the move to New Mexico, when he had the longest hair ever:

Turning 10:

On Saturday we celebrated with a total of 8 kids and a splash - he had wished for a pool party.

We had a few prizes for pool games and the best "goodie bags" ever: My friend Cheryl, who is about to launch her own business (I will keep you updated), provided us with the test version of reusable little treasure pouches! Those were - filled with personalized notebooks and diving torpedos - attached to pool noodles.

I was thrilled to see Lewis use his to carry his diving toys, when he made his way to the pool the next day! Way to go, Cheryl, and thanks again for letting us be the guinea pigs!

And to you, my sweet son, I say, what I always say jokingly, when I feel that time flies by too fast:
Won't you finally stop growing...!

Lucky Boy

Just a few days ago I had thrifty luck of a different kind - I found something, that I knew would make Lewis very happy. I'm talking about padded camouflage overalls. Long sleeves, warm and the perfect size, too!

-- As suspected, he was thrilled, could hardly wait for them to come out of the dryer, and put them on right away. For about 5 minutes... it was one of the warmer days last week.

Then came Friday, and with it came snow! So right after school he got all geared up, overalls, shovel, gloves, army hat, walkie talkie, and headed out in the arroyo behind our house, a boy's heaven, wilderness!

This is how he looked like, when he came home once in between, please note the legs and formerly blue shoes!

There he goes again!



He came back in for dinner about an hour later, now look at this!

He really had smudges on his face!

He headed off to take a hot bath and left this arrangement by the door:

I pulled the walkie talkie out of the pocket, -- I'm not sure, if it is still working. Well, we've had it for about two weeks now. Isn't that the average lifespan for a boy toy (legos being the exception of the rule of course)?

Today, during breakfast, the mountains performed one of their typical spectacular dramas, which made me run for the camera to capture:

Once again I am grateful to live here, not just in Albuquerque, but also in our beautiful house in such a perfect location, close to the trails, to unstructured outdoors, yet close to city life. My children have the chance to experience nature in a very basic way, by digging and being out there, just like I did when I grew up in Germany!

Brother, do you remember how we dug hide outs in that open area close to our house, that was called "Matra Wiese"? We even had candles down there... But that is a different story.

Have a good weekend!

the joy of yarn

All quiet here except some new haircuts and new teeth.

I've been trying to get a true snapshot of Fiona, but while those teeth grow speedyfast since they made their first appearance, I have only been getting big photo smiles, which is good, too!

I was thrilled after cutting Lewis' hair a few days ago, which had been growing out for four months. This time he agreed to having it quite short and I just love to see his handsome big boy face like this. I apologize for the distracting pink, which is the haircutting robe...

These days he seems to have grown so much and he is indeed getting real close to his 10th birthday. I find the older my guys get, the harder it seems to get a good picture. This next shot, which I am very happy with, was taken yesterday after he started grumping with me. I guess when I grabbed the camera he could not keep his expression too serious!

I have not been up to a lot of crafting or knitting, progress on another boardbook album (how-the-girl-lost-her-front-tooth) has been slow, but with pleasing results. Again, I have used the green stack (12x12) by DCWV, 70% recycled, my current favorite, combined with some sheets from Robin's store, that coordinate very well (Daisybucket Designs).

Most of my recent knitting was done on our trip to Arizona, Wyatt did most of our long distance driving, so I got to knit and finished this (size 3-4T).

It is waiting for the skirt to be shortened and sewed on to the cotton top.

My focus these days is on finishing some stuff for the Hip Stitch craft show coming up beginning of May, mainly girls dresses since it should be nice and warm by then. I am working on a new series with recycled adult skirts and dresses from rayon fabric, which gives the dress a nice drape.

So, if you are in ABQ, mark your calendars and stop by at Hip stitch Friday, May 1st between 5 and 8 pm or Saturday, May 2nd between 10 am and 4 pm .

I have yet to explain this posts title.

Check out the amazing story of this earthquake survivor in Italy:

A 98-year old lady was trapped for 30 hours before she was rescued. How she got through those long hours? - She crocheted!

What a story...