MUST Play in Water

After a week of over 100 degree weather and, as a result of it being "too hot outside", the kids being cooped up in the A/C, when the thermostat read 108 degrees yesterday we decided to load up the family and spend the afternoon at the pool. How heavenly. Okay, in order to get the "heavenly" experience you have to put you head under the water to muffle out the screams and squeals of all the kids, but still...

Why are we not doing this more often? In addition to being enjoyable, my lily white bod could use a little sun. (Pix is of Ray watching the kiddos in the pool. Ryan is working on climbing out to sit by dad and Hadley is about to belly flop in the water...ouch!)

Not Boring Afterall

A few months ago I told a friend that while they were pretty, the hardy water lilies I'd gotten were pale and well, boring, compared to the tropical lilies they had in their pond. Well... turns out our pond wasn't boring after all. What a surprise to find that not only did the purple tropical lily I got from a fellow Austin Pond Society Board Member bloom beautifully this year in our pond, but a surprise hot pink one did as well!

I didn't get out to get a pix of the hot pink one yet but do have one of the purple and my pink hardy lily. In fact, I desperately need to get out and fertilize all my lilies. Of course, I also need to deadhead my pond plants, clean the filter, feed the poor fish...

MYB = YARN & Goodies

No sooner had I finished winding and packing up the magic yarn ball (MYB) to send to my swap partner for ADHD Knitting's MYB Swap on Ravelry than the mail person delivered my package! Yippee. YARN and goodies!

Included in the cute tin was a sweet card, 3 skeins of Classic Elite Yarn 100% Egyptian Cabled Cotton in grey. One of the skeins was used for the MYB and unwinding it revealed some tea, organic ginger candies, pair of silver earrings, set of 8 multi-color flower buttons (that will be precious on something for Hadley), organic lip balm, 2 dark chocolate candy bars (which have since disappeared), and a bag of organic fruit bears candy.

First pix was before unwinding my MYB, second pix shows all the goodies I received. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

A Bee in My Bonnet

This past Friday morning I gave the main, and right now with the remodel going on for the master bath/bedroom our only, bathroom a good spring scrubbing - from ceiling to baseboard... Despite smelling clean I still wasn't happy. Those dingy yellow-tan walls and trim were bringing me down. So I decided to take this whole pregnancy nesting thing to an extreme. I told my sweet, loving, supportive husband that I thought it might be a good idea to paint the bathroom...spruce it up a bit.

Now mind you, we weren't going to do anything to this bathroom until we remodeled it.

However, as it is last on the to-do list, I had to do something to tide me over.

If you listen to my husband's version of the story it goes something like, "She was telling me about thinking about painting the bathroom and in less than five minutes she's in there with a paintbrush in her hand!"

Okay, so I wasted no time. New electrical switches & outlet, new cabinet hardware and a new light fixture really helped the newly painted bathroom to "pop". All the same artwork and such returned but the room is much cleaner and brighter now. The dresser that appears in the photos is a "temporary" thing. It will go away once the master bed/bath/closet are done and will be replaced with some type of multi-bin hamper. Yes I have delusions of the kids actually putting their dirty clothes not only into a hamper but into the "appropriate" hamper.

The accent wall color was selected to tie in the blue color in the old countertop that we aren't ready to change out right now. It helps, in our opinion, the countertop not look as dingy as it really is...at least on the side where the blue is next to it.

Anyway...the bathroom is done and I just wanted to share. Unfortunately, I know it won't stay spic-n-span long. Not with being the only working bath right now and being bathroom to two toddlers who get filthy just looking at dirt.

NOTE: Each "before" photo is followed by an "after" ofthe same space...as best I could get.




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Our Little Slugger

We have this weekend off from Tball practice and game, due to Memorial Day holiday. I thought I would take this brief breather to share some pix of our little slugger from his game this past weekend. Unfortunately, the best pix of him hitting the ball (where you can see the ball going as well) is messed up by Daddy's finger in the viewfinder.


Also, we finally got in Ryan's "official" team photo. How cute is this guy, I ask?

Tuscany Shawl On The Needles

It will likely be a century from now before I finish this shawl so I thought I would share a pix of it thus far... Unfortunately it isn't the sharpest pix but it was the best one in regard to showing off the colorway of the yarn.

Also, one of my finished items...Baby Girl Kimono Sweater. It just lacks buttons and someone to wear it (seeing how we're having a boy and won't need a girl baby sweater).

Currently hibernating (cause I've got too much other stuff in progress including several test knits for various designers) is a baby Kicking Bag in purple. The plan was to have it go with the kimono sweater, perhaps. We'll see.

Goodies from APS Plant Swap

This month, the Austin Pond Society (APS) held its annual plant swap. We had a great turnout with tons of pond, bog and landscape plants. I was actually quite good during the swap itself. I used almost all of my tickets toward three metal frogs who are now jammin' down in my garden area. I love them. Once the main part of the swap had ended however, it was a free for all and I got just a few plants to add to my garden.

The good news is that I didn't come home with anything I took to the swap. I DID come home with a bunch of other goodies though including: Witch's Broom (saw that and knew I had to have something with a name like that), baby red salvias, 2 coffee plants, 2 black/blue salvias (one of my faves), mint, thalia, a plant I can't recall the name of, pond grass, dwarf hummingbird bush, variegated pond grass, malabar spinach, oregano, water cannas, flame acanthus, yellow water iris (will be a nice compliment to my dark purple ones), pennywort, and yellow water lilies....and the frogs.

I spent an entire day working in the pond repotting plants, adding in the new ones and doing some cleanup. Now if I can just get the string algae under control and get it cleared up, it will be all pretty. The pond definitely puts the surrounding garden to shame but considering that the "dry" garden is all from clippings, it is growing quite nicely.