One of our easy go-to dinners… cook whole wheat spaghetti, boil shrimp in water with a little bit of garlic salt sprinkled in, drain the shrimp, lightly coat the spaghetti with extra virgin olive oil, put shrimp on top, add lots parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes (I like to put a lot). It is all so yum!
What did you have for dinner last night?
p.s. thank you so much for your seriously sweet words regarding yesterday’s post and how you still continue to visit this space even when i feel kinda boring! you guys are the best!
Honestly, lately I have been feeling a bit dried up in the crafty department. Not really in a mood to sew or make anything. I get little spurts here and there, which usually results in a necklace, but other than that I have felt kaput! Seriously. I haven’t sewn to just sew in a very long while. I think part of it is I have now 3 to take care of and time isn’t the same, another part of it is my studio area is really, really a bad mess, and the other part just is me feeling blah! Oh and another part is gardening has been taking a lot of my time.
Yesterday, I was pruning, deadheading, and watering outside and I was getting rid of these dried up blooms on some rose bushes. I got them all clumped up together on a table ready to be tossed when I noticed they all looked so pretty that I couldn’t resist running in the house to grab the camera. Even dried up roses are absolutely beautiful, they remind me a bit of fabric.
These simple roses inspired me, rather reminded me, of my own state of dried up-ness. Though, I haven’t been crafting much of late lots of other good things have been happening, like a lot of cuddling with my babes which are much more important. Them being little last for only a short season and this season needs to be treasured as much as possible.
The roses live and die and get cut off the stem, with the rose bush only to flower again later with new blooms. I will let that be me. Right now I am in the die and cut off stage, and I just need to regenerate a bit and I will be back. Before you know it, I will be itching to sew again, my sketch book will be brimming with new little projects, and unfinished ones will be completed. Until then, I will continue loving up the darlings in my life because they will always be what is most important. Don’t you agree?
Aren’t Fridays always happy?!! They must be for sure. For you school folk, that means no school for two days, for you working in the world folk, that means no work for two days, and for us working at home folk (be it just staying home with kids or running a wee business), that means we get to be with our working out of the home love(s) for two whole days! Therefore, Fridays must always be happy days.
It seems to a be a little ritual in our house of late, that Friday mornings I go out and pick some flowers to bring inside. I like that ritual. I hope I can keep all the flowers alive, so I can keep doing this little ritual.
It feels like I say this all the time, but this week was such a whirlwind and time to get things done just isn’t there anymore. Plus, we have been working on a little something for Ben that has taken chunks of our day, but we are so glad to do it! We will share it on Monday, but let’s just say that instead of just giving Ben a father’s day, we are giving him a father’s week. We think he actually deserves a father’s month, but we will work our way up there and do a week for now. Oh boy… we love our Papi so, so much!!!
I hope you enjoy your weekend loving and adoring all your darlings, especially them fathers!
p.s. a little bird tells me there is one dollhouse pillow up for grabs. sold.
Thanks friends for all your advice! Your tips via comments and emails has soothe my worrisome self a bit. Having never dealt with croup before, I was thinking the worst and just nervous making sure I was paying extra attention before her condition could get any worse. I have been reading and following some of your tips. Cool mist humidifier? Check. Cool night air? Check. Steam from a warm shower? Check. Soul does alright during the day, but nights are the worse. I am not getting very much sleep these past couple nights, but I am cherishing the cuddling. I just feel so bad for my baby because she is so uncomfortable. Hopefully, this croup thing will let up soon.
How are my other girls doing? They have coughs, but seem to be fine otherwise. They are still their sassy selves, fighting, playing, and all that two sisters do together. We did have a bit of time these past few days to fit in some cupcake making, but I did just a use a Cherrybrook Kitchen mix to make things a bit easier, and it is so so good. The best cake mix I have ever tried! Seriously.
I have a few crafted things to share tomorrow that I have made just being in bed with Soul next to me. My bedroom has been the place to hang out this week. We all stay here all day long, but only until Ben comes home and the girls go outside with him to garden. Speaking of garden, I think we have planted up to 20 different varieties of tomatoes! We will have tomatoes coming up the wazoo (well, hoping the bugs don’t get to them first)! Can’t wait for this Summer’s harvest!!!
p.s. I am giving away a flower garland here and the most recent sponsor winner has been announced.
Oh Ben is too sweet. I have had the worst stomach ache for three days straight and it keeps me from doing things, though there is much to be done, and I just stay in bed. To help “ease” my pain, Ben was secretly calling around to find me this shoe. Unfortunately, they are sold out everywhere and I was smiling when he told me of his efforts. He even called the manufacturer! That is good enough for me. I seriously love my husband. Something else I love, though not as much as Ben, are polaroids from our garden. It just makes me extremely giddy.
I can’t believe you are here already. I (and my girls) don’t like you so much because that means Ben has to go back to work and we like him home all the time, so the weekends are our favorite. We want to be with Ben (Papi) all day, everyday. We want to be with him to eat yummy dinners, spend time in the garden, and just to cuddle all day long. So please Monday hurry up and let’s get on to Friday!
Love,
Ruby (and my girls)
p.s. Attached are some pictures of our weekend to understand why we love being with our Papi so much.
{ben made some seared tuna salads for us, and crab salads for the girls}
I have a large growing pile of fabric scraps. I refuse to throw them away because I am sure they can be used for something. I have been seeing different types of interesting necklaces made of buttons, beads, and fabric. Then, I figured why not make one out of my scraps...
I think it made my white shirt a little less boring. This was so quick and easy to make.
How to make a recycled scraps necklace (which is very similar to the straps on my braided tablecloth bag):
1. Take your scrap fabric, I cut a .5''-1'' snip and tear the rest of the fabric down for a nice frayed edge. Used 3 different fabrics for each strand.
2. Take 3 of the torn pieces and tie the ends together with a rubber band.
3. Braid the 3 pieces together and tie ends together with rubber band when done.
4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 for more strands. Remember you can make the strands any length you want, if run out of fabric, just weave more into the braid.
5. Once all the strands you want are braided, gather one end of each strand together and straight stitch together with sewing machine. Repeat for the other ends of the strands. Snip off any excess.
6. Gather ends of the necklace and sew together (snip excess) or a ribbon can be sewn at the ends to be able to tie the necklace closed, but I just sewed both ends together.
7. Voila! A nice way to make use of all your lovely scraps.
Sorry if the directions get you a little lost, but it really is easy. I promise. Maybe I should put some in the shop. Please share any other good ideas you may have of things that can be made with scraps. I would love to hear (read) them!
