kismet art

Celebrate

I love birthdays, yours, mine, his, hers.  I love shopping for gifts, and making a card, and most of all getting together with that special someone to celebrate them.

And this year I came down with a nasty virus right before my birthday, so my family postponed our get-together until we could all be together- here is a little taste of my birthday:

2013- the cake: The cake bakers: Lunch with my family at one of my favorite Eugene restaurants, Noli:Me, the one who usually takes all the photos, ready to have the camera back (yet secretly happy to have a photo of me at lunch):Salad,shared with my mom:

"Pirate Pasta", aka penne, with cheese for Emma:
Spaghetti with extra meatballs for Ben:
Minestrone soup with a grilled veggie sandwich for me:
Pasta with seafood for my brother Joe:
Carbonara Pasta for Dave: dessert at home...The best kind of birthday, filled with really delicious food, lots of laughter, and people I love.  Oh, and cake, of course.

Here's to year 43!

"Be Mine" Banner

Homemade Ornaments 2012

This years homemade ornaments-

for Ben, Bacon made from felt:for Emma, a cone with a vintage snow couple:
family cones:a San Francisco Giants cone for my brother:a felt hoop of Oregon that headed all the way to the Ukraine: a bird hoop that also went to the Ukraine:and hoops for my coworkers: And every year, despite my good intentions of working on Christmas all throughout the year, I always seem to be working on these until the night before I need them, but I love making them just the same.

Father's Day Fun

We spent a relaxing Father's Day morning at my parents house eating breakfast, playing in the sunshine, and getting some time to visit and just be.Papa (my dad) with the kids swinging and being silly in the backyard.Fresh fruit platter.Frittata with herbs from our garden.Then back to our house for the evenings festivities- above is Dave's new Lego (and he is smiling that big because Emma built almost the whole thing!) Honey-Lime-Cilantro Chicken burgers with Asian Slaw and Blue Corn Tortillas (I forget how much I love to use the grill this time of year.)
Dessert- shortcake with local berries, lemon curd, and fresh whipped cream.

A fun day for the dads (apparantly centered around food, go figure) and a nice way to kick off the start of summer.

Happy Mother's Day

Easter 2012 in Photos

Easter Felt Hoops

The last two weeks have passed by too quickly as we try to get everyone in our household well again, but I wanted to share a trio of wool felt Easter projects I made last week- I used wool felt for the base, stretched it inside of a 6 inch embroidery hoop, cut an egg shape from wool felt, embellished them with bits of vintage white trim (except for the pink one- Emma insisted on pink for hers, go figure), and embroidered Happy Easter on each.  Wishing you all a Happy Easter and looking forward to getting back into the swing of things!

Happy Birthday Dave

We feel so very lucky, every day,  that the boy in that first photo grew up, changed majors, came to the University of Oregon, met a nice girl, got married, had a couple of nice kids, and settled down to raise a family here in Eugene.  Happiest of birthdays to you David, we love you.

Thankful...

..For my family, our home, food on the table, our good health, my friends, and for love.  Small blessings that I can't imagine living without.  Just so very thankful this year.

Monday Pumpkin Science Minute

There used to be 2 pumpkins on the deck but thanks to one hungry squirrel this is all that is left of one of them (I guess he didn't like the seeds much, must have needed salt.)So in an attempt to add a little science to our everyday life, every Monday I plan on posting a photo of our pumpkins out in the garden.  Ben and Emma get a kick out of watching various critters eat the pumpkins, as well as watching the carved faces as they decompose.

I know, I know, life does not get much more exciting than this.

Be sure to mark your calendars :)