Trips and Projects or what I did on my summer vacation

First a confession.
I suffer from debilitating motion sickness. This makes things like roller coasters and those swings that fly around in circles out of the question for me. It also means road trips are something straight out of a Stephen King novel in my mind. Needless to say, I don't much enjoy traveling, and I wish I did. The open road, endless possibilities, it all seems so romantic.
I've learned a few tricks to help keep my head from spinning and my stomach from flip flopping around. I have to be well fed and hydrated and I must stay cool. It also helps if I have something else to focus on. Also certain cars tend to make me sicker than others. For instance I cannot ride in a Jeep Liberty for any length of time without wanting to die.
I have also found knitting to be a good thing to occupy my mind with while riding in the car, as well as hand sewing.
Summer of '08 will probably go down in history as the most boring summer ever for our family. Ben didn't have much time off work and since we just bought a house in April all spare change has gone into remodeling and updating it, with very little left over for family trips. I dare say we've enjoyed ourselves despite these things. The kids and I have had Sponge Bob Monopoly tournements and they have been such good sports as I've tried to find different ways to dress up sandwiches, their lunch of choice. However we felt the need to do something summerish. So we packed the Durango and headed South to our home town. We spent a few days with Ben's family. Playing in the water, watching the Olympics, and eating. Oh boy do we eat down there.
Good times were had all around.
Of course, we couldn't leave Nephi without another project. Apricots, which within a few days we had turned into 4 batches of jam and 6 pints of apricots in nectar. These will certainly make the winter months more enjoyable.
Stay tuned as next week we dive into Homeschooling! :)

I'd like to introduce you....

To my lovely Sister in law, April.

http://jakeandapril.blogspot.com/

April is married to Ben's younger (but not littler) brother Jacob and they have 2 adorable kids. Brenden is just a month younger than Sophia and Tijah is coming up on a year in November. This is a picture I took of Sophia and Brenden a week or so ago.

Oh the adventures we've had together. I have to admit, I really love watching Ben and Jacob together. It's very easy to imagine them as little boys, chasing each other around playing, taking things apart and risking their lives every chance they got. Recently we went to an amusement park together and watching those two men racing each other up the stairs to the water slide sent my mind spinning with images of what it must have been like growing up in the Menlove house.

I only wish they lived closer.

Necessitae, New camera, New Family member

Not necessarily in that order, mind you. First let me introduce the newest member of the M family, Delilah. I have been wanting a kitten for quite some time. 9 years to be exact but it was never the right time, never the right place, never the right price. But that has changed. My niece's friend's family had kittens and this sweet little girl spoke to us. K, she mewed at us but it was like music and the rest is history. We've been spoiling her and loving on her and making her feel right at home. With impromptu photo shoots and everything. I asked Kileah to pose with her for me, she did such a good job, she even got Delilah to look at the camera. And the smile. Just like any good big sister. You can see how hard she's concentrating on getting the pose just right.

The second "new" thing around here is my new camera. I had to invest in a new camera, not by choice, but by force of nature. Or maybe force of kitchen floor meeting my old Kodak one too many times. May she rest in peace. I took the advice of many others and bought a canon. I'm very happy with it so far. The picture clarity is really improved, especially when taking pictures of people. Taking pictures of bags is another story. There is quite the learning curve, the lighting, the pose, the shadow. It all has to be perfect, so I'm still working on that with the new camera. For now though I'm very happy with my forced investment. I told both my husband and my best friend my first project now is a padded case for said camera. Really padded.

Necessitae is stocking tomorrow! I've been on hiatus there for such a long time I feel as if it's my first time stocking with these talented artisans all over again and I have butterflies in my stomach. I actually had these 4 yarn pods all done up and ready to stock on May 30, but a case of the flu confined me to bed and delayed the stocking. I'm really happy with them all, these little bags have been a huge hit with my customers. They're just perfect for any knitter. I have a confession to make, I don't knit socks. The skinny yarn, the teeny needles it's just not for me. So when looking for a compact knitting bag that wasn't exclusively for socks the market turned out to be pretty bleak. Never one to settle for a bleak market I set to work drafting up a small pouch type knitting bag that would work for knitting things like sweaters and longies. After a little fine tuning and a search for a name the yarn pod was born! Of course the other Necessitae artisans never cease to amaze me with their talents and I have one thing to say to Carina of Sweet Mama Small Sugar, thank you. Thank you for making this too small for Sophia. I thank you and my paypal thanks you.

I feel pretty, oh so pretty!

Carina of two14 design did the most amazingly perfect job on my website and also my blog. I'm so thrilled I can't stop looking at it!
Thank you so very much Carina.