eek...holy cuteness!

Jon and I have two deeply rooted animal infatuations. He loves guinea pigs and I love pugs. Unfortunately, we have two very spoiled kitties who would revolt if we ever brought a new family member into our house, so we are a two cat family.

To satisfy his guinea pig obsession, Jon searches youtube for guinea pig videos, visits the pet aisle at Meijer, and thinks often of his childhood guinea pig, Sammy. He found a gem this morning which pairs his favorite fruit with his favorite rodent (double score!):

Guinea pigs are so cute!

getting on the tech train...

Ummm...so, there's this thing called Google Video chat. You can talk with people halfway around the world with it!

Should have figured out how to use it a long time ago! Isn't technology amazing?

Live from Brussels: Jodi

with a last minute appearance from Jon

Things that I should be remembering from our conversation (I kept a list):

• New York Times Salads, especially the Tomato Peach Salad and Avocado Cucumber Salad
• Manchester - Hair
• Antwerp, Belgium
• Malawi
• Macedonia
• camping in South Africa
• Portugal travel photos

 

Quilt for Melissa's Baby Girl

I've been plotting this quilt ever since I found at that Melissa was pregnant. I picked out the fabric for this before she found out that she was having a girl (wishful thinking on my part!). I wanted to use this fabric because it's got a few different scissor patterns in it and Melissa is quite the accomplished seamstress and quilter. This baby will have sewing in her blood, so why not have it in her new quilt, too?

I made this quilt last year for another friend's baby. You can see the details of the construction in that post, but this quilt uses half of a crib size quilt batting, 10 charm squares and about 2 yards of fabric for the sashing, binding and backing. The patterned fabric is Moda's Wonderland and the solid is a Kona Cotton.

Melissa promises to send some action shots once her little girl arrives sometime this fall!

Red Barn Quilt Along Quilt

Jon left me home alone this weekend to go backpacking in northern Michigan. It was really the best of both worlds for us...I got to take daily showers, have the bed (almost) to myself (minus the two kitties with remarkable wingspans) and he got to explore the wilderness. He came back with one (1!) pound of fudge saying, "you like fudge, right?" He claims he fell for the "buy 3, get 1 free" special.

I spent the weekend catching up on craft projects and schoolwork and hanging out with our two little kitties...mainly, my sewing supervisor, Nuku Nuku.

I had started the Red Barn Quilt along a few weeks late and, until the weekend, had only constructed the blocks for the top. This weekend, I was able to sew everything together and get it quilted. The quilt is a little too red white and blue for me (I was going for the red/aqua look, but came up short), but I do like the bright colors and fun prints in it, and I used up quite a few pieces of stash fabric.

I have no idea the final size, but I'm guessing it's around 55" x 77".

The kitties and I were able to christen it yesterday with a wonderful Sunday afternoon nap and it covered us all with room to spare.

up north

Jon and I, and about 30 other family members went up north to my aunt and uncle's beautiful lake house for our third annual family reunion.

We loaded up my car with snacks, games, clothes and bikes and headed up north.

My dad, the family photographer, documented the whole weekend and here are his pictures:

Our family used up every square inch of the house and yard...the house was quite the sight from the lake!

My crazy sister, Ruth, helped me set up the tent (she wanted to avoid sleeping inside with all the snorers!)

The most talked about bird house of the weekend. A camper...isn't it cute?!

fun with sparklers

 

I learned how to drive a boat and took family members on three separate tours of the lake.

Jon drove a jet ski for the first time (I was too chicken to ride)

My mom and aunt made the cutest July 4 themed cookies!

When the rain arrived on Sunday morning, we spent a few hours inside playing Sequence.

All in all, we had a great weekend catching up with family, eating great food, enjoying the beautiful weather and lake, and watching 4th of July fireworks from the boat!

 

Garden: 2009

Jon and I have been spending our summer evenings outside for the past few weeks. It is so relaxing to read (or knit) outside and enjoy the cool breezes.

New for this year:
• 3 yards of top soil to level off the back and avoid flooding problems again
• a custom-built sprinkler system (thanks Jon!)
• a revolving compost bin
• a handful of plants grown from seed (inside during the winter and outside at the beginning of spring).

For this year, we've planted the following veggies:
2x heirloom tomatoes

2 cherry tomatoes

4 eggplant

3 kale

3 swiss chard

8 green/red/yellow peppers

10 green onions

radishes

6 lettuce

5 Chinese cabbage

pickling cucumber

cucumber

zucchini

10 bush beans

5 fennel

Here's a few shots of our garden as it has been progressing this year.

Day 1

Week 4

Week 6

And one row of perennials and cutting flowers for good measure with daisies, purple coneflowers, rose campion and zinnias (our veggie garden is the only spot in our yard with full sun, so I've got to grow the fun perennials somewher!).

Lychnis - Rose Campion