Sunny Beaches

We took a beach vacation this month!  Our little family was joined by my in-laws for a four-day trip to Sanibel Island, Fl.  We can never get away very long because of all our critter responsibilities, but honestly, after four days or so, I’m ready to come home.  I like home! This vacation was not meant to be an escape from home, so much as from the winter weather!  And, lo and behold, the day we left Southern Indiana was hit by a huge snow storm.  The temps with wind chill were below zero.  So, we were all quite happy to be in sunny Sanibel.  However, Sanibel was hit with unseasonably cool temperatures there as well.  Our days were not as warm as we would have liked (our two full days only hit 60), but it did not stop us from having a super time! 

 

Cam and I took Lila to Sanibel her first winter.  We had a great time and had wanted to go back ever since.  The place we stayed, Water Side Inn, is a little mom and pop place right on the beach.  Nothing fancy, but just what we wanted.  

Sanibel is not built up at all.  Driving the main roads (there are about 4) feels very tropical and lush.  Apparently, they have a terrible mosquito problem during the summer, but during the winter months, it is gorgeous.  It’s known for its fantastic shelling opportunities and in fact, the beach is just full of them.  It’s not very soft to walk on because the shells are so prevalent.  

We ate our weight in seafood, saw dolphins up close and personal, took a frigid open-air tram ride through the J.D. Ding Darling Nature Preserve, and played on the beach.  I got a chance to go shopping by myself and found some great sandals to pull out this summer and remember our trip.  Cam and I even got to sneak away for an ice cream date!  We ate alligator, escargot, fresh grouper, and calamari. 

 

Lila thoroughly enjoyed the beach!  The past couple times she has been, she’s been a little leary.  But, this time she was all about it!  She and Nana made sand “cookies” and “cakes”.  She ran in the cold surf, turning her feet a purple color, but giggling the whole time.  She loved it all, despite the cool temperatures.  She *really* loved being able to get our spring dresses from storage.  She was thrilled to see some of her old favorites resurface.  (Although, I should have packed some warmer attire for all of us!)

 

We all had a great time!  It was super nice to have my in-laws there with four extra hands to help with the girls.  I guess some people would cringe at the thought of traveling with their in-laws, but I am not one of them.  Mine rock!  

The Great Outdoors

So far, this has been a pretty cold winter.  The worst part about winter, especially with two small kiddos, is bundling them up to go outside- it take forever!  But, on this day, it was totally worth it.  On a whim,  Rhonda and I decided to change our plans of meeting at the library, to hiking down at Old Glory.  The weather was beautiful and not too cold.  It was the best decision we have made in a long time!  The kids had sooooo much fun.  They acted like they hadn't seen the light of day in weeks!  And, it's probably true that they hadn't been set free in it for awhile.  We also brought our visiting puppy along. 

Lila wanted to show Isa the hay loft first.  So, they crawled and squiggled through the "mouse holes" that Cam and Lila have constructed. 

Next, they checked out the tractor. 

I was playing with my new camera that day.  Rhonda took this nice pic of me sporting my handmade by Renata hat with Maggie.  I love the little smile on her face. 

I got this great shot of handsome Banyan.

After they scampered happily across the field, the older girls began building "a bed" out of large limbs.  Mostly, they hauled them all by themselves, but here, Banyan and Rhonda are in on the action.  The kids must have played for a good hour in this spot, carefree, happily constructing their imaginary space.  It was fabulous.  Rhonda and I had time to chat and catch up after what seemed like a far-too-long absence for moms who live within a couple miles of one another.  For such a cold day, it really made my heart warm to be surrounded by this family of choice. 

One happy princess!

  This was a special Christmas.  My girls are almost 2 and almost 4 and are hitting the ages where they really enjoy this time of year.  This is probably the best Christmas we've had in awhile.  I often let the stress of all the festivities get to me a bit.  This year, Cam and I collaborated on a special gift for Lila- princess bunk beds.  Our home did not have a space to be able to hide the bunk beds while Cam was building, so we fibbed and told her he was building them for her buddy, Isadora.  She kept making comments like, "Isa is really going to like those bunk beds!" and "Those sure are cool!".  It felt a little dishonest, but we really wanted it to be a surprise.  

So, after she was fast asleep Christmas Eve, we spirited her into our room so that we could construct the beds in her room.  After we had assembled it, we snuck her back into bed without her ever waking up.  So, Christmas morning, she woke up in a set of very special bunk beds.  Lila was thrilled.  She spent the morning with big smiles and randomly coming over to say "Happy Christmas, Mommy!" followed by a big hug.  I wish we could give her one every day!  

The ladder is inside the tower.  The curtain is Velcroed to the bed, so that it can be replaced by a puppet theater curtain. The tower is a painted tarp.  It all worked out so well.  We took Lila to see "Tangled" this week.  After noting that Rapunzel's tower was covered in ivy, we decided we needed to add some to our castle.  It has already been an underwater castle, a beauty shop, and a store.  I couldn't have asked for a better reaction!

I heart wool

   I recently started selling off my stash of wool roving.  Before Lila was born, almost 4 years ago, I had just gotten a spinning wheel.  I was into spinning and I had an inordinate amount of roving made.  It was great because this local guy raised meat sheep and didn’t do anything with the wool.  He gave me a bag of fleeces that was about 8-10ft tall and about 5 ft in circumference. It was a lot of wool!  So, I took it to the local Fiber Festival that year and bargained with the processors- would they want to keep half as the processing fee?  So, we split it halvsies, I went to another festival nearby a few months later and picked up about 30 lbs of roving.  If you don’t know, roving is the product of “processing” (or cleaning and combing) the sheep fleece so that you have a nice easy fiber to spin. 

   So, back to the point, I had this crazy amount of roving that I had dreams of spinning, dying, knitting up, etc… Then, Lila was born.  I literally went at least a year without even *touching* my spinning wheel.  The roving has been in boxes since that time.  I don’t think I’ve even spun an ounce of it.  So, when a Facebook friend asked if anyone had white/tan roving, I knew just the girl.  I had been thinking about selling it for awhile, so I took the opportunity.  I rolled it into 8 oz balls and sold it by the pound.  A pound of wool is *a lot* of wool.   Think, a pound of feathers.  As I was rolling it up, I remembered how I really liked the feel of wool in my hands.  I keep thinking I’ll bring my wheel upstairs and spin a bit.  So far, I haven’t.  But, it’s got a lot to do with the fact that I’ve been focusing on my Christmas crafting.  But, I did get to play with the wool a little bit for one Christmas gift.  I also finally got to play with the dye that Renata gave me about the time I got the roving!  It was really simple to use and didn’t take long at all. 

I took pics of the process for you!  Don’t you feel special!? I saw that the same FB friend from above had made cute little felted balls and I thought, “Yes! That’s what I need to do!”  So, I took some of the roving, wound it into a little ball, slightly larger than I wanted the finished product to be.  Then, I took some wool that I dyed a pretty blue color and wound it around in a random way. 

 

   I then stuffed the balls into an old pair of tights.  This prevents them from sticking to each other and also from leaving a lot of fuzz in my washing machine.  Now, I through the tights into the washing machine with hot water and a tiny bit of detergent, turned it on high aggitation, and checked every few minutes. 

 

   The result was these cute little balls that will hopefully make a special little guy happy this Christmas.