He Sowed She Sewed

I know one stitch when it comes to crocheting.  I suppose I could figure out how to do another kind but I am not a huge fan of reading directions so here I stay with my one happy stitch that I am really good at now =)

Aleah had grown out of her previous neck-warmer and needed a new one.  Soooo I broke out the crocket hook and some yarn that I have been hanging onto for about 4 years and got to work.  I actually made this one at a basketball game a few weeks ago.  Since I know nothing about basketball and am not usually exstatic when we end up at one I was very happy to have something to show for my time.  (I do love watching the kids that I know though- don’t get me wrong, I just grew up a hockey gal- so forgive me)

Showing off a recent project, haven’t had many things to show for my time lately.  Cooking gets eaten and its like it never happened and cleaning gets destroyed the minute the kids wake up so it was nice to have something that is still around =)

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 25,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

It is a cold and rainy day here in the northwoods of Minnesota.  School has started, we had our first youth group and volleyball game.  Tonight we are headed to a home  football game for the Grizzlies.

We had SUCH a good summer.  So many wonderful sunny days spent at the beach.  Living out of coolers and wearing only swimming suits.  Ah, we had the life.

Don’t get me wrong, fall is a lovely season- I just don’t like the responsibility that comes with it.

Well, heres to a great fall ahead of us and a magnificent summer we have just experienced.

Hello there, Jared again.  Remember a few posts ago when I mentioned that I was looking forward to re-invigorating the gardening portion of this blog, but we have to be patient here in the Northland because March and April are far too unstable for any significant outdoor gardening?   Remember that?

Well, the past 24 hours are a perfect example of why northerners must twiddle their green-thumbs even while the April sun blazes bright and the frogs harmonize and the loons wail across the waves.  We mustn’t be fooled.

Yesterday afternoon featured heavy rain showers mixing with high winds to create a stormy spring evening, perfect for a bowl of chili shared in a warm kitchen with friends.  The forecasters were mentioning that overnight enough cold air might filter in to bring us 2-4 inches of the white stuff.  Nothing out of the ordinary for this time of year.

But this is what we woke up to:

And to top it all off, the power has been out since sometime before 2 am, so with the house getting cold and no cookstove to make a hot meal, we barreled down the drive and made it out to the highway so we could head into town.  Oh, the adventures of the Northland.

A while ago we had a young family event out at our house.  We had about ten families come on a Saturday morning for brunch, fellowship and skating.  It was snowing which made for a gorgeous day.

While all the parents and kids were out on the rink we saw about 8 wolves head out to the left of our house and quite a way out onto the ice.  How do I know they were wolves?  you might ask-

Well, they were the size of deer but looked liked dogs.

When I ran inside to grab my camera there was only one wolf left, darn it.  Ah well at least I got a picture of one of them.  Unfortunately it was snowing pretty hard at the time.  I will just have to keep my  camera close at all times.  =)

As I was driving home I couldn’t help looking at the stars.  Yes, my eyes should have been intensely scanning the road for bears or deer or whatever creature wants to smash my car on the highway.  But I had to keep glancing upwards to the sky.  The stars were so bright tonight and I am so grateful that I am no longer in the city.

My husband and I had been living in the cities for the past 7 years.  When you live in the city, you get used to a starless sky.  You look up into the air at night and see darkness.  And to be honest I didn’t know I missed the stars.

But now that I have my stars back, I don’t know if I will ever want to give them up again.  They are immaculate up here in the North.  They are not only way up in the sky but they seem to reach down and touch the earth around you.  They go on forever and there are different levels of stars.  The close ones, the farther stars and the way, way far away stars.  The milky way is in the night sky and the big dipper is hovering over our lake right now.

I love, love, love my stars and am so glad to have them back.

I have an etsy store!!!

Come and visit me and buy all 11 of my beautiful items =)

I am so glad that I finally have this online store up and running.  It is long overdue and now when I make things I can easily add them to etsy.

Mostly sweater pants are for sale right now but I hope to have some jewelry wallets and necklaces up there in the next couple days.

I suppose I could take special order requests if you want.

Keep checking in for new things you can buy for Christmas presents.

I am pretty pumped about this, if you haven’t noticed.  Yay!

Visit Me!

Time for a craft!

I made Aleah a pair of pillowcase pants.

They are soft and the best part about them is I didn’t have to hem the bottom since I used the finished seam of the pillowcase.

And of course the pants needed a pocket for small pals or perhaps a snack.

My first sewing project in my new house!

We have moved out of our previous house and are now in a huge four bedroom house on Lake Vermillion.

It has been a tiring and exhausting few days of packing and unpacking, moving and hauling, not sleeping, wrestling children and cleaning.  But it has definitely been worth all the work.  For eight glorious months we get to stay in this house that is rented out to vacationers during the summer months and now rented to us until next May.  Here are a few pictures for you to see:

Not many people get to wake up to a view like this one:

Aleah and Sophi’s favorite part about our new spot:

There are many great things about this house, mainly- We don’t have to eat in the living room, you will not have to sleep on the couch if you come to visit and you will even have your own bathroom.  I will have my own bathroom when you are visiting.  And you will have a GORGEOUS view of one of the most beautiful lakes in Minnesota.

We are so happy and blessed to be able to live in this remarkable place for eight months.  In the spring we will have to move out of this house because it is rented during the summer to rich people with gobbs of money.  We will then move into the parsonage.  Until then, we will be soaking up every minute.