The day before mothers day i decided to paint my mom a picture.  First of all because I am broke and it was better than buying something.  Also because at one point about 10 years ago I loved painting and did it all the time.  Back when I had stars in my eyes about my BA in studio art.  I’m not sure what changed about painting all the time but it became less important than other things in my life.  So now when I paint it is a whole thing…I lug out the old watercolor set and pencils, the *glitterpens*, and get started.  It can be a really frustrating experience and this moms day present was no exception.  I did 3 paintings and landed on this one:

I forgot to take a picture before I mailed it so this is a photo taken from my mom’s phone in NY.  This was a poppy someone gave to me at my birthday; I feel happy about this painting.  I make no promises to myself about making future paintings but I am hoping there will be more.

Karen’s baby shower was today…Liz and I prepared everything for a fun craft that involved ironing and some simple sewing (and nothing that involved eating baby food blindfolded).  We picked out some fabric, cut out animal shapes and ironed them onto burp cloths/onesies/receiving blankets:

The top two were the ones I made, the last picture is of everyone’s projects.  It was a nice shower with lots of yummy food.  

Liz and I spent a few hours the day before making mini strawberry pies for the shower from handheld pies.  The book is lovely to look at, the recipes are a little too wordy, but the pies were really really good.  

Last thing of note, the foxglove in my garden started blooming today…

It’s my birthday tomorrow and I love celebrating.  It is my favorite day and makes me nostalgic and warm and fuzzy.  Also it is springtime and smells nice outside.  I wanted to post some pics of me from birthdays past because I love pictures of myself as a little kid and it is just fun.  For me anyway.  Hopefully for you too.

My dad, my brother and me.  Not on my birthday but close enough.

Party animal with friends, 4 years old.

Same birthday, hamming it up.

Many years later, 2004 in Vermont with friends Meg and Mary (picking me up).  We drove out to Vermont from Northampton MA to go out to dinner.  The directions to the restaurant literally blew out the window so we just got out of the car and took pictures to commemorate the fact that we were indeed in Vermont. 

Beach house (Cannon Beach OR) birthday with our friends Jess and Andy, 2007.  This cabin was haunted too but that’s a story for another day.  Let’s just say I saw “something” and could not go back to sleep for three hours and watched VH1 until I finally passed out.

Those are the birthday pictures I came across today.  I’m sure there are more waiting to be discovered (hidden on an old computer in the closet or in ancient photo albums in my mom’s house).

I went for a hike in Forest Park with a friend and my dog

My poppies began to bloom

we visited friends, ate cookies, and one very hungry toddler wanted more.

With spring break being here and finally finishing my core classes at Birthingway, I have had more time to do fun things and go nice places.  I am helping to throw a baby shower for a friend in May and I made the invitations this weekend.  I am currently obsessed with stamp embossing which is similar to my 5th grade self.

Not a great picture because it doesn’t give embossing the credit it deserves but it was a really fun project.  After embossing I realized I then had to hand write the other side of 20 baby shower cards.  Yikes.  Good thing I like Karen.  And babies.

We went to the beach this weekend thanks to the April babies that decided to come early.  In the surprising event of being off call, Brad and I ran to the beach.

It was sunny and 60 degrees both days, almost unheard of for the Oregon coast in April.  

In other news I just got this arch cat groomer for my cat Wolfie.  She likes the little hangy-ball thing but does not care about the rest of it.  Hopefully she will grow to like it because the carpet part is super ugly. 

Here is my new favorite flower that I didn’t know existed….daphne.  I guess I knew it existed but did not realize how amazing it smells.  I am enjoying the flowers of spring even if the weather in the Pacific Northwest does not feel like spring.

I have started on a new knitting project that is a huge undertaking but it is also really fun.  Fun to look at and think about.  It is the beekeeper’s quilt, found on tiny owl knits and ravelry.  I started it and have 8 little hexagons so far…192 more to go!  

I currently have 4 pregnant friends…it is pretty crazy and also exciting.  I found these amazing baby mocs on purl bee and they are so cute.  I have spent the last month knitting these…they knit up pretty quickly and are really satisfying to make.  I can’t wait to see all of these cute babies in their moccasins!

I have a few pictures of Christmas, it was kind of a blur so they were all taken with my phone.  Therefore they are also blurry.  Enjoy!

My favorite from Peacock Lane.

Roughly 2,000 miles away my 7 year-old niece helped chop down the family tree.

I attended a beautiful birth…the laboring mom made and decorated these cookies.  You read that correctly…she was IN labor while decorating.

Cranston received a snuggie for dogs.  This was a gift from Brad’s mom and it was hilarious.  Despite the fact that Cranston looks scared (it’s kind of his usual expression), he loves the snuggie.

You may remember me talking about an owl sweater a while back…

It is finished!  I started it back in March of this year and it was done by May…but then I had to sew on the eyes and for some reason it took me half a year.  These pictures don’t do it justice.  It is an amazing sweater from this pattern on ravelry. 

It is done!  How exciting to make a sweater just for me.  And it actually fits.  

We have been busy over here, finishing up presents; knitting projects, drawings, cards, etc.  It has been fun and of course also stressful.  Here is the state of the kitchen table the other day:

There are 2 computers, colored pencils, sharpies, a niddy noddy, a drawing brad did of his parents, a christmas tchotchke, etc.  General holiday messiness.  Here are some of the things I made.  I know for a fact my mom does not look at my blog so her present is safe here:

It’s the neck warmer obviously not the bird sweater.  That would be impressive.  I have also made some blueberry jam and apple butter:

The labels are great, I got them from this etsy shop.  I wish that my jam jars were just a little bit taller but I still love the labels.

I also spun some wool which explains all the niddy noddy business:

Feeling pretty good about all of this…presents were mailed out on Saturday and are already in NY!  Hopefully more holiday updates on the way.  I also made something for my brother but he just might look at my blog so I can’t post about it right now.