road trip sketch (part 1)

Hi there.  It's been a while.  And maybe you've already guessed--we've been gone.  Road trippin'.  Visiting family.  Razor clamming on the Pacific coast.  Kite-flying.  Tulip-admiring.

Prior to leaving, we celebrated my man's birthday, drew Juniper a map, loaded the car with wellingtons and raincoats, drove straight out of slush-season and into spring.  We followed the rivers west: the Snake to the Columbia, the Columbia all the way to the wide-open yawn of the Pacific.

A quick sketch: 

 ^Lemon-poppyseed cake from this recipe--delish!^

2 full days in the car. 

1 hotel stop.
Open road.
Driving closer and closer to green, and daffodils.  

2 very patient, wonderful kids.

Books and toys and Charlotte's Web on audio.

Discovering the sanity-saving world of McDonald's Playland. 

Sleeping, sun-splashed kids.

Above: lunch stop #1.  Below: lunch stop #2.  Oh, the excitement.  

Grandmas, grandpa, uncles, aunt, cousins...coalescing in one place.   

My kids, surrounded by people who love them.  

Merry-go-round obsession, check.    

First carnival rides.  

High-fives after a stomach-churning Tilt-a-Whirl.  

Long-anticipated kite-flying.  

Squeals of excitement.  

Squeals of excitement.   

Easter morning clamming...

And the Bunny found us even at our rental house!

Easter egg hunting (that wonderful bunny brought a few small gifts and not-so-much candy).    

The "Tree Cousins": Aspen, Juniper and Hazel.  

Up next: Razor Clamming, yo!  

(Unfortunately the only group shots we got...much of our gang had not yet arrived.)

gettin springy

Just some photos today.  Mostly.  The last week or so:  

:: Springy day on the riverbank.  (That said, the last three days have been a return to winter.)

:: Some handknits from the last few weeks.  (My hat is the "Amanda Hat" on Ravelry.  I love how the texture works even with variegated wool.)

There is a new baby in town!  (I've made...9 of these now?)

I went on a felted bowl extravaganza.  We have three on the dining table.  I had to make a pink one for bugs, of course, and a purple one for Hazey just to be fair.  Juniper loved placing what looked like baby hats into a lingerie bag and into the wash, then pulling out felted bowls.  Right now, her pink bowl is on her dresser with a big rock in it.  But it has also spent a significant amount of time in her Ladybug Backpack.  (Lately, all things Holy end up in the Ladybug Backpack.)

Crocheted more Easter eggs now that I have two egg-hunting chickens (and we can leave those plastic eggs in China).  In case you're wondering, nearly all of my knitting takes place during family outings in the car and, occasionally, naptime.  

:: Taken just before he shaved, I came across this image of my cave-man and cave-girl:   

:: And my man came across me rowing a boat with my blue slipper:

:: Then I came across these two sisters and their complete joy for one another:

^Hazel is our little climber.  She is constantly climbing and falling off of things.  In the year and a half that we've owned this child's table, this is the first time I've seen Juniper on top of it.  

:: In an abundance of sunny spring (over)optimism, I tucked some seeds into a jerry-rigged, half-assed cold frame.  This morning, underneath a sleeping bag, it was frozen solid.  (Warming up this afternoon though...so we'll see.  I'm still hopeful.)  Come on peas, favas, spinach, lettuce, cilantro, radishes and kale!!!

In a more reasonable effort, I tucked some tomato and pepper seeds inside the house.  

Juniper helped.  

Wishing you all a wonderful First Day of Spring tomorrow!  

our house: before and after

I really love our house.  Although there are a few things I would have done differently had I been the original architect (more south-facing windows, for example), our house is nearly perfect.  It's cozy, homey, practical and cute.  The places where we spend most of our time are bigger (kitchen and living room), the others smaller (bathrooms and bedrooms).  We have a sunken mudroom/laundry which is nothing short of a godsend in Wyoming.

I've never shown before-and-after photos of our house.  Now that we've lived here a year and a half and we've owned the house for almost 2 years...I thought this would be a good time.  Plus, we're trying to refinance which means the appraiser was here the other day and our house was actually a little bit clean.  I took photos.  

Mainly, this house lacked an open kitchen and a good, solid place to sit and have a family meal.  We wanted to change that.  Also, we can't abide by carpet and linoleum, so we fixed that while the fixin' was easy.

Living room before:

Living room (with added-on dining area) after:

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after:

(The tiled area to the right of the wood beam was added-on.)  

In the two bedrooms, we painted, replaced doors, and installed "rustic" hickory flooring. (In the bathrooms and mudroom, we laid tile.)  Our bedroom before:

Our bedroom after:

I don't have before photos of the kids' room, but it pretty much looked like ours.  Kids' room after:

^See the light fixtures?  We tore those out of a million dollar home that was slated to be burned down.  Crazy, I know.  We replaced all light fixtures, fans and curtain rods for free.^ 

Upstairs, we added on to the loft.  What existed originally is our guest-bed/ play-area/ exercise area.  Before: 

 ^Juniper was Hazel's current age when we first looked at this house, oh my!^

Original loft after:

^Okay, so not much has changed there.^

It was important for me to have a studio space.  A project room.  A place for my computer, sewing machine, books.  So we extended the loft another nine feet and viola.  Before:

After:

No one ever expects this little nook of a bathroom to lurk behind that chalkboard door (no changes here):

Looking back toward the living area, stairs and bedrooms.  Before (it was all cathedral ceiling):

After (now, there is a flat ceiling over the couch and ending at the chair where we extended the loft):  

The only major external change to the house (now our kitchen and dining area):

As they say, a house is never finished.  We still have lots of little finishing work as well as bigger, grander dreams (a sunroom off our bedroom???!!!???).  But for now we are just peachy.