Camping in the Smoky Mountains

Our camping trip to the Great Smoky Mountains went great. Sure, it rained nearly every day and our campground was covered in poison ivy, which we all got a little of, but we all had a nice time simply enjoying the outdoors. Cosby campground was a nice place- quiet with very few RVs, clean bathrooms and easy access to a few nice hikes. Both girls really enjoyed the nearby creek and the nature trail in the campground which takes you over it numerous times, which was neat. Listening to it every night while falling asleep was nice, too, of course.

We also drove over to Cades Cove and Eleanore and Adelaide were able to see their first bear in the wild! It’s hard to see in my picture, but we saw a mama with her cub.

The views in Cade’s Cove were beautiful.

And of course we all enjoyed our meals while camping! There’s nothing like cooking over a campfire.

We have one more camping trip planned for the summer and it’s coming up quick! We leave Friday for Virginia. We’re camping in Mt. Rogers National Rec Area.

Trying Something New…

Getting time to blog is so tough these days. When we had a working laptop it was a little easier, but now that has died and our days seem to be filled. So much outdoor play, I started Oak Meadow kindergarten with Eleanore, plus it’s garden and crafting time. So I figured I would try the WordPress app for blogging. I’ll have to put up with my crummy iPhone pictures, but hey I’ll be blogging again!

Yesterday the girls and I did some tie dyeing. We all ended up with dye spattered all over our hands and feet but had a great time.

Adelaide was quite enjoying dyeing her own skirt and t-shirt and Eleanore did too!
I dyed a few gauze swaddle blankets I sewed for the baby as well as a shirt and skirt for me. We also dyed some playsilks but the girls immediately grabbed those to wear.
Here’s how they turned out.

Busy Creating Things…

If you’re not friends with me on facebook, perhaps you don’t know our news.  It’s one of the reasons I’ve been a little MIA around here. 

We’re expecting baby #3 this September! This was a very early ultrasound to confirm the baby wasn’t ectopic like my pregnancy last summer, but I’m sure you get the gist 😉 
I’ve had awful morning sickness this time, which thankfully seems to have mostly subsided.  Now I’m just craving bacon and chocolate milk like crazy! Eleanore is super excited on the prospect of a new baby sister. She’s not too enthusiastic that it could be a boy though…

The girls have been busy creating, too. We have been making our house look a little more spring-like, even if there’s still snow on the ground. We made this really cool Easter Egg Garland. We couldn’t get our water balloons blown up, so we used regular balloons. It was very messy, but I think they turned out really nice.

and Eleanore *loved* painting these tape resist Easter eggs, so we turned those into a garland for our other window. We just cut egg shapes out of thick paper, stuck masking tape all over them and painted with water colors. Once they dried, we took off the tape and the masterpieces were revealed. If you look closely in this picture, you can see a woodpecker outside the window on our suet feeder!

But Eleanore’s favorite craft is this one. She sewed her own monster from an old sock. She was so proud of herself to stuff it, cut out the felt for the eyes and mouth and sew it all by herself!

My little girl is so grown up!

Slowing down and getting ready

I have five weeks left until my due date, and definitely feel as though I’m slowing down in preparation for the event. I’m continuing to cook many double meals (lasagna, chicken pot pie, turkey meatloaf, lots of dried beans cooked and frozen for easy chili meals or bean burrito lunches, etc) to freeze in anticipation, have my hospital bag partially packed, and am still knitting baby things here and there, but I can feel the days before labor ticking, ticking away. My midwife told me earlier this week that she doesn’t think I’ll make it to my due date, and that further solidified my intuition. All I want to do lately is sleep. And drink orange juice, my pregnancy obsession this time around. I don’t think I’ve posted a picture of myself in quite a while, so here is a recent one of me with the belly in all it’s glory, although it’s not fantastic.

I have been crafting though. Here are some newborn shirts I dyed up to wear with longies.

and another pair of slightly larger longies:

And Eleanore, of course, has been crafting as well. This past weekend we made recycled acorn crayons using the acorn pan I picked up at Williams Sonoma last year.
First we peeled and broke the crayons into small pieces.

Then arranged them in the lightly greased pan and baked for 7 minutes at 275*F. After the pan cooled, I put them in the freezer for 5 or 10 minutes to harden up quickly since Eleanore kept asking to color with them, and they easily popped out and were ready to use.

Don’t have a pretty acorn pan? This technique works great in regular or mini muffin tins or even paper cups in the microwave 😉 We used mostly old restaurant crayons I’ve saved along with broken bits I rescued from Eleanore’s crayon box.

{{This Moment}}

I am halfway there! 20 weeks today. I can’t believe in approximately another 20 weeks, we will be meeting a new little one.

{this moment}

Inspired by SouleMama. {this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

12 weeks

(Yes, I cheated and added two words)

8 weeks old

How did she get to be eight weeks old already?

These are the longies I just finished. They’re a size Medium, so she’ll need to grow into them. I’m not sure if I like the ruffled hem or not. I’ve already cast on for another pair of shorties, this time in Three Irish Girl yarn.

She actually slept through the night last night. We’ll see if it was a one time thing, or if it will become a habit for a while. She’s baby talking up a storm, and is even already teething. Sigh. Our little girl is growing up, day by day. She’s definitely her mama’s girl. Check out that pout.

Another picture just because:

Finally, a FO

Finally, I was able to finish the pair of shorties I’ve been working on. Constantly feeding Eleanore and trying to fit in naps while keeping up on housework, it seemed to take forever, but I was finally able to cast off on the shorties this morning.

They’re knit from Patons Classic Wool, and while I don’t like them as much as the Purewool shorties, I still think they turned out cute. Speaking of purewool, if you’re interested in getting in on a co-op for it, there’s one going on here.

I can’t believe Eleanore is already a month old. We took her strawberry picking on Saturday.

She loves the pouch. It’s a surefire way to get her to sleep. Either the pouch or Daddy’s arms.