I've been enjoying a bouquet of limelight hydrangeas that I brought inside a few weeks ago. The bouquet was really beautiful, and lasted almost two weeks. It finally wilted a few days ago, so I had to throw it out. I took these photos while it still looked its best.
I've never had the limelight variety before, but they look amazing. The shrubs are two of a panel of shrubs that line my driveway. I'm very happy with them. They have been in bloom for at least 3 weeks now. The shrubs are about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide each. Lovely.
Sage tagged me in her blog post where she shared her favorite movies and songs. I really don't think about this a whole lot (not nearly as much as Sage apparently!), so it was tough! For the movies, I thought about the DVDs we own, and what we watch most often. And then I thought about what I like to watch when I get to choose the DVD for the evening. Usually I just let Chip pick. :)
Movies
1) Amelie - Oh, I love so much about this movie. I love the script, the beautiful, beautiful colors, and Yann Tiersen's soundtrack. I love the soundtrack so much, I had the DJ play songs from it at my wedding reception.
2) The Royal Tenenbaums - "She smokes."
3) Anchorman
Hilarious, but this YouTube is missing some of my favorite lines. Like this one:
Ok, ok... that second one is my Walle. Haha. Just had to slip a cute photo of him in here.
For my song list, I thought mostly about what I go back to listen to over and over. I also thought about some of my favorites from my high school mixtapes.
1. Whippoorwill, 2. Wise Woman, and 3. Magnolias - Caroline Herring. Such beautiful lyrics in all of these songs. How can you not love Magnolias where she describes a man as her "secret standard". I could probably name a few more of Caroline's songs, but I am going to limit myself to three.
4. HyperBallad - Bjork with the Brodsky Quartet 5. Kicked It in the Sun - Built to Spill. "We're special in other ways!" 6. Holocene - Bon Iver
7. Time After Time - Chet Baker. Reminds me of first love :)
8. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley. My older brother Lukas would listen to Grace every night before bed. This was probably 1997? I was always in his room chatting on AOL IM with my boyfriend. Haha. Good times.
9. Cath... - Death Cab for Cutie
10. Disarm - Smashing Pumpkins
11. Push - The Cure. Another big brother influence. Lukas loved The Cure.
12. Get It Together - Beastie Boys and Q-Tip... How can you go wrong with the Beasties and Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest? Ill Communication. I still have it on cassette, and I am surprised I didn't wear it out.
13. Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra. On the Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind soundtrack. This is my happy day song.
14. Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major - Johann Sebastian Bach. Mollie would play this as a warm-up before orchestra class, and it brings back so many good memories!
15. Suzanne - Leonard Cohen. Lukas gave me a Leonard Cohen tape, and. I must have listened to it a thousand times. I love Leonard Cohen's voice!
If I can figure out that Grooveshark thing, I'll try to post a play list.
The best thing about marrying a barista is cappuccino in bed. Delicious. My husband is the coolest!
I am now 29 weeks along.
I'm doing ok. Lots of hip soreness, the sciatica is back, and yesterday I had some major swollen feet action going on, but I blame that on the fire drill at work... 2 pm in 114F heat. Other than those uncomfortable things, I can't complain too much.
I've got some fun things to share, so I plan to do some blogging tonight. Yay! Sage tagged me in her music & movies post, so I've been thinking about my lists and will post those soon. I also want to share one of the hikes we did in western North Carolina. Then, there's a nursery update to do!
Last night we saw The Dark Knight Rises. Loved it. Today we are heading to Memphis to pick up our patio tables at Jack Wills. I can't wait to see how it all comes together!
Lately I have gotten really excited about having a baby
girl! I have a million things I want to make for her, and I’ve shorted my list
to two really wonderful projects. I’ve started both of them.
The first project is a mobile. I first got my inspiration from
an Etsy shop called Gifts Define.
I think I found them on Lay Baby Lay or maybe Pinterest. I really loved the idea of a mobile made from felt, but of
course I thought, “I could make that.” Felt is so fun to work with, and I
really enjoy the design and embroidery process. At first I thought I would
design my own animals, but then I found these awesome felt woodland animal patterns on Aimee Ray’s Etsy store Little Dear.
I just had to have them!
I am so in love with the little fox that I could just
cry. Haha, pregnancy hormones. The cool thing is, I was reviewing some embroidery
stitches last night in one of my favorite “how-to” books, Doodle Stitching,
and I noticed the book was written by Aimee Ray. Kinda cool!
So far I have made
two animals – the baby owl and the snail.
I’m not super happy with how they
have turned out. I’m frustrated with the size of the pattern (I need to get to
a copier and increase the size of each one) and with the tracing/transfer
process of the patterns onto the felt. I've tried using fabric pencils… they
don’t really work. Sharpies work but are messy. Has anyone ever used one of
those “disappearing ink” markers on felt before? Or maybe I can pin the pattern
to the felt and cut around it?
The second project is an embroidery sampler that I bought
years ago from Alicia Paulson over at Posie Gets Cozy,
one of my very favorite blogs. I’ve actually bought three felt Christmas ornament kits
from her over the years, too, and I've never started any of them. Ha. But finally, I started one of her
projects on Saturday night… the Daisychain ABCs Crewelwork Sampler.
And now you can drool over how simply gorgeous this thing is. Photo is from Alicia.
I’m four letters
into it – N, O, S, and T. I didn’t start with A because the fly stitch looked
intimidating, and I didn’t want to screw up the first letter. N looked like a
nice place to start, all backstitch and French knot, then O was easy (just a
satin stitch). S has been my favorite so far. T was a bitch. I think I might do
an entire post about T because it was that bad. Stupid long and short stitch,
ew.
So that’s my baby update. If you want to see baby girl’s
Pinterest board with all my decorating ideas, you can visit it here.
One evening in mid-May I came home from work to find Chip in the back yard watching four baby foxes frolic and play games in our grass. It was seriously the cutest thing ever. They would run and jump on one another and roll around and around. I got some video of it, but I'm having trouble getting it off of my phone.
A few days later, this little guy established a new favorite lounging spot on the top of the hill in our side yard. He (or she?) would visit this spot frequently. I saw him here in the early morning, when I came home for lunch, and sometimes in the evening.
A few days later, we discovered that they had dug a hole in the hill for their home.You can see it in the photo below, in the bottom left corner.
A pair of fox babies.
And here is one of the foxes heading into the hole down on the left side of the photo.
A few weeks later and they were already growing up and growing more brave. One day I came home for lunch, and this little guy (gal?) was on our deck. He saw me through the door. At first he was curious, but when he came closer, I scared him off.
Once afternoon, Chip even spotted one of the in the street!
And I found one in the ditch digging around for frogs. She got one, too, and ran off with it in her mouth.
We haven't seen them around our yard in about a week. I've had two sightings in the neighborhood this week, but it is difficult to tell whether the foxes I spotted are "our" foxes. We've had lots of rain lately, so maybe it flooded their hole here, and they went to a different home. Or maybe their mama came and got them and took them back to their real home. I really don't know. I'm kinda worried about them, and I hope they are okay.
All in all it has been such a fun experience to have a little fox family to watch. One of my neighbors said that red foxes have been long time residents of the woods behind our houses. I love it!
Mark Grayson opening a gift from my mom.
My Grandma in the background.
My nephew celebrated his 3rd birthday on May 5th. He is such a cute child, and I can't believe how fast he's growing up.
On May 8th I celebrated my 32nd birthday. It was book club night, and my friend Sage hosted. She has the most adorable triplets, and I attempted to feed sweet Anna a bottle before her bedtime. Little did I know that Anna is a very slow eater. I did okay, and I am going to need the practice because...
The next morning I had an appointment with my OB/GYN to find out that I am having a baby girl! Baby Girl is due October 5th. I am about 5 months along, and so far everything has been great. I've had very little nausea although I've had plenty of the normal "symptoms" like nosebleeds and back pain. I have generally been able to keep up my normal routine. The garden, however, is a different story. I get so darn tired after working in the yard for just an hour or so. I have made some improvements that I would like to share, though, so I'll be posting garden pictures eventually.
On May 18th my brother, sister-in-law, and both nephews visited for a night in Oxford. It was so much fun! On Friday evening we walked over to a nearby pond and fed the fish some bread. We were looking for ducks, but the ducks didn't show. We had lasagna and salad and watched Wallace and Grommet. Then, on Saturday morning I made waffles, eggs, and bacon... a full breakfast. Something I never do. It was delicious. We went to the park at midmorning and had a great time playing with the kids. I really enjoyed having family visit and can't wait to do it again.
In kitty news, Walle has gotten massive. We got him a cat tree on overstock.com and put in front of a sliding door in the office. He's really taken to it. It's his favorite spot in the house. He naps on the very top platform.
I can't believe it is already June. I have exciting news about a family of foxes that have made their new home in our yard. Once I download the photos, I'll get a post together. Maybe tonight. They're awesome!
"If we look at the path, we do not see the sky. We are earth people on a spiritual journey to the stars. Our quest, our earth walk, is to look within, to know who we are, to see that we are connected to all things, that there is no separation, only in the mind." - Native American, source unknown
