Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Here we go with #2 of this little series I’m trying on for size. This is just a glimpse into what happened the previous week, what’s coming up for this week ahead plus some links I’ve found over the last seven days to things I found interesting. It’s my spin on the week in pictures trend.
One thing I am liking about this feature is it’s forcing me to take more photos. I’m really bad about documenting memories and then I regret it, so I’ve been becoming a little more mindful about snapping a quick photo then going about my day. I’ve been doing the 100 Happy Days project, too, so that’s been helping me as well. If you want to follow along with my 100 Happy Days, you can find me on Instagram.
I didn’t go up to work this past week so the two days my mom takes Ezra I used to work on Charmingly Modern and the house. I mentioned last week that I had some relatives from Germany coming into town and they visited on Thursday, so on Wednesday I did a few last minute spruces around the house – I hung a mirror up in the upstairs bathroom and a painting in the master bedroom (both of these things I purchased at Home Goods), put up the pennants I’d made for Ezra’s first birthday in his room and put some new chalk “art” on the arrow sign in the front flowerbed.
I was knitting a ton this past week, in preparation for getting shop listings up. I’m shifting gears this week and will start knitting what I’m planning on stocking in July, which is bolero jackets and vests. I’m really excited to jump in with these. Be sure to check out the headband and bow tie listings that are currently up in the shop, under the accessories section.
We had a ton of rain this week. On Tuesday, Ezra and I made our weekly grocery run just in time to run into some pretty ominous storm clouds. While we were inside the store, the storm arrived and by the time we were done, it was done too. Unfortunately, the storm knocked down several tree limbs that were blocking one of the roads that takes us home, and those tree limbs took down power lines. We had to go a different way to get back home, and even on that way all the traffic lights were out so cars were backed up. It was kind of scary but I’m glad to say no one was hurt and the city repaired the damage pretty quickly.
The up-side to the rain is it meant I wasn’t having to water our grass too much this week. I’ve kind of given up on the seed that Drees laid down and have resigned myself to the fact that most of it either blew away or was eaten by the birds. So, now it’s my mission this summer to grow grass and fill in the huge, gaping patches as best as I can. Drees is only responsible for the initial seeding and at that point, it’s up to the homeowner to get the yard going. We hit up Home Depot yesterday and grabbed a bag of Scott Sun & Shade Mix seed plus a seed spreader. I’m going to systematically approach this since I have the birds working against me. For the rest of this month, the front yard is my project and I’m going to let the backyard just do its thing until July, when I’ll focus on it. Then, by August, I will hopefully just have small patches that I’ll need to re-seed. Wish me luck
Back on the topic of knitting, I picked up the dress I’ve been working on and have a goal to finish it by the end of the month. I really want to wear this thing before the summer ends. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the porch knitting on it and I hope I become known as the porch-knitting-lady in our neighborhood. Weird goal, I know, but I’m cool with it.
Friday, I took Ezra to a local splash park with my friend and her kids. All the kids had a blast! Ezra was a little nervous at first, but when he saw the slides in the center, he was golden and spent the next hour sliding over and over and over. It totally wiped him out and he took a huge nap. He wanted to wear his Thomas the Train swim shirt the rest of the day, which cracked me up. We ended up taking a family walk that evening – Ezra is really good at walking Aslan. Probably because they are pretty much the same size.
Last night and tonight were family dinners with the relatives from Germany that are in town, and other family/extended family in the area. It’s been so much fun to spend time with relatives that we don’t get to see too often. We ate at Brio tonight and I haven’t been there in forever. I’m always down for bread/pasta…basically any kind of carb. I know where Ezra gets his carb-obsession from.
And normally I am not a fan of selfies, but I had to take one of my outfit from tonight because I loved it. I’ve only worn this polka dot blazer like twice, and I don’t know why I don’t wear it more often. I picked it up at Francesca’s Collection back in the winter. The pants I’m wearing are actually vegan leather (?? I don’t even know what that is) that I found on the sale rack at Anthropologie. They are surprisingly comfortable! Even though I live in Kentucky, I didn’t go barefoot to dinner. I wore some black sandals. Excuse my pinched face – (you can see the painting I picked up at Home Goods in the background)
This upcoming week doesn’t have too much on the docket. I work tomorrow and Wednesday will be filled with pattern testing for bolero jackets and vests. I’ve got some fun posts I need to write for this upcoming week, too. I also need to figure out where I can get one of my lenses cleaned because it’s accumulated a lot of dust and seems to be messing up the clarity of my photos. It’s the stock lens that came with my camera body, so it’s at least 5 years old at this point. I would kind of like to upgrade to a different camera body, but I’m trying to reign in our spending. Not only because of our eating out habits, but also because we have a few projects we want to work on with the house – namely, a deck for our door that leads to nowhere.
We’re also getting invisible fencing installed this week, so training Aslan on that will also be on my To Do list.
Here are a few links that caught my eye –
I haven’t talked about this yet, but Drees approached me about kicking off their customer spotlight series and writing a few posts for their blog. I was introduced on their blog a couple weeks ago, and you can check out the feature here – Introducing Drees Customer Spotlight.
Etsy puts together craft parties from time to time, with different inspirations each time, and craft stores across the nation host local parties riffing on that theme. The one in Cincinnati was yesterday and I was bummed I couldn’t go but when I saw who the local sponsors were and that one of them was a washi tape store, I was sooo excited. So I thought I would share a link to the store because I’ve never seen so many washi tape options before – Wishy Washi Tape.
These photos, from 33 Parents Who Have an Awesome Sense of Humor. The last one with the dad holding up a blanket with his face on it sounds like something my dad would do.
D-Day Landing Sites Then and Now – via The Huffington Post
As the world marks 70 years since the launch of a mission which ultimately led to victory over Nazi Germany during World War Two, these powerful before and after pictures show the true horror and heroism on a day that changed the world.
Every woman who gives birth surgically hasn’t been ‘tricked’ out of having a natural childbirth – by Maria Guido, via Mommyish
I didn’t have a surgical birth with my child, but so many of my friends who did are made to feel ashamed or like their birth experience was less than someone who didn’t give birth surgically. And while Ezra’s birth wasn’t surgical, it was medicated and I was shocked at the pitying looks I got when my natural birth friends heard that detail about my experience.
I fully support the idea that many women can birth without the help of interventions or drugs. The thought of having a child this way has always appealed to me. Those images of women seeing their children for the first time and bursting into tears of joy are deeply ingrained in my psyche. Having struggled with infertility before my first child was born, and having five years to dream about what it would finally be like to give birth put an immense load of pressure on the experience.
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