Life Lately

Life has been a bit stressful in our neck of the woods. If you follow my other blog Adventures with our '76 Layton Trailer you'll quickly see why the stress level here is at sky high levels. We have a looming deadline of June 12 to complete it all by for our trip to the Olympic National Forest! Yikeez! Here's a pic of hubby fiddeling I think with paper.

I spy with my little eye...a 2 yr. old!

At the beginning of May I participated in an online vampire themed Ravelry swap.

Here's my awesome little swap package! I was definitely very spoiled by my swappee. And she included the most delicious homemade Oreo truffles!!

My swap package went to my swap partner in France. I sewed a 16" hex frame knitting bag I found the knitting bag tutorial for it at U-Handblog. It was pretty easy and fun to sew.

Other than this swap package, the trailer has been consuming our time. It is quite a large undertaking. Larger than we originally anticipated. It has put a hault on any puppet making or listing of a new load of vintage goodies in both my Etsy shops. It's been a scary month! Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a one year old talking to his friends. My moms dolls are the same height as him...he got curious about them and kept hanging out with them.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a preschooler wishing to help his daddy. Timberrrrrr!!!! And no, that wasn't the whole tree, that was just a limb. The stump we left in is about two feet across...it was a big one!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a bird nest on the hillside.
Here's a shot of the babies inside. They were so new! I should have backed up to show how this hillside was RIGHT next to the Settler's Cedar Grove trail. As we rounded a corner, the momma bird took off flying and I thought "Where did she come from?" So I turned around to look, and there they were!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...some iron pyrite (or fool's gold!) embedded in grey slate. We spent last Sunday rockhounding for these purties in the mountains North of Newport!! We found quite a bit too...but I haven't found the perfect sample, so we may go back for more.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a frog among the creek bed. He blends in really well, but once you see him, well...you'll see him. :)

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a garter snake among river rocks. (Hint below)


It's in the dead center of the photo above and here's a close up of him/her. We came across it one of our camping days when we headed to the creek to pan for gold.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....a moose in the trees. Okay, I SWEAR the moose is in this picture because 3o seconds after I took it people about 30 feet away started saying "Moose! Moose!" and I looked down, AGAIN, and there it was in that stream. SO....when I took this pic, I would have to say that it was in those trees above the stream. If I had taken this pic with a heat sensitive camera, the moose would be all lit up....right??

This was taken at the tallest train trestle on the Route of the Hiawatha bike trail. And yes, those black parts in the corner is my shutter not opening all the way up. >:|

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....a glass boat in a window sill. Really I was just playing with camera settings and kinda liked this pic. The glass reflects a lot of the green that surrounds it.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...200 I Spy quilt squares! What's that you're thinking? Why yes, I did. I took the time to separate them by color and place them in rows from light to dark, all 200 of them. Now to arrange them into a quilt that creates a gradual pattern of color...kinda like a watercolor quilt only with 4" I Spy blocks instead of 2" watercolor blocks. Yes...I like watercolor quilts. Someday I hope to create one. :)

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....people floating the river. Must be nice. I bet that lady was wondering who I was taking a pic of...haha....if only she knew I was wishing to be on that floating raft in the distance instead of standing outside a park restroom for hubby and toddler.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...wild turkeys in the tree, all nestled into bed for the night. There are at least three visible in this pic.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a spoon in a grease water, or two? I swear I do my dishes. Somebody threw a spoon in and apparently it left it's shape on the surface....I'm just not sure how that is possible.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a big bird on the Columbia River...possibly a pelican?? Don't know...do you??

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....the "dino egg" from last Friday's I spy Friday post! :) It's kinda neat how super close up pics can throw off your scale of things.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a dinosaur egg hidden in the gravel. HA! Just a picture of a rock can bring out your imagination eh?? Well, it brought out mine when I saw the rock while geocaching near the Columbia River. :) It was so blue...the pic doesn't show how blue it is.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....the light at the end of a pretty stressful week. Just two more days and my stress level will decrease by a million and I can show you all what I'm talking about.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye.....two babes in a bathtub. haha...it looks like a snow storm eh? I guess it was an especially steamy bathroom for the camera.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....a doll hanging on the fence?? Now this was a weird sight to see...after driving down the road with the wheat fields on each side (the pic is in the last post), we drove down this little hill to this little ravine to find our geocache. Near a pile of garbage, you can see the black bags, burnt logs and some tires and an appliance in the distance, this doll was on the fence. Kinda....disturbing.
Poor thing...she was all dirty and covered in bugs. I wonder what she has to say??

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....the front of the line?? We didn't start out too far back when we arrive at the Farm Chicks Show at 10:45ish...at least compared to the stories I heard about how long these two lines originally were...all the way back to the main road and down the street...that's pretty long!!