Our New Green Thumb

This year we built a raised garden bed with our neighbors that live in the apartment next to us. We planted lots of tomatoes, peppers, and squash and some carrots, radishes, lettuce, and spices like basil and cilantro. And what a success it's been! It's so fun to eat fresh vegetables that you've grown. I love it and have no doubt I'll keep planting vegetables every year. It's so worth it.

Alaska Photos Continued

Our campsite right on the edge of the lake. 

My brother and sister's new boat. We saw two bears on this short trip. 

Hike to Michael's benches. 

Awesome.

My sweet niece, Reine. Oh I miss her! 

A brief glimpse of the inside of the yurt. Grandpa juggling the babies. 

Carter LOVED our dog Shadow. She would lay on her and step on her head and tail...true love! 

Yurting with the Hibbyurts

About a year ago, my parents, brother and sister bought a yurt in Anchor Point, about four hours from Anchorage. The yurt is 30 ft in diameter and is one open room with a kitchen and the cabin that's attached has a bedroom and a bathroom. We went to the yurt for a week with my parents and it was fabulous. Halibut fishing is about an hour away by boat and the beach is a minute four-wheel ride away. 

We went halibut fishing (and left the boys with my momma, thanks mom!) one of the first days and caught five halibut. We got greedy and threw back the small ones so we only ended up one under our limit. The ones we kept were 15-25 pounds. 

The boys LOVED the four wheelers. We would ride very slowly around the yard with them or on dirt roads down to the beach. They would crawl to the four wheelers when we were out by the fire and say, 'vroom vroom!' 

Cutie momma and cutie Carter. 

Dad tucking Carter into his coat so he could have both hands on the four wheeler.

The boys lovin the rocks at the beach. That is pure joy right there. 

Cutie Weston.

Oh they love their grandparents! 

More Alaska posts to come! 

Old Pictures

They're both looking. An absolute miracle!  

The cakes I made for their birthday. 

Before

After...Dad decided the frosting was hair gel. 

The cutest bibs I've ever seen!!! My friend Danielle made them for the boys out of Junior Jazz jerseys :) 

Just some sickies...after RSV in March. 

Recent Quilts

I started learning a few months ago about how to make quilting designs on a regular sewing machine and it is SO fun. I love it. My first practice quilt was for my friend, Kat. She just barely had little McLain about a week ago. You can't see it too well but I did a basic stippling. 

 The next quilt was for my sister as a late Christmas present. I just quilted a straight line with green thread and my walking foot 1/4 inch on either side of each seam. I love the way it turned out.

The back of the same quilt.

I hand bound the binding on a trip to California...I'll try to avoid that whenever possible! Machine binding is way easier. 

This is my Utah t-shirt quilt I started before any of these other quilts. I waited to finish it so I could be better at free motion quilting because I wanted it to turn out really nice. There are so many memories in this quilt, it's crazy! I stabilized each t-shirt with an iron on stabilizer, and then pieced it all together. 

For the back I added a strip of red and white fabrics just for a little extra flare. I also used a stippling design over the whole quilt and it is so cute. It gives it a crinkly look even if you don't use cotton batting. 

The binding was done by machine and it was tons faster. 

But really, I love it! 

If you want to know more about how to machine quilt on a regular machine, it is so fun and I definitely think you should try it. I learned how at freemotionquilting.blogspot.com. Just go to Free Motion Quilt Along at the top. You can look at my pinterest page and see a ton of other designs. If you end up trying it, tell me! I'd really love to see what you work on! 

I'm working on a wall hanging for my grandma right now. It's the first time I've quilted based on each block, rather than an all over pattern. I'll have to post picture in a day or two when I finish it. Fun stuff! 

And I have to thank my quilt holder...he's all worn out!