Wednesday Soundtrack

To get your Wednesday moving!

Artist :: Alabama Shakes
Song :: Hold On

Links for your Weekend!

I've spent a lot of time over the past six weeks sitting in place feeding the nugget and letting him nap in my arms. Most of the time, I can't stop starring at the little guy, but then there are the times when I want to connect with the world, get some craft or food inspiration, and generally see what's new out there...

Here are some new-to-me blogs that have provided that dose of inspiration lately ::

~ My Scandinavian Home

~ Hither and Thither

~ The Wednesday Chef

~ Acute Designs

~ The House that Lars Built

Alex's First Northeast Corridor Tour!

Two weeks ago, Alex handled his first early morning international conference call like a champ {of course, it was so early that I took the call from bed and kept it on mute 90% of the time so that colleagues wouldn't hear his uber-cute chatter}::

... But before we could let the little guy think life is all work and no play, we decided to take off for a two-week tour of the northeast!

Stop #1 :: Shamokin, PA {the heart of the Northeast Corridor, obv}!

Alex donned his grey Pebble Vest for a day out manning Sarah and Jeff's stand at the town's heritage festival.

This vest and his grey Little Heaume hat were some of the smallest pieces I made, so while the weather was horrible, I was so excited for the chance to dress him in these hand knits at least once before he outgrew them! And of course, having little A around was the perfect distraction that keep everyone smiling as we suffered through the wind and cold.



Stop #2 : Saxis, VA! Saxis was four days of pure relaxation for the whole fam. We gave Alex his first beach day, granted he didn't touch the water and barely saw the sun {he made a valiant effort to kick the blanket off his feet and get some sun on those toes, and there was that trip to the water under C's shirt}.

Cash was treated to his own day of fun in the bay ::

Stop #3 : Philadelphia! We stopped in to visit Chia Krissy and to pick up some Sage {summer cocktail season is here!}.

From there, we did a drive-by of the NYC skyline ::

Stop #4 : Boston, MA!

We had a great time playing tourists in Boston. With beautifully sunny weather on Sunday, we drove through Salem for a day at the beach in Bar Harbor.

On Day 2, Calder and Alex indulged me in a bit of shopping, stopping in those cute shops that can only be found in the city.

And Day 3 was spent picnicking in Boston Common and riding the swan boats!

After close to 24 hours spent in the van for this trip, I have to say that I'm loving the road trip view {Calder and Cash handle driving and navigation while Alex and I hold down the back seat}::

And, those hours spent in the back seat are not wasted! I picked up some yarn during Stop #2 in VA and had plenty of time to start a new project {Little Arrowhead Shawl} while keeping little Alex company.

Alex's Quilts {Part 1}

While his grandma requested an "all Alex all the time" blog, and while I take about a dozen photos of him per day, I'm going to show some restraint and just sprinkle him in among or regular posts. For example, your Alex shot of the day ::

He's laying on the amazing transportation quilt my mom made for him. Just like Monday's cradle post, I'm sure my photos aren't doing this quilt justice {and don't let my mom try to point out the silly flaws she may see}. Each of the nine squares shows a different vehicle {Little A is covering a tractor, submarine, sailboat, and school bus}. I think my favorite is the tractor ::

How perfect are the fabric choices for that square? From the batiked tractor body to the paisley field to the smiling sun.

I really love the little details in each square. Check out the mustache and bow tie on the cyclist below and the little yellow fish with big red lips swimming with the sub.

And yes, there are more awesome quilts to come!

Alex's Cradle

My pop made a beautiful cradle for Alex {he gets to sleep in it during those rare occasions when we're willing to put him down!}.

I don't have the original source for Pin that inspired this cradle, but the execution was all Pop's. He cut and bent the sides making a little boat for Alex to dream in, and cut little anchors out of the rockers ::

The cradle is truly a work of art {I know my sub-par photos are not doing it justice}, and it's going to be so much fun to see it passed from grandchild to grandchild and photographed through the years as our family grows! Speaking of growing, on the left is Alex the day we brought him home from the hospital and on the right is a photo taken just yesterday ::

I'm really going to make an effort to get back to some regular blogging. We've had quite a few family visits, and we've been doing a whole lot of this ::

Which leads to silly photos like this ::

And this ::

But I can't wait to post some garden updates, and there are a few more handmade gifts to share!

Hey baby!

Excuse my long absence, I can't stop staring at this little guy::

Alex was born on April 25th at 8:25 AM.

A few vital stats:
Weight ~ 7 pounds 2 ounces
Length ~ 21 inches
Likes ~ eating!
Dislikes ~ diaper changes

We'll be back with more soon. There are more baby pictures to share, the garden's growing, and our farm-share is about to start!!

While we wait...

Still no baby in the house!

We had nothing on our schedules except "have a baby", so when that didn't happen, we took this past weekend's free time as a bonus. I know that we're out in the woods every other day or so for a hike, but Sunday afternoon rolled around and we were just sitting in the living room, we decided to hop in the car and drive to a different state forest for some hiking {me} and mountain biking {Calder and Ca$h}.

It was fun to get out on a new trail. This forrest is about 45 minutes south of our house, and it seemed like it was just a bit further along in budding out.

Every time I'm out on a hike I think it could be the last one before the baby, and then it isn't. So I'm sure I'll be back in a couple of days with more pictures from the woods*