Snapshot

Once in a while, you happen upon a span of time so perfect, so lovely, so precious that you want to keep it forever. My mom taught me, when I happen upon those moments, to take a snapshot in my mind - to really pause and drink in the moment, vowing to remember everything about it, so that I can bring it up and remember it anytime I need it.
This evening was one of those times.

It strikes me that we didn't do anything fancy. There was no china, there were no formal dresses and no candle light. Just spaghetti and garlic bread on paper plates and a sweet glass of wine.

The kids and I went to Becky's house for dinner. Her man is in another state and so is mine, and that seemed reason enough to pool our resources and have a little dinner. We put the kids and their plates at a picnic table under her carport, and she and I sat on the porch in the rocking chairs that were her mother's and grandmother's, laughing and chatting.

I brought my knitting bag and finished (yeah, that's right - you heard me - finished!) Nana's shawl. It needs to be blocked still, but the stitching is all done and all of the ends are woven in. Becky and I both tried it on and, let me tell you, Nana almost didn't get her shawl. It's that soft!

I suppose our decision to have dinner outside at her house had a little something to do with the orange grove on her family's property that is in full bloom. Or else that might have been the actual, whole reason we decided to get together in the first place.

I know I've gone on and on about orange blossoms this year. I probably have every year, I guess. An orange grove in bloom smells something like heaven, I think. Becky grew up right there (her parents' house is just across the corn field) and she and I definitely spent some time out in that orange grove when we were growing up. We had a picnic out there once. Her parents must have thought we were so silly. I know that her sister always thought I was some kind of a hippie, but never held it against me.
So it was one of those moments, tonight. My dear friend and I, taking in one of our favorite times of year in the same place we had when we were 14-or-so years old. Our children were running around the yard, the house and the grove. And we had our noses stuck in the trees, consuming as much of the scent as we could.


Emma picked a cabbage out of Papa J's garden. I don't know why, but she's been asking me to buy a cabbage this week, so she was thrilled. We plucked a few of the leftover citrus from the trees. And I got me a Polk County Pedicure.

We went back to those rocking chairs on the porch as the sun went down, asking easy questions of each other and hard ones and dreaming of the adventures we'd have together as the years continue to pass us by. And I did take a mental snashot of the evening as the twilight faded, but I took these pictures too.

DAILY BLISS: more white chocolate lime cookies!

A Few Small Items

This weekend was productive, but not in the frantically busy sense that our last several have been. It was just nice and busy, with lot of things getting crossed off our mental to-do lists.
I hit Saturday morning running.
Okay. That's a lie.
It was probably 10:30 before I'd finished my coffee and gotten out the door to run a few errands. I was in search of a few crafty things and I did really well at the Salvation Army. After the success of making a shirt from a thrifted sheet, and after seeing so many, many cute things that other crafters are making out of thrifted sheets, I wanted to find some more. Now, our Salvation Army store mostly sells peoples' worn-out Wal Mart stuff. But, I decided I'd take my chances. Good thing I did. They were having a half-price sale and actually had a bunch of cute sheets in there! I got enough fabric to make a retro (read: full-skirt-so-it-takes-like-eight-yards-of-fabric) dress that's been on my list, a practice sundress of my own devising, another one of those Summer Blouse shirts from the Weekend Sewing book, a shirt for Emma, a nightie for me and an Ann Taylor skirt to turn into a dress for Emma. All for less than $20! So, yay me. I'm going to be a busy girl.
I also went shopping with my mom. A local department store was having a super sale and we really found some cute shirts and stuff. I mean, my mom bought me a couple of cute shirts and stuff. I'd just spent all my money on used sheets. How insane does that make me?
We got some things done in the garden - our peas are potted and some of the tomatoes are too. Three snow peas and three sugar snap peas. I hope they work!
And knitting. I have finished a full 10% more of that shawl, if you'll notice the progress bar there on your right. I hope to get even a bit more than that done tonight!
And - you know how it gets when you have a long-term project going and you just need to feel like you've finished something? That's a real problem for me, so I take side trips from my main projects in order to satisfy that "instant craftification" urge. I made Emma a cute little dress for this summer out of some scraps from the remnants bin at Hancock's.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out. For those of you who have little girls (or know little girls that you love enough to sew for), this is the Miss Madeline dress pattern from The Handmade Dress, and I highly recommend it. Emma's a little bit bigger than the sizes the pattern covers, but it was really simple for me to size up - very flexible and very forgiving for a newbie sewist like myself. I omitted the elastic around the sleeves. More comfy for her, less work for me.
And she's so cute in it that I can't choose just one picture to show you. So here are the rest:



The weather has been delicious. It's spring for sure in our neck of the woods. We spent a lot of time standing still this weekend, outside, the wind hitting our faces, and remarking to each other what a lovely day it is. I took my iced tea out on the front porch yesterday, just listening to my wind chimes and drinking in more of the weather than the tea. Some wasps are building a nest again in one of the chimes, so every once in a while you get a dull thud instead of a clear, sweet chime. But it just makes me laugh.
This time of year, I always am compelled to consume the days with all that I have. I know that this weather is fleeting and I know that these days while my children are young are fleeting too. They'll be gone too soon, as surely as the spring will be. And I find that I have little choice but to throw my arms wide and enjoy them while they last.

DAILY BLISS: a super-cute new shirt to wear