Marsbarn Designs...

I was hers, and she was mine.. at least for the weekend

Little e and I have returned from our long promised Mommy-Daughter weekend.  This trip was a long time in coming.  Sweetheart G has been taking Mommy-Daughter trips with me for about five years now.  For most of Little e's life, she has watched me disappear with her big sister for all kinds of fun, but this was her turn.

 

After taking the train to Seattle, we leapt into 

exploration mode.  We rode the monorail, saw the Muppets exhibit,  rode on a merry-go-round (twice!), visited Top Pot Donut for teatime, all before being whisked away by Jen to visit with her family.  Then there was water fun, de-lish pizza, fowl entertainment, looney tunes, and adult conversation until quite late in the evening.

The next day found us ferry bound for Bainbridge Island with Jen and her daughter in tow. Lunch, park time, fabric, yarn, bookstores, and homemade ice cream followed.  It was a whirlwind of treats, temptation, and fun. It was an inspirational trip!  (Or at least I returned to Seattle with a new found desire to finish my on-going sweater knitting project... so I can move on to this cool scarf pattern I splurged on!)  

Little e and I were dropped off at our hotel (really, is a Mommy-Daughter trip complete without at least one night in a hotel? I think not.), where Little e lay motionless for at least 90 minutes and I knitted away.  (See? Inspired, I tell you!) The need for dinner roused us enough to walk 2 blocks to a restaurant, where we colored and chatted until our food came.

Sunday, our last day, began with shoe shopping.  Little e had suddenly outgrown her sandals (sigh) which had been meant to last the whole summer.  New shoes in hand on foot,  we set off for Pike's Place Market.  Really, is there a better place to road test a new pair of shoes?  After much sight seeing and browsing, oh and eating!, we headed back to the train station to wait for our carriage to bring us home.

I don't know how people with large families do it.  How do they spend time with each child?  How do they find the time and space to know each child as a singular person.  I loved spending this time with my littlest girl without distraction.  She was herself, my child without the complication of being a sister.  She had my entire attention, and I had hers.  It was a treat without equal.  

An old refrain, but a new choir to sing it

Little e's newest zinger when her sister's telling her what to do?

"Don't be like Mom!"

(Sigh)  

thermoset vinyl, my new friend.

In between trips and family fun,  I had one of those artistic successes that make you want to do the Happy Dance all week.  (Oh, and before you think artsy-smartsy art, let me clarify.. I'm talkin' about dice bags people.)

I've been making custom dice bags for while that had hand cut felt appliques, but they had issues. You can't wash them (wool felt goes all squidgy when you do that), there was a lot of labor involved, and at they just weren't as slick as I wanted them to be (felt is not known for its slick-ness).

This is where the break through comes in... thermoset vinyl.

Oh... lovely sheets that can be hand cut, comes in lots of colors (I now have 7), including metallics, and can be heat set with an iron.

The finished product feels like a t-shirt decal. It's adds only a little bit of thickness to the fabric, but is flexible and machine washable.. and it's super slick!

So, I am in the midst of sewing up a slew of dice bags from the new fabrics I've collected in the past month, and then I'm making up a set of these new vinyl decal bags.  Have I mentioned how totally stoked I am?!  

Little e and I need to play Taboo together

Little e: Momma... why is there the red thing in the white thing?
h.: What white thing?
Little e: No. Not the white thing, the red thing in the white things.
h.: What red thing in the white things?
Little e: You know white things with the red thing.
h.: Okay.  I need some more words here. What exactly does this have to do with?
Little e:  Ummm.... its a... umm...
h.:  Is this something we've just seen?
Little e: No.
h.:  Can you tell me anything about what we're talking about?
Little e:  I have one word.  I remember one word of the name.
h.: Okay....
Little e: Queen.  

pause

h.: Do you mean Queen Ann's Lace?
Little e: YES!
h.: You mean the red spot in the middle of the white flowers, right?
Little e:  YES!
h.: Okay.

how could 3 weeks go by so quickly?

(A post in which I mercilessly steal borrow photos from Big E.)

So here we are

at the end of our family vacation time

oh but it was so good while it lasted!

Working against my nature

Big E and I did sneak away from the water for a couple of hikes in the woods.

We saw impressive fungus, berries and trees.

 

Our first hike was complicated by a large number of 

downed trees.  I'm not sure if they were from this 

winter or last, but after we'd climbed over, under, 

and gone around the first dozen trees that blocked the 

path, we decided maybe we should try a different 

trail on a different day.

Now, I swear I took at least one photo of the downed trees, but when I later checked my camera, all I had were macro shots of fungus, moss, and berries.  Yep, sounds a lot like me, doesn't it?

Look! Salmon Berry (and friend).

Our second hike took us on a Nature Conservancy trail.  

It was a popular, very well maintained trail. We had 

lots of company (the human kind) and the 

slithery kind.

The trail lead out of my comfort zone (nice cool, moist forest) into hot, dry, sunny, dusty, grasslands.

I was brave, and continued onward.

The view, when we reached the point of the headland, was lovely.  And look! I took photos of the non-detail kind!  

 

Old friends and new ones

It is interesting to me how different the beach is every trip.

We saw legions of hermit crabs this trip, where in previous trips we might only see one if we were very good.

We normally see this green anemone in the tide pools nestled in with star fish,

but this trip we also saw these smaller, more delicate pink anemones. The girls will go back to the beach in August for a week with Grand M.  I wonder what they'll see then?

Snippets of a week at rest

Okay, so maybe there was more to the beach than S'mores and bacon chocolate.

Meaning, of course, that we ate other things too...

And there were lots of walks on the beach.

We met the locals.

And some out of town visitors...

Wave hello, Mr June Beetle... How can an invasive forest eating monster be so cute?

The petrified forest was visible during low tide, and was filled with all kinds of barnacles, muscles, sea worms, and other things that would prefer to be underwater.

The weather was perfect. Each day had a little something for everyone.  There was sun, rain, clouds, and winds in turn.  The days were warm, mild, or chilly.. you just had to wait an hour or so for the next permutation if you weren't pleased with the current weather.

 

Oh, and did I mention? I took a few photos while I was away.

the fourth comes, the crowds go, and a tradition gets even better

We are back home.  The remainder of Big E's vacation time could be counted in hours.  

Our week at the beach started like this on the Fourth of July.  People, people everywhere and not a spot to sit.

But once midnight had come and gone, our beach emptied out and returned to the quiet magical place we love.  

I've been making homemade marshmallows for the beach for years, but this year I added a new layer of sophistication to our S'more ritual... enter the Homemade Graham Cracker.  Oh who knew things could get better than last year?

I was concerned that my cracker wasn't crisp, but the soft, toothsome, wheaty charm of this biscuit 

was only increased by the fact that our s'mores didn't fall apart as we ate them.  You know that part of  s'more eating where the graham breaks apart and the stick-gooey bits fall down your shirt?  That wasn't an issue this year.

Oh, and that chocolate square?  That would be bacon chocolate people.  My dear, sweet friend Di sent me a bar of it, and I hoarded it for the beach.  Think homemade s'more perfection with a hint of smokey saltiness.  Such bliss.

Art Day

Oh my goodness but this first month of summer vacation has been a blur.

Z, E, and K came and spent a day with us. The men went out and had a man-date (complete with tatertot nachos and locally brewed beer) and the girls?  We had a major art fest.

I pulled out my bins and drawers of Stuff. Papers, photos, canvases, paints, all the stuff I look at and promise myself I'll use, but things just get in the way...

Z, K, Nay-nay, little e, Sweetheart G, Auntie O, and I... we were wild.

This a bit of wonderfulness made by K.  She laid out so many cool, cool designs.. it was amazing to watch.

Little e made this cool picture. She mixed the pain and painted the background herself. Can you see the almost clear, sparkly dress on the fairy?

Auntie O made this one.  She finished a slew of collages, and then took home a stack of painted backgrounds for later projects.

It was a great day. I would love to have more days like this in the future.  Why is it so hard to set aside a day to just make art with friends?