Mother's Day (A Little Late)

Happy (belated) Mother's Day!  I'd been patiently (and not so patiently) waiting for my first Mother's Day, and it was wonderful!  I couldn't help but think that last Mother's Day I was crossing my fingers I'd go into labor and walking as much as I could to try to get that baby ready to greet the world.  Needless to say, I was uncomfortable.  And large, anxious, swollen, excited to meet the baby, and just a little bit crabby.  Charlotte decided to hang out for a few more weeks, so she wasn't here in time for Mother's Day 2011 (Lucky Chad--he got to celebrate Father's Day just a couple weeks after she was born!).

We celebrated the weekend by going out on a solo date Saturday and having a family brunch Sunday.  My parents watched Charlotte most of the day Saturday--it was the first time Chad and I have spent time alone for more than a couple hours since our DIY Date in March.  And seeing as that "date" consisted of painting the trim in the dining room and cleaning out the basement and garage, I'm not sure it counts...Anyway, we drove out to Oberlin and had lunch at one of our favorite places, Black River Cafe.  It's a small restaurant located in downtown Oberlin, right in the center of the campus of Oberlin College.  They describe it best: "Named after the watershed in which it resides, the Black River Cafe specializes in local and sustainable foods in a casual bistro setting."  We discovered it a couple years ago and it never disappoints.  Their food is amazing, fresh, simple, and inexpensive.  Afterward we went to Olla Mae's Dry Goods, a quilt shop tucked away in the basement of the First Merit Building in the center of the town.  It's a cute shop, and they carry a bunch of patterns, pre-cuts, and tons of yardage of vintage-y 30s style fabrics.  I kept my hands in my pockets and didn't buy anything, but it was hard.  Maybe if I hadn't just reorganized all of my fabric and realized that I am about two charm packs away from an appearance on Hoarders, I would have.

Here's my girl in her Mother's Day finest, waiting for the party to start:

Later on we went to a greenhouse to look at flowers.  I still haven't gotten any flowers, but my landscaping project is almost finished.  And by almost finished I mean I probably have one more week of working for an hour or two in the evenings after Charlotte goes to bed.  I consider this good news, as my original goal was to finish everything by June 1st.  I find myself getting overwhelmed whenever I go to a big garden store or greenhouse...I usually end up just walking around kind of dazed and leaving with nothing, or buying one Petunia and getting home and realizing that unless I plan on planting it in a votive, it needs friends.  I need to make a list.  Any recommendations for flowers that can stand up to a little abuse?  I'm looking to buy mostly white and red annuals that can take a decent amount of sun.  Sorry, I'm getting off topic.  This was supposed to be about Mother's Day, not about the yardwork that has been consuming my free time for the last month.  But while we're on the topic: still no Gilbert.  I did see an Orkin truck two houses down...for a second I felt bad that maybe Gilbert had moved into their territory and became a problem, but then I felt glad that he wasn't in my yard.  Now I feel guilty admitting that.  Kind of.

Anyway, back to Mother's Day weekend.  Summary: it was really nice, and my sweet husband did so much to make sure it was special, despite the fact that he's working on the hardest part of his MBA course right now and working a demanding job.  He has 5 more days of this class and then he's off until September.  This makes me a very happy lady :)

Happy like this:

Yesterday Charlotte and I were out running errands in the late afternoon.  It was beautiful out and I noticed that hardly anyone was at the park by the lake when we were on our way home.  I had the stroller, camera, and sunscreen so we stopped and spent over an hour there.  It was the best part of the day, and from the looks of things I think Charlotte enjoyed herself as well:

It was really clear and sunny, so I was able to get a great view of Cleveland:

 

We lost a passenger on our walk.  Thankfully I noticed after a few feet.  Life without Winnie would be tough for awhile; he goes everywhere with her.  

Reunited :)

As I write this I am looking at a pile of mulch, yard bags, landscaping bricks, and garden tools that are waiting for me.  I am stalling.  Curse you, beautiful sunny day that is neither too hot or humid and is ideally suited for yardwork.

Enjoy your week!

~Stacy

Frisbee Match

The day is warm and slightly overcast.  The game is Frisbee.  The crowd is pumped. 

The team is ready:

The first throw is successful; the player is looking strong.

The crowd is on the edge of their seats.  Or rather, of her seat.

The second throw is even better. 

The crowd goes wild.

There's a rumble in the stands.  Too much excitement?  Maybe.  Man down.

There's a hush.  The game stops.  The player, ever the professional, rushes to the scene.

He's about to help, but it won't be needed.

All is well.

In all the commotion, it seems our crowd has grown.  By one.

Yeah, I'm looking at you.  You'd better hope the player doesn't see you or we're going to have another man down.

I hope you're enjoying you're week--that is now almost the weekend  :)

~Stacy

Shop Update

I'm taking a timeout from other posts for a little shameless self promotion.  I've been working on getting some items into the Etsy shop that I have left over from show last weekend.  I've gotten several items in there and more are on their way, but here's a peek at what's available:

Baby Blocks w/Tote:

Burp Cloth Sets (2 per set):

And several dresses made by my mom:

If you get a chance, check it out!  http://www.etsy.com/shop/thebluebaycottage

Happy Rainy, Stormy Monday.

~Stacy

What Progress Looks Like

The landscaping project is coming along a little bit ahead of schedule, despite being out of commission for a few days due to a nasty cold and some other work projects.  Thanks to some nice weather and an even nicer Dad who went to the lawn supply store and picked up 13 bags of mulch and drove them to my house for me, I have accomplished more than I expected at this point.  As of this evening, everything is weeded and ready for mulch and one area is completely done.  After using 5 bags of mulch on just one relatively small area, I can tell that I grossly underestimated how much I would need.  Dad, if you're reading this, we may need to talk about an extra shipment.  Aside from that, I haven't really run into any problems.  Even the weed extravaganza that is growing next to the garage hasn't been the horrible project I thought it would be.  Weather and time permitting, I'm hoping that all of the mulching and garden bed outlining/cleaning up will be done by the end of next week.  After that is the fun part--planting flowers in pots and baskets and adding color.  I refuse to buy any flowers until the rest of the work is done; that will be my reward for finishing everything else. 

Today was busy.  This was my setup while I finished weeding the backyard flower bed:

This lasted all of about 15 or 20 minutes, until she decided that being in Pack 'N Play jail was torture.  She would have much rather played on a blanket in the grass, but I didn't want to worry about her rolling away (that's her preferred method of transportation: rolling.  And she's fast.)  Thankfully naptime came soon after so I could finish this section:

This is the area that took 5 bags of mulch, somehow.  I also trimmed everything like crazy, dug up an old tree stump that was in the middle, and tore out 3 other bushes that no longer fit and/or were not healthy.  I plan to put a big flower pot with bright white and red flowers in the middle of this to finish it completely.

Also done today:  more tearing out of weeds, ugly/dying/ill fitting bushes along the side of the house, clearing out the flower bed in the back of the house, trimming bushes, and cutting down and clearing out those mini maple tree/weeds along the side of garage.  Phew.

Thankfully the ice cream stand at the beach opened just in time.  I think I earned this today:

Mitchell's Ice Cream, how I love you so.  And it seems like I'm not the only one--a certain little girl sampled some today.  Here she is waiting for Daddy to give her a taste:

YUM.

"More?"

 After ice cream we went for a drive, but not all of us could stay awake that long.

 I hear you, girlfriend. 

 

All of my yard tools and lawn bags are still outside.  It's not supposed to rain, so they're staying there until tomorrow; I'm beat.  Time to lay on the couch and watch Waiting for Guffman.  If you're not familiar with it or other Christopher Guest movies, you should look into it--Best in Show is a good starting point, and my personal favorite :)

Good night.

~Stacy

11 Months

Charlotte is 11 months old today!  We started the day by trying to take her picture on her white blanket, like we do every month.  These usually are fun and I can distract her long enough to lay on her blanket and smile for the camera.  Today, however, was a different story.  Maybe it's because she had far more interesting things to do, maybe it's because she had just woken up, maybe it's because I have a cold/sinus thing happening that was making my head feel like it was trapped in a vise, but the photo shoot did not go well.  I'm making her a book for her 1st birthday using Shutterfly that captures all the highlights of her first year.  Shutterfly is having a 50% off sale on photo books that, naturally, ends today.  I wanted to order it now so I could A) get the sale price and B) have it in time for her actual birthday.  I ordered it with a few blank pages at the end that I'll fill in with some more May photos, but I wanted to at least get in her 11 month photos before placing the order.  Had it not been for this, I would have postponed the picture taking until later in the week.  I ended up with a lot of photos, but about 99% of them were like this:

Charlotte pulling the blanket into bunches:

Charlotte trying to get into stuff under her bed:

This sort of decent photo, except she looks kind of grumpy and the sun was shining in the window and made the lighting look weird:

Charlotte pointing at the toys she wanted to be playing with instead of posing for pictures:

And, finally, Charlotte blowing raspberries at the camera to let it (and me) know exactly what she thought of this photo session:

Thankfully Howard stepped in to help out.  Phew, I don't know what I would have done without him.

 Hi Mom.  I understand this isn't going well.  Here, I'll pose.  Do you like this pose?

Here's a profile view.  How's that?

Excuse me, Charlotte?

She just needs one picture.  All you have to do is lie down on this blanket, see?

 Just like this.

He gets points for trying, but this was about as good as it got.

I'm excited that it's May!  This month really signifies the start of summer to me.  I wasn't able to fully enjoy last May, because by the time it rolled around I was 17 months pregnant and had feet that looked like small loaves of bread (or so it seemed).  I'm looking forward to a summer of feeling good and having my little Junebug by my side :)

All 11 months of her.

If you get a chance, please check out my Etsy shop--it's been updated with a few items leftover from the Avant-Garde show.  I'll be photographing more items later this week and adding them to the shop, so keep checking back!

~Stacy