THE PRINDLE FAMILY: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Memorial Day Weekend

After many, may days of our typical "May Grey" weather, we lucked out with some sunny weather on the tail end of Memorial Day weekend. Jared had to work on the actual Monday holiday, but we managed to get a day out on the sailboat and at the docks on Sunday. Although the weather was beautiful and the conditions mellow out on the water, it was definitely a "miss" day with both boys on the boat. I guess you can't win 'em all, but we had a lot of tears and fisticuffs from both of them during our "pleasure cruise," making our outing considerably less pleasurable. Somehow everyone snapped out of it once we got back to the dock--the mini marine biology lab that Jared found growing on the bottom of one of our kayaks certainly made for an exciting distraction. Note to all selves: partake in regular bottom-cleaning of all vessels kept in the water, including kayaks! On the plus side, the boys got an up-close viewing of crabs, sea slugs, worms, and all manner of underwater flora and fauna.

Summer Sewing Project

I'm so new to sewing that I don't think I can technically go on a "hiatus" from it yet, but I definitely took a break for the last couple of months. Although I have some really cool fabrics that I've been waiting to use, and some projects that I want to make, I just haven't been able to find the motivation or energy to get working by 9:30pm after the kids go to sleep. But I finally found myself inspired again this week when I saw photos of a picnic blanket quilt on the blog of a woman who sews (incredible quilts) and blogs about her projects. I've found that there are tons of amazing blogs by women--many of them moms--who do amazing crafty things and blog about them. Many of these blogs will have tutorials that teach you how to do a specific technique or how to make an entire project. I've gotten so many great ideas for crafts (to do myself or with Parker) and sewing projects by checking these blogs from time to time. I actually won a pack of vintage pillowcase and sheet fabric scraps by entering into a giveaway on one of these blogs--I was so happy! it was such a random good thing--and this is the fabric that I'm using for my latest project. I have always admired the amazing quilts that I see on these women's blogs, and (believe it or not) I would love to learn how to quilt. I'm pretty scared of trying to actually "quilt" the top of the project once all of the layers are put together, but I think that I can make a basic blanket for now without doing the actual quilting finish work at the end. I find that I'm really drawn to the super vintage, crazy, flowery-patterns-exploding-everywhere quilts as well as the totally opposite--super minimalist and modern quilts with colorful, solid, improvisational shapes set against plain white backgrounds. So, that's to say that not everything I make will necessarily be in this style, but right now I'm going for the vintage old-lady look with this one :) For now I've been loving just cutting all of the fabric scraps up into 4.5" squares, it's fun deciding how to frame the patterns for each square, and seeing the neat, orderly squares emerge from the mish-mash pile of funny shaped scraps feels surprisingly satisfying. It's also been fun dreaming about how to arrange the squares once they are all cut--I think I'm going to sew them into 12" square blocks, made up of 9 different fabric squares each, and then sew those blocks into a big old patchwork mess. I'm thinking about getting some new fabric to fill in the blocks, set in amongst the flowery vintage squares, all polka dots in a variety of colors so that I can arrange the 12" blocks in a sort of rainbow design--from pink to orange, yellow, green, blue, and lavender. Who knows how long this will take, and how it will turn out--I'm actually hoping to be able to use this blanket this summer for trips to the park and in the backyard. At least right now I'm just really enjoying the preparation process. The only problem with getting immersed in a project is that I find myself getting frustrated during the days and late in the evenings when I really want to do some work but just can't swing it.

Is this the longest blog entry about a quilt ever?

My growing stack of squares and my shrinking pile of scraps, all vintage pillowcases and sheets (except for the green and white polka dots)

Little, Bigger, Biggest

Clint and Dusti stopped by last week on their way home from San Diego, and we finally got to meet their little boy, Darby! He was born almost exactly a year after Levi, so they are going to be good little buddies at all of the Krutop family gatherings :) He is about 5 1/2 months old in this picture, Levi is 18 months, and Parker is 5. It was pretty funny to see Levi checking out the "baby," it's definitely a different situation for him to not be the littlest/youngest in the room! We're so glad that we got to meet little Darby River, can't wait to play with him some more this year.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Art Show

Parker's school had an Art Show last week, featuring art made by all of the kids in his school. Each teacher's class made different projects all around the theme of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle," so everything was made with recycled materials that they collected outside or brought to school. Parker's class brought used cans from home, which they painted and made into wind chimes hung from branches. They are going to hang a giant one that they made on the playground, and he will get to bring his own wind chime home :) I got lots of good ideas for projects to try with him this summer when we're looking for things to do. It was a fun time, although the busyness and noise of the event--with so many kids and their parents--were a little much for our boy. He obliged me with a few photos in front of his art (as you can see, he's not looking super comfortable), we toured the other class's projects, and then we split :) (By the way, he is wearing a sticker on his shirt that says, "I am a featured artist.")

All of this is giving me visions of Parker starting Kindergarten in just a few months...I really can't believe it. It kind of kills me that he is going to be in school five days a week, more than six hours a day from here on out. I'm sure he will make the transition, but it's hard for me to fathom that all of his long, carefree days of childhood are ending...and school, school, school fills his future...I wonder if that's the reason why I keep putting off finishing up and turning in his registration forms?!

Having Fun Together

Parker and Levi had another bonding moment the other day, playing in Parker's bed. Levi has this hankering to always climb up in Parker's bed, since he always wants whatever Parker has, or is doing. The both got in the bed and laid on the pillow, and I covered them up with the blanket--they loved it for about ten seconds and then Levi started squirming and clawing at Parker as usual. Then they had a good session of jumping on the bed together--Levi only fell off once :) It was nice to see them having fun doing something together.

Fort Buddies

It was really cute to watch Parker and Levi play in this simple, tiny fort that I built them one afternoon. I think this was Levi's first time playing in a "fort," and he was pretty into it--he really wanted to get under the blanket with Parker. It felt like one of the first/few times they have actually done something "together," and were happy about it :)

Another Deck Update

We finally have the deck basically completed for now--there are some things we still need to do...like make the gate that goes out to the alley functional. Dee gave us some metal chairs that I hit with a few coats of happy yellow spray paint, and our orange umbrella found a new home. I'd like to find some kind of side table(s) to hold mojito glasses :) For some reason, I keep picturing using tree stumps for tables...feeling au natural. Now, where do I get some tree stumps? We are cooking up plans to install an artsy path leading out to the deck, cause it will look nice and will make it much more enjoyable to walk through the gravel with bare feet. We'll also do the same kind of path through the gravel to the veggie garden.