Bass Pro Bros

Good thing we found this little sized Bass Pro Shops hat for Levi during our pit stop on the drive out to Zion! We got Parker his big green hat there when he was about two and a half on our way out to Lake Powell for the first time. Definitely a good look for both of them.

Pirate Parker

Here are some pics from one of the many random things we did today that kept us busy (and kept me busy doing things other than cleaning the house...). Parker insisted that he and I put on pirate costumes and engage in a sword fight during Levi's nap. It actually was a lot of fun and we had a lot of laughs. 

Slugger

I seriously think Parker has got some natural baseball playing skills--he's a fast, far, accurate thrower, and just the other night he was nailing Jared's pitches with just this skinny little stick of wood in the backyard. Imagine the things he could do with a real bat ;) He and I played a lot of baseball in the backyard today, and I spent some time explaining some of the basic rules of how to play the game. I swear I saw his eyes and face light up, and I could clearly see a boy beginning to love baseball. He happily put on some of his Padres gear and gave me some of his toughest Slugger poses for some photos this evening. We definitely have to get this kid to a Padres game, pronto!

First Blocks

I'm happy to say that I've begun sewing my squares into 12-inch blocks of nine squares each, and so far everything seems to be working out well! I'm relieved that this project might actually be successful...I've made 3 blocks and am secretly hoping to make 30...on one hand, I should probably just make a small blanket, but on the other hand I want to end up with something that I really love (like I love it so far), so we'll see. I'm also secretly toying with the idea of paying someone to finish the quilt for me (once all of the blocks are complete and sewn together into the quilt top)--I've discovered that there are people who offer this service, they do all of the quilting at the end, sewing all of the layers together with a special "longarm" quilting machine. But I also know that this will end up costing more than I should admit to (considering that I would also like to purchase some more fabric for it), so I will just keep on trucking along and enjoying sewing my blocks together and will deal with finishing it off when I get there :)

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.