This weekend, I got out my sewing machine. Aaaaaaah. It's been a long time. I made Daphne's embroidery into a lavendar sachet and started on the cloth napkins I've been making all the noise about. Pillowcase dresses are next, and perhaps beach hats for me and the Peanut. Found a cute pattern on the Craftzine blog today.
I wanted to make a red pepper bisque like I recently had at Tuscarora Mill , so I got some red peppers at the farmers market on Saturday and used this recipe. First of all, roasting peppers on the stove is fun! Also, the soup was pretty good and even Daphne liked it.
I think it could have been thicker, and it didn't really need the shrimp. But I will definitely make this again. And I don't even like red peppers. I combined some goat cheese and cream in the food processor to make a "goat cheese mousse" to put in the soup. I think that was my favorite part. Thank you, goats.
This is a picture of my bike. I love my bike. Yesterday, Kevin got home from work early. I needed a few things from the store for dinner, so I rode my bike to Safeway while he stayed home with the Peanut. It was fun. The only bad thing that happened was dropping a baguette out of my shopping bag in the driveway. Fortuantely, it landed upright, leaning against the car, so I just had to cut off both ends. It was still good in the middle where it didn't touch anything.
Daphne finally painted a picture of me (above), so now we have the whole family in water color. I will have to scan it in to get the color right, and then have Zazzle.com put it on a coffee cup or something. I love it.
Here is some stuff from the garden that I made into a face:
We didn't plant anything I like to eat, so I had to find something to do with it. We have more cukes and tomatoes than Kev and Daphne can possibly ever eat, so I am going to have to do some research into making DIY cucumber facial masks or something.
Daphne recently asked me to teach her to knit. Can you imagine how happy this made me? Unfortunately, I don't think I have the patience, and I don't think she has the coordination. Yet. But, the time will come. In the meantime, I decided to start simple and let her play around with some yarn and an embroidery needle. She LOVED it. I will probably turn the finished first project into a little pillow or something. I'll post a picture when I do.
It was a cute class, and my only complaint is the smell of the building. Daphne got to make some really cute crafts, including, on the last day, a picture frame covered in grout and adorned with seashells and glass "jewels" and so forth. It will be perfect for a picture from our trip to the beach later this summer.
Went for a ride on Skyline Drive:
It was a nice little change of scenery, and Daphne especially had a great time. And I discovered that you only have to travel about an hour or so south of Leesburg to be in The South, where people sound like the people from home and there are grits and biscuits and gravy a'plenty. Yes. 
Well, I am knitting again and that is a good thing. My friend Emily brought me this cool pouch when she came to visit, and I decided to use it this week to carry a small knitting project to do while Daphne is at "school." By school, I mean a little one week class called Under the Sea. For 45 minutes each day this week, I get to sit by myself while Daphne paints pictures of fish and glues feathers on paper duckies and so forth. If the facility didn't smell quite so much like a nursing home, I would really be enjoying myself. Daphne doesn't care about the smell. She is having a great time, and hopefully this is helping prepare her for preschool, which is just around the corner. I am knitting a scarf. For me. I like it so far.
He got her an athletic bag with a helmet and bat (pictured) as well as a glove and some wiffle balls to practice with. She got very excited, and it was hard to get her to stop wearing the helmet when it was time to go to dinner. Jeff is sort of using our house as a home base while he travels around the area. At the moment, I think he is in Gettysburg. He's coming back here tomorrow. I cannot even imagine being so footloose and fancy free. But I know that time will come again for me, and when it does I will miss these days of having my constant sidekick. She is a lot of work, but she sure is cute.
and fresh blueberries to use in cakes:
And I learned to make my mom's spaghetti:
What a treat. Just like home.
So, while my friend Emily was visiting last week, she told me about the theory that eating local honey (a little each day) helps allergies. Makes sense to me! So, while Daphne and I were out and about this morning, I picked up some honey made by monks in Berryville, VA, not far from here, so I can start experimenting. (Too bad allergy season is pretty much over...I guess I will build up my tolerance for next year!). Daphne picked cinnamon, but they also had plain, lemon, almond, and I think maybe raspberry. I just tried a little bit, and this stuff is DEEEElicious. If Daphne wasn't napping, and if I wasn't presently being advised to stay indoors due to a local manhunt, I would probably go down to Safeway immediately to buy some buttermilk and make hot fresh buscuits to spread it on.
Today, it was nice and cool out, so Daphne and I took a little walk around town. We went to this place (above). No, we did not require the services of a cobbler. We went there because inside the old Shoes Repairing building is actually (cue the fanfare) a brand new coffee shop. Woo hoo! So exciting. We split a muffin and played checkers. This was just what the town needed. It's so cute inside. There is a shoe chandelier on the ceiling, games and magazines for the customers, as well as a stack of crosswords and sudokus-of-the-day and a can of pencils. I think it's going to be my new hang-out when Daphne starts preschool. Hey...you know what they need to do? Serve various kinds of cobblers! It seems like the right thing to do. I think I'll suggest it.
In other exciting news, we saw this sign. THE FAIR IS COMING! I know it won't be anything like the Great State Fair of Texas, or probably even as good as the Dutchess County Fair (no 4h milkshakes) or the Harvest Homecoming (no Redman's Club Chicken and Dumplings), but it is a fair, and I guess from now on, it is OUR fair. So, I can't wait. Really, about all it will take to make me happy is a Fun Slide. And who knows, maybe it will have it's own special little hidden treasure thing that's just as good as the shakes and the dumplings.
So, today is Thursday, and our Thursday adventure is a walk with some neighbors to the Tally Ho to see Hotel for Dogs. I wish they would leave some lights on in the theater so I could read or knit, because I am pretty sure this is going to be a terrible movie for adults. But, it should be fun for the kids, and there will be popcorn, so it's all good. I think they're having the Muppet Movie in a couple weeks, and I'm really looking forward to that. Hooray for the Tally Ho for having these kid summer movies. It's a good cheap way to spend a morning.
They are still pretty, but they shrivelled up to next to nothing. The ones on the internet were a lot bigger, so I'm not sure what I did wrong. Yesterday, I went out and cut another one from a different plant. These flowers are much larger to begin with, so we'll see what happens when they dry:
We had dinner on the porch last night on the new furniture. It was delightful. Until the Yard Guard wore off and the mosquitos found us. It's so nice in the mornings and evenings here, even when it's really hot during the day. If I could just find the magical mosquito solution, summer would no longer be on my list of Things I am Against.
So, this is what was in those boxes. For my birthday, which isn't actually until August, Kev decided to help me make the porch a happy place. He finished the assembly this morning. Tonight, we'll be having dinner outside. Slowly but surely, the house is becoming a home. Thanks, Kev.
The next Thing That Makes Me Happy is this painting of a sunflower from Daphne. She gave it to me and told me, "It's just for you, Mommy. You don't have to share it with anybody." It makes me happy every time I see it. I should probably stick copies all around the house. Especially by the dishwasher.
So, Kev's Father's Day gift from me was this cookbook. It has some really good recipes in it - at least they LOOK good. It reminds us of our favorite restaurant in Dallas, Cafe Madrid. Oh, how I miss Cafe Madrid. Anyway, yesterday, we decided to have tapas day and try out a few recipes from the book. We made spare ribs with paprika sauce, garlic mushrooms, and zucchini fritters with pine nut dip. It was all good, but we both liked the pine nut dip best. It was delicious. There it is, below, with the fried zucs. Don't know why Blogger rotated the photo the wrong way like that.
It was fun cooking together. Previous attempts at this have often caused family tension. Having a bigger kitchen definitely helps. Anyway, I am looking forward to the next tapas day. Maybe next weekend!
And, today, these boxes arrived:
Inside is an early birthday present from Kevin. When we get it all assembled, I will show you what it is. I am so excited. I wish we'd had this last week! 
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm almost glad it's Monday.There has been so much activity lately, that I am ready for a normal weekday with no big (or even small) adventures (except a long overdue trip to Trader Joe's, which we took earlier this morning). The weekend was good. Friday night was First Friday in town, so we walked down to see what we could see. There were a couple of bands playing, and one place was giving away free popcorn. Above, you can see Daphne desperately scanning the bottom of the bag for the last molecule. I didn't have any. Kevin said it was bad...bland. No salt or butter. Apparently, that didn't bother the Peanut.
Saturday morning was the big parade, so Daphne put on her fancy parade dress from Aunt Kathy and took a seat on the sidewalk to enjoy the festivities with her friends. There was a camel, a couple of llamas, some dogs, some sheep, a guy in a pizza suit, another guy dressed like a prune, and various marching bands and pageant winners and other parade staples.
During the parade, we found out from our neighbors that you can't really see the town's fireworks from the cul de sac, so I was very disappointed. I love fireworks and haven't seen them in many years. But it didn't seem worth it to drag the Peanut to the rec center way past her bedtime and sit in a crowded field with mosquitos. So, we stayed home. When the show started, we could hear them outside which made it worse that we couldn't see them. Finally, I put Daphne to bed. Then just for kicks, I went into the front yard and down to the sidewalk. Guess what. Fireworks. So I ran back up and got Daphne and brought her down just in time to see the last three or four. As she was squealing "This is SO awesome," it ended. Just like that. Oh well. At least we know for next year.
Yesterday, we tried to take it easy. We took Daphne up to the attic to sing on "Daddy's mike-a-phone." She sang the ABCs, the Daddy song, and I've Been Working on the Railroad. She was pretty excited to hear the playback.
On Monday, my friend Emily and her kids, Violet and Fletcher arrived from Texas for a visit. They left this morning to go home. In between, there was almost non-stop activity, and it seemed almost like I was the one on vacation. Here are the highlights: Fireworks Pizza, Fractured Prune Donut Shop, Symington Water Park, shrimp and grits dinner with a visit from Emily's college roommate, a trip on the Metro to DC to ride the carousel and visit the American History Museum and the Museum of Natural History, dinner at Tuskies with Emily (thanks to Kev for watching the kids), Rocknocers at the mall with a ride on the carousel and the train, gas station Thai food on the porch with Emily's brother and his girlfriend followed by Nell's oreo ice cream cake and fireworks in the yard, and breakfast at Puccios.
It was exhausting but SO much fun. The kids were all great, Daphne had a blast playing with her friends, and I had a good visit with one of my very favorite people from home.
There are tons of pictures on flickr of our adventures if you are interested.
Every day this week has felt like Saturday, but tomorrow actually IS, and that means the 4th of July. We are gearing up for the town's big parade, which we are fortunate enough to be along the route of, so I am getting donuts and we're having a couple of neighbors over to watch it from our porch. We will probably grill out. Then we'll be up late for fireworks. Sunday is going to be a day of rest.
I don't think it's gonna come off. I think we were probably supposed to put it ON something before we lit it. Speaking of burning things, look what I did to my pot last night:
This video clip has nothing to do at all with this blog post, but I don't like having posts with no pictures, so enjoy. It is dedicated to my cousin's wife, Stefanie, because whenever she thinks of Daphne, she thinks of snorting. Long story, but not really blog-worthy. So, there you go.
Anyway, I have an itchy trigger finger. And when I say that, I mean I have an itchy pedal foot. And when I say that, I mean I want to sew something.
It's been a long time coming.
Here is what I want to sew:
The possiblity of ANY of this actually happening seems small. The only time I have to sew is naptime and night time. Night time is right out. There is no way. I fell asleep on the couch within 10 minutes after I put Daphne to bed last night. Naptime might work, but I fear naps are phasing out. I put Daphne down for her nap an hour ago, and she's still awake. She has called me upstairs three times. First, she had to potty. (She really did, so that's OK). Then she was thirsty. Then, she wanted a lullaby. Now, you know that if someone is requesting to hear ME sing, it is a stall tactic and nothing else. I just told her that we could make lemonade later if - and only if - she goes to sleep. I think that did the trick. All these trips up and down the steps are wearing me out. Anyway, if there is any progress at all on this list, it will be blogged. But don't hold your breath.
Now, I am going to look through some patterns I have in case the opportunity arises...
Well, it's naptime so I tried to sit on the porch swing with my iced coffee and look the new PBKids catalog I just got in the mail. Alas, I was thwarted. First of all, Daphne was making all kinds of noise, which I heard over the monitor, because instead of napping, she was "having a campout." Plus, it's hot out there. And finally, although I didn't actually see any mosquitos, I felt their presence. So I quickly cut some hydrangeas and came back in the house. Kev's mom told me they are easy to dry, so I decided to try it. Most of the internet articles say to wait until the end of the season to cut them, but I thought I'd try it anyway. I don't know how they'll do, especially hanging right in the sunny window, but I couldn't figure out anywhere else to hang them, and they look sort of weirdly pretty hanging there. If this batch doesn't work, there's plenty more for later.
