Tipping the Bucket

My amazing friend Tiffanie posted about this story on her blog and I must share.  It's an amazing program called Tipping Bucket.  It helps social entrepreneurs raise the funds the need to do great work throughout the world.  I donated a few dollars to help build "greenhouse schools" in Bolivia (using the ideas of greenhouses to create warmer, brighter classrooms in the cold mountains of Bolivia).  I think it's an incredible idea, both the fundraising and the projects they sponsor.  So if you feel you have a spare dollar, help tip someone's bucket!

Blue bonnets

I grew up in Nevada, and I learned a lot about the state symbols of Nevada in 3rd and 7th grade.  I even know our state song. 

Tangent:  nearly everybody I know that grew up in Nevada knows the state song.  I can't say the same about anywhere else (in fact, I don't think I've met more than 10 people that know the Utah state song, and I know a lot of people from Utah). 

Nevada's state flower is the sagebrush.  It's a bush.  Not pretty, though it smells lovely, particularly after rain.  Certainly not for taking pictures in at any rate.  But the Texas blue bonnet is great such things!

Observe:  ridiculously cute baby sitting in a green field speckled with indigo colored flowers.  Quite picturesque. (these two were taken by the side of the road in Anna, TX after grocery shopping)

Last Saturday we went to a trail in Plano, ostentatiously named "Blue bonnet Trail."  I think they had recently mowed it.  There were some bluebonnets right at the beginning, but then is was just along stretch of green grass studded with metal electrical pylons.  A little dissappointing, but we had fun together, and we took these pictures.

A Few of Her Favorite Things

I recently cleaned out photos from my phone (btw-when I think about the fact that I live in an age where I take photos with my phone and talk to my parents by video online it kind of blows my mind).  Anyway, I thought I'd share a few.  Eleanor is 9 months now and is such a joy.  She loves to:

Read...or just play with the book.  Especially the one that lights up and plays music that my mom gave her, though the battery is nearly dead now so it just plays the first few notes over and over, which is less cute...

Bathe:  So much fun!

Hide and get into stuff she shouldn't.

Play with mom.  I love this one too.

Fun

Eleanor's whole world has expanded exponentially now that she crawls, something she really mastered a few weeks ago. So now she gets into all kinds of things.

Like our CDs.  I really ought to give them a new, untouchable, home.  But she loves it and has yet to actually open a case. 
And here she is sleeping.  I love coming in and seeing her like this.

She clearly doesn't fit this direction in her playpen/crib.  And I do lay her down the other way.  But she always turns around and sticks her head in a corner.

Latest Project...I mean obsession...

I love to sew, as those who know me well already know.  I mentioned the idea of making a quiet book a few weeks ago to my mom, and we both went crazy with ideas.  We talked about it a lot on the phone, and swapped email ideas, and googled blogs and did lots of research.  We really liked the idea of basing the pages around primary songs.  I've finally finished planning my perfect quiet book.  I'm really excited. And when I get more done I'll post about it on my sewing blog.  But in the meantime I have to share something that I think is amazing.  AMAZING! 

While my mom and I were chatting about all this, I thought it would be really cool to print the layouts on fabric, like they do at Spoonflower or FabricOnDemand.  It's just kind of pricey, and I don't have the software to really "design" it properly.  But I think the idea of being able to design and custom print your own fabric is really cool.  And then I stumbled across this idea and I was enamored.  You can print on fabric with your home printer! I'm not going to bother rehashing the steps, because the website does a great job.  I obviously wasn't interested in making beanbags (thought it's a cool idea), but in making quietbook pages.  And here is the result so far.  I didn't have white cotton, just some light khaki colored stuff, and I'm cheap so I used it instead, but I still love the result. 

(Please ignore the fact that it is a mirror image photo. Ben took the camera out so I had to take it with our webcam)

For the Popcorn Popping page I'll print little popcorn blossoms and attach velcro and a basket pocket they can be gathered into.  The page opposite is my "I Think the World is Glorious*" , or touch and feel nature page.  It's a picture from my mission in Alaska, and I'm in a field of fireweed (which grows EVERYWHERE up there).  I'm going to sew on cottony clouds and some 3-D silk flowers, maybe a furry animal.  Anyway, you get the idea.

I'm really stoked.  I can't get over that I can print my own pages.  To do the designing, I've just been using microsoft word and paint programs.  I've searched for public domain clipart and then used paint to make it just how I want it and then copied into word so I get it the right size (because I apparently can't do that in paint).  Plus I can add wordart in Word.

I think possibilities for printing your own fabric are incredible.  Granted, you can only print as big as your printer will take, but still!  OH, I'm so excited!

*Funny story about this song.  When I was a little girl I would tell my mom that this was the song I was going to sing on Resurrection morning, only I didn't really (and still don't) have the words for the verse down so I would improvise with "I sing and sing and sing and sing...and sing and sing and sing..." It never ended apparently.

More Gems from Celeste

I love it when Ben comes home with good stories from school, like the following...

Student 1:  Mr. Lewis, have you ever gotten drunk?
Ben: No.
Student 1: Never?
Ben: Nope, never
Class: Whoa...
Student 2: Have you ever even had alcohol?
Ben: Nope
Student 2: Not ever a tiny sip?
Ben: Nope
Class: Whoa...
Student 3:  Have you ever smoked?
Ben:  No.
Student 3: Not even once?
Ben: Not ever.
Class: Whoa...
Student 4:  Mr. Lewis, I gotta question for you. 
Ben: Yes...
Student 4: Have you ever changed your oil?
Ben: No.  But I want to learn how.
Class: Whoa...

Stuff We Do

We do lots of stuff at our house.  Here's a little bit of that.

We work on the computer a lot.  Ellie works on getting into and under stuff.  She's really good about it.

We hang out with our family! Aunt Pearl came to visit for a week and we had tons of fun hanging out with her and her wonderful dog Ruthie.

We play a lot!  Ellie had her first experience on the swing.  It was a joy!

Speaking of firsts, Ellie has had a lot lately.  She crawls for real now, and is into everything.  She also started eating foods she can pick up.  Crackers are awesome!

We celebrate Pi Day!  We made an awesome apple pie (click here for the recipe) to celebrate Mar. 14 (or 3.14).

I hope you are having as much as we are!