All Is Well

The hubs is home.  And there was great rejoicing.  So much in fact, that by 7:30, the three kids had tucked in an exhausted Papa and he was snorily sleeping in the middle of the room.

The reunion at the airport was really sweet.  The girls spotted H at the baggage claim and took off running straight for him.  Of course they tackled him and knocked him down on the floor.  E saw the action and took off, too.  And once he could burrow his way through the girls to H at the bottom of the pile, he refused to let go for quite some time.  He just hung on with one arm and both legs while he busied himself with his other thumb.  Papa sure was missed!

I got a few projects done while he was gone.  I cut down an evil bush tree prickly plant-like demon that was growing up over the garage, self-inflicting a week's worth of pain in the form of thorn punctures, scratches and sore muscles.  But it's mostly gone.  H will have to deal with the stump.

I also started cleaning the windows on the porch.  Doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but it really kinda is.  I'm 5/16 of the way through.

And there's been some crafty goodness, too.  I caught up with most of the summer in Project Life.  I threw out the week-by-week idea and simply plowed through to get it all in, letting it all fall out how and where it would.  There was the creation of a pillow the other night as well.  (Sorry for the rotation malfunction.)  Ampersands are the new thing these days, and I had wanted it in the lower right corner of the pillow, but somehow it overtook the entire right side of the cover instead.  But I still love it.  Green corduroy with hand-stitched organza petal ribbon.

Lastly, I *finally* busted out the sewing machine and began playing with my knit fabrics.  I washed and ironed for several hours before deciding that for my first project I should use solid colors and less-expensive knit that didn't roll so that I would suffer far less trauma should this be yet another craft disaster.  So I went with the pink and purple.  I played around with stitches trying to find the best stretch stitch on my machine, read everything I could get my hands on regarding techniques with knit, and then started cutting away.  The pattern is Imke from Sewing Clothes Kids Love, recommended to me by my dear German friend Carmen.  This picture is the one where N ran in and said, "I want to be in it, too!"

It took a moment to convince her that I'd give her a turn in front of the brick wall if she just waited a moment.  Then I snapped this:

Then there was screaming and crying and gnashing of teeth.  N came to sit next to me, but managed to plop her bottom right smack on top of a giant ant hill.  And those jokers got her good.  A big dose of Benadryl, a handful of tissues and several ice packs later, she recovered.  G just stood in front of the wall, awaiting my return, practicing a variety of poses.  She wasn't too thrilled when I asked her to turn to the side so I could snap a pic of the ribbon down the arm.

So I took picture after picture of her swinging her arms about while asking her to please smile and managed to get this cute little shot:

 (Based on her expression in photos most of the time, I wonder if perhaps she's a descendant of  Mona Lisa.)

H asked me the oddest thing earlier today: what would I do if I had a day off?  I apparently have one tomorrow as he's not going to work, and I'm a bit overwhelmed by all the possibilities :)