sheep & wool, year 2

So, the pictures aren't great but I wanted to share about our second annual trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival anyway. I often find that when I attend special events like this, I'm too busy experiencing it to have much time to photograph it.

We learned our lesson from last year and headed straight for the merchandise tent where they sell t-shirts, tote bags, posters, etc. from the event. We weren't fast enough, though - all the kids' size t-shirts were gone, so we got the Jude and Henry these sweatshirts instead. It was slightly chilly that day, so they got to sport them right away.

 I've wanted a "natural" kitchen broom for a while now and had seen the man who makes these last year, and decided to get one. Of course Jude, who loves to clean, needed one too. He quickly went to work sweeping "all the yucky stuff on the ground."

 He held his broom the whole way home.

I didn't buy any yarn this year, but I did get this book:

as well as wool roving in a variety of colors. I've been wanting to learn how to do needle felting for a while now. As usual with all of my new art projects, Henry was immediately on board and made a "fire" out of the wool as soon as we got in the car.

He wanted to see all the colors I chose, so I laid them out on the table when we got home. He proceeded to go around the table and make a ball using all the colors.

The only disappointment was that Henry didn't get to spin any wool like last year. I guess a child broke one of the spinning wheels last year, so it seems everyone decided not to let children try them out this year. I still have the yarn he spun for me last year, though. I looped it around my bedside lamp, so it is one of the first and last things I look at every day, and I treasure it dearly, especially because he made it for me on Mother's day.

Thank goodness for wheelbarrows

As I'm sure you've noticed by now, I'm not very good at being consistent and keeping up with this whole blogging thing. So let's just pretend that I'm reporting on the events of the past two weeks in a timely fashion, shall we?

May 5 - Our wonderful neighbor across the street ordered a truck full of mulch and had it dumped outside his house. Apparently he does this every year and offers it to any neighbors who want some. We bought a "yard," which I guess is about 10 wheelbarrows full. Luckily, Dan had help when he went to collect it. That little red wheelbarrow I found at the Salvation Army on H Street has really come in handy.

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. {inspired by SouleMama}

Okay, I cheated a bit with two photos. These guys are so cute it's hard to choose just one picture. These are from our first trip to the Baltimore Zoo!

knitting cowls

During the week after Christmas, I knit Dan and Henry the cowls they had requested. I like cowls so much better than scarves because they are so much quicker to make (and economical as they use so much less yarn!). I was introduced to the cowl a few years ago when the mother of one of the boys I work with gave me one as a Christmas present. I came to love how warm it kept my whole neck without the bulk of a scarf.

I made Henry's first, with some brown Malabrigo.

 Turns out it was too small. Here he is trying to take it off and it got stuck. Oops.

Then I made Dan's, plenty big as you can see, using the same yarn but a double strand. I like how it turned out - nice and thick and warm for all those days biking to GW.

Meanwhile, Felix was enjoying himself during all of this cowl photography.

Here's Jude shortly afterwards, checking out one of the camels from the Creche. 

 I made Henry a new cowl using some bulky yarn I got at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival (which is coming up again this weekend!). This one turned out great and he wore it the rest of the winter.

Ferdie has a friend

This morning we decided that Ferdie (as I have affectionately named the red puppet) needed a friend, so we made another puppet.

Jude decided that Ferdie is a boy and this puppet is a girl. Any name suggestions? I don't have much experience naming girls around here :)

I put our new friend up to dry - her hair started falling out because it wasn't dry yet. Then Ferdie and Jude watched the trash truck come and go.

Time to go get Felix up and pick Henry up at school - then off to work for me!