Catch Up

Here are some pictures of what's been happening around here lately.

We got a few inches of snow the first weekend in March.  It was a wet snow and clung to everything. Very pretty!

I got my hair partially dyed blue!  I wanted something fun, and figured a pop of color would be fun!  It's hidden under the top layer of hair, so it's not super obvious right away.  I love it. It's been about 3 weeks now, and it's starting to fade a bit, so I will probably have it dyed again in a couple weeks. I may add some purple in next time!

I hadn't made a cake in a while, so I made a rainbow cake. Fun with food coloring!

Elmer loves to follow the sun beam around and lay in the warmth, even if that means he has to lay on boots!  Silly boy.

My brother and his fiance just bought a house, so we went for a visit and helped them get some work done before they moved in.  David and Chris worked on patching drywall, and I primed one of the bedrooms.  Devin and Kylee helped with a little bit of everything.

Peppa, one of the New Zealand does (rabbit doe, not goat doe) had a litter of kits.  She had 9, and 7 are still with us.  This is her second litter, although she didn't make a nest for the first litter and they all froze.  She's doing a great job so far with this litter.

We dyed eggs yesterday, and Angie, Isaac, and Ernest came over.  David and Ernest stayed outside talking to David's Aunt Nancy, and the rest of us got to work.  I forgot to get pictures of the finished eggs!

I was making deviled eggs, and I saw how some people put the hard boiled egg white in dye, and then they have Easter colored deviled eggs, so we tried it with a few of the eggs. It looked neat, but I prefer my deviled eggs white I think.

We had lots of dye left over, so I put it to good use. I got some white roving and had some fun making some rainbow roving.

I'll have to get a better picture of the dry roving.  I'm surprised at how bright the colors turned out!  Now that I look back at these pictures, I notice a theme.  I guess I've been a little tired of the dreary winter, because I have been loving lots of color lately!

Kylee helped me make some egg rolls today.  We baked them, instead of frying them. They were pretty good, but I added too much ginger to the filling. I'll have to tweak my recipe (no recipe, just a little of this and that tossed in a bowl) and try again.

Knitting by the Sea 2016

Our aunt is a member of a guild that has retreats every year in Corolla, NC.  Last weekend was my second time going. It's a fun weekend...spending a weekend in a nice hotel with my sister, knitting and having a great time! I was lucky enough to be asked back to teach a needle felting class and to do a demonstration on making felted beads.

The hotel where the retreat is held is so nice!

The view is great.  I'd love to have one of these huge houses on the ocean.  I'd even settle for staying in one for a week in the summer.

Becky and I took pictures on the balcony, but that's as close as we got to the ocean. It was a busy weekend!

Saturday, we set up the Purl & June table and sold some soap, and Becky manned the table for me while I gave my demonstration.

The felted bead demo was fun, and all the ladies ended up going home with several beads.

Later that night, we went down for the festivities.  We play knitting bingo, win door prizes, and eat desserts.  Becky and I wore our matching sheep nightshirts. We got these at our own local Walmart stores, and didn't realize we both had the same shirt until we were talking about what to bring to the retreat.  We decided to coordinate outfits.

Sunday morning was my needle felting class.  I picked 2 cute critters they participants could make- either an owl or a gnome.  The class was a lot of fun.

Aunt Linda made a really cute gnome with the cutest ears. Here he is below, not yet finished.

During the class, Becky let me know Barley was showing signs of going into labor, so she was kind enough to monitor the barn cam for me while I concentrated on the class.

Barley ended up having triplets later that afternoon. 

Here are some of the finished and almost-finished projects from the class.

It was a whirlwind of a weekend, but lots of fun.  

Pax River Appreciation Days

I'm way behind on blogging, so I'm going to try to do some catch-up posts. How did I miss the entire month of October???

A few weeks ago we took a trip to St. Mary's to visit my Dad and Lisa. On our way down, we stopped at Patuxent River Appreciation Days, which takes place at the Calvert Marine Museum.  We used to go to this as kids, and we always built our own boat. I thought it'd be fun for the kids to do that too!

My finished boat.

We also got to tour the Drum Point Lighthouse.  It's so neat to go up the narrow ladder, through a hole in the floor.  There's quite a bit of space inside the lighthouse itself.  There are three levels, and the light is in the very top level. I didn't get a picture of that, because it was too crowded when I wanted to go up there.

We also took a few minutes to walk through the museum, which was neat.

When we got back to Dad's and Lisa's house, we tested our boats in the pool.  They are sea worthy!

We had a fun trip, and it was nice to share some things with the kids from my childhood.

Happy Birthday Devin!

 Devin is 12 today!   We had a small family party for him over the weekend.  The kids decorated. They made a great banner!

They blew up balloons too.

And Devin requested finger foods for his birthday meal.  We had a veggie tray, fruit tray, and cheese/pepperoni/cracker tray, plus pigs in a blanket.  It was a great choice for a birthday meal!

He wanted strawberry shortcake for dessert.  We made a pound cake with this recipe we happened to find on Youtube.  It is THE BEST pound cake I've ever eaten in my entire life!  You know it's going to be good when it has so much butter, sugar, and heavy cream!   I cannot get over how good it is...if you like pound cake, you'll have to try that recipe!

Grandpop got some snuggles in with Elmer.  And check out that lovely face Kylee is making.  :-)

Devin got a new bike!  This one will hopefully be big enough to last him for several years.  He was excited about it, and rode it around the yard even though it was really cold out!

Next year he'll be a teenager!!  I can't believe how fast time is flying by!