Five Things: Weekend Edition

Sometimes I just don’t have enough to say about a single topic for a nice, coherent blog post. Enter: Five Things. Here are five things I want to share with you about my weekend!

1. My family spent Saturday afternoon in Peddlar’s Village, in Lahaska, Pennsylvania. On any given weekend, it’s a fun place for shopping, eating, and enjoying a little time outside. This weekend, even better, was their 42nd annual Strawberry Festival.

We got a big dose of sunshine and flowers:

The girls got to play pipes, pots, and trash can lids to be part of the band:

They got their first balloon animals (both girls chose giraffes):

I even got to shop at a scrapbook store (Creative Inkling) and walk away with some collage fodder and Tim Holtz tissue tape (another effort to satisfy my longing for washi tape!):

2. On top of Saturday’s beautiful sunny day at the Strawberry Festival, my husband took the girls outside to play this morning while he trimmed branches from a tree hanging low over our garage. I caught a moment on camera that I really treasure: sisters becoming friends.

Their friendship has been developing over the past six months or so, but I never take it for granted. My older daughter had a very hard time adjusting to having a little sister (Bayla came on the scene when Katy was 15 months old), and they didn’t always play together and interact with one another so amicably and easily. These rather rough beginnings ensure that I really treasure these moments when they choose to sit off together by themselves, hug to settle a dispute, make up rules for a new game, or comfort each other when one is crying or upset.

3. Like many other arty and crafty folks, I love a fabulously messy work space that shows the delightfully creative chaos going on in my brain. But there is something to be said for a tidy art space too! Check out this unstaged countertop where I was working on my cook bookmarks this afternoon:

Who knew I could be so neat while working on a craft project? I learned an important lesson, by the way: When you have applied Mod Podge to any surface, do not leave it on a paper towel to dry. Despite your best efforts, some of the Mod Podge DID, in fact, find its way to the other side, which means that the aforementioned paper towel is now indelibly adhered to the back side of your project. Nothing a little sand paper didn’t remedy, but it caused a moment of great concern. Whenever I try something new, I either discover that I have amazing beginner’s luck, or it’s something of a fiasco. Pretty sure this project falls on the fiasco side of things thus far, but I’m soldiering through!

4. I made the commitment last month to work in my art journal every day, and with the exception of Easter Sunday I stuck to it! This morning I signed up at Julie Balzer’s site to participate for the month of May. I love the way that this commitment has led beyond the art journal itself into other creative explorations, and I have also enjoyed looking at the blogs of other art journalers to see their own unique styles, subjects, and creative commitments.

5. I love to cook, but sometimes it gets hard to find the time in the midst of my husband coming home from work, and getting the kids bathed and in bed. I have a little more freedom to work with more complicated recipes on the weekends, when my husband can play with the girls while I prep the food.  I love it when I can stand at the kitchen counter washing, chopping, measuring, pouring--and re-directing the girls to their father:  "See if Daddy can do it," "Ask Daddy about it," "Daddy will tell you!"  I can get "in the zone" and enjoy the Zen of food prep, and then I remember how much I really enjoy cooking (something that sometimes gets lost during the week).

Tonight I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the tomatoes and potatoes I prepared for roasting.

Turns out, it’s a good thing I photographed the tomatoes ahead of time because they ended up looking more like burnt tomato chips when I let them sit on the baking pan too long after they came out of the oven. They didn’t taste entirely bad, either, but they weren’t nearly as picturesque, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t turn out as the recipe intended!

I had a fantastic weekend, enjoying sunshine, crafting, and family time. If I can have these three things on any given day, life is good!