Mom-made

Oh my gosh... can you believe how amazing these new duds for Grace are? Made by my Mom, this incredible cardigan... so very adorable, so perfect for cool summer days and these hints of fall, and just the right size for now with enough growing room to hopefully make it last a long time!

And how about this romper? Could it be cuter?

This little'un has received all sorts of wonderful handmade things from both of her grandmas in this first year. She also has worn for her baptism a beautiful dress handmade for me by Auntie Gigi. I'll try to put pictures together sometime. She's not the only one, of course, Owen has been sporting his Party shirt and dragon costume by G'ma Steves and quite a few amazing sweaters from G'ma Terri.

Lucky kids... lucky lucky dearly loved kids

Man-made

B. has been busy in the backyard this summer building stuff. Now I don't usually give him enough diy credit and have had the tendency to dwell on the "incident" years ago that involved the words... toilet, whittling and emergency-room.

Anyhow, to put that behind us (or try to again...) he has put together some new steps in our back yard to overcome the mudslide that previously defined the transition to our backyard.Nice eh? I even got a planter box out of it! A chicken-coop (complete with Hop support) to round up the birds and free up our garden.There is a dragon in the garage that was too huge to actually decorate the coop, so we painted it with blackboard paint and may put it on the fence outside of Owen's room. And today, a chicken food/water holder so we do not have to bushwack, duck and reach awkwardly to care for the birds. Thanks B! The garden continues to flourish. Today we harvested potatoes, shallots, bushbeans and zucchini that we enjoyed with a cabezon B. had in the freezer. Yummy. On the vine are more bush beans, more zucchini, pumpkins (we hope... we may have some hybrid, I tried saving seeds from last year, they are huge for sugar pumpkins... pumpkini? Zuchin?), pole beans,

japanese cucumbers

triamble squash (so excited about this one) & tomatoes!

Woo hoo! Owen has also been picking our alpine strawberries (that are looking and tasting kinda stressed this year... too many coffee grounds?), bluberries, huckleberries and our new raspberry canes (only a few this year).

Larson Line-up

Brian discovered Ancestery.com... and can trace back even further!
Nicolaus Hartman married Phillipene who gave birth toPeter Hartmann (23 Aug 1828 - 11 Dec 1874 Bayern Germany above) who married Katheryn Hiltz (daughter of Conrad Hiltz and Emma Schwiss): they were parents to Caroline Hartmann (6 Feb 1855 - 12 Jan 1940 from Iron Missouri) who married Henry Larson (who was the son of Lars Narstad and Martha... Norway).
Caroline Hartmann and Henry Larson (9 Jun 1844 - 23 Mar 1928 from Henifas Norway) were parents to Robert Larson (3 Jun 1891) (or Bob... little boy picture with curls in his hat... oh I"ll have to get a copy of that one, the before and after he cut his ringlets that his sisters (one named Mary I believe) prized). Robert Larson married Nellie Owens (which brings us to G'pa's timeline)

I guess if you put it that way, our last name is likely Narstad, but changed to Larson when Lars Narstad came to the US.

As far back as G'pa Em can go...

Emery Owens and Alice were parents to

Nellie Owens

who married Robert Larson

Their children were Virginia, Mabel (still living and 92 in 2011) and Emery Hartman (Grandpa)

Great Grandpa Nicolai Olsen was born in Mustad Norway in 1867(5) married Anna Lund (1880) also born in Sogn (or Laerdal)Norway 4 Nov 1880 (died 16 April 1944 in Brookings South Dakota). They had 12 children... all born in Brookings South Dakota

Edward (born 7 June 1903)

Agnes (born 5 Aug 1904, died in childbirth)

Nora (born 28 Jan 1906)

Arthur John (Born 29 Nov 1908)

Clarance Oscar (born 10 April 1910)

Myrtle Francis (born 15 Nov 1911)

Anna "Elizabeth"(born 1913, married Mr. Brusinger)

Walter James (born Feb 1914 married Christina has never lived anywhere else but the farm he was born on, still living)

Esther (born 1916, never married)

Irene (born 1918, married Mr. Fay Shade http://www.welterfuneralhome.com/sitemaker/sites/Welter1/obit.cgi?user=1263_ISchade478)

Judith "Harriet" (born 1920)

Jean (born 1926 married Grandpa Em in 1946 died 22 Sept 2006)

Grandma Jean and Grandpa Em had two children:

Thomas Hartman Larson who married Terri Gong: had two children Ryan and Amy

Amy (me, but let's just keep names strait here) married Brian and had two children Grace and Owen

Ann Margaret Truscinski has three children Jay, Sam and Katie

Katie has married Adam Peruski and have baby boy Max (2012)

mish mash

beautiful flowers from the folks for my birthday... had to clear the craft supplies off of the center of the table to set this elegant bouquet amid crayon and paper chaos, but it made me smile everyday!

Garden: Two tomato plants, carrots, chives, eggplant, zucchini, strawberry, pole beans, bush beans, pumpkin... ambitious set for two small beds. This picture is so it looks like we are growing something other than pumpkins, which really is what is growing...

but the rest seem to be struggling along okay.

Sewing: Had a big burst when I got off of work this summer. Stayed up too late repeatedly with a sinus infection and it made it a bit worse, so I have taken a little break. I do have plans though... plans....some of these included clothes! Seriously! I swore off anything as complicated as a sleeve a long time ago (and may take that vow back up... I just have a tough time with "Easing" anything) but when faced with the choice to take both kids shopping or just making Owen some summer jammies, I chose the latter.

Took me two nights, and an outing without Owen's exuberant fabric opinions to pick something he would like but something that I could also bear to look at... turned out okay (except for the sleeves which turned out a touch blousy), I'm quite proud. Made me brave enough to try a dress for Kaylee's birthday.

I got this pattern and book idea from http://noodleheads.blogspot.com/2010/07/unicorn-dress.html, they had it at the japanese bookstore so I took it as a sign to give it a whirl. I loved it! The length maybe was more a tunic length for the growing girl, but after staring at instructions in japanese for a good week, I got up the courage to give it a try...

Pretty cute.

One last sewing project...

peg bears from one yard wonders sewing book. I made three 'cause they looked so strait forward and easy... took a little while really and more circle sewing than I like. I didn't really take a picture of all three before one found a home with a 3-year old friend on her birthday, but Owen loves his and designed and took this picture for me... cute.

The boys did some fun craft projects on our camping trip. Owen has gotten interested in making books and really lots of drawing in general... robots, gardens, flowers, rainbows, sunshine, fish, all sorts of cool things, so he did a book. He and Joaquin did a sort of prayer flag art hanging thing that we strung up with some decorated flags, leaves, felt bits, etc... just a nice bright spot in our sea of green.

summer, at last, really, I think...

Well, the sun has finally decided to shine more days than it doesn't... at least the last week or so (of course we still had two rainy'uns). Anyhow, its July... and its raspberry season! Yum! Picked out at Smith Berry Barn, which I really liked, a little fancier than Rowell Bros, nice store, nicer restrooms (as in not porta potties), organic, nice sandwich cafe across the street... a touch more per pound (1.50 v. .99 at R.B.) but I am happier feeding Grace some treats while in the field with the organic farm. Anyhow, I may have managed about 11 lbs, though I can't find my receipt. Got about 12 jars (two pints, 10 half pints) of beautiful Jam out of it (pomona pectin recipe but with just over the minimal amount of sugar suggested). I also canned up some cherries this year again... they were my favorite last year to enjoy over yogurt. So I used two recipes last year, one was much better than the other, but I can't remember. SO... I'll note that I did the brandy cherries recipe in the Blue canning book but with Amaretto instead of brandy. In two of the jars, I tried adding three tablespoons of chocolate liquor to two of the jars before topping them off with the syrup. Also a few standard cold-pack jars to share with the kids :)

Also love being able to have a picnic dinner on the deck with the warm evenings. Salads, cheese, bread, salami sometimes... no cooking, so tasty, so refreshing... esp with Brian's homebrew. His IPA and raspberry wheat are my favorites so far!

Can't decide

Drive the new car out to the coast to try it out for a long drive, solo with both kids, on a grey and probably rainy day, but we can meet up with B. at his fishing tourney and distract him from his duties... OR drive around town pick up some strawberries (let someone else pick this time), try to hit the summit of awesome (craft show), and ?? play date? Loading and unloading kiddos multiple times.

I should say, we had a wonderful strawberry picking day last Friday with Val and family. WE did pretty well, but with both kids (though still with loads of berries), settled for one large batch of jam to split between us... sixteen cups, one box o' pomona pectin = 16 half pints IF four of the jars wouldn't have broken in the boiling pot... What the heck? Not entirely sure what's going on there. Otherwise, we probably ate a flat worth at home, froze and bagged the rest up for both of us. still need to deliver those, but will have to remember to do a good job eating strawberry shortcake this year... oh the things we do.

Update: Ended up sticking around town, and of course B. calls with a report that the sun came out on the coast... Had a really nice day none-the-less: Awesome play date with Val, Joaquin, Esme and Li Fong. Owen reports that Val and Joaquin are his favorite friends. Li Fong made him a pretty darned cool LED bracelet that won Ooos and aaahs at the Show of Awesome (craft show). After a fun morning, headed to the above craft show, got a few posters for Brian (Beer) and Ryan (Coffee), a cute winter hat for Gracie, and owen got to make a few fun buttons, Grabbed a coffee and an orange at Grendel, headed to Joann's for some gear for art projects, grabbed dinner at burgerville, kids in bed before 8, Heading to bed at a reasonable hour!

All in all, a good choice.

Roll it out

Another baby quilt... for Vanessa and Dave's baby due this month. I can't help myself, I gave it to them early in case I don't catch them immediately after they have the baby. You know, like immediately! I can't stand having the pretty peacock blue and the sweet plaid boarder around the house without some little one on it. Once again, a design borrowed from http://katiedid.squarespace.com/katie-did-journal/2009/1/27/quilt-how-to.html. I love her stuff, but the clothes are still beyond my skill/patience level. This quilt is easy peasy though and looks so cool... and gets even cooler after washing! Basically I had the blue and a flannel polka-dot (Next time I'd go for two solids though)

and sewed back and forth making big ol' zig-zags four times changing the top thread each time. It was perfect for putting my new sewing machine (YAY) through its paces... (story to follow).

It uses a ton of thread, a little more than a very full bobbin's worth every go-round. Top thread was orange, yellow, white and green though the last three are tough to discern in the end... too close in color. I LOVE the plaid floral boarder, it is just right with that blue. Sigh, happy.

Aren't baby quilts perfect, just the right size not to be too cumbersome, but still cuddly, and mine are getting large enough that they would be good lap blankets at least until that teenage growth spurt.

Okay, the poor sewing machine (owner). Brian and I finally decided to get one (europro reviewed on Consumer reports)... nothing too fancy, though much quieter and smoother than my last. Ordered it through e.bay got it set-up after it finally arrived from Canada and to my horror, had problems with it sewing backwards... not all of the time, just some of the time. Sometimes for just a few inches, sometimes all night (of course in the middle of a project, coming in and out of standard running when it felt like it). We just soooo hated to send it back since I finally had my hands on one and really didn't want to pay return shipping and wait....

Anyhow, I finally succumbed and after a few weeks of intermittent working and being infuriating (yes, weeks, I am stubborn) I wrote the dealer and complained asking how to proceed. While I was writing the e.mail, Brian was finally looking at it touching all of the levers and buttons (as I am trying to stop him, telling him to be careful, don't touch that and what everything was like a big ol' know-it-all) until he came across one in the back behind the foot... what's this? Uh, I don't know. Turns out it is a handy dandy new fangled button holer lever thinggy. "What does it do?" you may ask... turns out it controls the direction of stitching so that you can sew all the way around a button hole without much fuss. OR you can knock it occasionally with your fabric causing your machine to unexpectedly change directions because it is not locked like it should be and you have decided that sure, you can sit on the floor and sew so you can watch your movie and be oh so productive, but you can't really see a lot of those levers from your weird angle, so you can swear at your bad sewing machine mojo for weeks before writing a letter of complaint followed 20 minutes later by a letter of retraction and apology... yep, brilliant.