Projectless, but happy

I've been stuck.
I was in such a rush to finish the quilt for dh and did so in just over a week. Then one week later I did another entire quilt in a week for my mom.
I've been living from adrenaline high to adrenaline high.
And now there's nothing immediate and pressing to sew for. I could do some orange and black for games we attend for the local high school.. but I can't even bring myself to do that.
But we've been fishing with my mom some more.
I could almost count this as crafty. I did make her hat and hoodie...
I couldn't resist this. While I think my youngest is adorable up close, I couldn't resist getting it all in the bigger picture.
But this shot? It sums it all up. It was gorgeous. The weather was perfect, the lake was still, the clouds were dancing across the sky. We watched the sun come up that morning, as we were on the road by 6 a.m. Watching the sun creep over the mountains, bathing the landscape with illumination. The fishing wasn't so great, but the view was worth it all.

completed quilt and more fish...

I'm at my parents' house and my mom was kind enough to let me take some pictures of the completed quilt... though I realized I just got *half* of the quilt since it's folded in half over the back of her couch.

But really, I've already posted the full top, so half will just have to do. And really, you should be glad I forgot to take pictures with my own camera. Hers is MUCH more lovely anyway. A new, fancy camera is absolutely on my to-purchase list... (okay, I'll admit, I probably have a list a mile long... but this is certainly in the top three... fabric *might* have it beaten out... though looking at these pictures, I'm not so sure).


And more fishing...
The youngest actually LOVED playing with the fish head for a long time... it was when she suddenly looked at it and said, "Mom, I think it's dead..." that she got that look on her face.


This has to be one of my all-time favorite pictures ever. It's the perspective of it all that just has me tooting my own horn on my photography skills (see?! get me a good camera and life is amazing! It doesn't hurt that in my past life -- aka, pre-staying-at-home-with-the-kids days -- my job did involve taking pictures for my paycheck).
Don't your children play with fish heads?
(... are you like me and keep singing this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn73Wtem0No ? I can't help myself!)

Fishing hat at Sunshine

We went fishing yesterday (Sunday). My mom, my husband, me, and our three girls. We caught nine lovely cutthroat trout -- three of which were caught by me!
I knew on Saturday that we would be fishing with my mom on Sunday... which of course is not without some sort of sewing challenge. Yes! *Fishing* can even present sewing challenges!
The older two have been fishing with my mom many times, but the youngest really hasn't and she didn't have a fishing hat! I *know* there are bound to be about a million little girl wide-brimmed hats somewhere in this house, but they all seem to turn up missing the minute I actually need them.
So, my 2.5 year-old needed a hat.
And while this might not be something everybody else would think of as lucky, I happen to think she's quite lucky that her head circumfrence is equal to that of a paint can! Lucky girl! That made it very easy for me to make up this hat.
And sew I did. I made it up as I went along, but I figured a wide-brimmed hat couldn't be too tricky... and it wasn't really. I used two pieces of half-yard remnants from other projects I had worked on with Heather Ross' Mendocino line, which lent itself perfectly to a sewing-for-fishing project. The hat really isn't so floppy. When I went to take the pictures, the wind was picking up, so it just looks more floppy than it really is.

The lining on the underside of the brim is lovely seahorses... and while we don't have seahorses here, nor in Sunshine Reservoir, I thought they added a nice aqautic touch.

And the scenery? Isn't it just lovely? It really was a perfect day for fishing.