30 days of beauty, day 16: water play

(An attempt to calm a fussy baby who's miserable from dairy in her system. It was time for Andi to try dairy again, in the hopes that Lucy'd outgrown her allergy. She hasn't.)

...

Scroll down to the next post if you haven't yet entered the giveaway!

30 days of beauty, day 15: little things

Many little beautiful things this weekend:

The first tag sale of the season:


Candlelit coffee and a long chat with a good friend, during "earth hour":


My baby's first pigtails, for a birthday party today:

(Thanks, Tim, for taking this one!)

30 days of beauty, day 14: signs of life at the edge of the woods

30 days of beauty, day 13: first day of spring at the beach

30 days of beauty, day 12: super baby

Lucy has strong opinions on style. She loves to dress up. Lately, she's been bringing us bib after bib after bib (I have a basket of 40 to accommodate all these kids) and showing us that she wants us to put them on. With about 10 layered bibs already on one day, she moved on to my aprons, so I tied those on in back as a cape. This is now one of her favorite fashion accessories. She points insistently to an apron until I tie it on, cape style, and then she toddles off toward the mirror for a look at herself, clearly pleased. How I adore that super baby!

30 days of beauty, day 11: the bulb show

One of our favorite first tastes of spring is the annual bulb show.



It's a riot of beautiful color. It smells amazing. It's a wonderful reminder of what's coming.



What you don't see here (because my camera battery died after only these 3 photos, darn it!) is my father visiting, our baby ooohing as she smelled the flowers, and our good friends who go to the bulb show with us every year. A truly beautiful afternoon.

30 days of beauty, day 10: independence

(See the photo on the wall? That's me, brushing my teeth at a year and a half.)

30 days of beauty, day 9: green

The yard looks very brown right now.
But take a closer look, and you can see it emerging:
green.


daffodils


sorrel


snowdrops, ready to open

The beauty is there. Some days, it's just very hard to find.

30 days of beauty, day 8: scenes from an "urban homestead"

Ok, so I don't really think we're quite deserving of that term, yet.
But I think we're well on our way.






(The sap you see boiling was canned today: a little more than a quart, so far.)

Back to regular posting soon; we're battling a nasty bug here. This time in the spring-y weather yesterday helped us on our path to wellness.

30 days of beauty: day 7

Please excuse my spotty posting lately. I went from being sick to taking care of my sick family. There were a few bright spots today, in the midst of it all:

There's evidence of spring on the edges of my yard (though most of it is a swamp of snow on top of slush on top of puddles on top of deep mud):


And I was able to get to my third crochet class tonight. It's just begun, but I love how this looks already:



(it's the Adirondack Babie Crocheted Soaker, found here on Ravelry.)

30 days of beauty: day 6

To warm up on these chilly, damp afternoons, I've been making tea for the kids this week. Here's their afternoon tea, set out on a new (old) tablecloth (yet another gift from Melissa).


And we have proof that spring is coming...the chickens are back to three eggs a day.

30 days of beauty: day 5

Ahh...the beautiful snow I've been longing for! Beginning, last night:



The same bush, this morning:


(The path is gone, buried by the fallen bushes. This snow is heavy!!)

And looking up, in the back yard:





It was fleeting. Mid day, the snow turned to rain. The yard is now a lake of brown muddy slush held in by walls of snow. It's supposed to rain for days. I'll be looking for the beauty!

30 days of beauty: day 4

Ok, these 30 days don't have to be consecutive, but I've gone much too long! I've been sick and sleep deprived and February's been grey and it's been hard for me to see the beauty. But I'm feeling a bit better today and the sun is out and I decided to look until I found it.

Rosie, enjoying the sunshine and staying near--but not too near--to me and Lucy:



A bright spot in an otherwise dull garden:



Our garden girl, awaiting the summer:



And my very favorite: our new view of Lucy--holding our hand, wanting to walk with us everywhere.

30 days of beauty: day 3

Beauty everywhere today...

in the sun shining through our blue IKEA bag (our laundry bag, transformed to stained glass):



in the wind whipping through the laundry, and in the gorgeous blue of the sky:



in a delicious pot of tea (goldenrod and anise hyssop):



in the nap-time arrangements created by the children for the stuffed animals:



in the studio:



And speaking of beauty...just look what arrived in the mail yesterday, for Lucy's first birthday. Our dear friend Julie has been working on this since Lucy was born, and couldn't wait one more second for us to open it. And no wonder! Look how amazing it is!





(I had only a moment to get these photos of the quilt, so they're not the best. But I hope you can see her amazing embroidery!) I love, love, love this quilt. All the beautiful images of childhood. The red work. The little girl in her adorable dress. The girlyness of the embroidery, contrasted with the bandanna fabric. Fabulous.