Ah ha!

Here I am.

If you've kept up with my "Mary Poppins Writes" series, you'll know that today is a day of preparation and hopefully a labor and deliver of my newest niece!

My dear sister is at the hospital and is carrying on bravely, the Chicklets and I have been keeping her and the Bun in the Oven in prayer and dear thoughts all day.

Praise the Lord for His perfect timing!

As I type this, children are napping and the a/c is running (a delightful combination), in an hour or so I'll get supper started and possibly make a run to the store for ingredients for Straweberry Limeade! An sweet acquaintance made it recently and I've been officially inspired to do the same, all we need are the strawberries. :) I may also get some items I'll be needing for the hospitality snacks that are on the menu for hungry visitors who come to get a glimpse of the Fresh Little Raisin. Pavlova, Cream Scones, Strawberry Lemonade Bars, tea, and coffee are to be served on the "new" vintage trays

They're just so adorable!

There's two of the smaller ones and one big tray, perfect for decorating the house, even if it's just temporary. :) My dear nieces were so patient and went with me to an estate sale last weekend, I think they enjoyed it almost as much as I did. Using this site, I've been able to find more sales, so that is hopefully what we'll be doing this weekend as well!

In the meantime, stay tuned for baby pictures to come! I'll be snapping away lots of pictures of my third niece, just please be patient as I'll be a bit busy the next few days. :)

Knitting for a Bun in the Oven

Today I finished the second sweater for the wee one my sister is brewing.

Remember, I'm in Austin! Read here to follow my mini adventures in the Weird city.

That's really where I'll be sharing most of my thoughts and accounts from my time here.

Back to the pattern!

It was so easy peasy, lemon squeezy, a great one-skein project, and I don't have to block it (another nice feature)!

Here are the notes for you ravelry members.

Did I mention fast? My "To-Do" list caused this project to go on longer than it would have but I can see getting this project done in a day or so.

No dpns and so simple, I could drop and pick it up with no problem,

the lace pattern was simple enough but still looks like more than a few yarn overs and knit together's.

All that it needs is a button and a baby to try it on for size!

More pictures on that soon, you can be sure. :)

I'm so excited to see what this new addition will look like; each of Chris and Nicole's children are so different, what will this little, nameless dumpling look like??

Thoughts From a Coffee shop

{picture credit}

Here I am sitting in this --freezing cold-- Starbuck, enjoying the remainders of one shaken iced green tea (wishing it was something warmer!), and I'm wondering two things,

what sorts of thing would you like to see on this blog?

would you be interested in more personal or design pictures?

The ball is in your court now, what are your preferences?

Also, (as I slowly freeze to the sound of Ella Fitzgerald) I'm knitting this adorable baby dress in anticipation of my still-cooking niece; the lace part is finished and I hope to be weaving in the ends sometime tonight (a great quick knit!). The pattern is pretty easy peasy so far and I'm enjoying the fact that there are no double pointed needles involved,

circulars are so much better for on-the-go knitting!

I'm especially fond of the yoke patterns, another nice feature for this one.

Aside from my frigid fingers and toes, I'm really enjoying spending this lovely morning in a coffee shop, lots of people watching opportunities, as well as being privy to all sorts of conversations (nobody pays attention to the studying/knitting student in the corner).

I've already made up fascinating stories about my fellow coffee shop customers (one could be a Viet Vet and another looks like a murder mystery writer--you can just tell).

Are you a people watcher?

Rearranging and Organizing

{Photo Credit}

Ah, these past few days we've been rearranging home, that means lots of cleaning, dusting, and vacuuming (except for Sunday, we visited with some dear friends and drank tea)!

My Mom and I really enjoy rearranging the furniture in our home, every time exclaiming "how much better the room is this way" and " why haven't we arranged it like this before?";

it's kinda funny, and there you have it. The spring cleaning frenzy hit me a bit late, last Friday my room looked like an unmade while I was completely reorganizing my closet.

It's now in the home stretch of being done after two days of work (whew!),

very soon I'll be able to open the door unashamedly!

Today I'll be trying to wrap up the odds and ends before I leave for Austin on Thursday.

Speaking of Austin, I've been trying to brainstorm fun things to do with the Stickies while I'm there. After her baby is born, I find it to be really helpful for Mom and Baby to rest well if the other Little People are out of the home for an afternoon. The only thing is that it's July and it's hot. So, I've been thinking of indoor, cooler things to do like:

walking around Whole Foods ( Did you know that Austin is the home one of the largest WF's in the country, yes, it's pretty exciting), going to the "Storytime" at the library (shall we venture downtown again?), or a fun afternoon/picnic at the pool (we could make popsicles and lemon bars!); praise the Lord, my Aunt lives no more than ten minutes away and we can always have our lunch at her place (cream scones and tea are a must, it's tradition). Also, to maintain a healthy balance between work and pleasure, before the baby is born Nicole and I have lots of organizing and toy purging to do (a garage sale is in order), thankfully our Mum is planning to take the three Stickies for a few days so that Nicole and I can purge without regrets.

I've been collecting new, easy peasy recipes to try out while I'm there (Thank you Kimi and American's Test Kitchen ;) It's always fun to try new recipes, whether they come out right or...well... I'll share the brownie recipe story another time!

How is your week looking?

p.s. Have you seen these Edward Juan cards? I think they're adorable!

Possible shop item?? Hm...

Sweet Summer Days

{Design*Sponge}

This week will be full of moving, packing, moving, swimming, packing, moving, and more packing (more on that in me and my sister's blog). Tomorrow night my sister, a few friends, and myself will be seeing the opening performance of Emma--so excited! I'll admit that I'm a lover of Jane Austen and Emma is no exception, one of my top three Austen favorites you might say.

Going to the theater is not an everyday occasion for us, so I treasure each time we can go--are there any other theater-going lovers out there?

Next week I will be heading off to the Texas Hill Country again! Yes, as my eldest sister is expecting her fourth (this will make three girls!), I'm off to be with her before, during, and after she has her baby. Lord willing, my brother-in-law will be in town during the birth, so my job will be the "Mary Poppins" sort. : )

Which I absolutely love!

I'm going armed with new recipes (we'll see what the Stickies think about paleolithic eating), some crafty projects, and supplies to make a few baby booties and possibly another sweater.

Let's not forget my sweater for The Summer Sweater Knit a Long! I'm halfway through the back piece and am slowly but surely knitting along! I'd really like to finish soon as I am excited to wear this very sweet sweater (the entire outfit is planned already!). I'll also be working on some new items for the shop, some fun summer things to keep it interesting. : )

I'd love to squeeze in some reading time but with everything else I'm not sure that's possible, do you have times like that? I am plenty of half-finished books on the shelf and for the most part, that's where they are most of the time--on the shelf. I'll have to show you the new literary treasures I've found (actually my Mum spotted them first) at some recent estate sales; one is an illustrated first edition of Cranford and the other is an edition of Jane Eyre--nope, haven't fully read either copy yet! But I can assure you, they are treasured even if they aren't read!

{Happy Summer!} The Results

{Oh, Hello Friend}

Well, I was quite impressed by the turnout!

After looking through the blogs that participated, it looks like everyone

had a wonderful response to this Happy Summer! giveaway,

thanks Sarah for hosting!

Thank you to everyone who participated.

Now to the post you've been waiting for,

the results.

Courtesy of Random.org.....

the winner is..........

Ann from Washboard Storms!

Congratulations!!

Please send me an email regarding shipping and such;

I'm looking forward to seeing what you create with the wool!

Today's the Day {Giveaway}

{Oh, Hello Friend}

Well, folks, our giveaway goes from today until midnight tomorrow,

so, go ahead and comment on this post!

Remember, this giveaway is a part of the Happy Summer! giveaway

hosted by Sarah from forgiven. love much.

When you're done here you ought to head over there and see the giveaway

roundup; there's more fun to be had you know.

Enjoy!