Or at least that's what my husband said about the newest member of my sock animal collection. It's supposed to be a frog. Rude huh? Yeah, I know. :) The other one is obviously a duck. I still want to do a giraffe, squirrel, octopus and a liger, but it is unfortunately going to be a few weeks before I get to them.
Back in February I wanted to make one of these felt heart garlands but never got around to doing it. Flying down to Maryland and being sick and tired has made me push this off for 5 months. No matter, that day has finally come and I'm glad to say I have finished it.
Yay! Now I'm just going to wait until next year to use them.
me think this is funny...
and this...
The herbs I planted from seeds are doing pretty well, maybe my goal of making homemade pesto will finally come true!
Revere Beach also had a sandcastle building competition which was pretty hard core. I went with my new downstairs neighbors, Rachel and Job. These things are at least 8 ft tall and super awesome!
And lastly, I was watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone the other day and I noticed that he actually had a nose in the first movie. What happened? I didn't read all the books so I'm not sure if they clear that up but who could look past this major plot hole... :) Isn't he supposed to be getting more and more powerful instead of losing a major body orifice?
We decided to go downtown for the fireworks this year. The city shoots them off on a boat in the middle of the Charles River and millions of people fight to get parking and waterfront seating. We cheated the system this year. Thirty minutes before the fireworks started we left the house and drove over to the Stake Center in Cambridge. Luckily Job and Rachael have important church callings that gives them an all access pass to the parking garage so we just jumped out and walked a block to the river. Easy peasy! (you can see Job letting us in the garage in this incriminating photo)
Plenty of parking here!
Our friends Brigham and Emily came too and we all enjoyed the fireworks from the Salt and Pepper Bridge. The funny thing about where we sat was the Red line would come cruising through every so often and block the view (which is what's happening in this picture below.) But it was still cool.
Here are some videos I have made. The first one is my dangerous adventure with my brother Aaron. We went back into the woods to slash and burn our picnicking path back to it's former glory of yesteryear. Smart? Probably not. Efficient? Heck yes.
This video is much more on the mellow side. In fact, you will lose your adrenaline high from the previous video if you watch this. But I wanted to show my wise sensei's the fruits of my labors.
Some of these flowers came from Grandma, Mom, and Sue. The rest I got on sale at the grocery store. (Just in case you were dying to know)
As I was brainstorming different ideas for the balcony I found directions to make your own planter. On mine, I just turned my awesome wooden planter into a plant stand/seating area. Here is the sneak preview of what it used to look like a couple weeks ago...
It took only about an hour and it was super easy. All you need is a pallet or two. I just went to Target, asked the manager, and heisted me some of these free wooden beauties. He was actually confused why a little girl like me would want a "useless pallet."
So I built my planter from these directions. It is so easy and the author outlines all the steps.
But if you own a jig saw, you might be interested in these directions. This one looks way more cool, but requires a lot more work.
So some things I learned about pallets are:
1. It is almost impossible to pull the nails out (they are special nails that are meant to stay in.) You are more likely to split the wood than pull it out
2. Lot's of people recommended to use a table saw and saw the nail off rather than pry it out. (This doesn't sound very safe to me though) (I am envisioning a nail flying off and lodging itself into someones eye.)
3. Apparently some of the pallets are treated so people recommend using a liner before you put the soil in. Especially if you are going to be planting something edible.
If I ever get bored of my new table/planter I am going to put wheels on it and sand it down (I should probably sand it anyway) and make it look like this potter barn crate thing from miss-design.com. Totally do-able.
And what a good excuse to get cute pillows... heh heh
The day I came back from working, our neighbors (John and Delys), were moving out. We came downstairs and helped them move stuff, and clean. By the end of everything their minivan was packed to the brim and they headed down to Texas. We will miss you!
I also have been working on my balcony!! I'm going to wait a month or so to show you the end result. A lot of my plants are still too small to show off. But I wanted to show you this beautiful Begonia. It is much more beautiful than the Begonia's they hand out for Mothers Day at church (see picture below).
Look familiar? It's hard for me to believe that they are related. Yeah, not to bash on this flower, or to be ungrateful but I think this is one of the more ugly flowers of the world.
Ok, enough of the flowers... Last Monday, we invited some of our friends to go have a bbq on Constitution Beach (right next to our house). It was very very hot and we were glad swimming was right there.
Rachel and Job brought these amazing kabobs! I provided some Nathan's Dogs, and Hebrew Dogs (thanks Delys). I think I liked the kosher dogs the best. I also attempted to make Ramen Salad again, this time I didn't screw it up. I need to make more batches of it just for myself, I am so addicted.
Throughout the day we swam, played frisbee, and played.
Catching hermit crabs with the kids...
and then upgraded to real crabs.
We stayed out until 5 and then came inside. We hung out on the balcony, ordered Columbian pizza, and watched Tron. It was a super duper crazy fun day.
And the fun doesn't stop there, wed night Rachel and Job got us all free tickets to go see the Boston Pops Frank Sinatra concert. It was seriously awesome! I loved when they did the song The Way You Look Tonight, and a couple others that I can't remember. So thanks guys!
