A few finished projects and a Jovi quirk

I know this is a month late, but better late than never right? Jovi is part of a neighborhood preschool and they had a Valentines day party where they were supposed to bring a valentine for each class member. The day before the party, Jovi was SO excited to make her valentines. Here is a picture of what we started with (perhaps I have too much crafting supplies?) and another picture of the finished valentines, one for each member of her class and she even made one for herself. They are all 100% Jovi originals (she did ask me to cut the hearts out). I thought they turned out pretty good myself. She even wrote her name on most of them, but would ask me to write the V because she didn't like how her V looked. Since then she has gotten over that and can write her whole name.



In our backyard garden, Jovi has her own 4 squares to grow flowers in. She helped plant lots of the other squares too and helps water all the plants regularly, it really is a family garden and has been lots of fun getting excited about the sprouts that are starting to come up. Here are some pictures of me and her planting her four squares of flowers.





Jovi is such a funny little girl. We have a lot of fun together. She makes me laugh all the time. One of the funniest quirks she has is that she thinks toilet paper makes everything better. Think Windex and My Big Fat Greek Wedding, well Jovi's cure all is toilet paper. I don't know why. If she hurts her foot, she wants to wrap it in toilet paper. If she has a tummy ache, she lays strips of toilet paper on her stomach. She once hurt her finger and went around with it wrapped in toilet paper all day. It is soooo funny to see the relief she gets from covering her hurts in toilet paper.

And finally, since I haven't shared any sewing in a long, long, time, mainly because I haven't done much, here is a XL receiving blanket and 3 bibs I made for Juan's physical therapist who just had her first baby.

Our Square Foot Garden

About two months ago I was on amazon.com ordering some books and after putting the ones I had originally wanted in my cart, I needed to find one more book to get free shipping. I decided to look for a gardening book because I knew we wanted to put in a garden this spring and because our previous years' attempts at gardening didn't yield many vegetables. The All New Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew looked interesting with grow more in less space and no weeding being the points that sold me. So, I got it, I read it, I was impressed. I started looking for where to buy the specific things this gardening method requires and how much they would cost. The day before we planned to go our and buy everything, my neighbor and facebook friend posted pictures of HER very cool square foot garden. What?!?! She has a square foot garden?!?! Well, we went across the street and saw her garden and talked about where she got her stuff and she told us that two other people in our church and neighborhood were growing square foot gardens too. And then another friend told me she was planning on putting in a square foot garden too. Honestly it almost makes me believe in a collective unconscious, everyone coming up with the same idea at the same time that way. But anyway, here is our square foot garden, hopefully I'll get to take lots of garden pictures with green stuff throught the summer.

My Grandma Beth

My Grandma Beth died last Monday. She was a wonderful lady and will be missed by many people. Just a few of the things I will miss about her (in no particular order)are:

Grandma hugs. She always gave wonderful hugs that really made me feel loved.
Grandma Angel Biscuits, well, all grandma food. She was a WONDERFUL cook but her angel biscuits were my favorite.
Playing cards with her.
Playing dominoes with her, she taught me to play.
The way she loved my kids.
Watching her cook.
Spending Thanksgiving at her house.
Going shopping with her.

Some of my favorite memories are:

Going to a small farmers market with her and getting a bunch of purple hull peas. She taught me to shell them as we watched TV and then I watched her cook them for dinner.

My grandma took us to a pick your own bluberry farm when I was very young. Before that day I didn't like bluberries, but ever since I've liked them. How can you dislike a sweet little berry that you can pick and eat off a little bush as you try and collect them in your bucket? I remember having a bit of a sunburn afterwards, but feeling it was totally worth it.

I remember that almost every time we visited, grandma would end up taking us to the mall. It had a dollar store in it and she would let us pick out any one thing we wanted.

I remember playing lots of games of hearts and spades, she was excellent at both and we always wanted to be grandma's partner.

I remember this last Thanksgiving watching her hold Corbin as he slept in her arms.

Grandma, I will miss you!