1. I need to start shopping the back aisle end-caps at JoAnn's more often. Today, in a clearance section the girls got these stretched canvases, including paint for $2. They were so focused working on these. You know how dinner conversation goes quiet when a good dessert is served? It was like that. Total silence for almost 30 minutes. AND I found a speedball block-printing kit for $3. It has everything you need. I'm saving it for a rainy day.

2. Last night's dinner was really good. And the lemon yogurt cake was killer. I was short one egg and used vanilla yogurt instead of plain but it was still amazing. And I made the glaze too runny (I was baking with baby in the pouch, and basically one hand)--so I poked little slits in the cake for the glaze to seep in...double yum.

3. My sewing machine is doing this:

I've tried everything I can think of except for a new needle (which I got a JoAnn's today). Of course, I'm about ten stitches shy of finishing a simple diaper cover for Elizabeth. I hope it's the needle.

4. I got choked up in the petstore today when we stopped to pick up some goldfish food. Emma was standing in the bird room staring at the finches. She turned around, rubbing her eyes and said,"my eyes are watering I want one of these so bad." It was the most sincere, non-begging tears over missing having birds. We had birds when we lived in Wisconsin but gave them away before we moved. And she still talks about how much she misses having them. It's one thing when your children beg and plead for something just because it's new and different. It's another thing when there's sincere emotion behind it all. (maybe I'm just being a big softie...)

5. This week I found these amazing bedspreads at a little artsy spot just outside of Baltimore.

It's a small block of shops and restaurants tucked together in town...and it turns out is was a short two minute drive from the hospital where I ws going for all my prenatal checkups. (Although, for my pocketbook's sake, it was probably good that I didn't discover it until this week.) The bedspreads were only $19 and they are summery and light. But the thing I like the most about them is that this is the same place my grandmother gets them too and they remind me so much of her house. She mostly uses hers as tablecloths now, but they used to be on the beds up in the attic where the boys slept. I'm so nostalgic about things like this.

6. As I sit here typing, Emma is sitting on the arm of the rocking chair (rocking back and forth) eating cherries and spitting the pits into the trash can which she has pulled up beside the chair--and she's waxing on and on about why it is good that birds have their babies in the spring. That's my girl.

7. After a discussion with my husband the other night I think I've come to the sad conclusion that I'm going to have to give up pottery for awhile. I just don't have the time to get up to the college. I'd get myself a small kiln to work at home, but I just don't know what the electrical wiring is like where we live right now. I'm sad to see it go for now. But I guess everything has it's season and I WILL get back to it, somehow. In the meantime, I might work a little more on my bandsaw skills. I'd love to make a few more of these. and these.

8. Now, I'm the one waxing on and on....so, Happy Weekend All!