: a super-fun surprise date! :

the other night, i 'picked-up' [met] blake on the trail and we rode down to mill city museum.

every thursday in the summer, they have live music and super-cheap admission into the museum.

a couple hundred years ago, minneapolis was known as mill city for their part in the milling industry.

the original building for washburn & general mills is now a museum.

i had been before, but blake hadn't ; so we rode down to the river and checked it out.

minneapolis really is one of the most beautiful places in the universe ;)

bye!

: day 7 : and soooooo many pieces of felt fooooood! :

day 7 :
i like that i am determined. that i re-write my to-do list every.single.day [seriously]. and i knock stuff off. i need to do stuff. and then i do that. i like that.

with that, in the past couple weeks, i have been sewing a lot of stuff for blakes classroom. [he works in a pretty low-income school with a lot of plastic crap character-toys [spiderman.dora.family guy.][these kids deserve great toys. homemade toys that foster learning and imagination.] so, ive been making a bunch. felt food. fabric dinos. felt dinosaur play mats, ect.

the kids have been loving the food i made last week [beans, butter, cauliflower, broccoli, ect]. i decided to make TONS more. it took me f.o.r.e.v.e.r today [so much so that i STILL dont have my friday bag made][tomorrrrrrrrow!]

wheeeeee.
i love all of these things!
4 peach slices. three eggs [over easy], a dozen eggs, bread, milk, avocado, cheese, fish, and bow- tie pasta.
[psst : i am not going to post felt food in my shop, but if you are interested in custom pieces, let me know.]

: A new cowl, black hair and some silly kids toys :

lazy saturday.
yikes.
today was spent with books.
not reading them. just touching them. buying them. and checking them out from the library.

this morning, we went to the lib and the rule was : 'diana CANNOT check out ANY books! : [i have about 6 from the library, waiting to be read] : blake found me hiding in the rows this morning and said : uh oh. those are books. you said no books. haha. : [pretty sure i brought home about 4 more books...]

blake bought a macbook today! hooooray. annnnnnd we bought a summer fruit and veggie share from our csa. ANNNNNNND we went to arc's value village. which is like a goodwill, but not.
blake bought $25 worth of goodness for his kids. and i bought 10 [TEN!] books. [seriously, i may be out of control!]

this is the last cowl i am going to make for the season. [but ohhhh, stay turned. there is a HUGE sale in the makin']

cowl. [and somebody has black hair! except where i missed a spot.

and, these are the silly things i made for blake his kids to play with.

 i made a dinosaur play mat. its just a piece of white felt, with clouds, water, a volcano and some silly looking tree-things. based on tutorial found here. and brownish dino found here.
i also made three dinos. i will be making more. they look rough, but ill make more and keep practicing.

 broccoli and cauliflower, anyone?! found the tutorial here. 

and green beans and butter here. [and mom, i made the edges and the sewing like that on purpose!]

good day.
and now tomorrow the snow totals just keep getting higher and higher.
[ive now heard 15 inches...]

: look what BLAKE made! :

so, i found this tutorial on martha a while ago.
i was in the dollar store looking for a few things and i found a set of 28 flat, black rocks.

and look what he made!
he just took some white acrylic paint and a baby-brush.

sooooo cute!
oh, blake.
[what a good looking martha]

tomorrow is my craft-from-home day and i am so excited.
i have a million projects to work on.

: look what i made! :

so, this is so fun.
a few weeks ago, i decided i was going to make a pair of mittens for myself using thick yarn and a small knitting loom.
it took me two weeks to make the thumbs and 1/2 a body of the first mitten.
i got bored and was so far from the pattern, so i decided to make something else.

this cute boy is my man-friend.

he teaches preschool. hes amazing. and challenged. his kids are pretty unfamiliar with music, books, animals and common words, ect.

growing up, my baby sister LOVED this book.
[hi sara!]

so, i had a mitten. [and two thumbs] and a sewing machine. and tons and tons of fabric scraps from my mom [hi mom]
i traced the animals from the book. one side canvas. one side fabric. gave each animals some details. and wrote the name of the animal for picture-word association.

 i think they turned out so cute. im still not very good with my sewing machine. but i had fun making these. and i know b's kids will really enjoy these.

: if i had a million bucks, id buy this : week 1 :

[i have been doing really well with blogging]
[these past few months, i have been in the mode of 'createcreatecreate' but i am learning, that i cant be successful unless i balance it out.]
i need to create for myself. create things for my shop. find a plan that works. keep my blog updated. have features that make blogging fun. always be thinking of improving. ect ect ect.

anyways, for week 1 of things i want to buy, i only have one thing.
i love these rings. they are incredible.

so, i love blake ward. and he loves me. we knew after just a couple times of hanging out that we were meant to do all this 'love you forever' business.
at some point, we would like to buy rings, in place of a formal wedding ceremony.
i found these and they are amazing.

swoon.

: jan 9 :

weeeeekend!
i have a busy work week.
lots of babies.
lots of noise.

friday night, blake and i went and saw the timberwolves play the blazers.
one of us loves basketball.
one of us doesnt.
we both had fun.

yesterday, we went to the kite festival in our neighborhood.
i love being back in minneapolis.
the water is all frozen. people fly kites. fish on the ice. and drink free cider and cocoa.

today, craft-a-thon!
[and, we signed up for a free trial of netflix so we can watch season 5 of bones]

 i am finally learning how to use my sewing machine. look,  i made two notecards out of vintage fabric. neat.

annnnnd, we are csa members and had our first fruit pick-up on friday. look at all this citrus! and four kiwi.

vegan meal how-to coming tonight!