as we rolled into may, the end of year school activities began to fill the calendar. it’s mayhem. especially for the crazelnut. firstly, her class had a field trip to hanging rock. obviously i went too. 🙂 the kids went to three different stations, where rangers talked to them about the rock cycle, water cycle, […]
friends
fpp coneflower obsession begins.

one day, i was just scrolling through instagram, when a post about a paper pieced coneflower caught my attention. it would change my life. i scoured the internet for this pattern, finally procured it, via an online version of a magazine, and in very short order, had stitched up my first block. i knew these […]
bits and pieces of april.

first of all. let me tell you a tale of how, when jenn and brandy were visiting, we may or may not have gotten caught up with the idea of getting baby chicks and stopped in at tractor supply and made a complete and total impulse purchase of four baby chicks to add to our […]
fifty years of ron + cynthia.

one of my favorite co-workers at the quilt shop is cynthia. she’s a former school teacher and like a grandma to everyone she meets. when her daughter catherine reached out to ask if i would make a cake for cynthia and her husbands surprise fiftieth anniversary party, of course i said yes. catherine gave me […]
carebears cake for my friend amanda.

my boss and the owner of sewingly yours has a daughter, amanda, who has special needs. amanda’s grandma used to make all of the family birthday cakes, but had some recent health issues and wasn’t able to make amanda’s cake this year. so, amanda recruited me, started about three months before her birthday. 🙂 she […]
adventure by day. crafts by night.

during their stay in winston-salem, jenn and brandy came over several nights, and we participated in all manner of crafting, a favorite activity of the jackson and lidbom girls. more than once, we busted out the paints and glitter and stickers to make cool boxes and treasure chests and other random wooden things procured from […]
hanging rock with jenn and brandy.

really the only thing left on the “cool things to do in winston-salem” checklist when brandy had a day off was hanging rock state park. so. that’s what we did.we decided on the namesake hanging rock trail, which had changed routes since our last visit, adding about a mile round trip. the day was 100% […]
winston salem tour guide.

while brandy toiled away, earning a living to provide for her wife and the glamorous road life, i showed jenn around town. we pretty much knocked out all of the cool winston salem things in two days. first up, obviously, was old salem. except it was a monday, so most things were closed. but we […]
presents for our visitors.

during our time living in the rv on the road, we met so many awesome people who became lifelong friends. when we were in palm desert, california, we ended up in the same campground with jenn and brandy jackson, who were only cyberspace instagram friends up until that moment. we immediately hit it off, and […]
snowy spring break and the eclipse that wasn’t.

just after the dust settled from hosting easter in north carolina, we packed up and made our way north to spend spring break in beautiful, sunny, western new york. i used the road trip time to finish reading “the anxious generation” by jonathan haidt and it’s a must read for any parent navigating screens and […]