Duck Tales

You may recall that we got ducklings at Easter. Sweet little things who grew into large pooping machines. We still loved them. The boys made a pen out back complete with two stories and a ramp to get to the second level. Unfortunately, a hard lesson was learned as the boys forgot to put the ducks back in the pen one night. Only one survived a fox attack. We don't know how the duck escaped, but we found her badly injured in my neighbor's stairwell. We nursed her back to health in the comfort of our family room "hospital."  Since then we've been on the hunt for a new duckling as a companion for our poor lonely one. We found one on Wednesday.
Meet the new duckling:

This one is very noisy, and is still too young to be with the older one, so it has companion stuffed animals. Very, very sweet as it thinks the stuffed animals are alive.

Simply Soft White and Pretty

 I found a gorgeous frame at an estate sale, but it was overlooked because it had so many chips and dings. Couldn't people see the potential? Just one coat of chalk paint did the trick! Then, of course, I added some distressing on my own to highlight all the carvings in this wonderful piece. It sits in my living room right now, until it finds a new home.

Linking to:

Timewashed and Woodberry Designs

Sand Soccer!

We had a great weekend starting with a lacrosse team party Friday night and a trip down to the beach that same night to avoid our notorious Bay Bridge traffic on Saturday morning. Plus, my son's sand soccer tournament started bright and early at 8 AM -- my husband coaches the team so that means even earlier for us!
Sand soccer is a great way for these little athletes (and not so little as we found out) to get some strenuous exercise on the beach. Each game is 4 on 4 for three 12-minute periods...and believe me if you ever tried to run in the sand (not the hard kind), it's a workout. They wear special sand soccer socks to avoid blisters. We had an amazing day--78 and sunny--on the beach and came home very tired, especially my guy who fell asleep 10-minutes into the trip home.
Here are some shots from the day:

 I loved all the kites against the bright blue sky:

 My guy spent his time off the soccer field digging a hole in the sand with his buddies:

Summer in Full Swing

Well, I've neglected this blog for awhile, but I'm happy to say it's because I'm so busy with work, etsy orders, lacrosse and enjoying the outdoors with my kids. About 1-1/2 weeks ago, my oldest called and wanted me to pick him up in Massachusetts...running out of money and hurting his knee so he couldn't work, plus no place to live kind of sealed the deal that he needed to spend a little time with us after graduating.
The drive up was well, long. But the minute I got there I had a great time. We went for a long walk to get ice cream and then I got to spend the evening with eight new college graduates. We made dinner together and they set a beautiful table outside in the woods and under the stars -- lovely.
Once we got back home, we had lots to do with a lacrosse tournament over the weekend and then today,  a nice drive up to a state park where we hiked among waterfalls and did a little canoeing, too. Here's some shots from our day:

Blocks for Babies

End of the Year Craziness Prevails ... Too many things going on with kids, graduations, sports, end of year parties, etsy orders and full time work. I never seem to have the time to blog anymore. I thought about stopping, but I enjoy your comments even though they've dwindled to one or two lately!
My etsy orders seem to come in spurts. This spring I've had more orders for my initial blocks than I've ever had. I love making them and with a new set of rubber stamps that I purchased from Michael's, I was eager to make more.

Here are two recent orders:

I've also been running a couple races lately with my youngest son. It's sort of a bonding time for us, but he usually leaves me in the dust after about 2 minutes into the race! This weekend, I ran without him and with a group of women in the ZOOMA race for women 10K. It was my first 10K (since high school, that is). Although I had to make a quick bathroom pitstop, I ran pretty well, coming in 13th out of 72 in my age division. Next year I hope to do better (and I also hope it's not so hot)!! Here I am with the gal that got me into this craziness of doing a 10k.