Welcome Lennox Ava!

My good friend Geneva gave birth to her second child, a girl they named Lennox Ava. She was born on Wednesday morning at around 2am on the 19th. I went to visit her later that day.
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She took quite a liking to me. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Then on Thursday we went over to play with Phoenix so Layne could spend some quality time with his wife and new daughter.
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This may look like karate but Sienna was actually doing ballerina poses.

Sprinklers!

It was HOT today! Like in the 90’s hot. We were slow moving today so did not make it to the library and just decided to go straight to the playground. I was delighted to see that the sprinklers were on at Owl’s Head Park! And so was Sienna!
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Jasmine’s mom shared some of their water balloons with Sienna.

Sprinklers! from Lisa on Vimeo.

Wear Me

The craft of the moment is earrings and pendants. It’s been awhile since I made loops with jewelry tools. I need more practice. It was so much fun to make! These are for ME to wear!
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I had a lot of fun stamping on resin beads during the February thing a day and learned that if I don’t coat it, it will fade. I used Diamond Glaze to coat these. It’s looking a little dull after a few wears although I could probably buff it but will try other options next time. And my loops look really bad but they are just for me so I don’t mind.
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I just made these over the weekend and wore them for the first time yesterday. I lost one of the silver chains and tree at the end of the day (or maybe I lost it in the beginning of the day!). I was so bummed! I think I may have to dab a little glue on all the jump rings next time.
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This was for a mystery pouch tag on swap-bot. I crochet the orange flowers.
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Finally getting around to experimenting with UV resins, this one is Lisa Pavelka’s Magic Glos. Still need to play around with it some more.
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Phoenix turned 4 on the 15th and I made her this necklace using the acrylic fragments from Tim Holtz and collage sheets I bought on Etsy.

Uncle Peeder!

Wow, I can’t believe a whole week passed by so fast! Last Sunday, “Uncle Peeder” came for a visit and we had BBQ for lunch. Sienna LOVES playing with Uncle Peeder and he totally obliged her. Poor guy! Well, he claims he was having fun and was glad to spend time with her. I am selfishly thinking of recruiting him for a babysitter although Yves thinks it wouldn’t be cool to have him come all the way out there to watch Sienna. I guess I agree…hmph!

Uncle Peeder visits from Lisa on Vimeo.

Uncle Peeder rocks! from Lisa on Vimeo.

Stitchin’ it for swaps

Some more swaps I’ve done, stitching related.
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Postcard cozy for March is craft month
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I made these bird pins from an embroidery pattern. I made the top one first (for a Spring lucky parcel) and liked how it turned out so much that I made another one for a bird lover (technically not a swap but there was a call out to cheer up a fellow swapper that found out she has cancer.)
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an owl bookmark, also for the spring lucky parcel. Pattern here.
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a drawstring bag for the spring lucky parcel (I discovered how to do french seams and it’s now my go to for making bags as you don’t need a lining)
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Zombie Embroidery for a rainbow lucky parcel
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Cupcake pin for the rainbow lucky parcel
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There’s that french seam drawstring bag again! For the rainbow lucky parcel. Flat and filled.
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Matryoshka dolls for the swap of the same name. Pattern here.
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Blue bunny for the Woodland stuffie swap. Pattern for this here.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood

Today was dreary and rainy but not last week! Picnic!
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Carvings

Here are some recent carvings I’ve done in swaps. I’m attempting to group all like type crafts together regardless of the swaps but I don’t know how long I can keep that up. All my photos are kept chronologically and I take too many to tag them all although it might benefit me to start doing that right after I download them into the computer…Anyway, I digress!

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Part of March is Craft month swap.
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Hedgehog carving for the Secret Sisters Spring parcel.
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Fleur de Lys carving, part of a pinata swap (make a pinata and fill with goodies)
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The ‘orange’ for the Rainbow Lucky Parcel’s swap. SC is my partner’s initials.
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These 2 were for a mystery pouch swap. The recipient’s nickname is Roro and gummybear.

Wildwood BBQ Band Meetin’

Tuesday night I met up with Tammy and Joy forร‚ย  a long overdue “band meeting.” Unfortunately, our ‘bassist’ Pete couldn’t be in attendance. I was in the mood for some BBQ and we decided on Wildwood BBQ near Union Square. Tammy and I sat at the bar while waiting for Joy. Since I couldn’t have my beloved wheat beer, I opted for a Maker’s Mark neat. On an empty stomach. Boy, I paid for that the next day. I actually told the bartender I must have been crazy to order it neat and she fixed it with some ice. I was feeling GROOVY! ๐Ÿ˜‰

We had a very cool waitress serving us. Waitress! I am sorry! I know you told us your name but in my Maker’s Mark stupor, I forgot!

Anyway, she hooked us up with the pitmaster special. Wet ribs, dry ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, chicken. YUM. Everything was awesome aside from the beef brisket, it was a bit dry. But no fear! We also ordered the Tuesday night special, Homemade Pastrami! AWESOME! Plus 2 appetizers- fried green tomatoes and cornbread so there wasn’t any shortage of food. We could not even finish it all! The shame! And yes, I cheated on my gluten free diet by eating the fried green tomatoes and cornbread but it wasn’t much so I am not going to feel guilty about it! Nope!

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Oh Marky Mark, we used to be such close friends!
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‘drummer’ and ‘guitarist’
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Oh Hoegaarden, we used to be such good friends
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Never before seen shrimp on top of a fried green tomato! No complaints here!
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Who knew cornbread could taste so good? (Or maybe it’s been my lack of wheat talking!)
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Awesome cool waitress!
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Hello Pastrami!
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Here is a close up so you can drool!
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The pitmaster! We would have finished it if Pete was there!
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Baked beans and creamed spinach sides.

It’s HOT!

What a wonderful weekend! The weather was fabulous (ok, maybe it was a little too hot this weekend!) Potty training is proceeding and Sienna is doing so great! We are so proud of her. All of our outings this weekend were underwear only. Actually, she’s been wearing just underwear after only about a week! She still hasn’t done number 2 in the potty but I know that takes time. After a week of staying home or close to home, I was anxious to get back out into civilization…

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Friday we had another picnic at Owl’s Head park with a bunch of mom’s and kids. Sienna got obsessed with these toy binoculars of Phoenix’s.
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Saturday we went up to Norwalk, CT for a Cinco de Mayo lunch hosted by an old friend of Yves’ from Chicago.ร‚ย  They moved from Chicago last summer and have been trying to make plans to get together since but something always happened. It was nice to finally meet Selena, her husband Danny and 2 adorable kids, Gael and Sofia. There were several moms and dads with their kids there as well. They have a beautiful spacious house with a nice big backyard. Sienna had a ball. She especially loved riding the “four wheeler.” They also had a Dora pinata for the kids. Sienna got hold of the string that probably would have opened it all up but she didn’t have the strength to pull it off. After a fun time, Sienna announced that she wanted to stay there forever. HA!
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Pull Sienna! Pull!
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This older boy got the magic string
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Got some goodies!
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Gael
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Sofia

Sienna kept saying she wanted to go into the ‘pool’ so Sunday was the day for it.
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Yes, it was hot!
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Sienna took the opportunity to wash her car. LOL
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Hot dog number 1
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and hot dogs numbers 2 thru 4. LOL

Lunch Dates!

A couple of weeks ago, before my gluten free quest, we had the luck of having lunch with two of our good friends on two separate days. Yves was finally able to join Pete and I on a weekday lunch outing! Since we can no longer count on Lento’s as our go to thin crust pizza place, we tried Vezzo’s which I’m sure is related somehow to Gruppo’s, which me and Yves have gone to before. We ordered a pizza with carmelized onions, homemade meatballs and olives. It was quite tasty but the olives were a bit salty. The menu said black olives but kalamata olives were on the pizza. It was still good!
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The day after, we had lunch with Joy and went to a panini place I’ve been wanting to try, Press 195. I like my steak and avocado sandwich and the frites and the dessert (nutella and banana press with ice cream) we got but I don’t think it was as awesome as I was lead to believe by some reviews I read. But I believe a lot of the reviews were for their Queens location. They did a good job with the kid plates by including sliced apples, which Sienna ate all of! Plue, there are over 40 sandwich combinations! I’m glad I got to check it out!

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The frites were ok
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