Its a good thing he's cute...

Dex turned one year old a few weeks ago. He can be such a monster. Sometimes his pretty blue eyes are his only saving grace. Other times, his antics are the most entertaining thing I've seen. Mostly, I love him. Even when he calls me from the other sid of the house to come and fill up his dish.

Here, he's claimed my new beach cruiser. He would rather rub himself all over the tires than be petted... I see where his love lies... Anything with chrome on wheels. ;)


Sleeping under my cutting table while I work on quilt blocks.


One morning he decided to give Molly's crate a try. Then he thought he should spend the day with her in it! That would have been bad news bears...


Like any cat worth his pur... he loves him a box. Especially kitty sized Corona boxes!

Steel City

I took a little trip to Pittsburgh at the end of May. Most of my friends from college are from the city and have moved back. Its always great to see everyone.

Here are a few highlights:

My Kind of Diamond!

We managed to get some standing room only tickets to a Pirates game... go Buccos!


No trip could be complete without a stop at Primanti Bros. :)


A view of Hienz Field from The Point. Such a beautiful day!

Norfolk Botanical Gardens

I'm a little late in posting this... oops. Anyways...

To celebrate National Public Gardens Day, Better Homes and Gardens magazine put a free one day pass to participating public gardens in their May issue. I looked down the list and... Low and behold... Norfolk Botanical Gardens! I looooove living in an area where I am actually able to attend the events listed in national publications! (This doesn't happen when you grow up in rural Pennsylvania)

But wait! It gets better!! They were having a plant sale! So I picked up a few hard to find varieties of Hydrangea and took a stroll through the rose gardens for some inspiration. Below are some cell phone pics of the roses. Enjoy!

Deep. Breaths.

I had a really horrifying day yesterday. It felt like the culmination of a lot of things just going wrong. And a lot of really bad, random things happening to me. It ended with one of those moments where I look around me and wonder if I've ruined my life and the oportunities I've been given. Where I wonder how I got here so quickly when things were going so well just a few short weeks ago. And how do I make this downward spiral stop? Can I correct this?

Without revealing the really personal stuff that made yesterday horrifying, please let me just say that no, I was not overrreacting. Bad, bad things. All made worse by the fact that I forgot that I don't have to handle everything on my own. In fact, I shouldn't. And so, I have no answers, no resolutions, and only a few paltry plans to fix what is fixable and handle what is not, but I have peace because I put it in God's hands. I climbed back on the wagon. Said my prayers, gave thanks, and praised His name.

And I opened my Bible. Psalm 103 is where I found myself.

Psalm 103
Of David.
1 Praise the LORD, my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
2 Praise the LORD, my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
3 who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
4 who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
5 who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6 The LORD works righteousness
and justice for all the oppressed.

7 He made known his ways to Moses,
his deeds to the people of Israel:
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
15 The life of mortals is like grass,
they flourish like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone,
and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting
the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant
and remember to obey his precepts.

19 The LORD has established his throne in heaven,
and his kingdom rules over all.

20 Praise the LORD, you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his bidding,
who obey his word.
21 Praise the LORD, all his heavenly hosts,
you his servants who do his will.
22 Praise the LORD, all his works
everywhere in his dominion.

Praise the LORD, my soul.

And even though I have no answers, I know God has a plan. I just need to remember to ask for directions. And look to Him for answers.

A rose is a rose is a rose...

Of those seven rose bushes I planted back a few months ago, only 4 have come out of their dormant stage. I was a little disappointed that one of them was from gurneys but, two out of three ain't bad I guess. The Wal*mart bare roots roses are holding steady at two for four. I'm going to give the duds a few more weeks and then replace them.

But! How exciting is this!



A small hint at success...

Baby Bemis' quilt

I posted earlier how I had finally jinxed one of my girlfriends into getting pregnant. Yay! And thankfully, it was a married one. In fact, her little man is due very near to she and her husband's second anniversary.

Anyway, I ordered some adorable Michael Miller fabric that I think is going to be just perfect for a little boy. It has titles like "Honk, Honk" and "Beep, Beep". I also ordered some super soft minky fabric to go on the back.

This weekend I was able to get started cutting and piecing the quilt top.





I'm about two-thirds into the quilting and hopefully will be able to wrap it up tonight. Its amazing how fast a crib size quilt goes together. I'm only about 4 hours into it, taking my sweet time, and I've probably only got another 2 hours before its ready for hand binding.

Garden Improvement - Raised Garden Beds!

After last year's vegetable garden resulted in... semi-production? I knew I had to do something different. My plants just weren't performing at peak. Granted, this may have been due to the record high heat and long periods without rain. However, I felt the real issue was my crappy top soil and I was determined that this year would be better.

I decided that even if I broke the bank I was putting in raised garden beds. I had a year to think about how I wanted to do this and how to be the most cost effective. I did some internet research. I poked through my back issues of Better Homes and Gardens. And I did a little brainstorming. After all, 2.5 years of architecture school has to be good for something. After all, I didn't go to all the work and inconvenience of my dining room table looking like a potting bench for months as seen here:



Just to have another lackluster harvest.

And so, I decided my best course of action with my minimal budget was simply 2 x 8 x 10's cut in half by the wonderful people at Lowe's and nailed together with angle brackets. Add a few bags of garden soil, manure, and the compost I had saved from last year and hopefully... this year will see marked improvement. *Fingers crossed*

I started with this:


What a weedy mess!

And then there was this:



Then I decided that I wanted to add a third bed for a cutting garden. I love having flowers in the house and while I usually get a pretty good deal at the grocery store, it would be nice to have enough flowers in my own yard to cut my own. And so, here we are:



I still have some border to install and more gravel but its starting to look like the real deal. My mom even commented that it looked a little Williamsburg-esque when she visited. Quite the compliment. :)