Fruit & Bear Learn To Stitch

Hi Y'all!

Recently I got to hang out with a couple of my teenage nieces for a whole entire weekend and we had a grand ol' time, the best kind of girls weekend. We ate too much, talked and talked and talked, watched movies, painted our nails, listened to music, talked some more, good times, I tell ya, good times! And then something really cool happened... they asked me to teach them to stitch! Seriously, I thought they were pulling my leg, but they were totally into it.

Like, OMGeee!

I already had a couple of darling motifs that they liked from Amiee Ray's Doodle Stitching traced onto fabric and hooped up (left over from my long ago Creativi-tea party - ooh, I need to do another one of those, that was fun!) so I grabbed some extra needles and scissors and got down to it. We stuck to the back stitch for these little embroideries and the girls caught on really well. These are their first embroideries.

Aren't they great!?

And here are the worlds newest (and cutest) stitchers!  

Fruit & Bear and their happy little stitches.

I enjoyed showing the girls how to get started so much. They were already talking about other things they'd like to try. Muahaha! I snagged them, they'll never be the same again, muahaha, muahaha!

I can't wait to spend some more time with the girls, I mean, they're super fun and I love hanging out with them anyway, but add stitching to the mix and shazam, heaven!

Wishing you all a fun weekend! What'cha got planned?
Do tell!
oxo,
Lisa

p.s. Fruit & Bear?? Nicknames since they were babies, Hannah-banana would have been much to common so it had to be "Fruit" (naturally, right?) and Claire... well, obviously, she's our Claire-bear. I love them so!

Part I: Flying

Hello Friends,

It's been a while since I've been around these parts or blogland in general, over two weeks - which feels like a long time to me. I guess it's because - and this may sound weird - so much and very little have happened in that time. Let's catch up, shall we?

Part I: Flying

Just after my last post, Sean and I took a trip on the Vespas that we'd been looking forward to for months. We rode our scooters up to Lake Tahoe to join up for a scooter rally with a local club. This was to be our longest ride together, and the farthest away from home on the scoots.

We were a little nervous about the trip, safety on the road is something I take very seriously.  There's no protection between you and the road, or other cars when you're traversing the roads, highways and streets on two wheels. You've got to be on your game and keep your head on a swivel.  The road to Lake Tahoe is a long way over some pretty high mountains. Luther Pass has an elevation of 7,740 feet, and Carson Pass is 8574 feet! 

Here I am with our scoots, packed and ready to roll. You'd be surprised how much you can pack onto a Vespa. We each had three days worth of clothing and other necessities (hello, flat iron & flip flops) and we weren't even fully loaded. What a great feeling to know I can set out on the road prepared for several days journey on my scooter. I love this thing, I tell ya.

The ride up was fantastic! Very little traffic, it was hot, but not miserably so, and in the mountains, riding a Vespa feels like flying, they are so smooth, and quiet. You don't hear the machine, all you hear is the muffled sound of the wind blowing around your helmet. It's amazing.

 We took Hwy 88 from Lodi to Lake Tahoe. It's a very windy road, through some gorgeous scenery - my favorite kind for scooting. After you've ridden for a while, you gain an understanding of leaning on your bike so that moving in and out of turns and is pretty darn fun. Straight roads bore me to tears.

We had a great time at the rally, the folks we met up with are terrific, funny, generous people who just enjoy each other and riding. The theme of the rally was Luau At The Lake, so there were lots of tropical touches, like this backdrop thingy, I had to include this silly picture of Sean and I.

As a guest, of the club I didn't feel comfortable taking a lot of pictures of the group, and while you're riding you can't, but here are a couple from our stop at CalNeva when we road all the way around the lake which was fabulous. I'm looking forward to riding there again, just Sean and I, so we can stop along the way whenever we see something interesting, and there's lots to see.

I think there were somewhere around 35 people on all different types of scooters riding together around Lake Tahoe. What a gorgeous ride, and what a great time!

This place is really neat, and has some very cool history if you're into Frank Sinatra & Marilyn Monroe. 

Another big reason for this trip is because it coincided with our nephew's 11th birthday. He's getting so big, starting 6th grade in a couple of weeks. Crazy how fast that happens. 

I was happy to get to spend some time with him. I miss them all so much since they moved to Tahoe. This boy is such a special kid. Kind and smart. Adventurous and fun (and funny!). Brave and sweet. Athletic and bookish. He has the best laugh, when he laughs really hard his whole face crinkles into a humongous smile. I love him so.

Every time I see him I trap him in an vice-like Auntie hug and hold him tight until he wriggles free, giggling and squirming. I'm sure it's totally embarrassing, but I won't be able to do that forever, he's not going to stand for that kind of thing when he's 16, or ever after, so I'm getting all the squishes I can while the gettin's good. 

His birthday party was held on Pope Beach, just north west of South Lake Tahoe. 

It's a beautiful beach, could it be more lovely?

 It's also a great place for families.

 My little niece is getting big too. Such a funny girl, this one, she has the cutest, quirkiest sense of humor. 

My sister-in-law, Apryl makes the neatest pinatas! She's made one just about every year for J's birthday.

They take a real beating before the loose their goodies.

And then it's every man (or little girl) for themselves to grab for the plundered booty.

This little skull cap was all that was left of the pinata :)

It was a good time.

.

.

.

Until we got some sad news.

A friend of ours was killed the night before. Hit by a careless driver who made a left turn in front of his motorcycle and smashed into him. The accident was one block from the hospital, which didn't matter, the damage was too great. Carl passed away in the operating room as surgeons tried to save him.

The rest of my time in Tahoe that weekend is a bit of a blur. We finished up at the scooter rally on Sunday morning, had lunch in town, then got on the road mid afternoon. Our ride home was subdued, and extra cautious. It was not lost on me that we were doing exactly what Carl was doing when his life abruptly ended, taking a ride on his bike, enjoying the summer...

The news of Carl's death has shaken me, angered me immensely and set my mind drifting, I'm planning to write a bit more about it in my next post. 

Please take care out there, friends. Please look twice for bikes on the road. Like I said earlier, for those of us on two wheels, be they Vespa, Harley-Davidson, or anything in between, there is no buffer between us and the road apart from our safety gear which doesn't stand a chance against cars and trucks. And even if we're doing everything right, some don't make it home from a ride.

I know this subject is heavy, and not my usual blogging style, which I prefer like to keep light and bright. But this is me real life, and something that has affected me which I feel I must share.

oxo,

Lisa

Watch The Leather, Man

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe we're already into March! I'm working on a few stitchy things that I can't show just yet, things I'm pretty jazzed about, but my projects always seem to take a little longer to complete than I initially estimate. Does that happen to you guys, too? Since I can't show you what I'd planned to, I'm breaking out something I was particularly proud of that I made for my brother for Christmas this year. 

These items were a bit of a departure for me, I've never worked with leather before (well, yes, I have, but that was back when I was a Camp Fire girl, and we just stamped leather strips to make bookmarks, so that doesn't really count) and since I like to make as many of my Christmas gifts by hand as I can for my family and friends, but I struggle with making "guy things" I had to get crafty.

I've been holding on to a stash of  small leather samples that I got from work a few years ago, and this year I finally got to use a few of them to make my brother a suite of small leather goods. 

A simple billfold, hand stitched.

(and some business cards to encourage my super talented, hard working brother to go into business for himself)

A nightstand bowl for the odds & ends a busy dad finds in his pockets at the end of the day.

This bowl was very simple to make, I found a link to a tutorial on Pinterest (naturally). The bowls in the  tutorial are made with felt, but hey, same technique. Just sore-er fingers, stitching leather is hard, yo! I made one of these dresser/nightstand bowls for my sister-in-law too, I made hers in the super soft red leather pictured below.

I made her a pretty little necklace, too, but the picture above isn't very good, here's a better one.

But my favorite thing that I made for Greg was this little journal. I love this wee book, I was tickled with the finished project.

Love it! I used a pretty stone button I had in my button jar and cut a thin strap to keep the journal closed as my brother adds little bits of this & that to it over the course of its life.

The signatures are stitched up, all proper like! I used a medium card stock for the paper so the pages are nice & sturdy for drawing or painting or what have you.

I used this excellent tutorial, and the journal came out perfectly! Not only have I never worked with leather, I've never made a book, so this was a double lesson for me, and I was very happy with the result. I'm very much looking forward to making more of these journals in the future. 

So there you are, a trio of "masculine" handmade gifts! 

I only had to buy one tool (two, if you count the rubber cement used to secure the book pages the leather) to make this trio, this spikey wheel jobbie used to mark even spaces in the leather that I then punched through with my awl. This was a project that was all labor, and practically no moolah. But the labor, oooh, let me tell you, I had practically no feeling in the fingertips of my right hand for two weeks. I found that even though I pre-punched the leather, it was still hard to pull the thick needle through over & over again. Ouch. I wonder if there's a better way...?

So yeah, leather, man! 

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Curious about the title of this post, lookie here. Love that movie. Have seen it waaaay more times than I should admit. :)

Nature Break

Hi All! Did you have a nice weekend?

We had the opportunity to get out of town and up to the mountains yesterday for a much needed nature break and time with my family. We met up with them at Kirkwood Lake where they'd been camping for the weekend. The weather was gorgeous and it's so pretty up there, thought I'd share a few pictures.

Kirkwood Lake

Handsome hubby.

Me & the pooches.

I would have loved to go for a swim! Alas... unprepared.

This fallen tree was gigantic as were the mushrooms growing all along it's sides.

We enjoyed a nice long nature walk with the dogs.

This was Boswell's first time out in nature and he did great!

Kayakers on the lake. 

And the main reason for our excursion, this handsome fellow!

Happy Birthday Josiah! You're the best 10 year old I know!

♥

Hope your weekend was wonderful, too!

oxo,

Lisa

Oh, what I want to know, where does the time go?

Hi All!

Oh my goodness where have the last couple of weeks run off to? I'm so behind on blogging, both in posting and reading. I feel rather out of the bloggy loop at the moment. I need one good rainy Saturday and a large cup of tea (or several) and all will be right again, le sigh.

Today I thought I'd share one last thing I made for my family for Christmas (yep, I know, we're a week into February) but they only recently received this, so it's finally safe to share.

For my brother, his wife and their two kiddos.

I traced their hands the day they moved to South Lake Tahoe a few months ago. An exciting, new beginning for them, bringing them one step closer to their dreams.

Like all families they're entwined, and so their hand prints should be. Everybody's hands are touching or over lapping somewhere on this piece, in those places I did a little intertwining of my own.

Normally I don't show the backs of my embroideries...(i use knots, shhh!)... but I really liked this one, its clean, flat, and like all families, perfectly not perfect. I left it unfinished when I sent it to them instead of covering it in my usual way. I just trimmed the fabric close and glued it neatly to the inner hoop.

I hope they like it, I liked making it for them.

I made a few other things for the kids, but nothing earth shatteringly rad, so I'll just post those in my Flickr, come on over and have a peek if you like.

I'll be back soon, I want to share a few pics from last weeks Creativi-tea!

I hope you've all been well, I miss reading your blogs and will catch up soon!

oxo,

Lisa

Happy Camper

Hi All~

I spent this past weekend camping in the mountains with my niece Ana, my mom, and her husband Johnny. It was such a relaxing weekend and provided me a desperately needed recharge. I've been feeling a little too tightly wound for the last several weeks and this camping trip was exactly what I needed to feel more like myself.

The mountains are unbelievably beautiful right now, so I thought I'd share some pictures. In case anyone is interested, this is Pi Pi Campground (Site #33) in the El Dorado National Forest, Northern California. Get yourself a nice glass of iced tea, I took a lot of pictures! I couldn't help myself, it's so pretty.

We camped near this meadow in full bloom.

A walk way built along the border between the river and the meadow and forest, goes on for miles...

Miss Hollywood ~ My niece Ava was there for one afternoon too, she loves nature walks.


I don't know what type of flowers these are, Lupine perhaps? But they are enormous and there are thousands of them in the meadow.


This hole is very old, it's an Indian Grinding Rock

 Gigantic dandelion wishes. I wished along with her...

This is a shot of our campsite from the meadow directly behind my tent. Reminds me that we are indeed very small.

After our walk it was time for a snack. Ava is trying to share her yogurt with me in this picture, I can tell you that 2 year olds with full spoons don't aim very well. I'm not sure how, I only looked away for a split second, but that entire spoonful ended up in my hair. It gave us both quite a giggle, who could resist that face?

These are the talents of the other women in my family. My sister-in-law Apryl made these tye-dyes, aren't they amazing? My mom made the ribbon rings which hang high in the trees. These two represent water and fire, eventually she'll make two more representing the other two elements of earth and wind. They're so pretty and the ribbons make a nice rustling in the trees. She was inspired to make these after seeing them hanging in the trees at the Renaissance Faire.

 

Fire

Water

What's that? You've never seen a decorated camp site? Well then, you've never camped with my mom.

Here is the bunting I made for her birthday last year, along with a new yo-yo bunting (one of several) hung in and around our camp, or rather our "encampment" as we came to call it. Also - this is my new tent! Isn't it awesome? Oh, it's so nice to have a tent with a functional door instead of a broken zipper!

Large tapestries add color and pretty to our site and give a lot of privacy in a completely packed campground, we felt like we had the place to ourselves.

Here's how our encampment looked from the campground road

The trail leading into the meadow at dusk

Sun down and hazy, soft light filtering through the trees, lovely...

After dinner and dishes it was quiet talks and cozy moments near the fire.

It was a productive weekend for me too, I got a great deal of stitching done on these lazy afternoons while the others napped or read.

This is a small tablecloth I'm making for myself to put on my little table inside my tent. I'm a night owl, even when camping, and the new tent is big enough for a small table and chair where I can sit and read or stitch after the others doze off.

Ha! My mom just posted this picture on Facebook, she caught me stitching! Can you see me, sitting next to my tent? Lol...

The night before we left, I quickly I drew a simple the design out on some sturdy forest green cotton that I already had (pre-washed even!). What's funny is that I chose the colors before I left, and took only those colors with me. Little did I know that they were almost exactly the colors that would be blooming around me all weekend. This little table cloth will always remind me of this camping trip. I finished all of the stitching by the way, all in that one weekend too! I love it... I'm going to simply fray the edges and maybe add a contrasting running stitch near the bottom. I'll try to get a better picture to share tomorrow, I'm really happy with the way the embroidery turned out.

Anyway, this was my weekend, I can hardly wait until I get another one just like it. I love camping, it feeds my soul.

If you've made it to the end, congratulations! I know this was a long, picture heavy post. Tell me, do you enjoy camping? What's your favorite thing?

oxo,

Lisa