art & roses

Today I ventured into Santa Barbara for I Madonnari - the Italian street painting festival. I tried to convince Ray to come along, but he and Dylann wanted to ride their bikes to the playground instead. So off Logan and I went.


It really is amazing what these artists can do with a little chalk.


After strolling through the artwork for a while, I decided to go and sit in the rose garden for a little quiet time. It's one of my favorite places in Santa Barbara - I remember going there often when Ray and I lived up there.

tadpole adventure

Yesterday, a friend of ours invited us to take a hike in Meiners Oaks to search for tadpoles.


Even though we started out around 4pm, it was still pretty hot out there. Mind you, I was carrying baby Logan on my chest inside a black Ergo - whew!


When we finally reached the water, it was as if the angels were singing (at least for me). I was hoping that the watering hole would be a bit larger so that we could all cool off a bit - well, at least there was some shade.


We scooped up a few little guys and brought them home. Our mission is to keep them alive until they turn into frogs, at which time we plan on taking that hike again and returning them to Meiners Oaks.

organic mother's day

For a long while now, I've been thinking how nice it would be have a vegetable garden. I can imagine going out there with my kids, watering and watching the harvest grow and then picking them for our dining pleasure. I also secretly hope that this will encourage my daughter to eat more vegetables.

Well, today, my wonderful husband and daughter built a container garden for me!!!

Here is Ray sanding the edges of the posts that he had cut at 45 degrees to make the container more esthetically appealing


Dylann helping Dad - she is soooo strong!



Here it is, almost done. They are going to build 2 of these. Each one will be 4' x 6'.


And here are some of the vegetables we will be planting



Stay posted - we'll continue this project next weekend. Buying soil, planting the veggies, and getting dirty.

baby hats

Near the end of my pregnancy, I couldn't seem to keep my hands off of anything sweet so I decided to keep my hands busy knitting instead of shoveling fists full of chocolate biscuits into my mouth.

I think I knit about 5 hats that last month. Here are a couple of them:




I made a really cute hat for Dylann too, but I can't seem to get her to put it on for a quick photo.