white apples . a blog

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

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inspired by Amanda Soule. join in on her blog.

somebody is six months old!

snippets from Easter weekend

Our Easter travel plans were derailed by my little pneumonia incident, so we spent the weekend dying eggs, hiding treats in the backyard, and enjoying the warm, sunny weather. Click through for a whole series of weekend snapshots.

strawberry girl

We're in the process of cobbling together some vegetable beds and a few flower gardens, even though I am notorious for callously neglecting anything green under my care. We do have some strawberry plants on the back porch, however, that seem to be surviving. More than that, they actually produce about one brilliant red strawberry a day. Juniper has been dutifully watering and pruning and petting.  As soon as she spies a ripe berry, she plucks it and pops it straight into her mouth. According to her, they are sweet and "very goody." I'll have to take her word for it, since she hasn't offered me any yet. 

She reminds me every morning that we need to water the garden (or sometimes, "garden the water"). She walks along, watering and sniffing and naming, "That's a strawberry. That's a tomato. That's a rosemary. That's a fig tree." How simple it is, this kind of learning. Some dirt. A plant. The sun. Time enough to take it all in.

swinging a bat

Despite my best efforts, Juniper appears to be a budding little baseball fan. She watches games on TV. She swings her plastic bat in the yard. She wears her baseball cap everywhere. At the beginning of April, we went to a Georgia Tech-Duke baseball game at the Durham Bulls stadium. Only a handful of people showed up for the game, so Juni had free rein to run all over the stands, yelling and whooping and demanding ice cream. We were seated right behind home plate and, for some reason, every time the pitcher threw the ball, Juni would yell, "That's TERRIBLE!!" in her loud, high-pitched voice. She also perched herself near the on-deck circle and shouted, "Swinging a BAT????" to each batter. These poor college kids were just trying to play some baseball and they had to endure giggly heckling from my toddler and a loud and incessant bwah bwah bwah bwah bwahhhhh from my baby. This is what happens when my family heads to the ballpark.

"That's TERRIBLE!!!":

Seventh inning naptime:

a pair of birdies

I've been neglecting this space in favor of resting and nurturing and healing these past few weeks. We managed to make it through all of winter with not so much as a sniffle and then, right when the weather turned warm and the flowers started to bloom, the entire household got knocked over by some sort of plague. Juniper was the first to get sick. And, as usual, it didn't slow her down one bit. Not a single complaint or whine or cry through a high fever, runny nose, sore throat, and cough. Poor teething Baby Owen was next with sad-faced baby whimpers and miserable late-night fussies. Luckily he bounced back pretty quickly as well. I, however, ignored some cold symptoms for weeks, which earned me one visit to the Urgent Care Center and one 3am trip to the Emergency Room with a high fever and severe dehydration. I spent two days in the hospital, while a team of (young and handsome) doctors tried to figure out what was wrong with me, speculating everything from a faulty gall bladder to Rocky Mountain spotted fever. Turns out, my "little cold" had developed into pneumonia. Now, after taking multiple antibiotics and getting plenty of rest courtesy of my mom, I'm mostly back on track.

Don't ignore your health, mamas.

I meant to post these photos weeks ago, before all the health woes. These are two Birdie Slings I made as birthday gifts for my sister-in-law and my mom. The pattern is by Amy Butler.  As advertised, it is easy to sew, but requires a lot of cutting and interfacing and oh, the ironing... so much ironing. And it also uses a suprisingly large amount of fabric. Then again, this is a huge bag. If you're the kind of person that leaves the house with eight pounds of supplies in your purse, this bag is for you (mom). 

I made the first bag using three designs from Amy Butler's Love collection (which I LOVE). I have a soft spot for that particular color combination (warm plummy purples and lime green). The main fabric for the second bag is from the Lantern Bloom collection by Laura Gunn. It is even more brilliant and painterly in person. I am hoarding at least another yard of this fabric in the hopes that another perfect project comes along. The solid is an espresso Kona cotton and the lining is some orange and brown houndstooth that I found at the local Hancock Fabrics. After making the first bag, I decided that something this large required some sort of closure, so I added a magnetic snap to the second one (sorry, Amy, your birthday was first).

I love the huge handle. I love the pleats. I love the round, poochy bottom. And I love that it is large enough to really showcase a beautiful fabric. Now I just need to make one for myself.