The snowman and the sheep are the same size...

Playing catch with my advent calendar. Christmas completely snuck up on me!

How large can I go?

Fueling up the engines

Too much work

Not enough chores...

Pepper shoot take over

You know it's going to be an epically long week when you are driving home Monday night thinking it is thursday night.

This is not for pulling!

Some days (when you want to tear you hair out) you just got wear pigtails.

::facepalm::

Entertaining early morning thought:

Maybe if I cover my food with aluminum foil when I microwave it, it will heat more evenly

#up way too early

Struggle

Trying to remember to lean in to those I love. There is no greater champion than them.

Grn Line

Wonderful evening with new friends. First truly cold walk home of the season.

snappity snappity

I was having kind of a cruddy week last week but then one morning I woke up to this beauty!

My snap pea plant which just keeps growing and growing and showed no sign of actually giving me snap peas had finally flowered!

AND then Monday morning I woke to yet another beauty! An actual snap pea! Not just one, but many many more!

These totally put a smile on my face.

Hot Air

Yesterday I checked an item off my Lifelist.

Attend a hot air balloon festival.

And I loved it.

They are majestic.

And magical.

And someday I will ride in one.

My friends and I lucked out with an absolutely beautiful day.

The sun was golden and warm.

The little biplanes hummed and buzzed along.

Jazz and swing music rang out from the speakers.

We arrived a little early so we could picnic first.

After I'd thrown everything back in the car we decided to get some superbly tasty shaved ice.

As we were paying we looked over the tree line and saw our first balloon.

It was a thrilling moment.

The little kid in me popped out and I could barely contain my excitement.

(Read: I was literally hopping up and down and squealing like a five year old).

The balloons staggered their liftoffs.

Slowly one by one the balloons would fill up and before you knew it would be floating away.

I loved when they floated right over your head.

All in all a wonderful experience.

I saw this photo in some footage I was screening today and fell in love with the pattern in the woman's skirt. Isn't it beautiful?!

I searched through Pinterest for more fun African Wax Prints. These would be some great textiles to decorate with. Maybe some dinning room chairs? Or a lamp shade? So many possibilities.

Here are some of the ones I loved...

Source: africanfabricscenter.com via Laura on Pinterest

Source: craftsbylucienne.com via Laura on Pinterest

Source: intelligent-----clashing.com via Laura on Pinterest

Source: google.com via Laura on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com via Laura on Pinterest

Southern MD

I went for a quick jaunt down to southern Maryland today with no real agenda. With temperatures and humidity soaring it seemed silly to stay in the city. My friends and I prepared a picnic and hit the road. After two quick stops at different visitors center (the first one being rather entertaining) we headed to Flag Pond for our picnic. We waded through the water to cool off a little before heading back towards town. Stopped for a beer. Then decided to check out the lighthouse. We were the only ones there and it was the start of the golden hour so I took tons of photos while J & K meandered around. We jumped back in the car in search of dinner and tried driving over the big bridge, realized that not too much was on the other side, turned around and came back for a lovely meal on the upper deck of a seafood joint right on the bay. Mmm crab cakes. Then headed home.

Lovely day!