Sneak Peek

The last few days, since our trip to IKEA and Pottery Barn Kids on Saturday, have been dedicated to creating a play kitchen for Piper. This all began when Piper was given the Green Toy kitchen set as a gift. A girl can't have a kitchen set without a kitchen now can she. We wanted something Waldorf inspired, but something easily attainable by the carpentry handicapped...this is what we got. It's not finished yet, a few things left. I need to get thriftying for a just-the-right-size bowl to create the sink. The lack of completeness has not kept Piper from using it. She had all of her snacks today in her kitchen. When I told her what the silver container on the shelf was for she proceeded to take my utensils out of their spot and put them in her kitchen. I sacrificed one wooden spoon and eventually went to dig the spatula that her Marmar had given her months ago out of her toy basket. I'll post again when it's complete.


If you look closely you'll see her milk is in a 'regular', old school, sippy cup. Yes, our sweet babe can suck!

And We're Back on 'Crack'

We got the go ahead for regular food today. Piper is taking full advantage and stuffing as many Cheddar Bunnies in her mouth as she can, as fast as she can... making up for lost time. Everything is healing perfectly and the stitches are starting to fall out. Good news on all fronts.


















*** I should add, 'crack' is what Piper more often than not calls crackers.

Created In a Week

We have had some not so nice weather as of late, which has kept us in doors for the most part. Taking advantage of our rain enforced house arrest, I've been crafting. The end of last week was dedicated to new spring hats for the whole family. Mine is still on the needles.

Zac has been sporting his new hat on a regular basis, he actually may not have taken it off since I handed it over, even ended up sleeping in it one night. Must be that comfy. It was temporarily 'lost' under a pile for the pictures in the last post.



































Piper's was finished up on the road trip to Ninepatch Saturday and has only been on a few times. Its the same pattern I used for the baby hat last week, just a size larger. Made of the same khaki organic cotton from Zac's hat.









Tuesday and Wednesday were dedicated to making this jacket as a birth day gift for a fellow homebirth baby. Modeled by my homebirth baby. Thanks to Zac, sweet man he is, for entertaining Piper Tuesday night (the kind of entertainment that ends with Piper refusing to put her clothes back on and go to bed) I was able to get an uninterrupted hour of sewing in making it a fairly quick sew. It's a fully reversible and flannel lined spring/fall jacket designed to fit for two years. This one is size 18m/2T. The pink buttons are vintage I picked up on one of my antique store trips. I think they look really nice against the chocolate polka dots. This is my second jacket of this design after a few more are made I think I'll try to sell them...pay for my addiction.

Hawk's Eye View

Photograph by Grandpapa




We spent our weekend at Ninepatch. Piper met the cows, helped feed the cows and mooed like a cow. She neighed like the horse and quacked like the guineas (she thought they were ducks.) This weekend was the meet and greet for my brother, Dylan's, soon to be in-laws. His fiancee (ha, have never called her that before), Joanna's, family and friends came to the farm Sunday.






























Her family brought with them a hawk. Promptly after the humans ate the hawk was taken out to hunt for his lunch. Piper and Zac went along to watch. Due to my complete and utter disgust of birds (sorry you bird lovers) I opted for watching from a safe distance, namely the kitchen window.

Photograph by HomeGrownPapa

Photograph by HomeGrownPapa

Showing all the signs of a good weekend, Piper returned home completely worn out with rocks in her pockets. Hope your weekend was just as tiring.

Knits for babes

Last night I finished up the third project in a series of baby knits. Our friends had a baby girl last week which of course warranted some knitting. What better way to be welcomed into the world than with handknits. A pair of raspberry and purple booties. Made of yarn left over from Piper's winter hat and mitts with a pattern purchased from Etsy. And a little (really its so small) cotton hat, a pattern from the book One Skein, for this 'still a bit chilly' weather.


























Also, I made another pair of Sucky Thumb Mittens, same pattern as Piper's, for one of my mom's apprentices' son. He, like Piper, has an aversion to mittens. Piper is a fan of using her fingers while wearing the mittens. They are a little bigger than the ones I made for her, so they are a little loose on my very compliant hand model. Hopefully, these will satisfy him and be large enough to last him till next fall/winter.

Oh Spring, where have you been!

Could it be, is spring here to stay? After a consecutive number of beautiful days, I'm hoping so. We've been out and about every possible moment, that mountain of laundry to fold can wait. And what better thing to do on such a nice spring day than take a late morning nap in the stroller. Or sit for a bit of knitting and watching your precious little one sleep.






















I guess searching for ducks at the river really tuckers a little soul out. Or maybe it was the search for treasures at the antique mall. You'll be happy to know we did come away with a few, three vintage Bright & Early books for Piper and a few yards of vintage fabric and buttons for me.

We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
--Thornton Wilder

The few rough days we've had here and there since Piper's surgery has made me think more about the treasures we have in our life. Appreciate those treasures more. These are the things we need to remember. Like how Piper yells 'see ya' to Papa from the breakfast table as he heads out the door for work. Or how even at 14 months the world is even better when you're securely affixed to Mama's chest.

Farm Fresh Family Fun

Its lambing season! Today we ventured out to A-Z Farm in Oregon to visit the lambing barn. 106 lambs born so far this year. Soft, adorable and still a bit wobbly.

Picture by: HomeGrownPapa

One mama even gave birth while we were there. She was in the very back where no one could see her. I was hoping to witness a birth, Zac was not and glad we didn't.

Picture by: HomeGrownPapa

Piper was able to take in the feel and sounds all kinds of baby farm animals. As well as wool being spun into yarn and a sock knitting machine. Her favorite thing of all was the sheepskin booties and slippers they had for sale. An overall wholesome experience that I encourage all the Madison area families to try it out. The lambing barn is open for two more Sundays this month.

Since spring, it seems, has sprung we took advantage of the warm weather and went to the Henry Vilas Zoo with our out of town guests, Zac's sister Stephanie and her daughter Elsa. Piper learned a new animal sound to add to her repertoire from the lion. "ROAR" has been the sound of the weekend.

Hoping you all had a wonderful spring weekend!





Picture by: HomeGrownPapa

A(nother) Blog is Born

Welcome to HomeGrownHess! We, or rather I, have entertained the thought of blogging for sometime now. Those thoughts were put on hold, temporarily, when Zac created ezhess.com. Since that sadly met its early demise with not one update I thought it was time to try my hand at this. I *think* I'll be better at updating than Zac, we all know how busy he is. Mostly I wanted a forum for us to let those of you that are out of town, or for those of you in town but we can't coordinate schedules often enough, to see what is what with the Hesses. I opted for this over continually mass emailing because, well, some may just not care what we're up to and I wouldn't want to add to your email box clutter. If you want to know, continue reading and I'll continue writing. This is not going to be a catalog of our every movement, really how boring would that be. Sorry to disappoint those of you who would like that, you know who you are. But I will try to update at least weekly depending on our goings on, post pictures and shamelessly show off my most recent creations.

Enjoy!

Peace,
emmy.