This is why I will never meet anyone.

So today I was supposed to go to this singles group BBQ event, but I decided instead to go up to the mountains with my family and get peaches. We had a delightful time!

John, Sylvie and Jenny are cozy in the van!

Little Cael fell asleep on the way.

Check out the clouds...wow.

On the way up to the mountains. How magnificent!

We finally arrived at the peach & apple orchard. They sold peaches (duh),

Watermelon,

and corn.

Have you ever tried a peach pie like this?

In the orchard parking lot we met a very friendly horse.

The gang (minus Sarah and Ben) outside of the peach orchard. Check out the beautiful scene behind us!

Josh, Cael and Sylvie

Sylvie was trying to get Cael to laugh and look at the camera. She did not succeed.

We bought dozens of fresh peaches!

And a watermelon, too.

Esme was amazed at the size of her fritter. It was about the same size as her head!

Sylvie with her fritter.

Peach pie. Oh, and my sister Jenny.

Eli displays his tasty apple fritter.

Esme eating her apple donut. Mmm!

We were having such a great time after stopping for peaches that we decided to just keep going north. Fort Mountain was the next destination! We stopped at a scenic overpass. I was afraid one of the kids would roll down the mountain, but they didn't.

Scenic overpass---wow.

We saw some amazing fungus on a tree at Fort Mountain. The photograph does not do the color justice. This was actually various shades of a bright mustard yellow!

Handsome fellas: Joshua, Eli and John

Cael was happy in his stroller!

Skylar, aka "Monkey Woman"

Cicada exoskeleton...yuck! I mean, cool!

Can you say "loogie"?

A butterfly wing. John kept trying to blow it out of my hand. Little turd.

On the way back down the mountain we saw a baby black bear!

I mean, who wants to go to a crummy old singles group anyway? Pooh. ;)

~Bess

Dreamy!

What a guy. :)

L.I.G.H.T. Concert

Yes, you read that right. The Barger Sisters are performing. Yikes!

Babies and Embriodery

I love embriodery.

Mt batiste arrived in the mail a few days ago, and I have begun my peasant blouse! I used a Simplicity pattern from the 70's. I went ahead and sewed the front and back bodices to the sleeves using french seams and finished the top edge. Once I finish the embriodery I will complete the side seams and insert the drawstring in the neck. Inspiration for the embriodery came from an Anthropologie mug I have. :)

I am holding Cael right now and he is being so wiggly! This boy has turned into a regular monkey. He's crawling around and pulling himself up on things and putting everything in his mouth. This age always makes me nervous, especially with so many people leaving things around for babies to get into.

I will leave you with a picture of cuteness.

New Patterns!

I've listed a few new patterns on eBay (finally!) Check them out here!

It has been a loooong week. Back to the grind after a nice week off. Alas!

I've been working hard to organize a "back to school" charity concert for L.I.G.H.T. Ministry the past month or so. Everything is coming together very nicely. We have some great musicians volunteering their time and talent to benefit those in need. It is a very cool thing.

Thus...I have had little (or no) time to sew. I'm hoping to be able to start work on Skylar's peasant-style sundress soon. I also ordered some batiste to make a peasant blouse for myself. I'm going to do pretty embriodery around the neck and sleeve edges. Fun!

Next garment to copy? Check out this AMAZING skirt. Wow. I am in love.

Have a fantabulous weekend!

~Bess

Painting Epiphanies

So one of my goals for the year 2009 was to finish at least 3 of my paintings. I will be honest with you, until a couple of weeks ago, I had not worked on a single one.

Over the past couple of weeks I have worked a little on my paintings, and I have officially declared two of them finished. I do not think I will count these two towards my goal, as I simply looked at them and decided they did not need any more work. It is so satisfying, though, to be able to say "It is good." ;)

Tonight I worked on a painting that I am particularly excited about. A rather whimsical painting, and not something I would typically be inspired to paint, but I LOVE it!!! It is my interperetation of a silly dream a friend of mine had. One of those completely non-sensical dreams that you laugh at when you wake up. As soon as he told me about it, I thought I have to paint that. Well, I am pleased to say that it is almost completely finished. I think one more session will do it. Hooray! I will post pictures of it as soon as I can. Until then, enjoy one of my paintings from a couple years ago entitled "Jonquils".

Image copyright 2005 Elizabeth Barger

Still Life Time

Today was a perfect day for some painting. John, Eli and I trooped outside and picked some lovely flowers. We put them in a coffee mug on the art table. Esme came downstairs and helped us set up the paints. We all gathered around the table and painted what we saw. :)

Sylvie came downstairs a little bit later and worked on the second still life we set up---a beautiful rose in a little blue coffee mug.

I have always loved doing still life painting with a group of people. It is fascinating how differently we all interpret what we see.