Whales!


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I wasn’t kidding yesterday when I said I’m loving the nautical trend, and that’s largely because it’s a style I’ve always loved.  I’m one of those girls who pretends that she lives by the sea even while surrounded by mountains.  I  like seeing the nautical trend reach farther than the coast because the coast is awfully far away from me!

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Last year I purchased the book Seaside Home , compiled by Susanne Woods.  It is full of sewing and embroidery projects that are all inspired by the sea.  I used the beach crab pillow pattern to make this chevron Christmas pillow for my sister, so this isn’t my first project taken from it.

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I used the Whale of a Pillow pattern to make these doorstops.  I stitched them on canvas material with DMC floss 311 (six strands) and backed them with a home decor weight nautical print I purchased forever ago.  I stuffed them with some batting and added what I had on hand to make them heavier – pea gravel, washed and dried.

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Now there are five of them, all stitched with a different colored star, waiting for the first hint of cool breezes when summer begins to fade.  I’m excited to have something to prevent all the doors from blowing shut when we throw open the windows.  I must also say that these whales bring a smile to my face.  They are a quick stitching project and I’m making more for something we have coming up.

What do you think of the nautical fashion/decor trend?  Is it growing on you?

Jennifer

Beach Trip: Easter Sunday


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We began our trip to the beach with Easter Sunday.

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My younger children were a little concerned about celebrating Easter on vacation.  Would the Easter bunny find us?  What about an egg hunt?  I was more concerned with somehow having the holiday stand out as a sacred day in the midst of a vacation.  I did some brainstorming and it all worked out.  I couldn’t bear to pack our Easter baskets, or to buy new ones (although I considered buying sand pails but decided it was more money than I wanted to spend).  I settled on some 59 cent gift bags, found at Target, and which came in exactly 8 different patterns, three of which could pass for boys.  Lucky me!  They were small, compact, colorful, and perfect for our celebration.

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The children awoke to find candy filled eggs hidden all over the beach house, in their shoes, bags, beds, etc.  A small egg hunt took place and then we headed to the beach as a family for an early morning walk.

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The tide was very low and the girls were quickly absorbed in hunting for shells.  It makes me smile to see them do this, because I remember so well this treasure hunt from my childhood.

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On this Easter morning we found 5 unbroken sand dollars!  Small, but perfect (and rare at this beach), Easter morning gifts from the sea.

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Soon we found our way to the jeddy where starfish awaited us.

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My husband found a Dungeness crab which he carefully caught for everyone to inspect.  We admired it for a few minutes before returning it to its home.

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No one else was on the beach that morning and the children were full of delight and wonder at being where we were.  There was a feeling of happy reverence all around us and we enjoyed soaking in so many evidences of God’s love in an environment unlike what we usually have on Easter.  My sons began tracing Easter messages in the sand on the beach.

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Before we left I managed to bake a couple of batches of lavender shortbread in the shape of chicks, bunnies and eggs.  They were my humble contribution to the Easter dinner my mother-in-law so graciously hosted for all her children and their families.

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One of my favorite parts of the day was surprising our next door neighbor in Newport Beach, who we talk to every summer, with some of my cookies and an Easter morning hug.

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It’s funny how you can know people in such an impersonal way and yet grow to love them so much.  Shasten has lived next door to my Grandpa for as long as I can remember, and in the last 10 years or more I’ve enjoyed talking to her every year.  I admire her flowers; she is patient with our many children.  We’ve watched her son grow up in our annual snapshot-type friendship and she’s watched ours grow the same way.  I guess it’s a little like exchanging Christmas cards, but better, because you get to talk to someone kind and wonderful.  Sharing cookies with her was, perhaps, the most joyful moment of my day.

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And then we were off to the San Diego area to attend church and gather with my husband’s family.

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This lovely scene greeted us as we walked up the driveway, and we were wrapped in the heavenly scent of orange blossoms like you wrap up in a quilt on a cold night.

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I’ve never experienced anything like it.  I was amazed that the scent of two trees could fill the air of such a large space.  Later in the evening I ate dinner alone outside at that table just so I could savor the scent while reflecting briefly on the day.

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For a girl who’s lived all her life in places with four distinct seasons it was amazing to see a tree covered with both fruit and blossoms all at once.  Gorgeous.

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My mother-in-law has a a room she’s painted pink.  She keeps all the toys in there, and the children spent the afternoon in imagination heaven, building castles, dressing up, and anything else they dreamed up.

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I contented myself with soaking in the beauty of her yard in the full splendor of spring.

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By the time everyone else arrived I was busy in the kitchen, which was where I spent the rest of the day.  I don’t see my in-laws often and it felt good to serve by managing the kitchen so they could visit.  I enjoyed watching my husband from a distance as he so thoroughly enjoyed being around his brother and sisters, parents and aunt.  At the day’s end my feet ached but my heart was full of gratitude for all the gifts we’d enjoyed in just one day: hearts filled with the spirit, beauty, family, friends, service, good food, time together, the beach, and most especially the reminder that Christ has already won the victory for us.   A beautiful day.

Beach Trip: Huntington Pier



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We spent a week at the beach last week, and the cold weather that descended this week has me wanting to turn around and go right back.  We spent an afternoon in Huntington Beach, CA and it turned out that the photos I took there are among my favorite from the trip so I’m sharing them first.

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I’m totally in love with the lifeguard stations there.  I would have walked the entire beach to photograph each one (all different shades of aqua!?!  Hello!) had my husband not thought I’d completely lost my mind.  I had to content myself with just two.

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The kids loved the walk on the pier most, although it was incredibly windy.

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We paid our first visit to Ruby’s and it did not disappoint.

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In fact, this dinner marked the first time that ALL of my children ate ALL of their food in a restaurant.  I loved the red, aqua and white 50’s feel and the kids loved knowing they were eating over the ocean.

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We’ll definitely go back.

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I wrote a while ago
about how I try to memorize something about my life every day.  It’s one thing I do to remind myself that this moment is what counts.  I find that when we go places together, I like to hang back for a minute or two and just watch them all walking together ahead of me.  (It also helps the stragglers keep up.)  I watch them all walk and think to myself “They all belong to me!  I am so blessed.”  It’s also a time to notice how tall they’re getting, smile at who’s holding hands with who, and generally enjoy the feeling of having a group this big.

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The silhouette of the pier was so gorgeous as we prepared to leave.

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Funny that I grew up at the foot of the Rocky Mountains but my heart is most at home at the beach.  I’m so grateful for our extra gift of time there.

Jennifer

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