penny carnival

Hay bale seating

I've been meaning to do this for a long time, and Bo's birthday party is as good an excuse as any.

Hay bale seating.

There will be a food table between the bales by Monday.

I can't remember whether it was my friend Emily who first brought the idea to my attention or a picture from Country Living's website in my bookmarks. You can find more hay bale goodness at these links (warning: looking at these pictures might make you wish you could do your wedding all over again.):

From Ruffled

From Eventualities

From Sparkle & Hay

From Fiore Fresco, a slightly different take on it

We bought four hay bales tonight for $5 each from a delightful man named Sergey we found on Craigslist. For a moment, I thought J had found his new bestie.  

Advice: you need the quilts or some sort of cover on the hay. Unless you enjoy the hokey pokey.

These lovely quilts happen to be very special to me. The blue one was made for my dad by his grandmother, so it's about 70 years old. The holes are courtesy of my childhood dog Rocky, who had a thing for blankets, Barbie dolls and hippity hops. 

The red one was something I spied at the Farm Chicks Show his year. I must have visited it 10 times, and then, at the end of day 2, I came around the corner and saw my dear friend Nis holding it.

"Here," she said, thrusting it at me. "You have to have it."

I truly think of her every time I look at it. Thanks again for the wonderful gift, Nis.

Bo's reaction when she saw the hay bales tonight: "What does hay have to do with Sleeping Beauty Goes Camping?!!" (which is her birthday theme, if you're just tuning in).

Don't be silly, I replied. Don't you remember the horse the prince rides in the Sleeping Beauty movie? Well ... horses eat hay! 

Oh, yeahhhhhhhh. 

Good, good. Glad we're all on board. Now if poor J would just stop sneezing.

Meet the flockers

A year ago, when I started writing my HomeMaker column for the Spokesman, I declared myself to be a nonquilter in print. I admit. I was afraid. I'd attempted it a couple of times, and I think because I chose somewhat complicated designs, I totally, wholly failed.

I had already gotten over the notion that quilting was an old-fashioned craft. I'd stumbled upon Denyse Schmidt several years ago, so I knew there was great potential for modern quilts--i.e., quilts that didn't involve logos from the Green Bay Packers or images of cornucopia or something equally vomit inducing.

These days, I find myself day dreaming about making quilts. I cut a gajillion squares tonight out of my daughters' old baby clothes for a very simple baby mommy quilt I plan to make.

The next project, I hope, will be the Flock of Triangles quilt from Denyse's book. My plan is to use mainly turquoise fabrics for the triangles with brown accents and to make it big enough to use on J and my king-size bed. Daunting, huh? Damn that co-sleeping. We should have bought a queen.

Anyhow, from around the blogosphere, here are some other crafters' inspiring interpretations of Flock of Triangles:

From Hop Skip Jump:

From For the Joy of It:

From Gloriana07 on Flickr:

And a gorgeous multi-colored one that I can't seem to copy and paste from knottygnome. You can see it here.

Wish me luck.