today was spent in the kitchen. 

i made a batch of pizza dough. this martha stewart recipe makes about 6 servings of pizza dough for us.

then i got real creative a tried out a recipe for cinnamon rolls.

we invited tj, sheena and sailor over for a fourth of july breakfast tomorrow to test out the cinnamon rolls and drink mimosas. 

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the kids came over to have brownies after shooting off fireworks.

tj captured some of our happy moments spent with his daughter today.

our dear friends will be leaving us soon.

we won't get to hold dear sailor much more. nor will we get to watch her grow week by week. rather months by months.

i won't be able to comprehend the loss of their near presence until it is no longer available. 

life is changing here in charlotte. old friends are heading down new paths alone. we knew this time would come. how strange we all say goodbye together.  

i love you, sheena and tj and sailor. 

don't stray too far. 

"In the Edo period...recycling was very common among people.  Then after the economic growth that followed the war, the era of mass consumption began.  However now we realize we wasted so much and we should cherish things.  Every person has their own culture, history and aesthetic...so it would make for an interesting world...if people express and exchange those things with each other.  It would not be items mingled but also stories...and that creates a new culture."


via http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/no-place-like-here-pass-the-baton/

laundry day.
since i have been hanging my laundry on the line to dry, the need has arisen to use fabric softener. i have managed to not use it until now. i decided to try out a homemade fabric softener. when i searched online to find a recipe, i found one that sounded good on at home with the farmer's wife. so today i whipped up a batch and now i am waiting for my laundry to dry to see how well it did. hopefully i will not have to deal with scratchy towels any longer!

jeremiah trimmed up last night.
it's kind of nice when he does this.
it makes me notice features about him that i forgot seeing or have never seen.

some photos from our trip to amelia this past weekend. 

jeremiah took me to a bamboo forest. we found a nest with baby birds on the front porch. 

the puppy went on his first trip. on the drive up, we decided to name him "wake" after our favorite college team.

jeremiah and i are in amelia for the weekend. summer has captivated me here. 

these are some photos from my sewing room.

the "merrow" machine is my serger which was a gift from my husband for christmas. i have loved having a serger!!!

in an effort to focus more on self-sufficiency and less consumerism, i have made my own ladies' products.

simple as pie to make. i used all recycled fabric (cotton t-shirts and wool sweaters) and serged the edges. 

the wedding present i made for a friend to give to a friend.
used the log cabin pattern to make place mats and a potholder (not pictured) out of mostly recycled and vintage fabrics.
all wrapped up. labels say "for the table" and "for the stove".