Softball Noli

Noli has elected to play softball this year (yay! I was growing tired of soccer :p ) Her team is named the Ponytail Express (cute, huh?!!) and purple is their color! Her dad is the team dad and one of the coaches so I know that makes her little softball heart sing!

This past Saturday was her first game so, of course, her proud parents and grandparents were there to clap and yell encouragement.... and take pictures.....

Up at bat

She's got a pretty good swing

Look closely and you can see that one of our dad coaches has just the word Express on his shirt. 

No Ponytail in sight. You'll see the reason for pointing this out in a minute.... :p

Tebowing?

Maybe, but probably just checking out the dirt

In the dugout, waiting for her turn at bat

and being a goofball LOL!

Get that elbow up!

Pretty good swing....

But didn't connect with the ball

Love these bronze statues!

Similar ones are all around at libraries, town centers and such.

We're the Visitors....

Look closely and you'll see that this coach dad is on the other team (the Kittens). The coaches' shirts had a pink paw print with "Kittens" written below it. Oh my, on that burly guy :)

(I think our dads were pretty smart to just have "Express" on their shirts!)

Hey, hey, we're one up!

But note the two outs.....

And the final score!

The Ponytail Express WINS!!

It was a good game and all played well!

But, of course, the best part is the snack!

She always knows when somebody's taking a pic

and she was up against me and her other grandfather

This is how she poses a lot....

little smarty pants

Caught her giggling anyway!

Now we're off to grab a little lunch before taking our sweetie back to mommy. All in all, a pretty terrific day!

~ sharing Softball Noli over at Miss Jenny's for AlphabeThursday where we are studying the letter S
~ and sharing all the pink uniforms, helmets and shoes over at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday
~ and sharing over at Grandma's Briefs for GRAND Social


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Sea Shells by the Sea Shore -- a BBA Challenge

Each month the Blogging Business Artisans Etsy team has a challenge project with the theme given by the team members. July's theme was my idea (blush blush) and was to create something that was vacation related -- a vacation memory, something that represents a place visited, colors or scents associated with a special place, or even something funny that happened on a vacation.

With this in mind, I decided that I would finish a sea shell cross-stitch piece that I started years ago, but had never finished (the procrastinator in me is always lurking about.....)

The fabric is really more ivory in color -- I just couldn't get the background color right!

Aren't these colors pretty? Shells always seem to have the loveliest pinks!

I have always loved shells and have quite a few gathered from various places, but I had never done much with them. So when it came time to tear down the absolutely awful very outdated wallpaper that was in the hall bath when we moved in, I opted for a beach theme and used those shells! The bathroom fixtures are kind of an aqua blue and have always reminded me of the ocean. We painted the walls a lighter version of that aqua blue and the granite tile we selected reminds me of sand. So sea shells were a natural for decoration!

Knowing that I have a fondness for shells, my daughter painted this watercolor for me! I love the soft muted colors, especially the peachy pink. I like that she painted it in a style with softened edges and just the hint of a shell, like a fading memory. That blue background is perfect on the wall too -- just a bit darker!

She also gave me this shell shadow box (the shells are not real) and it lives on top of a white wall-hung cabinet in the bathroom. 

It's really cool with three-dimensional shells

I've got to get the cross-stitch framed, but this is sort of what it will look like in a white frame. (This frame is not the right size!)  I think it will be perfect alongside the watercolor! Since this is vertical and the shell watercolor is horizontal, I'll probably do a skinny cross-stitch to fill up the space -- I already have one in mind that has shells in a row! Now, if I can just get it finished before 2020!!

Now on to the vacation memory....

When I was a child, my family always visited the grandparents every summer -- one set in Alabama and the other in Florida. We often took a side trip and one year we spent a few days at a seaside cabin, maybe on the Gulf Coast. It could have even been on a river because, as I recall, it was fresh water! Anyway, I was somewhere between 8 and 10 and my older brother was with us. 

The cabin extended over the water and my brother and I were swimming and saw a flounder! I had never seen a flounder before and my brother told me how they have two eyes on one side of their flat body and that when they turned over, the eyes migrated to whatever side was up! Since he was older and wiser than me, I believed every word! Of course, now I know that a flounder is born with eyes on either side, but that one does migrate over to the chosen side that he turns onto.... but they STAY there, they don't move around the head every time the fish turns over as my brother wanted me to believe!

 

They're not a very pretty fish but they're great to eat!! 

It was a fun time doing something I had never done before, and to top it all off, I found finger paints in a cabinet... I'd never done that before either!!

Sharing with
Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound
Blue Monday at Smiling Sally's


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Renewal

The signs of spring are everywhere

The beauty of  blooming flowers....

Pink flowers by the side of the road

Sweet, sweet new life....

Kittens born in the backyard

Soccer season!

A little practice before the big game

Noli's team is the "Wild Angels"

Appropriate  : )

This month's challenge for the Blogging Business Artisans team is about renewal. Margaret (Splendid Little Stars) says "In Springtime, the earth renews itself. Life bursts forth from that which seemed dead. Our challenge this month is to create a project that honors a spirit of renewal."

I thought about what I could create in crochet that would show that spirit of renewal.

I thought about birds laying their eggs and baby birds being born;

I thought of the earth being washed clean and renewed after a spring shower;

then I thought of the way the butterfly lays its egg,

and the caterpillar is born right there on its own table of food.

How after the caterpillar has satisfied its hunger, 

it spins its special home

and is born again as a beautiful butterfly.

And then the process repeats, over and over again. 

Renewal. 

This Growing Butterfly play set is a fun way for a child to learn how the caterpillar changes into a butterfly.

It's in my shop!

To see what other team members have created for this challenge go to our blog or our team discussions 

I'm also sharing over at Pink Saturday at How Sweet the Sound

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Pumpkin Patch Noli

There's a small farm that's close by -- actually inside the city limits of  a nearby town -- that has a pumpkin patch every year for the kids to enjoy. I was browsing through some Noli pics and found these that were taken in October of 2010.

Noli had a grand time!

Ghost pumpkins!

Hmmm..... which one shall I chose?

These are fun!

Oh. this. is. heavy.

Belly shot!!

She always goes for the wartiest ones!

You can tell by her clothes that October is still warm in Texas!!

I'm sitting here in shorts!

Farmer Noli

She was impressed at the size of that tire!

"Bigger than me!"

Hay bale Alamo!

Wait. Did they have polka dot curtains at the Alamo??

My hair isn't tall enough!!

Mommy, you're a silly....

Baby pumpkins!

It's fun to climb on the hay!

It's dark-thirty -- time to go!

See you next year!!

It was a fun time, including a run through the corn maze....

but that's a post for another day!!

♥♥♥  Linking Pumpkin Patch Noli to Pink Saturday over at How Sweet the Sound 'cause we're looking at pumpkins today!

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