Jesus was at Devil's Lake with us...

While we were hiking up the East Bluff along the south face at Devil’s Lake State Park, we passed a troop of Boy Scouts from the Chicago area.  We had seen them at a couple of different points and they had admired (mostly with their cameras) Fabi’s rock climbing skills, I mean, “bouldering skills.”  Anyway, Fabi was barefoot while we wandered and pretty scruffy looking on the face.  A chunky little Boy Scout who passed us took one look at Fabi and grinned sheepishly, saying “Hi Jesus.”  Oh, how we laughed for days and days.  We still do.

That day at Devil’s Lake was one of the most epic of the whole month.  I absolutely LOVED being there enjoying something that Fabian enjoys so much!  It was sunny and I read while he climbed… the lunch spot… oh, the lunch spot was designed specifically by God, just for us!

The Craft Mobile!

Being with Amber always means adventure, and most of the time, epic adventure.  Epic is Amber's middle name.  She can make microwaving a burrito epic. It’s just the way she sees things.  It’s one of the many reasons I crave spending time with her.  This weekend, we decided to hold the first tri-annual (or quarterly – we aren’t sure yet) “crafting weekend”… it’s still up for debate whether we will actually craft at every one of them, but we thought we’d start it off with a bang… a trip to JoAnn Fabrics.  We almost didn’t make it out actually.  We almost spent our whole weekend in the store, standing over our cart, admiring fabric and dreaming about what it could become with the right amount of stitching and patience.  We pulled ourselves away after several pep talks.

We had two main projects: A make-up bag and some placemats.  We sewed for about 10 hours, with a short break for pizza dinner.  Have a look…

We used a pattern from a German woman.

This is Amber's bag because it has chutzpah.

We now have matching AWESOME place mats!

 

We came, we saw, we crafted!

Our other goal was to eat food out of Amber's beautiful garden that Fabi and I helped plant this past May... and, well, we failed miserably.... but we had great burgers at the Big Star Drive In... and pizza delivered by Papa Johns (yummy garlic butter sauce!)  Here are the before and after pictures from her garden...

Before in May

After in August

 Impressed?  I was.  Amber grows a garden in an epic  way!