sweet pea and her friend have been washing her very extensive rock collection for days.

they seem to be enjoying themselves. they have several bowls that they are using. so funny though they are washing the same rocks over and over again and other that really need to be cleaner are totally neglected. some are beautifully clean though! whatever makes them happy.

shot of return trip on route 81N

we drove down to new jersey to check out kitchen cupboards at ikea in paramus and visit our dear friends.

at ikea you can plan your kitchen with these little block cabinets. so fun.

so much great design. fun eye candy. felt so guilty there. it is obvious that you are cheating here. everything is ridiculously cheap. you know that it can't be right. i admit to large purchases.

love the fabric

we were back to making bracelets today.

we are ramping up for the park avenue festival again this year. we will be having our stand this year at our friends house on sunday not sure what time yet. we will be having a silent auction for painted furniture and bracelets for sale. maybe lemonade again. not really sure. we are going to be doing it with some friends this year. we shall see how it goes. more details soon.

i love the tea towel. must buy them when i see them. i have a linen compulsion. i have a hard time passing up old tea towels especially if they are embroidered. one of the many issues that i have is that it is difficult for me to decompose items from their original origins. i am working on getting over cutting fabric and paper from its original piece.

so tonight i was going to a fundraiser for south african literacy through barefoot books. if you would like to participate, go to the bottom of this link and click on the support this event tab, you will be taken to her stall and then on the lower left there is a link that reads BOOKS THAT GIVE BACK this will take you to the books that go directly to africa. there are a few others listed there too.

my friend also loves wine and she was going to be serving south african wine. i found a nice bottle for her and i read that in south african tradition it is customary to bring wine as a hostess gift and to wrap it nicely shows extra effort. this friend of mine always shows uber extra effort when she entertains. always the theme goes all the way. such a joy to attend her parties. so i decided to take one of my beautiful tea towels and make a "nice wrapping" for her bottle of wine.

this was very exciting for me to just do this on a whim. i am trying to just do things without thinking about them for as long as i normally would. this took two tries to get it right.

the first one was too big.

the second one was just right. i was so proud of it. this is really just the 5th sewing project that i have done. now i feel like a pro.

i came home from my evening out and sewed up the remaining fabric from the tea towel into a draw string bag that i can use for bread, produce or i think once sweet pea sees it she may take it as her own for what ever she can find to fill it with.

she came home after i made the wine bag and was so impressed. if i hadn't been feeling good about myself before she discovered my creation. i certainly was feeling good after she did. she made me feel like a rock star. she was so impressed with my creation. it doesn't take much for us to be impressed obviously.

great fun.

science experiments with the kids.

more birthday celebrations. three of us this time. we are not getting together enough-much catching up to do.

we had a great day with old and new freinds at the park in the city today. such a treat!

we went to the south wedge market today. we were looking for our favorite tomato friend, still not there this week. he has the best tomatoes. we really enjoyed the ones that we found though.

we had some really yummy beans from our friends at rochester roots we love what you are doing, keep going. here is the mission of rochester roots is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to the creation of urban school and community garden-based educational programs for youth and adults. These programs focus on growing, preparing and enjoying high quality, safe, affordable healthy food. we love to support them and their veggies are so yummy and fresh.

there was a new group at the market. sweet pea was so excited. they were selling original creations. they were called art peace. here is their mission: ArtPeace Young Entrepreneurs: Arts and technology apprentices work with master artists to collaboratively develop businesses and produce end products that they market and sell, in the disciplines of: Visual Arts, Music, Dance, Literary Arts, Film/Animation, Digital Studio, now including Rochester Digital Ripple - young entrepreneurs building neighborhood wireless networks.

we really had an over the top day today. we had a cousin visiting from california with his 5 year old little girl. so fun!

we were so excited that mrs. mcpuppet came to rochester today. we have not seen her in a year or so. she is so fun and we love her music and listen and shared her cd's often. she asked for volunteers to come up from and help lead a song. sweet pea shot her hand right up. we were chosen along with a few other mothers and children. somethings are hard to say no to.

we also went to the strong museum.

riding the carousel.

baking at the strong wegmans

filming cooking show

then co-hosting cooking show

i was beginning to have hot flashes again about 3 months ago and thought that i might be starting menopause. i went to see my midwife and a fertility specialist dr. john queenan, that i had gone to see before i started chemo in 2005.

in 2005 we were afraid that the chemo might knock out my ovaries so we wanted to harvest some eggs before i began chemo. there was not enough time to do the harvest before i started chemo because they really wanted me to get started. so they gave me a drug to put me into menopause to protect my ovaries. so when i went to see dr. queenan 2 months ago he told me that i was probably not creating any eggs anymore. i was still holding out some hope. i went to see dr. henry hess who is a gyn that specializes in hormone balance. i met with him to review my blood work today. the good news is that my thyroid, cholesterol, testosterone and adrenal glands are all very normal. estrogen on the other hand. not so much. i had a bone scan before chemo, but he thinks that my bones may be equal to those of a 52 year old. i turned 40 last week so this is concerning.

so we move on. i am going to be starting some new herbs and refocus on yoga, exercise and diet. the good news is that he believes that i can eat more tofu. i had cut back to a few times a week. he thinks i would be fine to eat it every day.

i am trying not to feel really sad about not having another baby. i am so fortunate to be here and healthy and to be home with my wonderful girl and an amazing supportive husband. we have a wonderful life. really, really amazing actually it is going to change from what i thought that it would be, but we will be having different adventures now and continue to be positive and joyful.

enjoy every minute.