Oprah. Everybody Gets a Car.

Harpo Studios! (If you click the pictures they open full size, they are the front-right side-and back of the studios.) Oprah wasn't there, she went on hiatus last week for the summer. We had to be in the city this morning so the baby could see an eye specialist at the University of Illinois (Olly has a weird little spot on his eye that we have to keep checking on, it was his fourth appointment with specialists, this one went really well). So when I was Mapquesting last night it turns out Oprah is only 1.6 miles away from Univ of Illinois. I tried to get tickets a couple of times this year but it's always busy, so this will do. Maybe in the Fall I'll have better luck. I stopped into a 7-Eleven for batteries for the camera and had to get one of these Obama sodas. Or as they call it here "pop"

A League of Their Own

From the 1992 film "A League of Their Own" starring Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Rosie O'Donnell, Lori Petty, Jon Lovitz, and Madonna.

While the men were off fighting World War II, women were recruited to play baseball to keep the game alive. One of the teams was called the Rockford Peaches and they played in Rockford, Illinois at the intersection of 15th Street & Seminary Street. Their field was torn down a couple of decades ago and now it's just a public soccer field, but the original Peaches turnstile remains.

We spent Sunday doing Spring yardwork. Finally, a nice day after 8 straight days of rain and the obligatory April-flooded-basement week.

The boys trimmed the front tree branches that were growing too close to the house, cut them up into bonfire size, and hauled them to the burn pile. Raked the leaves off the garden bed (still not finished). I mucked out the chicken barn which means shoveling up the pine shavings on the floor into bags for compost and spreading new shavings around. Also, there were some seriously ginormous cobwebs that had to come down from the rafters.

We checked out the fruit trees we planted last year and found buds and new growth on all but one pear tree. My lilac from last Mother's Day is coming along nicely as well as the pretty cherry blossom tree. I have got blue muscari (grape hyacinth), red and yellow tulips, and forget-me-nots coming up all over the place. And the lawn is bursting with beautiful wild violets.

So, after a day of work the boys were heading out to see the new X-Men Wolverine film that night and I managed to squeeze in a trip downtown to see this Peaches field. We had just watched A League of Their Own together the night before and in my family you've got to strike while the iron's hot, so off we went and managed to find it just before dusk.

A bit of local history, anyway. I'll have to check out what else is around this area...

Christmas Cards

Well, it looks like I've started blogging. It's a snowy Wednesday afternoon outside my window in Northern Illinois. We're headed straight into the holiday season; fasten your seatbelts!



Yesterday, I finished making Christmas cards with some supplies that I found on Etsy. Started with a set of black toile cards from eBay and added some paper from Michaels and then finished them off with Elle and the Snow Dove Tags from belleandboo.

The envelope seals are going to be these sweet little Christmas Tree Stickers from BrambleberryLane

The tags came prepared with those pretty ribbons that I just tied into a bow and used sticky dots to attach. It might have been nice with grommets or brads but I was afraid they would be too front-heavy and swing open when they were hung up.

They're done, signed by hubs and the two boys, and ready to go. Little one went artistic with a few and did his best snowman, gingerbread house, and polar express train drawings on the insides.





I worked a bit on some baby announcements (trying to stay ahead of deadlines this Christmas!) but more about those another day.

UPDATE: Dec. 4th what a coincidence! belleandboo are Featured Etsy Seller today