TV Freedom

Yesterday, the Sailor and I canceled our TV service. After a year of subscribing on a special, we decided that it wasn't worth our time and money to keep both the TV and the Internet once the price went up. So we canceled the TV and kept the Internet. 

Frankly, it wasn't much more expensive to continue with the TV service, but we stopped it out of principle. It's so easy to just channel surf and watch mindless TV in the evenings.

Now don't get me wrong. We love our TV time. (How do you think I get so much knitting and crocheting done?!) But we realized that most of what we watch we can find online. We also realized that we were just wasting time watching stuff that we weren't all that interested in.

It's not the first time we've gone without TV. Before we moved, we only had our DVDs and the Internet. And for half the time I lived in England, I didn't even own a TV. There, you pay an annual TV license, even if you never plug your TV into the wall. After a year and a half, I decided that paying a few hundred bucks a year wasn't worth it for the four channels they offered back then. 

This past year was a little bit of a luxury, but now we've decided that cable TV is a luxury we can live without. Yesterday, after canceling our service, we felt a certain sense of freedom.

I have a feeling with the Peanut on the way, we're not really going to have time to veg in front of the TV in any case. At this point, it seems better for us to veg out watching the flowers grow... maybe we'll even spot another hummingbird.* 

{*The same day I published this post, the Sailor saw a hummingbird on our porch! I missed it, but apparently it was hovering around the red flowers. Hooray!} 

Weekend Knitting

What's a weekend without a little knitting? 

The Sailor and I are enjoying the quiet time at home before the arrival of the Peanut (every once in a while we say things like 'Do you hear that? That's the sound of silence...' usually right before one of us erupts into laughter.) 
 
 

I bought this green Berroco yarn at the Local Yarn Store's annual sale and I decided to make this hooded jacket for the Peanut. (I also made this cute cardigan with yarn acquired from the same sale.) The Peanut will be warm in all seasons.

There's definitely something sublime and fulfilling about knitting small things for a baby -- it's so easy to finish a mini-sweater in mere days! Or... maybe even over a weekend.

Hummingbirds

I am not a big bird fan (ask my mother...) and while I do love the sound of birds in the morning, I didn't want to deal with the mess of cleaning up seeds on our porch from a conventional feeder.

Earlier in the Spring, I noticed that hummingbird feeders seemed to be in all of the garden shops around the area. Enter my perfect no-seed solution to bird watching: I bought a hummingbird feeder. 

The Sailor promptly installed it for me and I planted some red flowers nearby to attract the birds. 

So far though... nothing. Not a single hummingbird. A few weeks ago I saw one out at our garden, so I know they're around here, but they don't seem to want to frequent my porch. 

I'm a total hummingbird novice... but I did buy hummingbird food and I did plant red flowers. I'm thinking the air conditioning units that are so close to the porch might be scaring them off. 

Any other bird people out there... what other tips can you offer to attract hummingbirds?

The Literary Library Baby Shower

Summer definitely seems to be both wedding and baby season. I'm not sure if it's the heat (and thus less layers of clothing, revealing bumps...) but I've certainly noticed more pregnant ladies out and about in town.

A few weeks ago, I shared with you my Skype non-shower baby shower. This week, I'd like to tell you about the Book Shower my local friends threw me here: B is for Books, Babies and Brenda! 

The hostess knew I didn't want a traditional shower with goofy games, although we made an exception for the 'game' part and actually watched the US play Portugal in the World Cup during the shower. How non-traditional is that?! Sadly, none of us managed to get a photo of the TV in the background as proof! 

The invitation asked everyone to bring a book, and specified that thrifted ones were absolutely fine. In fact, several thrifted books were used to create super fun vintage-like bunting, and many of the thrifted books were classics that are difficult to find these days. 

In keeping with the theme, the food spread matched the books.

The Tale of Peter Rabbit inspired veggie crudites, complete with hummus on bottom of the 'planters'. 

The somewhat infamous Orange Marmalade Poppyseed cake even made an appearance. This has been my no-fail cake for years now and I agreed to make it for my own party. (I'm hoping to finally share the recipe with you if I can get permission from the magazine publisher!) 

And Blueberries for Sal gave way to a delightful blueberry drink concoction! (I'm super excited about this book. I loved Make Way for the Ducklings as a child and I never knew that the author, Robert McCloskey, wrote this one too!) 

Of course books were also involved... 

I loved the library as a child (and I still do!) but there are a number of these books I'd never heard of or read, so I'm excited that the Peanut already has quite a stash of reading material for the years to come! 

I don't remember ever reading The Sailor Dog -- a Little Golden Book about a dog named Scuppers who wants to sail on the sea. 

But as soon as I got home that evening, I read this one aloud to the Peanut before bedtime. And as silly as I felt reading a book to my belly, I'm pretty sure this might become one of my favorite books to read to the Peanut, especially when the Sailor is away to sea. 

I'm super thankful for friends far away for the Skype Shower, and the local ladies who know me well enough to host a Book Shower for Baby. 

(And an extra special thank you to my friend and the evening's hostess, Tianna, for making the latter happen! She and I shared creative spaces together while working onboard a hospital ship many moons ago... and it's super fun to live in the same city as her now. Most of these photos were taken by her.)

Watermelon Summer

The Sailor arrived home a little earlier than expected this week. I'm certainly not complaining, but my already sporadic schedule was thrown off slightly by a happy homecoming! I know I promised a post here on my recent Library Baby Shower and I promise it's coming soon.

In the meantime, since I didn't have time to make a milk tart for the Sailor, I bought a watermelon. (I actually think I still have some milk tart in the freezer from the last time I made it, in any case.) The watermelon caught my eye, because let's face it, my belly is about the same size at the moment, and probably weighs the same! 

Besides, nothing spells summer like a good dose of watermelon, and bare feet -- even if I can't actually see mine at the moment.