I’ve been checking off many of my list items in the last few weeks but haven’t gotten a chance to post about them. My most favorite by far was this one. One of my old high school friends (who I do not see nearly often enough) is Anoushka Shankar. And she just happens to be pretty darn fabulous. She came to San Diego on a tour of her new record Traveller (UH-MAZ-ING) and she emailed to see if any of our friends wanted to come and see her play (um, let me think, YES!)

Allison, Jenny and I had a ladies night date to see the show and it was so fantastic! Photography wasn’t allowed inside the show and it was late when we got out so I didn’t feel like stopping to take pictures of the theater… but I did get one measly instagram snapshot of my ticket.

It was an amazing show and I’m so happy that I was able to check off this list item with such a special outing!

Hooray! We finally saw a movie. Ben and I were brainstorming tonight and as best as we can remember, the last movie we saw in theaters was The King’s Speech (which was a great movie by the way, highly recommend if you haven’t seen it) which we saw in Los Angeles, before we moved and before we had Edie. Yes. We need to get out more. I know.

We ended up doing what we always do, which is waiting until the last minute to decide whether we’re going to try to do a dinner date or a movie date… frantically waffling between should we or shouldn’t we try to go (will Edie wake up while we’re gone, will we get an SOS call like our last dinner date?) and whether or not it’s worth it. Tonight the movie won, and since it was an early (7:10) showing we were *fairly* certain we could make it back before she woke up, even if she did have an early wake-up night. We saw Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which until today I didn’t even know existed (and definitely wouldn’t have picked based on its name but lucky for us Ben reads the synopses of even the ones with horrible titles). But it was cute. And WE SAW A MOVIE! Hooray! I am so excited I think we might just have to see another one… you know… before next year

One more list item, check! Actually, I have another one that’s done as well but not quite blogged… I made the kids matching outfits for Easter. Cuteness overload! I will hopefully get those photos up soon.

This one has been on my to-do list for ages. Since about September of 2008 to be exact. Project Linus is a charity that collects blankets from volunteers (they can be crochet, knit, quilted… pretty much if you can make it they will take it) and distributes them to children in need of some love and comfort. From the Project Linus website :

As Charles Schulz’s Linus character from the PEANUTS® comic strip was comforted by his blanket, Project Linus strives to do the same and more for children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need. The blankets our nearly 400 chapter coordinators collect from thousands of “blanketeers” (volunteers) across the United States and then distributed to these children provide love, a sense of security, warmth, and comfort.

When Paul and Amelia were born they spent 2 weeks in the NICU. The first week and a half of that was spent in isolettes, little plastic baby bubbles where they wore only diapers and were hooked up to all sorts of beeping, buzzing, glowing machines. Once they reached a certain size and were able to take their food by mouth rather than tube they were moved into an open crib. When we walked into the NICU to find them in open cribs it was pretty much the happiest moment of my life. They finally looked like they were snuggly and cozy, just as babies are meant to be. Part of it was that they weren’t in their isolettes anymore, but a lot of it was that they were also covered up by beautiful handmade blankets given to them by Project Linus.

Ever since that day I have had blanket making on my to-do list. It made me feel so comforted and loved to know that someone out there took the time and effort to make blankets for my babies. I knew I needed to do the same for someone else who was going through a rough time. Paul and Amelia actually still sleep with their Project Linus blankets every single night.

I started this blanket sometime in 2010 and have had it mostly finished for almost a year now. I was just dragging my feet on weaving in the ends (I don’t like that part) and getting it mailed off, but I’m proud to say it’s on its way as of this morning. Hooray! I finally finished my blanket! Now to make a second one…

For those curious about the how-to on this blanket… it’s pretty much the easiest crochet project on the planet. All you need to know is chain, single crochet and double crochet. I believe it’s actually this shell stitch pattern from the Project Linus website, but almost all the shell stitch patterns I found were basically the same idea. Three cheers for finishing a project!

One more item checked off my 30 by 30 list, hooray!