unexpected paths

pick one!

2012-01-22T11:30:00.003-07:00

sorry for the second post!

one of my co-workers is going to have a baby in Aug. It's too early to tell boy or girl, but I do want to make her a baby quilt. I like the new quilt on the moda bakeshop, so it's a possibility, but aside from the pattern should I make something with:

The Bernstein Bears
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_welcome_to_bear_country.pdf

or

Spot
http://www.andoverfabrics.com/Grid.php?GroupName=Spot
and/or
http://www.andoverfabrics.com/Grid.php?GroupName=Goodnight%20Spot

or

Just go with the original inspiration and stick with the pez?
http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_pezzy_print.pdf
which I'd just go with that pattern instead of trying to come up with my own.

there's so much more I want to share with you, but I dont want THREE posts in one day! hehe!

the winter storm

2012-01-22T10:57:00.003-07:00

You all know I now live in the Seattle area right? And did you hear about our snow? If only the computer I use here worked like mine...or if I got mine out of it's moving box and had dad fix it. The girls spent a lot of time outside these past few days. In the snow. they got into and out of all their snow gear on their own. (big deal for H!) but we couldn't find their winter gloves, just their knit ones...so both got ziploc baggies taped over their gloves to keep their hands dry and them outside a little longer.

I still had to get to and from work, even though headquarters ("corporate") was closed, and our distribution center was shut down for three days because of no power. I had to open the store and be there by 4:45, so I left my house by 3:20 every morning. I couldn't make it up my hill, so I parked at the local 7-11 and dad got me in his truck. Mind you I drive a 2001 beetle, and it's AWESOME in the snow, but the grade on my hill, especially on the bottom was a little too steep. Especially without momentum. I tried three streets my first day, and one the second. Dad was nice enough to drive me down to my car in the morning, after remote starting his truck so it was warm, AND scraped my windows and let me stay in the truck. Nice dad! I worked my 8 hours, and then some off the clock to help out some, and was home by 3 most days the week but not until 6pm one of the days. I had to get gas for my car, and for the generator. We did lose power for about a day and a half (that's how I made it up my hill the third day. They had major league plowed and sanded one of the roads to help the PSE guys get up to restore power to the area.) now most the snow is melted, we have some major wind storms going through and temps rose quickly with lots of rain, so flooding is an issue in some areas. Mind you this whole time my manager was on vacation, and it was extended two days because our airport was cancelling flights.

What really tickles my funny bone about this storm we had is not that people don't know how to drive and almost everything shuts down. I'll admit it's a totally different thing trying to get around out here in the snow than in Montana, but it's that people FREAK OUT about it. They panic, they are dumb, there are so many accidents, one news station even reported that they stopped counting after the 6,500 point in one county. No one remembers a storm like this before....it happens every year. At least once. Usually in late Jan, early Feb. Every year. Usually for one week or so. Why isn't anyone prepared? Why don't people remember last years? make plans in advance? So funny!!!

little facts

2012-01-09T11:27:00.003-07:00

merry late Christmas, happy new year, and um...anything else I missed!

Not much to report around here. I am almost done with my Halloween quilt, and I found some of the fabric I want. Just not the green, but I think I can live without it if I have to. I will keep looking until the last possible moment, but I can be happy with what I have.

I am working on editing the patterns I want to make the girls quilts with. I "need" some of Moda's Porcelain Bella Solids, but don't want to buy anything else. I will keep that on the back burner until some of my other projects are finished to see if I have enough tip money saved up, and can sneak it into the house. =) I could use white, I have a bolt of Moda Bella White, but it's just off enough it would bother me. Most likely no one else, but me.

Next week we will be applying for Kindergarten for R and Preschool 1 for H! WAHOO!!!

I don't know if I shared the whole fiasco with my Child Care Assistance, but basically I was kicked out of the program because I didn't have an active child support case against A going (or receiving support) and I passed my 30 day period. The next week (so like 36 days) I got my letter saying my case is now "active" and I filled out a TON of paperwork, so I have been calling all morning to get back on the wait list for Support, but keep getting "all circuits are busy now, please call again later, good bye." and the one time I got through I was disconnected. How frustrating. But it'll work out in the end!

I joined the quilters group at my church. I am 30-35 years younger than the youngest member of the group. I was expecting that. They were not expecting me. But I think it will be good. I will learn some things, I will share youth and energy and interest. They will know the art is not dying out with their fellow quilters....I am excited about it!

I also joined the churches prayer line and am trying to make it to a pray and play group with H. Darn work keeps getting in the way.

R is in swim lessons. She loves it. It's about time she joined too! 5 1/2 and never before been in swim lessons! SHESH!

H has so many words, loves puzzles, is so stinkin' smart it kills me sometimes. She looks so sweet and Innocent and little, then you turn your back and she's gotten into something she couldn't possibly been able to get into and you can't help but laugh!

AS for PHD/WIP's for me....I just want to work on the list I started last year and never got to finishing since the move and I am still not in my "own" space. It's hard to haul everything to my friends house, set up, sew, make sure the kids are playing nicely, eat, stop fights, pack everything up and then go home. But you do what you've got to do!

silly sweeties

2011-11-17T21:17:00.002-07:00

let me start off with some sewing stuff:

1) On my Halloween quilt that I was taking to a friends house (based off this quilt using Moda's Spooktacular from last year or the year before and black) to work on. It's doing well. I have 8 more rows to sew on, none are made yet. I have a strange system for trying to keep it random. It works, it's not the most efficient, but it works. Two of the rows are 17 blocks long (8-9patches and 9-solid blacks) the other 6 are 19 blocks long. Not too bad, just time consuming. Then I need to try and track down some fabric to match the green orange and purple and make up some applique.

I am also going to ask my brothers girlfriend if for my birthday she'd make some paintings or drawings (I am thinking 3) to hang over my bed when this is on it. Same with my valentines quilt that I finished before the move. Maybe for the next several birthdays and Christmases so I can coordinate. Have I told you how obsessed with decorating for holidays I am?

2) I found a quilt I LOVE on Jaybirds blog. It's her market Schoolhouse recap post. It's about 1/2 way down, it's in Jean Wells section, towards the end, the pinks and soft colors in basics with a framed square in each block. I have been searching high and low for that pattern, and will keep doing so, but in the meantime I think I will have to grab a pencil, a ruler, and some graph paper and see if I can come up with one close to that. I love it. I've been thinking about what I'd like to make the girls Christmas quilts into....not that I have Christmas fabric for them yet but that's not the point. I want a plan of action when I see the Christmas fabric for them I love. You all know I like the girls to have similar quilts that don't match but have the same fabrics and a similar feel. so that quilt that I can't find a pattern to and this quilt would make a nice set.

OK, so about the girls:

H is starting to potty train! WAHOO!
H loves tools! A few days ago she gave both my mom and my dad two pieces of wood, one screw, and an electric screwdriver. yes, EACH.
H did something silly I Can't remember but I SO wanted to share with you!

R was asleep and my dad carried her upstairs (we were trying to get ready to go to a tree ceremony) and she was out COLD, or so we thought. little faker (I think she was asleep most the time but when she woke up decided to play with us)
R loves to do puzzles (that's not silly, but so fun!)

shesh I had so many more things to share when I started this post. Bummer!!! I promise more to come. Especially since I called it silly sweeties and talked about quilting.

*update* I am trying to track down a little bit of Spooktacular, I need 1/8 or a yard for the applique panel and some for binding. can be the same or different so if you see or know of any let me know! I will use solids in purple, green, and orange for the applique itself which I can find locally I am sure but I want the binding and the borders to be in the real stuff.

the girls

2011-11-09T11:29:00.002-07:00

hi!

How are you doing? We are getting along fine over here. Nothing really going on, but can anyone belive it's NOVEMBER? Shesh!

On Monday I took the girls to their new pediatricians office to get them in the system before either got really sick (more than a cold they have right now) and to get flu shots. H didn't even fuss when she got her shot, she just looked at me like "are you kidding me mom?" R insisted she was NOT going to get a flu shot. Little did she know!

When we got to the office, the nurse recognised me. She asked if I had been a patient there. Yes, about 10 years ago was when I moved on from them. She said "you have a younger brother too don't you? And it's just the two of you?" WOW!

The Dr we saw is a young lady, love her. She started talking to R right away and made eye contact with her. Very important to me! She immediately asked how long R had her Eczema outbreak for and I said "so that's what that is!" we got information on eczema. No more dryer sheets for ANYONE in the family (we'll do that as a last resort or line dry all her sheets, towels, clothes, etc) no more baby soap, lots of lotion, and three prescriptions for creams plus an everyday many times a day one. one prescription is for her body, one for her face, and one for her eyes. Now I have to learn all I can about it! She also got her 5 year old/Kindergarten shots. four pokes in her arms total. And she still thinks they are all the flu shot. One was.

H was checked out too, not an all out check up but just a visit and I mentioned that the nutritionist who was visiting their daycare noticed she toe walks a lot. The Dr did a few small checks and it doesn't look like Cerebral Palsy, but something with her hips. I looked it up and found Hip Displasia but I don't think that's what she said. We have to keep H in shoes at all times, the kind that make it hard to go on tip toes. If she still manages to, if she refuses to wear shoes, or if it doesn't seem to help then off to physical therapy she will go.

so for a quick "hi nice to meet you give my kids flu shots and here are their records" appointment I walked out with a total of 5 shots (7 immunisations) three prescriptions and one referral to physical therapy and a list of things to do at home.

Unrelated this weekend I am going to have crafting evenings with a good friend of mine. She's a draw-er (how do you write that without saying drawer) and has a little girl close to H's age, but personality more like R so the two of them play and H does her own thing. They will watch CareBears and Tangled and we will watch the Twilight movies (maybe she'll let me watch them with commentary on too or I will do that back home) and I am bringing my sewing machine and some projects with me! She will have dinner for us Sat and I will do Sun and she recommended having "coffee and other delicious drinks" I am hoping for a root beer float or milkshake!! Can't WAIT!

any news from you?

teaching respectfully

2011-10-24T15:15:00.003-07:00

it's been a while since I've posted. Not much has happened. No new home, no new position, no new sewing, no new news. Sometimes that's nice. I really wanted to be in my own space before Christmas but I don't think that will happen. My new goal is by my birthday. Think I can do it by April? It depends on if something comes into the market I guess.

I don't know if I ever mentioned one of my challenges with A was always that he didn't like anyone that was different from him. Be it skin color, political thinking, religious beliefs, economic class, ethnicity, you get the picture. If you didn't think like him, you were wrong. And believe me, there were many things I did not agree with him on.

I have always wanted to expose my children to diversity, of all kinds. Well before I lived with A and knew people really thought that way. Part of why I moved back to the Seattle area was because I grew up essentially colorblind. Not ignorant, but not aware either. I saw people, not labels. Some of that has to do with my parents, but some also has to do with exposure.

I have decided to teach the girls of other religions and beliefs. I am not quite sure how I want to do it, but I know it's important to me to show the girls how to learn about others. I want to make sure to foster kindness, compassion, and respectful curiosity towards others in the girls. I was planning on starting with Judaism. Mostly because being Catholic, we have a shared history. Jesus was a Jew.

I was going to start with Hanukkah but I think I might wait until next year and start with Rosh Hashanah — The Jewish New Year. Take some time to learn more so I can share with the girls better. I was telling my parents about this and my dad asked if I was serious about this and I said "yes, I am" and he has some co-workers that he's going to ask for information for me. I have asked him to make it clear I am not looking for information for conversion, but for compassion and understanding. I am very happy to be a Catholic, in my heart I know it's the right religion for me, even if I don't always agree with the rules, the Pope, or the decrees.

I don't really know why I am sharing this, but maybe someone has some advice, resources, other cultures (I want to learn and share other cultures as well as religions) I should invest time into learning about. I asked one of my friends from Chile to share with the girls and she's thinking about what she'd like to share.

a fall poem (entry) and little tidbits

2011-09-23T17:44:00.004-07:00

did you see the giveaway at the jolly jabber? I entered, but wanted to share my poem since I thought it was funny....it doesn't take much does it?

hi, my name is lisa.
I am a barista
I love the FALL
cool weather and all.
I dont have to sneeze
when I jump in the LEAVES.
I enjoy APPLE CIDER
I don't like a spider.
I love to wear a SWEATER
could fall be any better?
I need a new fall QUILT
perhaps one will be built
with a gift card won
when this giveaways done.

in other news, no luck on the house hunt. Oh well. Not in a hurry.

R started school and LOVES it. She is good friends with a little girl already. So cute! H keeps takign a bag too and trying to sneak into the classroom. The teacher catches her every time much to H's surprise and disapointment. too cute! They both start daycare on Monday!!! I will be getting some state assistance, and the girls will be going almost full time. The place is run by a married couple who have two children, at least one has special needs. They wanted to make sure the girls were a fit so they not only asked us to come once, but asked us to come twice, and then a third time and have me leave them there for 20 minutes or so and see what happens. Very nice loving place!

I am being given a bunk bed that needs some work (part of it was repainted, then put into storage, and another part was sanded and never painted, so both will have to be sanded a little bit again and painted, and a ladder has long been lost but dad is handy) and a complete correll dish set from a friend of my moms. so kind. I don't LOVE the dish set but I know it won't break (you knwo teh cream with green trim and ivy pattern? I know you know it!) but it will be good to use with the girls until they learn to be more careful and as our "every day" dishes until I save up and slowly buy the dishes I LOVE (at crate and barrel)

I actually bought 6 "appetizer" plates for about $30 with a coupon that I LOVE....should I get 12 or is 6 enough? Mind you I am not planning on replacing these, and I want to use them as my "company plates" for years....until I get married someday a long time from now and register for something else. I am planning on getting these, and these, and these all in that teal color, then getting a bunch of white stuff that will mix and match for a classy and quirky table...that's me. Classy and quirky!

whats new with all of you?

decorating....in theory

2011-09-04T15:01:00.002-07:00

have you been following V and Co? I have been following her for a few years, I LOVE her decorating, her quilts, her giveaways. Since she moved recently (and has a tight decorating budget) I've been paying better attention. Especially since I don't have a man to tell me not to. I can do as I please! (within my budget, reason, and without going hog wild) I plan to do something with her hydrangea wreath, and her pillows, and....I will stay tuned. Now to get my own place....

I also wanted to ask for prayers for the Howell Family. They lost their daughter, and one of my best friends sometime before everyone woke up this morning. Her brother called me to let me know. It was not expected.

some things I've learned about the kiddos

2011-08-29T09:55:00.004-07:00

Summer is almost over here. Big kids at R's school start next week, she will start the week after. on Sept 12th. I wanted to take a moment and reflect on the girls, things that have changed, things I've noticed now that I have time to enjoy the girls, and things I never would have known if it weren't for my parents.

H loves Hot Tamales (the candies) who would have thought

Dirt is fun. I have a great pic of H on my dads camera, COVERED in dirt and so proud of it

(mind you I would demand my parents wash my hands if there was a tiny bit of dirt on them, and still am that way!)

Trees are too scary to climb, Rhododendrons on the other hand are perfect

R likes routine. More than most kids her age.

H's bed time is not flexible. 8:00 on the dot, even if she's not tired. She'd rather play in her crib until she is tired than be up past 8.

R might have some visual spacial problems, and problems with motor skills. I might have to have her tested but we will see what her teachers say.

"What do you want to do today" will always be answered by R with "go to the park" and maybe "go to the library"

H can recognise the Starbucks logo.

R has learned how to accept that she has to take one "no thank you bite" and is sometimes not sure what to do when she takes the no thank you bite and finds she likes the food.

the girls who will NOT eat corn, LOVE corn on the cob. They each eat two whole cobs whenever its served.

R has a favorite color. It's pink

R trys to manipulate situations because she's smarter than H....trying to put the kibosh on that one!

R likes Jimmy Dean Breakfasts. And my dad likes having them with her.

Otter Pops are better than Popsicles

I am still looking for a place to live. Hopefully this weekend my brothers girlfriends and I can get to Crate and Barrel and do some dish/kitchen shopping. I have a list of stuff I want from Ikea for furniture and will get it in waves. I can't find a bunk bed I love for the girls at a good price (I want a white wood one that can be split into two twin beds. I am planning on using one for me for a few months while I save up to buy a queen and bedroom set for me since H is still in her crib and that converts into a toddler bed I figure I have a year or so still on that one. I am planning on getting a slate grey couch and white furniture for the living room that way my holiday and everyday decorations (and quilts) won't clash. Yes my quilts dictate my couch. You know you are a quilter when....

I hope everyone is surviving Irene, and back to school, and the end of summer.

p.s.

2011-08-07T20:43:00.002-07:00

oh, did I tell you I learned how to make jam? Yeah, that was actually the point of my last post. I went to a friends house (technically a friend of my mom...I mentioned her last time. S.) and she taught me how to make jam! We made Strawberry Rhubarb, and have been invited back to make blackberry as long as the girls and I pick the blackberries! I see doing this A LOT in my future. Not because it saves much in the end, but because I can do it. And I like being able to do stuff, make things myself; have I mentioned I am stubborn and determined? (That might be why starting again isn't so bad!)

some progress....

2011-08-04T18:36:00.003-07:00

I found a quilt pattern I want to make! Maybe I will get sewing again! (or not....I need my own space!) It's Now and Later in American Patchwork and Quilting's latest mag. you can see an image of it here (anyone else feel a sense of familiarity with that web site?) but I want to do it in pinks and greens, and whites, with maybe a little yellow. Have I ever told you guys how the girls will be in a bunk bed before too long. I want them to have coordinating but not matching quilts. Meaning I want them to have quilts that have the same fabrics, and similar features but are not the same. I might do this with a stacked coin rendition, like the one I made off the Moda Bakeshop. Those colors would be their "most the year" quilts. I want to make them Christmas quilts too. Eventually I want to be able to change out their quilts with more holidays, but for now that is what I want to have for them. Have I told you how holiday decorating obsessed I become? Even on my very minimal budget? Oh my!

I have not heard back from the townhouse place, the 11th is the day everyone has to give notice by. I do have a lead on a place that is only one bedroom, a little further from work, but VERY reasonably priced. I might be willing to make it work for that price, as long as there is a washer and dryer available. I also have a call in to an agency that helps people find services and apply for services.I am looking for child care assistance and referrals mostly but I am going to see if they have any other suggestions or programs for me. I am not going to be one of those people who is "on the system to use the system" but rather accepting help to get back on my feet, start fresh and excel from there. But you know that about me. I don't take the easy way out!

H turns two tomorrow! TWO!!! I miss babyness but am so proud of her and thrilled by her latest developments. Her language has exploded over the last month. I think part of it is the security, part of it is we have three adults talking with her more, reading to her, and encouraging her to try, and part of it is where she is in her normal childhood development. So wonderful to watch and hear! And now she tells us her favorite things, all start with the letter B....my brother B, Bear, Book, Ball, Blankie, Baba (cup....any cup) Bobbies ("coffee" aka milk in a Starbucks cup) and Baby. Interesting eh? She also tells me when she needs a diaper change, sometimes moments before she needs it. I see potty training on the horizon!

just FYI Joanne at Splitting Stitches is having a give-away....1/2 price on quilting, and she already has such amazing prices....go enter!

I am off to read my book....I have two more ready for pick up!

no news

2011-07-27T12:14:00.002-07:00

hi guys!

Still no sewing

Still living with Mom and Dad

Still adjusting.

LOTS of READING! I LOVE the library system here. I can pick out titles online, reserve them or be put on a list if others want to read it, pick which library I want to pick them books up from, and we have been going AT LEAST once a week. I set a limit of two books each (except me, I pick up my holds but SHHH don't tell the girls I sometimes get more than the allotted two!) But I like to read series where you really get to know the characters and the writing style and I can get them in order...and all of them which I couldn't do back in Montana. So happy! My co-workers laugh because about every other day I am back with a new book. Between the unexpected length of my commute (construction) and my lunch breaks I have time to read at work.

An interesting development here, the girls don't ask about A. Don't miss him. Don't want to talk to him. Unless R's mad at me about punishing her or holding her responsible for her choices, then she wants to "go to my daddy's house and be with him I don't love you any more." and I just say "I know honey. I know it's frustrating and living with Daddy would be easier, but this is better for you in the long run." I know she doesn't get it yet, but one day she will. I don't try to discount her feelings, but she only has them when she's upset at me, so it's easy not to take it personally.

I have two apartments I am considering right now. I am on a waiting list for one of them, the 11th is the last day people can give notice of moving out for me to be in by Sept, but there are 4 people in line ahead of me. The manager said that sometimes people have already found a place but she is still required to offer it to them in the order inquired (this is the place I REALLY want, townhouse for less than many 2 bedroom apartments) and the other place I have left two messages and am thinking if I don't hear from them by next week I will stop by.

My brothers girlfriend is going to go dish and towel shopping with me in about two weeks, we have a BIG hydroplane event next weekend and lots between then and now, so postponing it for now. And once I get my place (or know I will be getting) a BIG IKEA run will be in order, again with K, because shes young, hip, artsy, but understands my need to not go over the top artsy, I want classic items that I can enhance and add to as I go.

other than that nothing going on here. I wish I had more time so sew, but playing with the kiddos, working, and reading are plenty for now.

hi!!!

2011-06-21T03:33:00.002-07:00

hi guys! Remember me? Shesh it's been ages!

The girls and I have moved. We are still working out all the legal stuff. I qualified for free legal aid but things have to be settled within 6 months of my move date so hopefully A won't contest anything. I am being reasonable, but that is my opinion. We are getting settled into a nice routeen, at least in the evening and first thing in the morning. R is sleeping in her own bed, five nights now! That's out of the seven we've been here for. If she gets to seven in a row she and I will go get ice cream together, then it will be 14 in a row, and hopefully by then she'll be doing it consistantly!

I was able to transfer to another store here. I picked a store in the district I will be in once I get settled out on my own again. It's the town that R will be going to school and I really like it. There are several things that I will have to re-learn how this store likes them done, or how this district likes thigns done, but overall it is the same. A few people in the store like me, a few are unsure of me, and I've only met about 7 people. I don't like my 45 min commute when I have to be there at 4:45am but it won't be that way forever.

I have not done any sewing for AGES! I packed fabric first, then used my "sewing corner" to store all my boxes as I was packing. The girls and I were living out of suitcases the last two weeks we lived in our old place, and thankfully I have a few good friends who transported stuff for me so I didn't have to rent a u-haul! A came out with us, then a gal friend of mine, her mom was moving her (friends) brother back from here to MT so she had an empty car for me to load up, and another girlfriend is comign out to visit sometime next month or the month after because she thinks she wants to move out here so she got the rest of my stufff.....but I was talking about sewing...quilting....yes, it's been a long time!

I finished the first quilt top for myself, Valentines day quilt, a while ago and need to find some backing for it that I like. A's quilt needs to be bound, but I am putting that off for a while. I had a former co-worker who just bought a long arm quilt it for me, so I should just get it done with but I am still not ready to do it for him (one of these days I will tell you what all happened but not yet) And I was workign on a Halloween quilt for myself but had to pack it up to move. It's going to be another queen size one....so fun! Both girls have their beloved Dora quilts on their beds now (I finished those in time for this past Christmas) and I think that's been helping them transition, it might be a new space but your quilts will comfort you and some thigns are the same.

I need to go head out for work, but I wanted to say hi.

missing all of you!

2011-04-07T11:21:00.002-07:00

I just wanted to say hi! I have been thinking of all of you. Adam doesnt want to pay for the internet anymore, so I am out of luck online! I have to do everything on my i-touch which is REALLY hard to type. I have not been following you guys either. I can do e-mail a lot better, so if you have news to share, please reach me (I think my e-mail is here if not I have to come back to the library next week to print some things) Things happening here: A and I are splitting up (post on that sometime eventually I promise) The girls and I are moving to the Seattle area in June I have a new store ready for me when I move I am at my original store trying to fix some problems (and people are NOT happy about that) R still loves school and is all registered for next year (5 day a week pre-K) H will be going to a toddler class next year too (one day a week) R turned 5 in June I turn 27 next Monday! I almost finished my first quilt for ME (one more border to put on) and am planning #2! oh and speaking of quilts, I received 12 blocks (mine included) for a kindness quilt, I thought I'd ask ONE more time and then figure out how to make it lap sized at least. I think if I alternate with vivid fun prints it would work. If you want to contribute anything though let me know! I need to go to work now! but I miss you all!!!

quick hi!

2011-01-29T15:09:00.002-07:00

hey everyone! Sorry I have been MIA! our internet contract was up and we didn't renew because Adam is looking at less expensive options, so three weeks without real internet, KILLING ME! I use my I-touch at work but blogger is so hard to use on that little thing.

I miss you all and I think I will have to come to the library more often, or when we get taxes back buy myself a little laptop....I think the former is more likely

The kindness quilt is still coming in. So far I have nine blocks, so keep them coming! I would like at least a good lap size but anything will be wonderful. Don't forget a give-away is involved. I've been pulling thigns from my stash of patterns, fabrics, and plan to supplement.

Also APQ BLOCK SWAP buddies, I have everythign ready to mail (yes yes vacation last week got in the way!) so I will start trickling them out. I don't want to have a panic attack in the post office lobby so they'll go out one-three at a time!

next time I make a break for quiet library lisa time I will tell y ou all about my trip. It was a busy one!!!!

more info

2011-01-05T19:56:00.003-07:00

I got this e-mail back from Julie, and thought it would be easiest to just share it with you here (so you can click the links and see what you can give. I'd happily mail it all together if you find something they ask for on their wish list locally, or if you want to include cards, anything else. I know someone told me they were asking a friend who has been down this road what might help, I will edit this post to include that list if she gets back to me.

OK here's the e-mail:

Lisa,
Thank you very much for your support. Below is their address as well as info on where people can make donations or help purchase items they need.

(edited their address for obvious reasons)

If you are looking for a way to help, we have an Amazon wishlist setup:
http://t.co/RHZ3ghi
You can also make a tax deductible donation through the Talbert Family Foundation
http://www.talbertfamilyfoundation.org/pages/Elijah.html
--
--Julie

I am thankful for everythign you guys are doing to help.

I will be visiting my folks here in just over two weeks, and boy do I need some family time myself! little things are beginign to annoy me at home and at work, time for a vacation!!

little bit of giving thanks

2011-01-03T12:34:00.004-07:00

I know it's not anywhere near Thanksgiving, but I am SO thankful R has school today! I just spend the morning battling with her, stopping battles between her and her sister. I sort of worry that I am just passing on the problem to her teacher, but I think really a whole week without that structure is what did her in.

In two weeks we will go to visit my folks, and I think I might have to figure out something "school like" to do with her (and my mom IS a "retired" teacher...she now just subs when she wants to) for an hour each day, or an hour and a half every other day. She's only at preschool for 2 1/2 hours three days a week but BOY does she love it!

I am also thankful it's not FREEZING out, its like 20 degrees (F) and everyone had thrown salt down on their sidewalks. The walk to and from school was not as bitter as I thought it would be!

small miracles

Oh, I almost have another top to donate to Seattle Children's. I love making quilts that I like the pattern and want to try and fabrics I like but don't have the I NEED TO HAVE THIS edge to them, keeps my house from having too many quilts that I don't know what to do with! You will see on my PHD 2011 tab I have more than 8 projects, those with parenthesis are projects I want to finish too, but not necessarily in the 6 month challenge.

the (mostly) true story of Christmas 2010

2010-12-30T22:06:00.004-07:00

I am sure many of you saw Rachel of p.s. i quilt is having a little giveaway with Fat Quarter Shop, and as lucky as I've been lately I should let someone else have the luck, but I resisted all of a day and a half but I want some fabrics they have and I can't resisit any longer.

First things first, APQ bloggers, I finished the last of the blocks tonight (as part of my "new years eve finish it up" fun) I can't find my sharpie so when we go out tomorrow I will get a new one. I also want to include a little piece of Montana for y'all so I will be mailing next week! WAHOO! I hate that it's this late but I am SO GLAD to cross those off my list!

k, so I need to tell you a story about Christmas and how some packages fell off Santa's sleigh. at least from my experiences Christmas Day

Well, it started Christmas eve. I took the girls to "midnight mass" at 10 pm. They were SO WELL behaved, I was shocked. I brought some coloring things, barbie, a baby doll and three wood puzzles. The puzzles were the main entertainer, they even got the older lady next to us to play with them. We came home, I used the Night Before Christmas that my Nana (who passed away last Feb) and Pop-Pop recorded for them and off to bed they went. Then I baked cookies...until 1 am. Then I crashed!

I woke up Christmas morning, and got ready for work. I Was only scheduled 17 hours that week so when the other store called to say they needed someone to help out Christmas day I jumped at it (my store was closed!) and I worked 9-3:30. Oh! when I left there were no presents. Still none when I got home, but we found a note from Santa on the cookie tray we have that said:

There were no cookies that I could see

So I left you no presents under the tree.

Now don't you worry. Don't you fret!

I'll be back with presents for you yet!

we went out to A's mom's house (I was told by one of my co-workers that I am a saint for dealing with her so gracefully this year! She hates me!) I gave her a picture of the girls sitting at her parents headstone smiling from Memorial Day that I blew up onto canvas thanks to Costco, and I gave her sister a Bead For Life necklace and two mug rugs that I made at the last minute (I did the binding backside at the church saving everyone seats for mass!) and her daughter Duplo Lego's and a memory game.

I came home, and we DID leave cookies out this time and when they dropped me off to take care of the ham (htey were driving around looking at lights but the ham had to be glazed and was almost done so they let me out of the car and then they finished the rounds), there were the presents, and the stockings filled! We came home, ate dinner and opened presents. Santa did well for A, R, and H.

Let me pause and tell you a little H story. So she got her stocking, and there was a bag of Goldfish Crackers. That was the end of her Christmas. She proudly carried that bag all around the house, and finally about 30 minutes later got A to open it for her, and she sat and ate them one at a time until she lost interest. No cares about the rest of the presents, so R opened them for her.

k, back to the story. However, under the tree there was not much for me. There was stuff I bought myself, an IOU from A and something R made at school, but nothing from Santa. I thought I must have been naughty, but I thought I was a good girl....at least this last month or two!

After the girls went to bed I was on facebook and saw this from my brother:

B: Santa got into the liquor that the parents left on the coffee table...
December 25 at 12:45pm

so of course I called home. Apparently, according to my dad, Santa saw my moms collection of Rum (I think...I don't remember what all she has any more, I only visit twice a year!) on the clock table which is where she keeps the nativity set that Santa always has to put Baby Jesus in when he visits, and helped himself. He left a note there saying something along the lines of "thanks for the special treat! Most people leave out cookies and milk but Santa appreciates a little nip here and there, especially on such a cold night!" Mom said he had more than "just a little nip"

Well that makes sense! Since they are an hour behind us, he left the note here, then there, and since our presents were still on the sleigh, and he was a little tipsy, when Rachel said some presents had fallen off, mine must have been some of those! Hopefully Rachel and FQS can help replenish what should have been mine! Have any of you who live west of Montana (or Washington since that's where he was drinking) seen packages with my name on them?

Let's make a Kindness Quilt

2010-12-28T16:18:00.004-07:00

alright, I think I got enough "Yes's" that we'll try this out!

So let's make Julie's Brother and Sister-in-law a kindness quilt to help them and keep them strong for their little boy! (and maybe he can use it when his quilt needs washing)

For those of you who are just joining us, we are making quilt blocks to put together for Julie of Jaybird Quilts family. Her nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia and while she made a wonderful quilt for him, I wanted to do something for the family too and came up with the idea for a kindness quilt for his parents, since they will be spending time with him wherever he needs to go for treatments and who knows how long they will have to be away from home themselves.

Here's what I'd love to see from interested people:

*A six inch (finished so 6 1/2 unfinished) block of any style
*Bright/cheerful colors
*NO Fusible/raw edge applique (I want this quilt to be able to be washed, used, and abused and I am always a little nervous about doing that with applique, I might be wrong, but don't want to chance it!)
*A 2" scrap with your name, a short thought or prayer for the family...something that I can use on the back sort of as an over sized label when all together. This is only if you wish, I won't exclude your block because you didn't do this.

*anything else you wish to include. I'd love to see this not only as a quilt but a little care package for everyone in Elijah's family, himself included but that's just above and beyond, very far from an expectation.

When you are ready to mail, leave me a comment, or if you are a no-reply blogger, shoot me an e-mail at lisapotpie_bubbles@hotmail.com and I will give you my address.

Any questions, comments concerns?

Now go spread the word. There may be a giveaway in store for those who send in a block!

*edited- I forgot to come up with a deadline...let's try and have all the blocks in the mail to me by the end of Jan, OR let me know one is coming by the end of Jan, and get it to me as soon as you can thereafter!

just a thought

2010-12-26T17:23:00.002-07:00

Do any of you read Jaybird's blog? She is a wonderful young (I think shes a year or two older than me so I think I am REALLY young) designer. And from what I can gather via her blog and the giveaway of hers I won ages ago, I think she's a very kind person. The kind of gal you'd want to be friends with (and maybe raid her stash here and there)

She recently mentioned how her nephew has cancer, and she made him a quilt to brighten his stay at the Hospital. I have been thinking about it since. Now I make quilts for Seattle Children's, for their sick children already, but there was something else I have been chewing on, since she does seem like such a lovely lady and I want to do something for her and her family.

So here's what I was thinking: Since her nephew is so young, I am sure a parent is with him as much as possible, if not all the time, they might need some TLC too. I was wondering if anyone would want to make a block for a kindness quilt. I was thinking about 6" blocks that were creators choice, maybe with a 2 1/2" piece of fabric with the creators name, or a kind word to put on the back of the quilt. The only thing I am not sure about is raw edge/fuse able applique, I was considering asking people not to use it for their so that the quilt could be used and abused, and loved.

If this were to come together, I would send it out to be quilted, in fact I THINK a few people who read my blog are professional quilters (Therica, JoAnne) and might be able to make room for a project. I also would love to add a few extra "grown up" things, like I have a whole bunch of books that I might never get to re-reading. And I work at Starbucks, I could mark out some coffee. (and I am sure unused toys, books, things for him or his baby sister would be appreciated as well but again anything beyond a quilt block, heck even a block would be a blessing)

So anyone interested? I was thinking of e-mailing Rachel (of ps. I quilt) to see if I could post something on her blog, and maybe word could get out. but I wanted to check with you all first and see if it's something to pursue. If it's a go, I want to get started ASAP!

giveaway to check out

2010-12-20T10:53:00.004-07:00

I HAD to enter this giveaway, look at those LOVELY fabrics!!

I didn't WANT to share, but it was one of the rules to enter, so I guess I have to. (click the picture to get to the giveaway if I did it right.

unrelated, H's quilt is ready for binding but I wanted to make the girls bindings match and need to go get a little more. Darn right? Today I will head out for it. who cares about all the snow that fell last night and all the ice under it!

DEC FNSI take 2

2010-12-18T16:09:00.002-07:00

Well, I had a good friday night.

I picked up the living room, A vacuumed for me.
I finished working with the cookie dough. I hav eto bake the cookies but I was able to roll stuff into balls and roll up my pinwheels. R wants to help so I did as much as I could without her. She will put them on the tray and count them.
I got H's Dora quilt basted and just over 1/2 way quilted.

And I wraped presents.

Good friday night, even if I didn't sew as much as I'd have liked, it was all fun stuff

you know you're a quilter if:

2010-12-16T10:24:00.002-07:00

I am sure some of you have seen this already, but my aunt just sent it to me (she's not a quilter)

You Know you are a Quilter If...
There's more fabric in the house than food
"Fat Quarters" are not the heaviest part of your body
Your ironing board is always set up but you never iron clothes
You think of your job as an interruption of your quilting time
You pet fabric
People are always picking threads off you
You can measure a scant 1/4 by eye
"Featherweight" doesn't mean boxer
Your "UFO's" are not from outer space
You clean up your sewing room & they think you are leaving!

one picture for you

2010-12-13T14:59:00.004-07:00

So R did something, and the camera worked for a little bit, I got one picture for you guys. It's the quilt I worked on during the FNSI. It's not all together, but you can see what I am doing with it. The border is what threw me off, but I found just enough more fabric to make some more green and cream patches. (I am out of the cream now. well, I have a LITTLE but can't get a 3" cut from it). I laid out what I have done (the center is done) and my plan for the border, not yet done. As soon as I have time to play with the machine (the girls should be good today, neither took a nap and R had school so she should go to bed early) I will sew the borders, and hopefully get them on.

When it's not FREEZING outside and I charge the batteries on the camera I will take some pics of the items I am committing to for Myra's PHD challenge again this year. All of them (except this one here) are finished tops. I need a little nudge to get them quilted and bound. I love doing bindings, but HATE the quilting part. Only because I don't baste perfectly and it's not as exciting as seeing a quilt come together. I also need to get a better shot of that little strip in this quilt. It's cute!

dec FNSI #1

2010-12-10T20:42:00.003-07:00

I think I am calling it a night early. I want to wrap some presents before A gets home from work and I have to go to bed (OK, I go to bed WAY before he comes home but still)

I almost have a top done to donate, I am sort of at a creative stand still. I want to do one neat border but I don't have quite enough to do what I thought of in the first place. I am trying to come up with an alternative. I think I wore out the creative juices for the night.

The top is pink, cream, and green. Four patches that became bigger blocks (12 4 patches per "block") and I have four "blocks" with a very thin border between them. Quite girly. I need to make somethign more masculine!

Next week there's another one. I have stuff for the family planned for that one.

I am thinking of borrowing someones camera to take some pics soon. I also plan on taking all my tops out to my folks house so we can go to a fabric warehouse and get backings for less than normal prices. I should have three, maybe four ready by then.

night all!

ughhh

2010-12-08T16:11:00.003-07:00

Just so you don't think it's all flowers and kisses here, Here's a story about R

H was already in bed after fighting it for a little while. I have learned she needs a timer to keep me from going in too quickly, I set it for 10 minutes after her crying starts and if it hasn't worn down or if she's escalated then I go in and we try again latter. Most the time she's out or close to worn out by the time 10 minutes is up....

R was REALLY fighting going to bed. She had woken up at 5:30AM on my ONE day to sleep in this week (remember I am usually at work by 5am) and had school, and it was going on 11 and I had to work in the morning, open..so yup, 5AM. I snapped at her.

she ran out into the hallway

and cried. I let her have a few minutes to herself (and took deep breaths myself) then I went out to her.

"R, what's wrong?"
"I want my own."
"your own what?"
"parents."
"well honey, you have your own parents. Daddy and I are your parents."
"I don't want you, I want NEW parents."

oh really? I actually found this funny, but she's FOUR!

she finally fell asleep on the floor in my bedroom at about 11:45 while watching Tom and Jerry.

p.s. I am so sick of sitting at my sewing machine! Anyone else feeling over committed for Christmas gifts? I was going to quilt H's quilt, but that just doesn't sound pleasant. I am going to do some crossstich tonight and give it a rest and maybe tomorrow will be back at it.

being heard

2010-12-06T18:53:00.002-07:00

Today, as I was sewing some fabric that was gifted to me into a quilt top that I plan to give to Seattle Children's Hospital, R came and sat down next to me (I have been using the kitchen table, so she was sitting in her spot while I was sitting in mine with the machine) and asked who I was making the quilt for.

I answered simply "sick children who are in a hospital away from their bedrooms and favorite things."

She asked to go visit them to make them happy.

I told her when she's older she can volunteer for the hospital or organise a collection drive, but for now she can just pray for the children.

She said she wanted to make the kids happy NOW. And then she looked down at her crayon and paper and said "can I give them coloring?"

I thought she meant can she send them things she drew, so I said "no" and somehow was trying to explain that kids wouldn't want something she drew without hurting her feelings when she interrupted me...

"No mommy, I give them COLORS" (lifting up her crayon and shaking it at me.) "I use my "sharing" money to go to the store and give them colors. Please?"

Ahhhh, sometimes the lessons I am trying to teach are being heard!

(I have one quilt done to donate, one top done, one top that needs one more border but I can't decide yet, the one seam flying geese that I need to go buy more brown for, and one the one I just started today! I think I need to start quilting these things but all I know how to do is stitch in the ditch, and thats dull)

10 totaly random thoughts!

2010-12-03T10:59:00.003-07:00

sorry for all the posts lately. I opened on Monday, off at 1:30pm, then had Tues, and Weds off, closed yesterday (and didn't have to be in until 2:30! usually for a close you have to be there at 1) and have today off. I open the next three or four days so I am enjoying this and knowing it's not common. The girls are behaving much better than normal, a wonder what a semi-structured morning can do for the evening! I really wanted to share some random kiddo/life thoughts for you....very very random, but so fun

1) R went outside to play in the snow but left her snow pants at school on Weds, so today she put on leggings, then sweatpants, boots, a tank top and her coat, then gloves and two hats. Gotta love four. So she's been outside for a while and I don't hear anything. I poke my head out and see her, try to run away before she sees me since it looks like she's having fun, but nope I am caught. She said "mommy, puppy is getting cold, can we come inside please" puppy's getting cold huh? mind you this is a stuffed puppy. So sure. come on inside, take your wet things off, puppy gets a hand towel and R gets the afghan Nana made me oh 10 years ago or so. (I asked for if for Christmas one year from her, and got it the following one and she was so touched that she made every grandchild one, then had to give up big projects because they were too much for her) but it has "holes" so R needs "hot tea" aka hot cocoa. I made it and have snowman marshmallows I bought by accident, a candy cane from the tree AND green sugar sprinkles. Sometimes I can pull a supermom move out!

2) the little song from the Lego Duplo's commercial chokes me up EVERY TIME!! (both girls love the legos and I am not ready for the little ones in the house yet even though I think R would like them)

3) speaking of being choked up, did anyone watch the CBS (I think) Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie special presentation, it was November Christmas this past weekend, I was crying my eyes out! and not only during the movie, because it was the Hallmark special they only showed Hallmark commercials....I balled my eyes out for all those too! I slept well that night (and highly recommend the movie if you can see it!)

4) one of my regulars got two elks and a deer this hunting season, and gave me some elk steaks and ground venison, and sausage of some sort. The city girl in my is a little weired-ed out by the thought of eating deer and elk, the money savvy mom in me is so grateful for free meat! (I have to write a thank you card....)

5) have I ever won a give-away from you? I most likely sent you a thank you card! I know I lost a few addresses here and there but I think I've sent most of them. If you did not get one, I am sorry I am so thankful for your generosity and kindness, most the time people include a card with such kind words! Quilters are GREAT!

6) apparently my small tweek in Nana's Peanut Blossom recipe was a huge hit. A ate 12 plus the night I made them, and after taking 2 dozen out to mail to my brother and his girlfriend and her cousin (who is about to have her first baby, lost her parents a year ago, and is the first in her generation in her family AND her group of friends to have a baby, so I am sending her a little care package) they are all gone now, and I made a double batch!

7) R just said "mommy, this is really good tea" while finishing off her hot cocoa!

8) H is almost really a walker she walks for a while until she realises it and then sits and cawls, and she won't walk to you unless you have somethign she wants and she's standing in the first place. Usually a baby doll or food.

9) it's time to get R re-dressed and ready for school, she loves school and her favorite part is Chapel, and her best friend is T, who is almost as bossy as she is!

10) when R goes to school, it will be H's nap time so I will be sewing!! I SHOULD fold laundry but I am going to sew!

APQ Swap

2010-12-02T10:27:00.003-07:00

hey those of you who were part of the APQ swap...I found the blocks I shoved in the back of my sewing room shelves out of frustration, and started looking at them, I made the last 4, with everything except that border. here's my question...I am not thrilled with them. I am but I am not, my machine and I hate sewing triangles and it "ate" a few corners. The points don't match up all the time, but the colors are fun. I am torn between my desire to send them out because I feel bad waiting this long and wanting to try again knowing my machine and I will end up in tears together (yes, little pfaff throws fits too, it is 14 years old after all, entering those teen years!)

How would you all feel about non-perfect blocks? They are CLOSE just not perfect.

I am sorry it took me so long to get them out! Everyone is getting a little something special with their blocks!

math problem

2010-12-01T12:54:00.004-07:00

so remember in high school math class, when you were trying not to doze off or play calculator games (the graphing calculators the kids use now you can program games into and play in class making it look like you are doing calculations with the teacher...then again I guess now kids just use their cell phones, but we were not allowed to have them on at school)

The teacher would always say "I know you don't believe me but you will need to know this at some point in your career so pay attention."

and you thought "yeah yeah yeah, I am going to be a singer, actress, journalist, novelist, something else grand and wonderful, I won't need THIS"

Well, I needed my algebra today. For quilting.

if you have 77 blocks and want to make a quilt using as many if not all of the blocks, and you want the quilt to be longer than it is wide, how many rows and columns do you need?

x*y=77 (ish)
xy=x+2?
y=x+3?
y=x+4?

so 77 can be 7*11
it could be 8*9+5
it could be 7*10+7 (maybe for the backing I could do a little row)

I am leaning towards the last one, each block is 6 1/2" unfinished, so finished my choices are:
42*66 (I think a little TOO dramatic a difference)
48*54 (dramatic enough?)
or 42*60 (maybe)
oh or I could do 42*54 with 14 for the back and/or a pillow case

I am thinking the last two...what do you think? And are you chuckling over there at me?

one thing one week!

2010-11-29T15:42:00.004-07:00

Katie inspired me to go ahead a join the One thing One Week challenge this go around. And I DID IT!!! I told myself I wanted to finish the top of A's quilt. I did! And I even had the foresight when I first cut into the Simpson's fabrics to cut a bunch of extra pieces that will go the same way so none of the fabric in the borders or even the top goes in other direction besides up and down. I did a very thin black border around everything and then the Simpson's stuff, and it will be finished off with black binding so I didn't think I needed another back border but if I change my mind I have some cut, measured, and ready to go on....you know just in case. But I will gladly call it "done".

(and thats all I told myself I would do, I told him he wouldnt get a finished product but he would get the top. I dont know how I want to quilt it since it's serioulsy jumbo size I am thinking tie quilting but part of me thinks stitch in the ditch would be better for hard wear and tear. Opinions?)

now if only I could get a picture. Any guesses what I am asking Santa for? A camera, maybe with a backup one too? What is with me and Cameras? Three in four years!!!!

For those of you who didn't hear all about it when I had a camera, I made A a flannel quilt with this wild "where's Bart" Simpson's fabric and alternated that with nine patches, 5 black 4 assorted bright colors....it's got 32 Simpson's blocks 9 inches each and 31 9 patches also 9 inches finished, then a 2 inch black border and a 5 inch print border. I had a hard time getting it together until it clicked together perfectly. I think I was over-thinking everything!!

100 books

2010-11-27T00:04:00.002-07:00

I am sure you have seen this around Facebook, but I wanted to share it here. Some good titles to check out from the library, and interesting how many books I have not finished. Ever since I was in high school I realised I couldn't NOT finish a book, No matter how much I don't like it I just have to know how it ends. Many of the unfinished ones are books I had to read for school, something about being expected to read a book made it less fun and therefore I didn't finish.

Here's the deal if you haven't seen it yet:
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series- JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22- Joseph Heller
14 The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenberger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House- Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The DaVinci Code- Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick- Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From a Small Island- Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

so I have read 31 and started 12, oh one of those 12 I didn't finish because I Renewed it three times from the library and still didn't finish it, I might be able to now that I've been reading a lot again. Davinci Code is on the list now!

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-23T20:16:00.005-07:00

This is now the third year I've done this sort of post, and I am so thankful I did it in '08 (the first year I made my own real Thanksgiving dinner) because I couldn't find the same recipe for how to brine a turkey that I liked and had it on here. I hope you don't mind.

Menu:

Turkey (Adam bought a 13 lber for me and it fit in my batting storage tub, which also nicely fits in the dishwasher for afterwards.)

Mashed potatoes

baby peas in butter sauce (oh from the box if I weren't working until 1:30 I might do my own)

Family Fruit Salad

Rolls

sparkling cider

pumpkin pie?

easy this year, especially since A likes his potatoes out of the box, but I am adding some Gouda and garlic to them to jazz them up a bit *update, Adam said ABSOLUTELY NOT! make them plain so he can add gravy*

so I brined my turkey again, this is the way I think I will do it from here on out. If you look back to Nov '08 I have directions, but I just found this site today when I was looking for times to cook since I got a smaller bird this year than in the past.

Mashed potatoes out of the box, no adjustment, easy peasy

warmed up the gravy from Costco

sliced cranberry sauce

made fruit salad last night (I might have shared the recipe, but it's got mandarin oranges, pineapple (omitted this year) maraschino cherries, grapes, marshmallows and whipped cream...do as you like.

crescent rolls thanks to Pillsbury

Pumpkin pie (follow the Libby's pie directions)

then a Peanut Butter Pie I chose this one because it is similar to a chocolate cream pie I make , but this one looked good too.

Peas in Butter Sauce thanks to Green Giant

oh and I made dressing in a caserole dish with dried out bread, butter and onions melted down and a littel garlic for fun, added a little chicken stock, then baked in the oven next to the bird for the last 20 or so minutes.

and four happy people!!!

silly confession

2010-11-22T21:36:00.002-07:00

I had to share....I am blushing just thinking of telling you this but I want to provide you with a little laugh here.

A came home last night and I had picked up the living room, vacuumed and had worn my high heels last night (and one of my favorite cardigans) and had a glass of wine. So when I came home from work (and then preschool) this afternoon he said "who did you have over when I was at work yesterday?"

no one

"why did you get all dressed up and clean up and everything."

brace yourself

well, while I was working on his quilt (the flannel Simpson's one, I am working on getting the rows all put together and debating borders) and those flying geese for my donation quilt, and after the girls had gone to bed....I sort of imagined that I was being interviewed for a quilting magazine.

now I have no interest in designing quilts, no real plans for my quilting other than to make myself happy with it. But it was so fun to pretend.

he just rolled his eyes at me

nov FNSI

2010-11-19T23:12:00.004-07:00

this FNSI was a success. I wish I could show pics to prove myself but you are stuck with my word here.

First I got the man to vaccuum the living room for me (so I cleaned it up except my desk first)
Then I made teh girls food and got 1/2 of them down at a decent time,'
The second one I bribed with movies and marshmellows. (great parenting eh? once a month won't kill us)

Then I got to sewing.

I made:
37 one-seam flying geese. (I can get 18 per fat quarter. I cut four FQ's a a time and a bunch of the brown squares and I did two full FQ's worth plus one that I had left over from my last cutting session)
17 -9 patches for A's Simpson's quilt that I forget why I set it aside but am making blocks like mad...again the only thing that stopped me was needing to cut more of the black fabric (11 more to go then I can match them all up with the 32 blocks of Simpson's fabric!! I Think this might be a Christmas present)

R got a little sewing time in too with her quilt we are working on together. She's using my only two 1920's reproduction fat quarters but they had "puppies and flowers" so whatever...she's using a 5/8 seam because it's easier to see on the foot I use and is doing an OK job. I help guide the fabric while she uses the pedal, does most the fabric guiding (I just correct when it gets bad) and pulls the pins I put in out. So cute! I will have to get a camera to show you her work.

So not a ton done, but so much fun anyways. Imagine if I could have started earlier....or if I had cut more in advance because it's either the ironing board on my table or the cutting mat and I chose ironing board.

2010-11-19T16:24:00.002-07:00

pst..see my new button and my updated PHD list =) I think I am going to start a new one for 2011

fyi

2010-11-18T11:31:00.002-07:00

really quickly, Retro mommy is having an awesome giveaway!!!

projects...and a request

2010-11-17T08:48:00.004-07:00

hey there. I have a cute little post about H's baptism and the family's visit, but that will have to wait for now. I am having technical difficulties again. I think I just want a new computer =) I think I Am going to ask a friend to come over later this week and see if he can look at it and fix things, but I am not sure at this point. I wish I knew more about computers but it has never held an interest for me. much like I wish I could draw but I am thrilled I can quilt.

So first things first, I was working on a quilt from ages ago again and almost have all my blocks done. If I have to I can say I DO have all my blocks done, but what I am looking for, if any of you have it is six more 2 1/2" squares of Sandy Gervais Candy Kisses fabric in red. I used three of the reds from the line, candy kisses on red, the heart flower trails in both the large print with pink hearts and the small print with red/pink hearts, but I would be thrilled with any of the reds. I looked online and after search page 6 coming up with one print per store that had it and many that said "sorry this item is no longer in stock" I threw in the towel, thought I'd ask here first, then maybe check out eBay or do another search when I am feeling more patient. Please spread the word, if you have it I will reward you with something from my stash...depending on what you like. Worst case scenario I finish the quilt with what I have and I probably will be the only one who knows that it's unbalanced. See my controlling side?

OH, exciting news, I have all the APQ swap blocks done (ok I need to write on them still but they are DONE) and I just need to wait for my next payday to make it to the post office and get them out, FINALLY!

and I chose an awesome deep chocolate brown that's totally solid, no little hint of anything and it's looking sharp. I couldn't find a deep rich grey, or one that wasn't soft, light, like a sidewalk pavement color, and I wanted crisp to come to mind when you saw the wild prints against the background. I am thrilled with the brown I found, and I only bought 2 1/2 yards but I plan to go back and get more if needed, they had three bolts at the Ben Franklin that I can walk to from home.

I am sorry there are no pics, it would have helped a lot. But camera's acting funny and computers acting so strange. And I am too tired to fight with either today.

Edit:
Katie recommended I give a link to the ones I am looking for, what my descriptions aren't good enough (just kidding, I thought it was a great idea) so I found the line on moda's site, and have the names of the three I used. Any of the "lipstick" would be fine and dandy, but I used :

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_CandyKisses.pdf

17408 11Tossed Hearts Lipstick

17411 11*Trailing Hearts Lipstick

17416 11*Candy Kisses Lipstick

two quick questions

2010-11-14T19:19:00.004-07:00

well I can't find a pattern for both a jelly roll and a charm pack in one quilt, but I did find TWO jelly roll quilts I want to do off the Moda Bake Shop....so help me pick one now, and one for another time. Remember I am using Sent With Love and white, so which is better?

Sweet Menagerie
or
Avignon Picnic
?

Also....
Ages ago I got a fat quarter bundle of Jennifer Paganelli's "Poodle" and I am going to make a quilt using the one seam flying geese Ricky Tims demonstrated recently. I was thinking of doing grey first, but am leaning towards a deep rich solid brown. What do you think?

hey hey the gangs all here!

2010-11-05T11:40:00.010-07:00

I am finally showing off all my wins! I got the most recent a couple days ago and the UPS man scared the bejebers out of me! I was singing and dancing around with the girls, the door was open since we made something stinky for dinner (I think it was french onion soup and I had a roast of some sort in the crock pot and the combo of flavors was overwhelming) and he went *ahem* oh my....so here's what I won in the fall into fall blog hop:

This was the last arrival. a charm pack, and a jelly roll of Moda's Sent With Love line. I have a few ideas for either jelly roll, OR charm pack, does anyone have a great pattern or link to a quilt made with one of each? I don't mind going out and getting a yard or two to make something too, but I have no ideas! This was a second prize added by if she got 200 followers, and when she said she did and she was throwing everyone from the fall into fall give away into the pot I posted "oh oh me me I WANT this" (or something along those lines) and she sent an e-mail saying I won...then moments later another saying "hahah! I just read your comment on the other post (about the second prize!) too funny!

I saw someone (I am sorry I forget who it was Marsha?) made this already, you might need to send me a tip or two. The directions look easy enough but I don't like "new" to me. How else am I going to learn. This is Scrabble Jack, and his teeth are to say "happy fall y'all" it's made by Happy Hollow Designs and they have a ton of other cute things, so if this works out well, you know I'll be asking Santa for another project or two. I saw a Santa I want to bring home with me.

This was a MAJOR score of a win.

I got two books, (Beyond the Log Cabin and the Cats Meow)

A few quilt patterns (I think three)

Two things of Connecting Thread's Essentials (if you have not tried it and can't afford Auriful, give this a shot, it's AWESOME! also I had a great experience when I bought from them ages ago.)

A thingey to hand up pictures in a window or any other glass surface (my broken 60" TV perhaps?)

a men's t-shirt to make a cute quilt with their patterns...I have to find that again, I will practice with this one

AND eight cute half circle napkins folded to look like a Christmas Tree. R LOVES those!

That same give-away I won these too, but I don't think I will be using them. After the hair pulling experience when R's Halloween costume this year I am not going to follow any of McCall's patterns any time soon! And I love the colors of the threads, but my machine can't handle Coats and Clark. Strange eh?

(this will be passed along in a give-away soon, I just have to figure out how to make it better!)

The last thing she had I am debating keeping to try, but again I HATE these type of patterns (give am a quilt pattern any day though) but these look easy, and winter is right around the corner but you'd never guess it from the temps right now! I will make a decision latter!

Lastly, this came in the mail for me. I was part of a team of test quilters for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks by today's top quilt designers VOL 2! My name is even in the book on page three or four. They sent me this mug as a thank you! How cool!!!

well, I think I bragged enough for one day. Soon I'll show the blocks I am FINALLY making for the rest of you guys.

pics from R

2010-10-28T08:48:00.005-07:00

R got her little hands on my camera while I was at work yesterday. I had to give her her own post. So here's what she took and the stories she told me about them:

"That's H, She's so cute. She's still a little baby, but soon she will be big like me. And she didn't say cheese because she's a baby, but she can say "baba" and "mama" and "dada" and "baby" but not "r"."" That's a funny picture. That's my eyes. My eyes see. See my eyes?" (can she be Dr Seuss?)

"That's my bears. Bears, Bears. They wear costumes. There's a pumpkin and a scary thing like the neighbors have in the grass on the way to school. We don't walk on peoples grass. It's disrespectful. We can walk on those peoples grass (the people kitty corner to us are regulars at my store and said we can walk on their grass to avoid the huge puddle that forms on the street in front of their house). You talk to them. They say it's ok."

And there's R's post!

a few finishes

2010-10-28T08:36:00.006-07:00

I have one more package from the Fall Into Fall giveaway before I brag...I mean share what I won. Brace yourself though, I will be having a little give away and I think a bigger one will be coming down the pike. (or is it pipe?)

I wanted to share of my latest finishes. Too bad they were all small..

First up (you can't see the binding but it's done) is this little heart. I made one of these for my swap partner last year, and thought it was a great little quiltlette so I made done for K (my brothers girlfriend)

I had four abandoned mistake blocks from the block lotto over the summer...actually I had five, I put these four together for a little doll quilt and the fifth went to Joanne (or will whenever I make it to the post office) I also binded that with the black dots.This last one needs the binding and then it's done. There's a doll quilt that matches that has the binding sewn on one side and just needs the hand stitching. Someones costume took precedence. Remind me to tell you all about THAT when I am done with it.

Oh yeah, R's dora quilt just needs the hand binding in back done too...it's on my bed right now anyways. It's the warmest quilt we have in the house and A refuses to turn the heat on in the bedroom, thst's ok I just crank it up in the living room hehehehe!

quick note

2010-10-22T14:35:00.004-07:00

I just wanted to tell you guys I have not vanished!

It's been a rough week, but it's making me a stronger person.

I won some goodies at the fall into fall giveaways (THREE!!) I will share about those later

And I need some new authors. I like Janet Evanovich, Cleo Coyle, Catherine Coulter, J.A. Jance, and sometimes Nora Robberts. I DO NOT like Mary Higgins Clark (I'm only 140 pages into it but shesh I don't want to finish except I have this thing where i can't NOT finish a book)

I am charging my "new" cameras battery but I DID snap these pics before it died:

H sleeping in her new crib (her old one had a drop side and with all the recalls it made me nervouse...see the cute foot hanging out the side? She does that almost every night!

R being a smiley sweet girl! I need to cut her bangs!

oct FNSI

2010-10-16T02:33:00.002-07:00

last night was another FNSI and I signed up at the last moment. I didn't get much done, the kids were good all day until about 5:00 then it all went to hell. They just were not happy and R was becoming wild. I was planning on working on quilting one of my tops to cross off my list and instead I worked on some of my hexagons while watching project runway on the computer and I fused fabrics together for the girls costumes (I am doing fleece on the inside and the fun shiny clown material on the outside. I don't know how long the two fabrics will stick together but hopefully long enough to sew the stuff together.

anyways I need to get ready for work, the fall into fall giveaway stuff is closing up and people are announcing winners....wahoo!!

just wondering

2010-10-13T19:13:00.001-07:00

why and how both of my rotary blades and my pair of fabric only scissors all go missing at the same time. And on the day I buy a little bit of fabric to make Halloween pillowcases for the couch pillows!!

updates on the girls

2010-10-12T09:46:00.002-07:00

to start with, look what I stumbled upon today: here. How neat is that? Lots of good things to check out, lots of great patterns, and did you see the CD giveaway? It looks like it's a relatively new site so check it out, then be sure to check back.

I have been sewing like mad, but not getting anything accomplished. How does that happen? I have two little quilt blocks to sew the back binding down on, a little four block doll quiltlette thing to sew the binding down on....and R's HUGE Dora quilt that is SO WARM! I used flannel on the back and then warm and natural batting. I don't think I need to worry about turning the heat on in her room with that quilt in the winter! I have H's ready to quilt, well I have to pin it all together and I HATE that part, but I think I will make hers as warm too and use these as the girls "winter" quilts and use what we have now for summer quilts.

H is still not walking but she's SO good at climbing up onto the couch and off it by herself. I also think she's not walking because she doesn't want to, not because she can't. I bet the one day she decides she wants something that's at eye level a few steps away while shes standing up, off she will go and she will be unstoppable.

R is loving school. she's quiet in the class, and doesn't tell us much about school but thanks to the weekly newsletters and her giving away little bits and pieces throughout the week I can get a general idea of whats going on. I know it's a lot for her to take in and then share! I am moving out to the Seattle area at the end of the school year, She will have a place at the school my mom subs at and the principal will save a spot in either K or pre-K depending on what we want. I WANT to say she's so smart let's go for the K but she will be the baby of the class and I am almost leaning towards Pre-K for her for one more year. Let her play a little longer and learn how to be in a classroom before worrying about reading and writing and math and all those other things. We have parent teacher conferences in Jan and I will be visiting my folks about then too and talking to the principal so we will figure it out then I guess. I know no decision will be "wrong" but I sort of wish the right one would fall into my lap.

Anyhoo, off to the library then folding laundry!

sewing again!

2010-10-01T16:33:00.002-07:00

well, it's been an age and a half since I have posted anything. Honestly, nothing much to tell. R's loving preschool, H just cut four molars sometime between bed Weds night and this afternoon (totally explains why she was crying over EVERYTHING!) and A is still driving me up a wall and slacking on house chores. Such a man! (well, young man I guess!)

The good news is I have finally been sewing again! I quilted a little thing, it was like an over sized four patch turned doll blanket for R's "baby" who was having a birthday and needed a quilt for her "big girl bed" so I obliged. Apparently I just needed a little something to get over my hurdle. I quilted another little doll quilt from mistake blocks for the block lotto from a few months ago, then I quilted R's HUGE dora quilt. I meant to make it twin size but when I laid it out on my bed 1/2 way through quilting to roll the other sides in, well I think it's almost as big as my comforter on my queen bed. Oh well! I need to go get some binding fabric for it next week when I get my tip money and then work on the binding.

I also quilted two lost blocks for Joanne's wall. one if for a BOTM that I was trying to do at my LQS before A lost his job two years ago and I wasn't able to finish. The other was a block that didn't fit into a quilt I made. I was going to make a little pillow with it but it's sat for over a year and I never worked on it, either buying a pillow or making the rest of a case for it so what the heck? She wants it I'll give it to her!

I am sorry I don't have pictures, my aunt is loaning her old camera to me so it should be here in a few days. I guess technology and I don't get along!

oh, have you been seeing all these give aways? I am almost dizzy there are so many going on right now! Shesh!!

cleaning and halloween!

2010-09-17T15:16:00.002-07:00

I am working on cleaning the house, so I used the "need to blog" as an excuse to sit for a few minutes. I wish everyone would leave the house for a few hours and let me clean by myself but in the mean time I am plugging away hopeful that I can finish at least one room tonight. I will never know how two children plus one grown man can make such a huge mess in next to no time! I take the blame for the mess in the laundry room (OK I only take 1/2 the blame there, the sprinkler system guys destroyed everything in their way so I moved a ton of stuff into there so they wouldn't mess anytime else up) and my desk, but the rest it the three of them.

So as for my excuse, I am trying to figure out this pattern for Clown costumes for the girls. I am NOT a clothing sewer, I am a quilter. I am still going to try. R has decided she wants to be a ferry too. I am excited about the clown costume for her since I am going to do fleece in the inside and shiny clown stuff on the outside. I want them to be warm but not have to wear a long winter coat either over or under it! I will make her ferry costume too if she insists. I don't mind making other costumes for her, Dress up is so fun to play!

So speaking of Halloween, I wanted to let you know about a fun blog hop that's coming up. Do you remember last year I followed one around and made those awesome tree quilts from one of the bloggers. They are doing this again, but for Halloween! WAHOO! you know what I will be checking out soon! Gudrun is having a little give away to celebrate the start, so check her blog out and maybe hop around!

lack of sleep

2010-09-16T18:05:00.003-07:00

A co-worker and I were talking about the effects of sleep deprivation and how husbands don't get that mom's don't get enough sleep (and how they don't understand that while our job is not as "important" as theirs, or whatever it's hard and we can't just call in sick) and I saw this on Wikipedia this evening:

According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have some of the same hazardous effects as being drunk.[29] People who drove after being awake for 17–19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries and Australia. Another study suggested that performance begins to degrade after 16 hours awake, and 21 hours awake was equivalent to a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, which is the blood alcohol limit for drunk driving in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.[

That explains it! On days I work I usually am up for 18-20 hours, especially if I open!! SHESH!

anyho, take care of yourself, I hope you get enough sleep!

the weekend away

2010-09-13T08:31:00.002-07:00

I am home from the weekend! Oh my what a weekend!

Dad and I stayed at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, it's 5 star and oh wow! I felt so much like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I had to remind myself not to gawk and checked myself for drool as subtly as I could! I have stayed at nice hotels before but not like this! As strange as this might sound I think I'd rather stay somewhere less "nice" and more full of character charm.

The bummer of the weekend was that Patrick Dempsey was at the track and I didn't get to meet him. I saw him doing a press thing and didn't get close enough, so Dad and I went on and came back latter and he was in hiding or had left for the evening or something. The day after our race Dad said "oh, we should have told Geri that you haven't met him yet, she always knows where he is and loves making sure her special people have had a chance to meet him. That's OK, none of you would belive me without pictures anyways.

I missed the girls a ton, but I was so glad to not have to worry about them, and secretly I was overjoyed that A would have to be in charge for the whole weekend, do two night nights with them, take care of everything. True the house was not picked up at all, but other than that he did a decent job.

Today is cleaning!

a dose of positive prospective

2010-09-06T15:18:00.002-07:00

I am feeling a little sorry for myself today. Nothings wrong, I am just tired. I have a huge list of things I want to get done before Friday. And a male customer pointed out to me that my pants had one of "THOSE" stains on them so I had to run home and change my pants. And the fridge is still broken and the waters still leaking..

So I am not going to post a whine-y post even though I WANT to...I will think about other things.

1) R is like 75% potty trained. She's still better for me, but that's just stubborn. She is scared of poop so that's what we are wearing our diapers for still. She is predictable about the time and knows its going to happen so she changes out of her undies. Also night time is not ready yet. I know she's not going to have this problem forever so I am not too concerned.

2) H is almost completely away from bottles now. R bought her a sippy cup two weeks ago at Target (Christine, (and anyone who needs baby gift ideas) TARGET is my favorite baby stuff place, great quality, great prices, and they have clearance constantly being updated) and H took right to it. So I went and bought two more with plans to get one or two more so we can wash them but she LOVES her sippy cup! And I am so proud of R for thinking of her sister.

3) I have started sewing again. Not on the machine, that will have to wait until R goes to preschool starting Weds, but I had to perform surgery on three stuffed animals and that was all I needed to get past my quilters block and start hand sewing some hexagons. I have been trying to do that instead of snacking at night watching TV and movies.

4) I am going away for the weekend without the kids or A! I am meeting up with my dad in Salt Lake for a car race and we will be staying at a 5-STAR hotel!! We will share a room and he IS a snorer so I am getting earplugs but at least no little one will wake me up and I will go almost three days without changing a single diaper. Fortunately one of my regulars who has children 5 and 3 years old lives across the street and over one house from us, so I asked her if she'd be available if he had an emergency and she said yes and even offered if he had to run out quickly to drop the kids off with her. How kind!

5) My family will be coming out for H's baptism (FINALLY) in NOV and A and I have been gutting out the crevices of the house in anticipation of our mad cleaning, and before its too cold to go outside and put stuff in the garage. Hopefully by the end of the month we will call the local charity store and have them pick up all our extra stuff.

I think that's a good enough positive perspective dose for today! Check back tomorrow in case I need another!

back online

2010-09-03T16:03:00.002-07:00

my computer caught a nasty bug. or several as the case was. I had a friend who knows oodles more than I do about computers fix it and the virus corrupted so many files he just whipped it clean. I need to go get a new Office program and better antivirus, he had one more trial offer one that he installed but said I should go get something a little more aggressive, especially with some of the stuff A does on the computer (music/video downloads, video games, etc.)

I have been computer less for over a week now and I KNOW I am missing some good reads but I am not going to sit here and read...I guess it's close to 2 weeks worth of blogs now. I have children to care for, a house to clean (Oi Vey! I decided it was time to declutter the whole house, starting with the closets...the living room and hall way are a mess, the fridge is broken and apparently that means no dishes can be washes? Ask A about that one!) and well...other things to do to be honest.

please let me know if you posted something phenomenal or if there's an awesome give-away I need to check out but unless I hear otherwise I'll just start reading again today! Fair?

Anyhoo, I need to go figure out what we are doing for dinner. I think A said he brought home something I can microwave (oh yeah, the freezer's working fine, bazaar!)

TTFN

Happy Birthday H!!

2010-08-06T16:04:00.004-07:00

8/5/10
Dear Hazel,

Today you are one. How did that happen? You are still so little it's hard to believe you are no longer an "infant." It seems like just last week we were eagerly anticipating your arrival and now you are a whole year old! You have been such a blessing in the lives of me, your father, and your sister. You have brought us many laughs and many smiles. You Are such a wonderful gift.

You have done all the "normal" baby things, grown from someone who was totally dependent on me, to someone who knows what she wants. You are so close to walking right now. Today we caught you standing up on your own in the middle of the room, you have been cruising along furniture for a while now.

Something that is unique to you and not your sister is your size. You both are so thin and beautiful, but your little body is longer and skinnier than your sister at the same age. It's almost comical how you are now 12 months old and wearing 6 month clothes...and the pants are falling off. It's not for lack of eating, oh boy do you have a good appetite. You are eating us out of house and home. When you went to daycare for the first time yesterday the lady was shocked you ate all your peas, your raviolis, chicken sticks, and STILL tried to steal your sisters lunch too. You must just burn everything off trying to keep up with your sister.

You love to be silly. You giggle as much as you can. If you hear music, you have to stop whatever you are doing and dance. You love to arch your back when I am holding you and say "weeee!" You love to play in the water, no matter how cold it is, if your sister is having fun in it. You want to do whatever Regi's doing and sometimes are accused of "bugging" her.

Your temperament is mild, almost passive. Without Regina being your bigger sister I think you might be walked over when you get older. You are learning how to fight for what you want. It will serve you well in your life. Without her before you, you might not be the person you are becoming. Remember this when you are frustrated with her. Your love for her shines on your face, and vice versa.

You are a snuggler, like me. You fight sleep. I think it's because you don't want to miss out, but you need your sleep. Without enough you are crab cakes, babe! You wake up smiling, singing to yourself, talking to any stuffed animal near by. You play peek-a-boo and patty cake until someone comes and gets you our of your crib, where you leap into our arms, or at least spring up as we lift you out.

We love you so much and are glad you are here, dear, sweet girl!
Love
Mommy

the ant

2010-08-04T17:23:00.002-07:00

Regina just took an ant off the couch and said "You can't be on the couch" walked it to the door opened the door and said "You have to go to your home, this is OUR home. We are not ants."

p.s. not to make you all ill, but 1) R knows what she wants to be for Halloween, and wants H to be one too, AND 2) I know what I'm giving at least four people for Christmas!!

on the other hand I went to sew two days ago and it's too hot to turn the iron on...AUGH I need to buy some fans!

Sunday at work

2010-07-26T16:10:00.003-07:00

OK, I wasn't going to post again for a little while, but DUDE! You HAVE to hear about my day yesterday!!

So la-te-da, off to work I go. I slept in an extra 10 minutes, but that's OK because I lay my stuff out for work the night before and I left my lunch there from the day before when one of our regulars brought in left overs from a huge party they had Friday night...(I LOVE my regulars!)

6:15 I leave the house 6:21 I am in the parking lot at work. Did you know I live a mile away from work? yeah, I do. I walk when I don't have to do the deposit, or when it's not below 20 outside. 6:22 I realise that's a LOT of newspaper on the ground....and they have color comics. 6:27 my co-worker pulls in. (did you also know I am insane about being late so I am always really early!) and I investigate. Two bundles of newspaper had been thrown/dropped from over the railing into our lower lot...so an almost two story drop. They were our Sunday papers. Lovely. We pick them up and put the ones we can back together. Seriously?

oh yeah, Sundays we open an hour and a half latter than the rest of the week. Thank goodness for small favors right?

6:49 I answer the phone.

"This is the H* Police Department, we received a distress signal from this location, is everything alright?" Um yeah! "We need you to exit the building and talk to the officer to the northern corner of your building. what are you wearing" um...black slacks, and a grey jacket. I am walking to the front door right now, using my key, oh shoot! Dagnabit, my key is stuck! "When you are walking I need you to keep your hands where the officer can see them, both hands up and clear" OK I am out, I am walking....I am in front of him, may I please hang up now?...talk to the officer, with his MAJOR gun.(he's a regular too)

Sad thing is this isn't the first time I've done this.

6:55 we are open for business.

7:05 someone walks in and says "we are here to pick up a donation for the spay and neuter clinic"

um...what? Call the other store to make sure they didn't have one ready. Nope. So either someone miss communicated on their side or we didn't approve it because nothings written down, I don't tell them that. I just say :give me 30 minutes I'll have 5 gallons of coffee ready for you and everything to go with it"

7:30, my one working bar is acting funny. Dripping water all over the counter. I take the machine apart and back together (well "apart" not much I can do but check that everything locked in tight) and nope. I try forcing a clog out of the drain. nope. Oh, by the way when you steam milk, steam comes out where the shots should be coming out of. Interesting. 7:40 machine reads "Please Insert Card" and will not work. At all. Nothing. Shut off, restart, try again after 10 minutes rest for the machine plus the whole reboot process.

7:55, nothing. Turn machine off for day, make note to call it in.

My other machine was supposed to be serviced on Friday, the steam wand's broken. It won't steam on "auto": (where it shuts off when it hits the right temp) So I am working on a broken machine. Dumb tech! (we have big problems with him but corporate is working on it)

12:10 doing the deposit, do NOT set off alarm.

12:20 done with deposit, but have a counterfeit $1 bill. Lovely

12:35 call the HPD non-emergency number, for a $1 bill I know but we have had a lot of fake $20'sand such around the state so I call it in anyways.

12:55 officer shows up. another regular I actually went to college with. He laughs, I ask him if he was part of the action this morning. No he was at an accident, but he heard the call come in and went over the radio "oh, Lisa's working." (TOLD you I'd done it before!) Yeah yeah yeah. He couldn't believe we had a fake $1, seriously! Who'd make a $1? Anyhoo, he fills out his stuff, I fill out my stuff, and away we go. He does say "You made my day with this!" lovely!

3:00 I clock off and go home.

p.s. I was laughing about it the whole day!!

FRSI

2010-07-24T06:55:00.002-07:00

Last night was Friday Night Sew In night and seeing as my sewing desk is buried and won't be unburied until at least tomorrow I didn't "Sew" but I DID get some applique pieces fused and picked out thread for them. I will be taking them to work and sewing on my lunch breaks as soon as my book is done. (yeah yeah I won't start the next one quite yet the library doesn't have it and K promised she's mailing them soon)

Last night was also one of my co-workers last nights in town. She's transferring three hours away and it was her last shift at our store so we had a little farewell bash for her. Pizza, Salad, Cupcakes, you know, the good stuff! That was from 6:30-8:30 so the girls and I walked down (we live about a mile away from my work, which is two doors down from A's work) around 5:30, placed the pizza order, waited, got the pizza, walked to my work, set up, partied, walked home, and the girls crashed! I was actually surprised H didn't fall asleep in the stroller. She had her baba and wasn't talking, just sitting quietly. tired baby!

Well, just wanted to post about FNSI so I could be eligible for their give away, still bummed I don't have a working digital camera. *note to self, mail to dad*
TTFN

addicted to...

2010-07-22T19:40:00.002-07:00

reading!

Ok I am addicted to fabric and quilting too, but I can't find my machine under the sewing desk in my room that's been buried with "things to keep away from H". She puts EVERYTHING in her little mouth. R NEVER did that! Then again I worked less, worked better hours, and only had one munchkin to chase after back then so the house was usually a lot cleaner. Though if you had asked me back then I would have said it was a disaster and I was too embarrassed to have company over. Nahh, it was nothing next to this!

Anyhoo, so no sewing but I am seriously hooked on the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series. Like hard core hooked. I don't even care that my editors mad I missed my last deadline....ok actually I just lost the forms and pictures and everything to mail to her so no biggie, just have to clean. I don't care that the house is messy and I have a play date scheduled for next week. I don't care that we've been eating all the frozen dinners I made for "emergencies" (aka mom can't cook so dad's in charge and we have no money for fast food nights)

It's so bad that I left for work 15 minutes early yesterday (I normally leave at 4:45am and still have time to kill before work at 5 but hate the chance that I'll forget my keys or something and need time to come home and still make it on time) so I left at 4:30AM! and sat in my car and read! I stay up late and fall asleep with the book on my face.

Adam has been feeding the addiction too! He has gone to get the books from the library when they have them (I have to check online first because they only have like 8 of the 18 and he won't go if they are checked out) and he hasn't been in a library once since I've known him! He has me check and see if there are any in the mail from K yet, and he's gone and bought me two (which I will donate to the library). The man who never buys books!

R will hear me randomly laughing and look over "oh, your book. I wish I could read a funny book too." So I hurry up and read her a story then tell her to sit next to me and "read" to herself. Then I read some more.

Start with One For The Money and you'll see what I mean!

laundry, chair, and pool?

2010-07-14T10:25:00.003-07:00

Laundry is my downfall. If I had someone to come and fold my laundry I could keep up on everything else in the house I swear. I spent all day yesterday folding loads of laundry and my kitchen table is now buried under nice folded piles and the chairs have hangers all over them. Ughh..

Since the table is here (I promise picture sometime) I had to move my sewing stuff into my bedroom. My computer chair doesn't fit. I've been moving the table to the side of my bed and sitting on my bed and sewing but I don't think that's the best position for me. A good friend of mine found me a $10 chair at a garage sale like I wanted and is painting it for me. Now I need to get some selvages for the cushion like the link I sent you to a while back. I only have about 10 myself. If anyone is working on a project or stumbles upon some selvages lying around, let me know.

I have not done any sewing since being back. I am WAY WAY behind on things now.The house was a DUMP when I got back from vacation and I've been working 8 hour shifts at work (5-1:30, 7-3:30, 5-1:30. 6:30-3, 7-3:30, 5-1:30...you get the idea, killing me here!) and trying to clean. I think my room will be the last room clean since all I do in there is sew and sleep, and well sewing has to wait until I can have a clean house. I think I will make it a point to do some sewing on my next full day off, I miss it so much!

Well, H just woke up from her nap, off to play in the splash pool in the backyard and maybe a trip to the library. What do you do with your day off?

our "vacation"

2010-07-10T19:03:00.002-07:00

so about the trip back home....

I left Tuesday afternoon, the girls were so good on the flight. I had bought R one of those little kid cross stitch things, knowing she's not quite old enough for it but she likes to "sew" and it was $5. Whatever. Unfortunately I didn't look at the kit before we left, the yarn was not cut to manageable lengths (it was all you needed and a little extra in one long strand) and the needle it was supposed to come with was missing. So thank goodness I had a plan B...JoAnn's had these wooden puppets with little markers and wooden masks for $1 each...I bought $5 worth and R colored the WHOLE time. We had Kaila shellac/mod podge them when we got to my folks house and into Grandma's garden they went!

So Tues was uneventful, play, color, grocery shop, and of course Starbucks...um HELLO!!!

Weds we went to set up the track for the Pacific Northwest Historics Benefiting Seattle Childrens at Pacific Raceways. And yes, that rolls right off my tongue after YEARS! (except it used to be Seattle International Raceway). My parents were big organisers for an event called IROE, International Race Of Executives. People pay I think $10,000 to have professionals teach them how to race in brand spankin' new Mercedes Benz donated by Phil Smart* which he will later sell as used (and boy are they used on the track) and meals. Augie Pabst, and Dominic Dobsin were there, as well as many other people who's names are not as recognisable...anyhoo, Weds morning we set up, decorated and made a tent at the track look like home.

Thursday we were at the track for the actual IROE event. What fun. It was a little cold but otherwise alright. lots of girl talk while the people were actually out driving.

Friday was race day! We watched a few races, checked out the cars, oh R wants a Lamborghini. Boy do I wish you could hear how she pronounces it. just ask her what type of car she likes "ambogigni!" no hesitation!! We worked lunch for a family friend who puts on a rather impressive spread but is ageing and mom wanted to let her play hostessinstead of fretting. We also set up the HUGE tent for the Sat night dinner

Sat we were at the track again, a little later but still there. Mom was doing accounting things, we watched more races, more lunch work, more playing and looking at cars, more just goofing off. Thankfully we were able to go into the building for accounting set back from the track to have some quiet time, both girls took naps, and could play without people stepping over them or anything. It was good, since we were there all day. Oh and there way a playground on the track too, much improved since I was a child, but I am just so thankful they rebuilt instead of tore down the playground! We also had a silent auction/BBQ dinner at the track, I bid on one thing but was way outbid! Then the two baskets I donated (with my manager) went for over their value so YAY! they were hits. I will have to make something again!

Sunday we went to Kirkland with K and her family, R was in the parade with my brother in a hydroplane pulled by my dad, and I watched. the boat was only float #7, and there were way over 100 floats so she got to watch the parade too. Then we had lunch (hot dogs, with onions and CREAM CHEESE SO SO GOOD!! my new favorite combo!) and hung out talking and goofing off with K's family. We didn't expect my dad to come back, but he and B did and dad took R down to the water and she accidentally sat down, got wet, oh well. She even got to throw the rubber duckies in for the annual duck race for the Rotary International group. we didn't win....she should have thrown better =).

Monday my dads folks came out to see them and Connie (the Lincoln Continental that dad didn't want to name "Abe") and we were a surprise for them. Then K and I went to Eclipse, and B insisted on driving us...and liked the movie more than we did silly boy! Then home to pack and clean up after ourselves.

Tues we flew back...I was bummed I didn't get to do any shopping, I saved up some tip money to buy some new shoes for work and a new bra or two from nordys, and a few other things to add to my pathetic wardrobe but I just re stashed it for later. It'll be hard not to buy fabric with it but I really do need some clothes that are not worn out or the wrong size!

*Phil Smart has volunteerd at Seattle Childrens since he was in his 30'sI belive, the first male volunteer and plans his life around his commitment to the kids there, reading every wednesday and dressing up as Santa. His health is starting to reflect his age but he still goes. Please consider checkign out his book Angels Among Us...I know I can get the book somwehere but it might be at teh hospital

sleeping sweeties

2010-07-07T19:13:00.005-07:00

The girls and I had a good trip home. I only have a few pics so far, I am waiting for either e-mails or hard copies from the rest of the trip, but I have a few to share.

H tuckered out after a hard day at the tracks. Ok so this was after our 1/2 day and she slept in the car but still, she's on my brothers girlfriend K's lap. We all want her if they break up. (H's shirt says "PARTY! my crib 3AM) Here's R asleep IN the car. How she sleeps with her neck like that I will never know. This was actually the same day as the previous one. Too funny! Those kids were worn out! Mind, you we wore them out all visit, so we saw these faces a lot! This is H asleep (please see previous pic of her as proof that that's her sleeping position, her heads identical in both I think!) at the track. This was during the big boar race too! We had to put the ear muffs on first, then after 10 minutes, the sunnies went on and instantly boom out! K was holding her again and was shocked when she realised H was sleeping and not just content. Please note the sock on the hand too...her hands were so cold from her eating and slobbering I threw her spare socks on.

no workign camera, and attempts to potty train

2010-06-26T18:38:00.002-07:00

I may have mentioned this, but my camera's not well! I think Hazel "ate" it and did something to the screen. I can still take pictures but I can't see anything so 98% of the shots I have tried to take are blurry. Seriously how did people do it in the age before digital? I am going to go buy a disposable for my trip to my family and get everything on CD so I can store it (and share it with you) but in the meantime, I am sorry!

I don't think I have told you this either, but I have been SO GOOD about keeping up with photo albums thus far in the girls lives. I am sure one day I will say I failed to keep up but at the moment, not only do I have every picture (up until R's birthday) printed, in an album, and I get the albums that have two pics/page with a little space to write something...yuppers there's a story near every picture. True some stories are "oh silly girl" or "another fun bath" but still. Just FYI, Costco, when you print 500+ pictures the price drops by two cents a print (I think to $0.09 instead of $0.11) I tend to go several months, buy 1-2 cute photo albums, print oodles of pictures and take an afternoon to put them in and write, usually while watching chick flicks and make it something special for me instead of a task to do.

Totally unrelated, potty training. Regina will be in preschool in Aug, so she has to be at least well on the path by then. Someone told me that they had their son nakie bum for a week and he was mostly trained. la te da, I go home and give it a shot when I have three days off in a row. Wow, she's not left any accidents all over the house, she sits on the potty, tinkles here and there, no poops but whatever we are making progress...so I think! Turns out she would go, put a diaper (pull up) on when I wasn't looking, do her stuff, and hide the diaper in her closet under her hamper. HAHAHAHA!!! I told my friend this and she said "well, at least she knows when she has to go..." and I said "the best part of this is I can tell this story at her wedding!" I know she will do it in her own time and I can encourage and motivate but I can't force.

H on the other end is not quite strong enough to walk, but her new favorite game is to stand up, find her balance, have you let go and fall (but you catch her before she falls) you should hear the giggles from that one.

I have been sewing like a maniac, but nothing to show for it! How does that happen? Eh, one day it will all come together and I can brag and boast about my stuff!!

junes fnsi

2010-06-19T15:07:00.002-07:00

Remind me to get a sitter for at least a few hours on Fridays during Friday Night Sew in! I didn't get any actual SEWING in, but I did work on my counted cross stitch while H ate grass (yes I kept taking it out of her mouth but did I take her out of the lawn? no!) and R ran around with her soccer ball, and I tried to not interfere when she got stuck...ok it was the ball that was technically stuck, but silly little girl couldn't move without her ball, so she was "stuck" too! I can't find the charger to the camera or I would have done before FNSI/after FNSI pics. I have the second bear on my birth announcement for R! cross stitch almost done. I think I have the dress and the flowers totally done, so just the bear's head and hand and hat!

R and I also worked on A's Fathers Day present. We are taking some Simpson's Fleece fabric that he bought himself ages ago and some blue I had on had and doing that tie/knot double fleece blanket thing. I am thinking about doing some quiting of the two layers, maybe in 10" intervals...debating between using the machine and making squares or finding some matching floss and tieing the layers together. We washed the fabrics last night and cleaned up the living room (which has to be done again and vacuumed AGAIN before we lay the fabrics out tonight!

Just over one week until I see my family!! And the Pacific Northwest Historics! WAHOO!!!

little tidbits

2010-06-10T15:40:00.003-07:00

I am now the proud mother of a four year old.

Oh my how time goes by! I have been meaning to get a post up about her, all about her and how interesting she is right now, but I decided to write her a letter and put it in her "Special Box" so I've been working on that and will take some things out from there and show you some pictures of her throughout her life so far...so it might be she's 4 and a month before I get it all together!

In the meantime I wanted to let you know my favorite quilt company (patterns) has split into two! I now have TWO favorites! There's Crazy Old Ladies (who if the pictures are correct are neither crazy nor old) and now Ribbon Candy (see I am their first "follower"!) I am excited to see what they each do!

Lastly, I will be going with the girls in a few weeks to see my family, and I am SO EXCITED!!! So excited. We will be going to the Pacific Northwest Historics, where I basically grew up as a kid (both this specific event and the SOVREN race group's other events) and will be able to see people I have not seen in at least four maybe even five years! If anyone is in the Seattle area the weekend of the 4th of July, come on out to Pacific Raceways and check it out. The proceeds all go to Seattle Children's Hospital, and you know how much I love that place.

I am off to read some more before H wakes up and R gets back from a playdate!

no sewing=crabby lisa!

2010-06-04T16:50:00.003-07:00

I have not sewn in over a week! Holy smokes no wonder I have been crabby!!

Have I told you I hired someone to take the girls out on adventures once a week for two hours (plus, if the event entails) so I can have some "me" time. Ahhh. Mind you I LOVE my girls (can you tell?) but I need some down time. The great thing about A and my schedules is one of us is ALWAYS home with the girls, the down side is it's usually just one of us. He gets their quieter times, I get the rambunctious time plus the night time battles. After a month or two of getting more and more irritable because I am never alone, not at work, not at home, heck right now not even in my sleep! (Regina's been having nightmares/night terrors/sleep talking so I moved her into my room on the floor for the time being but she somehow ends up in bed with me most night.)

R LOVES her, she cried the first time our gal left, and H warmed right up to her too, since H is going through stranger anxiety right now I took that as a very good sign. H even let our gal carry her! She was sick this week so I couldn't sew any!

That means that a) I didn't get to last months apq blocks (AUGH I KNOW! NAUGHTY NAUGHTY!!!) b) didn't make this months blocks c) I didn't get to quilting R's Dora quilt for her birthday present from me and d) mom is CRABBBBBYYYY!!!

The good news is I have the next three days off to clean and get the house ready for R's birthday and maybe sew.

So please forgive me Karen and Ruth, and hopefully I will not be late again. I can't guarantee I won't cut it close but hey, I have 2 hours (+) a week to sew now!

oh. p.s. At my lunch at work I've been reading, LOVE the Janet Evanovich series! and I just started The 19th Wife, so far I am interested. I might even read in bed tonight when R is sleeping on my floor/bed.

p.ps thanks for the comments about the girls and memorial day! I hope we can do it again next year, and I was so proud of R for using her own allowance AND thinking of her sister!

memorial day

2010-06-01T20:44:00.005-07:00

I am on my way to bed, we have been doing some rearranging of furniture (ughhh) and I don't have a chair for my sewing desk now (was sharing the computer chair with my sewing table but it doesn't fit through the bedroom door...I'll have to show you were it is soon)

In the meantime I wanted to show you how we celebrated Memorial Day. At A's Dad's grave (he was in the navy for 8 years I think)

R bought the pinwheels with her allowance ($3/week until next week when it becomes $4! One for spending, one for saving and one for sharing...will be two for saving) The big one's from R and the small one is from H (as clarified by R), the flowers are from A and I, and the Fort did flags for everyone.

I am off to read the rest of my book or as far as I can until I fall asleep and then hit up some second hand stores tomorrow for a chair. I want an old style dining room table chair that I can repaint and recover sort of like this one.

I want to win...

2010-05-20T19:41:00.025-07:00

Have you read Kelly at I Have A Notion is giving away an AccuQuilt Go!? There are so many ways you can enter and you can pick and choose your favorites. I went for some big ones here, and am a little embarrassed to share them, but I figured the more chances the better right? Plus it's fun. I was debating doing two posts here or just one, so I went with one.

First up for 5 points, I am showing you my sewing space.

My Stash. I tried to get it all in one line, we will see. But yes that's how I have all my fabrics arranged, all folded nicely. Ahhh! I used the method around my 6 1/2" ruler and wish I remembered the link for you. It's great, fold the fabric twice selvage to selvage and then fold to selvages and then roll it tightly around your ruler, slip the ruler out and everything stacks so nicely together! I have biggest on the bottom and scraps on top.Here are projects that I have not yet started or I am still in the gathering phase for. I only paid for probably 10 yards of whats there, and maybe 20 yards of what was all in that big stash above in my lifetime. The rest was either won or given to me.Projects I am working on and/or letting take a break. The top is batting and under that are a few finished quilts needing to be delivered. Under that are tops and backings ready to go together (more on that later) and the bottom bin has some large pieces of fleece, flannel, sweatshirt material, nice warm backings!!Things that need to be put away. Yes, on my dryer. Did I tell you I store my fabric in the laundry room? Does that explain some of the strange metal pipes?

My actual sewing space is along one wall in the living room. The wall adjacent to my bedroom.I Was told not to tidy up, so you see the girls boxes (cards, letters, various things that I want to hang onto) and projects. my actual desk here, my chair is held up by my sewing desk when at the computer desk so I can lean back without falling back...here's how quiting invaded the "work" area.

Secondly for 3 points I am showing you all my current projects, quick key for "Lisa lingo" WIP=Work In Progress, a project that is not at a complete top phase. PHD=Project Half Done, the top and if needed the backing is pieced together but not yet quilted and/or bound.Kid's 12 Days of Christmas PHDThe Night Before Christmas PHDBlock Lotto Win PHD, sweatshirt material backing!H's Dora Quilt PHDR's Dora Quilt PHD (pined and I left it in the living room so maybe I will get to quilting it!)Can't show you what's going on in there WIP Shop Hop 2005 WIP (This is one I keep putting aside and plan to do as a filler project. some of the blocks are getting tricky since I organized them easy to hardest =)The Night Before Christmas WIP, I can't figure out what to do for the sashing. I was thinking if I can find blue and white snowflakes in alternating colors (white on blue and matching blue on white) to do cornerstones or one or the other!Village Green BOTM WIP. Only two, no wait one should be in my mail box today or tomorrow so three months behindA's Simpson's WIPHeart for Kaila WIP. Actually this will be a quick finish! I just need one border, quilt and bind...and it's small so easy!!You know about this one, but I have to share, it's technically a WIP even though I only started it to give myself a break from trickier projects and get something done quickly to boost my morale =)

Lastly the Lavender Mist BOTM WIP which I keep back burnering.

So obviously I have some things I can work on tonight at Friday Night Sew In. And if you have not signed up, head on over and do it! So far there are 99 people sewing tonight. Something powerful in that. Now just imagine if we were all making something quick and easy for charity. 99 quick quilts/blankets for sick children, natural disaster victims, breast cancer fighters, domestic violence survivors...oh the list could go on and on!!

facebook status updates

2010-05-15T17:43:00.004-07:00

sorry to annoy you all with this, but since I am keeping this blog for remembering/recording the girls (because I can't keep a diary if my life depended on it) in addition to quilting things, I wanted to put some of my facebook status updates into something a little more permanent. This is all I could get when I tried but I hope to be able to go back a little further!

starting oldest to most recent:

off to visit my family! Horray!! Please send us patience for the flight.
January 8 at 5:14am
Danette A conversation G and I had while looking @ a cute baby in a restaurant. G: Mommy, what's Regi's baby's name? me: Hazel. G: That baby looks like Hazelnut! Me: its Hazel, not Hazelnut. (5 min later) G: That baby looks like Coconut! me: Who's coconut? G: Regi's baby!
January 21 at 7:12pm ·
Regina is building towers for hazel to knock down. why cant they always get along this well?
Sally
If you find the answer let me know
Lisa
they are being so good together today (means tomorrow or tonight will be a nightmare I Am sure because I can't be that lucky!) Regina just asked "Hazew, you wanna watch Garfield with me? No? You want to play trains with me? OK, I go get them!" and ran to get her train set
April 14 at 4:49pm ·
hahaha, I love three! "Mommy, I need help. But I do it all myself!"
April 17 at 2:08pm
I really enjoyed "resting" while Hazel played hide-and-find-mommy with her blankie!
April 19 at 5:45pm
baffled. The last FOUR days Regina has put herself down night night in her big girl bed...the time has varied but she's been making the choice, and is out no fight!!
April 21 at 8:14pm
had a really nice hike, am really impressed with how well the girls did on our first try!
April 24 at 7:27pm
the little traitor now says "dada, daddy, and doG-EE" but no mama!!
April 26 at 4:42pm
Regina's out with Adam...should mean cleaning, seriously thinking of sewing =)
April 27 at 2:11p
Regina's eating teddy grahms, and I can't stop laughing!!
April 28 at 5:03p
so why is it that Regina's been begging me for "coffee" all afternoon, and as soon as the dishwashers done so I have a mug to make it in, do so, give it to her...she falls asleep without drinking it?
April 30 at 6:23pm
Adam just informed me that it's "happychino Frappy Hour" followed by Regi singing that back to me at the top of her lungs while jumping up and down
May 10 at 3:39pm
don't these girls know that at 9:00 mommy turns into a pumpkin and be 11:00 mommy is a jack-o-lantern sitting on the porch 5 days after Halloween?
May 10 at 11:00pm

the story R told H

2010-05-12T16:36:00.002-07:00

A little backgound: as part of R's night night routeen she gets one book and one Priness R story. In the story we retell the day she had with Princess R as the heroine and sometimes if it's a dull day we exagerate events to make there be a problem Princess R has to solve. Sometime we talk about better choices Princess R could have made. It's a sweet little routeen and something special both A and I do. (Well he works nights now but when he's home he'll ask if he can do it.)

So today I asked R to keep an eye on H so I could start a load of laundry (so could hear but still). I told R she should read H a story, she'd love that! Instead R made up a Princess H story:

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess, H. She was in a tall tall tall tower. There was a dragon who go "rawerrr."

The knight came "dun dun dundun!" and cut cut cut the dragon. Princess H be so happy.

Then a scary monster came too, and the knight was lost! Princess H got wings and went flap flap flap all the way to the knight.

They went home and had ice cream and hot dogs.

I found my camera

2010-05-10T17:24:00.013-07:00

You are going to be so sorry you came to visit today. I took SO many pictures your eyes might hurt a little bit, oh well here it goes:

I got all my blocks from the APQ Block Swap a little while ago. Breeze Bees took a while to work their way across the pond, and then the States. And have I told you how all mail in the state is either processed through Billings or Missoula, now Missoula is closer, but does our mail go there? Nope! So everything takes another day or so to get to me. Ughh!

There were some extra goodies that came in too. I was so touched by the unexpected extras! They will be used and loved no doubt! (oh and I got a scissor thing too, but R claimed it as hers and I couldn't find it for the pic hehe)

Then Mary sent me The Angler 2, which Katie mentioned. Wahoo!!! I have not used it yet but look forward to it. I've read the instructions three times =)

This is the project I am currently working on. No angles for it, but I needed something easy peasy and cheesy...OK it's just easy. The only problem is I keep letting myself put it down so I can do other things. I need to gift myself a few hours to just do it. I am enjoying the simplicity and fabrics in it.

Here's a closer shot at the fabrics. Very Valentines Day. BTW did you know Sandy Gervais had two Valentines Lines out this year? Did I already tell you that? I have the other line in jelly rolls (remember?) but this is Candy Kisses that we bought by accident thinking they were L'Amour...actually the shop miss cut it but the lady was too happy to get rid of the Valentines Day things that I couldn't tell her that I had specifically asked for JUST L'Amour!

Now for another mistake of mine. That green log cabin block I did for "home" was wrong. I was supposed to receive from her (and did) and send to someone who wanted black. That was HARD! so here's what I made for her. I just need to stitch down the little stepping stones and cut down to size. The lady was kind enough to let it go without complaint taking a little longer once I explained my mistake.

This was last months block. The lady's colors were red and white and the theme was "growth" I hope she doesn't mind a tulip/rose mix in fabrics, but it was all the quilters quality red that wasn't another insane pattern (like red with yellow stars or red and orange, or...you get the idea) and I liked the block but itself didn't meet the size criteria so instead of making huge borders I added a few things. I had 1/2 way made a block for someone else (the person who sent to me this past month) before I realised I was reading the chart wrong, so I e-mailed this gal too to explain a delay. Here you see I need to finish stitching down those bottom roses and trim down. Maybe tonight I will get it all done.

This months theme is "Dance" Any helpful ideas? I'd rather do something just pieced this month since my appliqe skills are not perfect!

(Have you noticed my new rug under these and under the picture of all the apq blocks?)

Now I have been really good about not buying fabric. I mean REALLY good lately. So what do I do to reward myself? With our tax return I impulsively clicked the link on Facebook to this wonderful quilt shop. Just meaning to browse, drool, get a fix and move on, I notice they accept paypal. I just loaded up my account with some of the "me money" from our return and then I see Spring Magic! Oh how I wanted this so badly! I was devastated when the Fat Quarter Shop didn't have it in stock any more. Well I bought it! I resisted adding the backing kit figuring if I ever got to making this in my long line of WIP's I'd just get the fabric then instead of risking using it on something else. Backings don't have to be a perfect match anyways so whatever!

You might notice the kit fabrics are a little squished. That's because they shipped it in a box, and inside that box, I (very confused) pulled out this bag. Then, inside the bag was the kit! Ahh! I was taken quite by surprise by this! I recommend shopping at Chickadee Shops, or at least browsing. I was impressed to say the least, but have to wait until I have the green light again to go online and indulge!

Now, I don't have any new pics of the girls so I thought I'd leave you with R's latest "sewing." I let her pick out the fabric, and she chose pink thread (I think because it was the only color not in in the bag) She said "I want the pank one. Pank's my favorite color." She later told me the same about the orange crayon she wanted to color with so I take these "favorites" with a grain of salt...or maybe at three favorites change often.

Here's a close up where you can see the pink thread.

Now if you made it all the way through, I am very VERY impressed. So as Tigger would say: TTFN!

oh.p.s. There's a signature swap I signed up for if you are interested over at Jaybird Quilts.

busy bee!

2010-05-07T19:02:00.002-07:00

I am sorry I can't find my camera. There are so many things I want to show you, I got the last of my blocks in the mail from the APQBloggers Block Swap and there are a few other things that came too that I want to share (all treats have been long consumed). I made last months quilt block for another swap I am in (the theme was growth). I want to show you a quick project I started to get the juices flowing when I don't want to think too hard, and some things I bought/won/have waiting in the wings.

I can't because my camera is MIA.

We took it to the local parade but were too cold to take our hands out of the blankets we brought with us to take pictures, and haven't seen it since.

I will tell you other things I've done lately:

A steam cleaned the living room, we laid down the rug, rearranged the furniture (its going to take a slight adjustment when the table gets here but I didn't want it to look like something was missing in the meantime)

I gutted my desk since the TV is next to it now

cleaned the girls room (never ending there!)

today's project was the kitchen. I have the freezer, five more drawers, the walls, and the floor to do, the shelves and cupboards are all rearranged and things that were in bulk have been portioned out. I might ask A to help me with the walls and floor for Mothers Day, but who knows, I might get to it myself tomorrow.

My next day off project will be my bedroom/laundry. I think I will be sending R to daycare for that one. I don't mind a helper but the bedroom is so bad right now that I want to get in, be left alone (maybe make a myself some drinks *wink* ) watch corny movies and just do it. No interruptions, no needs to meet, nothing else to irritate me besides the mess.

I hope you are all not too deep into spring cleaning, and I hope you are able to work on some fun projects!

super fast

2010-04-27T13:18:00.002-07:00

This just cracked me up!

We were outside , and R decided to flap her arms and run around and was saying "bwaca" "bwaca" at the top of her lungs.

I said "R, you are a really good bird!"

"No, Mommy, I being a hawk!"

Color me corrected =)

little traitor!

2010-04-26T16:02:00.004-07:00

I am so glad you all are as excited as I am about these big ticket items! I can't wait to buy a new house...and maybe a new car, but at least this way we won't go broke furnishing a new house...plus we don't want to settle down here. I want to be closer to my family.

Also quickly, thanks for all the get well thoughts. I might try and call a dr tomorrow, I feel like this might be sinus infection instead of cold...it was pointed out to my by Judy, a wonderful quilting co-worker of mine that I sound like an 80 year old man blowing my nose and my eyes seem puffy and watery.

Eh well, Saturday I Was tired of feeling sorry for myself, tired of my clothes not fitting right, tired of being 50 pounds heavier than I was four and a half years ago (pre R) and had realised I am tired of giving myself excuses as to why I am not going out for a walk, or thinking "gee I wish I could go for a hike, but I've never gone before" so what did I do?

Went home from work

Grabbed the girls

and went for a hike!!

Helena has this great mountain in it, it's on the south west side and is considered in town, and is 100% city owned and is a huge hiking place.

This is where we had to turn around and go home. We were out for an hour and a half total, so I think that was probably 50 minutes up, 40 down? I was so proud of R, she only started whine-ing the last few minutes when we were almost to the car and she tripped on every third rock I swear!

sorry I couldn't turn the picture, I loaded it a new way (onto my computer) and didn't have the editor, but this is here where we turned around. my silly girl who says "take a picture of me" whenever I look at the camera was "too scawed" to let me take her picture, so what you don't see is her crying in it...yes, mommy took a picture and made her cry so that I could capture our first hike. Mean mommy; I know!!!

So where does this little traitor thing come into play with my hike story here? on the way up, we saw three dogs (and their owners) the second one was so nice and R got to pet it! she turnes to H (who I am wearing in my wrap facing out) and says "H, this is a doggie, say Dog-gie, hi doggie, I love you, H see the doggie?" then we walk away and what happens? H says "Do-G-EEEEEE!!!" Yes, she did! I swear! And for about a month now she's been saying "dada" and "Dad-EEEE" but no "Mama"or "mom-EEE" nope, nothing! TRAITOR! =)

my new goodies

2010-04-23T14:16:00.002-07:00

hey there everyone....I have so much I wish I could show you, but either I can't or...well...the camera is somewhere in the mess of things I threw into two storage tubs when someone came over to fix my dryer last week. and I put them in my bedroom...and covered them up with clean laundry I need to fold....and I emptied out the bathroom. Basically I am starting spring cleaning but the girls and I are not feeling well enough that I can actually DO spring cleaning. I have their room deep cleaned, but then they got to the toys one day when I was napping (well 1/2 napping 1/2 listening to them but don't tell them I wasn't totally sleeping!)

We did get some new goodies for the house! We are waiting on that kitchen table still, we should be close to the end of out 8-12 week wait but it's killing me here! In the mean time we've been saving up for a new bedroom set and an x-box 360 for A and a Wii with the Wii Fit and Just Dance for the girls and I, and a few other things (eventually a bunk bed for the girls and dressers for each of them.) We've been setting aside our tip money which isn't a lot but every little bit adds up. We were almost to the X-Box for A, all his buddies play Halo? and something about war? and he wants to play too. For now he's been going over to friends houses after work which is fine except for the nights I wake up and panic because he's not home and it's like 3AM! (he usually gets off work at 1am so two hours of video games is not actually way out of line, it's not like he gets off at 5 or 8pm!) However, at Costco, I saw something that we had been talking about for YEARS.

I bought a Bissell Pro Heat 2X! We had just talked about getting the pro's in to steam clean our carpets and/or renting the rug Dr from Lowes, but this was a great deal and I couldn't pass it up. Since A forgot my birthday (it was 4/18 I turned 26...and nothing exciting happened) he let me bump it up the list. Since I got that and A's really wanted an area rug for under our new kitchen table, we had already looked at Target (to get prices for after his toy) and ShopKo, both were either decent price but didn't feel good and with a crawler that's a big deal for me, or were nice feel and WAY too expensive....however on our way to milk at Costco he saw it...the rug he wanted....for $99...and it's 7'1"X10'6"!!! SO soft and he picked out the pattern he wants.

So back to saving up tip money, but now that I have A on board (and he realises he'll get his toys faster if he helps me save) we might be ordering our new bedroom set before too long! Oh I love it!

Anyhoo, sorry it's not really an exciting post, if you even read all of it, I am impressed. To the APQ block winners this month, I have not made it to the post office, hopefully Monday or Tuesday I will have those off to you. I'd say tomorrow but it's only open from 8-12 and I work 8-4:30 =) Ahhh Montana!!

well...

2010-04-17T15:29:00.002-07:00

friday night sew in

total bust

two sick sweeties

lots of cuddles

one very very tired mommy

and work tomorrow, ughhhh!

a few give aways

2010-04-12T17:41:00.002-07:00

I want to make sure you are all up to date on give aways. You may notice I have been entering and talking about a lot lately. Well, A made me promise to cut WAY WAY back on the quiting spending. At least until I finish his quilt. Well, since his is a little ways down the line here (and he wants a rather large one) I am getting my fabric fix via give aways! I have only bought the Village Green BOTM and one kit that I got at 50% off + free shipping....seriously can't argue with that! Especially when it's been something I have been drooling over for about a year now. As soon as it comes in I will take a picture!

I realise it'll be a while before I get to it, but I'm so excited anyways.

In the meantime, I Have A Notion (IHAN) is having their 30 day birthday celebration. I know I mentioned it before but we are close to the end here! you can still enter ALL the give aways. I decided to pick and choose which ones I'd actually get some use out of instead of entering everything and then not knowing what to do with something. there are some I REALLY want to win!

The blog is here
and in case you don't win what you can't now live without, here's IHAN's shop

Secondly, you may not know this, but ever since I spent ages hunting down L'Amour by Sandy Gervais (and ended up getting it for my BIRTHDAY!) I have become a fan of her work. I keep looking at lines of Moda and saying "oh, I have to have that, who is it by?" and about 85% of the time it's Sandy Gervais! her latest line, Frolic is on my list, if I ever get the green light to buy again (yeah I am holding my breath too!) I stumbled upon this post though! a cute little kit featuring her line, and an ADORABLE pattern if I do say so myself! I entered and wanted to pass on the info to you. While I considered not telling anyone, word will get out anyways!

in the next day or two I have more funny girl stories for you!

tottaly random night time stories for you

2010-04-11T20:10:00.003-07:00

hey, thanks for all the comments...I have 6 months of secrets but I promise I will post more pictures and tell you EVERYTHING as soon as I get the green light!

I've had a few interesting nights, and I thought you might get a kick out of them! I am laughing about it all now. You might not really care, you don't have to read on, but I am cracking up over here just thinking about them. Here you go:

First up, two nights ago (so Friday night!) R must have taken a nap before I got home. I could not get that girl to bed. Mind you she's sleeping in my bed again but usually falls asleep before I go to bed and we've been fighting a lot less. She's in my room for right now because H has been falling asleep between 8 and 8:30 every night and R has been climbing into her crib to play with her. Sweet, something I love, but at the same time H needs her sleep!! And mommy doesn't want to put H down multiple times a night. So H down in crib, R plays in my room with her Lego's, or dolls, or something until she's tired enough for sleep and falls asleep. Usually about 9:30-10ish.

Anyhoo, R wasn't going down. Finally about 11pm I give in. I have to be at work at 8, I was up at 4am already so this is me up for 19 hours and just pooped! I put in Shrek and we are cuddling in bed and I fall asleep. 3AM I hear a SCREAM from H. I feel something next to me in my bed think "oh good R is asleep too, I will get out smoothly so she doesn't wake up." I go get H, make her bottle, come sit in my chair here, check Facebook, and doze a little but not much. I put H down and get myself a really cold glass of water from the kitchen. So there I am, in my Superman Jamie bottoms (that I shrunk by accident and are mine now but were A's), just finished my glass of water, put it in the sink, about to turn and go to bed (the light above the stove is the only thing on) and my kitchen/laundry room door opens (silently) and R says "Hi Mommy!" like its nothing and I SCREAM "BAHHHHHHHH!!!"

R ran into my room and buried herself under the pillows on my bed. We talked about it, she wanted to build the shelf I bought myself, she shouldn't have done that at night night time, and not without mommy or daddy, but mommy is sorry for screaming, mommy was scared!"

Then Last night I had a wild dream I just can't get over!!!

There I was at work (in what turned out to be my dream but I thought I was really working) normal day and someone comes up to me and says "do you realise a truck ran over someone in your parking lot?" Um...no, so I go to the side door, phone in hand and call 9-1-1, an older model grey/red truck ran over a 20 something male in jeans and a red t-shirt...or it looks red! "Sir, help is on it's way, please stay with us here! I said thinking of the Incident Report Form I would have to fill out and how to get all the witnesses statements too. Ughhh!

Then the young man gets up and starts RUNNING! "I'm sorry I got your daughter pregnant!" she shouts over his shoulder. The driver gets out and grabs a shot gun from his truck and goes running after him....I dial 9-1-1 again "um, there is a man with a shotgun chasing after the guy who was under the truck...we need help downtown NOW!"

la-tee-dah about 5 minutes latter a bunch of 20-30 something guys comes along and reach into the now abandoned truck. Put they pull these huge gun things that you load a tennis ball into the shooting part and light this torch thing on top and when you shoot the tennis ball releases and catches fire and then you have a burning really fast moving tennis ball. So I call 9-1-1 AGAIN "I need you here NOW! here's what's happening...." so I lock the door and tell everyone to stay inside. I stand by the door waiting for officers to arrive trying to notice everything so I can ID people. I look out and see one of my co-workers look around, grab a gun, light his torch thingie and join in. Iwas thinking "DUDE!!! get inside!" but when I yell at him he accidentally pulls the trigger and a fiery tennis ball comes flying at me. It's moving FAST and lands in my neck, on my left side.

I have two choices here, I could leave the ball in and keep it where it is in case they can save me, or rip it out so I don't burn to death. mind you I am terrified of fire...so you can see what I chose to do. I tried to take my apron off and put it in my neck with pressure but everything was like moving in molasses. I thought of the Incident Report, then I thought, "my girls. I wish I could touch them one more time" I let myself imagine stroking their faces, playing with their hair...

...and that's where I woke up!

In order to fall back asleep I had to problem solve what I would do instead of stand by the door. I'd move everyone into the back room, barricade the swinging door, and keep us all together until help arrived.

But I really want to know where that dream came from, surely not Shrek! and I only watched The Nanny before that.

lets see what tonight brings!

easter

2010-04-06T08:40:00.006-07:00

Easter was fun this year. R had a blast with it, and H was too young to care either way. I have gobs of pictures of the day but I will just share the best one.
I know it looks like a lot of candy, but really the girls got a lot of clothes in their baskets. H even got two pairs of shoes! most the eggs had $0.30 in them for savings! when we were all done and sitting down watching Monsters vs. Aliens I asked R "How cool was that?" "cool, but next time, more eggs!" well alrighty then! note to self, see if stores have eggs on sale right now!

I got something really exciting in the mail yesterday!
unfortunately I can't tell you a thing about it, but you can see the letter is on "Quiltmaker" letterhead!! (no I don't design...I am not that good....yet!)

Lastly, here's an early birthday present from my aunt:

OK,so I already had the pattern, I love crazy old ladies! and she bought the 1/3 yards at one store and we went to two others, plus the three in my town and couldn't find more so she bought the jelly rolls online. the two mugs are from work and are super close to matching the fabrics so I couldn't resist!!

Too bad she said I had to finish and mail back her quilt before I could start this one. I just have to quilt the border, trim and put the binding on now.

too young to go

2010-03-30T08:47:00.002-07:00

There was another tragic accident to hit our town this weekend. It was the first weekend of Spring Break and five high school students died in a single car crash outside of town. You can read the article here. I think the saddest part of the whole thing is what one student said at the end of the article. She said “We’ve been through it, so we know how to help each other through it." (regarding wishing school was in session.)

I wrote this post two years ago about more local deaths, I know a lot more have happened between now and then. In fact, last year in late spring/early summer two boys were killed by a third downtown in a shooting. I think earlier in the year there was a car crash, if not then the year before a few youngsters died in a crash. The teens in this town have been to too many funerals, they know too much loss. The parents in this town have seen too many youngsters die, either their own, friend's children, or their children's friends. It's heartbreaking.

I don't know any of the family's, I might know the teens. They probably have come into my work. I try to connect to everyone who walks through the door, but if you do it more than once in a while I form a better connection. The best I can do at the moment is to play with my children (R's reading and told me "leave me 'lone!" and H is sleeping at the moment). To teach them to wear their seat belts, no exceptions! When they are older, make sure they learn to drive well, don't let them have passengers or be a passenger with a car that has more than one or two people. I'd rather fork over gas money for my child to drive by themselves than for them to get into a car with a rowdy group!

I know I can't protect my girls from everything, there's a lot of bad luck, decisions, people, etc out there but I can teach them to be responsible. I can love them. And I can keep the lines of communication open. My heart breaks for those family's, for the youth of our town, for those young lives lost and unable to live up to the potential they had. I do strongly believe that people are called Home when it is their time but it's so hard to believe that all five of those youngsters were done doing their life's purpose.

Go hug those who you can, tell the people you love that they mean something to you, and...I don't know, do whatever it is you can to help protect our youth! Every time something like this happens I am blown away!

more phd's crossed off the list!

2010-03-27T17:32:00.006-07:00

I have crossed off a few more projects from my Projects Half Done list. You might have noticed I wrote "DONE" by a couple of them a bit ago, I just wanted to wait to have a big post about them. All I had to do was bindings on all of these.

First up is the wall hanging I made for Pat Sloan/Moda Bake Shops challenge "Gobble Gobble" All you had to do was make the top, somehow use those hourglass shapes and that top center pumpkin in any size. I made my hourglasses with various backgrounds and every one has a pumpkin print in it, then I found a few pumpkin patterns, made a few up, and came up with this:
I am planning on giving it to my brother's girlfriend (and him but in the horrible event that they break up, for the record, it's hers! Can you tell I like her?) I plan to make a few wall hangings and send them to her and eventually get her a curtain rod and clips to hang and rotate them about.

This is a small cuddle/car seat quilt I made from the ABC panel (it's a little dated but was given to me from someones stash). I was going to give it to a friend of mine but experimented with quilting...I used black thread and traced around the letters, not so easy on my basic pfaff. I am instead going to donate it to Katie's Comforters with a note saying it's use would be either for a child to cuddle with or perhaps for a younger sibling who is a little jealous. I think it's too small for an infant but they can decide that or not. If you want to join the guild, that blog has some information about it. My mom helped the lady get it going and come up with some of the basics of how to get a guild for Children's' Hospital going (if you don't remember my connection and passion for it, read here).

This is also for K (B's girlfriend). It's tree #3. Can you tell how easy and much I love this pattern? It's quilt as you go and if you want it you can find it here. It's easy, quilt as you go, and so easy to embellish. I might make K give it back to me for a little bit if I find buttons of presents like I saw once and said "oh I should get those" but didn't want to spend more than I brought in cash so passed up.

This last one is for my friend K (hmm...good peoples names start with K...among other letters). She and I had children within weeks of each other...her oldest was born after my R, she had a stillborn around the same time my angel who I miscarried in 07 would have been born, her youngest was born just before my H, and she's now pregnant...don't worry I am not joining her on this one....I am thinking one more in like 3-5 years if we are more stable then we are at the moment, or I am happy with these two beauties. Anywho, I made quilts for her two boys (have not finished one but the other is in a box ready to go) so I wanted to make HER one too.

That's a total of 7 down, 3 to go! I am almost done with the quilting on Aunt J's quilt, but ran out of thread (notice a trend here? I think I need to start buying more than I think I will need) and my local stores don't carry the brand she bought for me to use, so she and my Aunt MA had to go out to MA's stores and mailed it to me....more on what ELSE they sent me next time!!

some give aways for you to enter

2010-03-23T21:16:00.003-07:00

super fast before I go to bed tonight (R is still playing quietly in bed so I am waiting on her really and playing around online so I don't fall asleep on the couch....again) there are some amazing give aways out there that I just couldn't NOT tell you about.

First up:
http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/2010/03/giveaway.html

Secondly:
http://ihaveanotion.blogspot.com/
they are having a MONTH of giveaways so pick and choose what you are interested in, or enter them all. Each give away is posted on it's own day, but the chances are all open until the end! how sweet is that?

I guess I am going to work on my counted cross stitch while waiting for R to fall asleep. Nothing to bind at the moment, nothing ready to hand applique....and I can't use the sewing machine since it's along the same wall she is sleeping behind. I need to finish those FB sig swap blocks. I have 50/100 DONE, then 25 1/2 way done, and 25 yet to sew. Thanks for the advice on the tool, I am going to keep my eyes open for it!!

March's Friday Night Sew In

2010-03-19T22:18:00.006-07:00

I didn't get everything I wanted to done, but have to call it a night anyways. I work at 8 tomorrow and I ran out of my favorite neutral thread. In addition to that, H isn't feeling well, R is asking for attention....I did have about an hour after they went to bed finally. I did manage to fold a little laundry (all the girls stuff) before bed time. Eh....

So here's what I got to tonight for my Friday Night Sew In.:
This is H's Dora quilt to sort of match R's. I can't wait to get them both quilted and show you them in all their glory. This is an over sized toddler quilt, and R's is an over sized twin.Here are some blocks ready for cutting (but got too tired to cut) for next months APQ swap....I still haven't decided if I am going to keep the "twins" or not...I am leaning towards not.
These are the Facebook Friends Signature Swap blocks (and their left-overs) that I got to sewing before I ran out of thread...25 complete, 25 half way there and:

25 cut and marked (except for those top five light leafy batiks) and 25 cut. I need to finish marking tomorrow when I have more patience and then sew them up. I don't think it will take too long once things are marked. The line down the back to get triangles is my least favorite part!

How did the night go for you all?

Don't forget tomorrow (sat) is National Quilting Day!!

no news

2010-03-17T10:36:00.002-07:00

nothing to report here, just wanted to say hi.

We bought a kitchen table last weekend. It will be about 5-7 more weeks until we have it, enough time to get the house ready and everything. I am so glad we made the purchase even though my heart was beating out of my chest writing the check. we actually got a really good deal on it, 25% off and we got the table (butterfly pub height) and four chairs, and will get 2 more latter. We also found a bedroom set that we LOVE (OK I LOVE LOVE LOVE! and A likes a lot) that we are saving up tip money for. We are going to wait for another sale once we get the money saved up and hopefully get the most bang for our buck. I need to go back to the store and write down what all we want and how much it is, and then hopefully save that much up and use whats left for some new sheets and maybe fabric for a quilt?

Friday is the Friday Night Sew In! I wasn't able to find a sitter so hopefully I can send R to daycare during the day for a little bit and clean and clean and clean (or maybe just one of those) and she can get worn out so she goes down early, maybe H will go down nicely too! I know I am dreaming here but hey, what else can I do? I am still looking for a sitter for Sat so I can go to Mass without the kid and out to dinner with a friend after, but that's not looking promising either. I like sharing my faith and traditions with the girls, but man is it challenging by myself there. It's also been a long time since I've been to a meal without the kids! I could use some girlfriend time!!

That's about all she wrote for the day, check back this weekend for my Friday and Saturday adventures. Nothing cute to even show you! How Sad!! Eh next time!

lots and lots of pictures

2010-03-09T22:38:00.012-07:00

Any guesses who's feeling better? Hint, it's not the under four foot club in my house. Thank you Zicam. We have "Boogie Wipes" for the girls, if you have a chance go look them up, they are available in the baby aisle at Walgreen's for sure. they are like damp saline infused tissues so that lovely coat of crusties you (and more applicably kids) get is so easy to clean off and helps it last longer between wipes/blows AND they are moist so no tears/dry noses. Both girls mind them about as much if not a touch less than regular tissues! SWEET!!!

Here's some fabric I won from Amy/Park City Girl's weekly give away a few weeks ago. I know it'll be a children's quilt, but what it will look like, that has yet to be determined. These are all FQ's!

Here's Feb's Calender Quilt block. Pinks and reds, surprise surprise!

The start of March, I have been using this as a leaders/enders and sewing the strips together every few days. Not bad!

I am a part of the APQ block swap that Ann and others started for all of us who were devoted AllPeopleQuilt.com bloggers and readers but when they made some changes, we no longer had out home base for blogs. We are all trying to stay connected (and I realise like 85% of you are those friends I am talking about) but the place that was just a fountain of ideas, inspiration, assistance, and friendship is gone! Anyways we are (mostly) all doing a block swap, and this months recipients are myself, and Katie. Here are the first two blocks, we each are getting one. Here are the other two, we each again will get one of these. I am half tempted to keep the "twins" every time to myself and make a big quilt with them, but we will see what transpires next month. we are to send two blocks to each recipient each month.

I am involved in another swap too, this months theme is "Home" my persons color preference was green, and I struggled to come up with a block idea that would fit the color, the theme, and the size requirements without too much math (10 " unfinished!) so I made a log cabin (home). Some of my fondest memories from childhood were at a family friends' cabin on Lake Cushman on the Olympic Peninsula/in the Washington State Rain Forest (not to be confused with the TROPICAL RAIN FORESTS like A thought I meant!) I don't know if was a log cabin, but I remember the warmth, the lack of worries and distractions. I had things to explore, adventures to have, books to read, those loop pot holders to make. I remember the cabin was always warm even when it was cool, never chilly even if it was outside but never overwhelmingly stuffy even if it was humid as a hat outside. I hope she likes the block. I hope it's "home" enough.

This is the block I received! This block is called "hearth and home" and I was very very VERY tempted to steal the idea and send it on in different colors.

This is what I have been working on when I can't sew for one reason or another, maybe one of the girls is asleep in the living room (exhausted from all that playing I make them do both together and separately) or R is not quite down and if I were to make any noise she'd come investigate. I once chose one hobby because I was into everything! Quilting is what my heart said I would love the most, but counted cross stitch keeps popping up, even though I am working on hand bindings and hand applique. Oh Well! While I was putting the binding on one of my quilts, R decided she needed to do some sewing. She got to pick a scrap from my scrap bag, and some thread, of course she chose orange and orange so you can't see what her "sewing" looks like but it's a good attempt for three. I want to somehow keep this, its too sweet to toss. I am thinking of somehow mounting and framing, but you really can't SEE what she did. Any ideas?

And lastly, look what H has been working on even though she doesn't feel too good!

Take care everyone, and I will try to share some girl stories and more pics of them with you soon!

country song

2010-03-03T13:02:00.002-07:00

I have so much I want to share with you, the great things about R, the new things H has been doing, latest sewing's, some surprises etc but I am tired and have been fighting off that cold that a few of you have mentioned having. I made A pull out the bed from the couch and I have all sorts of pillows and blankets on there to snuggle under. I think I am going to go put on life time or Oxygen and veg. Someone has R for the afternoon, she'll be back in about 2 hours, H is taking a nap, A is dropping off rent (out of town by about 40 minutes down a long dirt road) so I have time to clean, cook, sew, read, or nap. Hmmmmmm.

I feel like my life could be a really pathetic country song right now:
my cars running but making funny sounds
my dryer wont realise the doors shut so it wont run
I keep running out of hot water whenever I go to take a shower (and can only blame A for this one!)
the dishes wont unload themselves and are piling up in the kitchen
my key battery died (what DID people with small children do before keyless entry?)
all I want to do is clean and sew
all I can do is veg
and the Earth keeps shaking and breaking my heart!

actually most of it is more comical than really sad, but still, add a whinny guitar and a fiddle and you've got yourself a country song.

post with pics and stories and projects to come I promise!! Maybe tomorrow, I have tomorrow off!!

Preview of Teen Years with R!

2010-02-24T10:14:00.008-07:00

Last night was one of those nights I really wish my man didn't work at night. I could have used a tag team partner! R went down early and I thought she was down for the night, but nope, up at 9 and she kept waking her sister up until 11:30 when I finally gave up and put on Beauty and the Beast in my bedroom and prayed that would be enough to settle R down and she'd fall asleep to it. For the record she did not, but I did, and the house is now covered in sprinkles for A's birthday cake, toys (as usual) and diapers of every size that had been lined up to be a magical pathway from my bedroom to the laundry room.

She's a night owl

I am not

nor am I a morning person

and I do need a nap

so basically I am a sleeper!

H is more like me that way, she is sleeping through the night, and has been since I went back to work, she takes good naps, she goes down at a decent hour (about 9 and gets up somewhere between 8:30 and 10) she sometimes gets up at 6 something to eat and falls back asleep but that's only if she was too tired to eat her whole bottle before bed.

seriously, wrong child up at night!!

But this all did make me think of the teen years to come. Mine were horrible. Oh man was I moody, heck I still am without enough sleep. Just ask A (who for the record is still asleep at 11am and probably will have to be preyed out of bed at 2 so he makes it to work on time!) what a raving b word I can become if I am overtired/stressed/or have not had any down time. And the drive to work doesn't count buddy! unless I take the scenic route, but that's hard to do with only 12 blocks between here and there! But I am in for a rough ride to come I think.

Why do I believe this?

1) R is a night owl and NOT a morning person. She wakes up and wants to be left alone, so she either reads or watches a "show" and needs you to not bug her but be available when she decides she needs something from food, to water, to cuddles, but don't ask if she wants something or you'll get the wrath of her!

2) Back talking. Lordy she's got it down!!

Exhibit A: "R, do you need to change your diaper?" (because of course she'd rather change her own than go on the potty *eye roll*) "No, you go change your diaper!"

Exhibit B: "R, you need to get dressed" "where we going?" "no where, we just need to wear clothes on our bodies" "I no get dress 'less we go to the park" "its too cold/rainy/snowy to go to the park, but lets get dressed" "go to store?" "no" "then I no get dressed."this is why shes only wearing her pull up in most the pics I have of her

Exhibit C: "R, go put your toys in your room please"/"go clean up your mess" "No! You do it!!"

Exhibit D: (my personal favorite) "You need to change your attitude missy" *little foot stomp, finger pointing at me shaking as she talks* "No, you change your add-it-ude" *hands on hips*

Do you know how hard it is to not just laugh at her?

3) She needs "coffee" or at least thinks she does. At least once a day she tells me "Um, I need my coffee" and when I come home from work "you bring me (or sometimes us if shes in the same room as A) coffee?"

4) She's obsessed with Target

5) when we go shopping it's always "oh, I like Dis!" "oh! I like this one!" (thank goodness we don't have to bring much home with us yet shes just appreciating it all but still!)

I am sure there's a million more ways shes like a mini teen. These are just examples from the past 24 hours. She has a ton of sweetness in her too but I wanted to capture this so when I look back in 10 or so years I can say "yup, saw that one coming!"

I have two. girls. who will be teens. Oh man!

*update, its now 12:05AM! and R just informed me broom in hand that it was time to clean the kitchen. GO TO BED CHILD!*

my sew-in night!!

2010-02-20T17:13:00.008-07:00

How many of you participated in the Friday Night Sew In? I did! I kept forgetting to try to find a sitter for R and/or H, so I didn't get nearly as much as I wanted to done, but oh well! Here is what I did do:

I made the borders for H's Dora quilt. It's going to coordinate but not match R's. These are 6" finished squares as random as I could make it, and no two fabrics are touching in the finished project. Her quilt has theoretically no two Dora fabrics touching, and has three fabrics, but there are about 4 spots where two fabrics match next to each other. More random though right?

I also made my blocks for Rachel's modern siggy block swap. Anyone else doing that one too? I thought I had a pen to sign them with but I must have either lost it or used it all up and tossed it. Bummer. I still have my Facebook Friends Signature Block Swap to make, I planned to do both but was so sick of it when I was done with these I decided to set the other one aside for a week or so and do them latter.

I made the bindings for the other/last two Christmas tree quilts that I meant to have done by Christmas. Ooops! Hehe I am just ahead of the game for next year! Now why is it that I was so intimidated by binding that I bought that stuff from Wrights? I still use it when I wasn't convienance, but I seriously wouldn't have thought to make my own a year ago!.

I made three of the nine patch blocks for A's Simpson's quilt. Believe it or not the bottom middle block is light blue and the one on the right side is bright yellow, silly lighting and camera! Oh well! I have something like 36 blocks cut out of the Simpson's fabric and will be alternating those with these nine-patches. I think it will be cool! (or hot since I am making it with flannel that he picked out!)

I got caught up on my Calender Quilt, up through last night, I have some strips cut for the rest of the month but couldn't pick any more out.

And that's where I decided to call it a night at 10:30. I got started at about 4 when R was watching Beauty and the Beast and H was taking a nap! Too bad R kept waking H up all evening and wouldn't go to bed until 9:45!!! The two glasses of wine I had were not helping either!

This is what was left at the end of the night that I didn't get to. At least I didn't run out of things to do with a ton of motivation still.

I ended my night reading New Moon. I checked it out from the library and am enjoying it a touch more than book one, but still not totally sold on it. I am almost half way through. What I am enjoying is how easy the books are to read and how I can quickly check into and out of that world. some books I am spending time problem solving and other books I have to work my way into it and then when I am interrupted I have a hard time pulling myself out.

I think next time I might try to get together with a girlfriend and/or send the kids away! One of my friends wants to get together to sew sometime I just need to get a weekend day off and have A or a friend watch R with or without H (since she's still at an easy portable adaptable age)

I hope you all had a good Friday night and Sat day even if you didn't spend it at the sew in!

three phd now DONE

2010-02-17T15:45:00.008-07:00

I did a little blog house keeping today. I think I have everyone from All People Quilt here but correct me if I am wrong. I need to go back and read more than the most recent post on many of them, and make sure I am following those on blogger! I also crossed off (so to speak) a few projects from my 6 month challenge!! Hooray!!

I was headed to the post office with two of my winners goodies, and my block lotto blocks, but it was my last stop after Ash Wednesday Mass, and grocery shopping with the family, but somehow R had a little accident in her pants so we just left the store, A paid for everything and we went home. I don't understand what happened because shes still in pull ups, but whatever! I think she must have had a wedgie or something and leaked out one side. Poor girl! I have tomorrow off!

I don't have pics of what I am sending, I sort of want it to be a surprise, I hope the people who get them show the goodies off, but I will tell you a touch about them! Ruth is getting a table runner pattern and a charm pack to start her off with it. Vanessa, I need to get her two half yards of fabric one dark one light to make a table runner I have a cute patten to (I just can't find anything that is perfect ya know? so let me know if theres something calling your name!). I have some beads, and thread, and a few random swatches of fabric for Therica. And lastly for Ann, I have some floral fat quarters.

So here are my finished projects: My Christmas Tree quilt, Binding DONE! YAHOO!!! Not perfect but whatever!

My cousin's Tree quilt, binding DONE! I have my Rudolph quilt in my car, so you have to live without a pic, just know it's done too and I will post a pic of it when I get it!

I am working on my ABC's quilt, I ran out of binding, so add that to the list for JoAnns tomorrow! I wish A had left me R's car seat before he went to work, but I might as well wait until tomorrow and see if I can go all by myself.

I need to get some solid white for my modern siggy swap with p.s.i quilt, here are the two fabrics I have for it. This first one is vivid and charming and wonderful, but is it modern enough?

This second one, I feel is modern enough, but does it pop enough or is it too muted? I could totally use this for something else, but if that first ones too retro/hippy than I have no problem using this second one.

p.s. there's a giveaway over here!

randomness!

2010-02-13T19:34:00.002-07:00

I have another post about memories I want to keep from this past long weekend at Nana's funeral and with my family, memories about Nana herself, things I want to treasure but the words just don't seem to do it justice. I am going to leave that post unedited, unpublished, and ready for me to come back to at some point. I want to share more for myself and to tell the girls about her but I am going to have to sit on it and come back to it a few times before it's ready to share. Let me just say she was a wonderful woman!

I took the girls to Mass today. Oh man was that a challenge. R was getting tired, H was fussy and I couldn't figure out why, I was fighting off the beginnings of a migraine, but this was the first time in ages I've been free to go be it because I was at work or A was at work when we only had one running car (YAY FOR HAVING BOTH CARS BACK IN WORKING ORDER!) and I usually came up with enough excuses in the event that I could make it that I figured I'd go today or I'd keep putting it off. There has been a huge part of myself that's been missing-my spiritual side has been lacking and ignored. It was nice to go again.

When we got home, I figured out why H was fussing so much! I had changed her right before leaving for mass and usually she doesn't need a change often. About half way through the services I heard her grunting working on a poop. No biggie, except R had been trying to run in the church so I decided to wait until either after Mass or when we got home to change her. Ended up being when we got home, and when I did, I wiped her poopie bottom and found lots of little irritated bleeding spots. Poor girl!! She didn't have a twinkle of diaper rash before we left or I would not have let her sit in that for a while, but she had a fairly loose poop so owwie. Right now she's diaper less and of course she went tinkle just when I set her down to get a towel for her to play on! oh well! We were going to have pros come in and clean our carpets when we got our tax refund anyways!

R did something that every child I have heard of has done, and scared me to death! Yesterday we were cuddling in my bed watching Cinderella, and I dozed off a touch right before the "Cinderelly Cinderelly night and day it's Cinderelly" song and woke up shortly after it. She wasn't in bed with me! I went to check on her and make sure she was OK, there was very little noise in the house, just H's sweet snoring. R wasn't in her room, she wasn't in the bathroom, she wasn't in the living room, she wasn't in the kitchen, or the laundry room, or on the stairs to the neighbors floor, she wasn't in the front nor the backyard, the garage, the church parking lot with her bike, the park two blocks away! I called A in near hysterics! He had just gotten to work so he came back home and he and I were looking everywhere for her, calling her name as loud as we could without going into panicked voices... He got the idea to double check the girls room, H was still sleeping, and he looked into R's bed, and started laughing! "She's in her bed" "No she's not! I looked there! I am not stupid!" "yes she is! look under her pillow." She was in her bed, under the covers, with the pillow over her head, and about 5 r 6 of her stuffed animals and a few books in bed with her. All you could see was her knee! She NEVER sleeps in her own bed, and she NEVER puts herself down! If every parent I know hadn't been through something similar I'd feel like a fool!

I just read the first book in the Twilight series. My brothers girlfriend (I secretly hope that she becomes more) gave it to me for Christmas saying I HAD to read it! I did, and "eh" is all I have to say. now before you jump to tell me how wrong I am I have heard each book is better than the next and they are meant to build on each otter so the first is full of development and background. I get it and will keep reading, I am just saying without being told that and if I didn't appreciate that information I'd throw in the towel on the saga. I will read it all with an open mind.

Last night I finished the binding on one of the projects I had on my list to finish in the next few months! I finished the quilt for my friend's boys with Rudolph! Hooray! I also started the binding to my ABC quilt and am 1/2 done with the second side of the binding of my cousins Christmas tree quilt. I think once I get the house clean (at least the living room) I will take pictures and rock out the next few!

Speaking of finishing projects,don't forget next Friday is the Friday night Sew-In!

Lastly (since I've rambled enough!) there's an awesome give away over at crazy old ladies blog, I LOVE their patterns! I have one right now and keep looking at like 6 more that I want! check out their blog here http://crazyoldladiesquilts.blogspot.com/ and then see if you want to participate in their give away.

pics will be coming soon, I have to clean and vacuum before I show anything to you!

Goodbye Nana

2010-02-03T21:29:00.005-07:00

Nana gave up the fight for breath last night with all her seven children around (most of whom thought she was on the mend and were there to cheer her on/up) last night. Here's a wonderful picture of her with R when she was 2 months old. I have a framed copy on our picture shelves but the glass is broken, I better go fix that soon!

She was concerned about making Hazel a new Night Before Christmas recorded book because I somehow got hers to go threw the washer! Mom reassured her the girls could share and maybe my dads parents, just pop-pop or my parents can do the recording. I know she loved the girls and it was her good friend is who H's name was inspired by (not exactly named after her). Remind me to tell you that story!

Two of my aunts, me, R and Nana, mom

I really hope I can make it to the wake and can celebrate and remember her with my family next week.

pictures of projects

2010-02-01T21:53:00.008-07:00

I got my camera, no not the diapers. If dad had been in charge of mailing the stuff it would have been very likely, fortunately for all involved mom was the one who did it. We DID get Simon from McDonald's and he sings "da da da da da I'm lovin' it" and is rather annoying. Mom offered to take it out of the package but we have Alvan here saying "Hello Gorgeous" already, now to see if we can get Theodore! We also got a few clean diapers!

Before I get to pictures and fun stuff, my Nana is in the hospital again, I think this makes it two full weeks now. I am waiting on the latest word on her condition but last I heard they were talking about a ventilator but she was not on it as if an hour after the conversation. She went in last week for a pain pump and they think she aspirated something and that turned into full blown pneumonia. She had a bad bought with it about 5 years ago and hasn't been the same since. She is back and forth better and worse, almost every day. I know this sounds bad but I wish she would just stay bad so they can totally treat her and then get better slowly instead of trying to rush everything. This back and forth is so hard! Mom will call me tomorrow when she's with them. I am getting together a little care package with a card, candy, maybe a game, and hopefully I make it to Costco to send some pics of the girls too to cheer her and everyone around up.

Here is a cute pic of H playing with my old ferry boat toy. I can't believe Fisher Price or PlaySkool made ferry's but here's proof. R was playing with it a lot too, she'd drive my brothers old cars into it, pull them all over the house, and unload them. Poor Grandma and Grandpa (formerly known as MeMa and PePa) are probably still finding cars!

I joined a little one-one Valentines Day swap, and here's my cute little heart quiltlette. It's eh about 14X14 inches, but that's just a rough estimate. This is the project I squared up my HST's for for the first time. I am glad I did! This project had a lot of firsts for me! This was the first time I did a swap, so much fun, I might have to do more. I was able to use just things from my stash so that was really nice. I only spent money on a few FQ's to go with it and some candy from a local candy shop. Then A ate some of the box of chocolates I brought home, thankfully I had bought some Jordan Almonds there too so I sent those and HIS Resses peanut butter hearts heheh! I can get him more latter but I really wanted to show off our cute little candy shop! This was the first time I used normal fabric for the binding, I had previously used Wrights Double Fold Bias for my binding. It's what my mom taught me for my first quilt because she didn't want me to run away from the project (I made and over sized twin for my first one, the post about it is back a little ways). Lastly this was the first time I made a label! Hooray! Finally! I just appliqued it on the back and then did the quilting and stuff, so nothing too impressive. I think it's cool though. How do you guys do labels? And someday I will need to figure out those sleves to hang things.

Before I leave you for the night, here's the month of January for my Calender Quilt. It's missing three days because I don't have enough white on white or cream on cream but I left myself a little note about that so when I do get more I can sew them in. I am doing two at once to see what I like best in the end, one is 1 1/2 by 10 1/2 strips and the other is 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 (finished 1X2) The blue strip is Seattle/Washington themed fabric from a shop hop a few years back and was the day we left for Seattle, the snowmen below it, we opened presents with my parents, the tea cups from the day I went back to work after vacation, the hearts all over are the days I worked on my swap thing (OK I did it a few more days but those I did it more than other days) everything else is just random and what called to me that day.

funny kiddo stories!

2010-01-23T21:13:00.002-07:00

Before I get to the funny stuff a little heads up, there's a great incentive to get to sewing! yes other than crossing things off my list so I can start something new...Friday night sew in!! Feb 19th! head over here for more info!!

This isn't going to flow well, I wrote each little story as it came to me, so just read them as little vignettes instead of as one tale:

The girls have been busy lately. H is SO SO SO close to crawling. She's doing this cute attempt at the army crawl alternated (each move) by tucking her knees under her. She's also discovered grabbing onto the table legs/chair legs, anything on the floor works well to pull herself along too!

H tried to get her hands on R’s goldfish crackers, so I explained to R how H wants to be just like her big sister, so if she ( R) is eating something like goldfish, H is going to want to too. R put her goldfish in the kitchen and came back to H and said “You can’t have goldfish, you are too little, but when you are a big girl I will go to the grocery store and buy you some. Then we can share!”

While we were on vacation R had a hard time with A not being there, so on the third night to last I went into her room and she was crying long after I had put her down so I went in and asked her what was wrong “I want my daddy.” I told her we would see him in a few days still and she said “But I make a wish upon a star!”

Also on vacation our last night there we were eating pizza, we got a ham and pineapple (you know it’s not PC to be “Hawaiian” or “Canadian bacon” anymore) on thin crust that Domino's cuts into squares. R went to get herself two more pieces, one for each hand you know. As she was walking back she had to walk next to Grandma who was holding H out on her knee on the outside of the table so she could still eat. As R walked past H grabbed one of the pieces in R’s hand and brought it right to her mouth. R said “HEY!” but H had already taken a “bite.” Boy was that one fast!!

R thought it was SO COOL that she got to sleep on her "Uncle Dude’s" bed and didn’t put up much of a fight at night night time, wish that was still the case at home. Oh well, we’ll get night time figured out before she goes off to college, or at least by then she won’t be keeping ME up!

R got her very own chair and table at my parents house, she thought that was very special! I am touched that they did that for her! H LOVES my mom. No matter what we are doing,or what’s going on, H wanted to be with my mom. Mid feeding if she realised Grandma was in the room she’d stop and fuss and fight until Grandma was holding her. It was sweet! She is also SO CLOSE to crawling. She can get up on her hands and knees, or more impressively on her hands and toes!

R and I came up with a little hand game/poem like thing on the airplane:
“Make a heart” (make a heart with your hands-thumbs down and all)
“Break it apart” (keep the shape but separate your two hands)
“Put it together again” (take your left hand half heart shape and mix with their left hand’s and vice versa)
“Now we’re friends”
a little lame sure, but sweet! And I am thinking of tricking her into changing the end to "Put it together/Love you forever!"

**UPDATE**
Dad just called and told me that he spent a bit of time this afternoon tracking down the source of "an interesting aroma" and found a dirty diaper under the couch with my camera!!! moms mailing it tomorrow!! Pics to come sometime again!

Also my mom's mom (we call her Nana) Alice is in the hospital. It looks like she aspirated something when she was under getting her pain pump "installed" (can you tell I come from a family of engineers?) She's 29 plus a few years ;) and is such a treat to be around. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. her lungs are getting weak and shes never been the same since a bout of phnemonia where we almost lost her a few years ago. Shes debating getting a total hip replacement shes 100% bone on bone on one side and 90% on the other side.

my only complaint about being a self-taught quilter...

2010-01-21T14:57:00.002-07:00

why didn't anyone tell me how great half square triangles could look if you just took the time to square them up, and how much easier they are to work with when perfectly square?!

any other tips/tricks I should know about?

when I get my camera back (lost at my parents house) I will show you what I am making (by then made) with them!

catching up!

2010-01-18T22:16:00.002-07:00

Home, Sweet Home! I am back! I have mixed feelings about it, but don't we all when we are returning to "real life." I am so glad to be back in my own space, but so sad to no longer be around my family and friends. While I was there I kept thinking "I am glad I don't live at home now, I need my own space, but boy do I not want to go home." It doesn't help that I never loved where I live, both the town and the apartment (I HATE the basement! I need sun and warmth!)

The girls were good travelers. heading out there H slept in my arms the whole way and I was able to distract R with new activities every 20 minutes, I didn't even have to pull out my last hope annoying toy! Coming back both girls were a little on the fussy side, I distracted R with a book (a BIG book!) and finally got H settled down and asleep then after we got our soda and snacks, R fell asleep too, and I had to carry both girls down the stairs and into the airport! Oh well!!

I think I might have uncommitted myself this year for quilting things!! I told myself this would be a Finishing Things Up year, with a few BOTM's going too. I have narrowed down the BOTM to one, the one paid for at FQS (Thimbleberries Dusk colorway for Village Green) and I WANT to do the snowmen BOTM by Anne Sutton at Bunny Hill. If I read it right she will be posting things in March, PERFECT! I can save up some money for the exact fabrics! (because sometimes I don't want to be creative or original!) I had a few I printed out from last year but maybe I will save those for some escape or for when I move through some of my UFOs.

I also am working on a calender quilt from PatSloan with some inspiration from her Mashup! I signed up to be a swap buddy so need to do that this month and I signed up for TWO block swaps, and you know some months I play with the block lotto! This months blocks are about 1/2 done and hope to finish them today or tomorrow!

But mostly, I joined a challenge! I PHD challenge (Projects Half Done!) I committed to...I think it was 10? Lets list them out for you to follow along with. Now mind you I have something like 30 projects in the works or in my head that I HAVE to do and want to finish this year (NO NEW PROJECTS right? heheh!) These few are close!

1) R's Dora Quilt (pinned needs quilting and binding)
2) Aunt Jackie's Quilt (pinned, needs quilting and binding)
3) Rudolph (needs side two of binding)
4) Block Lotto Log Cabin Winnings (needs backing picked out, quilting, and binding)
5) ABC's (need to make/get more binding and finish)
6) Gobble Gobble Challenge (Needs side two of binding done)
7) Tree -Me (side two of binding)
8) Tree-Karen (binding)
9) Tree-Kaila (binding)
10) Tree-Alison (side 2 of binding)

I have 6 months to finish those on up! Think I can do it?

Sure, because...I want to play along with the Friday Night Sew In club!!

As for my new years resolutions....one pound gone (hope to keep it that way!) and the house was in better condition when I left than it is now, but hope is not lost yet!!!

I told a little white lie to A yesterday saying no I don't have any tip money we can use for groceries today, because I need to get those winnings off!!

and the winner....

2010-01-07T10:12:00.002-07:00

is.....

EVERYONE!

Since there were only 4 entries, I decided everyone would get a little something!!

I sort of wished that would happen on a few I entered with only a few people so thought I'd do it.

I was thinking of sending everyone a little something in the $10-$15 range so if you want something specific let me know. No one will be getting the same prize, and remember I probably won't send them off until I get back from my trip in 11 days =) Give me ideas of what you like, need, want, whatever. It can be anything from pins or bobbins to patterns, or fabric. Yeah I had been coming up with potential prizes for one winner (I actually have a quilt kit from In The Beginning before they went to just fabric production that I might never make!) but with four of you having such different interests....just tell me! And if you need coffee or tea or want something Starbucks related too/instead, no problem-o!!

CONGRATS!

one two three

2010-01-05T22:01:00.001-07:00

one more shift at work
two more days until I announce the winner
three more days until the girls and I fly to see my family

did you see my give-away

2009-12-27T18:43:00.003-07:00

I don't know how my last two post got flip flopped, but scroll down to the "Spirit of Santa" post. There's a little info about a giveaway I am going to do! I didn't do a very good job making that the main focus of the post, so sorry about that! Please spread the word!!

Since I haven't posted pics in a while, here's some of Christmas "morning"! (we did it after nap time here)

Christmas Memories

2009-12-23T17:59:00.002-07:00

What is your favorite Christmas Memory?

I have so many, but this one made me laugh when I called my aunt to help her choose one and the details of it. My brother was in preschool, I think it was his second year so he was 4 or 5. I was in 3rd or 4th grade. (Now tomorrow/later today you will learn about how old I was when I learned about Santa!) We were down in the Tri-Cities (in Southeastern Washington there at three cities almost in the middle of nowhere that are all relatively large, Richland, Pasco, and Kennewick all right next to each other and are referred to as the "Tri-Cities" instead of individually) visiting my mom's parents. We were there, mom dad, b, and I. My aunt J was there, Aunt MA was there, and I think Aunt T too, but we might have had someone else. That I don't remember.

My family was the last of the family to arrive, and when we pulled up everyone came out to great us. Nana said "B, do you see this sign? Do you know what it says?" and he didn't but he did see it was a stop sign (oh I wish I had the picture, but this was back in the film days) She told him it said "Santa, Please Stop Here!" That way there's no chance Santa would miss us! He was at the age he was very concerned about Santa delivering his presents to the wrong house! I kept trying to tell him that if Santa knows if you are sleeping or not, and knows if you've been bad or good than he's GOT to know WHERE you are for Christmas!

Inside, Nana had her special Peach and Sage tree set up in the formal living room and had a colorful kid-like one set up in the informal living room (that's where we did presents). Nana was so excited to have both trees up and ready for us.

Skip forward a few days, Christmas eve we hang the stockings. We all have matching ones sort of, they are the same style but different decorations, and we all have our own name except mom who has "1" for First Christmas, but it ended up being hers forever since her grandma passed away shortly thereafter. Nana made aunt T's and Aunt MA makes them now. H should be getting hers in the mail tomorrow!!!

Ooops, back to the story, We were getting ready for bed, had a great dinner, and had just come back from "Midnight Mass" Nana was setting up these great self-rising roles that a friend of hers highly recommended and was great for such a large crowd. We went to bed, the rolls covered, T read us The Night Before Christmas, and B and I went to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in out heads. We were sharing a room!

In the morning, Nana was still in her room for some reason, and the rest of us were arriving in the kitchen/informal dining room for coffee and cereal (brunch would be served AFTER presents so things could bake while we were doing them. No one had to get up early then!) and I think I was first or second, then mom, then J walks in, says "Oh No!" and we all go over to the counter where the rolls were to see that not only did they rise, they were all over the counter and even falling on the floor! They had been placed in the back corner so had quite the trip to the floor!!

We were all waiting for Nana to come in, and I was reminded like 6 or 7 times not to say anything and see what Nana says. She didn't notice for so long!! She had her coffee, was reading the paper, was doing a little of this and that. Finally one of the Grown Ups said something about "I can't wait to try those sticky buns!" and Nana went to check on them. oh her reaction was great. I think we got it on tape even! She was SHOCKED!

They tasted great!

Now the inspiration for this post can be found here

Spirit of Santa

2009-12-22T20:22:00.004-07:00

(note, I meant to publish this but kept waiting to take pics of the girls with the trees, but to date I haven't yet done that so I am going to post it without pics, sorry!!)

Parents, make sure the kiddo's are out of the room. Kids...if you are reading this, STOP NOW!!

Are we clear now? Good

Someone put as their Facebook status: "When did you find out about Santa?" That has had me thinking a lot lately. I am going to have to explain it to my girls eventually, I know one of my co-workers has had to face that question from her oldest this year.

I was 11 or 12 I think. I remember where we were, I remember what we were doing, and I mostly remember the conversation mom had with me. Now mind you it was not quite 15 years ago...so I don't remember everything she said, but I remember the message.

We were driving home from somewhere and it wasn't school time because I was not in my uniform plus my brother and I would walk home from school. I was in the front seat of the car next to mom, my brother in the backseat directly behind her. We were in her Cherry Red 1989 Honda Accord LXI. We were coming down the hill to our house What I don't remember is if we still lived there or if we were driving past it to look in on it before we sold it. I loved that house and wish it were mine even now (especially now) Remind me to tell you about that house....and I said to mom the dreaded question "Is Santa real?"

She had the best answer. It was somethign along the lines of this:

"Well, No. There is no one person who is Santa, that's just a nice story we tell to children. But you know about St. Nicolas (we DID go to Catholic school after all) and how he gave gifts to children. Well, he is part of the inspiration for Santa Clause. What I believe, and think is more important, is that while there's no "real" Santa, we all have the spirit of Santa in us and it's our job to use that to help others out and to give to those we love, and those who are less fortunite than us. It is our responsibility to keep the spirit of Santa alive year round, and give without expectations of thanks or reciprication. It is also our privelidge to keep the magic of Santa alive for the younger children. This world can't ever have too much joy, too much excitement, too much hope or too much sefless giving. Santa is the perfect character (find better word....) for that."

( I just called mom to see if she remembered what she told me and she didn't so I told her what I remembered and she said "Wow, I was GOOD!" and Dad who was on the line too said "I would have said "hohoho, don't you belive in me?" My brother vaugly remembers having some kid at school tell him and then confirming it in the Honda on the way home, but thats all he remembers.)

I know I was quite old to finally know. I think I wanted to believe, and so I did.

How about you? How/when did you find out?

Now in the Spirit of Santa, I am going to give some (at the time unknown) goodies away. I will draw winners before I leave on my trip to visit my family and try to pick up a thing or two out there. So basically I will pick a winner on the 7th, and be sending whatever out when I get back 10ish days later. Fair? To enter answer the question above, or tell me another GREAT holiday story. Good Luck! And of course Happy and safe holidays to you all!!

little of the girls, little of the quilts

2009-12-17T19:18:00.004-07:00

I should be cleaning, but after walking home from work the past two days, my legs are KILLING me! I haven't walked that far since before H was born. I had been so proud of myself for walking my whole pregnancy. That's probably why H didn't come after all those hours of walking the weeks leading up to her birth, she and I were already so used to it!

Speaking of the girls, they are doing well. I am going to take a Christmas picture of them tonight or tomorrow in their cute dresses and stockings. H has shoes that are her size according to how old she is, but they are HUGE on her. Such a petite thing that little girl is. On the other hand R has jumbo feet. I am worried about when she gets older and wants to borrow friends shoes. Maybe she'll grow into her width, but for now, why don't they sell wide shoes for kids?

Can you see what R is reading? It's called Hi-Five, it's the Highlights magazine for 2-5 year olds. She LOVES it. Mom gave her a subscription, last year for Christmas and renewed it this year. Not that R will put it together, but Mom and I know. That's all that matters. This year will be fun for her! I will share more after all is said and done =) The point of that was if you know a youngster, I highly recommend Highlights and/or Hi-Five for them. Yes, they are more expensive than many magazines out there, but honestly, hours of entertainment for both R and I. She reads each copy until it falls apart, just in time for the new one to come in.

I told you I won two give-aways. One was from Therica from Pig tales and Quilts. Here is what she sent me. There was also a great origami piece that had a sweet note inside but R called dibs on that! There's two wonderful fabrics and an awesome applique pattern. What's super cool about the pattern is I looked at it and thought "wow, that would be a great quilt to celebrate and remember the time I spent living in Montana (because you know I am itching to get out of this state, too cold in the winters and things are just too far apart!) and the next day I looked at it again, turned it over, and the designer lives in Bigfork, MT! WOW! One of my co-workers says she thinks this might be one panel that can either be used on its own or with other panels to create a bigger quilt. I need to go do some research.

I will try to share more before Christmas, but things are going CRAZY here!! I mean CRAZY!!!!

great give aways

2009-12-15T09:45:00.003-07:00

really quickly here, great give-away. Many things you can pick and choose what you want to enter, there's 16 give-aways, one blog, and you have until tomorrow at midnight!!

p.s. R just got up looking sleepy still and said "mommy, you go to the store and get me my coffee?"