a dose of positive prospective

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

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!!

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

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

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

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...

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?

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"

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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...

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

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

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

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!

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!