Next step

First you put all the pretty strips of blocks up on the wall. Ok, I couldn't put all of them up because my wall isn't big enough. But I could admire the soon to be finished project and try to keep the same fabrics from touching.


Next, realize you have a discount coupon you got at Christmas for machine quilting! If I get it turned in by... the 28th of Feb... which is well, today! Crap!

I did a lot of piecing last night while watching a movie. Then this morning I finished piecing the strips while watching another movie. Are you sensing a trend here? I have to add, my shoulders weren't to happy with me today. I went to Kickboxing class for the first time EVER yesterday and I found out I'm not in great shape. Push ups are hard (whines the girl.)

Hannah and I took in the quilt, about 30 minutes before they closed, phew. She picked out the quilting pattern and thread color. She's very excited to have it on her bed.

Now, what's next...

Next project

It turns out this quilt already has a home. On my daughters bed. She saw the pattern and the fabrics and deemed it hers. Who knew my kid would have such great taste and like retro fabrics.

Guess I should make it a bit longer so it'll fit on her bed...

3 and 35

This was one whirlwind weekend. Phew.

On Friday we drove all the way to Dover, DE to a McDonald's (or Mickey-Donald's, that's what Seth calls it) where we were meeting to pick up Cade. We got home around 9 and let the older kids play for a bit before bed while I got Seth down. I realized on that loooong drive that I really should get a portable DVD player. On the way back it was dark and there were only 2 DS players and 4 kids in the car... hmmm... Simon and Cade shared, Hannah sat in the way back playing on her DS while listening to my ipod, and I gave Seth the GPS to mess with. I knew where I was going and I could fix anything he messed up, I think.

We didn't make any big plans for entertaining the kids this weekend. We just let them hang out and play. They played Guitar Hero, played outside, made their own pizzas, watched a movie... hopefully they had fun.


I totally love seeing Cade. He is such a great kid. If I started cleaning up a mess he just helped. I was dumbfounded the first time it happened! Some kids actually clean without stomping, whining, or being yelled at!?! I didn't think it was possible but it happened more than once. We contemplated sending Simon back in his place. Kidding. Sort of...

Saturday night I went to the schools big Basket Raffle fund raiser. I love supporting the school but I don't like coming home without winning any baskets. I should make Dan go next year. He has better luck than I do. Oh well, I got to drink coffee and eat brownies with some great people AND I didn't have the kids! See, there is a good side to everything.

Sunday we had our little party to celebrate my baby turning 35 and son turning 3. Tee, hee. It was fun to get a few of our friends together. Eating cake and getting presents runs a close second. Seth loved all his presents and Dan did too. No one complained about the home made cake either. Who doesn't love chocolate cake?

Dan was okay with me not putting 35 candles on the cake. I didn't want to set off the smoke detectors!

Oh! Whatever is in the bag must be super cool!

During the party I looked down and this is what I saw. A dirty little 3 year old boy.

After the party and a quick dinner it was time to take Cade home. :(

Hannah came with me on the long drive to take him back. We were sad to take Cade home but happy to have had him here even for such a short time. Hannah was exhausted when we finally got home just before 11. She brushed her teeth and went straight to bed.

It was quite the weekend...

Happy Birthday to my husband who loves me unconditionally and to my youngest son who amazes me daily. He isn't much of a baby anymore. Although, they will all be my babies forever.

A little catch up

It's been a whole week since I posted! Sorry 'bout that. This week just slipped by. I don't really have anything overly exciting going on. We all made it through last weekend without getting really sick. (YES!) Simon got sick again on Monday so he missed a day of school... and I did a bit of laundry. We've also been dog sitting for my mom this week. The kids really like having a dog here but we've been there before and I don't want to do it again.

Since we couldn't get Cade last week we're going to go get him today. It'll be a short weekend but we really want to get a chance to hang out with him. He's such a great kid. Besides, this way he'll get to be at Dan and Seth's birthday party. Not a big party or anything but we have to celebrate my husband being half way to 70 and my littlest guy turning 3. When you ask Seth how old he'll be on his birthday he says 5. I told him he has to do his time first. 3, then 4, and then he can be 5.

I got the baby clothes quilt all bound. It's one of the cutest quilts I've made. I'll just give myself a pat on the back real quick.


AND I was commisioned to do it so I'll get paid for it. Holy cow! Usually I just spend money on quilts and give them away. I wonder what I should do with the money I get?

Dan told me this means I am a professional quilter... I don't think getting paid to make one quilt makes me a professional. Also, there is really not a lot of money in this business. Just a love of doing it.

Valentine's Day and well, vomit.

Our weekend plans abruptly changed today and there is a strong likelihood that I'll be cleaning up lots of puke.

We were getting all set for Dan to take off to Delaware to go retrieve our nephew for the weekend when Simon threw up ALL over the kitchen floor. Dan was sick yesterday but if you know Dan then you just don't think it could be the flu. The guy gets sick easy. Simon, well, he only gets sick if he has the stomach flu. I hate to puke. Hate it! I'd clean up after the hole family all day long if it meant that I wouldn't get sick. Of course that means that you've be totally exposed and you'll most likely get it too. Please don't let me get it. Pretty please, with a cherry on top!

I felt awful calling at the very last minute to cancel but there was nothing else to do. If we are all sick this whole weekend then we wouldn't be any fun and we'd send Cade home sick. Wouldn't that have been swell? They'd never let us take him again.

Ok, on to better things.

More fun things.

Like cookies!

The kids and I made lots of cookies for their class Valentine Parties.


Seth wasn't very helpful. Well, he helped himself. He only got to decorate one cookie before he stuck the butter knife in his mouth. Then he ate his pile of frosting quite happily while we frosted about 50 cookies.



In quilt related news... I got nothin'. The teachers quilt is in the process of being quilted and I still haven't gotten down to the quilt store to pick up the baby quilt. It's been a busy week full of half days, parent teacher conferences, book fair, bake sale, valentine parties, baking, playgroup and more baking.

Quilting update

I feel like I owe a quilting update to you all. You could all be my imaginary readers but I like to think you are out there somewhere, you read my blog, and you care about my quilts just like I do. Imagination is a wonderful thing.

Seth's Jungle Quilt is done! Ok, ok, it still needs a label but other than that it's all DONE! Maybe now I should focus on the fact that his birthday is only two weeks away and I have made zero plans for a party...


I got all the blocks back from school last week and spent yesterday putting the top together. Seth hung out in my sewing room for a while and let me sew. Then I finished it up after the kids were in bed.


I hope the teacher likes this. I think it's really cute. I didn't try to do anything fancy. Although, the next thing I make won't be squares with sashing. I need something different. I love the outer border fabric with the giraffes on it. I've had it in my stash forever!


The only thing I bought for this project was the white muslin for the squares and some more fabric markers. Dan did have to point out to me that all the fabrics in my stash were purchased at one time.

Oh, and I got a call from the quilt store about the baby clothes quilt. She was going to put it on the machine this weekend! It'll be done next week. It's goint to be so. stinkin'. cute. I'm excited to see it!

I just realized that it is eerily quite downstairs.... I better go check...

Squirrels

There are squirrels in our attic. Technically they are living in a vent pipe from the bathroom fan so they aren't roaming the whole attic chewing holes and mucking things up like the last time we had squirrels up there. There used to be birds living on the outside of the pipe and I didn't mind them so much. I felt like I was sheltering the cute little finches. The squirrels bother me though. Maybe because while you're sitting on the commode you don't want to hear a squirrel chatter.

What if they have babies? Seriously, this can't be good...

I want them to move out but it's terribly cold outside and if I block off their house now they'll die and that makes me a squirrel killer.

This sucks.

Although it is funny to be sitting here in my office and overhearing a loud fight going on over the warm vent in the house. There is a bird that thinks it should be theirs and when he/she lands on the entrance the squirrel starts yelling and the bird squawks loudly. The bird sat on the tree branch and read him his rights today for quite some time.

I think I need to evict my tenants.

Maybe I'll wait until spring.

Snowman and socks

What a strange day so far. I just dropped the kids off at school and now it's almost 11. It shouldn't be this late in the day already. It's almost lunch time and I still have to get to the store at some point today. Maybe I'll just go tomorrow instead. Who needs fresh vegetables. I'd have to take off my comfy pajamas to go there anyway. God only knows what the neighbors thought of me as I shoveled this morning in my really loud pajama pants. I drove the kids to school AND got out of the car. I will totally embarrass my kids without shame. I look forward to dropping them off at High School and yelling after them, "Make good choices!" Bet they'll opt for taking the bus.

I am an awesome mom.

The kids had a 2 hour delay this morning because of the snow we got yesterday. There was real snow folks! You know the kind you can play in. No ice pellets, no rain, just good ol' snow. I love it! After school they played in the snow. They started making a little snowman while I shoveled. I love it when they work together. It's so rare.


Seth did try to knock down the snowman a few times but he is prone to that kind of behavior seeing as he's a toddler and all. He also learns so many things from his siblings. For example they showed him how to eat snow yesterday. Ok, fine. We've all eaten a bit of snow but they didn't bother with explaining only eat the untouched snow. The kid tried to eat the snow off the bottom of his boots for crying out loud. Hannah and Simon laughed... grrr.

Totally unrelated- I thought this was cute and obnoxious at the same time. Seth found my sock drawer the other day. He apparently likes to play with them...

It's hard work being a sock monster.


It's actually exhausting.

Yeah, I've got some ugly socks. I like how the cat decided to sleep on him. He's safe to be around when he's asleep.

Monster trucks, massage, and quilts

What a weekend...

Dan got FREE (I'd never, ever pay for this, um, like ever!) tickets to go to Monster Jam. Yeah, monster trucks. Wee. I think I have enough white trash points scored up in my past so if there were any doubt now my fate is sealed. GAH.

The boys however were very excited to see the monster trucks.


I did think it was neat when they brought out the motorcyles and BMX bikes. Other than that my favorite part was this.

Tee, hee. He fell over!

Saturday I had a massage scheduled. It was a Christmas gift that I hadn't used yet not a reward for enduring a night of Monster Jam. It was wonderful. I love getting an hour long massage. Going home to the kids makes you wonder why you went in the first place but hey, I had an hour of quite while someone paid attention to just me. The tension comes right back though when the kids argue constantly. Maybe that means I need massages on a regular basis!

To ensure that all the knots that were worked out of my shoulders came back I machine quilted the Jungle Quilt yesterday. Once the kids were in bed I got it trimmed and the binding sewn on too. Nothing like progress on a quilt to make me happy.