Boxes

You know how I mentioned Seth's love of boxes and tape? It's wild what he comes up with and Simon gets in on the action sometimes too. Usually it's just Seth though.

Last night the boys built a ramp on the stairs for the cars to run down.

Oh, he also dressed himself yesterday and purposely put his shirt and pants on backwards.

This morning while I answered my study questions for Introduction to Nursing 101, they made armor out of the boxes...

Awesome helmet, huh!

"Mom, don't put this on your blog, ok!"

Seth even asks for the cereal boxes when there is still cereal in them. Today we got a box delivered with presents in it. Of course, after we opened the presents he wanted the box...

Still alive

I suppose since I'm only one week in to the semester I should still have my head above water, and I do. Lots and lots of reading to do though. I asked Seth today if he wanted to help me learn Spanish online. He bailed out pretty quickly. For some reason playing in his room sounded more appealing than listening to me try and pronounce new Spanish words. I did spend some time interacting with Seth today too. He's such a sport with me doing a bit of school work while he plays. Set the kid up with art stuff and off he goes. If you don't watch him though he'll use all your masking tape to build a tower out of the boxes for recycling! He might be an architect when he grows up.

So, today we made cookies. I had leftover candy from making the gingerbread houses and Seth threw it all in. I told him we couldn't put in the marshmallows but he insisted... I did have to pry some of the melted/glued cookies off the tray. I guess we should call these cookies, "everything except the kitchen sink cookies."


They were delicious though. (Yes, I had a cookie, or two or three.) The best part for Seth, about making cookies while his brother and sister are at school, is that he gets to lick the beater and get the bowl all to himself! Lucky kid.


This last weekend was packed full. Saturday was the big Pinewood Derby race in Cub Scouts and Sunday Hannah was bagging groceries as a fund raiser for FPS, again! Simon got to race his pinewood derby car that John helped him make. Dan and I don't have the tools to create a car out of a block of wood! Luckily for Simon, John is an Eagle Scout, has lots of tools, and said he'd help. Simon's car was so awesome that he won 1st place at the Bear level. He didn't win in the final race but at least he got that far. Thanks again, John. We owe you one.

Simon's car is the blue one!

I don't have any quilts to show. The baby quilt is still hanging on my design wall. Good thing the baby isn't due quite yet. Oh, I am picking up one of my quilts tomorrow. You know, the one that won free quilting? Yeah, that one! I'll show you when I get it next Tuesday. I bet it'll look fabulous. I just have to get the binding done by May.

Break's over, put your heads back in

School officially starts today! Of course, I already have homework, but Seth and I wanted to go have some fun with our friends today too. Some of the moms from our old Gymboree class were meeting for lunch and then going to Jenkinson's Aquarium. So, we squeezed it all in between Hannah's 9 am doctor appointment in East Brunswick (Her toe is all better by the way) and the big kids getting out of school at 3. Phew. It was a tight fit, but it was fun and worth it.



The weather is really mild today so we walked on the beach for a few minutes before heading home. There were shells everywhere. Seth grabbed as many as he could hold!



A nice lady showed Seth the tumbled sea glass she had gathered as she walked on the beach. She even gave him a piece to take home.

It's so beautiful. I could live by the ocean...


Here's a picture of the baby quilt top all sewn together. The squares have raw edges.


I actually got it all together and then decided I didn't like one of the fabrics. However, I am NOT taking it all apart. The fabric will stay because A) I am lazy, and B) the quilt won't live at my house taunting me that one fabric doesn't belong.

I'll attempt to update my blog when I can. I'll try to quilt when I can but quilting won't get as much of my attention as the family and school. Sad but true. Maybe I'll make a few quick weekend projects, like purses, in between making slow and steady progress on a few quilts. We'll see what I can manage.

I have an 8 am class tomorrow... what was I thinking! :) Wish me luck, this is a long journey I'm starting on!

Woot! I finished a quilt!

Finished! It didn't photograph well in the light here, but the purple inner border actually works well in the quilt top. I'll get it quilted with a nice rich purple too.

Now, I need to whip out a baby quilt for a little girl due soon and a boy due in March. I've got a stack of flannels I want to use. I have to come up with a pattern first. I think after that, I'm going to start working on a little something for me. I am going to make a t-shirt quilt. I've been saving some of my dad's t-shirts and I think it's high time I finally cut into them. They've been sitting in a box for almost 10 years.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Boy, the blocks cooperated much better after trimming them up. The top is assembled and just needs the last two borders. I had a few struggles with this one but mostly it was me, not just the pattern. The one thing I didn't like was to make the half square triangles I started with a 10 1/2" block and had to trim to 10". Anyone who has experience with half square triangles knows you should have 7/8 of an inch extra, not just 1/2. The rest of you are shaking your heads, wondering what I could possibly mean. Anyway, the blocks were a wee bit shy of 10" but they were consistent.



I'm going to attempt to try and do some of the charity blocks for the quilt guild. I don't know how many I'll squeeze in, but a few this year, at least. Here's the Woven Ribbons block we're making for the veterans at the VA hospital.


Family update time! It's been a while...

Hannah's doing well. Her toe is getting better and we go in next week to see how it's healed. She is doing Future Problem Solvers again this year and participating in the school play coming up in February. Obviously, she had to take a break from gymnastics for a few weeks while her toe mends.

Simon is breezing through 3rd grade. It doesn't challenge him but he's where he needs to be. He is still doing Tae Kwon Do and Cub Scouts. He has been getting a lot of headaches lately, and if it keeps up I'm going to have to take him to the doctor. Hopefully, he won't end up like his dad and just get headaches all throughout his life.

We just found out yesterday that Seth's preschool program has been canceled. Indefinitely. This threw a major wrench into my schedule for school but Tiff saved the day. She's going to watch Seth for me on Wednesdays while I am a at school. I also lost the study time I was looking forward to having on Thurs and Friday. I'll have to figure something out. Seth needs a little preschool and I need a little me time! He was upset about school but not devastated. Good thing he is little, resilient, and wasn't in LOVE with preschool.

Seth hopped in on the picture taking and wanted to show you how adorably silly he is. I couldn't agree more!

Impatient

Impatiences and quilting don't go together. Skipping steps to save time can bite you in the behind...

I thought I'd just go for it and sew all the blocks together, but when I ironed the big blocks they didn't lay flat. I hadn't squared up the smaller blocks...


So, I am going to sit, watch Glee, and seam rip until all 36 blocks are undone. Then I'll square them all up like a good girl...

Nothing like starting over because you were in a hurry. Silly me. I'll learn someday.

Break is over

My goodness, I haven't posted in a while. My poor blog has been neglected. I guess my excuse would be, I was busy with my mom and then I got pulled into a good book for a few days.

I had a wonderful time with my mom here. We got to spend time together from Christmas all the way through the New Year. Of course, we had to make a trip to the city and our destination was the Metropolitan Art Museum.


Hannah wasn't able to come along on Sunday because she broke her toe. (Didn't know it was actually broken until Monday after the xrays were taken but we were pretty sure because of the swelling and bruising.) So, since Hannah couldn't go, then Simon didn't want to go, and Dan ended up staying home with the two of them. Seth wanted to go and was bored out of his little mind the whole time we were there. The only part he liked was the taxi cab lunch box his food came in and the toy he got at the gift shop.


We spent lots of time hanging out. Nice and mellow. Saw a few movies like Avatar and Sherlock Holmes. Made gingerbread houses, which is a PITA, and I'll stick with gingerbread men from now on thankyouverymuch.


All in all it was a wonderful Chirstmas break.

Once mom left I delved head first into a book and reemerged yesterday. I finally got back to quilting last night and I'll get some pictures of it tomorrow when there is some light. Otherwise, I have a million and two things to do before I start school on the 19th and then, then there won't be any time for quilting. I will have to squeeze in some quilting time since I know of some babies on the way and a few weddings on the horizon. I already look forward to summer just so I can quilt...