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.

Snow day

So, um, we had a snow day yesterday? I guess 5 inches of snow means you should call everyone in the school district at 4:30 am to let them know school has been canceled due to inclement weather. Ok, sure. God, I thought someone was dying. I flew out of bed to get the phone!

In Colorado the buses had to be unable to get to school for there to be a snow day. I do recall walking through deep snow to get to school. No, it wasn't up hill both ways, just one way.

The snow here didn't get played in by my kids. By the time we were all up and about I noticed it had changed over to rain. I don't know about you but the idea of trying to make a snowman out of slushy snow while being rained on doesn't sound to me like the most fun thing to do. Maybe it's just me.

I had to do something to keep the kids happy, entertained, and inside that didn't mean staring at a screen all day long.

We decided to make brownies. I had the kids do most of the work. They had to read the instructions and work together... somehow it actually worked!

They each got a turn stirring, adding, and they all got to share in the best part, licking the bowl!

Then while the brownies were baking up we painted with water colors.

Notice the coffee? Yup, I like my coffee. I don't drink soda or alcohol but I love coffee.

We managed fairly well the rest of the day. There was some tv watching and computer playing but it wasn't all day long. We did have two friends over but we sadly had to send them home early when my older two couldn't behave themselves. When there is hitting the fun is over. I am a party pooper, I know.

While house bound and comfy in my pj's I got Seth's Jungle Quilt sandwiched together.

I better get going. Seth and I are going to the library this morning!

Jungle quilt and monkey girl

Over the weekend I finished piecing the top of the jungle quilt. I totally changed the sashing and border fabrics. I'll get it all sandwiched together and work on getting it quilted, hopefully this week. Do you like it?

The art teacher called me today and told me all the blocks are done! I always like to see what kids come up with. Now I have to find out if there will be a goodbye party for Simon's teacher so we can present her quilt to her.

Here is little Miss Hannah with her braces off! She has to wear the retainer for a couple months and then only at night for a while. Here daddy was standing behind me making goofy rabbit ears on me so I had a hard time getting a good picture of her. Anyway, her teeth are straight for now... all of her adult teeth aren't in yet though...

Just another Monday

6:50 am- Seth wants mommy to come downstairs. Convince toddler to let me sleep for a few more minutes because big sister can put on Diego for him!

7:00 am- Hit the snooze button.

7:09 am- Got up and began the day. Made lunches, ate breakfast while checking email and facebook, got Seth to pee on the potty, sorted and started laundry, picked up neighbors daughter and drove the kids to school.

8:45 am- Started coffee, showered, got Seth dressed, grabbed snacks, made Seth go pee again, blow dried my hair because it was still in the 20's outside, swapped laundry, and then hauled ass to get to story time at 10 since it was already 10!

10:05 am- Made it to story time in the middle of the first story, phew. Seth likes the craft part better anyway. Talked to the mama's that joined us. Made the Chinese lantern craft, Seth picked out the pink paper and pink scissors (he will either be very secure in his masculinity or very gay...), read some more stories and came back home.

11: 15 am- Make Seth PB and honey sandwich and carrot sticks, I had leftover lentil and brown rice casserole since the kids don't like it. Swap laundry, fold, finish grocery list, get new shoes out for Seth since the old ones are a bit too small, make him pee again, now off to the store. Had to go we were out of milk, eggs, etc.

1:00 pm- Made it through the store without any issues of course I got him a drinkable yogurt and pretzels that we opened in the store to keep him quite and busy. Swap laundry again, put groceries away, fold next load, check email, start blogging...

2 :19 pm- Do dishes, play with the boy, make him go potty again and then get the kids from school.

3:00 pm- Got the kids run home to get snacks and a book for Simon. Go to girl scouts. Anyone want cookies?

4:50 pm- At home, swap laundry, get Simon ready for TKD while Hannah does homework, work on calendar for MOMS Club, find Seth asleep on couch... shit.

5:20 pm- Take Simon to TKD, come home to cook stroganoff for dinner. Get laundry swapped out again!

6:45 pm- Eat some dinner with a crying toddler who shouldn't have napped in the first place. Fold more laundry.

7:15 pm-Leave for book club. Hurray for running away! Enjoy leisure cup of coffee with Tiff and talk about whatever we want (no one else showed up).

9:45 pm- Come home to a quite house. Finish up the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher. Talk on phone. Up load pictures. Blog.

11:00 pm- I think I've done enough for today. I'll share pictures tomorrow of Hannah with her braces off and the quilt top I finished over the weekend... I still have laundry to put away...

Good night.

DC

I had a great time yesterday!

It was a LONG drive there and back but well worth it. Traffic around DC is awful btw. Not only did I get to spend the day with a friend but I saw lots of the things while I was there. Ok, I drove by most of them but I still saw them! We had lunch at a fabulous Turkish restaurant in Georgetown where we stuffed our faces. Wow, Georgetown is cute! I should have taken pictures of the town but I was too busy oogling to get out my camera. Gee, maybe if Hannah doens't get into Princeton she can go there. Kidding.

After lunch we went to an Obama inspired quilt show.


We weren't allowed to photograph the quilts though. Bummer. The quilts were fantastic. There was so much meaning in all of them. This election represented such a monumental moment in our history and for the African American women who made these quilts it showed through. It was humbling and inspiring.

We did a bit of wandering once we finished up. One of the Smithsonian's wasn't to far away. Annie (Sam's little girl) woudn't have had the patients to walk through the whole place but we found a few cool things like this.

We thought about walking a few more blocks to get to the mall but I want to save that for my next trip. I want to go with the kids next time so they can see all of those things with me. Although, if we get to go as a family it'll have to be an overnight trip! I was gone from 7 am to 11 pm.

A note to all my friends left behind in Colorado: If you manage to make it out this way, I'll do what I can to come see you! (hint, hint)

Thanks for hanging out with me, Sam!

Annie took this picture of us with the giant hand eating us. I see a future photographer.

An assortment of things

I haven't had much time to sit at my computer these last few days. I kind of miss it. Seth is already whining at me to play with him so I have to make this quick.

I finished the blocks for Seth's quilt. I am still torn about the borders... what to do... I even picked out a few new ones to see if I like them... ah... must decide quickly! The clock is ticking.


We are having some walls repaired right now which means I spend most of the day telling the kids to leave Jim alone.


Have you met Simon and Seth? Between the two of them I am surprised Jim hasn't run off the job screaming, "It's not worth the money!" Seriously. Seth follows him around wanting to help and Simon asks endless questions. Poor Jim. He's great at what he does though and apparently really patient. Anyway, he's finishing up today. Now we get to paint... I hate painting.

We went to a small aquarium on Monday to get out of the house for a bit. I couldn't get any good pictures but we had fun. It was a quick trip seeing how small it is but it got us out and about. If there hadn't been snow on the beach I might have walked around there too. Seth didn't want to leave at all and protested loudly with quite the tantrum. When will he be 4? Oh wait, he isn't 3 yet.


I sent Simon's art teacher fabric blocks and markers. I am excited to see what they draw for their teacher.


Tomorrow I am off to DC. Yeah, the big deal inauguration (which was totally awesome to watch!) was today but I am going tomorrow to see a friend!

Animals

I've gotten 4 of the animals done. 4 down, 8 to go. I think the elephant is pretty cute! I am being a big fat slacker and doing it all on the machine. I don't have tons of time until Seth's 3rd birthday. (Poor Dan, he doesn't get enough recognition, it's his birthday too! Hell, it was his birthday first. It's just been slightly overshadowed by the arrival of our youngest boy.)

In other unrelated news, I am officially the cookie mom for this years Girl Scout Cookie Sale. Before you ask, yes, I am insane. It's crazy but not to hard really. SO.... if anyone want to buy some delicious, fabulous, wonderful, can-only-get-them-once-a-year, cookies... I'm your hook up. Besides, the girls want to use the money they raise to go toward a trip to camp (which I volunteered to go to also!) and more they raise, the less I pay out of pocket. I just pay for it with blood, sweat, and tears... no, not that. More like cold trips around the block, frustration, and a few broken nails. :)

Also, wholly unrelated, Simon is now in Black Belt Club at Tae Kwon Do. This means I only pay for two years and if he hasn't hit black belt yet he gets to keep going for free until he gets it. I am sure this will some how work in their favor and not mine because that's how things work out for me all the time. Although when I was at the quilt guild meeting I bought a door prize ticket and mentioned that I never win drawings. Luck was in my favor or maybe it was more that there were 5 door prizes and only 20 people there. I actually won. I got some cute batik fat quarters.

I better get going. Today is one of those busy days. Simon had a doctors appointment this morning to check on how his new brace is fitting, it's fine. We dashed over to Chipotle! I love Chipotle. I think they put crack in their burritos because they are very addictive. Where was I, oh yes, Hannah had girl scouts after school, and I have to leave in 15 minutes to take Simon to TKD. AND somehow I have to get the house all cleaned up because my favorite handyman is coming tomorrow morning to fix the cracks in the plaster walls. I am sure you didn't want to know all that but now you do anyway!

Pretty, pretty fabric

My fabric that I ordered showed up yesterday!! Hurray! I do love those packages being delivered right to my door. You know what's in the box yet you're excited to open it anyway.

I got the fabric for my new nephew's quilt. It all soft cozy flannel. And quite adorable, might I add. I threw in the pattern I want to use in the picture so you can see it.

I don't have to hurry to much on this one because I think we'll take it to Denver and deliver it ourselves when we see the baby. Did I say Denver? I did. Baring any catastrophic events we are going to go home to visit this summer. We haven't been home since July of '07. Just a little while ago. I'd like to see all those people I haven't seen in two years.

In the package I got yesterday was also a little bit of fabric I got just because I thought it was cute. I got a designer sampler of Amy Butler's line of Midwest Modern 2. They're funky and retro. Should be fun to work with 'em. They are only 4.5" strips but I want to make a brick pattern so it'll work fabulously for cutting 4.5 x 7.5 blocks.

Lastly, I took a photo just for Gramma Stella. She got Seth a shaving set for Christmas and both of the boys want to use it. Simon will take a bath with Seth just so he can play with the blue shaving cream.

I know you are all jealous of my pink bathroom, admit it.

Jungle quilt

My little guy is turning 3 next month! He's not a baby anymore. *Sniff*. If I accidentally call him baby he says, "Me no baby, me Deaf (Seth)!" I want to make him something for his birthday present. I always want to make something, right. Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away (Ok, ok, it was almost 2 years ago!) I bought a book where the story follows along with the animals on the quilt.


It's quite adorable. I thought of making it for his 2nd birthday... obviously that didn't happen. It was too cute to make for someone else so I saved it. If I don't make it soon he'll be to old for it. This will be perfect for his 3rd birthday I think.

I pulled out my batik bins and began searching for the right fabrics.


I love using my stash. The only one that I don't have in batik is a black and white for the zebra. Totally sucks but I do have something that will suffice. I think what I have pulled together will work pretty well. I can't decide which frame, sashing, and border combo to use. With all the busy colors for the different animals it's hard for me to choose.


Do you like the ones on the left or the ones on the right? Dan likes the ones on the right but for some reason I like the ones on the left... Help. What do you think?

Back to normal

The holidays are ALL over... ah. I am looking forward to getting back to normal. Here's some food for thought for next Christmas though.

We had spent some time at the beginning of December trying to decide if we should keep with our lovely family tradition of getting a fresh cut tree or if we should get a dreaded fake one. It seems logical doesn't it? You aren't cutting a tree down, it lasts for YEARS but it turns out it isn't better for the environment. Really!?! The crunchy girl in me smiled! You see fake trees are horrible for the environment because of how they are manufactured and transported AND when you are done with it where does it go? To sit for eternity in a land fill. Yet a real tree from a tree farm takes carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere for years and then when you're done with the tree it can be composted seeing as it is organic and all. I love that we can continue our family tradition for years to come and I don't have to feel guilty like I am just a tree killer. Here's some info if you'd like it. Oh, it makes me so happy!

Tomorrow life goes back to normal. Up early to get the big kids off to school, out and about with Seth, after school activities, etc. You know normal= crazy busy all the time.

The break has been wonderful. I have lazily slept on the couch in the wee hours of the morning. Older kids rock too. Seth will ask for breakfast and one of the big kids, bless their little hearts, will get him a bowl of cereal so I can sleep longer. I've played with fabric a bit too. I finished up Seth pajama top.


I also made the silly little name tag for the quilt guild I joined. It made me feel like an old lady to make it. It sooo isn't my style.

Oh, oh... I ordered some fabric yesterday too! I have a new nephew coming in a few months so I needed some cute baby fabric. Of course, I threw a little extra fabric in for myself too. I haven't bought anything for me in a while. To justify it more I had a 20% off coupon too! See, it was meant to be! I can't wait until it gets here!

Anyway, winter break was awesome but it'll be nice to get back into the grove of normal day to day things again.

Midwives deliver

As most of you know I am a crunchy-granola-home-birthing kind of mama. There was an article in the LA Times about Midwives and it's AWESOME!

What are you waiting for, go read it!