Thursday, December 29, 2011

New Year's Resolutions

Hi!!! I hope you're all doing well and have had a wonderful Christmas! I've been having blog withdrawals. Still at my parents' house visiting.  My Dad's computer is finicky and s..l..o..w.., and sometimes won't let me read your blogs.  I'm probably the last person on the planet that doesn't travel with a lap top or iPad, and I really haven't had anything of note to post about sewing wise. 

Christmas pics are stuck in the camera right now, as I forgot to bring the cable to download them.. :/ I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can do a post from here. We are having a fabulous time, though, and the weather has been so unseasonably warm!  It's been beautiful!

SOOooo, since I don't have any recent pics to share, I thought I would make a public New Year's resolution... using a (scary?-ha) pic I found on my Dad's computer.

Okay, here goes. 
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I hereby solemnly resolve --wait I should change the ink color to black as it's more serious-- I hereby solemnly resolve to never *EVER, never ever ever NEVER* wear red tights with white open toe sandals and a mini dress again. :o) I'm serious.  Really.  If I do, please sic those What Not to Wear people on me!!

I'm wearing a coat.. so it must have been chilly.  Not sure where the bottom half of my outfit went. lol  And I love the big giant patches on the knees of my brothers' jeans. :o)  This was taken in the CA Redwoods.. one of the best places to camp, EVER.  Oh yah. We were camping.  WHY am I so dressed up?


Second part of my NYR for 2012 is to finish my UFO's.  You've heard about those a few times.  I really hope to finish them all.


Finally, I'm wishing 2012 to be a drama-free year. :o)  2011 was a tough year for family and other relationship drama, illness, death, natural disasters, etc.  One thing after another it seemed like.  I'm ready for a slow, mellow year. A year devoid of drama, and full of love and respect, good health and all things quilty of course. :) Rebecca Lynne of Making Rebecca Lynne and I are thinking about teaming up and making a blog button, as we shared some similar experiences and would love a DRAMA-FREE 2012!!! :o) With occasional posts about fun stress relieving things.


Blogging was one of the best things I did for myself in 2011.  It has been almost five months now, and you've all been so kind and welcoming and supportive.  It has really helped me to focus on the positive and creative things in my life.  And has really just been a ton of fun!  So thank you, thank you to all of my readers for reading, and for your sweet,sweet comments.  It has been great fun getting to know all of you/reading and commenting on your blogs, too.


The ticker is counting down to 2012, and I am ready to welcome it with open arms!!! :)  I think I need one of these. haha
Photo from Cafepress.com


P.S.  I am missing me some hubby and Buster.  Will be seeing them next Wed.!  He is off work now, and took Buster to the beach yesterday and they had a blast!

Friday, December 23, 2011

Merry Christmas!!

Druletide Greetings!!!
Having a good time at my parents' house, but missing my hubs and furry beast!  Hubby has to work a trip over Christmas weekend. :(  And beast is going to the kennel for three days. :(  Not much time to blog surf and comment over here, but thinking about you all, all around the world, and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! xo

(and a Happy Newf Year *wink*)

P.S. If you haven't finished your shopping, DO NOT look at the Christmas countdown!  Look away, before you have a heart attack!   
Monday, December 19, 2011

Which state does Jesus live in, and ice cream cone trees..

I had never thought of this.. but it's a FAB idea and wonderful solution to the "gingerbread house disaster" that plagues some of us during the holidays.  I didn't even post or mention the gingerbread house kit that we attempted this year b/c it was so hideous.  (the train went miraculously well, and I didn't want to ruin that post with a pic of the house!) I ended up doing most of the work while my son ate the candy, the frosting was too runny, etc etc.  Embarrassing result. ha!


But the other day my son's little bestie from pre-K invited him over to make Ice Cream cone Christmas trees.  SO FUN!  And easy.  Fool proof!  


Stick the cone to the plate with white frosting (snow) and let them proceed to slather green frosting on it (tree) and then provide various sprinkles and candies. Just stick them on or sprinkle away.. (ahem-ON THE TREE, son!) 
OH MY.

Voila!


They have been firmly planted next to our train..minus the candies that were eaten off of them. :)

In other Christmas-y news, today, the mini-mister was playing with his United States puzzle, when he looked up with a quizzical look and asked me,

"Which state does Jesus live in?"

(er.. Jesus doesn't live in the United States.)

"Well, where does he live?"

(...Heaven.)

"But where IS Heaven?!"

(um.. the sky?)

"Do you.. take an airplane to get there then?"

(no.. -thinking of how to explain the concept of a soul to a 5 yr old-)

"How do you get there then?"

(..you have to die to go to Heaven, God takes you there.)

"But HOW does he take you there?!"

(--ugh--haha)

(well, your body gets buried,like remember --my gma's-- funeral?  then God takes your MIND to Heaven.)

"Oh. --frowns--"  

Ahh, sometimes I feel like such a failure at trying to explain the abstract to my very concrete thinking little boy! 

Thursday, December 15, 2011

TGIFF--Friday Finish!


It's a TGIFF kind of Friday!  I finished a quilt this week.. and am going to head over to Lucy's @ Charm About You to link up!  She is this week's host.  When you're done here, you MUST go and check out her robot quilt, it's to-die-for-cute!!


This is possibly the quickest that I've ever:
a) come up with a quilt idea
b) pieced the quilt
c) quilted the quilt
d) FINISHED a QUILT!


In about a month's time.. usually I am soooo slow!  Plus, not so experienced with the machine quilting..  BUT, here she is in her crinkly goodness:


(sorry for the quality of the photos, didn't have anyone to hold it up for me, or any good light to take them in tonight.)




The only way I was able to make it so fast was that when my grandma passed away last month, I was given her fabric that she had, and lots of it! And, if you'll remember my blogging about it, you probably saw this pic of the box with all of these tiny squares in it, they are two inch squares:


I also used a dark blue cotton scrap from her fabrics to make the border and then ended up deciding to use that for the binding as well.


The back and the batting are the only things I purchased for this project.  I really enjoyed sewing through these little squares that my grandma had cut, who knows how many years ago.  It brought many wonderful memories to mind. This quilt will be a Christmas present for my mom. :o)  I just love it!


Here is the back:


Here is a pic or two or three of the quilting.. it's kind of hard to see.  I just stitched in the ditch and then did diagonal lines through all of the bow-ties. FMQ and I don't get along.. Yet. 



(They look like little bow-tie pastas to me--what an easy, quick block)

 So happy to have it finished! Hope my mom loves it as much as I do.  But then again.. if she doesn't like it, I'll get to bring it back home, so it's a WIN-WIN! :o)


Have a great weekend, and head over to Lucy's to check out other finishes.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Thursday Think Tank

Hi, Rebecca Lynne! I'm joining your Thursday Think Tank this week b/c my brain is crammed full of things I need to/want to do and some of them are falling out, so in order not to lose them, I'm going to write them here.


This is what has been on my mind: (some of it is useful and some nonsensical but that's how my mind rolls since I became a mom..it just wanders all over the place!)



  • Need to bind quilt for my mom for Christmas.  (flying out next Tuesday)  First, must pick out which fabric to use for binding.  Maybe I'll just bind it with the leftover backing fabric. ??
  • Did Kim Kardashian really spend a katrillion dollars on a wedding only to change her mind after a couple of months?!  Wait.. focus!
  • Did they really find a baby seal napping on someone's couch in New Zealand?  Ahh, focus, focus!
  • Need to pack for above mentioned trip to my parents' for Christmas. The up side to that is my hubby bought me a great new suitcase for Christmas to use for the trip as my other one's zipper decided to break on our trip back from FL in Sept.  (Oh, look..some poor person's zipper broke and their clothes are hanging out onto the luggage carousel.. :( .. OH WAIT!  Ack! It's mine.. that's my dress!  Thank goodness nothing embarrassing was hanging out!)

  • Maybe I might be getting more done if I didn't finally cave to the pressure to join Pinterest. Hopelessly addicted.  And kind of obsessed with brown pillow ticking.. and red, or any other color.. thinking of creating a board just for ticking.
 nanacompany.typepad.com
 willowdecor.blogspot.com
potterybarn.com
  • Quilts I'd like to make in the New (drama free) Year of 2012 (hehe-Rebecca)
photo from Pinterest via Google.com
Love the tiny wonky houses and have scraps calling its name!

an argyle quilt.. I swoon for argyle and have for years! :)
  • All things jelly roll related.  I have some jelly rolls just languishing and waiting to be used.  Why spend lots of time cutting when precuts are just sitting there staring at you?  This is on my Christmas list..
  • Must finish these two projects!





okay..three.
  • Oh, and CANNOT forget my three PIF gifts to make.  Don't want to procrastinate until the last minute on that one.  Have until August to get those out!  What to make?!!  What would you love to receive from a PIF pal?
Don't think the link is up yet, but head over here later to see what others are thinking/brainstorming about @ Rebecca Lynne's. Happy Thursday!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Almost done!

As the weekend went on, I was feeling much better and was able to get the bow-ties quilt top done.  I think it is going to my mom for Christmas, since it is made with all of my grandma's fabrics.  I have been working on finishing up the quilting today--on my machine--ACK.  (You know I am not that experienced at machine quilting right?  I just stitched in the ditch and then some diagonal lines.)


Ta-Da! Here is the completed top.


The border is a dark blue cotton that I also found in my grandma's fabric stash.  The only thing I bought for this quilt was the backing fabric.  Oh, and the batting.  I am just using some bright green circles for the back.. sometimes I have a really hard time picking out the backing fabric.


This was last night.. started pinning and away I went.  Had thought about trying the spray but forgot to pick some up.


And now it is almost done!  We also made some Christmas cookies, at my son's request.  He is still spreading the cheer around here. :)

We not only have Christmas shapes, but every other cookie cutter shape that we have.. animals, trains, planes, letters of the alphabet.. I manned the frosting (embarrassingly enough--my frosting job was terrible-ha!)and of course I chose the easy way out. ;)

I also used the cheater dough, the premade, prepackaged stuff in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store. :)  Our mess was really kept to a minimum.  Just a small cutting board to clean up.. and every cookie cutter that we own.

Oh, and lots of sprinkles, how can we forget the sprinkles.. I'm still finding them all over the house.


I didn't think they were going to turn out very well, but someone sure likes them.. 


A LOT!

Actually, they are pretty tasty.


Thanks to all of you for the well wishes.. I am feeling much better. I was battling a sinus infection, and my thyroid levels are low (I had thyroid surgery when my son was 6 mo. old, and have taken thyroid rx ever since), and I am Vit.D deficient.  That's it in a nutshell.  I am already feeling so much better and will probably feel even better when my thyroid levels come up a little higher.  God Bless the man who invented antibiotics.. if he were alive today I would KISS him!!!!!!! 


Hope you're all having a terrific week so far.  Hope to have a finished quilt pic for you later in the week after the binding is on.  Thanks for stopping by! xo
 That's right, we even have cookies in the shape of dog bones.. ?? haha

Friday, December 9, 2011

Friday Night Sew-In

Well, I had big plans for this Friday's ... 

I planned on working on the bowties, and actually got three more rows sewn together.. (before my plans were squashed).. no photo, though.

I also planned on maybe playing with these, which I purchased with a recent gift certificate win @ Hoodies and Flipflops.. (Thanks again, Jennifer Gail!!)

Or some of these which I recently got with a gift certificate won way back in August for the Pets on Quilts show @ SewCalGal... (I shopped the clearance section to get the most bang for my buck!)



But none of that happened on this Friday night. :(  I have been sick recently, and the meds I am taking are kicking me down!  If I ever write another "TMI" post, like the last one, maybe I'll tell you about it. ;) Otherwise, I'd like to forget most of the last month and a half. There have been a few bright spots for sure, but the sickness and the grief have been hard.  Anywho! I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else got accomplished.  :o)

I just sewed a few seams and took a great big nap!  Do naps count as FNSI accomplishments? ha!

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A Must-See for Christmas spirit!

Okay, truthfully, no sewing has gone on since I got the 40 blocks put together over the weekend. Still need to assemble them.  BUT-- I have to share this photo of my son's Christmas list.  Written all by himself.. spelling and all.



 Okay, can you decipher that first one?  Let's see, it says "leapad" (Leap Pad-techno gadget for five yr olds)..and "modris mrbl set" (motorized marble set).


Now this is the funny part..




This pic..can you get that one?  "TOYLIT-PAPR"  Anyone?  ....
YES!!!!  Bwahahahahahaahaha  My five year old son put toilet paper on his Christmas list. hahahahaha Now there is a gift I can get behind.  It's not another toy to trip over, it's useful, and very economical! Oh, my little practical boy. :o)


But.. there is a back story to that, you see.  My husband, well... let's just say he is a champion consumer of the toilet paper.  We don't have bidets here in the U.S., it's just good old paper.  And my sweet, slightly OCD husband will go through a roll a day and often leave the paper roll empty.  I don't know if he wraps his arm up with it like a cast or what, I mean that is a LOT of paper!  Okay, maybe that's TMI...


BUT that bit of TMI has led my little sonny to put toilet paper on his Christmas list.  Oh my. haha  I first thought he was just trying to make me laugh, (since boys go through a toilet humor phase) but he told me "no, Mommy, I really want my OWN because Daddy keeps using it all so I want my own toilet paper to write my own name on it." :o)


Yes.. the name writing isn't new either.  My husband, also champion snacker, is known to graze through a box of crackers in no time flat. (Even Austin's special snack crackers... while Austin is sleeping...which can be tragic the next day.) So if there is something that A. likes to have for snacks sometimes I will write on it so that my husband knows to save it from being victim of a late night snack attack.  


Soooo.... I think I need to put these on my Christmas list, what with all the labeling I'm sure to be doing in the future:
:o)

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Weekend Accomplishments

Well, yesterday the five year old in my house managed to pull some more Christmas spirit from the depths of my soul by talking me into this little project:




I managed the frosting, he managed the candy.  I might have used my paint program to white out the mess we made all over the table. ha!  We made one last year, and he has been begging and begging to make one this year!  I wanted his hand in the picture so in ten years I can remember how small it used to be. :o)


Buster got into the spirit of the season by getting a belly rub.  My son took this picture.  


I love letting him run around and take pictures, and then seeing the world from his perspective when we look at them.  Thank goodness for the digital age.. he wouldn't be doing that if we had to buy and develop all of that film!  Wow, cameras that use film will be something that he will read about it history books, probably, or marvel  over in antique stores. ha!


We enjoyed the tree being up.  Here he is standing by a special ornament given to him by our story-time librarian.  I am so sad that we've outgrown story-time at the library.. going to school five days a week we don't make it anymore. We went faithfully for almost 3 years!


AND... I made 40.. yes FORTY more blocks for my bow-tie quilt.  Now just need to join them up!  I love sewing these blocks with my grandma's scraps.  


She was on my mind a lot yesterday, too, since it would have been her 94th birthday.  A sweet lady who left us with hearts full of wonderful memories.


Also had a lot of fun checking out the Christmas quilt show at SewCalGal. I hope you all had fabulous weekends and are enjoying the holiday season so far. :o)
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