New Student Orientation....Over!!!

After a busy busy week full of 14 hours days and three days we literally stayed overnight at work to lead a new training program, my first August orientation is over! We have just a few more continuing orientation activities during the next few weeks, and of course we have to debrief and start planning for next year. Over all, things went ok. I don't think I'd call it great, but ok. Any problems we had were known only by the staff, not by the new students or their parents, which is definitely good. 

Our brand new student leadership program went GREAT though, and I'm so proud of our students!

Next year we will have an entirely new plan, timeline and alloted space so we are hoping that by beginning to plan now things will be MUCH improved. 

I haven't gotten a whole lot done on the home/crafting front. I did manage to finish all four of my Christmas Candle Mats this weekend, thus completing one of my Get in Done in August projects. Woohoo! Otherwise, it's been nice to just sleep and lay around and read and otherwise relax!

Finished for Friday: Christmas Candle Mat

Once again I join Threeundertwo at her wonderful blog Lit and Laundry for her Finished for Friday post.
This week I've finished the Christmas Candle Mat!

This will be a Christmas present this year, and I can't believe I've finished it so early.
It's a log cabin pattern with simple one inch cross hatching for the quilting.


In addition to being part of Finished for Friday, this is also a finish for Kim's Get it Done in August challenge! Now I just have three more candle mats to go and that will be one project checked off my list!

Also, one of my other favorite bloggers, Gran, is having a give away over on her blog Knot-y Embroidery Lady. Visit her to see the cute fabrics she's giving away, and see some of her finished projects.

Next week week will be absolutely crazy at work as we move full swing into new student orientation.
This was something I came up with earlier this week, for a resource fair our department was a part of.

I'm part of the training for a brand new program, which is great, but it also means I will literally be living at work for three days. I'm hoping to get some time to relax and get some projects done this weekend.

Farmer's Market Bounty, Freezer Cooking and A Get it Done Challenge!

I had a very busy and unusually productive weekend, getting lots done on multiple fronts: cooking, crafting, housework and packing for the move!

The N-boy and I ventured to the Farmer's Market as usual on Saturday. We've gotten very efficient inside as we have our favorite vendors for different products, make a list before hand, and try to get there earlier, as to avoid the crowds.

This week included blueberries, eggplant and heritage carrots!

Every time we look at the carrots we both hear in our head the Chairman from Iron Chef America announcing "Carrots!" as the secret ingredient during the carrot episode. If you don't know what I'm talking about you should check out Iron Chef America for free on fancast.com. Seriously-one of my favorite shows ever!

One thing that the N-boy are working on for this fall is planning/working ahead as much as possible, as to reduce stress during a very busy time of year. So when it's my week to cook, I've been trying to cook extra to add to the freezer.

On Sunday I may have gone a little overboard, cooking a chicken pot pie casserole and a beef burgundy stew, plus cooking up 3 cups of diced chicken for use in things like tacos.

I used the Freezer Cookbook for both of these recipes on the Organized Home website. The woman who runs this website CEO, is the same woman who has the wonderful Organized Christmas website. Check them both out if you have a chance!

Finally, I'm joining Kim over at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure for her challenge to "Get It Done in August!" She's challenging us to get as many projects finished this month as possible! I'm in, as I think I need a good kick in the rear to get going on some (many) of my unfinished projects!

Here's my list (as of today). I reserve the right to add to this list as I remember/unearth more projects that I've forgotten about.

1. Four Christmas table mats -sandwich, quilt and bind
2. Amish Waves baby quilt-Finish quilting, bind and send to baby (Note to self-it's time to get this done and stop worrying about making it perfect.)
3. Crown of Jewels-Piece top
4. Paper pieced heart wall hanging-Finish piecing top, quilt, bind
5. Tutti Frutti- Lay out and piece top
6. Cut and sew first step and second step for mystery quilt-Because starting another new project is a good idea

So far I've worked on the Christmas table mats-here's a picture of one of them with the quilting half done.

I actually finished up the quilting on it last night, but forgot to take a picture!

Finished for Friday: Letters/ I Won a Giveaway! Woohoo!

This week I'm joining Threeundertwo over at Lit and Laundry again for her Finished for Friday. Unfortunately, my finishes this week are not nearly as spectacular as her TWO finishes, but I think they're good enough for me this week.

I finished writing three letters this week: a postcard to BabyBrother from the Harry Potter Exhibit (so keep a lookout for it, Babybrother), a letter to my Grandpa and a nice note to the Momcat.

I try to write to grandpa every week, but sometimes I miss a week or two. The Momcat says he really enjoys hearing from me, and it only takes a few minutes. He sometimes writes back, too, which is nice.

The other big news for today is that I won something on a giveaway! I'd entered Angela's giveaway on her blog MyThreeSons for a package of needles that were giving her trouble...
and I won!

She's making the cutest orange and pink star blocks that I just love. Be sure to check out the pictures of her studio, too. I think her idea of using a china cabinet for fabric storage is great!

Thanks so much, Angela!

New House, New Furniture

It's been a very busy week here at work, as we prepare for the return of the students to campus. We're already started having orientation for new students, and are generally just gearing up and preparing for the onslaught of 200 new students who need to be registered, oriented and assisted with pretty much anything you can think of.

I've worked on my scrapbook some this week, continuing the basic page layouts that the Momcat and I started at Scrapmania last weekend. It really helps me to just get the pictures down on the page first, knowing that I can come back later to do some journalling and embellishing. I've also been working a bit on my knitted dish towel, starting to prepare to move and have finally finished HP 7! I'll try to get some pictures of my projects up this weekend.

In the meantime, I've been wanting to share picture of one my latest finds. This was found at the University Surplus store, which is open to University employees and students each Thursday. The selection varies widely each week, and it's very much a first come, first serve atmosphere. I'd wanted one of these since I saw them at someone's house during book club, and they had seven of them! For only $25!!!
Why would a library ever want to get rid of their beautiful Card Catalogs!

It's one of the larger ones, with 72 drawers.

Each drawer still has the metal system inside for inserting the library cards.

I'm hoping to be able to use it for storage of some of my crafting supplies, such as yarn, knitting needles and fat quarters. The N-boy, however, has expressed doubts about getting this up the stairs in our new house and into my studio room! We'll see...

Hope everyone is having a great week!

Long Weekend in Nebraska

Last Wednesday I headed over to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit the Nebraska Service Center as part of their open house through NAFSA: Association for International Education. For those of you who are not in tune with all of the fun workings of the immigration system in the United States, the Nebraska Service Center (NSC) is one of four service centers in the country that processes immigration applications. It's where we send our applications for students applying for a work permit following the completion of their studies. Anyway, it was super cool in this very-nerdy-I-heart-International-Education way. We got to meet the director of the NSC, hear about some new things coming out, have a long discussion with some of the supervisors and get a tour of the facility. It was a great trip, and even better that work flew me out there for professional development!

One of the main reasons that I was able to go is that my parents still live in Omaha, therefore I had a free place to sleep and a promise of food and water. So on Thursday, the Momcat and I drove down to Lincoln for the NSC open house. While I attended that, she went to some stores and antique shops. After lunch at a local microbrewery, we started headed back up to Omaha, stopping at a quilt store and some antique stores along the way. I purchased a few pieces of fabric, but what I really wanted was this

Giant Metal Rooster.


Who wouldn't want this?

The Momcat and I spent a lot of time going through stuff in my room, which still had a lot of things from my childhood. We ended up with about 3 bags of trash, and 6 bags to take to Goodwill to bless someone else. It felt really good to sort out all of my stuff.

After all that hard work, we spent Friday shopping and then going to Archiver's for ScrapMania!


Momcat worked on her album from our trip to Paducah,


and I worked on our wedding album.

We had a great time!

On Saturday we spent some time with Daddo, worked on some secret projects for my Advent Swap Partner, and looked to see what furniture/stuff I may want to take to our new house! Daddo wisely hid in his office during much of this process.


So thanks, parents, for a great weekend! It was fun to see them both, and great to work on projects with the Momcat. A good way to get into August, which promises to be a CRAZY month at work!

While I was gone, the N-boy went to the Farmer's Market and even took a picture of the bounty on his phone! Yummy fresh and local food!


One last shout out for the day-Happy 21st Birthday BabyBrother! It doesn't matter how old you get, you'll still be my IckleBabykins!