May Your Bobbin Always Be Full

Festive for Friday...Shark Tank

2012-01-27T20:31:00.000-05:00

Festive!
--I remembered that Shark Tank is on tonight! I'd never seen this show until the Momcat and I watched it last week and I loved it! I loved the meanness and snarkiness of the sharks, and how they squash the hopes and dreams of the applicants! But then it's even better when they invest and fight each other to get the deal.

--I'm trying a hot yoga class for the first time tomorrow morning. I used to do yoga back in college, but haven't done it in years. Even better, coupons we found at Starbucks at half off. I really hope we don't die.

--The days are getting longer! I know they've been doing this for a while now, but it wasn't until this week that I really noticed it on my way to and from work. Yay for daylight!

Less-than-festive:
-- Another round of the sickies seem to be going around the office. I've been hand sanitizing like crazy and crossing my fingers that I don't get sick again.

--My cats have not learned to do any household chores. I keep hoping I'll come home and find laundry done and dinner made, but alas.

In conclusion: Any week where my biggest complaint is that my cats don't do laundry is a good week.

Three Things Thursday: Vitamins, Spinning and Book Club

2012-01-26T19:55:00.000-05:00

1. Gummy vitamins for adults are possibly the best thing ever invented. The only bad part is that I want to eat more than the full dosage because they're so yummy.

2. Spinning classes have resumed with the start of the new semester. I'm doing Tuesdays and Thursdays again this semester. Favorite quote for the day from the instructor, Chris: "It's a work out, friends, not an easy out."

3. We had book club last night and, for what I think is possibly the first time EVER, everyone in attendance had completely read the book. We have a strict policy that you should attend even if you didn't read the book, as we spend about two minutes discussing the book, twenty minutes choosing the next book, and two hours on catching up/gossip, but still. Everyone read the book AND it was Stephen King's 11/22/63 which was a looooong book.

And the best part about Thursday....tomorrow is FRIDAY!

Mondays are for Muggles

2012-01-23T13:12:00.000-05:00

Welcome again to Monday. The day where I take stock of my to do list from last week, and lay out a plan for the new week. Although Mondays are not my favorite day since the weekend is now over, I do LOVE having the chance to start fresh with my lists and plans!

~~Blog 3 times here~~: and again I got two...ok then...
Start quilting baby quilt
Finish quilting baby quilt
Run two times
Write Grandpa
~~Work on items for Prairie Sewn Companion~~: Ok Momcat and I rocked this one.
~~Make business plan with Momcat~~: Ok, well we talked about it. Some.
Paint nails
Knitted dishcloth
Fleece tie blanket

Sooo FINAL SCORE: 3/10

Obviously not ideal. But it ended up being a busier week than expected with the parentals here. I've also been fighting some crazy fatigue. I'm hoping that it's just from my schedule being off and not getting enough exercise, and not something more. So I"ll try and get some extra sleep and exercise and repeat my newest mantra: "Do not go and google fatigue on Web MD or you will again convince yourself you have a rate and terminal illness."

Up for this week:

Go to spinning class 2 times
Go for 1 run
Start quilting baby quilt
Write Grandpa
Paint nails
Sew two fabric bowls
Finish 5 composition notebooks
Bake gingerbread for book club
Fleece tie blanket
Knitted dishcloth

Festive for Friday...To Do Lists and Colored Pens

2012-01-20T21:59:00.000-05:00

Dokument Pencil Cup: $1.50
20 Pack of Colored Gel Pens: $16.68
Being in bed before 10:00 on a Friday night to write a color coded to do list for the weekend: Priceless

Possibly the most festive start to my weekend that I'll ever see.

Mondays are for Muggles

2012-01-16T20:51:00.000-05:00

And the recap for the last muggly week:

~~Blog 3 times here~~: Two out of three works for me.
~~Prep baby quilt for quilting~~
~~Prep Etsy listings for Prairie Sewn Companion~~: Woohoo! I'm going to work with the Momcat when she's here this next week to see if we're ready to go live!!!
~~Write Grandpa~~
Repaint nails
Run. Even just once
Start quilting baby quilt
Blog once on Prairie Sewn Companion
~~Start knitted dishcloth~~
~~GET HEALTHY~~: I think we're more or less there. I'm still a little sniffy, but sleep and medications have done wonders.

FINAL SCORE: 6/10

Yes, I do keep score.

For this week:

Blog 3 times here
Start quilting baby quilt
Finish quilting baby quilt
Run two times
Write Grandpa
Work on items for Prairie Sewn Companion
Make business plan with the Momcat!
Paint nails
Knitted dishcloth
Fleece tie blanket

Muggly thoughts: Being sick has made me feel totally unproductive. Ugh. But now that I'm definitely feeling better (at least when I keep taking the sudafed), I'm hoping to ramp things up for the rest of January. The parentals are here for a week again starting tomorrow and I'm looking forward to getting things done! (Note they are slightly less enthused about my new ability to write color coded check lists for them to accomplish while I am at work.)

Festive for Friday...Snowfall

2012-01-13T19:12:00.000-05:00

Hello friends and welcome to another Festive for Friday. The day where we thank our lucky stars we made it to the end of the week and celebrate all of the festive (and the less-than-festive) happenings of the week.

Festive!

I'm on antibiotics! Turns out my whining about being sick wasn't completely unjustified, as I have a sinus infection and an ear infection. My doctor even prescribed my favorite antibiotics! (Yes, I have a favorite. I'm allergic to penicillin so the Zpac and I are best friends when I'm sick.)

Antibiotics also mean I'm feeling better, although not 100%. I've been dragging all week, and while I've enjoyed watching a million episodes of Pawn Stars on Netflix, I have other things I'm looking forward to working on this weekend.
After missing two and a half days of work, I managed to be SUPER productive today. Which is good because the student's come back next week.
My parents got us a programmable thermostat for Christmas, and then I made Daddo install it before they left. So now, when I get up in the morning or come home from work the house is already warm and toasty!
I've consumed a copious number of bagels this week. When I'm sick, I don't want to eat anything. This has always been a problem-to the point where they threatened to hospitalize me when I had mono because I lost so much weight. So the rule is, when I'm sick, I get to eat whatever I want as long as I eat something. So bagels it is this week. (Past favorites have been potato soup, fudgesicles and Chinese food).

Less-than-Festive

So that snow that melted away last week...well it's back. I'd guess we're at about 10 inches now with 1-2 more to come overnight.

I'm still sick. Yes, I'm feeling better. But I would really just like to be totally healthy.
A cat threw up. And I stepped in it. Eww.

Wishing a festive weekend to all!

Mondays are for Muggles

2012-01-09T17:08:00.000-05:00

Mondays are not my friend. Personally, I think anyone who DOES like Mondays need a sharp poke in the side to make them see reason. For me, Monday doesn't only signal the beginning of the work week (highly less-than-festive) but it also reminds me of all the mundane things I need to do. Like pay bills. Wash clothes. Cook food. Blargh, as BabyBrother would say.

Thus I launch "Mondays are for Muggles" (can you tell I'm in a theme mood lately?). Which is basically where I recap what shit I did manage to get done last week, and what the overly-enthusiastic-and-less-than-realistic plan for this week is. The mundane, the magical, the muggly. Yes, muggly is a word.

First, brief recap of last week.

~~Continue working on organizing my studio space.~~ Pretty much done! Organization FTW!
Run 10 miles-- HA! I am STILL sick. I know some people say it's safe (and even good) to exercise when you're sick. But since I'm the biggest whiner and wimp when it comes to being sick, I abstain. Really though, since I have a history of little colds turning to sinus infections or bronchitis, I do try and take it easy when I'm sick.
~~Start book club book 11/22/63~~--And I finished the book too! When I'm sick, reading helps me rest so I've done a LOT of it in the past week.
~~Write Grandpa M and Grandma O~~
~~Paint my nails~~
~~Post 3~~x here--Two out of three. I'll count this as half done.
Post one time on Prairie Sewn Companion--Hardcore fail.
Prepare baby quilt for quilting--Ha. But I did find all the pieces for the quilt, which I think should count towards something.
Start knitted dishcloth--Blargh.
~~Prepare business plan with Momcat~~--So I'm counting this as a finish (and now Mom is reading this and asking herself if she missed something this week). I've written out a bunch of things about this from my perspective. I also managed to get our EIN and sales tax license this week. So I really did make business organization progress. The Momcat arrives back again on the 17th, and I've promised her a fun-filled week of business talk!

FINAL SCORE: 5.5/10

Ok, so not awful for being deathly ill. Or at least mildly ill.

This week I wil attempt to:

Blog 3 times here.
Prep baby quilt for quilting.
Prep Etsy listings for Prairie Sewn Companion.
Write Grandpa.
Repaint nails.
Run. Even just once.
Start quilting baby quilt.
Blog once on Prairie Sewn Companion.
Start knitted dishcloth.
GET HEALTHY.

Festive for Friday

2012-01-06T21:30:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Friday! And a new series on the blog where I share some Festive (and ok maybe not-so-fesitve) happenings for the week.

But first...the backstory on the button image. The kitty (grown up cat, I suppose, but he'll always be my kitten) is named Friday. My Brother-in-Law named him that when we adopted him on Black Friday in 2008. He was the last of his litter to be adopted from the shelter because no one wanted a black cat! How silly is that. And he has the cutest little white socks and little white mittens. I digress...And festive is my favorite word EVER! I use it all the time. Seriously all the time. And thus Festive for Friday was born (because I'm clever like that!)

Festive!

It's Friday! This first week back to work after a week of vacation and a week of holiday was un-festive, so today actually BEING Friday means an extra dose of happiness today.
I figured out how to borrow books on my Kindle from our local public library. And the cherry on top is that it was super easy.
The snow is melting and it was 48 degrees today. In January. Amazing.
We're going to a new restaurant tomorrow night for a double birthday celebration. It's a rib shack, so not only do I get to eat lots of meat, but I also get to cross something off my Accompl.sh list!
I made an awesome two page to do list for the weekend. Which is festive since I LOVE making to do lists.
Friday the kitten has been snuggling with me on the couch all night. And he's even stayed on his own couch cushion instead of doing his "I think I'm really a dog so I must climb onto your chest and do three full circles before I sit down and impede your typing" schtick. Which sounds cute, that little cat can somehow occupy a lot of space and has very pokey paws.

Less-than-Festive

I have a cold. I'm super whiny when I'm sick, so it's probably good that the N-boy is out of the country and doesn't have to put up with me.
I've missed out on some fun social activities this week because I've been sick. I have, however, seemed to learn after almost 29 years that the best thing I can do when I'm sick is to rest and take care of myself. I think the Momcat is very happy that I've finally listened to her and learned this lesson.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to sync contacts from my iphone Audrey to icloud. It is driving me nuts!
My to do list is two pages long. Yes this is both festive and less-than-festive. I have a tendency to make exceedingly long and ridiculous to do lists and then feeling like a failure when I don't finish everything on it. Oh well.

Here's to a festive weekend for all!

Oh hai 2012...Oh hai...

2012-01-01T23:34:00.000-05:00

I haven't blogged here on almost a whole year. And not really for any good reason, either. But I suppose this is my blog and I can do what I want to!

Some of you (or at least the devoted members of my immediate family and kind and loving friends who visited me at the Craft Fair) know that I'm working on starting an Etsy store with the MomCat: Prairie Sewn Companion. I've blogged a couple of times on our new blog, but I've felt weird talking about the random and yet festive things there, so I'm going to give this one a try too. And use that one for things about our business! Or something like that. It's my Etsy business so I can do what I want to! (Maybe that should be the motto for the year: "It's my life so I can do what I want to." Not an awful motto, actually.

I hate New Year's Eve. Staying up to midnight is never a reason to celebrate in my book. But I LOVE New Year's Day. I love making lists of goals/resolutions/projects/wishful thinking ideas/household chores. Love love love. I ran across this web app a few weeks ago and started building my 2012 list. I've changed things a ton of times on it, but finally settled on the final items last night while I was desperately trying to stay awake until midnight. Now that my list is locked I have 366 days to get everything done. Yes....good realistic plan.

I have no illusions that anyone else on the inter webs have any interest in reading my list of 101 lofty ambitions, so I'm not going to put the whole list here. But should you REALLY have nothing else to do, it can be seen on my Accompl.sh page.

For your viewing pleasure, here are a few things I'm hoping to accomplish this week:

Continue working on organizing my studio space.
Run 10 miles.
Start book club book 11/22/63.
Write Grandpa M and Grandma O.
Paint my nails.
Post 3x here.
Post 1x on Prairie Sewn Companion.
Finish prepping baby quilt for quilting.
Start a knitted dishcloth.
Write a business plan with Momcat.

Hopefully I'll get other things done this week too. Like eating. An showering. And maybe washing my sheets. But doing some of these would be a good start to my new year.

And to leave you with a festive picture, taking from my visit with the parentals to our relative in Fort Wayne.

I call it "And the Adults are more Fascinated that the Children by the new Cotton Candy Maker."

Snow!

2011-01-10T20:15:00.000-05:00

We made it back from our New Year's trip to Germany and Austria in the nick of time, pulling into town right as the lake effect storm was starting to let loose on our area. The N-boy took some pictures on Saturday, I think about half way through the storm.

Looking out our kitchen window.

Looking out the front door.

Total snowfall for the storm was over 33 inches! With the record for most snow in a 24 hour period being broken with 25 inches! Thankfully the streets were mostly clear today when I headed back to work after a glorious two week vacation!

Up this week, some pictures from the trip!

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T20:56:00.000-05:00

The Momcat, Daddo and BabyBrother all came to our house again for Christmas again this year. Everyone had a great time and lots of good presents, family time and Christmas cheer all around.

One of our big family traditions is decorating sugar cookies on Christmas Eve day. Mom is in charge of supervising the cut out and baking process,

and Daddo get stuck with the frosting-sprinkle-sugarfest.

Baby Brother is in charge of, well, Baby Brother is simply required to be there. And must be frosting cookies. He's gotten sneakier about this as he's gotten older; my favorite line this year was when he put two dabs of frosting on a soldier cookie and then declared, "The art is in the negative spaces." Sigh.

The goal now is to make as the most obnoxious cookies as possible. Last year, we had axe murdering snowmen and incandescent light bulbs. Previous years have included the "PBR express" train engine (chug chug chug). The Momcat found that one less than amusing, since Baby Brother was a bit underage.

My favorite from this year-the dead butterfly. I promise I don't actually have a dead butterfly cookie cutter; the N-boy mutated a sweet little Christmas Angel for this one.

Christmas morning I get everyone up at 7:00 a.m. That is 7:00 a.m. in the current time zone. Yes, we have to have that exact information as part of the rule in our family. Mostly because otherwise I'd still be getting everyone up before dawn because I'm so excited I can't sleep.

Oh how they love me.

Christmas Mug Rug

2010-12-22T15:32:00.000-05:00

Can it really be almost three months since I have posted a blog entry? Yes. Sad.

Have I been busy? Well, somewhat. I've been continuing to work on the Paducah Challenge Quilt, which incidentally is due on Saturday. I'm almost finished, but not quite.So I haven't been able to post pictures of what I've been working on given that it's a secret challenge with the Momcat. Still, no excuse.

I have, however, just discovered an app that will let me upload photos from Audrey (my iphone) directly to my Picasa album, from which I can pull photos into this blog. Are they the bestest quality of photos? Well, no. On the other hand my photos with my camera are not the best of quality. Although is due large in part to my lack of skill as a photographer, and is no fault of the cute little canon camera.

I do think this will help me be less lazy. I rarely have my camera with me, but always have my phone. I hate dragging out my camera cord to connect to my computer. Yes, I really am that lazy.

So without further ado, here's the little package I made up for our office coordinator. He just started with us this last May, and has been a SUPER person to have in our office.

I made the little rug mug from scraps I made; log cabin pattern. He really like it, and even took it home to show his wife!

Here's to being less lazy!

Finished for Friday: Cutting the Challenge Quilt

2010-10-01T12:19:00.000-04:00

So it seems that I'm only capable of posting anything in Friday's lately, but at least that means I get to participate in Finished for Friday hosted over at Lit and Laundry's wonderful blog.

Some might remember that each April the Momcat and I take our annual (you can call two years in a row annual, right?) trip down to Paducah for the AQS show. We take classes, we see the show, we meet celebrities, and we buy lots of fabric. Very fun and festive.

One thing we buy fabric for is our "Challenge Quilt" where we each get the exact same pieces of fabric and are allowed to add one additional piece of fabric to produce a finished quilt top by Christmas. I'm getting a bit of a late start on my project this year, but last week I finally figured out what pattern to use. After cutting and testing one block, I spent the last week cutting the rest of the jelly roll (this year's challenge fabric) and putting together little kits for each block! I finished them up last night for total of 36 blocks ready to go together!

Since it's a surprise challenge and the Momcat reads this blog (hi mom!), I don't want to post a picture of the finished block. But I can post a picture of the content of each block kit! This will keep her guessing!

Tonight I head off to join some of the other quilter's in my guild for a retreat weekend at a nearby YMCA camp. Some of the women have been there since yesterday, and I can only imagine how much they've already gotten done. I've packed all the block kits for the Challenge Quilt , as well as another piecing project and my John Flynn Quilt Frame! Needless to say, the car was awfully full this morning when I drove into work!

Be sure to check out what others have Finished for Friday!

Finished for Friday: Not a Dishcloth

2010-09-24T15:14:00.000-04:00

There's a running joke in the knitting group I'm part of, the Frog Pond, that the only thing I ever knit is dishcloths. What can I say, I do like my dishcloths! Actually though I think the main reason I've been drawn to them is that I make one pattern, I've memorized the pattern, and I can do it pretty mindlessy. If I put down the project for a few days or weeks or even months, I'm still able to pick it right back up again whenever it is that I get back to it.

At our summer frolic, however, one of our most experienced members convinced me to try a scarf pattern from one of One Skein Wonders series. It was cute. It was easy. It did not involve circular needles, double pointed needles, or scary decrease/increases. (We tried all of this and more with a baby sweater last summer. Fail is the only word that describes this.)

And perhaps the most exciting news..... it's finished! And so with a triumphant flourish I join Lit and Laundry for Finished for Friday with a finished scarf!

The excitement will continue as it turns out that I've now memorized this pattern and have even begun a second scarf! I took both projects to our club gathering on Wednesday night and was very proud to be showing my new skill of making Not a Dishcloth.

Finished for Friday: Chloe's Quilt

2010-09-03T09:06:00.000-04:00

The parentals came to visit about a week ago and the Momcat and I finished up the Clothesline Quilt for baby Chloe! The pattern we used is by Elizabeth Hartman and can be found on blog Oh, Fransson! It's a supercute patten that uses 9 pieces of fabric to make nine-patches, which are formed into a nine-patch, which are then formed into an even bigger nine-patch which is the quilt!

For the quilting we used a squiggly stitch on the seams. This added a little bit more dimension to the front of the quilt.

Here's a shot of the back. It ended up being fairly heavily quilted; I'm happy we decided to skip some of the lines going one direction or I think it would have been too much.

The quilt was a present for my cousin and his wife (and for their baby girl, of course!) and they seemed to like it! The Momcat and I are also working on a quilt for their 3 year old with dinosaurs! It was a challenge to have the two of us work on a quilt when we're 10 hours apart, but it was fun too. And we got it done and out the door, so woohoo for that!

Be sure to check out what others have finished over at Lit and Laundry's blog!

My little helper

2010-08-02T21:38:00.000-04:00

This last week I've been busy working on quilting the Clothesline baby quilt. I'm really rather pleased with how the quilt has turned out, and can't wait to get it to the baby!

My little buddy-boo has been trying very hard to be helpful.

Not very successfully, but I do appreciate his efforts. And he's just so cute when he's tired himself out.

Hopefully I'll get the quilting finished up within a week or so!

The vegetables have arrived!!!

2010-07-10T11:56:00.000-04:00

I think it's fitting that my first blog post after a small (ok longish) hiatus is the result of the previous post.

WE HAVE VEGETABLES!!!!

So despite the fact that I failed to follow the instructions on the seed packets that very clearly indicated the zucchini need 3 feet of space EACH, we have harvested our first eggplants and zucchini.

Now I admit, the garden is a bit....crowded. I used tomato cages to somewhat corral the zucchini and the acorn squash, which I really do think helped. The N-boy, however, felt that a dramatic gesture was necessary to show just how crazy the garden has become.

Our first harvest yielded three zucchinis and three eggplants. And we also picked two cute little flowers to put in the kitchen.

Even Catcat is benefiting from the garden action with fresh picked catnip!

We can't wait to see how much more we get from our first gardening attempt.

First weekend of Summer.

2010-05-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

Even though Memorial Day weekend isn't until next weekend, it seems like Summer has officially kicked off here in Northern Indiana. The humidity started in on Saturday, with Sunday bringing high temperatures and bright sunshine to make it altogether rather sticky outside.

Saturday we rode our bikes down to the Farmer's Market, where we got a LOT of meat, fresh veggies and some shade plants for the garden.

We spent the majority of Saturday afternoon outside putting in these plants, and our first ever vegetable garden.

We're growing acorn squash, beets, zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant, chives and basil. We're using the marigolds as a natural version of pesticide.

It's not a huge garden, but we're very excited for our first year growing our own produce. We restrained ourselves, otherwise we would have gone WAY overboard for this first year.

Saturday night we cooked out on our patio (some of the newly acquired meat) on our brand new Weber grill that the Momcat and Daddo got us for our fourth wedding anniversary. It was SO much easier to use than our old travel grill!

Thanks, parents!

We've spend a lot of time outside in the last week, so I really haven't done much (any) crafting. But I leave you with the N-boy's artistic contribution to our landscaping design. He's been taking the bricks (we live on the edge of an old railroad embankment) and rocks we've found in the yard to create festive piles and designs.

Hopefully I'll get some crafting done so that I, too, have a creative contribution next week.

Scrapbooking with Jane...again!

2010-05-15T21:40:00.000-04:00

Jane and I went scrapbooking again last night, and again were super productive.

We'd ordered pizza the last couple of times we were here, so this time we decided to be healthy and get take out salads from the salad bar at the grocery store on the way there.

Yum!

It was a pretty full house last night, and one of the women showed me a new product that I'd never seen before: the Snapload system from Pioneer.

The instructions aren't particularly clear, so luckily I she helped me set it up.

Basically, this system replaces the posts (and the post extensions) in post bound scrapbooks in a way that allowed you to MUCH more easily add, take out and re-arrange pages. You put 3M holders on each side of the scrapbook, and then use the binding thingy (which are just similar to zip ties) to go through the pages in the holes, tighten the pages together, and then snap into place.

I'd been wanted to add some more pages to the wedding scrapbook, so I could include pictures of the rehearsal dinner and the honeymoon, but hadn't yet because I'd dreaded messing around with the posts. Now I can add pages whenever I want without anxiety.

Here are the five pages I got done last night:

The N-boy and I right before the ceremony.

The Gerth Family!

Some pictures of my dress, shoes and flowers.

The N-boy and I with our best-woman and maid of honor.

And my FAVORITE picture of last night!

Madison, WI and the Cutest Baby in the World

2010-05-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

A non-crafty blog entry again today, but we do have pictures of the current most cutest baby in the world. Really, given the baby bug that has bit me, I should be applauded for not having EVERY blog entry chock full of adorable baby pictures. Of course, I think if I blogged only about other peoples babies it would be a little creepy.

But a few occasional babies seem ok to me!

Last weekend the N-boy and I went to Madison to celebrate our fourth wedding anniversary. The big day isn't actually until May 26, but last weekend was the only time when the planets aligned and we were both able to get away at the same time. Madison is a special city to as, as the N-boy lived there when we were dating, and we got engaged there. That means when we visit, we also get to see friends. Reproducing friends!

This is the latest baby in my Cutest Baby Collection: he's just six months old:

I think this pictures shows what I'll be getting into when we finally pop a child of our own.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast called The Arbor House, which is located right across fro the Arboretum, and is on the bike trail.

They're an ecologically friendly inn, with the BEST home cooked breakfast on the weekends, wine and snacks and dessert each night. They have a sauna, a full kitchen for guest use, whirlpool tubs and Burt's Bee's shampoo!

We are definitely planning a return trip there, and maybe even before anniversary number five!

May already?

2010-05-11T20:22:00.000-04:00

How is it possible that it's already May?? The year has gone by so fast. I thought I'd take a moment to review where I am with the goals I'd laid out in January. I apologize if this isn't the most interesting blog, but it helps to keep me accountable!

1. Run a 5k

---Sunburst 5k on June 6??

I had been doing really well with getting exercise in, but have fallen behind since I returned from Paduch. I need to step this up a bit!

2. Post 125 blog entries

Hmmm.... well I've got 22 done. So not too bad, but I look forward to doing more in the coming months.

3. Piece the following projects:

-Mystery quilt

- Teacup quilt

- Challenge quilt 2

-Valentine's Day foundation piecing Done!

-Limeade

-Over the Rainbow

-Six more projects!!!

4. Quilt the following projects:

-Cat practice panel

-Serenity

- Freddy's quilt

-Challenge quilt 1

-Valentine's Day quilt Done!

-Teacup quilt

5. Write Grandpa 1 time a week, and write 52 other letters to people

Hmmm doing only so-so here. I need to get back on track, especially with writing letters to Grandpa.

6. Keep a book log of books read (I've always wanted to do this. This is the year!!)

-Was a bit behind on this, but now I'm all caught up. I've read 31 books this year so far!

7. Attend Mass/church 25 times

-Was doing pretty well on this, especially around Easter. Need to try to get to more services!

8. Control Journal/Flylady
-Getting there with babysteps!

9 Attend NAMI support group 20 times
-I haven't been going as much lately, but I've been getting the support I need from other sources, such as friends, family and work!

10. Redecorate one room in the house

-We've chosen colors to paint the bedroom, and have decided on the furniture we'll get for it! So we're moving forward!

11. Plant a garden

-The plot is put in, and we bought seeds today! Now we just need to wait to May 15 so we can plant!

12. Scrapbook 50 pages

--20 done so far! And I'm going to a crop again Friday night. I may actually finish the wedding album!

Overall, I think I've done ok. Some things (like scrapbooking), I've made more progress on this year than ever before. Some things I need to keep chugging away at with baby steps and consistency. Here's to a productive rest of May for me!

Making progress...

2010-05-05T19:32:00.000-04:00

I've been making some significant progress on the baby quilt, which is good since she was born yesterday! A healthy baby girl named Chloe; mom and baby seem like they're doing well. Now I just need to get this finished up so we can take it when we visit!

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by how quickly these large blocks have come together. It felt like it took FOREVER to get the nine sets of nine nine-patches (say that nine times fast!) together, but now we're moving right along!

Off to keep working! Assisted as always by my helper kitty!

Paducah Day 4 and Assessing the Damage

2010-05-04T11:34:00.000-04:00

Saturday dawned with cloudy skies and the sad realization that today was our last day in Paducah.

We started the day out at Carson Park where we wanted to see Eleanor Burns' live show, and shop her store that they'd set up out there for the week.

First we snagged seats in the performance tent, and then we entered the wonderful land of the ....

A huge tent filled with nothing but fabric for $5 a yard. I mean, how could this be anything but wonderful and magnificent! I ended up with just a few yards of pieces that matched some thing I'd already picked up at Hancock's of Paducah. Because I clearly needed more still...

Then we wandered over the the third large tent where there were books and patterns and notions and...

Eleanor Burns herself taking pictures and signing books!

After the show and some more shopping, we headed back to Hancock's of Paducah for one last hurrah.

I found this sign funny, as it shows how many WOMEN are at this show!

With that, we braved the outdoors (it was still raining off and on-heavily at times) and went back to Fluffy the car for the long drive back to Indiana. Despite the rainy weather we made good time and were happy to get back to the cats.

And the cats were happy their humans were home! (And no, their eyes are not that creepy in real life.)

Assessing the Damage, or

Paducah: the Aftermath!

On Sunday we sorted through all of our goodies, got the Momcat's stuff packed up and ready to head back to Nebraska, and put my things away.

It doesn't look that bad when it's all just lumped in a pile...

But when we spread it out we ended up with a table of fabric:

And a table of patterns and notions:

This is all of our stuff put together. But when I counted things up, my fabric alone was 35 1/2 cut yards plus 5 charm packs and a jelly roll! I had more than the Momcat! We were sad to see the trip come to an end, but I think we have enough fabrics and ideas to keep us busy for a while!

AQS LOVE and Paducah Day 3 (Friday)!

2010-05-02T18:41:00.000-04:00

This has been a great week for me as AQS selected me and this blog as their blog of the week! I'm really honored that they chose my blog, and I'm so excited to be able to put their award button on my page! I really did have the best time at the quilt show, and have loved being able to share the adventures that Mom and I had there. You can check out the winning blog each week via their facebook page.

Thanks, AQS!

And now, back to our previously scheduled programming...

Paducah Dah 3 (Friday)

We started Friday morning with another run through Hancock's of Paducah. Well, really more of a slow waddle as we were so loaded down with fabric.

Here's the Momcat contemplating her selection. She (like me!) is going to make a Kaffe Fassett inspired diamond quilt!

It should be a stretch for both of us!

Our next stop was the National Quilt Museum-the Museum of the American Quilter's Society!

Afterwards, we headed back to the convention center where we had a nutritious lunch of strawberry shortcake. A local boy scout troop sells these every year for a fundraiser.

WE LOVE THEM!

After lunch, we finished touring the quilt show in the convention center and then headed over to the rotary civic center for more vendors and the display of WWII victory quilts.

In addition to these historic quilts, they also had some interesting sewing related propaganda from that time period.

After we'd spent more money buying fabic, we again went back to the convention center for dinner and an evening class with Klaudeen Hansen. We took a class from Klaudeen last year and had a great time, so we were eager to have a second one. This year's class was called "Diagonal Illusions."

Here's a what it looks like; this picture has four completed blocks, two of mine and two of moms, so don't mind the different colors.

It's really cool because your eye is drawn to the 16 patch in the center, and the outside four patches, but you dont' immediately see how the block is assembled.

We worked hard and had a great time.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel and crashed for the night. Next up, Paducah Day 4 (Saturday), the drive home and seeing what the damage was!

Paducah Day 2 (Thursday)

2010-04-29T09:35:00.000-04:00

Our second day in Paducah started off bright and early with a lecture by Kaffe Fassett and Lisa Lucy Prior on making and using a design wall. They demonstrated how they use a design wall to work with color and patterns in a quilt. It was really nifty to see how the fabrics work together.

Kaffe also showed us his latest knitting project in progress!

And of course I got my picture taken with both of them!

After the lecture we hit the vendors again, focusing on getting to the booth where Marie Bostwick, author of the Cobbled Court series, was signing books and had her brand new book in the series for sale. This series of books focuses on a group of women, all who end up using quilts and their friendship to get through tough times. I found her books last year when the N-boy was still very, very ill, and they really hit home with me. I started crying as soon as I met her and started talking. The poor woman!

But she was absolutely wonderful!

We grabbed some lunch and then headed back to the lecture room for her lecture:

She also introduced me to her Daughter-in-law, Molly, who is about my age. It was great to see someone there who was a younger quilter!

Following the lecture we headed downtown to do some shopping, eating and attend the Eleanor Burns show.

I think this one picture expresses exactly what happened downtown:

I need say no more. Although we also hit the AQS hurt book sale in the Finkel building, and more vendors!

For dinner we ended up at a Mexican restaurant we went to last year; we were very disappointed to hear that our absolutely FAVORITE place had closed (supposedly something about the IRS!)

Very Sad!!!

As the Momcat was taking this picture, another quilter got my attention and said, "Have you seen the storm drain yet?"

And agreed it deserved a picture. Only in Kentucky...

After dinner we hit a few more vendors before going to see Eleanor Burns Live on Stage presenting "Strip Tzzzz!" It was a great show, and we had lots of fun.

The perfect way to end the day!

Paducah Day 1!!

2010-04-27T21:03:00.000-04:00

Sadly, the second annual Mother-Daughter trip to the AQS show in Paducah has drawn to a close. The Momcat flew back home yesterday, leaving me alone with my fabric. And my rulers. And patterns. And books. And did I mention fabric?

For the moment, however, my beloved Bernina is in the shop, as it was making this very suspicious "thump thump thump" noise when I tried working on the baby quilt last night. I was nervous about taking it into a shop, but when I arrived, I found that it was run by a woman I know from quilt guild! Now I know my machine is in good hands who can fix her up and get her back to me fast!

In the meantime, I can sort through all the pictures we took, catch up on some blogging, and work on planning and cutting some projects.

On the way to Paducah (Tuesday)

We left my house at about 11:00 Tuesday morning for the six hour drive to Metropolis where we were staying the first night.

You'll note here that the car only contains our suitcases. This is for a good reason; more space for fabric!

Given our early start, and loose schedule, we decided to stop at the outlet mall we came across on the way down. It was a festive side trip, resulting in two pairs of jeans and a cute shirt (see below), sunglasses for both of us, a new polka dotted umbrella and a whole slew of goodies from Bath and Body Works.

We also found the cutest kid's ride. I did attempt to get into the car for the picture, but found I was too big.

Much too big.

We also saw the N-boy's favorite thing, the MegaBus.

I think he just likes the large and somewhat creepy picture on the back.

After a restful night, we were ready to go the next morning. Well, the Momcat had a restful night. I, on the other hand was like a small child on Christmas Eve. Well, actually like I still am on Christmas Eve.

Here I am rocking my new shirt, jeans and pink sunglasses.

Paducah Day 1 (Wednesday)

The Momcat and I had a long and fun-filled first day in Paducah!

We started the morning at Hancock's of Paducah, where we did LOTS of damage! This store had a back "room" that is really more the size of a warehouse, where they have piles of one-yard cuts for $4.98 each. Woohoo!

Our strategy is to fill the cart with things we like, and then snag a bench and go through them one by one!

Then we checked in at the Expo center and started hitting the vendors and quilt show exhibits!

I even got my picture taken with this year's Best of Show winner.

We spent the rest of the morning perusing the Merchant Mall, where the Momcat got me the most beautiful Chatelaine ever. There will be an entire post on this event. Later. When I've taken close up pictures of it!

After perusing the Merchant Mall, we had our first lecture with Libby Lehmen on organizing your studio space. It was a very interesting lecture, and made me want to give in to my desire to purchase a home labeler and then start labeling everything within site. Not just in my studio, but the whole house. I'm quite convinced we'd all benefit from this system.

I digress. Anyway, she had some nifty ideas on staying organized and staying focused, thus resulting in more productive time to work in your studio.

Here's me with Libby Lehman. As you may have noticed, I LOVE getting my picture taken with these celebrities from the quilting world!

After the lecture we hit the "marshmallow" as the new pavilion was being called. Erected to make up for some of the space lost by the closing of the Executive Inn attached to the convention center, the marshmallow housed even more vendors and the Kaffe Fassett display.

After a long and exciting day, the Momcat and I headed to Metropolis where we'd somehow managed to get a hotel room. There was a snafu with the room (smoking room=not ok for the Momcat's severe allergies), so we went to dinner while the hotel ran the de-smokilator in the room.

On the way to finding somewhere to eat in Metropolis (a failed venture, I might add, as we ended up just going back to Paducah) we did find the giant superman statue we'd heard about. Although I'm still not very clear on why it is there, it is none the less festive.

Finally we ended up at Texas Roadhouse, where I fed the Momcat a large margarita which seemed to help greatly given her frustration about the hotel situation

After stuffing ourselves silly, we went back to the hotel room and crashed!

It was a great first day.

[Although I took lots of pictures of the quilts at the show, we're not supposed to put them online. So I've substituted with the large number of pictures of me and the Momcat! To see pictures of the gorgeous quilts, check the AQS website.]

Scrapbooking with Jane!

2010-04-20T23:12:00.000-04:00

Last Friday night Jane and I went scrapbooking at our local store. They have a crop every weekend on either Friday or Saturday night. If we keep this up, I might actually manage to finish my wedding album!!!

Part of the deal is that we get snacks and drinks.

Theresa, the shop owner, always seems to have one of my favorite sodas:

Jane's working on an album for her kitty-cats. It's a 8x8 album, and it's coming together beautifully!

This is one of my favorite pages that she's done so far. This is one of her kitties-Mr. Yellow.

Here's one of the pages I got done. I finished five more! Woohoo!

Jane and I are all set to go again on April 30.

It's lots of fun and it's nice to get away from our respective DHs, not that we don't love them!

The Momcat rolled in to town on Sunday and we drove down to Paducah, KY today. Tomorrow we start at the quilt show at 8:00 am! Pictures and adventures will be forthcoming!

Baby [quilt] on Board!

2010-04-15T09:25:00.000-04:00

EVERYONE I know seems to be having babies! Three people at work, one relative, and at least three friends that I keep up with on Facebook. I'm starting to think that they're pumping some baby-inducing mixture into the air. And this doesn't even count people who have recently had babies. Sigh.

The net result of all these babies is two fold:

1. I have the baby bug. I have it bad. I want one (or five) and I want them now!

2. I get to make baby quilts! Not for everyone I know, but for enough of them that I've been keeping busy trying to get them done. If people are going to keep having this many babies, I'm going to petition for more hours in the day so I can keep up with making baby quilts!

I do think part of my problem is that I don't make "traditional" crib sized baby quilts. I want to make something that the child can use a little bit longer, thus I make quilts that are at least lap sized.

Here's the one that the Momcat and I are currently working on. We chose a pattern and the fabric over Christmas, and then she took it home to Nebraska to cut out the pieces. I'm still not quite sure this was an equal division of the labor.The pattern we're using is Clothesline Quilts by Elizabeth Hartman, shared kindly on her blog "Oh, Frannson!"

Momcat then mailed all of the pieces to me to sew together!

It's strip pieced, which does help for faster construction. (The light doesn't really do the fabrics justice here; they're quite festively pink!)

There are 81 of the nine-patch blocks, made in 9 sets of 9.

I've got 54 of them done and I just keep chugging along!

The Momcat arrives here on Sunday, as we head to Paducah for the American Quilter's Society quilt show next Tuesday. I think she'll get to sew some nine-patches herself while I'm at work on Monday!

Spring is here!

2010-04-14T09:21:00.000-04:00

We know spring is officially here when the tulips outside my office window bloom. I like to refer to these as "my" tulips, although I'm willing to share them with the rest of the building, the university and the very large flocks of visitors who seem to be touring campus an awful lot lately.

Aren't they festive!

Spring also means we had our Spring banquet for the student leadership program that I'm a co-leader for. It was lots of fun, but a little sad, too, as my good friend and other co-leader is leaving at the end of next week to move back to the east coast.

I'll miss her friendship greatly!

Despite this bittersweet aspect, the event was a huge success, and everyone seemed like they had a great time! This was the first year we had the program, so it's been a bit of a trial and error to get things to run smoothly. The best thing about last night is that the students coming into the program as new participants seemed to really get along well with the students who are continuing in the program.

This is almost the whole group; we had a few students who had to leave early for other meetings.

Looking forward to lots of fun with the students next year!

Amish country and Cherry Pie

2010-04-13T10:18:00.000-04:00

This last weekend I went along as a staff leader on a field trip for our international students to Amish country. This trip was a huge success last year, with the Amish just as excited to see the international students as the students were to see the Amish. We had a smaller group this year, but I think they all had just as much fun.

I didn't take as many pictures this year, as I've been there several times now, but I did take two at our lunch that I think demonstrate one of the best things about this field trip: the food! We went to a cheese shop, a bakery, a school house, a quilt shop that also makes homemade jams and jellies, an outdoor auction with lots of food, and a downtown shopping district that was full of old fashioned candies and quilt stores! You may have noticed that a majority of these stops included food, and therefore included lots of free samples.

These stops, however, don't include the Thresher's Lunch we had at a catering hall in an Amish home. There we had fried chicken, meat loaf, mashed potatoes, warm bread, vegetables, broccoli slaw and PIE!

Here is my piece of homemade cherry pie.

And here is the pie pan after the table of students had finished with it. Needless to say, I was tempted to lick the pie tin out, but I resisted.

This is why I've gone for two runs and two long walks in the past two days!

A good time was had by all, and it was nice to visit some quilting shops in preparation for the upcoming trip to Paducah with the Momcat for the annual AQS show! This will be our second trip there, and I've got some great surprises for Momcat that I'm working on! Hopefully I'll get everything done before she arrives on Sunday!

Adventures with Accupuncture

2010-04-09T12:41:00.000-04:00

So part of my focus for the last year or so (I think we could safely say since January 4, 2009) has been to work on finding ways to reduce my high levels of stress and anxiety. I have tried many things. Some more successful than others.

Not eating very much=not so helpful

Exercising regularly=helpful

Office drama and politics=not helpful

Trying to find ways to accept that some things are beyond my control via a variety of spiritual practices=helpful

Attending NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) support group for families=helpful

Telling the N-boy "I don't care what you think!" in my attempt to use "I" statements=not helpful

Taking time for my own hobbies=helpful

So in this vein of seeking "things that help" (a very technical process, as you can see) I volunteered to try acupuncture at a recent programming event at work that was part of a larger celebration of all things international.

This is me and one of my students, both being treated for stress.

Four little needles in our arms and one in each ear.

The jury is still out, however, on the helpfulness of said treatment. The acupuncturist said that it usually takes between six and 12 treatments before it really works. Although it was surprisingly unpainful, I'm not really inclined to get an additional set of treatments right now. But I certainly won't rule it out in the future!

Easter!

2010-04-07T22:01:00.000-04:00

Spring has been busy. I've been working on some projects, pictures forthcoming. I've been reading a lot of books, going for lots of walks in the unseasonably early warm weather and spending plenty of time with DH. It's also been busy at work, with lots of politics and drama. Followed by more drama. For an office of seven people, we seem to have an awful lot of drama.

So it was VERY nice to take a long 3 day weekend to relax and celebrate Easter with BabyBrother and the N-boy. In our family, we've stuck with the childhood traditions of all the holidays. Santa still comes with presents and stockings, we still leave out milk and cookies (or at least threaten the Momcat and Daddo that we're going to, thus making them gorge themselves on frosted goodness) and at Easter, the Easter Bunny still hides eggs.

Therefore this year, the N-boy assisted Mr. Bunny with filling the eggs.

I assisted Mr. Bunny by hiding them. Apparently I'm a bit more creative than Mr. Bunny with my hiding though. Let's just say that BabyBrther was NOT amused by the single egg hidden in my 64 drawer library card catalog.

Nonetheless, BabyBrother found all 20 eggs that Mr. Bunny hid.

Note that I know there were 20 exactly. After the year that Daddo not only hid the eggs so well that even he couldn't find them all, but also couldn't remember how many eggs he hid, there has been strictly enforced "counting of the eggs" before any hiding occurs.

BabyBrother also enjoyed his Easter basket full of candy and beer. And yes, he is 21.

Other than Easter festivities we didn't do a whole lot. I went to a couple of church services, we went to the Farmer's Market. We constantly fed BabyBrother and made sure he got lots of rest, as he's still recovering from mono.

We were sad to take him to the train on Sunday, but I think it's safe to say a festive time was had by all.

27th Birthday Bash!

2010-03-08T19:45:00.000-05:00

So I'm a bit behind, but the N-boy and I celebrated my 27th birthday back in February. This was a hard birthday for me this year, as it just reminded me that he was absent last year for that day. But we got through it and the N-boy went above and beyond to show me how much he loves me and to make sure I had a special b-day celebration!

First, he made me a cake shaped like a cupcake using the festive pan the parentals got me for the same birthday.

So pink and festive!

His most thoughtful present was a hockey puck from the tournament we went to over Christmas break. He went to the Hockey office on campus and got them to give him the puck AND to have two of my star international students sign it!!

It was a wonderful birthday, and best of all was that he was healthy and here to celebrate it with me this year!

Birthday Party!

2010-03-02T10:09:00.000-05:00

Last weekend the N-boy and I headed to my cousin's child's 3rd birthday party. I think that makes the child (little K) my second cousin? Or first cousin once removed? Hmmm...

Anyway, this year the theme was construction equipment! Little-K LOVES trucks and construction equipment of any kind.

Here's little-K and his dad opening our present! We included a festive balloon with construction trucks on it!

There was also a festive cake.

Little-K seemed to have a great time at his party.

Although we had to dry his socks off after he ran out into the snow without his boots on.

Aren't little kid socks just the cutest!

The N-boy clearly had a good time, despite comments from my uncle and cousin that he looked like one of the village people!

Well not so much here.

It was great the that N-boy was able to go with me; we both were very happy to be there to celebrate with family.

Moving into March!

2010-03-01T10:47:00.000-05:00

Well February was pretty much a bust for crafting and blogging of any kind. However, I made LOTS of progress on the health and fitness front and worked out EVERY day in February. Some days that was just a short 20 minute walk on Floyd (the treadmill!), but I'm also now onto week 6 of the c25k program! Woohoo!

I did, however, have a great time at an evening crop with one of my friends, and got three more pages done in the wedding scrapbook!

In March, though, I'd like to be a little more balanced with the things that I'm working on in 2010. So, with that in mind, here's the March list!

1. Work out for at least 1250 minutes.

2. Write 12 Blog entries.

3. Finish piecing Crown Jewel top.

4. Get John Flynn set up and practice 1 piece.

5. Write Grandpa 4 letters, write 4 other letters.

6. Read 10 books and track them.

7. Attend Mass 2 times.

8. Do Kelly's Missions each week.

9. Attend NAMI support group 2 times.

10. Decide on bedroom paint color and furniture.

11. Lay out garden on graph paper.

12. Scrapbook 5 pages

February wrap up

2010-02-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

February Goals
1. Work out 16 times: Worked out 28 times!
2. Write 10 blog entries: Only 2 here....
3. Finish piecing Crown Jewel top
4. John Flynn Practice pieces
5. Write 4 Grandpa Letters and 4 Other letters: 2 Grandpa, 2 others
6. Read 5 books and track them on the log: Done done done!
7. Attend mass 2 times: 1 time done
8. Flylady February: Shine Sink and Declutter 15 minutes a Day: Sink went very well, decluttering, still working on it
9. Attend NAMI support group 2 times: attended 1 time
10. Decide on a paint color and look at bedroom sets: Not so much... DH has been hard to pin down to go do this!!!
11. Decide on garden location and size. Done!
12. Scrapbook 5 pages: 3 done

2010 Goals
1. Run a 5k
---Sunburst 5k on June 6??
2. Post 125 blog entries: 7 done
3. Piece the following projects:
-Mystery quilt
- Teacup quilt
- Challenge quilt 2
-Valentine's Day foundation piecing: Done!
-Limeade
-Over the Rainbow
-Six more projects!!!
4. Quilt the following projects:
-Cat practice panel
-Serenity
- Freddy's quilt
-Challenge quilt 1
-Valentine's Day quilt: Done!
-Teacup quilt
5. Write Grandpa 1 time a week, and write 52 other letters to people: Grandpa-3 Other-4
6. Keep a book log of books read (I've always wanted to do this. This is the year!!) Total Read in 2010: 14
7. Attend Mass/church 25 times: 3 times
8. Control Journal/Flylady
9 Attend NAMI support group 20 times: 3 Times
10. Redecorate one room in the house
11. Plant a garden
12. Scrapbook 50 pages: 14 done

A Review of January and February Goals

2010-02-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

Well this blog is getting posted a little later than anticipated, but I figure better late than never. It's been busy here, with my new supervisor starting at work, some winter weather and my birthday!

Here's how I did in January:
January Goals:
1-Work out twelve times: 6 done
2-12 blog entries: 5 done3-Finish valentines quilt: Done!
4-John Flynn practice and cat panel
5-Write Grandpa four letters, and write four other letters: Grandpa: 1 Other: 2
6-Start the book log:Done! I'm trying an excel format in Google Docs
7-Attend Mass 2 times: 2 done
8-Revamp Control Journal and Routines
9-Attend support group 2 times: 1 done
10-Declutter the bedroom and get paint/furniture ideas: Done!
11-Step by step plan for the garden
12-Scrapbook 5 pages: 11 Done!

Here's my plan for February:

February Goals
1. Work out 16 times: 10 done!
2. Write 10 blog entries
3. Finish piecing Crown Jewel top
4. John Flynn Practice pieces
5. Write 4 Grandpa Letters and 4 Other letters
6. Read 5 books and track them on the log
7. Attend mass 2 times
8. Flylady February: Shine Sink and Declutter 15 minutes a Day
9. Attend NAMI support group 2 times
10. Decide on a paint color and look at bedroom sets
11. Decide on garden location and size.
12. Scrapbook 5 pages

2010 Goals
1. Run a 5k
---Sunburst 5k on June 6??
2. Post 125 blog entries: 5 done
3. Piece the following projects:
-Mystery quilt
- Teacup quilt
- Challenge quilt 2
-Valentine's Day foundation piecing: Done!
-Limeade
-Over the Rainbow
-Six more projects!!!
4. Quilt the following projects:
-Cat practice panel
-Serenity
- Freddy's quilt
-Challenge quilt 1
-Valentine's Day quilt: Done!
-Teacup quilt
5. Write Grandpa 1 time a week, and write 52 other letters to people: Grandpa-1 Other-2
6. Keep a book log of books read (I've always wanted to do this. This is the year!!) Total Read in 2010: 4
7. Attend Mass/church 25 times: 2 times
8. Control Journal/Flylady
9 Attend NAMI support group 20 times: 2 Times
10. Redecorate one room in the house
11. Plant a garden
12. Scrapbook 50 pages: 11 done

Valentine's Day Quilt

2010-01-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

Today I participate again in Lit and Laundry's Finished for Friday with my completed...

Valentine's Day Wall-hanging.

I started this project at a class at the Jinny Beyer studio a few years ago when I still lived out in the Washington, DC area.

The goal of the class was to learn how to do foundation piecing, as the hearts are all foundation pieced.

I pulled it from my box of UFOs to work on in January, as I thought it would be the perfect project to complete before Valentine's Day this year.

The completion of this project also had a few other firsts for me (in addition to the foundation piecing).

First, I made my first mitered corners!!! One of them with a Jinny Beyer border print! And I didn't even have to call the Momcat for back up.

Woohoo!!

Second, I did free motion quilting in the sashing, and around the design in the border.

I use plain ole stitch in the ditch for the hearts and to anchor the piece.

This is the first of hopefully many UFOs that I hope to complete this year, and a step towards one of my New Year's Resolutions!

This is also my first finish for Gran's Ten n Ten challenge.

Finished for Friday/Challenge Quilt

2010-01-08T11:34:00.000-05:00

To play along with Lit and Laundry's Finished for Friday, I proudly bring you....the Challenge Quilt!

The Momcat and I committed to this project back in April! When we went to Paducah for the American Quilter's Society Show (our first year!), we each got 10 fat quarters of the same fabric. The challenge was to use these fat quarters, plus one additional fabric to make a lap size quilt top. It had to be completed by Christmas, when we would reveal the quilts to each other!

Here's what the Momcat came up with.

She's named it "Insanity!" I really like it, and think she should be quite proud.

And here's mine.

I used an Ohio Star pattern and did random strips of the colored fabrics for the sashing.

Here's a close up where you can see that a bit better.

I can't believe how different the two quilts look! When we did the big reveal over Christmas break, I think we were both surprised at how the same fabrics could look so very different when matched with the two different fabrics and put together different. I never even thought about using a dark fabric, and the Momcat said she didn't think about using a light one.

Overall I think we were both very happy not only with how the two quilts turned out, but also with the overall process. We look forward to repeating the challenge this year, as we're going to Paducah again in April.

So what have you finished lately?

Hockey Night!

2010-01-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

Christmas Break came to an end just like I like it... with blood and violence!!

I'm talking HOCKEY of course!

The family all went into Chicago to see the Fighting Irish (Go Irish!) compete in a two day Hockey tournament.

My parents have always been huge hockey fans. They went to lots of games together when they were in graduate school, but didn't start attending again until just a few years ago. Then they started going to the University of Nebraska at Omaha games (Go Mavs!) and took the N-boy and I along with them. Since the N-boy grew up in Minnesota, a love of hockey is in his blood. BabyBrother, of course, has been brought into the hockey loving fold as well.

Daddo, Momcat and BabyBrother looking festive!

The Mavs (Mavericks) always have lots of cowbells at their games, and I have a very nice one with a picture of a bull and lots of sparkly ribbons in the team colors. The Irish also seem to be fond of cowbell, as they were handed out for free at one of the games the N-boy and I went to.

BabyBrother felt this was wrong, and stole my cowbell!

Daddo and the N-boy show a fear of being seen in the same group as us, I think.

Although really, Daddo has no room to talk. He always participates very flamboyantly when they play the YMCA song to embarrass BabyBrother.

Way to go, Daddo!!!

And last, but not least, our beloved Irish!

Who won the tournament!

Christmas Vacation Projects

2010-01-03T22:31:00.000-05:00

A busy Christmas vacation, the Momcat kept me on my toes with different projects up in my office/studio.

In addition to getting the final supplies to get several projects wrapped up and my supplies a bit better organized, we also got two projects started AND finished!

First, we turned an old bulletin board into a fabric colored French board.

We used fabric we got from the Discount Table at the LQS, magenta gross grain ribbon, an old roll of polyester batting, and brass thumb tacks. I'm super happy with the way that it turned out, and can't wait to use it! We hung it up on the wall that is directly behind the chair at my sewing machine in the little sewing nook in my office.

The second project we worked on is a baby quilt for a friend. I found the cutest little charm pack at the LSQ from the Moda line "Love U."

Following the instructions from CrazyMomQuilt's Tutorial for a coin quilt, we put it together!

It went together super fast, and we're both very happy with how it turned out. We found the blue and orange solids in my stash, so we decided to use two different fabrics since I didn't have enough of the blue. The only thing I have left to finish on the top is to sew a border of the orange fabric on both the top and the bottom.

Here's a close up of the fabric line. Aren't those owls and snails the cutest!!

Christmas Traditions

2010-01-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

My parents and baby brother came out to Indiana-land for Christmas this year, our first in the new house. One of our big family traditions is the annual sugar cookie baking and decorating on Christmas Eve. A mandatory family activity, it has become more entertaining now that all family members are old enough to consume more festive beverages.

Each person in the family has assigned tasks. The Momcat rolls out the cookie dough and supervises me and BabyBrother while we take turns cutting out shapes. In addition to the traditional cookie shapes, we also have special items such as the Christmas duck, Christmas elephant, and Christmas upper peninsula Michigan. Really these are just normal items, but we get away with making them by adding the word "Christmas" in front of them. I think we started doing them just to bug the Momcat, but now they are an engrained family tradition.

This year Daddo took the lead on adding the food coloring to the frosting.

He clearly took this assigned task very seriously.

Finally, Daddo, BabyBrother, the N-boy and I sit down to decorate the cookies. I make cute little snowmen, and happy angels and pretty Christmas tress. Daddo makes axe-murder snowmen and incandescent light bulbs. Sigh.

The only rule is that they all have to be decorated before anyone is allowed to quit.

I have pictures of the finished cookies. But I've decided that they are too disturbing and un-festive (see note above on axe murdering snowman) to post.

So instead, I will end with pictures of me and BabyBrother with our cousins son, who is the cutest little almost three year old!

Welcome 2010!!!

2010-01-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

I've always been a sucker for New Year's Resolutions, and this year is no different. The N-boy encouraged me to get them written down, as he thinks that will help me to keep them!!! So this will be a text heavy post, really put up for me to get this out there so I don't forget what I'm supposed to be doing! In the next month I'll put up pictures from our Christmas adventures and some of the projects that the Momcat helped me to finish up in 2009!!!

2010 Resolutions

1. Run a 5k

---Sunburst 5k on June 6??

2. Post 125 blog entries

3. Piece the following projects:

-Mystery quilt

- Teacup quilt

- Challenge quilt 2

-Valentine's Day foundation piecing

-Limeade

-Over the Rainbow

-Six more projects!!!

4. Quilt the following projects:

-Cat practice panel

-Serenity

- Freddy's quilt

-Challenge quilt 1

-Valentine's Day quilt

-Teacup quilt

5. Write Grandpa 1 time a week, and write 52 other letters to people

6. Keep a book log of books read (I've always wanted to do this. This is the year!!)

7. Attend Mass/church 25 times

8. Control Journal/Flylady

9 Attend NAMI support group 20 times

10. Redecorate one room in the house

11. Plant a garden

12. Scrapbook 50 pages

Each month I'll make out a list for that month with my one goal for each item.

January

1-Work out twelve times

2-12 blog entries

3-Finish piecing valentines quilt

4-John Flynn practice and cat panel

5-Write Grandpa four letters, and write four other letters

6-Start the book log

7-Attend Mass 2 times

8-Revamp Control Journal and Routines

9-Attend support group 2 times

10-Declutter the bedroom

11-Step by step plan for the garden

12-Scrapbook 5 pages

Baby Brother's College Graduation

2009-12-15T10:29:00.000-05:00

A busy week and weekend here as Baby Brother graduated from college. Congrats to him! The graduation itself was on Friday, so I took the day off work to go into Chicago to attend the ceremony and to help him pack up his stuff. He'll be storing some of his things back at our house until he moves into a new apartment to start his JOB on January 4!! Woohoo!!

Momcat and Daddo were quite proud of their little boy!

Baby brother was just happy to be done with college.

I was helpful as always.

Christmas Decorations, Advent and a Student Party

2009-12-08T19:00:00.000-05:00

A busy week here, as the semester wraps up and we celebrate the end of another successful semester. This Sunday we held a Christmas party of our new house with students from one of our new programs this year.

We had both international and domestic students over, baking and decorating Christmas cookies, drinking hot chocolate and hot apple cider and listening to Christmas music.

Some of the men also watched some football (Go Bears!)

It was a great opportunity for our international students to experience some aspects of Christmas in America-a new cultural experience for some of them. As our house is all decorated for Christmas, I 'm joining Kim over at her great blog Kim's Big Quilting Adventure for a holiday tour of my home:

The N-boy and I purchased a fresh evergreen wreath for our front door at the Farmer's Market.

It smells just heavenly every time we open the door!

Along the staircase we have the Christmas Carol Rubber Ducks-Scrooge, Marley, Tiny Tim and the three ghosts.

Christmas cards are lined up on the built in cabinet.

Our Christmas tree is in the front room in front of our window. We already have presents underneath it!!

And on our buffet table (really used to store DVDs, CDs and extra linens), we have what the N-boy refers to as the "Marriage Tree" (a wedding gift), with some shiny Christmas baubles and candles.

We decorate this sculpture for each season with appropriate things-Christmas ornaments, Easter eggs, Paper mache pumpkins, etc.

We're sticking with our current decorations for this year, and will look for things to decorate the house more next year at the after Christmas sales.

On the festive Advent front, my wonderful swap partner has been so kind to me! I've unwrapped a bag that can be used to make baked potatoes in the microwave.

I can't wait to try it out!

Cute cupcake liners. I love baking cupcakes!

And an adorable pink keychain with a sewing machine charm attached to a yoyo. So cute!!!

And on the fourth day of Advent, holidayelf gave to me....

2009-12-04T21:41:00.000-05:00

Today's Advent present is super cute! It's a little silver Chinese fortune cookie set. The cookie open up, and you can put little fortunes inside of it to give to someone! It even comes with a book of "love fortunes" that I can tear out to use.

I think I know what DH has in his future.....

One reason this is a super great gift for me is that this is one of those things that I'd see in a store, but would never buy for myself. And so I love that someone took the time to choose gifts that she'd thought I'd like, and she was right!

Jingle Jog and Advent Day 3

2009-12-03T21:05:00.000-05:00

Today we celebrated the third day of December with a luxurious bath mitt and two yummy smelling bars of special soap. I can't wait to try them out this weekend!

They fit in perfectly with the December Mission on flylady.net of pampering. Woohoo!

Tonight was also the Jingle Jog on campus. My friend E from work did this last year, and invited me to go with her this year. It's a 5k run (well, we walked it) around campus at night, with Christmas music and lights. The best part is that the students all dress up in costumes to run it. There were some super costumes, like the three magi, angels, lots of santas, and my personal favorite, a santa on the top half, with a reindeer suit that hung down from around his waist so it looked like the santa was riding it! So creative.

E and I had a great time...

And ended up with adorable T-shirts.

This was my first race EVER! I'm very proud that we did it, especially given that its is pretty cold outside. We even had a snow flurry today. I'm looking forward to more events in the spring, where I hope to be able to RUN a 5k outside.

When the N-boy picked me up from Jingle Jog and we got home, he managed to get ahold of my camera. He tends to take lots of self portraits when he has unrestricted access to the camera;

this is my favorite picture from tonight.

Raisinets!

2009-12-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

A very brief post tonight, as I've stopped home for about ten minutes before I head back to work to run a student training tonight. Today's advent gift from my wonderful swap partner....

Raisinets!

These are my favorites! I usually manage to convince myself that the raisins make them a healthy candy. Yes. And again the wrapping paper was cute Christmas fabric, with an ornament for my little tree!!!

I love Christmas!

Yay for December!

2009-12-01T19:13:00.000-05:00

Today's post marks the first of what will (hopefully) be 25 posts for the advent season! Something new I did this year was participate in an advent swap through the Christmas message board I belong to (Our Home for the Holidays). I've done a few other swaps before, but have always limited myself to the cards only swaps. This one was my first with actual gifts.

I've been a member of this Christmas board for a few years, and always enjoyed reading the posts from people participating in this particular swap. And today is only the first day of the swap, but I understand why they love it so much! First, I've had a GREAT time getting to know my swap partner. It's been so much fun to build a friendship with someone from another part of the country, especially someone who loves Christmas as much as I do. We've all been working on this swap for months now (maybe as far back as August???), and I hope that our friendship continues after this Christmas season.

The basic idea of this particular swap is that you send some kind of advent calendar (being as creative as you'd like) and then one present to open for each day between December 1 and 24th. You could choose which price range you wanted to be in, which made it a good option for those of us who are watching our pennies a bit.

So without further ado... here's the first gift I opened today!

They're two beautifully embroidered linen napkins! I can't wait to use them on our holiday table. AND my partner wrapped all of my gifts with Christmas fabric (she knows I love to sew), so I can make something with the wrapping paper! Even the N-boy was excited, and insisted on watching me open the package. Each package also has a cute little ornament that I can hang on the mini tree she sent me for the calendar!

And now for a few Thanksgiving pictures. Thanksgiving this year was also my sister-in-law-in-law (Brother in law's wife) 29th Birthday, so we celebrated with cake!

The N-boy made it from scratch, and put on all 29 candles!!!

In addition to the cake, the N-boy and I enjoyed some pie. Yay for the Holiday Season!

Baby Quilt...FINALLY FINISHED!

2009-11-22T14:07:00.001-05:00

I started this quilt as soon as we knew the couple was pregnant. That was back in February 2008. Needless to say, the baby has arrived and is now over a year old. Oops. I blame the N-boy in part, as he helped me choose the pattern. He liked this "Amish Waves" pattern, and somehow I didn't think that the triangles would be a problem. Oops. Each block is 8 finished and has 48 triangles. Teeny tiny triangles.

So here is is... I'm happy it's finished, and actually quite pleased with the way it turned out.

The N-boy also helped me choose some of the fabrics, and some of them came from my stash and from scraps I inherited from Grammy.

It's quilted in the ditch with invisible thread on the top, with an off-set black quilted square in the middle of each block.

Now it's all packaged up with a card and a letter, addressed and just waiting for the post office to open.

Yay for FINALLY getting it done!!!

Fall in Indiana

2009-11-21T17:36:00.000-05:00

Well I am ashamed that it has been two months since I have posted ANYTHING on my blog. And this is despite the Momcat asking me about when I'm going to post something pretty much every time I talk.

It's been a busy busy fall. Here are a few things that the N-boy and I have been up to:

Going to a hockey game.

Shopping at the Farmer's Market.

Raking leaves (the new house came with trees....and lots of leaves!)

Dressing up for Halloween as Captain Hammer and Dr. Horrible.

Cooking (and eating) at Cooking Club. The N-boy was delegated to the "Man Club" for this. But he still got to eat!

We dog sat for an hour at work. Isn't he cute!

I attended a conference, and am graduating from a professional development program!

Our good friends got married! Yay!

So it's been busy. I've also gotten some crafting done, including the completion of the ever elusive baby quilt! I'm taking pictures of it tonight and will post pictures tomorrow! Woohoo for getting things off my UFO list! Of course, I keep thinking of new projects I want/need to start!

A visit from the family

2009-09-28T12:54:00.000-04:00

A busy long weekend, had I. The momcat was in town for five days giving us plenty of time to cause lots of ruckus in the house. We got a lot done inside the house, and made some good progress on planning things to do outside the house in the yard. Pictures to follow this week of some of the interior decorating/organizing changes we made.

Somehow, I didn't take any pictures of the Momcat and I working our little tails off! I did, however, end up with a couple of BabyBrother who randomly showed up in town for an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. Nothing says fun at 7:00 am on a Saturday like receiving a text letting you know someone is coming to crash at your house! It was a very nice surprise, and it was good to see him.

He looks very thoughtful and intelligent here. Don't let that fool you. Just minutes before he was chasing a frisbee and then catching it while slamming face first into the ground.

Yay for BabyBrother. Come see us again anytime!

Farmer's Market, football and fun

2009-09-20T22:18:00.000-04:00

A busy busy weekend here-although I have yet to get ANY work done on the baby quilt. Shame on me!

We did, however, make it to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning where as always we purchased lots of yummy things to eat this week.

I really like that we can walk there now-it makes the whole experience that much better.

We also got our traditional breakfast from the Polish Bakery that has a booth there.

I got the Cheese Danish and the N-boy got the Custard Paczki. Yum, yum, yum!

After the visit to the Farmer's Market we walked up to campus to join some of our friends for tailgating.

At one point, a bagpiper walked by and my co-worker (who is VERY Scottish!) got him to stop and play for a bit.

It was very fun and festive-I hope we get the opportunity to tailgate again. And then it was even better that we beat Michigan State! Woohoo! Go Irish! (And that that Daddo--my parents went to Michigan State for grad school and appear to only have become big proponents of their football team since we came to Notre Dame....suspicious)

Sunday started out slow with coffee and breakfast on our back patio, along with a good book.

I'm currently reading the Calligrapher's Daughter. So far, so good.

After that peaceful start to the morning I did some major cleaning around the house and then went over to the apartment, where I finished getting everything cleaned up. The N-boy stopped by after studying and helped me finish a few things up. It feels so good to have all of our stuff out of there! The day ended with watching the Bear's game at our friends' house (same friends) and eating home made pizza.

This week-the Momcat comes for a visit! Woohoo!

Finished for Friday: Unpacking!

2009-09-17T16:52:00.000-04:00

Another Friday has arrived, and with it, Finished for Friday with threeundertwo over at Lit and Laundry. I'm always so proud when I have something to post for this event, and especially proud this week as we have finished unpacking!

I suppose in this technical sense we still do have a few random odds and ends that need to find a better/more permanent home. But I think we're at the point where I can count this as a victory. Now we just have to go back and finish cleaning the apartment and turn in our keys before we're completely done!

Although I don't have any pictures yet of the inside rooms, I thought I'd share my favorite moment of our move-in experience: the card catalog. Let's just say it was the last thing we moved in, it was very late, and it was very heavy. I've been forced to promise my coworker who helped us that I will never again purchase such heavy furniture from surplus, but will restrict myself to feather pillows and the like.

We had to take all 72 of the drawers out.

And assign two strong men to carry it.

And it was a tight fit getting through the front hall way.

But in the end we got it inside and it sure looks cute! Although we're not quite sure yet what will go inside. I'd originally wanted to put it upstairs in my craft room, but that idea was vetoed by the strong men pictured above.

Be sure to checkout the other finishes on Finished for Friday!

Operation Finish: Baby Quilt

2009-09-14T14:16:00.000-04:00

For the rest of September, I am launching what my very own "Operation Finish" for my projects. I participated in Kim's Get it Finished in August and did complete my four candle mats. But I have many many more unfinished projects. Not as many as the Momcat (Hi, Mom!), but still, I'm too young to have so many unfinished projects.

So first up...the Amish Waves baby quilt.

This is a quilt that I started working on in February 2008 when I learned a friend from graduate school was pregnant. And now that same baby is over one year old. Oops.

I think the problem started when I chose the pattern of Amish Waves. I didn't want to make a traditional "baby" quilt, but instead of choosing something interesting yet not too hard, I had to choose the insane pattern where each 8 inch block has 48 tiny triangles around a big square. Really, the N-boy helped me choose this pattern so I blame him.

For a while I actually made pretty good progress-chose the pattern, chose the fabric, cut the triangles and started making blocks. Each full block (24 of them) took about two hours to make. Plus 16 half blocks. I actually did manage to get the top pieced before we left Silver Spring, MD to move to Indiana. And in Indiana I got it sandwiched and even got most of the in-the-ditch quilting done.

I love the scrappy look in this quilt. In addition to the fabrics that the N-boy and I selected, I also used scraps that belonged to my Grammy, who, alone with the Momcat, taught me how to quilt.

And then the N-boy got sick and everything fell apart this Spring and I didn't work on ANY projects for a long time. It was...un-fun to say the least. But now that he is doing much better and I'm in the new space it's time to get this puppy finished up and on the way to what is by now a very cute looking toddler.

I took the quilt in its current state to Quilt Guild last week and got some ideas for finishing it up. I'm going to quilt a square in the middle of each block center and then "piano keys" in the border. And then it just needs a binding, label and shipping box!

Goal: Finish quilt by 9:00 p.m. on Sunday!

Getting back to the blog...

2009-09-13T15:17:00.000-04:00

Wow... I can't believe it has been so long since I have last posted. It's been very busy, moving into the new house, doing Fall Student Registration, and helping the N-boy get into his new routine for his fall schedule (which includes TA-ing!).

I've also somehow ended up with a fairly busy social life and several groups of friends! It's not like I didn't have friends before, but when we've been moving around so frequently it's been hard to get too attached to anyone when I knew we'd just be moving on soon. But here I've managed to join:

-a knitting club

- a quilt guild

-a book club

- a support group

- and now a brand new cooking club (inspired by the movie "Julie and Julia"

-and I'm taking a family education class through NAMI for the next 10 weeks.

I'm not complaining-I really enjoy being busy and having lots of people to do things I like with, but it is busy. I've also got lots of projects and crafts going on, in addition to new things we'd like to do with the house. We're also working on re-organizing how we take care of household things given our new fall schedules.

So, for today (and this is for you parents) we have pictures of the N-boy and I at closing:

A picture of me and our realtor at closing:

And Norman the Penguin on our new Sink!!!

More to follow this week as I finish unpacking my craft room and get back to work on all of my projects!

New Student Orientation....Over!!!

2009-08-23T15:19:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-14T12:40:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-08-11T08:15:00.000-04:00

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!

2009-08-07T11:29:00.000-04:00

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

2009-08-06T08:12:00.001-04:00

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

2009-08-02T15:15:00.000-04:00

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!

Harry Potter at the Museum of Science and Industry

2009-07-26T20:50:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I took a day off of work to go into Chicago with the N-boy. It's great that we live close enough to Chicago to be able to take advantage of some of the great things they have there.
This trip was to go to the Museum of Science and Industry.

We decided to take the train in; something that the N-boy has done frequently but that I'd never done. We ran the numbers for taking the train versus driving, and it turns out its about the same when you consider tolls, gas and parking. Not to mention the train was much more relaxing and we got to read and talk instead of drive in the toll road.

We got off the train just two blocks from the museum, and so we were able to walk over and get tickets to see..... the HARRY POTTER EXHIBITION!!

I was so excited! They had the Ford Anglia in the main hall way of the musuem.

We spent the morning looking around the museum before going into HP in the afternoon. We couldn't take pictures inside, but it was super cool. They had lots of the props from the movies. It was amazing to see them up close and look at all of the details they put into them. They even had a set up of Hagrid's Hut where you could sit in his chair and quaffles you could throw through Quidditch Rings. For any HP fans out there who are near enough to make it to Chicago, I would definitely recommend going.

In the farm exhibit they had an old billboard from my favorite soda,
Vernor's, a type of ginger ale.

And for the MomCat and Daddo--this one if for you. Maybe I should give you a little bit more time to clone Francine the Sheep for me.

Goldilocks and the multiple houses...

2009-07-25T18:30:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe it has been so long since I last posted. It has been super busy. And I do mean super busy. With what, you may ask?
Well I haven't made any progress on knitting the sweater....

I haven't worked on any quilts...

But instead.... the N-boy and I bought a HOUSE!

The original plan was to buy one by the end of July. Due to the N-boy's health crisis this spring, this was not an option. I was upset, but ok, the plan changed and we moved forwards. Fast forward to last week. We'd already decided that we were ready to start looking again, and so we got in touch with a friend of mine who is also a Realtor. On Monday we went to the bank to start the pre-approval procecess. On Tuesday we met with Realtor and her sister (they work together) to go over what were were looking for in a house neighborhoods we liked, etc. On Friday, we got a call from the Realtor: someone else had already made an offer on one of the houses we'd really really liked online. We panic and run over to the bank after work, begging them to give us something to use as a pre-approval letter. As we are sitting in the bank, our Realtor calls to say that the first deal had fallen through. Phew.

Saturday morning we go to look at houses. We look at about ten of them.
Some of them are nice,

some require too much work to fix up

and one had a stream, fountain and koi pond in the back yard.

Which while festive, does not fit our current needs. (This is starting to feel like a bad version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears.)

But there was also "the" house.

A three bedroom, one and half bathoom, 1456 square foot house with a basement, hardwood floors, two car garage, and nice yard. And it's super cute. By 3:00 on Saturday afternoon we'd put in an offer. By 5:30 on Sunday the sellers had accepted the offer.

Today we had the inspection, and with the exception of a few things we would like to be fixed, it was GREAT. The inspector said it was a great house.

The listing is no longer on the website and there is this beautiful sign in the yard!

We close on August 25 and are so excited! Now that things are calming down, I'll blog more this week. Anything to keep from having to pack!

Laying by the pool and The 4-H County Fair

2009-07-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

It was another busy Saturday here in Indiana-land. The day started off bright and early with a very playful kitten and on of his favorite toys:

the paper bag.

Before we adopted cats, I had no idea that they could be entertained by such simple things. I mean, this paper bag is one of his favorite toys (in line only behind the cardboard box and the hedgehog puppet). Which is great, because it means he has cheap toys, and not so great because it means that I do not have an excuse to buy the cats those cute little sparkly mice and balls and other fun things at the pet store.

However, I digress. Once the kitten had been properly entertained, we rode our bikes down to the Farmer's Market.
This week's bounty included rhubarb, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, a red onion, peppers and bacon.

Then, while the N-boy went to do his own thing (which I'm pretty sure involved proof reading a colleagues dissertation-ugh), I slathered on the sunscreen, grabbed Harry Potter (books 4 and 5) and my knitting and headed down to the pool. Where I spent three and a half glorious hours splashing in the pool and then lying in the sun, reading HP and eating cherries from my binge last week at Meijer.

A lot of cherries.

Then, we were off to the 4-H County Fair.

The N-boy recalls many county and state fairs from his childhood as he grew up in rural areas. I, however, do not recall any such adventures. When I confronted my parents about this childhood deprivation, they both insisted that I had attended both county and state fairs in Nebraska as a child. A very small child, but still, they counted that as a win for them.
At the fair there were many rides. We didn't go on any, but enjoyed watching them.
I thought this one (which I believe was called the Ring of Fire) looked nice with the flags.

We did, however, at the N-boy's insistence, play several games of Skee Ball. It was super fun, and we both had a good time. I do remember playing skee ball as a child, so I clearly was not deprived of all things fun and festive.
Look at how intense the N-boy is!

We both managed to score a 150 on our second games, winning a small package of gummi candies. Yum!

And then there were the animals. Since we were at the fair on it's final day we missed seeing the barns full of animals. I think I was ok with that for this first Indiana fair experience.
We did however get to see the...

I will not bore all of you with the dozens of pictures of animals I took. I mean, do you really want to see ten (bad) pictures of the cute little cows? No cow is that cute, even if it is a champion. However, I couldn't resist sharing this cute little goat.

And this champion turkey. What makes a champion turkey anyway?

At 7:00 they had a motocross show. Again, something that I had been deprived of as a child.
The men on their motorcycles looked very focused.

I was pleasantly surprised, albeit alarmed, at the daring displays of jumps and wheelies.
I mean, isn't this dangerous?

The N-boy wore an expression of "Well, I could do that, couldn't you?"

We wrapped up the night by walking around the midway.
They'd turned all of the lights on when it started getting dark, and it really was quite beautiful.

We ended the evening with one last dessert-tropical snow (also known as Italian ice). We used to eat these occasionally when we lived in Lawrence, KS, so it was a nice treat to have them again. They were a nice refreshing way to end the night out.

Once we got home it was pretty much straight into bed, as it was quite late. There, we found the other cat waiting for us. Or more accurately, we found Catcat stretched out to her full length on the bed, wondering why these silly humans were interupting her nap time.

We had a great and very full Saturday. Today has been a much quieter day, with sleeping in, some chores and cleaning, and several episodes of The Wire on DVD. It was a wonderful weekend, althought I would have liked to get some more crafting done. It's just so hard to want to stay inside and work at my sewing machine when it's gorgeous outside.

Finished for Friday: Harry Potter Books 1-3

2009-07-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

This week I'm participating in Finished for Friday hosted by threeundertwo over at her wonderful blog Lit and Laundry. This week...Harry Potter!

For those of you who are completely oblivious to all things Harry Potter, the movie for book six (the Half Blood Prince) is coming out next Wednesday. In preparation for this glorious day, I'm re-reading the whole series. I typically do a re-read at least once a year, and this seemed like the perfect time to do it.
So while I haven't finished the whole series yet, this week's finish is books 1-3.

I'm currently on chapter 26

of book four (the Goblet of Fire)

and hopefully will get it finished up this weekend and move onto book five (the Order of the Phoenix).

I know others out there are also doing re-reads of at least book six (threeundertwo and Daddo, for example). Daddo had better get a move on though, as he was only on page 71 last time I checked.

Be sure to check out some of the other finishes for this week!

Fourth of July Weekend

2009-07-07T11:54:00.000-04:00

For the Fourth of July weekend the N-boy and I went to visit his parents up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. As I'd mentioned in my previous post, I was nervous about this visit, due to the N-boy's getting so sick this spring (he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder-more about that in the future, when I'm ready. Let's just say it was a very rough spring here.) Well, it was a GREAT visit-perhaps one of our best trips to see them. We were able to have some good conversations out the health situation, ate some good food and saw beautiful scenery. I can't wait to go back!

Here's the front of their new house.The floor plan is eerily identical to the parsonage they moved out of!The first night there we went to eat at Applebee's up at Sturgeon Bay. Food was ok, but the view from the table was great.
Sturgeon Bay is where they build very large ships.

On Saturday we spent the whole day up in Door County. We stopped at a Piggly Wiggly along to way to get the makings for a picnic on the beach.

The N-boy insisted we get a picture of the sign.

Here is a picture of the water in Green Bay. I didn't even know there actually was a Green Bay. Look how clear the water is!We spend a lot of time just walking around some of the cute little towns in the area. Lots of them were Scandinavian themed. This one had a sod roof with goats on the top!Here is D-Mil and I in front of the goats. For the celebration that night we were invited to a cottage on Green Bay by some of D-Fil's congregation members. It was an adorable little cabin, and had a great dock, beach, and view of the bay. We had a super delicious dinner (BBQ ribs, corn, salads, desserts) and then waited for it to get dark.

The N-boy sat looking out at the Bay and relaxed.

And he watched the sun go down.

When it got dark there were HUNDREDS of (likely illegal) fireworks all along the bay. They just kept going and going. It was super nifty, especially with all of the bonfires people lit, as well. Unfortunately, all of my fireworks pictures just look like a bunch of pretty dots in the sky, so I won't make anyone suffer through those. Clearly my night time photography skills could use some improvement.

Overall, though, I think both of us had a great weekend, and I think the N-boy's family did too. Sunday was highly uneventful; we attended church, drove back to Indiana, and managed to get extremely lost in Chicago when we accidentally got off I-90 and couldn't figure out how to get onto Lake Shore. But we made it back, and even had time for me to relax by the pool for a bit. I hope everyone out there had a great holiday weekend!

Finished for Friday: Polka Dot Dress

2009-07-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

I'm joining threeundertwo over at Lit and Laundry again this week for Finished for Friday! Yesterday I took a day off work as a comp day (for leading the Taste of Chicago field trip last weekend). I went out for a bagel, read Harry Potter book 2, and worked on this dress:I'd gotten the pattern back in May at JoAnn Fabric when it was on sale for $1. I know that princess style seams look best on me, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I've made skirts before-successfully-and was hoping this would be just as easy. The N-boy picked out the fabric himself!
Here are the pattern pieces all layed out. After I took this picture I realized the fabric was folded the wrong way, so I had to take everything off, re-fold and re-pin. I'm counting this as a finish because it is put together, even though it still needs some tweaking to make it fit correctly. The Momcat has already promised to help me with this. The problem is that the arm holes are a little tight, the bust line needs a little adjustment, and it's a bit too big from the waist down. In the picture below You an kind of see the problems with the sleeves.BUT for my first attempt at sewing clothing in many years, I think it turned out ok. I'm going to try a skirt again next, to see if I can't do better with something a wee bit simpler.

The N-boy and I are heading up to his parent's for the holiday. They took a new call (ELCA) last November, and this will be the first time for me to visit them there. It will also be my first time to see them since the N-boy got sick this Spring, so I'm a bit nervous about that. His illness is definitely going to be that big elephant in the room that noone wants to talk about, but that needs to be discussed. Oh well, I'm sure it will work out ok, and it will be nice to see family.

Hope everyone out there has a wonderful holiday!

The Near Death Experience of Mr. Coffee

2009-06-30T10:29:00.000-04:00

I am, without a doubt, addicted to coffee. I don't know when I became officially addicted. I started drinking coffee my senior year in high school, but only drank it on and off throughout college. It wasn't until graduate school that I started needing it. Every single morning. My morning coffee is now affectionally referred to as Mr. Coffee and he even has his own theme song (to the tune of 'Rubber Duckie, You're the One'). Parents-I blame you for giving me the coffee addiction gene.

The N-boy used to be just as addicted to coffee, but lately he has cut back due to health reasons. Now he drinks---NONE! Oh the horrors! However, one of his "jobs" each night before bed has always been to get the coffee pot set up to come on automatically the next morning. Last night, as I was reading blogs in the other room, I hear an ominous "uh-oh" from the kitchen. The N-boy says, "The coffee pot just broke." Scarier words were never heard.

This is the piece that broke off. It's that tiny little hook that keeps the basket for the grounds latched into the whole unit. Who knew such a tiny piece of plastic could be so important Luckily, I am both resourceful and too cheap to want to buy a new coffee pot. A few strips of lab tape later and...tada! A working coffee pot. The N-boy has suggested we get some velcro to make this a more permanent solution, so we don't have to re-tape it every night. And I don't go bonkers from lack of Mr. Coffee. The coffee came out fine this morning, so until we get some velcro the tape method will work just fine. And since Daddo gave us a large quantity of very festivly colored lab tape last Christmas, we have no shortage of tape supplies.

On a somewhat less scary note, I made ginger cookies last night! I used a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. I'm happy with how they turned out, even if ginger cookies aren't a "summer" cookie.

Clearly the batter was equally as tasty!The N-boy and coworkers have given them a thumbs up, so I think the recipe is a keeper!

Knitting Needle Holder: Complete!

2009-06-29T11:47:00.000-04:00

One of my goals for this last week was to make a knitting needle holder for my friend E. E and I are in a knitting club together (amongst many other shared activities). One of the other women in the club (who is also in my quilting guild) was showing us a knitting needle holder that she'd made. E loved the holder, and kept talking about how she'd have to find or make one for herself.

Well, her birthday is conveniently coming up on July 1, so I thought, "How hard can this be? I'll make her one!" And the best part of this is that it wasn't hard at all! I Googled to find a pattern and ended up on Multicrafty's site where she has a super tutorial . Using E's favorite colors (colonial blue and fuschia pink--all from my stash, no less), I put one together! I made a few small changes to the pattern, most notably using a 3/8 inch seam allowance when sewing the outside fabric border to the top of the inside pocket, to make it easier for me to flip the fabric over and stitch in the ditch to secure.

Here's a picture of the completed holder, rolled up and tied with pretty ribbon. On the insider there are three pockets for storing knitting needles of various lenghts, and wider pockets for circular needles. A close up of the inside, with a pair of needles in the top pocket. The inside with the top piece folded down in preparation for rolling up and securing with ribbon. This folded down piece keeps the needles from slideing out the top!
All in all I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I can definetely see making more of these in the future. Although I did finish it in a day, I'm confident I could make the next one more quickly now that I've gotten the hang of it. E comes back from her vacation next week, and I hope she likes it!

Taste of Chicago

2009-06-28T20:51:00.001-04:00

Another busy weekend here in Indianaland. Saturday morning started out with a bicycle trip to the farmer's market, where a wide variety of yummy things were purchased. This week haul included swiss cheese, steak, veal bratwurst, chicken-apple sausages, peas in the shell, rhubarb, coffee, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and yellow squash. Yum!Saturday afternoon and evening the N-boy and I went to the Taste of Chicago festival as trip leaders for some of our international students. I'd never been before, but BabyBrother had attended last year and gave us some great reccommendations for things to try. For those who don't know, Taste of Chicago is a giant food festival held in Chicago each summer. Admission is free, and then you buy tickets that are then used to get food at the booths. Different foods cost different amounts, and there are "taste of" options at all of the booths too. The "taste of" options are either smaller portions of some of the regular items, or special items that are cheaper. It was pretty crowded there, and hot too. We made sure to drink plenty of water and gatorade and rest in the shade, but we saw many people being taken for medical attention.One of the items BabyBrother reccommended was corn roasted in the husk from Dominicks. Please note the presene of my new favorite pink hat and the nifty retro sunglasses they gave as the favors at the 50's themed all-staff picnic a few weeks ago. The hat came from the NAFSA conference in L.A. and it says "All we do is work." I love it!The N-boy and I had a good time together at the festival. He lived and went to school in Chicago for a while (long, long ago), so he always enjoys going back to his old haunts. It was nice to spend time doing something fun, and to get out of town for a short trip.

Finished for Friday!

2009-06-26T08:32:00.000-04:00

This week I'm joining threeundertwo at Lit and Laundry for "Finished for Friday" again. Celebrating the fact that I did indeed manage to get something finished for this week! I feel like I have so many (too many) projects going on right now, so it felt super good to finish something.

This week's finish is the scarf I made for the Momcat for Christmas. Last Christmas. I'd finished up the knitting before, but hadn't gotten around to sewing the ends in. I'd actually put the whole thing, needles and all, into a gift bag and presented it under the tree last year. Last night, while watching This Old House on PBS I sewed in the yarn ends for each little stripey section. I find it particularly satisfying that I finished a Christmas present (even a belated one) on Rudy Day, celebrated in the 25th of each month and led by CEO at Organized Christmas. Now if I can just get ahead on this coming Christmas... Merry Christmas Momcat!

Friday, the Hungry Cat-erpillar

2009-06-24T08:36:00.000-04:00

Friday the kitten has been getting himself in trouble. His mischief first came to light last Friday, when the N-boy realized that we didn't have internet. We'd had quite a few thunderstorms that day, and so we hoped that may be the problem. The N-boy put in a call to the internet company, who talked him through re-booting the router and all of the normal computer things. No go. So they said they'd send someone out to the apartment on Monday morning. We were fine over the weekend, piggybacking onto someone's wireless network.

Monday morning, the N-boy stays home and waits for the internet rescuer to arrive. He arrives and checks all of the things in the apartment. He is confused. We still have full power (or whatever full internet-ness is called) and our modem/router thingy is working just fine. Then he looks at the cord connecting the modem/router thingy to the phone jack.......

Apparently Friday-the hungry kitten- has been chewing on the cord and finally cut through the wires! We knew that he liked to gnaw on things-this is why we provide him with a large collection of cardboard boxes and a ginormous cat stand with lots of dangling ropes and mousies to chew on. Apparently that was not enough. The Internet Rescuer gives the N-boy a new cord and says he wishes all of his jobs were that easy. Following his departure, the N-boy starts to look around the apartment at the rest of the cords.

This was not restricted to the internet cord, but had spread to almost every single power cord in the apartment! Some were more damaged than others, but almost every single one had evidence of little teeth marks. The N-boy calls me at work: "Houston, we have a problem." Friday could have been seriously hurt or electrocuted, he could have started on fire, he could have started the apartment on fire, and he ruined several perfectly good cords. The N-boy calls the vets office, I start doing research online for possible solutions. After work we go out and get cable ties to corral some of the cords (like behind the TV) and bitter apple spray, which is recommended for spraying on the cords to deter pets from chewing. It's safe for them, but very unpleasant tasting (and unpleasant smelling!) We replaced the cords that were dangerously damaged and set up the cat grass chia pet to provide something else for him (and CatCat) to nibble on. CatCat has never chewed on cords (as far as we can tell), but we don't want her to start!

So far, we think it's working. We have our suspicions that Friday tried to nibble on something, as there was a small puddle of kitten vomit, which can be a result of attempted chewing on the bitter apple coated cord. We hate that it made him throw up, but this was such a serious health and safety issue that we felt we had to take such actions. We'll keep on eye on both the cat and the cords, but hope we have solved the problem. At least until Friday finds some other mischief to cause.The Culprit

Bike rides, knitting retreat and a cookout

2009-06-21T13:31:00.000-04:00

Summer has finally come to Indiana. After a week of rain and rather cooler temperatures, we have now definitely moved into the hot and mugginess that will be here for the next three months. I think the humidity is better than when we lived in DC, but still, ugh.

It's been a very busy weekend. I'm possibly having too much fun documenting stuff with the camera to put here, so sorry for the length of the post!

On Friday evening we went to a minor league baseball game, but ended up having to leave at about the fourth inning when the game got canceled due to the rain. It was fun while it lasted though, and we plan on going back again soon. Of course my camera battery was dead, so there are no pictures of this soggy event.

Yesterday we started out with a bike ride down to the farmer's market and then over to the library to get some of the books I had on hold. Here's a picture of me on Bianca the Blue Bike with a basket fool of yummy farmer's market goodies! (I hate wearing a helmet. It smashes my curls and I think I look absolutely ridiculous. However, I wear the helmet because: (1) the N-boy has a thing for helmet wearing since he's seriously crashed his bike before, (2) I want my children to wear helmets and nothing drives me battier that seeing children wearing helmets and their parents not-what kind of a message does that that send!!!, (3) I've already crashed into a fence due to my failure to break or turn properly, and (4) the Momcat reads this blog). After that I went to a knitting retreat with my knitting group! It was so much fun! I worked on learning how to make a sweater. I apparently knit very tightly, so mine will be doll sized instead of baby sized, but that's ok. I'm learning how to do lots of cool things. Here's the project so far-it's all tangly because I'm having serious problems with the two ball of yarn and the circular needles. But I'm getting it done!

We also had some drawings for great door prizes! I won a nifty pair of socks made from Alpacas!
Here are the cutest little sheep slippers that one of the other girls won!

And here is my friend E with the cutest and softest little sheep that she won!
The Alpaca and Sheep vendors were there, so I also got some pretty yarn (and at half price!). The photo really doesn't do the color's justice.
After biking back from the retreat at the end of the day, the N-boy and I decided to go for a mini cookout. We've had the little grill for a while, but had never gotten around to using it. So we loaded it up into the car and drove down to a local park where we had steak and asparagus fresh from the Farmer's Market! It was super yummy and we had a great time. The N-boy had a rough day yesterday (got a flat tire on his bike), so it was super important we try to end the day on a positive note.

Today promises to be another busy day. I'm hoping to get some more crafting done this afternoon, but we'll see how much really happens!

Home Again

2009-06-16T21:53:00.000-04:00

Well I made it back from the parent's house following a wedding, a long drive back to Indiana and a fun filled day of helping BabyBrother pack and move his stuff while he suffered from a 104 degree fever. I love BabyBrother very much, but so help me if I ever have to clean up his stuff again. He's a 20 year old boy, living with other 20 year old boys so I'm not sure what I was expecting. But, mission accomplished, everyone made it home safely, and BabyBrother has been put on antibiotics. I'm very thankful that the N-boy was well enough to come and help us. We couldn't have done it without him.

Saturday I'm going to a knitting retreat with a knitting group I'm part of here. It's the nicest group of women, and I wish I could meet with them every week. Unfortunately twice a month their meeting time directly conflicts with the NAMI Familiy Support group that I attend. It's super important to me that I go to that group, so I can only attend knitting the other two weeks.

One of my friends and coworkers and I went out to get supplies for the retreat tonight. Michael's was also having their "Stock Up Sale" so I got a whole bunch of Sugar and Cream yarn for the dishcloths that I love to make. I hope everyone is looking forward to getting these for Christmas because I'm on a roll!! Here's my fun pile of dishcloth yarn, the colors are much better in person.

It's a busy week here but hopefully I'll get some other crafting and sewing done sometime!

First bike ride...and a panda!

2009-06-10T08:12:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was my first adventure in riding my cute new bike to work and back. I'm proud to say that it went very well and most importantly...I didn't crash into anything! After my crash into the fence on Sunday (which has left a nice sized bruise that is slowly turning this lovely shade of green and yellow), I was concerned that my biking future was cursed. But it actually went very well. The N-boy very kindly biked up to work with me, and then met me to bike home just to make sure I was comfortable and didn't have any problems. I didn't ride the bike today, as I have to go pick up refreshments for a meeting over lunch. And somehow I didn't think that balancing a large tray of baklava on the back of my bike was a good idea. International educations need to be fed at meetings, so this baklava is an item of utmost importance.

I don't have any relevant pictures to share today. I did go to the knitting group and started a new project. I've moved up in the world to attempting a dishtowel instead of a dishcloth. Although I'm using the same pattern and just making it bigger, so that might be considered cheating. But I'm counting it! So instead, here is a cute panda bear from our Spring Break Trip to Washington, DC. Our students loved the zoo (and it was free!). Even though I lived in DC for over a year, I never did make it to the zoo so I was happy to have the opportunity. Mr. (Mrs?) Panda is eating a Popsicle made of apple juice and bits of fruit. Yum!

Name that Bike!!

2009-06-07T19:54:00.000-04:00

The N-boy and I had a very full and busy weekend! On Saturday we went to cheer on a friend as she set off to walk in the half marathon starting at 7:30. An early start, but DH had been bright eyed and bushy tailed (as the Momcat would say it!) since 6:00, so at least I got coffee in bed before heading out the door. Afterward we headed down to the Farmer's Market for some breakfast at the diner inside and to get sweet corn and bacon! The market here is really well established, and we really enjoy going. This week was even more fun because part of the route for the marathon runner was on the path we walk to the market, so we got to see and cheer them on, too.

Then.... we went to find me a new-to-me bike! The N-boy LOVES to bike. He goes out and does crazy long rides and runs around in construction dirt areas and basically acts like a little 12 year old boy. Sometime I'd got with him for nice, leisurely rides on the smooth, relatively flat bike path that runs behind our apartment. Much more my style. But the bikes I'd been riding were both hand me downs-one from my BabyBrother and one from the N-boy. Needless to say, neither of them fit me well. So the N-boy suggeted we stop by the local bike shop to see what they had in used bikes. He seemed to have a firm idea in mind of what he thought I'd like, even though I was skeptical.
Here she is! I know she's a "she" but I'm still working on the name. So far my favorites are Bianca and Jeanie. The bike's a robin egg blue-ish in color, with cute little fenders. the N-boy spent part of his day today getting some of the rust off with steel wool, and shining her up. This is very similar to the bike I had as a child, where you have to push backwards on the pedals to stop. I've only crashed once so far by forgetting this. Luckily that was into a fence, and NOT the fence alone the waterway we were riding on!

In addition to the basket, the one other thing I really wanted was a bell. And this one was perfect!I'm going to try biking to work on her, maybe not everyday, but when its nice and sunny outside. We went on two practice rides this weekend to make sure I knew how to go, but it's supposed to be very rainy and thunderstormy tomorrow so I'll probably have to wait until Tuesday to try it out. Needless to say, with all of the biking and walking and other random weekend stuff, I did not get very much done on my challenge quilt. I'll try and get more done this week, though, while I have the chance to pull ahead!

Finished for Friday

2009-06-05T12:42:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy today is Friday! This week just seemed to drag by to me. I'm looking forward to getting lots of crafting done this weekend, and maybe going with the N-boy to find a new-to-me bike that actually fits me!

I'm participating in "Finished for Friday" hosted by Lit and Laundry again this week. My finish is just another dishcloth. I really enjoy making them because they're small and easy to carry around with me. And they don't require a whole lot of thought! I think next I'll use the same pattern but cast on more to make it wider and try and make a bigger dishtowel with a larger skein of yarn. I just love using the Sugar n' Cream variegated cottons!

Other projects on the docket for this weekend is continued work on the secret challenge project that the Momcat and I are both doing. I keep hearing rumors that she's been staying up until 1:00 a.m. to work on hers and is pulling ahead! Well we can't have that, so I'd better get a move on it while she's off working at camp this next week. I think I'll also pull out my new John Flynn Quilting Frame and see if I can get the N-boy to help me get it set up to practice on. I'm very excited about being able/inspired/willing to finish my projects more quickly and prettily, and want to get some practice in so I can do just that. I also have a nifty dress pattern that I'd like to make that I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics back during their memorial day sale. The N-boy picked out the fabric (brown with white polka dogs), so I think he'd like to see me make it, too.

I've been feeling pretty tired this week. I'm hoping its just from the return trip from California and the jet lag. I've also been feeling like there just aren't enough hours in the day. I'm sure this is something that we ALL feel from time to time. I think in part its because I look around at all of the wonderful projects people are working on and posting out here in blogland. I feel so inspired everytime I look at these, and want to try so many new things myself. But I know I have enough UFOs and WIPs to keep me going for a while without needingn to add any brand new projects. But maybe I should try and devote a little time each week trying something new or different that inspired me. This might help keep my creativity fresh and prevent me from slipping back into the quilting/sewing/knitting/crafting duldroms that I was experiencing earlier this year. With the N-boy's health continuing to stabilize/improve, this may be a good time for me to try some new things, too. Thoughts?

Back from LA and Jet Lagged

2009-06-03T11:54:00.000-04:00

We made it back safely from LA last Friday evening. The conference was great, and it was super exciting to meet lots of people from all over the country in international education. We also got some good information from the Customs and Border, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Consular representative attending. So, woohoo!

The one thing I did NOT expect was how much I would feel the jet lag in both directions. It's only three hours! I've been to Russia many times, so I figured the itty bitty three hour time difference wouldn't have that big of an effect on me. Oops. First day in LA I feel asleep at 8:30 and woke up at 5:00 the next morning! Finally by Friday I was feeling better, right in time to come back to Indiana. Sigh. So now this week I've been super tired in the mornings, but wide awake at night. Again, I'm now feeling a little better, but I think it will take until the weekend to feel like I'm really back on schedule. And I've learned a very important lesson about not underestimating the power of jet lag.

Since I've been so tired I haven't been working on any quilting. I don't like to quilt or sew when I'm tired, becuase I just end up ripping it out again anyway. I have been working on another knitted dishcloth while watching Iron Chef American on Fancast with the N-boy each night. I'm hoping to have it finished by Friday for Lit and Laundry's hosted event.

Since I don't have any other pictures to post, her's one from the AQS show at Paduccah of me with Mariya Waters, the Best of Show Winner! I ran into her while at Hancocks of Paducah and asked if we could get a picture. She was so nice! Her winning quilt was just beautiful, although not something that I would ever want to make myself.
I'll try to get my dishcloth done soon and get it up here! And hopefully get some more work on the secret surprise challenge quilt for the Momcat challenge-don't want her getting ahead!

Leavn' on a jet plane....

2009-05-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

This will likely be my last post for a week or so, as I'm heading to LA for a conference tomorrow morning. The conference is the annual NAFSA conference for International Educators. I'm looking forward to my first national conference, and to re-connecting with the other people in the NAFSA academy with me.

It's been nice to have the N-boy home again, even if I did only get to see him for a few short days. Last night we had a nice dinner together and then he willingly came with me to JoAnn Fabrics!!! They were having a fairly decent sale for the holiday weekend, so I was able to pick up some Olfa rotary cutter blades that I needed as well as some more broadcloth for when I practice using my John Flynn Quilting frame. Simplicity patterns were also on sale so I chose a dress and a skirt pattern, and the N-boy picked out some fabric he liked for me to try making the dress with. We'll see how this goes.

Today we went to the huge yard sale at the Univeristy and found some nice clothes for super cheap, and some wood to use to build another cat stand. Then we may have accidently gone to see Star Trek. Again. Oh well. I also read the book The Lost Quilter by Jennifer Chiaverini. I liked the book; it was fun historical fiction. But I think I like some of her other books better; the more contemporary ones that are actually set at Elm Creek or people attending camp there.

I've packed two new books for the trip, and some quilt magazines that I got from the library today. I also threw in my hand sewing project that the Momcat and I started at the Jinny Beyer Studio last May, as well as my knitting. It's going to be a long flight from Chicago to LA, so I want to make sure I have plenty to do.

Hopefully I'll come back with lots of new ideas and thoughts, not too tired, and with some great progress on those two projects!!!

AQS Saturday and the Challenge Quilt Project

2009-05-17T20:51:00.000-04:00

AQS Saturday wrapped up fairly quietly. The Momcat and I checked out of the hotel and stopped by Hancock's of Paducah one final time (third time's the charm?) and again ended up having to talk each other down from the edge of the fabric abyss! Once that crisis had been averted with minimal damage to our pocketbooks, we headed back to the convention center to go through the rest of the show and the vendors! We finished up with one of the "All Star Review" sessions at 2:00. This session was probably the most disappointing part of the entire show. It was super super hot in the atrium where it was held, due primarily to the failure of the hotel to finish its renovations. It was also very crowded and not particularly well organized. I think we saw some interesting things, but this is one thing I think we'll skip next year. Especially as we had a 7 hour drive back yet, and hit rain in Chicago. But we arrived back at my apartment safely and spend Sunday sorting and organizing all of the goodies.

Here is the pile of all of our stuff! Friday (the kitten) is helping us sort it.

One of the coolest things that the Momcat and I did was to decide on a surprise challenge project! At one of the fabric stores where the fat quarters were $1.75 each, we picked up two sets of ten identical pieces of fabric. Our mission: to each make a quilt of approximately crib size, the top of which must be completed by Christmas. We were each allowed to purchase one additional piece of fabric and could seek outside consultation, but all work must be done on our own. Well the Momcat told me earlier this week that she'd gone and bought her other piece of fabric and was getting prepared to start her project! Well we couldn't have that!

So yesterday I went to Erica's to get my extra piece (and bought a few other things, too). Here's a sneak peak of what I'm working on. I can't show the whole thing until we both reveal our completed projects since the Momcat reads this blog (hi mom!).

This project is a challenge for me because I chose a pattern block to start with, but then had to figure out the size of the finished block and the math for that all by myself. (I know, life is tough. But this is a new skill for me). If all goes well I'm even thinking about adding a pieced border. I finished 10 blocks this weekend and got almost all of my fabric cut. I'm hoping to make lots of progress this week while the N-boy is out of town visiting friends. Now if I could just get the cats to cooperate a little bit more and not try to sit on my fabric/ironing board/cutting board or sewing chair things would be a bit faster. Ah, well, I can dream...