Progress

Progress is being made on the house. I know I haven’t been keeping you up to date. Sorry! I forget that you don’t get to go over daily and check on things. 🙂 Some days it seems like so much has been done….other days, nothing has changed.

We are getting ready for stucco on the outside and sheet rock on the inside. This picture is from the first day they started lath. The whole house looks this way now. (Lath is the styrofoam / chicken wire stuff you see on the outside of the house.) Anyway all the stuccoing and dry walling will be in progress next week.

It’s been one thing after another – you know – the mechanical room door was the wrong size, the framer’s wife had a baby, the inspector’s truck broke down so we had to push back inspections. Nothing terribly wrong – it just all adds up. A day here, a day there. We’re actually moving quite quickly in spite of the minor set backs. 🙂

In my spare time (you know after midnight each night…he he) I’ve been working on the kids bedrooms. All just in the idea stage for now. I’ll share as I come up with something more concrete.

House Keeping

I’m such a dork. I realize this. You don’t need to tell me. So be prepared.

“Prepare for the chance of a lifetime. Be prepared for sensational news. A shiny new era is tiptoeing nearer.”

“And where do we feature?”

“Just listen to teacher.”

(And if you, my friend, know where that is from, then you are probably right there with me, being a dork!)

So here’s the deal, sparky. (Apparently it’s a Disney night for me!) This house that we’re livin’ in has horrible tile. It is light colored and it has a texture to it that just holds the dirt. It was not clean when we moved in, and it’s never been clean since we’ve lived here. I’ve mopped and mopped. I’ve tried all sorts of products. I had given up. And then…EUREKA! I found something that will clean horribly dirty tile.

You got it! Oven cleaner!!!! Okay, now I should warn you. It is really really bad for you. So those of you that are expecting…and those of you with very very young children….don’t do this. And the rest of you, well, you should wear a mask while working with this stuff. But man, the results! **smooch** (You have to act like you’re Italian when you read that part…put your fingers to your mouth and kiss them away…you know the drill.) FINALLY clean floors! For those of you with weak stomachs….turn away now. Seriously, don’t say I didn’t warn you. And don’t judge me, either…please!

Tomorrow I will post about house progress, I promise! And I have some more great things that customers have made that I want to share with you. Oh, and of course fabric. I don’t even think I’ve mentioned Anna Maria Horner’s Garden Party, or Heather Bailey’s Pop Garden….and I have samples of the new Amy Butler line sitting on my desk. Oh -it’s almost too much for me to handle! See you soon!

Baby Head

I have so many things that I want to share with you all! So, why in the world did I pick this one? I have no idea. But here it is!

Taylor does not like being called a baby. He gets really upset. And this kid is determined to keep up with his big brother and his big sister. If they can do it, so can he! He is quite the determined little man.

So you can imagine how upset he gets when I (or anyone) tells him “no.” Oh boy! He doesn’t like it. And he makes sure you know that he is not happy. And just recently, in addition to his crying, he will look at you, with the maddest face he can make and say “Baby head.” Then turn around and run off crying.

I think it is hysterical. To him, the biggest insult is being called a baby, so it makes sense that is what he came up with to let you know how much he dislikes you. Anyway, I obviously can’t show him that I think it’s funny. That wouldn’t be good. 🙂 He gets an appropriate punishment for his mean words.

PS. This pictures isn’t of him throwing fit, obviously. That wouldn’t be nearly as cute. 🙂 This is from my parent’s house in Wyoming. He loved riding the horse!!!!

Learning to Sew

Some friends are just extra nice to have. You know, the kind of friend that helps you finish projects when you’re in over your head. The kind of friend who doesn’t mind your dirty kitchen. The kind of friend that will run to the store for you if you run out of eggs in the middle of making a cake and you have a sleeping child. My neighbor is one of those people. (And her children are close in age to my kids, which makes it nice too!) Several people God intentionally placed in my life. Of that I’m am certain. She is one of those people.

So Miss Kim has decided that she wants to learn how to sew. So…I’m helping her learn. We started out this week with several little mending projects that she wanted to finish before the kids go back to school. She is doing great! The even better news, is that her mending pile motivated me to get a bunch of my mending done at the same time! YAY! Haley has a couple of dresses that are wearable again – and a new pair of jean shorts with cute ribbons attached. Perfect for Finished Fridays…don’t you think? I don’t really have pictures to prove this. Kim’s smiling face will have to do!

Next week I’ll update you on the house and some other news as well. Have a great weekend!

Dinner and a Movie

Last night was when we went out to celebrate our anniversary. First of all, dinner. It was fine. The best part were these little dessert cups. Yummy. I had the strawberry shortcake!

Then we decided to see the new Batman movie. Gosh! I am not a movie critic, so you’ll probably want to skip my little commentary on the movie that follows. 🙂

Welcome to a world without rules.

I first must say that I am not a huge fan of these type of action thriller movies. They just don’t do much for me. And this one was super super dark. I don’t like to acknowledge in my mind that evil like this really exists. Sure, we might not have a joker running around Gothem, but there are terrorists that threaten the normalcy of our everyday life. And we can give in, or we can stand up and fight. The fight isn’t going to be easy. And, as in this film, many will end up vilifying those that are actually trying to stand up and fight. The social context of this film could not be more appropriate for the United States right now.

I will never watch the movie again. As I said before, this isn’t a place I enjoy going in my mind. But I am glad I saw it. And I do think that American’s should watch it (as they clearly already have) and hopefully more people will realize that walking away, giving up, pretending we never started down this path just isn’t going to work.

Okay, now all of that being said…I have no idea if the producer of the movie was trying to make a political or social statement…but that is what I took from it. It used to really annoy me in high school because one of my teachers always had to find a deeper meaning from every single piece of literature that was ever written. She had a tendency to over-analyze, if you asked me. Some people out there write just to write a story and not to hide a meaning inside the story. Maybe not. Maybe she was a genius and I was just a silly high school girl. So if you see this movie, and think it’s just a comic book movie…then that is fine too. I am certainly no genius!!!!

It is love

Two Lives
Two Hearts
Joined in Friendship
Joined in Love

Today is the eighth anniversary of being married to the most wonderful person! We new each other several years before getting married. (Remember, we were high school sweethearts!) My Mother-in-law says that everyone just knew we were right together. 🙂

Our wedding was fairly small. It was at a little historical chapel in Wyoming. The reception was on the lawn outside of the church. It was just perfect. Perfect music, perfect weather, perfect friends, perfect family. Everything went together just so!

This picture of us when I was very pregnant with Haley. 🙂 We now have 3 beautiful children! Sorry I tried to get a photo of our wedding, but I don’t own a scanner and taking a picture of a picture just wasn’t working. 🙂 Anyway, Happy Anniversary! I sure do love you!!!!

Creativity

Someone asked recently how I started selling fabric. It’s a long story – and I might post about that later, but the simple answer is creativity. I love being part of the creative community. I, myself, am not so creative and my time is a kinda filled up with 3 young children. But let me tell you – my customers just blow me away!!!!

I’ve already shared with you the wonderful Etsy store, Quiltville. A huge smile comes to my face when I see a message from her. I can’t wait to hear what she is up to, what ideas are swimming around her head, and what she has created. I feel so lucky to be a little part of that! So, I want to show you another amazing Quiltville creation.

She used Farmer’s Market from designer, Sandi Henderson for Michael Miller Fabrics (By the way, her Portabellopixie Patterns will be here soon!) I just love it! The way it pops! The balance of colors! It’s just beautiful!

Oh – and for those of you waiting for a fitted crib tutorial – I have great news for you and me both! One already exists from Stardust Shoes. It’s on the Michael Miller blog. Scroll down and you’ll see the list of tutorials on the right hand side. Talk about creativity being packed into one family! Joanna writes tutorials for Michael Miller and Linda has her own pattern company! (By the way, her patterns are great!)

Cute Family

So today is supposed to be my Finished Friday post. And I did finish a LOT this week. Like – moved all the furniture, shampooed carpets, cleaned the bathroom so well you could eat in there, etc. etc. etc. Hubby is scared that his wife has either been overtaken by aliens (I’m not one to clean just because) or that I’m preggo. We’ll I’m not – so don’t even think it! But clean floors don’t make very good pictures. And I didn’t get anything craft really finished (although I got some really cute embroidery designs that I’m anxious to test out!)

So instead, I will show you this cute picture of my family. And you see, you can enjoy my mom’s craftiness, since I’m sure she is the one that made this fabric covered picture frame. This may have been the year that I cut my own bangs – they look pretty short. It’s not my fault. Really, it’s not. Okay – maybe it is…but just a little! My mom had been saying time and time again “We need to cut your bangs.” Finally I decided that the job needed to get done – so I did it myself.

For those of you wondering, the house is consuming about 150% of our time. Not only have we gone to look at the progress each day (We have windows at the house. The doors are installed. Stucco starts next week.) but we’ve also started shopping for things like flooring, lighting and plumbing fixtures and more. Lots to show you! I have a huge list and maybe I’ll get to it next week. And I have some exciting news to share (I already told you…NO BABY is coming) but we have guests on their way over for dinner so I must stop here. I hope you have a terrific weekend!

Farmer’s Market

I go to the Farmer’s Market near our house often.  It is lovely.  It is my little Saturday morning get-away.  They have wonderful fruits, veggies, even meats.  And the Salsa Lady (That is what her shirt says) has some killer fruit salsas….and homemade tortilla chips.  Mmmmmmmm.  Okay – that is lovely and all but not really the topic for today.

Farmer’s Market from designer Sandi Henderson (for Michael Miller) is here!  It’s beautiful.  And it is listed on my website.    Just wanted to let you know.  Now I have to get back to my sick child.  Poor baby.

Finished Fridays

Sometimes to finish a project you need a little bit of help. And that is ok! I started this quilt about a decade ago – and it just got finished! Whew – that was a long project. 🙂 You see, I had never made a “real” quilt before. I got in my mind, that for my first quilt, I wanted to hand quilt it. Really dumb idea. I had actually hand quilted all but a couple of the squares. But then, I got married and had kids. And it sat in our closet….un-finished. So you see, I had to ask for help to get it finished.  Thankfully, Etsy had all the help I needed! Pamelaquilts, bless her heart, agreed to finish it for me. She hand quilted the remaining blocks and then machine quilted the outer sash, and even put on the binding for me.  I am looking forward to actually using it this winter and letting guests in our house enjoy it.  It’s a simple sampler quilt, but it is queen sized, and if I were dumb ambitious enough to take on a project like this again, I can tell you that it would be completely different.  Funny how our tastes evolve as our knowledge expands.   Still, it is going to be great to use!

This is my fun little idea.  Friday each week,  my goal is to share something that I’ve finished.  Sometimes it may be really small – really really small.  Some weeks it may be huge – maybe.  But if I have a goal to share a finished project with you, that will hopefully motivate me to start finishing some of my projects – and get me back to my machine a little bit.  I guess it won’t always be a sewing project – but probably most of the time.  What do you think?  Would you like to join me?   Have a great weekend!  Off to reclaim my children  – and looking forward to hugging their little bodies!