Steppin' Out with my Baby...

Got a hot date in NYC tonight!! I am so excited!!!

I got myself some new shoes for the occasion!!! I will tell you all about it tomorrow!

Is This What Cabin Fever Looks Like?

When i was a little girl i loved to make lists and put my crayons in rainbow order. Now i see this orderly "thing" coming out in my children. This is what Mitchell does with every clementine that he eats. He peels it carefully, and then puts it all out in a neat tidy little row, and then after that is all done he can eat it...one slice at a time.

They also got clever with a old rope that Mitch had from my dad. Mitch tied it to his old ride on bike, then through both of his giant dump trucks.Do not be confused by the outfit, he became a train conductor...i know he looks quite a lot like a cowboy but he insisted that he was a conductor. Well, ok then!

He got Avery to be his passenger. They then promptly rode circles around my house with Mitchell calling "All Aboard" as they went, as loud as he possibly could! And for anyone that knows him well you know that that is louder than one mommy can stand. He is crazy loud!! But they are both crazy cute so i can get over it.

Fabric Find

Do you see those pretty little faces? I could not believe my eyes. I knew the minute i saw it what it was.... Heather Ross Matroyshka in lilac...and did not hesitate to buy all that the joanns had. So fellow fabric lovers...hurry and see if there is any of this at your local joanns. hurry!!! I already have my sister on the lookout for more where she lives.

Can you believe it, right along with all the other fat quarters and for the same price too!! that had to be the best part, making this my find of the year(so far). It was only 1.29 a fat quarter! i know....run!!!

As soon as i got it home i was hit with inspiration and motivation...why does that happen only at the beginning of a project not at an ending too? But here is my dilemma. I am loving this pile of fabrics. The colors are not my usual choice but i love them, so i just want to go with it and start making but this is Heather Ross i am talking about cutting up, and the rest is from my stash, likely bought at Joann's or Walmart( i know, but i can not always afford the designer, you know?)

A friend of mine once told me not to mix fabrics. By this she meant don't use the really good stuff with the cheap stuff or you might be sorry. However, if i wait to have enough other fabrics up to Heather Ross standards to go with this matroyshka fabric i may never get to making it.
HELP!! What do i do? What would you do?

Bear with me

If you are new here and did not know this already, you are about to find out in a hurry that i am a nerd...a bird nerd!! I just can't help myself.

red bellied woodpecker

photo: birdingconsultant.com

This gorgeous guy was in my backyard today. A first time appearance. I wish i had taken this picture but i was too dumbstruck to move...i did not want to scare him away. The kids and i stood there and watched him until he flew off. I was so distracted watching the feeder hoping that he would come back that i burned Avery's lunch. oops!!!

School Crafts

Crafts are probably the biggest highlight of school. i am bigtime guilty of not doing them enough, but i confess i just don't like the mess.

We had tried a new/different history curriculum at the start of the year but it just never caught on with us. It was boring and we all knew it. So as January came around I was beginning to re-evaluate what we were doing and what we were going to use. So i pulled out old faithful, Story of the World. I want to order the next book, but while we are waiting on that i went ahead and picked a lesson that we did not complete last year.

The chapter was on the rise of Christianity...and the craft project was to make mosaic crosses. What i enjoy about this book(Story of the World) is that it gives you a variety of crafts and projects to choose from that you can select based on what you have and the age of your children. Since i did not have grout and caulk and tiles lying around to make real mosaics, i went ahead and used the cardboard and pretty paper version.

I pulled out some scrabook paper scraps and the glue, scissors and cardboard and we got to creating. They had fun and did such a great job. I loved how Avery cut her pieces up into little triangles and fit them all together.

Oh homeschool, it is ever changing. that is part of the beauty and aggravation.

An Award!!!

I was flattered to see that this week Anna at Noodlehead had nominated me to be part of the list of ladies she thought should get a lemonade stand award. It is to be awarded to bloggers that show great attitude and gratitude. So thank you Anna.

Now i must admit that i do not read many blogs that are not craft or quilt related so I am going to nominate my 10 from that group(except my sister who is in the list too) . These are the rules of accepting the award.

• Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post.
• Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
• Link the nominees within your post.
• Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
• Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.
  

So drumroll please. my chosen blogging ladies are

1. Use the Loot
2. the Cutting Edge Quilt
3. Summer at Grandma's House
4. Making More with Less
5. Dee's Doodles
6. As is Proper
7. My Three Sons
8. Mountain Home Quilts
9. So Much for My Plans
10. Twin Fibers

and one more for good measure because she is awesome!

11. Works in Progress

thank you all for being such amazing inspirations and for sharing that with me and everyone else out there reading.

Come out Come out Wherever you are

This is the sight that greeted me tonight when i walked into my living room. As you can see even Mitchell has a computer/electronic devise in hand. Everyone was so intent on what they were doing.

Then i found the kids snuggled up under a quilt playing a game together on Chris' i pod. They look so cute!

Also I saw a wordle the other day on Emily's blog, so much for my plans and i thought it looked like fun so today put in my info and gave it a try. You have to click it to make it larger. They are so fun. try it yourself on their sight.

Continuing on with tonight's totally random theme.... about that title!!! This week is national blog de-lurking week...so i hear. In the case that this is true why don't you lurkers come on out of the woodwork and say hello!! Tell me where you live or what you are up to these days or anything you feel like!

**I would like to amend this to say thank you to all my regular readers who do comment. i would not blog if i did not know there were people reading my nonsense. So thank you i appreciate you all.**

Sew and Tell Friday, it's back!!

These are the only pictures of sewing projects that i made this Christmas. And right off the bat i have to admit that they almost were not photographed...that is why these pictures are so bad. i took them in a dark room right before i wrapped them to give them to their new owners. Sorry.

This first little pouch was for one of my nieces. How about that fancy fabric flea market fancy lovers? i hesitated a little when i took it out of the fabric closet, same with the wallet below, but then i told myself, "self, why do you have all this nice fabric if you are not going to use it?"...clearly i made sense to myself and so i went for it. It was the first time i did a zipper and it is not a experience i want to have again anytime soon. I needed a little husband hand holding for for this project.

This little wallet was made for my nephews girlfriend. We see her a lot while we are there visiting and i did not want to leave her out of the gift giving. After the fact i added on a snap so she could actually close it. More flea market fancy, people!!!

Last was made for my sister. It is a mini quilt/wall hanging...a teaser of sorts. See, it is all made from fabrics she chose for a quilt that i am working on making for her. I used amandajeans at crazy mom quilts...can we all pause here for a moment of silence, and mourn a little that she is no longer posting...ok so this was made with her ticker tape quilt tutorial. It was fun. I did not have time to wash this, but am sure that it will look better once it is.

I guess i work really well under pressure. I was not planning on making things this Christmas. I did not think i had the time, but at the last minute, i think the night before we left for my sisters, i sat down and made all of these plus a rice bag warmer...tutorial by v and co(oops no pictures). I am happy to say that everyone liked the gifts. Now hurry over to Amylouwho's and see what gifts everyone else made and gave this Christmas...and then tell them what a great job they did!!!

Finish Flashback

This little quilt was finished before Christmas, there just was not time to share it!

i am in love with how soft and how amazing the heather ross mendocino fabrics are. Unlike any other fabric i have ever put my hands on.

I quilted this quilt in a variety of ways...trying to make it as carefree as the fish and mermaids feel when you look at them. This required a little letting go on my part, but in the end i was so pleased. I made waves in some strips...a single wavy line in others...this oval shape that crosses back and forth...and some straight lines. Yup, a little bit of everything.

I just need to get a label on it and then i can send it off to its new little owner. I plan to do this in German since that is where she lives. however i do not speak German so i have to find a translator.

So glad to have it done.

Art Class

My sister always seems to be up for any kind of project with the kids. She might hem and haw a little bit at first but she always breaks down and lets the kids have some good messy fun. She is very brave, much braver than me. I hate a mess.

My niece got a new art easel for Christmas and i think they all did a fine job breaking it in. Avery does very modern looking art...i sometimes see quilts in her pieces. Julia is a very fine artist as well. She taped a picture of the Eiffel tower as a guide and then painted her own. She is very good right?

I love to see their faces when they are concentrating so hard on what they are doing....adorable. Mitchell says that he painted a undersea picture...with sharks and dolphins. I can not be totally sure because i was in the other room so i think i was only hearing pieces of the conversation but i thought i heard him telling some of the older kids that the sharks were eating the dolphins. Figures!

And even though it was not a finger painting project, somehow it turned into one.

I also wanted to share a short little poem Avery wrote here. She has taken a recent interest in poetry and I thought this one was so clever. Here it goes....

"New day, what a delight.
Having fun on New Year's night!"

From my Sister

I wanted to share this gift I got from my sister for Christmas. She really surprised me. This was commissioned by her and made by a fantastic silhouette artist on Etsy, Carolin. This lady visited my blog and then based the silhouette on what she found there....my quilting, i love birds(and if i was to have a pet bird i would want it to be a crow, simply because they amuse me, and they are smart...my sister told her that hence the crow), my sewing machine and best of all my kids. She searched my blog for good side views of both kids and added them to the piece. It could not be more perfect. I can not wait to get it on the wall. Thanks sister!!!

New Years Day

We went to Virginia to spend new years with my sister and her family. We all had a really fun time. The kids played lots of Wii with their cousins...there was lots of goofing around and lots of yummy food at our new years eve party. On New Years day we all went to a local park attraction near their house called Great Falls. There has recently been lots of snow so the falls were huge and roaring. The trails were a little muddy but we had a fun time anyway. The kids always love to scramble around on the rocks, and when you add puddles to this you have created a special kind of heaven for a 5 year old little boy. This collage thing is new to me, and it is so much fun, but i promise i am going to try not to over use it. :o)

I can hardly believe that one whole year has gone by. The kids have grown and changed so much...we have settled in a little more where we are living now. I have no idea what this year has in store but i am holding out hope that it is all going to be good and that we can make just what we want out of anything. I am making no resolutions this year...i don't usually. It just feels too mush like i am setting myself up for failure in the event that i don't do exactly what i had set my mind to....instead i am going to have goals. Personal goals, crafty goals, parenting goals...wife goals, house goals... all the while planning ahead for change and knowing that they are just goals and it is ok if they change with me as this year carries on and changes around me. Change is not something i have ever been good at. And more than likely i will share some of those goals in this blog as the year goes on.

Thank you to everyone who comes by and reads. It has been exciting to meet new people here as well as reconnect and keep up with old friends. Happy 2010!!!!

**this evening i stumbled on mosaic mondays...so i thought i would go ahead and link up. I know it is not monday but that seems not to be an issue. Go and check out more mosaics at Little Red House.