Me, quilting.

There are some things I'm good at. Quilting is not one of them.

I made a quilt once, before boy was born, and I swore (I really did at the time) that I would never do that again.  Nothing was straight, nothing lined up, and it wasn't all that enjoyable to me. 

Yet here I am, making a quilt again.  And again, it's for the boy.  And I can't wait for him to see it.  I can usually buy presents and hold them and not have an issue, but this one is going to be hard to keep to myself.  Well, it does need to be made first, but I'm still so excited!


The first hardest part was finding the tshirts. I started stalking consignment shops, and would have had luck if I was making one for the local university, but not so much for the O's. And yes, if you haven't figured it out, this will be an Orioles quilt. Surprise! I did ask him a while back if he had a quilt, what would he pick, and he picked the O's. So that decision was easy to make. When I couldn't find the shirts locally, I started buying them on Ebay, and had good luck there.  

The next hardest part was cutting the shirts up!  I cut the fronts from the back, and with some shirts, I used both parts as it had a number or name on the back.  I also kept the plain parts to use as extra fabric as some shirts are smaller than the 17" size the pieces will start as. 

Here is the initial layout of the shirts, but I'm sure that will change many times before they are joined.

And yes, I had a lot of help.  I'm sure this won't be the last time she sleeps here!

 

 

Honestly?

I'll be honest: some days, some weeks, I just don't feel like blogging.  And I don't feel like doing anything creative around the house, because life seems, well, bigger than that.  Like a new set of curtains or a new color of paint on the wall just doesn't matter today, and honestly, it really doesn't, does it? 

 

Well, today, and this past week, has just felt like that.  Like it's more than I would get pleasure from.  I've spent a lot of time out of town with my mom, more time on the road and just less being "productive" in the usual sense of the word. 

 

Today we (Carter and I) visited a family here in town to deliver a Thanksgiving meal to them.  I don't share this to brag about delivery of a few groceries.  I share it to remind everyone that people are without this holiday season, and they live right around the corner. Literally.  We made new friends, and plan to keep in touch.  This is a woman who is working for her family, but still can't quite make ends meet all the time.  Comparatively, we live in the lap of luxury and have more wants than needs.  Mostly, she asked us to pray for her to get through this rough time.  She believes in prayer, and we do also, so that is what we'll do.

 

The only project I am active with right now is filling some jewelry orders for Christmas presents.  More pictures will come as they are finished, but in the meantime, here are some for your viewing pleasure:

 

 I would love to see this on the wrist of a flower girl sometime soon!

 

A sweet Audrey necklace, and hopefully soon one to go with it.

This piece went to a teenager who was just diagnosed with cancer....she had a courageous attitude, and the request was just as it states: "I AM Fearless". 

And the newest design, a request from a friend: "God gave me you" with separate tags with dates. This one is mine :)

 

So today my heart is heavy a bit: The morning started with news of an unexpected loss of a friend's father who was very close to our family.  Then we visited with our new friends, shared some food, and learned how difficult life is just around the corner, for people working and trying to do the right thing and be independent.  And it's such a struggle.

And more results from cancer tests, which will mean more treatment over the next few months.

 

So at the end of the night, we share our favorite parts of the day.  Tonight, I will share my blessings:

1. I have, and can share with those that have much less
2. Thanks to Facebook, I'm even aware of my friend's loss, and can say so thousands of miles away.
3. I can keep in touch with those that mean the world to me.
4. I have discovered this gift of jewelry making, which not only feeds my soul, but connects me to people and their issues, joys and fears in their lives.
5. That my extended family will be together on Thursday and celebrate all that we do have to be thankful for.
6. For personal health, joy in my life, a room over my head and dinner on the table at night.

For all of this, I give Thanks.

 

 

thankful.....Friday!

I know....30 days posting straight went by the wayside this week, but for a good reason.  Thankful that this part of November is behind us, and better things are ahead.  I was with a family member having surgery for cancer this week, and the initial reports are good, and we pray that the final reports continue to be so.  Thankful that I could be there, and not being here was no big deal.  (Unless you missed me!).

So what's the plan today?  Hosting a (scheduled much earlier) chili dinner for 50 at our house tonight....our 5th annual!   I'm also thankful for great friends who have stepped up and helped out with most all of the food prep and planning.  All I had to do was 1) get home, 2) vacuum, and 3) heat up some chili made by others this year. 

Life is good.  Have a great weekend!

Thankful Tuesday

I've noticed on Facebook that there is a lot of "thankful" posts every day.  So at the end of a long day, I don't feel like blogging, but I can always find peace in reminding myself of my blessings.

Especially today.

Today: I am thankful for amazing doctors and nurses for taking care of my mom all day.  I am thank ful for a system of hospitals, tests, radiologists nurses, orderlies, custodians and more that make for a place where she is safe and cared for and healed. 

I am thankful for cafeteria workers that fed us, and nurses who scrounged for a granola bar to keep our stomachs at bay until we were able to get a late lunch. 

I am thankful for family.

I am thankful for cell phones that allowed us to keep in touch all day.

I am thankful for a awesome babysitter that is more like a member of the family that is waiting for my precious boy each day at the bus stop, and a husband who is doing more than his share.

We are blessed. We are lucky. We are rich.

Peaceful Tuesday,

Giveaway!

The winner (announced over at Migonishome.com is....Anne Stacy! Anne...I look forward to working with you!)

I have two treats for you today.

First, a giveaway:  you can win this design (or add the children's names of your choice) from my shop lauraGdesigns!

Second: to do so, visit www.migonishome.com ... and that is your second treat!  I read a lot of blogs, and some I like and some I love.  Jen's is one I quickly fell in love with!  You will love her beautiful home, her family, and her style.  Treat yourself and give her blog a visit!

So enter on her blog by leaving a comment, and she will tell you other ways you can add another entry.

Quick...go!  Have a great week!

Have you ever thought about writing a book?

Have you? I saw that a friend was participating in another November tradition: "National Write a Novel Month" as opposed to my National Blog Post Month.  The idea is similar though: NWANM encourages writers to write quantity over quality; just get out there and write your little heart away.  I think that NBPM is simlar: just blog each day, whether you feel like it or not, and whether you think you have something earth-shattering to write about.  Or not.  But you just keep writing something.  And next week will be hard for me to write. I'll be hanging out in a hospital and healthcare unit due to surgery and recovery of a loved one.  But I will write, even if I don't publish it. 

So this writing thing had me thinking of my writing history.  I don't like it, or didn't.  Through high school is was a chore to write papers, and college wasn't much better.  My very first paper returned in college was ungraded.  The professor said it was so bad that it didn't even deserve an F. Wow....harsh, huh?  But after receiving easy A's all through high school for my papers, (as much as I hated writing them I did get A's), he made me realize how clueless I was about writing.  And more importantly, he spent the time with me to fix it.  And I knew then how to write a college paper. 

After college, the writing was over thank goodness.  Many friends have gone on to write dissertations, and I remember saying to one how hard I would find it to write a paper of such proportions that is gets bound and printed...it's a real book.  I find that I can say anything I need to on any subject in a quite concise manner, and then I'm done.  But 100 pages? 200? 300 or more? Wow. Not me.

But then I started blogging.  My first blog was just an easy way to post pictures of the cutest little guy ever imagined, and a way for grandmas who didn''t live in our town to keep up with him.  Captions were added to pictures, and then a cute story, funny sayings, and then I would post more about our days.  For the first time, I found that I really enjoyed writing.  It was finally fun.

But I also have stories in my head. Some real, some fiction, some a combination of the two.  It's what I do at night when I can't sleep.  I create stories in my head. 

But the one book I really have a passion for, that I really hope to write one day, is one that is near to my heart.  So I think I could be a little more verbose in this subject. 

It's a book about love and loss. About fear, pain, terror, loss of hope and trust and the loss of reasons to get up in the morning.  It's about miscarriage, monthly disappointments, doctors visits and tests and surgeries and shots and drugs and money and .... getting to a point where your focus is so narrow that life is passing you by.  And you find yourself alone and deserted, mostly due to your own making.

Sound familiar? Stay tuned.  No? Stay tuned.  You might learn something anyway.

Me and Ana

Yep, I hung out with Ana White this afternoon.  Well, not the Ana in person, but I had her book open in front of me and just pretended like she was there in my shop, hammer in hand and nailing away on a new woodworking project with me.

 We started here after a quick trip to Lowe's

 

And ended up here after not too much time (and it would have been a lot less time if I could measure and actually cut straight lines. 

So....this is upside down, backwards, and not quite finished, but all will be revealed tomorrow,

 but wait you must.

 

Ana White writes a great blog at ana-white.com....check her out, you will be motivated! And you can get this easy to follow guide to making your own amazing furniture here:

 

Amazon link to my affiliate page with them: order this book and I will receive a small commission on your purchase. I only list items here that I truly enjoy and want to share.

Midnight moves: Curtains to Pillows

I used to do this a lot more than I do now, but last night was one of those nights.  I woke at midnight, and couldn't sleep.  I've been known to start painting around this time of day (using the word "day" loosely, of course), and sometimes I get a lot done.  Brad can't stand it though when he wakes up early and can't find the spoons because they were relocated in the middle of the night.

 

Last night it was curtains:

 

 

My blogging fail for not having great "befores", but taking pictures really didn't cross my mind at midnight.  This is one of the kitchen a while back, and you can get a glimpse of the curtain at this window. There were three others at our bay windows right next to it, but down they came. 

 I made these simple panels with the grossgrain ribbon loops on the top.  It was a quick way to add color to the top of windows, and I have always loved this fabric. 

 But those loops came off, stuffing went in, and the ends sewed up.  Voila! Pillow.

 

One down: three to go.  I love how they look on the sofa!

 

Have a great weekend. My prayers are with those in the northeast still fighting the effects of Sandy and the subsequent storms.

Today's odd bits of news

I have a strange obsession with closet organizing.  You'd think my closets would be uber-organized at this point, but I'm still tweaking and changing things.   Our bedroom closet is still working great with my pegboard addition.  We have so much room in there, I decided to move all hanging clothes in there since 1) there was so much space, 2) I've thrown away most of my clothes, and 3) it's right next to the laundry, so it's uber-convenient.  And no, I don't know why the word of the day is "uber".


"All" hanging clothes included Carter's shirts and jackets.  He pronounced that this was "just weird", but it was working for me.  And his closet looked like a train wreck:, so it was necessary until I found a new solution.

Enter my next obsession: coated wire shelf units.  I know, it's not the latest or the prettiest, but I have a lot of it and it works for us.

  I also have a problem with it, which is that I always seem to get it cut just 1 inch too long....which doesn't work.  Here is where wood shelving comes in handy: it can be cut down at will in my basement.  The guys at Lowe's uses this pneumatic power pair of scissors that looks like a mini-jaws of life kind of unit.  In the past, when I've mis-measured, I have to haul the shelf back to Lowe's and have them recut it.  This morning, I was just not in the mood to have a delay in my reorg plans, and I was, well, mad.

Enter my hero: I thought to try my rotary Dremel tool.  Compared to mini-jaws of life machine at Lowe's, I didn't have a ton of hope here, but it made me a believer!  And to boot: there were sparks!  That part was really, really cool, and I wish someone was here to take a picture of that.  Maybe I can re-do a photo shoot when I have help. 

But back to the point: It WORKED!  The heavy duty cutting disk went right through it!  Each cut took about 30 seconds, so it wasn't immediate, but it was a lot easier than loaded up a six foot piece of shelf and driving back to Lowe's.  Yay for Dremel, and a husband that goes to Lowe's to Christmas shop for his wife!

Like most projects here, it's still in process, but the "at this point" photo is a lot better than the before photo. 

In other odd updates here, I caught the puppy and the kitty sleeping today together on the sofa.  They were touching.  One paw was touching the fur of the other.  So sweet.  And a huge step for them....to actually be touching and the feline one not growling.

Odd update #3: I had an amazing slice of pizza today at a local place called Slice at Barracks Road. Yum yum.  Give it a try if you're local.  Check it out here: Slice Charlottesville

Odd unrelated update #4: I'm excited to share some new jewelry designs soon!  I have, in my hand, an official trademark agreement with UVA for some official 'Hoos and UVA designs...stay tuned!

30 days of blogging: Day 8 of 30. 

The shopping trifecta:

I hate to shop anymore.  Except for shoes. Shoes always fit.   After a frustrating but necessary must-have-one-pair-of-jeans-I-can-button type of morning, I was done.

But this afternoon, I realized I had enjoyed the shopping trifecta of perfection. 

1) Goodwill. Always an adventure, and dropping off (instead of bringing home) stuff from the house is always fulfilling and exciting to me.

2) Lowe's. Sigh. Love that store.

3) JoAnn Fabric.  Another winner: fabric and craft supplies always, always fit, unlike jeans.  More fabric, more beading supplies.

*sigh*  I wish all shopping trips could be that enjoyable!

Yes!

Too busy to post....must read.  See you tomorrow.  Between this and the new Ana White book I bought last week and planning all the new furniture I want to build, I need to go......

Free day!

Today was a free day off of school...yay!  Because of the threat of the hurricane, last weekend was a 5-day weekend, and this weekend ends up being a 4 day weekend.  We could get used to this!

Today's choice: to go to the pottery paint place.  First, we needed financing:

 We gathered all of our change and headed to the coin counter...cha-ching!

 Carter's choice was a football helmet bank....all ready to start collecting for our next day of fun!

We worked really hard for a long time.  I find sitting and painting to be so relaxing and mellow.  
Now to wait a week and see how our treasures turn out...that's as much fun as the painting!

Sunday surfing

I like my green sofa. And loveseat. And ottomans.  It's just that I wish I didn't have so much green.  I knew what I was doing when I bought them, sort of.  I was tired of having mismatched pieces, so I went with all one color.  Even the saleslady questioned me, but I wanted a plain palette to start with.

So now, what do I do with it?

I've though green and orangeish-red, or green and bluish?

Eclectic Living Room designThis one is lovely with greens, browns and a touc of orangish something, from www.shipmandesign.com

Eclectic Living Room design by New York Architect Incorporated

This is fun too, adding in the touch of blue in the rug as well as other bold colors on in the artwork, even adding in a newtral gray chair and pillows.  

Modern Family Room design by San Francisco Interior Designer Cecile Lozano Interiors

 Here the green in on the walls and accents, leaving the rest of the room in the browns, but interspersed with oranges, reds and other brights colors.

Modern Living Room design by San Francisco Architect 450 Architects, Inc.

Maybe I'm over thinking it: Here is green with orange and yellow and reds just all thrown in together....looks fun and inviting, doesn't it?

My boring green living room is going to get a pop of colors of some sort; whether it's the blue/green thing or the livelier blue/orange/yellow thing, I'm not sure yet.

So here is "WOW...Orange! Which would have to be toned down with something....

This is cute and lower energy....

Or these two together for a real Pop-Bang-zowie Batman style. 

All fabric swatches were taken from Fabrics.com, a lovely place to surf patterns late at night.

OOoooohhh....just found this lovely!

I don't want flowers or floraly, but those two just speak to me!  How lovely.  Yum.

So what will it be? I don't know yet, but will keep you posted.  Now off to drool over some new rugs.

A pup and a coon pup.

Just when you think there won't be anything to blog about.... The pup and I went on a normal walk this morning on the trails behind our house. It was such a peaceful fall morning, and we didn't even run across a lot of people or other pups.

  Just about when we were home, Nichole staring barking at a tree like a madpuppy. It was different than her sniffing out deer or squirrels, and I just had a feeling she had a kitty trapped up a tree. So down the hill, across the crik, and up a pretty steep slope I went, slipping on dry leaves all the way. I was winded at the top, and she was barking in her high-pitched way she does when she's excited. Very excited.

  I was trying to get an eye on the issue when I saw a snout and eyes....definitely not a kitty. At this point, I'm behind a house where the owner was bitten this summer by a rabid fox, so I was a tad worried at this point. It wasn't a fox, but a baby racoon. I was still worried. I kept an eye on it and tried to get a feel for its health, or any signs or rabies. It didn't look sick, just scared to death. The poor little thing wasn't moving a muscle, but it was simultaneously keeping an eye out on me and the pup, who was still barking to break the bank. The coon wasn't moving. I think it was literally going to die from a heart attack soon it was so scared.

  I tried to get near Nichole, but as I moved around the coon in a circle, she carefully stayed a complete half-circle away from me. I was at six o'clock, she'd moved to 12. I'd slowly moved around, and she's stay completely away from me. We had this dance for a while. I finally called the dear husband for some advice. His thoughts? "You'll need to catch the dog." Oh thanks...that is really helpful! I wish I had thought of that! Ten minutes later I called back, saying he'd need to come and help out, because the thoughtful advice (me catching the dog) wasn't working out too well. And no, the raccoon still hadn't budged a muscle.

  I have no idea how long we did this dance. Finally, Nichole let down a bit and I was able to snag her and leash her, and we walked home.

  I'm thinking the poor raccoon is still frozen in fear in its spot.

  Nichole is very proud of herself.

  Mom has a headache.

Day two: Thankful for:.....

In addition to NatBloPoMo, I've seen a lot of posts on gratitude. 

Today, I am thankful for something that is no longer with us, more specifically, no longer with Carter: His nasty, sickly tonsils.

For years, he has missed so many days of school with ear infections, fevers, strep, and on and on.  One year we added in there 2 weeks of H1N1 to just bump up the days he missed school. 

Finally, last February, I pushed and insisted we see an ENT doctor because I was ready to get those things out of there.  After telling the ENT his sick schedule for the past few years, and before she even examined him, looked at me and said "You do realize those tonsils are coming out, right?".  I was nervous for him, but also so relieved.  After surgery, she told me that they were sick tonsils, full of scar tissue and disease.  YES!  That is SO what I wanted to hear now that they were out!

So for this 1st 9 weeks of school: zero sick days.  Last year, same time period? He had already missed 6 days, and would miss more than that each period through the rest of the year.

So gratitude today is for great doctors, healthcare and the absence of sickness in my boy's throat. 

And moms?  Trust your intuition.  He wasn't the sickest boy in the doctor's office, and they weren't convinced that we were ready for the surgery. And of course, surgery is serious business.  I just knew in my gut that it was time and they needed to come out, and come out now.  Once I hit that point, I was a mom on a mission, and am so glad I was.  Trust your gut.

It's NatBloPoMo!

Woo-hoo! It's National Blog Posting Month, where bloggers try to post every day for the month of November.
  My Australian friend challenged me to join her, so here I am. I have no idea what I'll post for an entire 30 days non-stop, but am up for the challenge. I hope to not bore you. Today is about recovery.....from an excitement filled night of friends, candy, pizza, trick-or-treating and staying up way past bedtime. It was all worth it!

So what's on my mind today? Ponies.  Chincoteague and Assateague Island were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and I'm happy to read that they are safe and sound following the storm.  You can read more about their update here on their Facebook page.

So here we go: Day 1 is under wraps! Visit my friend from down under at www.emzeegee@blogspot.com to find out about pastry, triplets and get a few laughs along the way.

Happy November!