Lounging & creating!

This was my the first weekend in about two months that I didn't have company.  While I LOVE having company, especially my family, I think it is considered poor form to hang out on the computer or in the sewing room when they are here, so I haven't had much time for either sewing or blogging.  But this weekend...

The view from my porch yesterday.  It was a glorious day, warm with a nice breeze, and I stayed put out there for hours, sometimes at the cast iron cafe table, but more often lying down on one of the wicker loveseats!

I spent yesterday on my porch: snacking, reading, knitting, counting my blessings.

Then, when the sun went down, I moved down to the sewing room and got to work.  I've been working on blocks for my guild's Comfort Quilts program - they are quite easy and addicting to make.

I'm also finding these strippy flippy scrappy happy blocks quite addicting, too!  I think I'll finish this row and then add one more full column.  After that, I'm thinking a thin, orange inner border and a scrappy piano keys border.

Look at all the violets that have arrived in the mail from my Block Lotto winnings!

And finally, I never jumped on the Granny Square Quilt Block wagon, but I've been wanting to try one ever since I first saw them.  Of course, I didn't want to have to cut all those individual squares, so this was my first attempt, playing around with sewing strips together and subcutting.  I still need to tweak my process, but I think there is a Granny Square quilt in my future.

It's been a wonderful couple of creative days!  I'm linking up with Oh, Scrap! and Monday Making.

Lessons learned

I really shouldn't wait so long between blog posts.  So much happens in even just one day, that waiting almost a week means I'm bound to leave things out.  Perhaps you readers don't mind, but my blog is my online journal, so I hate to leave things out.

Anyway, last Friday's memorial service was painful, as expected.  My entire office shut down for several hours and walked over to attend together.  I armed us with "mourning tissues", made in black, but with musical notes lining the inside to honor my late friend's love of music.

the raw materials

The finished product.  I was kinda bummed that you couldn't really see the musical notes.

My tissues were almost gone by the time we left the church.  I'm going to miss him.

On Friday afternoon, Jason left for his first camping trip as a Boy Scout (as opposed to Cub Scout) - 3 days of fishing further up in the mountains.  He came back on Sunday half-frozen and reeking, but smiling from ear to ear.  Then, later on Sunday afternoon, I caught him practicing his cast in our yard. It is safe to say he is hooked! (pun intended!)

While he was gone, I had hoped to get lots of sewing done, but of course, I didn't.  Friday night I didn't feel well, and neither did Donald, so we cuddled together in my bed watching Mrs. Doubtfire on TV until we both fell asleep.  On Saturday morning, I felt better and took him to the doctor for some medicine to make him feel better, too.  Then, it was off to the Cub Scouts' annual Bike Rodeo.

Donald has the red helmet, blue sweatshirt and green bike.

Next, we delivered the baby quilt and bib to my co-worker.  Good news, Ella should be able to come home this week!!!

All washed and ready to welcome the new babe!

It'll be a while before she is big enough to wear this, but I wanted her to have it anyway.

Finally, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying crafts and food with some friends as we prepare for another friend's baby shower. By the time we got home, it was all I could do to brush my teeth and crawl into bed before falling asleep.

Sunday, we picked up Jason and drove him to the gym at the university for a shower, since I wanted to take them somewhere before heading home for the day.  After a quick lunch of Mexican, we drove out to Cabin Spring Farm where they were having a two-day sheep shearing and fiber arts celebration. What fun!  My kiddos really took to weaving.  In fact, on the way home, we stopped to buy an old picture frame from Goodwill for Donald to make his own mini loom, per his request!

I thought the peg loom was fascinating and watched for quite some time.  She was making rugs out of cut up wool clothing.  She had another basket full of "t-shirt yarn" that I was coveting!

There was wet felting...

This is going to be a gorgeous rug!

As well as a woman needle-felting, but when I found out she was from Maine, too, I got to talking and forgot about taking her photo.  She made the neatest needle-felted dolls - fairies and mermaids and all manner of creatures.  I know next to nothing about yarn and wool and what can be done with it, so it was a true learning experience for me.

I had the opportunity to fondle some alpaca fleece, too.  Oh my goodness!  I just wanted to roll around in it, it was so soft and luxurious!

But we couldn't stay forever because I start back up with the after-school program this week.  This time, it is only 4 weeks long.  I learned some valuable lessons from last time:

• limit the class size: I only have eight K-2nd graders this time - yay! 
• set realistic goals: I ordered 14" square pillow forms, and the kids are each going to design their own patchwork pillow. We are using 2" squares and designing on an 8 x 8 grid. (yes, I know that makes 12" finished pillow size, but this was the pillows will be nice and plump!)
• keep everyone's work separate: I bought 8 new, sturdy pizza boxes from a local pizzeria, and inserted a 14" square piece of batting in each.  Each child will have a box to keep their project in.  Hopefully we can be more organized this way.

Here's my sample pillow top (E for Erin, not yet quilted).

I'm going to mock up some more on paper grids for them today.  I kinda wish we had an odd number grid (7x7 or 9x9) because sometimes you want to have a center for your block, but oh well.

It's going to be a crazy work week for me this week, too, long days with a ton to do.  Two more months...only two more months. Then I'll have more time to enjoy this...

This was taken on the road to my house this weekend.  My house in the one on the left at the tree line.  I LOVE living here!  So quiet and pretty and peaceful...paradise!

Indomitable Spirit

If you read yesterday's post, you know I was feeling pretty low. Not so anymore.

First, I showed up at the karate test early and someone had found and brought my top. Yay! I'll still have to do 50 pushups at class next week, but at least all my hard work was going to pay off. The test itself wasn't perfect. I fell down doing a spinning hook kick, a kick I have done thousands of times. I sat in shock for a moment, but then jumped back up and got going again. I got kicked by the girl next to me. Ouch! I have a bruise, but I asked the instructor if we could spread out a bit, and we kept going. During knife defenses, I completely forgot one of them. My partner was gracious and told me what to do and we completed it successfully the next two times through. At board breaking time, I cleared my earlier mishaps from my mind and kicked through that thing like it was nothing - I knew I could. Triumph! Then, at the end, when we received our pre-black belts and were listening to our instructor ramble a bit before dismissing us, he told us that the theme for the Pre-Black Belt class is INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. It was like a light went on in my heart. THAT was what was lacking in me lately. Life has been hectic and stressful with a couple disappointments lately, sure, but I can't affect what happens TO me, I can only affect how I RESPOND. And I should be responding with an INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. No more loser posts, guys; I've got a new mantra!

The day just got better from there. I swung by the restaurant, and they had found my camera. Yay! I feel the need to go sew something so I can take photos! If nothing else, I can't wait for the karate studio to open back up next week so I can take a photo of the quilt I made for Master Clements.

I took the kids to the community (indoor) pool because they were have a free family fun swim for two hours. We were there for - you guessed it - two hours! Then, since it is the end of the month and I only get paid once a month and I am broker than broke, I took the kids to a restaurant in town where I had a gift certificate. We did a great job of not spending more than the gift certificate, but when we got to the register, we found out that the gift certificate was for the sister restaurant in another town. Oops! But with my indomitable spirit attitude, I told the kids we were going to be able to eat out again soon! Then off to the grocery store to pick up a few necessities, again with a gift card that I had been carrying around for a rainy day. We had fun trying to spend exactly that amount of money, and managed to just go over by 2 cents, but everyone has 2 cents in the bottom of their purse, right? Then, it was off to the drive-in movies, where I was volunteering so we could all watch both the movies for free, plus get free popcorn. If only I had gone to the right restaurant, we'd have had an entire afternoon and evening of free food and entertainment, but as it stands we did all that only spending $11.

I'm not always so poor at the end of the month, but not only did we have our huge twice annual heating bill due this month, but we also bought the home theater seating. Check it out! (and yes, I know that we STILL haven't painted down there, but I think having the furniture there will inspire me to get going on that project.)

The kids were the first to try it out. I'm pretty sure the delivery truck was still in our driveway when I took these photos.

I still haven't watched anything down there, but I have tried out 4 of the six chairs and they are COMFY! I'm gonna have to start watching more TV and movies just so I can sit down there! In fact, that's where I will likely spend a chunk of time today when I am not sewing and cleaning house a bit. Have a great Sunday, all!