Happy Weekend!

Even though it's over :)  I'm thrilled because I got everything on my chore list done!  I rarely say that.  Like, ever.  Then I got more done.  AND I even had me time today!

Because I had me time I decided to work on my Dad's MSU quilt.  Technically, that was on my list too, but I count it as "me" time because it's sewing :)

See the mess I made?  It was fabulous.  I'm going to get back to it shortly, but I thought I'd share my world with you!

I cleaned that aquarium this weekend too!  My fish are much happier..

Wanna see what else I did?

 

Our fantastic sea world bathroom has been transformed into one that anyone can use!  And by anyone, I mostly mean adults.  And by that, I really mean no one since we rarely have stay-over visitors.  I fixed the hole under the window, painted it tan, and added a towel ring.  Then I had to clean it.  Ugh.

 

 

 Do you remember the horrible pink room?  Probably not, I don't know if I've ever actually told you about it... but you can see it here.  Well now it's yellow!  We had extra paint from our master, and because it came out waaaaaaay to bright yellow we mixed it with white to tone it down.  It gave us a lot of leftovers.  So I fixed the hole in this room, then painted everything.  The ceiling, walls, closet (which was also pink...) baseboards, trim, and doors.  I was so tired of painting.  Then I assembled a bed out of the bunk beds my parents brought over a couple weekends ago with the assistance of a ladder.  Richard was home but he was working, as usual, so instead of bothering him I propped up one support on a ladder so I could bolt it to the headboard.  Then I had to get a mini scaffold we had to hold up that side while I bolted the other one with the ladder technique.  I was pretty stoked about my ingenuity.  And that Richard had no idea what in the world I was doing up there.  He is pretty proud of what I got done!  We don't have any twin stuff so I bought some sheets at target and ordered a mattress pad and comforter today from kohls.  I'd like to make a quilt for it.... someday...

I also de-strawberried my flowerbed.  I planted 2 strawberry plants from a co-worker last year and they literally took over everything.  See the bigger flower bed?  Every bare patch was covered with strawberries.  I transplanted a lot of them to this little area between our air conditioner and our patio.  I'm hoping they are going to be quarantined there, but who knows.  They have a mind of their own.  There are still some remaining strawberry plants in the flowers because I found the praying mantis again and I didn't want to disturb it too much.  I think he/she liked my forest of strawberries.

I also made raspberry jam and sauce this weekend!  I haven't tried it yet, but it smelled delicious :)  Next weekend I'm going to can applesauce!

Anyways!  Back to sewing.  I think next weekend I'm going to lay out my quilt again to see the progress.  Stacks of blocks just don't o it for me :)  I'll show you if I'm as productive next weekend as I was this weekend!

Have a lovely week!

Tula Pink? You know you want some!

Mama Spark is hosting a Tula Pink fabric swap that I'm going to play along in.  28 people swapping 28, 10" squares- and there are plenty of openings if you want some Tula Pink variety in your life.  I'm using Little Bits from The Birds & The Bees.

cute, right?

I also bought some coordinating fabric from this line, just in case there are not too many.  Better to hedge my bets I thought- plus it got me to free shipping and more is better than less :)

If you like Tula Pink, play with us!  You need 2 yards for 28 10" blocks and the deadline is Oct 31.  You can find all of the information about it here.  Check under "Sign up for the swap" under discussions, review the rules and if it sounds good to you use the handy-dandy form to sign up.  Mama Spark will post your name in the list.  Review the fabrics, pick one and post a photo of it!

I'm excited to see what lines pop up!

Hope you're having a lovely afternoon!!

Lifestyle change!

A while back I decided it was time for a lifestyle change since I was tired of being out of shape, and let's face it- diets don't work.  Like everyone else, I had been steadily gaining weight since college and when I saw my weight on the scale this summer I was mortified.  Hence, lifestyle change. 

I got this app on my phone called MyFitnessPal which allowed me to set a weight loss goal, track my foods, and input my exercises.  I used it more as a learning tool to see what I was actually eating and how much activity I was getting a day.  Brutal.  I logged my foods for about 3 weeks until I was learning what I should be eating and how much I should be running.  So far I've lost 8 pounds!  It is all from areas which are unseen to the general public, but I'm much happier with what the scale says.

Now I'm not counting calories but I am much more aware of what I intake and how often.  It also helps that I've essentially made healthy snack options as the only ones available in the house.  Now- don't get me wrong, I still eat chocolate, but I don't crave it nearly so much since I've stopped eating so many sweets.  It's like once you eat one, your body wants more!  Solution?  Stop eating them apparently and your body wants things like grapes instead.  Weird.  I also started running again so I feel much better about eating a piece of pie after I've had a good 45 minute run :)

Anywho!  I've been pretty busy with household stuff still, but life is showing signs of returning to normal.  Remember how I was destroying our upstairs while Richard was away for so long at work?  Well I've finally started putting it back together!  Pictures to come...  And now we have CURTAINS in the living room!  Apparently all I needed to do was go to TJ Maxx and buy tension shower rods and curtain panels.  Plus a bunch of other stuff, like a calphalon stockpot for $50!  Real curtain rods for this size: $40-60 each.  Tension shower rods: $15.  Perfect.



Richard won't let me go shopping alone anymore

I really need to finish my MSU quilt for my dad for Christmas so I pulled that back out this weekend.  I seem to have gotten bored with it and I found that brainstorming quilting patterns for it has given me a little more push to work on it.  Do you have any ideas?  It is essentially a giant block S.  I'm not sure I have enough green fabric for the strips so I may be on a hunt for more green soon...
While I've been busy, Annie just follows me around causing trouble.  Or if she is really bored by my activities, she finds a nice pile of blankets to snooze on. 



Yes, those are my clean shorts Anniekins.



Hopefully this weekend I will have some progress to display!  I hope you're all having a good day!

My most recent fabric find

was at a little shop south of St. Clair, MI a couple weeks ago now. 

I have a window in our master bathroom that I have been looking for curtains for all summer.  It is a really odd size:  60"w x 40"tall.  I finally gave up and started looking for fabric to make my own, and I found this lovely leafy fabric.  Yummy :)  I also couldn't pass up the green leaves or the red plaid ($3/yd! What a steal!).  I'm hoping to make them sometime this month.

This weekend has been the first weekend home I have had in I don't even know how long.  I tell you, I almost kissed my kitchen floor Tuesday when we got back.  There has been so much I haven't done around here so I've been running around non-stop trying to get some things done.  I went outside to plant some flowers I've had for probably a month and I saw my morning glories went on steroids since I've been away! (They are hiding my rain barrel)

While I was gone Richard also bought me two sets of these!

 

I love glass tupperware.  Well, I guess it's not really tupperware, but you get the idea.  I don't like microwaving plastics and I've been trying to find leak proof alternatives for our lunches so when DH saw these on sale he bought them for me :)  He thought about giving them to me for XMas and I was soooo happy he didn't because they are so useful!  Then I had to reorganize my cabinets in my kitchen.  They were not pretty, but I really only have one and a half before pics.

Before

After

After- Tupperware Cabinet!

I love my lid buckets.  Before all of the lids were in a massive heap on the middle shelf.  We had many fall outs.

 

Last weekend we also went to Mackinac Island.  I've never been there before and it was a really good excuse to get away from family and attempt to spend time with Richard.  I'll post pics later- you need to see this hat I got!

 

Yesterday I started painting another spare room upstairs because my parents are stopping by today to drop off a bunk bed they don't want anymore.  I didn't get as far as I wanted to yesterday because Richard's mom came by to be entertained for a while, so that put me back a few hours.  I'm hoping next weekend we will finally be alone and maybe I'll get some sewing done!  My next goal is to border my sliced apples!

 

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend!

I couldn't ask for a better getaway

I'm at the Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron.  It is just lovely.  Technically, I am here for work, but I really couldn't ask for a better getaway right now. 

As some of you know, I'm a fisheries technician and I work on the Huron-Erie Corridor (corridor that connects the waters of Lake Huron and Lake Erie) for a restoration initiative.  Today I am shuttling important people around for a celebration and boat ride tour of the corridor and I got to stay here last night (into this morning).

Being close to the water and watching the sunrise from my balcony is bringing me and indescribable amount of comfort and at the same time it is so beautiful I want to weep for it.  I have to leave in about an hour and a half to meet up with the boat crew, but for now I'm basking in the early morning sun.

This afternoon I'm planning on hitting a quilt shop between my shuttle driver duties; River Place Quilt and Sew, north of Algonac.  I'm really excited about it and I'll show you what I take away.  There is a shop here near Port Huron but the hours are not conducive for a visit.  Maybe another time!

My Grandma A passed away this Saturday morning.  It was early and my aunt and I were sitting with her.  It was very difficult and even though she went very peacefully I was terrified and devastated.  I am extremely happy she didn't go alone.  On Sunday my cousin and sister made a photo board for her funeral.  It turned out really well- we had lots of old photos and lots of family photos to choose from.  She was a beautiful lady, even at 90 :)

At my wedding last year (this is my favorite!)

She was one special lady and I'm glad I was able to spend the time I had with her as my grandma.  Richard (DH) still has all of his grandparents and now I'm forcing him to visit more.  He invited his grandpa over this weekend while I was away to play cards and his grandpa said to him "That was fun, I really needed that."  He better keep it up :)  I wish that I was able to see my set more over the past year and a half and I regret not traveling home more often.  I am happy that I made her a priority visit though when I was home. 

Enough with the heavy! I'm off to enjoy my morning and relish the georgeous view.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

My Third Finish

I finished my third quilt yesterday in record time for my usual snails pace.  As you know, just over a month ago my Grandma A had a stroke that put her in the hospital and on a long road for recovery and I wanted to make her a quilt.  Unfortunately, the day before my Grandma was going to be released from rehab she had another stroke which she hasn't been able to recover from.

I was so disappointed and frustrated because I still needed to hand stitch the binding and since it was a surprise she didn't even know about it.  I am very happy with how it came out and I know she would have loved it.  I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.  I may have a photo of us put on fabric and turn it into a label for the backing and hang it in my sewing room.

I will probably make another one like this sometime, but I can't decide if I need a break from quilting or not.  I really need to start again on the MSU quilt for my dad for XMas, but I am just so drained I'm not sure if I have the energy.  My Gma is being sent home from the hospital tomorrow or Tuesday and we will be doing hospice like care until her time comes, so until then you may not see or hear too much from me. 

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!

Oh my goodness, where have I been?!

WOW.  I actually had to read my own blog to know what the last thing was I told you all.  That was interesting.  I have been crazy busy (since when are we not?) with my Grandma A, work, and getting together the latest quilt.  I have been busting my hump on my Gma A's quilt in attempts to get it to her but I'm not sure I will make it in time.  She was scheduled to be released from the rehab facility today (insurance ran out) but was readmitted into the Neuro ICU on Monday morning.  As of yesterday, she was lucid only very rarely.  It nearly killed me to hear it, especially since we just lost my Grandma H a couple of months ago.  I'm going to go up again tomorrow and hopefully it spurs some goodness.  Usually when I see her she gets very excited and does better.  I have no idea why, maybe the brain is sparked to work more?  I don't know, but it sure is a roller coaster.

This weekend I was able to make the quilt back, baste, quilt, and start binding the quilt. I don't have pictures of what it is at this point- but here are some from before I quilted it.

The quilt is about 46" wide and the fabric I picked was about 42" {for the direction I wanted} after selvage so I made a 4" HST block for the back to mirror the diamond in the front and added the 4" red strip.  I really like it.  When I was basting it I stuck a pin through the center of the diamond on the backing so I knew where to center the quilt.  It worked really well and it made me happy that I was clever enough to think of it, which then made me laugh because it isn't revolutionary at all :)

I thought that I had a close up pic of the birds but I can't seem to find it.  The fabric says things like "friends," "faith", "support", "love", "hope", "family", and "courage."  I bought it from creative quilt kits with the rest of the red and pink fabrics because it seems perfect for her situation.  We need her to get better!

In other news, I finally sent my friend her ugly cat coasters.  I sent them out on Saturday so hopefully she has them by now.  I think she may be out doing field work so she may not actually have seen them yet, but I hope she does soon!

I was going to baste and bind them with the cute pink fabric I bought for it but in the rush of things I knew it would never get done.  I just followed a simple coaster tut where you sewed all 3 layers together inside out, flipped them, and sewed again.  Simple, but took me forever!  I stopped in JAF the other day and found MORE ugly cat prints like this.  She may be getting more...

My garden has been severely suffering neglect lately, but I just don't have time for it.  My snapdragons are finally blooming though since the rabbit stopped eating them.  These are ones that I grew myself from seed indoors and I have never seen anything like them.  They grow in multiple colors on one plant!

Odd..

I also may have broken the lawn mower.  Richard was in TX for training all week and since it has been raining the lawn needed to be mowed.  Well, after I got through the front yard it started smoking.  And smelling funny.  I put it back in the garage hoping it would fix itself and told Richard last night when he got back from the airport.  He didn't seem thrilled, but at least the front was mowed :)

I hope you all have been having a lovely week!

To Border or Not to Border?

I've finally got my Gma A's quilt top together (like 5 minutes ago) and I am SO HAPPY with it!  The only question now is to border or not to border?  Here it is without the border.

love

I have dark red fabric that I was going to make a 2" border with, but now I'm not so sure.  What do you think?  I would be using the dark red as the binding...

And on the fifth day, there were trees.

Yep.  Sunday was a tree-tastic celebration at my house.  Two weeks ago we went to Lowes to buy a new dishwasher and we left with a dishwasher and 8, 6' arborvitae trees to plant on the lot line where the new neighbors built.  Then they sat on our porch in dishpans of water as I was desperate to keep them alive and it was 100 degrees outside.  I started planting last Wednesday evening when the weather broke (under 85..) and kept going until Sunday.  You really wouldn't think it would take that long but we have solid clay in our yard and a 22" x 18" hole is pretty large when you are digging up that kind of substrate and only have an hour a night to dedicate to it.  When I had three in the ground and went for my fourth, this is what I found:

A lovely sprinkler head that was buried in our yard.  With that I stopped digging because there had to be a water line running to it and I would more than likely break it if I didn't immediately inform Richard.  So on Saturday, DH found the line and started digging a new trench in our yard to move the sprinkler head.

This was just the first trench which located the line.  He is about to start the second trench.  It took him a good 3 hours to dig up our yard and put it back together so I could keep making my tree line. 

  By the end of the day on Saturday we were both wrecked and I still didn't have all of the trees in the yard.  Plus I got a call that Grandma A might have to have brain surgery to stop a bleed and she was back in the ICU.  My mom told me to just stay home until they knew what was going on so on Sunday I planted the rest of the trees and headed to Lansing for the rest of the day. 


Finally, on the fifth day...


Grandma A did another fantastic guilt trick on me again when we were leaving.  She does her cute "will I see you tomorrow?" and I had to say "No, gma, I have to go home and go to work, but I will be back next weekend."  Just about tears my heart out every time.  I have extended my stay twice so I could say "Yes, I will be here."


In crafty news, I'm still working on my miscount disaster for Gma A's quilt since the trees have been eating my life.  AND I'm going to participate in my first fabric swap!  It is of Heather Ross fabric and the one I am sending out is so cute I just want to squeal.  I'm hoping that it will work well in 9" squares, but you never know.  I'll show you when it arrives :)

Learning to count

So, tonight I learned to count.  I realized that I was apparently doing it wrong, which was sad because I thought I was busting a move on a quilt I started.  I'm making a quilt for my Grandma A from the Warm and Cool QAL by Jeni at In Color Order.  It's not currently running, but I love the design and I have wanted to make one for a long time.  I came home from helping with my Gma on Friday afternoon and set to work.  I stopped at Creative Quilt Kits on my way home and salivated for an hour or so.  She has recovered very well from her stroke considering she is almost 91 and is going to be moved to a live in rehabilitation center.  She loves her house toasty and in those places she is always super cold so I am hoping that this will keep her warm and her spirits up.  It is kind of like an emergency love quilt :)   Here's what I picked up:

My Grandma's favorite color is red so I'm going to do a red/pink diamond pattern since Pam's QAL taught me how to make those fantastic HST's.  Well, I couldn't find any precuts in the colors that I wanted so I just bought yardage.  I started cutting away and after thinking I had enough I devoted myself to my sewing machine.  Well, as it turns out, I only accounted for half.  I have no idea how I counted so wrong since I even drew it out and counted them up on my handy-dandy graph paper.  I'm pretty sure I'll have to grab some more fabric so I may have to swing through a quilt store in AA to pick some up.  I really, really want to get this done so I can give it to her.  I'm going to quilt it myself to save a bundle of time.

I also stopped at a quilt store in Haslett on my way home from the hospital.  It was a little store, but I managed to grab some fabrics while I was there.

I really like the blue one and the baby print was only $3/yd!  I bought the rest of the bolt :)

I also bought this:

And this:

I got the elephants at Creative Quilt Kits and the rest at Joann.  I thought the elephants would go well with the embroidered blocks I found in my Grandma H's belongings.  It was only a remnant so I hope that the little amount I have can fit in somewhere.  I haven't even began thinking about it!

I hope you have all had a lovely weekend!  Here is a (pretty bad) picture of my lovely kitty creeping on me to help envision what my weekend has entailed!

Family is a wonderful thing

I've had quite a busy weekend over in my world.  I was able to nearly finish sewing my rows together for the Sliced Apples QAL and it is a littler harder than I initially anticipated.  I have a couple of points that are not matching perfectly and I just don't have the heart or patience to rip them out and re sew the row, so that is how they will stay.  I've wondered many times if I will ever need a 100% perfect quilt.  Probably not :)  I also started on those coasters for my friend- they are fantastic!  I can't even hardly wait to send them!  All I have to do now if quilt them real quick and put them in an envelope.

Saturday one of my DH's cousins was married.  It was a very pretty wedding- and kind of eventful.  At the ceremony we were greeted by an unexpected guest:  a mouse started climbing the brick wall behind the happy couple!  It got the whole church stirring and they had no idea.  Too funny! 

Yesterday I was working on the Sliced Apples top and I got a call that my {other} grandma had a stroke and was in the ER in Lansing {where my side is from}.  Learning from a couple of months ago with this kind of thing I packed for a week, brought a book, and left.  My Grandma is going to be 91 in September and she is doing surprisingly well right now.  It has been pretty difficult because we just went through so much with my other Grandma and now we are going through these things again.  I am pretty close with this Grandma so the call itself was enough to send me into a panic.  When I got here she was in and out, but she lit up when I walked in.  It was so nice compared to what we just went through with my other side where we didn't even know if she knew us for so long.  Today she is doing even better than yesterday.  I walked in and she smiled so big and asked me when I had come into town- like I just happened to stop by on my way home :)  She is having a hard time saying things and she has been going in and out of recognition, but any recognition is fine by me. 

My family back home is wonderful and I am so thankful that I have them.  I am staying at my Aunt's house this week and will probably be going back to work and coming back to Lansing to visit my Gma and sleep.  Yesterday night we were told that my Gma needed rest so we were kicked out of the ICU and sent on our way.  We went back to my Aunt's house and played badminton and wild rummy.  It was so nice to laugh and have a support system during all of this.  I just don't think I could handle another rough patch without them.  Tonight {I think} I'm going home to drop off my DH so he can return to work and then coming back tomorrow morning.  I am going to bring my sliced apples top with me and see if I can get any more finished- but that assumes my aunt will calm down on the badminton front {she's kind of a maniac}.

Until next time!

Holy Cats!

O My Gosh, you guys!  Look what I found at Joann in the remnants bin:

Words can't even describe this

 I laughed out loud when I saw it and had to have it.  I have a friend in NC who loves cats and may potentially become a crazy cat lady in the future.  Instantly, I thought of her.  And the fantastic kitten coasters I will be making her.  I can't even hardly stand it- I want to see her face when she opens them. 

This will be the binding

I have an intense desire to make them right now, but I have other things I need to accomplish.  OK Stacey, deep breath, you can make them next weekend.

Last time I went to quilting with Pam she taught me the art of laying out a quilt.  I didn't know this existed... at all... because you're suppose to follow a pattern, right?  No.  There are quilts with no finite patterns and you have to actually be creative.  Apparently the Sliced Apples QAL is like this and I was SO intensely happy that she taught me this and some tricks to help out along the way.  Like taking a picture of it when you lay it out to see color groupings!  What a smart lady :)

I layed all of my HST's for the QAL out this week each night after work and I started sewing them together today.  I'm about half done with my rows and now I'm sweating.  I know I need to power through since my goal was to have them all sewn up this weekend.  I have a wedding starting at 1pm tomorrow to go to so today is my best window.  I also have to make a valance for the in-laws for their basement.  I'm avoiding that one, though I need to have it done by Sunday.

.... But those kittens are calling ....

My Second Finish!

YAY!

I am so happy that I am finally done with my Christmas Tree Quilt!  We were vacationing in "up north" Michigan from Wednesday to Sunday and I actually got some tasks done!  The first few days were just too hot to move so we spent plenty of time in the water and on the jet skiis, but Friday morning and Saturday I was on the move!  Well, on the move so to speak :)  Richard was playing volleyball with all of our cove neighbors while I sat back, watched, and kept binding!

This is a pretty terrible picture, but I could barely get Richard to stand still for it

I can't get this one right in blogger so you'll just have to turn your head :)

  

Pretty snowflakes from the long arm!

When we got back Sunday evening I went outside to check the bird feeders and water my flowers and this guy decided to hitch a ride on my leg.  Just about gave me a heart attack!  I was about to go inside and I felt a prickle.  Naturally assuming it was a mosquito I went to bash it's head in and holy cow!  Green Monster! 

It's like it can see my soul

There was a lot of screaming as I attempted to knock it off without killing it.  Those things have a grip, I tell you what.  I also have no idea how I used to catch them as a child since they creep me out so badly now!  Consequently, I dreamed about spiders last night :-/

I got all my HST for Sliced Apples all trimmed up and ready to be layed out.  I really, really wanted to do it last night but I just didn't have the time.  I dread the night back from vacation because it is just so exhausting for me with all the cleaning and unpacking.  I need a day after the vacation to recoup!  Good news is that I actually won something for participating in the QAL!  I couldn't even believe it because I never win anything!  Mr. Random must have known that I haven't gotten any fabric in a while :)  Thanks Pam and Cori-  I can't wait for the next one!

I hope you had a lovely holiday!