Thankful Day 2

Today Buddie and Emma said they wanted to do the Thankful post.  They are so thankful that we have a big yard where they can run and play.

I am also thankful for the yard where they can play and the nature it draws to us.  This fall while doing yard work I found 3 birds nests in our front yard.  The picture shows one of the nests, another is in the birch tree behind the first and the third is in the burning bush on the other side of the front door.


I am also thankful for the fact that Boyd likes to mow the yard.  Even though I've done it a time or two, it's not something I truly enjoy and he does.  :)


This afternoon I finally finished my framed stars quilt top.  I love how it turned out, I collected all the star prints on a quilt shop hop with a friend.  The colored strips I picked up at a local quilt store because I thought they would set off the stars.  The black and white prints I had in my stash and like how they pulled it all together.

Thankful Day 1

A friend kindly reminded me that it's that time of year.  The time of year to be grateful or thankful for one thing a day until Thanksgiving.

Today I am copying her and saying I am thankful for Traditions.  For the new and the old. The familiar things we do and the new things we want to become traditions.

Already this year I've attended two ornament parties.  I hope that they become traditions, each year finding new ornaments to make and add to our collections.  Spending time with cousins and watching the little ones grow up, adding more complex ornaments to the list.


I'm also looking for a traditional meal to have on Halloween.  In the past we've had pizza, and last night we had an overnight egg casserole.  The casserole is easy to put together the night before and easy to finish up and put in the oven.

This year I also hope to get my family involved in picking what we are thankful for.  :)

Projects update

I'm using my blog to keep track of when I do things so here's my latest update.

Here's the Tom Turkey I finished awhile back


This is a table mat that I finally finished


Here's the finished snow couple I finished over the weekend.


Last week I helped out with the company Halloween party.  It was fun seeing all of the kids and some of the adults.  I had to stop at the store so my friends double dog dared me to get my picture taken with the clerk.  =)


I'm also working on a super cute spool tree, I need to add the finishing touches before I show it off.  :)


Happy Halloween from vampire emma...

The cocoon of home

How do we teach people to leave the cocoon of home?  How do we teach them to take that with them and go out on their own?

I love the fact that we both love our home and like to be there.  I'm noticing as we grow older we both just want to be at home.  Today I didn't even want to come to work, I just wanted to stay in the cocoon of home.

It's not the four walls of home, it's the family that's there that's hard to leave.  Even when the family brings me to work it's hard to get out of the car. 

I know it's the love and support that we have for each other that's hard to let go.  We need to figure out how to take that with us even when we are apart.  I'm really thinking of getting lockets or that new charm company necklace to have little bits of us, so we can always carry it with us.  Think I can get Boyd to wear one?

Rainy weekend....

The weekend seems to have flown by.  I was off work early on Friday so we could attend a nephews football game.  I love watching 'my boys' play, and make an effort to get to one of each of the three nephews playing football games.  Three different schedules and two different school districts.  It's tricky but I did it this year! 


Saturday I have no idea what happened.  I was up a few times and got a few things done, including supper in the crock pot.  The rest of the time I was trying to catch up on shows and woke up at 5 pm. Boyd said it was fine but I felt bad.  I ended up going to bed early to.  I guess I must have needed the sleep cause I didn't wake up till 8 this morning.

After catching up on all of my shows this morning, I got so much done!  Laundry all 4 loads, loading the dishwasher and getting it run.  And some fun sewing.

I saw an idea on the P board and knew it would be perfect for some fabric I had stashed.  I ended up putting on my own spin and came up with this....



The original had one snowman and I liked the idea of two.  Plus I added the hat and bow.  :)

I just finished the top today, I want to figure out how to make the snowmen a little poofy.  :)

UFO finished today... Tom Turkey, feels like he needs something else but for now he's done.

A weekend full of unfinished projects...

that got FINISHED!

On Friday I made a plan on what I wanted to accomplish, Boyd had plans all weekend and I knew it would be TOOO easy to fall into watching TV and doing nothing.

My grand plan was to clean off the table and pull out some projects that have been half way done, including some belated Christmas gifts.  And work on them as much or as little as I wanted between movies and football games.

First off I decided to work on a quilt I have in progress.  I had the base of the blocks done and just had to add two more strips then sew them into rows.  With my sewing machine upstairs and my ironing in the kitchen (gotta get some exercise) I was able to do a row in the time it took to wash one load of laundry (more exercise going down 2 more sets of steps).  I was able to finish two and a half rows before my favorite sewing machine started to complain.  :)

My next project was to clean off the table, putting all my crafting supplies on a temporary shelf I setup under my peninsula ledge. With that done, I pulled out two table runners I've had in progress.

After much debate on my part on what I should use as a backing I finally decided and got this finished....



I made this from a picture I saw, so I'm very happy with how things turned out.

Then from the scraps I made a quilted pin for my quilt guild on Thursday.  Still need to get a picture of this.

My next project was to quilt and bind this pumpkin table runner I made a few weeks ago.


This afternoon I decided to work on a wreath I saw on Pinterest, here's the sneak peak...

It will be changing.  :)

Then tonight I pulled out the Christmas placemats I made for my mom last year and still need to finish.  I was able to get all of the bindings cut - I finally decided that having different binding fabrics was OK.  I still need to do the final join of the bindings and then finish them up.  The next big decision will be do I finish the bindings by machine or by hand.  My fingers tell me it should be by machine. 

Surprisingly the Sunday night blahs didn't get me tonight.  I'm just staying up late typing this and procrastinating going to bed.  LOL

I felt like I've had a great weekend getting things done and my creative mojo got a good boost.

UFO list that I will admit to wanting to work on. ;)
* Mom's quilt - finish quilting and bind.
* Turkey wall hanging - quilt and bind
* Christmas table mat - quilt and bind
* Halloween quilt - quilt and bind .. This was my very first quilt
* yellow and blue quilt - working on blocks
* dresden plates - applique the plates, make the blocks, quilt and bind.
* purple quilt - quilt and bind

flip turned upside down

it's been one of those weeks where I thought Tuesday was Thursday and Friday was Monday.  So I've just been going with the flow.  Lots of weird stuff going on and it's really starting to affect me.  I'm hoping for some regrouping time this weekend.

Ever had those weeks where it feels like tons of ideas are soaring in your face and you can't focus enough to grab one?  that's kind of where I'm at.  For some reason I'm stuck on art journals and making my own planner.  we'll see how that one works out - since my project bag contains a glue stick and colored pencils it will be interesting.  ;)

I worked on a new sewing project last weekend.  It did not turn out like I was expecting/hoping.  I need to do some more work on it and I have no desire.  Plus since it's a sewing project I'm not setup for my quilting anymore.....so no fun quilting work.  :(

As for my cleaning and organizing projects, I really need to figure something else out for organization.  My dining room table is a cluttered mess because it's full of my ornament project, quilting project,  cricut stuff, plus the crafty purchases I've made in the last week.  Maybe I should just empty out my china closet and store everything in there.. ?

Someday everything will just fall into place, right?