Scraps for me

I've been dying to do something with these scraps forever - and finally found a little time to sew them together. The big piece (I think from an old Anna Maria Horner line - "Drawing Room") is from last year's CTA sale, a pink piece from a scrap bag I bought from House on Hill Road (oh yes, I bought someone else's scraps - sick, I know...but they are awesome), and the rest are left over from Cristy's quilt.


It's going to be a pillow some day - and it's mine-all-mine! {insert evil laugh} I have plans for a matching one with a bird on it....but....not enough me-time to get that done today.

I know, it looks messy right now, but just trust me - it will be gorgeous.

Super-Green Post

I finally came to terms with the fact that I don't have time to make something new for my swap. So I bit the bullet and mailed it off. {cross fingers that recipient likes it!}


Regardless, I'm happy to have checked off an item on my list.

Last year I finished a flagstone path on one side of my house - which I L-O-V-E. It makes me happy every time I walk on it. Happy because it turned out just how I wanted it to. Happy because the thyme and sedums I planted around it are getting established and spreading. ....so happy that I've started another path.


This one is out of field stones and leads to the shady, narrow "garden" on the other side of the house. I "gleaned" most of the stones from empty lots in my neighborhood.

The shady side. Is it silly that I garden around our meter? I {adore} irish moss - with it's cute, tiny flowers!


In other gardening news: my irises are blooming...


...and it looks like we'll have plenty of strawberries for the kids to browse on! Boo can hardly wait. He's already eating green blueberries - and says they're alicious!

Our Quasi-field Trip

So, we went to the zoo a million years ago (that's in mom years, so maybe 3 weeks ago) and I finally decided to blog about it. {Please bear with my retro-blogging.}

I don't know if the zoo counts as a field trip? We always think it's going to be educational...but then it just ends up being super-fun. I'm sure Cozy and BooBoo learned a few new things about the cuteness of meerkats and otters....that gibbons are better monkey-bar-ers than kids (despite not technically being monkeys).


..and we also may have settled the penguins vs. puffins debate that Boo and I have been having (so reminiscent of the ducks vs. geese debates we had with Sofi so many years ago).


However we didn't find a single bat (our latest subject) and rushed past the predatory birds (our previous subject of study)!



Just goofy kids. They were so insensitive, making fun of those reindeer!



...and James cried about leaving his "horse" until I put the McDonalds soft serve cone in his hand. An ignominious (if slightly predictable) ending to our fun-filled day.

Becky Update

Becky had her mastectomy, and it was less of an ordeal (physically) that we expected. She's kept an amazing positive attitude.


We were hoping that she wouldn't have to have any more surgery - that radiation would be the final, almost preventative measure, but it hasn't turned out that way.


Her PET scan revealed that the cancer has spread her lungs. She'll be having surgery to remove that cancer, followed by chemotherapy.


Please keep praying for her and her family. We love you, Aunt Becky!

Maybe in my house...

...but I'm not sure about mailing it out. I may need to begin again.



We've been having an interesting week. There was the whole beach thing - then I came home and got extremely overwhelmed by...everything. I think I needed to be slowly reintroduced to my life - rather than diving right back in.

...anyhow, I was "angry cleaning", which apparently looks like my regular cleaning, because my husband didn't notice the angry part until I was tearfully spiraling out of control. (It's not smart to watch tv while your wife is "angry cleaning")

So, how to identify "angry cleaning"? Here are some signs for men who don't want to be caught unaware:

1. Muttering. (Not to be confused with "Muddering" - Boo has been calling me his "Mudder" lately.)

2. Lack of eye contact.

3. Folding and putting away more than 3 loads of laundry in a row.

GOOD NEWS: As part of our "we hope to be moving soon" effort, we re-homed our bunny. Her new mommy seemed quite nice and thrilled to have a new rabbit. Now we just need to find a new family to take in and love our bowflex (and pay us for it...that's the rub!)

Pacificly...

Tony has leave to burn, so we took a fairly last-minute trip to Pacific Beach - just barely into "the season". ...so barely that the only cute shop in the tiny town was closed until Saturday. (We left on Thursday. Isn't that the way?)


I think Saturday might be when the real season (not just the one that charges you a higher price for your accommodations) starts.

Despite being in the midst of Spring, we got to spend quite a bit of time on the beach. It turns out that our kids are immune to cold. We weak adults couldn't wade up to our ankles in the surf without shaking and shivering, but the children were fully swimming on our first day there.

Cold. Sandy. Weather worsening. To avoid frost-bitten children, we grounded them from the surf. They had to content themselves with beach combing and another hobby that I call "trying to lose your mother". Cozy slows me down a little, but seriously...!


They combed quite thoroughly. Sofia found a intact starfish and a rock from space.


Odie found a sand dollar and a baby mermaid....wait....that's Cozy.


(You may notice Boo climbing the dunes behind him.)

So, on our first 2 days we got very sandy and ate a lot of ice cream. (That's what vacation is all about, people - dessert.) ...thus the little hibachi for roasting marshmallows.


...and then Windsday struck. It was totally out of control. Gale-force winds and lots of rain. See that angry ocean!


There was much discussion as to what had angered Zeus and Poseidon. The kids eventually came to the conclusion that Zeus had absent-mindedly put his lightening bolt behind his ear and then forgotten it there....and was now blaming an openly indignant (but secretly amused)Poseidon for its absence.

We let the kids play outside until it got so gusty that we were worried about them being carried off into the ocean like errant kites.


Then we watched a whole lot of TV. Mmmm. Vacation. I'm so happy to be home.

Scarier?

Well, my mini-quilt-wall-hanging-thing is evolving...but I'm not sure if anyone but me will like it. It's a little scary making something for someone whose house you have never stepped foot in. I mean, it could be doomed to rot in someone's closet forever...and it isn't especially perfect...but I like it.


Green binding?


In other news: I made a dangerous discovery this week. I stopped by Amy's to redeem my Mother's Day gift certificate for something decadent, and it turns out that this little pit stop only adds about 5 minutes to our going-to-Irish-dance route. That's dangerous info that should have been kept from me.


I got lavender, ginger, Mayan, berry, and peppermint truffles to "feed my hungry soul." For reals. It says so on the box.


...and our junco chicks have feathered up nicely. However, I kind of want them to fledge...so I can mow my yard.

Country Corners

Workin' on a something.

Boo Boo's Birthday

Boo (and for those of you who aren't in the know, that isn't my "anonymous blog nickname" for him....it's his official, since babyhood nickname!) reached his landmark 4th birthday on Saturday! Woo-hoo!


All of the party supplies are still sitting in my closet, buy we did do some fun things to make it a special day.

Since his birthday miraculously landed on the second Saturday of the month, it was train day at the park! The stars aligned!

This is me guiding kids towards a bustling mini train station. The kids were in charge of the camera, so that is the absolute best picture of our train adventure. I think the rest of the pictures they took were of trees.


The train tracks are all laid out through a shady, ferny northwest forest. We all love to ride past the train yard, where all of the hobbyist are working on their trains. If you're lucky, one of the beautiful little steam engines will make a loud whoosh and send a cloud of white steam into the air. Heaven for toddlers - especially Thomas the Tank Engine fans.

Then we drove over to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We decided to go there and celebrate all of the May birthdays at once. It was a lovely ferry ride (going the cheap direction...you don't have to pay for passengers toward Seattle!)

Boo found two eggs as soon as we opened the car door. That there is birthday luck.


We broke out the new scooter.


....and Grandma gave Boo the ride of his life on her "tractor".


Happy birthday, my sweet little hooligan!

Abby's Doll Quilt

Some simple stars on a white field.

The border was inspired by AmandaJean (can you see the connection?)....and it was stinkin' hard. I need to hone my piecing skillz.

Made entirely from my FREE fat quarters from SewMamaSew. Tony told me that I could google coupon codes for anything, and he was right. I was already in the midst of checking out with my abundance of fabric, when I took a moment to search a code - a free fat quarter for every $20 spent!

....I won't tell you how many I got. But they picked me out some cute ones, don't ya think?



It reminds me a little of the Martha Stewart, K-Mart quilts I bought my girls seven years ago.


...and that picture just makes me want to cry...because they are SO not that little any more.

We've Hatched!

...not a plan - some baby birds!


...and Sofi wants to parent them...but is managing to resist the urge.

"Oh! When I went out to see the birds, they just threw their little heads back and opened their mouths...and I was so sad that I didn't have anything to give them!"

Also, I think the swifts have finally gotten serious about building a nest in the birdhouse.

They're so flighty.

Help Wanted

My little sister, Becky, has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Please pray for her and her family this week.

For My Swap Partner

Ok. I'm never going to figure out the whole flicker thing...and I'm terrified of infringing on someone's copyright, so I'm just going to show you some of my pictures. (That doesn't mean that these are my favorite quilts in the world (they're mostly mine, so that would be a teensy egotistical), but they're the ones that are on my computer. I own them (or at least I used to :).

...but that's enough rambling, here's what I like:

Retro, feedsackish quilts.




Almost anything with white sashing...although I've been converted to blue...and linen...and more creative things.


Scrappy quilts.


Birds and butterflies.






Pretty, modern florals.




...anything from Japan (the global nexus of all cuteness)...and many, many other things. So, I'll pretty much like whatever you make me...and I guess I could have just said that. :)

Marital Discord

I thought my husband was mad at me.

He told me that Boo-Boo was a stupid nickname....for a baby or anyone else.

He did the dishes angrily (grumbling something about the number of cups we use).

He went to bed instead of going to a movie with me.

But he must have forgiven me, because he helped me hang stuff up in the guest room. (I also brought the pfaff down from my room. A guest could have a sewing emergency - you never know. Besides, it's cute.)




Another thing (about me) that appears to annoy my husband: my weed-pulling compulsion. It's just painful for me to walk past yards full of tiny scotch broom plants...and thistles...and mowed-off dandy lions. I have literally had bad dreams about it.

So, he's super-embarrassed that I pull other people's weeds...as I'm casually strolling by. I told him I'd make a super hero costume to disguise my true identity, if it really bothered him. I'd put a W on the front for "Weeding Avenger".

He suggested a BB, for "Busy Body".