My New Chair

I went to Goodwill to find little Anthony a desk. Didn't.

I did sit down on a comfy chair...and start thinking...this would be a great place to read....

...and then shoved it in the back of my van. :)


It is a great reading spot.


...and can fit several tiny rears, one big rear, or a medium-large-sized rear AND a tiny rear at one time. Perfect.

Stuff I May Have Promised You

I feel like I may have promised you some pictures at the beginning of the week...and now I'm getting around to it.

MY NEW BOOTS!!! There are bigger perks to mild winters than no snow shovelling...awesome sales on boots that nobody needed this year!

I got the cutest, comfiest gray boots ever! (Sof got them in brown.)


80% off the sales price!


...and these shorter black ones...I can't wait for next winter! (It's been 80 degrees all week. :) My MIL got matchies.


I bit of my hand-quilting:


I'm still "getting the hang of it", but it's fun.

Sof got one of her pieces entered in a "Middle School Art Contest" hosted by Albert Einstein High School, which is an art magnet school....because Einstein was such an amazing artist...I mean physicist. He was creative. Anyhow, I think it was a recruitment event for 8th graders, but Sofi slipped under the radar (7th grader) and won a blue ribbon.


Good job, Sof!

Gnomes...and our trip...but not in that order

We had an eventful weekend, so brace yourself for a description (...not complete with pictures...as my camera was left behind). We finally made it back up to PA, for the first time since Christmas.

Wanda and Ruben took us swing dancing (Sofi, Anthony, and me - NOT Tony, who claimed to be studying). The kids whined and complained about having to go, but I think they had a nice time. Anthony even asked a couple of ladies to dance.

Sofia just gave one guy a nervous look when he asked her. He said, "Come on. I danced with your Mom and your Grandma - you can dance with me too!" (I'm glad she did, because he was one of the more amazing and fun dancers!...but don't tell Tony...I'm claiming to have only danced with Anthony and my father-in-law. :) Plus, Sofia won the door prize - a big band cd! Fun night!

We also went to Bon Ton and got amazing 80% off boots (which you might get to see a picture of...since they came home with me), and I got some hand quilting lessons from my mother-in-law, who is super-well-qualified for giving them! Doesn't that seem like a lot for a day and a half? (Especially with church and eating thrown in!)

Lovely.

So, the gnomes.

James (5) has been watching "Gnomeo and Juliet" in a very obsessive way for weeks. I finally had to watch it myself, so that I'd have some idea what he was talking about. (Now I know where "A hat for a hat!" comes from.)

So...thinking of my cuddly little James, I bought a couple of little gnomes at Target. One with a blue hat, one with a red hat. I showed them to him, thinking he'd be all excited....

...nothing. Finally, he looks at me with a quizzical expression and says, "Elves?"


Seriously?

Do you think he was just messing with me?

Oh My Heart!

Just look what came in the mail! Thanks, Jess!

Play Space

We all enjoy a little crafty time in the kitchen.


...some of us more proudly than others...


...but lately everyone was boycotting the play space in the kitchen, so I sat down and had a good hard think as to why.

Here's what I came up with:
1. It was crazy messy.
2. No one wants to play in a corner.
3. The evil fat squirrel stole the birdfeeder off of the kitchen window again.

So, this morning I cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Then I pushed the table up against the wall. Now we're out of the corner and are enjoying the sunny-ish windowbox space.


Sure enough, the littles flocked right to it and played there for most of the day. It even renewed their enthusiasm enough that they finished one of their "stained glass" panels.


Maybe, in another six months, we'll have completed the other one!

Really, I'm in no hurry. I think it's nice that Cozy can wander over, glue some tissues on for as long as she's interested...


...bury the gluestick at the bottom of the tissue bowl...


...and then wander away again.

That's pretty much how I work on projects too. :)

Now, once I buy a new seed bell, we'll be golden!

Seedlings and Sewings

Our seedlings have emerged! So exciting!


The tallest one is in the row of "mystery seeds", and I'm starting to think it's a vine. Dare I grow it up both rails by my front door? ....I'm pretty sure it isn't poison ivy...

I've been piecing quilts like crazy! -only easy ones...but I am having a lot of fun with color, shade, and so on. A Walk in the Woods...


Hoot...which matches my house wonderfully...but is a baby quilt.


...and the girlier version of Hoot.


Do you see the element they all have in common...other than triangles?

The "after" of my spray-paint project...


...and on Sofia's shelf. She's been very resistant to me reorganizing her shelf. Deal.


Well, we are having a sunny day, so off I go to play in the dirt!

Sunny Sunday

Did I mention that a branch went through our roof? It's not as bad as it sounds, since it missed the more vital parts of the house and pierced the roof of the porch instead. It was a flesh wound.


See where it came through?
Lucky for us, we got a break from the windy, cold weather, so the men could fix the roof in relative comfort.


...and the rest of us could play in relative comfort! :) We went on a walk to the mailbox...and then the park.


I painted a clock orange for Sofi's room. She had the nerve to say, "Orange?!" as if she had no idea I was making her a quilt with orange in it. Nervey, that one!


James helped me plant my pansies...little purple ones, of course.


Lovely day!