Plugging Ahead

I'm still working on the Dad's Plaids block. I know if I could just sit down and spend 2 hours on it i would have the blocks done, but two uninterrupted hours don't come easy around here. I only have a few of the star blocks, because they are fussier to make, so I think I'll place those strategically in the middle.
I've been tired by the time I get all the kids down and happy to curl up with a book. I read a cute one yesterday by Sophie Kinsella , it was on the new book shelf at the library. I've tried to read her shopping series in the past, but I don't have any patience for all the shopping talk. I've read two of her other books though that are very cute. Not exactly cerebral, but good light escapism.
I'm still going through all of the kids old school papers getting them ready to go into scrapbooks. It's so hard to figure out how much to keep and how much to throw away. I end up taking pictures of the bigger stuff and putting those in the scrapbook so that the originals can go away. This is the Thanksgiving leaf from preschool where Ryan was thankful for his refrigerator, and a self portrait by his very first girl friend, Caroline.

Helping the Economy

I haven't taken any new pictures recently, so I thought I'd post this one of Sydney on the 4th. She has more personality than any one child deserves!
I seem to be in a shopping groove lately that doesn't end. Like quilts, one thing just seems to lead to another. I recently got the new Gwen Marston (Collaborative Quilting) book in the mail which inspired me to pick up some black and white fat quarters while they were on sale. Then I ordered a running book on Amazon and remembered that the other Gwen Marston (Liberated Strings) book was still in my cart. I think I got a deal on shipping because my order was over $25. Today was a housekeeper day so I was out killing time with Ryan. We ended up at Walmart because there aren't that many places to hang out at 8 in the morning. I was only shopping for sale stuff, but ended up with a cart full of clearance summer clothes for the kids and a few more school supplies to cross off the list. By then AC Moore was open, and they are having a HUGE going out of business sale. They don't really carry fabric, which is why I never shop there, but I managed to find a couple of quilt kits in patriotic colors and a few things for scrap booking. Then when I went to put away the couple of scrap booking things, I realized that I needed to order some page protectors. I have been using Creative Memories strap-hinge albums, but they are changing their page size. I didn't want to end up in the middle of an album and not have the right pages, so I had to do an inventory and find a good transition spot. This made me realize that I had some old albums that didn't have page protectors on all the pages, which led me to another inventory and an order for 6 packages of page protectors! Now I have to decide whether to switch to the new size of Creative Memories pages or switch to the other kind of album so that I can get them in regular stores. My Creative Memories consultant would probably turn her nose up at that, but she hasn't been having many crops lately, so keeping caught up on supplies isn't the easiest thing to do. Now I'm feeling a little guilty about spending too much money. Summers are always like that around here, just because I have time for projects, and those always need stuff.
On the quilting front, I got some more Dad's Plaids blocks put together and cut out most of the rest. I think I have about 90 done so far, out of the 144 I need for a king quilt. I took a break because I needed to iron and didn't feel like getting everything out. The house is all nice and clean from a combination of company and the housekeeper. Projects can wait for another day.

Reorganization

One of my neighbors was working at a local craft store when they went out of business. After the store closing, they threw out all sorts of shelves and fixtures. This was an extra display stand that she saved from the dumpster. It originally had a big top portion with crown molding and hooks for hanging stock. I pulled that off and used part of it to construct a new top. I'll trim a cutting mat to size and attach that for a perfect counter height work surface. The bottom is made for 12 x 12 paper storage with room for all of my paper separated by theme and color. I'm really happy with the way it turned out. And best of all -- it was free!I went to a crop on Friday, this is one of the pages I made with pictures from my sons room. My husband painted superheros on his walls, and I was so happy with the way they turned out. Of course that was two years ago, and now he's into Pokemon, but I don't think the superheros are going to disappear anytime soon.

Getting Scrappy!

I ordered this quilter's saying panel from Keepsake Quilting and thought it would make a cute sampler type quilt. I started with just the log cabin blocks, but then thought I could do a variety of different blocks. I've got flying geese and hourglass blocks so far, I think I need two more patterns, one for the top left nine patch region, and then something different for the middle two four patches. The squares are only 3 inches finished, so it will be a little quilt, but it's been fun making tiny little blocks. My husband insists that we don't NEED any more bed quilts in the house, so I should make more little quilts. He thinks that just because we live in Florida people don't get cold.
I'm going to a crop tonight (that's a scrap booking party). I haven't been to one in ages and had to check to see if I even had pictures developed. I used to do lots of scrap booking and for a while was even up to date with all of my pictures. I've been spending more time quilting in the last couple of years, and my photos have fallen behind. My youngest daughter doesn't even have a baby book! I feel so guilty every time she asks to look at her baby book and we have to pull out the family book that covers the period of time when she was born. My oldest daughters baby book was the first thing I ever cropped and it is quite extensive. My son was born only 2 years later, so I used the same format and made one for him as well. And now I've fallen so far behind on the family album that I feel like I can't take a break and make another baby album. It will be fun to get out of the house, it seems like I've been stuck at home a lot lately.

Different Kind of Scrappy

I really hate the cheesy little valentines from the supermarket. The cartoon ones with the spot to write in to and from that come 36 to a box. There is something so sad and impersonal about them. All of the kids are supposed to bring valentines to school tomorrow, so I was motivated to scrapbook again. It's been ages since I had my scrap booking stuff out, and it was such fun! I've been in a real quilting phase lately, and I'm starting to feel that it may be time to switch gears for a while.
My oldest daughter made her own valentines -- hearts for the girls and puzzle pieces for the boys. I tried to get her to put, "You hold the key to my heart" on them, but she wanted, "Happy Valentines Day" instead (poetry must run in the family). I chose a letter theme for the other two. "You are the apple of my EYE" and "BE my valentine". I even ran out to the craft store for a bumble bee stamp.