Finish it up Friday

Sometimes Fridays are just hard.  This was one of those.  I have so much I need to finish, that I have every intention of finishing, and that I want to finish...

Today my 2.5 year old has screamed at me almost nonstop all day long.  I've done surprisingly well not letting it get to me too much, but we had to have one of those days of "look, there are rules and you have to follow them."  That is hard when you're only 2.5 and today it required that I empty her room of all her things and required respect from her. 

As I write this she is almost done putting a stack of her books back into her room.  It's taken her 2 hours to do this because she's whined, cried, made excuses, and gotten distracted.  Her peanut butter and jelly is now 2 hours old because I told her she needed to clean up some of her books before she could eat. 

Some days being a mom is just plain difficult. 

In spite of that, I do have a couple things to show that I did get finished. 

-I got my directions posted for the three bees I'm in charge of this month.  More to see on those later.

-I mailed bee blocks that were overdue.

-I cut fabric and mailed fabric for the spinning stars blocks my Boo Bee friends will be making me this month.

-I also need to remind myself of the other things I've gotten done this week.  To prove to myself that I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs.

 I finished Halloween costumes!

 Crossed off a long forgotten WIP and made 3 pillow covers!

Made 2 Wiksten Tova Shirts this week and plans for many more!

-I'm also planning a craft night (2 weeks from today) for the women at church and am really nervous that it'll be an epic failure.  Probably won't be, but I'm nervous about it and have a lot to do for it.

Perhaps best of all my husband bought me flowers and I got comments/emails that brought me smiles.  Smiles and reminders that you're not a horrible-mom-rule-monster-slacker person really make all the difference. 

Fingers crossed, the Mr. and I might get to have a date night tonight!!! 

*I hope this post doesn't seem like bragging or complaining.  I needed to remind myself a bit that I'm not horrible, and keep it real so you know it's not all smiles and sunshine here all the time.  I'm sure I'm not the only one with 2 year old's who scream and whine and throw tantrums with things to plan and deadlines to meet.  Heck, I'm sure most of you are much busier than I am!  So thank you for letting me get it out a little today.  I hope you all realize how much you each do for so many people!  

linking this up with Amanda Jean's Finish it up Friday and wishing you a happy weekend! 

WIP Wednesday

I tried out a few new things this week, and took a couple pictures too!  I have much more that is "in progress" and I even cleaned up my sewing space (and then messed it up picking fabric for the patchwork prism QAL).

First I wanted to share some non-sewing business with you.  I've been trying to hit the gym frequently to get rid of some "extra stuff" I'm carrying around and went with a friend on Monday.  This was new for me.

I don't really like working out around or with people I know.  I'd rather sweat like a fool and look like one around perfect strangers.  But, my friend had invited me to a class, so I laced up my Asics and went.  And I went to the wrong one...in the wrong room... It was an aerobics type class and wasn't super challenging except for the abs part (but holy cow have I been feeling it since).

Here's the thing though,  I am a 5' 10" uncoordinated mess when it comes to having "moves"... I look like a total loser in a room full of mirrored walls, and have always been shy and self-conscious...yikes...so the fact that I stayed and did the workout was an accomplishment for me.  So yay!  There's that.

In more interesting news, I tried Hexagons!  It was easy!  And fun!  I was prompted to make these because I joined a hexagon swap.  I figured I probably wouldn't give it a try unless I had a reason to make them and this was it.  I followed my friend Katie's tutorial and it was wonderful.  I don't use thimbles though and found my fingers were ok (so far - granted I've only made about 30...I made some more last night after I took this picture)

Then, I made these two blocks with fabrics from my scrap box for Katherine in one of the bee's that I just got a spot in.  She's making this quilt as a gift and I think it's going to look really wonderful!

And I picked out fabric for the Patchwork Prism QAL.  If you haven't heard about this yet you should check it out.  It's an amazing free pattern from Anna Maria Horner and there are some truly amazing prizes (like a new Janome sewing machine!!), so I'm all over this.  It's being hosted by Bianca who is amazing, and you don't want to miss it.  Seriously. 

It's much more color theory than I'm used to wrapping my head around so I kept this post from Bianca open while I pulled my fabrics (all from my stash so far) and I really like the way they look together.  I want to add a yellow and perhaps another brown and another red.  What do you think? Anything you would add or take out?

I really like looking at these and haven't moved them off the table yet.

I'm also working on the Zooey pattern by the great and talented LuLu (here's her Etsy shop) and should have the top done tonight or tomorrow (I hope) and then it can hang out with the other tops in the pile on top of the dryer :)

On an unrelated note we have also been trying no naps for either kid this week (their choice, not mine...) and Abby has been wearing real underwear and using the toilet to go potty.  She's doing pretty well so far, but I'll spare you the nasty details.   It's been an interesting week so far.

 To you experienced moms out there, what did you do when your kids stopped taking naps?  I'm trying to figure out how to still get that break in the day that we all need, and haven't quite figured it out yet.  Any tips or advice would be wonderful!!

I'm hoping to get to the post office today to annoy the mail lady some more, and hopefully I'll be able to get some things finished this weekend between potty breaks and laundry.

Linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced (be sure to check out the other lovely projects over there!)

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

p.s. This is my 44th post - I'm thinking something fun for my 50th!  Stick around!

Happy Birthday to you!

Lady Face is two years old!!!  Yesterday was her birthday. 

That's right.  Until next Wednesday I officially have two two year olds running around the house!

I can't believe this little girl is getting so big. 

She is such a happy, dedicated, and intense soul.  I learn so much from her.  She is constantly seizing the moment, enjoying every little thing, and loves so much to make us laugh! 

She is sure of herself, she is beautiful, strong, smart, and so caring.  I'm so proud to be her mom.

She had a great birthday (there was snow on the ground in the morning!) and enjoyed every second of it! Even if she didn't quite understand the concept. 

She learned how to blow out a candle, and loved her gifts. 

I'm so so proud of her big brother too.  His birthday is next Wednesday and he's turning three.  He wasn't jealous that she was getting special treatment, he was excited for her!  All in all, I think my kids are pretty awesome.  They make me so happy.  

I got this toddler "pack-pack", as Monkey Pants calls it, from a great Etsy shop called MarineParents and I couldn't be more thrilled with it (wonderful shop, take a look!).  Lady Face loves it.  I've decided this balloon print with the girl and the bunny from Sarah Jane is her fabric.  If Lady Face was a fabric, this would be it.  Slowly, I'm collecting lovely things made of this print, and hoarding as much Sarah Jane fabric as I can get my hands on (aren't you all?!). 

Anyway, Happy Birthday darling girl. 

I blame spring break...

...for my severe and ridiculous absence.

My almost 3 year old  has been severely testing limits this week and it's been spring break for my husband so...I haven't done as much sewing as I wanted to, but we're all still alive and well (as I wrote this he was trying to have a conversation through the window with the man fixing the neighbor's roof...).

This same child has recently taken to responding to everything with "Yes Sir!" or for me, "Yes Mom!" and saluting us (thank you Toy Story army men...), and both kids discovered how awesome the Muppets are.  So much that i've been going to sleep with Rainbow Connection stuck in my head. 

 See that yellow spot on the left side?  That's the first flower on the side of our house!

Guess what else.  I went to a tea party yesterday!  It was a fundraiser for the ISU Honor Society (I'm pretty sure) and a friend of mine sponsored a table and had an extra ticket!  There were real teacups and real teas - I tried the herbal huckleberry one - and even finger sandwiches, it was yummy.  Great to chat with adult friends too.

Remember the scarf I won from Rachael at Imagine Gnats? Well...it came in the mail yesterday!  And it's so gorgeous.  I love it and can't wait to wear it.  Of course I did have to pry it off of my little Lady Face first.

Oh boy, she loved wearing this!

Ok.  On to the quilty part!!  I do have one thing I want to show you today, and I think it's pretty great. 

I finished my Dream Big quilt top!  I absolutely love it.  This one is all for me and it's my favorite project to date! I'm trying to figure out what to use for the backing and think I might use the same fabric as the border fabric (California Girl by Moda and Fly a Kite by Riley Blake).  I love those prints.

This is a terrible picture but I'm totally loving this pattern and can't wait to finish this quilt!

Finally, I received my gift from my Cover Robin swap partner!! Holy smokes is it beautiful!  I'm really excited about it.  Stay tuned, you'll get to hear more about it this month, but here is a sneak pic.  It is perfect.  Now I need somewhere to go so I can show it off!

And do you remember those two log cabin blocks I made some time ago for Avery, the gymnast?  Well...they are now part of a gorgeous quilt!  I'm so pleased and thankful to have been part of such a wonderful project.  I hope Avery will enjoy it, and didn't Carrie do a wonderful job!  Here is a picture of the finished product from Carrie's Flickr (my two contributions are top row middle, and 5th row far right)

Happy Weekend!  We're going to make cookies today and get ready for Lady Face's 2nd birthday tomorrow!!!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday survival wishes to all!

Here's what I've got to show for my absent-ness lately.  Our little ones have been trading colds and coughs but I think we're over it.  We did a lot of this recently...

 This is their new favorite book and favorite story - The Gingerbread Man.  And yes, that is me.

I finished my bee blocks for this month of the bliss circle of do. Good Stitches.  I winged it and I think they turned out ok.  Next time though, I've got to make sure the edges aren't going to be lost when all the blocks are sewn together.

I am currently hand quilting my husband's quilt!  Yahoo, this beast has been weighing heavily on my shoulders.  Here's a very badly lit photo of the top, which measured 81x91.  And it's pretty great.  I tested it by falling asleep while working on it yesterday and it was very nice. It has flannel on the back :)

Here's a sneak peek for my partner in the covert robin swap!  I'm hoping to get this baby on it's way this week.

I started a new project from Camille Roskelly's book, Simplify, last weekend and got all the strips sewn up last night.  This is the Dream Big pattern in the book and it's been a super quick and painless project so far.  I picked out a bunch of spring prints from my stash to use here as it was grey skies and almost rain/snow/sky-spit yucks last week...blah...this quilt will be a reminder of happiness even when the weather sucks.

I still have to pick border fabric.  This pattern has a couple borders and I might do white as one of them...or a solid...any ideas?

Hope you all had a happy St. Patrick's Day this weekend!  We had corned beef and cabbage for dinner, per tradition, and saw the first green in the grass in months!

And to leave you with something that makes me smile

It's so nice when we all get along! 

Linking up at Canoe Ridge Creations for Sew Modern Monday  

and with Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday

I am going to copy this awesome post idea from Tanesha at Crafty Garden Mom. Love this idea and it's great since I haven't posted anything in a while (it's almost March...what?!)

Today...
Outside my window... It's 10:40pm.  Dark and very cold with remnants of the snow that came while I was asleep Friday night/Saturday morning.

I am thinking... Lady Face's birthday is only about 35 days away.  She will be 2 and I want to be in better shape by then...so March will be super fun!!! right. Just found a blog that I am really really enjoying, especially this post (about white trash cooking - soooo funny). Her posts remind me of my grandparents who were from Kentucky and my years in Virginia in college in what I considered "The South".

I am thankful for... My family.  The ones that live in the same house as me especially.  They are so good to me.  I love them tremendously.  Even the furry one. 

I am reading... Well, at the beginning of the year, every year, it's my dream goal to read a book a week.  I love to read, but lately quilting and sewing have been my go-to free time spenders...so I've only read one book so far this year.  I am reading The Dog Who Came In From The Cold by Alexander McCall Smith.  I love all of his books.  He writes about happy things and real stuff. Little victories and life things that make us all part of the same goodness. Absolutely adore it.  Life's too short to read crappy books that make you feel terrible...
 

I am wearing... um, Don't look now but I got some pj pants at T.J. Maxx and they are too short (I'm 5'10") which is what I get for buying girly pj pants and not man ones like I usually do.....but I'm wearing those, a BYU Track t-shirt, and (get ready for this one...) a blue Ralph Lauren jacket....from Costco. Almost thought I'd classed it up for a second there, right?

I am creating... a quilt that has been semi finished for months now, a quilt for my husband, and three wedding quilts.  A me that is  leaner, toned, and almost constantly sore from being shredded by Jillian Michaels...I'll let you know how it goes during March when I actually do the workouts more than once a week :)

I am hoping... that I can have more patience this week, and that comfort will find it's way to those I'm worried about.

I am hearing... Little Lady Face sing and mumble as she falls asleep, and the clicking of the Mr's football game on the Wii.  The classical station on Pandora - which is currently playing the LOTR soundtrack. 

Around the house... I need to accept the fact that I will be in a semi-constant state of doing dishes and laundry for the rest of my life.  It will never end until I do.  Shingles blew off our roof this weekend and since we're renting we came home from church to find the owners friend on the roof fixing them.  Poor guy.  It was like 25 degrees. We offered him some donuts but he said no :(

One of my favorite things... Our new leather loveseat (thanks tax return!), a hot shower, Starbucks hot chocolate mix, and the individually packaged skinless salmon fillets (yep, also Costco). And the instagram photo's I took this weekend (see below)

A few plans for the rest of the week... it's Sunday evening so the week is just beginning!  I'm hoping to do fun things with my kids, to get outside, to exercise every day, get the top done for the Mr's quilt, and get some more stuff checked off the mandatory to do list so I can work on some fun quilting projects for me.  I also want to start reading another book to the kids at nap time.  We read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to them a while ago a chapter or two a night and they loved it!  Time for another one. Oh, and to get more sleep...that'll probably help all the rest go better...

A picture (or four) to share from the weekend...

 

I am happy... Because my kids are healthy.  They are cute.  They love me.  I am happy because my Husband is pretty awesome all the time, and has made me confident that we will always be together.  It's reassuring to know that, and thinking about it makes me feel really special. I am also happy because our rental here is starting to feel like our space.  I'm starting to not be so hard on myself, and to realize that I have the next moment to do better than I did before.  Might sound lame, but that's a big one for me! And finally, I got to stay in my pajamas for 90% of the weekend and I let it happen.  It was glorious.



Bonus points if you can tell me who that little person in the hat looks like!


How was your weekend?

Lady Face

Lady Face is what we affectionately nicknamed our daughter. She is 19 months old and a firecracker like I've never seen. I named the blog after her because I'm not sharp enough to come up with anything original. And I hope someday she'll think her mom was somewhat clever and I also hope this will serve as some kind of log of how I spend some of my time, what I've made, and some of our family activities too.

I have to take her to the doctor today. A new doctor.
I'm not looking forward to 3pm.
I'm doing everything I can think of to pretend it's not happening.

And to make a good first impression, Lady Face, with the help of her 2 1/2 year old brother Monkey Pants, ran her nose into the ledge of the window and now appears to have a bloody nose all the time, when it's really just a badly places scrape...great right!

Lady Face can also scream bloody murder at the drop of a hat. Or when anyone tries to get her to do anything she doesn't want to do (is this a girl thing?).

I think I've become more afraid of the doctors office since having Lady Face...

But her smile, her laugh, and the silly yellow boots she insists on wearing ALL DAY make it so worth it to be her mom.

(but can someone please make it 4pm already!!)