significant dates

So.

Yesterday, I felt off and out of sorts

for no good reason.

Sure,

life's been busy lately,

and
I've got some hard deadlines looming

(one of which is to turn in 

Intent to Homeschool forms - today!)

but 

nothing that should be causing

the severe grouchiness

and heaviness in my chest.

I snapped at kids,

and deep sighed

(not the good kind of deep sighing,

like when you get to the ocean).

I wanted to lay in bed and kick my feet

and have a big ol' fit

(thankfully I stopped short of that one).

I tried to cry,

because maybe then I'd feel better.

What the heck was my problem?!

I went through the calendar.

No, it's not the 19th (date Dad had the accident)

It's not the 27th (date he died)

It's the 13th for goodness sake.

I have no issues with the 13th.

And then it hit me.

Gramma.

Gramma Joyce died one month ago yesterday.

I don't know why my body and heart

are so affected by significant dates,

even when my mind isn't aware of them,

but that's how I'm wired.

Once I recognized the occasion

and grieved my loss (again)

I was fine.

I love you, Gramma!

I'm so happy you are in heaven now

💗

all of February

Wow.

That went by in a whoosh, didn't it?!

I ordered this from Charlie and Ella, and it arrived on Valentines Day. I love it so much!!

Let's see.

There was Groundhog Day.

Brandon joined us for the festivities :-)

~

And the Super Bowl.

(Which for us really just means 

snacks.)

~

Some friends gave us tickets

- enough for all of us! - 

to go to a Razorback basketball game.

That was fun,

but I realized I should explained 

some of the rules of the game to them beforehand.

~

I worked my fingers to the bone

trying to finish

Terry Frey's butterfly quilt

so I could enter it in the upcoming NWA quilt show.

When I still had about 50 hrs of work left

and only 2 weeks to do it in,

I knew I had to give up.

It's kinda bummy,

because

if Instagram is any indication,

it would have been really well received,

and I feel like my chance at a ribbon was pretty good.

Ah well.

Speaking of Instagram,

I hit 500 followers a few weeks ago.

It's humbling that that many people 

feel like I have something to offer in this crafty community.

It sure isn't my glamorous, well-styled photography 😆

~

Tyler has continued work on the porch railings

as he's had time

and the weather's been cooperative.

It looks so nice when I drive up!

(It'll really look nice when we paint / stain them!)

~

The girls went to SuperStart

and we babysat kidsat for some friends.

~

The biggest news of the month

is

I went to Quilt Con!!

Long story short,

about a week and half before the trip,

one of my good blogging friends

messaged me to say that

God told her husband 

that he was supposed to send us to Quilt Con.

It was rather humbling to be on the receiving end 

of  such an extravagant gift,

but who am I to get in the way of someone obeying God??

We met in Nashville -

her coming from Arizona, and me from Arkansas.

She was exactly what I expected 

and we pretty much talked non-stop the whole weekend.

We saw hundreds of quilts,

this was my favorite -  made by Wendy Hill

and met a few other quilters.

I tried out some longarms.

We had icecream for dinner.

(yum)

I wish I'd have been more 'myself'

because I feel like I wasn't really much fun.

All in all though, it was a very nice trip

and I'm so grateful for her and her husband's generosity,

and that my man was willing to let me go off 

for a weekend with a 'stranger'.

And I'm grateful that God uses technology

to bring people together.

in January

It's cold!!

But at least the sun is shining.

~

Tony and Andrina came to visit for a week!

😃

We celebrated Andrina's birthday,

and Lexi's, too.

 No more single digit kiddos!!

Tony and Tyler braved the frigid temperatures

and worked on the back porch railing.

I didn't pull out the camera,

but TJ and one of his boys came down on Sunday afternoon,

and brought Matt, Marin, and Milo with them.

💙

~

I didn't work on it while people were here, 

of course,

but here's a picture
(taken on one of the many not sunny days...)
of where I currently am

on Terry's Jeweled Butterfly.

It's going to be pretty dang amazing
if I say so myself.

I'm considering entering it in a quilt show in NWA,

but I'll need to discuss it with my client

before I make any decisions.

~

Brandon started a new internship on Monday.

It's pretty cool

and pretty top secret,

so I'm not sure if I can tell you where...

We're excited for the opportunity for him!

And thankful he got to spend a good bit of time here, too,

while Ton' was visiting.

It was so nice to have all of my boys in the house

at the same time!

~

Work continues to be absolutely crazy and rough

for Tyler

and we are sooo ready for this season to be over.

(Basically, he's been working 2 jobs

(for the price of 1)

for almost a year now)

~

I started a new crochet project.

This one will be much faster than the last one for sure!

I'd rather be English paper piecing,

but I just don't have the gumption

(or the space)

to collect fabrics for a new project just yet...

~

The males in the household
all have wild hair.

That
will be remedied
today.

the sun will come out tomorrow

It finally stopped raining this afternoon.

And the sun came out!

And I feel ever so much better.

I've toyed around with the idea of buying one of those lights

that are supposed to help with SAD

but I hate the thought of wasting money, you know?

I probably don't have actual

Seasonal Affective Disorder,

but man do I crave the light.

The instant,

and I mean

instant,

I walked through the kitchen 

and caught sight of the sunlight in my flowers on the table,

I could fully breathe again.

Or maybe I could let my breath out all of the way.

I don't know which;

all I know is

 I could feel the benefit of the sunshine in my chest....

~

In other light news - the tree is still up

and so far, 

I am in no hurry to take it down.

and --- that's a wrap

Well.

That's that.

Another year down.

Can't say I'm sad to see 2018 end,

though.

~

It's been gloomy and rainy for days,

so it's sort of hard to even think straight.

I have made no plans for the new year.

No 'word', or 'intention', either.

I can tell you though,

I'd really like to do more than just survive.

I've already had plenty of years of that.

~

 Looking back over December:

I sold the Razorback Quilt,

I'm so tickled with where it went, who bought it, and how the purchase came about.
And I am continually humbled that it isn't the wealthy
who partner with me, but ordinary people - with hearts bigger than their wallets 💝

made excellent progress on my current commissioned project

and

finished the circle centered granny square blanket

that I started in September of '17.

I'm pretty proud of myself - learning something new,

and having it turn out so beautifully.

But then I remember that I am 50

(Fifty!?!)

and I feel a bit silly about being proud 

that I learned a little bit of crochet.

~

House-wise:

We finally hung a mirror in the upstairs bathroom

(which sounds way easier than it was...)

but the island/bar received most of the attention.

It was a multi-phase project, and still not complete,

but it's completely usable already :-)

Some day, we'll put black walnut on the bar top,

but this pine should serve us well for many years.

One of the benefits of the bar

that came as a complete surprise,

is that it invites people

(my man, guests....)

to sit and visit with me as I work.

That makes me so happy!!

And, of course, 

I love working in the kitchen

while people I love

play games at the table

across the bar.

~

We also spent a bit of time

adding just a few things to the mudroom 

to help it function properly.

We did okay without a bench and coat hooks

spring thru fall,

but they became more important as the temperature dropped.

I know.
Y'all are so envious of both my 'styling'
and my photography skills.
When I tell you the picture of the other coat rack was too bad to post,
you know it's really bad.

We hosted (most of) Tyler's family 

a few days before Christmas

and it thrilled my heart to look in there

and see the coat racks loaded down

and 25+ pairs of shoes in a jumbled heap.

~

Interestingly,

there was exactly the same number of people

at my sister's house the next day,

when she hosted our side of the family.

I"m not going to do an end of the year round up post; 

there's just not enough energy for that.

But in scrolling through my blog and Instagram feed

I am reminded of just how much we accomplished this year,

in spite of what a long, and challenging year it's been.

I would've liked for the end of 2018

 to have felt more celebratory,

as there really was a lot to celebrate.

I mean -

we hadn't even moved into the house a year ago!

And when we did (all) get moved in

in February,

it was another couple of  months

 before we had a kitchen...

Instead,

I just feel worn out and weary.

The loss of my dad has just sort of made everything 

flat.

Don't misunderstand - I *do* feel blessed,

I just also feel very flat 

(it's really the only way I can describe it)

I find that, 

after almost 11 years

(can you even believe I've had the blog this long?!!)

I am still

pursuing joy.

the end of November

I haven't checked my e-mail in over a week.

And now I'm scared to.

I get about a hundred e-mails a day;

most of them are junk,

but there are some that I'll need to tend to,

and weeding through it all takes forever.

~

Remember my china cabinet??

The one that I had to drive the trailer

to go get!?!

We finally painted it

and moved it 

to the spot that it's been waiting for its whole life

💛

It's a tiny tad more 'French's' mustard than I'd have preferred,

but I love it anyway.

As soon as I find the china 

that we bought in East Berlin

while it was still a communist country

I'll fill it up!

~

As you can see,

we also put up the Christmas tree

(and plugged in the frasier fir fragrance...)

though we have yet to put any ornaments on it.

~

no - that's not true.

There is the Operation Christmas Child ornament 

that Lexi picked up when we worked our shoebox shift.

~

For several weekends,
Tyler has been working on our stair rail

and we finally got that finished and up this weekend, too.

I love it so much!!

~

I may have gone a bit overboard,

but I've finalized the fabric pull 

for my new commissioned project.

I'm hoping to get my first block made today,

and after that,

I'll aim for a pair of blocks every work day

(double that when the blocks are small and simple)

I estimate it'll take 4-6 months to complete.

~

Along with other leftovers,

Mom and Bill gave us 

both the ham bone

and the turkey carcass

 after Thanksgiving,

so we had a delicious ham and bean soup yesterday

and our (almost) annual day-after-Thanksgiving

 turkey noodle soup.

They were both scrumptious,

but now I am ready to get back to not eating carbs!

~

I only have four more granny circles

to turn into squares and join!

(obviously, this was taken a few days ago...)
I use an empty candle jar to keep a row of circles contained and in order :-)

I discovered there is a thing called continuous join as you go

which is ever so much better than join as you go

which is better

by far

than joining afterward,

so that has sped the process up considerably.

I couldn't find an exact tutorial,

so I sorta cobbled together bits and pieces

from various blogs and videos

and muddled through

until I figured out a good method.

I should probably write it up 

so I can use it if I ever make another one...

lately

The kids had TaeKwondoTesting yesterday.

Boys had mid-terms

and girls were both testing (again) for their black belts.

Gramma and Grandpa Bill came down to cheer them on,

but Jeremiah was the only one who passed.

The others were understandably sad,

but they were still happy for their friends and brother who did pass,

and I was proud of all 4 of them.

~

I was supposed to get a package yesterday.

Fabric - 

that I planned on playing with today,

but our mail carrier said it was undeliverable

because of "bad road".

I wasn't quite as gracious in my disappointment

as my children were.

Granted,

our driveway does get a bit sketchy,

but it certainly isn't bad enough

to warrant non-delivery of packages!

Tyler and the boys

fixed it anyways.

~

We haven't done just a ton of house projects

in the past few months,

but Tyler did finish making

 and installed the pantry door

a few weeks ago.

I love it!

(but it's terribly hard to photograph.)

He bought the window for $2.50 at a yard sale,

and built the door around it.

The barn door hardware was a bargain Snagshout purchase,

originally ordered for the upstairs bathroom,

but it worked even more perfectly in the kitchen.

We pretty much just leave it open,

but it's nice to have the option to close it.

~

Remember the circle centered granny squares?

I finally finished all 168 circles

and started turning them into squares and joining them.

I got 3 rows done super fast

(meaning - I ignored most other responsibilities

for a whole day

and may have even frustrated my very fabric-tolerant husband,

but I was trying to build muscle memory

so I wouldn't have to re-figure how to do it)

and then decided I definitely wasn't happy with my yarn choice

(I suspected I wasn't when I bought it...)

so I have been undoing

and redoing those 3 rows.

I like the new yarn much better,

so it was a wise call.

(but I still haven't gotten all 3 rows re-done,

and it's been over a week....)

I still like fabric

better than yarn.

~

The boys are taking a writing class on Monday afternoons.

They aren't exactly enjoying it,

but they are doing well.

Adding in another day of being out and about

is wearing out the momma, though!

In addition,

the class is only one hour long, 

and in an area of FSM 

that isn't convenient for most of our shopping needs

so I can't even redeem the time by running errands.

The girls and I did go to Michaels a few times

since it's somewhat nearby,

but that's not financially feasible

on a weekly basis

because it's very hard 

for 3 crafters 

to just 

look

at Michaels.

I am glad to have some assistance in teaching writing though.

~

Once I got all quilt commitments finished,

I started really hoping for a new commisioned project.

I've only given 2 machines this year...

I didn't exactly pray about it,

but God certainly knew it was on my heart.

A few days ago,

an old friend messaged that she would like to commission me

to make her a quilt!

I am so looking forward to reconnecting with her 

through the process,

and I'm excited to actually feel a little excited

about a project.

And 

of course,

 I am thrilled to be able to give a few more machines,

though this'll be a bit of a doozy

and it's unlikely I will finish this year.

that's just the beginnings of the fabric pull :-) some will be weeded out and many more will be added

~

If you'd like to see some of the progress pictures

from my dad's quilt,

you'll find them on instagram with the # lovebuildsahomequilt.

I am making a concerted effort to post more on the blog,

but there is no denying that it's much easier

to quickly post on Instagram

so you can always check over there

if you get tired of waiting for me here.

life, lately

Wow

life is just zooming by, isn't it?!

I admit I rarely feel like blogging lately.

Unless it's a super quick note,

writing a post

and adding pictures

(especially when one's camera isn't working properly

so all photos have to be taken with the phone,

and then sent via FB messenger

to oneself,

and then saved to computer

before being added to blog...)

takes a lot longer than you might think.

It does for me, anyways....

~

I think I'll just go through phone pictures,

and work my way backwards.

Hadley was here on Sunday!

She is getting so big,

and she talks

pretty much non-stop.

We can interpret maybe 20% of what she's saying.

She's a little bit sassy

and a lotta bit sweet.

Friday and Saturday,

we built the butcherblock style countertop 

out of the black walnut flooring we bought

on our last trip to Harrison to get the rest of the oak we needed.

It's so pretty!!

A few weeks ago,

the kids wanted to surprise Dad,

and cleaned out the pool

all by themselves!!

They worked together so nicely,

for several hours,

motivated by the knowledge

 that they were blessing their Papa

who has been soooo busy with work.

They already had it filling up,

when he went out to start cleaning it.

I was so proud of them!

With the new pipes,

 our water pressure is amazing

and we had the pool refilled in record time.

Seeing that we skipped Spring

 and went straight to Summer,

it's already gotten tons of use.

~

I got a clothesline for Mother's Day!!!

And Tyler even added a little flower garden to each post!!

It makes me happy.

~

Our property hasn't gotten much any attention

the past two years,

and it's getting a bit wild,

but man, 

I love it!!

And I feel so thankful for it,

and this beautiful house

and these people

several times a day.