devil's den, a quick day trip

Yesterday, although nobody was feeling real super,

Tyler wanted to be a good papa, so he took the kids on a little explore to Devil's Den.

Most photos were taken by Brandon.

A few were taken by Tyler.
I'll let you guess which ones ;-)

several quick takes

It's been so long since I've done a 'quick takes', I can't even remember how many takes there are supposed to be.

I'll just see how many I've got. How 'bout that?

1.

I was writing a letter to Ton' shortly after it started snowing yesterday.

In it, I told him about how the kids were premature in asking me to set out some carrots for snowmen noses.

Said that I doubted we'd get enough snow for that...

Guess what my next letter will say?

2.

Whenever Lexi has a headache, she says, "My head-fore hurts."

I can't bear to correct her, it's so sweet;

and what's more, I reinforce her mispronunciation by asking about her head-fore later.

3.

Shopping at Sam's the other day, Lily pointed to the three-pound container of Daisy sour cream,

"Oooh," she squealed, "It's so cute!"

We buy the five-pounder ;-)

4.

So far, all of my sewing, with the exception of some mending, this year has been for others.

First a happy colorful quilt. 

do you see that thread? drives me bonkers. 

(for which Nancy generously paid me, despite my not charging her for my stitching services. 

All my blathering on about 'nobody can afford what my time is worth',

and now I'm not sure she got her money's worth....

So now, I'm humbled. 

And I'm deciding what to do with it...;-)

Then I took in (took up?) a bridesmaid's dress for a young friend.

(a task I cheerfully did out of love, but was reluctant to take on, for fear I'd ruin it. and thus, ruin her friend's entire wedding)

After that, I helped another friend with some sewing;

she just recently taught herself (and her daughters) to sew using this book,

and thought she'd gotten in over her head with her latest project.

Turns out, the directions were just really confusing,

and I'm confident that with proper directions, she could have tackled the job beautifully.

I was quite happy to help out anyways ~ the fabric was so soft and pretty,

and I added to my ever-growing arsenal of sewing knowledge in the process.

I also realized, sewing up 3 of the same pattern,

that it is best to start with the littlest size first.

The larger sizes will be passed down, and therefore worn (and looked at) much longer.

So it's best to work out any kinks (and there are usually kinks...) on the clothes that will be receiving the least wear.

I, of course, did not do this.

5.

I am remedying the above only-sewing-for-non-family issue

with a not-at-all-secret, very-likely-won't-be-finished-on-time quilt for TJ, for his birthday.

As much as I love surprising people,

I think it's actually going to be more fun this way.

Now I can pester delight both Lynnet and T with pictures of my progress :-)

You, too, can get crappy in-progress photos texted to your number. 

Just let me know... I'll be happy to add you to the list ;-)

I've also been collecting fabric for a quilt for Tyler,

since he's claimed my red and aqua quilt 

and will only relinquish it when he receives a similar quilt (in different colors. and a bit bigger...)

He was whining muttering something the other day about having to buy his own quilt on e-bay. psh.

I'm working on it...

6.

Remember when I snuck in that little brag about my poinsettia?

She was just a pitiful looking 7(ish) leaf $.99 Black Friday special, but look at her  now:

I realize that, for most people, this is, like, normal,

but I have never been very good with growing anything except kids, cucumbers, and cats,

so I'm quite tickled with myself.

7.

Lily and Lexi were snotty and stuffed up last night;

(weird how you can be both...)

they slept horribly.

Consequently, so did I.

It wasn't all that long ago, that getting up a kazillion times a night was normal.

I'm grateful there's a new normal.

(which still consists of getting woke up during the night - but not every single night, every few hours...)

8.

Tomorrow, our neighbor is coming over for dinner and games.

I should probably figure out what to fix, huh?

snow day

Photos by Brandon (and Kacy)

poor li'l Lex'

Lexi is having such a hard time wrapping her little mind around death.

Last week, after I'd hacked away a few branches of a scraggly tree with a machete,

so I could more easily dig sweet Dallas' grave back by the bushes he loved to explore,

she stood there with her lip quivering.

"How many lives do dogs get?" she asked, trying not to cry. again.

"Only one, Baby. Only one." I told her sadly.

She's asked the question about twenty times since then.

The question, and the answer, are always the same.

But now, she's moving on to people.

"A doctor could help a person if they die, right?"

"No, Sweetie. If somebody dies, only God can help them."

She asks again, emphasizing the word 'doctor', thinking I must have misunderstood.

The answer doesn't change.

"But what if they get shot? 

A doctor could help them then, right?"

"Yes, if the bullet didn't kill them, a doctor could help."

"People live longer lives than dogs, don't they? People don't die when they are just little."

And I have to tell her that, yes, little people die too, sometimes.

"But I won't, right?"

And all I can tell her is, "I hope not!"

Lexi and the electric shaver

Tyler has used a cordless electric shaver for years.

He keeps it in his car

and brings it in every few weeks when it needs to be recharged.

He'd had it in the house this weekend, and brought it back to his car when he left for work Monday morning.

Tuesday,

he couldn't find it.

He thoroughly searched his car before telling me he had a problem.

I wasn't overly concerned;

Tyler's thorough looking and my thorough looking are sometimes very different.

Meaning - just because he couldn't find it, didn't mean it wasn't really there...

(You know it's true ;-)

So I went and looked for it,

and you know what? It wasn't in his car.

He was positive he hadn't brought it in, but I checked the counter in the bathroom anyways,

and also his little landing pad for stuff he brings in

in the living room.

No razor.

Best we could figure was he must've kicked it out of his car (?)

So,

I went to Amazon.com and ordered him a new one.

In doing so, I realized he'd had that one longer than I remembered and he was probably about due for a new one anyways.

We don't really do gifts for valentine's day,

but I thought it was awfully suspect that he lost his razor two days before v-day

and we have free two day shipping with amazon prime ;-)

(not really, but it was fun to tease him)

(and he did buy me a cute little rose bush. Probably because I've done such a good job with my poinsettia from Christmas ;-)

(Like how I got that little brag in there?)

As he was opening the Amazon package 

we were discussing again

how he just couldn't figure out what had happened to his razor.

Lexi pipes up, "I know where it is."

And she ran to get it!

She had gotten it out of his car

and brought it in the house

and put it in the drawer that the charger goes in.

Nobody looked in there for it,

because there was no reason for it to be there.

Then we were discussing what we should do with the new razor

send it back? 

use it, but save the old one for back-up? 

keep using the old one, but save the new one for when the old one dies?

when Lexi hugged the box to her chest, "I want to save it for my husband. He's going to need one of these."

needle and thREAD ~ brought to you by the number 125

Last summer, she asked Tyler if she could hire me to make her a quilt.

"No," I told him; 

"I could never charge somebody what my time is worth, I'd rather gift it.

If she buys the fabric, I'll make one for her."

In January, I told Tyler to tell her

I was ready to make her quilt.

She wanted:

Lightweight.

Red

purple

blue

orange

and aqua.

No pink.

No flowers. 

(um. I didn't exactly abide by this one...)

A smidge of green and yellow.

Totally random.

A bohemian hippie vibe, with a nod to re-purposing.

Oh. 

And the quilting should be unexpected.

After a few e-mails back and forth, and visiting over coconut coffee, 

I had a pretty good picture in my mind of what she wanted.

I ordered a rainbow bundle of fat sixteenths (light on the greens and yellows).

I added a little bundle of purple,

and another of oranges.

I dug through every piece of fabric that I own,

looking for pieces that met the above requirements.

Then I shopped at thrift shops, Hancocks, Hobby Lobby, and The Bargain Shack to round out my (admittedly tall) stack

and ended up with 123 different fabrics.

after shrinkage, quilt is 69x81 (did you see the pop of orange in the binding? :-)

I spent 5 hours over the course of 3 days cutting 4 1/2 inch squares.

(It takes a lot longer to cut a few squares from a bunch of fabrics

than it takes to cut a bunch of squares from a few fabrics!)

A week of sewing (and ironing) here and there

resulted in a finished quilt top.

In early January, a friend had offered to let me dig through some bins of fabric;

she knew I was a quilter (I'm a quilter!!:-) and thought I might find something I could put to good use.

I kept hoping that when I dug through the bins, I'd find fabric that would be perfect for the back of Nancy's quilt.

And I did!

Of course, I had to add some piecing to the back, too.

I used up every cm of those fat sixteenths ~ I had to; that was some expensive fabric!

After a quick trip to the church to baste it,

I spent the next 3 days quilting with my new Juki exceed f600.

Then it was time to decide on a binding.

And then, of course, make, and attach the binding,

then hand-sew it to the back.

(I forgot to take pictures, but my corners were perfect. I was so tickled!)

123 fabrics, plus the blue back

and the black binding - so, 125 fabrics

and about 31 hours of cutting, sewing, and ironing (ironing is a big part of quilting!)

and Nancy got the quilt she's always wanted her whole life.

Thanks, Nancy, for letting me make your quilt.

It was a fun challenge :-)

I hope you and Bruce enjoy many picnics on it

and snuggles on the couch under it.

Most of the photos in this post are by Brandon ~ thanks, Bud!

Linking up with my quilting mentor's Finish it up Fridays

and my friend's with needle and thREAD, although very little reading transpired.

sorta lazy stitcher

Natalie  says that thread for hand-sewing should never be longer than from your finger tips to your elbow.

Long thread - Lazy girl she says.

I measure from my fingers to my elbow twice. (This is acceptable when doubling thread)

And then, 

before cutting the thread,

I unwind just one more round from the spool.

I guess that means I am a sorta lazy stitcher.