'owl' always love you

So.

Several weeks ago, Kacy texted me and asked if I'd seen her pin.

Which set off a series of texts and messages

 and online shopping 

and about 8 hours of sewing

over the past few weeks,

and resulted in this:

A wallet, made especially for my li'l redhead :-)

I didn't want any owls upside down, so I made the outer panel be 2 pieces instead of one.
(I'm kinda surprised this wasn't part of the pattern, actually)

That was a ton of layers to stitch through. I broke a needle (a denim needle, at that!) before deciding to turn the wheel by hand

I thought the pocket looked a little boring inside, so I (after making it, of course)

decided to add an owl

as a fun little surprise.

Then I added a heart to the owl, to remind Kac' that 'owl' always love her :-)

After I finished, I told Tyler I needed to put a little bit of ribbon on the zipper,
'cause it was just a tiny bit tricky to grab when it was completely shut.
He said, "I wasn't going to say anything, but I thought maybe a little owl or something on there would be cute."
Which I thought was an absolutely perfect idea (and so much better than ribbon!)
so the girls and I spent 45 minutes at Hobby Lobby the other day
picking out just the right one.

Happy Valentine's Day, Kacy;
your wallet is on its way :-)

If you give a girl some fabric

If you give a girl some fabric

she'll want to iron it.

So you tell her to use the little ironing board, so the iron isn't too close to her precious face

and let her have at it.

Of course, she'll need some starch, too.

So you'll give her two choices; the homemade, in the easy-to-spray bottle,

and the magic sizing.

She'll choose the stuff you use, and say it's actually easier.

She'll spray and iron, spray and iron,

and spray and iron some more

until she is satisfied with how crisp her fabric is.

Then she will decide she wants to make a purse out of the fabric,

so you'll even up the edges,

then glue baste her seam allowances

and mark a stitching line.

You'll teach her how to love her thread, and take a few stitches through the thicker part,

then hand over the needle.

She'll concentrate very hard

and sew and sew

and even poke herself a time or three

until she has a finished purse!

Which she will, of course, want to iron.

As soon as it's all nicely pressed, she will decide she wants to add some beads to it.

because, she is your daughter, after all.

You tell her how much easier it would have been to add the beads before sewing it into a purse,

but then you explain that you totally understand.

So you find a smaller needle,

one that will go through the beads,

and show her, one time, how to sew on a bead,

and remind her that she'll have to be very careful or she'll sew her purse shut.

And then,

she will bead.

And before you know it, 

she will have a lovely little beaded purse,

(that did not get sewn closed)

just waiting for you to help her get  handles sewn on.

You just never know what will happen,

when you give a girl some fabric.

~

Lex' ~ Momma is so proud of you!

linking up with Amanda Jean's Finish it up Fridays :-)

gadget girl

Since there are so many of us, and we are home, pretty much all the time,

our 'things' see more use than many people's.

We use our stuff a lot.

To death, really.

And this old computer has been on its last leg for quite some time.

We've been looking for an affordable replacement since last summer.

About a week and a half ago, Tyler found a suitable refurbished laptop

for a good price, so we ordered it.

(It actually just arrived today. I should be typing this up on that one, huh? Not sure why I'm not. Habit; I suppose.)

Saturday (or maybe it was Friday?) Tyler told me he'd ordered my Valentine's gift.

I responded with a very loving, "We don't do Valentine's gifts."

It turns out, he hadn't actually ordered it yet, but it was in his cart - a tablet.

I wasn't really sure what I'd need a tablet for...

Plus, we'd just ordered that laptop... and we need to save money...

He was a little confused at my lack of excitement as he thought I'd mentioned to him that I wanted a tablet,

and since I rarely mention wanting something, he wanted to buy it for me.

I was fairly certain I hadn't mentioned wanting a tablet, 

seeing as how I'm still not sure what one is (or does).

But I had kinda

 sorta 

been thinking 

that I might want to think about 

considering

 maybe

 getting a Kindle.

And I had mentioned that to him.

(When kindles first came out, I was vehemently opposed to them. 

I 

like

books!

I still can't imagine one taking the place of books completely, but I can see how they have a place...)

Kindle. Tablet. You see how he was confused...

I assured him that I wasn't saying I wanted one, mind you, I was merely thinking about maybe wanting one.

Some day...

 I hadn't even begun to research which one I might want.

And I don't do much of anything without researching it (to death...)

Brandon and Tyler proceeded to tell me all about what I could do with my new tablet

(a really good one, for a great price, no less)

and I started thinking maybe I did want this tablet thing, after all.

So about 3 or 4 hours after he put it in his shopping cart, Tyler ordered it.

Then I started getting a little excited about having my own tablet.

Why, I could even take it to bed and do tablet-y things 

right before I went to sleep!

I could probably even use it as a reader?

I have several e-books that I've gotten free, but have never really had a good way to read.

I figured Brandon could get them on my tablet for me.

Tonight,

Tyler came home and said something about my Valentines' gift.

He was worried that my tablet might not come by Friday

(it's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow)

so maybe he should get another gift.

I reminded him, again, that we don't do gifts for Valentines Day

(but I didn't tell him the delivery schedule ;-)

Then 

he said he'd already bought me something and didn't I just want it now?

The man can not wait to give a gift at the 'proper' time.

If it's purchased - he has to give it :-)

So,

I told him I would rather just wait 'til V-day.

Because I am a stinker like that ;-)

But then I told him 

he could give it to me now...

So he handed me a Staples bag

(only I didn't know it was a Staples bag)

And inside of the bag was a rectangular, kinda weighty, box.

Why, would he buy me chocolates? I wondered to myself as I reached in the bag.

They must be some mighty special chocolates

I thought.

As I pulled out 

a Kindle Fire!

And now, 

this spoiled rotten gadget girl is going to go read a book. 

Sort of. 

;-)

baby quilts

Lots of bloggers churn out quilt 

after quilt 

after

 quilt.

often, they are baby quilts, or small lap sizes.

I always thought it was because they were faster

(and they most certainly would be!)

but I'm thinking it's more because 

that's what size works best in home machines...

Sundays might be my day off from exercising

(Oh, how I look forward to Sundays!)

but I sure got a workout anyways, quilting this thing.

Every time around a star, I have to turn the quilt 16 times.

(8 points, 8 valleys)

Most of those 16 times,

I have to wrestle the bulk of the quilt

through that little space.

I'm thinkin' - next time? 

Baby quilt.

still kickin'

I do believe this is the longest I've gone without posting in my 5 + years of blogging.

(Can you believe it's been 5 years?! Time is just wooshing by)

I'm sorry if you worried about me.

I'm doing okay.

~

We've had snow,

multiple times,

in the past 2 weeks.

And it is so stinkin' cold. 

This non-insulated house and all of our portable heaters just can't keep up.

I've actually gotten in quite a bit of sewing,

but save for some hastily snapped crappy cell phone shots,

(which I really don't want to torture you with)

I have no pictures to document it.

And I don't want to take time to get decent pictures so you'll just have to take my word on it.

The  hole is patched (I made a teeny tiny yo-yo and hand sewed it over the hole. 

My friend (who knew about the hole) looked right at the spot and didn't notice it, so I call that a win.)

I finished the quilt top Saturday night (I went with the patchwork border after all. Tyler liked it...)

and moved right on to the backing

which I finished Sunday morning while the snow was coming down in huge flakes outside.

Since I couldn't baste the beast at the house, and we couldn't go anywhere,

 I took a break from the quilt to start on a specially-requested wallet :-)

(I'm almost finished with it - about another hour and a half or so left)

Monday night, I went with Tyler to the church to spray baste.

(Love, LOVE spray basting! So worth the additional expense in my (and my knee's and back's) opinion!)

A friend of mine came over, too, so I could show her how I do it ~ so that was fun.

(she's always basted with pins. she was duly impressed ;-)

Tuesday, I started on the machine quilting.

I'm having to go slow or my stitches gets loose and tension goes all wacky.

Not sure what's up with that. It's a bother, to be sure.

Wednesday,

I was gone from the house almost the entire day. bleh!

Jeremiah and Lily both had dentist appointments;

Jeremiah had a cleaning and Lily, bless her heart, had her four front bottom teeth pulled!

Her teeth were coming in behind 'em, and they had to go.

Then I had my appointment with a naturopath doctor in F'ville

(where I got a big list of supplements to try - which is just what I was hoping for)

before heading further north to take Gramma Joyce out to dinner to the Village Inn.

(Wednesday is free pie night ~ you know that makes Gramma light up like the Fourth of July!)

TJ took my last turn, since the weather was yucky, 

so I was really missing her. I'm glad the weather was agreeable for me to go - it was kinda iffy there for awhile...

We had a really nice visit (TJ joined us, too, looking especially handsome :-)

and Gramma was thrilled to go home with 2 pieces of pie 

(mine and T's free slices - she ate every bit of hers!) 

which I told her not to eat all at once, but I doubt she listened to me ;-)

(Okay, fine. She went home with almost 2 pieces of pie - I took 3 bites. Sue me.)

I headed home after dinner, 

but T and Gramma decided they were going to see a movie after dinner before he took her (and her pie) home.

I made it home just in time to watch an episode of Leverage with my men, before ironing Tyler's shirt and crawling into bed.

Today,

I spent about 2 1/2 hours and a bunch of money

buying that list of supplements 

and now I've got a quilt and a sewing machine calling my name...

(there's also a clogged sink calling my name.

I'm ignoring it.)

girls' night

Friday night,

the guys went on a father-son freeze-your-butt-off camping trip

so we had a little girls' night here at the house.

Make-up & curly hair,

and 

pizza 

and a princess movie.

She looks so much like her big sissy did when she was a little girl!

this right here? classsic Lex'

I love you, my beautiful girls ~ with or without curls and make-up.

I'm proud to be your momma.

(After a few hours, Lily brushed her hair, to kinda tone the curls down a little.

She said "I like the curls - I just wanted to make them more 'me'." 

I love that she knows what 'me' feels like.

I hope she doesn't forget as she gets older...)

magic sizing

I used to sell candles.

I don't know that I've ever mentioned it on the blog, have I?

Anyways,

it was a long time ago, and I was actually quite good at it.
When I was pregnant with Brandon
I stressed for months over how was I going to sell PartyLite and properly take care of a baby.
My babies pretty much consume my life for a year or more.
As soon as I realized that deciding to no longer sell candles
didn't mean I was a quitter,
I quit.
I had my last show in August of '98, about 5 or 6 weeks before Brandon was born.

Terry, the friend who came to Brandon's birth, was a PartyLite consultant too.

She just loved doing the paperwork.

Now, I didn't hate the paperwork, but it sure wasn't my favorite part.

Terry though?

I can still see her -

she'd scrunch up her shoulders and rub her hands together with glee 

when it was time to get the orders all ready to turn in.

That's how I feel about my magic sizing.

I love the stuff!

I got the star blocks sewn together, and when I pressed the seams,

I discovered that my can was 'bout  empty.

Which means,

I get to open a new can next time I sew!

It's enough to make a girl giddy.

stuck

I've given myself a deadline of Feb 6th.

That's when the olympics begin,

and I want to have this all put together and the machine quilting part finished by then.

That way, I can sit on my butt do the hand-quilting while I watch all the athletic people.

Monday I was going to cut my batting

(you remember - that's what I use to lay out the quilt, and then it's already ready when I'm ready to baste :-)

but then I got scared;

I'd never cut a piece of batting that much longer than my measuring board.

See - the batting is 90 inches wide (it's folded in half on the roll - making it 45 inches but that's neither here nor there...)

So what I do, having never before made a quilt longer than 90 inches,

is cut my batting to the width of the quilt, and use the width of the batting for the length of the quilt.

This blasted quilt is 80x92, so I had to cut a piece 96 inches long.

My board is only 72 inches.

My fear of cutting the batting inaccurately, (well, and maybe how busy I was with other things, too, a little bit...)

kept me from cutting it for 3 days.

Yes, I realize I am a stupid wimp.

I just made myself do it today,

and felt so silly for being scared.

Really! What was the worst that could happen?

Sheesh.

Anyways.

I cut the batting, tacked it up on the wall

and started laying out the quilt.

(Then I wondered why the heck did I have to cut it so huge?)

And now, 

I've run into a bit of a problem.

(a real problem.)

The stars (yes - I still need to fix that one...) 

look fabulous.

(although, not perfect, but oh well.)

But when I added the border section - ugh!

It totally draws attention away from the the stars of the quilt.

(get it? the stars are the stars... hehe)

And it looked so nice on paper, too.

(sigh)

So now I need to figure out what to do....

(but one thing's for sure. I am not making more stars!)

flabbergasted and flustered and all fired up

Well.

I'm not sure about the local library thing.

We went last week and got our card

and they let us each get 1 book.

Obviously,

we weren't there very long, only picking out 1 book each.

(Except that they had some books for sale - paperbacks were only $ .25, so I had to look through all 3 carts.

It was time well spent; 

I got my very own copy of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society which just thrills me to no end.)

So, today, being Wednesday, we went back to the library.

The adult section is okay,

but ya'll!

The children's room is a nightmare!

You should see the way they shelve the books.

Here - let me give you just a peek

Lest you think that's an anomaly:

Seriously?!?!

They don't bother alphabetizing the books except by the first letter.

I just don't even know what to say.

I was so stressed I had to get out of there - and I wasn't even looking for anything in particular.

But if I was - the chance of me finding it would be slim.

I'm going to give it my best shot.

I really want the local library to work for us.

But I'm just not sure it's going to.

Lily is wondering

If the Scarecrow has no brain,

then how on earth would he know 

that
 he didn't have a brain?

four-week fitness update

So.

It's been 4 weeks since my last one,

so it's time for another fitness update.

(It's been 4 weeks? How does time fly so fast?!)

I ended up skipping a few days of exercise around Christmas

but I got right back to consistent daily (except Sundays) exercise Jan 2nd.

About 5 weeks ago, I added in 30 Day Shred.

Mon, Wed, and Friday, I'd do that,

and Tues, Thurs, and Saturday, I'd do 2 days worth of 8 Minutes in the Morning, plus my extras.

After about 2 weeks of that routine,

I started noticing that I actually felt a little better after exercising

on the days I did 30 Day Shred (which combines cardio and strength training).

(I hadn't ever noticed an improved mood/frame of mind after just strength training exercises)

A few days after that realization, 

Tyler told me he thought I needed to be doing more cardio.
He'd been talking with a buddy of his about weight loss...

As you might imagine,

it kinda ticked me off a little bit,

Mr Skinnypants telling me what I needed to do to lose weight, 

but I knew he was right.

~ sigh ~

So ever since then,

I've either done 30 day shred or I've done this and added in squats, crunches, and chest flies.
I got tired of doing the inverted pullups - I don't seem to be making any progress
(shocker)
and my arms and shoulders are already perpetually sore thanks to Jillian.

The good news is,

it's getting a little easier, this daily exercise thing.
And I don't cry so much.

The bad news is, my knees and my right heel hurt pretty much all the time now.
(but the knee pain is not the possible-meniscus-tear knee pain, thank the Lord!)

We've purchased a mini trampoline 

(which is quite huge in this tiny house) in an attempt to lessen the pain,

and I just got a couple of books that might help me figure out what supplements I need.
The first one, I tossed aside pretty quickly,
but the second, The Mood Cure, actually caused a feeling of hope to swell up in me.
Of course, that hopeful feeling was quickly consumed by being flat overwhelmed with trying to figure it all out.

Food-wise,
I don't know, I think maybe I need to eat more?
I don't really think eating less is an option...
It's kinda hard to know what I need
when no matter when and what I eat,
and how much or how little,
the scale (and apparently, the tape measure, too) is going to do it's own dadgum thing.
It's downright disheartening.

I still haven't made an appointment with my Dr.
(I don't really know why I'm dragging my feet on that.)
I did make up a fancy chart though,
after carefully taking notes for the past 4 months.

If you flip it upside down,
that's pretty much how the scale moves.
Pretty sure it's related.

And I'm pretty tired of spending the bulk of my life
(haha - bulk of my life ~ oh, I tickle myself... ahem.)
doing eh. ok. and worse.
For a long time, I was fine with that,
because it's sooo much better than
years 
of every. single. day.
feeling
not so good,
UGH!
and way way worse.

~
So.
Here are the not at all impressive numbers.
After all that hard work (and cardio ;-)
I am down a whopping 1.8 lbs.
In 4 weeks.
Like I said - not impressive.
But hey, I'll take it.
Especially when statistically, obese people gain 5 lbs over the holidays.
And it's better than the .6 I lost in the previous 4 weeks...

Measurement wise, this is what's going on:
neck - down 1/8"
upper bust - increased by 3/8" (increased by 3/4" last month. what gives?!)
no change in the bust measurement
ribs - down 5/8"
down 1/2" in my waist
and 3/8 in my hips
down 1/4" each in my thighs, knees and calves
and my wrists are 1/8" smaller

For the amount of effort I am expending, these results are pretty pitiful
and I'm not going to bother with pictures again,
because, really.

Moving forward,
I'm just going to keep plugging along.
Maybe I can actually make some headway in the supplement department, thanks to my new book,
and I can start feeling like myself again.
I have a sneaking suspicion that whenever that finally happens,
my body will let go of the weight more easily.

Now, if you'll excuse me,
I have an appointment
 with Jillian