Another First

Today is the first day of high school for my youngest. It is tradition for photos to be taken every first day of school. It usually goes something like this.... Photos 1 through 10- smiles....

Photos 11 through 25- still smiling.....

Photos 26 through 47- well, you get the point.....

OK so now I have one in college and one in high school- gosh I just don't feel that old!!!!!

So now the house is very quiet again.... this will take some getting used to.... better get busy....

Guys and Dolls

Daughter recently starred in our community theater's production of Guys and Dolls as "mission doll" Sarah Brown. She worked very hard all summer and she was really wonderful, I am so proud of her, she is really very talented.The whole show was really entertaining, everyone did a great job (my husband and I saw it 3 times!). Who knew there were so many talented people in our little county? I think this is a really fun show, and I love the music (so catchy- I've been singing it around the house ever since.)

Create and Decorate Project

Here is a project I did for Create and Decorate magazine, it is in their October 2009 issue. It's called "Welcome to Our Pumpkin Patch." The wool and felt "pumpkin heads" have whimsical expressions and are so fun.

Yes, it really is time to start thinking about fall projects!

I have been working on a Christmas program for church, so I have already been listening to Christmas carols- the kids are rolling their eyes! I have to be careful NOT to get tired of Christmas by mid-October.... but I do love Christmas and I can't wait to start thinking about decorating, baking and shopping- and of course listening to my favorite songs! It's just a little odd, I know- it is about 92 degrees outside today....

Back to School

Yesterday we dropped oldest daughter off at college. We helped her unpack most of her things, and got her dorm room just about in order. So now she is ready to study, study, study- ha ha!!!

On the way home, we stopped at Anthropologie- it is such a unique store- I "stole" a few photos. Watch out- I feel some creative inspiration coming on!

This should be a busy week- younger daughter goes back to school next so we have to go shoe shopping, get her "new school year" haircut, etc.

And I have a ton of "administrative" work to do... I think it would be so cool if I could just clone myself- so I could everything done, and get it done the way I want it done (I'm just a little bit of a control freak....) Does anyone remember that Michael Keaton movie from the 80's called Carbon Copy? He figured out a way to clone himself so he could get more done... but unfortunately one clone was a copy of a copy- so he was a little "fuzzy" -if you know what I mean...
Have a happy Monday.

Machine Applique Tips

I do a lot of my projects with machine applique- while I really love the look of hand applique and enjoy doing it, time doesn't permit me to hand applique as many projects as I'd like (I make all of my samples myself). Doing a tutorial on machine quilting has been on my "To Do" list for a long long time..... In the meantime, I did find these helpful suggestions from the folks at Better Homes and Gardens on their All People Quilt website.

We are enjoying older daughter's last week here at home before she heads back to college on Sunday. She will be glad to see her friends, but we will really miss having her smiling face around here... it always seems so quiet when she's not around... I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving break!

A Tasty Birthday....

Sunday was my birthday- but it also happens to be the birthday of my good friend, John, so we all went out after church for brunch to celebrate (John likes to tell everyone that we are twins, even though he is a few years younger than me, and I think there are a few people who still actually believe it..... in addition to sharing a birthday, we also happen to celebrate other holidays on the same day, too, like Christmas and Arbor Day....) John's wife, Katherine (above) works in Philadelphia and knew of this place called Max Brenner's, which is really kind of Willy Wonka-esque. Lots and lots of chocolate. When this was mentioned as a possibility for a birthday celebration, I said, I am in.
We had a hard time deciding what to order... should we order "real food" and then dessert, or just go for the waffles and french toast which WERE LIKE DESSERT...... hmmm.... we finally decided to get "real food" aka omelettes first, to fortify our blood sugar levels for the dessert course. (Wise decision, by the way.)

I got a new camera for my birthday, which I brought with me so I could document the event. However, when the food came to the table, photos were completely forgotten.... I remembered about halfway through our meal....
and yes those are little bowls of melted butter and melted milk chocolate that came with our meal..... Afterwards it was time for dessert..... another tough decision..... ice cream? cake? waffles?? Hubby and I shared Tutti Frutti waffles (yes this is on the brunch menu but we ordered it for dessert..... honestly I can't imagine having this for breakfast.... it almost puts me into a diabetic coma just thinking about it.... ) Waffles, strawberries, blueberries, toffee bananas, melted milk chocolate, vanilla ice cream.................................................... Needless to say... photos were again forgotten and I remembered only when there was nothing left to photograph but the aftermath..... It may look like I licked the plate clean, but I assure you that I did not (though, had we not been in a public place, I cannot say what might have happened....)

Afterwards we walked around the city a little (exercise was well-called for) and I used a little of my birthday money to buy some favorite magazines at the book store, then we came home and I relaxed on the sofa enjoying my magazines (I think there was probably a little nap in there, too.)

As I mentioned, I got a new camera, a Canon PowerShot, which is nice and small so I can carry it in my purse, and hopefully not miss photo opportunities again (unless it involves food, in which case photos will probably be forgotten anyway....)

Surprise Post - Happy Birthday from your Hubby!

Forgive me for intruding on your blog, my love, but I wanted to suprise you with a Happy Birthday wish in a place that I don't think you would have expected. I know you aren't crazy about surprises, but this seemed to be a little more understated than a big surprise party (which I know would have ticked you off!!).

Don't worry, I will not mention your age (but will remind your readers that we just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary - good thing we married when you were 12!).

Anyway, I just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY and to tell you how much I love you. I really thank God that He brought you into my life and for all that you have given to me over the years. I hope that the kids and I can make your day a relaxing and enjoyable celebration - you deserve it!!!


All my love,
Chris

In Progress

There are lots of projects near completion.... I started this wool project over a year ago... It is finally done! I think I did a sneak peek of this project a long, long time ago here on the blog.... It was just one of those projects that I worked on intermittently whenever I got the chance- I set my mind to finishing it a couple of weeks ago and here it is. I have to get it photographed and write up the instructions (yuck! my least favorite part...) and then get the pattern printed up. This is the boy-themed quilt that I mentioned here just a couple of weeks ago- yes I actually already got it done! It is off to the machine quilter today, so I'll have it back in a few weeks, then we can photograph it and print up the pattern (I have to write the instructions for this one, too.... I always put that part off....) Also off to the machine quilter today is the "cat poop quilt".... The dry cleaner got the stains out, but it is over-pressed and I hope I can get the machine quilter to cover up some of the set-in wrinkles with her stitches..... and it also has that icky solvent smell to it... Kitty is lucky she has 9 lives (now only 8!)

And here is a quilt that I started yesterday (when I was supposed to be writing the directions for the 2 above projects....) I am using a lot of fabrics from the Mill House Inn Collection by Fig Tree Quilts and Simple Abundance Collection by Bonnie and Camille (both from Moda, and will be out in the stores in early fall), as well as a couple of Folklorique (Fig Tree Quilts) and Robyn Pandolph for RJR and Kansas Trouble Quilters from Moda fabrics. I really am itching to work on this- I am going to hand applique it, which is something I haven't done in a little while, my last few projects have been done with machine applique. But first I have to write those pattern instructions! (I think I can, I think I can.....!)