Deja-Vu

So I did this the last time I did the quilt-a-long. They are now on week 10 today, I just finished week 4 last night. So, that is the goal for this week! Catch up! :) It wouldn't be as large of a goal if I was doing just a single set of each block, but instead I have been doing 2. So, last night I finished up the fourth week & now have 8 finished blocks to show for it. I am really not in love with this block and seriously debated re-doing it. But it took almost two hours to finish them and there is no turning back now! :)

And I've really been trying to do more creative things with the kids. So, I took them out for a few hours on Saturday (while Daddy did his homework ... these PhD classes are brutal!). We hit the free craft at Lowe's. Did you know they give you a cute little badge (like a boy scout badge) for each craft you do? And they also gave the kids their own aprons to put them on! They are really excited about the baseball field they made and have been playing with it like crazy. I'm going to make a scrapbook of those craft things. :) Then we hit Lakeshore Learning's free Saturday craft as well. I was pretty proud of the kids creations. The gal kept making suggestions to my kids about ribbon or what beads to use and where would be the best placement of things and I just kept telling her that I was letting them do it all on their own.Their finished projects were beautiful and perfect, because they did them ... not me. :)

Thirfty Thursday

I thought I would start sharing some thrift store finds (I L-O-V-E the thrift store!!!) ... when we went up to Utah earlier this week there were so many fabulous yard sales and my husband was willing to go to one for me. :) I got Savannah this cute little lantern for her room for $1. And Hunter was so excited with his new bionicles. The thrift stores were absolutely amazing in Utah, seriously so much good stuff and my husband was very sweet to humor me. I forgot to bring a sweater for Savannah, so we got this cute thing for $3 (it's Gymboree) and then a cute track suit that I adore for only $2! Then we stopped in St. George on the way home and I saw this and it reminded me of this. So for 50 cents I grabbed it and am going to paint it! :)

I know I should, but I don't

I *should* finish a project before starting on the next.
I *should* put the last ten minutes needed in to finish a project.
I *should* at least limit myself to under ten WIP's at a time.

But, unfortunately for me ... I don't. Is it just me though? Why is it I will have a project within a few moments of finishing and then I just move along? I don't have a sewing room or even a closet of my own. I use the pantry to hold my machine & fabrics. The closet has become so full again, it's embarrassing. I finished up a few odds n' ends yesterday. And the goal this week has now become to finish up the little projects this week. I finished this painting of Savannah's name for her room.

Then I finished sewing the edge on the monkey blanket and am going to make another blanket with this cute fabric from Jo-Ann's (I was so excited to see the co-ordinating flannel to go with it!). My Grandma that I'm doing this for isn't in the best of health, so hopefully I can go tie with her tomorrow, but as Grandpa puts it, they live day by day. Then I am almost done with the embroidery project, I am so in love with this! It's fast and fun!So I feel so inspired to finish that large pile of almost-finished projects now and the goal is to finish at least a few this week ... won't you join me? :)

My Great-Grandma

My Great-Grandma is fiesty and fun and I swear a complete rebel in her own time. She's still alive & kickin' and turning 104 this September! During the roaring 20's she bobbed her hair & her father almost threw her out over it. She divorced an abusive husband during a time when abuse was a hush-hushed idea and divorce was un-heard of. I think that a lot of the spunk that we women have in our family can be traced by to her. She lived and still lives an amazing life and I admire so many things about her. She is the one who instilled a love of crafts & crafting. She has an incredible knowledge and was truly amazing at everything you could think of for crafts. The gifts that she has given me are truly priceless treasures in our home. Here is a picture of a scrap quilt she made in the 70's that sold for almost $200 at a church charity auction.There are little pieces of her scattered thru the home ... her ceramic plate, a strawberry sugar & creamer set, ribbon embroidery she made and blankets for the kids. The oven glove I use was made by her as a wedding gift. I love these things from her and consider them some of our greatest treasures. My Mom stopped by today with another gift from Grandma. Grandma's last quilt she had been working on before moving back to Arizona was for me. It's using vintage fabric that she had from her stash and the cute characters she actually used in a blanket that she made for Hunter. She started on the hand stitching, but her eyes are failing her too much now, so I will finish it. Seeing it makes me so happy and I can't wait to "work" on it with her. She lives now in Arizona and I honestly don't know if or when I'll get to see her before she dies ... but this will be our little project together. :)

We interrupt this blog break ...

(the un-planned blog break that is) to share some exciting news! I finally got to craft a bit today! YEAH! :) Seriously, has it almost been a month since I even sat down at my sewing machine? Depressing ... we made a major trip up to Utah and then I never really found a groove and have been enjoying the slow paced nature of summer too much to push myself to do anything. But, my husband is gone with the boy scouts for their summer camp for a few days.

Which means, I am going nuts by myself. It's been less than a full day and he'll be back really soon ... I just miss the fact that I can't just pick up the phone whenever I want to to talk, you know? Anyways, I am currently working on a little sampler for my grandmother's birthday. It's my first try at embroidery and I like it!The floss on the side were the colors that they originally gave with the kit, but it's too dark and she's more of a pink/pastel kind of girl. I'm hoping to have it done for Thursday (her birthday was on the 11th of June ... that's basically on-time, right?) and then we can tie blankets that day too. I have two more copies of this sampler and like the softer colors so much already that I'm thinkin' I should make one for Savannah's room too ...