Thursday, September 29, 2011

Quilt-Along Square One

There's a Flickr account set up to share our squares for this quilt-along, but I'm a little self-conscience about my amateur quilting status so I'll just share it here. With people who won't mock me.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

The Loft & A Quilting Bug

Here, at last, are some pictures of my favorite place in the house. We love our house, the wide streets, our neighbors and the neighborhood. And I was willing to downsize to a 3-bedroom house after I saw this little nook. And I even graciously agreed to share it with the guest bed.




Since I don't really scrapbook anymore, this past move I downsized to only the things I use to make cards. So now, I have room to put everything in a spot and still have space to quilt. Yes, I have been quilting! I've come a long way since my first real quilting project...a little family pride flag I made while we lived in Papillion.



I made this little pinwheel quilt for my niece, Cora, using this Vanessa Christenson tutorial and I loved it so much I made one for us with colors that suit our home.

But the real inspiration to really stretch my quilting wings was this quilt-along on Moose on the Porch Quilts. A new free quilt block pattern comes out every two weeks and you use your choice in fabric to make your quilt square. I used my patriotic stash, stayed caught up and had it quilted with my pinwheel quilt this summer and I am HOOKED! I have two new quilts at the quilter now and I will share when they get back.

Moose on the Front Porch just started a fat quarter quilt-along today and I'm using Moda Sweet-water's Hometown collection. I'm so excited. I'll keep you posted.

Have a good week!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Ticket to Ride

We took the kids to Six Flags in Atlanta yesterday. While Tony and Sam stood in long lines to ride the coasters, I took the kids on all the kids' rides. From the airplane ride, Anna (who is notoriously jittery about roller coasters after being finagled into riding one at Silverwood) saw a roller coaster that she said looked like fun. All for that, I took Josh and Anna and we got in line for the mini-roller coaster. I was surprised that Josh might be able to ride it, but the little gate guard told me that anyone could ride it. Right on! We wait about 20 minutes and load into the cars, Josh with me and Anna in the car behind us.

The thing takes off. Although it didn't have any freefalls, it went fast. And was VERY jerky. About halfway through, I look over at Josh and he is hanging on for dear life looking like a deer caught in the headlights and his cheeks plastered against his face and his teeth gritting. I reached over and pulled him into me so he wouldn't bounce around so much and we managed to finish with no tears.

When we got off the ride, Tony and Sam were waiting by the exit doors. The first thing I said was, "I can't believe that was a kid ride!" There was the little measurement sign over to the side (which I didn't see on the way in) and Josh was a couple inches too short to ride the ride. Wha? Don't roller coasters all have theme park Nazis that measure your kids like thirteen times to make sure they are tall enough before you even get on the ride? Didn't the lady tell me anyone could ride? What the...? I was a little upset. But Josh seemed none the worse for wear so I figured he wouldn't be eternally traumatized by the experience. Until we turned to leave and he said:

Josh: That thing almost ripped my head off.

Better start saving for a good therapist.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Still

I think of my dad every single day. And miss him.


But just a little bit more today.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

So Gleeky.

I'd really like to blog, but I'm waaaay too busy getting my Season 2 Gleek on.


Seriously.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tony's Life Debt

Aside from being an awesome place to live, the South has given me fodder for about a million blog posts.

Case in point. Last night, Tony was puttering around in the backyard and the garage and then came in and sat down at the desk. I walked by and was going to give him a squeeze and when I got close, I saw this huge (not exaggerating, quarter-sized) spider hanging out on his back. I'm usually not too squeamish about spiders, but I don't know much about Alabaman spiders and I didn't like it on my husband's back. So I start yelling, "You have a spider on your back!" and he says "Well get it off!" I went over to him and swiped it off and it flies across the hallway and hits the pantry door. And EXPLODES into about a million little itty-bitty baby spiders. Gag. We spent the next 10 minutes spraying spider spray and cleaning up.

So basically, I saved Tony's life last night. And he owes me a life debt. Or at least a new pair of shoes.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

My Dad's Popcorn Pan

Next week will be the 1st anniversary of my dad's passing. My sister has been putting together a wonderful Shutterfly book with the personal history he wrote with lots of photos from his life...some I have never even seen before. And although I still think about him a lot, the pain isn't quite as intense as it has been in the past. Mostly I just miss him.

Reading over the stories in this book, I am reminded of some of the best, worst, and more hilarious parts of our family's history. I also realized that there are many stories about my dad that I have never told anyone aside from Tony. And although this might not be interesting to most of you out there, it is important to me to have these experiences written so that my children will someday know them. And although they might not have many memories with their grandfather in them, they will never doubt that I loved him. And he loved them.

My dad was not a materialistic man. He was a dentist and made all the money he wanted or needed, but aside from his hobbies, he didn't have a lot of "stuff" so there was few of his personal things that we wanted after he passed. But I did desperately want his popcorn pan. As long as I remember, my dad made popcorn in this pan. Each Sunday night, our family would watch a movie together and he would make "sticky" popcorn or popcorn with melted marshmallows. I really preferred it the way my dad did...just salt and real butter, so he would always make two little bowls of regular popcorn for us. When he was so ill and visiting us for what would be the last time, I had to go to a farewell party in town. My parents were spending the early evening with us and I promised to be back as soon as I could. Dad said he was making sticky popcorn for the kids. When I got home, dad had gotten tired and they had gone back to their hotel room on base. But sitting on the counter was a bowl of popcorn waiting for me. I grabbed it and took it back to our room to eat it while I read and that first bite...I tasted it and started to sob. Nobody could make popcorn taste like my dad's. And I knew in my soul that it was the last time I would be tasting his popcorn. And my heart broke.

When we went home for the funeral, my sisters graciously let me take his popcorn pan home with me. And I make popcorn with it sometimes. But it never tastes like my dad's.

Monday, September 5, 2011

Apple Potpourri Visiting Teaching Gifts

This is the little gift we came up with for September visiting teaching gifts. I thought some potpourri would be nice, but to buy it...the smell seems weak and they all sorta smell the same. So I wondered how hard it would be to make. Turns out it's not that hard! I followed this recipe and with just a few tweaks (I used my dehydrator for the apples and I had a hard time finding dried rose hips so I used a bunch of dried buds in a dark color instead and added a few more drops of apple spice essential oil). I love these pint jars! A little homespun, string and a quote and they're done.


And on another note, Tony and Sam had a great time at the BYU/Ole Miss game on Saturday. It was pretty intense to watch from home...I can't imagine the feeling in the stadium (notice they are in the middle of the Ole Miss section). I've always admitted to being a little bit of a fair weather BYU fan. It seems to me that they tend to, well, umm, CHOKE a lot and it breaks my heart. But good job, Cougs! Way to pull it out of the crapper at the last minute!

Did I just say "crapper" on our family blog??

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Saturday

It has been a good day. Tony and Sam are in Oxford, Mississippi to watch BYU play Ole Miss and I have the little ones with me. We've spent the day quietly at home except for a quick run to the commissary and the Shoppette for a Dr. Pepper Icee. I talked to my mom on the phone. We played with Play-doh. Tonight, we vacuumed, bathed and jammied. Like most of Alabama, we're bracing for a few days of rain/thunderstorms caused by the severe weather along the Gulf Coast. But for right now, all is quiet.

And it was a good day.