Just a few

The stockings are hung...yes I made them, yes to match each child's quilt....yes I am that big of a quilt nerd.

Paper plate angels the top one I made when I was like 4...she lives at the top.  Now 3 of my 4 children have made a version of the same thing, they all go near the top.

Gifts to wrap for my children & husband...yep that is the whole stack.  Add a new pair of pjs and stocking stuffers and that's it!

Gifts to wrap for each set of parents (except for my dad's which well is not even started let alone finished yet!), all the nieces, and both godbabies and their siblings!  Still need to wrap this pile, and no the wand is not part of the gifts it was just on the floor as well.

Bag of goodies from JoAnns that includes miles of tulle for 4 tutus I will be making.  Ok miles is a bit of a stretch, but literally it is like 25 years so it seems like miles!  

Today I finished a tee shirt for my 2 year old to match her brothers'.  They have their initial and a Santa hat perched on it.  I also made her a really cute little ruffle skirt to go with it.  This they can all wear for Santa pictures and for Christmas day at my husband's parents'.  That way they look nice in pictures but I don't really have to worry too much about it and they are still in something comfortable.  

I still have tutus and tee shirts, cookies and teacher dinners and a whole rag quilt to make....plus Christmas cards to send and kids are only at school 2 days next week.  

I have continued to work on yoyos, while I make my own personal hole in the ozone layer as I go through 10 miles worth of gas sitting in a parking lot waiting for busses to arrive picking up or dropping off for school.  Yes I am a bit bitter about it, but it is what it is...and part of that is a BIG waste for me!  Have a great one, I will do m best to post a bit more in the next week and much more as of the 26th!

First art project

This is the first art project Andrew brought home from art class....and I am deflated!  I know he can do better work, that is not the point.  Point being using white crayon on manilla paper...seriously!  and to encourage the kids to just trace leaf outlines and then fill in to make snowflakes!  There is so much here that could have been....A dark paper, snowflakes that are individual!  This is why I am jealous when I see what some of my art teacher friends do with kindergarteners.  This is also why I try to do more at home.  

I am working on Vega's quilt.  I made 3 yoyos today.  Next is the rush to finish Christmas projects....cards, ornaments, baking and finalizing gifts.  Tomorrow I am helping to teach second graders to add double digits....time to break out my teacher voice!  Have a great night!

That's SO tinsel!

SOme new yoyo pictures....one week over 3/4 of the way through the first half of the year.  Soon you will get the number of how close we are to the 90 half way mark.  I am sure that I am well past that, but we will see where we are at the semester.

The middle picture is my holiday decorations, mostly ornaments that need to be put up this week.  That is what I have spent most of the day doing today.  $300 in OnLine shopping, 2 hours worth of fluffing the tree, stockings hung, Santa letters written by children and just a bit of quilting done.  

Now I am watching Prep and Landing....which the first one is my all time favorite kids Christmas show!  I have much to do, and it will all get done before I manage to go to sleep on Christmas Eve....and it will all be worth it! 

I am thinking about making an ornament for each kid...it is something I have wanted to start, but when would there be a better time?  Actually I think I will figure out how to do that for my kids this year and then add nieces and friends' kids next year!  Way to go, lay it out there now so I really have to do it!  I still have to make the 3 projects that I promised to have done this year on New Year's DAy!  Oh well....have a great night all. I will try to manage to post a bit more as we get closer.

Full disclosure

I thought you all should see behind my stove, it is only fair when I post behind my sister's.  I did not cook a full Thanksgiving meal and then take these, true, however I also did not do any sort of cleaning in prep for these pictures either.

Above is the wall behind the stove and the back of said stove.

All the way to the floor...yes I need a back splash too, or at least a better quality paint that I can scrub and won't show water marks this badly!

This is actually from the other side showing the countertop too.

This is the full shoe rack, including the 2 new toilet seats I need to install....a job for tomorrow.  Again, must figure out something better to do with the hats and gloves bin....still thinking bike baskets hung below the coats would work.

Tonight I cut a dozen or so circles for yoyos.  They were left over circles from the circle quilt I made for my friend E.  While cleaning last week I found them and instead of just stashing them somewhere as 4 and 5 inch circles I figured I should just cut them for yoyos.....done!  I also worked some on Vega's quilt.  I am locating some quilt pictures for my quiltspecific blog, so will not be posting there tonight.  Have a great one!

Pictures....

This is my mudroom!  I cleaned it out while Tim was building 2 of these AMAZING shoe racks for me!  The idea came from my sister at  Thanksgiving.  They are great!  I want to come up with something different to hold hats and gloves...I am thinking a couple of bike baskets attached to the wall under the coat rack....which needs bigger knobs for kids coats!  But that is a different issue.  SO I LOVE these new racks and it has also given him an idea for a new entertainment center for the new TV we will be getting in the next 6 months or so.  But that will come soon!

This is the back of my sister's stove.  I know it seems like nothing, but I have a stove that sits out like this one, but I have no counter top behind...so it is a waste and annoying because things can fall behind.  Annoying....this could be an answer!!  

I have done much cleaning this week, not much crafting.  Since yesterday I have embroidered  the words....peeks out of the shutters and sometimes he speaks and tells ho(w).  I will be doing a bit more tonight and cutting some yoyos too.  

I am watching the Project Runway behind the scenes episode tonight which again just makes me want to A) watch the next season and B)makes me want to make clothing....unfortunately I HATE construction, which is why I make quilts!  Have a great night and enjoy some new ideas and what new things you come up with!

no pictures...

I have pictures, just downstairs in my camera so you will see them tomorrow.  

Yesterday the only thing I accomplished was a very little work on Vega's quilt.  Though I got to play with her for a while too....don't get excited she is still inside, it is always fun to play with a rolling, kicking baby belly.  And it is a very great thing that my sister was accommodating to me playing with her belly.  I did get a great picture of my one niece head butting the belly b/c she had been being nice and sweet talking to the belly and giving it kisses and when I tried to take a picture she blew a zerbert and then head butt it.  (and yes she is 2 by the way)

Today I got a good start on Excavating the kitchen.  I manage to completely get caught up on dishes and clean off my counters.  I have a list of all of the stuff I found other places for.....the aquarium I bought in July for the "squid" at the summer house, complete with said "squid" that my 2 year old told me is not a squid but an octopus!  

My husband built me 2 shoe racks for the mudroom, which also meant that I did a bit of excavating in there too.  I pulled all of the light jackets and flip flops out, along with the soccer cleats.  Again I have pictures, but that will wait for tomorrow.

I have not heard back about the Crown quilt delivery...I'll let you know on that as well.  Tonight I am just going to work on Vega's quilt and may be cut out a few more circles for the yo yo project.  Mostly I am just going to enjoy that half of my kitchen is cleaned and my front room is close to still cleaned.  I think one of my favorite moments in cleaning the kitchen was coming back into the front room to discover the entire Game of Life bank spread all over the floor!  It was awful and I almost lost it then...but I did alright, now if I can just get these 2 small people to go to sleep!   Have a great Black Friday...no shopping in this house and the best part of it is no more Black Friday commercials!!!

17+ hours and counting

4:45 alarm went off

5 am in the WalMart parking lot

5:55 am unloading groceries

6:15 wake up Tim, putting away groceries, first mug of tea

6:45 am Steven awake

6:55 Jakob and Andrew up too

7 am Gretchen too!

By 10 am I declared concession to the Crown quilt.

I excavated the front room until mid afternoon when

I like an IDIOT! took 4 children to Aldi 

(for Milk, Eggs, apples and stuffed clams) and

WalMart for dish detergent and spaghetti and frozen waffles

All forgotten during first visit...and well Aldi is not open until 9.  

Again IDIOT!!!!

More excavating then dinner then community Thanksgiving Eve church service.

The best part was when the Priest used the term Pagan instead of Gentile in the reading!  Awesome!

Have a great night and enjoy tomorrow with as many loved ones as you can manage!

Tuesday....

I am the border stitching away from done with the Crown quilt

5 yoyos made while waiting for busses this morning and afternoon in the rain, using nearly 15 miles worth of gas to keep the van warm.

Family dinner

that's it....wow I kind of feel like I have done nothing today!

Now I did make sure that 3 boys made it to school with freshly packed lunches and full bellies with clean clothing on that has to count for something!

A bit more...

Yep it was a Geotrax day!

Today was laundry and working on this quilt.  I have 4 more rows to do tonight!  I am zig zagging down the edges of the gold that has been serged.  It is making it look much better I think.  


It is becoming a really tough project as I get more hours into it.  The Crown fabric is kind of crap to work with and make look good.  But it will be great, I hope.  


I also did some yoyos while I waited for the bus both in the morning and the afternoon because one of my second graders was sick, so I choose to not walk said sick kid to the bus stop when they are sick.  So yoyos accomplished.  Oh and every bed in my house (all 5) have fresh sheets tonight and every towel in the house is clean.  


Now tomorrow I need to finish the Crown quilt and have things ready for family dinner oh and organize for a major grocery shopping trip!  Plus since I am doing it at like 5 am I should go to sleep early...but that won''t happen.  We;ll see!

Have a great night all.... Can you find kitty in this pile...yes they are all the same, only one has been loved to near death.


Enjoy and come visit tomorrow!

Yummy Pancakes!

I made these this morning.  They are cinnamon roll pancakes...I found the recipe on Craftgossip and pinned it on my treats board.  

I also did 7 loads of laundry, 2 loads of dishes, cut like 200 yoyo circles and went to a 4 year old birthday party.  Just a regular Saturday at my house.  Oh and I trimmed the Crown quilt. Now I just have to get some more purple thread to finish that off by Wednesday.  

This week I really need to get my house cleaned.  I know that things get busy from now until, well mid March and I do better with a cleaned house.  Plus I really want to get some of the painting done, actually all of the painting!  I am hoping to get the playroom done by the end of Thanksgiving weekend.  We'll see and I will keep you updated.  

I do need to work on 2 things with this recipe 

1) the cinnamon actually melted out of the pancake when I turned it, I added more after it was cooked.  And

2) the glaze needed thinned, may be with some milk would have helped it be more like glaze and less like a thin frosting.  

Boy they were yummy though!  Have a great night, more tomorrow!

PRESCHOOL ROCKS! Shirt

Parker House rolls made for breakfast yesterday, prepped for dinner the night before.

Chocolate swirl gingerbread from family dinner Wednesday...it is a Martha Stewart recipe that I want to make each fall at some point.

This is how I make the tee shirts I do, a bit labor intensive (that is why I keep dropping hints about wanting the Speedball tee shirt screen print kit for Christmas) but it gets them done. The first one I ever did was a tee that said "Don't Piss Off The Pregnant Girl"  that I wore when I was pregnant with Andrew...I loved that shirt!  Anyway this is a printout of what I want to write in a font that I think works.  I should have centered it, I forgot that part.

This is a piece of freezer paper, yes Reynolds giant roll will last you FOREVER!  I have traced the words and centered the second word.

Next I use an exacto knife and cut out the letters, yes I am sure that one of the many cutter machines might wrk on this but well A) I don't have one and 

B) this is a low tech and cheap way of doing it

Iron the freezer paper to the tee shirt, it will stick and peel off later.

Add the centers to the letters like O and R, iron them on too.

One layer of fabric paint

2 Layers

6 layers...Black and White are much more opaque then silver but well I am a glutton for punishment, and I think it looks better.

When the paint is dry peel the paper off carefully.  Make sure you follow the directions that the paint gives you, each brand is a little different when it comes to prewashing, heat setting, curing etc.

I then took a squeeze bottle of black paint to outline.  I think it looks great!  I will post a picture of the preschooler wearing it when I get to see it.

This was the paint I used.

This was my to-do list for today, which I do not usually make but I did this morning waiting for the bus after I wrote a grocery list.

print tee shirt letters (done)

cut freezer paper (done)

thread bobbin (done) 

1 1/2 seam (done)(finish Crown quilt)

border seam (done)

paint shirt (done)

sort laundry

pick up front room

cut yoyo circles (done)

grocery store (done)

draw circles (done)

wash Crown quilt (done)

notice what did not get done....

Hopefully in the next week I can excavate my home again after I finish this Crown quilt.  Plus maybe having some time to just stay at home and get a few things done.  I am catching up on 2 days of Days of Our Lives (a vice I have had for 20+years) that I do not watch with kids bigger then about 2 at home...so the sick days I need catch up...it is snuggle under a quilt in progress and a cup of chocolate milk as a treat.

What one thing will you do this weekend?

Just a bit

YoYo progress....they just continue to multiply.  Though on really cold mornings when we walk I get fewer done, it is difficult with cold fingers.

The Crown quilt is coming, actually it is now in strips and I just need to stitch those together and then trim some.  It will be done in the next 24 hours.  Though it may not get worked on tonight, I am just too tired right now.

Playroom painting has begun. I told you all that it would be one wall at a time and well right now it is less then one wall at a time.  The color is Jack Be Nimble Blue.  I love it and can't wait to keep working on it and keep getting rid of the awful khaki!  And yes that is the Sesame Street poster I have had since 1989.

Before....

  

After, 12 inches donated, curls that need product.  Curls that I have not had in over 30 years...must be having been pregnant with a girl and my body.  Not sure but really I have not had these curls since before kindergarten.  Have a great night....Work of Art is on and I need to restart.  

...And today

Update on the yoyos, though I have not been doing such a great job of late of doing more then one or two a day.  

Porcupine balls for dinner tonight.  It is my grandmother's recipe...or as much of a recipe as she ever followed.

I refuse to touch raw hamburger.  Actually it tends to bother my eczema so I mix things like this in large plastic bags.  I even rolled the balls in the bag.  basically if you don't know porcupine balls they are a  meat ball with rice in them.  

And yes this is sideways...I should have added a bit more liquid.  They were fine.  We also had pirogi...which amazingly the kids liked!  They hate potatoes...the texture of mashed potatoes normally make one (or more) of them gag.  But I guess if you wrap some mashed potatoes in pasta they love!

Only a couple of more days and I will share new pictures Vega's quilt. It is awesome!  But I still want it to be a surprise on Saturday, with the changes I have made.  

Oh and we only got caught in the rain a little bit this morning during the 5 mile walk.  I think this might be the week that I manage to do the 3x that I plan to every week.  It could be a great thing this week, I also realize that I am now on borrowed time as winter draws near!

I will get back to blogging...but Work of Art is on right now, and well I have a quilt to work on!

Tuesday list

4 lunches packed

4 breakfasts served

Where in the World is Matt Lauer

4 sets of clothing organized

dressed and a peppermint mocha

walk to bus stop

2 yoyos waiting for busses

walk home

voted

$10 gas for van

Pat Catan's for gloss enamel for Rain gutter Rigata boats

Aldi's for apples, milk and breakfast cereal

to my mom's to pick her up her for family dinner night

picked up living room

2 loads dishes run

tree worked on

homework

dinner

dinosaur excavation (project with 5 year old)

2 kids to bed (husband puts 2 others to bed)

email check

Biggest Loser now 

Blogging

tree applique continued....you'll get to see it soon!

Have a great Tuesday!

My Walk on Wednesday

On Wednesday I went on my 5 mile walk....on it are a few of my obsessions.  I thought I would share...enjoy.  By the late afternoon/evening on Wednesday I had the chills and yesterday was worse.  As long as I sat upright and still I was fine....but no blogging, sorry.  Today is better, so here was my Wednesday...

Amazing to see sunshine through leaves...the camera does not capture it quite as amazingly it was but you get the point.  Gorgeous sunshine that I have not had enough of in the last 2 months....Hopefully November will be better about this.

This one needed rotated but I can't do it now.  This was my point of view over the stroller.  You can't see the sidewalk because there are so many leaves but we were on a sidewalk.  At this point my 2 year old kept telling the leaves to be quiet!

In high school this house was the one that if I could choose any house in town it would have been this one.  However the person that bought it last (and still lives there) did a MASSIVE expansion that just made it too much!  Not that it would ever have been remotely in the arena of my world.  But here are the pictures....I do still love it though.

This is the other side...notice the carriage house in the back.  I though tit would make a great studio, now it is.  But it also has a bridge from the house to the second floor of said carriage house.

This is right across the street, and my new obsession!  I would love to be privately wealthy and be able to gut this place and build it into a quilt retreat like Elmcreek Manor (I love reading Jennifer Chieverini) and kids art Mecca.  However I am in no way independently wealthy in any way.  One day when I was walking I was thinking that I should send a proposal to Bill Gates, Oprah and someone else...though now I forget who I thought of.  It went great in my mind for that walk....but really!

Seriously how awesome would that be....plus look at the building.  It was the county children's home, but has been vacant for a long while.  But come on....

One more of the first house..

I could have lots of my art friends come to do classes, kids could get great art not elementary art that is so close to cut that they hardly get to do anything!  I could have quilting, knitting, crocheting circles that could meet like book clubs.  I could have rooms that ladies from churches could have more room for projects....oh the ideas just come.  Unfortunately I am not independently wealthy and would not begin to believe that I could write a proposal to actually manage something like this!  Thanks Michael Franklin for stomping on me thinking I can write!

Maybe that perfect sky behind it was part of it that day too...I also obsess about a community garden there too...yep I am obsessed a bit.  

See the white dots on the sidewalk, ok stop looking at the darling boots...the sidewalks were already treated for the winter.  It crunched under my feet and the stroller.  I am not sure if I am quite ready for that!

This one needed to be large because otherwise you could not see the dueling lawn tractors.  It was like the two of them were racing....

My 2 year old told me that I needed to stop at this stop sign!  They are so funny so much of the time.

Just past that sign is a small hill.  This is how you first see the local high school.  The 2 year old knows that this means we are headed home.  

These are the field across from the new high school, I figure that within the next decade it will become one of two things either a new football field (the other one is across town, and I do not live in a big town) or a new elementary school...we have 3, but we really need to build a new one.  We'll see what becomes the priority.

This is my final obsession on my walk.  I am nearly home by the time I pass this empty building.  It was built to be a Giant Eagle, but in a town with (at that time) 4 grocery stores and a WalMart it did not last, and yes I am still bitter about it.  Then it was a Valu King for a minute, which I liked.  So I say that the families that run 2 of the grocery stores in town should court JoAnn Fabrics or Hobby Lobby or even Michaels to come into this vacant building....just my thoughts and my obsessions for the day.

I am getting somewhere with yoyos, I just have not photoed them in awhile.  I am working on Vega's quilt....give me one week to complete the amazing changes I am making before the shower so I can surprise my sister with it.  I will get back to the Crown quilt after the shower, that will give me 2 weeks to get it done before Thanksgiving so I can send it with my in laws instead of shipping it.  Have a great night....I'll be back tomorrow with more fun.