(a lot of) work in progress

I've been painting...

my family room and hallway....

...my house is a wreck!
But as my husband always says, "it's gotta get worse before it gets better!"
Here's hoping it gets better soon! :)

finished bathmat

My first ever completed crochet project.
It's a little wonky at one end, but still, I am pleased as pie.
And the blister on my finger has healed up nicely. :)

a new quilt top (in a day!)

This was yesterday's project.

Made with Heather Bailey's beautiful fabrics.

Inspired by Di Mill's quilt.

we have a new pet at our house

thankfully she doesn't need a litter box

I've finally got it together

random placement of the blocks it is!

(new) work in progress

bathmat

no title today

Thanks for all the comments on my new bookshelf arrangement. I kept thinking, "I am such a nerd" when I was doing it, but it really looks great in person. And it makes me smile every time I look at it.

Roxanne commented: "By the way, how are you going to find the book you're looking for?"

Well, Roxanne, they weren't in any kind of order before, so we still had to search. I guess it is inevitable with that many books.

Kevin thought that if my sister Clair would have been arranging them, she would have color coded them and then arranged them alphabetically. (Clair, is he right???)

Anyway, it makes some nice wall art and it didn't cost me a thing.

Last night my dear friend Amy called me and asked me to go shopping. The weather still wasn't the greatest, but I cannot tell you a time that I recall that I enjoyed a shopping trip so much. And with no kids! I don't know when Target ever looked better. It was great to finally get out after being house-bound with 3 little ones (age 6 and under) for 4 and a half days.

I finally got some white fabric, so I will be working on these today.

Have you seen this purse made by Roxanne, the oh-so talented purse maker? (check out the last 3 photos on her post.) I love it.
Have a great day!

Day 5 and no end in sight

The view from my front window.

It hasn't changed much lately.

Thankfully my kids are healthy, unlike one of my friend's kids.

It could always be worse.

This is what my bookshelf looked like this morning.

And this is what it looks like this afternoon.

And I got some new fabric via the faithful UPS man yesterday.

(photo from fabric.com)

Just the thing to chase away that nasty cabin fever that we are experiencing.

Thanks to Becki for the purchasing info. It's all because I saw this post and I couldn't get it out of my head.

Ok, I'm going off to play! Hurray for new fabric.

more patchwork

Today is day 4 of the blizzard. Are you sick of reading about it yet? Well, I am sick of being in the middle of it. I haven't been out for over 3 whole days. The walls are closing in. Seriously.
So, I made some patchwork in my favorite color...

and I quilted it....

added some brown rice that has been in my cupboard for a LONG time.....

and made a little rice warmer pouch thingy....

two minutes in the microwave....

good-bye cold feet!

What are you up to today? What is your favorite color? Can you tell that I am bored out of my mind? I have been contemplating what that phrase "bored to tears" really means. I think I get it.
I am thinking about arranging my books it color order like this.
I also have had this on my mind for a week or better.
Loving this. Hillary posted that pic awhile back and recently posted it again....I gotta do something like that. Little A will be needing some little dolly blankets soon anyway. Great way to use up those scraps...since that seems to be the theme at my house lately. :)
Some of my new favorite blogs are:
needlebook
yvestown
mama urchin

Gratitudes:
1. My snow plow guy...for $10 I get a clear driveway. It's quite a deal.
2. Legos.
3. My new rice warmer thingy/warm feet
4. Also thankful for spell check!

snapshots of my day

We are still in the middle of our blizzard. I am about to climb the walls. I didn't take any pictures of the nasty weather, but my friend Amy did. You can see pictures here. It is really bad out there. School has already been cancelled for tomorrow.

I haven't been able to focus on any one thing today. I kind of wandered around the house not sure what to do. I made some more scrap quilt squares, but I lost interest since I am still out of white fabric.

I knitted. (knit?)

I made a wee bunny.

It's pink plus patchwork plus vintage chenille...it is definitely mine.

I crocheted.

I organized.

I made a mess.




I built.

(This has been in progress for several weeks.)
I played matching game. I played crazy eights.
What on earth am I going to do tomorrow???

Gratitudes:
1. Again, my warm house.
2. My boys played well together today.
3. My family. It's actually been a good weekend of being snowed in.

more scrap quilt squares

Hello there! Thank you for your comments and suggestions on how I should arrange my quilt blocks. I still haven't decided what to do yet, but it was fun to read each person's input. So, instead of make a decision on what to do with these, I thought I would make some more blocks. (This actually was the intention all along...I don't have enough for a quilt top yet.)

Have I mentioned how much I like improvisational piecing? It's great...no pattern to follow....just make it up as you go along. Love it! The white borders will be added when I get to the store to get more fabric.

As you can see, I made a dent in the yellow fabric bucket.

The pink still needs some work...another day.
Yes, I sorted out my scraps according to colors.
That was probably the funnest part so far.

These are some fabrics that I pulled out of the stash....I am planning a pretty, girly sampler quilt. Someday.

We are in the middle of a blizzard here. We have gotten lots of snow and strong winds. We have a snow drift in our driveway that is as tall as Kevin's truck. Some of our siding started flapping in the wind this afternoon. My oldest boy was scared....he thought the whole house was going to go. The house was creaking and groaning. He was more than a little freaked out. Thankfully, my dear Kev went out and fixed the siding right away and we haven't had any more problems.

We stayed home all day long. Kevin baked a sweet potato pie, made some cereal bars and banana bread. I made a pecan pie and some fresh salsa. Kev and I also did lots of talking on the phone. My family in MN are dealing with cold cold cold temps and some of them are a little bit jealous of all our snow. Well, we have plenty to share!

Did I mention that my daughter loves Boobah? She likes to pat his head.
SOOOOOOOOOOO cute! And maybe a little bit scary. :)

Gratitudes:
1. My warm house.
2. Plenty of food to eat as we are pretty much snowed in.
3. Even though my daughter has a severe cold, she is still sleeping well.

Happy February!

It has been a busy day here.

I got letters from both of my sisters today. They were both, in their own ways, gently reminding me to focus my time and energy on my family....a good thing to be reminded of. Especially in the middle of those nasty winter blahs. (Do you have these like we do?) I am selfish. I want to lock myself in my craft room and sew and create all by myself. I don't want to hear the arguing and fighting and whining. I don't want little hands to help me along. So this was a great reminder, especially when I am feeling burnt out. Like today. Like this week. I am working on it.

One of the things that my boys like to do is to help me cook. And bake. They jump at any chance that they get to pull up the dining room chairs up to the island and get involved. We usually have a good time. Tonight we made a simple recipe that was delicious! Found here.

These were seriously easy.

And seriously delicious. Not messy to make. QUICK. Fantastic!

After our little baking project, we moved on to Valentine making. It wasn't as fun as it may appear. My little one was sitting in the high chair fussing and wailing. She was tired and she has a tooth coming in. Once she went to sleep it was a bit more fun. The boys love doing crafts. It sure helps when my husband joins in. Otherwise crafting with kids isn't at the top of my fun things to do list. It does, however, top my list of stressful things to do with kids. We ended up having a good time as a family. Like my sister Clair reminded me, we are creating memories. That makes it all worth it.

The in progress shot is more exciting than the final results. But like I said, we are going for memory making. I am very thankful that my husband joins in and even suggests this kind of thing...he's so great.

Now, on to quilting. :) Quilting is really therapy for me. It may sound cheesy, but it is.
Here are two squares that I need to add the white borders on....

these 4 pink ones were made yesterday....

and these below were made before...

the blocks are almost entirely made out of scrap pieces....
(I save insanely small scraps of fabric, right Amy?)

Each square is randomly pieced to no particular size....

And then I add a white border to make each block measure 9.5"....

But now I am stuck.
Should I mix them all up? I don't really want to mix the pink and purple...it looks...uninspired? Too predictable? I don't like purple all that much, so maybe that is the problem.
Should I make a bunch of each color and then put all the pink blocks in one quadrant, all the yellows in another, greens and purples in another? Should I arrange them in rows by color, as shown in the yellow, green, purple shot? Or just plain random? Or, I got a crazy idea, (I can't actually believe that I am going to admit this) but I could do a series of quilts....one all purples, one pinks, one yellows, one greens. OK, that is really what I want to do! That would be so much fun!
Please submit your suggestions {other than the fact that I am completely crazy for wanting to make a series of quilts...I already know this :) } or any other ideas that you may have. I appreciate your input.

Gratitudes:
1. A quiet house....(the kids are sleeping)
2. Clearance shopping at Target today
3. My warm house (it's cold out there!)