And another week done...

Last week was just weird.  I am so glad that D2's diorama has been turned in this morning.  The living room seems so empty without it.  It was hard to work around though, with wet paint and all. It came out fantastic, but when I went to get a picture, the camera was dead.  So I will be doing that when it comes home. 

So these are what I finished this week.   There are 3 of the pink baskets, soon there will be a total of 16. They are for the teacher's and staff at school for Valentines.  Another mom is going to fill them with goodies and we'll take them in the morning of.  I thought it would be a handy thing instead of the pile of cards and treats that the children leave on the their desks.  :)  I got the pattern/instructions at Sew4Home, but I altered it a little by putting all the rickrack on the out side, and making handles instead of using ribbon.  The ribbon was cute and showy, but I didn't think any sheer ribbon I had would stand up to actual use.  I just cut 2inch by 11 inch strips, sewed them right sides together, turn, and press. 

The LOVE banner is made from scraps from the baskets.  It will hang in the middle of the room they have hot lunch the day after Valentines.  There are 80 hearts cut out on the dining room table that I am going to make bouquets with.  I don't want any of the Valentine fabric left over!!  :) I also finished 5 coffee wraps to go into the Bazaar stash, and made the kids a basket for all the card games like Uno and Skippo.  Now, if the cards fall out of the box, they are still contained.  And I used up every bit of the playing card fabric I had.  YAY!!

February is almost here, and it has it's own list of things I want to accomplish.  I didn't get everything done this month that I had wanted, but I came close.  The only thing I didn't finish was S1's bed quilt.  That is admittedly a bit more of a project than coffee wraps.  So now I have 2 quilts I want to finish in February. It is definitely easier when you can get the momentum going and not have any bumps to slow you down.  Now it's off to work I go....I need to get the baskets done, so plan on seeing the rest of them next week.

PAX

Latin for "peace"

Unexpected vacation....

We had snow.  We did not have school.  We had chaos and noise and snowball fights.  We did not have homework.  It was fun, and I'm supposed to want to be done with the snow, and glad the kids are back in school. But I'm not.  I loved the snow. I loved getting to spend time with the kids on our terms. No scouts, karate, Sunday School, or school.  Now, as much as there is value in those things, it just gets really old running life according to those schedules.   I hated dropping the kids off today, even though they were screaming for joy the whole way there.  At least they like where they go to school, right?

Now, onto the things I actually got done last week.  I'll start by saying nailing the Mr. with snowball is worth 10 finished projects.  So not much got done.  Below is a shelf I had sitting in my bathroom for MONTHS.  What was it with the heart cutouts??  So I covered the heart up with a label and a bird sticker. I have no idea where it will go, since the art room doubles as our dining room.  Which is almost fair since the rec room doubles as the Mr.'s art studio.  I also finished a desk set for a dear friend who is opening her own counseling office.  She has coasters, a perpetual calender, and a charging station.

These little guys are D2's art class project.  She is doing a diorama about a scene in Tuck Everlasting.  I'll post a photo of the whole thing a couple of weeks.  After she has turned it in and gotten a grade.

 These are the 3 sewing projects I got done.  The blue basket is for holding pieces to a charm quilt I am working on.  The lower box I made for MY OWN HOUSE!!  I thought it would be a handy spot for all the nail care items.  I hate digging all over the house for a pair of clippers or a nail file. The upper box will go with the stash for the school bazaar.  I want to have 20 of them for the bazaar.  I think it'll happen.

 This week I think I will be working on scrap projects.  I have all sorts of scraps around that need to get used up.  I am thinking about starting a stacked coins quilt.  I also want to get some work done in the garage.  I would like to either get rid of it, or be able to park in it.  LOL...we'll see what happens!

2012 One Project a Month...

I found it!!!  In my first or second post, I had mentioned a "one project a month" thing that I had seen on another blog.  Well, it is at  Tag Along Teddies  and it sign up opens tomorrow.  Heaven knows I have a list of stuff to get done!  So I am setting a timer and I am going to sign up.  We've had 3 snow days this week, which makes me wonder if there will be any school this week.  It's been nice, I haven't had to yell or discipline the kids, and they have been abominable snow men a few times.  The snowman was built and is gone already.  They needed the snow for a snow ball fight.  And more snow is falling.

Another weekend over...

Well, my list of goals for last week didn't really see enough get done.  I don't know if I bit off more than I could chew, or if I just didn't work hard enough.  I did okay, just not great.  I did get my task basket done, the pattern can be found here at Sew4Home.  It can't be seen very well, but the dress form fabric is it.  It is nice and big without being unwieldy. I am hoping to make a couple more with out pockets for laundry!  I did finish older son's dresser scarf, the red and black; and mine, the pink and brown.  Now all the dressers except the girls are done.  YAY!!  The two boxes are to go with the others for the school bazaar.  My goal is to get 20 boxes made for the bazaar. 

Please don't mind the camera dates.  I never did learn how to set it!  To busy taking pictures! :)

Below is younger daughter's hand & nail box she did for the fundraiser.   I think it made $30, and several bids, so it was successful.  She did not use any filler at all.  That thing was stuffed!!!  She was afraid people would think it was "stupid" because it was put together by an 11 year old.  But all the ladies bidding on it were really impressed!

 And this last picture is older son's quilt.  He picked the pattern and fabric, and he loves it.  It is lap sized, so he carries it around the house with him. He's 15!! :)  I would say a successful project! And brings the total of completes projects up to 6!

We did get some of the trees cut up and hauled off, in fact I think all we have left is some wood to split.  We still need to hang dry wall in the laundry room, but my comic geek hubby is trying to stay with in a deadline for a comic he drawing.  And that's okay, because this summer he is all mine!!

I am not sure I have any specific goals for the up coming week.  Get home school assignments graded,  probably fiddle around sewing, but I am at the point where almost everything needs a trip to the store to finish it.  Not enough fabric, or needs interfacing, or lining fabric, or SOMETHING!  And the fabric store just isn't in the budget this week.   I will practice patience and if it gets too bad, I think there are some rolled coins around here somewhere!
 

Last weeks finished projects....

So last week I finally got serious about finishing some of these project stashed around the house.  I am pretty impressed with how well the kids did with helping, even when it was just "please pour me a cup of coffee."  They even took to helping each other with homework (I still hate math, LOL.)  The photo below shows all the projects finished between Monday and Saturday.  The black, red and white quilt will be part of a quilt auction this year to benefit our sister parish in Peru.  It came out rather striking, but I am not sure I will do another one like it anytime soon.  The garment bag on the right I started 2 years ago to store my wedding dress.  We just found in the girls closet, all folded up and UNFINISHED.  So now the dress is stored nice neatly and the girls have some shelf space back. The little green and brown box was started last spring, as was the red, white, & blue one next to it. The green and brown box is for one daughter to use in a basket she is doing for a local fundraiser's silent auction.  She's 11, and just decided she wanted to donate a "hand & nail" basket, so I said go for it.  Here's a list of jobs you can do for me to earn some money!   There are 3 coffee wraps: tie-dye, rainbows on blue, and roses on black.  These will be for the school bazaar next November. And last, but not least, the dresser scarf/runner for one of the dressers in our room.  Now I REALLY need to get to work on the other one!

Completed between 1/2/12-1/7/12

So last weeks tally of finished projects is.....8! The goals for this week include basting and quilting one of older son's quilts, a dresser scarf for him as well, altering a coffee can to hold all the non-sewing scissors, and a project basket for me to keep the parts and bits of projects together. Ziplocks in rubbermaid bins just isn't working for me.  As for the house proper, I am hoping to get the last little bit hung in the laundry room and some wood cut from the trees we took down last year. And maybe I can squeeze in some more boxes and coffee wraps. They are a great way to use up left over fabric from other projects.

As for my weekend focus quote, it worked out really well.  I may need to print it and hang it on the fridge.  We have seen a huge increase in storage areas while applying this, which is saying something because we don't have a lot of storage room in the first place!

Quote for my weekend focus...

 "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." - William Morris

I am using this quote, along with "keep the best and get rid of the rest" to help guide my weekend housekeeping. We already sent 5 boxes to the local Goodwill and another 2 are getting filled as we speak.  Perfectly good stuff, but it doesn't fit the "keep it" criteria.  Now we have run to one big and rather funny problem: there are 6 of us.  One daughter loves pink, the other hates it.  They share a room.  One son loves Asian inspired things.  I can't stand it, so it better stay in his room.  The other son believes EVERYTHING is useful and I don't see the use of the beat up cardboard Lego box. I like big, comfy, multifunction furniture; my husband is a minimalist.  I am quite sure we will never have a Better Home & Garden house, but sometimes I think "eclectic" can go too far.  I am not even sure where some of the stuff comes from, since we don't do a lot of shopping.  Another fun (perhaps the funnest) aspect is looking at something and wondering "can I make this beautiful thing useful" or "can I make this useful thing beautiful."  But maybe that's a mess to clean up next week!

The attempted almost finished list..

So I tried to make a list of goals, the physical, actual, temporal world kind, and it just might be possible that I might be an overachiever.  A slacker by nature, I'm not sure this works out well for me or my husband! With 12 months in the year, I have at least 4 items each month just in house projects!  This not include any hobbies, education, finances, and/or family stuff!  In the next year,  I want to remodel 2 rooms, paint 3 other rooms, finish a room we started 2 years ago, re-roof, and replace a deck. Now this is a goal list, not a how to, so I am pretending money doesn't exist. On top of that, finishing quilts for each of the kids, quilts to used as donation items for local fundraisers, "little" projects that the kids have requested, and the long list of things that I want to refinish or repaint.  I saw on another blog when hunting for Christmas ideas a "one project a month" kind of thing (I may be able to find it again) and I am thinking I need a "one project a week" schedule.  But then I think I should do one of each kind of project a week.....and then my minds spins out of control like a 4 year old on a sugar high.....I think I need some decaf now.

Here we go....

So I am not sure how much, if anything will come of this, but since my resolutions for 2012 are pretty simple (although the list is getting longer), I figured it might be good to have someplace to keep track of accomplishing (or not) them WITHOUT the possibility of them getting covered by homework notes, random little boy drawings (Batman covers most of the to do list I have), and won't accidentally get thrown in the recycle.   And new years are for new things, so I may as well learn this.  I haven't been enamored with blogging as a reader, so maybe there is something you get out of actually putting all those thoughts down that I need to explore.  Which is okay, 'cause my brain has a lot to get out sometimes, and I can't get it out fast enough.   Right now it's off to finding the list for just today!