Almost done

Tomorrow is the last day of my 5 strands challenge.  The only problem with this is that the last 2 weeks have been pretty much a wash.  I had a very important work of heart to start, as well as some really busy kids.  Even as I type this, I am really paying more attention to the clock. High School choir is killing me!  Between the expenses and the events, it is becoming the center of our lives.  As well as dance, scouts, and basketball.  There were a few days in the last week that we were gone for 13 hours at a time!!  I don't know how people do this on a regular basis! 

Onto the progress.  Some days I did get 5 strands done, and others none, but most were actually 2 or 3 strands stitched up.  Here is where I left off 2 weeks ago.  The peice in the upper right is what all my stitching has been done on for last 2 weeks. 

I was frustrated that I hadn't had a lot of progress, and failing myself imposed challenge. But to be completely honest, I feel so much better about things now. 





As of right now after uploading this picture. 








Because even with not getting as much done as I had wanted to each day, here is the picture I took 10 minutes ago....

What a pretty big difference!  The one thing I ran into was that I somehow got a huge knot in the skein of black thread, so I wound up just working on the one color for a while, since it was easier than working out the knot.



There is no open space in this pattern, so there is still quite a bit of work to do, but after tomorrow, I can take it at a more leisurely pace.

There are 8.5 by 8.5 inches of solid stitching here!  But the results have so far been worth it.  I kind of feel like I should by an extra frame to work on it in, but using frames really bothers my wrist for some reason. 

 I think for my next personal challenge, I am going to work on some crochet projects I have stashed away.  And I am only going to do it for 2 weeks, and see how that goes for  a while. 

Now, on to that work of heart.  A friend lost her husband suddenly last spring, and I had offered to make a quilt out of his shirts for her.  She was very grateful for the offer, but wasn't really interested.  After a few months, I ran into her and she had changed her mind.  She asked if I was still willing, but completely understood if I wasn't.  Well, what kind of friend would I be if I wasn't still willing?  So after a time she had gathered a couple together, and and I picked them up and went to work.  I now have all the individual blocks done!!! YAY!!

 I found a pattern here at the Thrifty Quilter. It was perfect for what I had to work with, and with a couple little tweaks here and there, it is coming along nicely.  I had 3 light shirts, so I purchased and prewashed 2 complimentary colors instead of also having red.  I really want the new fabric to kind fade away and let the shirts be the focus.  We'll see if that's what happens or not.  Ok. The clock is ticking !!!!

Time Flies When You're Having FUN!!

Well, about that time flies thing.  2 years ago was my last post.  Coincidentally, 2 years ago I spilled a still full, 32 ounce latte on my computer.  After some fits and starts, I finally have a computer that is ALL MINE, and is set up in a way that works for ME! (Sorry, family!!) It has been an amazing couple of years, as half of our kids have graduated high school and moved on to (hopefully) amazing futures and the other half have hit some pretty big milestones in their own lives.

Job changes have come and gone and come again, so for the first time in over a decade, DH and I are actually on the same schedule.  And I like him, so projects and volunteer activities have fallen by the wayside as we rebuilt our own relationship.  Not that it was bad, we just didn't see each other.  He worked his job, and me and the kids lived our lives, and sometimes we all got together.  While we were all awake.  At the same time.  But now it's time regain some of the things we let slide, or let go of completely.  And when 3 out of 4 kids say Mom should get her blog going again, if only because she actually got projects done with, I figured maybe I should listen to them.  DH had forgotten about it completely, and when the kids mentioned it, he said "get to work, woman" in that funny way he does. 

While I have almost completely enjoyed the last couple of years, there have been some really hard moments.  The kind that make your heart and eyes full.  The absolutely worst best moment was leaving our eldest 3,000 miles away.  The whole weekend I had with him was great, but that moment when I dropped him off and drove away for the last time was ONE OF THE HARDEST moments in my life.  And I know there are more to come.  He has 3 younger siblings.  And they may get married, And have their own children. And as absolutely amazing as those moments are, they apparently bring a sting I was NOT prepared for.  The moments where my baby wasn't there anymore, but a really earnest and hardworking man was with me in the car, or at the restaurant. Old Spice, you got nothing on the military when it comes to making a man out of my son. And we won't discuss your creepy factor.

So here we are.  I need to get projects done, as crafty and house and 'me' projects have been piling up.  As well as the supplies with which to do them.  I should probably start making some kind of project wish list, and write them all out to sort the things I actually want to do from the ones I feel like I ought to do.   One thing I am looking for specifically are monthly challenges, regardless of crafting skill/medium.  I find most classes in my area are introductory in nature, and while the instructors are good, there isn't a lot that I can take away from the class.  So apparently it is time for me to stretch myself a bit and get involved in some things that are a little less instructional and a little more creative stretching. So if anyone knows of any, pretty, pretty, pretty please, share them in the comments.

I think the holiday season is here!

In the last 5 days, I've been home after bedtime.  So I am running behind and constantly trying to catch up.  So far it isn't working!  However, before the schedule went haywire, I did manage to finsh a couple of things.  First, a quilt I started 6 or 7 years ago.  

 I finished it for a friend who has a red white and blue living room.  Some of the fabric dates back to when I did NOT know how to tell cotton from not-cotton!  But she loved it anyways, so it is now being used instead of sitting on shelf somewhere.

I also managed to get 6 of these done, probably because I didn't do any embellishing!  DH said no, they are fine, and if I started I'd get frustrated and stressy due to time.  So for once I did as he asked!

 One for me, one for a gift exchange, one for my MIL, and three for friends.  I found the design here. She has some amazing projects on her site, and it makes me wish I could like white as a decor color!

And, at last, a Christmas present is done!  These are for D1,and I am hoping to finish the pair for D2 today.  Elf slippers are just the thing for the girls, however I need to get a third ball of green yarn!!

Off to a holiday luncheon, then shopping.  I think I want an early bedtime, or Santa won't leave ME anything! :)

Crazy!!!

Nothing finished last week, and no time to type since it is CARNIVAL WEEK!  YAY!!!

Almost back to normal!

With the oldest away at camp, I have realized how many hands are necessary to run this house at a preferred level, LOL!  On top of that, I emptied his room yesterday so I could paint while he was gone, since then I don't have to worry about where he'd sleep each night.  They think it's fun one night to camp out in other rooms, but after that they start to get crabby about it.  And I don't blame them!  It took all day to get everything out, and then pull nails, fill the holes, and scrape & scrub the tape off the walls.  NO MORE TAPE ON MY WALLS!  Put whatever you want on the door, but leave the walls alone!  That child had stuff taped EVERYWHERE! The walls, the sides of bookcases, drawer fronts. I have no idea why I painted his furniture last year or why he wants his walls painted now!  It'll look great, and maybe having a color HE likes as opposed to what we had on hand when we moved in will make a difference.  We did get the outside trim around the rec room windows painted, and D2 is mastering the masking tape skills.  Although she didn't particularly love the masking, either. I don't if she'll be willing to help in S1's room.  We'll see.

I didn't get anything finished over the weekend, and I have little hope for this week.  The list is getting longer and longer, and time is running shorter and shorter. I can't believe summer is almost over!!!! So off I go to see what I can get done today!

So little time...

And so much that has to be done and that I want to do! Last week was full of meetings to finalize various day camp plans, as well as getting kids to from activities.  We did get a bunch of unused stuff out of the house!  Boxes of too small clothes, toys the kids don't play with.  We still have more to do, but I am happy with the progress, and the kids are happy with how easy and fast it is to clean their rooms.  If we spend anytime on the purge this week, it's the rest of the house.  Books, movies, whatever.

I only finished one sewing project this week.  It has been waiting to be finished for 3 years and it was for my bestest friend.  I thought I had tons of work to do on it, but when I actually sat down to finish it before I saw her this weekend, it only took 15 minutes!  Anyways, here it is.

A bag holder for all those plastic grocery bags.  Her kitchen is blue and yellow,  so I used squares of all my blue and yellow fabric.  She was very happy with it, although I felt horrible that it took so long to finish.

As for this week, there are no plans, just survive cubbie camp!  Anything more than that is  bonus!

What a weekend!

We started out Friday thinking we were set for a crazy weekend.  But then the birthday cake got broiled in the oven, and we had to bake another one.  Someone had gone it to make garlic bread, and didn't know there was a cake in there.  I didn't know anyone was going to use the oven, so we had a mommy meltdown to start the weekend right!  Why was the cake in the oven? To hide it from the cat that likes baked goods, AND we discovered if you cool the cake and the oven 10 minutes, then put the cake back in and shut the door, you wind up with an amazingly moist cake. (It took 2 or 3 times of hiding the cake from the cat for us figure out what was happening!)   So Saturday was the birthday party, which was more like a birthday open house, people came and went all day.  The birthday boy was happy, and mom and dad were exhausted!  Sunday, which is supposed to be a day of rest, and we really try to keep to that since the rest of the week is so busy. But this Sunday, D2 and I went to church in the morning because we had a book club in the afternoon, and the boys went in the afternoon because S1 was serving.  Except at one point my dear husband looked at S2, and there was a WHITE faced little boy with green lips!  Apparently he didn't actually throw up, but it was a close call.  So we all get home eventually, and it's like "can we sleep now?" 

The rest of the week pretty much followed that pattern, so all I got done were 2 little cross stitch cards.

These were a kit I had received months (years?) ago and just finished.  I tend to float between knitting and cross stitch.  I'll knit a couple things, stitch a couple things, and repeat.  I've noticed this is mostly when working on big sewing projects, since the machine is taken over by a quilt.  The goal is to relax right? 

This week I am making several centerpieces, finishing a quilt, and then the kids get out of school for summer!!  I am curious to see how having them home affects my OPAM finishes.  How much LESS will I get done?