A Belated Birthday Present

I love the fact that some of my friends have started quilting. It's so nice to have a craft in common with them. However, they were all smarter than me and started with nice, small, simple projects like tablerunners. So I decided to learn from them and I finished (yes with all the quilts I've made, I've never made one) my FIRST tablerunner!

This one is for my mom for her birthday. It was last week, but I knew I was going to see her this week so I wanted to give it to her in person. (I'm safe posting this because I know she's on the road right now on her way up here and won't be able to check the internet before she gets to my house!)

One of the times we went shopping for fabric, she found this butterfly fabric and the purple fabric. She left it here for use at sometime. Think she'll be mad I used it for her? ;-)

This was a fast project (the hand quilting took a little bit of time because I hadn't sewn for awhile). I decided not to try my hand at free motion quilting on this particular project because I wanted to practice some more.

This is the back. I had to piece the back because the blue fabric had a cut right in the center of it. I had to cut the fabric into two pieces and I couldn't make it cover the whole back. So I took a chance.

I really hope she likes it and I can't wait to see it on her kitchen table. I fell in love with the colors. I don't usually get to make ones with these colors so it was a lot of fun.

I did make at least two mistakes and one is very obvious but you would have to look close. I don't mind making mistakes because I think every quilt should have at least one. However, two is annoying! Oh well.

I love my mom so much so I hope she likes it! I'll keep you posted!

Enjoy your day!

Puppsitting

We had the pleasure of puppsitting my BIL's puppies the last two days. (These are Jake's kids from the litter earlier in the year.)

This is Jake with his son, Champ.

Like father, like son, huh? (Except for the noses) Champ did learn it's not a good idea to try to play with dad when he's eating. Jake kind of broke skin on poor Champ's nose, however, it had healed pretty good by today.

Jake and his children, Mocha and Champ.

Mocha learned that if you are trying to go under a gate, it's not always a good idea to stand up between the gate and the post. She got stuck. We had to push her head & neck back down so that she could back out the way she had came in.

Overall, Jake did extremely well with them. Other than the not-sharing-his-food incident, they all played rather nicely. He seemed to act like a puppy around them. We took them all to a pond just to see how they would do. Jake, of course, was a pro at swimming, but the other two floundered a little. Champ seemed to get the hang of it, but Mocha couldn't hardly swim because she kept dragging her butt. Hopefully they'll get the hang of it before hunting this winter!

Enjoy your day!

Catching up

While T was gone fishing, we kept busy with ballet for AD and children's theater for AJ. (It was really nice of our Parks & Rec to get some things for kids to do here instead of always having to drive all the way to the TC.) AD really seems to be enjoying it.

AJ also had a swim meet. It was the first one I had been to. She did a really good job.

Two more swim meets, a swim party, and we are officially done with swim team this year. AJ has really seemed to enjoy it.

I also was trying to finish up a DVD class that I had to get done before this week. Now it's off to getting ready for a yard sale for this week.

Enjoy your day!

Who Knew I Was Doing It Wrong

Last week before we went camping, I was invited to a friends house for a couponing class. I know, I know, it sounds silly to need a class for couponing, but guess what? I needed it. Apparently I had been using coupons all wrong. Today was proof.

I took what I learned last week and went to the store today. I walked out with 28 items that I saved $63.52 on! (I would have saved even more but I grabbed the wrong sizes apparently.) My total bill for these things was $44, but it would have been $25.86 (had I grabbed the right things). Woo hoo! I was bummed about the slip up (especially when I figured out what my bill would have been) but still really excited about what I got for what I spent.

Thanks to my friend for inviting me!

Enjoy your day!

A Beach Camping Trip

Back from another trip! Whew! The kids are sure going to have a lot of things to write about for what they did for their summer vacation.

This time we went to the beach. We stayed at an awesome campground and this is what we saw the first night.

Cool huh?

You can see by the end of our suburban how close we were to the beach. I'm glad we had a road in between us or I would have worried about AT going over the edge. The site we were supposed to have was right up to the fence and the bluff to the beach. I would have been a nervous wreck. Thanks Gma for switching us!

Sorry who can resist beach sunsets!

The sun doesn't shine too much on that side of the mountains so you have to take these while you can! It was misty and on the chilly side the whole time we were there. (I heard it was in the 100's back home. Yikes!)

The heater in the camper sure made it bearable at night!

I know, I know, another beach sunset.

T's Mom's side of the family were all there and they were going smelting. Well, T and AJ were more than eager to try but didn't catch much. However, while we were down at the beach we saw a sea otter, a bald eagle, and this seal that wasn't too far out from shore. You can see how close he was in comparision to AD who was standing right along the water line. Apparently he was looking for some smelt too!

AT wasn't too sure about touching the fish. His cousin and sister kept trying to get him to hold it, but he kept running away. They finally got him to hold one (that was obviously dead) and this was the best smile he could muster.

We had such a great time hanging out with family and seeing new places. The kids got to see the Big Cedar Tree and we went through some really pretty country. I sure am glad we got to go, but it's always nice to come home.

Enjoy your day!

A Nice Vacation

Just got back from visiting my folks. It was so great to see everybody and we certainly kept busy.

We met my parents and my brother's family at the Zoo on Thurs. AT thought the giraffes were pretty cool. The kids were able to get up close and personal with some prairie dogs. It was really warm, so most the animals were sleeping, but we pretty much got to see them all. The red panda was neat (that was a new addition to their exhibits). They had a blast!

Mom and I went to a Quilt Walk on Friday. They hung quilts along downtown (outside and inside some of the stores). There were some pretty amazing quilts. It was a lot of fun to see all the different styles of quilting and read some of the histories behind some. Did pick up some fun patterns to try. I know, I know, like I needed more, right? Maybe I should have a "library" to loan out all my quilt books and patterns. ;-)

Both of these things (the Quilt Walk & the Zoo) would have been great photo ops, but of course I kept forgetting to pull my camera out.

The kids enjoyed Gpa's fireworks show in the backyard. Several of the neighbors were shooting off fireworks, too. Ours weren't the same as theirs so there was quite a bit of variety in the neighborhood. We also could see town's fireworks if we stood just right. I think we all came away with cricks in our neck from turning to look at them all!

As nice as vacations are, it sure is nice to come home again. Jake didn't miss us too much. He got to play with two of his puppies as my BIL & SIL stopped by several times. The garden & flowers sure looked good considering we were gone so long. Couldn't have done it without help from Gpa keeping an eye on things.

I only finished one book on the trip (started yesterday and finished last night). Used to be a time when I could polish off a couple in a trip. The girls are pretty self-sufficient in the car, but AT still needs some attention. Can't wait until they can all occupy themselves!

Back to laundry and yard work again. (At least the house was clean to come home to.)

Enjoy your day!