making peace with the process

I really thought I would have made it farther with my quilt progress by now, but so far, I have 2 rings of 12 complete and fabric cut for 3 more rings.

By far, this is my favorite quilt "tool" to use. I splurged and got this ergonomic Olfa. It was a whole $2 more than the scaled-down version. Plus, this one has a safety feature, and the other didn't. I don't have kids to worry about their safety, I was more worried about myself with sharp objects and a frustrating project like quilt-assembly! But, anyway, now I feel like such a handy-woman now that I have an Olfa. Greg has carried an Olfa in his pocket ever since working at a sign-shop in college and so now, I feel like I can compete.
Another pic of my gorgeous fabric! Don't you love it?
I cut all the pieces for 3 rings at once and stacked them here.
And, now you can see I have 3 sets of 2 ring quarters complete. My goal is to finish the other sets tonight. We'll see.
Give me some encouragement!

personal space

I'm posting some more images of my scrap-space here, just because I didn't want it to be over-kill on the Studio Blog.


Another piece of art I have in my scrap-room is this poem by Shel Silverstein. It was one of my favorites growing up. My sister and I had the "Where the Sidewalk Ends" book and we read it over and over, but this one was the one we giggled at the most:

The Acrobats
I'll swing
By my ankles
She'll cling
To your knees
As you hang
By your nose
From a high-up
Trapeze
But just one thing
Please
As you float
Through the breeze
Don't sneeze

When Greg and I were in college, we frequently "dated" at Barnes & Noble. (cheap date!) One night when we were there, they had a special promotion going on for Silverstein books and this poster was on display. If you know Greg, you know he's not afraid to ask for anything, so he asked for the manager, then requested this poster when it was time to take it down. She wrote his name and number down, and I thought that was the end of that. But, about a month later, the phone rang, and his poster was ready to be picked up. How lucky! What's better than a cheap date? FREE ART!

That's it for now. I'll have a quilt update tomorrow night. Proud to say I've had (minor) progress there.

national geographic

I know I've mentioned before about Greg and his obsession with wildlife. Well, raccoons are no exception. As soon as I got home today, Greg was giddy with excitement. He was so proud to tell me about the mom and 3 baby raccoons that he saw walk along our stone wall in the back yard and then eat the birdseed off the stump.

Then, he told me to make sure to look at the pictures on the camera.

There were 32 pictures of raccoons and even on the small LCD screen on the camera, I could tell Greg's counting skills needed some work.

And, so begins another season of having to guard the dogs from raccoons, possums, moles, turkeys, and whatever else traverses our backyard.

Perhaps I should get him a telephoto lens for Christmas.

And, something I love....the July kit from Studio Calico. Trust me when I say I hope you've saved your money. These kits and this add-on (Venice) is my particular favorite.

happy fathers day

First, I must tell you that Greg lost miserably at his golf tournament yesterday. He had some excuse about handicaps and only his short game was good - or something to that effect. His team came in last and they were given a frisbee and told that they should try frisbee-golf instead. So, I thought now would be a good time to give a shout-out to his friend/customer Jonathan.

Jonathan, if you're reading this, be sure to give him a hard time about it.

Now, for another confession. I must admit that I'm really not good at the "little" holidays. You know, Valentine's, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day....

When I was young, we mainly only celebrated birthdays and Christmas. I mean, we participated in other holidays but they just weren't a big deal around our house, so I struggle to even remember them as dates on the calendar. Seriously.

But, you did notice in my previous post that I made 2 father's day cards: one for my dad and one for my father-in-law. Since my dad preaches on twice on Sunday about 45 min away and gas prices are $4/gallon, they've decided to stay over there for the afternoon. So, last night was Father's Day to us. Mom and Dad came over and grilled out burgers and we had cake for dessert.

Noah and Nadiya (Scarlet's kids) helped me bake the cake yesterday and they were thrilled to do so. I had to dig a couple of egg-shells out of the batter (courtesy of Noah), but other than that, they are very capable chefs.

Back to Father's Day. Here's a pic of Mom and Dad on their way to church this morning. It was the perfect morning for pictures...very foggy and I like how these turned out.

So, in trying to think of something meaningful to post for Father's Day (and trust me, I struggle with being sentimental), I thought about something my dad did that many other dads have not done.
Not only did my dad walk me down the aisle, he also married Greg and I. A little unusual, I know, but I couldn't think of any other minister as close to us as he is. And, he did a wonderful job, not only in the ceremony, but at being a "counselor" to us as well.
And, just for good measure, a family photo on my wedding day. My how we've aged!

getting ready for father's day

No big plans around my house today. Greg's playing in a golf tournament today and I'm here working with my July Studio Calico kit, cleaning house, and Scarlet will be dropping her kids by today so she can do some shopping for her sister's wedding, which is next weekend.

Here's what I've done so far:

• unloaded the dishwasher
• started the laundry
• cleaned our master bath
• taken pics of the dogs :)

Someone mentioned the other day that I don't scrap any more with photos of Addy and Jett, so I didn't want them to feel neglected.

Here's my pretty girl, Addy. I had just given them Dingo bones and they both react to them in a highly predictable way.
At first, Addy just sits there looking at Jett chew his bone. Mind you, she's watching him because she wants to steal it after he gets it nice and soft. Meanwhile her bone is sitting off to the side and is perfectly chewable, but she doesn't want that bone. SPOILED!

Notice the technique she uses to get Jett's bone. She's within inches of his snout.
Jett, still chewing away.
And, an aerial view of her technique.
This time, she wasn't successful, probably because I was snapping pictures of the process, but I would say 90% of the time, she's able to weasel away his bone.

And, below are a couple cards I made for Father's Day. The first will be for my dad.

Can you tell I got happy with the circle-puncher?
To make this one, I used the following supplies:

• Noteworthy Chipboard Alpha (Making Memories)
• Patterna Stamp Set (Fontwerks)
• Rub-ons (Basic Grey)
• Ink and paints from a variety of source
• Cardstock (Bazzill)
  

First, I punched the circles out of my cardstock, then adhered them to my card using quik-dry adhesive. I'm not sure who manufactures it, but it's available at Hobby Lobby (or thru Studio Calico if you were lucky enough to get an add-on in April).

Notice how the circles are "chopped off" evenly across the bottom. To do that, I only adhered the top half of those circles, waited for the adhesive to dry, then used an exacto knife with a ruler and sliced through the circles.

For the paint, I used the end of a paint brush and dabbed it in my paints and dotted away!
This card is for my father-in-law. It was kind of a toss-up which one to give to which dad, since both like coffee, but in the end, I thought my dad would appreciate the paint and ruler stamp edging in the card above more than Greg's dad.
Here are the supplies I used for this one:

• Cardstock (Bazzill)
• Ticket (Jenni Bowlin)
• Chipboard (Maya Road)
• Alphabet PP (Studio Calico promo card)
• Coffee scalloped circle (coaster from Cracker Barrel)
• Letter Stickers (EK Success)
• Patterna Stamp Set (Fontwerks)
• Chalk Ink (Colorbox)
• Edge Distresser (Heidi Swapp)
  

Hope you like them and I hope the dads in your life have a wonderful day tomorrow!

rituals

Well, it's been an very very hectic week yet again. Hundreds of packages were mailed from Studio Calico (more on that at the Studio Blog this week which will be hosted by Lorie), and it was our VBS. Greg took Noah and Nadiya Monday through Wednesday (I was away in Cincy for work) and then I returned on Thursday and they came Thursday and Friday nights as well. It's so fun to see the little kids enjoying learning about the Bible. It really just makes me smile :)

But, then, this weekend, Greg played in the Corvette Golf Tournament down in Nashville while I helped Scarlet get her house ready for her sister's bridal shower today. I also had a chance to do some scrapping (which I can't share with you just yet), but let me tell you, it's fabulous!!!

Today got me thinking about the rituals that make up our lives...you know, the things we do over and over again without even thinking why we do it or evaluating if it makes sense.

Every morning, Greg lets the dogs out the back door and they make a beeline for the treeline where a family of chipmunks live. The other day, my mom stopped by to pick up something from my house. No one was home, but when she opened our garage door using the code, the dogs were in the garage. Someone must have left the door open that leads to the garage and so the dogs, who are normally kept inside, hung out in the garage all day. They took off out from under the garage door, did a lap around the house, then came inside and waited for my mom to put on their shock collars (don't be mad at us if you think shock collars are cruel. Actually, we took the shock mechanism out and so now they just beep when the dogs get close to the edge of our property, but the dogs think they will get shocked so it works just fine.). Anyway, they ran inside and wanted their shock collars put on so they could leave out the back door and run to the chipmunk colony. Strange, right? I mean, they were already outside, but something about that ritual told them to come back inside and put their collars on. And, yet another ritual that doesn't make sense:


Greg feeding the birds. We spend $50 a month on suet (sp?), corn sticks, and birdseed!!! Why??? I have no idea. I know you can't count them, but we have 3 birdfeeders in these pictures.

Linda Barber (aka threecowboys) has a shirt that's pictured on her avatar that says "Birds will be the death of me." I share her sentiment!

I've been shopping...

I knew it would be a problem this week. I didn't have time this past weekend to cut all my quilt squares and get them ready to take with me on the road. And, when my hands aren't busy doing something productive, well, I must admit, I shop.



On Monday, I went to Bath and Body Works. If you haven't been, GO! They are having a huge sale, plus I had a $10 off coupon that was begging to be used. I got a huge bag of full-size shower gels, lotions, body butter (my new favorite item) and some nail stuff for only $60. I'll have to take a picture and show you...You won't believe what I good deal I got!



Then, last night, I shopped online at Gap. I got this sweater-top:
These trouser jeans:
And, these white capri pants.

How much did I spend, you might ask?

$75 including shipping!

Seriously. I had a $15 off coupon and LUXE card, so shipping was free, plus these things were already on sale.

I actually don't feel guilty at all for these purchases, because it's been almost a year since I bought jeans, and my other white pants are full-length and have been worn a million times.

Can't wait for them to arrive :)

clever

Being on the road lends itself to hours upon end of internet surfing. I've run into some clever things tonight and thought I would share :)



Pencil/Notebook can be found here.

Below is a tomKIT

So, you're probably wondering what a tomKIT is.....

Here's a super-funny description (not written by me)

No, it's not a slightly freakish tabloid couple, but Time Of Month KIT, a handy, super eco-friendly pack to prevent any type of girlie emergency. With the tomKIT, you can flush away your landfill guilt along with these special feminine wipes, and yes, pads. There's also organic hand sanitizer and a yummy lip balm plus a disposable and biodegradable pair of underpants which does the job, even if it's not quite right for date night.


Too funny!!!! (but seriously, I could have used one of these today)

And, one more...then I must get to sleep.

These are Man Notes. So, instead of asking Greg to write his thank-you notes on stationery with flowers on it, he can use the ones with a lawn mower, or drill, or...well you get the idea.

yet another busy weekend

Thursday night was the most fun of all the games in Greg's coed softball season. Their team captain and the opposing captain are brothers, so there was some healthy competition there. Before Thursday, Greg's team had only won 1 game and the other team was undefeated. They ended up pulling out a victory by about 10 runs. On his first at-bat, Greg hit an in the park home run, but later said if he had known they would win by that much, he wouldn't have run so fast....well, there's the spirit, right?

Anyway, here's Lorie (Natalee's mom) at bat

Then, Lucas.


And, Lorie coming in for a run.



I would have taken more pictures of the game, but it was actually exciting so I wanted to watch, plus it was difficult taking photos through a chain-link fence.

But, I did think to take some photos of what I watch throughout most of the games:

Morgan, Tanner, and Natalee (above)
Josie (Lucas' daughter) who is quite the character.

Kira (above). Isn't she gorgeous?
Tasha (Lucas' other daughter) with a mouthful of sunflower seeds.

And, finally, our cheering section. GO TEAM!

Friday was a busy workday, then we had to get ready for the yard sale, which started at 6 a.m. on Saturday. Worked that till 12:00 and had to immediately leave for Knoxville to attend a wedding for one of my reps. It was a beautiful location and ceremony. I knew it would be, and I so badly wanted to take my camera, but it really wasn't the type of event that others bring their cameras to, so I didn't want to stick out like a sore thumb. But, anyway, it was at a mansion and the ceremony was in the gardens overlooking the Tennessee River. The food was wonderful too...I can't say enough about the event to adequately describe it, but maybe when her pictures are published online, I'll share a few.

Well, I'm off to Cincinnati today and will be returning on Thursday. Ya'll have a good week!