Getting Ready for School

I've told the boys that I'm done with the reminding, the yelling, the threatening, etc that happens every school morning. They know they have to get ready, but do they really do it? No. They spend time goofing off, playing around, and just driving me CRAZY. I finally told them I'm done. D-O-N-E. They were put on notice. We say Family Prayer together at 8:45 and leave at 8:50. (School starts at 9:00 am, and kids can't get inside the classroom until 8:55 so no point going earlier.)

These past 2 weeks, there may have been times they went to school without brushing their teeth, or S didn't have his contacts, or they had to have a "yucky" school lunch. All because they goofed around instead of getting ready.

Well, today was just classic. I woke the boys up and got them moving. They got their breakfast. I reminded them of the time at 8:30. They ran downstairs to get dressed. And I could hear them. It sounded like they were having a grand ol' time. At 8:45 I walked downstairs to their room and said, "It's time for Family Prayer." They both stop what they were doing (which wasn't getting dressed) and were shocked that I was REALLY going to do this to them. C had on a pair of jeans and no shirt. S still had on his PJ's, which were a small long sleeved shirt and VERY small short shorts. S cried during the prayer.  As soon as the prayer was done those boys were in action. Man! Can those boys move when properly motivated. S and C both RAN for their room and dressed in the amount of time it took me to get my shoes and jacket and head outside. They were extra lucky in that I had parked my car outside of the garage last night and had to take time to scrap the windows and defrost the windshield. They took that time to run back inside and brush their teeth.

I think they understand I am serious now. I've probably scared them for life. At least it's documented now so that their future therapist will be able to read about my side of the story.

Hopefully, I won't have a problem next week.

Cross that off my list

After completing my list of WIP, I realized just how close I was to finishing the quilt for S.

Barbed Stars Quilt

I am happy to say his quilt is completed. Yay! I finished up the binding, the label, and all.

Quilting Funny

Mrs. Bobbins

Found at My Heritage Fabrics website. 

Considering all I just posted about my WIPs, sewing spot, and stash I thought this comic was fitting.

Conversations with the kids

Yesterday, being Saturday, I slept in. I hadn't slept well the last couple nights...probably because R was away on a business trip. When I got up, I had the following conversation with C.

C: I know why they have Saturday Morning cartoons.
Me: Really? Why?
C: They have cartoons for the kids to watch while the parents sleep in.

At dinner, I was telling the boys they need to get haircuts SOON because we are having family pictures next Saturday AND because their hair is just crazy! The conversation that followed:

Me: We are taking family pictures next week. That means we need to dress up and smile and pretend like we like each other.
R: Worst day of the year.
MK: What are dressing up as? Princesses?
*We had to explain to MK that we aren't "dressing up" like as Halloween costumes. We are dressing up as in nice clothes pretending that we always look that nice.

Shopping Day

Next Saturday, we are going to have our family pictures taken. Normally, we try to do this in the Spring as a Mother's Day present, but the photographer we like to use had just had a baby.  So now that we have a photo appointment, it's time to find coordinating outfits.

MK and I went shopping on Friday. She is such a girl because she LOVES shopping. No matter how many stores we go to, she wants to keep going to "just one more." I pooped out WAY before she ever did. 

So far, I have planned the following for me, MK, S, and C:

Family Picture Outfits

Not sure what R wants to wear to match with us. 

No, he won't go naked. 

Several local quilt shops were participating in a Shop Hop with lots of specials. MK LOVES going to quilt stores with me. I only went to 2 quilt stores. The first store had very little in the way of specials, prizes, or discounts. It wasn't really worth going to. The second was having EVERYTHING discounted. I had to restrain myself. I did buy some fabric for one of my WIP--the Flowers. Pink flower petals and green grass.

MK still  asking to go to Walmart and more stores. 

The State of Things

Our house is rather small. I used to take over the dinning table to do my sewing. Back then I had 1 box with all my fabric and things. Oh, how I've grown! (Or should I say "exploded!")

Last Christmas, I used my savings and took advantage of specials at Joann's Fabric to buy a sewing table. Now I've commandeered a small space between the back of the couch and the dinning table for my sewing table. R even put casters on my table to make it portable.

 (Note: On the left is the couch.  On the right is the rug under the dining table.)

Sewing Area

As you can see, there are still containers underneath the table. I have to move those to sew. Can you see the 12 Days of Christmas from my WIP in the back of all that stuff? I still take over the table with my things while I work.

On the other side of the table is my ironing board.

Sewing Area

Is this all my stuff? Ha ha ha. Not even close.

Sewing Tower of Doom!

This tottering tower is shoved between the wall on the left, the entertainment center in the back, and another couch on the right. Each one of those bins is full. FULL. I'm contemplating purchasing another one. And there is stuff piled on top. I used to have them stacked in two piles, but then R came home with a subwoofer, and it claimed a spot next to the entertainment center. Now my bins are all stacked one on top of the other.

A Day Out with Grandma Great

Back in August, after the boys went back to school, MK and I spent the day out with R's grandmother whom we call "Grandma Great" as she's the kid's great grandma. We picked up Grandma Great and went to the Springville Museum of Art to see the Quilt Show for a Girls Day Out. Last year, I entered the quilt I made for C. It didn't win anything, but it was at least good enough to be accepted into the show.

Well, Grandma Great has a super cool walker: it's cherry red and has a seat. MK kept saying her legs were tired so she could sit in the walker and have Grandma Great push her around. The museum has old Spanish tile with deep grooves. With the added weight of MK, the walker kept getting stuck between the tiles. I was worried for Grandma Great, but Grandma Great just kept laughing and joking around with MK.

Springville Quilt Show

Can you see the plastic glove on MK's hand? At the door the volunteers were handing them out so if you wished to touch the quilt to see the back you could do so with a glove as to protect the quilt. MK took her job very seriously and had to inspect every back for the label and to show us what fabric choice was used for the back.

After the show, we went out for Mexican food. It was a very fun day.

List of WIPs

I've added a list of all my WIPs.

It was a lot of fun to go through them all...and there sure are a lot of them. But they are so fun to look at! Now I'm even more excited to work on them.

Work in Progress #1

I've got MANY works in progress right now. I have the bad habit of seeing a pattern or fabric I LOVE and buy it without regard to my ever growing pile of Work in Progress (WIP).

I signed up for a project class at this years Quilt Fest for a 2 fabric quilt. I needed 4-1/2 yards of one main fabric for this quilt. I found this beautiful grey fabric, but was so worried I wouldn't have enough as it looked very low on the bolt. I took it to the table to ask how much was on the bolt before I fell in love with it too much...but I already had my heart set on it. It measured 4-1/8 yards! I was just short! I screamed NO! (in my head.) She did suggest I see if they had any fat quarters, which they had 2, and that if I was very careful with cutting it might be enough. I did it. I bought it ALL.

Fractured Flower Fabric Choice

I was SO incredibly careful with cutting...and I had the 2 fat quarters left over and one 2-1/2 inch strip left over from the main cutting! Thankfully, most patterns tell you to purchase more fabric than actually needed. I was SO happy.

But look how cool this looks! I'm finally at a point where it's coming together and I had to take a picture.

Fractured Flower Quilt in Progress

The pattern is called "Fractured Flowers." Can you see the flower in it? Pretty cool, huh?

Animal Pillows

Elephant, Hippopotamus, Zebra

I found this cute pattern at a Quilt shop in Gardner Village called Pine Needles. The pattern included an elephant, a hippo, and a giraffe. I couldn't resist. The pattern had been sitting in my ever growing pile of projects until MK was invited to a birthday party this summer for her really good friend.

I decided to make MK and her friend the elephant.  It went over REALLY well. I found out that the birthday girls' older sister was turning 10 a few weeks later and asked her mom if she could invite ME to the birthday party so I would make her an elephant, too.

After I finished up MK's elephant, I let the boys pick out what they wanted. C wanted a zebra. I found minky in zebra print! Score! S wanted a purple hippo. My mom taught me how to put a zipper on it so we can unzip the pillow if we need to (and with stinky boys that is a necessity.)

I'm so pleased with how they turned out.

MK sleeps with hers. She flips up the elephant trunk to lay on it. The boys have been seen snuggling with theirs each night, too.