Ow. My brain hurts.

Whew.  Right now I barely have time to breathe, let alone blog.  

My list of priorities goes like this:

Mom-ing

Schooling

Housework

Laundry

Sewing

Blogging.

Sorry - bottom of the list, but that's how it is at the moment.

I'm carving out these few minutes while I listen to my kiddos argue about, well, who-knows-what.  I can tell you they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, which is getting their jammies on and hopping into bed for book-time.

Utterly frustrating.

Please don't get me wrong.  I love my children.  I adore them. I even like them.

Always have, always will.  But by golly they can be so utterly frustrating.

 And wow, have I had a month.

My littlest is 6. She's very smart and tested into 1st grade in November.  

This picture was taken about a month ago.  Goof-ball.

Very intelligent.  She's also only 6 years old.  So, I struggle with our expectations of her.  Is it unrealistic to expect her to wash her own hair?  How about putting her clothes away in the CORRECT drawer?

I try to think back to when the other two were six and its not really apples to apples, ya know?  

She has been struggling with tummy pain.

We finally have an appointment to see a pediatric "tummy doctor" but not until May 1.

I know there are days when she hurts and doesn't tell me, and then there are the days when it hurts too much for her to go to school.  Hopefully, will will get it all figured out soon.

My middle one, my BOY.  and wow is he a boy.

taken at Christmas, my boy is on the right, his cousin on the left.

 He totally reminds me of pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons.  He just steps outside and he's covered in dirt. He's growing out his hair, which adds to the shaggy messy look.

He also constantly is making noise - either sound effects or talking.

c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t-l-y.  

I try really hard to not let it drive me batty.  But man, wow.

an hour in the car with him feels like, well, an hour. in a car.  with constant noises behind my seat.

Other than that he's pretty easy right now, but being the middle child and the only boy, we do try to make sure he feels special too.  

My eldest.

chopped off all her hair, in February.

 Man oh man.  She will be ten at the end of the month.  And the attitude has begun.  Snarky comments and back talking.  Currently, we're simply calling her on the attitude, telling her flat out when she's being disrespectful and rude. We're working on ways to treat her like she's 10 and not younger, like her sibs.  Tonight she made dinner - Mac & Cheese with Hot Dogs.

So totally normal family life, right?

Parenting seems to be taking more "time" lately.  For some reason they're rather high-maintenance at the moment.  But, I love being a mom.

I love being their mom.  Bring it on.

I love it more than fabric.

Add to that - I'm back to school.  I made it through my first term, yeah!

This new term is kicking my tail-feathers.  I'm taking Math, Chemistry and Soil Science.  Who's brilliant plan is was this?  So much left-brain use and little time for creativity.

And

 - wait - 

our home computer decided it was done. 

Blue screen of death and everything.

 So, after weighing the pros and cons we got a slick new laptop.  Which is great, except I spent the last 3 days getting all the software, programs and files on the new one. Getting new technology is not fun and exciting when it is unplannned.

On the plus side - I did get the new photoshop elements.  I'd been using 2.0 and now I've got 10.  Whoo hoo, wow, totally awesome - if I could find time to play with it.  I also got a new-to-me "real" camera, on loan from a photographer friend, for me to try out.  Again, gotta find time to play with it.

Another plus - 

I got my chickens!  

Or at least the first of them.  We ended up at the Farm Store on Free Chick Day.

Free!  How could I not bring some home? 

 I'm expecting more chicks to arrive in a couple of weeks.  tee-hee!

About a month ago I did manage to finish my Carolina Christmas.

I gave up finding the perfect binding and went with what I had.

 So, chicks on quilts!

Now I need to go figure out "Sine & Cosine and Their Functions"

All really want it a nice tumbler of Irish Whiskey,* 

whiskyla.com

Some cheesy chips, and an evening of NCIS.

tvbreakroom.com

*disclaimer - I rarely indulge, usually when I'm feeling like I need a nice treat.

Kinda like chocolate - only not really the same at all.

Carolina Christmas

It's done!  I finished it, quilted it, bound it, wrapped it and gifted it.
It was the first time I'd completed something larger than a mini.  I saw tons of mistakes and imprefections, but the recipients love it and thats what really matters :)

I love how the scrappy colors really come together!



Tried my hand at squirls, hearts and stars.



Used the leftover HSTs to make pinwheels for the back.



happiness.

Sew In Results

I had a pretty productive evening!  I caught up with my Pinwheel Sampler:

One of the ladies participating in the quilt along commented that there was a lot of "white" in the quilt, so I opted to use the solids that were in the layer cake for these two backgrounds.  I made the tiny pinwheel cause I could.  I don't have a clue what I'll do with it, but it sure is cute.

I almost finished the crayon tote for the Boy: 

He loves Spiderman :)

I got about halfway through the crayon tote for Muffin:

And I cut and pieced the borders for one of the Carolina Christmas Throws.

All in all, a good night!

Stress...

...takes its toll.  A week ago today I recieved a phone call telling me that the twins were going to the hospital.  They both had RSV and one had pnuemonia.  Ug.  The most helpful thing I could do was to stay at home with their oldest and my kids.  But I couldn't sit still.  I needed something mindless to do.

I finished my block swap block:

Then I finished piecing the Carolina Christmas tops.

I made two tops. Both are 48"x64"

Just need to add borders:

Both girls are home and healthy now.

Now I'm out of mindless projects!

Carolina Christmas Update

Last night I sat with my hubby and trimmed all the block while "we" watched 2012.  Totally unrealistic, super-sappy, fun-to-watch movie.

So now I can say I've officially finished Step 5.  Blocks are all made, just need the layout.  Well, I peeked ahead, and I'm not sure I want a full sized quilt.  I think I can make 2 throws using these blocks.   Here's one plan/idea:

It uses Bonnie's layout, just less blocks.  We'll see.  Since I'm using her layout (sort-of), I can sew the blocks into larger blocks and play with the layout.

Fun huh?

Time for Me

I finished up the Nutcracker costumes, they turned out great.  I can't wait to see them onstage.  Miss Mae and The Boy are going to be in the show, an angel and a baby mouse.  They are totally excited.  Muffin and Miss Mae were in a photo shoot for the Nutcracker Tea a couple of years ago.  They keep using the photo in their posters, It's sooo cute.

On another note -
I recently found Quiltville.com. What a great website. I decided to try out Bonnie’s scrap users system... I love it! I don’t have nearly as many scraps, but it is nice to have things organized and easily accessible.



Bonnie started a mystery quilt today. I’ve never done a mystery quilt, usually they require buying certain amount of yardage of particular fabrics. Since my fabric budget is usually nonexistent, buying fabric is out of the question. This quilt is called “Carolina Christmas” and it’s scrappy! She suggests using a single print of one color, to tie the whole thing together. I happened to have a bit of birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so I bought 2 yards of a nice dark chocolate brown.


Since I don’t need to buy anything, I thought I’d give it a spin. She’s using scraps of red, green, neutral with a single gold print. I opted not to use gold but brown. The first step was listed late last night, and since I was up, (avoiding homework and folding laundry) I started it.


I worked on the units today, while my kiddos had a "movie day."  Tonight, I finished step 1.

Now I have to wait until for the next clue.  I guess I could clean up my mess....

~Kristin