My Life in Flashes

This year is already getting away from me and I need to unload some photos of what we have been doing so far this year. This post will be my first Life in Flashes. Starting with Koda and how lovely he looks after a bath and nail trim. He stays clean all of 5 minutes.

 

Chloe was invited to a Princess birthday party last month. She was so excited to put on a princess dress and meet up with some girls for an afternoon of fun.

The birthday girl is in the center back row with blue dress in front of Cinderella. I think she will remember this day forever. Lots of fun, and Chloe slept good that night.

 

We went to a boat show in January. No plans to buy a boat just wanted to go look at them. It was fun to walk around in some of the big boats that you could live on. Some of the restaurants we go to are waterfront seating and we watch all the boats drive by. It was cool to get on some boats to see what they look like when you are on them looking out. I think I heard some where that B.O.A.T. stands for Bust Out Another Thousand. I guess that means that boats are high maintenance and a money pit.

 

Chris got tickets to go to the Disney Jr live show. Here is Chloe all dressed up and ready to go. Chloe loves these red shoes. I think this is the only outfit she has that actually goes with the shoes. She owns a lot of pink stuff and to me it clashes with the red. It is already starting to get hard for me dressing her and what she wants to wear. If it were up to her she would wear ball gowns every day with too many accessories to count. I think I need to start buying a few neutral items of clothing to kind of help with all the glitz and glam.

Enjoying the show with some Cotton Candy. That came with a princess crown.

These ladies were my favorite characters in the show. They are the fairies from Sleeping Beauty Fauna, Flora and Merryweather.

Lots of fun, singing , and dancing. I remember going to a few live shows when I was a kid like Sesame Street on ice.

 

Yesterday we went to a charity event called Pork, Pints, & Pearls. A festival of BBQ, Beer and Oysters to help a children’s charity.

They had long tables where they would dump pails of oysters for you to shuck and eat.

I love that Chloe likes to try new foods. She ate as many oysters as Chris put in front of her.

All the food was tasty at the festival. Chloe and I grabbed a plate of pork sandwiches with mac-n-cheese and a side of slaw.

There were a few farm animals at the petting area.

Chloe insisted on face painting and of course she picked the one with the most paint. Now that she has had her face painted a few times I am not as afraid of it. It washes off pretty easily.

The bunnies were adorable. These seemed to go into a hypnotic state when you carried them like a baby. Overall a great festival and awesome that the money went to a children’s charity.

 

Chloe and Koda have been spending more time together building up a bond of a girl and her dog. She will hug him and tell him how much she loves him. It is so sweet.

Well I hope you enjoyed my Life in Flashes. I think that catches me up thru February. I have been working on lots of sewing and crafty stuff and will be sharing soon. We have had a glimpse of nice weather. My fingers are crossed that Winter is finally over.

Linking Up to Anything Goes Mondays at Stitch by Stitch

Artic Nightmare

This is the second bad winter storm that has swept thru Southeastern US. Yesterday was a nightmare. The power was out all day and the whole town was shut down. Towards the afternoon the trees behind our houses started to snap off from the weight of the ice build up. There were many fallen branches that fell into our backyard including this whole top of a tree. We were lucky and none of them hit any structure. Our neighbor had an entire tree fall onto his fence and shed. Overall it was not as bad as it could have been. It just got real cold in the house so we tried to stay bundled up and used our electronic devices until their batteries ran out.

 

Wool blankets are worth their weight in gold to keep the chill out. This one I have had for many years that I bought in Mexico along with another one. The day I bought them Chris and I were vacationing in Mexico and were laying out on the beach when a local walked up to us wearing a ton of wool blankets and asked if we would like to buy one. The fish and colors on this one caught my eye and he gave me a deal if I bought 2. Anyway this lovely has been with me ever since. I usually drag it out when I have a fever and just can’t get warm. Last night it got us thru the freezing temperatures in our house. We were tempted to go stay in a hotel but did not want to leave the dog or cat at the house so decided to tough it out hoping the power would eventually come back on. Luckily it popped back on around midnight last night and the heat came back on. Yahoo! Today everything is still all closed down but at least we have heat and the internet.

 

Yesterday in the midst of my stress of keeping my child warm and happy I started a little hand sewing project. It will be a little something for my daughter to hang on her wall from me for Valentines. Nothing says happy love like a pile of cloth yo-yos. Maybe I can get it done by Valentines. I best get off the computer and back to it.

 

Here is a photo of Chloe and Koda from the last winter storm that hit a few weeks ago. Notice I am inside and not out in the freezing temperatures. Also notice the icicles hanging from the umbrella. I am over Winter and so ready for Spring. I hope this is the last of the artic weather to come thru these parts. There is a whisper that we might have nice weather this weekend. Wishing all of you warm and cozy thoughts.

On My Mind Mondays

Welcome to what’s on my mind. I thought I would start a little spot for me to unload some of the things that I am thinking about or into at the moment. I use this blog as a journal in a way and I thought it would be nice to look back and see what interested me. You know the whole reminiscing of remember when I was obsessed with “fill in the blank”?. Anyway here are something’s on my mind.

It never fails this time of year when it gets super cold, I always start dreaming about gardening. I start to think about what I might plant in the spring. Unfortunately we are still renting so major gardening will not take place here. I am not going to rule out a little gardening and of course there is always container gardening. Last year I clipped out an article on Kumquat Trees and how they do well planted in pots. I have been googling these trees for several months now and learning what conditions they like and how to care for them. As soon as there is no chance of a freeze I will be scoping out local garden nurseries for one of these babies to call my own. Yes I can see it now once I have it and planted in a perfect pot looking at it everyday and hoping for it to fruit. Does anyone else think about plants like this and the future plants they might have?

Ok I just need to put this out there. Finally the next season of Downton Abbey started last week. This show makes me giddy. It is like an event when I watch it. I usually work on my stitching and make sure there is no outside distractions. I sit and let it evolve in front of me and think thru out how much I love this show.

Ok occasionally I will watch the singing talent shows that come on. I started watching the last season of X Factor and was hooked from the beginning due to these two people Alex & Sierra. I love their voice combination. At first I was drawn to Alex he was text book the type that I fall for. Then after watching the two of them together you can not help but fall for the both of them. When they sing it is so genuine it gives me a feeling of right now in the moment and being a live. My favorite song they did on the show was a remake of One Directions song titled “The Best Song Ever” I love this song and at any given moment I am singing it in my head. You can find the Utube video of them singing it HERE I can not wait for them to put out an album.

This photo is from Mias Landliv blog. This photo makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I have been following Mia’s blog for a long time and her photos are always breath taking. This was beauty overload for me with the cable knitted pillow in the background with the crochet blanket on the side and then the wowzer stack of tweed fabrics in the center. Seriously I had visions of my own stack of tweed fabric and all the wonderful things I would make with them. This is one of those images I will file away and someday maybe in a few months or in a few years I will be in some quilt shop or fabric store and will come across possibly a bundle of tweed or wool fabrics and I will have to have it.

Well there it is a little window into what has been twirling around inside my head. I will end this with a quote by Emerson. I do love a good quote.

October Fun

October is my favorite month of the year. It always feels like the beginning of all the happy holidays and the welcome of cooler temperatures. Here is Koda getting into the Halloween spirit. I will warn you this is a long and heavy photo post.

 

We love to go to the pumpkin patch in October. This is where Chloe picked out her pumpkin to carve this year.

 

Nothing like a hayride on a beautiful South Carolina day.

Of course we ran to the petting zoo and hung out with all the little animals. They had the coolest baby animals this year.

 

It is time for persimmons to start popping up in the produce section. Such a sweet treat.

The key is to wait until they are very ripe. Wait till they are so soft you might bruise them if you touch it. Then cut off the stem peel if you like. I slice mine up like a tomato and eat it with out the peel.

 

We went to the local Blue Crab festival and enjoyed a bucket of crabs. They had a bunch of bouncy castles for the kids and also plenty of other festival food besides crab.

 

The best part besides the crabs was walking along the property and looking out over the water.

 

I slacked a little on the Halloween decorating and just put out a few pumpkins and a pumpkin door cover. I strung a small string of ghost lights in one of our rose bushes out front.

 

Here is a Halloween wall hanging I made a few years ago using a fabric panel and sewing a few borders around it. The other side is a pumpkin motif that I usually use as a table topper thru the holidays. Chloe called dibs this year and had me hang it in her play room.

 

This was the first year I let Chloe carve her own pumpkin, with a little help of course. She loved taking the guts out.

 Here is her pumpkin. Not bad for a first time, and a little spooky.

 

Chloe was a Pirate Princess this Halloween. She did great at trick or treating this year. She remembered to say trick or treat and thank you, and even thru in a few Happy Halloweens. She is growing up so fast I can hardly stand it.

I had big plans and dreams of all the Halloween crafting I was going to do this year but sadly I only managed to whip up this Pirate Booty bag. It was the perfect bag for Halloween candy. I also dressed up as a pirate this year. I carried this bag around and when Chloe’s treat bag got to heavy and full I would dump it into this bag. She was able to continue on trick or treating or shall I say Pillaging and plundering the neighborhood.

Summer Update

This has got to be our busiest summer ever. I thought I better do an update before I loose the few followers that I have. First up Koda our puppy is growing so big. He has at least doubled in size in the last 30 days. He is starting to loose his puppy fur so I am finding clumps of fur around the house and am starting a dust bunny farm. The potty training is going well. He is definitely in his puppy chew mode and I am due to stock up on some more rawhide since we are a little low.

I think the biggest thing and most time consuming of this summer is we moved. The home we were in was a rental and the owners called and said they were thinking of putting their house on the market and wondered if we were interested in moving earlier than the end of our lease. Chris is currently building a dental office about 50 minutes away from where we lived so we decided to find a place closer to his new office. We were lucky enough to find a home to rent in a nice neighborhood and not to far from the new office. So we packed up and moved. Can I just say the moving process blows. Right now the house is about half unpacked and I am still surrounded by many boxes. I am excited about my new office/ studio. I took the room downstairs that has French doors. The downside is it has no closet. You know how it is when you have a ton of craft stuff along with piles of fabric and quilt and sewing gear. The room is a bit bigger than I am use to and the lighting is amazing. I will just need to be creative in storing all my junk in a nice neat way, especially since it is the first room you see when you walk thru the front door. No time at the moment to unpack my sewing machine and get organized, my family feels there is other priorities as far as unpacking the house.

This was the last quilt I was working on before packing up my sewing machine. It is the Giant Vintage Star quilt pattern by Jeni Baker. I am using a fat quarter stack of Grand Hotel fabric by Jenean Morrison. This was a super easy quilt to put together. I think I am going to put a border around it, not sure yet.

A new project I started up this summer I am obsessed with is making these sweet 6 point stars. I am paper piecing the diamonds. No sewing machine required just a lot of couch time in front of mindless TV. The fabric so far is a bit of Sweet Shop calico candies & also some Atsuko Matsuyama. I plan to just add fabric as I find it here and there if I see something that will go with the vibe I started. I think putting these stars together for a quilt will take forever so I am giving my self no time limit and am just enjoying the process.

I love these and am so glad I started them. I just like looking at them. I think I need to make a mug rug out of one of these. Might be the first thing I whip up when I unpack my sewing machine. I have several of these 6 point star blocks made but they are still packed up. I will take a pick and share as soon as they are unpacked.

I am still working away at my Mirabilia “Under the Friendship tree”. I was starting to loose sight trying to follow the chart. I blew up some copies of sections then I highlight the squares when I have completed them.

I am behind on my Woodland Sampler. Made it thru June so I am half way thru the year. July is adorable so can’t wait to get started on that one.

With all the hustle and bustle this summer we still managed to get away for a long weekend to Myrtle Beach. This was our first time there. Great beach and lots to do. Since it is only a few hours drive for us I think we will be back many times. Well that about wraps up what has been keeping me busy this summer. I hope all of you are having a wonderful season. I am looking forward to autumn and cooler temperatures.