Vacation

Sweet Hubby has been on "vacation" all week, however, we have done nothing vacation like. Until today...a fishing trip at Pierce Lake. It was a beautiful day!! Temps were 78 degrees F. and the breeze was wonderful. The whole family went. We found a beautiful area all to ourselves and ate a picnic lunch that I packed for all of us. The guys set to fishing right away. Here are all of my "men". From the front, to the back, Zach, Sweet Hubby, Kyle and Bud. Well the little man was there too. But he was confined for a while. ;)
Ok, I will just let the pictures speak for themselves. And what did Rachel and I do while everyone else was fishing? We stitched, of course!

So, Sweet Hubby, although you work so hard and you have spent your vacation working on major projects at our son's house and here, I am glad you got one day of "vacation"!!! You deserve it for all you do for us! We Love You!

An Angel in Oklahoma

The other day, Linda from All Stitched Up showed a lovely angel quilt she made. Today the postman brought a package and in it was a wrapped gift with Charlotte's name on it. The beautiful quilt was enclosed along with a letter for Charlotte about how much her Mummy loves her and how proud her Mummy is of her. The letter told Charlotte to think about that every time she looks at the quilt. This was such a beautiful thing for Charlotte, as it has been a process for her to bond. It was a great reminder for her that she is loved. We immediately hung it in her room. Charlotte says, "Thank You Linda". You can tell by the smile she was very excited. Linda also asked that we look at the 11th verse of the 91st Psalm, which is our first Bible lesson in home school. If you would like to see a close up of each block go here. Linda also sent something for me. One of her beautiful bucket bags. Thank You SOOOO much Linda. I am so touched. You may have beautifully stitched angels, but YOU are the real angel!!!

Shopping & Swapping

As promised, the charm square top for Kyle's teacher is done. I did not finish it yesterday, but did get it done this evening. At least it is done. I actually became fond of it as I was sewing the last of the rows on. All put together I can see a piece of pretty much every quilt I have ever made. I see my mom's quilt, my dad's quilt, Kyle's quilt, my aunt's quilt, quilts from babies, TJ's quilt, Bud & Rachel's wedding quilt, my brother-in-law's memory quilt, my beloved pink & brown, Zach & Charlotte's quilts...it goes on and on. I would truly like to keep it. Kyle is thrilled and asked if I would tie it tonight. It is 9:30 pm and I told him "not likely". The picture is not great because it is so dark outside...no natural light, but you can see it enough to get the idea.
I spent some time with my sister today. We took a little shopping trip and ended up at Hobby Lobby. I found some great "stuff"! They had floss organizers for a dollar! I took the last 3. More freezer paper was needed. I also bought some variegated floss, a larger hoop, and 2 yards of Kona snow. I needed this for several projects.
I found feed sack tea towels.
And a cool little light to clip onto my hoop. Sue had one that was great! Now I don't have to flip the lampshade up and blind Sweet Hubby at the other end of the couch!!
So that was a lot of fun, but I have saved the best for last! Let's talk swaps! Remember this?
(It's not blurred on purpose) I still can't show the whole thing, as it was whisked away by the mailman yesterday to head to it's owner. As soon as she receives it, I will post a picture of the whole thing. For a beginning stitcher, I was pretty pleased with it and hope she will be too.

I picked my project for the 4 seasons swap and feel relief where that is concerned. Some of the new fall fabrics I showed the other day will be in it, along with the Kona snow. Before I can start that I need to finish the Masterpiece block.

OK! Here's the best and the last! Drum roll please...........I received my stitchery from my partner in the swap today! All the way from Margaret in Spain. They are exquisite!

I know, I know. The picture is bad, but just hold on, I have a better close up. She made me this beautiful little bag, a tissue holder, and the cherry thread catcher, and sent a beautiful bookmark. The bag is wonderful and I love cherries and am forever sticking my needle in the arm of the couch and throwing my threads on the end table, so the thread catcher is needed. Here is some detail. Her work is wonderful. I will treasure them always, especially as I was blessed that a friend got my name! Thank You so much Margaret! You are a treasure!

Tackle It Tuesday & Sewing

What can I tackle today?? Sweet Hubby is on vacation, though he is tackling his own list of projects. I could tackle some housework, but I do that anyway. No, tackles should be those things you "put off". Since it is vacation, I don't really want to tackle a house project. The front closet can wait. Today I will tackle a quilt! I have been "putting off" this particular quilt for a couple of months. It is the quilt for Kyle's teacher and I just really dislike it. It is hard to work on something that you do not care for. I just need to look at it as "Kyle likes it". So today I will finish piecing the top and MAYBE even get it tied. I like to do the hand binding, so once it gets to that stage I will be ok.
Last night, at 11:00, I had one more seam to sew on the floral bag for my friend. Wouldn't you know it, I ran out of bobbin thread and had no more wound bobbins. I still can not figure out if I was tired or if my machine was taunting me. Every time I tried to stick the thread through the little hole in the bobbin, I realized (after 3-4 tries per bobbin) that it was not a hole at all. Why do they make it look like a hole when it really isn't one? Then after finally getting the real hole threaded, I put the bobbin on the winder. Does it spin clockwise or counter clockwise? I can never remember. Of course it spun clockwise, but I still couldn't remember that until the 4th and final bobbin! I thought I heard the machine giggle! After what should have been a few minutes, but wasn't, I finally got 4 bobbins wound and ready to go.
My machine (she really needs a name) has not been beeping at me as much lately and I really thought we were starting to get along. I even bought her this beautiful sewing machine mat from Tazzie Quilts. It is in Civil War replica fabrics, my favorite. It has a nice non-skid bottom and a comfy place for her to sit. The pockets are perfect for holding scissors and other sewing accessories. you could even stick a few hershey kisses in a pocket! She seemed pretty ungrateful last night. Well, I won't let that stop me. I will finish the top today and post a picture tomorrow. Happy stitching everyone!

Rockin' Grandma

WARNING: Bragging on grandchild ahead! After yesterdays incident, TJ still loves me! He came over to spend the day while Daddy and Paw Paw stain the hardwood floors at his house. He came in and watched his beloved Backyardigans, singing the songs and calling out the character names the whole time. I did make him step back from the tv. Speaking of Backyardigans, Rachel finished her final block of these characters, Austin. She finished it quite a while ago and even has done a couple others. I don't have pics of the newer ones, but here is Austin.

I have a rock fountain in the entryway, and TJ, who is infatuated with rocks, always makes a stop there. Lately the rocks have been ending up in the toilet!

Are you tired of the back of his head!? Here is TJ's face when caught red-handed..."WHO ME?!"

We decided to go out on the deck as the weather was wonderful this morning. By afternoon the heat will be terrible.

See the owie? We changed the "sticker" this morning. It looks better.And Lily thought I was crazy for the pic of the scissors! Can you tell this was traumatic.....for ME? He can still do this though! What talent!!!

Then he counted backwards from 10!!! I'm not kidding, the kid is smart...ok, not smart enough to not grab scissors, but still...
He yells BLAST OFF!!! when he is done! We had to have our Grandma time in the swing. We look for birds and airplanes. TJ will sit with me for as long as I want, usually.There's a birdy!!! Boy, if that picture doesn't put me back on my diet......

We also looked at a book. I want to have TJ come one day a week for a story and nap at grandma's house during the school year. Cheryl at Copperswife does this with her grandkids every Thursday. It is a wonderful tradition.

So, my title "Rockin' Grandma"...how does that fit in? Well, Meggie at Life's Free Treats gave me the Rockin' Girl Blogger Award!! Thanks Meggie!! I am sure Sweet Hubby will crack up on that one! "Rockin' Girl" is not a phrase he (or I) would have thought descibed me. I can't think of only a few people to give the award to, so if I visit your blog regularly and leave comments, I think you are ROCKIN'!!! Consider the award yours!

Accomplishments

Needles were flying over the weekend! Both by hand and by machine. I finished my stitchery swap and made the label. It will go out on Tuesday. That was a relief!! I practiced my lazy daisy stitch for an upcoming project and think I can move on to another stitch. I am feeling pretty good about it. I seem to do better with 3 strands of floss instead of 2. Luckily it is a 1930's repo project and they used 3 strands back then.

Remember this?

Well look at it now!

That lining is Bright Orange!!!

While working on my bag, I was able to use my new pincushion. Thanks Darlene! Zach put pins in it for me. If you look close you will see the line of yellow pin heads. He followed Darlene's quilting line!

I think I can officially say I am addicted to these bags!! After seeing the gorgeous bucket bags that Linda made, I feel a little less of the bag expert I was beginning to think I was. Did you see them?? Oh my gosh are they wonderful!!! Well she has made 4 of them now. I could not have that, so I cut another one to make my count 5! (just kidding, Linda!) This one is the same floral as my own bag, but the bottom pink and brown fabric is different. I actually like this one better. The lining will be the same as mine. It is a gift for a friend who admired my bag ;)

I also pull this back out...

I appliqued 8 more pieces today. I think I am close to 2/3 of the way done. I will now push to get this first Masterpiece block done by the end of the month! Block number 2 will be marked, and though it has almost as many pieces as the first one (96), it will not be so tedious. Working on the Masterpiece did not go without incident! While I was stitching, TJ, who was visiting, grabbed my scissors. I got them away from him instantly, but he went to grab them back. He had opened them in the split second he had them so they looked like this...

See that sharp point to the left? When he went to grab them, the bottom of his forearm came down on that point! It barely touched him, but I knew it had cut the skin. Though it was not deep, it did split the skin. I tell you...I could almost not stand it. We cleaned it up and put a bandaid on it. It did bleed, but not terribly. I only had plain bandaides and we needed some fun bandaides. Rachel stayed with the kids while Paw Paw and I ran to the drugstore to get them and also some antibiotic ointment for Rachel to take home. I was not sure what he would want, so we got Dora & Diego, Sponge Bob, and Disney Cars. Plus a big organic chocolate chip oatmeal cookie!!! I'm sure the kid thinks Grandma stabbed him!!!! The Masterpiece already has a story!

Control Freak

I had to snap a picture of that cloud. It was the view from my front porch at dusk last night. You can't tell from the photo, but the top cloud was a bright pink. It really was gorgeous! OK, so onto my thoughts this morning. I am a control freak. I am sure most of you have figured that out about me by now. The problem is, I have control over NOTHING in my life at this point. I think life and God are trying to teach me something. I do not drink and drugs were never a problem for me because I do not like the feeling of being out of control. I was not born an organized person so I have to work very hard to maintain any sort of order in my world. My son Kyle had over 100 seizures a day from the time he was 6 weeks old til he was 12 years old. No control over any of that! My first son, Bud, was born with a cleft lip and palate, surgeries from 3 months old and on. No control! Life happens everyday and we have no control. Now Charlotte and Zachary come into my life. True blessings, but again, daily situations where I have no control. Now the problem with all this is, I feel these situations should be something I can control. As a mother I have a need to "fix" things. I could not fix my son's lip, though I could see that someone else did. I could not fix Kyle's brain, though God took care of that once I released the desire to control it myself. Try as I might, I can not fix the damage that was done by the womb and the vampire! Still, no control. What can I do? I can find an area of my life where I can have control. I can make myself organized!! I can control that, right? Is it wrong to want control over things? Not the kind of control where everyone else has to bend to your way of thinking or life. I am talking about the kind of control that brings order and peace. The kind of control where everything feels right with the world. I have noticed that Charlotte and Zach seem to thrive in a clean, organized environment. When there is chaos and clutter, disorder reigns. Now I figured out where the term "disorderly conduct" comes from!!

So for some of you it may seem that daily, control freak cleaning is a waste of time, but I have learned that the effect it has on my family makes things much easier here. I also want to make sure there is balance. I am not a clean fanatic by nature, though I would not call myself a slob...well maybe I would. I think I told Sweet Hubby the other day that I was a slob. This was after cleaning a room that had been neglected for a while. He did not disagree, though he is a born clean freak! He helps alot and has no problem cleaning. I just don't want him to. Again, control. So, back to balance. I put my main housekeeping tool away for the summer as I felt it was routine. Big mistake. I get sidetracked so easily (no, I am not ADD). I pulled my Control Journal (don't snicker at me!) back out today and am feeling somewhat in control again!

It sits on an easel on my counter. See the flower pressed at the top over the C? That is a flower TJ brought me the other day. Makes me feel good to see it. I made this Control Journal and it is tailored for me. I did not follow anyones template, though the name of the journal comes from flylady. It contains my daily routines.

And a section for my daily housekeeping lists.

Thursday and Saturday are light days and there is no list for Sunday. It is suppose to be a day off, and if I follow the Control Journal that does happen. There is also a Menu/Grocery List section, and a Monthly/Quarterly list that contains those jobs that only need to be done once in a while. It all sounds very OCD, however, it is really an important tool to keep me from going there. I guess in all of the situations in my life that have led to a feeling of not having control, I have went to the extreme when it comes to my desire to keep order and chaos out of my house. Believe me I am not to an unhealthy extreme. I would never ask someone to take off their shoes, I do not comb the fringe on my rugs, and I want people to feel at home and put their feet up on my coffee table if they want to. I would love for my house to be "Dianne ready" all the time. That would be "company ready" for the rest of you. Dianne is my mother-in-love who I have a very high regard for. She would never judge me and has seen my house at it's worst, but her house is amazingly clean. Her own mother raised 12 children (10 boys,then 2 girls) in an immaculate home.

So to implement the Control Journal means I will spend a couple hours a day cleaning and the rest will be my own. That is after home school. Without the Control Journal it seems all I do is clean, or see the need to clean. I am thinking a control journal type schedule might work for quilting too. Mondays could be hand applique, Tuesdays could be machine piecing......no, that is not necessary, because we never have to make ourselves quilt or do the things we love to do. The problem is I can not enjoy quilting if I am in chaos. My goal is not to be known for a clean house or the lady whose floors always shine. I want to be looked at as a person who enjoys life and has a peaceful home. A place of solace and joy. It is finding that balance. I think I am finding my way, but I'll let you know when I get there.