My Day In Pictures

As most of you who visit my blog might have picked up on is the fact that I am a very visual person. So I add lots of pictures to my blog!


I thought I would snap a picture of my hair handy work. I mentioned yesterday that I braided Grace's hair. I love Grace's hair in braids like this. Anyway, I'm getting a little better at making clean straight parts but still need a lot of practice. The time it takes me to braid like this is now a little less than an hour. Not bad considering it took me many hours when our first set of girls came. Notice my use of the colored binders.





Now I want to show you Joyce's hair handy work. BEAUTIFUL isn't it!? Look at those clean parts and beautiful braids! I am not sure how long it took Joyce to do Odell's hair. Maybe a few hours at the very most. All the girls would like Joyce to braid their hair. Next on Joyce's list will be Naomi. Ok, do you see the lack of colored binders on Odell's hair? Joyce said the secret is braiding all the way to the ends of each braid and then you do not need binders. I have tried it but my hands are too clumsy.





The girls did a little coloring today. I told them to act natural as I took the picture but they could not stop smiling. Grace was the only one who did not know I was taking a picture.



Joel and Lily were playing in a little blanket house while I finally finished quilting that quilt I showed yesterday.I just need to add the binding. Lily would not sit still in the blanket house long enough for me to take a picture of both her and Joel. She had found a crayon and ran off before I could take the crayon away or take the picture.



And of course, my gentle hearted Josh with beautiful flowers for me.

Wednesday's Walk

For this week's Wednesday Walk Down Memory Lane I thought I would share this quilt with you. I am thinking I made this quilt back in 1996 or so. I was expecting our third child around the time I was working on this quilt. It was just a few years after I started quilting. This was my very first real difficult quilt that I made up until then. I was SO proud of it. It had so many different pieces! Now that I have used a rotary cutter to cut my quilt squares I do not think I would ever go back to using templates and cutting each piece out separately like I did with this quilt. I am not nor have I really ever been a perfectionist and it showed as I was putting together the school houses. Not many of the pieces match.



My hand quilting has not improved since this quilt. Once I learned how to quilt with my machine I do not think I ever hand quilted a large quilt again. I am not a quilting purest by any means.



Even with all the mistakes I am still very proud of this quilt!

Be Still My Heart!

It has not been the most relaxing weekend and the lack of peace was sneaking into my week. I needed a little photo shoot with little Lily. She does not look all that thrilled but I was!







What have been my noteworthy accomplishments the past few days that kept me away from blogging you might wonder? Well, let's see...I washed my sheets. I washed and braided Grace's hair. Natalie, I used the shampoo bar. It seems to work great on African hair. Thought you might like to know that. Hmm, what else... washed the bathtub and then gave Lily, Joel, and Grace a bath. I have not gotten to my sewing much the past five days or so. My most recent quilt I started quilting has been sitting just like this since last week. It sure will be pretty if I ever get it done.



Here is a close up of my meandering. I'm getting better. It has taken a couple years of trying. I find I have a good rhythm until a child interrupts my concentration or my mind wonders off to who knows where and I then find my foot pressing too much on the presser foot and things get a tad out of control. I have never been one of those people who could rub their tummy and pat their head at the same time so using the presser foot,controlling the quilt and stitch movement as well as keeping an ear on the goings-ons throughout the house can be a challenge! It takes some good concentration to get my meandering consistent,but I'm getting there. Someday I will be good enough to move on to a actual quilting design.

The Boys Have Been Busy Movie Making!

Check out what the boys have been doing in their spare time!



Just how long can someone spin a ball? Watch and find out!



Great job boys!!!!!

Apple Valley Natural Soap

My dear friend Natalie along with her husband and children just opened their online store Apple Valley Natural Soap.



Their soap is SO good! Doesn't it all look so pretty.



The Lavender and Rosemary Bar smells so beautiful. Lavender is my favorite smell.



This morning I tried their Coconut Milk and Honey Shampoo Bar and I really like it.



Coffee comes a close second as my favorite smell so the Cafe Mocha Lip Butter is great! It really does smell like coffee!

Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane

I thought it would be fun to participate in Lynnette's Wednesday's Walk Down Memory Lane. Every Wednesday Lynnette shares a special memory on her blog and encourages us to do the same.

If you have not yet visited Lynnette's blog Dancing Barefoot on Weathered Ground you should!I think you would find that you will really enjoy it!

I decided for my Wednesday Walk Down Memory lane I would start by showing all the old quilts I have made and a little history behind them. I hope it would not bore you too much!

Here is my official first quilt I made or at least what is left of it!






I made it for my oldest daughter Elena right before she was born 15 years ago! Believe it or not she still sleeps with it!

I used my mom's old Viking that my dad bought her back in the 70's before they were divorced. State of the art at the time. I was sewing on a piece of family history. I thought would my dad have ever thought way back when he bought this machine for my mom it would eventually be used to make a quilt for a granddaughter he would never meet?

Now I'm rambling a bit...I remember being in high school and my dad would bring me to the fabric store on different occasions and he would lean on an available display case while I would spend hours ( yes, hours) showing him all kinds of fabrics asking his opinions. Not many dad's would do that for their daughters! And my mom would bring me up to a local fabric store so I could spend my baby sitting money on fabric. I would take my chosen fabrics treasures home and sew all kinds of stuff on that Viking. I made some pretty interesting things. Fond memories I would think of as I sewed Elena's quilt. My mom sewed our clothes on that machine when we were little and I even sewed my wedding dress on that machine! There was so much memory sewn into Elena's quilt.

Back to the quilt. I had NO idea how to make a quilt. It was very new territory for me. I bought a quilt book called P.S. I Love You Baby Collection and picked out all this very bright pink fabric. I remember standing to get all the fabric cut and a man who was waiting for his wife to get her fabric cut looked at all the crazy fabric I picked out and said to me "That looks like Laura Ashley thew up".

Although, I was pretty devastated by his remark he was right in that I chose some crazy fabric but I loved it all. I was focused on making the most beautiful quilt for the most special baby ever. Over the years the colors have mellowed and now are almost faded beyond recognition but I think of it as the first of many journeys my daughter and I have been on together.

Just last night as I was sewing, Elena was sitting on the couch by me reading a book and we would chat here and there about her 15th birthday sleep over, music, stuff like that just enjoying the evening together. I tell her I am going to make so many quilts for all those cute children she will have someday (grand babies, imagine that!) she will be begging me to stop making quilts because there will be nowhere else to put them. She responds with a "Mom, don't tease me..." Of course, I really am not teasing her, she will see!

I Love My Brother!

He's the guy who helps turn my visions into reality! I would be lost without him!

Anya's New Do'

This morning Joyce was hard at work fixing Anya's hair. Very good job, Joyce!





We went to pick up the medication to treat the one child who brought home to America 'snake'. It cost us $69.00 and that is the generic version!! WOW! I almost cried. I think Jeff actually did. We have good health insurance but do not have prescription coverage. It was not cost effective in the past so we dropped it. I sure do wish we had it this year. We all got tested and are waiting for the results. Oh, I Really REALLY hope that this issue has not spread to others, well, for a variety of reasons as you could imagine not all of it is the cost of treatment.


Sigh...I'm feeling a little down today. It seems the more I think the more my head hurts. Thinking about the above issue,life, and everyone here seems a little off today,especially me. Why is everyone soo nit-picky and fighty today? So many issues.

I think I will cozy up with the Lid's (Joel's nickname for Lily) on the front porch and relax. Now if I could just somehow send an idea into Jeff's head to pick me up a nice iced mocha on his way home from work...that is what those of us who live life without a cell phone do.

Saturday

Today was a pretty full day! This morning Josh redeemed his April coupon (a few days late) which was a nice walk to the Library with me.



Nolan and Alan had been participating in a Saturday art class in town called Kid Picasso. This morning was their last class so there was an art show that family could go and see their work displayed. Because it was right next to the library Josh was a very good sport and shared his coupon time. So it ended up that Josh, Grant ,Elena and myself all walked to the library and then over to Nolan and Alan's art show.

Here is Alan greeting us at the art show



and here is Nolan



After the art show the six of us walked farther into town and visited a newly opened antique shop. Of course, our trip into town would not be complete without a trip to the coffee shop! Aren't they a good looking bunch?



What do you think of this quilt top? I bought my very first official jelly roll of fabric a while back and thought the fabric would look nice with this rail fence quilt pattern. I actually bought this jelly roll quilt bundle from Wallmart. The Wallmart over in Owatonna has this cute new quilt shop type display in the fabric department. Pretty fun. The fabric is so bold I think introducing another fabric for a border might make it look odd.I think I will keep it like this and use a solid matching pink for the binding. As is it is a nice lap size quilt. Each block is ten inches square. Twenty squares in all four across and five down. Well, maybe a solid pink border might be ok. I'll set the quilt aside for a bit and think on it.

This Post Is For You Barb!

Oh, Traci you will totally get this too!

We had a visitor today! He was very unexpected and not necessarily a wanted guest but still greeted with much curiosity all the same. Even after he left he was the talk of almost all conversation that went on today and I assume for days to come. The likes of him had not yet graced the city of Waseca, or so we have been told, until now. He had traveled all the way from across the ocean. A long journey indeed! I am almost certain his fellow companions will be greeting us soon for he most likely did not travel alone. His parting gift to us you might ask? Well, we were each given pretty white 'hats' and cute little wooden sticks. How sweet is that! He really was a shy guy so as not to embarrass him too much I will use the nickname one of the kids so fondly gave him and say goodbye to you 'snake'! Yes,snake. He was not such a little guy. Although your visit was memorable (among other things), we would not mind if you never visited again!