What I Was Doing Before the Workday Began

Crocheting a cushion.

The cat is driving me crazy. He wakes us up all hours of the night wanting to nurse. Yes, you read that right. He roots around on exposed neck, shoulders, hands and no matter how many times we put him down, he comes right back very insistently. I can only think that his mother was taken away from him too early, though he was plenty old enough, it seemed, when we got him last week. He didn't start this until a few days after we had him. He eats his food fine but at night he does this thing. We may buy him a bottle to see if it soothes him and lets us get some sleep.

At least I'm getting to crochet. But. I. Need. Some. Sleep.

A Mommy Moment

Nick and his girlfriend stopped by after going out to dinner last night. Don't they look pretty? :)

I don't have any crafting to show. I spent most of the morning doing Roanoke SuddenValues work and then just puttered around cleaning and moving a few things around.

I am on inspiration overload having found so many pretty home and stitching blogs. I had some money from selling a doll and I spent most of it today on some flour sack dishtowels. I can't wait for them to get here so I can start stitching them.

I was thinking I may make new kitchen curtains with them until I realized it would probably take 4 per window and since I only ordered 10, well...I may fall back to plan A. I saw some curtains in an old Pottery Barn catalog that looked very similar to the ones I made last fall but they had ties and were hung from cafe rods which just made them cuter. I'm planning to revamp mine with ties and I know I've seen cafe rods really cheap at Family Dollar. There will be pictures when I get them finished.

I've really been itching to sew but then I go to my little space and just stare at the machine. Is there such a thing as too much inspiration?

Our Weekend

I can't imagine what he's going to be like when we have human grandchildren. lol




Best ribs I've ever had. Grilled by my Patrick.


I was inspired by the bloggers in Norway. I love those blogs. Wire, ribbon and beads now hanging in our bathroom.


Sorry for the shadows. I had to use a flash.

I also did some reorganizing, reading, embroidery and crochet.

A great weekend!

Milk Glass and Some Stitching

When Patrick was out working today, he drove by a yard sale nearby. He asked if I'd like to go check it out because he saw some glass stuff. We went over and I got these three milk glass pieces. Oh, I love them!!

After we had paid and were walking away, I saw this sweet little pitcher. Love it too!

I finished this quilt block today. I'm pretty happy with it.

I also appliqued an old stitchery to a pillow today. I had made the stitchery several years ago. I'm trying to use things I've made rather than storing them and I had a pillow that needed some love. Perfect combination. I'll get a pic of it later.

It was a long week so I pretty much took today off and did fun stitchy things.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Go Make Your Bed

I just entered a giveaway at Go Make Your Bed.

Isn't this a pretty quilt? There are also 2nd and 3rd place winners who will get fat quarters.

I've found so many pretty new blogs over the past few weeks. They sure are keeping me inspired to do things around the apartment.

Now if I can just get all my SuddenValues work done for the week so I can play. I guess that would be more likely to happen if I stopped looking at pretty blogs. A girl needs an inspiration break now and then, though, right?

Zeke

The whole family is in love.

Stitching and stitching and b...fussing.

I had planned to post yesterday but I spent 12 hours on a work project instead. Whew. Glad it's done.

I spent Sunday, which was perfectly rainy and cool, nesting a bit.

I worked on my little sewing area in the kitchen. It's hemmed in by the refrigerator on one side and the washer/dryer on the other. It's a tiny space but I'm trying to make the most of it. I plan to paint the frames over the shelf. They were 50cents a piece at Goodwill. I put some fabric in them and they each have a card. The top card is from Lisa Oceandreamer. It's a Mary Engelbreit (I just happened to have the same thing as my desktop wallpaper). The fabric behind it is some I bought at a yardsale or Goodwill. I made an ironing board cover with it and loved it but I left it when I left the house. The bottom card is from Blue Jude Musings and was enclosed in an order when I purchased one of her wonderful prints. The fabric behind it is some gifted to me by Lisa Oceandreamer a few years ago.

The painting on the shelf is by me, as is the doll. I'm trying to use my stuff instead of storing it in the corners of the house! You can't really see the table but it was my grandmother's sewing machine table. I love it. She was the best grandma anyone could have. She did a lot of crafts and I wish I had paid more attention.


I've also been working on our bedroom. I moved the bed a couple of weeks ago.

Not the most beautiful bedroom ever but what ya going to do with that ugly paneling that the landlord doesn't want painted? I haven't painted the table yet, either. I no longer want a mandala on it so I'll probably just paint it a pretty solid color. My tastes have changed a lot over the past year.

I'm working on a quilt for the bed. That poor bedspread has about had it. It has holes in it but I use it anyway...for now. The table is kind of crowded. I really want to get rid of things if I don't use them but some things I love and I know that one day I will have more room to spread them out so I don't want to rush to get rid of them. Now I'm wondering why I'm showing you these. lol I look at so many beautiful blogs and they inspire me so much around the apartment. I don't quite have the touch to pull them all off, yet this is an improvement over the way things were, so here ya go. Baby steps.

The afghan is growing. I'm trying to use up all that yarn I bought three or four years ago at a church rummage sale. (plus the newer yarns, blue, green and pink...they're now gone) I swore a year or so ago that I wouldn't buy new yarn until I used them up. This baby is doing the trick. I'm down to just a few balls of yarn in a single basket. Now that the pink, green and blue are gone, the afghan is going to become a lot more random I think. lol


I also started this granny square afgan. I told you I'm using up the yarn. :)


This little stitchery is from Gail Pan Designs. Ooooh I see she just added another block! They're freebies. Isn't she sweet to offer these? I'm way behind since I just found her last week. It's supposed to be a Christmas Quilt but I'm making them in a pink/brown/green colorway and going to make a quilt for our bed. I didn't realize until I was looking around at other people's blocks that I left a stitch off. Ooopsie. Oh well, mine will be different, right? I really love her designs. Simple and sweet. I tore up a curtain I bought a while back and decided just didn't work for me in any room. I'm using the muslin part of it for the stitcheries and I'll probably scavenge some of the other fabric from it (there are actually three panels) for the rest of the quilt.

We had a great 4th. Well, after a major bitchy Lisa earlier in the morning. My neighbor decided to run a leaf blower and I sort of went berzerk. But finally I just put in some Janis Joplin until I couldn't hear it and jammed until I felt better. Then I promised my dear husband that scary Lisa was gone and our day got better. hehe He is such a patient man.

He grilled chicken and italian sausages and made deviled eggs. I made biscuits and sausage for breakfast and then some potato salad. Sunday I made shortbread cookies to warm up the apartment. In July! Can you believe it? It worked out great because I was itching to bake again anyway. If I keep this up and don't get walking, they'll need a crane to remove me from this place.

Ok. I'm making up for not being able to post yesterday when I wanted to. My mom didn't call me "windy" for nothin'. xoxox

Now back to work. Lots of campaigns to finish up for the week.

Oh and we're getting a new family member. I get to meet him tonight. My younger son, Mike, called to let me know. His name is Sir Droog (name change: now it's Zeke) and I hear he's really cute and furry. (He did ask my permission first a couple of days ago)

Have a great week!

In a baking mood

All that's left of yesterday's scones.

Beer bread and a Bloody Mary before dinner. Why not? The bread was still warm. I couldn't resist.