Working on Goals

I started re-organizing my sewing stuff. It had nothing to do with the fact that the sewing/storage room looked like something exploded in there. It had nothing to do with the fact that the landlady needs to take pictures of the apartment so she can list it for sale.

I started with my fabric drawers. I have a HUGE plastic 3 drawer chest that I have been keeping my fabric stash in. Yeah, it had exploded some time ago and fabric was laying everywhere: in grocery bags, in piles on the floor, on top of the chest....everywhere.

I sorted through all of the fabric. I threw away any scrap that could not be used to make a small square. It made me sad. It was a huge pile of fabric. But, it was never going to get used, just thrown out eventually, so it was a good thing. This is what I ended up with:

3 neatly organized drawers. All sorted by color. All of the scraps of the same pattern put together.
Drawer 1: red, yellow, pink, orange

Drawer 2: white, black, brown, cream

Drawer 3: blue, green, purple

Now this is what I will be tackling next. Yes, it is the rest of the explosion. I know it looks bad, but hopefully it shouldn't take too long to straighten out! *fingers crossed*

And then we have this little corner. This is actually my dining area, and my dining table (yes it's a card table). Yeah, it is a lot neater than a few weeks ago. But it could be neater still. Hopefully I'll finish a few of the projects that are sitting there, waiting. And maybe I'll find the cord for that printer that's sitting there on the table. Yeah, it doesn't have a cable, so I don't know if it works or not. Do you think DI will take it without the cable? Hmmm....it was a really good printer, hardly used at all. Maybe I'll just buy the cable.

The spending continues....

So the spending spree continues! With Monday, weigh in for family biggest loser, Mike and I decided to get some gear. We purchased dumbbells online (they are the ones that have the weight from 5-50 lbs without having more than one pair of dumbbells). Unfortunately, they won't get here until like next month :(

We went to Shopko to pick up some melatonin for our crazy hyper "can't go to sleep even though I haven't had a nap all day and it's quarter to midnight" child. While we were there, we checked out the workout equipment. This is what we bought: the iron gym, and the ball set. I went to Target later and bought the 2 lb weights, and all the excercise clothes.

The clothes were all on sale! It was awesome. Everything matches, too, except for the orange sports bra. But when it's only $4 and your size and the last one, you kind of have to get it. I couldn't wait until Tuesday to start (Monday is the weigh in), so I pulled out all of my work out DVDs and started watching them to see which ones I wanted to do first.

Then I pulled out the Wii Fit. OH! You should have seen the dust on that puppy! WOAH! It was gross. Apparently, I have only used it 4 times since we got it the night it came out (it came out in time for Mother's Day, I believe....yeah, sad). Well, I hopped right on that thing and played around for about 30 minutes. It was sure fun!

Mike put together the pullup bar. It's nice, because it doesn't drill into the door frame, since we're renting and all. Yeah, I can't do a pullup to save my life. Not even if I cheat and start on a chair. SAD! I thought I had pretty decent upper body strength. After all, I do have a 36 lb kid I carry around.

Hopefully this is not all for naught. I would really like to lose the weight soon. I realized today that I weigh around what I weighed when I was 8 months pregnant (I was working 50+ hours at a retail mall store, and didn't hardly ever get to sit down. I really didn't gain a whole lot when I was preggo, but still...). And I'm not pregnant. It really made me quite motivated to totally dedicate myself to this challenge. I am going to do it! I AM!

I spent WAAAY too much money, but it sure was fun!

Gracie Lou's was having a sale. I went in. I don't really need fabric. I found some that I loved. I bought. I went back to work. I couldn't stop thinking about some of the fabric I left behind. I went back. I bought. None of the stuff I bought was on sale. I spent way too much money, and bought way too much fabric. Mike will probably freak when he finds out. Shhhhh! But here they are. Can you see why I couldn't leave them behind??
half yards of art gallery

fat quarters of art gallery

Recipe for Friendship and Candy Kisses charm packs. Oh I can make some cute decorations with these for my kitchen!!

more art gallery fat quarters.

See? I told you! I couldn't leave them behind!! I left one set of art gallery fat quarters behind, and it is still haunting me. I should have bought them. They've probably found another home by now, though. As long as it's happy, I guess. :)

The "Froggin' Saur" Bankdie

Remember I bought some fabric because Marsh cried and screamed and yelled words that sounded like we swear like sailors at our house? Yeah, well I hurried and finished his bankdie.
I used the Super Simple pattern. Here is the frog block. Oh how he loves it.

And the saur blog, because the leaves look like Kota's leaves.

And here it is all quilted up. I did a totally random and sporadic zig-zag in green thread. I had to hurry and do it, because Marsh kept trying to steal it from me, even though it was pinned on. In fact, he had both the top and the backing fabric wrapped around him at one point. The white is really really dirty, so I'll have to wash it once it is bound, before Marsh and Kota can play with it.

I really think it is so funny how much he loves that dinosaur. We love Kota too, that's why we got it for him.....and at a steal of a price, too!

He won't even ride Kota unless bankdie is on him. It's cute. Hopefully I can get this bound and washed tomorrow so he can start playing with it on Monday.

A sweet Moment

New Year's Day was a lazy day for us. We stayed home, and didn't do much. I camped out on the couch, content to bind quilts that needed binding. Of course, Marsh had another idea. He wanted to sit and snuggle. He never wants to sit and snuggle, so of course I stopped what I was doing to snuggle with him.

Mystery Quilt finished

I finished the mystery quilt top just in time! Tomorrow I get to buy the backing fabric and quilt it. I was afraid I wasn't going to finish in time, because halfway through the day Marsh and I had to run to Joann's for some interfacing (not for this quilt, for a t-shirt quilt for my little brother). While we were there, Marsh saw a stack of fat quarters and grabbed them. On one of them were frogs (which when he says it does not sound like frog) and on another piece were leaves that reminded him of Kota's leaves. He kept yelling "Saur! Saur! [frog]! [frog]!" So I bought the fabric for him. He wants Kota to have a "bankdie" too, so now I am making him a super simple quilt out of these fat quarters. It will be cute. Pictures tomorrow (hopefully). Anyway......

The picture makes the orange look really harsh, but it's really not that bright. It looks more like a rusty orange. I am not sure what is up with Mike's camera, but it is being weird.
This picture I took with my camera. See? Not as harsh an orange. Not sure what color I want to back it in. I'm thinking either a tan or a navy blue. What are your thoughts? The binding will be the navy blue, too.

And, while you're thinking about what color I should back this in....go take a look at this super cute quilt I did for a client!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas morning pictures. I know, they're about a week late, but I have still been so busy! It's nuts how crazy the holidays get!!

When we woke Marsh up, he wasn't too happy about it. We had put Kota and the tool sets away in the other room until he opened up his other presents. His first one was the Hungry Caterpillar quilt. He was so excited. As soon as he opened a little corner he started yelling "Bankdie! Bankdie!" Then he opened Elmo Live! and it was the same thing "Elmo! Elmo!" Then we got out the tools and Kota.

Of course, he was a little scared of Kota at first.....

(Had to put in this blurry, messy hair pic. It was too dang cute!)

...Marsh had to check out everything about Kota. His tail moves, ya know, and that kind of freaked him out a little.

Then he had to check out his cool new tool bench.

Eventually he warmed up to Kota. Now we have to take Kota out of his room in order for him to go to bed. Kota is like a member of the family now. He is a pet that you never have to feed or clean up after. It's quite nice. :) Of course, Elmo is a big hit with him, too. He loves to sleep with Elmo, although I can't imagine why. He isn't the cuddliest of toys!

Breakfast at Lola's house. It was so yummy. Have you ever seen an entire room full of adults stop talking and sit quietly and listen to a toy? No?! Well then you need to get ya'all an Elmo live! I have never heard a family party so quiet! It was the funniest thing ever! And, several people, adults, wanted an Elmo for themselves after seeing how stinkin' cute he is!

We braved the massive blizzard and made it, safely, to Grandma and Grandpa H's for Christmas brunch with the family. Aunt, Uncle and cousins, and Grandma and Grandpa M were all in attendance. It was fun. Of course, G-ma H owns an organ, and Marsh has made it is sole purpose in life when he visits to push all the buttons and change all of her settings!

The H grandparents gave him a bag of Mega Bloks. He loves them. He made a tower immediately out of blocks. Now they are scattered all over the house. Just when you think you've picked them all up for the fifth time that day, there he goes getting them out again!

Christmas was so fun, and all the gifts were great hits with Marshy. In previous years we have kind of struck out with good gifts, but oddly enough this year (when he is at the weird age of 2, where everything is either too old or too baby for him) we did really good. I actually think most of the toys he got were 3+, but he is quite big for his age, and smart enough to know not to put the big plastic nail into his mouth! haha