Current happenings

Spring has arrived.  I am so thankful, what a long cold winter it was.

 I am working on a few projects, one of them is a knit blanket for a brand new little nephew that will be born in August.  The blanket I made for Jericho, his big brother to be, was pretty... but we didnt know if Sarah was having a boy or a girl when I chose the yarn, so I made it from a variegated baby yarn in pale blues, purples and white.  The new blanket is definitely different, it's going to be very bold. 

The yarn for Parker's blanket.

 

Jericho's blanket

 Maddy is doing well with the homeschooling.  Right now I would say that World history and Latin are still her favorite classes.  We need to start lining up her materials for next year, but I still have lots of time to find just the right stuff for her.  Tentatively next year she will be taking English, Geometry or Algebra 2, US History, Latin 2, another lab science as well as some "fun" classes.  Fun being the point... so it will be totally Maddy driven.  We have some local art classes, including stained glass, pottery, as well as things like Karate etc.  She will also be getting a part time job in the fall... and sometime over the next year will be taking Driver's ed through a local program.  We will also be utilizing a SAT program to help her get ready for that in the spring of 2014. Her Junior year is going to be a busy busy year for us.

In July, the husband and I will be going on our first vacation (alone without children) in 23 years.  A group of our friends, that we met online, get together every year in July for a weekend.  This year the stars all aligned and we are able to go. *knock on wood*  Its also the year of our 25th wedding anniversary, so we decided to extend our trip past the weekend and visit the area.  I am so excited, and nervous, and excited, and just can't wait, and excited...

Eileen has moved into a new place with her young man.  He is a full time culinary student as well as a  full time sous chef at a local restaurant.   Eileen will be returning to college in the fall. She is also working full time as a pharmacy tech at the state's biggest hospital.  She is a pretty busy young lady but she knows what she wants to do with her life and is moving herself that direction.  I am very excited for her.

Its a lovely day outside... there is a soft breeze and the sun is shining.  Its a very nice day and I hope you are having a great day as well.

~Regi

Jericho's sweater

The sweater is coming along rather well.  I have the main body done and am now working on the sleeves.  I am still enjoying the process, even if I end up frogging it in the end it was fun.    

 

And I couldn't help myself... had to throw in a picture of my buddy Jasper.  Isn't he sweet?

 

*hugs*
Reg

Jericho's sweater... wip.

Jericho's sweater in progress (sorry for the horrid picture!) I have separated the right front and back onto stitch holders and am working on the left front. Its coming together quickly and I am in hopes the rest of it goes as smoothly... *knocks on wood*

Its been a lovely week so far, temps in the 50's and today we are getting a bit of rain to wash away more of that cursed snow. Bring on the spring!!! 

I am off to work... I wish you a wonderful day!!!

*hugs*
Reg

In progress...

Started a new project, because you know.... its not like I have don't have enough stuff going on. *grins* I swore after the baby blanket that I knitted for Jericho, that I would never knit another thing. I even warned my girls that knit blankets for their eventual children were out of the question, and yet I find myself casting on stitches to make little Jericho a baby sweater. I found the pattern at the Lion Brand Yarn website and its very sweet. I got the yarn yesterday, its Caron, Simply Soft and the color is Ocean. Its a very pretty dark blue... almost a dark denim color. I think it will be very sweet and manly lol... My only concern is that it calls for two little buttons. Can I secure them on tightly enough that they dont present a choking hazard? Or should i try to find a different way to close the sweater. So far I have about an inch done... the yarn is so soft in my hands and almost silky. I am enjoying the texture of it so far. Here is a picture of what the final project is supposed to look like.

 

In other fronts, work is going well, we are all adjusting to the husbands coming home on weekends, and staying up in that area during the week.  Maddy is doing well in school, and the eldest has decided to get married in the fall, though she has no details picked out.   The weather was glorious yesterday, in the high 50s with a warm wind, a hint at what is to come and it was so refreshing.  I can not wait for spring even though it brings the mud.  hehe.  

Guess thats all for now... still haven't found the camera or its cord, might splurge with some christmas money and get myself a new one.  

*hugs*

Reg

ps... as much as I love this yarn I bought for Jer's little sweater... how I long to use pink.  I definitely need a little girl to knit for.

Two Pips down... a million billion to go!

I am happy to report that two of the pips on my list are completed.  The first one was Eileen's fleecy blanket.  We got the fabric and then she said, "Mom, would you mind if I made it myself?"  I hemmed and hawed... looked disappointed.  "Sure Eileen, if thats what you want," I said... "its your present." 

Ok ok... i know thats kinda cheating but a pip is marked off my list  *grins* and hopefully she didnt see me cheering as she drove away with a large stack of fleece. 

The second one is Jericho's blanket.  I am happy to announce that it is complete and in its new home just waiting for Mister Jericho to be born.

I am sure glad to have that little blanket done.  I did a simple pattern.  I knitted 10 rows, then for the body of the blanket I knit completely across on the right side, and on the back side of the piece I knit 7 stitches, purled across and then knit the last 7 stitches.  I did this until the blanket was a comfy size and then knit the last 10 rows.  When adding new yarn in I always did it on the wrong side at the beginning of a row.  I used a pretty variegated yarn and it ended up with 8-9 purple stripes.  Its not the best picture above but I was trying to get everything ready for the shower when i realized i hadn't take a photo yet. 

WIPs and 1 finish

I completed the mother's day gift for Hubbys mom... good thing as Mother's day was yesterday. *smiles*. I did not however get a picture of it... I kept meaning to and then next thing I knew we were heading out the door. We gave her a lovely potholder and some lavender soap I made, a copy of my favorite picture of the husband and our girls in a nice frame... and a lavender candle from pier 1 imports... all in a nice little basket. We also gave her a funny tshirt that said Help my husband has retired and has no hobbies... she got a big chuckle out of that.

I have also gotten Maddy's quilt top finally sandwiched so although I wont count that as a finish (cause technically its not finished lol) Im excited to have gotten it to that point. Next step is the tying and border quilting. Then the lovely binding.

I have also been working on the Improv squares... Im really not liking them at this point. The eldest does however like them so perhaps they have a home before they are even done.

I haven't forgotten...

Getting ready to run out the door but just wanted to say I havent forgotten.

This is what I have been working on the last few days...

The improv quilt is coming along. I am trying to just wing it and add fabrics I like in whatever suits my fancy. Not sure what I think but its coming along lol. One thing though... the dang blocks keep getting bigger and bigger. I would like them to be a kinda uniform size before I add the sashing but the suckers keep expanding... (which tends to happen when you add more and more fabrics. ) The photo is an old one... but since i cant find the camera it will have to do until i can get some pics taken and uploaded.



Potholders... not sure if they are a gift or for Meeeeee. I realized i havent yet made anything at all ... not a bit of anything for moi. How sad... and the newest potholder is gorgeous. I think it is anyways. Its supposed to be a gift for the husbands mom for Mothers day... we will have to see.

Maddys quilt is coming along nicely... i have the quilt top/batting/backing almost completely pinned together and then i can start tying it. It will be tied together in the center and then stitched in the ditch on the edges... and then i will start in on the binding. Woot... i cant wait to get this baby done.

I need to find my camera so i can take some pictures but I am getting excited to get a few items off my WIP list for Jacquie's Spring to Finish Challenge.

*waves*

Busy ...Busy... busy

Its been a bit frentic here in our house... Maddy was on school vacation and while we did lots of fun stuff... boy was I tired at the end of it.

Lets see... we:

had a sleep over with a friend where they stayed up till 3 am giggling.

made lip balm and lotions from a kit she got for Christmas.

made masks with cool feathers and sequins.

went to a bowling ally with her cousin and did DDR... well they did... i watched lol.

worked on a huge huge project for school where maddy had to make a model of a roman house. The place had a vestibule, atrium with a pond and a hole in the roof to let water in, 6 bedrooms, a kitchen, several halls, a garden room, a dining room and something else i am forgetting. Paul helped her and her partner cut out the walls using a special foam board he uses to make model airplanes and then they had to make up a floor plan following the rubric they were given from the teacher. They had to download mosaics from the internet and paste them on the walls... color the rest of the walls like a roman family would have colored them and then name and tag all the rooms with their proper name. And it all had to have a removable roof so you could see the floor plan. Yikes... it was a ton of work but awesome in the end.

Finally on Monday when maddy went back to school I pulled out my trusty old sewing machine and got to work on some of my WIPs. I got some work done on my improv quilt as well as a pretty little potholder that i will take a picture of when i find my camera.

Wow... Its not Monday and yet a post from Regi.

Ok ok... i have been missing in action for a while. So many things happening on the home front... all good and all very time intensive. Things are finally slowing down and we can breathe and yes this is a good thing.

I am way behind on loser mondays... so I think perhaps we will start from the beginning... ahem... not because we gained a bit of weight or stalled on the exercise front but just because ... If you buy that i have a lovely bridge to tell you about =P

Madelynne's spring musical is almost over... its been a lot of fun and a long road to arriving but here it is... I went up to orono on Friday morning and picked up the eldest so she could be there for opening night. It was rather important to Miss Maddy and she was pleased as punch that her sister could make it. Then I turned around and at 9:30 pm started the long trek to taking the eldest back to school. I finally poured myself into bed at 2 am. Monday and Tuesday are finals for her and then she is done with her freshman year so the timing wasnt great... but she so wanted to be there to support Maddy. Im pretty proud of both my girls... The musical went very well... as I type this we are gearing up for the last showing. Then we will take Miss Maddy out to dinner to celebrate. Tomorrow Maddy has her cast party as well as the wrap up of the play... taking down the sets etc.

Eileen will be home for the summer on tuesday following the last of her finals. She is very excited to get it all over with... she has done extremely well in school this year. However with the end of the school year along comes the departure of her fiance to bootcamp. She is kinda nervous about this but we will keep her busy this summer with all kinds of fun and no so fun stuff. She has her classes for next semester all picked out... knows where she is living so all is good.

Our landlords will be arriving back in Maine after a winter away in sunny florida. So we are gonna get the yard nice and spiffy for them. Just have to work on mr jasper and his tendency to bark at the wind... *sigh* the little brat. We have been having an awful time with ticks and spiders as well. Country living at its best I guess. Frontline check... a doc visit to get a new prescription for his heartguard... and lots of research on gentle ways to repel spiders. The things are so huge they could carry the dang dog away... we now have these lovely little electronic devices that emit a high frequency that supposedly spiders dont like... we have lots of lemon pledge to dust window sills and door frames with. Lemon scented floor stuff... we are getting rid of all the cardboard we can find in this place... keeping things off the floor... keeping outside lights off unless absolutely necessary... adn so on. I just wanna nuke the dang thigns but thats not acceptable. *sigh*

I have a quilting project or two I seriously need to get finished... several that i need to finish up by the end of the year... and quite a few I need to start. I am so far behind its scary lol. I think I am going to put a few things I signed up to do on the back burner so I can get some projects that are intended to be birthday and holiday gifts finished up first.

We are busy looking into summer camps stuff for Miss Maddy... get the little blue car either up and running or in a junk yard where it belongs... and plan what we are going to do when and in what order. Things are just crazy I tell ya.

Hope all is good in your neck of the woods...

till i talk to you again...

Peace..
Regi

The sewing machine is back...

I got the sewing machine part I have been waiting for, so quite a bit of yesterday I worked on part of my gift for my mother in law. Ouchie... I do not like the pattern I picked out. So freaking confusing! Honestly the pattern was probably fine... it was the user LOL. But... after many rip outs and start overs I got the thing done. It turned out nice and I am quite proud of it. It may need to be adjusted at the neck as the bib hangs low on me... but I am quite a bit shorter then my mother in law. Paul tried it on and he is a lot closer in height to his mom and the bib fell nicely... so if need be it can be fixed after the holidays, but I think its going to be ok. I also pieced a couple of blocks to make into pot holders. One of them I love but the other I need to rework... I wish I could find the part of my camera that allows me to upload pictures so I could show ya... but hopefully it will turn up one of these days.

I need to get the house organized a bit... Eileen is coming home tomorrow and I want every thing ready so that we can decorate the tree and put out the decorations, the minute she gets home... It just didnt feel right to do it without her. *smiles* I need to get the ingredients for homemade pizza ... and sugar cookies. Its been such a hard year... I want the holidays to be fun for us. Start our new year out with a bang!

We got all of the truck unloaded from the weekend... its stacked mile high in our shed but hey its off the truck and we can shut the doors so alls good! It feels very good to have it all done... a relief so once we get Ms Leen home we can actually start to relax and enjoy the holidays.

Guess thats all from this front...

~Regi

Packing and quilting and just stuff...

Today we are heading down to organize and pack up the rest of our stuff so that next weekend when we have the moving van we can just load that sucker up. Still am not sure what we will be doing with some of the stuff. There is no way we have room for all of it. We may have to rent a storage unit for the larger items that just wont fit in our new home. Perhaps when we find a new place this summer it will be a bit larger and have room for all our things. Then again we may have a storage unit yard sale instead. LOL

When we get back this evening I have some ironing and cutting to do so I can get some work done on a Christmas gift I am making... as well as cut some more strips for Leenies quilt. I cant wait to see that come together... and i have been procrastinating on it. I guess im a bit worried she wont like it ... worried that the colors are all wrong. But after a bit of soul searching I have come to the conclusion that (1) its going to be fun to make... (2) if she truly doesnt like it I know i can find someone who would love it... and (3) I will learn a lot making it. So those are all wins... and if necessary, next time I will take her with me to shop for fabric.

We got Maddys report card yesterday and she got all A's and one B in school. She is quite proud of herself and we are so glad to see her adjusting so well, making friends, working hard for her teachers etc.

Our landlords are getting ready to head south for the winter. Its going to be strange to not have them there. We have always had ppl around... always lived where neighbors were close by. But once they head out we will be on this hill alone. Kinda spooky, but I am sure we will adjust.

There is a knitting shop near by that offers free knitting classes as long as you buy your supplies. I am hoping to take a class or two, I can do a lot of basic stuff (i have made mittens, scarves, christmas stockings and a baby sweater)... but it will be nice meet people and hone up some of my skills. One of the classes listed in the fall was for making socks. I would love to learn how to do that. Anyways... I have to get the listing for the winter and see what is offered. I would love to take a quilting class as well... but the only shop i know of is a bit of a distance away. I will have to check out the community classes in the area.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

~Regi