Hugs and Kisses

Today is Jen's 40th birthday and I finished her quilt a day early. Actually, I finished it four days early because we are taking it to her on Saturday. Three cheers for me!!!

I *love* the Heirloom fabric! I have wanted to use it since I first spotted it and knew that this would be the perfect project for it. This was actually the first time I used a pattern, not just a tutorial online. I bought this pattern, mainly because it is called Hugs and Kisses. Silly reason to pick a pattern, but it just seemed perfect for my sister! I used some scraps from the front, plus one of mom's sheets for the back. 

Definitely the most challenging quilt I have completed thus far. It was the first time I worked with piecing together non-square pieces. It resulted in finished blocks that were smaller than they should have been, but the quilt is still a good lap size. I also quilted *a lot* on this quilt. I quilted double lines along each diagonal on the quilt and quilted diamonds in the white portions. Lots of work, but totally worth it.

The best part of the quilt is that these two were my helpers. From the very beginning of this project, from ordering fabric to when I was taking the pictures, they knew that this was Auntie Jen's quilt. They even helped me quilt! They sat next to me and they even took turns "working that pedal", as they called it. It was a bit stressful with them in control of the speed, which led to more than a few wonky lines, but I am pretty sure Auntie Jen won't mind:)

**linking up to crazy mom quilts***

February 2012

What a month in our house! We successfully potty trained Abigail. I am actually quite surprised that I do not yet have a picture of her running around the house in just her undies. It has become her wardrobe of choice lately. She is quite proud of herself for being a big girl. It is probably just coincidence, but she just seems so much *bigger* lately. Her imagination is wild and her stories are even wilder. She is a ball of energy...well, she is many things, but I don't think I can include baby in that list any longer. My girl is growing up.

And Charles. He lost not one, but two teeth within five days of each other. The tooth fairy now knows our house well. We catch him staring at his reflection in the mirror quite often these days, even though it has been more than two weeks since he lost those baby teeth. Sweet little man.

We celebrated Valentines Day with a dinner at home. We made molten lava cakes for dessert as a treat. Charles made valentines for everyone, which proves my point of what a sweet little man we have here. The kids were more than thrilled with their dollar spot sunglasses they found in their treat bags. To top off a happy little month, we *finally* got some snow that lasted more than a day or two so we took the opportunity to go sledding at the farm. I cannot believe that it took until the end of February for the kids to sled at Grandma's house. Unheard of! Benji helped chop wood that day so it was just me and the kids on the hill, thus no pictures. There were giggles, smiles, and tired kids at the end of the day, so I think a good time was had by all:)

Pinned it, Did it!

Last month I finally gave into the time-sucking wonderful world of Pinterest. A friend of mine sent me an invite and I joined while imposing a rule that I could only pin things that I could realistically create. Well, here it is. The first thing that I actually did after pinning!

I saw these totes on V and Co and knew that they would make great gifts for the kiddos for Valentine's Day. The pinned version is way more filled in, but seeing as though I had a helper, I just wanted to get some of it done. I like the way they look, and so will the kids, which is what really matters. I may go back and add more color in, but, seeing as though I have a quilt to finish (well, to be honest, start) for my sister's birthday in a month AND I need to get crackin' on a class to renew my teaching license, this is most likely the finished product. 

And, because she loves the camera, here's my painting assistant, blueberry face and all.

Something new!

Well, I have been busy. Between the holidays, Charlie's birthday, and potty training the girl, I haven't been able to blog much. But, I have had time to squeeze in some crafty goodness! A friend of mine is teaching me how to crochet. What better reason to whip up a new bag to hold all my new yarn! I know it is quite small to hold some people's yarn stash, but I purposely made it this size so that I do not go out of control buying yarn! I found a free tutorial online for the bag. I didn't add the closure tab, since it is simply for yarn, but I did embellish it with this fun flower pin I made. Those could also become an obsession, if not for all the glue strings I had to pick off of it. And since my few crochet hooks (and Mom's old yarn hook) quickly became Abbie's newest drumsticks, I whipped up a hook roll as well. I used this tutorial.

Another friend of mine has been having an extremely stressful couple of weeks. Her daughter has been quite sick and she has found herself in and out of doctor's offices and making late night phone calls to urgent care. Her daughter is a such a joy and loves to play with Abbie so I figured she deserved a little something special. It has been a long time since I made a crayon wallet. After making over ten of them as favors for Abbie's rainbow birthday party last year, I did not have a desire to make another one. For Miss Grace I made an exception. I put some lovely markers in and Abbie drew her a sweet note after I took these pictures. I am happy to report that Abbie's little friend loved it.

**I'm linking up to Finish it up Friday over at crazy mom quilts and Quilt Story: Fabric Tuesday**

January 2012

The end of December and pretty much all of January has flown by and was packed full of fabulous family time. I never did get too many pictures of Christmas, mostly because I waited to get great Christmas morning shots of the kids. Too bad I didn't know ahead of time that Abigail would be sick on Christmas Eve. I'm thankful I do have a cute one of the kids by the tree. And it was Christmas card worthy! Phew! Anyways, on to January!

We celebrated New Year's Eve at home again. I am loving that tradition. It just seems like the perfect thing to do when the kids are this age. Mike and Rachel came down once again, as did Brian and Gavin. Abigail enjoyed the crowns and noise makers. Shocking, I know. Charlie and his fabulous memory remembered that we play a lot of Wii on NYE, so of course, as soon as Brian and Gavin showed up, we needed to kick start the Wii-a-thon. Not much could make that boy happier:) He surprised me (but not Ben) by staying up until midnight. What a little man we have...

Speaking of that little man....he somehow turned six (6!) this month. I got his quilt finished during his birthday week and we even survived our first classroom birthday party. We took Charlie, Abigail, and 18 of his closest buddies to the bowling alley. We had to make due with some iphone pics because this mama forgot to put the card back into the camera. Good move, Mom. Good move. We survived, but not without a few beverages after the party! I think Charlie would probably say his favorite thing about his birthday (besides the presents: nerf vest, radio for his new ipod, star wars puzzle...) was going to Olive Garden. I mean, do you see that photo up there? I'm pretty sure that chocolate cake made his day...and everyone else's too!

This month also found Charlie mastering shoe tying and reading up a storm. I brought home sets 3-5 of the Bob Book series last week. I love that he is just as excited to get a new set of books as he is a new Lego set. Well. Not just as excited, but pretty darn close! Hopefully we are doing something right!

This has been pretty boy-heavy so far, but the girl has had a big month, too. We are currently tackling potty training. Abigail has been wearing undies for one week and one day! Her favorite thing about going potty is washing her hands. We have to go potty everywhere we go and I have a sneaking suspicion that it is only to find out what kind of paper towel dispenser they have. She LOVES those things! All I can do is shake my head and go along for the ride.

A boy and his quilt

I couldn't have picked a better day to finish Charles' quilt. After playing outside in the first real snow of the season, and after hot chocolate, of course, the boy who turned six (6!) this week, has the perfect thing to snuggle under while watching Star Wars. "Way amazing, Mom!" says the boy. Yes you are, Charles. Yes you are.

Magic of December

We've been busy, but in a good way. We've taken our time getting our house and our hearts ready for Christmas. It's hard to believe it's already Christmas Eve. We're spending the day cozied up inside playing games and making more ornaments. Some are for our tree, some are for loved aunties and uncles. Here's just a few pictures of our December so far...

...and here's to hoping the magic isn't over just yet...