order up!

Memaw asked me if I would make some springtime placemats for her.  Of course!  I had seen this "Campers" quilt by Amy Bradley, and shamelessly copied was inspired by her designs.  Her design is an entire quilt with eight different campers.  I copied the pictures, then enlarged them on the work copier and cut out the pieces to use as templates.  The pieces are secured down by fusible web and a tight zig zag stitch around each border.

I added buttons for interest, and did my loopy free motion quilting for the "sky" and back and forth motion for the "grass."  

Blues and greens....and of course more gingham!

The flowers in the flower box are embroidered pieces you can by at Joann.  I stitched the "The Bogles" sign with cross-stitching floss.  The binding is leftover from a plastic bag catcher I made for Jessica.  The batting is one layer of regular cotton batting and a layer of Insul-Brite, which allows you to place hot items on it without hurting your table.  I also use Insul-Brite in my potholders.

Memaw loved them!  I'm afraid she'll be worried about actually using them as placemats, so I made the backing a sage solid so she can flip them over for use.  When she just wants her table to look pretty, she can flip them back to the fronts.  How cute are these?  If applique wasn't so time-consuming, I'd make more!

hello, cleveland!

The hubs and I headed out early yesterday morning, bound for the Cleveland Home and Remodeling Show.  Nope, we're not remodeling, not in the market for new windows or a hot tub - we were there because Chip and Joanna Gaines of "Fixer Upper" were there too!  Memaw told us about their show last year, and the hubs and I love their show.  We knew they'd be popular enough to draw a crowd, but we had no idea what we were in for.

Once the doors opened, we sprinted to the chairs in front of the main stage (a whole hour before they were set to speak).  We managed to get third row seats!  And then, as we settled in, we noticed that all the seats were taken and people were still coming.  Here is the crowd behind us:

Matt Fox (who I remember from "Hometime," and my father-in-law loathes with a passion because he is essentially an actor and has no real home improvement knowledge) came out and started getting the crowd riled up.  Then guess who came out?  Chip and Jojo!

They told some funny stories about how they got to where they are today, then took questions from the audience.  They were both absolutely entertaining, and exactly how they are on television (Chip even asked if his hair looked ok!).

It was freezing in Cleveland, and after we toured the booths of the show, we headed outside to the parking garage.  It was then that the hubs and I noticed that Lake Erie was still frozen!

We went to the B Spot, Michael Symon's hamburger restaurant.  This entire wall was covered in beer cans!  We got cheeseburgers and onion rings, then shared a mocha milkshake.  The hubs had pork cracklings, but I couldn't stand the sight of them!  We both needed to be carted to the car, we were so full!

life keeps on keeping on

I haven't updated much because there hasn't been much to update!  Our lives have been relatively calm lately, and I'll take that every day of the week and twice on Sundays.  Here's the thing - I work with some young, unmarried, no-kid people, who tell me about their wild weekends and bar hopping and newest-awesome-restaurant attending, and it's great and good for them!  But around here, our days are pretty routine and there's a good chance that at 5:32 pm we are eating dinner and at 7:07 pm Britton is putting together a new configuration of her marble run while Barrett is talking to himself in his crib. 

If you come by our house, you're likely to see....

Barrett putting every single purse or bag we own on his arm.  And he holds his arm like I do when I hold my purse!  

Someone getting hurt.  We went on the nature trail last weekend, and Britton fell on the gravel and skinned up her knees badly.  She's been a trooper, but I know her knees still hurt.  She gets a kick out of me puncturing vitamin E capsules to rub on the scabs, and leaving off band-aids so her wounds can "breathe."  I do and say these things, and suddenly I realize I sound just...like...my....mother.

Barrett refusing to cooperate for his birthday invitation photo shoot.  And me realizing that I've got less two months to get this party planned (at least we decided on a theme - John Deere!), and I have a 6 hour seminar to teach the week after.  Time management and I are having trouble getting along lately.

Us all playing outside after dinner.  We were spoiled with warm spring weather for a whole week, and the minute the forks hit the plate, the kids were begging to go outside and play.  Today it started snowing and getting cold, and Britton and Barrett's only concession was to put on coats.  They wanted that outdoor time, and no doubt it comes from the months upon months we spent indoors this winter.

Britton is getting really good at hitting the ball!  

Barrett loves the playset, though I still don't trust him to climb up it without me hovering in case he falls.  If there's water pooled at the bottom of the slide, it won't deter him from going down anyways.

the lily quilt

Another baby quilt done!  This is the third, and final (maybe, if my co-workers settle down) baby quilt. This one is for Charlie, whose wife is having a baby girl.  In their family they name all the first-born girls Elizabeth, and they have decided to give her the nickname Lily.  I discovered this quilt on Cluck Cluck Sew, and she had designed it as a Valentine's Day quilt. I loved the color scheme (turquoise, pink, lavender, and orange), and how sweet it would be as a baby quilt.  I'd love to see it in a scrappy version too, like this one.

I found this sweet backing, and it and the binding were the only fabrics I had to purchase.  All of the hearts were made from scraps!

I quilted it with my all-over loopy free-motion quilting.  Surely a favorite of mine!  In the bottom right corner, I quilted "Lily" with a little heart at the end, in pale pink thread.  I drew it on with a disappearing marker, then quilted right over it.

A went with a classic for the binding - polka dots!  I found this binding when I bought the backing, and it matches the backing's bright pink perfectly.  I wish I had had it when I was making the quilt (I bought the backing when I was finished), because it would have made a beautiful heart.

Lily is due to make her debut in late May, so this quilt must wait patiently to be gifted.  I hope they love it as much as I do!  Such a sweet quilt for a first baby.

happy st. patty's day!

What's Irish and stays out all night?  Patty O'Furniture!  Oh, I love bad jokes.  And that one is a stinker.  We got the kids decked out in their green attire this morning, which almost made up for me oversleeping and not making green pancakes!  Oh well, the kids got their green clothes and Britton got her clover hairbows.

We played it up for the kids with some green food - salmon with pesto, and salad with green goddess dressing.  The hubs made the dressing from scratch, and its one of my favorite flavors.  Britton liked it!

I want that camera badly, Mommy

The hubs snuck upstairs and put some green food coloring in the toilet (this is after a flush, so it looks more blue).  He then sent Britton upstairs to see if any leprechauns had snuck into the house, and sure enough, she found the leprechaun pee!  Britton was absolutely tickled by it, and spent the next 10 minutes checking closets for leprechauns.  We convinced her that they are a squirrely bunch and must have left quickly to hit up other houses!

first haircut (and ER visit)

Luckily, the haircut has nothing to do with the ER visit!  Just like for Britton, Memaw gave Barrett his first haircut yesterday!  Oh, it was long overdue, and his hair had gotten less surfer-cool and more stringy-weird!  We didn't want a crew cut, or even that ubiquitous little-kid bowl cut.  She didn't take it too short, leaving long flippy layers that look absolutely adorable.

Barrett didn't mind it too much, and Memaw kept him entertained while she whacked away.  He was probably more upset about changing his shirt afterwards than he was about having his hair cut!

Shortly afterwards, we went to Emiliano's for lunch.  And it was there that Memaw noticed the left side of Barrett's jaw - it was swollen.  He hadn't eaten anything new and we couldn't pinpoint something causing an allergic reaction, but just in case we took him to urgent care.  We waited there for 45 minutes, until a nurse came out and told us it was either mumps or an abscess, and we should just head over to the Children's Hospital express care.  

We went over to Children's, and waited there another hour and a half.  The doctor couldn't find the cause of the swelling, and didn't have an ultrasound machine to verify if it was the perotid (salivary) gland or a lymph node infected.  So, very apologetically, he asked us to go to Pittsburgh's Children's Hospital's ER.  Little did we know why he was so apologetic...

Long story short, we were there for SIX HOURS.  And the nurse said that was normal.  Ugh.  I about lost my mind, and it was truly fortunate that Memaw and PawPaw could watch Britton, because then she didn't have to be there, picking up germs.  And the hubs could come with me, so we could trade off trying to entertain Barrett, who didn't have a nap and was up three hours past his bedtime.

We lucked out in two ways - first, the PA had just had a similar case, and two, we got the director of pediatric medicine AND the chief resident to check out Barrett.  Turns out the virus that had torn its way through Britton and me had also gotten Barrett, but instead of a hacking cough, Barrett's perotid gland was infected with it.  The virus acts like the mumps, thus the swelling.  It should resolve on its own over the next week, and Barrett isn't in pain. He just looks like a chipmunk on the left side of his face!

cold as ice

Back in July, tickets for "Disney on Ice:  Princesses and Heroes" went on pre-sale, and we went ahead and ordered three tickets. I figured that, like last year, we could take the day off work and have a fun day with Britton, without Barrett having to try and sit through it.  No dice, since it turns out that I bought tickets for Sunday's show!  The hubs stayed home with Barrett, and Britton got to invite her best friend Ali.

These girls filled up on ice cream and popcorn and loved it.  We were in the front row (there were two rows of chairs in front of us, then the stage), so we had a great view of all the ice skating.  Who doesn't love Belle skating around with giant napkin-rolled silverware?

Aladdin and the Genie!  I think I was more excited than the girls, especially when I heard Robin Williams' voiceovers.

"When's Frozen coming?" x 100

Anna!  Sorry for the blurry picture - I forgot my camera and had to use my phone.

Kristoff and Olaf were hilarious, and I was surprised how well Olaf could skate in that costume.

Every kid in the place sang along to "Love is an Open Door" and of course, "Let it Go."  The costumes were magical, and Britton and Ali loved the giant snowflake that dropped down from the ceiling, complete with fireworks.

I've already received emails about tickets for next year's "Disney on Ice: Frozen" and I'm seriously considering going ahead and ordering them!

barrett: 22 months old

Yes, for a second month in a row I am a day late in posting.  I did take the pictures yesterday, but I've been under a horrible fog of sickness for three days now, and completely forgot to post them yesterday! We are two months away from this little boy turning two years old!  How did this only just occur to me?!  I think in an effort to distract myself from the sadness of my last baby no longer being a baby, I will instead plunge head-first into Pinterest and Etsy and plan his birthday party.  I see a John Deere theme shaping up....

We do breakfast shirtless, with a hat for warmth, and two different kinds of cereal...

You wouldn't know it from that smile, but that poor boy has an ear infection, and today was running at 103 degree fever.  Even when he's not feeling good, he doesn't complain - he just wants to snuggle.  And you see that red cheek below?  Sure sign he's getting a molar in.  Barrett's cheeks have always turned red when he's teething (well, they turn red when he sleeps, but stay red if he's teething!).  And his other cheek is bruised because he whacked himself in the face with a play phone.  Barrett is not timid, and frequently we find him jumping off ottomans, climbing up chairs, and in general taking more risks than I would like.

Oh, and he is so in need of his first haircut!  It's not a fashion statement or gender-equality thing; it's pure laziness on my part!  I promise that it is getting taken care of next weekend.  Barrett is in a new class at school, and just fitting in so well.  I think he likes being with the older kids, and was getting lost in the "baby-ness" of his previous class.  Now he gets a cup for drinking, and more hands-on activities and crafts, and tons of music, singing, and dancing.  And his all-time favorite - books.  Oh, if we could read 500 books a night, it wouldn't be enough!

Likes:  Sadie, anything Britton will let him play with her, going outside to play today for the first time in MONTHS

Dislikes:  having sticky hands

67 months old

Hola!  I won't be like everyone I've ever known who lives outside the south, and just go on and on about the weather.  It's cold.  We can't go outside.  Everything is covered in a foot of snow and crusted salt. Ugh.  Britton is taking it in stride, though.  We spent yesterday watching "Big Hero 6," and while we all loved it, I was bawling like a baby!

Britton has been a social butterfly lately.  She just went to Disney World with Memaw and PawPaw, and they said she introduced herself to every kid on the bus.  We are going to Disney on Ice this weekend, and bringing her best friend from school.  We've been doing some really fun Girl Scout activities, too.  Britton and I went to World Thinking Day last weekend, and there's a Father-Daughter Dance coming up in April.

Likes:  the previews for the new Tinkerbell movie coming out tomorrow, dancing, watercolors, playing hockey with Barrett, Legos, peaches

Dislikes:  plain oatmeal, not getting to splash Barrett in the bathtub