My String Quilt

Did you hear a loud happy squeal this morning?  Sorry, that was probably me.  Every time I look at my new quilt I just can't help myself.  I always said that I would never be a quilter though I absolutely love the idea of them.  Then I found myself working on this toddler quilt and this baby blanket.  I felt my resolve weakening.

About a month ago, I started a string quilt and I think that I'm in love.  Each block is 10 x 10 in and the process is fairly simple.  If you don't believe me, just go look up a tutorial on pinterest.

I decided to make my quilt out of scraps.  So far I've been cleaning out my scrap drawer, using up my sister's scraps, cut up an old dress shirt, multiple sheets and a pillowcase.  I did break down and buy one large dress shirt from Goodwill for $1.50 since I decided that I needed purple.  This quilt is crazy and rainbowy.  I would love to someday make a quilt out of coordinating and hip fabrics but for now this is working and nearly free.  I will have to buy the backing and batting.  As of right now, I have 37 squares.  I think I might need 49 but I might also decide to go big and make 56 squares.  We'll see, we'll see. 

One of the coolest parts about this quilt is that each square has a white strip of fabric down the middle.  While this might not sound very exciting.  It does give me the opportunity to arrange the squares in different patterns.  Here are a few options that I have to choose from.  

Diagonal lines

Chevron

Concentric squares

3D Squares

I think that my favorite is the 3D squares.  What do think?  Fortunately, I still have a little time to decide as I finish the rest of the squares.  Before I sew them together, I will also go back and decide where each and every individual square needs to be placed int he larger pattern.  The ones in the pictures were just hastily thrown down to get an idea of how it would look.

10 Months + Some

So my wittle baby boy turned 10 months old over a week ago.  I meant to do a post on his month-day but I'm just now getting around to it. Be prepared for a cute picture overload. Here is what I want to remember about him:

• He just got his 3rd tooth and is working on a 4th



This photo pretty much sums up his relationship with his sister

• He still wakes up 2x/night.  Little stinker. 

This picture is a couple of months old but it is just so accurate

• He recently pulled up to standing for the first time.

  

  Thanks, Grandma

• He can say the words Hi, Bye, Uh-Oh and Ball.  He also thinks that he knows how to talk as he'll look right at you and try out all the sounds that he knows. 



He's generally a pretty happy and self-entertained kid

• He loves being outside but you have to watch him because he will try to eat clover and various pieces of foliage. 






• He hates to sit still.
• He looks like me. 
  
  
  
  
• He recently spilled an entire bag of cheerios in the center aisle during a prayer at church.  All I could think of was how the only thing we would be able to hear during communion would be the sound of the elders crunching 100s of cheerios as they served the bread and wine.  Fortunately, a couple of people quickly knelt down and picked them up before the prayer ended.  
• He loves to get into all kinds of trouble.  Some of his favorite things include exploring my closet, the bathroom and power cords. 
• He thinks that the command "Come!" means to scoot away as fast as possible while giggling. 
• He is finally starting to get into food.  The other day he chose to eat vegetarian curry over fresh mango.  At first I was proud, but then I had to change a curry diaper and I wished that he had chosen the mango. 

4 Things I learned From My Mom

They say that what you do is more important than what you tell your children to do.  The older I get, the more convinced I am that this is true.  Even though I don't remember my mom ever giving me a sermon on what it means to be a mother, she taught me everything I know about being a mom.  Here are a few things that I learned from watching her.

1. Family tops the priority list.  By providing us with a homemade dinner every night and insisting that we were there to join her, she showed us that family was more important than sports, school work, music lessons, a clean house and friends.  She always took time to read to us and play games with us when she could have easily been having alone time. 
2. Good food feed the soul and builds relationships.      
3. The Sabbath is always worth celebrating!
4. Motherhood is a call to sacrifice.  You'd better plan on puking up your guts repeatedly, getting up for middle-of-the-night feedings just so you can wake up early and start over again, cleaning the house just to have it get messy again, and cooking dinner again and again and again.  

Today I got to honor my mother by practicing these things.  I don't do them nearly so well as her but I figure  that she's got a 27 year head start.  I love you mom!

I'm not sure what's up with the wonky picture.  It refuses to be fixed. 

If You Give a Man a Muffin

My hard working husband recently landed a dream job.  There are some down sides such as the 35-40 minute drive and only 5 days of vacation this year but he loves it.  For the past 1 1/2 years he has been working on teaching himself computer programming in the evenings after getting home from work.  All his perseverance finally paid off and he now gets paid to computer program...well kind of.  He hasn't actually worked on any projects as he has spent his first week and a half filling out paperwork, getting the low down on the company and its products, and learning about the code that he will have work on.  I'm happy that he's happy and I'm also happy that this job at least has the potential of providing for us for years to come (i.e. he actually has the potential of getting pay raises and promotions).
Aaron's birthday is next week and I decided to surprise him by driving out to his work and having a picnic lunch with him.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but muffins are his kryptonite.  Seriously.  Forget about cake, cookies or ice cream, just give him a muffin and a plate of whipped cream and he'll be set for life.
I wasn't exactly sure where the building was as he works in a very small office that doesn't have a long office front.  I did manage to find his car right away and so I parked by it.  I then called him on the phone and asked if he had found the surprise that I left for him in the car.  He said no and I expressed concern that it had been sitting in the sun all morning.  This prompted him to go out to his car and check on the "surprise" and of course we were conveniently waiting there.
We enjoyed walking down to the riverside park and eating lunch in the shade while watching boats go by.

Excited about the train!

This man is worth the drive!

Don't mess with this man's muffins!

He was super happy to see us and we all had a great time together.  Kira cried when we left cause she missed Daddy.  

Here is a freebie picture.  This is my morning shower set-up.  Well this plus the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang soundtrack.  Kira is an addict.