Presents and a Hubby!

He's HOME!!!  Here's a pretty thorough overview of what the boys and I have been doing since he said he was getting close:

We weren't excited to see him or anything :-)  Can't wait to sleep well tonight... I never sleep well when he's gone.  At least I had good company!

Typing on the computer... I type with my knees up at home :-)

Watching TV

I also got a fun present in the mail yesterday... the charm pack of Fossil Ferns from Quilt Moster in my Closet's Giveaway!  I love them!  Thank you thank you thank you!  I've been having fun going through and finding all the fern designs :-)

Plus, who doesn't LOVE getting fabric in the mail??  Yay!

Well, I'm off for a date with my hubby!  We're going to go watch The Hunger Games!  Loved the books, so I'm hoping the movie is great too!  See ya later!

Fabric!! :-D

Guess what I did yesterday?  I went fabric shopping!!  And found some cute stuff to bring on the cruise in June :-)  What do you think?

Can you tell I like stripes?  My mom thinks I'm nuts.  There's only one quilt I've made so far without any stripes in it though- I'm just drawn to them!  I think these will make some fun illusion blocks and such though, don't you?  Can't wait for Karen Combs's classes- although I feel absolutely horrible that she got all her materials stolen!  If you haven't heard that story, you can read it on her blog HERE.  People in the world, I tell ya!  I've been trying to get the word out as much as possible for her, even though the quilts and materials were stolen in Texas and I'm in Michigan.  There's no such thing as too many eyes though!

I've been laboring on trying to get a big project finished for my class too.  It's a fully written month worth of accounting for a pretend business- with all the payments, purchases, sales, invoices, bad checks, and anything else you can think of in all it's glory!  Worst part about these written projects is that if you make a mistake somewhere, it carries ALL THE WAY THROUGH, and you have to catch everything it touches!  That's a lot of work, I tell ya!  It's due in about a month from now, but the sooner I get it done, and get the other project for the class done (stock market project- ugh), the sooner I am DONE with classes and can get back to my fabulous fabrics!!  I have my braids for the living room quilt laying out, and it's TORTURE!!  I haven't touched them since the other week when I was blissfully ignoring this project and playing with them!

Slade isn't doing well again- I had thrown him and Augie outside to enjoy the sunshine and was beckoned back by ear piercing yelps!  He barely made it onto the porch again and is having trouble with walking around and such.  My poor boy!  He's such a baby though- he cuddles when he doesn't feel good, so he got some Mom cuddle time on the floor after we got back inside.

I also got some good news!  I went to the temp agency who actually originally placed me at the place I'm working now a few years back- it's a seasonal office position that I really enjoy- but they retested me for a full-time position.  I brought my score up by an extra 3 WPM, and had record Excel and Word scores!  It's nice when you hear someone tell you- "Well, you're scores are incredible- and we can send you anywhere with these scores, so we can get you a job in no time!"  They're fine with waiting the next few months so I can finish out the summer with this company- especially since they're the ones who would be replacing me anyhow- and said I should be able to be placed in a full time career position the day after this job finishes!  Finally!  Some good news on the job front!

Well, back to housework and homework.  I keep the TV on while doing homework, so I am now thoroughly addicted to Downton Abbey- and I just started watching Army Wives as well.  I'm only 3 episodes in, but I've spotted a quilt in each episode so far!  Makes me smile- I'm interested to see if it carries through!  I'm wondering if there's a quilter somewhere behind the directing and producing :-)

Anyhow, hope everyone is enjoying the sunshine!!

Time flies!

Well, it's been a fast few days! 

Wednesday I ended up at a job fair.  I'm still looking for that career job- and have already received a few calls back from the show!  I also need to talk to where I'm working now- it's a 1/2 hour drive, but I really like who I work with, and the other girl is supposed to be leaving next year, so I could potentially take her place.  We'll see.

Yesterday I didn't feel well, so we skipped our plans to go see The Hunger Games and hung out on the couch instead.  We did make it to the grocery store and grabbed some of their seasoned kabobs and some Bob Evans mashed potatoes for dinner so we'd have an easy cooking night.  It's crazy how my girls always know when I don't feel good, and how much I love being cuddled when I'm that way.  This was my leg for hours on end yesterday:

They do know how to make a girl feel loved!  Rob was there too, but playing a video game, which can get him a bit animated.  I'll stick to cat cuddling when he's playing.

Today, Rob is gone for the rest of the week for training for work :-(  I hate being home alone!  But, he gets a $2/hour raise when he gets back, so I'll suck it up.  I mean, I have to get the money for my fabric and other craft addictions from somewhere till I get that dream job, right? :-P  I'm so glad he's a tolerant guy!  He still doesn't get this whole sewing thing, but is happy that I'm happy doing it.  He gets video games, I get fabric.  Good trade, right?

Welcome, by the way, to my new followers!  I'm super excited to have you here, and hope you enjoy hearing about the ups and downs that come with marriage, pets, and craft projects!  I loved hearing from all of you!

I'm hoping to participate in more Find a Friend Fridays, and if any of you didn't participate in the Quilting Gallery's blog hop, watch for the next one!  I won a gorgeous Kathleen Murphy Designs Kindle Bag and a book in the first hop, and a 100 piece charm pack from Christine at Quilt Monster in my Closet from the most recent one.  Is that not the cutest blog name?  Thank you both for the wonderful prizes, and now that I'm out here in blog-land, maybe I'll have my own giveaway for the next hop!  Nothing like sharing the wealth!

Additionally, Christine is hosting a Yester-year WIP Challenge.  If you'd like to get more info, click here.  I do believe I will be joining this endeavor- I still have WIPs from middle school!  Thanks for coming up with such a great idea Christine!

Well, I'm off to decide whether I want to sew or do homework.  I know which one I'd rather do, and which one I should do.  The angels on my shoulders are duking it out now!  Hope you all have/had a wonderful weekend, and that everyone's been getting a taste of this gorgeous, and scarily unusual, weather!  Till next time!

Happiness & A Stranger's Smile

One of the best things about having pets is the fact that no matter how bad your day has been, or how upset you are, they can always make you smile.  My cats know that when I'm upset, they just need to relax on my lap and let me pet them to calm me down.  The dogs come to the edge of my seat and put their heads in my lap and look at me with those adorable puppy dog eyes, and the world is all of a sudden good.  But what about others?

I actually did make it to my friend's house today for a puppy play date.  Their boy has been tearing apart his room, so you know that he's been bored and restless, and my boys are always up for a good run around pretty much anywhere.  I loaded them in the Lil' Monster, AKA my Honda Pilot, and we headed down the road.  We were stopped at a red light and I was watching them behind me.  They love car rides, so Augie was looking out the back window at the person behind us.  All of a sudden, the guy in the car just gets the biggest smile on his face while looking at Augie.  It made me so happy that my boy could give that gentleman that extra second of happiness in his day.  Imagine if people did that to each other?  Think about how many faces you see in a day- at work, the grocery store, while driving, walkers, bikers, etc.  Imagine if just by looking at each other, we'd all get a smile on our face and get that extra second of happiness.  How great would the world be?  If strangers weren't these scary beings that we seem to think everyone but us is.  That'd be a pretty awesome world, if you ask me.

So, in hopes of giving another stranger out there an extra second of happiness, here's looking at you:

Happy Spring!

It's the first day of Spring!!! And 86 degrees??  Huh?  Ummm... Spring?  I think you may be having an identity crisis.  I'm working at the office in a greenhouse this summer and everyone is all in a tizzy over whether to send out lots of plants, or if it could still freeze, or to keep sending but be conservative about it.  It's amazing what good weather can mess with!  I'm glad I bought some new clothes for the cruise because it's the only reason I'm staying comfortable!!

I'm stalled on my sewing project for now.  I've been procrastinating a big, 85 page project for my class and apparently should be further along.  It's so hard to bring myself to get motivated on it, especially since the whole thing is special journals.  Ugh.  Give me a plain ol' general journal any day.  I know this is supposed to be easier somehow, but... it's not for me.

I'm going to bring Augie over to play with Hank tomorrow, my friend's dog who we've been puppy sitting for the last few days.  We didn't make it over for a play date this weekend, but I'm thinking that it'll give both boys a chance to run out some energy, and me some time to sit and work on this project.  Slade will be staying home because it's bad enough he's trying to recuperate with 1-85lb. beast, he doesn't need 2 coming at him!! 

I hope everyone's enjoying this wonderful weather- I know it's been cold in the South- it's nature's way of playing a trick on all of the Southerners who made fun of the cold up here all winter!  Payback baby!!  Just kidding... kind of ;-)

Have a great week!

Curious Kitties

Well, hubby's not feeling good today, and as anyone with a man in their life knows, boys are big babies!!  So I'm hiding out in my sewing room today!  I officially have 11 braids done now!

We are also dog-sitting, so I spent some quality time with my friend's pooch over at their house.  He's a Great Dane mix, and just realized Mom & Dad are gone for a while, so he's really bummed.  I think I may bring Augie over a bit later since they're around the same size. 

Does anyone else have curious kitties?  Anytime I leave a project for a moment, I find a surprise inside.  Anyone else have this problem?

This was while I was working on another project, which can be found on my new page- Craft Projects- but she's also been my sewing companion for the day.  Anyhow, go check out my projects and let me know what you think!

Till next time!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

A wonderful GREEN day!  St. Patrick's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays, probably because it was so close to my birthday so I always tried to keep a St. Patty's theme to my childhood parties.  My mom would make shamrock shortbread cookies with green sprinkles... my favorite!!  My favorite color is also green, so to see it running around all over for a day is AWESOME!  St. Patty's Day was the Saturday after I turned 21, so our first stop was an Irish pub.  We had several glasses of Guinness and green beer, and they had a giant leprechaun walking around and Irish tap dancers dancing all night.  It was awesome!!  Best 1st (legal...) pub experience ever!  And then there's McDonald's Shamrock Shakes... need I say more? YUM.

Slade's doctors expect him to be fine and make a full recovery.  He has the very start of hip degeneration that we found last year, so they think he may have tweaked it jumping onto the porch the other day.  He gets to be on glucosamine chondrotin for the rest of his life to help out, and pain killers for the next 2 weeks.  I got him home and let him outside with his brother, Augie, and decided it was a nice day so we could hang out in the yard a bit.  Till Augie body checked Slade to the ground and he couldn't stand up again so I had to carry him inside.  Poor Slade.  The big little brother who has to deal with this horse:

 

He can knock me over and weighs about 30 lbs more than Slade now, even though he's about 3 1/2 years younger!  Augie has way too much energy for his own good and reminds me of a toddler- he has 2 speeds: stop and RUN!!! He's a beast, but we love him.  He's been better to Slade since too.  Maybe the ear piercing yelps got through his bitty brain!

I got to start working on my living room quilt last night!  The pattern is Jubilee by Marlous Designs.

I am using Hoffman Bali Pops in "Sangria."  I think it'll really make this pattern look awesome.  You make braids, then cut them into squares and sew them together.  I can't wait for the finished product!!  Here's the braids I have finished:

I sewed 1 backward- I may have to redo that one.  I'll have to check.  I think I'm going to go work on this project a bit more!  The windows are open making it wonderful in here.  I love spring!

Till later, my friends!

Why have a blog if I don't use it??

Well, first attempt at the blog world outside of Facebook. Does Facebook even count as blogging?  I'm thinking not. I've been using this as a way to follow other blogs, but there must be something to it if so many people love blogging!  Right now I'm waiting to bring my pup, Slade, to the vet.  He started having trouble walking last night, yelping while moving around the house and can barely make it down the porch steps to go potty.  I'm not sure how people watch their kids be hurt, my heart is breaking for him!  I guess it doesn't help that for now, my animals are my kids.  All 4 of them.  And besides, how could you not love this face??

 

I work about an hour away, so they gave me the day off since his appointment is in the middle of the day.  I'm hoping I can do something fun with the rest of the day though!  It's been a long while since I touched my sewing machine, and I have 3 projects (that I'm willing to admit to) that are either cut and ready to go, or are in progress and ready to be finished.  Did I mention I enjoy crafting?  I'll put up some pictures in a future post!

Till then, my friends!