Accomplishments

It's been a productive day... finally!   

 It seems like I've been working on these bibs for a month, but it's only been just over two weeks - since the 2nd.  Finally, they are completely finished ... all 27 of them.

 I didn't think about needing that many snaps, so I had to use what I had.  So some of the snaps are black, some pearly white and some huge, ugly bronze looking ones.  All of these were intended for western shirts I was going to make my guys, but since I never seems to get to those, I figured it would be better to use what I have on hand than to buy more ... especially since I would have had to get them at the pricey local quilt shop.  I'm not even sure they would have them.  And we were just at Walmart (100 miles away) yesterday!  Guess I better put them on my list for the next trip there, so I will have some on hand.

 Here's my other big accomplishment - shelves!  I really wanted an enclosed cabinet here, something like a vanity cabinet, but after looking at Home Depot, Walmart and Kmart, I figured out that I would be paying at least $60 for something that looked decent, and would only hold a few little items.  The original idea was to keep sharp items I didn't want the kids to have access to on those shelves, but it's nice to be able to keep more supplies there too.

So what's up there?  The top shelf has a few of my favorite and most used books - The Farmer's Wife quilt, along with printed paper piecing patterns in the big green binder.  I want to get back to trying to do some of those.  My hexagon quilt pieces are up there in the container too.  I haven't had much time for handwork anymore since the baby is more active when he's nursing, and would just try to grab whatever I try to work on.  Now, when he's awake and alert, I visit with him while I nurse.  When he needs to go to sleep, I read.

The middle shelf has three containers of threads - black/white/grey, bright/dark, and light/pastel.  A friend gave me most of these when cleaning out her mother's stash.  Many of them are old, and none are name brand.  I have a few nice name brand spools of quilting threads, but only a few, and those are set aside for specific projects.  Also on that shelf are my crochet hooks, and a smaller, more manageable box of hexagons to stitch.  I've used up all the papers I have for that project (600 of them!) and will have to stitch the hexagons together before I can do anything else.  I want a fairly random pattern, but I can never truly do random.  I have to do "planned random" - which if you think about it, is an oxymoron.  Anyway, the big box with stars and stripes holds all my miscellaneous notions - elastic, fold over elastic, velcro, buttons, marking pens and pencils, elastic thread, and so on.

 

The shelf on the bottom holds my bobbins, scissors, rotary cutter, pins, and a couple inspirational pictures.

This cross stitch was done by one of my best friends from a long time ago.  We were going to a ladies' Christmas meeting and were supposed to take a gift.  The gift exchange was done by a draw of numbers - whoever got number one got to pick their gift first, number two could steal that gift or open their own, and so on.  I knew what her gift was, and thankfully was able to pick it :)  I knew because I had helped her pick out the frame, and wrap it ;)  Regardless of how deviously I ended up with it, this will always make me smile when I see it.

This other piece of artwork is something I put together with a cheap frame and some scrapbook papers.  It says "You are His workmanship."

 

Okay, you knew I couldn't do a post without some cute baby pictures, right?  This is the first time I have seen him tuck his arms behind his head.  I found him asleep like that.  His brothers used to do this all the time - especially the three year old.  Looks pretty comfy!

He's been in such a good mood lately, and his skin has been much clearer.

Saturday I took the baby, and my 19 year old daughter to the town 100 miles away.  My daughter sells Premier Designs Jewelry, and had a show down there, so the baby and I did some shopping while she did her show.

 

The boys stayed home and went sledding with Dad.

... or they played with sticks.  The three year old didn't care for sledding.  I thought he might not be thrilled with it.  He's afraid of everything.  But he likes sticks ... and goggles.  So he had a good time.

The seven year old is a regular kamikazi. 

There's a pretty decent hill in town for sledding.  It's steeper than it looks in the picture.  After they finished sledding, they went and picked up our fruits and veggies from the co-op, then watched a movie.  We ended up not getting home until midnight.  My daughter had some clothes shopping she needed to do to get some dress slacks for her new job, and then she wanted to get together with a friend for dinner in a town 12 miles further away.  We had a nice visit though (her mom came too, so I had someone to visit with).  It was a good day for everyone.