The oldest and the almost youngest

Here are the oldest and the almost youngest...Emma is the official youngest but today we celebrated the birthdays of these two so I guess it is a moot point ;)

Birthday boys :)

Official food of the birthday party

Sometimes it is really hard to get Aaron to look at the camera but I got him looking this time :)

Birthday boys blowing out their candles on their birthday cookies...we gave up doing cake as no one really likes a cake but cookies are enjoyed by all :)

It is FINISHED!!!

Famous last words spoken by the God of this universe...and then again by many...including me today...The deep clean of the sewing room is finished! Now I await the arrival of my newly cleaned and oiled sewing machine to take the place of honor and get back into sewing...darn I have a ton of fat quarters and should really make some quilts again....If I could only get someone to finish them once I make the tops it would be so much more motivating!!!! However, I think the creation of the top is what most people enjoy...more so than the tedious pinning of the quilt to backing and batting and then the finish sewing of all the layers...I don't even mind the binding as it signifies the end of the creation.................Oh me Oh my...such things to whine about...in case you doubt me...here is a picture of my fat quarter stash.....
ah but that doesn't do it justice for you don't see that behind those reds, pinks, brights is a row of blues and greens and more brights :) OK...so I had to move those and show the hidden fat quarters just aging and begging for a quilt top :)

maybe 2010 is the year to make some of this into quilts for babies....I just can't see giving it away just yet..there are too many fun things to create with these babies :) Maybe now that they are all back on the shelf and not folded too neatly is the time to press and use???

Progress

It is coming together...slowly but surely this room is getting in shape....I cannot believe the amount of boxes and bins that I have gone through and sent to appropriate places...whether that is to one of the girls or thrift store or trash can...hum...wonder if I could write a movie script...Confessions of a Packrat??? Or maybe...Someday I am gonna use that :) So anyway...here are some pictures of the progress made.
This first pic is of the closet...was going to get Ikea shelves in there...kinda the cubbie ones but decided that what I had really would work. The wire drawers were all gone through and stuff I wasn't going to EVER use was put in a bag and taken today to a local quilt group to make scrap quilts for Project Linus....they get nice material and I get room :)

Here is the other half of the closet....oooohhhh purty :) You can see by the mirrored doors on the closet that there is still stuff to find places for...but the progress made is incredible :)

then my project today was to label all these bins with what is in them...and a quick trip to the dollar store for a couple of more bins to fit in those places where the large bins wouldn't fit...amazingly I should be able to find anything I want now :) Still have to find my thimbles cuz I haven't run across them yet....

there is still another cupboard like this one with material and doggie stuff to go thru...and my sewing machine cabinet drawer is going to get a cleaning also....and then at the end of the week I should be getting my nice clean machine back ready to start more projects :) woohoo!

Puppies puppies puppies

Went for a quick trip to Tacoma today to pick out my puppy from a litter where a former sire of mine did the deed with a new lady :) The pups are 5 weeks old and very tired after playing right before we got there.......such is my luck
Love how this picture kinda cascades down with pups

the one on the left is my new girlie girl

there is nothing cuter than a puppy pile

here is another cascade of puppy

The purge and the small binge :)

I got this bug in my bonnet to clean up my sewing room of all the accumulated stuff that I have saved over the years....or thot I would someday use again :) After at least four years for storage for some of it (and other stuff longer) I decided to clean it up....here is the first wave of stuff to go places. Some to my daughters and some to a local quilt group who makes quilts for the Linus foundation.

The boxes on the left are empty and the stuff processed and either put in boxes on right or put with the "like" stuff in another box. The boxes on the right is stuff to take to the local thrift store for someone else to take to their house and store. Peeking behind the empty boxes is a garbage sack full of trash that no one would want and is now awaiting the lovely garbage man to come and get :)

This is the only stuff I am not sure what to do with so it is on the side....

Well today in between cleaning and cleaning :) I took a trip to a really cool warehouse of material.............ha.....this is a place on the Island that does mostly mail order but lets locals come and shop by appointment (which I always forget to make) They have this incredible scrap bin where any piece in the box costs $1.00...these pieces range from 4" to 17"....so I always go for the bigger pieces. While sitting there, they decided they had too many scraps so they were 2 for a $1.00. AMAZING!!!!!! They will make incredible doll clothes!

Here they are out of the handy dandy little bag they gave me....now to finish cleaning and get my machine back to start sewing!

Why is it always darkest....

Why is it always darkest..or messiest before it gets clean? Stacks and piles and trash cans full...

I took my sewing machine into have its annual---or somewhat annual---cleaning...after the beating I gave it with those curtains and stage skirt thot it would be a good idea. Well I figured while I was without my machine I would straighten and organize all the stuff I have...there are so many things that I know I have and have no idea where they are....so hence the decision to clean up and organize....bags ready to donate, questions put out on facebook to see if people are interested in what is left over and no longer needed by me :)

Then the piles began....so right now it is unorganized and all over the room but it is on its way to being easily accessible and convenient! WOOHOO!
So here are a couple of pics of the piles right now...maybe there will be a follow up pic of the organized part :)

my mother was a worse packrat than I am...in the cans below there were things that I just took from her house years ago and have never gone thru....pieces of elastic with no elasticity, pins from shirts when they used to pin men's collars down, lonely buttons, a plastic hook that they use to hang socks on a display...and various other weird things that are now in the trash can and what can still be used are in their proper places :)
One can down another one to go :)

Geez Louise

why is it that I am always feeling behind in my blogging? I catch up and promise myself that I will stay caught up and then life gets away from me and whoosh....weeks pass by...well not that much time this time but enough to make me realize the I haven't kept up. How's come life goes by so fast the older you get? I can't believe the things I fit into a day and then wonder why I am tired at the end of the day...and it really seems like nothing is done or accomplished. Oh well...guess the thing to do is just keep pluggin away while the Good Lord gives me breath and go on from there...

I really need to update my blogger heading too as I no longer have most of these dogs...they have been replaced with other who are now my doggies and should rightfully have their pictures up there...maybe I should switch and do my grandkids instead? or my kids? I don't want them whining that I love my dogs more than I do them :)

One project I actually finished today was a crocheted blanket for my niece who is having a baby in April. My mother always used to do that and with her no longer with us I need to pick up the ball so I found this pattern...I really wanted it in a more off white color and seeing as I ordered it online I got a much whiter color than I wanted...the blanket in the pattern is an off white with a brown ribbon and really looked classy...well this one is white whit a dark blue ribbon and looks nice but not classy like I wanted....

Well for me it is late so will sign off this thing and go to read for a bit before I fall into the land of slumber...night night to all

WHEW!!!!!

Finally!!!! 66 yards, 22 panels, massive amounts of thread, hours of sewing and ironing and the curtains are DONE!!!!! Whew...without the help of my DH it wouldn't have gotten done today...he ironed while I sewed the last of the panels....it would have taken me another day to get them done but they are done and ready to take to the church tomorrow
and this is all that is left of a big spool of thread....plus a bit left on the bobbin..that is cutting it close :)

What makes a girl happy :)

Sometimes it is the smallest things that makes a girl happy. Yarn on sale...with free shipping is one way to make a girl happy :) JoAnn's had a sale on yarn and I cashed in on it and then the sweet icing on the cake was free shipping making the yarn really reasonable...So here is my newly purchased stash....unfortunately I ordered two of a couple of the colors but didn't know that until I was setting up the pictures...oh well!
Love how that Jacquard works up into baby hats :)

And last but not least is a new picture of Cody...he is almost 7 months old and almost ready to step up to the job he was given...soon there might be a smile on his face :)

Thot for the day?

My thot for the day....How come when you show a loss of weight on the scale it show up on your body as your rings being loose? How come it doesn't come off the hips where you need it to come off????

Happy New Year...well a few days late

Happy New Year to those of you who actually follow my blog :) You faithful few have inspired me to keep on going...and make me feel guilty when I don't post for a bit...well you don't make me feel guilty...I just feel guilty when it has been a while since I have posted....
I think for the new year I am also going to blog about my attempt to lose weight...ha..almost everyone's new year's resolution but for me this has been an on going process for the past almost 3 years...well really all my life but the past three years I have actually seen results that are lasting thru the muddle and fuss of life....after a stall out (more cuz I wasn't trying that hard) I have started back up again and will do some posting...more for my own accountability than for you who might not be interested at all in the journey ;)
So far this year I have stepped out in several areas of life...quite unusual for me who in no way is a joiner of anything that smells of commitment...not because I am afraid of the commitment but more cuz I have tended to be over-committed in the past and have shied away from it for the past decade...or so :)
I started going to a ladies Bible study at a different church than I attend...so a whole group of ladies I have never met...except for one....to study with.....amazing for me to make that choice...well it was kinda made for me by the Lord...as I was watching the video I kept thinking to myself...nah...not gonna do it....didn't even look too much at the book that was in front of me...didn't fill out the fill in the blank first couple of pages and certainly wasn't too interested....HOWEVER...plans were different...half way thru the video I knew that I would be attending the entire Bible study..and that I had been being prepared for it by a simple video I had watched only days before. We are studying the book of Esther and I had watched A Night with the King....HA!!! Isn't that just like the Lord to do that to a person in preparation for something he has in store for you? Well he did it to me/for me and I KNEW it was something that only he would orchestrate so I committed and started writing in the workbook :) SO unlike me :)
My other major thing has been to get back on track with weight loss....have been doing well since November and then let myself go during the holidays knowing I would get back on track once they had past...Well they are past and I am back on track and looking forward to that scale going down......
Well this has been a long post with no pictures so here are a couple of pictures from the holidays. My good friend Denise who is a wonderful photographer came over to Noel's house and took family pictures. This was the first Christmas in 7 or 8 years that we were all together so it needed to be documented. Altho Noel could have taken the pictures I figured it would be easier on her if someone else did it. The only one missing is Stan, who is serving our country over in Iraq and couldn't come home for a quick photo shoot....he was missed dearly by all of us and specially his wife and kids....

My son brought his new wife home for us to meet also..and for her to see what our celebration is like...chaotic???? But a family full of life and love....

Here are my four kids...all grown up....this picture makes me tear up as I think of the adults that they have become. I have hanging on my entry way wall pictures done of them in pastels by a friend...this picture just makes me see how far they have come and how I look forward in anticipation to seeing their continued growth.
Love you all, kids.....I know I don't say it enough but you really all make me proud!