Fifth Anniversary

Five years ago today, Jim and I got married. These have been the best five years of my life. Jim is a great husband, and great dad to the trio and to Jimmy. I could not ask for a better person to go thru life with. I cannot imagine going thru things like losing my Dad, with anyone other than Jim. He is so caring and understanding. We got married at a local State Park, on a day that called for rain. The ceremony was beautiful and we had a cook-out with family and friends at the park afterwards. Jim promised that it wouldn't rain, and it didn't. (Until we were packing up everything afterwards to go home! ha!) Here is a picture from our wedding.

Today, we went back out to the park and had a picnic. :o) This is a picture from today. It was drizzling today, but we didn't care! :o)

Here is the rose and bear that Jim got me.

And here are two pictures of Jimmy playing at the park today, he had a great time! I especially like this first one - a blur! :o)

In quilting news... I am sending off two of my PIF gifts tomorrow - I will post pics after they receive them... :o)

Thanks for visiting and listening to me gush... :o)

T-shirt Quilt

I just finished up this t-shirt quilt for a customer. It was really quick to put together, as she provided alot of t-shirts. It is about 60 x 72, tied at the corners of the blocks.
I used a different stabilizer on the backs of the t-shirts this time and I didn't like it as well. I am not sure what it was called. I had a hard time getting it to stick. The kind I had used before was more like a muslin, with the iron-on backing. I liked it really well, but Joann's didn't have it this time.

Thanks for looking!

Jr High ?!?!?!

How did my babies turn into Jr High-ers?!? :o) Friday was the first day of school! The trio started 6th grade at the Jr High. They are really excited! Jimmy wanted to go to school too, especially since this is the first year that the kids are riding the bus... He will be able to start Pre-K next fall. (Already?!?!?)

I told Shirley that I would post the last couple years of *first day of school* pics, so here is 5th grade (2008):

And 4th grade (2007):

My babies are growing up way too fast, but I suppose all Moms think that...

And here is the quilt I finished up this week for my Mom - hand quilted. :o)

Thanks for visiting!

today - part two... :o)

Ok, let me start out by saying, if you are squeamish, you might not want to look at this pic... It is not as bad as it looks, but still... Just a warning... :o)

I guess David decided my birthday was not quite exciting enough... :o) About 5:30 this afternoon, David was working on his whittling, and cut himself. Now before you go *there*, David is a Boy Scout and has been taught how to handle a knife and has been closely supervised. But of course, it only takes one slip... So, this incident started with him running up the stairs hollering *HELP ME!* That scared the **** out of me! He was bleeding pretty good. So I told the girls to grab Jimmy, we were going to the ER. The cut was actually only about 1/2 an inch wide, but a little deep. But a nice clean cut, due to the sharp knife! (HA!) He ended up getting 4 stitches. He is such a good boy, he doesn't even flinch or cry when he got the shots or the stitches. Although he was shaking the whole time, he said later that all the blood had scared him...

But as any red-blooded boy (no joke intended!), now that the shock has worn off, he is quite proud of his stitches! :o)

Ok, I think we are done for the day... All the kids are in bed and I am just waiting for Jim to get home from work (he works second shift) so I can go to bed too... :o)

Thanks for visiting! Hope I did not gross you out too much... :o)

today... :o)

I am not usually one to *advertise* that it is my birthday - fast approaching a milestone one, which I am NOT looking forward to....! But today is my birthday and I wanted to show off my gifts... :o)

First, I sat dear hubby down in front of the computer the other day and said *Order me this for my birthday!*... He doesn't do good with hints, and so the direct approach works best! So these vintage Christmas ornaments are from him and the kids. We ordered them from Laurie at her Etsy shop here, her blog is Indulge Your Shelf. Go visit her, she has alot of cute things!


Jim also had six carnations delivered to our house:

Shirley has been a GREAT online friend to me for about 10 years now, and if you have visited her blog (here) a few weeks ago, she had shown her Galileo Thermometer. I thought it was really neat and told her so. So guess what she got me?!? Yep, my own Galileo Thermometer! SO COOL! As you can see, it is over 80* here at my desk... :o) (That is a pic of the trio at their first birthday!)

This last picture isn't birthday related, just Jimmy being cute again. He has a little pillow that we have made a couple pillowcases for. He has a Pooh Bear one, a Diego one, and we just made him this Spongebob one... Obviously, he likes it! :o)

Thanks for visiting!

August BOMs and silly pics...

Here are my August BOMs. First is Verandah Views. This is on light blue fabric, although you can not really tell here.


And the Gail Pan BOM for August:


Now for the silly pics... :o) Jimmy *posing* for a picture... :o)

And our pool... :o) Or as dear hubby says, our redneck pool... Jimmy is in the pool, and that is David and Lizzie, 2 of the trio. (Anna was at her friends house overnight.)

Thanks so much for visiting!

Shabby Roses Block #5

Here is my block #5 of the Shabby Roses BOM. I love these! Just 3 more to go and I will be caught up, but I need more thread first! :o(

I changed my blog layout - I notice now I need to change the text color for headings... But I love this layout - so romantic! Which is appropriate, since the 28th of August is Jim and my 5th wedding anniversary. Life is good!

Thanks for visiting!

Shabby Roses Block #4

The trio had a dentist appointment Monday (just check-up) and so I had a little bit of quiet time while waiting for each of them... (Yes, three appointments in a row!) So here is Block #4 of the Shabby Roses BOM - Give.

Thanks so much for visiting!

Exquisite!

I was lucky enough to be chosen by Carol at Cornfield Quilter to be one of her PIFs. (Pay It Forward.) A little while back, she offered to machine quilt one of my quilt tops, as my gift. Of course, I accepted! I chose this Language of Love quilt top that I had pieced back in 2007 and had considered hand-quilted, but just had not gotten to it yet. It is a large quilt - 93 inches square. Since it is for my husband and I, I thought her machine quilting would be perfect for it. When I sent it off in July, I expected her to just do an all-over pattern, which would have been wonderful! Instead, Carol did this...! (This is only half the quilt, laid over our clothesline!) Be sure to click on the pics!

On the rose blocks, she outlined each rose!

And then the pieced blocks, have this feather-y flower.

Each border is quilted in-the-ditch, plus the feathers. Plus the lines on the outside border.

And then Carol threw in some patterns and kits that she no longer wanted, for me to use or pass along...! It was like my birthday! (Just a couple weeks early!)

I had tears in my eyes, when I saw the work she did. I am truly blessed with this, Carol! It is above and beyond what you had to do! I am so glad I was able to get such good photos today of this quilt - I wish you all could feel it. The texture is amazing. Right now, it is hanging over my embroidery machine, so I can just admire its beauty. Thank you, Carol, from the bottom of my heart!

Shabby Roses Block #2

On Thursday, I had to take Mom to get the scar tissue removed from her cataract surgery, so I got some ALONE time while waiting for her and I finished Shabby Roses block #2 and started on block #4! So here is Block #2. I just love these!

Thanks for visiting!