It's always a challenge for me to get back in the groove once school starts up and I have more time to call my own.  There are so many things that I want to get done, but I can't do them all at once despite my best efforts to do so. I did manage to fit some snow dyeing into my schedule this weekend.  They are filled with shades of blue and hints of brown with some yellow tossed in for good measure.

I have listed some one yard cuts in the shop.  They could be cut up to make totes or used for quilting.  They would make for a great background for a haptic lab constellation quilt too.

I also cut up and put together some bundles of smaller cuts of fabrics for the shop too.  I'm hoping everyone enjoys sewing with these fabrics as much as I do.  Fingers crossed I will get caught up on my to do list so I can work on my to sew list!

I have no facts to back that up, but here on the last day of September I can't help but ask, "where did it go?" It's been a blur of tumbling, vegetable pick ups, orchestra, yoga, and violin lessons with the extra fun of early outs every other Wednesday.  Personally I see those early outs as the school testing to see how many times I will forget to pick up my kids.

Right in the middle of the month was Sewing Summit.  It's always a great time.  I cannot tell you how fun it is to actually hang out all weekend with the people who generally just hang out in my phone.

along with waffles with Jeni...

and fabric...

and menchie's...

and yarn...

and a roommate who looks a bit threatening, but really isn't...

amazing speakers...

and friends, some who I've been lucky enough to hang out with at past summits and some I just met...

(pic from Pat Bravo)

(pic from Amy)

and then there are the mountains...

oh and did I mention the waffles...

But now it's the last day of September and I am looking at my 2013 project list and I need to get busy.  I will try to make the best of my time today, stuck at home waiting for someone to fix my water heater and hoping I don't have to boil water so the kids can take baths tonight.

I could really use a waffle right about now.

One - Lulu turned 9 last week.  That means two kids in double digits next year.  I'm not sure how this happened so quickly.

Two - Ali hosts a fun game/giveaway every month on her blog and this month I'm helping out with July's challenge.  Be sure to check out her post on this month's stash match, play along and you could win some fabric.  {oh and a hit, hmmm, I guess the best I can tell you is after showing the options to a fabric friend who knows my stash pretty well, I can tell you it's the exact opposite of the one you think it is. }

three - If you follow me on instagram you probably knew this, but I just spent the most awesome weekend with friends sewing.  More on that later.

I love downloading the pics from the kids' cameras when we get back from a trip. Here are some of the shots they took during our time in Chicago.

We hit the road for Chicago a couple of weeks ago.  First stop - Museum of Science and Industry

Cj spent some time manning the wheel the avalanche simulator.

The kids playing with color...

We made it to the Shedd Aquarium.

They have some great exhibits, but don't forget to look up.  It's a beautiful building.

We had a great view of the sunrise from our hotel.

Cj continued his vacation tradition of having a snack in bed while watching tv.

Lulu suffered from too much jumping on the bed.

We checked out the hotel ballroom.

 We stopped to see Sue and all of her friends.

Someone refused to turn around for pictures at the bean.

I stood in awe of this beauty from 1830.

And finally,

I was able to have the Ferris Bueller moment that I have been waiting for since 1986.

We've been busy doing things like sneaking over to the neighbors to cut lilacs.

There have been treats for parties.

We've been walking under the blooms.

I found the most amazing button card.

Someone got to make a wish.

I lost my will power in the Easter clearance aisle.

Today I'm working on basting  a lap quilt that I'm hoping to have done by the end of the week.

Taking a moment for a snack between stitches.

We have our Christmas tree, but we haven't put it up yet.  In the meantime, I've been decorating around the house. I usually hang ornaments from  all the windows, but this year I wanted to do something different.

This year every thing gets a bow -

frames...

doorways...

stairways...

sconces...

plates...

even plates, sconces, and frames...

and when the ribbon is gone, put a garland on it...

The calendar is ready. The kids were up bright and early and ready to put on the first decoration.  Seriously, cj was up at 5 am.  He came downstairs dressed for the day, asking about getting the house ready for Christmas.  They both love peeking at the days ahead to see what ornament is next.  All the while lulu reminding cj that they have to wait for each day before the ornament goes on the tree.

Their tree will be filled before we know it.

 

We are lucky to still have a lot of great original features in our home. Our mantle is not one of them.  The previous owner bulked it up.  So much so, when you open the window next to the fireplace, it hits right into the corner of the mantle.  I do love having a great big shelf for display, but wasn't loving the trim.

I went scouring my files for before pictures of our mantle.  This was more difficult than I thought it would be.

Here you can see where my dad chiseled off the scrolly things for me.

I knew I wanted them off, but wasn't sure what to do once they were off.  Matching stain would be a pain, but I didn't want to paint the whole thing.  Since we couldn't decide what to do, we left it...

for over two years...

Then my mom called to tell me about a fireplace she saw on This Old House that was just painted on the bottom...

done...

We swapped out the bullseye blocks that didn't go with anything in the house and were wider than the boards beneath them, that were also replaced with something more understated.  I'm still not 100% committed to the tile, but at least I can look at the fireplace without frustration.

Mini golf counts as golfing in my world.

We had a great time, despite the ridiculous heat wave that was going on.

Lulu was trying to find shade next to boulder here.

why yes,  I did make a hole in one on 12.

We took a little trip last week.

Cj's favorite part of any hotel stay is having snacks in bed while watching tv.

ahhh the simple pleasures (this was taken about 4 o'clock in the afternoon)

Lulu and I did our best to travel handmade.

Here she is in the elevator with her weekender.

Here's my weekender.

I love it.

Lily of the valley and purple are some of my favorite things, so I was thrilled to find enough of this fabric. (hooray superbuzzy) It's the weekender pattern from Amy Butler.  (I love that link because I could access it with my phone and get the pattern requirements while I was in the fabric store, before the pattern arrived at my house.) I tend to have good luck with her patterns.  Although there was one point around step 11 where I finally had to stop and slowly read out loud the same step a couple of times because I just couldn't figure out what she was talking about.  Once I figured it out it was smooth sailing.  For me, the biggest help was to stitch slowly, pin the corners with several pins, and also not stitch too closely when making the piping.

You can see my zipper pouch made from tape measures that a friend gifted me, along with the tiniest bit of the edge of an embroidery hoop sticking out of the pocket.  I had the best of intentions to get some stitching done, but was too tired by the end of each day.

I also finished a simple drawstring laundry bag from a fat quarter of the dwarves' laundry print from Heather Ross.

 

Turning seven that is... I spent an evening last week knotting strips of scrap fabric on to a piece of twine.

Lulu wanted a camp theme so we set a plan for an afternoon in the backyard with a tent full of balloons and games like bocce and basketball.  Then it turned out to be the hottest and most humid day we've had this year.  We still had the tent, but went with a water fight to try to cool off. Then they painted birdhouses.

They decorated bangle bracelets made from popsicle sticks. (here they are undecorated)

They made paper fortune tellers and signs for their rooms.

We had a sundae bar with all the fixin's along with cupcakes.

After all of that, they each went home with their own hobo bindle filled with goodies...

...and I slumped into a chair and didn't move for hours.

tic tock It's the end of May.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the kids (thrilled to not be making lunch at 7 am for a while)

It seems I may finally have a handle on whatever this issue is with my stomach (once again I pause to be grateful it isn't celiac)

We are starting the next program in cj's listening therapy (fingers crossed for better attention and focus)

Piano and drum lessons will start soon (still need to schedule swimming lessons)

The spouse is already planning 2 trips to Argentina and 1 trip to Canada this summer (ugh)

I also have quilt blocks that need to be pieced into a top for cj's bed (guess my new goal for that will be this fall)

I have managed to finish all the teacher gifts  (need to get pics of the two I finished yesterday)

The two hats on the ends are gifts for cj's associates.  The middle hat was given to my super neighbor for her birthday.

tic tock

on to the next thing on the list...

Last Saturday was Chalk the Walk. It's an amazing little festival that happens in my little town on the first weekend of every May.

This is time-lapse video of the event along with the progression of the community piece slipped in the middle.  Lulu was the first one to color in a square on the Iowa map so it's easy to spot us!  Well, it's much easier on the longer version of the time-lapse, but that video doesn't have all the great still shots of people's individual works and the are too amazing not to share.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aj5mZt7oWU&feature=related]

It is one of our favorite things about living here.

Tonight at supper we discussed our summer plans and it already sounds like we have a busy schedule.  I'm sure the summer fly by as quickly as these last few weeks of school will.

in case you forgot the sun is this color let it shine!

(recipe from ages ago)