I love a project and learning new things. I've had this book for a while, but never got around to really making much from it. I've decided that I will spend the next year making the projects and building up my knitting skills. Want to knit along with me?
A new year looms, all bright, shiny and new, full of possibility. I'm super excited about 2012. But of course I can't embark on the new without giving some thoughts to the old.
While 2011 was full of changes, heartache, and tribulations, I can say as we end it, I'm probably happier personally than I have been in ages. New things are happening and I'm excited about the future. School has been fantastically hard, but enjoyable and challenging. I'm excited about the possibilities it will offer me professionally.
The family is in a good place, each child coming into their own. Soon, We'll have a senior among us and then he's off to college (fingers crossed).
Fitness has been less than a home run, but I'm going to get it together, I'm determined. Baby steps and no excuses. It's a gift to myself. I feel better when I'm active.
My crafting is keeping me sane (isn't true for so many of us). I've completed 5 quilts this year, which doesn't sound like a ton, but when you have my life, 5 quilts accomplished is monumental. I've made some quilty friends and joined a guild and a bee. Fun times.
I have lots of plans for the coming year.
1. Show and tell my kids how much I love them every day
2. Continue to live, laugh and love
3. Move more and make my health a priority
4. Sew more for me and my family
5. Continue to do well in school, you can do this girl!
6. Sew from my stash (you don't need to shop for fabric!)
7. Try new things
8. Let the past go
9. Do something fun every day
10.Finish one project/month (Get rid of the UFO's)
11. Live more frugally
12. Destash and Declutter
Disaster averted! Not only did I neglect to take my 12lb turkey out to defrost until Tuesday, but I waited until the absolute last minute to get my go to brine packet from World Market and they were sold out. What's going on with me? I'm never been a last minute Nelly. Anywho...been loving the Hellmann's chicken challenge, so I jumped over to the Hellmann's website and found a recipe for Super moist roast turkey. Yummo! There is nothing worst than dry turkey, and thankfully this ain't it! It moist and delicious and can I tell you it was so easy to do. I can see myself doing this again. You know Christmas is just around the corner.
I am a die hard devotee of black Friday shopping. I love it. I search the web and scour the ads before hand, planning out my trip. I always get the item that I want and the price I want to pay. Can I just say again, I love it. However this year, I've been doing quite a bit of shopping before hand from my laptop in my p.j.'s and I have to admit. I kind of like it. That was until this morning when I went to purchase coats for my children from Sears. What a frustrating and fruitless experience that was. I've always loved Sears, but I'm going to have to rethink our relationship. On the website the coats I wanted were advertised as 60% off and the price was $38.00/each. An incredible deal, but when I put them in my cart and went to check out the price had risen to $47.50/each. WTF! So I call (all the way to the Philippines, apparently ) thinking this was a computer issue. They see the same thing I do, two prices. But, here's the kicker, they tell me too bad, the price in the cart is the price. Can you believe it? I couldn't. Needless to say I didn't buy the coats. I'll check around and I'll find them at a price I'm willing to pay and now when I look into the empty aisles at my local Sears in the mall, I now understand just why that might be. Sears, you might want to do a better job in the future.
I haven't blogged in ages, but I'm happy to report that summer school is finished and I rocked it with an "A". Woohoo! I have two weeks off and I'm ecstatic to be tackling some long neglected UFO's. First I'll be finishing up the binding on a string quilt. It was suppose to be for one of the ladies in the office at my son's school, but she quit over the summer so I'll just tuck it away until I decide who to give it to. I need to pin basting Shane's quilt. It's so hard to come up with a quilt for a teenage boy. What to do, what to do? Oh I know, 5 inch solid squares. Boring, but perfectly appropriate for him. I also had planned the zig zag skirt for Moda Bake shop for O as a back to school outfit. Let's just say I didn't get that done, but now I have time. I already have the front done, and just need to finish the back. I have blocks for two flickr bees to finish. And then I want to start working on some Christmas gifts. I've really missed getting to stitch and I'm glad to be back in front of my machine. I'll post some pix of the completed project just as soon as I can.
After many years out of academia, I have returned to school in pursuit of my master's degree. It's been something I had wanted to do for a long time, but as a mother of young children I wanted to wait until they were all in school. I'm taking a nontraditional approach too. It's actually the scariest part to me since I'm somewhat of a ludite when it comes to technology. I will be completing my degree online. I didn't see how with working fulltime and being a mom attending classes on campus would be feasible. I'm so excited about the emergence of online programs. It's been two weeks and I have to say it's a lot harder than a brick and mortar school. I probably spend about 2-3 hours/day working on assignments. I never spent that much time in undergrad. I'm really excited about the opportunities that grad school will offer. As a nurse I feel like the ability to physically provide bedside care is limited. I'm getting older and I'm very interested in community health. I'll keep you posted on my progress, but so far, so good!
I may have mentioned that as a quilter I'm not very precise. I love the free form style of the Gee's Bend quilters. A little bit wonky is good to me, a lot wonky is even better. Anyways I love a wonky star. I've been participating in online quilting bees for the past 2 years and have really enjoyed them. They've definitely challenged me and forced me to step outside my box. However, when it was my turn I quickly returned to what I love. I asked for a wonky star. I had seen them first in this book and fell quickly in love. I used a great tutorial from here. I provided all the fabric from my stash. I used shades of teal, blue and aqua and Joann's quilter's cotton in natural for the background. The block are 12" finished. I bound the quilt in robin egg blue kona and free motion quilted it myself on my Brother pq1500. That brother has been the best money I've spent. I have already quilted about 5 quilts on it and it works like a dream! I love the pieced back and the reversed star adds a bit of interest. I did an all over meandering stitch to quilt it and I love how turned out, just the right amount of crinkles when washed.
What do you think? Does it make you think of the 4th of July? I call it Starry Dreams.