Randomness

Haven't had one of these in a while, but I have a few random thoughts that might be worth writing about.

With no more prelude...

Number 1: Sabbath on my Saturdays.  Let's face it, getting myself ready, two toddlers ready and making sure I have my bag packed full of tricks and diapers for church is something like work. So I  have decided Sunday is not my sabbath. The fact that I also volunteer in the kids ministry on certain Sundays also disqualifies it as a day of rest for me.
So I started taking rest on Saturday. The only things that make it onto a Saturday schedule are things that are restful or just simple family fun. I protect this day in my week. People who plan events for Saturdays, I have to know and love you really well to attend, or it has to sound so outrageously fun that I'm willing to come anyways.
Today is Saturday, guess what I did all day. Quilting, crochet, eating, water color painting with Kinsey and later a trip to a friends birthday dinner (baby free - too fun to pass up). It is nearly 5pm and I am still not dressed and feel no shame in admitting that. The sabbath was made for pajamas!

Number 2:  Quirkiness cracks me up. That is why I wanted to share one of my favorite blogs I follow with you. This woman could be writing about toothpaste and it would make me laugh, or at least smile. Her writing style is so fun and everything she does is full of color and personality.
Here is a link to one of her blogs from last year that cracked me. She was having a bad day and made some pictures using her favorite movie star to cheer herself up. Did I mention she is a crafter like me, and so I can totally related to all her self-encouragement statements in the photos. Too fun!

Number 3:  Quilt is coming along.  Attempted to lay out the whole thing last week only to realize I didn't have enough blocks in certain colors. My living room is also not large enough to accomodate the number of blocks that I am working with. So I have now cut, sewn, and ironed an additionally large quantity of blocks and have a friend commissioned to help me next week to lay it out. I think I will see if I can use a room at our church to lay it out. We'll see. Lord let my hips hold up.

Number 4:  Speaking of unfinished projects.  I have six currently living in my living room and several others hiding away in my craft closet. Am I an addict? Maybe. Don't judge me.

Number 5:  Crib is still not up.  It has been occurring to me that I need to get a move on having this baby boy's things in order here. Eight more weeks, but still, the crib seems like an essential thing. Perhaps it is a new wave of nesting, but I have an urgency to get it set up and ready for a baby boy to sleep in it.

Number 6:  Favorites right now.  Of course I'm talking about food, because what else do pregnant women have favorites of in their third trimesters. This week it has included hummus with warm pita, sprouts, cinnamon scones, roasted salted almonds, and raw apples & carrots. But not together.  Random though, eh?

Number 7:  Pinterest, a new obsession.  I feel I have a regulated love for the site, but yet I find that I am almost loving it more than Facebook. Is that possible? I feel inspired after visiting Pinterest, it keeps track of all the projects I want to do, and takes me back to find websites that I discovered while googling (like a pinboard, duh).  Facebook has some of that, but Pinterest has more pretty pictures.

Number 8: Deep friendships.  Yes, that has actually been on my mind. Those kinds of friendships that can be on pause because of distance, but when you are together or talking on the phone, your hearts are immediately reconnected at a depth that defies the distance. I had one of those phone calls yesterday and it so touched my heart the way the Lord keeps our hearts (my friend and I) together. Even when we haven't had the time to do a lot of the normal steps of maintaining closeness. It is a special supernatural thing to me.
It also makes me look at my friendships that I have formed in South Carolina over this past year and see that the depth that I had in Kansas City has been reproduced in half the time here. That is supernatural and beautiful to me too. The Lord is good at setting the lonely in families, and my new and old and extended families are all so precious to me, I almost never feel lonely.

More Projects!

Can I just say that I am still just a little bit project crazy at the moment. It doesn't help that while we were home in Peoria a very dear friend of mine practically gave me a brand new Husqvarna Viking Emerald 203 sewing machine. The crafting wheels in my head are turning at super speed now. As of yet though, I have not been able to unload my old sewing machine on anyone, so I don't have a place to store both of them.
So what is a girl to do. To pass the time until I'm able to find a place to store my old one and take te time to unload and set up my new machine, I have been doing a lot of no-sew projects. Only a few of them are actually complete, the rest are in varying levels of production.

Like:

Adjustable Tutu's
Made out of ribbon & sparkly tulle.....and thats about it! You cut the tulle to double the length you want the skirt and then tie them onto a pre-measured piece of ribbon. These will be perfect for my poor Kalei who has no hips and for which I find it nearly impossible to get tutu, shorts, and skirts that actually stay up.

Not my child, no sparkles.

Plus it will be able to grow with her, and they cost me only about $10 each to make and are full of fairy sparkly goodness! Get the tutorial here.

Crochet Rag Rugs
Made out of old sheets that I picked up at a Church Bazaar for a steal. I have spent the last few days taking out any aggression I might have on those poor old sheets- tearing them into one inch strips. Seriously one of the easiest and most brainless tasks, and the results will be gorgeous in the end. Three out of the four colors torn, balled, and waiting to be crocheted = happiness. Tutorial here.

Love that it is round!

New Pincushion
Okay, this one is a sewing project, but it took me all of 5 minutes, and now I have a huge new pin cushion for all my quilting pins. It is also filled with awesomeness that my dear quilting friend introduced me to - crushed black walnut shells that help weigh down the cushion, and the shells also help keep my pins sharper. Check 'em out here!

More Scrap Quilt Squares
Okay more sewing....but only to use up the last of my bobbin threads on my old machine. I had planned to get these all sewn before I went out of town, but that obviously didn't happen, so I have a small amount to finish before I can start piecing the whole huge quilt together.
Not sure when I might be able to find time to piece this huge mother of a quilt though before baby boy arrives. Spending lots of time on my knees brings on an outrageous amount of Braxton Hicks at this point. Only 9 more weeks, what are the chances these starter contractions are going to give me a break to finish my quilt...not likely I would say. Oh well.

Now on to the list of things I want to accomplish.

Baby shower gifts: 
For all my friends having babies- I would tell you what they are, but then I would have to kill you.
Recover old crib bumper:
To go with the new boy color scheme that I've picked out - browns, oranges, and greens with an owl theme. I'm using chocolate brown corduroy and orangey colored flannel.
Decorative Owl Lovey:
To go with the crib owl theme. Thinking more chocolate corduroy and burlap and sagely green accents. Found the pattern here and love it!
Afghan Christmas Gift:
Can't tell you much about this one either....gifts, you never know when the recipient might suddenly decide to check out my blog. That would stink to give it away.

Owl Lovey

So am I out of my mind for having so many projects planned for completion before my baby boy arrives in 9+ weeks? Probably so, but this is my form of nesting. Cleaning bathrooms and organizing sock drawers is not me, so I craft and dream and feel all inspired until my little ones arrive.
And who knows, maybe I will still get to work on some of these little gems after he arrives, because newborns, you know, they sleep a lot.

Hahaha - who am I kidding! I crack myself up.

Tedious Tasks Tempt Me

Tempt me right away from blogging until I have something worth showing off. I have been doing other things, but now that I'm officially in the third trimester, I think my nesting instinct has kicked in. So far it is showing itself in a rush of new creative projects and finishing old ones.  Some women organize their sock drawers or linen closets.  Not me!
First thing I organized was my craft closet and after discovering all the half finished and ruined challenging sewing projects of the past year I became engrossed in crafting. I have a list on my craft closet bulletin board with a list of projects that I would like to complete in the next year.
Remember my craft closet that I blogged about a while back. Still love that little space. It also doubles as a prayer closet when I need to hide from my family and spend some time with Jesus. It also houses my vast collection of maternity clothes at the moment, as well as photos, important documents in file cases, and a couple of my weapons. :-)
Back to projects though.
So my list of projects is about 10 items long, and now after only a week or so I have two of them crossed off!
Here they are:

Some trendy, hip roman shades that I made for a friend who had oddly sized windows in her kitchen. They are actually functional too, they lift and lower. Thank you marthastewart.com.

Also, a baby quilt I started over a year ago, had a friend sandwich it for me, and just had to finish the binding by hand. One of the many partially finished projects I uncovered in my closet. Now it is done and ready to spend some time on my daughters bed.

The real pride in this quilt though is that it is my first quilt I've ever finished that has no visible flaws to it. I know it is no where near perfect, but to unsuspecting observers, it looks nearly so. That is quite an accomplishment for me! You should see my first two quilts....well, actually there is a reason you probably haven't seen them on here.  I still use them, but they are somewhat embarrassing every time I take a close look at them. Sigh.
This quilt is called the Baby Rail Quilt pattern, and it was my fourth quilt. So lets do the math. My first two quilts I still have and use despite embarrassing flaws and now this is my fourth.
Where is number three you ask? Probably in a landfill sadly, that thing was beyond ruined and ugly, and I just could stand to waste any more good time on trying to make it less ugly. So I tossed it and started the baby rail quilt.
Number three taught me two lessons though.
    1. Don't buy fabric that is cheap or that you don't totally love, you will never eventually love it, even if it is made into a quilt.
    2. Practice sewing in a straight line, but it helps if you cut your fabric straight on the front end.

So where is quilt number five you ask? It is in the making. It is third on the list of projects to be completed. Nothing worth showing at the moment, just heaps and heaps of 2" squares, but it is going to be my first scrap quilt. When finished it will be an oversized Queen blanket and will play on the light and dark fabrics I used.
Something like this quilt, only my shapes aren't triangles, they are 2" squares. I'm so excited to start piecing this quilt and see how the variety of colors come together.

Because this project list and the pregnancy hormones are spurring me on in my creativity, you may not see or hear a lot from me. Until I have more finished projects to dazzle you with!