yes we can

First let me apologize for the second non-crafting post in a row. I've been out of town and haven't gotten to much new to post. But, I did take half a day off today to see Senator Barack Obama speak at The Ohio State University, and I wanted to at least put up a quick post about it.

If you get a chance to see Obama in person for yourself, you should do so. He was amazing. I'm not kidding, I saw girls walking back to campus after his speech who were crying. Crying. Moved to tears. Wow.

pretend warm

Oh February. The shortest month. The month that seems the longest. After the umpteenth day of cloud-covered skies and temperatures in the teens, I decided that some pretend warm was better than no warm at all and took the kids to the Franklin Park Conservatory. Ah, moist air. Warmth. A pretend bit of summer. Lovely.

As a bit of irony, I'm scheduled to leave town tomorrow afternoon with some girfriends to have a girls' weekend out. In, of all places, Chicago. Heh. Chicago in February. Who planned this trip?

seeing spots

I finished the leopard quilt this weekend. It only took a week from start to finish, which is pretty fast quilting for me! I'm so happy with it, and Xander loves it too. Quinn is feeling a little jealous and is asking when I'll have hers done. I'm afraid that it's going to take a bit longer than a week since I'll be out of town for a few days. Luckily, she's luckily enough to have a big brother who is good at sharing, so they both were wrapped up in his quilt this morning.

The finished, washed size is about 44" x 64"


And now it's all nicely fluffed-up and puckery.


For Quinn's version, I'll be using browns and yellows. Including the top fabric pictured here that I got from Jamie over at PhatFabrics. Jamie is a lovely seller and I'll be buying from her again. Check out her store, she has some great deals going on now. She's on both eBay and Etsy.


In knitting, I learned both increasing and decreasing this week, and am looking forward to getting a little practice time in on the plane. I'm also working on a digital photo project for my friend Lynne. I'll be posting that once I'm a little further along.

snow day

For the past few days it has been unreasonably cold here in the Midwest. The kind of cold where you have to keep the kids inside all day. The kind of cold where you start to think that maybe your family wouldn't mind eating canned soup all week if that means you don't have to go out to do shopping.

But there hasn't been much snow. Still, every school in the area closed today because of the threat of freezing rain this morning. I'm happy to have a day off from bundling up the kids and getting them out of the house. It's nice to spend an extra day in our jammies staying cozy by the fire.

Plus, I'll have an extra hour and a half in my day since I don't have to drive to and from work and daycare. I plan on using that time to start quilting Xander's leopard quilt. I put together the top over the weekend, and am soooo happy with it so far!


The turquoise is a little bright for me, but Xander loves it. And, I have to admit, I love how it turned out on the applique. It's the first time I've tried reverse sewing the stabilizer to the fabric and then finger turning it before ironing and sewing. Even with all of the curves, it turned out nice.


Also on the 'nice' list this week is this art bag I whipped up for a birthday gift for one of Quinn's school mates. It has a nice little drawstring top and a front pocket. It's filled with art supplies for a creative three-year-old. Pom-poms, pipe cleaners, pencils, scissors, and some glitter glue. I like it so much I'm putting together the same thing for one of Xander's friends party for this weekend.

recap

I meant to post about three times this past week. But I never felt like putting down what I was working on and firing up the computer. So here's the Sunday evening recap.

Week three of knitting lessons got us started on this washcloth sampler. I think I might be brewing a nasty knitting addiction. I even took this with me last night when Kevin and I went over a friends house. Just give me a handful of cats and I can be *that* crazy girl now. Eeek.

It was a great mail week, something new showed up on three different days. I got the latest Craft magazine - chock full of cuteness, as usual.


I also ordered more of the Echino fabric from Repro Depot. After finishing the cheating quilt, I immediately wished that I had made it a little larger. So I picked up these two prints with the idea that I'll make two 5' x 7' blankets, one for Xander and one for Quinn.


I'd like to be one of those piece-as-you-go quilting types, but I feel the need to do at least a little bit of planning, if only to keep me from buying twice as much fabric as I need. I started working on this little sketch, and the next thing I know, Xander had gotten a hold of it and was putting little 'X's' in the three large circles I had drawn. I asked him what he was doing, and he said that he wanted that quilt to be for him, so he was making sure I knew by putting his initials on it. Nice.


And if that wasn't enough mail fun, I also got this hardbound printed book I put together from my 2007 photographs using blurb.com. I'm so happy with the results!

The quality of the printing is great - better than whoever Apple uses for their iPhoto books. And, blurb.com is way, way cheaper too.

The largest book you can get from Apple is 100 pages, and it will cost you $120. The book I got this year is 160 pages, and cost me $38.00. Yeah, I hate to say it, being the Mac-elitist that I am, but when it comes to book printing, I'm leaving them for blurb.

Here's a couple of more snaps of some of the inside pages:

:: Xander and Quinn shot in a makeshift 'studio' in our living room ::

:: Apple picking back in September ::

:: Shots from our trip to Mexico ::

Incidentally, all of the shots on the recap post today were taken with my camera in manual mode, not auto. I'm still sticking to my homework assignment of taking at least one photo a day in manual mode. I'm determined to keep the flash off as much as possible, which continues to be a challenge in the winter in Ohio.

One final photo - Quinn asked me to stop taking photos of all of the 'stuff' and take a few of her. As you can see, we spent a lazy Sunday day at home, in our jammies, and I didn't even get around to brushing her hair. She loves days like this.