Mug Rug Finish!

(First, I know...I totally dropped the ball on NaBloPoMo.  But that's not the point of this post.)

Because I don't have *quite* enough on my plate, I decided awhile back that I REALLY wanted to take part in the Scrappy Mug Rug Swap.  I watched the last round come to close, drooling over all of the terribly creative and oh-so-cute things that people thought up and I HAD to get my name on the list for the holiday/everyday round!

This is a blind swap, so I know who I'm making for (though I can't say yet!), but not who's making one for me.  Very exciting!

I was lucky to be somewhat familiar with the photostream of the person who's name I was given.  Not saying any more than that so that I don't drop too many clues, but I was at least vaguely familiar with some of what she's done recently.  It was kind of cool to see that I'd drawn her name. :)  And the questionnaire thing we filled out gave me some ideas that I probably wouldn't have come up with strictly from looking at her photostream.

After a bit of thought, I knew which fabrics I wanted to use, but hadn't entirely settled on an idea.  Tonight, I cut into the fabrics with a plan in mind...and then watched the mug rug take shape on it's own.  It's totally not what I had initially planned to make, but it just came together so nicely that I ran with it.



Given the green stripy fabric, straight line quilting seemed the best fit.  I did a stitch-in-the-ditch at the edge of each white strip and then eyeballed the interior stitching lines so that they wouldn't be quite even.  It seemed like a good idea since the green stripes and the robot are both a little bit wonky and not-straight.  It's backed and self-bound in the green fabric.  My initial plan was to hand stitch the binding in place, but I kind of liked the idea of visible, light stitching.  Doing it by machine kept the stitches even and, I hope, seem a little more "robotic".

Or maybe I'm just talking out my ear.

At any rate, I'm pleased with how the mug rug turned out and I hope that my partner likes it, too.  We still have a few days before it has to be in the mail and I'm contemplating a holiday themed mug rug as well.  (She didn't specify one way or the other.)  I've got an idea for that one too, but the way this one took off on it's own, I'll have to see what happens when I start working with the fabric...

(This mug rug finished at 7 1/4 by 9 1/4 inches.)

Now it's REALLY Official

We signed the paperwork on the house this morning.  It's OURS.

*big silly goofy grin*

We spent most of the day over there, mostly kicking around and doing little things.  We changed the locks on the doors, mowed the lawn, tested different paint colors on the wall.  Having done that with a two year old helper, I really should have taken some pictures today.  (Unfortunately, my batteries died.)  Bug played in the yard all.day.long and had a blast.  Boo rolled around on the various pallets we made and watched her brother play and laughed at us.

It was pretty awesome. :)

Simon's Cat

I love Simon's cat.

We Have A House!

We have a house, we have a house, we have a house!!




Ahem. 

I'm a little excited about this. ;)

Contract negotiations ended today.  Tomorrow is a holiday, and we close on Friday morning.

I'm totally jazzed. :)

3x6 3rd Quarter - Complete!

This post is a smidge belated, seeing as Q3 ended in September, but I just recently wrapped up my blocks and received my last package.

The blocks I received from Beehive 5 of the 3x6 Sampler Bee:



Aren't they amazing?  I keep getting mesmerized by them.  They're all so pretty individually, and I love how they look all together!

Here are the blocks that I sent out:

My tester block, in my colors


For smoochee


For bessiemae


For nikkipeterson


For quiltygirl2


For miesmama


For woolymama


I had so much fun with this (even though I took waaaaay too long), I can't wait to get started on my Q4 blocks!

Four Cousins - First Top Complete!

Remember these?



Given the move and the new baby and a gajillion other things, it's taken awhile, but I finally got them all chopped up and put back together.

Bug's quilt top is done!



More on the process later...

Camera: Found!

Good news - I found my camera!

And we went out today (to the dinosaur museum!) and took a gajillion and four pictures.  Which I might  be overstating just a wee bit.

And, now, I'm sitting at the computer, typing one-handed and trying to move as little as possible because I have a finally-sleeping baby on my shoulder.

So, the pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.  Again.  Sorry.

How to Pet a Kitty (Link)

My camera is still MIA, so tonight I'll be phoning in my post.  Sorry about that but, if you have a cat, this should make you laugh until you cry.

A friend of mine posted this link from The Oatmeal... "How to Pet a Kitty".

Enjoy!

Farmer's Market Win, Farmer's Market Fail

I’ve misplaced my camera, so no pictures with this post.  Sorry.  You’ll just have to deal with exposition today.

As per usual, we headed out to the farmer’s market today.  Just me and the kids, and we planned to hit two of them.

The first was a weekly market that we’ve made it to once before.  Not huge, but a nice combination of farm fresh produce and artisan items.  Everyone’s really nice.  Bug got to pet baby goats and the honey guy recognized us.  He  even remembered that Bug doesn’t get to eat colors and talked him out of buying the green honey stick.

When we got there, we passed by a little girl eating a carrot and Bug decided that he had to have one.  I was all for that but, I kid you not, I couldn’t find a single carrot in the market.  I’m sure I just overlooked them.  We got some pictures with the 180 pound pumpkin, bought some cheese curds, and decided to go check out the second market.

I don’t think the second market happens regularly, but it was listed as a farmer’s market so we decided to go.  Turned out to be in a kind of ritzy part of town and not far from the awesome railroad park.  I loaded Boo into her stroller and Bug into his mei tai and headed in.  There were two other kids there, both older then ten.  I kept getting sideways glances.  The first table we passed was a woman selling knitted kids caps.  Cute stuff.  We stopped to look and she asked Bug something about what animals he liked.  He said he wanted a carrot and everyone within earshot laughed.  Because there were no carrots there.  There were $30 kids t-shirts BeDazzled with licensed characters, but no veggies.

We passed by a really neat looking little shop that Bug and I both wanted to go check out, so we did.  It was bright and colorful and fun, and pretty packed with stuff.  Given that I had Boo in the stroller we didn’t go to deep into the store and we moved really slowly so as to not get anywhere close to the displays.  We were finally acknowledged five or ten minutes later, when a woman who worked there finally stepped into the room, breezed past us and told me to be careful because the stroller was a tight fit.

We ended up walking over to the Trader Joe’s in the next parking lot to pick up carrots (Bug said he wanted the “biggest carrot I’ve ever seen!”), some tomato candy (because we’ve all but finished yesterdays) and some more French bread.  The people there (customers and employees) were awesome.  I’d drive across town for that, but we’ll be skipping the “farmer’s market” there from now on.

Yummy Foods

(I really will get back to posting on other topics soon.  Honest.)

We hit up the farmer's market this afternoon as a family.  It was nice to have Richard with us, and he seemed to have a good time.  We indulged Bug's honey obsession, though it was difficult to pick which flavor to buy.  He got a few honey sticks as usual, including an acid green sour apple flavored one.  I don't even want to *think* about what's in it to turn it that shade of green.  It was a one time thing though, and he didn't eat that much of it, so I'm just going to let it slide.

For the bigger jar, after a taste test we decided to bring home the desert wildflower honey.  I want to say it's from prickly pear, palo verde and chrysanthemum, but I might be making that up.  Richard was really, really fond of the mesquite, but Bug and I kind of liked the desert wildflower a little bit more, so...  We'll get mesquite next time.

We also picked up a really beautiful honey dipper.  Walnut, I think.  (I'm not looking at the tag and the screaming baby in my lap is keeping me from looking for it.)



Ooo.  We also bought a super yummy chimichurri.  No idea what we're doing with it yet - though I'm thinking that it might involve the french bread and goat cheese from the last few markets.

Teeny Tiny Food

Mom and I took Bug and Boo out to the farmer's market today.  (Town and Country this time.  Liked it.)  It ended up being Teeny Tiny Food Day.

Tomato candy.  (Organic heirlooms this time.)



And crabapples!  Partially because I've never had one before, but mostly because Bug thought they were cute.  They're crispy and tart - apple win!



We also bought some yummy kalamata olive hummus, but ate almost all of it in the car on the way home.  It was that good.

Then we stopped by Trader Joe's because I've never been.  Picked up some veggie/flax chips (eaten with the hummus in the car) and two mini loaves of french bread.

I don't think I've ever thought my groceries were so cute.

Cat's Claw

This morning, Bug was in the yard with Mom for awhile.  He ran in shouting "Cat's claw, Mommy!  It's a cat's claw!"

He's pretty excitable about finding our cat's discarded claws, so I expected him to deposit one into my hand.  Except that he always calls those "kitty moons".  Today, it was a plant.

Yay, Mom, for teaching him what these deserts plants are called!

NaBloPoMo

Thanks to A Day in the Life of Val, I've discovered NaBloPoMo.  It's essentially NaNoWriMo for blogs.  With no word count.  Which is a good thing,  because a couple of years ago I attempted NaNoWriMo and it was a total disaster.

So, here we go.  I'm pledging to do my best to blog every day this month.  I'll even try to put up decent content. ;)

Off to upload some pictures, and then I'll have some goodies to talk about...