Wow. Today really IS Tuesday!

I'm all out of sorts with the holiday weekend. All day yesterday, I thought it was Sunday and today Monday. Not true. I missed my Loser Monday post. Well, I have nothing to report on the Loser Monday front.

BUT...

73 days smoke free
1091 cigarettes NOT smoked
$300.00 saved - I need to start putting my money aside again now that my fabric shopping is done for a while.
No thread purchased. I need to get to the store though and start working on my project. July will here sooner than I want it to be!

On the sewing side of things... I started working on the End of Year Thank You gifts for Punkie's teachers. I've decided on the pedicure/pamper yourself fabric baskets. And what makes me happy is that 3 out of the 4 baskets are completely out of my fabric stash! I didn't know I had a stash big enough to accommodate. I'm putting some of my fabric to good use. :)

I'm also going to create a lap quilt for my new "sister"... sister in law to be exact. She has another SIL on her side of the family (her brother's wife) but they don't get along so I'm #1. LOL. And she got me a keychain from Las Vegas saying "#1 Sister" on it to prove it. She loved Amelia's quilt so much that I thought I would make her one for her upcoming 30th birthday. It probably won't be done for her birthday but that's what it will be for. I found the perfect fabric for her since her color request was orange and blue; orange being her favorite color. I just need to order it.

My "to do" list is growing by the second. I really need to get laid off so that I can work on my sewing projects. LOL!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

Giveaway, giveaway, GIVEAWAY!

Vickie E is having a giveaway over at her blog. Go and check it out!

RUN!

Jen

So, I am in need of some ideas...

The end of Punkie's first school year is coming to a close very quickly and I was thinking of End of Year Thank You gifts for her teachers (she has 4 of them). And of course, I had BIG plans to get these all done a MONTH ago... but we all know how that goes. Amelia attends preschool within our elementary school and follows the school's calendar so she will have the summer off.

My first question... is it customary to give End of Year Thank You gifts? I gave them each a little something for Christmas but I would also like to give them something as a thank you for making Amelia's 1st year of preschool so enjoyable.

My thought was to make them each a fabric basket and also make a homemade sugar scrub and do a little pedicure basket. You know, getting ready for summer and cute feet. But I thought that was a bit cheesy but I need to put SOMETHING in the basket. I just have no idea what.

My other thought was to make them each a tote. But I wanted to give them each a monogrammed tote. I recently bought the Fat Quarter Fonts pattern book and I thought HOW CUTE to make them each a tote. I'm thinking I will hold off and do that idea this coming Christmas. I'm almost certain by this Christmas I will be laid off so I will have more than enough time to get 4 totes done so that I'm not rushing and making a mess out of seams or anything.

So? Any ideas out there other than what I'm thinking of doing? Is the fabric basket a cute idea? What do I put in it?? HELP!!

Jen

It's That Time Already...?

I think Jenessa summed it up REALLY well. LOL!

In other news...

65 days smoke free
969 cigarettes NOT smoked
$268.00 saved (according to the computer) - I've been on a few shopping sprees so I didn't put any money aside for myself. I already spent it on fabric and Longaberger baskets!

Thread purchased - zero spools this past week

Buh-bye!
Jen

Quilt Giveaway

Go on over and check out Pigtails and Snails... quilt giveaway!

New Hampshire Part 2

If you are ever in Cabot, VT - stop at the True Value Hardware store, walk to the back of the store and have yourself a tasty bacon cheddar burger. That's right. You're reading correctly... in the HARDWARE store. Get yourself a burger. Only my husband would know this place even existed. LOL. Apparently, it's right on a snowmobiling trail and lots of people stop for a bite. It was MIGHTY good. I will go back. And there is no advertising of any sort so if you were just driving by STARVING, you would just keep on going. Too bad I left my camera in the car. I would have taken pictures as proof.

While in Cabot, VT - we went to the Cabot Creamery and took a tour and saw how they made their cheddar cheese. They produce cheese 7 days a week so we saw the separating of the curds from the whey process. Pretty cool. Got a picture of a milk silo and their visitor's center. Amelia was the youngest in the tour and after we watched a short movie, people were free to ask questions. Amelia was getting a bit upset and I didn't understand why. Apparently, she had her OWN question to ask ("How do cows make milk?") and the lady could not hear her over everybody else. But once everyone got quiet, Amelia asked her question and the girl doing the tour answered her very nicely. Amelia felt very proud of herself. I was too! :)


After Cabot, we headed back to NH and chilled for a while and then took Punkie to the park before heading out for dinner. She had a good time running around after being in the car most of the morning. She and Daddy played on the bouncy airplane. They had fun.



While at dinner, it POURED! But made for some great puddle jumping fun once we got home. As you can see in the pictures... Punkie was soaked. And we found a rainbow from the front porch.








All in all, the getaway was too short but we had a great time together. Now it's back to reality. And back to my sewing projects.


Jen

Loser Monday...

I am not. This is pretty bad. Lots of people are telling me not to worry about my weight and just focus on not smoking. I just can't do that. I'm out of control. Every week I'm up another pound. Every week I'm more discouraged and think it's not worth it and just start smoking again. At least when I was smoking, the weight didn't come on this fast. I had something else to do when I got bored/stressed/sad/angry... now I eat. And eat and eat and eat. When I smoked and was hungry or wanted a snack, I would have a cigarette. Now I eat. And eat and eat and eat.

I thought posting once a week would make me more accountable. I guess not.

I won't go back to smoking. I just needed to get my thoughts out of my head and onto "paper". I will re-think my Loser Monday strategy. Maybe I'll get my mouth wired shut for 6 months. Maybe I will re-join Weight Watchers and physically go to meetings (I was doing it online). I know I can lose the weight. I did it before. Took me 2 years but I did it.

Anyway...

58 days smoke free
865 cigarettes NOT smoked
$239.00 saved

and at Anna's suggestion...
spools of thread purchased - (from 2 weeks ago) 41 spools! I didn't add to my spool collection last week. I'm working on building up my embroidery thread collection so I bought 6 spools for that. I also bought 35 spools of cotton thread from Connecting Threads. Can't beat the price and the size of the spool for the money.

I have more New Hampshire adventures to share with you and some pictures but that post will have to wait until I get home tonight.

Jen

New Hampshire Weekend - Part One

The three of us went to New Hampshire for a nice Mother's Day weekend. Amelia played hooky from preschool so that we could get on the road first thing Friday morning. We had a nice time. We stayed at my in-laws vacation house so that helped with expenses. Since we had a kitchen we, I mean my husband, could do some cooking there instead of eating out all weekend. I said I was doing no cooking this weekend. And I lied. I ended up cooking dinner on Friday night.

Friday, on the way up, we stopped at Keepsake Quilting and I did a little shopping. If you've never been there, it's a great place to visit. Can be overwhelming unless you go there with a plan. I bought some pink, orange and yellow fabric for a quilt that I have in mind for myself. And now that I look at the fabric at home, I need more pinks and a little more white. Good thing my LQS is having their anniversary sale this coming weekend. I will be hitting that on Friday - if I can sneak away from my work computer for an hour or so.

Here's a few pictures of what I picked up there. I have no pictures of the inside (not allowed) and I would have taken a picture of the building but it was raining...

Speaking of rain, we had a decent amount of it while visiting. Only really nice weather we had was Friday late afternoon/evening and Saturday morning. Then the clouds rolled in. Amelia spent a fair amount of time just digging in the dirt and climbing on "her"rock. She also went exploring with some binoculars.

We worked on her Mother's Day gifts for the grandmas too. She made them each a garden stone with her hand print. We've already gave one away. It was well received. We'll give my mom hers next weekend when we see her. I need to have her make one for me.

Okay, I've have more pictures to show you but I think I'll continue tomorrow.

Jen

Happy Mother's Day!!

R.I.P. Stanley

I started this post last week and forgot to finish it!

My sister in law is a veterinarian technician and she bought home some 6 week old kittens over the weekend so that she could keep an eye on them until Monday. Amelia and I were in the area so we stopped by to see the kitties. And I made the mistake of wanting one and NAMING him. His name was Stanley and he was all black. My brother sent me a text message to tell me that he had passed away. Poor little kitty. But he was the runt of the litter and Charlotte (my SIL) told me not to get attached because of his size. Maybe one of his litter mates (the rest were girls) will make it and we can get one of them. Here are some pictures of the cuties.

Here's Amelia with my brother's and SIL's cat, Louie. Yes, she is sitting on the kitchen table because Abbey - their dog - is too big for her to handle. She's a chocolate lab and Amelia is at the right height for face licking and she doesn't like it. So she's climbs up on their table. The "safe" zone.

We just got back from a weekend away in New Hampshire. I have some pictures to post from that. I just have to get them off the camera.

Jen

I FINALLY finished it

I made this Miranda bag back in August of last year but I didn't like the "fashion" handles that I put on it so I bought new ones with every intention of changing them right then and there. Didn't happen. Until now... well, yesterday. I wanted to use it during my upcoming weekend away to New Hampshire.



I also really didn't like the look of the Miranda when it was all "open".



So I did a little digging online and found that some people were using purse clip things to cinch the sides in. AH. MUCH BETTER.




Now I will use my bag. And I have plans to get the pattern for the mini Miranda and make that one too but with fabric handles instead.


Jen

Oh yeah...Loser Monday

The only thing I have to report for Loser Monday is that I'm still up but not as much. Seems like my weight is really going up and down with this no smoking. I am heading back to the gym tomorrow (FINALLY) as things in my personal life have slowed down. So I hope to really get back on track. I didn't do too bad this weekend with snacking but Saturday was killer as I attended a first communion and the reception after was at an Italian restaurant and I was starving and the bread was piping hot fresh and (fresh) bread is one of my many weakness... you see where I'm going with this??

On the other side of things:

51 days smoke free. FIFTY ONE
759 cigarettes NOT SMOKED
$210.38 saved so far. I think I have just under $200.00 put aside.

Pretty cool.

Jen

Just Stuff

A few pictures of Punkie and the communion cookie favors that I made for my cousin's daughter's 1st communion yesterday. I don't like how my "poor man" fondant roses came out this time around. But everyone liked them and they are darn tasty! Vanilla-almond sugar cookies.

YUM. But I don't want to see another sugar cookie for a very long time!

Jen

It's Back and I LOVE IT!

My quilt! My Punkie Pie quilt is back and Sharon did a wonderful job quilting it. She did a daisy pattern on it and I love it! It softens the look of the quilt so nicely. Thank you so much Sharon!

Here it is! The front....
The back....


Close-up of the quilting on the front... do you see the daisies?! LOVE IT!


Close up the of quilting on the back.


Close up of my favorite block...


And here is Amelia under her quilt. She loves it!

And I love it and I want to keep it for myself but my husband told me I can't. I promised it to Punkie and it's hers. He's right. I'm just going to have to make one of my very own!

Now to figure out how to put on the binding...

Jen

A Bloggy Giveaway

Lyn at Bluebird Quilts is having a giveaway. Great goodies. Go check it out!

Jen