This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Quilt Day

My bestie and I have been quilting together for, well, more years than I want to admit.  In recent years we have jointly come up with a quilting goal for the coming year.  Our quilting New Year's Resolution of sorts.  After careful thought, we decided this year needs to be about completing some of those UFO's we have in our stashes and just having dedicated quilt time together.  We now have one glorious day a month to quilt! 

Last month my bestie's sister moved here from Texas and has joined in the fun.  This past weekend I hosted them at my house for a day of fabric, chit chat, snacks, a tour of my house and stories of every quilt in it.

Look at this stunning baby quilt my bestie is working on!  It has a wonderful modern feel with these fabrics and design.  That's one lucky baby!

Her sissy is working on this beautiful wall hanging for her house.  This is only the second quilt she has ever machine quilted herself and is doing a fabulous job!

I started quilting this star quilt for a good friend of mine who graciously does our taxes every single year and never asks for a penny in return.  I think she needs a lovely thank you gift.

Of course "Thing 2" wanted to join in the fun.  His "puppy" needs his own quilt, right?  This has to be the cutest sewing machine I've ever seen!  It's an old Singer hand crank that was my mom's when she was a little girl and is one of my favorite things...ever!

The Sound of Demolition

There are many sounds in this world that bring a smile to my face.  The sound of my kids giggling, the cooing of a newborn baby, ocean waves crashing on a beach, and the sweet sound of construction.  Many may disagree with the last one, but to me construction is a wonderful sound.  It means progress.  A step closer to us finishing our house and moving closer to our goals as a family.

After a several year hiatus, we are back into construction on the house.  Three years ago we added a glorius 710 square feet to our house which gained us another bedroom for our expanding family, a playroom, and laundry room.  As the construction was coming to an end we realized we were over our original budget by a little.  To some it would be a little, to us it was a good amount.  Once we were moved into the new space, construction came to a swift hault so we could get back to zero before starting the final projects. It's now time!  Hubby is about to build a stunning built in for the playroom.  The boys were only too eager to help the project along.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Lightening Progress

There's always excitement over the start of a new project.  The anticipation of starting something new and the uncertainty it brings.  Will I find a challenge along the way?  Will a new tip or trick be figured out during the creative or construction process?  The start of a new cross stitch project doesn't bring any of this for me.  I always start off a cross stitch project thinking how nice it will be to have a mindless project to have next to the couch to pick up and work on.  No sooner do I sit down to start it when I'm quickly reminded why I don't do many cross stitches.  The color changes, the counting, the re-counting, oh the re-counting!

I'm determined to finish this one however.  You can't have Tow Maymo on your wall without Lightening McQueen after all.

Darth Vader Speeder

The Pinewood Derby is always one of the major highlights of the year for a Cub Scout.  “Thing 2”’s experience was certainly this.  A small block of wood is no challenge to my hubby and his power tools.  He cut, carved, dremled and sanded until he had whittled a car.  Although there was disappointment with it’s overall performance on the race track, “thing 2” took home Best In Show!

All the scouts had fun cheering on their own cars and those of their friends.  I took a turn running the sensors for the races.  Just let me say, electronic sensors are the way to go!  Too many races were way too close for these eyes to call.  I would have had parents yelling at me for sure.

The older boy scout brothers that were on hand all pitched in and helped run the cars to and fro and launched each race.  I believe they had just as much fun as the younger boys, although “thing 1” wants to build his own car next year and race it after the official races.  Didn’t he already have his turn with Pinewood derby’s?  I believe he did.

A Three Year Old With A Camera

What happens when your 3 year old finds the camera and figures out how to use it?

This...

and this...

and this...

pointing the camera the wrong way...

and this.

"Tow Maymo"

Have you ever had one of "those" projects?  You know, one that you begin making for one child but end up finishing it for another?  I've had a few, okay more than a few.  When "Thing 2" was younger I picked up this adorable Tow Mater cross stitch to frame for his bedroom.  Here we are several years later and he's no longer infatuated with Cars.  Along came "Thing 3" who is currently 3 years old and completely hooked on Cars!  So out came the cross stitch to finish and frame for his room.  As soon as it was recognizable as Tow Mater, "Thing 3" would sit next to me on the couch while I was stitching and say "Tow Maymo go my oom".  We're working on his language.  Understanding this little one is difficult at times.

You can't very well have Tow Maymo on your wall without, you guessed it, Lightening McQueen!!

A Friday Rutual

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by Soule Mama.

Cub Scout Bag

When "Thing 2" decided to follow in his older brother's footsteps and join scouts as a Tiger cub scout, I made the decision to volunteer as the den leader.  When "Thing 1" joined Cub Scouts I volunteered as the Advancement Chair.  My thought was it was an easy enough position to handle with a full time job and a baby at the time.  While holding this position I watched the other leaders so I thought I had a good handle on what the Den Leader position would require.  Boy was I wrong!  It's quite a bit more work than I anticipated, however, I am finding it extremely rewarding!  There are a total of 10 boys in my Tiger den and they are such sweet young boys!  As the Den leader it's my job to make sure the boys have fun, while learning important life skills.  Who knew that would require dragging safety scissors, glue sticks, markers, a binder full of information and assorted projects between meetings, so I decided to make myself a cute bag just for Cub Scouts. 

First find was the adorable Cub Scout fabric by Robert Kaufman which is now discontinued.

Next was to decide on the pattern.  My bestie had made me this adorable bag several years ago that I love!  I use it all the time as a project bag.  Pattern Here.

It's just adorable and the right size to be hauling safety scissors, glue sticks, markers, assorted projects and my binder that helps me stay sane.  Well, I'd like to think it does.

This bag can be easily created in one day, however with three boys under foot, I don't accomplish anything in one day.

The Birth of a Blog

The birth of a personal blog is something that someone has spent a lot of time thinking about, dreaming about, and designing, before it is ever shown to the world.  I have often thought of starting a blog to capture the quilting/crafting/knitting work that I do, to share tutorials on the items I design, to cronicle the progress of moving our family to a more sustainable way of life and to capture moments in my children's lives.  I guess the timing just wasn't right, until now.

A Real Piece o' Work captures what is our lives.  The work I create, our house, our children, or lives, our journey, are all pieces of work and I'm excited to be sharing them all with you.  Join me on this journey I'm about to take and hopefully we can learn from and inspire one another.