Why is it when you get your house on the market then you don't want to leave?

Just realized I haven't posted in forever!  I am actually getting back to a little sewing and with our pending move for husband's new job . . . I am thinking of blogging on a regular basis even if it is just for me and a family diary of sorts.

Turning 48 yesterday and also the passing of a high school classmate after a long battle with cancer, made me think about life.  My friend was a glass half full kind of person all the way and in some of the comments on her passing yesterday, one really stuck out to me . . . Lets celebrate the time we had with her and know we were better off for it, then dwell on the fact she was taken too soon.  That is really my moto in life and I am really working hard to instill it into my three kids.  I sat and really thought about what the next couple of years before turning 50 would look like for me and realized I have 100% control over them.  I made both some personal goals and some family goals.  Returning to blogging is high on the list and staying connected with friends, while working hard to make new ones.  When I look back in a couple of years, I hope to find us happily relocated and everyone thriving in our new environment!

I am choosing to think of this move from a place of gratitude . . . we were lucky to spent 9 years in a wonderful town, raising our children and having tons of time for them.  We were blessed to live in our spacious new home that we and the kids love for 9 years.  Now we are onto new challenges that will come in living in the metro new york area.  Our house will be a lot smaller and the pace of life will be crazy . . . but we will carve out a niche for our family and thrive.

I do want to share the link to the website with the photos of our current home (mainly for you mom, click the link and then on the top, click the "photo" tab to see the photos they took) The professional photos are better than the shots I have taken in the past when we rented the house out for track season.   www.19lizann.info

This has been a wonderful family house for us and one I am thrilled to have called home.  Yesterday while swimming with the two younger kids, they each caught their first frog of the season in the yard and went crazy creating a habitat for them for the evening, promising to return them to the "wild" in the am.  It made me think of

House for Rent - Track Season

House for Rent - Track Season, a set on Flickr.

Lots of shots taken on a dark and rainy day. More to follow, when sun shines!

Most photos have been taken in last couple days.

Painting 95% finished
New carpet/hardwood in master next 2 weeks

100 Days Project - Fake Cake

Ellie has been wanting to make a pretend felt cake for awhile and I kept thinking we would get to it.  When the 100 days project came up to mark her and her brother's 100 days of school, we decided now was the time to go for it.  Nothing real complicated to this project, but when I was looking for inspiration, I found one example, but had no idea what the fake cake was made of.

Here is how we made ours!

I went shopping at the craft store and bought some assorted styrofoam items, wreaths and circles.  We used regular craft glue, scrap booking paper, tooth picks/wooden skewers, washi tape, candles and embellishments.

         


We chose which paper we wanted for the various layers and then started tracing the wreath shaped
parts.  Then cut them out.

   


We pieced the two round circles for each tier together by using skewers.




We measured how tall they were and then cut strips of paper, mine were 2 inches wide and I had to cute three 2" x 12" pieces.  We secured them with toothpicks and glued the overlap to keep them secure.

     

We then assembled it, doing each layer this way.  We got a little lazy on the bottom outside layer and used washi tape around the circle, it was even easier and I love the black and white polka dot tape we had.



Once you have the layers how you want, then Miss Ellie, counted out the candles and we got to town inserting them into the cake.  On the bottom layer I used a seam ripper and made an x shape for each candle to be inserted through.  On the middle ring, we used a whole punch after gently folding the wreath circle in half.  Decorate any way you want, this was where we almost got too carried away and lucky Ellie got bored and wanted to finish!



We used huge skewers to secure the final top layer to the rest of the cake, so it wouldn't shift around.  We also used tooth picks to secure a row of flowers around the cake.




We added some fun with a banner made of washi tape over baker's twine and strung onto skewers to spell out "congrats".  Ellie wrote her name and also "Days of School" on notebook paper to give it a school flair.  We love how it turned out and she is thrilled to bring it into school on her 100th day!

Pillow Talk Swap 8 - Ready to Send

Okay I think the only thing I blog about anymore is the Pillow Talk Swap . . . this is the eighth pillow I have completed for this swap.  Each time I don't think I could love a pillow anymore!  Each time I learn something.

This round was not any different.  I finally mastered paper piecing!  I now own an add a quarter inch ruler and I know how to use it!  The most important tool however is a simple piece of card stock to fold against.

This pillow is ready to ship.  I will soon be sending it on its way!

I have been putting zippers in for quite a few rounds now, but must admit I am pretty darn proud of myself this time.  I didn't pull out my notebook from middle school and follow the steps at installing a zipper into a pillow - progress!

I must admit I am crazy for the back of this one.  I really love the chevron print in aqua.  Couple it with the hot pink washi print and wowza!  I wish the chevron came in a home dec weight and it would be the perfect pillow fabric!  Hope my partner likes this one as much as I do!

Pillow Talk Swap - Pillow Received and Mine ready to send!

Pillow and pouch received from Kari and pillow ready to send!

A little sad that Pillow Swap Talk 7 is almost in the books for me! I received a great pillow and zip pouch this week and finished the pillow I will be sending. How am I going to obsess over which pillow is coming to me or wake up thinking of details to put into the making of my pillow to send? Oh well, I guess I will have to obsess over something else!

I love that sometimes a Plan B ends up better than your Plan A. The moment the partners were sent out I made a plan. I lined up fabrics for said plan and also ordered a pattern book from Japan, along with some fabric. The weeks went by and the package from Japan has not arrived. While waiting not very patiently, I decided to try one Granny Square block to test the waters. One turned into joining the quilt-along with Dana and promptly making 12 more squares and before I knew it . . . a new pillow plan was born!

My partner is one cool chick and she needs a fun, modern and funky pillow. I hope this fits the bill! 2 inch squares Granny style gave me blocks a little shy of 7 inch square. I love using black and other bold colors thrown in with lots of colors to unify color schemes. I sew that way for myself, but usually hold off on black for others . . . A Seattle girl at heart and a big believer in a mostly black wardrobe with a few pops of color here and there, I know that not everyone embraces the dark side!

Jenn's use of black and white prints to unify here, gave me the push to do my thing. I know my partner likes fmf in small doses and likes greens/blues/greys, so I thought a few splashes of fmf colors would be fun! Love how it turned out!

Love that I felt okay cutting wildly into my grey, blue and green seeds. I even cut my strips both ways so the running stitch in the print would be going the same way when I matched the prints in the corners.

This swap and others are fun for me because they get me to attempt new things. Some work and sometimes it leads to a redo, that I wouldn't do if the item was just for me. Not sure why I can brings my C or D game when making something for myself, but up my game for swaps! Okay back to the details . . . I ended up not having enough piping cord on hand to make my own piping, but had almost enough standard black to go around the pillow. I sewed some strips of accent fabrics together, ironed under the edges and then stitched it with a zipper foot onto the pre-made binding. When the 2.5 yards in the package didn't quite make it around the pillow, I stitched another piece on and covered it in the patchwork. LOVE how it turned out! Will be adding this to future pillows for sure!

Another too lazy to drive a half hour to a Joann's led to a bit of a disaster and then a happy accident redo. The longest zipper I had on hand was a 16 inch. I put it on the short end of the pillow and thought I could easily slip the pillow in . . . it was a bear to get the pillow in. The seam ripper was put to work and in the end the pillow has a envelope closure. The problem with an envelope back on a long rectangular pillow is a bit of opening, but if you have a lot of envelope closure overlap then it it awful to get the pillow in. To solve this little problem I added four little black snaps. Now it looks good from the back, but my partner will now be able to easily get the insert in, making the pillow easy to wash (he or she has little ones around!) Ties would have been a fun solution as well.

This will be a tough pillow to ship off, but I am excited for my partner to receive it!

LOOT Received

Love the pillow I received from Kari, she used the fun curved ruler, that I just have to have! I am loving the blocks and pillows people are making with it. Kari made the cutest little zip pouch to go along with the pillow. I made an insert for it and it is just so cute! Her detailed hand stitching is such a fun touch! I think this will live on my sewing chair, the colors and the size are perfect for it!

Okay this swap is my favorite swap and I will be looking forward to round 8! Can't wait to see the pillows people post in the next couple of weeks. If you want to take a looks at all the pillows, check it out here!

I ♥ Granny Square Blocks

I couldn't hold myself back any longer. I was planning to make just one block, to make sure it was fun and I could commit to a quilt. Then I couldn't stop at one . . . a couple of days later I have 12 and if I could ignore the kids, laundry and all responsibilities I would keep going!

It all started for me with a photo and Japanese magazine/pattern book Badskirt Amy posted. Then Tamiko's block with itty bitty patchwork sent me over the edge. Jolene's finished quilt, for sale on ETSY, pinned everywhere on Pinterest, made me giddy. So crisp and wonderful. I think I love how the colors just pop from a crisp white background. Was thrilled to see a tutorial on Jolene's blue elephant stitches blog. Finally when Dana started a Quilt-a-long based on these blocks, I was in for sure!

Tons of inspiration on flickr in the I ♥ Granny (Square) group or the Red Barn Quiltalong. I really am drawn to Heather's scrappy blocks and can't wait to see how she hand quilts it.

Thought it might be fun for a few localish (Upstate NY, Vermont and Western MA) friends to gather and make some blocks at the wonderful sewing space at KC Fabrics. After our first sew in Granny style I thought we could get together a month (or two) later and show off our finished quilts. I know I always follow through a bit better when I have a deadline. Let me know if you are interested, we have a group of four or five and would love to add to the fun!

Pillow Talk Swap . . . Love this Swap

Dear Partner in Pillow Talk Swap Round 7,

Hello and happy stalking (my favorite part)! Since blog posts seem a thing of the past for me, I thought I might use this space . . .

Inspiration Mosaic for this round. I think what I notice when I look at my favs, pinterest or mosaics I have made for the last 7 rounds of this wonderful swap is . . . I love patchwork of any kind with bright colors, jewel tones or graphic prints mixed with a neutral (linen or cotton). I used to be fussy with fabric lines I like and now I realize, I really like every line. If you throw in a little hand-stitching I might just faint!

Most important for me, is for you partner to make something that inspires you. So if you are dying to try something, go for it! A special size or shape, I am game. We are easy to please and very appreciative of anything you make.

The we in our house is one lovely husband, a nine-year old boy, and a dynamic four year old duo - one girl and one boy, oh and me! I am your somewhat typical 45 year old mom who can't say no. My days are filled with running our two little kids from activity to activity, being the PTA president of son's grade school and driving all three kids from activity to activity every night. We are way over-scheduled and over committed and this is the year I plan to slow it all down. I try and carve out time for me and have found time recently at the gym and in my sewing room. Flickr is a great place for me to dream and on occasion I actually sew things! I apologize for all the Blythe craziness you will have to weed through in my stream . . . I got a bit carried away and now am trying to downsize the hobby. Part of the fun is sharing it with my daughter who loves playing dolls and then we have a family project going, we are building a dollhouse. The kids have really loved being creative and having fun with this silly family project. We are slowly making progress! Okay back to pillows . . .

After making the mosaic above I realized that my likes seemed a bit narrow, so I gathered some of my all time favorite pillows since really joining into the flickr fun and came up with this mosaic.

(the first pillow in the upper left is a pillow I lusted after and ended up doing a private swap with Amanda. I now snuggle with a very similar pillow on our sofa each night!)

Also partner to make your stalking more streamlined, here is a link to a previous pillow post where I reference other past pillow posts and this one describes places where pillows might hang out in our home (the kids have grown by two years but rooms are the same!)

Thanks in advance for all your efforts!