Enough Time

"Everything changed the day she figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in her life."
--Brian Andreas

Have you ever seen or heard of Storypeople?  If not, spend some time on the website, or find and treasure one of the books.  Find your story...

harvest moon

I think that as adults (am I really an “adult”??) and parents, it is really easy to forget that simple things are so much different from a child’s perspective. 

Yesterday morning, Lily was playing in our room as I was getting ready for work.  She loves to look out our window and tell me what she sees… cars, birds, planes and occasionally the rocket from Little Einsteins of course.  Now that the season is changing, it’s darker than normal.  Yesterday she looked out the window and got this ginormous smile on her face with big huge eyes and started yelling and pointing… “Mama!  Moon!  Look Mama – big yellow moon!”

I never really thought about the fact that the number of times she’s probably seen a real moon (not on TV or in a book) I could count on one hand.  She usually goes to bed before it’s out and wakes up once it’s gone.  She stood at that window for the rest of the morning looking at the moon until it turned from a yellow moon to a pink moon as the sun came up.  I explained that the moon was going to sleep and the sun was waking up and that’s why it was fading.  The first thing she wanted to do this morning was look for the moon again.  “Mama!  Moon is awake!”  She cried when we had to go downstairs to leave.  There was a lot of drama.  Outside of that… it was definitely a lesson in remembering to look at everyday things with a different perspective… maybe even a child’s… and to find a little magic in that.

on the list

I have been wanting to make this for a while now.  It was just featured in Purl Bee’s favorite fall knits post today.  I LOVE it and would use it all the time.  I’m a sucker for a cozy blanket. 

Reasons why I will keep dreaming about it

·        I do not have anywhere close to $256.20 to spend on the yarn

·        I do not have the skill probably required (I am a very beginning knitter)

·        I do not have the time to actually knit it

Beautiful though… no?

I would use pomegranate blossom - I think... just gorgeous.



special moments this morning…

Getting ready this morning, I take off my robe to get dressed.  Lily looks at me and says… “Woowwww Mama… big!”  Note the drawn out wow. 

Awesome.

Driving Lily to the sitter, it’s raining and I drive right by the road I am supposed to turn left on.  I go down the road a bit and turn around.  As I make my way back to the turn I missed wondering what the hell is wrong with me, I notice that the ginormous semi truck waiting to get off the expressway decides that me having a green light isn’t important and he begins to pull out in front of me.  Did I mention it’s raining?  I slam on the breaks and let out an appropriate “What the f*#%”   

You know where this is going right?  From the backseat I hear an oh so cute “What the f*#%”

Mom of the year. 

I flip the truck driver off as I beep my horn when I pass him.  Lily says again cutely “Beep beep Mama!”

Yes Lily, beep beep.

Happy Wednesday.

yum

It’s official… pumpkin ice cream is here!

Fall is my favorite time of year.  Why? 

• crisp cool air (yes, I know we are still waiting on this one)
• sleeping with the windows open and blankets on
• pumpkin ice cream from Mr. Freeze
• hot caramel ciders from Biggby (even without the addition of rum this year)
• college football Saturdays – Go Blue!
• wearing sweatshirts, jeans and boots with skirts
• pumpkin carving
• playing outside
• apple everything
• not having to paint my toes (this is just too hard these days)

Did you know that you can get a quart container of Mr. Freeze pumpkin ice cream to take home?  You can.  Do it. 

Oh… and in case you are impatient like me… Biggby says they expect to have their hot caramel ciders on the menu by Tuesday.  I may not be able to sleep Monday night.

check it off the list...

cell phone pic = poor quality, sorry

It is finished.  Finally.  The quilt I decided to make for Lily for her first birthday is done and on her big girl bed.  Did I mention that I decided to make a quilt with little to no actual sewing experience?  I mean, I can handle your average button replacement but quilting?  Nope.  Never done it.  How hard can it be right?

Epic Quilt Saga…

Sometime last year, I came across this fabric on Etsy I fell in love with.  I love fairies and I loved the retro-ness of this particular fabric from Alexander Henry (Sprites of Tillbrook).  So what could I do with it?  I thought about making Lily a quilt out of it.  It would be something she could keep forever and how special would that be?  We could put it on her first big girl bed when the time came.  It was the perfect first birthday present.  Done.  Now… how do you make a quilt?  After some research, I decided a puffy, soft tied quilt was the way to go.  My inspiration was the sunny tied quilt from The Purl Bee.  What’s that you say?  Your quilt doesn’t look anything like that one?  Well no, of course it doesn’t.  I had to change it in almost every way and make it harder.  Why?  That.Is.What.I.Do.

I decided on all the fabrics I wanted to use and even did the math to figure out the design and layout of my quilt and the necessary amounts of each fabric I would need.  This probably took me 10 times longer than it would take a normal person, but again, I wasn’t going to ask for help.  I will figure it out on my own.  Help, schmelp.  Once that was done, I had to find the fabric I needed.  It’s not like I could just pick a nice fabric from Joanne’s and go buy it.  Nope.  I chose a designer fabric that had been out of print for a while and wasn’t available in stores.  What I could find online either wasn’t in a large enough quantity or it was too expensive.  Finally I think I found some on Etsy and some on Ebay and I was ready to start.

Did I mention I had no sewing experience?  Even cutting the fabric was hard for me.  Using a rotary cutter, mat and ruler thingy, I think it took me a couple long sessions of just getting the fabric cut.  The sewing wasn’t too bad.  I did a pretty good job and before too long the quilt top was done.  I think I finished that sometime last fall… probably after her first birthday in October.

For almost the past year, the top of the quilt has sat in our bedroom on my sewing table waiting patiently for me to finish it.  Did I mention that I love to start projects and not finish them?  I am a procrastinator and I only work well under deadlines.  Well, baby sister needing the crib and moving Lily into her big girl bed was the final kick in the ass deadline I needed to get the job done.  But sewing with a toddler around?  Not really possible.  “Doin’ Mama?”  Sewing Lily.  “Lily sew?  Lily push it?  Mama… Lily do it please?”  How about we play blocks instead?  Some day Mama will teach you to sew.  “Ok Mama, let’s play blocks.”  I needed the entire living room floor to lay out, measure and cut the back of the quilt fabric.  Then, it had to be secured to the carpet with pins and the center batting and top laid out.  This was no something that could be done with Lily around.  So Lily went to Grandma Becky’s and Grandpa Tim’s for the past weekend and I spent all of Saturday crawling around the floor of our living room getting the pieces put together.  The fabric I chose for the back is a silky soft minky dot fabric.  It’s amazingly soft, but super stretchy and very hard to work with.  Of course it is… I wouldn’t have picked something easy to use my first go around at this quilt thing. 

I had to tie all three sections together, trim the edges and then bind and pin them together.  It took all day and by the time I gave up it was after my bedtime and I could no longer walk.  I then told my husband to please add making a quilt to the list of things I am not allowed to do while pregnant.  It is second only to making jam.  I tried that with Lily and it was torture… and I love making jam.  A couple times this summer I’ve thought about making some jam.  Then I remember Jeff reminds me how badly my back and feet hurt after I was done.  No homemade jam for us this year.  Anyway… back to the quilt.

I was hoping to finish it Saturday so when she came back on Sunday it was on her new bed and done.  Have I mentioned that I always think I can do things faster than I can?  Another one of my quirks.  I had to “let go” of that idea.  She loved her bed even without the quilt.  But thankfully I was able to finish it this week after she went to bed one night.  Did it turn out perfect?  No.  But I am extremely happy with it anyway.  A big step for a perfectionist like myself.  The quilt went on the big girl bed last night.  What did Lily think?  She loves fairies too and every time she’s seen it in our room over the past year, she pulls it down, says “fairies Mama fairies!” and get’s so excited.  What does she say last night when I show it to her?  “Grass!”  She thinks the green ties are grass.  Awesome.  Well, she’ll appreciate it someday… right?

So let’s review…

• I like to think I can do anything, even with little to no experience
• I like to make things harder than they need to be
• I don’t like to ask for help
• I like to start projects and never finish them
• I procrastinate and do not work well without deadlines
• I always think things will take less time to finish than humanly possible
• I am a perfectionist who is trying really hard to learn to let go… sometimes



big girl bed - I also refinished the headboard in the past couple weeks... I know, I know it was one more thing... but I really wanted it to be white and distressed... it's cute



close-up of the fairies

close-up of cute zig-zag stitch in green thread

close-up of ties - "grass"

she wanted her hoo-hoos in the picture but wouldn't stop trying to look at the picture on my phone before I could take it :)

things that make pregopotomus happy...

Mango Chobani: The 2% version is so creamy and wonderful.  My second favorite is pineapple

Dr. Bronners Peppermint Soap: Even on the hottest most humid days, this and a cool shower is the only recipe for comfort – pregnant or not

Nutella and white bread sammiches – yes I said white bread

Smoothies from Tropical Smoothie: I currently can’t get enough of the following

• Orange Dream
• Cranberry Truffle
• Strawberry Lemonade