Halu-Halo

Tumbling Blocks

My third quilt of 11 for 2011 is complete.

I named this quilt "Tumbling Blocks", and is going to a sweet preemie as part of the Robert Kaufmann Charm Pack Challenge.  My hope is that this quilt will follow a babe from her infancy up to when she will be able to stack those blocks as a toddler.

I was able to catch a quick visit with Natalie, who leads the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild, and was able to pass it to her today in the nick of time for the deadline.  In true form, I was trimming the last few threads last night, all the while wondering how I can organize my time better.

With the last block I pieced a courthouse step for the back of the quilt, using a remnant of a Japanese fabric that I have so little of.  But who else but a babe deserves the best of wishes, to include precious fabric.

I stippled the center of the quilt, and added hearts (wow - was I rusty!), and scalloped the borders.  I have decided that I love scallops!  Now, how to get them even is another story.

I have put away Freida for the weekend...I think she needs a little bit of a breather from the pressure I put her through this last week.  But Monday, I plan to start on our upper hallway quilt!  While organizing last week, I came upon 2 sets of charm packs, and I am excited to use them up.

I hope you all had a great Friday!  

 

It's a keeper!

With what seems to me like a third of the library stocked with them, new-to-me cookbooks are always finding themselves in my kitchen.  I covet and drool over the lovely pictures of food that I could potentially make, sometimes totally skipping over all of the verbage to skip to a photo, and therefore a recipe, that calls to me.

But, after I cook recipes after purposely buying the ingredients, I find that many of the recipes just.don't.work.  I usually give a book a couple of tries, and I learn my lesson, not subscribing to the "third time's a charm" rule.  I have a conniption when I end up not using ingredients to its yummiest capacity.

This is why, just by principle, I don't buy cookbooks before I try them.  

While rushing through our weekly library trip last Tuesday, shaking my keys to distract Baby J as she attempted to jump out of our moving stroller, I picked up this up in the New Book Section.  

 

It seems that the same rule applies to libraries as it applies to grocery stores - one mustn't go when one is hungry.  My sweet tooth, apparently, needed to be satiated.

Within a week, I baked 3 batches of biscotti using one of their recipes and snickerdoodles.  But the recipe that won this Halu-Halo family is their chocolate chip cookie.

They disappeared, lickety-split.

Crazy about Cookies is a keeper, even for this recipe alone! I am a believer that everything happens for a reason; now, I am grateful that Baby J attempted to disembark at that exact spot in the New Book section of the library.

Thank you, Krystina, for sharing recipes that are simple and true!

Evidence!

I finished basting the preemie quilt yesterday, grateful that it was, in fact, a baby quilt and that I was able to do it all on the kitchen table.  Had it not been so small, I would have had to sneak away some extra time when Baby J was asleep or with Hubby, since she is a whirlwind of a spirit, and underfoot she can cause quite a havoc.  

I am not exaggerating.  Yesterday evening, as we got leftover Easter dinner onto the table, I was spent...a blob of my usual daytime self, from the phenomenon that is called - Baby J.  Who knew a one-year-old could pack so much energy, when even at a playground full of older children (while my oldest Big was at soccer practice), she pushed through their legs without hesitation.

Earlier in the afternoon, I had given Sweet R my camera to snap pictures on our main floor.  I set my camera and just gave her full reign, partly to teach her some confidence with a camera, by mostly because I knew I needed to seize the few minutes to finish basting.  

Yes, I was that desperate, enough to give my five-year-old my Nikon oldie.but.goodie D50.  

I didn't realize she took this picture.

When I uploaded it this morning from my camera, I was astounded to witness my peace.

The power of craft - dear Internets - see it here, I am practically smiling, despite the chaos that you don't see in the camera's view.  I have always said that craft took me out of loneliness during deployments, out of sadness and insecurities and here it is, as evidence.

So, don't wait.  Craft daily...work with your hands, I am encouraged once again that this is the best addiction vice to have.

Have a wonderful day, friends!

My brood

How many holidays and celebrations have we spent, as a family of 2,3,4,5 and now 6 without extended family?  To many to count.  

It was sad in the beginning - being in another country, eating our Thanksgiving or Christmas meal, with just Hubby and I.  With no other presents under the Christmas tree but his and mine, the house super quiet except for the holiday music.  

We decided to really create our own traditions.  A little bit from his family, a little bit from mine, but mostly ours.  And even if we had no one else to revel with us, we still stayed up to go to midnight Mass, and I still made a family style dinner and sent out invitations to anyone else that needed a family. 

I suppose that this is the nomadic way, the Army way, with scattered memories of celebrations with a smattering of different people who created our environment, and who mean more to us because they spent those special events with us.

But now, as our family is getting bigger, and as the children growing by the foot, our home has gotten exponentially louder.  Our table, in turn, during the holidays have evolved to one that is of my dreams.

There is no loneliness here.  

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!  

 

I need a heart

Or even four or five

...

My windows are open, and the fan has been on for a couple of days.  In between getting together with friends, managing the revolving backyard door, and the, seemingly, never ending baking I have been doing, I have been going through our drawers, sorting through papers and dusting in the nether regions of this townhouse.

And so the spring lists begin: "Things to do for the summer." "Quilt and Knit Projects" "Writing Goals" "Home Improvement".  As if I need any more lists floating around this house, on scrap pieces of paper, on the backs of the kids old homework pages, and in my handy dandy green notebook.   But, I am a list maker, through thick and thin.

The first on the Home Improvement list is to get a Heart.

If you come upon a military family's home, you may find hanging on their walls a wooden decor, proudly displaying the many places they have called home.  Ours was given to us by my dear friend S, at our first duty station. It came with only a few hearts; at the time I was getting out of the Army, and Hubby was unsure as to how long he wanted to stay in.

But 9/11 happened.  The Country called, and we stayed on.

Many years later, we are still in, and proudly so. And now, we have run out of hearts.

We are already two hearts behind, and need maybe two or three more.  We don't have wood working equipment, and don't know anyone nearby that has the ability or capability.  

Can you help me? Do you woodwork? Can I send you dimensions for a wooden heart, for you to make and add a hook onto the top?  I am a great paying customer :) .  

The oven calls, and Baby J is pulling at my shirt, so I must run! I hope you all have a great day!  And for those who celebrate the religious aspect of Easter - have a peaceful and reflective Good Friday. 

 

Flowers in the brain

Northern Virginia weather has been throwing us a bone every few days, teasing us with great weather in between spurts of rain, letting us know that Spring is indeed here, and summer is just around the corner.

These last two days have been gorgeous.  And all I could think about were flowers.  But not the kind that one plants, because aside from these roses I was successful with at our Texas home, I am quite the black thumb.

I'm talking about the kind that's made with fabric.

So while Hubby might be planning on how to patch up a couple of areas in our cozy front yard, I am trying to figure out how many of these little clips I can make for my little girls.  And even for me.  And how I can add them to headbands, or to pins so I can put them on my favorite blue jean jacket

After, of course, I send these out to my giveaway winners.

It should be interesting to see how the fraying holds up with toddlers wearing them, but the only way to know is to work-em!

Hope you enjoy them, Ladies!  

Three good things...

Spring break is here!  And it couldn't have come faster, for this mama is feeling the need to get on a non-schedule.  A little recharge of my batteries, a few more moments in the day when I don't need to herd the children into the van, and, definitely, more opportunities to sew and craft aside from the stolen minutes before we need to get "somewhere."

Do you discuss "the good things/not so good things" with your children/spouse/friends?  When we find ourselves in a lull in our conversation at the dinner table, I ask for each of my kids to mention a good and not so good thing that happened during their day.  

Here are mine for this week:

 

1.

I finally got started on the Robert Kaufman Charm Pack challenge.  As a member of the NOVA Modern Quilt Guild, we were given charm packs by RK to make into a quilt featuring its fabrics and then give them to charity.  The Guild will be providing quilts to Inova Fairfax Hospital NICU.  

The great:  I love charm packs!  If you are new to quilting, these are the perfect solution, as the squares are already pre-cut to 5x5 squares.  

The not so great: The quilt is due at the end of the month!  Which means I must get cracking.  

 

2.

The good: Allende does it again...she wrote what I feel is another piece of art.  She became one of my favorite authors in high school, when she and Gabriel Garcia Marquez literally changed my life and opened my eyes to the magic of the written word.

The not so good: This book was my selection for book club (still a good),but I literally finished it 10 minutes before book club began.   Talk about sweating it...

3.

Onion Focaccia - from my favorite bread book ever. Handmade for last night's book club.

The good: It came out perfectly, the outside crisp and the inside light and fluffy.

The not so good: I ate at least 3 pieces before book club even began.  Maybe I should have focused on reading faster instead of stuffing my face.

 

As a result of the not so goods, today, I will be sewing, reading early for the next book club and then taking a turn on the treadmill.

Care to share your good and not so good?

 

Emerging from a busy weekend (Wordless Wednesday)

Bunso - (n) youngest child

And once again, I have a toddler.

Truly, a running, yelping, grabbing, and exploring toddler.  Never a dull moment these days, for you are everywhere at once, forcing my instincts to anticipate your next move.  Up the stairs, under the table, behind the door, and in the dishwasher should I decide to look away more than a couple of seconds.

Because today, sweet Baby J, the Light of our Home, our bunso...you are now one.

And what a presence you are; in your peace and excitement, I can feel you uplift me.  From the moment you were conceived, my very thought of you was the beacon of hope that brought me through a long deployment.  You are a cherished gift after our previous sadness, and in your birth, all of the love tucked even in the secret compartments of my heart came to greet you.  

Up to this day, I held on that time would just stop.  Last night, I lamented to your Father at how heartbroken I was, that our Baby is no longer one, but he reminded me that the best is yet to come.

I know he is right.  But I have these last three hours left to watch you while you sleep as still my baby.

Happy Birthday, my love.

Giveaway winners and a side of beer

The only way to describe this weekend was eventful.  In addition to the normal to and fro that soccer games entail, and a fabulous get together to watch the final four, there was a hullabaloo of extended family conversations.  There was the constant texting and calling back and forth, the recurring lost calls of cell phone connections gone awry, and the "wait, I've got to switch phones" when the power finally gives way.

The subjects of the conversations?  Unimportant really, but the event was such a reminder that sometimes it's tough being far away from family.  Most of the time, the moving, the travelling, the celebrating events without family is actually ok, but when something needs to be decided or discussed, teleconference is just not good enough.

So I gifted myself a little extra.

and it was darn good.

Now, the winners!!  I thought that I would personalize this by having my own Vanna White draw the names.

 

Do you see how long her hair is?  I secretly wish my hair was that long.  It was, growing up...but very unruly especially in humidity.  I shiver just thinking at how crazy it must have looked in high school.

Why didn't my mother insist I use a flat iron?

Anyhoo,

 

 

Thank you ladies for liking, and commenting!! I'll be contacting the winners in the next couple days! :)

Until the next post, when you decide to sit back and have your poison drink of choice, have an extra swig for me!