Wordless Wednesday - Bathtime

And We're Back in Business!

I can't make these pictures any bigger (or maybe I can...I just don't know how).   Maybe because they were taken on my phone, then uploaded on facebook, then copied to my desktop from there and uploaded to blogger.  

Here are all of my quilt squares cut out and ready to be pieced together.  Don't you just love the fabrics?  It's going to be hard to give this away, especially being my first quilt and all. 

After I did that, I just had to get the layout done.  So here are the squares pinned to a sheet hanging in front of my windows.  

I have all of the rows sewn together and 3 of them are all sewn together (does that make sense?).  So pretty much I just have to sew the other 3 rows on and my quilt top is complete!!  I'll take pictures after that.  I've kind of lost momentum on it this week, just have been overly tired or something.  I hope to have it all done tonight though so I can start working on a couple of other special projects over the weekend!

Happy Birthday, Calvin!

(Cake by Aunt Robin)

Calvin turned a year old yesterday, but I didn't get my post done in time.  I'll just share some pictures from his Birthday party that was on Sunday.  Of course, leading up to and since that day, the weather has been beautiful - but since I scheduled his party outside, at a park, it was pretty windy and chilly that day (because that's how things work in our life).  We still had a great time and thank all of our family and friends who came to help us celebrate!  I can't believe it's been a year - the first year with Calvin seems to have gone by twice as fast as Hunter's first year....I guess just because now I'm trying to keep up with 2!

Ashleigh and Matt were in town so they (along with Tanner) came over to see the boys.  

Calvin had just woken up from a nap and he was not sure what was going on:

On the way to the park:
Hunter and Calvin waiting for our guests to arrive:
The cupcakes I made: 

*Cherry Chip cake with Vanilla frosting (orange) and a cherry on top

*Chocolate Fudge cake with Peppermint frosting (green) and chocolate chips on top

Homemade frosting adapted from this yummy recipe
Calvin didn't dig into his cake too much so we had to help him a little.  

He liked the cake part much better than frosting (doesn't get that from me):
Hunter, Brooklyn and McKade enjoying their cupcakes:

Uncle Burbs helped Calvin open all his great gifts:
This looks like one all the kids would like:
At least when it's windy you can fly a kite:

It's 1 a.m. and I'm Up....

Working on my QUILT!!

I got all of my strips sewn together and cut out and I was so anxious to lay it out that I've been working on that the last half hour!  So excited!  I'll post pictures soon - tomorrow maybe.  I do believe it's going to be a beauty - I can't like it too much, it's a gift!

I didn't get my sewing machine working yet, but my darling friend, Annie lent me one of hers.  If she hadn't, I'm sure my motivation to work on the quilt would be nearly extinct.

Veggies or Cookies?

Yummy giveaway at Leslie Loves Veggies!

Enjoy your day!

My husband is hunting, Hunter is a bit stuffy and Calvin is teething.  I'm hoping for a good day despite all of that!

Remembering

A Hillbilly Giveaway

Another giveaway - I love much of the jewelry at this shop.  Check out her current giveaway here!

Good luck there too!

One of these days I'll actually get around to creating a post of my own!!

Vintage Pearl Jewelry Giveaway

I ♥ the people over at I ♥ Faces for many reasons.  One is because they do great giveaways like this one!

♥

Check it out!  Enter!  Good Luck!

Do you ever just want to cry?

So, I started my quilt last week!  I was so excited to have all of the fabrics and to get the strips cut in one evening when the stars aligned just right for me again!  

I even completed 6 squares and was so excited to get a little time to work on it again last night.  Until this happened:

Okay, so that didn't just happen.  I was sewing strips 1 and 2 together and noticed an annoying whining sound.  Started sewing strips 2 and 3 together and the noise got worse.  I tried to lower the feed dogs and clean out a little dust/lint and then the feed dogs wouldn't go back up!!  Something happened with the switch, so we (hubby and I) took it apart to see if we could see how it was suppose to work and make it right.  We thought we got it - actually, we did fix that part (even if just temporary - until I move the switch again to lower feed dogs).  So I get the machine back together, threaded, plugged in and ready to go - excitement building again!  Can you feel it?!  I press on the pedal and BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!!!! (the machine noise, not curse words).  I get error message E1 - which has to do with trying to use machine while presser foot is up.  So I check the presser foot, hoping and praying that it's up.  It's down.  What?  I try again...and again...and again.  As if raising and lowering it multiple times will fix whatever it is that's not working now.  By this time it was nearing 11pm and it's been a draining week so I was ready to just give up and go to bed.  I'll work on it another day.  

It has been a rough week:

Monday was good - I had the day off and it was the day I started my quilt.  

The ever-present financial worry showed it's evil face on Tuesday and then I get to work to hear one of my sweet former co-workers is not getting married on the 18th as planned and I just felt so bad for him that I started tearing up.  

I've had to start taking the boys to Becky's daycare since my mother-in-law had surgery last week so they went out there yesterday.  While I love that they're going there and they had a great time, it was exhausting to do all the driving (nearly 70 miles in a day!!?) but the price is well worth the drive.  So add that exhaustion to my frustration with my sewing machine and you can just imagine how I'm feeling.  

This part I hate to admit, but FarmTown on Facebook (skip this section now if you have no idea what I'm talking about, or feel the need to judge me) has been ruling my life more than it should lately.  I've been getting so close to the final level needed to buy a mansion.  Last night I was close and I knew I'd be there today.  I hired help to get everything harvested and plowed and I had enough points and coins to get the mansion so I made room for it, bought it and placed it.  It was a thing of beauty - ha!  And then it happened - I mistakenly deleted it!!  Many, many hours gone to waste because now I have nothing to show for it, there is no way to get it back.  I removed FarmTown from my applications - it no longer has a place in my life!

It was the silly game that pushed me over the edge and I teared up again and nearly lost it.  

Travis is asking if I'm seriously crying over FarmTown.  

No!  I'm crying because nothing is going right this week!  I feel like I sometimes work so hard at things and have nothing to show for it, just like my stupid farm and my quilt strips that are just lying there next to my dead sewing machine.