Blog Fail

It's been six months since I popped in to say anything here. Six. Months.


Fail.

In my defense, it's been a pretty busy six months. My kid learned how to walk and had a birthday. My husband started working from home. I decided that I needed to try to keep the house clean. We decided to start working on the house again. I discovered that the library loans digital copies of books, and they'll let you borrow them even if you have $18 worth of fines.

Like I said, it's been busy.

Here's our girl these days (12 months top, 13 bottom):

Here's her and Satchel. She loves him, and he is incredibly patient with her. She treats him like her own personal jungle gym, and he just takes it.

She's into everything. And I mean everything. I caught her eating out of Satchel's food dish the other day...while he was eating. I don't have many gross-out moments, but that was definitely one.

I've done some sewing. Nothing huge. A few sets of pillows, some blocks for my Carpenter's star quilt, zippy pouches, lots of clothes for Tiny. I won't inundate you with photos.

Ain't nobody got time for that.

I've done a couple of really fun swaps recently. One of them involves swapping the new Starbucks "You Are Here" mugs along with sweets and crafty goodies, organized by Sukie.

My partner (Chandra of Mildly Gifted) knocked it OUT OF THE PARK.

I got an amazing embroidered mug rug, chocolate, tea, mug (duh), and a bunch of blocks of Tula Pink fabric, including some of the stunning new Acacia. It was like Christmas. So great. I'm really excited to make something special, just for me with the fabric.

I'm really excited for the next round. Tiny and I are going to Oklahoma in a few weeks to visit my brother and his wife. I think I'm going to have to leave room in my carry-on for an Oklahoma mug!

And finally, we've been listening to a lot of Jens Lekman lately (and by "we" I mean me). This is the current favorite:

Baby Quilt for a Monday

This happy fellow is my first big finish of 2013. It's sweet and pretty and I had so much fun putting it together. (I talk fabrics and pattern here)

I stitched the binding extra wide on the front so it creates a faux-border. I love how it looks. It might become a feature of every quilt from here on out.

I quilted every block through on the diagonal in either direction and then stitched on either side of the seam on each big square. My Elna isn't really made for quilting, but she soldiered through.

Did I mention the corners? This is the first time they've ever come out perfectly. I would keep this puppy just for that, but I'll have to settle for a picture.

I know pieced backs are all the rage right now, but I love how they look, and I would much rather buy less backing fabric and make up the difference with scraps from the front thereby saving myself money and ending up with a cuter finished product. Call me cheap, but it makes me happier.

I love love love the way the quilting looks on the back.

The binding is handsewn on the back. I like the finish handsewing gives the back.

So there you are. A happy quilt to warm up what is a very cold and snowy Monday here in Ohio. Now I'm off to drink more tea, snuggle with my baby, and overdose on The IT Crowd (it's my new favorite).
XOXO

Mercy Mercy

I wanted to put this in with my last post, but it seemed to full already, and I thought this  might be a little out of place anyway.

Did you know that you can listen to Hillsong United's new album "Zion" for free on Spotify? Well, you can. And you should. It's really good. I've listened to it completely through a few times. This song is one of my favorites,

A Hundred Years

It's been exactly one month since my last post. I know you all have missed me. (Sarcasm). I'm sorry I've been away so long, but I've had a really bad attitude and didn't really know write a blog post without all that nastiness leaching in. I try really hard to avoid complaining to people that are not my spouse (And I don't know why he still puts up with me, bless his heart), so it's been a lot of silence on the social media front (Except for Instagram. I can't NOT post pictures).

One month later, Tiny is still teething (And NO teeth yet! KMN), still not sleeping great at night (Or during the day), still wants to be attached to me (Or any other familiar human) as many hours out of the day as possible, and is still the stinking cutest thing that ever lived. Mothering is hard, hard, hard work, but so worth it when your kid gives you a big, toothless grin or snuggles up in your arms to take a 15 minute power nap. This little person gives me headaches, wears out my back, shoulders, boobs, and patience; she keeps me from napping, cooking, and bathing but dang it if she isn't the best thing to happen to my life since Jesus and prescription strength deodorant. She makes me a better version of myself in so many ways. Every day with her pushes me to get over myself and the things I want to do and focus on helping her grow up to be the best that she can be. It's cool and terrifying and the same time, and I feel so humbled to be her mother. (Side note: Did anyone else start praying more when they became a parent? I say a lot more "God give me patience" prayers now.)

And being able to post the above makes me feel a lot better. Like I'm maybe getting through the bad funk that has been the last month.

So that was deep and weepy. 

Now for some sewing related nonsense.

I'm currently working on a custom baby quilt. The finished size will be 60x60 so it will transition well from crib to toddler bed to regular bed. The top was pieced using Rae's Storytime Squares tutorial. I just made everything bigger, so instead of starting with 5" squares, I started with 6.5" squares and cut the sashing 4.5" wide instead of 3". There's lots of Bonnie and Camille and Les Amis in here. I love the fox print. I would like to get a couple yards of it to make a crib sheet for Tiny. 

A delicious in-progress photo. (See that mess behind? That's my stash. It all needs to be dumped, purged, and tidied up in a bad way.)

 The top came together really fast. I loved not having to match up a bunch of seams. I'm working on the quilting now. This part has to be done in chunks otherwise my neck, upper back, and shoulders seize up. My lovely Elna isn't ideal for quilting items quite this big, and I don't have the assistance of a walking foot. It's about 25% done, and I'm really counting on the finishing wash/dry to hide all the little imperfections. I Instagrammed this of it late last night:

I'm still plugging away on the blocks for my Carpenter's Star bed quilt. I finished two in the last few weeks. Here are the first six all together. They make me happy.

This is my most recent finish. It's Tula Pink Saltwater with a dark brown woodgrain I picked up at JoAnn.

As you can see, there's A LOT of Tula Pink up in the joint (every block). She is far and away my favorite fabric designer. Her stuff is just so quirky and cool. Like those Octopi. I want to make a dress out of them.

Other than that, it's been lots of tea, soup, and Netflix while we wait out winter. We recently discovered Oddities on Netflix, and I LOVE it. The people that pop into Obscura are so different. I would never want to purchase a two-headed calf taxidermy or antique blood-letting kit, but there is something comforting about knowing that world holds people of such diverse interests and tastes, however strange I may find them.

And that's all. I'll be back soon. I've been working on a couple of homemade beauty products that I would like to share with you all.

XOXO
Ana

I'll Sleep when I'm Dead.

You guys. This has been the longest week ever. We've finally decided to try and get Tiny on a schedule. Internet friends, don't wait until your child is six months old to get them on a consistent sleep/awake schedule. Just don't do it. At least not if your kid is as stubborn as mine.

 We've spent the better part of this week trying to get her away from the habit of going to sleep at night, waking up three hours later, and spending the rest of the night in our bed, nursing every 45 minutes. I won't lie to you, people of the internet, it's been rough. In the past (long, long ago, last week), I would get up when she cried, make sure her diaper wasn't wet, and bundle her off to our bed where we would cozy up together under the fluffy down comforter and drift back to sleep.

Now, I hear her cry. I lay there for a few minutes trying to psyche myself up enough to drag out of  my soft, warm bed to swathe myself in a sweatshirt, get her out of the crib, change her diaper (which probably isn't wet anyway, but I'm going to change it just because it could be a little bit damp, making her cold and waking her up), and settle into the uncomfortable rocking chair to nurse and fight soothe her back to sleep. What used to be a five, maybe ten minute disturbance is now at least an hour long ordeal.

It's the worst. (I'll save the nap time drama for another post.)

I have to give credit to Bob, though. He'll come join me after she's done nursing and is attempting to gum my fun bags to death while I try to get her take the pacifier, and we both cry (she screams more than I do). He is super helpful, but I'm usually so zombified that I just growl at him. But it has gotten a little better every night. Sunday night, we were up twice, for an hour each time. Same deal Monday night. Last night she slept three hours, woke up for an hour, slept for six hours, woke up for an hour, slept for another two and half.

It was super.

The last two and half were spent in our bed, but I didn't care because I got to snap this picture of her and Bob sleeping. She's definitely his kid. (See that burp rag? She'll occasionally spit up in her sleep. Another reason to get her out of our bed and into her own.)

That was a long post with a lot of "woe-is-me" nonsense. This is real life.

It's not been all crying and sleeplessness, though. I've also spent this week preparing for my strip-piecing class. It's going to be a lot of fun. These are my samples. They're going to be turned into a big, quilty pillow that's going to live at someone's house when all is said and done.

Assembled bundles. They're so happy. I dipped into some of my Tula Pink and Heather Ross horde for them, lucky people.

And I finally finished January!! It felt like it took me forever, but I'm so happy with it. I did all of my snowflakes with sparkle floss instead of white and added extra because I could.Those little deer and such little dears. (HA!)

The Girl Scouts delivered cookies this week. Is it just me, or is Girl Scout cookie time the only thing that makes the end of winter bearable? We get to enjoy Christmas and New Year's then suffer through January, and it's frigid nastiness. The big furry rodent comes out of his hole, bearing the bad news that there are six freaking weeks of winter left, little monster. We'll just skip over Valentine's Day. Maybe I'll tell you how I feel about Valentine's Day next year, but for now, let's just say I don't like it.

Then, out of the gloom rise the girls in green uniforms bearing little boxes of heaven. I don't know what it is about cuddling up on the couch with a big mug of tea and a small hill of Samoas that makes the dreary countdown to March a little less hateful, but it just does.

It would appear, however that there are fewer Thin Mints in a sleeve than years past. Are the Girl Scouts being trained in how to run a small business or how to be tiny scam artists? Only time will tell. There are 16 cookies in a full sleeve this year. You better believe I'm going to count again next year.

The final big accomplishment for this week was getting a high chair. Tiny Girl has been trying to escape from her Bumbo and bouncy seats for weeks now. It was time to upgrade her to something with a harness and sides that are too high for her to worm her way out of. She likes it. It allows her to be up on the same level as the big people and still be contained. Win-win.

Well, that is all I have for you today. Thank you for putting up with my long absence. I wish I could send you all boxes of Tagalongs as a treat for being nice.

XOXO
Ana

"Sorry I'm late. I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys."

Hello Readers!
Tiny Girl was sickly yesterday. She was warm and whiny all day. I got nothing done. Well, almost nothing. I did make another batch of bretzel while she sat, mostly content, in her Bumbo on the counter next to me. (Attention Parenting Police: I don't want to hear about how it's 'unsafe'. She was supervised the whole time, and more interested in making a grab at whatever it was I happened to have in my hands than escaping from her seat.) I doubled the amount of baking soda in the boiling water and skipped the egg wash. Here's a delicious looking picture.

We went to the Second Street Market with my brother, "Uncle Ponyboy" today. It was nice to get out of the house. The Second Street Market is always fun, but I think I prefer it in the spring and summer. There's more produce, more flowers, and the atmosphere is just generally more lively. I did pick up some ground rabbit while there, and at a delicious Tandoori Chicken meat pie from Cheeky Meat Pies. Here's Tiny with Uncle Ponyboy. (He spent most of his time trying to keep her from pulling his hair out. It's at treat for him to carry her. He has more hair than I've had in YEARS.)

I've also spent some time this week preparing for my upcoming Scrappy Trip Around the World sewing class coming up in a week. (What's that? You didn't know I teach sewing classes? Well, I do. Occasionally.) Here's a super swell photo of the bundles I assembled. I'm really looking forward to this class. It's going to be a lot of fun. You can visit out the Facebook event if you're interested in more info.

And that's all the wild exciting things that have happened around here today. Napoleon Dynamite is on. That movie is so 2004 (2005?). I leave you with the AMAZING dance sequence from the end:

P.S. Tiny is sleeping! And has been for the last hour-ish! It's a Saturday miracle!!

Teething, you're the devil.

I realize I promised you all a rant about hashtags on Tuesday, but yesterday was one of those days where I couldn't put my child down without all hell breaking loose. I don't know what her deal was. She slept almost eight hours Tuesday night and took a two and a half hour nap. It was just her day to be persnickety. Between her and the fact that my house looked like a pet hair explosion, there was very little time for blogging.

To help with what I thought might be teething related whining, I made a batch of bretzel yesterday morning using the Smitten Kitchen's recipe.They were delicious (and almost all gone), but next time I make them I'll add more baking soda to the boiling water (The crust was a little limp for my taste, and there's nothing worse than expecting a thick, chewy crust and getting a thin, slightly chewy crust.) and skip the egg wash. The smell of pretzel was a little masked by the smell of cooking egg which was disappointing.

Tiny didn't have any complaints about it, though.

Bob came home early to get footage of Tiny rolling around and playing for a spot he's working on. So we got to eat dinner together (The first time in years a few weeks) before spending half an hour wrangling the baby. (Have you ever tried to get a six month old to play in one place for more than 30 seconds? It's darn near impossible. She refused to stay on the quilt and pitched a fit just about every time I moved her back onto it.)

Action shot.

Here she is, mesmerized by Dad's fancy work camera.

Side Note: One would think that I would have acquired better photo taking skills what with having a husband who takes photos and videos professionally, and an older brother who has won awards  for his pictures (Here's his most recent big deal. And just for fun, I'm going to let you guess which one is him.), but no. I can't seem to retain any of the information I'm been given about shutter speed, aperture, or perspective. Bob even gave me a lecture on the rule of thirds one time, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was even about. That being said, I would like to re-learn it all. I don't think these low-quality iPhone pictures will hold your attention for long.

Anyway, I don't have the energy I wanted to have for my anti-hashtag rant. All I really want to do is walk two doors and get a doughnut and nap the day away.

But no. I'm a grown-up with a job.

I might go get that doughnut, though.

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day, if you care about that sort of thing.

Update: I did get my doughnut! I got two of them, actually. A sweet friend gave me a chocolate glazed one, then I had to break a $20 for my boss, which meant I had to walk two doors down and buy a caramel doughnut (Normally I would have gone for plain glazed, but Jim's was pretty well cleaned out, and I'll take what I can get.)