Looking to 2008

Goodbye 2007! Hello 2008! Usually I like to post a photo of some special moment during the past year (ok, usually being for the previous 2 years because before that I didn't even know what a blog was!). This year I looked and looked through my photos and was at a loss... I've already shared lots of great photos this past year on my blog but there are so many more...


Finally I settled on these - me at work and 2 of my son playing at the beach (I love to see him have fun! Doesn't that make the "work" part worth it?).

I don't know what 2008 will hold for me, but I will:

*Appreciate every day that I am feeling well and my family is healthy. I was pretty sick for about 6 months this year - but am better now and am slowly getting my energy back. Plus, I had that big scare when Little Boy had that awful allergic reaction. Good health is definately something to be thankful for! Being together is an additional plus - we were apart from DH for about 6 months this year - entirely too much time apart so hopefully that will change this coming year.

*I will continue to make PLAY time a priority. Having F-U-N is so important.

*I have been fiddling around with printing favorite recipes out to share - I cook alot and amazingly enough - most of my favorite recipes are scribbled on the back of scraps of paper of some sort - I know - sad for someone in the food business! So far in 2008 I've typed in 4 recipes - it is a start! I look forward to the day when I have all my favorite recipes organized in a photo album. I feel strongly about this because I realize that so many special memories center around different foods. An album of favorite family recipes can be a real treasure!

*And, I really need to back up all my digital photos (I even have the external hard drive - I just have to figure it out), plus order prints of favorites for a good old-fashioned photo album that you can hold in your hands and pass around. Other photos need to be scanned!

*The paperwork still needs to be organized! Doesn't it always?

I am sure there are more things too, but that is enough for me to concentrate on for now!

I didn't list sewing at all - one of my sisters once said that me and my sewing machine is like a smoker and their cigerette - not long apart from each other! Obviously I will sew!

So, here's to 2008. Health, Love, Happiness, Peace.

Gayle Bong Scrap Quilt finished!

I haven't named this quilt yet, but...

66.5" X 86.5"

Pattern by Gayle Bong in Save the Scraps book.
I blogged about this pattern a few posts ago, but I think it bears repeating - this was a fun and fast pattern (it looks more complicated than it was) and the directions were accurate.
A tiny bit about borders... I really don't like the border part of a quilt. But, by doing just 2 strips here and there at night I was able to finish this top in good order. There is a pieced cream/floral border, a floral border and then the scrappy pieced outer border. So lots of borders for someone who doesn't like borders! But the end results are well worth the extra effort!
ALL from stash!!! I even got to use some pre-cut 2.5" strips from my strip bins. I used my LARGE floral fabric that I didn't want to cut down into little pieces. I used some medium value fabrics that sometimes I have a hard time using, but like buying because they are pretty. The fabrics I used don't exactly "match", but because of the white borders - there is enough space around them that it does all work. Yes, I even cut the last tiny bit of 2 oldie but goodie fabrics for this top. The backing is even from stash - a very nice piece of mottled rust/brown flannel - I bought it for the backing for another quilt and didn't get enough - but it was perfect amount for the back of this quilt. Everything is all neatly folded together and ready to send off to be quilted. I figure - about 11 yards for this quilt. I can't wait to get it back from the quilter and snuggle under it!!! As much as I love my fabrics sitting on a shelf, I love them ever so much more when they are in a quilt!
And - in case you are wondering... yes, we did get rain instead of snow so Little Boy could not go sledding. However, snow is forcasted for tomorrow so I expect I will be troopsing up and down that hill to supervise exciting sledding in the very near future. In the meantime - today I went out for a nice bike ride in the extra balmy 4C (high 30's) weather we have - no snow banks/slush to fight - ok, so I still wore ski pants and my winter hat under my helmet. By myself! Not sure when that will happen again (both the clear roads and being by myself) but at least I enjoyed it today!

Snow Fun!

Now, I know that most of you would consider a snow day the perfect sewing day. Not so in my household...

Yesterday's snowfall was perfect for sledding, light and fluffy! So, I asked DH to go to the hardware store and see if they had any sleds. He came home with this ski-do type sled that had to be put together and me, well I was very skeptical of the whole thing. I mean, I grew up with those blue plastic sheet sleds that you could roll up and the red boat sleds. But, once put together it turned out to be perfect, as the photos of happy Little Boy's face can vouch for! You can click the photo collage to enlarge. What a thrill to watch him having so much fun!

We spent a few hours outside yesterday going up and down the hill, up and down and up and down again! Getting a "steering" sled was really the perfect thing because if you can see on the bottom photo - our sliding hill has a narrow part up top that he has to steer though (trees on one side and a pile of dirt/rocks on the other from our foundation project this past fall). Once he passes the narrow part he then has a wide part to do some swooping S curves. Then - quick - at the bottom - which by this point has leveled off some so he isn't going to fast - he has to turn to the left to avoid going over the enbankment that goes down to the road. He is doing GREAT! We are expecting more snow today and DH is going to take the tractor and make a barrier out of snow at the bottom of the hill just in case Little Boy misses that last turn - I don't want him flying out onto the road. I have my fingers crossed that the snow doesn't turn to rain, as predicted because a little someone would be very disappointed.