It's That Time Again...

Really, I have been planning my New Years resolutions for quite some time and one of them is to start blogging again as well as organizing and working on a new business plan.

It was really fun to look back at all 3 of my blogs and see where I was at this time last year. I realize that I got sidetracked along about June and just never seemed to snap out of it. There have been some pretty dramatic changes, some adventures and lots of fun times, and some hard issues too.

Matt and Krystal and David came to live with us.

Ben and Sam got married!!!

I drove to Massachussetts by myself and slept on the couch for a week. I didn't really want to come home because I wanted to hang out at the beach for the rest of the summer.

I drove back to Colorado with Kyle and Anna. That was an adventure and I forgot to take pictures. DOH! But I will never forget the best and worst of that trip. And I will never stop laughing when I think of it.

We went to Casa Bonita with Kyle and Anna and Morgan. YIKES! that's all I can say about that.

I did two craft shows with Di and was not prepared for either one of them. But I learned a lot from the experience.

I let Krystal show me how to play Farmtown on facebook and found out that it is highly addicting.

I had a great Christmas and it brought me out of my depression, but I cried a lot.


My very best Christmas gift was getting to go visit mom and dad and Ted and Debbie! It was a really special time.

I am happy to report that I have already got a start on organizing my sewing studio, it is all cleaned up and ready to begin the new year! Quilt kits will be the first order of business. Since I left ebay in June I haven't done as much as I should to market them and my sales are not anywhere near what they could be. That is going to be a challenge and I think it will be fun.

I started this post a couple of weeks ago. sigh. But I have really been busy, and am getting into the swing of selling and creating again. I have some exciting projects started already and I know this is going to be a great year! Will be back soon to keep you updated.

Thanks for all your support! It means a lot to me to know I have such wonderful family and friends who believe in me.

A Little On the Job Fun

I guess things have gotten back to "normal" as opposed to insane, which is what the last month seemed like. I won't get into all that, but normal for me is insane enough.

So back to the batcave finally, and I get to stay home for a while and unwind.

I got all my flowers potted yesterday and today, but didn't get any pictures yet. They make me feel happy though and I will try to get some pics to show off tomorrow.

I hosted a Pincushion Swap at my RQQ group this month! It was so much fun! I drew the names for who was sending to who and then when I started sending out the emails to everyone I got it all screwed up and had to change them around until it came out right. I started making a pincushion for Stephanie when I realized that she was sending to me and I had forgotten to assign myself a swap partner.

I finally figured out that it was Barbara. She is a really cool single lady who lives in Houston. She owns a house that keeps her busy all the time doing yard work and cleaning up trees from hurricanes and fixing the leaking faucets. She is a CCL and shares her house with a number of rescue kitties as well as caring for the outdoor feral cats that come around. I read her blog and have tried to figure out how many friends she has staying with her but I am not sure if she has mentioned them all. Buddy is one of her black cats that she talks about alot in our group and on her blog so when I figured out that I had her name I had to make her a pincushion out of the scraps I had saved from the black cat bag I made for my other favorite CCL and sister in law. It was a tiny cube pincushion that I thought was so cute, but of course I forgot to take a picture of it. DOH! Barbara also makes some awesome quilts and tote bags and blogs about them as well as her cute kitties.

But I also made her a proper size pincushion that I copied from this one that I found in Grandma Brune's sewing box years ago. I am not sure how old this one is, but it has been around for a while and I have never seen anything like it on all the pincushion patterns I googled.

The one I made for Barbara was done with a Debbie Mumm summer strawberry print. I am going to do a tutorial on Up the Rainbow Creek for this pincushion. Might get it done tonight.

I added a pair of thread snipping scissors that are tied to a ribbon and bow that is velcro'd on the back of the hat. One time Barbara lost her scissors and posted that she had been looking for them for several days with no luck. Then she got an email one day from a customer who wanted to let her know that she had found a pair of scissors in her package with the quilt she had bought from Barbara!

I also finally got this beach bag finished! The print is called Aviary and it has a canvas bottom and handles. There are 6 outside pockets and one big inside pocket. I think I have finally perfected this pattern and will be making a bunch of these in different fabrics to sell soon.

I was feeling pretty upset about my sales being so bad this past month, then suddenly in one day I sold 7 quilt kits. I wanted to get them all out today so I can get back to making beach bags, but didn't quite finish putting them all together. Those will go out tomorrow and then I can have more fun.

Birds and Baby David, We Can't Be Bored?

With everything that seems to be going on around here you would think I would have posted some pictures and updated you about our busy life. But no, we are much too busy with our new hobby, Birdwatching. It has become quite the obsession here lately. I have been trying for 4 years to attract hummingbirds with little success until this year when we seem to have hit the jackpot. I wanted to get my feeder out early this year and decided to go on the cheap (cheep?) and make my own syrup instead of buying the powdered stuff at Wally's. It was an instant success and before we knew it we had hummingbirds lining up like it was the MickyD's drive thru out there. They became bold and started buzzing past our heads and if we happen to be standing in the way of the feeder they will just hover in front of your face with that "excuse me?" look. Then in the evenings we began to witness hummingbird wars, with one hovering off the deck guarding the feeder to dive bomb and chase off the competition. So we invested in 2 more feeders and it seems they multiplied. Matt and Krissy are into this in a big way too. They are keeping track of how much juice is consumed daily and Matt has the camera at the door trying to catch one perched on the tree branch. Yesterday he discovered this yellow bird, which we don't know what it is and he stalked it all day today to get this picture.

Well that keeps our little minds busy when we are not watching the baby.

Who loves Oreos?

Not quite ready for Guitar Hero, but we'll see what we can do with the Fisher Price version.

Death of the Wooden Refrigerator

I am baaaack! From where I don't know. But I have had several comments that I have been missed. How sweet.

I guess I have had a lot going on and I won't try to account for everything or pick up where I left off, that might be a bit too much information even for my most avid fans.

Matt and Krystal and David moved in with us last weekend while Matty is waiting to find out about whether he is going to have surgery to fuse the broken vertabrae in his neck. It was a gloomy rainy weekend but it just seemed like everything was going to work out fine, because we had plenty of help and 3 days to get everyone settled in. Fred and Marcia even offered to show up with BBQ for us for the hungry movers. How good is that? So I just pictured that we would get all the stuff moved in on Saturday and then have Sunday and Monday to organize and adjust.

Then, I discovered the warm ice cubes in the wooden door refrigerator. Really, ice cubes are NOT supposed to be warm. So this was a big clue that something was seriously wrong. Now, this had been one of my worst fears for a while, because I knew in my heart that frig was not well. And I also knew that you do not easily replace a 30 year old wooden door refrigerator that was built into a custom built cabinet with an island that was haphazardly placed 30 inches away with a dishwasher square in font of the refrigerator. So after 3 days of refrigerator trading and moving and cabinet modification and temporarily having a frig that turned on the dishwasher whenever you opened the frig door, we have a working frig with exactly 1/4" of clearance to open the dishwasher and the door is on crooked and we are waiting for the Whirlpool repairman to come and make it right.

We are all exhausted from the ordeal and I decided that I really needed to try to get things functional again. So I went downstairs to figure out what to do with all the clothes and to try to organize a bit so I could get back to work on my quilt kits. While moving things from here to there and not accomplishing much of anything I spotted a cute scrap of fleece leftover from Anna's fuzzy pants, and decided my time would be better spent making a new bed for Miss Lola. See, it just matches her little pink heart tag? And it used up a half a box of the stringy scaps I was saving to make kitty pillows for Marly's girls. No worries, I ended up cutting out about a dozen more quilt kits too and refilled the box so I still have 3 boxes of scraps for kitty pillows. Didn't figure out what to do with all the clothes and stuff, but plenty of time for that.

David is all happy most of the time. He is still trying to figure out how to get his walker to go on the carpet, but he sure loves running up the hall and looking at himself in the big mirror. And he has a fun game that he likes to play with Tata at the table. He rolls the cup and Tata catches it before it falls, most of the time. When he is tired he fusses until Tata rocks him to sleep.

I Am Turning Into a Lazy Bum

No posts lately because I have been too busy doing not much of anything. In fact I am not sure what I have been doing with all my time, but not work, that's for sure.

It is pretty bad when you have to take the whole week off before your vacation to get ready and then the whole week after to recover. And then again, I am not sure that a quick 1100 mile drive each way with two sick kids really counts as a vacation. But I will say that Mo and smiley Mr. Carter are probably the only kids in the world who could be such good sports about a trip like that. They never complained and didn't have a single meltdown, even though I know from talking to the adults who caught that crappy virus that they had to be feeling pretty bad.

When we were at the hotel every time we got ready to go somewhere Mo would say, "I don't want to go home!" When we got home we were so happy, but Mo wanted to keep going and find another rest stop to play. I just love that little trooper spirit in her, and promised her another trip soon. I am not sure how she would react to going on a long trip without her mama but I think she is a little traveler and can't wait to take her again. Maybe a trip to visit her cousins in MA.

Only one problem there, can we talk about Potty Training soon? Mo is totally against the idea and even though the Tattooed Mama has had some serious discussions with her about it she has ruled it out. Bribes have been offered and she has sweetly declined. I am not sure what the next step is, but I suspect that it won't be pretty and so the impasse continues.

Mr. Carter thought the whole thing was insanity and even though he was tolerant of being buckled in his seat for days and imprisoned in the little Pak n Play at night he was more than happy to get home and sleep in his beloved crib and run free through the house. Poor baby, I think he might eventually get over his car seat aversion. At least I hope so.

Flashback Friday - 29 Year Ago

Joining Ann's Flashback Friday again and this one was truly a flashback.

On Jan. 1, 1980 I got my period. Trust me, I just remember that happened on exactly that day. And I had not thought about it for quite some time until last weekend when I had a flashback to that day:

I was still breastfeeding my 6 month old, but over the holidays had decided to start her on some bottles to allow me to be away from her for short periods of time. So I had not had a period for 15 months and then suddenly on new years day I did. And then I promptly forgot about it. I was too busy with a 6 year old and a 6 month old to give it any thought. So, about 6 or 8 weeks later I was talking to Aunt Ruby, who lived next door, and mentioned that I was not feeling that well. She said "you aren't pregnant are you?" I was flabbergasted that she would suggest such a thing, never mind that she has 6 kids and might have a clue.

After some thought though I decided that I should make a doctor appointment with my OB. Keep in mind that back then women were not trusted to handle any kind of health issues on their own, so there were no home pregnancy kits. And I just had that sinking feeling by then. I knew.

I must have taken K to school and left the baby with Ruby. I just remember walking out of the doctor's office and there was Mr. RainbowCreek, standing by the door. He had parked his work truck in the hospital delivery zone and taken a break to wait for me. I know I must have had a look of dread on my face. I just couldn't imagine how we would cope with another baby. Money was tight, we were stretched to the limit. But when I told him, yes, it was positive, he just smiled and gave me this big hug. That is when he told me he never wanted two kids. He thought three would be much better. I guess I will never forget that moment. And of course he was right, three was much better, I can't imagine our family without Matty Fatty and all his escapades. He was his daddy's nemesis, and still is, he is my mama's boy, and K's bad boy baby brother and the Tattooed Mama's best friend forever.

Last weekend we were planning a long day with Mo and baby Carter, while the Tattooed Mama and The Tattooed Daddy were supposed to be out looking for a new truck. They showed up early to pick up the kids, I told them that they were back too soon and Mo was going to be mad because she wanted to stay for a long long time at our house. I really thought she was joking when she announced that they had to trade in her car for a bigger car because they couldn't fit 3 car seats in the Audi. I actually laughed at her because I didn't believe her when she said "you're going to have another grandbaby." But then I saw that look on her face. I know it was the same look I must have had 29 years ago. And I could honestly say to her, "I know exactly how you feel. And I know that everything is going to be fine."

Because 3 is better than 2 if it was just meant to be. And there is always enough room in our hearts for one more. We don't know who this little person is yet, but I know he or she will be super special and so loved. What else matters?

It's still February?

Strange how February can seem like the longest month when in fact it is the shortest.

I want to announce though that I think I have done a pretty good job of coping with my Seasonal Affective Disorder this year. I used to say that I have to soak up every minute of summer and store energy to get me through as much of the winter as possible. Usually I am good through the holidays and then it starts to wear down. Last year I took a different approach and through the summer and fall I would think of all things that I could do during the winter and store those things away in my mind so that I was actually looking forward to winter as a time to accomplish some of my goals. And I have accomplished some of them, others I have a ways to go but it seems to have done me wonders. At least I am not a raving wingnut, threatening to run off to a desert island like I was at this time last year. I have witnesses.

And my weight gain has been a little less than normal and I have already started working on that. Not that I plan on being in a bikini by summer or anything like that. I haven't quite committed to the green smoothie diet I was looking at last night, just healthier will do for now.

I have had some sad times but I don't think they were really attributable to SAD. Matty's accident was probably the most significant and traumatic event that we have had to cope with. And I admit that I have done a lot of crying since then. Part of that is just the whole situation has been so stressful and another part is self pity because I so badly wanted to go to Illinois to see my mom and dad, which turned out to be impossible due to the accident. But in another way it has given me a chance to really appreciate what a great family we have. Not that I haven't always realized that, but in times of need those small gestures and support from everyone take on a greater meaning. So I have had some very happy times just reflecting on all that I have to grateful for.

March is not my favorite month at all, I don't really associate it with spring like the retailers do because we get plenty of cold wet weather in March. But I have some spring projects and 2 spring swaps to look forward to, so we will see if I can trick myself into believing that winter is over. Of course it helps when you have days like today when you can have the doors and windows open all day while you work. I told that to the New England Mama today and I think she told me to pissoff!

Carter Stealing the Sippy Cup

I swear Carter is a pinball. He is just determined to get into everything in his path, and shove it all in his mouth if he can. This includes slippers, socks, rocks and if you give him real food he will sit down and sit still long enough to shove it all in his mouth. But then he is off again is search of something else to get into.

He likes to keep his hands free to grab anything in his path, so he has perfected this method of carrying whatever he wants in his mouth. And he can steal Morgan's sippy cup and drink from it while he runs away with it.


Here he is caught in the act!




Morgan was camera shy today. We made cupcakes and she did a beautiful job decorating them, but did not want to take a picture with them. She did want to take them all home and when I asked if we could keep a few here for TaTa she said "nope, they are my cupcakes."

Flashback Friday - Babies in Bumbos

My Flashback Friday Free For All is the Babies in Bumbo's gallery. I had some new pics of David in the Bumbo that I hadn't posted yet, so I had to go look at the the other baby bumbo pics so I could laugh at them again. I figure everybody can use a good laugh so thought I would share.

Now I think the Bumbo is the silliest piece of baby equipment ever invented. The Tattooed Mama recieved this as a gift from one of her friends who assured her that babies love them. But I think they are more for the amusement of adults. The only purpose they seem to have it to sit the baby in them and take some hilarious pictures of the baby with a WTF look on their face and pass the pics around for everyone to laugh at. I would not exactly classify that as child abuse, but... exploitation?

And then you pass the Bumbo on to the next person who has a baby and they can send you some pics of their baby for you to laugh at.

Morgan: Whoa, are you sure this thing is safe?

Morgan: I've fallen and I can't get up!

Abby: Say, could you pass me another shot?

Carter: Are you laughing at me?

Carter: Yeah, and I'll get you back for this some day.

David: Wait, I have to think about this.

David: Oh, I get it now, come on horsey, giddy up! Why isn't it going?

Hope you enjoyed the gallery of Bumbo Babies. Have a good caption or a good bumbo baby pic? Please comment! And visit Ann Glamore's My Tiny Kingdom to see more Free For All Flashback Friday Posts!

I Made This For Anna

Kaisha said Anna needs a little bag to carry when they go shopping.

I saw this cute pattern on All People Quilt and downloaded it yesterday. It was supposed to be strip pieced but I had this new charm pack called Oh Cherry Oh that I picked up last week, cute and girly looking.

I had fun making it, but didn't get it done in time to put it in the package with the snow pants I sent yesterday. So I made a little raggy wallet to go inside the bag and will get it sent when I go to the PO tomorrow.


I have three plastic bins full of buttons, but couldn't find a cute red button for the wallet so I just glued a lime green gingham bow on the front and put a velcro closure on the flap.

Today I had to go to the fabric store for more quilt kit fabrics. I didn't know flannels were on sale this week for $2/yd, that was a nice surprise. I couldn't find a whole bolt of white so had to have her unroll the bolt and measure. A full bolt is 25 yards, the one I got ended up being 23 yards and then we had to roll it all back on the bolt.

I was out of pink and blue flannel again already so got 10 yds each of those. So now I can get back to work. But it was fun taking a break and making the little purse.

I hope the kids get the package tomorrow. Anna has had to stay inside for reccess because she doesn't have any snow pants that fit her. Kaisha said she looked everywhere and the stores have swimsuits out now and she even tried bidding on some on ebay but got outbid by 50 cents. I happened to be in Wally's the next day and figured I would check and see if they had any. I found two big racks of snow pants on clearance! No snow in Colorado this year so I guess they didn't sell.

Also, Marcia said they let her kids go out without coats when it is freezing here. I heard her yelling at one of the teachers at the car pool lane one day when they sent the kids out in short sleeve shirts with no jacket. She always calls me to chat while she waits in line. It was very cold and windy that day and it does seem that the teachers should have enough sense, huh? I guess New England teachers still do things the old fashioned way.

Matt and David

Matty has a silly dance he does with David. It makes David laugh and cracks Matt and Krissy up. They seem to have a lot of fun spending their every waking minute making sure that David is entertained.

Then they say he is so demanding.

Ha ha, why wouldn't he be when he can make them dance all day for his entertainment? When we got there David was sound asleep and Matt kept saying "go ahead, you can poke him and wake him up, he's been asleep for a while so he is probably ready to get up and play." First time parents are soooo funny! I found this picture of Matty and Missy in the photos I dug out last night. It does remind me of David. Matt was probably about 4 months old in this pic. David doesn't quite have the chipmunk cheeks yet though.

Can't you just tell Missy is saying "NO MATT, I get a big glass and you can't have it!" Of course she probably wasn't supposed to have it either. I don't think I let her run around the house with big glasses at 19 months old. But then again who knows? If you look close at the picture Matt has a paper cup that is smashed. Who the heck knows what he was doing with that. Third child, it was all a blur by then.

30 Years is a long time, but not really...

This is my 30th wedding anniversary post, I am replaying it for Flashback Friday. . .

Love, look at the two of us.

When we met, you looked like this. And I told you that we were going to get married and live happily ever after. You didn't belive me, but you said hop in my Celica and we can go for a ride and talk about it. Or whatever...

And I looked like this. (Ok, my scanning is a little cockeyed, but you can see why!)

But eventually you saw it my way and on February 9, 1979 we made it official. And you can tell from this picture that this is just the beginning of happily ever after.



Happy!



Happy!

Joy? Joy?

Well at some point I might have been looking a little perplexed. What was I thinking?!!

And what were you thinking?

We have so much love and happy that it just seems to multiply.

And you are still the coolest guy I know.




Happy Anniversary to the best husband, dad, and grandpa ever!

Love you forever, me

This Blog Is Not Abandoned

I have seriously been meaning to get back here to this blog to post something. What a crazy week, and I am still not completely caught up yet. That is not a complaint by any means. I would hate to be bored, and no danger of that at the moment.

So Matty called me today to ask if I checked my email lately. In fact I had not checked it in the past 15 minutes, unusual for me but true because I was between computers at the moment.

I get up in the (ahem) "morning" and turn on the coffee and then turn on Mr. Rainbow Creek's laptop on the coffee table while I wait for the coffee to make. Grab me some coffee and check all my emails and blogs and stores and just kind of plan my strategy for the day.

I DO NOT work in my PJs ever. So I have to get dressed and "get ready" before I actually "go to work" hopefully before the crack of noon. Then when I am ready for work I go to my office and turn on MY computer and check my email and my stores and make a list of what I plan to accomplish in the batcave for the day.

At least I have some structure in my life, right?

I know Matt and Krissy were excited to get the new hand me down computer from Narly so they could post pictures and keep in touch with the family. So I anxiously went to check my email to see if they had sent me some cute new pics of David.

Here is what Matt is doing with his time while his broken neck is healing. He is turning my grandson into a little baby redneck.

I guess he discovered that David's onesie was too small so he decided to cut off the sleeves and the bottom and make him a little "mommy beater" shirt.

David is sure bulking up, isn't he?

I admit I thought is was pretty funny, but ....

I don't know about that daddy.

It's baaaacckk! Winter that is. Brrrrr, was it cold today, and I was happy to have quilt kits to work on and stay inside. We didn't really get any snow to speak of but it seemed that a heavy cloud was just settled over the valley here and the trees all frosted up. It was really very pretty.

I got a Menu Plan Monday post up over on my cooking blog. And I posted my Mexican Pork Chops and Rice recipe that I made tonight. I used some of the serrano chiles that Krystal gave me and it had quite a kick, but a tasty choice for a cold day.

I hope I can get Sheila to install the new template tomorrow on Rainbow Creek Kitchen. I have just been so busy that I haven't gotten in touch with her yet to get it set up. Got 5 quilt kits shipped today and hope that some more sales will come my way this week. I have 4 more sold on the bay that I am waiting on payment for so not complaining for now. She wanted to send a money order which ebay does not allow any more but I have been known to break a rule from time to time ; )

Tomorrow will be fun. I get to pick a project from my list of want to do's! Yaaay!