HOT, HOT, HOT

 Finished the new baby girl quilt top yesterday morning.

Poor Mason man was stuck wearing girls clothes yesterday.

It is still crazy hot here, last night hubby had enough and turned the air conditioner on, sleeping in 83 degree heat was just to much for him! As much as I hate using the air so early in the season he was right, a good nights sleep is a must around our house. He tried to till the garden yesterday afternoon but it's still to wet to work in, maybe in a week or two it will dry out enough. With the weather we are having I am not sure how well the early spring plants are going to do, time will tell.

Hubby also worked his magic on our washing machine. It seemed to me that the agitator wasn't working very well, sure enough it had striped itself out. Took him less that on hour to put in the new parts, now its working like new again!! I figure he saved us a couple of hundred dollars in service calls and labor fees, I have almost forgiven him for his overspending on his mancation! HA

By the afternoon it was so stinkin hot in the house even with all the doors and windows open along with the fans on high that I striped Mason man down but had to dress him in little girl clothes as I only have winter things for him, he makes a cute girl don't you think? Mommy sent things with him today for me to keep on hand, she isn't crazy about cross dressing her little guy. I was able to finish piecing one of the little girl quilts I have lined up but the pinning had to wait until maybe today. I will have to see what Mason has in mind before I can get anymore work done. I would like to have it pinned and ready to quilt on our girl trip. I'm not crazy about how bright the colors are in this quilt, I lean more to pastels for babies. Maybe when I get it worked up I will feel differently. I hope to devote much of the day to planning and packing for our girls trip, having the 3 little ones Thursday and Friday leaves no time to do anything other than keep my head above water, we will be headed out bright and early Saturday so It's now or never.

We watched an interesting interview on TV last night with economic EXPERTS. Their assessment of our economic problems is Americans are not spending enough money, people are not taking on debt or buying homes. As soon as consumer confidence comes back we will be able to get the economy moving in the right direction again. They think to many news broadcast have scared people off from their normal spending habits which in turn has added to the economic decline. GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Now it's all of our fault that we are balancing our families budgets, living within our means, putting a little back for a rainy day, basically trying to be good stewards of our money that is the USA's downfall. Some day's I would like to jerk the cable out of the wall!

Sunday Stuff

 Found 2 memory games at Wally World today for $2.99 @ in the clearance isle, these will be great for charity Christmas gifts this year

 Our pear trees are in full bloom, I figure we should harvest 2 or 3 pears this season!! Hey you gotta start somewhere. Ignore the shaggy yard, I will get the mowing done tomorrow evening.

The cherry tree is putting on a show again this year. I need to get a photo of each of the grands at the tree before the blossoms are gone. One good thunderstorm will strip it bare of blooms.

Today was a SPEND day!! I slept in until 7:00AM, super late for me them took myself out for a nice breakfast before heading to Wally world to replace my EXPENSIVE crappy iron. I have come to the conclusion no matter what you spend for small appliances they all are made of the same crappy parts, never again will I put real money out for an iron. Mine is only 3 or 4 years old and leaks like a rusty bucket. I picked up one for $39.95 today that was suggested by some other quilters, figure if I can get a few years out of it I will have spent my money well. I did consider the model that the quilting stores have out that runs $190.00 but several ladies say they are having the same problem with leaking so I went for the cheapo.

I also needed to pick up a few more items to send our friend in Afghanistan a BoBoo box. I made BoBoo boxes for all the kids and their friends when they went off to college, this young man received one as well but that was 11 years ago. He ask his Mom if I could send another one his way as they don't have access to OTC drugs, bandaids and such. Tyler finished decorating the container at supper tonight so I can pack it up and get in the mail. He decorated with super hero stickers, because "Army men are real super hero's" I couldn't agree more.

While waiting for Hubby to arrive back from his mancation I cut out 2 baby girls quilts. I want to get one pieced and pin basted before our trip next weekend, the other I will take along for a quick easy peasy project I may or may not do. Then it was off to supper with the family, always a fun time (more $$ spent). We did Italian tonight, Tyler wanted spaghetti and meatballs, how can restaurants justify the price when a durn noodle cost nothing to cook. I must admit it was nice not having to clean up the mess in the kitchen and all through the house after our family Sunday dinner. The cooking I don't mind but the clean up is a bugger!!!

Off to bed, Mason man will arrive bright and early. I need to get hubby's clothes washed (hope I find some cash) then we are going to do a little work in the garden tomorrow afternoon. Hubby will have to head back north Tuesday so I need to get as much of the tilling done while he is around, I don't do tilling!

Fabric Overdose

When DD#3 dropped Kara off this morning I had her hold her up to our cherry tree for a quick photo. Hope I can get a better picture when her hair is not a mess before the blooms are all gone!

 After SIL#3 picked Kara up I headed to the quilt shop to purchase the additional Christmas fabric I need for our girls weekend retreat. Surprise, surprise I couldn't leave without something extra, Sweetwater Reunion fabric.

 I LOVE this stuff, also have a jelly roll of it in my stash. I HAVE TO LEAVE this home next week or I will once again end up with a dozen things going at once. I am thinking this would make a nice Father's Day quilt for hubby as well as look pretty cute in the family room! Any reason to make another quilt works for me.

 Remember this fabric I won from Kathy's blog   http://quiltrestoration.blogspot.com/ 

 I used it along with a pattern I had picked up awhile back to make a note pad holder. The one from the pattern is on the right hand side. I didn't care for the looks of it so I started over this time using a binding on the edge. It turned out much nicer.

Inside it has a pocket for a notepad, pen and coupons or whatever. Thanks again Kathy I have used up just about every single bit of the fabric making little notepad covers this afternoon.

I was so dog tired after the grands left yesterday I didn't even eat supper, it was PJ's and the bed for me before the sun was down. Kara didn't arrive today until 11:00 so I did a quick pick up, some kitchen cleaning and 2 loads of wash from the grands this week. The one room I didn't hit was the grands room. When Kara walked in the door of the play room she yelled out EWWWW. Great I have an 19 month old now critiquing my domestic skills. I did get busy while she was playing and cleaned up the room to her liking!!

Once SIL#3 picked Kara up I was off to get the errands done for the week (I hate traffic) I didn't get to the post office in time but I think I can manage on Monday since I will only have Mason Man for the day. I have all the tread I should need along with cutting blades and the extra fabric I was short of for the Christmas quilts. Why, oh why, can't I go in a fabric store without loosing my mind!!!!! Just when I have my "Room of Sin" all nice and organized I drag in an additional bag of fabric..... No regrets, this stuff is cute! I also bought a pattern to work up the new fabric but as luck would have it when I sat down tonight to study it the package is missing the last page. I have the worst luck buying patterns, something always seems to be missing. Monday I will see if the store will e-mail me a copy of the last page, with gas up to $3.79 a gallon I don't want to make another trip out unless I have to.

Hubby has decided Nanny needs a day of rest so Sunday dinner will be our treat for the family eating out. Hubby is playing nice with me since he has been using the debt card instead of the CASH he has in his pocket at the bike rally in Daytona, grrr that man. I know the waiters at restaurants cringe when they see us coming. We need a table for 9 and also 3 high chairs please, a nice out of the way area might be best!! What the heck we are really good tippers so it all works out in the end.

One Down Three to Go

 Check out the blog candy I won from Kathy over at http://quiltrestoration.blogspot.com/ Thank you Kathy, I LOVE IT!!!!

One of the four quilt tops is done!!!

Isn't the fabric as cute as it can be? I can't wait to cut into it, maybe tomorrow night if the grands don't give me fits tomorrow! I know just what I am going to make, now to dig out the pattern and start cutting. Thanks so much Kathy!!

After Karsyn and Mason left tonight I put it in high gear to finish up one of the Christmas quilt tops. With hubby at the bike rally I don't need to do much cooking so I had the evening free, all for me!!! I am so glad I was able to finish this up so I could determine if I will need more fabric to work up the rest. Sure enough I don't have enough white for the sashing and I have nothing left to do the patchwork borders, grr I have done the math for the white so I know what I will need as well as the backing. Need to crunch more numbers for the piece work border. I really don't want to have a pile of leftover fabric on my hands. The idea I had in mind for names on the quilt won't look right. I am going to wait till our girls weekend to decide,  figure with 4 extra pairs of eye's we can come up with something.

As much as I hate to do errands on the weekends Saturday morning I will be out and about early so my list making is underway. I need to hit the quilt store to pick up the Christmas fabric for our cabin getaway, mail boxes, stop by the big box store for extra thread, then the bank to make a deposit. The rest of the day should be free play time for me, unless SIL #2 has to work, then I will be dragging Kara all over town. 

Leap Year Sale

 February 29th one of the on line shops I like ran a one day only leap year sale, 29% off. I have had my eye on a steam juicer for awhile, couldn't pass up this sale! I love the little man in brown, he brings me great boxes.

Mason man showed up with a smile on his face today!! Gave me the time to work a little on one of the Christmas quilts.

I am super excited to finally have a steam juicer. From what I have seen on line it should be really easy to use (my kinda gadget). With all the tomatoes we had last year that we couldn't use I plan on making tomato juice this year (please garden treat me good). Apple juice is also on my list, maybe grape juice if I can get to the mountains to pick some, we could make carrot juice but it's to yucky for our taste! Can't wait to give it a try!!!

Mason was back to his sweet self today, that gave me time to do a little sewing while he hung out in the swing talking to me. I think I have figured out the adjustments I need to make since the pattern I had was off so things should go a little faster from here on out, fingers crossed. I still need to come up with an idea for name tags to hang on the packages, what's in my head may not work. Hopefully this weekend I can fire up the embroidery machine and play around. My goal is to finish at least one Christmas quilt top before we have our girls weekend at the end of the month. I don't want to get to the cabin only to find out I don't have enough fabric to work with. I also finished the second baby boy quilt this morning before my little guy showed up so the deck is clear to move on to some Christmas cheer!!

Spring is here

 This bunch of bananas turned into.

 This overnight. If I can keep them hidden from the family they make great banana bread or banana ice cream. For the most part they are just for snacking.

 Mason and I took a stroll around the back yard today checking out all the new wood piles from Saturday

 Its hard to tell from the photo's but these 2 piles are way over my head, no way can I pull wood from them unless I use a ladder.

 Here is the last of the wood piles, we have enough wood now to last us LOTS of winters!! All from the trees we had taken out last year, they were HUGE trees.

Our Camellia bush is about to be in full bloom.

Not much of a post tonight as I am dog tired from having Mason all day and Karsyn from lunch on. Talk about a run for your money.....they were not good babies today!!! Supper tonight was a bowl of cream of wheat and toast, filling, fast, and easy. I'm off to open more windows (its 72 degree's) dig out some summer PJ's and hope for a good baby to show up in the AM!!!!

Before and After

 Carrots ready for the dehydrator.

 Same carrot tray when they are done.

 The whole shebang before the dehydrator.

The finished product, one quart jar and enough vacuum packed for about a pint jar. AMAZING

Mason man and I had a pretty quite day.

 I had picked up chicken breasts on sale yesterday for $3.49 a pound that needed to be washed and vacuum sealed as well as bananas that were .49 cents a pound I wanted to dehydrate for snacks. We worked both up in the morning then a little regular housework, planted some yellow onions, and on to a food inventory excel spreadsheet that I hope will help me know more what we need and when we need it. I do a pretty good job keeping up with what we have and need in my head but sometimes I forget to engage my brain when I hit the grocery store. Of course I always have a list but when I find a super deal it would be nice to know if we really do need it. Other than bottles, burping, playing, and diaper changes it was an uneventful day.

 I am happy to have a nice laid back day now and then. I could have pushed myself to do more but I decided to pay attention to what my body was saying SLOW DOWN. I have Karsyn (Lord give me strength) and Mason tomorrow, Mason only Wednesday then all 3 of the little ones the rest of the week I need to pace myself  HA!! Tomorrow is another day, plenty of time to take on a little more, for tonight it's a boring book and bed for me!!!