one shabby chick

A few more blocks

I had been wanting to do something for the Australian fire victims and then saw this wonderful group on Flikr and these auctions here.

I have this quilt that I'll be putting up on Ebay when I get back from camping.

And today (instead of packing) I sewed up 2 stars (and have plans to do some more).

I usually avoid star blocks since I really don't like having to match things up - and I don't like sewing triangles. But this tutorial is fantastic!

I will definitely make longer points next time.

And another block for Project Improv.

All of these plus Amy's block are getting mailed out tomorrow (on the way to camping).

I may go through blog/internet withdrawal (along with sewing withdrawal) but I'm sure I can find things to occupy my time....and we aren't totally roughing it. Did I mention I have one of these?

Hey guys

Thanks for all the well-wishes on the flooding. We were very lucky and only had the minor damage to the living room rug.

And today the sun is FINALLY shining but I guess there's more rain in the forecast for later this week.

Lots of people had their homes completely flooded - I can't imagine how you even begin to clean things up.

I did make it to the craft fair (but didn't attempt to bring the camera).

Friday night we went to the annual Haleiwa town parade and watched while lightning and thunder (and lots of rain) boomed down (we couldn't believe they didn't cancel it). We were under a big beach umbrella that I was sure was a lightning rod held up in the sky. Hubby assured me we were safe.

(our front yard)

As soon as we left the parade, the floodgates opened again and it poured rain all night.

I woke up on Sat. not sure if the craft fair was even on or if I would even be able to set up. But God was good and the rain held off until about an hour before the craft fair was over.

We saw it coming and packed up before the rain started. We got drenched putting everything in the car but at least our things stayed dry.

I did well for the weather being as it was - sold all my aprons except for one and all the burp cloths.

I have lots of things left but have already gotten a couple of emails from people I met at the craft fair regarding my Etsy shop so my plan is to get things loaded in there by the end of the week. 

 

Yesterday we came home from church and took up the carpet (Hubby was smart and cut up little sections so we only had to move the furniture (and Christmas tree!) a little...we did manage to take out the angel with the ceiling fan but she's fine.

And today is my sister-in-law's birthday so a bunch of us girls went out last night to Yardhouse to celebrate. Happy Birthday Hope!

Today I plan to spend the day folding this...

and washing a pile just as big....

Result of a week of rain (and a washer and dryer outside) and too much sewing and not enough time spent doing household chores :-)

I do need a trip to Costco too - slim pickings in the fridge and I have a few last gifts to get. I can't believe how fast December is flying by!

Tan lines

Well, we kicked off our summer as one should if they live 2 minutes from the beach (and in Hawaii). Sorry no pics though. I don't want to haul my camera along with all the other stuff too. And I realized I really need a new suit.

The kids had such a blast that I see lots of beach days in the future.

And I really need to work on getting rid of my soccer shorts tan. Oh, and the knee brace tan that goes along with it. Yep, I'm old - I play soccer with a knee brace. And it has a hole in the middle so it makes for a nice tan circle on my knee - pretty hilarious!

I had wanted to join in the fun of this game but never got around to it until now. Except somehow I can't get the links to show up so I'm typing them in myself.

1. dandelion and amber

2. Flickr Loves Sushi. Mmm.

3. dirty rotten homeschooled kid

4. vw

5. colin_firth_08

6. Golden Drak

7. Boat

8. Creme Brulee

9. Calm Sunset [HDR]

10. bless from above

11. Loud Mouth

12. Baby girl's top

The Rules:

a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker

The Questions:

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name.

No curtains yet - I hope I don't disappoint all of you when they are done. I'm going for even bottoms but most of them are behind furniture and so if they are off a little, I'm really not going to care. Hope none of you are cringing while reading that!

And I've gotten a few emails on Flikr about the drawing room bag so I may need to (gasp) put something in my etsy shop. But right now I'm too busy (ha ha I just typed out busty - which is also true) watching Euro 2008 on tv. And I can't wait until the Summer Olympics - so excited!!

Feeling Better (sorta)

So I made these this morning...they are very good. Even the batter was yummy (almost dough-like). And now I have potato gratin bubbling away in the oven.

So I had to post this...my grandmother called up a few hours ago to tell us my grandfather had been hit by a car!! He's 80-something years old!!

They live in a tiny town in Tenn. and I guess he was parked along the road in town and was going to get in his car when someone came whizzing by and hit him. Knocked him to the ground. The lady got out and told him he had walked into her car!! He said she told him her name but he didn't hear her since he's hard of hearing (pretty much deaf in one ear). He told her his name and that was it. She just left! I'm sure he insisted he was fine but still...he's an old man!

And instead of going to the hospital, he went to the library and returned the movies they had rented and then went home. He said he has a big bruise on his hip and his shoulder is sore but he can move his arm all around so he's sure it's not broken. He's pretty stubborn...can you tell?! We have all been worried about him since he's getting older and just not in the best health (he had to be hospitalized before Christmas for an irregular heartbeat) but I guess we shouldn't be - he's pretty tough!

I wrote him a letter a few weeks ago just letting him know how I feel about him so I wouldn't ever think.... "I wish I had told him how much I love him but I just never got around to it". Guess we'll see how he's feeling tomorrow - oh and my grandma just thought how awful it must've been for the poor lady who hit my grandpa!! What a pair!

In a Funk

So I tried to do some sewing yesterday and not feel too sad. And I don't know how, but I picked the crappiest movies to watch when you are feeling sad. They were good movies, just not feel-better movies. But now I can send them back to Netflix, after actually having watched them, which hasn't been happening lately.

I really need to snap out of this funk...I wonder if baking would do the trick. Baking and some fun sewing with feel-good movies. But none with Heath because they would make me sad..poor guy.

And I don't know why I feel so sad for him when this happened last week here and it didn't affect me like this. And this horrible tragedy too.....but that one struck closer to home since I have a 2 year old too. OK I have got to get moving and shake this off.

Here's what I was sewing yesterday...an apron for a friend's birthday on Sunday. I also picked up this book for her.

What is wrong with people?

This horrible event is all over the news here in Hawaii. I can't even imagine how this mother is surviving. I only pray she is surrounded by people who love her and will comfort her in what must be the worst thing that has ever happened in her life. I can't imagine what kind of person would do something like this...but I know the world is full of them. Sorry for being so dark but it has just made me realize how much we need Jesus in this world.

The little boy is the same age as my baby girl. I think I will be holding them all a little closer in the coming days.

5 Whole Days

That's how long we didn't have our internet connection. I know...not a big deal at all. I did find I had lots of extra time which is horrible when I think about it. Am I spending that much time cruising the net? Sadly, I think I am!
We are gearing up to start school again tomorrow...at least that's my plan. I really need a trip to Costco and Walmart but came home from church today and ended up taking a nap. Not very productive. I haven't gone anywhere this week since our 5 year old decided every night after dinner on Wed.-Fri. that he would throw up. But only after dinner. I didn't want to chance taking him anywhere though. He seems to be ok now.

The older three went to the beach with Daddy - I don't think I will be going until I lose some weight (which I should really make an effort to work on). Soccer season starts soon and I had planned on getting in shape by then but what was I thinking...getting in shape during the holidays. I can no longer blame this extra weight on baby fat...I haven't been able to for a while but I'm stretching it now....Our baby is turning 2 on Tuesday..how does it go by that fast?!

She is totally into Veggietales so guess we are going to see the Pirates this Friday. They are pretty hilarious. I haven't bought her anything for her birthday but am thinking some new veggie movies would be good. They will come in handy during school hours too. Right now she's dragging a stool over to the kitchen counter to try and steal some more red vines. Rotten girl! And watching a hilarious song by Veggietales singing about how he doesn't have a bellybutton but they are supposed to be N'Sync or a boy band like that.

I haven't been doing any crafting lately. Not sure why not..but I do have a few crafts that are needing to be finished and eventually we'll get the girls some bunk beds so I need to start on some quilts for their beds. Looks like there is some fun fabric lines coming from this talented woman and this one too. Can't wait!!

Oh and the post below...they lost. Very badly! Poor guys ..and now it looks like our coach is headed to a different college. I really don't blame him. He tried hard here. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. I guess the important thing is that you played.

So here's to 2008...may we really "play" this year instead of just standing on the sidelines watching time fly by. That's my goal for this year. To actually participate in life and stop letting little things trip me up or distract me. Enough already. I need to get on the ball! I have a wonderful husband and 4 great kids. It's time to start living life to the fullest. With the Lord!

Ok I'll get off my soapbox now...Happy New Year!!

***man, did I have some typos when I read through this again!! Oh and the flu is slowly spreading to other family members - ughh!***

Rain, rain go away!

Man, it was like a hurricane hit here last night! Windy and rainy....our bedroom and living room flooded but not too bad. No major water damage. But we lost electricity around 3 a.m. and just got it back on around 8:30 p.m. And (which was kinda nice for me) hubby couldn't go to work since all the roads leading off the North Shore were closed due to downed power lines and flooding. Our kids didn't know what to do with themselves. Last night everyone (all the kids!) woke up after the lights went out and we set up makeshift beds in the living room and "sorta" slept. So it was a long day with kids working on not much sleep. They are all sleeping soundly now. It was slightly sad to get up and not be able to do my morning cruise on the internet...at least we have a french press and my mom has a gas stove and so we had coffee! We made lunch on the barbecue...tomorrow I'll have to check out the contents of the fridge and see how everything faired.
And because of all the "no electricity" and "road closures", our church's craft fair and Christmas dinner was cancelled - til next week. So no craft fair yet. I'm hoping for no rain on Sat. but it could be hopeless....

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

It's been raining for the past few days and I guess it's supposed to last the rest of the week. Not sure how the craft fair will be on Sat. but if it's pouring rain I'm thinking I may not even go...we'll see.

So I finally took some pics of everything I've been making lately. The wood things were just made this weekend and thank goodness I got them all painted before the rain came! I sprayed them with sealer today so I think they'll be fine for tomorrow.

Hopefully Hubby will get rained out and come home...more time to sew :-)....I want to try and make a table runner from this wonderful pattern for my mom...today's her birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!) and I got her some earrings and a gift certificate but really wanted to make her that for her birthday too. It's ok if it's a few days late too.

So here's the loot I'm hauling to the craft fairs....

totes and big girl aprons:

Little girl aprons and baby blanket....

Snowmen (which I am loving)....

Santa - I made a bunch of these a couple of years ago when my friend and I decided to do a really big (and expensive) craft fair, thinking I'd sell out. Well, they've helped fill my inventory the past two years..I only have three left. I made their clothes out of white chenille this year and they kinda look like Santas in jammies so I'll see how they do...

Ornaments and signs....

Baby Jesus ornaments....

Set of pillows (already had sewn them up a while ago and just discovered them..all I had to do was stuff them!)....

My handmade tags (will definitely be buying a stamp with name and email address!) - they were fun to make and I just happened to have that little chick stamp which totally matches my name.....

We finally have the tree up and now we need to set up our train...My grandpa sent us this train (we actually got another piece today - he signed up for some club I think that sends him a new train and track every couple of months - so sweet!). My husband was pretty excited about it - we just don't want Baby girl to destroy it since it's a very nice train.

Well, have a great week...I need to make those invites or no one will be coming to my cookie exchange!

Guess I should change the post to Ha, Ha, Ha

Has anyone seen this story about Santa and nixing the ho, ho, ho? I just laughed when I read it. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone with my post below. I mean, seriously? Really?

We attempted to make some scones today out of this cookbook I picked up at Costco. It is so thorough and has so many recipes. I haven't gotten to look through it as much as I want too....whenever I start looking at cookbooks I get so hungry (but usually for gourmet food, as in the "I don't want to make the effort right now" food) that I end up just putting it down without getting very far. I have never made scones before and they came out ok. I think I made them too small and the dough could have been thicker too. I whipped up some cream and we indulged for a snack break. I felt like we should have been drinking tea too.

I have been on a sewing rampage. I just want to be sewing all the time. Yesterday I finished up this quilt for a baby shower tonight. I have to admit this....I have never hand-sewn binding on to a quilt. I have always wondered why my binding is so crappy (I always sewed it to the front and then turned it to the back and instead of hand-sewing, I machine-sewed it! (Cringe... yes I know!) No wonder my quilts never turned out how I wanted them to!!). So for this quilt I decided I'd try it the right way and lo and behold, wonderful binding! I am addicted to hand-sewing now too. I want to make another quilt just so I can hand-sew the binding!

I also made up some little burp clothes for the shower tonight and added an applique to a little outfit for the little (yet-to-be-born) guy.

I made up some little reversible purses (super easy) - one for my little one and one for the two-year old who's birthday party on Sunday is here. Ughhh...not my favorite place and they live as far as you can live from us (as we are on an island!) and it's the one by their house. I know, I know....it's not like it's 3 hours away..it's not even 1 hour actually :-) I'm sacrificing and leaving my last soccer game early so I can go with my family to the party. My hubby is so sweet and said he'd take them all by himself so I could play the whole game but I don't want to be the "horrible mother that didn't go with her family because she had other things to do".

I also sewed up a bag for me. I mostly used the pattern from this book but wasn't really strict on the measurements (mine came out a little longer - which I like) and I added a little loop at the top so I can sew on a button and sorta close it. I love these Amy Butler prints - the blues are just amazing! I can't wait to see the new fabric lines from Heather and Anna Maria!!

Speaking of Anna Maria - she did great on Martha Stewart the other day! I loved when she asked Martha who makes her bed...especially since you know she's gotta have a maid that does it! I laughed! I loved the craft project she brought too! So cool!