one shabby chick

I know most of you don't care....

But the USA team had the best game today against Spain! It was so exciting!!

We have been watching the tournament and I thought for sure they were out last week but then they pulled off an amazing win (and had a bit of luck).

Then today was amazing!

Makes me happy I'm playing this weekend - just a scrimmage - but still fun!

And my mom is taking the kids to a concert at the zoo this afternoon so I hope to get some (kid-free) sewing in before my quilting class tonight.

Oh - my sister-in-law's new cd is coming out soon and you can go here and download a single for free!

Sunday

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Father's Day!

Hubby is off playing some soccer with his friends - and we watched a game today after church - can't believe the US made it through! The kids are outside playing a mini game right now too.

We are having the family over for dinner and making fajitas (this marinade is so yummy!) and my sister made Banana Cream pie since it's my dad's favorite.

I made Hubby some Rice Crispy Treats but used Frosted Flakes instead - he was talking about them the other day and how they ate them when he was little.

I've started sewing up the Red Letter Day quilt....

I'm thinking diagonal lines for the quilting but we'll see.

We have swimming lessons tomorrow and my tote class at night (which I need to make up some samples for) so a busy day - plus the house needs to be cleaned!!

An easy quilt and fun goodies

I finally got my long-awaited order today - so many fun goodies.

Lots of fabric and some adorable patterns!

And here's the quilt I was talking about in my last post. All I did was add two borders and it's a finished top. I have 6 "blocks" in the center so it ends up being a good size lap quilt.

I'm off to soccer practice - we lost yesterday...I think we'll be running a lot today - ughh!

Back to red

The blond thing just wasn't happening - too much "obvious" bleaching and dark roots were bothering me every time I looked in the mirror...and the only way to remedy it was to go back to red. So that's what I've done....

Maybe one day I'll try and figure out what my original color is..I think it's dark blond now although I was a total toehead when I was little.

I am loving this fabric...so much that I made some new pillows for the couch...covering up these ones. I ironed on some fusible fleece and quilted the fronts to give a bit of structure to the pillows.

The other improvement to the couch was a sort-of slipcover. We have a leather couch that has seen better days but I still love it because it's so cozy. There's a big rip in one cushion (and they aren't removable) so I've been using a twin sheet to cover up - tacky and annoying since the kids bounce all over it and it always comes up (huh - wonder how it got the rip in the first place?!).

So I took a big piece of my favorite fabric and pinned the corners and then serged them - for now I have the front tucked in but I'm planning on adding foe to finish it - or something like that.

It seems to be holding much better than the twin sheet. And it looks super cute!

I've finished another quilt front and back out of the patchwork fabric too - this one is for me - I am totally psyched about this fabric..all you have to do is add some borders and viola - you're done. Well, I  have to quilt them all but still....

(somehow I didn't take pictures of it but I'll post some tomorrow)

Soccer games tomorrow and my first one is on Sunday - I'm a little nervous - ok a lot nervous...I'm in a much better division this year and just hope I can keep up with younger girls. We'll see how I feel on Monday :-)

Not as young as I used to be

My knee is was feeling better so I went to a scrimmage on Saturday. During the game I got hit in the ankle with the ball and rolled my ankle. It was sore but I figured I was ok for Sunday's game, seeing as it was the last one before the real season starts this week.

So I played Sunday too and was feeling good. So good in fact that when the team after us was short players, I said sure I'll play another game. What was I thinking? I am so sore today, not to mention the swollen ankle and stiff knee. Yep - not as young as I used to be!!

I hobbled around today but managed to get this wall looking ok. A finished project - yeah! The blue wall was a going-overboard-with-the-chalkboard-paint that needed to be fixed and so....why not re-paint the wall? I like the color and it contrasts nicely with the black paint.

I had to try this with embroidery hoops and fabric. I've seen it so many places and it is just charming and lovely!

The kids had a blast drawing on it today too. Baby Girl gets very serious while she's drawing...I think she's going to be my artist.

I really need to tackle a few more to-do things on my list.....

Moving on

Ok so I haven't actually done any sewing yet...but I have cut some things out.

I want to make quilts for my girls...not matching exactly but similar. I have a really cute quilt book called "Quilts" that I picked up at Costco last year.

It has a quilt called "1930's scrap quilt" and so I've started cutting out the pieces.

I'm going to use a pile of Freshcut quarters and scraps for all the scrapy parts and I have some beautiful Kona cotton in two shade of pink for the sashing.

I'm also using some sweet Japanese import fabric from Superbuzzy for the bigger squares.

I had to snap a picture of this bag (Sherbert pattern by Melly and Me) to enter a giveaway they are having on their blog.

It was my first attempt at a bag (awhile ago)...it is quite wonky. They are so creative - I know I have said this before but it is so true.

And baby girl decided I should be taking pictures of her instead of a bag....

I know I'm late but.....

I am late putting up Halloween pics but oh well. I'm really not that into Halloween...my holiday is Christmas. I'm actually restraining myself from putting up decorations now (yes, I know it's only Nov. 3rd but it's so much effort, why not enjoy it for 2 months instead of one?!).
So here's our Power Ranger (he'd been wearing the costume since we bought it):

And our Pirate:

We went to a Fall Festival and then to a friend's house after to eat and trick-or-treat. She had a wardrobe change in between since she dubbed the pirate costume "too itchy".

Our Mini Pirate (she was totally into dressing up and even wore her sister's hat a bunch too):

Our Jedi ( I didn't make a cape like Heather - I cheated and ordered one. I did make a shirt - super fast, whip-one-out-kind-of-shirt).

And here he is fighting with his best friend, Darth Vader:

I dressed up as a pirate too but somehow didn't get a pic snapped of myself...oh well! I did however forget I had drawn some fake tatoos on myself (including a dark heart on my neck). I had a bunch of errands to run the next day and then went to a meeting that night and someone asked me if I had a hickey on my neck - Ahh! I had totally forgotten to make sure I washed it off good.

And my hero, Zorro (he's never ever worn a mustache but was a champ and grew one for the costume...it totally made it) - not to mention the fact that he already has the accent......

Oh and this guy...it's my 19 year old brother- HA!HA! He was wearing an Iron Man costume he had borrowed from a friend (and had to keep adjusting it as it was a tad too short!). Baby Girl couldn't decide if she liked him or was scared of him...

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

Well, after WEEKS of the tooth barely hanging on, it's finally out. She told me she hopes she can still eat food :-)

Poor little baby..here she was walking around singing her version of the ABC song (since her big brother is learning it and I'm thinking they might both learn to read at the same time - not really, but kinda). She tried to climb onto a little plastic picnic table we have in the living room and missed the bench and fell straight into the side - there was some big crying!

In other news, I feel like I was in an accident or something yesterday. It was a brutal game (not because of the other team - I did it to myself pretty much). I didn't drink any water and got a bad migraine (blurry vision, vomiting, mean headache) as soon as I got home and also thought I had maybe broken/fractured something on my arm. I had a big lump and it hurt to move my wrist. I guess it's just a bad muscle bruise or something (I got hit on the arm). And then this morning I feel like I have whiplash (which I totally did to myself) - my neck feels really bruised. I fell backwards trying to keep the ball in play and hit my head hard on the ground. So yesterday was a bit of a bummer...but at least my arm feels better today so I'm ruling out fracture.

Sorry to be complaining - My hubby's already telling me maybe I should give it up.

Here's a photo from the birthday party. As soon as I pulled out my camera and took a couple shots, the battery died - ughh!

Cacia and Chris

Well, here's the link to the photographer's blog....I can't wait until I can see all the pictures as he took a bunch of my kids too and we never have good pictures of our kids. I'm thinking for Christmas I want to hire our friend Marina (who is an AMAZING photographer) to take pictures of our family to give as presents.

So we started back into school today...but sadly did not do everything since I had to rush over to the trophy shop to order trophies for little guy's team today or they would not be ready by next Sat. which is the last game. And we all know how important a trophy is to a 5 year old.
We did make spice muffins this morning - I even managed to make them FOR breakfast. They were all very excited by this. I picked up some fingerling potatoes at Costco today - I've seen them in all the fancy cooking shows like Top Chef and all over here and have always wanted to use them.

So now I have my chance. I roasted them with a little olive oil and salt and pepper and am actually planning on eating them with cheese fondue for dinner. They had packs of fondue at Costco too and all you have to do is heat it up. Not sure how it will taste or if potatoes even go with fondue but it's worth a try....not exactly low carb but I've decided I'm not sure if I really care anymore. I love food...usually all the bad stuff too and as long I'm not getting too big I'm not worried. (At least not today)

Anyway, about the wedding. It was at Kruger's farm which was beautiful. We (well, my dad) had it catered from Salvador Molly's and the food was delicious and it was just a fun time. It wasn't very big and actually quite a few people flew up from Hawaii for the wedding. We had a bridal shower for her the night before the wedding and the boys all went out for mac and cheese! At the wedding, my boys turned out to be BIG dancers!! Like hilarious, entertainment-for-everyone dancers.

My youngest was doing the robot and some sort of "I don't even know what to call it" dance - he'd start moving his leg just a little and then another leg and then bust out on the dance floor. They both were doing some big "breakdancing" too. Their clothes were filthy after the wedding. It was just the funniest thing ever.

I had to do the toast since she didn't have any bridesmaids or attendants. I was a little nervous but think I managed to do a good one...a little humor along with some sentimental parts.
I managed to boss my brother around some too as you can tell by this picture....

I don't know if I've ever mentioned my sister-in-law here but she is an excellent songwriter/singer. Some free advertising for you, Hope!!

Ok well, I have to sign-off and get ready for soccer practice. I have somehow become my daughter's coach without even volunteering for it...

Ok just one more pic of the wedding......

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Our Morning Snow,
originally uploaded by MicheKerr.

OK so I know there's no snow in Hawaii (well, sometimes but it's on a different island)...that's kinda the point of this post. I know many of you may find this hard to believe but I have NEVER seen snow up-close. In pictures - yes, or flying over some mountain, but touching it - no, never. None of my children either nor my mother-in-law. So we are thinking about driving to Mt. Hood to see snow...is this possible in Sept./Oct.? I need some ideas for sight-seeing/things to do in Portland. We will have some wedding activities to do and I plan to do some shopping but we want to do a couple cool things with the kids. We will be there for a week. Any ideas will help. So if you can think of anything please let me know. And is it possible to just drive up to Mt. Hood and stop alongside the road and play in some snow? We just want to make a couple snowballs or something. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Totally changing the subject - the girls are getting better- they beat Sweden 2-0! Next up is Nigeria - will be holding my breath in that one!!