Rainbow Scrap Quilt in-progress, featuring scrap fabrics in pink, red, orange, yellow, green, aqua, blue, purple, and white.

The Big Pie-in-the-Sky List of Projects for 2024

February 2, 20243 Comments

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It is mind boggling to me that I managed to abstain from most creative endeavors for eighteen months! Of course, one way that I dealt with the inevitable withdrawal pangs was to promise myself that I’d be allowed to work on crafty things to my heart’s content once I was done with school, which has resulted in a HUGE “Want to Make” list. Unfortunately, now that we’re to the point of being able to grapple with all the beautiful projects I earmarked, I’m overwhelmed by all of my choices! What a fantastic problem to have! Hee hee. I work through decisions better with writing and visuals, so here’s what’s on my mind:

Quilts:

Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: (ASAP) I am finally quilting this! It’s horrible quilting because 1) I’m very out of practice, and 2) I wasn’t that great a quilter to begin with, but it’s in-progress! I’ve realized that the quilting step is the huge bottleneck for my quilts; there was a time when I could just send them out to a long-arm quilter and wash my hands of the task, but prices and shipping have gotten so expensive in recent years that I can’t justify the cost anymore. I invested in another sewing machine with a much larger throat space so I can quilt my own quilts, but they’re definitely not as pretty as the long-arm pantos that I love. Sigh. Done is better than perfect here. And hey, maybe I’ll actually develop my quilting skills to a level that pleases me. The Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt will not reflect that sort of level, but I’m telling myself it’s ok because it’s a scrap quilt that will get the snot kicked out of it anyway, so wonky quilting won’t be a tragedy.

Far Far Away Quilt: (ASAP) I started this one back in 2022 and even worked on it a little during a school break. It’s sewn into its rows and is awaiting the rest of the top assembly, which will then require me to pull out all the foundation papers, which is causing me some task paralysis because papers removal just plain isn’t fun! But, oh…it’s a pretty quilt! Cara! Just slog through the unpleasant part and get this finished so you can have this awesome quilt! Geez!

Chatsworth Block of the Month: (January-December) This is a sew along hosted by Fat Quarter Shop this year and I really want to participate because I’ve been collecting some fabrics for a couple of years now that will work really, really well for it! The first installment of blocks were due by the end of last month, but I haven’t started yet.

Piece & Quilt Sampler Sew Along: (March 2024-February 2025) Another sew along with the Fat Quarter Shop. I bought the pattern book a while back because it looked awesome, and then I saw there was a sew along this year and I got really excited about it. I’ve even stash-dived and decided on some great fabric to use. The question is whether or not I have time for it? You can look at the general info and fabric requirements here if you’re also interested. It’s going to be a pretty quilt!

Birthday quilt for Nathaniel: (April) He at least has his own Christmas quilt, but alas, still no everyday quilt, and he rarely resists the opportunity to bring it up in conversation that I’ve deeply neglected him in failing to provide this necessity of life. He’s given up on the Rocket Age quilt, and has been asking for a pig quilt for a couple of years.

Reading Nook Quilt: (May) For the most part, I avoided even looking at fabric while I was working on my master’s degree; but, during a particularly stressful couple of weeks of student teaching, I indulged in a lot of online window shopping as I grappled with the challenges I was facing. As luck would have it, Ruby Star Society’s “Reading Nook” collection was released that week and I was completely smitten with its adorableness and ordered a fat quarter bundle of it with the promise that I could make myself a reading quilt once student teaching was completed. I’ve mocked up a pattern for it, it’s super simple and satisfying, but I’ve lacked time to start working on it. I’d really like to finish this as a birthday gift to myself this year.

Fig Tree Strawberry Garden Block of the Month: (May 2024-April 2025) Another FQS sew along; I absolutely love it and hope I can make it happen! I’ve placed a reservation order for the book and I’ve definitely got enough stashed Fig Tree fabrics to work with, so it wouldn’t even require purchasing fabrics.

Renaissance Graduation/College Quilt: (June/August) ‘Cuz I gotta. No idea what I’m going to make or what fabric/color palette I’ll use. I figure that will get worked out once we get her through the college application/acceptance process.

Penguin Christmas quilt for Renaissance: (November) Because she’s a senior in high school this year and she still doesn’t have her own Christmas quilt! She’s been making do with the Hipster Christmas Tree quilt, but I’d really like to get her very own, made-specifically-for-her quilt done before Thanksgiving this year. I have no idea where she’s heading after high school; she’s vacillating between studying music out of state or staying close to home and earning a technical certificate in pastry arts, so the quilt could be a “welcome home for the holidays” thing or it might not be. It is nerve-wracking to watch your barely-adult children make these huge decisions.

Gingerbread Christmas quilt for Rachel: (November) Rachel also doesn’t have her very own made-for-her Christmas quilt. She’s been making do with the Double-Nine Patch quilt I made for Fat Quarter Shop back in 2018, but has been wishing and wishing for a gingerbread quilt for years and years. Due in large part to the euphoria of having submitted my last ever final paper right before Black Friday, I bought an embarrassing amount of fabric at various quilt shops’ Black Friday sales, and the majority of it was various precuts and yardages of the Holiday Cheer collection by My Mind’s Eye, solely for the purpose of finally sewing up a “just for Rachel” Christmas quilt.

English Paper Piecing quilts: I have four in-progress and it would be nice to finish up some of them. There’s the Star Spangled Diamonds quilt from forever ago that needs borders, the Smitten quilt that needs a few more filler pieces to assemble the top, a Christmas-themed jewel quilt I started this last Christmas because I wanted a Christmas project to work on in the car, and the Roses Hexagon quilt that I’ve slowly been working on for years whenever I need a break from current projects.

Knitting:

I don’t think I have any definitive knitting projects in mind, which makes me sad. It’s just not that cold here in Washington, when compared to winter weather in Utah, so the need just isn’t that high anymore. However, I just like the *feel* of knitting needles in my hands, so I’d like to do more knitting…I just don’t know what to work on. I wonder if I equate knitting with babies and children for the most part, and because there’s really no little people in our families anymore, there’s not a lot of pressure to knit right now?

However, I do have a lot of stash. Some things I’m inspired to make when I think about my stash are:

Lace shawls: I have a lot of laceweight yarn in really beautiful colors. Unfortunately, I don’t really lead a life that uses lace shawls, so creating them to then just let them sit is silly. I could try to become a shawl-wearing person, though…or just enjoy the creative process and not worry so much about the end product.

Socks: I also have a lot of fingering-weight yarn that would make good socks. I think I just need to grant myself permission in this vein. Socks are awesome mindless knitting that are oh-so-portable. I should pause my EPP in the car and concentrate on knitting instead until the weather warms up.

School mascot hat/beret: I was exploring yarn shops in the area and bought some yarn in my kids’ high school colors because I had a vision of a cool beret knit in fair isle technique of the school mascot. Should probably move along on this idea.

Brooklyn Tweed Shelter project: I’ve been collecting random colorways for years, and decided, on a whim, to cast on a Baa-ble Hat last week. I’m enjoying knitting it up!

Clothing

I have so much apparel fabric and I literally have no plans to use any of it. It’d be nice to get back into clothing sewing, but my focus may just be on quilts this year. I don’t know even know where I’d start with clothes. There is a lovely feeling of satisfaction when you sew your own clothes, though…I miss it.

Embroidery

Weird things happen when you put things on your Amazon wish list—sometimes your husband will actually buy you the things! Michael generously gifted me an embroidery machine for this Christmas, and it’s on my radar to learn how to use the thing…at some point. I didn’t think I’d ever receive it as a gift, so I have no plans in effect. I put it on my wishlist while I was really leaning into tablescaping for the holidays and I think I’d enjoy creating specially embroidered table linens. And monogrammed bridal handkerchiefs. And I’ve always wanted embroidered pillowcases with matching embroidered flat sheets, and, and, and…hee hee hee. It might take A WHILE to circle around to this, though; I really do have a lot of quilty plans to plough through first!

So that’s what I’ve got on my mind for 2024. I guess I should print out this list and hang it up somewhere to remind me that I’ve got some serious sewing to get to this year! I really got out of the habit of daily creativity during grad school, but I missed it dearly and am going to make an earnest effort to reintegrate creativity back into my daily life. Wish me luck! And I wish YOU luck with your project goals for 2024!

Welcome Back

January 21, 20241 Comment

I promised that I’d check back in by the end of January, so here I am! I apologize for the long absence—I was finishing up my last two classes for my master’s degree, and with the start of the school year and all the craziness that accompanies getting three non-driving teenagers to their practices, rehearsals, lessons, and games I knew I wasn’t going to have any time for much else. I hope your autumns were lovely, and I hope this winter isn’t treating any of you too shabbily.

So, yeah…master’s degree officially completed, and I even have the physical diploma to prove it! I am not teaching full-time; in fact, I’m just subbing a couple times a week at my kids’ schools because the process of pursuing my master’s degree really opened my eyes to the enormity of what I do in our home each day, and how important that work is. I’ve always been a huge champion for full-time homemaking, but somewhere along the way I lost sight of my enthusiasm for the endeavor and thought my family would be better served by extra funds. Unfortunately, to have me working full-time outside the home meant a whole lot more unexpected expenses that I hadn’t thought to include in my budget workings, while at the same time cutting down on my time to provide a lot of the domestic labor and relationship-building that is the key to our family being able to survive on one income and have our children feel loved and supported. It was a very eye-opening experience and it has me scrutinizing the thought process that led me to believe that we’d be better off with me working. I’m trying to be more intentional regarding the media I consume because I was heavily influenced by various discontent voices throughout the pandemic, and I regret many of the decisions I made as a result of listening to them. It just goes to show that being an adult doesn’t mean you’ve figured everything out, eh?

So, I’m home again and trying to figure out how to go forward from here. I’d like to pivot with my master’s degree into some sort of creative education sphere, but I’m stumped as to how to make that happen. I am also eyeballs deep in parenting at the moment, so all of those aspirations might just wait until my empty nest phase, which is slated to begin in just four and a half years. Such a bittersweet milestone on the horizon! My life has been kids, kids, kids for almost twenty years now—I foresee considerable difficulties with adjusting to an empty nest existence! Goodness am I glad to have found Michael early on and dedicated everything to building our family. It’s been such a great journey.

I want to blog more because I enjoy it, it doubly serves as a record of what we’re up to throughout the years, and it’s been AMAZING to spend time in the craft room again! However, I’m incredibly without direction at the moment—my back injury improved immensely over the course of my master’s degree program due to the adoption of a yoga routine—so resuming my pre-pandemic levels of craftiness might not be feasible, as I was crafting so much back then largely because I was literally incapable of doing much else around the house due my severe muscle atrophy. Please have patience with me as I figure out healthy levels of housekeeping versus creativity! (The age-old dilemma, yes?) I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of consistently including creative endeavors in one’s schedule to maintain sanity and an enthusiasm for life, but too much of a good thing can create other problems if you’re irresponsible about it!

Happy January, and I hope you’re finding time for some creativity every day during these cold months ahead. I’m looking forward to writing more and hope to give you more posts soon!

Hitting the Pause Button

September 7, 2023September 6, 2023Leave a comment

Hello, lovelies!

The kids went back to school last week, and I’ve been figuring out our schedule for the next few months and I am just not going to have time to write. Rather than leave you hanging and wondering if there’s going to be new posts each week, I thought I’d give you a heads-up that I probably won’t be able to post anything new until December/January. Resurrecting the blog and my social media accounts are on my to-do list, but when I rank them against other priorities, the other priorities are just more important.

I hope you all have a lovely autumn and holiday season–I’m really excited to officially get going with the Holiday Houseworks Plan this week–and hopefully I’ll find snippets of time to post any finished projects that happen between now and the new year. (I’ve been trying to find time to post about Ren’s Carnival birthday party for almost two weeks now…) Thank you for your interactions with me over this last summer, I’ve really enjoyed it, and I hope to pick it back up for real very soon!

Quick Check-in on a Wednesday in August

August 23, 2023Leave a comment

Hello lovelies!

Y’know, I like to think of myself as a well-organized person, but every now and then I realize that my well-organized persona thinks a little too much of itself and has once again bitten off more than it can chew. Which then stokes the fires of Organizational Ego, and I sharpen my gaze and get to work even harder than before. It’s what’s going on right now.

It’s time to get ready for back-to-school, which means paperwork, shopping, and driving kids to campus for registrations (all scheduled at different times on multiple days…argh). We’ve got an activity-packed year ahead of us!

We’re also prepping for a fun-filled evening later this week, complete with lots of this:

While also dealing with this new development, which is the main reason I’m behind on posting:

And, you know, when you’re a flute player and gearing up for your senior year and have grand hopes of it finally being the year you make it into the All-State Band, and you break your freakin’ arm right before it all, you deserve an epic birthday/Happy Senior Year party. There were birthday party plans before the fractured limb, but they got bigger once we found out her ability to audition is severely hampered by the timeline of when that splint/cast comes off. We are massively sad.

So, SHINY SQUIRREL! Carnival birthday time! Make lemon drops from lemons!

Understandably, I won’t be online a lot this week because I’m gearing up for Operation: Make Renaissance Smile.

Happy Homemaker Monday: August 14, 2023

August 14, 2023August 13, 20235 Comments

First and foremost: Happy birthday to Renaissance, who is a whopping seventeen years old now! She’s heading into her senior year of high school and I’m just so proud of her and all that she does. She’s a hard worker, she’s smart, she’s talented, and she’s kind. What more could one ask for in raising a child? I’m all sorts of sentimental as we enter into the last year of her childhood…parenting is so bittersweet. I love having children in my home and I am dreading when they all fly from the nest.

Second and next most: Sorry for skipping last week’s entry! It was just really busy and I couldn’t get to the computer for something like this. My #craftygoals update on Friday was written on my phone while my husband drove somewhere, that’s how difficult it was to get anything done on the blog!

Highlights of the last two weeks:

We did a lot of driving practice this week and I’m starting to see a lot of improvement and an increase in confidence. I might just turn out a driver or two after all!
I tried out a new bread recipe this week and it turned out really well!
Renaissance and I have made time to stitch together after lunch most days and I absolutely love it.
Nathaniel helped me with my photoshoot for the Patriotic Baby Quilt and we had fun doing that together.
The kids helped me update the garden and it’s looking really nice now!

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

Everything’s been going pretty well. Busy, but nothing to complain about. Finishing up a quarter is stressful and not a lot of fun, but this one wasn’t crazy and didn’t have any monster/stupid assignments, so it was fine…just took lots of time to complete.

The Weather Forecast:

Oh. Yuck. But it could be worse.

As I Look Outside My Window:

I am so proud! Renaissance and I sat down on the Friday before last and hammered out her birthday party plans and I realized that letting the garden “lie fallow” was no longer an option because I’ll be hosting her party in our backyard in a few weeks. So we made plans to go find some plants that Saturday, and as luck would have it, happened upon a very good clearance sale on them. We smashed plants into the back of the van, headed home, rounded up all the Brookelets, and were done three hours later. Garden with your kids while they’re little–they become extremely efficient at it in their teenage years!

Right Now I Am:

Winding down after a busy day and smelling the air as Michael makes dinner.

Thinking and Pondering:

Hospitality vs. Entertaining
Schedule changing in order to open up time for other interests
What the heck am I going to do with all this free time in the next week, now that summer quarter is done?!?!

Listening to:

Evening sounds. Movement upstairs. Things being moved, air being breathed.

How Am I Feeling:

Content, and a little excited about the upcoming week and its lack of responsibility!

On My Reading Pile:

Due to two weeks ago’s devotional topic of connection, I bought a handful of books on hospitality and friendship. I’ve been reading through them and gleaning ideas. They’re scattered all over the house and I pick them up as I putter around and read a few lines here and there.

On My TV This Week:

I never really know. Maybe some stuff that requires thinking because I’ll have the available bandwidth since I’m not studying the days away.

On the Menu:

Nothing because my regularly-scheduled meal planning time was taken up with driving and picking up kids from a million things, and then all the studying. I’m just going to wing it, because it’s a weird week anyway.

Looking Around the House:

The living room is clear of Rachel’s belongings, we did it! It will be short-lived, as Michael got a bee in his bonnet about building a loft bed for Renaissance and it will have to be built inside her room because it won’t fit through her door once it’s assembled. So…yeah, Ren’s stuff will soon overtake the living room and she’ll probably have to sleep on the couch for a week or two. But loft bed/desk combo! Totally worth it.

To-Do List This Week:

Plant lettuce and spinach
Should decide if I’m going to make jam this year or not; schedule it if I am.
Go do a fun thing that I especially want to do–quilt museum?
Work on Renaissance’s birthday party stuff
RELAX. I always use my breaks to “catch up” or “get ahead” on stuff, and darn it, just take a freaking vacation, Cara!

Devotional:

My word two weeks ago was CONNECTION. I was so looking forward to learning more about connection and figuring out a way to connect more with people in my life, but I mostly just came to the conclusion that I am not very good at connecting with others. I am greatly inspired to become better at this skill, so I ordered some books on the subject, which I’ve enjoyed reading.

Some observations:

Food is often a part of connection rituals. Yet another reason to be a good cook!
Most people I know are just too darn busy to eat a normal meal, let alone a meal that’s meant to be enjoyed and drawn out with conversation.
The parent-of-teenagers stage might be a difficult time to work on connecting with others because we are just so stinkin’ busy, too. Trying to line up two families’ schedules to do anything together is near impossible.
Connection often begins with MY efforts to reach out, and not the other way around. If I’m sitting around waiting for someone to reach out to me, I’m going about it the wrong way.

My word for this last week was TRANSFORMATION, which was a cool one to think about.

Some observations:

A transformation is often preceded by a period of discomfort or feeling like you no longer belong or have outgrown your surroundings. If you’re aware of this order of events, it might make the discomfort less scary. Maybe even make it exciting?
Transformation is almost always a positive thing, so embrace the change with enthusiasm, even in the messy, difficult, and uncertain parts.
This reminds me of this last year–my Pinterest algorithm became very “academia-aesthetic” as I progressed through my master’s program, and I’d always wanted to be “that way” when I was a young girl, so I decided to just go with it this last year and it was so much fun! Embrace the aesthetic of what you’re doing! It makes it prettier and more enjoyable!
Transformation is less scary if you have an end destination that you’re working towards.
Your past, pre-transformation, is nothing be ashamed of. It got you to and through your transformation, so be proud of where you’ve come from and what you’ve overcome.
We often speak of transformation as if it’s a sudden and drastic thing, but it’s really not. Transformation is a process that requires a lot of patience. The only way you appear to “transform” to someone else is if they haven’t seen you in a long time. Your everyday acquaintances probably won’t notice the changes because they are incredibly subtle and spread out over a long time. That’s OK. Doesn’t mean the changes are any less transformative.

This upcoming week’s word is: Abundance. Well, as a white, married, middle-class, college-educated, mostly stay-at-home mother of four living in the American suburbs, I will freely admit that I possess a lot of abundance, and I am very, very aware of the abundance that I enjoy. I wonder how this word will shape up as a devotional?

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

#craftygoals Check-in: August, Week 2(ish)

August 11, 2023Leave a comment

Hey friends! I have done nothing crafty this week because I’m working on my final projects for summer quarter. (That’s also why there wasn’t a Happy Homemaker Monday post earlier in the week. I tried, I really did!)

Sometimes life is like that. It helps me more fully appreciate the weeks where I have time to create.

Hopefully I’ll have something to share with you next week? We’ll see how well I power through these last few assignments…

Have a lovely weekend! Enjoy these last precious weeks of summer!

#craftygoals: August 2023

August 4, 2023Leave a comment

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it’s the fourth of August and I’m only just now posting this. It’s the end of my summer quarter and everything is piling up on me, so things are a bit crazy at the moment. At least I’m posting within the first week of the month, right?

I’m going to combine this month’s #craftygoals wishlist with the Friday update of what I’ve accomplished in the craft room in the past week. We’ll all survive the uncertainty, I’m sure.

Debrief: July 2023 #craftygoals:

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Done and blogged. Finished much, much later than planned, but technically done.
Farm to Table Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: Just started cutting it. Did I want it to be done by the end of July? Yes, yes I did. Sigh.
Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: Nope.
Scrappy Thursdays:
- Brickhouse: Finished the blocks!
- Clementine: I think I’m going to put this one back into hibernation
- Mixed Berries Quilt: Started cutting the fabrics for the 12-inch blocks
- Leaders & Ender HSTs: Nope. Thinking about abandoning this one as well.
Smitten EPP Quilt: I don’t know where I was exactly at the beginning of July on this, but I’ve made a lot of progress in joining the small hexagons into large hexagon blocks.

August 2023 #craftygoals:

TIME-SENSITIVE THINGS THAT NEED WORKING ON ASAP:

Farm to Table Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt: I’m doing better with this one, in that the baby hasn’t been born yet, so I’m better prepared with this particular quilt. I am going to need to sew like the wind on this, though.

Renaissance’s Birthday Party: I am really excited for this, even though I have no idea where to start or how big I want to go on this party. There is a (very cute) theme and we’re starting to gel our brainstormed ideas into something cohesive. I’m sure there will be a lot of work I’ll need to do to make this into something special. It’s her last “kid” birthday party, and we’re leaning into that really hard.

THINGS TO WORK ON AFTER THE ASAP PROJECTS:

I’m torn between working on:

Rainbow Coin Strip Quilt: It’s basted and just needs to be quilted and bound, OR
Nature Trails Quilt: Because when August is over, it will be September, which is autumn and this quilt is an autumn quilt. The top is done, but it’s not basted yet. I wonder if I even have a backing for it?

Maybe I can just be amazing and get both done. Ha ha ha.

Scrappy Thursdays: I’m going to simplify and get rid of my rotation. Furthest completed projects will be prioritized. I’ll work on the Brickhouse Quilt until it’s done, and then move on to the Mixed Berries Quilt.

HAND STITCHING:

English Paper Piecing: Music lesson time will still be spent on the Smitten EPP quilt. I think I’m assembling one combined large hexagon per week, so hopefully I get four more put together over the course of August.

Knitting/Embroidery: I didn’t plan for it last month, but then I realized I wanted to include some mandatory knitting time into each day. As a result, Eeyore the Unicorn was born.

I was going to move onto another knitting project after finishing Eeyore, but then I happened to see an embroidery kit that Michael bought me for Christmas and I wanted to do that instead. It’s not a big project and I’ll probably finish it by the end of the month.

However, I don’t like the idea of rushing my embroidery projects because I just enjoy the work so much, so I hesitate to force this into the confines of a goal. I give myself the gift of thirty minutes each day to work on this; it’s a small project that I expect will be finished by the end of the month and I will absolutely not be frustrated if it’s not completed because it will be what it will be with the time I have for it. I don’t even want to make a plan for what I’ll do after it’s done because I don’t want to burden myself with the excitement of another project that could dampen my enthusiasm in any way for this embroidery project.

(I do have a lot of knitting projects I’d like to get going on though…)

Patriotic Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt

August 2, 2023March 14, 20253 Comments

My first true venture back into a crafty lifestyle after working on my Masters degree is finished! It’s interesting how much of quilt-making was still just there in my bones, and how some of it was like, “I know I’ve done this before, why can I not remember how to do this part?” Completely random, but then I’d figure it out after a couple seconds and be off and away. Remember, kids…repetition builds learning!

This baby quilt is for a dear friend back in Utah who just had her fourth baby after a bit of break after her third…eleven years, actually. But this friend of mine ADORES having babies and she was THRILLED at the news, so it was such a happy pregnancy to watch unfold. Everyone is happy for her and her husband!

This family names all their kids after American Presidents, so I figured I’d go with a patriotic fabric collection. As luck would have it (or not…?) Baby Hayes was born on the 4th of July, so it will be perfect for him.

Details:

Pattern: Mini Charm Chiffon Baby Quilt, a FREE pattern by Fat Quarter Shop. (If this looks familiar, it’s because I was one of the pattern debut sewists when it came out. My first go at this pattern can be found here.)

Fabric: “Stateside” by Sweetwater for Moda. I used one charm pack cut into fourths, and the background fabric is the Vanilla Stars print. I used the Sky Bandana print for the binding.

Backing: Mammoth Flannel Americana Lindsay by Robert Kaufman fabrics. SKU: SRKF-19667-202 AMERICANA

Batting: A scrap from the stash. It felt like an unbleached cotton.

Thread: Piecing: 50 weight Aurifil, some white color. Quilting: 40 weight Aurifil in needle, 50 weight in bobbin: Color #2000.

Quilting: I quilted a basic stipple pattern because that’s what I do.

I love sewing up baby quilts so much! Hopefully this one gets a lot of good use!

Happy Homemaker Monday: July 31, 2023

July 31, 2023July 30, 20236 Comments

We’re at the end of July, y’all! Oh, I just feel like I’m not experiencing summer ENOUGH this year. Hopefully we can cram some more summer fun into these last few weeks before school starts back up again.

Highlights of last week:

There’s been a lot of crafty progress made over the last week, including finishing up the knitted unicorn I’ve been working on for a while.
Ren and I are still showing up for our workout sessions. This last week’s sessions were rough, man. Owie.
We finally had our family portraits done! I think the last time we did portraits was nine years ago, so it was very overdue. Bonus: We took the photos at a blueberry patch and we got to pick some blueberries to bring home, too.

Things I Wished Had Gone Better:

I had Ren drive once last week, and Rachel did zero driving. I have to make these practice drives happen! I really don’t like doing them because they raise my anxiety like nothing else.
I’d say we needed to get out more, but we got out a lot for appointments and errands and stuff. Nothing fun. Hopefully we can do something fun in this next week.

The Weather Forecast:

Definite summer weather, a little on the warm side for my personal tastes, but nothing crazy like many others are dealing with at the moment. I’ll just be thankful for the sunshine and leave it at that.

As I Look Outside My Window:

Such a dry backyard. Michael applied the weedwhacker to overgrown parts of the garden, so it looks nicer out there now. Will I actually get to doing anything with it? I don’t know. But there’s some nice garden-y things happening in other parts of the yard:

The four basil plants are nice and healthy and we’ve been enjoying the lovely flavor that fresh basil gives to our meals.

There are three tomatoes ripening on the tomato plant at the back of the house. I’m literally the only person who is excited about this as no one else in our family even likes tomatoes. However, Renaissance makes incredible bruschetta, so I make sure to have fresh basil and tomatoes growing so we can enjoy that beautiful dish a couple of times throughout the later part of the summer.

I always have a random cherry tomato bush start growing in the gravel along the back of the house, and this year’s plant has green tomatoes now! I’m excited to have them ripen!

I don’t have a picture of the front of the house because it looks just the same as always, but I did want to mention that the baby birds have flown the nest. I’m surprised they left so soon. I’m not sure they were even hatched for a full week before they all flew away. Or maybe they were hatched and we weren’t aware of it for a few days/weeks? Or maybe they all got eaten by cats during their first day of flying lessons? We did see them perching in the bushes along the front porch, and one of them even tried to return to the nest when we (accidentally) startled it, but its aim was bad and it faceplanted into the porch eaves and fell back down into the bushes below. We checked on him and he was alright, but I don’t know if they could make it back to the nest at all. We haven’t seen any of them since that day, so we’re hoping they’re fine.

Right Now I Am:

Writing up this post before going to bed Sunday night because I won’t have time to work on it in the morning. Trying to plan out the next week.

Thinking and Pondering:

What can I cut from my to-do list?
What needs to be done for Ren’s birthday?
What am I going to knit next? Options include a teddy bear, or Halloween decorations, or a hat I need to design first.
What can we do for fun this week?
Do I want to can up some jams this year?

Listening to:

The creak of the upstairs floor as people walk around. A kid getting a drink of water from the fridge. The hum of the fans and air conditioner. Summer evening sounds.

How Am I Feeling:

Behind on a lot of things. Michael was really tired this last week, going to bed early almost every night, which was weird. I got hit with the same feeling yesterday afternoon, so I’m dragging and worried that the tiredness will follow me through the upcoming week. Working out is feeling better, despite how sore we can be after particularly intense workouts, so that’s a positive development. And I was able to connect with friends via text this last week and that helped to alleviate some of the loneliness I was suffering from the week before. The loneliness will take care of its self once school and PTSA stuff starts back up again, no worries.

On My Reading Pile:

Hee hee hee, lots of Christmas crafting books in honor of Christmas in July last week. And some knitting and crochet books in case I want to add some projects to my gift list.

On My TV This Week:

Not much. Probably a random movie if I’m feeling tired. I’m in a cottagecore mood, so maybe some Jane Austen-y things.

On the Menu:

Saturday: Steak Quesadillas
Sunday: Super Nachos
Monday: Pineapple Bacon Sausages, Corn & Zucchini Soup
Tuesday: Picadillo Tostadas, Veggie Slaw
Wednesday: Gyros, Tzatziki Cucumbers, Yellow Rice
Thursday: Pancakes, Bacon, Sausage, Fruit
Friday: Chicken Caprese, Caesar Salad, Pasta

Looking Around the House:

Still putting Rachel’s room back together, but it’s coming along.

To-Do List This Week:

Emily dentist appointment
YW Camp preparations
Send last of graduation thank-you cards
Driving practice (Blargh)

Devotional:

My word for this last week was STRENGTH, and my readings about it mentioned a lot that strength was born out of suffering, which really bothered me because I don’t like it when people dismiss suffering by saying it created favorable outcomes. It feels like that reasoning is used to downplay the extent of the suffering and pain, and excuses the actions of the perpetrator a little bit, and I’m never ok with that. So I thought about it a lot because I know that, in regards to building muscle, you do need to damage the thing that needs to become stronger so that it can heal into a stronger version of itself. And as I sat with that, I decided that it was healing that created strength, not the suffering. And the healing is all within the realm of the victim/self. Perhaps strength is the Universe’s reward for getting through difficulties? But I never want an abuser to be able to say, “Because of the pain I caused you, you’re a stronger person,” and feel good about themselves.

Also, healing takes time, especially if the injury was extensive. We live in a society that expects instantaneous healing and strength, despite nature not working that way at all…and that impatience with our own healing and the healing timelines of others only hurts us. Strength requires so much patience.

I also think there’s two types of strength. The first one that I mentioned, which is a healing-after-injury kind of strength. I like to also call it “glue strength,” because it’s the strength that comes from putting something back together after it’s broken. The other type of strength is the preventative type: When you apply layers of protection or reinforcement to something to make it strong enough to withstand something. I decided to call it “insulating strength.” I think this is the best sort of strength to strive for, as it doesn’t require injury or pain to begin the process. We add strength to our spirits when we consume uplifting media, surround ourselves with edifying people, practice looking on the bright side and questioning the veracity of the thoughts in our heads. We insulate and strengthen our children with our love, kind words, protective measures, and efforts to make our homes welcoming and comforting. Insulating strength helps us withstand the pain and injury that life throws at us, and can sometimes makes it so that pain and suffering doesn’t even damage anything, if the insulation is thick enough.

Now both strengths have their extremes as well—extremes that end up causing weakness. If you insulate your children to the extreme and never let them experience hardship or difficulties, they won’t develop the necessary strength to withstand the rigors of daily living. (Oh my gosh, I saw a lot of this while student teaching.) And glue strength can only fix so much—there are injuries that are too extensive to heal.

Also, glue strength requires time to allow the glue to set; if you don’t give the glue time to set and then jump back into the type of situation that caused the damage, the injury will just open up all over again. (Also, maybe stop jumping into things that injure you?) Balance is required, and once again, patience.

This upcoming week’s word is: Connection. Ooh, I’m excited to ponder this one! With the last year being completely focused on getting through my Masters degree, I disappeared from my social life completely and I’m trying to figure out how I want to connect with people, and which people, now that I’m re-entering the realms of living somewhat normally.

Linking up to Sandra’s Happy Homemaker Monday!

If Eeyore was a Unicorn

July 30, 2023July 30, 20231 Comment

After having to suffer through the excruciating torture that is waiting for one yard of yellow worsted-weight yarn to arrive in the mail, she’s finally done! Hey friends, please meet Nilla the Unicorn…except that I’m pretty sure her name is Eeyore, seeing that everyone in this house only calls her that after she spent a while looking like a purple donkey because of the aforementioned yellow yarn predicament.

Rachel with her yarn haul at the Madrona Fiber Arts Festival in February 2019. The Nilla Kit is at the bottom of the pile.

The kit to make Nilla/Eeyore was originally purchased way back in February 2019 when Rachel and I attended that Madrona Fiber Arts market together. She fell in love with Nilla/Eeyore so much that she was willing to learn to knit to create her, so I caved and bought the kit. Interest waned, as expected, and she never touched it. However, with my recent obsession with Little Cotton Rabbits patterns, I decided to give Nilla/Eeyore a go to see if I even wanted to invest the energy in knitting up cute little animals, and seeing that I already had Nilla/Eeyore’s pattern, I started there.

It was an easy knit and, while I started knitting this with the intention of gifting it to my niece, I think Rachel is claiming it as her own because she stole it and keeps walking around the house shaking it like a rattle or styling its hair when she’s not shaking it.

It does have some pretty epic hair! The kit came with a mini skein of turquoise blue yarn for its hair, but I decided to use the scraps leftover from a hat I’d knit previously for Rachel (the yarn on the top of her yarn haul pile in the Madrona picture above), and added in some other colorful scraps from the stash along with some gold embroidery thread strands for a little extra oomph.

Details:

Pattern: Nilla the Unicorn, by Rachel Borello Carroll (Ravelry link)

Yarn: I don’t know, but I’m guessing Cascade 220 as it was mentioned as the yarn of choice in the kit, but I didn’t have the colors listed in the instructions. The horn is KnitPicks’ Wool of the Andes Superwash in “Semolina,” and the hair is a mixture of White Birch Fiber Arts 80/20 SW Merino Nylon Self Striping in colorway “Electric Rainbow,” some worsted-weight scraps in orange, fuchsia and turquoise, and separated strands of gold DMC metallic embroidery floss.

Needles: US 6 DPNs (I swear that everything I’ve made in the last however many years have been on this one set of DPNs. Seriously.)

Modifications: None, except using different yarn than what was supplied in the kit.