Updated to do list

A little while ago I posted a crafting to do list that seemed overwhelming. I figured now that I am under 50 days till this little guy comes I would see where I stand.

- the Christmas quilt. I have the top done, the back done and it is ready to be basted. Then it is quilting and binding. Right now I am about 1/3 of the way done hand sewing the binding down. I am hoping to get it done in the next week.


- baby bibs. I have been looking for bibs that have terry cloth on the back because they absorb so much better, but I haven't had any luck so off to the sewing machine I go. I have one done except the Velcro and another cut and ready to be sewn. I have two bibs done. I am not in love with the fabric, but I have two to get started with and I can make a few more later.

- baby blankets. I have the fabric to do both mine and my friends, but haven't started working on them yet. I am still trying to get all the red dye to bleed out of the fabric. Once I get that done I will be ready to cut. Luckily these don't take long to put together.

- car seat blankets. I have some fleece to make a small blanket to wrap around the babies legs when we are in the car this cold winter. Two done, maybe one more to go. The two that are done are for me. I might make one for a friend, but depends on time.

- a punch embroidery chicken wall hanging. I have maybe 1/32 of this done for my mom for Christmas. I was making progress on this until my punch needle broke. I bought a new one so hopefully will be making progress on this again soon.

- a crochet hook holder. My MIL wants a roll up crochet hook holder for Christmas. Right now I am in the planning stages of this. I need to find some fabrics that I like for this. I've got the idea all laid out, just need to pick fabrics. Luckily I don't think it will take too long to finish.

Right now I am ignoring the rest of my list. I have a million things to accomplish over the next few weeks. We are going Christmas shopping on the 25th of this month. It seems so insanely early, but in order to get everything done and wrapped I need to get started.

The guy that came and tested our water last night was a quack. I knew that he was going to try and sell us a softener, but crazy me thought he would actually run a legitimate test.

I think he is ticked off because Jeremy knew everything he was talking about since he deals with it at work. Plus my dad is a water operator so I know a lot from him. He couldn't just tell us a bunch of stuff and have us believe him.

He did an iron test and then said that he had to repeat it because that is protocol. Yeah, well the first test came back with really high iron levels (like almost off the chart). He goes to do the second test and both Jeremy and I saw him use a different tablet than he did the first time.

Then he did a TDS (total dissolved solids) test which is supposed to show you how much "stuff" is in your water. He kept saying that it would be around 250-280 and he did the test and it only came back at 150. He said that was impossible.

Frankly the guy just pissed me off. I hate when people try to bully you into doing something just because they can fake a test. I know our water isn't perfect, but I know it isn't that bad either.

I really hate to shell out $150+ for a test that I can't be sure is true either. Why can't their be any reliable people in this world.

And on the same idea:

Rain rain go away DON'T come back for awhile!

Boring update

We spent the whole weekend cleaning and running errands. My feet and back hurt something horrible.

I scrubbed down the kitchen and Jeremy did all the furniture moving and vacuuming. I still have some more deep cleaning to do, but at least it looks better on the surface.

We have an appointment tonight with a guy to check our water. We are trying to figure out why there is a water softener here and if we can get rid of it. It is huge and I hate the noise it makes. Hopefully we will be able to get rid of it and save the money on electric and salt.

Nothing much else going on here. I have a bunch of errands to run this week, but Cody has a little cold so they are put on hold until he feels better.

Today was yet another productive day. Hubby got a second coat of paint on the boy's room. Now just have to pull the tape and do any minor touch ups.

It has rained so much here in the past week or so that we haven't really been outside at all. Finally today it was nice enough to venture out and check out the garden. We were thrilled to find some ripe pea pods on the vine. YUM! I love getting fresh produce right out of the backyard. Next up is a zucchini that it almost ready.

I also got 6 more blocks done. I am hoping to have all the blocks completed by the middle of August. We have some stuff coming up so I'm not sure when I will get to work on them.

Just so no one thinks we are all work and no play, here is what I walked in on this morning.

Cooper had a boo-boo on his leg so he decided to lay down and cover it up while the other boys wrestled. (I have no idea why the pictures are so cruddy?!)

Nesting..

I think nesting is starting to kick in. I have been more productive in the past few days then I was the first 20 weeks of pregnancy!

Hubby painted the boys room today. It looks really good. I'm hoping we don't have to do a second coat, just some touch ups, but we will see.

I finished sorting through their toys. Just have to have some help moving stuff around and find a place to put the toys that are going out. I finally decided that we need to rotate their toys around. We took all their toys away about two weeks ago and for the most part they haven't missed most of them. I separated them into stuff to go in their room, stuff to go downstairs, stuff to put away, stuff for the yard sale, and then garbage.

I also finished all six pumpkin rolls for him to take tomorrow. I just have to cut them up after they set up in the fridge overnight.

And finally I did get a few minutes to sew. I finished up six blocks for the Christmas quilt. They are turning out really nice. I am also thinking about working on my mom's present tonight, but not sure yet. We wouldn't want to be too productive in one day!

Productive day

My sewing room is finally set up. I am so excited. I spent this morning working on some minor clothing repairs and ironing the fabric for my christmas present quilt. If they boys cooperate and go to bed easily tonight I plan on starting to cut the pieces out.

Here is a quick tour of my own little area.

On the left is my rolling cart of fabric that I posted about earlier. Then my new sewing table. I am really excited about this. Hopefully it will help my shoulders.

Here is my new big cutting table. It is HUGE! I love that I can lay more than a yard of fabric on it at a time. It is also just the right height for this short person.

This is the rest of my supplies. I would like to get it better organized someday, but for right now this works pretty good.

Here is a big view of the space. Ignore the Gatorade bottles. The rug is new and wouldn't lay flat.

I am hoping to have some progress pics tomorrow.

My sewing room is almost ready for use! All I have left to do is sweep out the room and pick up all the junk on the floor. I am so ready to get back to quilting. There are so many projects in the waiting that I have to get working on. Plus all the projects that I have in varying stages. I want to get as much done as possible because soon it won't be comfortable to sit behind the machine!

It has rained here all day today. I swear that we need to start building a boat. My poor garden is taking a beating. I keep hoping that it will survive, but after today I'm not so sure.

Nothing much else going on. I am working on a paper chain for the kids to countdown to baby. They aren't quite understanding how this is going to work. Coop keeps coming up to me asking to see the baby. They loved watching the ultrasound, but I think they don't understand that you just can't see it whenever they want. The baby is moving around a lot now so I am hoping they will be able to feel it soon and maybe understand a little bit better.

Things are moving right along here. We finished drywalling the utility room this weekend. I have my sewing area all laid out, just have to get everything moved back in and set up. I am hoping to have everything done by this weekend assuming my pregnant body cooperates.



Here is a sneak peek of my Christmas present quilt fabrics.



These are the fabrics for the blocks. It is hard to make them out because I had to use my old camera, but there is a dark brown one with green and almost gold dots. The lighter one is green with brown dots.



This is going to be a backing fabric. It is similar to the overall design of the front so I think it will look really nice together.

A slight change in plans

Jeremy spent Saturday and Sunday morning working on the drywall and made some really good progress. We were looking forward to getting it done last night and being able to move stuff back in. I had dreams of setting up my sewing area and finally getting to work on some of the projects that are getting backed up on my to do list.

That was until he decided to go and get himself injured. He was sliding into third base at his game and dislocated his shoulder. He fell to the ground and I knew something was wrong. Luckily some of our friends from the game took the kids and we rushed off the ER. After waiting for an hour just to get checked in, his shoulder magically popped back into place. We waited another 1.5 hours to get xrays to make sure everything was all right and was sent home with an ice pack and pain meds. He was pretty sore this morning, but doesn't seem to be any permanent damage. Just means light duty at work, no softball for awhile, and no home improvement projects getting done this week.

Thankfully he is ok and it wasn't anything more serious. I guess this just gives me more time to add projects to my to do list!

Belated Happy 4th of July to everyone!

We had an awesome holiday. Our original plans were just to stay home and relax and get some stuff done since we were out the whole day before. Instead we ended up going to our friend's house for a BBQ. There were 6 couples, all with kids, there and we had a blast. The kids all played together and the adults got to talk and veg. We played an fun game of badminton guys against girls. It was a blast.

Now today is back to the real world. I have laundry, dishes, general cleaning, and cooking dinner. Tonight is the Nascar race so as long as Jeremy stays up we will be watching that.

I finally got my new sewing table. Now we just have to find time for Jeremy to drywall it so we can get everything moved back in. Considering he has 6 games is 8 days this week I doubt much will get done!

Things have been pretty low key around here lately. I've been in a big organization mood. I have been trying to find everything a home and getting rid of some clutter. I am not rushing through so that maybe things will actually stick. I got my baking supplies organized with some modular mates that I bought. It is nice to open the cupboard and know nothing will smack you on the head. I also got a handle on all the snack bags and stuff that were overtaking gap on the pantry.



There is a lot more to do, but I'm not sure what I want to tackle next. I think it will be reorganizing and cleaning out my kitchen cabinets, but who knows.

I am still plugging away at typing up all my recipes. I am sick of sorting through 100 pieces of paper to find which one I want.

Now I am off to watch Project Runway and enjoy the peace and quiet of sleeping children.