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March Goals

Boy. February was a doozy this year. Maybe I’ll write about it, maybe not. lol. Let’s just say that I’ve decided I’m never moving anywhere where it snows regularly! Still, I got a fair amount done.

Hexies. Always hexies. lol.
  1. Hexies. It came down to the wire, but I did finish a block last night! 11 more to go!
  2. Caterpillar Quilt. Well, I didn’t finish the navy fruit blocks, but I did prep the applique for 2 of them and that’s half the battle.
  3. Project Life. I didn’t *quite* finish this goal, but I came awfully close. I finished January and I only have two weeks left: last week and this week.
  4. Scrapbooks. I did exactly what I said I wasn’t going to do. lol. I got exactly 1 current layout done, but I finished November 2018, December 2018, and January 2019! I would have gotten more done, but I ran out of white cardstock! Never fear, I ordered a ton and it should get here this week. Then I’ll just need to sit down and do a marathon mixed media background prep day. lol.
  5. Monthly Kid Adventure. Well, we ended up in an epic apocalyptic “winter weather event” which really put a damper on my plans to take the kids to another state park on our February day off, but I did manage to keep my children alive and fed when we lost power for several days. So, partial credit?
  6. Monthly Seasonal Celebration. We did decorate some cookies for Valentine’s Day, but to be honest I was phoning it in a bit this month. I didn’t even get out our decorations. But never fear! I have big plans for St Patrick’s Day. lol.
  7. Homeschool. Xander and I finished the book! He can read now! For real!
  8. Staff Development. Got my 6 hours done! Which brings my grand total up to 66 hours. Only 84 to go.
  9. Kid Crafts. This did not happen this month, but that’s ok. We did lots of other fun craft projects.
  10. Ice Cream Soda Quilt. I finished round 3! And I even prepped round 4! This quilt has been so much fun. 🙂
Xander was so proud of himself! <3
My prepped Ice Cream Soda pieces sitting on literal snow and ice.

Which brings us to the March goals…

  1. Hexies. I’m going to try to get another block done.
  2. Caterpillar Quilt. Ok. This needs to be put at the top of the list. I want to finish the navy fruit and get the center assembled.
  3. Project Life. I’d really love to finish February and keep current with March. In a miracle world, I would finish November and December of 2020 too and then be all caught up with Project Life!
  4. Scrapbooks. Hmm… I think January and February of 2021. And maybe February of 2019? That seems like a good way to approach the gap- like, all of my Valentine’s Day stuff will be out, makes sense to knock out both years. lol. (Stretch goal of February 2020?)
  5. Monthly Kid Adventure. Should we shoot for 2 state parks this month to catch up? Hmm… We do have spring break coming up this month…
  6. Monthly Seasonal Celebration. St. Patrick’s Day!
  7. Staff Development. Maybe I’ll aim for 12 hours this month?
  8. Windchime Quilt. I have block number 11 all prepped! I’d like to finish it this month.
  9. Low Volume Log Cabin. I pulled this one out to work on and I’m up to 10 blocks! I think I’m aiming for 24? Either way, I’d like to get 6 more blocks done this month.
  10. Ice Cream Soda. I’d like to get the grey joining pieces attached for rounds 1 and 2, and finish round 4.

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February!

We made it through January! Yay! Let’s see how we did with the January goals.

  1. Thank you notes. Done!
  2. December Daily. Done!
  3. Project life. I finished 2019!!! I also set up my 2021 album and got 2 January layouts done. 🙂
  4. Scrapbooks. Well, I got 1 week of January done, and have the pics printed for another week. I need to do better with this goal.
  5. Kid Adventures. Success! We took a spur of the moment trip to Mother Neff State Park and had a blast!
  6. Get organized for January homeschool. I’m counting this one as done! Mia’s reading teacher has started sending books and papers home every week for us to work on, so I cleared out some space and got it all organized. I also came up with a decent plan for doing Xander’s supplemental curriculum.
  7. Finish teal and navy fruit. Well, I did finish the teal fruit! And I have a plan for the navy fruit.
  8. Hexies. I went above and beyond with this one! I got 2 blocks done AND assembled the whole 3rd quadrant!
  9. Seasonal Celebration. We made king cake and celebrated epiphany! So fun. 🙂
  10. Windchime. This one came down to the wire, but I finished it last night. 🙂

How about some February goals…

  1. Hexies. I want to finish at least 1 block.
  2. Caterpillar Quilt. I want to finish the navy fruit. That’s only 3 blocks, so maybe doable?
  3. Project Life. I’d like to finish January (3 layouts) and keep current with February.
  4. Scrapbooks. I’m ignoring the gap for now. Really, I’d like to finish January 2021 and keep current with February 2021.
  5. Monthly Kid Adventures. We have an asynchronous day in February and I’m thinking we might try to hit up another state park!
  6. Monthly Seasonal Celebration. Valentine’s Day. duh. lol.
  7. Homeschool. I want to finish the Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons book. Xander and I only have 15 lessons to go!
  8. Staff Development. ::sigh:: I’m going to try to get 6 hours done this month.
  9. Kid Crafts. I want to do the Blossom and Root craft with the twins each week. 🙂
  10. Ice Cream Soda Quilt. I’d love to finish the 3rd round of rainbows! Which (I think) is 5 more blocks?

I have to go! The monsters are demanding more food. lol. They’ve only had 400 snacks this morning so clearly they’re starving. hahahaha.

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Hexies. Always Hexies.

I’m making progress! I just finished the 3rd of 4 parts to my king size hexagon quilt.

And my beautiful first born held it up for a pic!

In case you missed the earlier post, here’s the full first half which I currently have up as my design wall.

Then I sorted all of the remaining hexies into 12 piles so I can hopefully finish this bad boy up! When I first started this project, it seemed like I would never finish, but now I think there’s hope!

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Hexies!

I am a woman on a mission. I am determined to finish the center of the hexies this year. At that point, I’m going to have to make some decisions about borders, applique, etc., but I can’t let that keep me from making progress. And on that front, I finally finished the 3rd round of blocks! Now I am a busy bee stitching those 12 blocks together at which point I will sort the remaining hexagons into the 4th (and final!) round of blocks.

Here’s my pretty pile right before I started sewing them together! Once I get that done, I plan to switch my attention to Xander’s caterpillar quilt. I really want to get it to the same stage as Mia’s butterfly quilt. I got 2 fruit blocks done for it this month, and I only have 3 to go. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can. And yes, I know that plums aren’t teal, but there no teal fruit we do what we’ve got to do. lol.

And! I just committed to (and purchased!) some navy fabric for an inner border between the center of the quilt and the pinwheels.

It’s going to require some math (not my favorite thing!) but I think it’s going to look awesome.

Then! I think I’m going to reward myself and spend some quality time with my ice cream soda blocks. 🙂

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Road Trip Time!

Mia has a massive backlog of school work, so I had planned to use today to catch up. But then I woke up and it was absolutely gorgeous outside. The kind of day that it’s a crime to waste. So I made a snap decision to pack the kids up and drive to Mother Neff State Park! Literally, we were walking out the door within 20 minutes of me checking to see if they had available reservations. lol.

It’s such a fun park! It’s a little over an hour away, but I dug out the kids’ headphones and tossed their iPads in the backseat so it was blissfully quiet. I will say that one of the unexpected perks of virtual school is that everyone has their own iPad. lol.

And once we got there it was perfection! It’s for sure not stroller accessible, but I threw a mai tai in my backpack and crossed my fingers that I wouldn’t have to use it. And Mia was such a trooper! We didn’t hike for 10 miles or anything, but she did great over a pretty uneven “rustic” trail. Our first stop was this cool cave. More of an overhang, but I’m not complaining.

Then we followed the well marked trail to a little pond. So much fun! We hiked back to the cave since that was where we had parked and had our little picnic. Pro tip: leave most of the food in the car. 1. You don’t have to haul it around. 2. It’s very motivating for kids when they find out that they have to hike back before they can eat. lol. (I did have an emergency stash of apple sauce pouches that I let them have on the walk.)

I snuck in some time to work on my hexies, naturally. lol. I remember when the twins were born and I wondered if I would ever be able to take all 3 kids on adventures by myself. It was so easy when it was just Kate and I and I was worried that I would never get back to that. I am happy to report that there is “life after twins.” lol. And I wouldn’t change a single second of it. 🙂

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December Daily 2020

We had a snow day yesterday! Like for real snow! Generally speaking, it “snows” here once ever 2 or 3 years. And by snow I mean, there’s a bit of sleet and we just tell our kids it’s snow and to go our and play with it. But yesterday we had 2 inches of actual, honest to goodness, snow! So while my kids were outside getting hypothermia (we live in Texas and thus have zero winter gear) I finished December Daily. 🙂

This year I was torn between getting a travelers notebook or sticking with my usual square format and in the end I decided to split the difference and make my own book that was 4×6, portrait. I love love love the look of full page photos in December Daily, but there is zero chance I will pay for enlargements for this project so this seemed like a good compromise.

I used the December Daily kit from Citrus Twist, the December kit from Freckled Fawn, as well as my (extensive) stash. I really love having a kit! As for the construction of this book, it involved a whole lot of tape. Honestly, I wish I had given up on the idea of making my own travelers notebook and had just whole punched it and used some binder rings, but it’s finished so I’m not complaining. 🙂

This December was pretty crazy around here, what with overseeing virtual schooling and all, so I made a deliberate choice to simplify the process. It’s not my favorite book (I like more variety and embellishments) but I finished it in January and not September so I’m counting that as a win. 🙂

I tried to be really intentional during the month to make sure that I had a portrait orientation picture (I tend more towards landscape photos) and a specific story to tell. It really paid off!

I did a mix of crafty pics and pics of my kids because it’s my project and I’ll do what I like. lol. I tried really hard to eliminate choices so that it would be quick to finish. Each page had a plain lined journaling card, a strip of washi, some tiny word stickers, and a circular number.

I also tried very hard to lure the tween from her cave so that she was included in some pics. Easier said than done. lol.

All in all, I’m quite pleased with how it turned out! Next year I think I’ll go back to being a bit more creative with it, but for right now when I’m soooooooooo far behind with all of my scrappy projects, it feels so good to cross one off of the list. Now if I could just get caught up with Project Life and the 12×12 scrapbooks…

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Epiphany Celebration!

I was envisioning more of a snowflake craft extravaganza when I thought about a January seasonal celebration, but then Epiphany! I usually try (and fail) to make a king cake for Mardi Gras. But when I was looking up ideas for epiphany this year, king cake kept coming up. Then it hit me, KING cake= 3 KINGS! Duh!

Usually my cake is tasty but ugly. My dough is just never right. But this year, I went straight to my favorite baking recipe site: King Arthur Flour. You guys, if you’re not using their recipes, you are missing out! They are so easy to follow and they never disappoint.

So this year I kneaded it waaaaaay longer than I normally do and it turned out so good! It rolled out into an actual rectangle JUST LIKE IT WAS SUPPOSED TO! And it was absolutely delicious. I didn’t roll it out quite big enough so it baked into a bit of a blob, but there was an actual spiral with filling inside. And it was soooooo good. I just need to remember to order some purple sugar sprinkles. My just-add-red-food-coloring-to-the-blue-sprinkles-plan didn’t ::quite:: work out the way I had planned, but the kids didn’t complain. 🙂

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Christmas Quilt

I was determined to finish my Christmas quilt before the new year so I spent New Year’s Eve sewing on the binding. 🙂 I’m usually such a scrappy quilter, but I just loved this Christmas line from Bonnie and Camille so much that I couldn’t resist making the whole quilt out of it. 🙂

I am just delighted with how it turned out. I started this quilt March 30, 2019 and finished the top in November of 2019. Then I packed it away for about a year to let it marinate. lol. My grandmother (who is a saint) sent it out to be quilted for me and then made and stitched on my binding. I got it back just in time to hand stitch the backside of the binding before the new year.

Which brings the grand total for 2020 to 3 quilts started and 2 quilts finished. I now have 8 quilts in progress and I’d like to keep it to roughly that number. Looks like I need to finish a few quilts!

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Happy New Year!!!

I love the new year! Everything always seems so fresh, shiny, new, and full of possibilities. 🙂 I’ve been doing some project updates this week, but for the sake of clarity I’m going to do a very brief recap of my 2020 goals.

  1. Project life. 16/20.
  2. Scrapbook. 9/20.
  3. Hexies Progress. Done!
  4. Kid Adventures. Done!
  5. Montessori Trays. Done!
  6. Girl Scouts. 13/20.
  7. Bee Yourself Quilt. 15/20.
  8. Blog posts. Done!
  9. Liturgical Living. 9/20.
  10. Home Projects. 17/20.
  11. Recipes. 4/20.
  12. Butterfly/ Caterpillar Progress. Done!
  13. Nine Patches. Done!
  14. Date Nights. 8/20.
  15. Plants. Done!
  16. Staff Development Progress. Done!
  17. Books. Done!
  18. Trash. 15/20.
  19. Caring Place. 12/20.
  20. Pounds. Well, I’m still up 5 pound from my pre-quarantine weight, but I am down 15 from my covid high, so a partial win? It’s finally moving in the right direction at any rate.

I have been trying to decide how I want to structure my goals for this year, but I just can’t choose! The time for dillydallying is past though so here goes. As much as I loved 20x20in2020, it was kind of a lot to keep track of and I felt like I was shoehorning in some goals that didn’t really fit the structure, so I’m changing it up this year. I’ve decided to pick 10 things to work on this year, and then I’ll probably still set smaller monthly goals.

  1. I want to finish my hexies! At least the center of the top. lol. That’s 14 more hexie blocks and then the assembly. Once it’s together, I’ll need to make some decisions about borders etc, but just getting the hexies together would be amazing. Since I finished 14 blocks this year, it feels achievable?
  2. Butterfly Quilt. I have the center assembled, just need to make some decisions about borders and finish the pinwheels. I’d love to have this completely finished by the end of the year, but a lot of that hangs on how I decide to quilt it. At minimum, I’d like to have the top completed.
  3. Caterpillar Quilt. Same except that I’m not as far along with this one. I have the top 8 rows assembled and all of the caterpillars appliqued. I need to finish the embroidery on 2 caterpillars, design and applique 5 blocks of fruit, and assemble the center. Also, so many pinwheels. lol.
  4. Project Life. I want to finish 2019 (3 layouts), 2020 (November and December), and keep current with 2021. I think there is zero chance that this happens, lol, but it’s good to have goals.
  5. Scrapbooks. I’d love to finish 2020 (4 months), keep current with 2021, and make some progress towards closing the gaps. Hmm… I’m so far behind it’s hard to know what to set as a goal. lol. You know what? I’m splitting this goal, so number 5 will be current scrapbooks: 2020 and 2021. I think this is actually doable. Which leads us to goal number 6…
  6. The dreaded scrapbook gap… I’m caught up through the end of October 2018. So maybe finish 2018 and then scrap every other month for 2019? No, better idea. I’m going to shoot for finishing the calendar layouts (which I hate doing) and then 2 additional layouts per month. That way at least something will be scrapped for each month and it’s seems more doable.
  7. Bucilla Advent Calendar. I’m adding this to my master list so that I will be reminded to work on it all year instead of waiting until mid November to pull it out. lol.
  8. Monthly Kid Adventures. I want to pick one bigger adventure each month. Something totally new. Current ideas include some local state parks.
  9. Monthly Seasonal Celebration. Pick a monthly theme and do something. lol.
  10. Homeschool. Take advantage of our Blossom and Root curriculum! Not sure how to make this measurable, but it’s a goal nonetheless.

So then I’m left with January goals…

  1. Thank you notes.
  2. December Daily.
  3. Project Life. Finish 2019 and November 2020. Work on January 2021.
  4. Scrapbooks. I’m focusing on Project Life this month, so just keeping current with January 2021.
  5. Kid Adventure. I want to take the kids to Mother Neff State Park. It seems like a totally doable day trip.
  6. Get organized for January homeschool.
  7. Finish teal and navy fruit blocks. This is high priority! I want to get the caterpillars to the same spot as the butterflies.
  8. Hexies. I’d like to finish 1 block.
  9. Seasonal Celebration. I’m sure I’ll come up with something? Maybe some new Montessori trays?
  10. Windchime. I’d like to prep and finish 1 block.

Whew! That was a long post, but it helps me to organize my thoughts and set goals. I’ll try to have some more posts with pictures soon!

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2020 Quilty Recap

I thought it might be good to do a little progress report on all of my quilts. One of my goals for 2020 is to actually ::finish:: some projects and I’m hoping this helps motivate me to accomplish that!

  1. Hexagons. The OG quilt. I started off the year with 11 of the 12 super hexies completed, 20 blocks total, and fully 1/3 of the quilt sewn together. I now have all 12 of the super hexies done, 34 out of 48 blocks completed, and 1/2 of the quilt assembled. Which sounds pretty impressive when I type it out! I basically got 14 blocks done this year and I have 14 to go. I’d really love to finish this top this year.
  2. Bee Yourself. This is the second oldest UFO quilt and I made some real progress this year! I started off the year with 21/ 63 blocks done and I’m ending with 36/ 63 done. That’s 15 new blocks done! Plus, I have a plan for most of the remaining blocks which is half the battle!
  3. The third oldest UFO quilt is my Christmas one. I started the year off with the top finished. I ended up sending it out to be quilted by a longarmer and it looks amazing! I’m about halfway done with the binding and then it will be finished. 🙂
  4. Next up is my Windchimes! I started the year with 3 blocks complete and now I have 9! I thought about stopping here and making a small wall hanging, but I love these blocks too much to quit. I’m thinking maybe 4×4? Or even the full 5×5!
  5. Then comes the Butterflies and Caterpillars. I started the year with 16 butterflies done and now I have all 39 finished! For the caterpillars, I started with 5 done and now I have all 11 done minus a teeny bit of embroidery on 2 of them. As for the fruit, I started the year with no fruit and I now have 12/ 17 done. I’ve also finished all of the 9 patches and I’m about 1/4 of the way through the pinwheels. 🙂
  6. Pixilated Heart Quilt! This one was so fun and easy that I’m considering making a second one. 🙂 I finished the top last year between Christmas and New Years, then I set it aside for a loooooong time. I actually quilted it myself and bound it this year. It’s a favorite to snuggle with on the couch!
  7. I started by 60* diamond wallhanging in April and it’s almost done! I’m hand quilting it so it’s taking a bit longer, but I’ve just got the border to go. 🙂
  8. In May I started a low volume log cabin quilt and I’ve now got 6 blocks done. I’m in no hurry with this one, but it’s been fun to play with low volume fabrics.
  9. And my final new project is my Ice Cream Soda Quilt! I love this one so much! I have 14 blocks done and a bunch more to go. I think there’s something like 68 in the finished quilt? They are so much fun! I’m not in any rush to finish this one; I’m just enjoying playing with all of the pretty fussy cuts. 🙂

All this to say that my big quilty goals this year are to finish the hexagon, butterfly, and caterpillar tops. 🙂