Considering how far behind I am on my Christmas to do list, I probably shouldn’t admit that I spent last week working on my third windchime block instead, but you know what?!? I regret nothing!
I am having so much fun with this Sue Daley pattern! It is perfect for showcasing all the little little fussy cuts that I’ve collected. Have I mentioned that I’m obsessed with fussy cutting? lol.
As much as I want to rush on and start on the next block right now, I’m going to try to hold off for a bit while I collect some more fabric. I’m not sure if I will end up succeeding, but for now I have zero repeats.
Who am I kidding… I will probably start cutting out more fabric tonight! lol.
I finally finished my Christmas Half Square Triangle quilt top! This one has been in the works for about a year, but I put it aside because it was all pieced- no handwork- and I’m much better at hand work than piecing. lol. Still, I learned tons! (Who knew you had to square up 1/2 square triangles?!? Apparently everyone in the world except me. lol.) And I love love love the fabric so it makes me happy to look at.
Originally I was hoping to have this quilted and bound by the end of the month, but seeing as how it’s a quilt for me and I have approximately 4 thousand other projects for other people that need to be finished by Christmas, I’m going to set it aside for a while and focus on my other projects. Plus, that gives me time to ponder how I want to quilt it. 🙂 Any suggestions?
Y’all. It’s November! And I had the opposite of a productive October so it’s time to kick it into high gear! First let’s look at how I did for October.
1.Super Hexie Block. I actually got this one done! So now I literally only need to do 1 more block and then all of the hexies will be basted. The end is near!
2. Windchime Quilt. Well, I didn’t get it appliqued, but I did get it all sewn together and ready to go so that’s something. lol.
3. Butterfly Quilt. Does buying more fabric count as progress? lol.
4. Caterpillar Quilt. Same.
5. Project Life. Oh my gosh, y’all, I didn’t do anything with Project Life this month! I’m afraid that my scrappy mojo has left the building.
6. Scrapping. Ditto. I literally only made 2 pages this month. ::shame::
7. Advent Calendar. Um… Are y’all sensing a pattern? That pattern is that nothing much of anything got done.
8. Halloween. Finally a win! Costumes were made, pictures were taken, and too much candy was eaten. Poor Mia was sick the night before so she missed her Halloween party at school, but she rallied for Trick or Treating so we took her to a few houses. Also, Kate made her own costume this year! I’m so proud of her. 🙂
9. Camping Trip. Well, we got all of the prep work done and then some. Sadly, Kate and I had to leave unexpectedly on Friday night, but my co-leaders are amazeballs and they took over seamlessly and handled everything.
10. Pumpkin Patch Pictures. ::sigh:: I took them. I even took my real camera. But the babies were sooooooo not having it. Le sigh. Also, they were almost sold out of pumpkins. Oh well. Next year, I’m going to try to finish costumes much earlier so we can do the pumpkin patch while there are still pumpkins!
And now onto November!
1.Christmas Quilt. The UFO for this month is my Christmas 1/2 square triangle quilt. I have the center finished, but I still need to cut and add the borders. I was toying with the idea of trying to have it fully quilted and bound by the meeting, but I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen. lol. So let’s say that I would like to have the top done.
2. Kaffe Quilt. My grandmother and I are making a joint quilt! No pressure. lol. This one has a bit of back story that should really be it’s own post. Stay tuned! The short version is that I need to make 66 blocks this month.
3. Zipper Pouch. For our Guild Christmas party, we are exchanging zipper pouches. I was super intimidated, but I made a practice one and I’m actually pretty happy with it. Now I just need to make the one for the actual exchange!
4. Advent Calendar. It’s crunch time. I have to have the background done this month. Then maybe I can try for one thing each day in December? Yikes!
5. Project Life. No excuses y’all. I have to get at least June done.
6. Scrapping. Um… I don’t even know, y’all. Maybe 10 pages?
7. Gratitude Tree. This is a crazy idea that I had yesterday. Basically, I want to have a big tree on the wall in our living room (made out of paper) and then we will each add a leaf every day where we write down 1 thing that we are grateful for. In my mind, we each get a different color and then we have a beautiful rainbow tree at the end of the month. The reality is that I still don’t have any paper for this, let alone paper that is cut into the shapes of leaves! lol. But fingers crossed I can make this happen today!
8. Thanksgiving Baking. I need to sit down and work on my baking menu and schedule to make sure that everything gets done.
9. December Daily Prep. Yay! I love December Daily. I’m sticking with a 4×4 format this year. I ::gasp:: didn’t even buy a kit because nothing was striking my fancy this year. That and I have enough Christmas product to open a December Daily store. lol.
10. I have a little bit of secret sewing that I need to finish this month. Fingers crossed!
After a so so October, you might be wondering how on earth I’m planning to get so much done in November, but RaptorDad does NaNoWriMo every November where he writes a whole 50k word novel. Every eyar I try to make NaNoCraftMo a thing, but I lose steam and end up binge watching Netflix. This year will (hopefully) be different!
Yay October! I <3 Halloween. 🙂 I actually had a pretty productive September! Let’s take a look.
Windchime Block. I got the second block done, and I committed to a fabric for the fabric centers and bought it! I have the hardest time making decisions about this sort of thing. lol. I’m loving this project so much. I’ve even got the 3rd block all prepped and ready to EPP.
2. Butterfly Quilt. Well, I didn’t get 10 more butterflies appliqued, but I did get 5 more done bringing my grand total up to 8. I also prepped all of the red, green, and teal butterflies!
3. Caterpillar Quilt. Not only did I finalize the template design, I actually got 2 caterpillars appliqued!
4. Project Life. Not doing so hot on this one. Lol. But I did get 2 weeks done so that’s something.
5. Scrapping. I got July 2018 done!
6. Advent Calendar. I actually did spend one night working on this. 🙂 I need to step it up next month though.
7. Plan Halloween costumes. Xander keeps changing his mind. lol. The current front runner is a vampire bat which would actually be pretty easy to accomplish. I’m going to give him about one more week and then I’m going to make him commit. lol.
8. Plan September Girl Scout meetings. Done! And Kate finished her Junior Aide project! And she and her friend finished their Bronze Award project! She’s been working on these 2 projects since last April so I’m super duper thrilled that she (and I!) aren’t stressing about them anymore. Also super duper proud of her for working so hard to earn these!
9. Fall Break. Y’all. I was so focused on all of this Girl Scout stuff (see #8) that I totally dropped the ball on Fall Break. But you know what? THAT’S OK! (Plus, when I went back to recheck the dates, Kate’s fall break is not the same as the twins and I didn’t want them to miss that much school.) Once I finally accepted that Fall Break wasn’t happening this year, I was about 1000% less stressed.
10. Professional Development. So I’m not sure how this works, but apparently when they say that you have to renew your certificate every 5 years, what they really mean is every 6 years? IDK, but I’m going to stop fretting about this for at least another 6 months. lol.
Time for some October Goals!
1. Hexie Super Block #11. This is my Guild UFO for the month and I’m actually glad that I’m being forced to work on it because I really just want to start a new EPP project but I know that is insane. (Holy run on sentence, Batman!) I figured out how to hang them on the wall by my sewing machine which is for sure helping with the motivation. It also helps that I only have 2 more super hexie blocks to finish and then all of the hexies will be basted! Is it insane that I’m vaguely considering trying to finish both blocks this month? Yes! But we’ll just have to see what happens. lol.
2. Windchime Quilt. I would love to finish the 3rd block that I already have all of the prep work done on!
3. Butterfly Quilt. I would like to get a few more fat quarters of oranges and yellows so that I can finish prepping all of the applique. I’d also like to get at least 5 more butterflies done.
4. Caterpillar Quilt. Ditto prep work. I’d also like to get 1 more caterpillar done. And maybe a few more of the 9 patches.
5. Project Life. Dare I say June and July?
6. Scrapping. ::sigh:: Maybe August 2018?
7. Advent Calendar. Time to ramp this up. I’d like to get the background done. Is it possible? Maybe?
8. Halloween! I need to actually make the kids’ costumes! I’m actually thinking that I might have Kate make her own as a fall break project…
9. Camping Trip! The Girl Scout insanity continues. lol. We are going camping in October and it will surprise none of you that I am not a camper. Luckily my Co Leader is amazing.
10. Pumpkin Patch Pictures. Actual good ones with my real camera! I might even take the kids to the real legit pumpkin patch over fall break, but the jury is still out on that one.
Hey guys! We had an absolutely amazing teacher conference with Mia’s teacher and it totally inspired me to make a new round of Montessori trays for the twins. Halloween themed of course!
I found these pumpkin upper/ lower case matching printables on Pinterest. How cute are they?!? I laminated them naturally. Today I pulled out a few at a time to work with and we talked about the letters/ letter sounds as we did them. She got up to 6 letters before losing interest. Xander was very interested until Mia said it was his turn and then he wanted nothing to do with them. Stinker. lol. I’ll pull these out one morning while Mia is at school and see if he’s more interested.
I also dug out all of our Halloween decorations and found this pumpkin counting activity that I made when Kate was little. I went ahead and laminated the pumpkins (natch) and then I created a mat to scaffold this for the twins so that they could do it independently. They love it! I didn’t really think Xander would want to use the mats, but he loves them too. I deliberately kept them non themed so that I could reuse them over and over again.
And I have to tell y’all that it was so much fun to create some fun seasonal Montessori trays. The last time I was making these regularly, I had all of this self imposed pressure to have 8 new trays every week based on a letter a week theme which obviously never happened so I was constantly feeling behind and guilty. But this is awesome! I made a total of 4 trays and I might switch it up with a few more before Halloween gets here or I might not. And if they’re still having fun in November, then pumpkins are totally our fall theme. Hell, maybe we’ll have Christmas pumpkins! lol. (But probably not because I love Christmas. lol.)
And in case you’re wondering, our other trays are sequencing and patterning because those are 2 of the main things she’s working on right now at school.
I’m making some serious progress y’all! I decided that I needed to buckle down and create the templates for the caterpillars and it ended up way cuter than I had even hoped for!
I need to redo the eyes because somehow they are facing opposite directions, and I need to add embroidery, but overall I’m pleased! Still a long way to go, but this is serious progress. 🙂
I’d say Hello Fall, but it’s still a million degrees here on the surface of the sun. lol. Let’s see how I did in August.
Girl Scouts. I did pretty good on this one! I got all of the banking trainings done and went up to the bank to get all of the paperwork done. Now I’m just waiting for my debit card to arrive and we will be in business. 🙂 I also got my CPR/ First Aid training done, attended my first leader meeting (with all 3 kids on tow since RaptorDad had to go to Kate’s open house at the exact same time), and had my first meeting/ parent meeting. You guys, my co-leader is amazing! I would be totally floundering if not for her. We don’t ::quite:: have the fall schedule done, but it’s not for lack of trying. We’re just still waiting on a few people to get back to us regarding scheduling field trips. But I’m still super excited about what we do have planned!
First day of school pics/ interviews. Done! And extra cute as always. 🙂 I love this project so much.
My Beautiful First BornCutie Patootie!Sweet Mama’s Boy
3. Unicorn Quilt. The top is done! And my grandmother convinced me to have it quilted. lol.
4. Editing. Nada. Although I did finish 3 weeks of Project Life. I need to keep this momentum going, but I’m almost out of photo paper. lol.
5. Bluebonnet Quilt. Done! Well, I still need to bind it, but I’ve been watching some videos and I’m just about ready to give it a go. How hard could it be? lol.
6. Applique. I’m making progress on the second set of bluebonnets! I’m just drawing on the backgrounds as I go, but I did get 2 1/2 bluebonnets done. Just 3 1/2 to go. Then I need to start thinking about my next block…
7. Advent Calendar. All sorted and ready to go! I even got a few things stitched down. 🙂 The directions (probably from like 1982) were very brief! Not at all like the kits I’m used to working with. I think if this had been my first project I would be lost, but I have made so many bucilla projects at this point that I was able to fill in the blanks with a little bit (lot) of help from my mom. lol. I’m so excited about this!
8. Butterfly Quilt. I made a ton of progress on this! I got all of my templates made. I prepped all of the butterfly bodies. I ordered (and cut!) all of my background fabric. And I’ve almost completed 3 butterflies! (They just need embroidery.) I am having so much fun with this! I even made my first 9 patch!
9. Caterpillar Quilt. I got all of the white fabric cut for Xander’s quilt as well!
10. Professional Development. I actually got some done! I think I’m up to 22 hours. lol. Still a long way to go, but I’m finally making some progress!
Wow! I got waaaaaay more done than I was expecting to. 🙂 Let’s think about September, shall we?
Windchime Block. This is my UFO challenge quilt for the month. Let’s be real, there’s no way that I’m finishing this quilt in a month. lol. But I would like to finish 1 block. Spoiler alert: I was so excited about working on it this month that I started on it as soon as our guild meeting ended. I’ve now got all of the EPP done and I’ve moved on to applique.
2. Butterfly Quilt. I’d like to prep and applique 10 more butterflies.
3. Caterpillar Quilt. Create templates and prep some blocks. What I’d like to do is to cut and prep a circle each time I cut and prep a butterfly. That way, the caterpillars will be all ready to go!
4. Project Life. I’m getting further behind again. lol. I’d like to finish May and June at minimum. Getting July done would be a bonus.
5. Scrapping. Also falling further behind here. I’m sensing a theme. lol. Hmm… If I could scrap July 2018 and also scrap 10 current layouts, that would be amazing!
6. Advent Calendar. I’d like to make some progress on this. Hmm… Maybe I’ll say that I’d like to commit to 3 evenings this month where I put away my quilting and work on the advent calendar. I’m sure that I’ll ramp up as it gets closer to Christmas!
7. Plan Halloween Costumes. We’re leaning towards Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf, at least partially because that was my all time favorite costume of Kate’s! Naturally, I can’t find said costume. lol. Kate’s still undecided.
8. Plan September Girl Scouts Meetings.
9. Fall Break. I’m considering a mini road trip for a few days over fall break… Maybe Dallas? I’m open to other suggestions! Maybe even the beach again!
10. Professional Development. Boo. So boring. But, I need to get it done. Maybe 2 6 hour classes this month? I need to sit down and figure out a timeline so I’m not panicking in February!
Oh my gosh, how is summer already over?!? Kate went off to 5th grade this morning and I have to say that I’m about to have a mental breakdown. How is it her last year of Primary School when she just started preschool?!?
Oh my gosh! So freaking cute!
And now look at her, practically grown! And yes, her hair is purple. What can I say, I felt bad that she has to wear a uniform (although truly I LOVE the uniforms!) and since there are no rules against hair dye, purple it is! I’m not crazy though so we didn’t bleach it. It’s a wash in dye that’s supposed to last for 30 washes. We’ll see.
It just seems impossible to me that next year she will be in middle school and the babies will be in kindergarten!
I can’t believe that summer is almost over! It seems like this summer flew by and I’m so not ready for it to be over. 🙁 Kate goes back to school on Thursday and that just seems impossible! But before I go down a panicky rabbit hole, let’s look at the July goals.
Finish Project Life gap. Done and dusted! Yay!
Project Life May 2019. Nope. Didn’t even touch this one. ::sigh::
Scrapping- mixed media backgrounds. Done! And it’s working as I’ve actually made a few pages. I’m so happy that my scrappy mojo is returning. 🙂
Hexies. I actually finished my super block #10! Amazingly enough, I only need to make 2 more super blocks and then basically all of the hexies for the quilt will be basted. I’m putting this on the back burner for now though because I need to wait for some new fabric lines to come out! I feel like I’ve bought every available charm pack that goes with my colors. lol.
Christmas Half Square Triangles. I got all of these trimmed down, and about half of them sewn together and I’m really pleased with how it’s looking! I also decided on what I wanted for the border, but naturally it’s sold out everywhere. Grr… Note to self, next time buy the borders when you buy the charm packs!
Take my kids swimming. Done! So many times over. 🙂 Kate’s bestie is a saint and she lets us crash her neighborhood pool on the reg. Not only is it a totally awesome pool, she helps me watch the twins!
Make popsicles with the kids. We didn’t do this, but we did one better! I took the kids out for ice cream after Kate’s orthodontist appointment. Yum!
Splash Pad. The local (awesome) Down syndrome group plans regular meet ups and we almost never make it to them because we have so much stuff going on. But today we made it out to the splash pad and had a great time! I need to make these meet ups more of a priority.
Library with the kids. Done! I even managed to take Kate to the tween book club meeting that the library hosts once a month. Have I mentioned that our library rocks? Because it totally does!
Thinkery. We made it! So much fun. 🙂 I love this place.
Time for some August goals!
Girl Scouts. Yikes y’all. I’ve been Kate’s assistant leader for a few years now, but our actual leader is taking a break and asked me to step up. I have a lot to do this month, including but not limited to: figuring out the banking account, finding out which CPR class to take, and taking said CPR class. I’d like to get all of my necessary trainings done and finalize the fall calendar and budget before our first meeting. Luckily, my new coleader is amazeballs. Also, I found this awesome planner.
First day of school pics and interviews. One of my favorite traditions. 🙂 I just wish I could find a new chalkboard that was identical to the one I’ve been using but not cracked!
Quilting. My UFO challenge for the month is Kate’s unicorn quilt. Dang it. lol. I need to sew on one more border and then figure out how to quilt and bind it. But I think this is doable!
Editing. Since I’ll need to order 8×8 prints for the kids’ interview books, I might as well go ahead and do a large print order to save on the shipping. On that note, I’d like to edit/ upload pics for Project Life May- July. Also, edit/ upload pics for Scrapbook November (2018)- July (2019). Even as I’m typing this I know it will never happen. lol. Maybe I should just say that I will start at November and edit/ upload until I reach 200 pics. That’s what I usually buy during their print sale anyway.
Bluebonnets. I’d also like to finish hand quilting my bluebonnet quilt. I’m actually quite close and I think a few more evenings would finish it off.
Appliqué. Speaking of bluebonnets, I’d like to make a new template for petal placement and go ahead and draw onto the background fabric where the petals should go. Then I can work on my appliqué while I’m out and about since I don’t have any hexies to work on at the moment.
Advent Calendar. You guys. My mom is so awesome. I loved loved loved our advent calendar that we had when I was a kid so much, but I couldn’t find the kit for love or money. She tracked down an UNOPENED one and got it for me for Christmas! To say that I’m excited is a massive understatement. Now that it’s August, it’s time to start on Christmas crafts! I’d like to open the kit up, sort the threads, and get organized.
Butterfly Quilt. Speaking of Christmas… I really want to make Mia a butterfly quilt for Christmas. In my mind, this goes along with a new big girl/ big boy room for the twins, but that may or may not be in Santa’s budget this year. lol. The quilt I can do though! (probably…) This month, I’d like to finalize the design for the butterflies and start prepping the appliqué. Also, go ahead and order the background white on white fabric.
Caterpillar Quilt. And since they’re twins, Xander needs a new quilt too! His is going to be a caterpillar to go along with Mia’s butterflies. How cute is this going to be?!? Since his will have the same background fabric, I’d like to order enough for both of them.
Professional Development. Boo. I so don’t want to do this. lol. But I’ve put it off as long as I possibly could! I need 150 hours of professional development by the end of March to renew my teaching certification. Yikes. I want to go ahead and trouble shoot my computer issues with the online classes (read: beg RaptorDad for help!), figure out a schedule, track down the certificates I do have, (I should have between 6-12 hours already done) and get 2 (6 hour) classes done.
Y’all! If I get even half of this list done I will be thrilled. lol. I’d say maybe I’ll get some blogging done when the kids go back to school, but I think we all know that’s unlikely. lol.
How is it already the 10th?!? June flew by! Speaking of, let’s take a look at the goals, shall we? I actually got a decent amount done!
Project Life 2018. Done! Yay!!! It always makes me happy to get a new album onto my book shelf. 🙂
Scrap. Honestly, I didn’t get much scrapping done this month, but I did get 2 new layouts done. Still need to set aside a large chunk of time and work on mass producing some backgrounds.
Sewing. Um, I officially moved the unicorn quilt to the Christmas gift pile. lol. AKA I didn’t work on it at all! The thing is, it’s not even going to take me that long to finish the top, but I’m at a spot with a coping border and I’m worried all of my seams won’t line up. I should probably just accept that my seams won’t line up and move on, huh? lol.
Hexagons. I sewed together the big chunk! I also laid it out on Mimi’s bed and we discussed how big it should be and I’ve decided that scaling it back just a little bit will be just fine. So I need to make 3 more super hexie blocks, not 7. Yay! Here’s RaptorDad holding it up for me. I’m officially 1/3 of the way done!
Windchime. It took a lot longer than expected to stitch together the hexies, partly because I ended up needed a ton of joining hexies! So, no progress on wind chime this month. ::pouty face::
Applique. I didn’t manage to work on this at all this month either…
Charm Quilt. My amazing Mimi took pity on me and added a bit more quilting to the borders and helped me bind it so it’s officially done! We have all loved snuggling under it together!
Beach pics. Better! I’m obviously still awaiting some magical trick to have all of my kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time (I suspect this magical trick is to hiring a professional lol) but I’m mostly happy with how these turned out. And we had a fantastic time at the beach!
Beach Trip Prep. Well, I caved and just let the kids watch movies the whole way there. Oh well. My mom and I had a lovely chat!
Montessori Trays. Big fat fail.
Should I even bother with July goals? lol. Of course!
Project Life. Finish gap. Which is only 2 layouts and I even already have the pics printed! Need to just get this done.
Project Life. I would like to tackle May of 2019 just in the interest of not getting further behind.
Scrapping. I’m not even going to set a layout goal because my scrappy mojo appears to have taken a vacation, but I do want to make a big stack of mixed media backgrounds. I think this would go a long way towards coaxing my mojo to return!
Hexies. Honestly, I would be taking a break from my hexies if not for the fact that my quilt guild is having a UFO contest this year in which we listed 12 projects and then they draw a number each month and we work on the corresponding project. Guess which number was pulled this month… Number 1 which was my hexies. lol. Clearly I’m not going to finish the top this month (this year?) but I do want to finish super hexie block number 10.
Christmas Half Square Triangles. I pulled this out again this week and started working on it some more. I’ve now gotten half of the rows completed. I just need to trim down the other half of the squares and sew them together. Then I get to decide what I want to do with the borders. 🙂
Take my kids swimming.
Make popsicles with kids.
Take kids to the splash pad.
Library with kids.
Thinkery with kids.
Notice anything about the last 5? They’re not crafty goals, but they are the most important goals on the list to me! Our summer is over halfway over! And I feel like we’ve been so busy that we haven’t “done summer” yet! So these are some easy goals to remind me of what my real purpose is this summer. <3 <3 <3
