Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day Weekend

Happy Memorial Day!!!!
 
Hope you all have enjoyed the long weekend. Well it was a long week and weekend for us! 
This week we have had a chance to shuck corn and eat it fresh! Yummy!
  

And enjoy a huge slices of watermelon...does it get any better???

Sarah finished up the week with Dare Day! They traveled to the local airport/ police station and had an opportunity to climb a rock wall, see how police dogs work, tour through an ambulance and also see all of the plane and helicopters on display. Fun day! They even signed shirts (before they put them on!!!)
 
And a very sweet surprise from a friend.....she read my blog about how much fun we had playing Apples to Apples when we were camping....and she sent us the game!!! I was so excited and so were the girls!!! Thank you soooooo much Kelly!!!!  We've already played and laughed some more! Its a fun game for all ages! LOL!!!
 
To get ready for Memorial Day, Devon made all of her Kindergarten friends red/white/blue bracelets. She wrapped each of them and gave them to her school friends to wear over the weekend...wasn't that so lovely??!! I had nothing to do with it...it was all her!!! Below you can see some unwrapped gifts!
 
Each evening, Daddy and Brooklyn have been playing the "Penny Game"....searching through piles of pennies for wheat pennies and other valuable finds! I am telling you that girl knows more about money than I do!!!!!
 
And that brings us to the actual weekend! We had a yard sale with our neighbor and another friend! What fun! I put out a few toys and some outgrown dresses and customs. They all were snatched up! I think it was a very successful morning but my hubby says no. Oh well! We had fun!
 
We had a quick breakfast....Brooklyn enjoying toast!
 
Getting everything set up and our little table for bug spray and tea! I love to have tea with vanilla creamer in the morning!!! Delish! The girls ran around and played. Our neighbor's boys hung around too! Each night all the kids played whiffle ball in the side yard! All I heard was laughing and cheers! I was in working on my quilt!
 
After a quick lunch, Sarah and I went to get our haircut.  It took like three hours!!!! But here are our finished looks! Sarah got a trim and a few layers and highlights. I got a short bob, color and highlights too! This will be perfect for the summer!!!
On Sunday, we cleaned all morning and I took a nap!!!! The ice cream man driving through the neighborhood woke me up with the incessant music...grrrrr. I worked on my quilt...see more about that below! Then we had a huge BBQ for dinner with steak and corn and pasta salad!!! We had ice pops for dessert! We were STUFFED!!!!!!!

Monday afternoon we braved the heat and headed to the Wildwood Boardwalk! Boy was it hot! And Sunny! And hot!!! But we loved it! We arrived around 11:30 and didnt stop walking till we left at 3:30. Seriously, I felt like I had just toured EPCOT!!!

We visited Lime Ricky's, of course! They had a drawing and Devon won!!! Yaaa Devon! She was a little scared to wear the Lime Suit but not Brooklyn! She wore it in her stead! Then Devon spun the Lucky Wheel and won 800 tickets!!! Way to go girl! Edmund won his fair share of tickets too!


So after that fun, we continued down the boardwalk to the Curly Fry Birthday Party!!! Along the way we came across this new place....Can you believe your eyes? Humans climb inside balls and battle it out over the water....spinning and falling all the while! LOL! They looked like hamsters in those clear plastic balls!!! So funny!
We finally made it to Curly himself! Happy Birthday! They had Sunny the seagull and a very tall girl to help with the festivities!
After a few pics, we headed onto the pier for Sarah to ride the Great Nor'Easter. Great name for a coaster around here....since we get so many of these storms!!! She was so brave!!! I tried to capture a few pics of her riding. Can you see her waving below???? 
We saw advertisements along the boardwalk for this movie Standing Ovation. And here they were on the pier! I snapped a quick pic. Apparently is a movie coming out soon???? Anyone have info? Then the girls found a Curly Fry craft table.....appropriately, they were to decorate spuds!!!! Of course I was stuck carrying them around the rest of the day! Boy I miss those stroller days when I had a place to stash stuff!
It was finally time for the Curly Fry Eating Contest....apparently they brought in professionals! But before the big event they gave out free tee shirts and lots of cupcakes...they had boxes of them!!!! We also managed to buy a bucket of those yummy crinkle-cut fries!!! Don't you just love boardwalk food????
jjj 
 After this we walked back up the boardwalk and the girls went on some more rides. Then we had pizza and headed home exhausted!!! And hot!!! What a great day!

I would just like to express my thanks and appreciation to all those who spend (or have spent) their days in harm's way protecting the United States and the freedoms we enjoy! Their sacrifices mean so much to me as I try to raise my children in an unpredictable world!!! Many thanks to all of you!!!
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Finally, I just wanted to give you all an update on my quilt. First, I have to say, I have never quilted or stippled before. This is the step that joins and stabilizes the three layers of a quilt.  And since that is a major part of quilting, I thought I had better learn....FAST!!! I watched a few u-tube and website videos and then tried it out on my machine. First, I looked at my "feet" that came with my machine and low and behold, I had a special foot that you quilt with. Yaaa! I put it on and layered some fabric and just did it. It is actually quite fun and relaxing!!! I had a blast...I tried different patterns. I think I am going to just stick with the regular stippling for most of the quilt. I may do something fancy on the border though...we shall see!


The next thing I had to do was lay out all of the blocks and figure out if what I had in my head was going to look ok. I did end up rearranging some of the blocks and strips after taking this pic. A friend online told me that your eye goes to sameness so make sure I spread out similar looking strip patterns. I went with the center being the same color paisley, the alternating "scroll" and "paisley" colors from the center out. All the edges will have a strip border. There will be another border (aqua scroll) and a binding as well on the outer edge.
And lastly here is a pic of the start of the columns (there will be 7 of them). Don't you just love Jennifer Paganelli's fabrics????? I can't wait to see the finished quilt! I am also redoing the curtains and ordering sheets and will do some pillow shams and maybe a pillow?? So fun!

 And speaking of fun.......did you see that Jennifer and Carla's latest pattern was released this past  week????? It is the Tommy (for adults) and the Louey (for children) boxers...perfect for Father's Day or any occasion. They are actually unisex and have several different lengths. The Louey is available right now in our Etsy shop and both will soon  be available on ycmt.com as well!

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Can't wait to hear all about it!!!! Can you believe tomorrow is June 1st???? Wow!!!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Checking in Mid-May!

Hello Everyone!!! 
May is flying by and we are all so busy here! The girls are ready for summer and truthfully I am too, but alas, it is still a good month away! So its off to school/work we go! However, we have been pretending to be on vacation on the weekends! The weather hasn't decided what to do either...some days are hot and humid (high 80's) and other days are rainy, windy and only in the 40's. These kind of days run back to back.

I have had a chance to sew some things. I had some pants to hem for hubby and some testing to do for the wonderful Scientific Seamstress! Sneak peaks below! And, I also decided to begin another quilt, even though my other one isn't done. Before I began the quilt, I wanted to practice my piecing skills, so I made a patchwork twirl and a matching top from a charm pack. I supplemented to the pack and I think it came out darling. Great for Devon or Brook to wear to Sarah's upcoming "graduation" from 6th grade. Yep...you heard that right...my little angel baby girl is finishing elementary school in one short month..sigh.


So here is the start of the skirt! I love charm packs...everything is already cut and square and mixed! I love to lay out the squares and plan the layers!



And here is the finished outfit!!! The twirl skirt.....


And the top with the skirt!

 
Speaking of beautiful fabrics.....Jennifer Paganelli has some gorgeous new fabrics coming out! Have you seen Poodle? Absolutely gorgeous, rich colors and patterns! Check out her blog for details!!! She has the most beautiful quilt pic there today! 

As you can probably gather....Jennifer's fabrics move me...and touch my spirit so much so that I finally decided to try out my non-existent quilting skills and redo my bedroom with a Jennifer Paganelli quilt. I was sure I would be happy looking at a quilt I made, mistakes and all! So I found a free pattern with her fabrics. I picked the Sis Boom Basics Quilt but decided to do it mostly with her new line, St. Croix. I also mixed in some Pretty Please stripes!  I had to enlarge it to be a queen-size however. I happily pulled out my calculator, graph paper, pencil and ruler!!!! I loves me some quilt math!!! Then I ordered a bunch of fabric from a wonderful shop, Quilt Home. They were so efficient and quick and my fabric arrived all neatly packed and bundled!!! Feast your eyes.......

So with my quilt plans in hand and my trusty rotary cutter and ruler, I carefully began. I didn't fussy cut the blocks so I hope it still looks right. I decided to just dive in and not over-plan like I am apt to do! So, above are my squares and rectangles....and below,  is my first block! Only 55 more to go!!!




While I am at it, I thought I would show you something else I have been sewing.....boxers! I have been testing these for a soon-to-happen pattern release of Sis Boom and Scientific Seamstress! So stay tuned! They are fast and easy to assemble and Carla makes it easy with lots of pics and step-by-step directions!  (sorry for the wrinkles in the second pic!)
 
And one final thing craft item....see it pays to hang out on Facebook! I noticed that Beadiful Kids was having a sale on necklaces. There are not your normal everyday necklaces...these are gorgeous hand-made polymer clay and bead necklaces....that are colorful and very well made!!!! The sculpting on the clay is very intricate and I absolutely love it. I WILL be back to order more!  (Oh and I forgot to tell you why I needed the necklace. Brooklyn is finally having her birthday party....6 months after her birthday...and the theme is Mermaid by the Sea!)
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Meanwhile our weekends have been filled with activities, swim lessons and general fun! We've been able to take a few walks down to the Bay and back! The girls tried out a gymnastics studio and are looking forward to a summer gymnastics camp. It is still in the works...not definite yet. Sarah is undecided as of yet. 

Last weekend we attended the Wildwood Crest 100th anniversary festival! There were pony rides and a bouncy bounce! Food and crafts! And the weather cooperated! Before we left, the girls played on the playground too!


Meanwhile, back at home, other developments were taking place. A long anticipated outdoor shower was installed! For now, we are showering with bathing suits ON....but next year, we will have the shower stall walls up! It will be so nice to get all the sand off the kids BEFORE they traipse across my poor floor!

 
 
I have no idea why I took the pic above....I think the girls were running around and around and around the house before the mosquitos appeared. And below....they were practicing headstands on the sofa! LOL! They play everything they do.
 

I have to tell you something funny. At the above Festival, the girls both painted seashells. We left them to dry while we enjoyed the rest of the activities. Well, when we arrived home, I remembered the shells and stupid me...said something. Well, Devon cried over her left-behind shell for an hour. So this weekend, I picked up paint (cool stuff...its paint in marker form...see below...not messy at all!) and glitter and shells. They had a great time decorating new shells! They even did it when their friend, Julia, came over.

  


And finally, a chance to get close to nature came up when Sarah was invited by her best friend to go camping! Luckily, they were going to a camp site close to home...and they were so sweet to include Sarah. Not only that but the little girls and I joined them Saturday night for dinner and fun! We really enjoyed a yummy grilled meal, relaxation, smores and a fun game of Apples to Apples! I really gotta get this game! Its a blast! Oh how we giggled and laughed.


So, that's all for now! I am off to get everyone in bed and squeeze in some last minute sewing before the work week begins again. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the days we have been given. 
God Bless!!!!!!