How ya been?

So where in the world have we been? I know I’ve been kinda phoning the Crafty Tuesdays and Team Up Thursdays in, and it isn’t as if we don’t have all kinds of stuff going on…but I thought September was a crazy busy month? I think October is at least three times as busy.

I just dumped my camera and uploaded a mere fraction of the photos from October and realized I gotta lot of explaining to do.

We’ve been soaking up our autumn and getting into the groove of school, ballet, and lots and lots of soccer. Em is progressing nicely on the soccer field – at the very least she is trying very, very hard.

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Mama has been playing on Sundays too, and I don’t know if I’ve been progressing or not but I got cranked in the head with a soccer ball last Sunday and dropped like a sack of potatoes, saw a few stars, and still have a tender spot on the side of my head. Not my finest moment, but I’ll be there again Sunday…clearly that ball knocked all remaining common sense out of me.

Let’s see, what else? The girls and I had a visitor last week. My cousin, whom I haven’t seen in probably 10 years came out to SoCal to visit us. We had a great time. I found that we don’t live that far from the Reagan Presidential Library, so we took a little trip up there for the day.

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Yes. It is very gorgeous up there. And we saw a whole bunch of very cool stuff and got to go into the decommissioned Air Force One…

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…and saw a replica White House (that is to scale and even the carpets and chandeliers are perfect replicas!).

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It was fascinating. I’m already planning a trip back there with the girls and maybe one with my Brownie troop if they are interested.

We also took some time to run around and stretch our legs…

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Addie totally “tricked” Andy into tagging him by telling him, “I just want to give you a hug,” which of course stopped him in his tracks, and as he stooped down to get his hug, she tagged him and said “I tricked you! You’re it.”

Yeah, she is a stinker.

We learned about Andy’s zoo (he works for the St. Louis Zoo).

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We found a British Tearoom that serves Cornish pasties and celebrated Andy’s birthday with an afternoon tea.

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(The pasties were good…but not “Aunty” good. Still, if some Yoopers come visit, we’ll gladly trek back out that way!)

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It was a really fun week, and even though our time with Andy was short, the end of the week also brought home our Daddy. I can’t even tell you how happy we ALL were to see him.

So this week we are enjoying our Daddy time and I was feeling all relaxed and calm. Until today. Today I realized that even though October does indeed have five weekends, I do not have another week before Halloween, like I keep thinking I do.

Next week! Next week is Halloween! Along with Halloween parties, costumes (that I need to make!!) and trick-o-treating, we have more visitors coming next week, and a Carnival for the PTA in the middle of all of this. I think I need to stop feeling all calm and go get to work.

Crafty Tuesday

Projects, projects, projects. It is all about getting some projects finished, or rather…started, around here this week. Even if by getting them “started” just means digging out the fabric and moving the stacks to my ironing board.

The first project probably looks a little familiar for it is version 2 of last week’s project. I just gave it to my friend Jamie to beta test for me. I think this one works much better than mine from last week. I like the loop better – it is better secured, and I lined the lines up (front and back) a little better, they are still not perfect. And, yes (Kimberly and Arizaphale) – the material is just felt and I stitched the lines on. Although I’m thinking you could use up bits of fabric if you wanted to and just interface them to make them stiffer. Also don’t really need the stitching detail – and can customize the appliques for just about anyone/anything! It is a fun project.

Anyhow, I’m much happier with version 2 and I think we already have some additions/changes for version 3. I do think I need to heed the advice I’m always passing along to Emma. “Slow down and think it through…” I’m always in such a hurry to see the finished project sometimes I get to a step and realize, “hmmm…should’ve probably done that before I stitched those last two somethings together!”

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I also told my friend that I would put together some vintage pillowcase dresses for her Boutique in December. So I dug into my stash of pillowcases and found 23 that will work nicely. I washed them, sized them, and cut them out…but that is as far as they are right now. I’m hoping the stack will remind me to work on them.

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I’m also determined to make some of these little “study quilts” for Christmas for some girlies I know. I ordered this fabric to try one for Em, but now that it is here, I’m feeling like it is a little baby-ish. Not that I can’t use it to do a quilt for a baby who might come along, but I’m not sure I want to use it for hers.

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Addie’s, however, I think that might be just fine. It is puurrrrrfect!

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And I’ve got some fun fabric for pillows for the playroom.

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But my most pressing project (the one that I’m posting here in the hopes that it will propel me into action and finally get it done) is the living room drapery. I had been hunting for fabric/drapes for awhile, since we had ugly blue ones in here and then we inherited some cool red chairs from a friend and well, that blue and red just wasn’t working out.

So I started the living room makeover many months ago and finally found these cool drapes at a ridiculously low price (never EVER could have made the drapes for the cost). The only problem was they didn’t come in the 108″ length I need for all SIX windows.

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See? Just a wee bit too short. (Yes…I know they also need a pressing. I was kinda hoping the wrinkles would “fall” out, but nooooo! Couldn’t be that easy, right?)

But, like I said the price was really right, and I found some chocolate silk duponi fabric that matches perfectly, so I’m doing a horizontal stripe of chocolate at the bottom of the drapes to make some of that cool fabric “pooling” that I really wanted in there. In theory it all sounds good, but it is just so frightening cutting into all of that silk. Not to mention, it is incredibly slippery and puckery.

We’ll see. But now that I’ve said I’m doing it…documented here in “internet stone” I feel like I really have to do it.