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Hi there. It's been quiet here, hasn't it?

Most of you know that I have long struggled with the decision of whether or not to have another child. I love Jack to pieces, but getting him here was very difficult for me. In fact, it was the scariest thing I had ever done.

Recently I had decided that if I was going to have another child it was getting to the now or never point.

I started going back to church. I made peace with God. I let go of the fear and looked for the hope.

It took awhile, but early this spring I decided I was ready to go for it.

And I got pregnant again rather quickly.

I was so damn excited. Another baby, another piece of David and I, another little redheaded ball of love.

But something never felt right.

Where was all that horrible sickness I had with Jack? I felt totally, completely fine.

I had horrible anxiety the entire time because I could not let go of the worry that something was wrong.

Last Thursday I started spotting.

Sometime over the weekend I had a miscarriage.

So. Here we are.

I think I am ok. The anxiety is nearly gone. The hardest part is that this is a bit of a mental set back for me. I had just convinced myself, after nearly 5 years, that it would be ok to get pregnant again and clearly this is not the outcome I was expecting.

It will be quiet here for a bit while I wrap my brain around of all of this.

I need to regroup. I need to spend some time enjoying Jack. I need to watch 9,000 hours of old 90210 DVDs.

I need to grieve a little and then decide where to go from here in regards to our family size.

This is not an end to the hope I spent time finding this spring. I just need to find the courage to gather it up again.

But I will be back *here*.

See you soon.

Let's do some junking

I've been trying to take photos of things from junking here and there. It seems like I am only able to find one thing on every outing, so not all of these are from the same day!
I have some milk glass, but I don't really have a passion to collect milk glass. This cookie jar was too good to pass up though.
I managed to find a strand of glass garland in a bag of a bunch of other junk. Love the unusual shapes on these beads.
I picked this up when they sold off the rest of my "adopted grandma's" stuff at a yard sale. I LOVE it so much in all of it's patchworky type glory.

I am on the hunt for the perfect frame.
And I also picked up four ancient teacup applique blocks. These are super sweet and need to be made into a pillow I think.

On Friday Dave and I are going to do the 100 mile yard sale again (and Jack is having his very first sleepover!). I am really hoping the 100 mile sale is better than the rest of the garage sales and flea markets have been this year.

Ok, off with me then. Jack is at his final day of Mother's Day Out. Ever. Man how time flies. He has been begging to stay for their extended play so he is gone until 4 (!!) today. Whatever will I do with myself?

Oh, I know, the couch is saying "please come take a nap on me..."

Only at my house?

A few days ago we were in Jack's room doing some cleaning.

Dave "Do you smell burning rubber in here?"
Me "Ummm, not really."
Dave "I keep smelling burning rubber in here."

I promptly forgot about it and we cleaned the house. (Top to bottom type cleaning, dusting, vaccuuming, etc. This will be important in a minute.)

Yesterday I am futzing around on the couch and out comes Dave.

Dave "Dear, I found the source of the burning rubber smell."
Me "Oh yea?"
Dave "Finding Nemo underwear on the chandelier."

LOLOLOLOLOL

Yes, we have fancy chandeliers in every room. And yes, we apparently have underwear hanging from them. (That we never notice.)

Thank you Karma

I'm telling you, there is some kind of weird quilt karma going on with me the past two years. I have no idea why they keep coming to me, but they do.

And it's wonderful!

(And here I thought I really loved the tablecloths. The quilts are completely stealing my passion and adoration.)
One day last week I had been having a rough day with Jack, so after dinner I took off to hit the thrift. There was a wicked storm rolling in so I was really rushing. I first fingered this beautiful, buttery yellow quilt and left it there. On first glance I assumed it was just a commercial quilt.
But it was SO soft and I loved the scalloped edge so much. I figured for 6 bucks I would just cuddle it on the couch or use it as a picnic blanket or something.

Then I noticed this eagle in the corners. Do you see it? The head is pointing to the upper left corner, wings pointing to the upper right and lower left corners.

Upon closer inspection I found a seam in the middle from piecing fabric and all of those teeny tiny stitches are definitely done by hand. (You can see knots and irregularities.) Maybe it's from the 1970's, when Americana was all the rage? Colors seem wrong for that, but it is lovely.
On Saturday morning we went to another city wide garage sale. This time it was in St Louis instead of the country, so not nearly as enjoyable as the last one we went to.

We went to a gazillion garage sales and this is all I bought. This quilt is SO heavy.

The colors are wonderful and I LOVE the stars she has put in the middle of the plates.
There are loads of great 1930's/1940's novelty prints here.
It seems a bit strange that she used a fan quilting pattern on a plate applique, but whatever. :-)

And although the blue looks like a solid color, it is actually the tiniest blue and white stripe.

Love.

So, Thank you Karma for giving me two beautiful new quilts to take the place of the one that is going to a new home!

I had Jack pick a number and he choose number 72, which is Rosemary ! I know she will give that turquoise beauty and good home.

Thank you to everyone who played along and sent burfday wishes. It definitely brightened my day.

Hapde Burfday to me (and to you too)

Ahhhhhhhhh, my new boyfriend. I haven't abandoned Jon Bon Jovi altogether, but Bourdain's bad boy ways are too sexy to resist. Dinner with him would be the *perfect* birthday present, in case anyone was wondering what to get me!

34. How did I get to be 34? I am not exactly feeling chipper about the old birthday this year. Sigh.

Ok, onto the giveaway.
I bought this quilt off Ebay when we lived in Florida, so it's been with me about 10 years. (Oy, that time thing again!) Given the ever bursting state of the quilt cabinet , it's time to set her free.
As far as I can tell it has never been washed. The blue lines for the embroidery are still there.
And the sweet prairie point edges!

The boring bit:
It's big, so I can only ship it within the US (I would have to sell Jack to pay the postage otherwise).
Leave a comment saying "I want that quilt!" so that I know you aren't just leaving birthday wishes. :-) (But leaving just birthday wishes is not discouraged either, LOLOLOL.)
Be sure I can figure out where to find you if you don't have a blog/email address/blogger profile/etc that links to someplace to contact you!
Jack and I will pick a winner on Sunday.

Good luck!

Cheap backyard games for preschoolers

For two summers now I have really struggled with ways to keep Jack entertained in the backyard for long periods of time. When he was smaller it was easier. He would spend hours and hours in the sandbox, riding in his little tikes cars, pushing hot wheels on the patio etc.

This year I think we finally have a few winning ideas.
Bowling! Jack is obsessed with bowling right now. He had those plastic pins made for kids but the wind kept blowing them over and they wouldn't stand up properly on the uneven ground and it was frustrating for all of us.

A few phone calls and two days later we had a full set of real bowling pins.
Bowling alleys toss pins once they get soft or start to crack etc. We happen to know someone who used to work in an alley and they were happy to give away some of the rejects.

Even without an *in*, I imagine you could call up your local alley and ask what they do with theirs. Do be aware though that they are HEAVY and really not suitable for super small kids. (Alternatively you can buy lawn bowling sets, but hey, we are looking for cheap here right?)

We use a basketball as the bowling ball.
We also have turned our backyard into a sort of mini golf course on the cheap.
Dig a few holes around the yard and sink in some small terra cot pots. The pots have a drainage hole in the bottom so any rainwater easily flows out of them and they are a perfect size for getting a golf ball into.
(That's Jack's hole in one.) We have been able to pick up putters at all kinds of places - garage sales, flea markets and goodwill, where there is always a bin of golf clubs. Add a few golf balls and the kids are off and running.

We just set some cones we have near the holes so everyone can see where the holes are right now, but I have a dowel kicking around in the rafters and I am going to make some felt flags for the dowel so we can have proper hole markers.

You can use your baby swimming pool as a water hazard, the sand box as the sand trap, and the other backyard toys as obstacles. (Jack particularly likes using the slide, lol.)

One other game we are getting mileage out of is washers . Around here we don't play it exactly like that website describes (we all have these wooden boxes with PVC pipe "holes", which I swear you must own to have your St Louis *creed*, lol), but, the website tells you how to get it set up in your own yard with a few tin cans and some washers.

Whew! Summer time fun on the cheap. It's a good thing. LOL

P.S. I know there are some questions about the hex quilt, I am going to try and take a few photos to help some of you out.

P.P.S. Tomorrow is the big burfday party! Complete with a give away. See you then!

Shabby Chic Sheet Quilt

If you are anything like me you have a pile of flat sheets in your linen closet that never get used. When I cleaned the closet out a few weeks ago I went ahead and pulled them all out and put them in the sewing room.

I'd been wanting to make myself a new quilt for awhile. My very much beloved current quilt was a gift from grandmother, and it is completely threadbare. Since she has been gone since 1998, I want to preserve what little is left of it.

I kept looking at those sheets and tossing around ideas of what to do with them. Squares? Stripes?

Late one night it hit me, giant hexagons.
I've used only Shabby Chic (from Target) sheets, 6 patterns and one plain white one.
And after countless hours* cutting and sewing, I am pretty pleased with the result.
It's backed with a sheet in the pink on pink print, and I just did a front to back binding instead of the more time consuming binding method I usually use. (In all honesty I was SO bloody sick of this project by the time it came to binding I am surprised I finished it.)
It looks a bit washed out, it was gray yesterday.
A shot of it on our bed. (It was rainy that day, just can't win sometimes!)

Now I can get back to life and other projects!

*I am pretty sure I have spent three solid weeks making this thing.

Hapde Mother's Day

I am sure there are a lot of sappy things I could say about Mother's Day.
But I am not feeling particularly sappy today for some reason.
Jack gave me a beautiful card he picked out himself. He wanted me to know he made all those x's and o's as kisses for me. (Ok, that part makes me feel sappy.)
I thought it might be nice to get a photo of him today. So we picked a peony and set off trying to get a photo. If you are wondering why there are fewer and fewer photos of Jack around here lately, this is a little sampling of why. LOL
Is he being a lion? LOLOL
Picking off the petals.

Put your chin down Jack! But I like my chin up!
Are we done yet? I don't even know how to smile!

And a sweet conversation at the dinner table yesterday:
"Mom, do you like chocolate?"
"Yes."
"Whipped cream?"
"Yes."
"Cake?"
"Yes."
"Ice cream?"
"Yes."
"But you don't like nasty words."

HA!

Hapde Mother's Day to everyone.

P.S. I will be back tomorrow with the giant projik I have been working on, it's finally complete.
P.P.S. Only 4 days to my burfday, and you know what that means? Uh huh, burfday giveaway time. (And pictures of Bon Jovi. Or maybe Anthony Bourdain this year. Heehee.)

Around our house

I have a 4 1/2 year old who is insists he be allowed to Go Commando .

Oh my. The mothering handbook did not prepare me for this one.

It's a good thing he is smart as a whip.

"Mom, today is the sixth. So that means (some quick calculations) only 8 more days until your birthday!"

Amazing.

*I am still working on that quilt. Something crafty will be in this space again soon I hope.

** I did not throw away the children of the corn, I knew they would find a good home with one of you.

Children of the corn

Well hello again.

It's unusual for me to be away from here for so long. There is all at once a lot going over here and nothing going on over here if that makes any sense. I have been totally engrossed in my latest quilting project and I am cooking up a surprise or two.

But that will have to wait!
I walked past this thing like 4 times at the thrift before I decided to buy it. Sometimes I have a hard time getting past what something looks like *right now*. And right then it was totally '80's.
Complete with children of the corn. (And extra stinky dead flowers, I am not a fan of dried eucalyptus.)

So I pulled all that stuff off, scraped off the glue, sanded and sanded and then painted the bottom.
I had been waiting for inspiration to strike as to what to put in the thing before I showed it to you, but, I've waited too long already. So let's try a few things out.

A pile of antlers? They need to be fidgeted with more and they need more in there, but Jack was all up in my business by the time I got to the antlers and I was having visions of disaster.

Besides, they are just *eh* to me in this way.
How about a pink milk glass pot with an African violet?

Eh.
A big beautiful pink conch shell?

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, closer. Love the pink with the blue. Love something oceany. Could be bigger though. (Except it is already so wide that it just barely fits, so a bigger shell would likely be too wide.)

What would you put in there?