My Mary

Here are a couple of pictures from Friday night when my baby sister Mary got home. (just for a quick visit over the weekend for a couple parties) We went out to eat at a local Mexican restaurant and enjoyed a song by the Mariachi Band. It was so fun! I love my baby sister so much and I am soooo thankful dad flew her home for the weekend. We had a huge weekend with two big parties on Sunday so more info and pictures will follow soon, but just wanted to go ahead and get these up for now!

My house is feeling a little better about itself!

I still have a million and one projects either in mid-project or on the to do list, but my house is feeling a little more self-confident today!

Kevin finished laying, nailing down and caulking the quarter-round in the kitchen the past two nights and I actually cleaned the house yesterday! (I was able to get off early, so I had to take advantage of the extra time at home and do some cleaning, still not the deep Spring cleaning I know it needs, but at least there isn't a layer of dust on everything anymore!) I have also been busy sewing some little projects when I got home from work each day this week. I will try to remember to get a picture of everything to post-but I will have to do some more cleaning first! There are still project supplies (home depot bags with little "goodies" inside) and everything from my pantry floor laying everywhere right now! Plus there is a step ladder in the living room where Kevin had to cut into the ceiling (still a big hole there) to fix a leak in our master shower drain! It has been busy around here!!

I hope to get to some more projects this weekend (I really want to work on the sewing room-it is a HUGE mess and Kevin finished building my new sewing table so I just need to decide where I want it, if I want to paint or stain it, if I have a stool that will work for the height I wanted it to be, or if it will need to be cut down...all that jazz!) and maybe my house will really feel good then, but for now at least there is a little boost in self-esteem since Kevin & I have been busy little bees around here. As I was cleaning I realized that the big project I really need to take on is painting-pretty much every room needs a fresh coat of paint-but that big project will have to wait for now, too many other little projects in the works right now!

Quilt-a-long news

I haven't really been doing this quilt-a-long the way you are supposed to. One a day just doesn't seem like a possibility right now. I don't get home until so late during the week I am lucky to get some dinner, a shower, catch up with my hubby and get to bed before the next day starts! However, I did get a ton of new squares cut and sewn together this weekend (while my dear hubby was busy working in the yard) & so I think I am caught up on # of completed blocks. (42 total, so I may even be ahead-go me!!) I actually decided to take a few of the blocks I had completed last week apart and redo them since I had some more fabric choices cut from my stash. I haven't decided what color I want to use as the sashing yet. I am thinking white most likely, but I will see what I have in my stash, because I am pretty sure I don't have any white and I am trying to do this project without having to purchase any additional fabric. Here a few finished blocks up close.

Mothers Day Weekend

By the time I get this posted Mothers Day Sunday will be over and it will be time for another work week, but for now I want to think about the fun weekend we had. We truly filled this weekend up to the brim! Someday, Lord willing one year not too far away, I will be able to celebrate this day as a mother, but until then I enjoy being a greatful and appreciative daughter, grandaughter, daughter-in-law, sister, etc. I have really been blessed with some amazing mothers in my life!

Friday was a block party in our neighborhood and after the cookout and hanging out with a good bunch of neighbors (I love our neighborhood! Although I am not always happy with our house, I am truely grateful for our amazing group of neighbors!) Kev and I ended up staying out until around 2AM chatting with Rachel B. I think I am still trying to recover from that late night. I want to be a night owl, but let's face reality...I need my sleep! I am not one of those people that can survive pleasently on just a few hours of sleep each night. I really like to have 8, but normally end up with around 5-6, less than that and I am pretty much worthless the next day!

Saturday Kev worked on projects around the house (including working on a new sewing table for me-we need to make another Home Depot run before that will be complete, but I am excited about that!) and mowed the lawn-he said it was a slavor-filled day but I just say it was a great day for checking off things on the honey-do list! He got to use one of his new toys (saw) and all we need is some of the right nails and my quarter-round will be laid and the kitchen floors complete! (We'll keep our fingers crossed that it will happen sometime this week!) I did some sewing, painting of the quarterround, and some redecorating in my kitchen. (I just pulled out all the americana decor-I just need a little change. I really would love to repaint and do a backsplash, but one thing at a time! We have too many other projects going on right now!)
Today we got up and met Mom, Dad, Betsy and the boys at the Atlanta Zoo for a Mother's Day get together. I forgot to take my camera into the zoo, but Betsy had her's and she got some pictures that I am sure she has already posted. She is so good at keeping her blog updated! We ate a late lunch/early dinner at Sweet Tomatos and then Kev and I went over to his Grandma Micki's for a Mother's Day family get together there. I ended up with a headache and slept most of the time, but Kev got to have a good visit with his family. It is so nice that everyone lives so close!

Oh happy day...It's like Christmas in May!!

Betsy, Kelsey and I (Wish you could have been there Mare-Mare!!

I really didn't mean for my title to be so rhyme-y...but I am just soooo happy right now! My sister Kelsey and her husband are home from Uganda. We don't know how long they will get to stay here, but I am just glad to have them as long as we can!! They flew in yesterday, so I am fairly certain that all my free time will be spent hanging out with her!!! I love my sisters!!! (Now I am super excited about next weekend because Mary is flying in and we will all be together!!! Yeah!!)

Here are some pictures from Chick-fil-A where we stopped on the way home from the airport. This was a top priority stop for Kelsey now that she was back in the USA!

Caught Betsy with her mouth full!!

Noni with Zi

Me and Kels

Betsy looked so cute in her new outfit so we had to get one of her and the boys!

In other news.....
I joined a quilt-a-long online. I haven't done this before and I am fairly new to the world of quilting/crafting/etc. online and love looking at other people's beautiful quilts, clothes, bags, all sorts of fun things that they make. There is so much amazing talent out there!! I feel like a bit of a loser looking at how much other people can get done, but everyone at their own pace right! I started late, but here are a few pictures of the blocks I put together the other night trying to catch up! (These are actually only 2" squares, instead of the 2 1/2" squares, because that is what I had a bunch of already cut. These are all scraps from baby quilts I have made over the years. I may end up making two small quilts instead of one large one...we'll see. I love to piece, but getting around to quilting it always takes forever and the bigger the quilt the more daunting the idea of quilting it is!!)

Here are the pictures from yesterday as promised...

Betsy and Canaan at the entrance

Had to get a shot of the Elephant banner

We had to stop at pretty much everyone of these to get a picture!

Canaan wanted a picture with the cool frog statue in the background (which you can hardly see in this shot!)

Adorable Zi!!!

One of the acrobats (we actually missed this show because we watched the pirate show and the boys were tired of sitting still at this point so it was on to something else!)

I told you we took pictures at pretty much all of these!

Zion and Canaan with the Mayor

My cool gypsy sash!

An amazing bell show we watched
I think Canaan was trying to explain how it worked to me!

One of Kevin's cool swords/knife sets

My toe ring!

The gun and sword that Kevin got! (not pictured is the whip that he got at the pirate ship giveaway-not really sure what we need that for!! Mom got one also-don't want to know what she needs that for!!)
One more of these shots!!

It's getting late...

It is nearly midnight and I have to be up for work before 6 tomorrow so I just wanted to write a quick post to say I had one full (and wonderful) week and weekend. I climbed Kennesaw Mt. with Mary Cowan again on Tuesday, made it to my gym class again on Wed. (is that two or three weeks in a row now?!?!) and got to catch up with one of my friends that I have known for 20 years on Thursday! Thanks again Amanda for having me over! I had a great time catching up and crocheting away! Thursday night was "girls night in" at Natalies so I went over there after visiting with Amanda and just spent the night at Natalie's since it was late and she lives so close to work. I am afraid that I am ruined...now that I know how wonderful a seven minute commute is my 35-45 min commute is going to be hard in the morning!!
Saturday I missed a graduation party but I did get my closet rotation of winter to summer clothes done! (Yeah! That is a big job!!) Kev & I spent too much time and money at Home Depot (Kevin is like a kid in a candy store there-except the candy is very expensive!) but at least we got what we needed for a couple projects! Saturday night we went out to the movies! I love date night with my hubby! Since I like action movies (and since Hugh Jackman was in the new action movie for the weekend) it was an easy choice at the box office for us!
Today we went to the Renaissance Festival with tickets that our wonderful neighbors gave us. Mom, Dad, Betsy & the boys, Kevin and I all went down to Fairburn and enjoyed the event. I had always wanted to go, but never seemed to make it down. It was so much fun! We didn't have time to see everything, I think we will have to go back again next year! (Although maybe we won't let Kevin into the Pirate Ship store where he spent most of his time-and more money-getting a sword, gun, and some knives. Boys and their toys-and they say we girls are expensive!! Oh alright, I wasn't completely immune to all the fun things to buy! I did get a toe ring and a cool gypsy sash that jingled as I walked-(thanks mom! I love them!!). It makes my want to take a belly dancing class!!) I got a few pictures, until my camera died, so I will try to get those posted soon!