2 down, 8 more to go

Yipee!! I finished my second WIP tonight!!

I love it!!

I think I am getting better with practice at this whole machine quilting thing and I am looking forward to getting confidant enough to try free motion quilting someday...

but let's not rush our selves here.

One step at a time!!

(As I start singing the "Psalty" song in my head, "One step at a time..." I am so greatful for my fabulous childhood-my family rocks!!)

The final product of Seeing Squares (#1) (I still haven't had an epiphany with a better name...I am still not really satisfied with "Seeing Squares," but I am just too busy to come up with another one!) which is being sent out tomorrow to Margaret's Hope Chest, the Craft Hope Project I signed up for.

Now I need to finish quilting the other Downy Quilts for Kids quilt so that I can get that mailed out and have a little bit of stress relief...that is until I realize that it is already November and I have a ton to do still before the end of the year, and my first quilt block swap is due by the end of January!!!

Attempting to conquer my fear of machine quilting!

I took a giant leap of faith (I sort-of forced myself to the edge so that it was the only thing I could do if I was going to keep my word, and I believe in keeping your word!!) and tried some machine quilting this weekend!

I didn't try anything crazy-just basic straight lines-or at least somewhat straight!!

I am pleased with the outcome so far, I was able to get a good amount accomplished (I also tried a new binding by doing it pillowcase style and sewing the backing to the front and batting before quilting. I think I really like this!!)

I finished one altogether and I cut out backing and batting for three more. One of them I did the binding process and it is ready to quilt, and I started quilting a second one. I hope to work on it more tonight! (The quilt needs to be mailed out ASAP-it is due for Craft Hope by the 15th I believe!!) Two of the other ones I worked on this weekend are for the Downy Quilts for Kids project and so that is why I had to learn how to machine quilt!! (They have to be machine quilted to hold up with all the washing they go through.)I am excited to learn more and get more comfortable with this process so that I can hopefully actually finish the 10 WIP's (or UFO's) that I signed up to try to finish before the end of the year!
The only issue is that I also have some other projects I need to start in the meantime!!
I will be keeping very busy!!

Distractions

I am feeling a kinda blah today.

Which means normally I would just skip right over the idea of posting something today, because I know it isn't going to be a joyful, uplifting, full of fun post! But, I have a lot on my mind...I will try not to be a "Debby Downer" & try to focus on positive things, but just giving you fair warning here!

I feel like this year I have done a pretty good job at filling up my life with distractions.
Last year my life was completely obsessed with becoming pregnant!! I lived & breathed conceiving thoughts and I just knew that it was all going to work out just fine. (I guess that could be the positive thing here, no matter what has happened, I don't feel like I have gotten too overwhelmed by the whole thing, I don't know if I am just in denial of my issues still, or if God is granting me peace throughout this process!)

This year I have been working really hard at NOT thinking about getting pregnant.
Now in reality, when you are ready to be a mother, no matter what you do, you are still going to be constantly thinking about it...you just push it to the back of your mind.

But, have a ever done a fan-tab-u-lous job at distracting myself!!
2009 has been a year of travel.
In January I was able to go with Mom to visit Flavia in Brazil.(Where I got super sun-burned-you can read about that here & here.)
February brought a California trip with Kevin and another couple friend of ours (Anna & Tim).March was a trip to see my baby sister Mary in Texas!(Sisters do the soul good!!)

A family trip to Indy for my Grandma's 80th Birthday!Kevin and I enjoyed a nice long weekend down in Gulf Shores visiting a friend & a weekend trip up to North Carolina for a wedding, and I was able to take a fun trip with Mary to Charleston over the summer,and then September and October brought on the most amazing European trip! (Germany, Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic)(I had to include a picture of the Trevi Fountain because I did throw in a coin and make a wish here-well, I said a prayer-bet'cha you could guess what I was praying for!)
Wow!

I am one blessed girl!!

But that isn't all that I am doing to keep myself distracted!
Oh no! Amoung other fun things, I have also been filling up my spare time with a good amount of sewing recently and I have really put a ton on my plate for the next two months. Therefore, 2009 should leave no room for dwelling on the fact that I am still not pregnant (and I don't feel like I am any closer to becoming a mother)...yet those feelings are still there.

Here is my question: What is the key to truly distracting myself so that I can get pregnant already?
Everyone says, "As soon as you stop trying it just happens!"
I am sorry, but I just don't agree with that!
We stopped "trying" at the beginning of the year, (meaning no more expensive Dr. appts)...but I am still the same girl, in the same dysfunctional body, that doesn't seem to think making babies is what it wants to do!

Maybe this sadness I feel has to do with the fact that 2008 seemed to be the year of babies...
and then 2009 happend and it is even more so!
Even my baby sister's friend is pregnant! (whose name is Emily-so mom said she has become more detailed in her prayers-praying for Emilee Hope Binkley Turner to get pregnant, so as not to be mistaken for someone else named Emily-I love you mom!!) I am able to be happy for these friends of mine, but deep down inside I feel a little jealous pull at my heartstrings...and I don't like that! I don't want to believe that I am so easily made jealous. I know I would never want anyone to go what I am going through, but must it feel like everyone I know be pregnant all at once!?!

But, just when I think I might start to feel down, I have a wonderful day full of fun distractions and I think...wow, I am the lucky one, no worries about getting home to the babysitter, no lugging around a stroller everywhere I go...but then again...

I don't care if I had to lug around a stroller everywhere
I wouldn't even care if I just stayed home all the time
Motherhood is what I want
in all its glory and stress!

Hold it....
let's pause one moment here!

Am I so smart that I really know what is best?

Maybe I am not ready for motherhood.

Perhaps, there are things I need to learn first.

God, please place them on my heart so I can learn.
I want to be ready!
Until then...
I will continue to be greatful for the peace He gives me...
and the wonderful distractions!!

Another great givaway!!

Jaybird Quilts is having a giveaway to celebrate her 100th post!!

It looks like quite a yummy one, so I had to pass the word along to you as well!

So head on over to Jaybird Quilts and show her some love so you can get a chance (or even a few chances) to win this fabulous prize!!

A new layout again!

I needed a new look...

so I went over to Leelou and picked out a new layout for my blog!!

It actually took a lot of work to get everything transferred over!! Thank goodness Leelou is user friendly or I would still be trying to get it all together!!

Take a look around and see what you think!

(I added a blog visitor tracker from The Blog Frog on the side, but I am not sure if I did it right, because it isn't showing anything yet. I guess that could just be because no has visited my blog since I added it!)

A challenge and a giveaway!

I have been keeping crazy busy working on our trip pictures (I got them put together into two photo books, but think I may need to do some more weening out of the pictures because they are almost $100 each-I really wasn't planning on spending $200 on photo books from our trip!! (The costs for this trip just keep growing and growing-but it is worth it!! It was soooooo wonderful!!)

Fall is finally here and the leaves are changing color & everything is so beautiful! I love this time of year!
We have had a ton of rain recently, but this week has been great so far and the weather channel (like they know what they are talking about-but when they are saying the weather will be good I like to believe them!!) says it is going to be nice all week!
Woo-hoo!!The only problem is that because of daylight savings I have to drive home in the dark each evening-that is no fun!! I always feel exhausted at the end of the day, especially when I have to drive home in the dark, all I want to do is curl up with a good book, or watch some t.v. and go to bed when I get home!!I took these pictures while driving into work one day last week and this morning! (not really the best pictures since I was driving while I took them-I wouldn't suggest trying that!!-but I really wanted to show how pretty my drive into work is right now!!)

Today is actually Kevin's birthday and I don't have anything for him. We just got back from an amazing vacation, and we had talked about not really doing much for the rest of the year since we spent so much on that-but now that his birthday is here I feel terrible not having a gift, so I will have to see if I can get off work early and pick him up something!!

O.K. So now to the challenge and the giveaway!!

Tallgrass Prairie Studio has started a challenge for finishing up your unfinished projects you have in your sewing room before the new year.I have a ton, so I thought I should join in & hopefully it will give me the motivation to finish at least a few of them!! I think with the quilt tops I made over the last two weeks I have at least 10 unfinished quilts in my sewing room!!! I will be keeping busy!!! (But, I am teaching myself how to machine quilt, so that should make it possible to at least get a few of them finished!!!)

Block Party is starting a quilt a long and to celebrate and have a proper kick off to the event they are having a giveaway!

I wanted in on the chance of winning some of that gorgeous fabric, and here is a link to go check them out so that you can try to win too!!

I don't have any elves helping me

Growing up I always liked the story of the shoemaker's elves that helped him magically get everything accomplished.

I have come to the realization that I don't have any!

(And if I did have any elf friends I am guessing they would be more like Ellie the Elf from the song my sister did a dance to when we were little. She was full of mischief...which sounds more like what I would have "helping" me!!)

Here is what gave me the clue:

My hubby and I went to a birthday party for my boss' wife sometime over the summer and I, being the sister of "captian planet" and the official "go green cheerleader" of the office, took home the bottles from the evening with me to recycle.

However, I never wanted to just throw them in the glass container at the local recycling drop off. I think these bottles are adorable and I want to use them for something. So instead I have my husband unload them from my car (where they had been for awhile) and put them in the garage...until I could get around to cleaning them and finding a place to store them until I decided what I wanted to do with them.

So there they sat, collecting dust and taking up space in our already overly stuffed garage until my hubby declared that I needed to do something with these bottles or he was going to throw them all in the trash! I promptly moved them from the garage ("his space") to the kitchen counter "my space" so that I would remember to wash them one evening when I got home from work.

However, in all the hustle and bustle of planning, packing and then leaving, this never got accomplished. So for the long wonderful vacation, and a couple weeks after we got back, there the dirty, smelly, dusty bottles sat on my kitchen counter. That is until last weekend, when I was in super-woman mode, I stuffed them (like a specialist) into our dishwasher and got them all cleaned & sanitized & ready for the next step. (Also hubby had declared again he was taking them out to the trash if something wasn't done since he had needed kitchen counter space earlier in the week to prepare something to eat and it wasn't avaiable to him with all those bottles taking up the preciouse counter space real estate in our kitchen!) After carefully pulling them back out of the dishwasher (which at one point I wondered if this step was ever going to be accomplished I had stuffed them so well inside, I thought I might have a stuck-closed dishwasher with fantastic, tall and clean bottles inside of it forever) I sat them all back out on the counter to finish drying.

Exactly where they had been for over a month.

Which is where they now still sit.

Waiting patiently for a new home.

Now the question is what should I do with them? (Before hubby dares to threaten the trash again-I must find a good solution for these wonderful bottles or I fear the worst for them!!) I am sure they would make some sort of perfect gift, if I could just figure out what to put in them I would be set for Christmas!! (Plus I will really need to find a place to store them until Christmas where they won't be in the way-that is the really hard part!!)