I’ve been blog cruising lately, and I’m coming up with this enormous list of things I want to make and create and do, and I’m frustrated by the time limits that I’ve got because there just isn’t enough time in my day to do the things I’d like to!

For example, these checkbook covers are adorable. I want to make a metric ton of them. And also, adapt them to passport covers. They wouldn’t really take that much time, but I’d also like to finish that lace scarf I posted last time. And the socks. And maybe turn out another quilt. And let’s not even get into the inspiration that Flickr is providing these days – I have to restrain myself some days from running straight out and buying fabric for the tons of quilts that I see and love.

And oh, the cooking I could be doing. Recipes everywhere, but not enough time to dig into the really juicy ones. THANKS, JULIA CHILD. That cookbook is the devil.

But I’ve got these responsibilities – kids, work, school, keeping the house in somewhat of a decent state, showering…things that stand in the way of my so-called hobbies (but let’s be honest, I’ve gone beyond the “hobby” stage with this stuff. Just don’t tell my husband). Although, I’d say that if they want to keep me from snapping people’s heads off, they’d give me mandatory knitting or sewing time every day. It’s really a public service that I’m doing, sneaking in a few minutes here and there between chapters of Economics, bath times, conference calls and the like.

For the crafty out there – please stop being so awesome, at least just for a while. You’re really distracting me from the things that I need to be doing to keep up appearances as a responsible adult.

What, me? Disappear for months on end for no reason? No, that’s not poss…yeah. It is possible. Blerg.

Anyway, the past few months have been crazy busy, both with work and quilts (and hey, what’s that, some actualy KNITTING?!).

The hand sewing caught my eye again, and I knocked out a ton of flowers for the quilt that time forgot. Or maybe I forgot. Whatever. Don’t judge me.

People are STILL HAVING BABIES and I’m still having to knock out quilts for folks who refuse to find out what flavor of baby they are having. Like, seriously, how hard is it to sneak a peek during an ultrasound? Ask the doctor to slip you a strip of paper detailing the bits of your baby? I guess it did give me the opportunity to use up the rest of the strips I cut up for the Flower Quilt pictured above (I had about twice as many as I needed), so I can’t complain too bitterly.

This is the Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf from Nancy Bush’s Knitted Lace of Estonia, which I adore both for the eye candy and the patterns. This book is full of nupps; I’m not a huge fan of knitting them myself (note that the scarf above is cleverly utilizing beads in place of the dreaded nupp), but hoo boy do I love the effect they have when knitted by someone who has a good grasp of how to do them. That book is a must have for any lace knitter, if for nothing else than inspiration.

And finally, the always happening sock – there is one around the house at any given time, in some stage of being knit. I’m not huge on following sock patterns for some reason; I have some lovely ones, but I tend to enjoy mindless knitting with my socks, and dragging a pattern around doesn’t really make that possible. I didn’t want to break up that girly swirl I’ve got going on in this one, so I knit in some waste yarn and then I’ll go back and do an afterthought heel on this one (and it’s mate).

Beyond those things, a couple of momentous things occurred: I ran a 10K and another 5K, my daughter turned 3, and I turned *mumblemumbleglurg* another year older. I passed a Macroeconomics class with a 101 average, which I wasn’t actually sure was possible but the grade my instructor gave me assures me that it IS possible, and I’m starting on the Microeconomics class in two days hoping to maintain this streak of A’s. The class I took in the spring, Intro to Marketing, ended up with a B average, but I’m not upset by that at all. I’m just glad that I never have to step foot in that professor’s classroom EVER. AGAIN.

Running is actually going really well, and I’m about to start working on a 10K training program to get my endurance up – that 13.1 mile run is creeping up on me in 6 months, and I’ve got to get my tail in gear if I don’t want to, you know, DIE. Also, apparently my cholesterol is too high, so more exercise and eating less meat is in store for me. Sadly. Because steak is delicious.

Anyway, still alive, still crafting, still schooling and working and doing all of that. And parenting. Don’t forget that one.

It’s springtime here in Texas (as it is in much of the world, ba dum dum CHIIIING!), and that means the beginning of flowers, and light, and temperate days where we enjoy being outside for the approximately seven hours of bearable warmth we get every year. Oh, SURE, the weathermen and women are PROMISING a much more livable summer – I’ll believe it when I see it. And if it doesn’t happen, I’m coming after the Austin Weatherpeople for baldface lying to me. You have been warned.

With all of that comes the urge to…quilt? Wait. That can’t be right! I should be outside, soaking up the sun! I most definitely should NOT be putting together a quilt backing for a very large twin sized quilt.

I also should not be trying my hand at free motion quilting on that baby blanket I whipped together from scraps.

And DEAR LORD, WHY AM I NOT OUTSIDE? (That’s the Half Squares Quilt that I pieced a long time ago, and finally quilted and bound. I luff it.)

To be honest, I have managed quite a few hours of hanging around out with the kids. The weather is gorgeous, and luckily none of us suffers too badly from the allergies that seem to affect the rest of Austin so horribly. We’ve made it through our first soccer game

and what felt like a million Easter egg hunts, but was in reality only four.

It’s a busy time for us, but it’s been good busy.

I’m on a quilting ROLL, y’all.

I’ve had these fabrics sitting around my house since…well, since the last house we owned, which means that I packed them and moved them TWICE in the past year. I bought them from a local quilt shop in Austin; they weren’t a specific line of fabrics, but just a fat quarter bundle they put together on their own, and the set caught my eye. But then I couldn’t figure out what I wanted to do with them; I was super new to sewing and quilting, so they were set aside for a while. And then we put the house on the market and my sewing supplies were exiled to Storage, and I totally forgot about them until I was unpacking stuff for my craft room.

With the baby explosion that has been going on for the past year, I was happy to discover that I already had some fabric that could swing either way – I have friends who actually DO NOT FIND OUT WHAT THE SEX IS before the kid is born. Like, really? I would go insane from not knowing, simply because I COULD know if I just asked. I’ve got a nursery to plan, baby clothes to buy, a name to pick out…not finding out does. not. compute. But, since my friends are obviously not neurotic like I am, they are forcing me to come up with alternate themes for their baby quilts. I’m adapting, y’all. Put that in my yearly performance review.

With that out of the way, I’ve finally started on the Big Boy Quilt for my son’s bed. It occurred to me that at some point, we were going to have to move him up to a normal bed; at 5, he is still in a toddler bed because he fits in it. But I think his ego will quickly take a hit when the other kids are pointing and laughing because, hey, YOU ARE IN A TODDLER BED. AT 5. His mama dresses him funny, too, but that’s another story.

Anyhoo.

The kid loves robots. Seriously. He walks around the house, chanting in this creepy monotone voice, “I AM A ROBOT. I AM A ROBOT.” So I cashed in on the current trend and picked up some of the Michael Miller line, complete with Robot Camp fabrics. It’s Bright! And Cheerful! There will also be coordinating curtains, pillow cases and a throw pillow or two in the end.

My husband, the loveable goof, is worried that the quilt won’t be heavy enough by itself as a bed covering. I politely reminded him that we live in TEXAS, where it will quickly become hotter than the surface of the sun, and if a quilt isn’t enough for that kid then we need to get his cooling system implanted into MY body where it would do some good. What do you think? Will a quilt be enough to keep a 5 year old boy warm in the night?

In February, I have:

Sent quilts two friends who had three babies between them. (For the math challenged, that included a set of twins). These were SUPAH SEECRET projects, so I didn’t blog about them at the time of creation. Mommies would have known (one mommy is nursery theming with mushrooms, and the other, well, two quilts for twins kinda gives it away as to who they were for).

Knit a looooong scarf, out of two skeins of Manos that I had sitting in the stash:

Started work on a One Block Wonder quilt. This has been a lot more fiddly than I thought it would be, but then again, I’m a super simple quilter; I like straight lines and quilt tops that go together in a single day. This ain’t that kinda party, y’all. It’s pretty, and I’m looking forward to it being done, but I’m not sure I’ll be making another one.

And, I RAN. I ran in the mornings, I ran in the evenings, and on Valentine’s Day, I got up at 4:30 in the morning and drove to downtown Austin, where I stood around for TWO HOURS before the races started (my sister ran the half marathon, remember) and then I ran a 5K in a very shameful amount of time. But the point here? Is that I did it. Proof positive (I’m the one WITHOUT a medal, because they don’t give those to 5k runners. We were lucky to get a banana and a bagel at the end of our race):

And that I plan on doing it again in April. And in May. And maaaaaybe next February, when I’ve committed to running a half marathon. 13.1 miles. Which is further than my DRIVE TO WORK. Seriously. But I’m going to do it; I’m still excited about running, which is a positive thing I think. Of course, after watching my sister limp around after her race, I’m not sure that I”m ready for what I’m getting in to, but she’s going to run the FULL marathon next year, so she will still be in more pain (and have more bragging rights) than me.

February is on its way out, and I’m hoping to finish up another baby quilt, and knock out sleeves for Cassidy. I’m stranded on Sleeve Island, y’all, and I’m struggling to find the motivation to haul myself out of there and finish that damn sweater. It will be done just in time for the heat to return to Texas, so my timing is (as ususal) fantastic. Now, if I had finished it LAST week, it would have been perfect for this:

That would be snow. In Austin. This happens every few years, and it doesn’t stick around all that long, but we get all excited and freaked out while it’s here. Schools close, people stock up on essentials, and anyone that has lived anywhere north of Lubbock starts eyeballing us like we’re crazy. The small amount of snow we got would not cause them to bat an eye, but to us? It’s a juicy disaster waiting to happen. However, throw a tornado our way and we’re out on our front lawns starting up at it, slack jawed, and narrating the whole thing to our camera phone for later uploading to YouTube.

I’m not super good at making New Year’s Resolutions. If past history is any indication, I actually kinda suck at it. To wit: I have yet to go to the gym three times a week for an entire year, I don’t always get laundry done every weekend, and my yarn stash has not magically reduced itself in any measurable way (however, my fabric stash is multiplying like bunnies on Viagra). So I’m not making a resolution this year. I’m setting a goal. That’s totally different.

I’m not a very physical being; my favorite place in the entire world is curled up in the corner of my couch, Kindle in hand, blanket draped across my legs. I don’t relish sweating. I don’t get the high from working out that everyone else does (and quite frankly, I think they are lying out of their asses about it, because really, endorphins? That sounds totally made up.) But I’m coming to that crossroads that every woman eventually hits – where you have to make the decision to either move your ass or buy bigger pants. And y’all, bigger pants are NOT an option. Bigger pants are the sign of failure. Bigger pants might make me cry into my delicious bowl of ice cream and caramel sauce, and you don’t want to ruin ice cream with salty tears.

Austin is a big running community. At any point during the day, or even possibly the night because these people are crazy insane, you will find people jogging and running and walking and generally doing that exercise thing. We have trails and paths and specialty running shops and running clinics and all sorts of things to help you get into top running shape. And in the spirit of all of that, I got myself up and went out into the FREEZING COLD (seriously, it was below freezing) and I…jogged. This morning. Before the sun was up.

If you have any inkling of how hard it is for me to get up before dawn, then maybe you get just how monumental this is. Like…angels wept at my effort.

Getting back to the goals, the entire purpose of this is to get ready for this:

Ha, I kid.

Oh, ha. Hahaha. Except not. Just the thought of THAT much distance makes my legs curl up in defeat, like someone dropped a house on me. That’s the big race on that day, but there’s a smaller one that starts about 30 minutes after the Captain Freakin’ Insane group has already started, and that would be the race I’m participating in. Although, it’s less of a race and more of a “OHMIGOD, DON’T LET ME DIE OR MAKE A FOOL OF MYSELF.” Both of which are equally possible.

That's more like it

The best part about this is that my sister, who’s a Runner, will be doing the half-marathon. I’ll get to be down there with her, before she takes off on her absolutely insane 13.1 miles. And then I’ll take off on my pathetic little 3.1 mile run, and I’ll be there to cheer her on when she makes it back across the finish line. Of course, with my pace, she might just beat me back. And then I’ll beat her with my iPod. I was looking for an excuse to buy a new one anyway.

We normally head off for the holiday, like a ton of you do, and spend about three or four days out of town with family for the holiday. This year, that didn’t really work out for us, so we stayed at home and created our own Thanksgiving holiday as best we could. We had the turkey, the dressing which was MADE FROM SCRATCH, like, I made the cornbread that went into the cornbread stuffing FROM SCRATCH, appreciate it NOW, the green bean casserole, and the pumpkin pie. We went to a lot of trouble for a meal that lasted about thirty minutes and required a lot of cajoling on the part of two very small people to just try the dressing for heavens’ sake before you start howling about how you don’t like it. Next year – frozen pizza. I’ll make the pie again, though.

While everything was roasting and baking and cooling, we managed to get some Christmas decorating started.

That is our brand new, frabjulous Christmas tree. It has a billion tips and a four hundred thousand lights or something, and I love it. I mainly love it because it does not look like a large version of a Charlie Brown christmas tree. While he was doing that, I turned into Martha Stewart and slapped up some garland and poinsettias around the house.

I can’t just, you know, bake and cook the entire holiday. I have some leftover fabric from the Half Squares quilt top that I put together, and with the help of a tutorial, I’m attempting my first applique. So far, I think it’s okay, but we’ll see when I give them away as gifts. I’m on the watch for Present Face. Giving handmade gifts is always a tricky thing, because while there are folks out there that appreciate the time and effort, there are other people that thing that handmade = cheap or dumb. You have to be careful and choose your recipients wisely.

The worst part of the whole thing was figuring out a way to get all of the little leaves cut out without losing my mind, but one Lifetime sappy movie later, I managed to get it knocked out. I’ve sewn some of them onto the canvas I’m using for backing, and I’m happy to report that I only have to pick out the stitches on one of them and redo it. I plan on making two of these suckers.

We finished everything up with a trip to a nearby zoo; the kids had never been, and were appropriately excited. Especially when this dude slipped into the water and came up close for a little heart stopping fun:

He was inches from us, just kinda…I don’t know, trying to decide if we’d taste good if he could get to the other side of the glass. I’m sure I’d be pretty damn tasty, Mr. Crocodile, but I think I’ll skip the taste testing portion of the visit.

So. There’s a serious explosion of babies lately; so many that I’m not really sure what they are putting in the water, but HOO-BOY am I glad that the ol’ tubes are tied. Whatever it is that is causing all of y’all go get frisky, it’s powerful stuff. This doesn’t impact me directly, except that there is a flood of new babies to hold and snuggle and hand back at the first sign of a dirty diaper or fussy time, but it does require me to sew, quilt, and knit my buns off in an effort to provide handmade lovies for all of these folks.

Unfortunately, while everyone EXPECTS something, I’m all about SURPRISE, HERE IS YOUR QUILT/SWEATER/WHATEVER, so I like to keep it on the d-l. Hence, I cannot show you pictures of said quilts until they are sent out to the mommies. (Let’s face it – the daddies generally don’t care.) But I do happen to have something I can show you, in the form of  a finished quilt top:

That would be a half-squares quilt, with Moda Tranquility for the pattern and some Kona cotton for the solid. I FREAKIN’ LOVE IT. Who knew that two triangles could make something so fantastic?!  I haven’t gotten anything to back it with as of yet, but I think that I’m going to leave this downstairs as Mommy’s Blanket (No, You May Not Play Superman With It, Go Find Your Own Blanket). I have to have a blanket on me when I’m chillin’ on the couch, and this one looks to be mine.

Also, I made baby shoes. Considering that 99% of the babies that are popping out these days are boys, you would think that I’d make them in some boy appropriate fabric so that I could give them to someone.

They are decidedly pink, and also decidedly for a baby, which my two-year old was rather unhappy about as she tried to squeeze her fat little foot into one of them. I couldn’t find anything heavy to give them more padding on the bottom, so I made something up:

THAT’S RIGHT. I quilted baby slippers. Lord knows what else I could have been doing with my time, but I got the bug out of my system and they can sit until Sarah realizes that they will fit her Cabbage Patch. After that, I’m not sure I want them back.

I just kinda…vanished there, for a while. Huh.

ANYWAY, I have put my time to good use – setting up the house, hosting parties, and trying to figure out exactly why my two-year-old is attempting to wear me down with the shrill sound of her scream. Whatever the situation, it’s apparently appropriate to scream your little, tiny, red-faced head off, making it difficult to determine if you are in actual pain or just being a pain in the ass.

(Hint: most times? PAIN IN THE ASS. Trust me on this.)

Regardless of how insane she’s been acting, I still found the courage to dress them both up and hit the new neighborhood for Trick or Treating this year. I was accompanied by Optimus Prime and a ladybug fairy. And no, I’m not really sure what a ladybug fairy is, either, but when you’re two it’s really about getting to put on a fancy dress.

They made a pretty decent haul on the candy, half of which was confiscated because it isn’t age appropriate – like, she can’t have small, hard candy because she’ll choke on it. The Snickers bars we took are what we like to call the “Parent Tax”. It’s totally legal, I assure you.

There has also been some sewing and quilting being done. This:

Became this:

And I’m now plowing my way through a giant effing quilt for my husband; there is nothing I’d rather NOT be doing than dragging a full size quilt through my machine, but in the name of marital harmony, I’m totally doing it. Do you REALIZE how much hand sewing is required to turn the binding on something that large? I have a strained wrist, no joke, because of it.  I will totally be sticking to baby quilts in the future.

The house, that is – the house that we’ve been going bonkers over for the past six months is finally ours. We made it through the final walk through, the repairs from that walk through, the check on the final walk through list, and the closing, which I thought should have taken days for the hassle that the loan was, right up to the very end. They handed us the keys and we almost ran from the building in case they decided to ask us for one more piece of documentation or some of our DNA to confirm our credit scores. All of that happened a week ago, and I sit here typing this on my brand new couch in my brand new family room, watching the rain fall outside through the seven windows that show me the glorious back yard of our home. It is starting to sink in that this is real, and I get to live here.

I thought that this move would be glorious, and that every box that was unpacked would be accompanied by the sounds of angels singing from up high. Or hell, that the boxes would unpack themselves. We postponed our actual move for two days after closing so that we could get some stuff done around the house before the furniture arrived; pendant lights installed in the kitchen, a ceiling fan on the back patio, and a ton of other small things that have to be configured and messed with when it is just easier to do it with nothing in the way. Sunday arrived, bright and shiny, and after a friend popped over to the house to watch the kids (Christina, I owe you BIG TIME), I took off back to our old apartment to box up the odds and ends.

Did I mention that I had the flu the entire week before we moved? Not the SWINE FLU! but the normal flu? 103 fever? No energy? Yeah. We literally had nothing in boxes on Sunday morning because of that damn flu. Mike and I flew around boxing things up as quickly as we could before the movers showed up, and we still had a ton of stuff in closets and cabinets when they moved our furniture out that we had to come back and get on our own. Let me be a PSA for the lot of you and tell you , right now: GO GET A FLU SHOT. If you can save yourself TEN DAYS of fevers, exhaustion, and all the other joys of being sick, then GO DO IT. I have never been as sick as I was the week before we moved, and it did not completely clear up until Tuesday after we were in the house. You don’t want to jack with this, folks. Trust me on this.

We’ve had something delivered or adjusted or painted or connected every damn day since we moved in; strange people flitter in and out of here like a train station. Painters turned my dining room into a shade of delicate, soft blue and our media room into a deep slate blue; furniture delivery men dropped off new couches and punctured a hole in the door to the same media room with a couch. (I kid you not – I thought Mike was going to explode in a shower of fury when he saw it, but he managed to stay calm long enough to tell the delivery folks that he would not be signing the “no damage” sheet when they offered it to him. I probably would have punched him in the nuts for even suggesting it.) Rooms are starting to take shape, slowly but surely. And we’re getting to know the staff at IKEA rather well, as their furniture graces many of the rooms of our home.

I’m going to get pictures next week, when everything is more organized, but for now I’m just glad to be here. In my own home, on my couch, watching the rain.