No room at the Inn

Or maybe this post should have been titled "Men At Work" because that that pretty much sums up the past 2 weeks here! Jerrys Dad arrived from Florida 10 days ago. Jerry and his Dad had been planning a re-model on the guest bathroom over the phone for quite some time now. Hubby took vacation time to spend the week with his Dad and their pet project. Gramps is 86 years old, and when he comes to visit he does not like to let any grass grow under his feet, he likes to keep busy, helping with projects!
Here lie just a few tools of trade, scattered all along the upstairs balcony I believe just about every tool from the basement work room has made its way upstairs. Lots of banging, sawing and pounding going on. They replaced the tile around the tub and layed new floor tile. It was a much bigger job than they anticipated and is slowly starting to come together once again. In the midst of this upheaval my daughter Erin and her little family drove up from OKC on Wednesday. It was a fun and truly much needed break for all of us. The boys got to see their Great Grampa, we played games, cooked out and enjoyed their time with us. They left at the crack of dawn Friday morning as blizzard warnings were posted for much of Kansas and parts of Oklahoma as well.

The weather held off here until Saturday. Then it was rain all morning turning into sleet. My beautiful tree that just started to show its pretty blooms is now encased in ice.

The sleet turned into big fat heavy wet snowflakes and we ended up with about 8 inches of spring snow! I do have to admit it was very beautiful to watch yesterday. Gramps has not seen snow in over 20 years and we enjoyed the moment.

This morning we blasted out the driveway and headed down to KU to take Jon and girlfriend Carly out to brunch. Only 40 minutes away, the sun was out and not a trace of snow in sight! Here's Gramps with the kids, doesn't he look absolutely amazing at 86!

I always try to end a KU visit with a stop at the Stitch On Needleworks Shop. I could have spent lots more time in there for sure but the boys were getting restless. I bought background fabric and some bright prints for an up and coming project.
Grandpa heads back to Florida tomorrow morning. It will be strangely quiet here.
I will be catching up on after the company leaves stuff, picking up, washing bedding and such. And hopefully find time to start my next sewing project!

Just a little painting break

Boy oh boy, I can't believe how long it has been since I last posted! I have been really neglectful at blogging while Jerry and I have been busy with some spare room re-dos. First we decided to tackle the guest room, it was red when we moved in 5 years ago. 3 coats of paint later it is now a pretty cream shade. What a difference new paint can make! The room appears to be much larger and brighter now.
After the hard work comes the fun part, a little decorating. My sewing angel found a spot right away, close to the window for nice bright light and a chair nearby to sit in and stitch awhile if you please.
Jerry's Dad is our 1st guest this year, he arrives from Florida in 8 days. Eeeeeks! I doubt he'll feel like sitting and stitching in here LOL, I'll have to find a stack of crossword puzzles.

Of course I had to buy new bedding. I liked the colors and design in this set.

Next I dug out my penny rug model "Midnight Garden" from the "Quick & Easy Pennyrugs" book. I am going to frame it as I thought the colors would go perfect with the bedding and wool just adds such a nice cozy touch.

While in the groove I decided to tackle Jonathan's room. I had not even ventured in his room since he moved out in January. Woaaaaa! SCARY!!!! Just kidding, actually it wasn't that bad. A little cleaning up then back out with the paint cans for a fresh coat of paint. I chose a nice safe shade of beige. I have a heavy denim comforter I am going to use which looks nice on his antique iron bed frame. I hung this quilt I made quite a few years ago.

Here is a close up of the blocks, I just love the way it is starting to pull together in here with the tans, navy and reds. Now I am on a fabric hunt for curtains. pillow shams and dust ruffle.

Next up on the list is a little spring decorating. I am so done with winter aren't you?!
It won't be long before this little bunny comes hopping on by and isn't he the cutest! One of Hallmarks Easter promotions, he is musical, his ears spin around and move up and down, the kids just love him! I had to get one for each set of Grandsons.

In between sniffing too many paint fumes I continue to work on several sewing projects. My latest quilt is finished and on its way to Oklahoma to be quilted by my quilting friend Brenda Esslinger. Brenda has a new book out called "Fractured Flowers" in conjunction with Darcy Ashton. The quilts in it are fabulous so check it out if you come across it in your local quilt shop.

Unfinished projects

Look what Jerry pulled out of my car trunk this weekend. A rug I started hooking 4 years ago!!! Not long after we moved to Kansas I was invited to join a rug hooking group that met locally. It was fun, a nice group of ladies and I had wanted to learn rug hooking. My 1st projects were much smaller, two pillows, and after completing those I felt I was ready to tackle a nice size rug. And as you can see, here lies my rug :( Sometimes we have such good intentions. We take on more than we can do. In the end I decided I really needed to focus all of my time on my own design projects. It is awfully cute though isn't it. Maybe I'll take it along on our next road trip.

The battle of the blankets...... Here is Cleo's sweet fleece blanket I made special for her last Christmas. I found this cute fleece print with a kitty who looked just like her. I was excited for her to have her own blanket. I was positive she would be crazy about it because she loved MINE so much.

Well here she is, as usual, on MY blanket LOL! She refuses to go near her blanket. So let this be a lesson to you, don't bother making your cat a blanket, she will always covet yours and you probably just made yourself a new blankie!

Another week as flown by. My quilt top is almost complete, one more border to add, a few embroidery touches and then its off to be quilted! Yea!
Have a super week!

Back In The Groove!

Yea, I'm back and feeling fine!
Tops on my mind today is my little Grandson Alexander who turned 5 . My very 1st munchkin, I can not believe how big you are getting. Happy Birthday Alex, XXXXs and OOOOOs, I love you way much! And sorry I don't know why your picture is so tiny, probably because I lifted it off your Mommys site and Nana just is not a blogging wizard when it comes to making adjustments on some of these jpegs.

I had an unexpected surprise in the mail this weekend. Karen from the Yellow Farmhouse blog sent me a gift as her part of the Pay It Forward program I joined with her last year. She sent this lovely braided runner and a nice pair of needlecraft scissors. Never ever enough scissors and these are a perfect size for working on my penny rugs.

I have noticed a few completed State Series Quarter books popping up on blogs. So now I know that I was not the only crazy person who collected these! I started the book 10 years ago when Jon was 13 years old. WOW! As the years went by Jon more or less lost interest and collecting the quarters became my own little obsession. The things we do for our kids! So Jon here it is, all filled and complete, your inheritance along with the 3 tubs of beanie babies in the basement LOL! He says that's not funny Mom!

Okay, moving right along here. I have been working away on my quilt using the fabrics I showed you several posts ago. Love this fabric! I however found I did not have enough of the border fabric. Oh woe is me! What to do! Couldn't find it anywhere locally. This is where Google comes in as an amazing search tool! I discovered 2 wonderful shops that had some of this group remaining in their inventory. I ordered both from The Glass Thimble in Columbus Ohio and The Thrifty Needle in Maryland. My orders were sent out lickety split so by the time I was done appliqueing the shapes in place my fabric had arrived! I'll be sewing sashings and borders on the rest of this week. Now who do you think those little stick arms belong too?

I have also spent a lot of nights hand sewing in front of the TV lately. So many of my favorite shows have started back up; The Amazing Race, Survivor, Idol, and The Bachelor! Oh my goodness did you watch The Bachelor last night? That Jason sure spent an awful lot of time hopping in and out of hot tubs LOL! I mean it was almost a joke. I did feel bad that he sent Jill home though.
On that note, I have been watching too much TV. Have a happy week!

A blubbering mess

A blubbering mess, yep that describes me fairly well this week! That darn nasty cold that everyone has seems to have found me. Something about those watering eyes, aches and pains and sneezing noses reduces us to a whining, sniveling mess. I talked to my Daddy in Pa today and he had it too. 91 years old, he recommends a nice hot toddy, knock yourself out he says!
On the brighter side, look what arrived in my mail box today. Some Valentine love from my twin munchkins Aiden and Brandon!

Two cute little twin hand prints with a sweet message inside. Very folk arty! Did you lick those candy hearts boys?
Don't you just love novelty prints, I found these two on my last fabric outing.

I am always a sucker for kitten fabric, and these are darn cute!

And then we have the Pirates! I am going to make pillowcases for Alex and Williams visit next month.
And speaking of my little 3 year old William, I spoke to him on the phone a little while ago. They live in OKC and he went on and on about the big storms they had yesterday. They went KABOOM and it RAINED and SIRENS and the lights went OUT at dinner and it was DARK and on and on he went in his cute little voice.
Well, I have dinner made and bubbling away so now I can head upstairs and sew some quilt blocks together before hubby gets home.
Enjoy your day!

Lunch with my boy!

What a fun day I had today! Jerry and I drove down to visit Jon at KU. I did not dare show up empty handed so yesterday I made his favorite treats Haystacks and Peanut Butter cookies.
First stop was the apartment which I had not seen yet. Had a quick little tour, all nice and clean. He even showed me inside the frig, which was pretty darn empty, do you think that was a subtle hint LOL? I couldn't help but notice the kitchen counter decoration, unusual don't you think? Little plastic sharks from a favorite night spot "The Sand Bar" and I don't want to know what you do to earn them because he has quite a collection going on here!

Next stop was the downtown strip for lunch because we were all STARVING! Lots of fun shops on the strip, I thought the signs in this window were fun.

We had lunch, or breakfast I should say at Miltons and OMG it was so worth the wait! I had my favorite eggs Benedict and Jerry had I don't know what there!

Here's Jon and girlfriend Carly holding up their loaded plates. I don't know where little Carly is going to put those giant hunks of french toast but I'm sure she is used to Jon not letting any food grow cold around her. Aren't they sooooo cute.

After lunch Jon and Carly gave us the campus tour and what a pretty campus it is spread out along the top of a big hill. I would have taken more pictures but alas my camera battery light was blinking, thank goodness Jon was probably thinking. Just enough juice left for one last picture at the student union of Jon and his famous Jay Hawk!

Love you guys, thanks for the fun afternoon, SWAK!

Cupid sighting!

February, a month with a little holiday to chase the winter blues away. I just love the colors of Valentines Day, bright reds and pinks, lots of glitter, hearts, flowers cupids and bows. Love is in the air and oh, lets not forget the chocolate! Now that the kiddies are gone I don't decorate much for Valentines Day. I do however scatter vintage valentines all over my kitchen hutch, you can't help smiling just looking at them!

Cleo and I have been busy playing cupid here, packing up boxes with Valentine/birthday love to mail out to the munchkins. Just look at this cute, cute book I found for Alexander- "Love Splat"! A purrrfect story for Valentines Day: Splat has a crush on a cute girl kitten at school and
a special Valentine card he agonizes over giving to her. So cute, the illustrations are to die for! Splat looks a lot like Cleo and Alex just loves Cleo even though the feelings are not quite reciprocated on her part.

My dear hubby has been in Vegas all week, I am feeling pretty jealous:( Sitting at a cafe in the warm sun having his little lunch break he calls me while I am bundled up here in 6 sweaters. I don't want to hear it! I have to tell you, the day he flew in he went straight from the airport to the golf course, imagine that LOL! So he's playing golf and a celebrity played through in front of his group, I guess that is golf course etiquette. Anyways, it was Justin Timberlake, my girls would have died! Jerry said he was very nice and thanked them for cutting in before teeing off.

I have my nice bundle of Moda "Its Snowing" fabric layed out on my cutting table upstairs just calling my name. Cleo and I plan on spending the afternoon stitching up a new quilt. And then I suppose we better do a little cleaning, make it look like we actually did something "constructive" before Daddy gets home LOL!
Have a fun week!