top o' the morning to ye

Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone! Don't forget to wear green. The picture above is my attempt at a brooch, which I will be proudly wearing tomorrow. I just love holidays!! and maybe like most for me it's about wearing green or getting seriously pinched and drinking green beer. But there is more to it. So I got on the internet and searched...
I found at Answers.com the meaning of St. Patrick...who, actually was named Maewyn but later changed it to Patrick when he found his calling. He used the three leaf clover (shamrock) to explain the trinity...so that's how that comes in...Now the four leaf clover is a universal symbol of good luck because it is difficult to find. Each leaf is given a meaning one is for faith, second is hope, third for love and fourth for luck. We celebrate the 17th of March because that's when he died in the year 461. Tradition Lenten prohibitions were raised and drinking was allowed, dancing and eating meat, hence the drinking part...ha! One other thing I learned is Irish Whiskey is spelled with an "e" where Scotch whisky is not...hmmmmm good information. Finally, whiskey in Irish Gaelic means "water of life".
However you celebrate...enjoy!!!

2

L turned 2, Wednesday...it's hard to believe because she is still so tiny!! I thought I would remember everything the kids said and did and I'm finding out that I can barely remember. It takes me talking with everyone else to remember most of the stuff. There are so many memories and with the constant learning that it's hard to remember them all.
L is putting together some sentances but mostly words. She loves, pictures...both looking at and being in them. She has a couple of favorite shows, but Ni ho Ki-lan stands out the most. Our local party supply store did not have it in stock so we went with chinese lanterns and balloons...she loves balloons!!
I have to say, Roger did the shopping, he got the cake, gifts and wrapped them, and grilled burgers for us all. The boys had a great time with the balloons and wishing their sister a happy birthday.
The birthday girl blew out all the candles by herself!!!









This is one of her gifts, Ni ho Ki-lan book, a soccor ball and Dora the Explorer backpack with accessories.
She had a great time!!

white out weather

I took these pictures this morning just to share our weather with you guys.
Our backyard...

thermometer 13.4 degrees Fahrenheit



Rog shoveling snow...




snow on eyelashes...
Rem



Ram


All the snow L got to get near...


It's still snowing and forcasted to continue until midnight with temperatures dropping to -3.
Brrrrrrrr!
Hope everyone is warm and has power, those in sunny locations enjoy!!!

new camera and winter quilt show

A quick hello to everyone.
Last weekend I went to the Oklahoma City Quilt Show, this is the third year in a row for me and although I go by myself I have a great time. I get to look as long as I want and I don't have to hear how tired anyone is...because I'm there for several hours. For Christmas I got a Canon Rebel T2i from my husband and it is so neat! I've taken tons of photos of just about anything to get a feel for it. Still have a long way to go...maybe if I watch the DVD it come with, may help? hmmmm.
This is a work in progress, still have more to finish but coming along nicely, it's a camera bag from Sew Liberated book with a modifications and I'll have to show those later.



This picture was taken by Rog from inside the house the hawk/falcon had been hanging around the backyard most of the day.



These are just a few of the quilts there were tons of beautiful ones.



This is a quilt I thought the boys would like, planes and birds.



There were quite a bit of patriotic quilts.





I always seem to be attracted to sealife, not sure if it has to do that I grew up near on the west coast in Southern California, but I always love them.



This one is made with felt it's gorgeous and I bought some felt stuff for myself to give it try.



Close ups




This one was made of satin fabric it was beautiful and inspiring and a close up of it.



Close up...



I took a break and watch this presenter (I know I'm terrible I can't remember her name)speak about repurposing old jeans into clothes and crafts, here she is holding up a quilt done from toddler jeans.



I just love the the colors...




I love reverse applique...



I really thought I had taken a lot more pictures but apprently not...haha!

Happy 2011

Happy New Year 2011.

So far this year is coming in like a lion; crazy, busy and challenging. Work has been busy and I think we will be busy all year. Got some good news, we got the suburban back today. The transmission had gone out on it Friday. It's amazing how just having one car can create so much chaos (okay, had trouble spelling that word) and affected our routine. L and Rem had been sick, (while we only had one car) but L was worse than Rem. She is so small that we worried about her getting dehydrated, but it seemed to be just a 24 hour bug. Happy to report they are now well. Rem has taken an interest in laundry so he has been helping and he helped with all the throw up.  L looked like the exorcist, vertical projectile...ewwww! So if you are superstitious and believe in things happening in threes...well I guess we have one more to go. The heater looks like it may go out in the blazer, it's making whistling noises...and the temperature is in the single digits!
Wishing all of you good health!

Anyways...Usually this time of year I go over last years uncompleted resolutions and setting up new ones for the coming year. Which I think I did pretty good last year. I need to insert attainable and realistic dates on my list. I've learned to create small steps to achieve my goals but still need to work on it and not to put my personal life on hold. I got my Goodreads e-newsletter and they have a reading challenge for 2011, which I accepted! So instead of a diet, which I have already started and blown! Go figure...hehe! I'm challenging myself to read 24 books, that's double what I read last year and I already have one down!!! 23 to go!!! So if you don't have a goal for 2011 and want to join me. They also put a list of 2010 Goodreads choice awards based on Goodreads voters. It's pretty interesting and maybe give you a starting point.

The 2010 favorite book is Mockingjay, which looks like it's #3 in the series. I had not heard of it but it may be my next read, it also won best young adult, favorite heroine and favorite hero.



For those of you who are Twilight fans, Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1 won for best Graphic Novels & Comics.



I'm going to be doing a reading log for the kids to keep track of what they read in 2011 and to my great delight, L loves to pick up books and flip through them!!!

So leave a comment and let me know what you are reading or what challenge you have taken for 2011. I would love to hear from all of you.

Winter's Solstice

Photo from 5 Orange Potatoes website.

It's almost Christmas, 4 shopping days left! We are all very excited here at the house. Last night the kids and I sang Christmas carols and wrapped gifts, The Twelve Days of Christmas and Rudolph the-red-nose-raindeer were the favorites. Rem add-libbed every now and then, like his dad he has some interesting and funny comments...haha! It was all good and appropriate for PG. I don't think we will get snow this year for Christmas like last year, but a nice chill will make our holiday spirit a little warmer.
This morning we had a lunar eclipse, the moon was red and if I had known I could have posted sooner and warned everyone so they can get up and watch it! I've been wrapped up in Christmas I missed it!!! My friend Megan told me about it. Everyone can google it and see pictures...hehe!
I was reading through 5 Orange Potatoes blog and there is a tutorial for making a dream pillow - moon phases the picture above. I am definately going to make one for L. How perfect!

Looks easy, thanks Lisa! (Just to clarify I don't know her personally but I love her ideas).

Advent Calendar

Christmas is just around the corner and the boys have a countdown. I have wanted to make some really neat and cool advent calendar...I have not, it was one of those things I haven't had time to do. With both Rog and I working and the kid's school and after school activities we do not have much time once we are all home. So here is Ram's countdown...he just came up with it on his own and it has become our family advent calendar for 2010. He is coloring in the ornaments until the 25th when the star gets colored in!!!
Seven shopping days left until Christmas! I hope you are all almost done, and can sit back and enjoy!