A New Attitude

One of the perks of being an empty nester is having fewer obligations on my time. My husband is an "out and about" kind of guy while I LOVE being a homebody. Fortunately we have learned over the years to make this work - he has lots of "out and about" friends and hobbies while I relish my online groups, creative hobbies and quiet time at home. Not to say that I'm a total hermit but I am happiest when I have plenty of time to putter around the house.

So, now that I've had a little time to settle into our new life... miss the kids...worry a bit over the kids... find out that they are both thriving so far (Woot Woot!) it's time to move ahead and this cover page I made for my planner last week pretty much sums my New Attitude.

You all know how much I love fabric, but I have always been a collector of paper as well. Notebooks, journals, Post It Notes, cute refrigerator pads, to-do lists and scrapbook paper just to name a few. On the flip side, paper is also my #1 nemesis when it comes to organizing & filing important papers. Funny how that works!

I'm choosing to embrace the fun side of my paper addiction with some new (to me) takes on paper - Smashbooking and Junk Journals. When I first heard of Smashbooks I was immediately intrigued by the reference of the UnScrapbook because I was never able to get into that craft. It just seemed too formal somehow. After watching the video HERE I was hooked! It's a lot like like scrap quilting - kind of messy, informal, creative and just plain fun. The first page of each book really sums it up well.

After joining a few Facebook groups and buying the above Smashbooks to get started I happened across Junk Journals. These are like Smashbooks without the premade book because you make your own out of papers you have laying around. If you Google Junk Journals or search for them on Pinterest you will see what I'm talking about.

One of the Facebook groups I've joined is called 365/30 Lists for Planners and each month one of the members posts a list of 30 prompts. I have a section in my ARC planner where I'm keeping them for now and I am really enjoying this sheer play time. This month I'm choosing to play with paper and fonts. In the future I plan to dig out my untouched scrapbooking supplies, play with watercolors and even try some journaling.

I've also joined a Junk Journal swap. I'm excited because there are lots of newbies like me so I think it will be a great way to jump in with a deadline to spur me on. Don't worry that this is going to turn into a scrapbooking blog... but I'll share some of my projects periodically. Quilting is still #1!

Tuesday Archives

Val's topics for this week are Flying Geese and Flowers which made me laugh a bit because I am rather intimidated by flying geese but I ADORE flowers. I think one day I will have to make a quilt full of flying geese so I can get over my fear.

I could show you plenty of flowers but I've narrowed my selections down to my favorite 2 quilts. The 1st is my Four Patch & Friends which I finished in January of this year which is made of 2.5" strips of floral fabrics. To see more pictures and read all about it my finish post is HERE.

Flowers #2 is a little quilt I made in 2013 for the Year of Schnibbles. The pattern for this one is "Hat Trick" and instead of cutting up a charm pack I decided to use some of my 2" watercolor squares collection.

I have already designated 2015 as the Year of the Florals as I want to explore watercolor quilting and dig into my large stash of florals shown below. I have a stack of roses, stacks of Robyn Pandolph fabrics (one of my favorite designers!) and a stack set aside for one of my favorite books - Blended Quilts by Marsha McCloskey & Sharon Yenter. And more. Yes I do have a thing for florals!

Tomorrow I hope to get my act together for my 1st WIP Wednesday post in, well, forever.  Until then hop over to Val's Quilting Studio to see more Flying Geese and Flowers.

Catching Up With Quilty Stitches

                                                     
The last block in this series has been released and one of my goals for the week is to get caught up. I did some stitching earlier in August between moving trips and was able to finish 1 of the 5 blocks I have left.

I also got a good start on two others. If you look closely at the top pic you can see that I ended up doing some un-stitching on block 12 because I didn't like how my colors were going together. Usually I do them in order but since I knew that block 13 would use red & aqua (all of my blocks have these 2 colors in them) I skipped ahead to that one. Then since I'd already skipped ahead I figured why not start the other 2 as well. I think I might have been on moving overload!

The colored pencils were a find when I was shopping for our son's graduation party last spring... I love that they are 2 colors to a pencil. So I dug them out and starting coloring in my templates. As you can see I've already changed my mind (again) on the Economy Block and am going to flip the orange and pink around.

Block #16 will be an easy one - all in red. The picture of the finished layout is from Corey's blog Little Miss Shabby. This project has been SO MUCH FUN!

And here is a closeup of my Slow Sunday Stitching... I'm linking up at Kathy's Quilts for the first time in weeks.

The Nest is Empty

August has been moving month and now that the kids are both settling into their new lives it's time to get back in the groove here at home on several fronts - blogging and sewing for starters. But first I should backtrack through our travels.

On July 31st I met our daughter in Mpls/St. Paul to help her get the J cats to their new home in Columbus, OH. Her fiance will be attending graduate school for Hospital Administration at Ohio State and she will be continuing her nursing studies. That's Jax looking at the camera. JMeow was sedated for the trip as he gets very anxious and throws up in the car. We got a lot of funny comments from toll booth workers and fast food window employees along the way! And we both were covered in fur of course after 2 days on the road.

After move in day we had several days to explore Columbus, meet up with extended family and enjoy their wonderful Zoo before I flew back to Mpls/St. Paul and drove home on August 6th. Then the list making, shopping and packing began to move our son to college at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, NY.

The three of us left on August 13 spending nights in Rockford, IL and Cleveland, OH before arriving in Rochester after a visit to Niagara Falls. Our son moved into his dorm on August 16 and started his Honors Program Orientation activities while we attended some parent sessions. Then we said our goodbyes, met some relatives for breakfast the next morning and headed to Columbus, OH to visit our daughter Sunday night. Then a LONG day of driving on Monday and we were home.

Neither Tucker or Elsa are much for cuddling in the morning after they have been fed so they obviously missed us!

I will admit to intermittent crying between Columbus and Chicago on Monday... I had thought the goodbye part would be the hardest but watching our son stride off to his evening activities on Saturday without hesitation made me so indescribably happy! I don't think it sunk in until we said goodbye to our daughter on Sunday night. All of the decisions, planning and moving are done - it's time to settle into the empty nest and watch them grow from a distance. And, one of the blessings of a large extended family is that they both have familiar faces nearby. What a comfort for this mom.

My husband goes back to work next week with teacher's workshops but until then we have some time together before I hit the UFO Collection in earnest and get back to a regular blogging schedule. I am more than ready to sew.