HAPPY


32ND
BIRTHDAY
TO THE
LOVE
OF
MY

LIFE.

A pat on the back, and a kick in the butt.

so we had a great weekend. took the kids to California Adventure, which was mega-hot but still quite fun (free is always more fun, right?) and then craig had a 'guys night' and hannah came over to hang with me and the boys and watch the truly, horrificaly, bad "Sydney White". (thanks Hannah, i know it was painful. i appreciate your willingness to suffer through it with me)
and then Sunday we napped a lot, and rolled around on the floor with the boys and wrestled for hours. and I went to Julie's house and started making costume decisions for Kiss Me Kate.
Elle came over Friday night and the kids painted picture frames. yeah - they're still on the table, 3 days later....with my wilted daffodils.
I was really productive today, too. I found us some insurance for May, since we no longer have a reason to COBRA the insurance from DD. I also got all of our financial stuff together so we could hash out "maybe-someday-we'll-buy-a-house" tonight.
And I walked like, 3 miles. Taking Connor to and from school, and going to the bank. All good stuff, right? Then me an' the boys went swimming, which was definetely necessary.
but now i absolutely have no more excuses for neglecting my apartment. (no way were you getting any photos of my kitchen) Now I MUST go clean. Hard core.

I figured, if I posted a bunch of shameful pictures for y'all to see, it would induce me to get stuff done faster. So then I could post sparkly pictures and prove that I'm not all-slob, all-the-time.

If I don't manage to post sparkly pictures, then it will be because I'm just so busy being creative and wonderful that i don't have time to post them. Naturally I will get everything done.

naturally.

i don't want to hear it. i already know you will all hate it, and I don't care one bit. I love this jumper, and I am going to have it! maybe even in THAT color!

the top is hideous of course. although the sketch for view A is decent.


making this pattern for Hannah's cruise. Saw a picture of it, made up and on a girl, in black, and it was gorgeous. I'm starting the muslin today. the pink one, minus the train.

back to sewing. and it's 90 napkins, not 80. And shelly said the fabric is Ralph Lauren. *yum*

Sewing List

two more baby-toy prototypes - due sunday

valance - due friday

formal dress - due May 12

80 wedding napkins (possibly) due sometime in June

i have to say that i really enjoy having sewing projects that are for other people, because it is basically the only motivation i have. and then i "get all motivated", and start doing stuff for myself too. which makes me happy.

craig gets most excited about the idea of me making things and then selling them for loads of money, which I have yet to ever do (sell anything, I mean) partially because i haven't made the time and partially because i am terrified of putting a price on stuff that I know has a million flaws and probably won't last more than two weeks.

that's how it feels sometimes, anyway.

also, i'm not sure what i would enjoy sewing most to sell. so then i have all these warring ideas, which means that none of them get done. naturally.


on to the list!

testing.

made up a prototype of a baby toy that maybe our activity days girls can make for a service project in june. this one is about hand-sized, and has two jingle bells inside. it's no sew, and took me 10 minutes. whaddayathink?

this is why i can never have a girl, people.

because this dress (found here) is rediculously expensive and heartbreakingly beautiful and I would instantly buy it. And then try to figure out how to make it. And then obsessively make a bunch, and never clean my house or feed my kids.

i gotta stop blog hopping and go take care of my sick-o hubby. poor guy.

the project.

this is the quilt that will require 169 different 2 inch squares of fabric! i got the pattern from my McCall's Quilting magazine. i've been wanting to make it for like, a year now.

Weekend Productivity

what with my feeling actually really good this weekend, but not really being "able" to do a lot, I ended up starting a couple of projects that I've wanted to get going for quite some time. This little stack is 57 two-inch squares. I have to have 169 of them for my quilt - and they all have to be different fabrics! naturally, it's going to take me a little while to amass that much scrap fabric, but for now these little gems are in a baggie, waiting for friends.

I also managed to cut apart two pairs of jeans (thanks, chris!) (well, probably really thanks Nanette....) for another denim quilt.

that glorius tin in the background is one of the bits of the half-ton of chocolate that Robin brought over for me on Friday night. boy, was that good stuff. plus, way cute tin. I have never really kept tins before - but i've gotten 3 really cute ones since christmas, and I can feel a collection coming on.

so i guess i should post an update - even though I really like that when things are over and done with , they are over and done with.

but i'm going to describe it, and get it out of my system, so if you don't want to hear about it, scroll down to the photo. then it's safe.

anyway - i had the "procedure" as the nurses liked to call it (i suspect this is because there were other persons there yesterday to have the "procedure" and they were more the high school types than the miscarrying-mom types. not that i like to judge. i'm just saying. i believe this is why the delicacy-of-term-ness), yesterday afternoon.

they took my blood.

they made me pee in a cup.

they gave me a shot of stadol (statol, whatever, i really have no idea, nor do I care, how to spell it) which I remembered from back in the day when I gave birth to Connor. I did not get an epidural, but i did have an IV drip of this stuff, which totally made me high.

then they gave me this cup full of 6 pills - 2 antibiotics, 2 muscle relaxors, and 2 sedatives. I signed off on the "you might die" sheet, listened to how I would feel some cramping, and then went into the room to ditch my pants and lay down while i waited for the euphoria to set in.

so here's the thing. I started spotting last Sunday. I pretty much knew right away what that meant for me. I grieved, I worried. Went to the doctor on Tuesday and had a pelvic (woo hoo!) and they did the monitor thing and couldn't find a heartbeat although "that is probably just because your uterus is tipped back a little". Uh huh. poor guy. trying to be all nice.

Had the ultrasound Thursday. By this time, i'm cramping. I'm like, in labor cramping. i just want it to go away, or for them to give me some really strong pain killers, which I know they really can't do. but whatever.

the ultrasound showed that the baby stopped growing at 9 weeks. that was 3 weeks ago, today, for me.

so I said, "so how long will it take to all come out?" and then the doctor told me they'd just do a d&c the very next day, and get me all cleaned out. this relieved and alarmed me, as 1) I am a very huge wimp, and 2) i knew it would all be over soon. ( I think I put those in reverse matching order, but you are smart people, you get it)

friday i went in. i waited in the waiting room, all nerves and nausea. craig couldn't go in with me, but he stayed in the waiting room and thought loving thoughts at me the whole time.

back to me, on the bed, having euphoria. So the pills totally kicked in, and the doctor and nurse came in to do the stuff. first they dilated my cervix.

ouch, people. no pap smear will ever compare to the ouch of that. then when that was done, the nurse handed me a little nose-mouth-cover, for the laughing gas, which i happily took and inhaled deeply.

it helped, it really did. but i have to say that i expected more suction and less scraping, and got very much the opposite, and the scraping hurt really really bad - i even think i moaned a couple of times, only to get reassuring noises from doctor and nurse, which did not help at all.

i think the laughing gas was the only thing that kept me from passing out.

but it was fast - just a few minutes. and then I rolled over on my side and they brought craig right in, and let him stay with me for as long as i needed to get up and around and ready to go. which, i think, ended up being a long time. i was in a cold sweat and almost puked the first time i tried to get up, but those darned relaxors kept my muscles from being remotely able to bring anything up again.

i was finally able to get dressed, and then we got the kids (thanks, Betsey), and i think we got my prescription (okay, I mean, i know we did, i just can't remember much of it. that statol is some amazing drug) and then we got home around, i dunno, 5 and I slept until three the next morning.

somewhere in there Robin brought us dinner, and I managed to eat a ton of food, but i dont' think i was really awake for that either.

here's the nice news though -

I'm recovering really, really well. I haven't had to take any of my prescription pain killers, and i'm not cramping at all and i'm not *ahem* very "messy" at all, and although i'm still pretty sleepy, I feel really good today. (don't worry, I am still staying way off my feet).


and also, look what the FedEx guy had left at our door while I was gone. so yesterday? really bad. Today? a lot better.

I'm sad that the maternity clothes i just bought online won't be worn until probably this coming fall/winter (and they're all capris, of course) and I'm sad that we have to try again. but I'm glad the pain is gone, and the wondering, and the worrying. I'm really grateful for my faith and for my amazing, wonderful, indescribable friends who have done way more than I ever needed in order to help me and my family out these last two days.

all in all, i'm pretty blessed. And thanks, Kathy, for the email. It really helped. And I haven't forgotten that you knew the name of the book. I'll make you something awesome. :)

bad news.

getting a D&C tomorrow.

we'll just have to try again.

yes, people, i am resting. i have not walked further than the distance from my apartment to my car (which, given, may be about a quarter of a mile, but whatever) all week. i'm starting to feel like i'm made of jell-o actually, what with all this lack-of-movement.

also, for me, "resting" tends to mean "blog hopping", much to my husband's dismay. but i have been sick this week and i have needed to stay rested so I'm feeling very okay with it for the moment. I just thought i'd share some of the things my blog-hopping has brought me:

on Monday karalenn called me (or maybe i called her, actually) and i was online and she was online and she told me to go to Emily's blog (happy birthday today, Em!) and look at this entry about this book:

which i promptly purchased with the last of my bookish birthday gift cards from my awesome friends. Then I got it yesterday. Which may be the most prompt Amazon has ever, ever, been.

and i'm very excited. because this lady, whose blog is here, and is awesome, has boys! like me, she has boys! and she's got this book full of creative ideas that boys can do, and enjoy! because i've been at the end of my rope since i put connor in public school. flether and i have not known, so much, what to do with eachother all day. mostly we end up wrestling and eating snacks. which is fun, but not so good for the development of his amazing little brain, is all.

So then I was going to all of my friends' blogs, who don't update nearly enough, and i hopped off of Hannah's blog to this blog, which is really very very funny, and she's just written a book also, which I may have to purchase here pretty soon -- anyway, what on earth was i talking about? oh yeah... so this funny lady had this entry about getting tickets to and attending the Oprah show. Which turned out to not be that exciting but she had some pictures of their day in Chicago and some things they saw. Namely These:

the point of her photograph (which I stole right off of her blog, sincerely hope she doesn't mind) was the astonishment that these shoes were $800. I believe she said something like, "$800 for a pair of shoes whoes heel looks like a teacup."

which is funny, because that may be exactly why i would be fully willing to pay $800 for said shoes. I mean, has there ever been a more perfect shoe to grace the eyeballs of passing window shoppers? these are the most amazing shoes i have ever seen. and since I will never own them, I'm going to need Karalenn to make a painting of them and send it to me, so i can gaze at it longingly every day.

1) i went to the doctor today and it looks like everything is okay but i'm getting an ultrasound on Thursday to make sure.

2) a couple of Connor's rashy spots got tender and swollen last night (he was wearing jeans, apparently they irritated them) and so we neosporin'd him up and band-aid'd him up and called his regular pediatrician this morning - who said that it did indeed sound like chicken pox, and that she didn't know how it happened, but it looked like he missed his last booster shot for it. also she said that those young guys down at urgent care hardly ever diagnose chicken pox properly because they never HAD them, and hardly ever see them.

NICE. REALLY NICE!!

3)got this link from A Dress A Day's blog. My first thought was, are they Serious?! then I thought, are those bras, wearing underwear? then I thought, hmmm, that could be handy when it's too hot to wear a layer'd cami.... you gotta check it out.

great pick-me-up for a bad day.

so i've got the flu, or something. sore throat, headaches/body aches, earache. whatever. also dealing with some pregnancy worries. it has not been a good two days.

then I got this box (of things that would not fit in my suitcase) in the mail from my Mom:

at our quilting retreat, we had a "fat quarter quandry" - which was where we use a theme, and buy 4 fat quarters to go with that theme, and then package it up all cute (i did "ice cream" and used a baskin robbins bag). The above picture was the package I got. the clue on the outside read, "boy is it windy out here, even my dog thinks so!"

i was all, "sunday drive and picnic?" then I saw this little guy inside:

It's TOTO! I yelled. and then out came these beauties!!!

oh yes, I was so excited. not that i'm in to the Wizard of Oz much (although Wicked was to DIE for), but the fabrics are fantastic and I'm excited to make something fully cute out of it.

here are some more prizey goodies I got:
and then, to fill the box up she added some of her own fabrics - these beautiful blue and burnt-orange african prints:

and the fabric i bought for my quilt that i ended up not using, that will be perfect for the backing, as it turns out:
I forgot to take a picture of the frog! Mom also sent the boys this frog, about the size and shape of a dodgeball, and very very soft, with thin hangy arms and legs. It's a puppet, and when you make its mouth move, it ribbits to the tune of several different nursery songs.

everyone loves it, obnoxious as it is. even craig.

But that is not ALL, oh no, that is not all! (name that book) (maybe i'll send you a prize) (maybe)

I got TWO boxes today!
the other one was from amazon. ahhh, sweet complete happiness.
nothing like books and fabric to pick a girl up off the cold hard floor.

i have chicken pox.


or at least, that is what Connor told his teacher and entire 2nd grade class this morning, after scratching a red spot under his armpit.

we took him to urgent care on Saturday morning, because he had developed a spotty rash here and there, and had had a fever a few days before. the doctor at urgent care felt very strongly that is was NOT chicken pox, but said he could not completely rule it out. (why did I tell connor that? WHY?)

he said it was probably a "non-specific virus" and that he was probably getting it from whatever was giving him a bit of a cold.

but, apparently, Connor did not want to stay at school today. and now, I'm pretty sure they're not going to want to see him back until the little red spots (all 6 of them) are completely gone. I got a call at around 10 this morning, from a very concerned office lady who pretty much insisted i bring him home.

i was torn between annoyance, and his genius for finding a way to get out of school. I had my friend Nanette go pick him up, and apparently he said to her, as they were leaving the office,
"when you were young, and you got out of school early, did you ever feel free? Because I feel so free right now."

nice.

however, i have noticed a couple of his little bumps looking irritated and pussy, so we'll probably hike back in to the doctor tomorrow.

*sigh*

now i can't even get it on amazon.com

so i have this mild addiction. i love this stuff. it started when i was 6 and my grandma gave me special K one day because we were out of rice krispies. then for some reason they stopped buying that and i graduated to wheaties. then total. then, one day when i was in high school mom decided that total was too expensive and she bought these. i thought i'd died and gone to heaven.

last year, sometime, post came out with Cinnamon & Sugar Shredded Wheat, which replaced the Bran Flakes in every. single. store. in. LA.

i was horrified. i tried to eat wheat chex to get my needed fiber (turns out i'm a bit of a stress case, and a high fiber diet prevents me from feeling the negative dietary tract effects that my stress likes to pile upon me) but that only lasted a week or so.

i bought 10 boxes on amazon.com. the shipping alone was $15. but i was happy. i requested from two different stores that they carry it again, and they say they can't. i tried to eat Ralphs' brand bran flakes but they just weren't the same.

and now i can't even get them on amazon.com anymore. what if Post stops making them altogether? my parents can get them in Redding, and in Weaverville. WHY NOT HERE?!

oh, bran flakes. what will i ever do without you?

wastin' time.

23

Quilts, Quilts, Quilts!

mom and I went to one of Linda Ballard's quilting retreats this weekend in Weaverville!

because it would have been a nightmare to get my machine on the airplane, mom had all the sewing stuff I would need available at the retreat. this is the 1956 Singer I got to work on. so smooth. :)

my cute mom and her work station. her jacket was made by taking a pullover sweater and cutting it up and patchworking fabric on the top. it looked awesome:
the retreat was small this weekend. just about 10 ladies, plus Linda and the travelling vendor, Susan:
Linda's quilt. We had to work all of Friday night without knowing what we were making. She did the "big reveal" on Saturday morning. This is what you're making, ladies!

the first 9 patches on my first square, done! phew!

water, hot cocoa, grapes, fabric. It's all you need to be happy on a Saturday. :)
Linda worked on this quilt on Saturday and completely finished it. It's made from a Jolly Roll - I think that's what they called it - which is a bundle of 2 1/2 inch strips of coordinating fabrics. ooohhh. aaaahhhh.
Katie's 9 squares, all made from hydraenga fabrics. I didn't get a decent close-up, but they were fantastic!
Barbara finished first, and she did 12 squares! Red, White and Blues with a crazy border! She was a speed demon.
Carol brought this for show and tell. "Birds in Flight" with Daiwabo fabrics. I made her bring it back on Sunday so I could get a picture.
Denise finished next (she came with Barbara. they brought their quick-mojo, apparently). The picture is fuzzy so you can't really see her cool-and-crazy border fabric.
Then Barbara did this one, you know, because she had all this time to kill.
I finished my quilt about a half hour before the retreat ended. Me and my 6 squares. But hey, I finished! Mom got part way through her 6 squares and decided she wanted to make 12 instead - so she's still working on hers at home. I had a lot of fun, and was really glad to get a chance to visit with my family and hang out with my mom all weekend.

thanks, Mom! you're awesome.

i have a ton more photos, but for some reason my internet does not want to upload them at all. this was going to be the last one on my post -

my quilt! I love it. I'm glad i managed to finish in time. I had a lot of fun with Mom.

I am so glad to be back on solid ground and off that plane and home again!!

a long post, and a long break.

last saturday craig told me to pick whatever I wanted to do for my birthday-day-fun. Can you guess where I said? Maybe this will help:

since we won't be going to the Happiest Place on Earth again for quite some time, I picked Disneyland! It was very crowded. But we had a good time, and we were all glad that we went.

we got to go on the submarines finally. and learned that Fletcher really really is not ready for big thunder mountain yet. I think he's been on it 3 times, and each time we go wants to go again. And then we do. And then he's terrified for the rest of the day and only wants to go on Buzz Lightyear and the carousel. Which was "out of order":

But the sword was still there in front, ever the reliable photo op.

Here are some photos of the Rock'N'Roll baby quilt. #1, squares cut, laid out, not sewn.


#2, quilt top sewn. dismiss the strip of Americana at the top of the pic. That's my bed quilt. (thanks, Mom!)
#3 here's a receiving blanket I whipped up to go with the quilt. The flames are flannel, the guitars are extra cotton from the quilt. I have 2 more cottons to back with flannel and make into receiving blankets.
and NEXT is the reason for my long break! I'm flying up to Redding Friday, and then driving the curvy mountain road to Weaverville for a quilting retreat with my Mom!!

It's a mystery quilt so i don't know what we're making yet, but here are my fabrics. The smaller floral in the upper right is supposed to be my second border - but I had to buy it without comparing fabrics and it doesn't quite go. Watch me throw perfectionism to the wind (as per usual) and not care and use it anyway.
I love, love, love the asian border print i found. in fact, i bought 4 yards of it so I could make a dress out of it, too. Someday when I'm no longer pregnant. Or nursing.

mmmmm........

anyway, and then a lot of batiks went with it and batiks are awesome to sew with and they feel so cool to the touch and besides that one fabric I am really excited about these!

so now i'm off to cut said fabric (we have instructions) and pack, and cook and clean and all that and I'll be back on Monday!