Its A quilt! Its a Plane! Its the Last 4 Months!

Time does fly by, I have had these posts saved up thinking I would just find the time to publish them and realized today that I hadnt done so! So here's an update of our lives over the past couple of months:

September: The camry broke down in the middle of a torrential rain storm. Zach had left the house and was about a quarter of a mile from our apartment when it just stopped working. He called me and needed help pushing the car back to the house. Did I mention that it was raining? yeah, it was, torrentially ( is that a word?) So i pulled on a windbreaker and some tennis shoes and jogged to where he was waiting, he had managed to find someone to help him get it to the side of the road to wait for me. It was interesting, and by the time we got home we were both soaked to the bone, chilled and our colds had gotten worse! Yay!

October: Pretty uneventful, in all.

November: Thanksgiving! lots of food and pie. Nuff said.

December: Now comes the fun part. I decided to make wall quilts for four people this year, which I did not remember until about the second week into this very dry december. (seriously, no snow yet and its the middle of january. blech.) When I remembered my plans I hurriedly began assembling quilt tops. I made 4 quilt tops and completed 3 of the quilts completely by two days before christmas. By that time, I had sprained my pointer finger and lost my mind almost completely.

January: We got the camry working! and proceeded to get rid of it as soon as we could in case it decided to torture us some more and stop working again. We now have a 2010 Honda CR-V with less than 8000 miles on it. I am in love with an automobile! It is a great car and can transition into a kid friendly car when we decide to pop out babies.

Melinda, Mark, and the kiddos came for a visit. Which means, you guessed it, a trip to texas for me to pick them up and get them home on standby. I was able to go a day early and FINALLY see melinda's house. I have made 10 - 12 trips down there and all I had seen was the airport and a quick jaunt to this incredible morracan restaurant in downtown austin. So it was pretty cool to visit her house and have a sleep over with the kids. I even got to try some of the best BBQ around at this restaurant called Rudy's. You eat with your hands, WITH YOUR HANDS people, how wicked cool is that? The way back from Austin was a little...turbulent, to use an airline term, as far as the standby travel went. Our party got split in LongBeach because half of us got on and the rest did not. I came with the first half that got on and brought one of the older girls and the baby. Yes, I got to bring the baby, best Birth Control EVER. by the time I had gone through the terminal, ran full tilt with a baby and two heavy bags, and got settled in the very last row (I think I must have hit every single person in an aisle seat with my carry-on bag on the way back) I was ready to cut out my uterus and save my self from ever having children, and that was just ten minutes into the flight. Luckily the baby slept the entire flight home and we made it safe and sound and delivered him and his sister to his dad in Provo. Needless to say, I was totally exhausted by the time I was finished!

So thats the update! I am looking forward to the next month or so, in March Zach and I will have been together for 3 years and married for almost two! how wierd, but pretty awesome!

Ciao

New Car Ownership...

Almost 7 months ago Zach and I bought a car, a little gray camry that has since become a pain in our, uh...side? When we got it we were told that it didn't leak oil, had a new battery, a new timing belt, and a host of other things that were not wrong with it. Unfortunately for us, being the trusting folk we are, we believed them. Since that fateful day the car started to leak oil like a woman with a post childbearing incontinence problem, the timing belt snapped (about a quarter mile from our house, in the rain.), AND the battery died. Zach has been working on this beast for a solid 4 months, ever since the timing belt broke back in september. He finally got it working with a new timing belt, a new battery, and a fixed oil leak. We drove it around town a couple of times, but were extremely hesitant to do so, thinking that it just might decide to stop working AGAIN. We wanted to get rid of it as fast as possible, before it was completely worthless to us.  So Zach pulled out his trusty laptop and logged on to consumer reports to check out new-er cars. We settled on a Honda CR-V and took our car abused bodies down to the local Ken Garff Honda dealer. It was an amazing experience with an awesome, non pushy, salesman name John. I know, I know, a non pushy salesman is like finding a leprechaun. But we found him. We ended up buying the car and left extremely happy.

Success!

After 2 months of the Painting the Roses Red quilt sitting quietly in my etsy shop it finally sold! Which is funny considering in my last post I was lamenting the fact that it had not as of yet sold. I got an email from the etsy success team on how to stage your shop, in it were some GREAT pointers about naming your object, pricing, and photography! it was fantastic! I took some photos in my sisters garden on friday posted them on the listing and Voila! it sold. Apparently my previous photos were not good enough to draw peoples attention. :) I am super happy about it. I am working on finishing the blue and cream quilt so that I can get it posted this next week. (with awesome photos by B, hopefully) This has definitely been encouraging as far as how successful this could be for me.

My Little Cottage in the Woods...

I was on the phones today, minding my own business, busily working and day dreaming of sumptious fabrics. (i.e. Taza from TheIntrepidThread, you should head on over there for some truly awesome fabrics AND tutorials. Love em!) When I realized how much I would love to turn my attention to quilting and fabrics full time. However, I don't know how much profitability there is in it. I am going to finish up the baby quilts I have currently swirling in my brain, each of them is my own brain child and I don't know how I will part with them. But I can't hoard them, as Z keeps reminding me, since we don't have a baby. Yet. So I suppose I will just have to share them with the world! Or whoever buys them, No luck on the Painting the Roses Red quilt that is The Etsy Shoppe as yet, hopefully someone will come to love it as much I do. I also realized that I would love to do these things in a cottage covered in roses in some rural wooded area of scotland. Like I said, practical? No. Daydream worthy? HECK YES!

The Machine Chronicles: Part I

At this point, if you have been reading along, You'll know I love to quilt. This last Monday I finally cracked my machine out of storage to start on my 1001 Peeps Summer Camp projects, I was incredibly excited to break out my fabric and machine and have at it. I sewed into the first block of fabrics when suddenly, as I was trying to backstitch, my machine would no longer go forward. THE HORROR, my machine was stuck in reverse. Needless to say this resulted in frustration to begin with, anger next, and tears last. Plus, I think I bruised my hand on my VERY sturdy machine casing. (My baby not being one of those plastic things, It is an extremely brawny metal Husqvarna Viking.) It is currently in time out at my house, not being used, while I sew on my moms Selectronic. Hopefully I will get it fully up and running soon. :)

Sew. A needle pulling thread!

Ah, the smell of fresh fabric in the morning! I love fabric, all kinds of fabric. But mostly I love quilting fabric. I have taken to quilting like a child to its favorite toy, I pick it up, put it down, run around and scream a little and when someone tries to take it...well, you get the picture. With the move this last week I have hardly had time to string a full sentence together, much less break out my sewing machine and rev it up. (Have I mentioned I have a deep and abiding love for that small, but heavy, piece of machinery?) BUT the time will come this next week where I will be able to do so! I am participating in the Lizzy House 1001 Peeps Summer Camp EXTRAVAGANZA! You can see the nifty patch below.

(Did anyone else think of Troupe Beverly Hills there? Patches! We don't need no stinking PATCHES! *sigh* Love that movie). More about the summer camp...It is amazingly cool and I am super excited! I have missed several of the online projects during the move (thankfully they keep the patterns up for those of us who don't have the time to get it done on the actual schedule). Yes, it is an online summer camp! HOW COOL IS THAT?! Every week there is a project, with full instructions, hosted by a different blog. I will post the results of this summer camp as I get them finished. Wish me luck!

Peep Out! ;)

Living the good life...

One of my good friends is getting married, and I am so grateful that I can honestly say "Marriage is the best!" Today, I'm feeling all gushy and gooey inside over Zach, and our life together. It truly, honestly, is the best. We recently had our one year anniversary and I can't believe its been a year, it certainly doesn't feel like it. But, No matter how short a time it seems, in looking back over the past year I can see exactly how much we have grown as individuals and as a couple. We talk more, we certainly laugh more, and we love more. I thought, on my wedding day, that I couldn't possibly be any happier or more in love than I was right then. However, since that day, My love for Zach has grown exponentially. I am not saying that life is always easy, no way, but life is good none the less. We have learned new things about each other, new ways to approach problems, and when to walk away from an argument. Today is Zach's 23rd Birthday and I am so grateful for him and everything he has done for me, and I am looking forward to the next 60 years or so of birthdays, anniversaries and most of all Love.