Sewing, Quilting and Knitting, OH MY!

I've got a little bit of all of these activities under my belt this summer. My boys and I have been so busy with swimming, playing at the playground, going to the library, zoo and museums that its a wonder that I've been able to accomplish anything for myself this summer.  Somehow, I manage though;)

  

The skirt was made out of my favorite skinny jeans that finally gave out in the knees.  I just couldn't bear to toss them and I was needing a good jean skirt.  I'm not a fan of the weird V's of random fabric that you'll often see in upcycled jean skirts so I decided to keep it narrow in the front and just add a V in the back with the leftover portion of the legs.  It worked BEAUTIFULLY!  I was also thinking of adding a little ruffle to that V in the back to hide it but changed my mind.  It looks pretty good as is, so maybe next time :)

 

The quilt is one that will be for ME!!! It's not the first quilt that I've made that I intended to be for me but it's the first one that is going to be mine(I guess its a good thing that people want to buy my work. But don't get any ideas. This one is NOT for sale.)  I picked up a fat quarter pack at the quilt shop my step mom works at in North Carolina.  I'm just in love with the color combo.  The background green fabric and the big orange border fabric came from JoAnn.  I'm hoping to enter it into a fair in Roswell, NM next month.  We'll see though. My HQ is having a fit and I'll have to rectify it before I can get it finished up.

As for the knitted shrug, it was my first successful attempt at knitting a sweater! And I really like how it turned out, but as far as wearing it, I'll probably have to wait until October. It's so stinking hot here.

And since I know that no one wants to look at me all the time, here is a couple shots of my cuties recently.....

Can you believe this is at the doctor's office? I love this kid. He's 15 months old already!

Frequenting the new Dunkin Donuts on Fort Bliss!  Oh how I have missed those chocolate frosted donuts.  The boys might have liked them a little bit too :)

This and That

My brother, Josh, came through El Paso last week on his way cross country and although his stay was short, we loved having him, his wife, Pam and his little Guy.  And naturally, when one needs a bath, they all need a bath so this is what you get. ------>













<-------As for this little monkey, I blame his father. Good job, hunnie. You wanted him to climb. You got it. Thanks. Thanks a lot.









And this is what I've been up to when I'm not trying to climb proof everything in the house.  I'm thinking of entering the quilt in a State Fair with a friend of mine. I'm still trying to figure out what design to quilt into it. Any suggestions?





And the green shrug that I have on is my first knit sweater.  The pattern called for a cardigan length but, get real, I live in El Paso. I'll be lucky if I can wear this for 2 months this winter. I was sweltering in it by the time I had a decent picture taken of myself.

And just because I think it's hilarious that he will literally fall asleep anywhere....here's my cute little Bear taken a snooze on the stairs. I'm building quite a collection of pictures of the strange places he falls asleep.

Slowly but surely

We've been in this house for four months so I decided, amidst all of my larger projects that I have going, that I needed a small window treatment project to be completed in an afternoon.  Sam took all three boys for a Zuki ride and I managed to get these simple curtains almost completed in their absense....imagine that :)

 

 

 

 

Where does the time go?

    I didn't even realize that it has been 2 months since I posted anything to the blog until someone made a comment today on my last post....2 months ago. So quick update:

Keith has turned 1 and has discovered that he really likes to flip the pages in his board books. He's also gotten his first haircut.

Sam turned 30 and so we went camping and climbing at the City of Rocks which is a really neat natural rock garden. He then spent a couple weeks in Colorado for a training and got to visit with his sister and her family.

Connor learned to use a life jacket in the swimming pool without latching onto people and the sides of the pool. He loves his new freedom in the water. Both big boys also got to feed the giraffe's at the zoo.

Bear is extremely timid in the water but we're working on it:) He made friends with the female seal, Sushi, at the zoo. She was so friendly and just kept coming right up to the window.

I've been finishing up a few projects: a t-shirt quilt for a friend, a fabric wall paper project in the master bedroom, an end table makeover and I'm just starting my first knit sweater project.

We've been keeping really busy and have made some really great friends here in El Paso.  I don't think I love it here, but I know that I don't hate it either so I guess it's a good thing.

Here are some pictures from our adventures

 Removable fabric wallpaper- adhered to the wall with liquid starch.

 Fresh haircuts for all my boys. They wouldn't stay still for the picture.

 30 years old coincidentally at campsite #30

 Hiking through the City of Rocks

 Making friends with Sushi.

 Keith Asher, age 1.

 With some of our friends at the SuperCroc exhibit.

Feeding the giraffe's. This is Connor's favorite animal.

Playin on the Dunes

A few weeks back Sam took the big boys to Red Sands which are about 20-25 minutes away.  They had a BLAST!!  And Sam has been wanting to take me there ever since. Well, he was right. It was super fun, even though the sand was a bit warm out of the shade.  So we played  in the shade of the little Suzuki for awhile and got EXTREMELY dirty. It was so worth it.

I can check something off of my bucket list too!  I've always wanted to be completely buried in the sand(minus my head). It's surprising how heavy a thin layer of sand is.

 Here's a couple from their trip out there a few weeks ago since I didn't get any of them jumping this go round. Connor has no fear....I love these shots.

A little color on my feet!

As a girl I LOVED rainbows.  And it was cute and appropriate for a little girl to like rainbows.  As I moved into my teen years it was a little odd to love rainbows but it never really bothered me what other people thought so I wore them on my toes, ears, around my neck and on many of my articles of clothing.  At 27, ahem...I mean, well, anyway....I can't just wear rainbows around town without people staring at me, then my children, then back at me....So, to avoid giving my boys a complex....I've almost completely liquidated my collection of rainbow possessions(that is, until Heavenly Father blesses our family with a little girl, and in that case, this discussion will be completely null and void).

However, last year while working at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts I was walking past the yarn aisle and spotted this GEM of a yarn.  It is called Serenity Garden Yarn from the Deborah Norville collection of Premier Yarns.  The name of the color is called GEMS and I simply had to have a skein or two for a later project.  Fast Forward to now.  I've completed my semi-acceptable rainbow socks for home use and possibly snow boot use and I might just be in heaven. These babies can get my feet warm lickety split!  Of course, now that I live in El Paso, my feet don't get cold all that often...

But I digress....I know you are dying to see a picture of them.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture but there is a really neat spiral pattern to them.  The pattern is called Frog Pattern or Ribbelmuster on Ravelry and it's FREE.  It was easy to follow and a great pattern to try if you are wanting to learn how to start doing cables(This was my first attempt at a cable pattern).

For my next project, I think I'm going to do some quilting....stay tuned :)

11 months and walking!

Keith started taking his first steps just before he turned 11 months old. Let me also say, that he has wasted NO TIME in getting serious about this walking thing. Saturday he would get so excited that he couldn't take more than a step and then fall forward into my arms. Today, he's walking back and forth giggling because he's so pleased with himself. So funny.

The bummer? Sam has been gone all week. So he left with a baby barely taking two steps at a time and will come home tomorrow to a little boy walking(on the verge of running and chasing his brothers!) all over the house.

Take a look:

Can't believe my baby is walking. But I absolutely love it. He's such a sweetheart!