August Blocks finished!

These were the blocks I put together for Krista, the August member of the virtual quilting bee I'm part of. The instructions were to use Amish quilt blocks as inspiration, but to make whatever you wanted as long it was a 12.5 inch block. I would've made two of the "Pieced Star" blocks but I didn't have enough black fabric. So, the second block that I named "Double H" was just kind of a create as you go type of block.

I must admit I've got some work to do before I'm a professional piecer. Which frustrates me because when I went through all my fabric stashes last weekend I found some blocks that I had pieced when The Little Guy was a baby. (11 years ago) Those blocks were down right perfect. Ok, pretty close to perfect. I didn't feel these two orange and black blocks were perfect. But, I did my best. And they are exactly 12.5 inches square, which is a first for me.

Yesterday the fabric for the September quilting bee member, Carm, has arrived. Beautiful fabrics and very soothing colors. This fabric also came with the instructions to make whatever I want. So, I've got some planning and research to do because nothing is coming to my mind automatically.

You know what's funny? September marks the fourth month of the quilting bee out of twelve. Three out of the four members so far have told the sewers in the group to make whatever they want, no pattern or detailed instructions were given other than the size of the finished block. Want to know who the one member so far was that made everyone follow a pattern? Yep, it was me. Does that speak volumes about my anal retentive personality, or what? That's ok, I guess. I like me.

Note to self: don't break your own rules

Last night I went to one of my spin classes. I decided to wear this sports bra top that I've worn before. However, in the past when I've worn it I've layered something else underneath, either a real sports bra or another sports bra top that is really just a layer of wicking. My thinking was that since I would be on a bike I wouldn't need extra support.

I was soooo wrong.

Thank goodness the room my class is held in is dark except for the spotlight on the instructor because I had a serious jiggle syndrome going. And some of you may remember from this rant that having the jigglies is one of my pet peeves when a woman is exercising.

My class was an hour long, and throughout that hour I kept thinking I was cleaving out and was bouncing way too much. It was so uncomfortable and I couldn't wait to get through the workout.

So, a new note to self... support the twins whether you're running or spinning. You're working out, right? Therefore extra support is a necessity. My next spin class will not include thoughts of being uncomfortable. I'll just be able to enjoy the ride.

Tokidoki

I'm not sure if you're familiar with Tokidoki, but I absolutely love this brand. Here are a couple of my favorite t-shirt designs that I purchased recently...

If anyone who knows me needs Christmas gift ideas, I'd gladly take one of these calendars... Actually, I'd appreciate just about anything from their site.

I love the tattoos on the women in their images, too. Bright colorful artwork... right up my alley!

These skateboards are really cool, but my skating abilities aren't, so these would probably have to be wall decor. The boards highlight some of the tattoo artwork that I really like.

Hubby purchased the vinyl versions of Ciao Ciao and Adios for me last Christmas (you can see them in the first t-shirt image, Ciao Ciao is in pink and Adios is in black). They have so many cute toys, even some Hello Kitty options, that I would love to have. Check out Mozzarella when you have a chance. Evidently this fella is hard to find, but I want one!

Football Mom

I had an epiphany this morning on my way to work, and as with other epiphanies I've had in the past, I found myself thinking, "Blog about that!"

Let me start at the beginning. The Little Guy was at his dad's house this morning, so I stopped by there on my way to work to wish him well since it's the first day of the new school year. The Little Guy stumbled out into the living room to say hello and give me hugs, and we chatted for a little while about him being nervous. He was worried he wouldn't find his classes and be in the right spots at the right times.

I wasn't able to stay long since I have to be to work so early, and I found myself negating my situation of being a "career mom" as I got in the car to leave. As I drove away I began wishing I was a stay-at-home-mom (or at least a work-from-home-mom) instead, and I was dwelling on the issue of doing the right thing. Was it right to make sure I was at work on time, or was it right to use some personal time to take my son to his first day of sixth grade? Last year (fifth grade) was the first year that I didn't use personal time to take him to school and walk him in. I thought he was getting old enough that I would be more of an embarrassment, so I didn't let myself worry too much about it.

This year I was feeling regretful. Then I started thinking about these two young dads that work with me, and I didn't remember seeing them request time off for taking their kids back to school today. (I'm the Human Resources Manager so I see these things.) I knew from past experience they had just called in to use a couple of hours of personal time.

I felt guilty for not doing the same. I also felt angry that we had a new employee starting today, and one of those guys is the supervisor to whom the new person reports, and he wasn't going to be there on time. I was right, he was over two hours late. I took care of the new employee orientation and all was well.

But as I was stewing over things that I could no longer change, I realized something. I've been complaining about not wanting to be the Team Mom for The Little Guy's football team this season. I've been the baseball Team Mom for more seasons than I can count, and I know the football Team Mom has a ton more to keep up with than the baseball Team Mom. So, I've felt I've paid my dues and shouldn't be asked AGAIN to be the Team Mom. But, this is my moment to share something with The Little Guy since I can't share school stuff. Team Mom stuff is after-hours. I can do that. What am I worried about? I'm sure there will be aggrivating parents to deal with at times, but I'm going to change my focus. I'm going to be proud to be the Team Mom this season. Next year The Little Guy will be in junior high sports (OMG I feel so old!), so I think that means no more Team Mom needed, right? I think I'll just take this opportunity to revel in still being able to help my son out, and be part of what he enjoys.

And you know what, maybe that will be the better option after all when I compare school activities to sports activities. He can't stand school, but he loves sports. Especially football. Yep, I'm proud to be part of that.

Apologies for the past two cheesy posts...

Yes, I know... my last two posts were total copouts. My sincerest apologies. But, what was an overly-inspired-home-re-stager to do? Let me explain...

Hubby and I had big plans this weekend. You see, we've grown complacent with decorating since we moved in over three and a half years ago, and have let the dust settle too deeply. Granted, we've repainted rooms, added hardware to cabinets, and moved furniture around before but not in a very long time.

So this weekend we pledged to list some big items on Craig's List that have been crowding our spare room and make that room something functional for both of us.

We had both of these things in our guest room, along with my sewing table. My sewing table folds out to twice its size so Hubby uses it for blog videos and photo shoots. His blog has been quite successful, which means there are lots more videos and gear reviews for him to complete, which means that tactical gear needs more space than what the attic man-room will permit. Plus, I'm sure you can imagine that the heat in an attic man-room in August in Texas is quite overbearing. So, the gear has come down and I'm learning to call my sewing stuff "gear", too. In other words, we are sharing this "gear" room.

I must confess I was a bit intimidated at the idea of giving up my sewing room, but I knew it was a necessity. Then I saw the truly brilliant sparkle in Hubby's eyes as he was chucking gear down the attic stairs, dripping with sweat. Then, once the gear was securely piled in the spare room he was on the verge of shouting "hooyah!" I could feel it! So, how can I deny the man such joy? I know it will come back to me ten-fold. I'm confident of it. And, actually it already has begun.

Hubby suggested that we re-stage our bedroom. (Insert squealing jumping for joy noise-making here!) I've been dying to take down this huge mirror we've had hung over our bed for years. It was hung way too high so I couldn't see myself when I would walk by. How depressing is that for a short stack of a woman? Anyway, Hubby did not want to jack with this until yesterday. Then we moved our bed, moved everything else around, and started making a plan for replacing our over-worn bedding and adding curtains. Of course, those steps will come after our items sell on Craig's List, so I'm hoping for a big sale just any second now.

Please stay tuned, more pics of the re-staging will follow very soon. And, if you're in the market for an "elegant three-piece bookcase/shelf unit" or a "Tama Rockstar drum set" shoot me an email. I'll hook you up!

Some Celebrity faves...

Mo Rocca

Larry David

Ben Stiller

Liam Neeson

Megan Fox

Kristen Wiig

Keira Knightley

Judd Apatow & wife Leslie Mann

Jimmy Fallon

Jennifer Aniston

Ashley Judd

Christina Applegate

Carol Burnett

Johnny Depp

Debra Winger

Seth Rogen

Shia Lebouf

Tommy Lee Jones

Obviously, that's not all my faves... but I didn't want to wear you out too much by making you continue to scroll.

Who entertains you from the celebrity world?

Some of my faves...

Now tell me about yours...

"Or you can call me (insert nickname here)....."

For some reason nicknames are popping up all around me today. I was just having a conversation with a friend about nicknames, and then I came across a post from A Cup of Jo today about the same topic. So, it made me want to share and ask you to do the same.

What is your favorite nickname? Either something you are called, or a name you call someone dear to you.

I've had so many over the years. Some of them have been very meaningful and some of them have been down right insulting even though they stuck with me for years! Why is it that the ones that are most embarrassing and scarring are the ones you hear over and over from certain people?

I'll start with my first nickname... Pooter Joe. My Papa George, bless his Heavenly soul, is the one who tagged me with that one. He called me Pooter right up until he passed away. Piss'aint is another one given to me by my Great Granny Bynum, but I think she called a lot of her grandkids that. She's resting in peace now, too, by the way. P'servant was another term of endearment she labeled a lot of us. (My mom still likes to repeat those when she's talking to her kids and grandkids.) I have no idea what a P'servant is, but a piss-aint from what I understand is one of those little sugar ants. Maybe that's a southern thing... Another memorable nickname for me was and still is Kelkel. My parents mostly call me this, and I have one good friend from Oklahoma who still calls me Kelkel. I think that one is my most favorite nickname of all since its used by very few people and they've known me all my life.

As I got into junior high school the undesirables began to attach themselves to me... Then in high school even more came my way. Bubbles and Tig (both related to being overly endowed in the breasticle area) were ones that I hated. Tig stuck with me until I was well into my 20's. Thankfully by the end of that decade I had a bit of a "reduction" and so now I'm of normal proportion.

Hubby calls me Babe most of the time, which is also what I call him. And my sister always calls me Sissy, which is also what I call her. Sometimes our mom will refer to each of us as Sister, which cracks me up since she's usually goofing around when she says that.

I've got lots of nicknames for The Little Guy... Dootsie is my all time favorite, short for Dootsie Bug. He's also known as Toontsie the Cat.

I just can't help it, I love nicknames! I love having them and I love calling my friends and family members by anything BUT their real name it seems. I'm not sure why. Maybe its a sign of not wanting to be serious most of the time. What about you?

Coldplay on CBS

CBS has great news shows in my opinion. I'm a huge fan of watching CBS Sunday Morning on the weekends. I don't always get a chance to watch it, but I try to make it happen as often as possible. That show makes me feel enlightened and educated most of the time, and I love that feeling!

I also like to check out 60 Minutes on Sunday nights. That's another show that makes me feel like I'm being an educated viewer. This past Sunday evening Coldplay was featured on 60 Minutes. It was such a great report! I've never seen any footage of this band before, just heard them on the radio and on Hubby's iPod. I've liked their sound, but honestly I haven't really "rocked out" to them before on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong, I attempt to sing along when they are playing on the radio, but that's about as far as my attraction went.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Now that I've seen the report from CBS on them I want to become a dedicated fan. Not that they need my praise at this point, but they've got it. Want to know what hooked me, other than liking their sound? When Chris Martin (CBS reporter) noted that they are consistently ridiculed in the British tabloids for being a dull band, not your typical rock star variety. They don't get into the druggie-alcoholic-sleazy women scene if you know what I mean. They work to make music, and they try to live normal lives with their families.

I adore that about this band. Kudos to you, members of Coldplay, for being REAL and taking your personal commitments seriously. I love that about you guys. And I dig your tunes.

Check out the video... I think you'll like them more after seeing it, too!

Missing the fam...

Today is the day that The Little Guy goes back to his dad's house for the week... he'll come back home with me and Hubby next Monday. (We do the joint custody thing in case you missed one of those older posts...) Mondays when he goes back are always a little strange for me. An emptiness surrounds me for a while when I get home. Then it morphs into missing more than just my son... I miss my mom and sis, too. My sister lives pretty close, but not close enough to just pop in and say hi. And Mom is a thousand miles or so away.

I was buzzing through some older pics while feeling brain dead and found this one... Sissy, Mom and me at my step-dad's 50th birthday which was a couple of years back, but we all still look about the same. And act just as huggy and goofy when we're together. Actually, not huggy enough for my taste, but my little sister thinks I'm too big of a dork if I get overly mushy. I keep telling her one of these days she'll get more attached.... I'm waiting patiently until then.

And here's another cute pic of The Little Guy. He was sporting a new look while out shopping with Hubby and Granny (my mom) not too long ago when Mom was in town. I miss you, Dude.

And, Hubby... beware. I'm sure I'll be a little clingy this evening when I get home.

The Little Guy & Axel

My other two babies... Since I posted yesterday about Sushi, I felt it only fitting that I share my other children, The Little Guy & Axel, with you guys this weekend, too.

As you can see, Axel thinks he's just as human as his brother, taking over the couch as he feels necessary. Axel is quite verbal like his brother, too. He literally tries to have conversations each day, especially if we get busy on the computer or working on something that directs attention away from him. It's pretty funny to hear Axel's groans and grunts while he moves his mouth and head around. The Little Guy is an entertaining conversationalist, too. Not only does he enunciate his words well, he's someone who talks with his hands, so descriptive stories can get quite interesting at times. He cracks me up on a regular basis. Actually both of these fellas crack me up all the time!

Sushi Girl

This is Sushi. My little girl is getting up there in years. She's about 14 or so... I'm not sure since I adopted her years ago from the Humane Society and she was a "found" dog. This morning she was in a particularly spunky mood that made me so happy. She was jumping around and wagging her tail off, so excited to go outside. She ran around and around with an extra sweet smiley expression. That kind of stuff doesn't happen too much anymore so it made for a very nice morning for me.

Now she's back to her normal mode... curled up dozing. That's basically what she does all day every day. Oh well, at least she was off to a good start!

I missed my anniversary!

My first blog anniversary, that is. August 5th of last year was when I got started. I can't believe the last year has flown by so quickly! Actually, I guess I can... I have those types of reality checks on a daily basis as I wonder how it's already tomorrow.

This blog has evolved quite a bit from it's inception, I'm happy to say. I started with just having a place to vent, and then I found more poignant things to post about like wanting to do Crossfit workouts (insert laugh here...), and then it took another turn to write about crafty things and such. I've gone from being totally anonymous to showing some face (like the above work of art entitled "Just Dork").

I really enjoy blogging and reading your blogs. I love how there are such vast topics out there to see each day, some reality-inspired sites versus the totally fictitious ones. I can't say I'm a fan of the overly dramatic ones as I like to keep my life as mundane as possible, but I do enjoy the variety. I find that its better than any magazine or newspaper subscription I can find. Well, my subscription to Nylon is pretty fulfilling these days, but I don't read it near as often as I read from my blog roll.

Another interesting tidbit is that both my husband and my sister have blogs now, too. Not that I was the only source of inspiration for them since they are pretty technically savvy, but I like to think that my emphatic response to blogging did send them a bit of encouragement for beginning their own. I can honestly say that blogging has been a life changer for me. I'm so much more introspective and creative since beginning this journey. What about you????

Soooo real day dream... while driving

Yesterday on my way home from work I was doing my usual... listening to NPR and zoning out. Commuting is pretty boring so that's how I muddle through most days. Anyhoo... I zoned out on whatever report was coming through my speakers and started visualizing Hubby & I meeting these friends of ours for drinks.

If you have an On the Border chain around you then you can picture the bar area, because that's where we were in my head since that's where we met up with this couple the last time we had drinks. As my day dream unfolded, the four of us were sitting at a tall round table chatting and having a beverage. Mine was a frosty draught beer in one of those big schooners. Then I pictured myself lifting up the big glass to take a drink and inhaling wrong, causing me to choke while my face is planted inside my beer. Instinctively (in the day dream) I turned my head to the left and coughed beer all over the face of Hubby, who was smiling and laughing as we chatted with friends. (Or perhaps he was laughing because I was choking, in which case spewing beer at him would be appropriate.)

The point of telling you my day dream while driving is to tell you that at that very point, when I saw myself spewing beer in Hubby's face while I choked on beer, I laughed out loud at myself in the car. Not just a chuckle. A loud-lean-forward-two-full-second kind of laugh that startled me.

I'm not so spooked by the fact that I laughed at myself, I guess. I laugh at my own jokes all the time because I crack myself up, and my family calls me a dork when this happens, but that's ok. I'm cool with it.

The spookier part is that I was so zoned out that this played in my mind's eye like a situation comedy. I couldn't tell you what car was in front of me, how fast I was going, or if I could've broadsided someone. I was THAT zoned out.

Is this common? Do you crack yourself up and zone out in such a way that could bring harm to passers by? I'm just curious. Feel free to tell your story so that I might feel more normal.

And enjoy your Friday evening! You might be entertained to know that Hubby and I are really having drinks with this couple that I was day dreaming about, and we're really meeting at an On the Border, and I really plan on having a big schooner of beer. I'll let you know if I choke and blow foam on Hubby. I sincerely hope that really doesn't happen because the pay back would be monumental, and I would certainly not be the last person laughing.

Sewing Updates

I'm participating in a virtual sewing bee with eleven other ladies, and each of us are assigned a month where we provide fabric and instructions to the rest of the group to make a quilt block. When the blocks are completed they are sent back to the fabric owner. My month was July and here are some pics of the fabric I sent out and some of the blocks that were sent back.

The August block was for one of our other group members, and here is the fabric she sent me. I'm not quite finished sewing the first block together, but here are the major pieces laid out for you to see.

There is enough fabric left over that I can make a second quilt block, too. I haven't decided if I'll make exactly the same block. I think I want to make a different design. The owner gave everyone free reign on design, with the instruction that she's going for an Amish quilt look. I was shocked to see how many Amish quilt blocks you can make out of just two colors of fabric. It's really been a fun project to work on.

Here is a picture of another quilt I've started. My mom picked up this fabric for me a couple of months ago along with a quilt pattern to follow. I've modified the pattern a bit by making strip blocks instead of just long strips. As you can see, my pups decided I was making them a pallet while I was trying to snap some pics.

And, I have two other quilt projects going that I haven't shown here. I can hear what you're thinking... this girl needs to finish one project at a time. I know, I know... I'm working on that strategy. It just hasn't quite caught on yet.

As American As Apple Pie

Today was a great Sunday... The Little Guy made omelets for us this morning for breakfast, and you should know he's really quite good at making them! Then we were off to take care of some stuff in the big city. Once we got home we finally were able to make a homemade apple pie that we've been talking about for most of the last week.

First we were going to make it Friday night to take to our friends house on Saturday night. Then we decided to make it on Saturday so it would be more "fresh." Saturday was full of so many things, including the movie G-Force, that we ran out of time to bake the apple pie since it needed two hours to cool after baking, and we needed to be at our next stop at six that evening. (We settled on making some chocolate chip cookies instead... they were a big hit with our friends!)

So, Sunday afternoon was the designated time to actually make it.

It was sooooo worth the wait.

Flaky crust just like the old Crisco commercials. But, I must confess I cheated with the pie crust. I have only Pillsbury to thank for their wonderful boxes of two rolled out & ready to go crusts. But, the rest of the pie was made from scratch, I promise. With Betty's instructions, of course.

We sliced it just before the two hour mark when it was still a tad bit warm. Such yummy goodness, I can't even fully explain it. I highly recommend this little Sunday project when you have a chance. You won't regret it!

3-D Movie Adventure

Today The Little Guy and I headed to the movies to check out Disney's G-Force 3D. We knew we would get some cool glasses, but we didn't know we would be able to sport the Buddy Holly look! I was excited!!! The theatre asked us to recycle the glasses when the movie was over, but we said, "Are you kidding??? We just paid three extra bucks a ticket for these guys so we are wearing them home!!! And we did. It certainly made for a more fun car ride!