Tree Swing Reading

One Week and Counting

One week from today is the 5th Grade Celebration for my daughter and 86 classmates. 

It is the event I've been working on since February and have poured 100s of hours into to create t-shirts, a 56-page memory book, invitations, program, slide show, cake, certificates, etc.  Seems like a lot for fifth graders, right?  Whew!  500+ people are expected to attend.  I can't think about it too much or I freak out. haha!

Just wanted to mention it, so you would know why I seem a bit distracted in the next week.

Also coming up is the baby shower for my daughter's teacher on Friday with the quilt in my Work-in-Progress Wednesday. 

Big week.  Need more coffee and chocolate.

Dancing Through April

Well, I'm not really one dancing, but my girls are.  April is full of dance competitions!  Sorry if I'm not blogging as much these last few weeks.  Just trying to keep up with b-day parties, dance competitions, and all kinds of deadlines for the 5th grade "graduation" I'm planning. Or, and sewing 3 quilts and 2 more Harry Potter aprons! 

I hope to catch my breath again in....hmmmm....mid-June?

Yikes!

Springy Sunday

Congratulations to our latest book winner!  Colleen's name was drawn to win Wishing on Willows! Thanks for entering!

We've had a wonderfully springy day!  It's so funny here in the midwest when spring finally shows itself.  All the neighbors come out!  It's like we were all standing outside in wonder, "Oh, so that's what the grass looks like!  And what's that bright thing in the sky?"  So nice!  I love spring!

I have survived yet another birthday party sleepover!  I am now tired and sleep-deprived, but glad for my daughter's happy memories and nice friends. 

Just a short update today!  More new releases and reviews next week!

No More Google Reader?

Did you hear that Google Reader is going bye-bye?  Huh.  That's how I keep up with the blogs I follow.

Do any of you use Google Reader to follow this blog?

I'm signing up for bloglovin' today and will let you know how that compares.

What about you?  Are you replacing Google Reader with something new?

Cake and Happiness

Happy Monday morning!

I've had quite the weekend. Whew! My 13-year-old had 24 girls over (yes, 24) for a birthday party. They were great!  It made me so happy to see what nice friends my daughter has.  It was chaotic, but so fun.  We played this great game called Telestrations.  It's like pictionary but it keeps going in a long chain and is pretty funny. The girls loved it.  We also decorated cakes.  I made 29 6-inch cakes and carefully iced them with white frosting.  Then I gave them decorating bags with different tips and let them decorate. They seemed to really like it.  We had other games and food too, and four hours flew by.

We also had an orchestra concert that both my girls were in, youth group bowling, and tickets for "Mary Poppins" the broadway musical.  Craziness. So happy for a quieter day today!

Speaking of "Mary Poppins," don't you just love that movie/musical?  I love the message of it and the themes of the songs.  I am especially fond of the way Mary is described as "happiness is bloomin' all around her." Wouldn't it be cool to be described as someone who makes the sun shine brighter?  I wish I was that positive of a person!  Gotta work on that "glass is half full" attitude more.

On another positive note, we've got a new book winner.  Congratulations to Cindi H. for winning the book Darkenss Before Dawn!

Have a happy, glass-full day!

Spring Forward?

Springing forward is not so springy for us!  I think we are crawling or being dragged forward.  As much as I like the extra hour of daylight, I find it painful these first few days of adjustment. Even our dog, who is usually so excited in the morning, is looking at me like he can't understand why I want him to go outside right now. 

How about you?  Do you find it hard to adjust to the new time? 

I know I haven't been as faithful with my blogging the last week. Some weeks are just like that, you know?  We've had my niece staying with us.  She's a college student on spring break and she and I are having a crafting weekend together.  She loves to do crafts as much as I do, so I've been showing her some techniques, etc.  She put a rag quilt together over two days and will be finishing it up today.  Pretty cool!  I'm including a picture of her working on it (with our dog getting in the way) when we were figuring out the layout. We're also making some jewelry together.

Speaking of rag quilts.  I think I'm in love with them!  All the flannel and soft goodness and the very forgiving seams!  Rag quilts are funny because you sew the squares together with the raw edges left out on purpose.  Then you snip the edges and wash the quilt and it makes like a fluffy egde between all the squares.  Here's picture of one I finished last week. Next time I make one, I'll include more instructions on how to do it if anyone's interested.  I actually will be making another one this month yet.

And, I also have a book winner to announce: congratulations to Carol W., winner of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker.  Thanks for entering!

My hope is to be back to a more "normal" schedule again this week, though my oldest daughter is having a birthday party with 20+ teenage girls on Saturday, so that will take some of my time too!  Want to come help?

Busy Bee, Happy Bee

Hi friends!

Wow has it been a busy few days!  I am a bit behind in my blogging lately, but will do my best to catch up soon. I've been a busy bee.

My youngest daughter is a 5th grader (already) and traditionally her school holds a "celebration" event at the end of the year before the class heads off to middle school for 6th grade.  It's usually quite an event, with memory books, a ceremony, cake, class speakers, t-shirts, a slide show, certificates, etc. Well, guess who's in charge of the event this year?

It's me! 

I had kind of been doing that "wait and see if someone else volunteers" thing, but since no one did, I decided I'm going to run with it.  Now, normally the planning starts in January, so we are a bit behind and the last few days has been me trying to play catch up a bit and hold our first planning meeting and our first fund raiser. I know it will be a fun event, but it may mean I'm a bit crazy come May--especially designing the memory book and collecting all the info for it.

I also finished knitting the blanket I told you about, completing the work started by a friend from church who lost her battle with cancer.  I am so glad to be able to get that back into the family's hands in hopes that it will be a special rememberance of their mom.

And, if that's not enough, our van broke down during carpool, I had a birthday (which I spent knitting and relaxing for the most part), and I helped with a book fair at my older daughter's school.

But, as busy as it all is, I am loving my life right now.  I feel so thankful to be able to have enough time to take on projects like blankets to knit, book fairs, and 5th grade events. And, how awesome to get to tell you about wonderful books too!

Pretty busy bee, but pretty happy too!

 

DMV and Sick Days for Moms

Today was a funny day so far. I've still been battling a fever and sore throat for a few days, but was feeling better and knew I needed to get into the DMV to renew my driver's license because it expires next week.

So I grabbed my forms, passport, proof of residence, and headed out. Stood in line, got my ugly picture taken, stood in line again, and found out I needed more documentation--my social security card. I had thought I was so prepared, but apparently when the form said "bring my social security number," it meant the actual card too.  So, I drove home, praying I could remember where I put it.  Thankfully I found it and was able to repeat the process fairly quickly. And so, that's done again. Until the next time.

Then I ran some errands and decided I needed to go to the gym to exercise. I worked out for 30 minutes and ended up pretty wiped out.  I guess being sick for 2 months makes a person a bit tired. Ya think?

Now my fever's back again and I'm getting that kind of panicked feeling that comes with wondering what's wrong with me? Like how I have this magic gift for turning a simple fever into something catastrophic like the end of the world or something.  Like is there some underlying reason that I'm getting sick so much?  Or is it just one of those times where being sick with one thing has made me suseptible to other things?  I'm guessing that adding unreasonable worry to it won't help, you know?  :)

So I'm hanging out on the couch with my computer and heating pad again, trying to beat out the chills. Not too much time to rest though, piano lessons, dance classes, and church youth group for the girls and I'm the taxi driver for them of course. Moms don't really get sick days.

But on the plus side, I'm loving the new books coming out right now! My to-read pile has now reached mountainous proportions!  I hope you understand my slower pace right now while I finish knitting a blanket and try to get healthy.

Here's hoping for a fever-free day tomorrow!

Thanks for listening!

Tami

Sore Throat, Book winners, Knitting in Someone's Place

Well, it's Monday morning again! It was another crazy weekend, filled with lots of activities for my girls, a shift in my church library, and seeing The West Side Story.  Unfortunately, I had to do half of it with a fever.  It would appear that my body is really determined to catch every illness possible this winter.  Today I'm still tired and achy with a horrible sore throat, but determined to do everything to get well as soon as possible. I'm gargling salt water, drinking Emergen-C, and resting. I have to admit to being a bit discouraged though.  It has certainly been a challenging time health-wise.  I certainly try to take care of myself, so I'm perplexed on this series of illnesses.

But, enough about that!  How about something positive?  Here's two more book winners:

Karen K, winner of Beyond the Storm

Grams, winner of Tidewater Inn

Most of you that completed my little survey said that you would be interested in my craft adventures. Right now I'm caught up in trying to finish knitting a large blanket.  A beautiful and kind woman from my church lost her battle with cancer recently and I have been honored to be asked to finish her knitting project for her daughter. The blanket is just a knit stitch back and forth, but is taking quite some time to complete. My hope is to really focus in on it this week and see how far I can get. My heart longs to get the blanket in her daughter's hands as quickly as possible. As the picture shows, the project is made up of all different bits and pieces of yarn that she must have had on hand.

I have lots of other projects lined up that I can't wait to tell you about!

Hope you have a good Monday! And good health to you!  Maybe I will "catch" that instead of another bug next time! :)

I'd appreciate your input!

I have been exploring some possible additions to this blog. As many of you know, I am a crafty girl, but I have usually kept that separate from this blog.  I am wondering though, how many of you would be interested in a weekly post about craft projects.

Another option I've considered is one in which I explore my Pinterest pins a bit.  You see, I have a bit of a Pinterest obsession!  I thought it might be really fun to write about my Pinterest adventures and share how well I do with trying out projects and recipes that I find there.

Or, maybe I just keep it the way it is.  What do you think?

If you don't mind, I'd love your input with this short survey:

 

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Thank you so much!