Random Stuff

Yet another super creative post title :)

It sums it up well though, we are getting really close to seed starting time, so I haven't started any big projects around here since my hands (and house) will be full by this time next week hopefully.

I splurged this year on a rolling cart for my lights and seed flats.  I used one for a few years but it was icky and rusty from the shed so I have officially declared that it's not allowed in the house anymore.  Last year I couldn't bring myself to spend the money and limped the operation along with some folding card tables I had and suspended the lights from the ceiling, it was pretty hideous.  This year I got a great deal on a sale cart plus a $15 coupon so I took the plunge.

Finn insisted on putting it together.  He did pretty well with daddy only helping when it got tall :)

There were 2 sizes available for the same price, one was nice and wide at 48" but no wheels and gosh, where the heck would I put it afterwards?  The one I got is a manageable 24" wide, thicker gauge, has baskets and hooks, and wheels.  No brainer for me, everyone knows my love of furniture on wheels!  With this one the lights will hang over the sides a bit but it's only for 6-8 weeks, and afterwards this can become a nice canning or craft storage area that I will actually be able to park somewhere around here without being too cumbersome.

I'm not sure what got into my kids the other night, but they did a spectacular job of cleaning their room!  I wish I had taken a "before" pic, there were legos everywhere... they are obviously fixin' to ask me for something of gargantuan proportion :)

Random:  it's cold in this house!  It's not that bad outside, high 40's - low 50's, but it's been damp and windy and I guess the crawlspace is really cold because I had to break out the Minnesota Girl Getup:

Random:  in case you wondered, this is what a Free Ride looks like:

(I have tried photographing Sprocket the Rocket from every possible angle and the result is the same - you can't tell what you are looking at.  Trust me, she's a dog.)

***

Random:  Loch made the Honor Roll and Principal's List again, so we are very proud of him.  (He's the one in the gray shirt with his hands in his pocket after I told him to not do that!)

You know what that means... more bumper stickers, just what I need!  

Aren't they cute?  He is going to get mad at me for posting that one :)

Not completely "craft-less"

It occurred to me after I posted about the quilt that I haven't been a total failure on the wintertime crafty-stuff, there's been "things"....

Like one really big sock.  Here's a size comparison to one of my normal socks LOL...

I will store this with our backpacking supplies.  If we ever run into a really cold one legged Sasquatch, we are ready.

My first sweater - okay this was like 4 months ago but it counts.

The mittens I made for myself that barely fit Finnegan, and he doesn't even like them because "they're itchy"... I can hang them on the Christmas tree next year!

I wanted something mid-century-ish that would match my thrift store mid-cen-mod starburst clock on the wall so hubby made a plywood headboard for me and I cut out and stained balsa wood diamond shapes and glued them on.  Nope, you can't see them behind the pillows, but trust me it's cool :)

And who could forget Susan's Apron Challenge?  Sewing Craft, check.

Anyone remember when I said I was going to start scrapbooking?  Hahaha, of course I have amassed a bunch of scrapping paraphernalia, had a grand old time organizing it all, because that's what I love to do, then never made even one page.

Well, I made my first one last week, I'm no longer a poser!  

It's actually for the Scouts' bulletin board, so I made 2 pages I can just pull apart from each other as I add photos to it.

Now the horrifying part - I feel so overwhelmed by all the stuff I said I was going to do/finish and never did, that I made it all disappear...

yes, I frogged like 5 knitting projects!  A sweater, some socks, a shawl and something I don't even know what it was.  It feels oddly freeing, like the blank slate now has me motivated!

I'm working on a scarf and hat now, and that's the ONLY knitting I have going.  

Other stuff is starting to come together - I finally got my dry-erase board up and in a place where I will see and use it - the front door.  I have different colors for the boys' activities, church, school, chores...haha all those different color markers satisfies my type A/OCD brain, so far it's working pretty well.  The big difference now is that I used to work on one thing until it was finished, but that was starting to make me really stressed about other stuff so now I work on several different things for a limited amount of time each.  I wonder if that's the reason I am finding it harder to have subjects to blog about?  I used to devote entire posts to one thing or do "tutorials" but now I feel really scattered...

Scattering over to the weather, here's a couple of photos from our snow "event" the other night:

It's all gone now.

One last thing... I FINALLY GOT MY SEED ORDER DONE, WOOHOO!!!  Cutting it right down to the wire this year :)

The late quilt!

I have been saying how I haven't gotten any of the sewing and quilting I wanted to accomplish done this winter, but I did make one quilt ...  I had forgotten to post it!  I made it for my new nephew in Minnesota, this past Christmas was his very first and I never posted the project on the blog because it was a Christmas surprise for my brother's family, and this was a new technique I was learning and I wasn't sure it would even work out!

Can you tell what it's going to be?

It's a VW Bus!

There is no binding on the quilt, so it involved quilting the batting onto the top first, then sewing the backing on backwards and flipping the whole thing inside out kind of like a pillow cover.  Then the backing is just tacked on in places throughout the quilt to hold it all together.  I used a simple star embroidery machine stitch in places, I guess the machine equivalent of a tied quilt.  I had never done applique either, so I was pretty nervous about those wheels, bumpers, headlight and door handle!  It was hard to pick colors for a little boy, but once I picked out the yellow, my inner Marsha Brady took over, as she often does :)

The bonus of waiting to post?  I now have a photo of the little guy on his quilt!

I wouldn't be surprised a bit if my brother actually sleeps with this quilt, the back story here is that their family are total VW junkies.  (Actually my whole family is!).  Bugs, Beetles, Micro Buses, Camper Buses, Things, you name it, I think he even has one of those VW pickups now.  He restores them and shows them at the VW shows.  

I happen to have a cool photo - below is the VW my parents bought when I was born - it has traveled several times cross-country, endured countless frigid Minnesota winters and road salt, my mom drove it with all us kids in it for many, many years.  I'm not sure if the odometer even kept working but my brother fished it out of my parents' garage a few years back and restored it and they used it on their wedding day as their getaway car and it now spends its winters in the safety of his garage.

That's one loved car.  Not too shabby for being 42 years old, eh?  (I meant the car)... :)