Halloween 2012

I just realized that I have never posted about our Halloween in 2012!! 

 Me and my cute Halloween outfit. I made this skirt last year but didn't finish it in time. I finished it and viola! I found my lovely bat headband from the dollar store!

 The boys....

Indiana Jones - Brandon

 Gold Power Ranger - Nathan

Red Power Ranger - Kimball

 We had a Ward (church) Halloween party. I made this little guys costume, the shirt, vest, boot covers and belt. Then Travis had a lot of fun with this doughnut game.

 The only pictures I actually got on Halloween were at Kimball's school! This always happens! I always forget to actually take pictures on Halloween!

 Then I made these little "twister" spots for the boy's Piano teacher. She asked for a homemade twister game that she can use for her different piano parties. So I made these Halloween ones. Unfortunately they are the only ones I have made thus far! I need to start working on different other holidays soon.

Piano Lessons

At the end of September and the beginning of October Brandon and Nathan started piano lessons.

 Brandon is a natural and has been able to pick it up really quickly. He also practices without me telling him to! It's so nice! Since he is really good at memorizing, he if has a little trouble with the song or likes it, it memories it because he plays it a little more. We are talking about 5 times playing it through. He is doing a great job.

Nathan at first really liked it and was really excited, but then a few weeks went by and I was arguing with him to practice. But even with that Nathan still likes it but doesn't like to take the time to practice. He rather be playing when he gets home from school than practice. He is a lot like his Mommy in playing. As long as he practices he learns it just fine. We are doing a little bit better now, but he definitely doesn't want to quit.

Since both are beginners and are brothers who tend to fight....we started them on a different set of beginner books. Nathan is doing a regular beginner set while Brandon being older is doing an advanced beginner book. We really lucked out and each set of books have been perfect for each boy.

Birthdays

In September and October we had some birthdays that we celebrated. Mine was in November but we spent the day in Sandy, at the the Festival of Trees. I'll write more about them later. 

Kimball turned 5 years old in October! Man is he growing up! I tried to get him to let me put a rock on his head so that he won't keep growing, but he wouldn't let me.

 I got to bring in treats to Kimball's school to celebrate, but they also were talking about clowns at the time and were dressed up as some.

 Later that night we opened presents and had some yummy cake.

 Nathan was really excited and kept wanting to do it for Kimball....what are big brothers for right?

 Kimball chose an ice cream cake and as soon as he saw a football one, he was hooked. His Daddy has convinced him that the Raiders are the best team in the NFL, poor boy. Doesn't he know that the best team is the Broncos?

 After we gave him cake, he was done and didn't want any more pictures. But I got one anyway.

 The birthday boy with his mommy (I took a shower after dinner).

 Birthday boy with Daddy. After dinner Daddy had to go to some meetings, but we still had plans for after it got dark.

 We all went outside and played with some sparklers that we have had saved since July.

 They were all so excited to play with them.

 One present was still "on it's way" on Kimball's birthday. So a few days later we got it! The yellow power ranger, which he likes because she looks like a girl that was in his class last year. (Shhh....don't tell anyone but he likes her and wants to marry her...his old school mate not the yellow power ranger.)

Then back in September, Travis turned the big 36. Is it bad that I have a hard time remembering? And the fact that he got a simple ice cream cake too? I am having a problem when it comes to birthday cakes, but the important thing is that we are celebrating the birthdays right?

 We didn't do anything big. I know something was going on around his birthday (Labor Day) but I can't remember. Oh well. We celebrated his birthday though!

What am I doing CURRENTLY??

Well since I am catching up on different things from the past few months, I haven't shared what I'm doing now.

My Mom and I have currently gone into business for ourselves! Well we are in the process. We have created a store....Mommys Fabric Shop on etsy. We don't have very many things there now but we are planning on selling Moda precuts there soon.

My goal is to sell them for as cheap as I can! I mean seriously things out there are just so expensive! I hate not being able to find anything without paying an arm and a leg for it. I don't know how we will do this, but I am not looking at selling this fabric for a profit as much as I am trying to sell fabric at a reasonable price! So stay tuned for more on the fabric.....

I also want to be able to sell the quilts that I make. Now that I have been quilting for some years and I have made most of everyone in my family quilts I don't really "need" all of them that I make. I actually give away quite a few, but I wanted a place where I can put some that I made just to make or use up the rest of a line and created a cool masterpiece. I will also be selling "custom" quilts as my blog shows. I'm excited for this and since I have NO ORDERS *HINT HINT* I have been a little sluggish on getting some together to sell. Hopefully with word of mouth this will change.

So check back often and I also plan on having an nice giveaway once we are up and running with more than just one item!

After the Hop.....

So after the Shop Hop that my Mom came over from Colorado to attend.....she stayed a few extra days. Normally I wouldn't mind but she wanted to sew. Like I said normally I wouldn't mind but she wanted to sew and she wanted me to sew a bunch of her projects!! I don't know how others work, but for me I have to be in the "mood" to sew! If I am not in the mood, then it is boring and frankly I don't do a good job. So I felt "forced" to sew, whether or not I was actually "forced" it's anyone's guess, but needless to say I had to take some time off from sewing to relax and get the "mood" back. I still love my Mom and will do it all over again for her in a heart beat.

We put up a long table (it wasn't long enough) table in the middle of my living room, turned on some tv and we got to sewing!

 We even had some "helpers" part of the time. Kimball thought this was rather cool.

What I ended up helping my Mother with was the quilt in the upper right. She had previously did the horse blocks and I pieced and basted together the quilt sandwich for her for not only 1 of these guys but 2! Yup two of the same thing. They ended up being presents for my brothers for Christmas. I think part of my "no sewing mood" was due to the fact that I kept messing up on my quilting math! I would forget to carry a number or just had it wrong! It was a nightmare.


My Mom was so kind as to lend me  her new "toy". The aque quilter cutter thing, or go cutter. I can't remember the name! But it's the one that you see all over the place on other's blogs where they are "testing" it for them. I was never asked (hump), but I was excited to try it and so were my boys. They destroyed my living room with so many "projects".

Want my ever so humble opinion of the thing? Well I wasn't paid to say anything and I no longer have this in my possession, so no bribery. If you do a lot of applique its great. If you do a lot of just straight type blocks where your rotatery blade and ruler work best, then that is the best. It uses a lot of fabric and it seemed to waste rather a lot. Even the 5" block die that I had. Since money doesn't grow on trees for me and I am constantly saving every scrap of fabric I own (I have offically cut myself off to things that are smaller than 2.5"x2.5" and it was hard) it wasn't that practical.

Then if you do applique, I would find a way to grease or sharpen your die cuts. It seemed that if you used them a lot you would have to go back and forth a bunch to get a clean cut. Then you couldn't do very many at a time. Then depending on the fabric it would catch on the metal die cut part and fray the fabric. So if there was a nice and easy way to sharpen them I would do that.

Would I ever buy this if I could? No. Would I accept one that was given to me because it wasn't wanted? No. Would I accept one from the company with a TON of awesome dies and other junk? Maybe. It comes down to if I would actually use it. Right now it would be no and I don't have room to store yet another sewing item.

Hopefully this helps someone out there!! If you like this tool, good for you. If you don't like this tool, I understand! Happy Quilting!