Not the way to start out our hoilday weekend...

A not so terrific way to begin our extended weekend with the holiday, after my daughter's performance at the 1st football game of the season; I had a deer run into the front fender of my Jeep!  Needless to say I had one VERY upset teen and a dinged up vehicle.  Not what I wanted to be doing at that late hour on a Friday night trying to leave for the weekend.

The damage was minimal, but I was unable to open the drivers door due to the damage to the front fender.  UGH!

(The red ellipses and circles show the damage to my vehicle that was in excellent shape prior to this accident.)

On top of that the poor fawn didn't survive.  This upset my daughter further because even though she hunts with her Daddy, "this isn't the way a fawn should meet its demise" (in her words).

She insisted we take a photo of the fawn and she wanted to pet it and stay with it until the end, so we accommodated her request.  Fortunately this didn't take long due to the severity of the fawn's injuries.  However, the aftermath lasted hours with her sobbing over the death of the fawn, all while I'm on the phone reporting the incident to the insurance company.  I'll just bet that sounded wonderful over the phone for them.  The up side is that no one else was involved, we weren't injured and my vehicle can be repaired; as much of an inconvenience it created.

The next morning I was making a trip to the insurance adjuster for a quote on repairs; still unable to open the driver's door to access the vehicle.  Someone should have thought to have taken a video of me having to climb in through the passenger's door to get in -- LOL!  Such a sight!

Got the repair quote; now I was able to have my Dad come over and temporarily fix my fender so that I can enter and exit through the driver's door.  Yea!  Time to get everything set up for repairs.  One more item on my overloaded plate.

The saga continues...

Summer's Winding Down

Last weekend my husband & I took a day trip with our daughter to Philadelphia.  We had a great day with her and everyone else on the bus trip.  We went to see the Masonic Temple, Constitution Center, Independence Hall, & the Liberty Bell.  Plus a stop at the King of Prussia Mall for some shopping & dinner before heading back home.  The weather was wonderful & we managed to find a bargain or two at the mall which we weren't counting on.  A few photos from the day's activities:

After we left the PA Grand Lodge/Masonic Temple we spent a few hours downtown exploring.

Eric & Lizzie - Independence Hall

Chris & Lizzie  - Independence Hall

 

back of Independence Hall

We also had some time to get in to see the Liberty Bell.

Liberty Bell

Eric & Lizzie

Chris & Lizzie

We're going to plan a trip back to explore historic downtown.  We didn't have enough time to get to everything we wanted to...

Graduation Thank You's

Last week I had a day to myself while the rest of the family were at the NASCAR race in Long Pond, PA.  I used my Artisan Program to design the layouts from the Jewel Achievement package, and I imported the photos from my Historian Program after doing some minor cropping & light adjustments on the photos.  I LOVE how these two programs work together seamlessly.  (Check out my links on the right of the page for these programs from Panstoria.)  They are reasonably priced for how powerful these programs are & all of the options you get.

I've been creating digital items with these programs for almost 10 years.  I've tried others, & I have found these to be some of the most user friendly programs out there.

front of card

back of card

This is the inside of the card for George's TY's.  I think it's a neat way for him to have some space to write a personal note to each person for their gift to him.  Love that these have a masculine look to them and still semi-formal from the outside of the cards. 

inside of card

We also had another graduate this year; I attended Nurse Aide training & graduated in July from the course; now I'm waiting for my state exam date.  There's one missing from the class photo...unfortunately there was an emergency & they weren't able to be present.  A great group of people.  Looking forward to completing my state exam.

I've been busy!

I can't believe that it has been 2 and 1/2 months since my last post, but when I look back at my photos and my calendar I've had a very hectic 12 weeks!

Here are a few of the reasons why:

My daughter's pageant - 

Memorial Day Weekend - 

we installed my flag pole after almost a year in the garage.

My son's band banquet (senior year) - 

& high school graduation - 

the orchestra

with the Superintendent

with the grandparents

I think lil' sis is going to miss him in the fall when he goes to college...

Then we started our projects around the house:

a project that we had hoped to have done in 2 long weekends is now going on 8 weeks due to and unusually wet summer here.  This past week is the first one to go more than 4 days w/o rain - it was 6 days!

digging the post holes

this is how you adjust for the concrete when you have the hole offset.

mixing the concrete

tamping the concrete around the posts

finally getting to the framework!

putting in the support joists

FINALLY getting to the decking...

even the kitty was enjoying being outside.

Then I decided to go to school to get trained as a Nursing Assistant; 21 evening classes the entire month of July.  Tonight was graduation.  Whoo Hoo!  Now to pass the state written & skills exam...

 Oh, and how could I forget; my neice was married Memorial Day weekend, too.

My uncle married them...it was a beautiful day for them.

Now that my evening classes are done with I hope to get back on track with my posts, photos and helping both my children adjust to the next stage of their growing.  It's approximately 3 weeks until my son goes to college; while it's local he'll be living on campus & his lil' sis will be adjusting to an emptier than normal house & no rides to school in the car - back to riding the bus.

Enjoy what's left of summer & save those great moments & memories with photos & then get them printed & into albums.  Albums are still the best & favorite way to look at photos.

My 2nd T-shirt Quilt (#4)

When I posted last I had 2 seams I needed to rip out & re-stitch, plus then sew all 5 columns together; which was interrupted by an arthritis flare up & a 5-day vacation with the hubby & adult friends (no kids).  Of course I couldn't pass up that opportunity.  I had a great time away however I was glad to have today free to finish the stitching on my daughter's rag quilt.  I got it all assembled today.

Like I noted in the photo I somehow got the two outermost columns switched & didn't realize it until I looked at the photo.  There are only two squares that conflict...Lizzie will just need to learn to live with it that way. 

My hands are so sore from the 5+ hours of sewing & trimming of the outer edges.    I still need to clip all of the inner seams, I may put Lizzie to work on those since my hands are swollen from doing what I did today.

This is the reverse side of the quilt.  I think it turned out really well.  Lizzie came home & saw this side she was gonna take it to her bed until I told her there were still 16 rows of seams to still clip. I did a specialty stitch around the entire outside edge of the quilt.  I had considered putting on a binding, but my sore hands won out over a binding with interfacing, and more seams...

It's finished and it will be a little longer than a coverlet on her double bed.  It's 74" x 74".  Now to soak the fingers.  George massaged my hands for about 30 minutes tonight which helped, but need to get the swelling down in time for work tomorrow.

On to my next project. :0)

My 2nd T-shirt Quilt (#3)

I finally got a chance to work on my daughter's quilt this week.  All of the squares were cut, stabilizer put on 50 blocks, stitched together with batting, plus I had to stitch together the fronts from my daughter's cheer jacket from where the zipper had been & sealed shut the pockets.  Since it had a fleece lining, I did not add batting to this block (it had enough bulk) and then I stitched around the entire block to stabilize it.  I've posted some photos to show some of the steps in the process of making this rag quilt.  I hope you enjoy & also find these steps helpful.  This is my 1st rag quilt.

This shows a close up of the block from my daughter's cheer jacket.  Don't forget to use those specialty items in your quilts, too.

Possible layout of the blocks, I always take a photo so I can remember it later as I'm working with squaring up the blocks I don't need to remember what order they were.

These are the blocks for the 2nd side of the quilt.  Most of these t-shirts are from Girl Scouts, church camp, and a few vacations.

There are also a few t-shirts from Job's daughters as well.  Lizzie has quite a variety of t-shirts.  A lot of color variation with these.

Here I am using my 15 - 1/2 inch template to square up the blocks after having ironed on the stabilizer.

Cutting off the excess stabilizer and extra edges of knit material from the t-shirt.

removing the excess from the block.  I LOVE my template for doing this...I found it in the LTD Commodities catalog this winter, one of my best purchases.  It was part of a kit for making a wall hanging/quilt.  I found I really like the stabilizer that is included in the kit.  It's very thin and reminds me of linen.

I had two shirts that the design was larger than normal, I cut these blocks long enough to show the entire design.

Front side of the center quilt block

Back side of the center quilt block

This is the final layout of the columns.  All 5 columns sewn together & they are ready to be stitched together tomorrow.  I have 2 seams to rip out so I can adjust the lengths so the quilt is square.  I'm hoping to have this quilt finished on Sunday, but if not I also have time to get it finished in time before the end of the week.


In between all of my sewing today I also found time to run to the hardware store & pick up the paint & supplies for my next make-over project for my living room.  Stay tuned here for the progress on it, now back to the quilting project. 

Happy May Day

I hope you are enjoying the 1st of May wherever you are today.  I worked this morning, however I am spending my afternoon catching up on my UFO's.  I hope to finish cutting out the squares for my daughter's t-shirt quilt, then get all of her patches sewn onto he new BSA shirt, then I want to convert both her GSA vests into pillows, and applique her vest onto her t-shirt quilt.  That's just the top of my list of UFO's.

This weekend also is the celebration for National Scrapbook Day.  I plan to get some scrapping done on Saturday & Sunday once I'm finished at work.  I need to finish my son's Scout albums.  I got a lot accomplished for his Eagle ceremony back in November, but I really want to get his albums finished with his HS graduation coming up.  I need to move onto a few vacation albums and my daughter's Scout albums.  All UFO's that I need to finish.  The guilt is sneaking in on me lately with not making the time to finish these projects.

I've lost many of my scrappin' buddies due to death, other health issues, and my going back to work part-time, but I am determined to keep up with it on my own.  Maybe once I get these UFO's done I can clean out my excess supplies, HA! that just means to make room for more, right?

Don't forget to check out the Pixels 2 Pages website as they will have a Celebration Crop and challenge happening all weekend; lots of goodies for everyone!