Wren's Nest

Cuppa Joe

I love coffee! I know it's not good for me, but I do love it. This is my favorite cup! and my sweet husband brings me coffee in it most (not all) mornings. It just makes me happy to look at it. I got a Garnet Hill catalog and they have the greatest big polka dot sheets and a pinwheel quilt that would match my favorite cup (but maybe that's going overboard). My next happy thing for today is my super new welcome mat.

I have needed a new mat in front of my front door for months and finally I saw this at Whole Foods and just went ahead and got it. My old one was so disgusting - how embarassing! I love the little Eiffel Tower. The funny thing is, after I got it, I talked to my husband and he had just had coffee with a guy from France, hmmmm...

My third happy thing for today (of course, there are lots more, like my kids taking all, and I mean all the pillows in the house and making a pillow pile/fort to play on in the living room. They come up with some of the greatest games. A couple of days ago they had a party where you could "dance or hangout" according to my 6 year old son and they had filled like 25 dixie cups with orange juice, even though there were only 3 of us in attendance. They crack me up!) - OK, I got way off track - my 3rd happy thing is this cutest box of treats from Posie (http://www.rosylittlethings.typepad.com). What a lovely thing to get in the mail! From the address label to the flower hair clip to the bag of trims and buttons and millinery flowers it was all wonderful!

OK - is it me or does it take like a year for pictures to upload into these posts? I don't know if I doing something wrong or if it always takes long.

If I don't get to post this weekend...Happy 4th to everyone!!

Things that are making me happy

Here is one of my newest pincushions. I love the fabric - I think I was going to use it for a pillowcase, but when I saw it again, I thought it looked summery and fresh and with this little blue and white striped bowl it worked so well, so - no pillowcase!

Another happy thing is this beautiful fabric I got awhile ago from Fat Quarter Shop (http://www.fatquartershop.com). It's called Mistletoe Manor - isn't that the cutest?? It's by 3 Sisters for Moda Fabrics - believe me it's way better in person - my camera seems to be having trouble with colors. They always make the greatest fabrics - right up my alley. At Quilt Market our booth was right across from the Moda booth with the 3 Sisters fabric that will be out this fall - I sat there staring with my mouth open - it was so wonderful!! Geez, I love fabric! I try to think of smaller things (not quilts) to make so that I can buy beautiful fabrics, but not buy too much. I've been making pillowcases for us and the kids and now I'm thinking aprons. I've been thinking about participating in the Tie One On (http://angrychicken.typepad.com/)apron of the month and I think I'll be making an apron for my favorite musical. I don't really know what that is, but my kids recently brought "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" home from the library - it was the first movie I saw in the theater (I'm dating myself) when I was about 4, so I may do something around that (the Truly Scrumptious apron??). We'll see. I'm sure my grammy (who is turning 93 in 3 weeks) has some great old apron patterns - she keeps EVERYTHING. Well, off to actually try to do some work!! My oldest son is at baseball camp until 3 and the two younger ones seem to be entertaining themselves with a tent made of every blanket we own - so looks like I might have some time...

Making progress

It was great seeing all my Monday group ladies yesterday, though I think I talked more than I sewed! I got 3 of these pineapple blocks almost done (the two larger ones are how they'll look when finished). This is a cute quilt based on a pattern by my friend Joanna of Fig Tree quilts (http://www.figtreequilts.com), who also publishes my pincushion pattern. It 'll be so cute when it's finished all in orange-y, cream and green colors with appliqued pineapples in the middle. Lots of cutting and piecing, so it seems to be taking forever! I love the fabrics, though (the line is also by Joanna!).

The lady who quilts my quilts brought this finished one to me at the shop where my group meets - I am SO happy with it - she did an incredible job with beautiful feather stitching and some great flowers in the quilting. It's BEAUTIFUL - can't wait to trim and bind it!! It's from a pattern by Blackbird Designs - one of my favorite quilt design teams who I got to meet at Spring Quilt Market and who are so nice and fun! I have so many projects and so little energy - don't know what the problem is - maybe this nightmare-ish heat we've been having! I need to get on the ball, though, I do have a big-ish pincushion order due for a local quilt shop and I need to finish that (I must say they've been quite patient!). So, I better get stuffing!

Sewing Monday

Today I get to go join my Monday sewing drop-in group run by two amazingly creative women (mother and daughter). It's a great group of women and very fun and inspiring (and most importantly today - air conditioned!!). I haven't gone for a while since the end of the school year was absolutely nuts with all 3 kids in elementary school and since school has ended and they've been home, I haven't gone either. (Today I finally went ahead and got a sitter!!)

My new goal is that on Mondays I will work on only what I want to work on for fun (no pincushions, no applique I'm doing for other people, etc.). We'll see how that goes! A couple of days ago, I got some very fun books in the mail and have been loving looking at them and planning fun projects from them (we'll see how many actually get made, but part of the fun is in the dreaming, right?). I am constantly amazed at people's creativity and ideas and I'm so glad they write books like these so we can all be inspired. Happy Monday!

Nest Heaven

We have four, count 'em, four birds nests in our front and back yards (and those are just the ones we know about. Here's one of the wren's nests and here's her sister (or brother - I can't tell with birds!). They are so sweet and really noisy (in a cute, baby bird way). This nest is on a very low branch in one of our Mulberry trees and if these poor little birds survive my two boys playing ball, it'll be a miracle (though we now make the boys play in the front). Another nest is very high and very precarious up in our birch tree and now we've found another in back (also in a mulberry tree, a different one) a Robin's nest with a very big robin baby in it! In front we have this little nest on the rafter above our front porch. The house wren's always build up here - this one is right in front of our front door, so everytime we go out, the mama bird flies away, so we try to be very quiet (or go through the garage door). Very sadly, one of these little ones fell out of the nest this morning. It was so sad - we all feel very responsible for these bird babies while they'll nesting in our yard. So my daughter wants to bury the baby bird, which we'll do. It just never got a chance. I was out front yesterday watching them and they lean so far out of the nest - I don't know why, but I kept saying "Go back, get away from the edge" - like they can understand me! Anyway, we lose one every year and it's always heartbreaking. Hopefully the rest will all stay put until they can fly. (I feel like I should go out and put pillows under all the nests until that time!).

Chick Flick night

My husband is in New York for work today, so now the kids are all in bed and I'm having a chick flick night - watching "Must Love Dogs". I do this when he travels since I can't sleep...I do handwork and watch girlie movies. Hopefully I'll get some of the projects done that I have lined up - it's been harder to find the time to get things done since the kidlets got out of school a week and a half ago. Yesterday we blew up a giant baby pool and they've been having a great time (no matter how old they get, the manage to have fun in those little-ish pools). Baby pools and popsicles never go out of style. Yesterday throught the window I caught my youngest drinking from the hose as he switched the sprayer thing to each different setting - he had to try each one (I'm sure they tasted different). I wish I'd gotten a picture it was so cute - it made me laugh out loud!

It's boiling hot here - tomorrow is supposed to be even warmer (I'm just not cut out for the heat) - I guess I'll be getting in the baby pool too!

So John, if you read this in the morning - have a great meeting and safe flight home to us. We miss you!!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

This is just a pretty little birdie picture I found. They're like my 3 little birds (kids). Always hungry! Summer vacation has begun!

Getting started

I've been inspired to do this by reading a bunch of crafty blogs and really enjoying looking at them - I've been amazed at the creativity I've seen! I have no idea what I'll write about, but it seems like fun to design the pages and write down random thoughts. I just made a website for my little pincushion creations yesterday with iweb, so thought I'd give this a try.