Found Again

How ironic that my last post was titled 'Found'.  This one should be, also.


But first a funny conversation....

Me:  So Caleb, do you know what you missed on the test so that you understand it for later?
Caleb:  Yeah, on one I made it negative instead of positive.
Becket:  Did you use a pen?
Caleb:  What?  No, I used a pencil
Becket:  Well then you should have erased it and wrote the right thing.

Good thing we have Becket around to help Caleb!


It was horrible when I thought he was gone forever....

I had set a timer for myself to make sure I didn't get distracted and miss Becket's school bus arrival.  Head out the door at 3:30 for his arrival time at about 3:45.  The bus pulls up at 3:40 and I'm glad I was out early.  The driver opens the door and motions me onto the bus.  I ask where Becket is and she says...

I ALREADY LET HIM OFF

WHAT?!?!

She said she couldn't take me to him as it was - over there (hands waving) - and he already walked away. I ran off the bus, called my 7th grader to leave the house and start searching.  Called 911, who can hardly understand what I'm saying between sobs and can't pinpoint my location since I'm on a cell phone.

A couple blocks later and around a turn I see him.  Crumpled on the sidewalk wailing.  He was so far from our house and had been alone for about 10 minutes at least.

After many a meeting, they never got a Why from the bus driver regarding letting him off alone.  The policy is that a kindergartner is not let off the bus without a parent there for him.  And it sounds like she didn't really understand why I was so upset.  She has been suspended for a couple days but will return to the route.  They have moved the bus stop to the end of my street, instead of one street over.  But I don't trust her, so I'll be picking Becket up myself I think.

I've pretty much been dealing with the bus people and just sitting around being happy Becket is alive, alternated with panic over all the horrible that could have been.  Becket has recovered quite well so far, I'm the one that's traumatized!  So glad we were able to enjoy his first soccer game and get some cute pictures this weekend.  It was a very nice day.

Found!

Caleb was cut off from the computer and his iPod for the night, so in his desperate boredom he wandered around my sewing room, looking at stuff.

And he found my camera! There was much rejoicing! For some weird reason I had set it down on a high shelf that I don't use much. Huzzah! (see, much rejoicing)



And with it I have the pictures of the Gratitude Wrap I made last week for my friend's birthday. I followed the tutorial by the wonderful Amanda Soule.  It's a fabulous little pattern - went together in an afternoon/evening even including a run to the store for some bias tape and three tries at using said tape!

Original Joel Dewberry Aviary in Pink (oh how I love his fabrics) for my friend who loves Pink.



Cute plum gnomes inside!



I had fun filling it with envelope stickers, 4x6 patterned scrapbook cardstock for notes, and a stack of hand made note cards.  My friend is always quick with a cute hand written note, so I thought she would enjoy the variety of stuff.

The bias binding - oh my.  The whole thing has rounded corners to make binding a little easier.....for those who can do it I suppose.  I am not one of those people.  I had all kinds of trouble.



First I actually made my own double fold bias binding out of a pink stripe that I thought was going to be awesome.  Oh, when you cut bias binding strips from a sequenced stripe that has a specific direction, you have half of the pieces flowing the wrong way when you cut it while folded.  ahem.  Once it was finally done and ready to attach though, I hated it with the Aviary.  So I ran out to the store to see if I could find a good pre-made match and was happy to get this solid pink.

Happy as a clam I attach the tape as Amanda instructs and after one corner find I've missed catching a bunch.  Rip it out - pull out my binding clips - rig up the whole perimeter and try again very slowly.  Well I caught it all, but I stood there looking at it and hated it.  Seriously NOT GOOD at machine binding, it was wobbly and I could just hear Heidi Klum saying, "It looks Home Sewn."  Rip it all out again.  Measure and am relieved that I actually have enough left to try again without having to use the piece with lots of holes up and down the edge.

This time I opened up the double fold tape all the way, and kind of stitched in the ditch of the fold on the inside - trying to ease around the corners.  Yeah, not very good at the whole easing thing, either.  But at least I didn't hate it after once around.



Then I folded it around to the front as if I was finishing off a quilt, and hand stitched that front edge with the ladder stitch.   It is much easier to ease around those corners with hand work.  But I was kind of wishing they were just simple miters.  I know how to do those!  Once I placed the final stitch I sat back and was very happy.  This was how I wanted it to look!  A final pass over both the front and back with the steam iron settled it all into place very nicely.



I finished the whole thing off with some cards made with stitched on scraps. Very relaxing after the binding saga.

So glad Caleb found the camera so I could share the gift with you. I had such a good time making and giving it.

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My B-Becket!

On the bus for the first time to Kindergarten!  He's cute in the little uniform and so small....so a bunch of pictures to document the event.

Dad is going to take too many pictures...

Backpacks are fun

I'll scrunch down like you, Dad.....

...which gives his dress shoes the proper first scuffs!

Running to the bus corner.

Playing some Simon Says to pass the time.

Waiting.....

"We've been here like 20 minutes Mom"  Um, sorry.  Caleb's bus pulls away at least 10 minutes ahead of schedule every day.  I didn't want to miss it!

There is a LOT of waiting during 20 minutes.

It's here!

The nice bus driver lets me snap a quick picture.  Becket looks happy!

I quickly hopped into the car and drove over to the church - only beat the bus there by a few minutes.  I hid and watched him get off - he looked happy and spoingy.  Then the bus driver pulled up and said they did great!

I hope he has lots of fun.

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Starts

My camera went missing sometime Wednesday after I took pictures of the cute Gratitude Wrap I made my friend for her birthday.  I have just about tore the whole house up looking for it.  I fear that it somehow ended up in the garbage - Thursday morning is garbage day.  Ugh!  It had a super nice SDcard in it for movies, too.

I fished the older camera out of one of the boys' rooms and am grudgingly using it now.  I'm refusing one of the many SLRs Mark has gathered up in his hobby.



It's my month again in do. Good Stitches and asked for blue/green greek crosses.  They were fun to make!



And I have most of them in already.  What a great quilt our group is making - I love all the different fabrics.



I just had to start one myself - so there is a stack of red/blue crosses waiting to be joined together.



And on the cutting table I have some strips cut for a cornerstone/sashing experiment.   I always have trouble with them being nice and straight from end to end - so I thought why not piece a big stack and cut the whole row at once.  We'll see if the accuracy is better or worse!

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Sunny Spots

For my month as quilter in do. Good Stitches {a Charity Bee} I thought it would be fun to have everybody try out pieced applique shapes. I asked them each to send just the finished CD-sized circle, not sewn down, in sunny yellow/orange/green.



They only had to send two, but many sent MANY! So fun. A collection hang out on the back - they're wild and crazy, unlike the evenly spaced rows on the front.



Since all the circles had finished edges, it was easy to attach them to the whole cloth front. Oh, I almost forgot how pleased I was figuring out how to get them all perfectly spaced. With 5 rows and 5 columns I evenly folded the top and creased it both horizontally and vertically for each row. Then I just pinched the circles to find the middle and placed it right on each cross made by my folds. A quick zigzag makes sure nothing pops open for the child.



Some of my very favorite green made a cute binding. I'm hoarding that print in about three colorways. I love it so.



Hopefully these Sunny Spots will bring a sunny smile to a child. It was great fun making it! Thanks Comfort team.

Now just a tad of required 1st day of school talk.....Caleb is off to High School. First time he hasn't been a walker.



The bus was supposed to be there at 6:46(am! so early!) With the first day adrenalin we were out the door just a touch early, luckily. The bus pulled away from the curb at 6:40 - a few of his neighbor friends had to run a bit to catch it.

Thank goodness for the staggered start times for our morning sanity, Kenton doesn't really have to get his day started until Caleb is out the door. So as the bus was pulling out, Kenton was just starting his morning run. (He does it every day! On his own!) Anyway, as he turned the corner for his jog, the bus thought he was running to catch it and stopped. I yelled for him to turn around and run the block clockwise today. A good morning laugh.



He's off to 7th grade.

Becket doesn't start until next Monday - we've chosen to send him to a private K-8 school. With a Different. Schedule. This will be a true test to my organizational skills this year. I'm aiming for no missed/forgotten days of school those 28 times when they're days off don't line up.

Gotta grab the browines, they're done. Yummy 1st day treat!

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OP {Docksiders} Acid wash?!

It must be all the family reunion stuff I did a week ago.  As I was falling asleep OP popped into my head last night.

Super old - very Cute playground

OP - Docksiders - Izod

{Had to have it all}

Everything else was Like Grody, Gag me with a Spoon.  Fer Sure, early 80's in south Florida, Wellington.  We were seriously it, at the pool - tennis club - polo field.  

Totally.....right!

Kenton went all the way to the top!  It is WAY high.  Ski jump in Iron Mountain.

Late 80's - moved north to Chicagoland.

Benetton sweaters huge.  Acid Wash jeans high waisted and tiny tapers.

Choose from Tiffany or Poison.

Gram and Great Aunty LouLou

I googled OP for the fun of it and find that it is exclusively now at WalMart(!) and I think I'm thankful that not too many photos are around of those late 80's high school years.

I did finish a little stack of toddler sized quilts.

More to share as school finally starts up again!

(Only about 45 hours away.  Not like I'm counting down or anything)

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Argument of the Day

The Sun is a Star.

So does it follow that any star is a sun?

I am so glad we're home now and can banish the boys to three separate floors for a while.  Because even once you find the answer online they can argue the finer points and semantics for a Very. Long. Time.



The Iron Mountain A&W is the best!


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Ya Hey Der

We're having lots of U.P. fun

I'll be back next week! 

With a belly stuffed by the pasty tour we're completing.

Spray Baste It Baby!

First, thank you for all the kind words for Portia.  She certainly wasn't running around the house and barking, but the house is strangely quite now that she is gone. 

That's saying something, as there are still three boys in the house that are getting to the end of summer vacation and will argue about ANYTHING.   Which muscle is the strongest (tongue or heart), if you put dry ice on your arm would it freeze your skin from the outside or burn you from the inside, and would you classify Black Jack as a type of poker or is it a game unto itself.  All earth shattering topics - debated endlessly - with no resolution even with internet found facts.  I think that dry ice thing has been going on for at least a week and a half now.

We did have some fun Tuesday watching Becket try out the high dive, though.  And finish up swim lessons.

I have a couple quilts ready for binding as we travel, and I was super excited with trying all kinds of new stuff on them.  For the batting I actually used up some scraps by joining two pieces.  It worked so well!

And I think I have ditched the pins forever.  All the cool kids are using spray baste, I had some stashed away that was bought with a JoAnn's coupon, and finally decided to give it a try.

LOVED it.  Not a single pucker, which was my biggest worry.  And it didn't seem too messy.  

I hate the whole basting process, which is probably why I have so many tops just waiting to be quilted.  This took so much less time and I loved not having to unpin while stippling.  I also ordered some 505 that just arrived.  I'll try it next and compare!

Sweet Portia

She chose us when Kenton was only 8 months old.  She nibbled on Caleb's and Mark's ears.

She has been the sweetest girl.  So sad to say goodbye.

Blue nails for the blue mood.

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Great Way to Use Pinterest for Travel

I'm sure others do the same thing, but I was quite pleased with myself for this idea.

Source: book.bestwestern.com via Angela on Pinterest

As I mentioned, we are going to the U.P. and well.....we plan.  A Lot.  Feel free to laugh heartily, but it often involves spread sheets, schedules, and clothing plans.

Source: exploremunising.com via Angela on Pinterest

Anyway, the whole process also involves lots of web page printing for places we plan to eat, stuff to see, stuff to do.  I showed Mark how to use the little Pin It button and now he's hooked, too :)

Source: thedishcafetc.com via Angela on Pinterest

I thought that we could make a board for each stop on the trip and pin these things we usually note or print out.  Then with the netbook in the hotel or my iphone and the free app on the road, we can access all the information we want!  So not only a nice, visual collection of where we are going to be visiting, but SUPER functional as well.

Source: wpbo.org via Angela on Pinterest

And look how cute the baby owls are at the bird observatory, their picture is just fun to have.  If you're planning on visiting the U.P., hop over and see what fun stuff we've found to do!