Little Mr – Page 3

Sew and trim, this and that

February 25, 2017 Marie Leave a Comment

I’ve discovered, by way of an app on my phone (BreakFree, if you’re interested) that I spend a LOT of time on my phone. Tons. So much that I’m really afraid to admit the number, to be honest. It’s that bad. It’s no wonder I feel so distracted all the time, unable to focus, and so stressed. The app tells you how many times you’ve unlocked your phone as well as how many minutes (or, in my case, hours) you’ve been using your phone that day and then it categorizes you: green, yellow, or red. In the months and months that I’ve had that app on my phone and hadn’t really used it, I had only managed to achieve green once, yellow a handful of times, and red the rest of the times.

So, late this week I decided enough was enough and I needed a change. Lent is coming up, and while I’m not religious I do admire the idea of doing without and/or improving upon oneself for 40 days. I got a bit of an early start at it, but my phone has been removed of Facebook and Google+ and I’ve made a point to not take my phone everywhere I go, to not sit and mindlessly scroll, and to generally stop being buried in a screen out of habit. I’m on my 3rd day in and so far, so good. I can already tell a change in my happiness level, though the kid has been quite angry about me not letting him play games on my phone. He gets a lot of screen time at Nana’s, so really I’m doing us both a favor, right?

I’m really hoping this new no procrastinating on my phone thing revives my blogging. I’m fairly confident that posting to social media so often has killed this – I always think about how I need to blog, but then I never can think of what to write since I’ve already talked about it elsewhere.

I learned something new a week or two ago – paper piecing! That “twenty” above is going on the back of my picnic quilt – I have fabric ordered for the backing, but I’m splitting the backing to have “twenty seventeen” on it to show the year I completed the quilt. I thought I was being pretty clever with that, but man was the “s” incredibly time consuming. All those little itty bitty pieces to help form the curve… good grief. Sew, trim, sew, trim, sew, trim over and over and over again. That quilt is temporarily on hold while I wait for the backing to arrive in the mail, and in the meantime I snatched up a charm pack from Missouri Star Quilt Co from their flash sale (Rainy Day – I think I paid $2.25 or so, which was a huge steal!) that is transforming into a star for a baby quilt for a coworker. As I write, I have the whole thing pieced together but I won’t be able to take a photo of the top until tomorrow. The whole thing has gone together incredibly quickly, which was the whole point of ordering the charm packs – I thought maybe having pre-cut fabric would make the whole project go much smoother, and I’m so thrilled I was right. Because let me tell you – crafting at all these days is a challenge with a rambunctious boy all up in your crafting space, unspooling thread everywhere or snatching pieces of fabric and running off.

I also signed up for a quilting subscription box through FatQuarterShop.com, as one does when you’re distracted and stressed and performing the mom version of retail therapy (i.e. all the online shopping because taking your kid to a store to browse yarn or fabric sounds like a nightmare more than heavenly). My box arrived but I haven’t really had a chance to look through it and compare prices – the box is supposed to be more retail value than what it costs so I want to see if that ends up being true. I have a feeling I’ll end up canceling it after a few boxes like I have every other subscription box I’ve tried, though. In my experience, subscription boxes are fun for a short while, but eventually you end up with too much stuff. Things you don’t have time for, things you won’t ever actually use, things you already have and then feel guilt about the environmental impact of buying things you don’t need…

Let’s see…… what else? Declan started school earlier this month. I didn’t actually realize it was school- it was labeled as an “explore and play” group, but it turns out it’s quite preschool-like. It’s taken him this whole month to stop crying and clinging when he gets dropped off, but I think he’s getting the hang of it now. He can tell me some of his classmates names, and what they learned about that day and what book they read… but you ask him if he’s made any friends? “Ummmmm Miss Crystal and Miss Robin,” he answers. Ahhh yes, my only child would much rather be around the adults than the other children.

Season changes

September 24, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

Autumn has arrived… kind of. 80 degrees isn’t exactly what I consider fall weather, but it didn’t stop me from wearing my plaid flannel to go pick apples at the annual festival at the local orchard. Normally we wait until after the festival to get the apples at a discounted price, but when you have toddlers you have to compromise – and the idea of a $5/per adult admission for the Little Mr to get to see goats, play in corn mazes, take a trip on the hay ride, etc seemed more worth it than not. We had such a great afternoon that he fell asleep in the less than 10 minute ride home, so we drove around and around looking at houses for nearly 45 minutes just to let him get his nap out. And now I’m left with probably 20-25 pounds of apples that I need to figure out what to do with. Canning probably won’t happen this year, so I’m thinking lots and lots of baked pies and crisps over the next few weeks.

This changing of seasons is marred, however, by the hole in my heart that is my dog, Molly. After months and months of the decision being in the back of my mind, the last month has really taken it from something I needed to consider to something I had to make a final decision on. Her quality of life just wasn’t there anymore, and it killed me to have to make that call, but ultimately she was suffering and it was selfish of me to let her continue as she was. She was 13 years old and a wonderful companion to me for half of that time. My routines are all messed up – there isn’t anyone to let outside in the mornings or before bed, no one cleaning up food behind the toddler, no one following me around from room to room while I try to clean. Coming home from the vet felt… depressingly lonely. She wasn’t there to greet me at the door. Just emptiness. Sigh. I’m going to miss that furry, sweet thing.

Two.

August 7, 2016 Marie 1 Comment

In just a few hours, as we all slumber, the Little Mr turns two. I’d ask where the time has gone, but I have spent the last 3 days snuggling my sick child and know exactly where it went: it went in tears and laughs. It went in bath times and pool days. It went in messy grocery store scenes and fights to stay in seats at restaurants. It went in the bazillion times we read the same books over and over, and the happy messes we made in the kitchen making pancakes or baking cakes. It went with tantrums and snuggles. With gardens and dirt and feeding chickens in his “turtle power” boots. With “knitting” and helping decide which squares of fabric should go where on my in-progress quilt. With tearing apart my craft room but not being able to be too mad because he’s learning hands-on even though it’s a huge pain to re-fold fabric or pick up beads that were dropped (or impossible-to-find empty sewing machine bobbins).

Another year has gone by. I started my day off complaining about my cake. It wasn’t perfect like my Pinterest “inspiration” photo. It wasn’t tall enough. The icing wasn’t thick enough. The layers didn’t bake flat enough because my floors are uneven. I spent my weekend snuggling a poor, sick little one who wanted to be in my arms 24/7. I spent a sleepless night snuggling this child in bed because he wouldn’t sleep anywhere else. I wished for a drink before noon at least two out of the 3 days because the clingyness is too much for this introverted mama with a low touch quota. And then I took the photos of the party and immediately regretted it – I prefer my own eye for photos, but trying to mother and adjust the camera for photos doesn’t work and I should have just left the job to the husband and and and….

But none of that matters, because tomorrow my baby wakes up and is suddenly 2 years old and it all suddenly feels like it’s too fast. It was a year, but it wasn’t enough time. I didn’t get enough snuggles, enough fun days together, enough books to read repeatedly. It’s all much too fast. Much, much too fast.

More quilting

July 16, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

harry-potter-quilt-web hp-quilt-detail1 hp-quilt-detail2

This season of motherhood… this not-quite-2 year old is so challenging. And so frustrating. And making it impossible to get anything done for more than 20 minutes, 30 max. But he’s so stinking adorable with how he tries to copy me. He tries to knit on his little dishcloth and he plays with the fabric and yarn and knitting needles and wants to touch the buttons on my sewing machine. He attempts to copy the noises it makes as I push the pedal. He spins my wheel (and I’ve learned to just leave the drive band off so he doesn’t ruin my yarn in progress). And he’s basically claimed my old Canon PowerShot for his own, grabbing it and turning it on and trying to take pictures of whatever I’m taking pictures of.

Pictures have been few and far between lately, it seems. We keep everything nice put up out of his reach, which means I don’t see my camera out and don’t tend to think about it. I’m missing out on some priceless moments and I need to rectify that. He’s growing up way too quickly – he always has. I feel like we never got that “baby” stage – it seems like he has gone from newborn to toddler in minutes. Sigh. I need to get behind my camera more. I need to get back in the habit of taking photographic evidence of all this. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t, but sometimes finding the energy to fight with a toddler over why he can’t touch the Big Kid camera is just too much.

I’ve been sewing more quilts. A baby one for a coworker, and another hexie one at that. As soon as I found out she was doing her nursery in Harry Potter I had to make one. Had to. I wasn’t planning on making her anything – I feel like I haven’t worked there long enough to really get to know her and, besides, time is limited these days and I’d really like to dedicate my time to making things for the Little Mr. But she had me at Harry Potter – it was fate or something. I found some awesome Gryffindor fabric at Joanns, and I carried the bolt around with me to find matches to make the quilt. I snagged some grey with white triangles (to symbolize horcruxes), some burgundy and gold, and some really amazing grey with silver deer heads on it to symbolize Harry’s patronus. This is what happens when you have quilting skills and you’re a Harry Potter nerd, too. :)

I have some more fabric I picked up Wednesday for a picnic blanket I want to make for myself/my family. I’ll write more on that later.

A January Spring

January 31, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

Strange weather we’re having here – snow and ice, but then lovely 50-60° days thrown around. They’re lovely breaks from being indoors all the time, though everything is quite muddy so we’re not exactly getting outdoors every chance we can just yet.

But the Little Mr is getting more grown up and responds to questions more and more, so when you ask “Do you want to go bye bye?” and he nods his little head in that forceful, full-body nod that he does, well… you put on your shoes and your coats and you go somewhere. Today it was the zoo. It wasn’t overly busy, despite the warmish weather, but we also arrived early while everyone else was in church (my favorite time to go do anything on a Sunday, to be honest).