Why Keith is Cool.

Me: I'm heading out.

Keith: K. See you in a bit.

Me: Love! And rainbows!

Keith: And butterflies.

Gifted Quilts

Two queen quilts have been completed and gifted!

The first was for Amanda and Robbie. They asked for red, black, white, and modern. So here's what I did:

Around the outside, I spelled out 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in red thread. A very subtle but awesome detail. The coolest part: these are the verses they had read in the wedding ceremony!

The second quilt was for Morgan and Joshua. They asked for their wedding colors: Brown, purple, green, and yellow. Here it is:

I got a little creative taking pictures. I loved the simplicity of quilting in straight lines for this one, so there was no added special touch, but it turned out awesome.

I got pictures at both of the weddings of me with the bride, groom, and quilt. Hopefully I'll get to see those soon!

4 Years

Keith and I have been married for 4 years today. This means:

-We've been married twice as long as we dated.

-I've been gluten-free for half of our marriage.

-We've successfully made it to 4/5th of our original goal of not having kids for 5 years.

-We should buy each other linen or silk (Traditional US), flowers or fruit (Traditional UK), or appliances (Modern US). (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

-We've made it 4 years without buying any anniversary gifts.

-We still love each other. And that's awesome.

Quilting!

I'd really like to post pictures of the three quilts I'm working on, but then I would give away the surprises. Instead, I will post about the three lovely ladies that are receiving the quilts.

Here are 4 girls with me, including the 3 recipients.

(Morgan, Kelly, Amanda, me, Stephanie)

Quilt No. 1:

Who: Amanda

Why: Wedding on July 9

What: Queen size in red, black, and white

Amanda and I met in 2004 in the dorms at OSU. We became great friends and ended up being roommates for two years. She is fantastic and I really look forward to her and Robbie being married in 4.5 weeks!

This means I really need to get to quilting. I have it together, with about 1/4 of the quilting done. I expect another 6-7 hours of quilting and eons of binding.

Quilt No. 2:

Who: Morgan

Why: Wedding on August 21

What: Queen size in brown, green, orange, and purple

Morgan and I were roommates during my senior year of college (with Amanda, too!). We didn't really know each other when we moved in together, but it turned out to be an amazing friendship! I will be a bridesmaid in her wedding and I'm having bad dreams about getting to the wedding and forgetting my dress/shoes... I'm not stressed out at all!

I have about 1/4 of the quilt top put together for Morgan. Her quilt is a little simpler in some ways, so I expect 3 hours to get the top finished and 5-6 hours quilting, with the normal eons of binding.

Quilt No. 3:

Who: Stephanie

Why: Baby boy in August!

What: Little boy awesomeness

Stephanie and I were in a Bible study together during college and she became good friends with our house of girls (with Morgan and Amanda). She ran away to California after college where she met and married her lovely husband and eventually made a baby. I can't wait to see her belly at Amanda's wedding!

I have bought and washed the fabric for this quilt, but haven't even ironed it yet. I expect 1 hour to cut, 2-3 hours to piece, 2-3 hours to quilt, and shorter eons to bind.

I'll post pictures of them as they are each revealed to the girls! So excited :)

Around the House

We've been doing a lot of little things lately, along with the big ones.

First, we finally finished putting up our mantle and giving ourselves a pretty fireplace:

Fuzzy, but you get the point.

There is a giraffe on the far right, with a saddle and an EYE into his soul!

He can see right into your deepest desires.

Then we finished our bathroom remodel:

Former bathroom with coved flooring, large vanity, and mirror that overhung the counter and made it dark.

The vanity was so large you could barely fit on the toilet.

It's a good thing we did this... Look at our sink drain!

And the new bathroom. New light, flooring, vanity, mirror, floorboards.

That's all for now!

Yard!

I took too many house pictures to put here. Go to my facebook album here.

Looong Time!

I've been off in a world without tambourines for approximately 19 months.

The tambourines are jinglin'.

I have plenty of thinking time these days. I sprained a muscle in my upper back 2.5 weeks ago and went on part-time disability at work, so I now work 20 hours a week and lay on the couch 40 hours a week. Working part time is really nice, however, I've got 3 quilts, a hat, a purse, and a rice pack to sew, a superhero cape to fix and I'm not allowed to sit at my sewing machine. :(

But I can still watch the yard come along! We officially decided to re-vamp the entire front yard this year so that we can repair to foundation under our front door/living room. We've ripped out all of the big bushes, had a Japanese Maple moved, and tomorrow all of the concrete will be removed. After that comes the foundation repair (a 1-day process!), new concrete paths and porch, a retaining wall, sprinkler system, a LAWN, and lots of plants. We hope to seed the lawn on Labor Day and get to mowing.

A few house pictures:

This is the house last March

This is the house today. Less bushes; mailbox and maple moved.

The other angle

Current steps/walkway

Location of future steps and walkway

Woot! Maybe I'll post more exciting things soon.

Jinglin'.

We heart cereal!

Through a random occurrence of events, my household went from 1 almost-empty bag of cereal this morning to an overabundance (11 boxes/bags) this evening.

Lovin' them whole grains.

An "in the meantime" sort of blog.

I've apparently become boring in the last month and a half. My life just hasn't been as funny as usual and I need a funny-boost. We'll see how that goes.

I have been working on a couple projects, so I'll post a couple of those soon.

In the meantime, check out this awesome blog my friend pointed out to me: epicute. It has the some of the coolest food I've ever seen, including Batman-Tofu (!!) and pretty cupcakes. Enjoy.

Quilting Hath Occurred.

My new quilt is in the beginning stages!

The fabrics.

The cut pieces, nicely displayed on my college comforter.

The first block!

More to come soon, including some recent projects of other sorts.

Recent Renovations

Our second most recent home improvement involved much chemistry:

Biochemistry, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Gorilla Glue.

It also involved Keith using a hairdryer.

We no longer trip on the sticking-up edge of kitchen linoleum. I spilled many liquids leaving the kitchen in our first couple weeks.

The latest development:

1.28 gpf toilets!

We went to the home store at 9:30pm to buy these fancy-flushers. We were the only ones there. And we were SO excited! The old toilets clogged approximately 3.7 times each week.

Next up: windows and exterior paint!

Halloween Costume Part I

I found the first piece to this year's Halloween costume.* I have been looking forward to this since last Halloween, when I was Sarah Palin (like 99% of everyone my age).

Palin 2008.

Here's to 2009:

Is that a SILVER sweater?

Indeed! And it requires much interpretive dance.

*Yes, Meg. This is what you think it is. But it is also super secret.

I have like 10 ideas...

But I can never get the item requiring a picture, the camera, the cord for the camera to connect to the computer, and the computer all in the right order or in the same place.

Soon.

Why I love being a Chemist.

This is a regular occurance:

Different types of chlorine make pretty colors.

Different pH'd samples make pretty colors, too.

Life would be boring in black and white.

Teetherpillar.

Two Saturdays ago I moved into a house. I don’t miss apartment life much. I do, however, miss my trip to the bus stop each morning. Four sidewalk squares from the pole there is a piece of white gum on the ground. As the gum came into view each day I thought one of two things: TEETH! or CATERPILLAR!

Caterpillars and teeth mesh well.

Ironically, the day I signed for my new house, which is conveniently located just 3 minutes from my work (walking), was also the day my boss announced that our work is relocating to the other side of town. I’ll be back to riding the bus in T-minus 2 years.

I time traveled.

Tonight at my Chicago rehearsal I was digging through a bag of props when... I FOUND A TAMBOURINE! I was not aware of any tambourines in Chicago...

From my calendar:

"I like a woman with a head on her shoulders. I hate necks."
-Steve Martin

My morning routine.

I have a conversation with the desktop background on my work computer everyday. It goes something like this:

Me: Hello, Frog. You are looking mighty satisfied today.
Frog: ...
Me: Yes. Yes, you do look satisfied.
Frog: ...
Me: You are a very satisfied frog. Yes.
Frog: ...

Satisfied Frog.

Thank you, National Geographic. You bring me eternal satisfaction.

A new addition to the family.

My husband built a computer last week. We named him Optimus:

Optimus.

As in Optimus Prime of Transformers:

Optimus Prime.

The History of the Tambourine.

I'm the funniest person I know. I regularly start laughing at awkward times leaving the rest of the room to ponder my deep thoughts. When I do share, my jokes usually fall on deaf ears, but I think they're great. My one-liners are best, especially when paired with a picture, which is why I have decided to catch up with the blogging people.

Blogs to me have always been boring "here's what I did today!"-type ramblings or complainings about life. My recent reading of a couple blogs (Meg's Award Winning Blog and Daddy Likey in particular) have led to my discovery of a new type of blogging: fun.

I intend for this to be about the things in life I find funny and the occasional "look what I did!" brag. I will not tell the world about every aspect of my life and I will not complain.

Do enjoy.

I will.