I can relate...

Have you ever just needed to laugh and you stumble upon something that makes you do just that. Well, I stumbled upon We Are THAT Family . As I'm reading some of her entries, I thought to myself, I can SO relate. I particularly laughed at this post Is That Bad? Why, well my kids could say chicken nugget quite early, and when I've been busy doing something they (meaning all 3 of my guys) have gotten into the pantry and made a mess with hmmm, flour, cornmeal, marshmallows, sugar, pecans (you get the picture). Anyway, I needed a good laugh, a good chuckle and a break from all the stresses. I'll be visiting her again, I'm sure, because the drama's not over in this house nor is the end in sight. A friend keeps telling me, "Wendy, it can't get any worse." And I keep saying, "Oh, I don't know about that." The good thing about all that's been happening, I get a small sewing space for myself in the basement. The kids are going to lose some play / storage space, but they are gaining a BIGGER closet to store their toys in.

No sewing has been going on (and I have 3 quilts to finish up this week) due to the dining room is currently not a dining room but an empty room. I'm pulling the wallpaper down. Why did you add that to your list you ask? Perhaps it's because the previous owners decided to wallpaper over wallpaper and it was falling down. Since the ceiling has to be painted (because of the water leak from the shower) I decided that it was a good time to just do the entire room, get it over with and that's one less room I have to do later.

This is what I'm doing today

My friend Amy recently moved to Wisconsin. She fortunately has not be affected by any of the flooding. She is coming into town today because she had tickets to go see Wicked. She had an extra ticked as her niece was not able to go and asked if I would like to go. Of course! I have a neighbor girl coming over to watch the boys, dinner's going in the crockpot and well, the carpenter can let himself out (he's my brother-in-law).

A bit of work to get done before hand. Have a great day!

Why is it

the last few times I have made a cake, the darn thing sticks to the bottom of the pan and then when I tried to take it out it fell apart. It's so frustrating. For Father's Day, I made an Italian Cream Cake. Now mine did not look like the picture. Nope, I had to put it piece by piece on the platter, try to put the frosting on it and then add another layer. Did I take pictures? Of course I did, can I show them to you? Of course not, that part of the computer has been taken down as the remodeling of the basement starts tomorrow. The cake tasted really good, but it looked really awful.

On to some crafting news. I have been taking time for myself to quilt. Last week I put together a summer table topper. The week before I started and finished a quilt for one of my newest nephews that is due in August. His baby shower was the first weekend in June. I also finished up my neighbors quilt for her daughters bed, she is supposed to purchase the fabric so I can make the second one. I am going to make 2 baby quilts for Project Gabriel at our church. We have 2 expectant mothers that the ministry is helping and the church is having a baby shower for them. Since I won't be able to go, I am donating 2 baby quilts. Both are having girls which is refreshing from all the boys tuff I have to make.

As I said above, remodeling starts tomorrow in the basement. I took some cute pictures of my little construction workers yesterday, but alas, cannot post them. (We may hook the PC up in the bedroom so that we don't lose internet as well, which means I may have access to pictures if I ask nicely.) The dumpster arrived today and the boys and I have been carrying drywall out in short batches. They get bored and well, my back starts to bother me, so I have to stop and do something else and then start again. Hopefully, it won't take long. We knocked the walls down, that was an all day job and put a little money back in our pockets. We ended up getting a dumpster, but by me shopping around I found a great deal on one (it was $200 less than what our garbage company was going to charge us). We bought our tile, it was on sale, original price $1.09 sq ft and it was on sale for $.77 a sq ft. This week ceiling tile is on sale for 15% off, guess what we'll be buying this week. Drywall, does it ever go on sale. Probably not. And then, we are going to save on the paint because we are painting it ourselves (with a bit of help from my cousin who graciously offered to help out).

I still have some catching up to do on the SQAL that I'm participating in and the QAL I never completed, as well as some more blocks for Dear Baby Jane.

Have a great day!!

Sums it up!

I may not be better than other people, but at least I'm different.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Parasols, Polka Dots and Pink Lemonade - 20 questions

I'm participating in a swap that the Sweet Goodness Girls are hosting over at Sweet Goodness Swaps. We've been asked to share the answers to some questions and since I have been having a hard time getting a post together, I thought this would be the perfect time. Oh I have plenty of things to write about, it's getting things in order that I'm having a problem with. And on a side note, if I disappear in about a week and don't respond to emails and the such it's because we may not have internet access while our basement is being refinished. I've been told it's a 3 day project, but I have my doubts. Anyway, onto the answers to the questions.

1. What is your favorite Summer Drink(s)? Pink Lemonade, Strawberry Lemonade, any kind of Lemonade!!
2. What is your favorite Summer Activity? Relaxing outside with a good book while the kids are playing and seeing a baseball game!
3. If you could spend a lazy afternoon reading, what would be in your hands? John Grisham (his new book awaits to be read, it's sitting on the bakers rack). I take recommendations and like to read a lot of different books.
4. What is your favorite type of craft/art medium? Quilting, Sewing, Knitting, Crocheting
5. What is one art/craft supply you absolutely have been dying to have or try?
6. What are your favorite colors in our 'rainbow sherbet' theme? Pink, lime green, yellow, orange, aqua (or blue) I just picked up fabric (on sale) in Pink, Lime Green and Aqua all are varigated and have different tones of each color in them to make a table runner.
7. What is your favorite sweet treat? Lemon Ice (we just made some last night) and Strawberry Shortcake.
8. Are there any craft or art supplies you would NOT be interested in receiving? I'm not a scrapbooker.
9. What is your favorite song today? Home by Blake Shelton, Better Get to Livin' by Dolly Parton and Jesus & Gravity by Dolly Parton and Kenny Chesney (any of his stuff)
10. How do you 'pamper' yourself during the hot summer days? Taking care of the toes, polishing and moisturizing because I'm not much of a shoe girl in the summer months but prefer sandals.
11. Do you have any kidlets or pets? Yep, 3 boys (ages 5, 4 and 2) 2 Shih tzu dogs (both male) and a Beta Fish appropriately named Hamm Snow and yes it's a male.
12. What is your best potluck dish for summer get togethers? A Cauliflower Broccoli salad. Chop up a head of cauliflower and some broccoli crowns (about the same amount as the cauliflower) and then shred 3 carrots. Toss together so they are mixed. Mix together equal amounts of mayo and sugar (I start with 1/4c each) and then add some milk to thin it out so the dressing is pourable. Pour over the veggies and mix. Refrigerate to let the flavors blend and enjoy!!
13. If you could take a summer vacation anywhere, where would it be? I haven't been to Myrtle Beach in a long while and would like to go back. We like to go to Palm Beach Shores, FL and go there pretty regularly. And Italy is on my list of places to go!!
14. Describe your decorating style. Does that say anything about your personality? Country, Traditional. We have a lot of pictures of friends and family scattered about the house. It's a mish mosh of things that we enjoy.
15. What are your initials? WLS
16. Why do you like to join swaps? It's fun to send items away, it feels good! and it's fun to get surprises in the mail rather than bills all of the time.
17. You have 25 dollars to spend just on you for a little treat. What do you buy? ((you can list more than one thing) I'm not sure, maybe fabric to add to the collection, but something that I normally wouldn't buy.
18. What's one craft supply or art supply you absolutely can not live without? Fabric and thread
19. Who's the last person you hugged? The baby, he comes and gives random hugs and usually needs a kiss to!!
20. What's your favorite number and why? 4. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it's the number of close friends I have, maybe it's the number of children I always wanted to have, maybe it's a friends birthday, it's a number that has stuck for quite sometime and a number that when asked to give a number that first comes to mind.

That's a bit of information about me. Hopefully I will get some snapshots up of the stuff I've been working on, but with the way things have been going I'm not too sure. Maybe our string of bad luck is running out, if it happens in 3's then here they are:
1. Shower leaked into the dining room. Had to repair the wall in the bathroom and the ceiling in the dining room.
2. Basement flooded - In the process of getting the basement refinished. All furniture and stuff has been moved , I'll update more on this later.
3. My shelf / rack in the closet fell off the wall - Still trying to remove all of the clothes and sort through so the rack can be reinstalled.

Have a great Day!

Just a list

Wow, I didn’t mean to not be posting. But we were gone on vacation and the week we came home I had several things going on (I thought the week would never end). But today, I just have list, a list of things that needs to get done today or at least this week. I’m sure as the week goes the list will grow, but I have a few things that I need to focus on. Here goes:

• Laundry – Fold and put away 3 loads of colored clothes
• Laundry – Wash, dry and put away 1 load of colored and 1 load of whites
• Vacuum – Downstairs and upstairs
• Sweep – kitchen, foyer, living room, dining room, laundry room and bathroom
• Mop / Polish – kitchen, foyer, living rm, dining rm, laundry rm and bathroom
• Clean kitchen – counters, wipe down cabinets
• Hang cup hooks to hang coffee cups
• Clean laundry room – is it just me or does cleaning the laundry room make doing the laundry easier? And it seems that this is the room things just get dumped.
• Tupperware – sort and deliver items from party
• Hem pants – for my neighbor’s husband 9 pairs pinned, now just to stitch
• Bedding for neighbor’s daughters (they purchased pre-quilted fabric and it just needs made into their bedding)
• Star QAL – Weeks 4, 5, 6
• QAL – Weeks 6, 7, 8
• Dear Baby Jane – 3 blocks
• Baby Quilt – work on blocks some more
• Pa’s Quilt – wow, this has been on my list and really just needs to be finished.
• Mom’s quilt – again, just needs to be finished.
• Begin working in the basement - I need to start cleaning and throwing away now that the insurance company has been out (and denied our claim) so that we can figure out what needs to be done.

Well, I guess all of this won’t be completed today, but a big portion of it will. I also need to upload pics from the camera from our trip to the Wisconsin Dells and our trip to visit my family this last weekend. And it has a picture of the quilt I started and completed last week for a baby shower. Hmmm, I can finish things when I put my mind to it.

Have a great day!!!