Great News!

I've been busy at my daughter's school lately.  I have started writing grants for the school.  I am pleased to announce that my first grant was rewarded! YEA!  Victory for the teachers and students!  Leap Frog Tag Reading Systems were purchased for all of the K-1 classes!  YEA!

I just finished writing my second grant for a much larger want- computers!  Hopefully, this too will be rewarded!

On the sewing front.  I have two wonderful God Children who haven't had an 'updated' quilt since they were born.  The girl chose the colors black, silver and red.  The boy, chose anything with HD motorcycles.  I have waited until the last minute on these.  They have to be complete before June 1.  Glad to say they are now at the quilters! I forgot to take completed pictures :0.  I will take completed pictures when they come back!

For the girls quilt I sewed a jelly roll race.  I used two jelly rolls to get a lap size quilt.  It was fun, quick, with a great look.  I then appliquéd on different sizes of red flowers.

For the boy I used a friendship square.

This quilt too ended up being around a lap size.  From far away it IS a busy quilt with flames going different ways, but the end result was very 'boy'.

On the garden front my azaleas have started blooming!  LOVE!

It is SO GREEN here, there have been several storms over the last week and coming again next.  The rewards everything is blooming and growing!

On a personal note, I finished my first 5K!  Wahoo!

Have a great week~ here's hoping a slower pace will find me soon?

Ohhhh..... Ahhhhh...... and OUCH!

Our front yard needed help.  Talk about lack of curb appeal!  It seems EVERYONE here in the NC has the standard shrubs in their front yards.  I HATE them!  I waited a whole year to rip those things out.  In came BLOOMING perennials!  YAHOOO!  I can not wait for the to start!

                        The BEFORE.  There is even a dead tree all the way on the left.
                                                          Good-bye, ugly bushes HELLO COLOR!

                                                     

So MUCH BETTER!  I know it looks 'little' now, but like with all great plants they just have to have time to grow!  So worth the wait.  On the other side we cleared out the bushes and planted grass.

As if that wasn't exciting enough?!  My raised beds were filled with dirt and are now ready for their plants!  I have plans for these.  Climbing Clematis? Paint the door?  Lots of color!

On the knitting front I finished  knitting my 'love' socks.  They turned out great.  Looking at them they do not flatter my cankle at all!  Hopefully after a wash they will be better fitting?

The bad thing is that I injured my index finger on my right hand.  I ripped off the nail to about 1/2 the regular size.  It is Baaaddddd!  Ewwww!  Ouch!  Sorry if you are drinking a coffee or eating reading this!  I tried knitting today no such luck.  The bandaid that I have to wear is too big and it's not working for me at this time.  (huge SIGH)  I'm hoping that it will heal quick!?

Have a great week!  I will post pictures soon of the flower boxes!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter and I hope that you did to.  I finished making the bunny for S.  She loved it and made a special comment about the bow.  I used up some of my leftover tid bits for this project.  Some of it is Spud and Chloe and Knit Picks cotton.  I like doing these projects if I can use of odds and ends. It makes me feel better when I buy sock yarn, I just can't live with out!

I haven't planted anything in my garden boxes yet.  They are moved and leveled to their 'home'.  Now to fill with dirt.  Apparently I can't make ANYTHING small, so now I have to look into getting dirt delivered.  Ha.

We had our trees trimmed this week, it was a process that last more then two weeks!  The last day they knocked out our light pole.  Add it to the list of things to fix around the house.

With this nice weather, I have trimmed a couple of the trees around my house.  I haven't taken any pictures yet.  Now I have to relocate a couple bird houses.

The landscaper is coming to pull out all the hedges in the front of the house this week.  That should be interesting?!

It's Spring Break time here in NC!  WHOOT!  A whole week of 'not rushing' YEA!  S is on board this time and likes the fact that she can sleep late and not wake up in the 'middle of the night' to go to school.

I have also made progress on the Love Socks.  I had to tear them apart FIVE TIMES!  GRRR!  I wasn't happy with the way the heart was looking.  I preservered and now I down past the heal turn!  I'm practicing for argyle socks :0

Have a great week!

Spring Fever

Getting into to the groove of things after vacation is sometimes harder then it should be.  S is back at school and doing well.  She has a list of sight words that she is required to learn.  My child does not like flash cards so I made up a princess game for us to play.  She loves princesses so I am hoping that this game will be used everyday?!

Easter is on the way.  Every year I make S a knitted toy.  Last year it was a sheep.  I LOVE how each one has their own personality.  The sheep is on the picture of the headline.  This year I am attempting a bunny.  So far, I have knitted all the body parts and hopefully will stitch this bunny together soon.  The pattern is from raverly,  bunny.

This weekend in the South it WAS AMAZING!  In the 70's!  I have Spring Fever, I'm itching to plant things outside.  I researched raised garden beds.  I made two!!!  WAHOO!  I have to flip and put in front of the shed where they will add a source of much needed color.  S and I can't wait to plant!!!  I am going to add a watering system of some sort too because it is so H-O-T here!

Have a great week!!

A Vacation Break

We are just back from Disney World!  WOW!  It was Aaaaaamazing!  It was S and my first time there. What an adventure!  I want to go back some day!

Before the trip I sewed a bag. It was my first one I ever made,  I cursed a lot. I'm not sure that I will ever make another one but this was did serve it's purpose and it was an awesome bag nonetheless.  It is an Amy Butler pattern that my sister shared with me.  The only adjustment that I made was making the straps longer so it was more like a messenger style.  I put in FOUR zippers a snap, and a liner in this sucker!  WOW!  I was ready to be done with the project about half way through.  I found the directions challenging at times.  I read ahead, pinned and then reread before I sewed.  There are some mistakes, but I can live with those!

 Of course I had to have a knit project in the car.  I started striped pair of socks!  Two at a time, two different colors~ YES~ I have a web of yarn at times.  But now that I can knit two socks at a time, I have a REALLY hard time just knitting ONE!

 The socks are a lot farther now, I must take a picture!
I also swatched for my first (drum roll please) SWEATER!  WOWZA!  Yes, that is sock yarn you see, crazy I am for not using worsted weight for my first sweater......

The yarn is Madelintosh...love it. It is darker then I originally anticipated but the colors are what drew me to the yarn.  I am making "Ink" on raverly.

I must go...my daughter has come up with the idea of an Easter Egg Hunt at our house!  JOY!  I can't wait to start planning!  Ha!

Birthday Presents

February is a busy month, not only is there Valentine's Day but there are FOUR birthdays that fall with in days of each other.  This year I started early! HA!  I was knitting up until the day it HAD to be mailed so it wasn't going to be late.

My sister has a loving relationship with antique pillowcases.  This year I thought that I would try my hand at making her some. I picked out the material at a fabric store and then followed a pillowcase tutorial on line.  The piece of resistance was the crocheted edging that I did!! WHOOT!  I watched several on line videos and read blogs and then changed things to my preference.  She LOVED them! WHEW!  I wasn't too sure but am so relieved.

For my MIL, I made a simple lace cowl for Wendy Knit's Lace book.  I loved the way it turned out. I went to a class on how to add beads to lace work. I was all gung ho to start adding beads but my picky self didn't like ANY that the store had.  So perhaps in the future?  

The other two birthdays consisted of socks. I forgot to take pictures of those! OPPS!

SIGH!  ALL birthdays are done for this month!  Now to decide on my next knitting project(s)! Socks of course!  I have come to the conclusion that it will be a sweater!  Oh the COMMITMENT!!!  

Gearing up for a cold blast heading through the South this weekend!?  Stay warm!

Something Bright and Oh So Cheery~

With Valentine's Day fast approaching I whipped up this bright and cheery wall hanging. It is so brown this time of year here in the South that I needed something bright!  I made up the pattern myself.  As far as quilting it, I attempted 'stitch in the ditch' for the first time.  I must say it was easier and had great results then I first thought.

On the knitting front. I finished my 'vanilla socks'.  They were knitted on the wrong size needles so will be gifted to someone :).  All was not lost there~

I also am ALMOST done with the first glove in the Downton Abbey KAL.  I had to put this project aside to make a couple of birthday gifts.  The birthday gifts are completed but I can't post them quite yet.  But here is what the glove looks like~

I am in the midst of planning the next house project!  WOWZA~  I will have to totally 'butter' the husband up for this one!

Have a great week!