Bibbidy, Bobbidy, Boo!

Thanks to the magic of experience and the entire Tour de France (and possibly this darling little Cinderella - but probably not) I finished the quilt!

Can you find my Alberto Contador square? It's a good thing he won. I made him his own square before he was even in the lead.

I liked it so much I told the original recipient that I was going to keep it. Now I'm making her another one. Sorry Mom! At least it will be ready for the next Fourth of July.

Why we may not be at church today

Since we go to church in the afternoon, Scott and the girls had a few hours to kill this morning.  Emily came up with the great idea to have a pirate party!  

What's a pirate party?  Just ask Emily!  She came up with the list.

1.  Hide pirate treasure 

(the boxes they made at Lowe's yesterday)

2.  Make treasure maps

3.  Dress in pirate costumes

4.  Make pirate eyepatches and beards

I wondered how they'd make the eyepatches and beards, but luckily Scott is creative.  Making an eyepatch couldn't be that hard (I think he earned that merit badge in Scouts) and I figured he'd tape some paper on their faces for beards.  

Nope.

When I was a little kid I decided to make myself some lovely purple tights right before we had to be somewhere fancy.  I used markers, of course.  I remember my mom freaking out, sticking me in the tub and then using something smelly to try to remove the marker.  This was in the olden days, remember, before washable markers were invented.  

I only buy washable markers.  

I hope they come off faces easily, otherwise we're not going to church, as we would not be promoting reverence.  

Here's Emily, Le Pirate Moustache.

Heidi's Uncle Leo eyebrows make me laugh so hard.  

She is very proud of them and likes to look at them in the mirror.

Molly looks strangely like Vince Neil with her biker mustache.  

Don't you agree?

 

At least I am not bored - ever.

Father's Day weekend (part 2)

We spent Father's Day weekend part 1 doing fun things as a whole family with Scott.  Part 2 happened somewhat unintentionally.   

I had a super fun procedure done on my back yesterday.  My back was shot up with cortisone so that I could finally move normally 3 1/2 months after herniating a disc.  The doc said I should rest all day Friday, which I gladly did, since it the recovery has been a whole lot more painful that I'd anticipated.  I was supposed to be up and moving almost normally today.  Um, no.  Instead I am stuck in bed because I still cannot move.  Aren't these shots supposed to make me feel better instead of worse?  Grr.

OK, enough complaining.  

(It's my blog though, it's supposed to be all about me, right?)

Since I'm out commission for the weekend, Scott has been doing all kinds of fun things with the girls.  They've been to the park, they've played games, they've dressed up as cows to get free food at Chick-Fil-A and this morning they did a workshop at Lowe's. Scott kept me updated with photos from his phone.  

Here's the before shot.  Heidi looks pretty confident with that hammer.  Maybe it's because we let them play with real tools.  I never have to hide the tools unless boys come over to play.

And here's the after shot with their treasure boxes.  They're planning to paint them tonight after they visit 7-11 for free Slurpees.  Thank goodness for a free food weekend.  At least I can be assured the kids are eating something!

Thank you Scott - you're the best dad and a great nurse too!

Curse you, Martha Stewart!

There I was, minding my own business (actually drying my hair while flipping through Martha's July issue - I am an expert multi-tasker) when I had an attack.  

I saw this photo

and knew I had to recreate it.

This is not a big deal.  A lot of people probably saw this photo and thought it was a fun 4th of July craft.  (Here's where the attack part comes in.)  I, of course, felt the urgent need to recreate it on a gigantic scale in FABRIC.  

Not again!  The last time the fabric attack hit I ended up with this.  I love, love this quilt, by the way.  It's on Heidi's bed now and every time I look at it I think about how glad I am that I spent all that time last summer making it.  Looking at it also helped me remember all that work and that I was not in the mood to ever make another.

I tried to stop thinking about it but I guess my brain wouldn't let me.  I wore a navy skirt with turquoise and red polka dots to a boring meeting.  At the meeting I imagined cutting it into strips and pairing it with other outfits in the room.  That's when knew I was licked and I gave into my pioneer heritage.  

The next morning, armed with a stack of coupons, I hit the fabric store and ended up with this.

And now my closet is being taken over by red, white, blue and turquoise squares in every size.  I am using the exact same pattern as last summer and instead of wondering what I was thinking, I'm feeling giddy.  

Curse you and your napkin crafts, Martha Stewart!  

You've turned me into an accidental quilter!

(PS to LH and AF - Is this precious or what?)