For all you Jane Austen fans out there

I'm not sure how accurate this is. I like the bit where it says I'm extremely attractive - certainly don't feel that way with the black circles under my eyes! Funny too - I just finished reading this for the first time - and watching the movie for the 10th.


You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

Take the Quiz here!

In My Own Backyard

I love SPRING!! I took these pictures on our walk last Friday.

Flowering Plum

Flowering Cherry

These are a little fuzzy because he wouldn't let me get too close. But this was just down the street from my house! I zoomed in with photoshop to get a better look. These birds are all over down here. I forget how close I am to the Potomac.

I just couldn't wait!!

I'm almost done with my new diaper bag and I'm so excited that I couldn't wait until it was finished to post some pics. I L-O-V-E the fabric so much I could cry. See the AMY BUTLER link on my sidebar for more info on her. She makes the most wonderful designs, I quote my friend Allyn , "I love looking at her fabrics, they make me happy" or something to that effect. I love this bag already, it may just be my bag and I'll happen to carry diaper stuff in it. Stay tuned for completed pictures. I still have to figure out what I am going to do for the strap.

A Group Effort

This little quilt has a great story. When I was about 12 I embroidered these blocks for a church project. I don't remember how long it took me, but I'm sure it was a while. They were supposed to then be made into a baby quilt for when I grew up and had my own kids. Well, you know what happened. They sat in my sewing box for about 20 years.

Well, when I got pregnant with Alison my mom and I decided to ressurect the old project and breathe some new life into it. So we went through her stash of 40s reproduction prints and decided to use a lot of different fabrics so it was more unisex - after all the ultrasound tech told me not to paint anything pink yet - although that was her guess. So my mom and I cut out the sashings that go around each individual block and I sewed that main part together.

Then my mom took over again and she put on the borders. My Aunt Mary quilted it on her machine and then my mom sewed the binding on and I handstiched it down. I just finished it a few months before Andrew was born. Even when we got it all put together it still took me forever to sit down and do the handsewing. I really don't enjoy that very much.

Thanks so much to my mom who helped not just with the sewing and cutting but with the overall look of the quilt and to Mary for doing such a great job on the quilting. I"m really pleased with how it turned out, and it's so cute I'm not sure I really want anyone spitting up all over it. So for now it's hanging on the wall in the room where we keep Alison's toys. (Click on the photo to see it close up.)

What's funny is it took over 20 years, 3 people and many locales to get this thing donw. Here's a list of the places it's been worked on:
embroidery - Annandale, VA
Sashing cut - Draper, UT
Sashings sewn - Oceanside, CA (thanks Allyn for letting me use your machine)
Borders sewn - Draper, UT
Machine Quilting - Tooele, UT
Initial binding sewn - Draper, UT
Final handstiching - Stafford, VA

At least it started and ended in Virginia - but sheesh, what a trek. I am kind of glad we didn't put it together way back then - I think the fabrics we had available to us recently make it really cute - who knows what 80's influence would have been at work had we completed it back then!

I'm pleased to report that the quilt I made Andrew was started in October when I was in UT and is now just waiting for me to sew the binding down. I hope to finish it this week. I've learned my lesson - this one's only taken a few months! I'll be posting a picture of it soon.

What? No more T.V.???!

We couldn't live without the internet, but we decided we could live without TV. Mind you, we still have our t.v., just no more cable/sattelite. We had talked about not even hooking it up when we moved here a year and a half ago, but got sucked into an introductory plan. But now we've decided that we waste too much time watching things we aren't THAT interested in. I will miss the Food Network and Alton Brown, America's Test Kitchen, Dr. Oz and Ellen. But we can watch LOST online and get the DVDs of the Office. (and thanks to Carla and her DVR I can finish out the season of The Biggest Loser). In the 3 days it's been off, it's amazing the things I've gotten done and how much less zoned I feel from get sucked into the tube everyday. I've even almost finished my book for book club on Wednesday and I just started it on Friday. Another post about it later - it's a funny read.

Besides our own reasons behind it (including saving time and $50 a month), here is a great article that motivated us to actually do it.
Living Without Television by Christopher Westley

Pride and Prejudice Fans, LOOKOUT!

What have I been doing lately? Mostly just recovering from Christmas, a cold, and being 8 months pregnant. Lots of time to lie around and do little.

Here's something I did do recently, while lying around, with my good friend Keri who came to keep me company while Nick is gone. I watched a BBC miniseries called North and South (there is no Patrick Swayze in sight - don't be fooled!) It was EXCELLENT!!! Mr. Thornton has been compared to Mr. Darcy and the story isn't just a fluffy romance. You can read about it here: North and South. If you liked the Colin Firth Pride and Predjudice miniseries you will love this, and possibly more than P&P! I know, hard to believe. And if you haven't seen P&P and love British productions you will enjoy this. It's 4 one hour episodes, so it's doable in one long night or two shorter ones. I just watched it this weekend and I think I need to watch it again!


The baby is coming on the 31st - so I have some more projects I want to get done before then. Maybe I'll have some pictures up soon. I got some fabric to make a diaper bag! I'm so motivated - well sort of. I feel motivated for 4 hours in the morning before I just want to take a nap.....

Not my project...

But I helped! Nick's sister, Cat, was here for several weeks around Thanksgiving and she wanted me to help her make some pillows. She is way more ambitious than I am, she says it's her lack of sewing experience, but we were able to put together some cute pillows for her brown couches. The cord on the edges of the orange pillows were the toughest thing - but now I'm not afraid of it any more! I might even use some piping on the next bag I make - woah! Watch out! As a side note - it was really fun to hang out with her so much. We've never had the opportunity to spend so much time together and she is definitely a keeper!

Here are the creations - a good joint effort. These are corduroy with a super soft baby blue tiny corduroy on the back.

Canvas front, wide wale corduroy back, elegant cording on the edge.