RaptorMama

How have I not blogged about my hexagons yet?!? If you follow me on instagram, you know that I am obsessed with hexagons right now.  🙂  In fact I just finished up my 3rd block!

Maybe I should back up a little.  Since I’m insane, I’ve decided to make a king size quilt entirely by hand out of tiny 7/8th inch hexagons.  I imagine I’ll be finished sometime around my 80th birthday.

Why so tiny?  Because I have fallen in love with charm packs.  These are little bundles of fabric precut to 5 inches by 5 inches.  You can make 4 hexagons out of a piece of fabric that size if you make the hexagons 7/8th of an inch.  🙂

Say hello little hexagon!  First I baste the fabric around a piece of paper, then I stitch the hexagons together into little flowers.

Remember when I said that each piece of fabric was big enough to make 4 hexagons?  I go ahead and baste all 4 hexagons at the same time, but I’m only stitching one in for now.  I want to have a good mix of fabrics throughout the whole quilt so I put the other 3 aside for now.  Once I’m 1/4 of the way through, I’ll stitch up the rest.

Here’s my current stash of “orphan hexies.”  There are 670 of them.  ::imagine a shocked emoji here::  Once I have 9 flowers, I stitch them together into what I’m calling a block.  So far I’ve made 3 of them.  I don’t plan on stitching the blocks together until I’ve finished all of the blocks because I keep buying more fabric and I want to make sure that there’s a good mix.

Each of these blocks has 9 flowers along with some extra hexies to join them together.  All in all, each block has 75 hexies.

I thought I was doing pretty good until I laid them out on my bed and saw how much farther I had to go!  lol.  I’m guessing I will need somewhere between 7×7 and 9×9 blocks.  Which means somewhere between 49 and 81 blocks.  On the low end of that number, it will take me roughly 4 years to complete the quilt top if I can manage to keep going at my current pace.

 

You guys!  My tiny babies are 3!!!

I know, Mia.  It snuck up on me too.

Weren’t you guys just born yesterday???

My sweet Emilia Marie.  5 pounds 3 ounces at birth, this tiny peanut got down to 4 pounds 8 ounces before she started gaining weight.  She may still be tiny, (she was 24 pounds and 31.5 inches today at the dr) but she’s not letting that hold her back!  She’s quite the little climber; I’ve found her on top of the kitchen island multiple times.  lol.  She’s walking all over the living room now, and if you hold her hand she’ll walk for quite some time!  She’s also got probably 75 signs?  And since she got her latest set of ear tubes she’s been making so many more sounds.  She’s probably got around 20 verbal words.  It is so exciting to see her expressing herself.  🙂

And here’s my sweet boy, Alexander James.  He also started out at 5 pounds 3 ounces, but he only dropped down to 4 pounds 13 ounces before he started eating us out of house and home.  🙂  Today he was a positively robust 27 pounds and 36 inches.  We always think he’s so tall until we see him around any non-Mia sized toddler.  lol.  He is soooooooo busy!  He literally never stops running and talking.  RaptorDad refers to him as The Narrator.  He’s a little bit crazy and I’m always running behind him terrified he’s going to break his arm, but thus far his bones seem to be made of rubber.  lol.

Mia Bear starts preschool tomorrow and she’ll be gone 4 hours a day 5 days a week.  She is so ready.  Xander and I are not ready.  lol.  We are going to miss her so much!  I know this is best for her, but it still hurts my heart.  I’m ready for summer when I get all 3 of my kids home with me all day!

You guys, my tiny baby is starting preschool in April and I’m not handling it all that well.  :/ So I will be aiming to distract myself in April!  But let’s check out March first, shall we?

1.  Surgery Recovery.  Mia did amazingly well!  And I cannot say enough wonderful things about the staff at Dell Children’s Hospital.  Seriously love them.  Also hope that we never have to be admitted again.  lol.
2. Files for interview books.  Done!  In fact, you can check out the actual blog post I wrote about it here.  🙂
3. Print interview books.  Done!
4. Assemble interview books.  Also done!  Damn, I was on a roll this month.  😉
5. Patch Blanket.  Done!  Or at least, caught up for the moment.  It’s a bit of an ongoing project.
6. Macaroons.  Well, we made an attempt.  They were awful, but we did check them off.  I’m going to find a new recipe and try again at a later date.
7. St. Patrick’s Day fun.  Well, we did a teeny bit, but I want to do better next year.
8. Order name labels.  Done.  Excuse me while I go cry in the corner.
9. Scrap.  Not a lot here actually as our weekends have been crazy.  Hoping that I can get some time in the art room soon.
10. 3×3 hexie flower.  Done!  Love making progress on this project.  🙂

So April…

1.  The easter bunny brought me the cutest little notebook and I’m going to use it for some bullet journal type lists.  I think I’m going to try to create a list a day for April.  Today I’m making my ultimate travel bucket list and my goal is to have 100 items on it by the end of the day.
2. 3×3 hexie flower.  I’d love to make one of these a month.  🙂
3. Hogwarts Summer School.  When I asked Kate about having a theme for the summer a la Camp Halfblood last year, she was so stinking excited!  She immediately suggested a Harry Potter theme and I eagerly accepted.  This is going to be so much easier than last summer!  There’s a ton of stuff on pinterest.
4. Sunshine!  I do so much better when I get more sunshine in my life.  I’m going to make it a goal to spend at least 30 minutes outside each day that it’s not raining.
5. Plants!  My mom helped me start some garden beds int he back yard and I’d really love the keep them alive.  Apparently this means that I need to water then every day.
6. Schedule for Xander.  Mia is going to be going to school 4 hours a day 5 days a week starting April 11th.  Cue massive mental breakdown.  lol.  I want to make some kind of schedule for Xander and I so we don’t both just sit at home and mope about how much we miss Mia.  lol.
7. Project Life.  I’d like to get November and December 2017 done.
8. Scrapbooking.  I’d like to get February and March done.
9. Fix Dresses.  I have a ton of really cute dresses that are missing buttons.  I need to just sit down one day and fix them.
10. Twin Party.  Oh my gosh my babies are almost 3!!!  We’re just having some family over, but I still need to plan something.  🙂

It’s field trip time!  Over spring break my mom and I took all the kidlets down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center and it was amazing!!!  Like stunningly beautiful.

And they have this amazing kids’ section!  It’s relatively new; it had just opened when I was pregnant with the twins.  Y’all, it is totally worth the drive!

They had a ton of fun water activities.  Kate and Xander loved the waterfall.  🙂  And Mia loved the little stream.  I would be prepared for your children to get soaked.  lol.

We happened to be there on a Friday and they had the cutest little preschool mommy and me class.  And it was free!  Or rather, it was included with admission.  lol.  It was so much fun!  I actually considered if Xander and I would be able to make it down there in time after we dropped Mia off at school (she starts in April ::sob::) but I think it’s just a little too far.  They had a bunch of rocks and seeds and stuff for the kids to touch and smell.  Then they read them a story.

The second half of the class was a nature walk!  I had to put Mia in the stroller so we could keep up with the class, but the instructors were so good about it.  The other kids would gather around a plant to smell it and then they would bring something over to Mia so she was included.  It was not something I asked for, but it was certainly appreciated.  🙂

All in all, this place gets 2 enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

Check out the amazing bluebonnet pics I got this year.  #NailedIt

My kids are such naturals.  Xander especially has the makings of a model.  hahahahahaha

Don’t worry, I have plans to attempt this again next weekend.  Kate is going to be gone this weekend camping with her Girl Scout troop (I miss her already!!!) but I’m semi confident that the bluebonnets will still be looking good next weekend.  Fingers crossed!

I finally finished the interview books for Mia and Xander!!!  Longtime readers might remember when I made an interview book for Kate.  If not, check out this (super old) blog post where I did a tutorial.  🙂

Well, now that the time is nearing for my tiny baby big girl to start school I realized that I needed to get my tush in gear and make ones for the twins!  Amazingly enough I was able to get all of the supplies, though I may have paid a bit of a premium for a few of them.  Whoops.

I also realize that I never came back and updated the old post once I actually used the book so here you go.  🙂  I’m using Kate’s book for the photos since I actually have it up to date and the twins’ books are still blank.  I take Kate’s picture on the first day of school every year.  At first I thought that I would take it in front of our door so you could see her growth over the years with the door knob as a reference point, but I quickly realized that our poo brown HOA mandated door color is not an attractive backdrop for photos so I switched to our front porch.

Of course, then we came to the last day of school.  We were filling out the interview book on the eve of the last day of school and RaptorDad just assumed that I was taking pics on the porch with the chalkboard for the last day of school.  Which seemed like a great idea to me!  But then, where to put the pics…  I decided to make use of the backsides of the cardstock and added a velum pocket for the annual report card.  This is also where I put her class photo.  I actually take a picture of the picture (don’t worry, I pay for the 8×10) and resize it to 4×6 so it fits in the book.  (I covered it up because I don’t like to post pics of other people’s kids online without permission, but you get the idea.)

I love seeing how her answers change every year!  And I love having a sample of her handwriting.  <3

And since the whole books is already put together, it’s easy to keep up with.  🙂  Sometimes there’s a delay in printing the pics because I don’t want to pay shipping for one 8×8 photo, but the actual interview portion only takes a few minutes and is always fun to do the night before right after dinner.  Side note: apparently 8 is the new 13.  yikes!

This is actually one of my favorite memory projects because it’s so easy!  It’s a fair bit of work and expense upfront, but now that is’s done, it’s done.  🙂  Well, except for the idea I recently had for the cover page, but I’ve got to convince RaptorDad to put his mad photoshop skills to use for that.  lol.

 

What’s up spring!!!  We had a busy fun filled February and now we’re on to a busy (hopefully) fun filled March.  🙂  Let’s see the February goals.

1.  Make my bed every day.  I did better at the beginning of the month.  lol.  But I would really like this to become a habit.  The room looks so much nicer when the bed is made.
2. Sell all the cookies.  We did it!!!  And we will not do it again.  lol.  At least, not this many.  I know that plenty of people sell 1000 boxes or more, but 400 nearly killed us this year.  I’m thinking more like 200 next year.
3. Get my family well!  Ugh.  We continued on the sick train in February adding a couple of ear infections, some throat gunk, and bonus pink eye.  ::yuck:: BUT, Mia is scheduled for new ear tubes on Tuesday and as a bonus they’re going to take out her adenoids and maybe her tonsils at the same time.  It’s not going to be a fun recovery, but we’re really hoping that this solves her recurrent sinus issues once and for all.
4. Embroidery for quilt.  Still a work in progress…
5. Spring break plans!  Sadly, our spring break plans devolved into surgery recovery plans.  Kate is going to get to go to Houston for a few days though so that should be fun.
6. Interview book prep.  I’m still deeply in denial about preschool, but I did order the actual albums.  Now I just need to recreate the file and print the pages.
7. Finish Kate’s patch blanket.  I need to do this…
8. Bake something with Kate.  Success!   We made King Cake for Mardi Gras, and she took the lead on making some scones for a little tea party she had with her BFF.
9. Valentine craft.  No, but I did score a canvas that I want to use for a St Patricks Dat handprint craft.
10. December Daily.  I didn’t do a darn thing for December Daily, BUT I did finish a whopping TWELVE project life layouts.  🙂

March Goals

1.  Surgery recovery.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
2. Create files for interview book.
3. Print interview book pages.
4. Cut interview book pages.  I still need to find/ purchase all of the embellishments, but that can be done at a later date.  I ::have:: to have the pages printed before Mia starts school.
5. Patch blanket.  I need to just dedicate a few nights to getting it up to date.
6. Macaroons.  Kate and I want to try to make macaroons over spring break.  🙂
7. St Patrick’s Day festivities.  We’re going to attempt to make some pretzels.  Also, the aforementioned handprint canvas.  Maybe other stuff?  We’ll see.
8. Order name labels for Mia’s stuff.  ::sob::
9. Scrap!  I’d love to keep the momentum going on Project Life!
10. Hexie Love.  I’d love to get another 9 flowers stitched together.  🙂

I’ll try to get a few non-goals blog posts up in March, but I make no promises.  lol.

Oh January, don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.  lol.  All 3 of the kids have been sick one after another and it’s so hard to see my babies (all 3 of them!) feeling bad.  Plus, Kate was sick for the first weekend of cookie sales so we had to cancel her 3 best booths.  Ugh.  Anyone want to buy some cookies?!?  I’m starting to panic.  lol.  So my January wasn’t as productive as it usually is.  Still, let’s take a look see.

1.  Clean all the things.  Hahahahahahahaha.  Yeah right.  Still, I think I filled up 3 or 4 trash bags so that’s better than nothing.
2. December Daily.  I made some progress, but I’m far from finished.  I think I’m on day 16?  Hopefully once the kiddos are better we can get back to our regular weekend schedule which includes scrappy time for me on Saturdays and garage time for RaptorDad on Sundays.  We’re both missing it!
3. Cookie Booth Decorations.  Holy crap y’all!  RaptorDad went above and beyond with the cookie booth.  I was thinking a sign, but he made us a whole booth!  He’s so awesome.  🙂
4. Swimming.  Well, between sick kids, sick mama, and selling cookies, I haven’t gotten much swimming in this month and the kids haven’t gotten to swim at all.  🙁  But it’s a new month!
5. I tried one new salad and brought back an old favorite.  So halfway there?
6. Interview book.  Ugh.  I haven’t done anything for this.
7. Hexagons!  I’ve been having so much fun with these.  🙂  I might have to do a whole blog post about them.  Oh, and I’ve now got 4 separate hexagon quilt projects going.  Why yes, I am insane.  Why do you ask?  
8. Daily photos.  I did great for a week.  lol.  Maybe I’ll try for 1 week a month of daily DSLR pics…
9. Load challenge.  Hahahahahahahaha.  I only got 9 pages done.  See above re sick kids.  But, I got a lot of hexagons done so that was super fun.  🙂
10. Blog.  My poor neglected blog.  lol.

February Goals.  Oh boy.

1.  Make my bed every day.  I’ve never made the bed in my life.  lol.  But, if I’m making a whole darn quilt for it, I’d better get in the habit now.
2. Sell all the cookies.  ::sigh::  We’ve sold 239 and we have 161 to go.  Ugh.  I’m hoping to have 300 sold before the end of the weekend.  Not sure if that’s possible.
3. Get my family well!  One kid just finished antibiotics, one kid is halfway through a course of antibiotics, and one is starting antibiotics today.
4. Embroidery for quilt.  I know how to do embroidery on felt from all of the stocking kits I’ve done, but somehow that isn’t translating to embroidering on cotton.  Need to trouble shoot this.  You know.  Because just making 4000 hexagons isn’t complicated enough.  😉
5. Spring break plans!  I want to go to the beach for a few days!  Need to make this happen.
6. Interview book prep.  Y’all.  I need to stop being in denial about preschool starting and finish Mia’s interview book.
7. Finish Kate’s patch blanket.  This is an ongoing project, but she has a backlog of patches that need to be sewn on before her camping trip in March.
8. Bake something with Kate.  I promised her that once we sold all of the cookies I would bake something with her.
9. Valentine craft.  I want to do a little craft project with the babies.
10. December Daily.  I want to finish this so I can clear off my desk and make a plan for catching up on Project Life.  🙂

I came up with 7 daily goals for the first week of January as some mini resolutions.  How did it go?  Really well!  My goals were to 1.  take a photo a day with my DSLR, 2.  do a scrapbook layout a day, 3.  fill up either a trash bag or a goodwill bag a day, 4.  get 10 thousand steps a day, 5.  drink 8 glasses of water a day, 6.  clean the kitchen every day, and 7.  work on my hexagons.  Overall, I did really well with photo a day, cleaning the kitchen,  and my water, succeeding every day.  I did pretty good with my steps, my layouts, and my hexies.  I failed miserably at the trash bag a day.  lol.  I thought I’d share my photos!

Monday:  The babies playing with their sensory bin!

Tuesday:  Kate doing research on owls.  Just for fun.  lol.  She wanted to show the babies a video she found.  I loved having her home on break.  I can’t believe she has to go back to school tomorrow!  🙁

Wednesday: It was so cold today!  The babies were tired and they laid down on a blanket pallet in the floor and alternatively snuggled and fought over books.  I love seeing their twin bond.  One of my biggest fears when we got Mia’s diagnosis was that they wouldn’t have that twin bond.  Boy was I wrong!  They are 2 peas in a pod.  🙂

Thursday:  Ice Skating with our Girl Scout Troop!  Kate loves Girl Scouts so much.  I’m glad we have such a great group of girls.  🙂

Friday:  Playing at the park!  The pretty weather came back, thankfully!!!  We met up with some friends and ended up feeding some ducks.  So much fun!

Saturday:  This is actually a different plaid shirt on Xander.  I <3 plaid shirts.  lol.  Here we are at the park in our neighborhood.  Notice the ever present car.  😉

Sunday:  Cousin day!  Love family time!!!

I’m totally doing this again this week!  I especially loved taking pics every day with my camera!  But I dropped the trash bag goal.  Ain’t nobody got time for that!  lol.

Field trip time!

Kate was working on her painting badge for girl scouts and one of the steps was to “get inspired” and look at different paintings by different artists.  I think the writers of the badge requirements envisioned us spending the day at an art museum, but y’all, this was way more fun!

Plus, we got to play with spray paint!

To say that is wasn’t double stroller friendly would be a massive understatement, but we still had loads of fun.  We just stayed on the bottom level.

I’d love to come back one day without the babies and climb up to the top!  There was so much cool graffiti to check out.

And Kate was thrilled to finish up her painting badge!  All in all, 2 thumbs way up for the Hope Outdoor Gallery.