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Quilty Check In

It’s December and that always makes me want to reevaluate my projects from the last year and set some goals for the upcoming year. 🙂 So I thought I’d do a little check-in with my in progress quilts.

  1. Hexagons. Y’all. I’m actually quilting this! The progress is slooooooooow, but at least I’m making progress. I’m really wanting to finish this so I’ve been quilting on it almost every evening.

2. Bee Yourself. I made a good amount of progress on this one this year! I’d really love to finish the top in 2023, but who knows. I actually have a few more blocks done, but this is the most up to date picture I could find. lol.

3. Windchime. I love this quilt so much. I currently have 12 blocks done. I’m trying to decide if I should go for 16 total blocks or 25…

4. Low Volume Log Cabin. I pulled out all of the quilting. Now I just need to give it a good pressing and then rebaste it. So probably it will still be folded up on the shelf next year when I do this check in. lol. Although, I just dug out this picture and I had forgotten how much I like it. Maybe I’ll finish it after all. lol.

5. Ice Cream Soda. I put this one back up on the design wall this week in the hopes that looking at it will motivate me to work on it. lol.

6. Smitten. Top is done! I’m planning to hand quilt this one, so it’s going to have to wait until I’m done hand quilting the hexagons.

7. Hearts. This is another one where the top is done and it just needs quilting. I *think* my plan is to machine quilt it (just stitch in the ditch) and then to hand quilt around the hearts.

8. Color Wheel. This one has been fun! I’ve now gotten all of the applique done. Just need to trim the blocks and assemble. Oh, and decide if it needs another border or not. lol. And I actually can’t find a picture of it. Shocker, right? lol. Honestly, I’m impressed that I found pictures for the other 7.

I think that’s all of them?

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December?!?

How on earth is it December?!? And December 3rd, no less! I swear, this semester has been flying by. But, we had a very successful Thanksgiving, my mom and I officially booked our trip to Africa (even paid the deposit!), and I got the initial Girl Scout cookie order sorted out for Mia’s troop. Yay! Let’s see how November went goals wise.

  1. Clean all the things. Done! Or at least as done as it was going to get. lol. RaptorDad even organized the pantry!
  2. Survive Photo Sessions. Done! I had to reschedule a bunch of them due to weather, but I got all 7 sessions edited and out to the clients. Yay! I’m actually pretty happy with how the images turned out. 🙂
  3. Advent Calendar. Ugh. I didn’t work on this at all. :/ But I hung it up anyway and we’re really going to enjoy the 1st 6 days. lol.
  4. Thanksgiving Menu Planning. Thanksgiving went so well! Largely because RaptorDad was in charge of most of the food prep. lol.
  5. RE Homework. So close. We have 5 of the 6 chapters done.
  6. Scrap 5 pages. Nada.
  7. 2 Project Life Layouts. Also nada.
  8. Finish color wheel top. I got all of the leaves appliqued, but I still need to trim them down and attach them to the center. The progress is looking great though!
  9. Ice Cream Soda. I was meant to get this back up the design wall and I didn’t. Oh well.
  10. Book Africa Trip. Done!!! Now we just need to get trip insurance and book the flights. 🙂

I decided not to try to do December Daily. It’s just too much. I was worried I would really regret not having done it last year, but honestly all I felt was relief. With that in mind, let’s take a look at some goals.

  1. Sub 15 days. Not all in December. lol. The school that I sub at announced an incentive if we manage to sub 15 days in a single quarter. Currently with the jobs I’ve taken and those that I have scheduled, I’ll have 13 days. Surely I can shoehorn in another 2 days? Maybe?
  2. Buy all the things. Ugh. I need to order aaaaaaalllllllllllllll of the Christmas gifts.
  3. Africa Trip. We need to get trip insurance, book flights, and research the vaccines we’ll need.
  4. Evaluate 2022 goals and write 2023 goals.
  5. Sports? We’re not a sporty family, but I want to look at putting Xander in soccer, Mia in dance or gymnastics, and Kate in volleyball. Is this insane and way too many activities given the fact that we already feel massively over-scheduled with our current activities? Yes.
  6. Teacher Gifts. Oh boy. I need to figure out something for this.
  7. December Montessori Trays. I’m trying to do more academics with Mia.
  8. Advent Calendar. ::sigh:: I’d like to get as much of this done as I can. I think I’m going to cut out the backings of each ornament and then they can pull out the “shadows” for the days that I haven’t finished?
  9. Advent Activities. Yikes. Have I mentioned that I wasn’t ready for December?
  10. Hexagons. I’ve been working on quilting the hexagons in the evenings. Honestly, I’m over it, but I also want to finish!

Notice that there are zero scrappy or Project Life goals? Yeah. I’m debating making some changes going forward. Like, I’m considering being done with scrapbooking. IDK. I’m in a bit of a creative slump. The December to do list is heavy on grown-up tasks and light on creative ones, but that’s ok. I generally get a burst of mental energy in January. Maybe it will come early and I’ll end the month being super productive. lol. And maybe pigs will fly.

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Late Again!

lol. I am not doing so great lately at my monthly goals posts, but here goes. How’d I do on October? (Spoiler alert: not well. lol.)

  1. Halloween Costumes. Done! Although I really did phone it in this year. Mia wore a Mirabel dress we already owned and Xander went with a vampire costume that we also already owned. Kate quite happily made her own costume. 🙂
  2. NASA. Success!
  3. Fall Break. Also a huge success!
  4. Brownie Vest. Not only did I get it put together, I have kept it put together!
  5. September 2022 Project Life. Ugh. I didn’t even look at it.
  6. October 2022 Project Life. Same.
  7. Scrap September 2022. I’m sensing a theme.
  8. Scrap March 2021. ::sigh::
  9. Thanksgiving Plan. This is coming together!
  10. Fix Hexie Quilt. After much consideration, I decided that I liked the quilting after all and I’m keeping it the way it is. I made some good progress on it this month!

I also took a huge leap of faith and put myself out there for some photo sessions. Y’all. I’ve booked them all! And the first one is done and I was actually happy with the photos. 🙂 6 more to go!

November Goals.

  1. Clean all the things.
  2. Survive photo sessions. Including getting all of the photos edited!
  3. Advent Calendar. Ugh. And we’re right where I didn’t want to be. Into November and it’s not done. This is the month!
  4. Thanksgiving Menu Planning.
  5. RE Homework. The twins have to finish one of the 2 workbooks to turn in in December.
  6. Scrap 5 pages. Any 5 pages. lol. I’ve got to get my scrapping mojo back.
  7. 2 Project Life Layouts. Same.
  8. Finish color wheel top. I need to applique 10 more leaves and then stitch the borders on.
  9. Put Ice Cream Soda back up on the design wall. I need to motivation to work on this one.
  10. Book Africa Trip. It’s time!!!

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(Very Late) October Goals

This month has been crazy! But, I figure better late than never. So September…

  1. Popcorn. We did it! We even managed to have 2 successful popcorn storefronts. (Basically cookie booths for popcorn.)
  2. Heart Quilt. The top is done!
  3. Passport Stuff. It’s all completed and sent off! AND, we’re 85% sure we’ve decided on the tour we want to take. Just doing a bit of research to make sure that the tour company is reputable. 🙂
  4. September 2022 Project Life. Ugh. I got 3 of 4 weeks done which is pretty good, but I haven’t done anything this month yet so I’m already 3 weeks behind.
  5. Buddy Walk. I feel a bit guilty about this, but we just didn’t do the Buddy Walk this year. It’s an amazing cause, but I was so stressed thinking about managing the fundraising for a team again. Not to mention that the actual walk is so overstimulating for my kids. Maybe next year when they’re a bit older?
  6. Advent Calendar. I didn’t even look at this.
  7. Old Scrapping. Nope.
  8. New Scrapping. Also nope.
  9. Caterpillar Quilt. Done!
  10. Smitten. Nope.

It seems like I didn’t get much done, but I did start designing a new quilt! lol. So… October Goals.

  1. Halloween Costumes.
  2. NASA. I took Xander to NASA with Cub Scouts this weekend and we slept in a tent. I’m putting this on my list even though it’s already passed because I am so damn impressed with myself for sleeping in a tent by myself. Well, just me and Xander. lol. To be fair, one of the other Cub Scouts had to help me put up/ take down the tent. But I did it!
  3. Fall Break. This week is Fall Break and my kids are off school all week. We’re going to a little cabin for a few days with my grandparents and my mom so I need to get us all packed up for that. I’m excited!
  4. Put together Mia’s brownie vest. This is another one that I’m cheating on because it’s already done, but it was a big thing that I got to check off my to do list so I’m putting it on here too. lol.
  5. September 2022 Project Life.
  6. October 2022 Project Life.
  7. Scrap September 2022.
  8. Scrap March 2021.
  9. Thanksgiving Plan. We’re hosting a much smaller version of Thanksgiving this year, but I’m excited!
  10. Fix hexie quilt. I need to take out all of the hand quilting, rebaste it, and start over. lol.
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Yay September!

It’s September y’all! We’re getting back into the school year groove and loving it. 🙂 So about August…

  1. Scrap June and July 2022. Didn’t manage to get June, but I did finish July and August of 2022!
  2. Print Pics. Nope.
  3. Interview Books. Yes! 🙂
  4. First Day of School Pics. Yes! 🙂
  5. Advent Calendar. Well, I finally pulled it back out. 🙂 I didn’t finish the trim, but I did work on it. AND I got 2 toys done.
  6. Hexagons. I actually made some pretty good progress quilting this. But now the back is wrinkled again and I need to rebaste it. Again. lol.
  7. Caterpillars. Nope.
  8. Bee Yourself. I finally threw in the towel and took it down which was exactly what I needed to do. I’m now making great progress on my heart applique quilt!
  9. Ice Cream Soda. I got 2 blocks done I think. 🙂
  10. Snacks. I didn’t do anything themey, but I did manage to bring snacks! So, partial credit? lol.

Shall we set some September goals?

  1. Popcorn. Oh boy. It’s popcorn time again. lol. Here’s hoping Xander and I manage to sell all of this popcorn and stay sane in the process. lol.
  2. Heart Quilt. I’d love to finish this top.
  3. Passport Stuff. Oh my gosh, I have got to get this taken care of.
  4. September 2022 Project Life in real time.
  5. Buddy Walk. I need to get our team stuff done for the Buddy Walk.
  6. Advent Calendar. Um, sounding a bit like a broken record here, but I need to finish the trim. lol. Maybe finish the trim and get 5 more toys done?
  7. Old Scrapping. Um, August and September 2019?
  8. New Scrapping. March and September 2022.
  9. Caterpillar Quilt. I have to get the sleeve on this.
  10. Smitten. Make the backing for smitten?

Kind of a brief post today, but maybe I’ll try to do some update posts this month. 🙂

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Back to School Time!

I Just realized that 90% of my blog titles include an exclamation point. lol. #SorryNotSorry. But y’all! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Back to school! July was hard, mainly because it’s do dang hot we can barely handle the walk from the house to the car let alone actually being outside. I also had a bit of a funk feeling like a failure because, despite my elaborate plans, we did basically zero academics this summer. I’m trying to remind myself of all that I *did* accomplish- the room swap, teaching Xander to swim, Mia being comfortable in the water, summer camps, getting Mia to wear her hearing aids, vegging with Kate, so many appointments, swimming, swimming, swimming. 🙂 And now we’re down to the last bittersweet week of summer and it’s already jam packed with back to school events and more appointments. I think our laid back summer was just what we all needed to recharge after our first school year back at an actual school, but they are beyond ready to get to see their friends again. 🙂 Let’s see how the July goals went…

  1. Advent Calendar. Yikes. Not only did I not work on this at all (again) but we didn’t even do Christmas in July.
  2. Bee Yourself. I got the hexagons done! But I still need to finish the lyric block and the London flag. Might be time to pack this up for a while and out up something new…
  3. Quilt Show. I got the caterpillars all entered! Now i jut need to attach the sleeve to the back and make the labels.
  4. Hexagons. I got them rebasted! My grandmother and I basted the center section on her kitchen table and got it all marked for quilting. I’m making some progress and I’m loving it!
  5. Project Life. Um, I didn’t even look at this.
  6. Scrap Prep. I not only got July 2019 prepped, I got it scrapped! I didn’t get anything done on August or September, but progress is progress. 🙂
  7. Scrap February 2021. I never did find these pics…
  8. Scrap Current Pages. I didn’t get 10 done, but I did get 2 done. 🙂 Plus all of July 2022 is edited and printed. And I got 30 new background pages done!
  9. Ice Cream Soda. I got the pink, red, orange bottom corner done. 🙂
  10. Labels. Not yet.

Shall we set some August goals?

  1. Scrap June and July 2022. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.
  2. Print pics for August and September 2019. I’m making a push to finish 2019 before the end of the year.
  3. Interview books. One of my favorite annual traditions!
  4. First day of school pictures. Maybe I’ll even print some of the backlog this year.
  5. Advent Calendar. omg. I have to start working on this. RaptorDad and I are listening to a book on tape and I’m hoping to get some serious work done on the advent calendar. I think finish the trim and do 2 toys.
  6. Hexagons. I’d like to quilt the center part that’s already basted.
  7. Caterpillars. I need to attach a sleeve for the quilt show!
  8. Bee Yourself Quilt. I’m bored again. I’m going to attempt to finish the lyric block, but then I think I’m going to take it down and put something else back up.
  9. Ice Cream Soda. Hmm… Maybe I’ll try to get round 6 done? It’s already prepped. (I think?)
  10. Snacks. I’m playing DND (don’t judge lol) and we’re going to take turns bringing snacks. I want to make mine themey! 🙂

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Holy Cow- It’s July!

How is it July already?!? And speaking of, how is my beautiful firstborn a teenager!?! That’s right, the OG Raptor turns 13 today. Unfortunately, birthday plans had to be revamped because she’s been sick these past fews days, but she’s negative for COVID, strep, and flu A/B and she’s fever free as of last night so we’re having a fun, low key, morning with donuts and minecraft. All in all a good day.

But how about some goals! lol. Let’s see how I did in June…

  1. Bee Yourself. I didn’t finish the lyric block because I forgot it at my grandmother’s last week when I took it over to show it off. lol. But it’s very close to done and I’m delighted with it. I didn’t get the London flag done, but I got all of the others done and I got all of the country name embroidery done so I’m quite pleased with that. And I got the Sunshine block designed and finished! All in all, I am delighted with the progress I’ve made and I’m actually finally convinced that I might finish this quilt one day. lol.
  2. Smitten Quilt. Done! At least the top. 🙂 Now I just need to decide how to quilt it.
  3. Scrap. I didn’t get July 2019 done, but I did get October 2021 done! So that’s something. 🙂
  4. Advent Calendar. Not a thing.
  5. Passport. I’m sensing a theme. :/
  6. Purge Art Room. Done! Oh my gosh, I got rid of so much stuff and my new room is amazing!!!
  7. Toy/ Clothes Purge. I still need to get rid of more toys, but this was also a huge success! And the twins love their new room.
  8. Current Scrap. Nada. We still need to finish hooking up the computer/ photo printer.
  9. Semi-Current Scrap. See above. lol.
  10. Project Life. hahahahahaha.

So I didn’t get a ton done with on the scrapping front, but we did manage the room swap which was a Herculean task. Especially since it also included repainting both rooms and assembling new beds for the twins. 🙂 All in all, I’m super happy. 🙂 And check out my progress on Bee Yourself!

July Goals.

  1. Advent Calendar. Yikes. I’m planning to do a little Christmas in July action with the kids so maybe that will motivate me? OK. Gold trim. Must finish gold trim.
  2. Bee Yourself. I decided to do 2 more hexagon flowers for the upper right hand corner and I got them prepped yesterday. I’d like to finish those, finish the lyric block, and finish the London flag. The end is near!
  3. Speaking of quilts, I’ve decided to enter my Caterpillar quilt in the Austin Quilt Show! I’m super nervous, but I’m also really proud of that quilt. 🙂 I wanted to enter both the butterfly and caterpillar quilts as a set, but then I learned that it’s $45 to enter a quilt. ::yikes:: So one it is. lol.
  4. Hexagons. I want to rebaste my hexagons so that I can start hand quilting it again. 🙂
  5. Project Life. Um… How about trying to wrap up 2021. hahahahahaha. Or at least make some progress on it.
  6. Scrap Prep Ancient Stuff. Um… Maybe scrap list/ edit/ print July, August, September of 2019? If I can get organized, maybe I’ll be motivated to work on it.
  7. Scrap February 2021. According to my notes, these pics are already printed. So theoretically, I could scrap them now while I’m waiting for us to put the new computer station together… Possibilities…
  8. Current Scrap Pages. Hmm… Maybe 10 current pages? It would be awesome to get June 2022 knocked out.
  9. Ice Cream Soda. We meet again old friend. lol. I’d like to make some progress on the bottom chunk. Hopefully seeing a bit of it assembled will give me the motivation to keep making progress.
  10. Labels. We got these awesome resealable jars for baking good and I want to make some cute vinyl labels for them. 🙂

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Smitten Quilt Top!

I finished my Smitten quilt top!!! I am absolutely delighted with how it turned out. It was originally a Block of the Month offered by PinkDoorFabrics, but they were sold out before I could order it. No worries, I just ordered the pattern and a 1/2 yard bundle of fabric and decided to have a go at it myself. And I am delighted with the results!

Most of the fabric is from the Heather Ross Malibu line, but I threw in some solids and a few other fabrics to round it out. It’s 100% stitched by hand- no sewing machine. Now I just need to figure out how to quilt it! I’m thinking I’ll hand quilt it? Not sure… Any suggestions?

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Summer Time!

I’m a few days late, but that’s because we’ve been having too much fun this week! It was our first week of summer and we managed to swim 4 out of 7 days. I’m so happy! We’ve really missed being able to swim regularly since COVID/ friends moving away really curtailed our access to pools the last 2 years. I am so freaking happy that we bought our pool pass! I’m determined that Xander will learn to swim this year and he’s already made massive progress. 🙂 I’m hoping to work on it with Mia too and she’s also made some amazing progress! Kate’s part fish and it’s been so great to see her having fun sans iPhone. lol.

How did I do in June?

  1. Smitten Quilt. Oh my gosh, I am so stinking close to finishing this quilt top. lol. I have all of the blocks done; I just need to buckle down and spend a few days to finish it. I always have a hard time with this step because it’s no longer portable.
  2. Teacher Gifts. We went with cookie delivery for the Special Education Department and a Sephora gift card for their *amazing* 1st grade teacher. I am so sad that they won’t have her again next year!
  3. Scrap. Well, I only got 2 current layouts done, but I did finish June of 2019 and that let me finish an entire album! Next up: July 2019. lol.
  4. Finalize Summer Master Schedule. Done! I printed off a blank calendar and just wrote everything down and hung it on the wall in my office. I’m just old school. lol.
  5. Advent Calendar. Whoops. I didn’t do a darn thing this month.
  6. Passport. Ugh. I never got around to doing this either.
  7. Pool Pass. Done! And like I said earlier, it’s been amazing. 🙂
  8. Prep Round 6 and 7 of Ice Cream Soda. Well, I put this up on the design wall, made a few decisions, stitched a bit together, and then decided that what I really wanted to work on was my Bee Yourself Quilt. I had been stuck on that for a long time while I tried to figure out some design issues, but I made several huge breakthroughs!
  9. Prep Japan Week. Well, we’re as prepped as we’re going to get. lol. But we’ve had a lot of fun this first week and I’m excited for more to come!
  10. Prep Week 2. Didn’t get much of anything done for this, but I did decide that week 2 will be Columbia (thanks Encanto!)

So June Goals…

  1. Bee Yourself. I’d love to finish all of the flags (only 3 to go!), finish the song lyrics block, and design 1 more block. It was so exciting to pull this quilt out again and I’m having a blast working on it. 🙂
  2. Smitten Quilt. Ugh. I don’t actually feel like working on this, but I’m so close to being done that I’d like to push through and get the top done.
  3. Scrap. Hmm… July 2019?
  4. Advent Calendar. I think trying to finish the gold trim would be good.
  5. Passport. OMG. Just get the photos taken already.
  6. Huge purge of art room. Um, we’re not getting new floors in the little bedrooms right now because we ended up using the money we had earmarked for that to buy Mia’s hearing aids, but we decided to go ahead and switch rooms anyway because finally ordered new beds for the babies and we don’t want to have to assemble the beds, take them apart to switch rooms, and reassemble them later. I am panicking at the amount of work this will be, but I am so freaking excited to have a clean, organized, room!
  7. Huge purge of toys/ clothes. Speaking of purging, I need to clear out the twin’s room as well. That’s right, it’s time to toss the old baby clothes and toys. ::sob::
  8. Current Scrap. Maybe a goal of 10 current pages? IDK.
  9. Semi- Current Scrap? Um, March 2022?
  10. Project Life. Zero chance I work on this, but it would be awesome to churn out some layouts. Maybe 4?

This is a rather ambitious list and there’s no chance that I finish it, but if I can get even half of it done that will be awesome. That and loads of swimming!

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It’s Almost Summer!

You guys! It’s almost summer!!! And I am so freaking excited. 🙂 Let’s see how April went…

  1. Butterfly and Caterpillar Quilts. Still no labels (which is ridiculous since they shouldn’t take more than an hour lol) but I did manage to finish the quilts themselves. 🙂 Twinsies were delighted with them.
  2. Party Time. It went swimmingly! RaptorDad truly excels at party planning.
  3. Subbing. I subbed 6 days plus I had some birthday money that I put in there as the equivalent of a 7th day. Not too shabby! I really need 9 (7 for Africa +2 for the car) but such is life. lol. Subbing 6 days in a month was honestly about as much as I can handle so I’m looking for creative ways to make up the difference. Maybe some summer mini-sessions? Something to ponder.
  4. Scrap Gap. ::sigh:: I didn’t scrap a single page this month.
  5. Project Life. Nope. Nothing there either.
  6. Current Scrapbooks. Um… yeah. See above. lol.
  7. Advent Calendar. I didn’t even come close to finishing this, but I did pull it out and work on it one day.
  8. Quilt Retreat. This was amazing! I had so much fun and I made so much progress on my smitten quilt. 🙂
  9. Summer Plans. Didn’t book any fun day trips, but I did get their summer camps scheduled and I emailed about swim lessons.
  10. Weekly Schedule. Didn’t do much on this, but I did decide on our weekly themes- each week will be a different country. Japan is up first and I’m so excited! 🙂

So May Goals…

  1. Smitten Quilt. Obviously. lol. I’m within striking distance! I’d love to finish this top this month and I honestly think I can do it!
  2. Teacher Gifts. Need to figure out something cute and budget friendly. lol.
  3. Scrap. I’d like to scrap 10 current layouts. I need to be doing something and clearly old stuff isn’t very motivating. lol.
  4. Finalize Summer Master Schedule. By this, I mean getting a monthly view summer wall calendar and putting everything in it- camps, event, field trips, themes, etc.
  5. Advent Calendar. I’d like to switch this up a bit- I want to spend 4 nights on it this month- roughly 1 a week.
  6. Passport. I need to renew my passport for Africa! I want to get it sent off this month just so I can get it back waaaaay before I need it. 🙂
  7. Pool Pass. We bought a pool pass! I’m so freaking excited. I’m determined that Xander will learn to swim this summer. We need to go get our pictures taken for our pass so we can start swimming. 🙂
  8. Prep round 6 and 7 of my Ice Cream Soda quilt.
  9. Prep Japan week. So many fun ideas! I would like to get everything finalized for our first few weeks.
  10. Prep Week 2. I need to decide on a country and prep week 2. Maybe Greece? I feel like if I have at least the first 2 weeks prepped, it’ll be a good start.

Can it be done? Who knows. lol. But bottom line, I’d like to make some progress on my quilts, get back to scrapbooking, and set us up for summer success. Fingers crossed!