LOVE Quilt

The scrappy LOVE jelly roll quilt is finished. 

 The aqua colored sheet from Target worked like a charm - puckered up nicely after washing

 just like the fabric on the top.   The most challenging part?  Trying to get a good picture of

 the finished product.  This was the best we could do.

A little skiwampus, but I love those feet!  Can you tell we were on our way to a soccer

 game? In fact, the quilt went with us. It was bound, washed and broken in all on the same

 day.  3 games this week and 4 more next week.  That  doesn't include all of the practices.

 We are insane.

And (changing subjects here), I've learned something about myself this week:

Evidently men aren't the only ones who struggle with multi-tasking.

The following is what happened when I attempted to bake cookies while quilting: 

  The recipe clearly states bake for 8-10 minutes, not bake until your 5 year old comes and

 tells you to stop the beeping noise.  Also states, until barely brown.  Oops.

This really is the BEST Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe! It has been my go-to-recipe for

 years, and I always get rave reviews (well, almost always).   If you're feeling a little

 sceptical after viewing the crispy specimens above, you can see these cookies on a better day HERE. 

Bargains & Projects

Recently I have been lucky to find a few bargains, and now my creative wheels are spinning again.

Most people in my real life don’t get the vintage linen thing, some days I cannot even pinpoint why I like them so much – I just do. Recently, I added a few new lovely prints to my collection. Some of you out there "get it", right? My grandparents had sheets in the print below. Is it weird that I totally remember fabrics from when I really young?

I purchased some Amy Butler Love fabric for the binding on the jelly roll quilt top I made not long ago, but I still wasn’t sure what to do for the backing.  I was at Target on Saturday and they had 100% cotton  sheets on clearance sale.  There was a flat sheet in the perfect shade of aqua for this quilt!  It will be a plain Jane backing, but easy (no piecing) sounds pretty good right now. There were other cool colors as well – I’m half tempted to go back and stock up!

Target also had window panels on clearance sale.   We finished our basement a couple of years ago and still haven’t hung window treatments in our family room.  This room is decorated in earth tones with a cherry wood fireplace and furniture.  I found some window panels that will be perfect for the 2 windows in this room.

Absolutely cannot beat the price!  (still selling for a lot more on the Target website) Such a good deal, I even grabbed an extra panel for fabric to make some coordinating toss pillows.

We have been contemplating moving our 2 year old to “big girl bed” - meaning some redecorating will be needed.  Last year I picked up a twin sized Simply Shabby Hydrangea duvet (large print below) at the Salvation Army for $2.00 – Target gives a lot of their unsold surplus to the Salvation Army (around here anyway).  I didn’t have a matching pillow sham, but I just found some coordinating window treatments on clearance sale at Target.

Almost  4 yards of fabric between the two shades – plenty for a sham and bedskirt to match!

And I know it has been a long time, but another furniture makeover is on the agenda. The following dresser (which was given to me) and matching nightstand.

Bargains make me happy....Target makes me happy.

Belated Oregon Part 2

Things have been a little chaotic lately with church stuff, school stuff, and running kids around for all the extra stuff.  I haven't had time to work on anything new. Most days I'm just trying to stay afloat. But I thought it was time to post something, just to prove I haven't completely abandoned ship.  I was looking through our Oregon vacation pictures again, and I found a few more favorites.  Since there hasn't been a whole lot of camera action lately (of the non soccer game variety), I thought I would share.  Hope you don't mind reminiscing with me.

The sun rising somewhere over Idaho (we left home at 4 am - the kids slept until Boise).

 Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland, on the Columbia River Gorge.
 Our first real stop after driving all day long.   Felt so good to stretch those legs!

We spent the first night in Portland. The next day we visited
 the International Rose Test Gardens.  Beautiful & free to boot.

I was hoping to convince all of my traveling companions to visit the Japanese Gardens across
the street,  but there were no takers.  Just another excuse to visit again.

A few drive-by shots of  Portland.

Our last stop before heading to the coast was the Portland Temple.
 My grandfather did much of the carpentry work on this temple when it was being built.

We looked down and saw that our youngest had taken off her shoes and pants

and was about to go for a swim in one of the fountains at the temple.

Somewhere between Portland and Lincoln City.

I love taking pictures out the front window while we're driving. 
All I can say about this one is we're definitely not in the desert anymore.

These pictures were taken inside the model home in the community where we were staying.
 I think they nailed the beach house look.

More of the beach.

We had a few crabby adventures:

She loved the shore crabs at the Yaquina Head tide pools.

The tinier the better.

We were all in awe of this enormous Japanese spider crab at the aquarium in Newport.  Holy huge!

Menfolk trying to figure out how to catch some crabs for dinner.

We were given a raw chicken drumstick for bait.  Gross.

Proof that the sun does occasionally shine on the coast.

Tillamook High School - they are the "Cheesemakers" complete with cows grazing in the
field behind the bleachers.

Local tide pools at sunset.

And lastly, the nerdy family picture.  Love that while we are all acting like total dorks,
 our two year old is checking out the view.

Hopefully things will calm down soon and I can start posting in real time again.