Washington Part II

(Quinalt Lake)

I am trying to catch up. I already showed you pictures of the beautiful beaches on theWashington Coast, so now I'll share the rest.

 We stayed at Seabrook, a sister community to the place where we stayed in Oregon.  However, we didn't really spend much time at Seabrook - there were too many interesting  places to see up north in Olympic National Park.

We fell in love with Quinalt Lake and nearby waterfalls and hikes:

This is what a lake house looks like in the Rain Forest:

We also loved the Hoh Rain Forest area:

(the massive, moss covered maple trees were absolutely amazing!)

And, since we were in the area...

 (view of the Puget sound from Alki Beach/West Seattle)

Four days wasn't nearly enough time to see everything.  It is such a beautiful part of our country, we would love to go back someday.

* I am starting to see why I ran out of photo storage space :)

Winter Greetings

 (our frozen valley)

It's been a while since I've been here, and I have rather poor excuses to offer. We've been busy, but so has everyone else. Doesn't it always seem like busy is the one consistent word we all use to describe the holiday season? I wish it wasn't so. I would trade it for peaceful. Although, years from now when our children are grown and enveloped in busy lives of their own, I will probably remember with fondness these chaotic years with little ones.

When things finally calmed down enough to post again, I was informed I had used up all my photo storage space with blogger, so I couldn't post pictures (I guess updating our family blog sucked up the last bit of memory). Posting seemed kind of pointless. Especially when considering it was with a promise of more pictures to come that I last signed off. So I stayed away even longer, and have been hibernating instead.  Laying low for a bit is how I best recover from the holidays.
Besides, it has been too cold to go anywhere!

However, I think I have finally fixed my picture posting problem, so I'll  be back again soon, with pictures as promised.  Meanwhile, I hope you all are staying warm!

November on the Washington Coast

We were curious.

We wanted to know if the Washington Coast was as beautiful as the Oregon Coast.

We have a big anniversary coming up next month,

but since it is almost impossible leave 4 kids the week of Christmas and New Year's,
we decided to celebrate early.

And set off (with raincoats and muck boots) to find out for ourselves.

Question answered.

Just as BEAUTIFUL...

In a wilder sort of way.
And completely solitary.
 If you want the coastline to yourself,
go in November.

Plus, all the wonders of Olympic National Park and the rain forest were just around the riverbend.

More pictures to come...when things aren't so crazy around here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Vintage Block a Day

I thought I would share the progress on my latest quilt.  My five year old helped me draw up the pattern for this queen sized (more like crib sized right now) quilt.  We were just tinkering around drawing "stairs" on graph paper, and we played around with it until it morphed into the following, dog eared, pattern.

I am using all of my favorite vintage sheets with Kona Ash (again) for the sashing - I loved the soft neutrality it gave to the jelly roll quilt amidst all those colorful fabrics.  With this one, it lets both the fabrics with white backgrounds, and those with colored, stand out.

The goal has been to finish at least one block a day, but I'll admit I've skipped a few days here and there. Only 8 out of the 30 blocks are finished.

I need to get cracking - holiday craziness is rapidly approaching!  Just to prove it...Snow is falling out my window as I type this, Christmas music is playing on the radio (not a CD), every store I've been to this week is all decked out in holiday finery, my kids have decorated our refrigerator with their wish lists, and according to eBay, only 45 shopping days left! Yikes! Are you ready for this?

And to show you more craziness, this was taken when a freak snow storm blew in a few days before Halloween...

(my daughter was completely oblivious to the fact she was wearing a boy's snowsuit - wonder how long that will last?)

Judging by the huge flakes coming down right now, we could be back on the hill this afternoon!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

I was hoping to have a current project finished in time for the Blogger’s Quilt Festival, but  it's not gonna happen (motherhood happened). So instead, I’m sharing a recent favorite: The scrappy LOVE jelly roll quilt.

In the beginning, I set out to make a bright and fun picnic-ish sort of quilt we could take to soccer games - a funky little travel quilt. but I ended up loving the bright colors and cheerfulness so much, it has become a permanent fixture on the red sofa in our family room.  My 2 year old has a security blanket she calls her “Nin”.  She calls this quilt “Mommy’s Nin”.  I love that she recognizes the contentedness this quilt brings to me.  Color makes me happy.

To make this one, I cut the LOVE jelly roll strips in half and sewed into one long strip. I alternated the LOVE strips with 1 ½ inch strips of Kona Ash.  I started with one rectangle in the center and around and around I went.  Not exactly rocket science, but that's how I (jelly) roll. :)

To see a whole smorgasbord of fabulous quilting inspiration, check out the Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side.