magiclips

Rose is in a hard-core princess phase right now, and lovingly collecting every "Magiclip" princess and dresses that she can get her hands on. These dolls go with us everywhere.

Not my hands.

The other day, Rose asked for a car for her dolls. Rather than spend even more money on this new collection, Mike crafted this vehicle for her:

Apparently she was disappointed that it didn't have seatbelts, but otherwise she loves it.

So when she asked for a house for her princesses, I was determined to avoid spending hundreds on a store-bought house, and instead we craft this one. Hey, it has windows and doors - what else could you ask for?!
 

:)

Quilt #20

I'm a little embarrassed about the amount of time it's taken me to finish this quilt. I'm still trying to figure out how to fit all my interests into the limited amount of free time I get each day - time with Rose, time to cook/bake, time with Mike, time to read, time to quilt, etc. It certainly doesn't help that I can't function with less than 7.5 hours of sleep per night!  So recently quilting fell a little to the wayside, and this this quilt took a looooong time to reach completion. I hope my friend Jane thinks it's worth it! :)

 

Lucy did not want me to mail it away! (Don't worry - I washed it before packing it up!)

NUMBER ONE
7/07 - Fractured Pinwheels (for the Burmen)

NUMBER TWO
12/07 - Roman Fence (for Gramma Larson)

NUMBER THREE
5/08 - Log Cabin (for my parents)

NUMBER FOUR
9/08 - 30s throw (for my friend Ryan's baby Evan)

NUMBER FIVE
12/08 - Stars and Stripes (for Jack and Marsha)

NUMBER SIX
12/09 - scrap quilt (for our living room)

NUMBER SEVEN
5/10 - Hug and Kiss (for the Failors)

NUMBER EIGHT
12/10 - Amish quilt (for Anne)

NUMBER NINE
12/10 - Corner Stars (for my boss Joan)

NUMBER TEN
1/11 - another 30s throw (for my friend Megan's baby Norah)

NUMBER ELEVEN
9/11 -Nature Studies Nine Patch (for friend Mitra)

NUMBER TWELVE
3/12 - I don't remember the name of the design! (for Rose's crib)

NUMBER THIRTEEN
7/13 - Christmas Cactus (for my office at work)

NUMBER FOURTEEN
8/13 - Moda Charms Toddler Quilt (for my friend Aryn's baby Vivia)

NUMBER FIFTEEN
12/13 - another Moda Charms Toddler Quilt (for Rose to have at school)

NUMBER SIXTEEN
1/14 - Checkerboard Plaids (for Mike)

NUMBER SEVENTEEN
3/14 - Scrap quilt (for Rose)

NUMBER EIGHTEEN
5/14 - Bali Sea Stars (for friend Marcy)

NUMBER NINETEEN
7/14 - Honey Honey Layer Cake Quilt (for friend Anna)

NUMBER TWENTY
8/15 - Wee Woodland (for friend Jane)

home alone again

For better or for worse, Mike and Rose are away from home again: Mike is fishing/camping in northern WI and Rose is visiting my parents. As much as I miss them both, I do still enjoy my quiet time alone. So while I'm looking forward to their return on Tuesday, until then I've been enjoying:

WED:  worked on a quilt, ate popcorn (and had a glass of wine) for dinner, watched two episodes of The Good Wife

THURS: went to Chipotle for dinner, bought some woodchips at Home Depot, did a bunch of weeding in the front garden, read some of my book

FRI: happy hour with work friends Quinn and Jacob, then saw the amazing Inside Out (seriously, go see it!!!)

My quilting buddy

SAT: finished my latest quilt, went to the post office to try to mail it (only to find that it would cost $70 to send overseas?!?), picked up my library book on hold, sorted through all the shoes in my closet and donated several to Goodwill (gaining a half size after pregnancy is apparently a real thing), ate lunch at my favorite Indian buffet with my friend Helene, picked up groceries at Costco and at Target, went (window) shoe shopping, rearranged the living room furniture, watched a few more episodes of The Good Wife

SUN: slept in (!), read the paper, started my next quilt, watched a crap-ton of episodes of The Good Wife, prepped an entree salad for a potluck lunch tomorrow, did some more quilting

Cut out lots of squares and strips...

One block done, 79 more to go!

Soon I'm off to dinner with my friend Ryan at our favorite grad school throw-back restaurant. I'm so excited!

I realized that the things I crave doing when I have the house to myself now are very different than what I craved when Rose was a baby. Back then I yearned to bake and to take a nap - two things that I was unable to at the time. Now that Rose and I do so much baking together (and now I'm no longer sleep deprived), quilting is the new thing that I crave doing when I have time alone. Apparently that means I need to find a way to do this hobby when she is around! Since she's older now, I'm optimistic that there may be a way...

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

Mike and Rose are home!!!

As much as I LOVED my time home alone earlier this week,  I was SOOOO excited to see Rose and Mike after work tonight!  We met up at a friend's going away BBQ at Lake Harriet, and it was such a perfect evening - good food, lovely weather, wonderful company, and apparently the best sand box EVER.

I also got a few more photos from their time up at the cabin. (Thanks, Emily and Sara, for sending them to me!)  Here are Mike and Rose with "Baby Eleanor":

And all the older cousins after acting out a scene from The Sound of Music:

And, last but not least, a photo of all five granddaughters/cousins!

(Yes, MY kid is the one in the princess dress. Sigh.)

another Rose-ism

The other day I was cutting up some peaches for breakfast, and Rose touched the outside of the peach and said "it has a blanket on it?"   :)


In other news, Mike and Rose took an impromptu trip up to the cabin at the beginning of this week. I had to work, so while I was supremely jealous of the relaxation time they got together, I comforted myself by savoring my "alone time" in the house each evening: I watched a ridiculous amount of The Good Wife, made some more progress on the quilt I've been working on for over a year, and read a terrible book. Oh, and drank some wine and ate popcorn for dinner on two nights in a row. :) 

Emily sent me a couple photos of Rose enjoying her time with her cousins:

Apparently they watched and then enacted The Sound of Music

Rose looks so grown up here!!!

I'm looking forward to seeing Mike and Little Miss this evening! :)

Rose-isms

The other night, as she was supposed to be falling asleep in bed, we heard Rose yelling out from her bedroom...
R:  Mommy! Daddy!! Moooooommyyy!!!
S: Rose, it's bedtime! You need to go to sleep now!
R: But the toots are knocking at my butt!!
(a pretty unique description of needing to go potty!)



Yesterday I was trying to explain to Rose some of the different options she could have for work when she grows up...
S: Ms. Angie is a stylist, which means that she cuts people's hair for her job.  What do you think you want to be when you grow up?
R: Ummmm.....
S: You could be a teacher like daddy, or a psychologist like me, or a hair stylist like Ms. Angie, or a doctor like Dr. Lind-Ayres, or...
R: My want to be a psychologist!
S:  Great! Do you know what a psychologist does all day?
R: Yep.
S: What do they do all day?
R: My don't know.
S: A psychologist talks to people and helps them feel better if they are sad.
R: And you give them kisses?
S: Uh, no, I don't give people kisses at work.
R: Then you give them hugs?
S: No, I don't give them hugs either. I just talk to them.
R: Oh.  (clearly disillusioned with the job of a psychologist and now considering alternative career paths...)




Last night I was reading her stories before bedtime...
R: You wake me up in the morning?
S: I usually come in and give you a kiss every morning before I leave for work.
R: (long pause)
S: Is that okay if I give you a kiss in the morning?
R: My want the door closed and the lights off.
S: You don't want me to give you a kiss in the morning?
R:  No kisses. Door closed and lights off and curtains closed.
S: You just want to sleep and not see me in the morning? Then I won't see you until after work tomorrow.
R: Curtains closed and lights off and door closed.
S: Okay....
(At least she's learning to love sleep, I suppose, even if it does break my heart that she doesn't want me to say goodbye to her in the morning!)

This is how she wanted to dress when we had a heat advisory last Sunday.

 

Gunflint Trail: preview

I promise a much longer post at a future date, but for now I just started sorting through my pictures and wanted to share this one:

More to come! :)