Monday, October 1, 2018

quilt #21

Well, I think I just need to accept that it takes me FOREVER to make a quilt. According to my blogging dates, this last one took THREE YEARS!!!  (Although, in my defense, we did sell our house to move cross country and off grid in the mean time.) This one is special to me because it's the first quilt I made for myself - not just using up scraps or matching the furnishings at my work, but actually picking the colors, pattern, and fabric just for my very own self and my own space.  It turns out that I really don't like working with triangles or with solid colors, so I'm especially proud that I got this one done! It was worth it in the end :)


Rose and Bart love it too!

Doug supervised the pinning process. I had JUST enough space in our dining room to get it done.


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 former boss/mentor 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)



NUMBER TWENTY ONE
0/18 - Churn Dash (for me!)


Sunday, April 22, 2018

annual birthday questions

Favorite color:  
Age 3 - blue and green and white and red and purple
Age 4 – pink
Age 5 – all of the colors in the rainbow except orange and red
Age 6 - rainbow
Favorite toy/game:  
Age 3 - playing with baby things
Age 4 – playing Kristoff or Prince Hans
Age 5 – dragon Legos
Age 6 - legos
Favorite food:
Age 3 -  mac and cheese
Age 4 – mac and cheese
Age 5 – mac and cheese
Age 6 – mac and cheese
Favorite drink:  
Age 3 – moose hair (?!?)
Age 4 – milk
Age 5 – chocolate milk
Age 6 – chocolate milk
Favorite movie:  
Age 3 - Happy Feet
Age 4 – Sleeping Beauty
Age 5 – Finding Nemo and Finding Dory
Age 6 - The Lion Guard
Favorite TV show:   
Age 3 – Caillou
Age 4 – the car one
Age 5 – My Little Pony
Age 6 - The Lion Guard
Favorite song:  
Age 3 - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
Age 4 – Jasmine ("A Whole New World")
Age 5 – Twinkle Twinkle
Age 6 - Twinkle Twinkle
Favorite book:  
             Age 3 - You are a LION (yoga book)
Age 4 – Anna and Elsa
Age 5 – My Little Pony (the Pinkie Pie one)
Age 6 - Green Eggs and Ham
Favorite outfit:  
             Age 3 - blue and white
Age 4 – my twirly dress I have on now
Age 5 – sparkly things
Age 6 - dresses
Best friend:  
Age 3 - Eden and Asher and Evan
Age 4 – Eden
Age 5 – Eden
Age 6 - Aleena
Favorite holiday:  
Age 3 - Christmas and Easter
Age 4 – my birthday
Age 5 – my birthday
Age 6 - April
What I take to bed each night:  
Age 3 - a cat (not really)
Age 4 – pajamas
Age 5 – a stuffed animal like Rainbow Dash
Age 6 - myself
When I grow up, I want to be:  
Age 3 - a diamond
Age 4 – a princess
Age 5 – a junior ranger
Age 6 - nothing
I'm afraid to: 
Age 3 – monsters
Age 4 – bears and alligators and dinosaurs
Age 5 – nothing!
Age 6 - be by myself
I'm proud of:  
Age 3 -??
Age 4 – Daddy
Age 5 – myself!
Age 6 - mommy and daddy
Something I do really well:  
Age 3 - cookie monster
Age 4 – watch a movie
Age 5 – Legos
Age 6 - cleaning my room
This makes me happy:  
Age 3 - an Easter bunny
Age 4 – when I have love around me
Age 5 – doing Legos
Age 6 - hugs
This makes me sad:  
              Age 3 - a cow hit me
Age 4 – when someone hits me or bites me or pinches me or kicks me
Age 5 – when it's nap time
Age 6 - when somebody hits me
Favorite time of day:  
Age 3 - movie time
Age 4 – playing with Eden
Age 5 – lunch time
Age 6 - dessert time
Dream vacation:  
Age 3 -??
Age 4 – to the princesses! (i.e., Disneyland)
Age 5 – Disney World
Age 6 - to Mitra's house
Favorite thing to do with Mommy: 
             Age 3 - play with her
Age 4 – play Candyland
Age 5 – cuddle
Age 6 - be outside playing tag
Favorite thing to do with Daddy:  
             Age 3 - play with him
Age 4 – play Candyland again!
Age 5 – play Legos
Age 6 - build Legos





Thursday, April 19, 2018

bighorn sheep

...and then one day I realized it had literally been months and months since my last blog post! Not sure what happened, other than settling in to a new job, new house, and new state. Rather than try to recap the last few months, I thought I'd simply post a few photos of the bighorn sheep Rose and I saw on our way home from school/work today. Just a normal Montana evening!







Sunday, September 17, 2017

Before and After

We've had several requests from family and friends to see what our house looks like on the inside. I had the foresight to take some photos when we first got here (before our stuff arrived), but I was waiting to take the "after" pictures once they could be a little more final. But then I realized that we have so many projects that we want to do that it could take forever to be "finished"! So here are the "for now / after" photos, which will still change more as we continue to settle in. :)

Oh, and here's a reminder of what the outside of the house looks like:

from the "front" driveway, looking northwest 

from the "back" driveway, looking southeast

Okay, now for the big reveal of the inside!

From the front door (on the deck), looking into the main living space (before)


And for now/after.  (We are removing the wall that goes down to the basement - on the left - to help circulate the heat/cold better throughout the year. Also, I had just taken a bunch of clothes off the line outside - otherwise we don't normally keep full baskets of laundry on our couch! And please ignore the pile of art behind the table. We have a lot fewer walls now, so we're still figuring out where to hang things.)


The reverse view of the main living space, looking back at the front door (before)


And for now / after. (In addition to the open wall to the basement - which will eventually just be a post and railing, I also LOVE our new dining room light fixture!!)



And a final view of the main living space. The front door is off to the right (before)


same view, for now / after:



Kitchen and hallway to the bathroom (kind of straight ahead), pantry (to the right behind the kitchen), and Rose's room (to the left) -  (before)


for now / after. (Please ignore the fridge being pulled out, since we're in the middle of fixing it - long story. Also, eventually I want to replace those track lights above the stove, and also make it into a live-edge bar between the kitchen and dining room. Eventually.)



Bathroom/laundry room (before)
And I didn't take "for now / after" shots because it's still basically the same, other than more stuff on the shelves. (To do: paint, put in shelves and a drying rack around the laundry side of the room, and fix the fact that NOTHING in this room is centered  - not the mirror above the sink, not the light fixture above the mirror, and certainly not the shelf between the washer and dryer!!)



Looking up to the loft from the living room (before)


for now / after (notice the awesome new ceiling fan? And eventually the railings on the stairs will be updated and will match the future railings up on the loft and also the future railings down to the basement.)


The loft (before). This is standing right at the top of the stairs and looking out toward the Juliet balcony, which faces south.


for now / after. (we'll eventually remove the studs on the right and make the whole right side open. I think the left side will stay closed because that will eventually be my closet in back, but I plan to paint it white since I don't like wood paneling at all.)


the "summer bedroom" - aka my room  (before)


and for now / after (Mike's first project, once he gets electricity out in the Quonset, is to build me a nice bed frame. I CAN'T WAIT.)

and my closet (before)

for now / after. (clearly it's on the docket to eventually build some more shelves and to put up a clothes rail. One of these days...)


Before:   this quarter of the loft will eventually be storage for wrapping paper, suitcases, office supplies, etc.


For now / after:  it's just a mess of boxes that need some shelving in order to be put away!



Before:  this quarter of the loft will eventually be my quilting area.



For now / after:  Mike is eventually going to build us a new dining room table, and then the current table can become my sewing table. And we'll eventually build some shoe storage in the basement, so those will get moved downstairs eventually.



Okay, back down to the main floor again...


The hallway pantry (before)


and for now / after. (I love the pot rack that we hung up instead of that huge  cupboard on the top right. The previous owners must have been much shorter than us, because that cupboard corner was right at the level of my forehead. OUCH.)



The back pantry (before)

and for now / after. (eventually the winter gear will all be in the entryway down in the basement and this will just be pantry/storage. And I will paint the ugly paneling white at some point.)


Rose's room (before)


she loves her TWO closets!

Rose's room (for now / after). This is also our guest bedroom, for anyone who comes to visit! :)   (we'll also get frames for those beds eventually too!)




And now down to the basement...


Basement entry (before)


for now / after (eventually this will have a bench, storage for winter gear, etc. But we are able to watch TV now! Priorities!)



Basement bathroom (before)
I also didn't take any "after" pictures of this room since basically nothing has changed. We took down the valence (just like in every. single. other. room.) but that's about it.



Basement TV area (before)


and for now / after. (Mike did offer to clean up for my pictures, but I told him that we could go for candid, "real-life living" in these shots.  But we will clean up if you come visit us, I promise! And we will also even out those pictures because they drive my OCPD crazy!!)


The summer bedroom - aka Mike's room (before)


and for now / after. (yes, Mike's bed is backwards. He wanted a nice breeze from the window, so the long-term plan is to cut down the headboard a bit. But the short-term solution was just to turn the bed around backwards. It would drive me crazy, but he says he doesn't mind!)


And that's the whole house!

Here's a bonus picture of the view while sitting at the kitchen table :)


We have a guest bedroom now, so let us know if you ever want to visit!!