Bike Ride

I haven't ridden a bike in years. The last time I rode a bike, I flew over the handlebars and did a face plant in my driveway. I am the most awkward klutz on the planet, I swear.

My husband would ride his bike everywhere if he could. He loves his bike and always has. We had a day off together on Monday and he decided he was going to drag me along to ride with him. Never mind that I don't actually own a bike or a helmet of my own, he was determined that I was coming. So he loaded up his fancy bike and my 11 year old daughters beat up, ten dollar yard sale bike and off we went.

We went to a lovely little town called Orting. They have a great bike trail and the town is so cute! If only it weren't in the path of a lahar from Mt. Rainier, I would love to live there. Anyway, we parked the car and got out the bikes to begin our little adventure. Remember how I said I didn't have a helmet? Well, my husband found one for me. Dora the Explorer. No kidding. So, I'm riding a child's size bike wearing a Dora helmet. The plastic shell on the outside came off, so it was just white styrofoam, but the straps had little smiling stars on them in rainbow colors and it choked me.

Here's Kevin riding up ahead of me. I nearly crashed while taking this picture. Note to self: Stop riding while taking a photo...

Here's the Mister. Happy and in his element.

This is me. Also happy, but very out of my comfort zone.

They had the most darling little store there (also happens to be the pumpkin patch where I take my kids every October). They grow their own fruits and vegetables in the huge gardens. They sell them, along with lots of other local produce, honey, homemade sauces and salsa, etc. I got a flat of blueberries. I am a happy girl.

When all was said and done, we ended up riding about 5 miles that day. I was exhausted and sore, but also pretty proud of myself. Orting has a wonderful quilt shop called Wild Rose which we stopped at as well. I didn't buy anything, but I love looking around just the same. So, Monday turned out to be pretty good for me. How was your Monday?

Canning Day

I don't consider myself to be very domestic. But every once in awhile I get the urge to be Suzy Homemaker. My husband and kids all know that isn't really going to happen, but I like to fantasize every now and again that I am June Cleaver reincarnated.

I have had the inkling (and the supplies) to learn how to do some canning for quite some time. I am really interested in sustainability and living off the land. I want a huge garden, and some animals. I do have some space here, but our soil is incredibly rocky and it's hard to garden in it. I am thinking of having my husband build some raised garden beds for me so I can use good soil. He also ok'd the idea of getting some chickens possibly this spring. So I guess I don't really want to be a homemaker. I want to be a farmer!

Anyway, over the summer we went to visit family in Yakima, WA and there are lots of places to get great deals on fresh fruit around there. I stopped at a fruit stand and they had a 25 pound box of peaches for $10.95. Seriously! I couldn't pass that up. I brought home a box and the next day I began the canning adventure. I also got 25 pounds of apples and nectarines.

I spent nearly the entire day peeling and cutting peaches. My kitchen looked like someone had been massacred in it. I made an absolute mess!

Canning, it seems, is much more difficult than it looks. But I did it and by the end of day I had six quart sized jars sitting on my counter with the lids making little popping sounds.

After my canning experience, I decided to finally make the quilt that I had planned with some fabric I got from Connecting Threads (which, by the way, makes all their fabric in the USA made from cotton grown in the USA) called "Canning Day". It seems too perfect not to, right?

It is a bit farther along now. I have the entire top complete. I need to eventually get some backing fabric so I can quilt her up!

So tell me, have you ever canned? What are your favorite things to make? And am I crazy or has anyone else made a quilt to go with another project like this before?

Fave 5 Friday

Hey folks! Time for my fave 5 Friday post. Today has been productive. I made a meal plan for the next 2 weeks, went grocery shopping, made strawberry freezer jam, and strawberry banana bread. I have yet to get any sewing done today, but I'm headed there after I get this post up. I have a few blocks to make and send out in the mail, then some quilting to (hopefully) finish up. Oh, and I have a bit of laundry too. Boo. If this was a 'Worst Wednesday' post, I would show you a picture of that.

This here is Roger. He is super fluffy and snuggly.

Here's Ben waiting for his bus. He was pretending to be bigfoot in the forest.

I took Alice to the Taylor Swift concert 2 nights ago. She had the best time! I loved that I was able to give her that experience. Here she is, with her fancy new Taylor Swift shirt on:

And here we are getting ready to get in the car and go!

And... something crafty! Remember the stack of Parisville I showed last week? Well, here's a little something I made with it:

Head over to Sharon's Blog to add your link and join us! Just write a post with your favorite 5 photos from the week. Fun and simple!

Finding Work...

Disclaimer: This post is not about sewing, quilting, or anything craft related whatsoever. This is me being grouchy. I'll have an upbeat and cheerful crafty post next time =)


With all the kids in school this year, I decided that my role as a 'stay at home mom' could morph into a 'stay at home when the kids are home mom' and I could get a decent job. I have had a job for quite some time, but it is NOT what I want to do and it is very part time. As my schedule is now, I work on my husbands two days off every week, that way one of us can always be home with the kids. But when he's working and the kids are at school, I find myself sitting here for hours on end bored out of my mind. Plus, the hubs and I never get to spend any time together.

This morning I got up, showered, put make-up on, got dressed in my black slacks, fancy dress blouse, and high heels. Today was the day I was going to hunt for a job. I am of the mindset that when you go to a business and ask for employment, that you should look your best. Apparently, I am old school, for none of this dolling up was necessary.

Every single business I went to today told me that their applications are only available online. Really? So, I could have sat on my ass, in my pajamas, eating cheetos while also applying for a job at your establishment? And the person who does sit on their ass in their pajamas eating cheetos while looking for work has just as much chance of getting called for an interview as I do? When I drove all over town, in the heat, wasting gas, doing WORK to try to find WORK? This irritates me.

When I got my first job it was 1997 (It might amuse you to know that I still work for the same company.). I had just turned 17 and I spent DAYS going all over town filling out tons of applications. I went back into those places to speak to a manager to check back in about said applications. Trying to find a job was hard work. Now all we have to do is pull out our laptop and we can find a job while laying in bed if we want to! Filling out applications sucks. Even online. But I think it shows a real willingness to work if you physically go out looking and I feel I should get some extra credit for that. If I go into a business asking if they are hiring, they should be able to hand me a paper application that I can fill out on the spot, and I get brownie points for getting off my ass and doing it the old fashioned way.

I understand the need for online applications when you are looking for work outside of where you live. For example, if you are looking in other towns for employment. Seriously though, I was very disappointed today. I wanted to be able to go in, speak with a manager, and ask questions. I have a friendly smile, a good attitude (except for right now), I dress in a professional manner, and I speak well. No one knows that about me by reading a list of random multiple choice questions I answered on the internet.

End rant.

A Revelation

I got a very welcome, yet totally unexpected convo from Etsy last night. You may remember my quilts I dropped off at the fair last week. I don't know how you could forget since I've been blabbing about them non-stop... I'm so annoying. Anyway, a lady in Alabama found my quilts listed for sale (Lizze and I have many others on the website and she just happened to choose these two) and wanted to buy both of them. That's right, BOTH. The only quilts neither one of us has in our possession at the moment. They are at the fair until the end of the month. No interest whatsoever in the 6 months they've been listed and them BAM! As soon as I send them out they're flying off the shelves. What in the world? We should enter quilts into the fair more often apparently.

Thankfully, she is willing to wait for them to be returned to me and she is buying them for her husbands grandmother. How sweet is that? I am so excited. After having not sold a thing in months, this is a wonderful turn of events. I was getting ready to start boiling shoes for dinner.

I will be kind of sad to see them go if they win any ribbons, but I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of them hanging up in the Hobby Hall next week.

This whole experience has made me see that other people love and value handmade items. Lately I have been feeling a bit, well, unsure of how to price some of things I make. Yes, I spend a lot on quality fabric to make my quilts. And I spend a great deal of time cutting, piecing, quilting, and binding (by hand). My sister commented on a picture of one of my quilts recently asking how much it was. My palms started to sweat and I began having heart palpitations. I was ashamed to tell her how much I wanted for it. I feel like people don't understand what goes into making something like this. When all is said and done, after factoring in my time and costs, I'm making much less than minimum wage. But still, when a person can buy a "quilt" at a big box store for less than fifty dollars, they don't understand what is so special about mine. At least that's what I thought until last night.

There are people that get it. There are people that see the difference between a good quality handmade quilt, and one you might find perusing the clearance aisles at Target. There are people who understand the value in supporting the handmade culture, and supporting artists in the country in which they live. I will no longer be ashamed to tell someone the price of my quilts, or bags, or anything else. The people I want to buy my things are the ones who "get" it. The saying "you get what you pay for" comes to mind. I'm certain that my quilts will still be around for my great grandchildren to snuggle up in someday and that makes me smile.

Wandering Stars Etsy Shop

Fave 5 Friday

I have been waiting to post this for several days since it has been quite an exciting week. But I ended up having some friends over for a BBQ tonight and the day got away from me so I'm posting at the last minute...

This week has included a birthday celebration, back to school, and first day of school ever for my baby boy! Also, I have a highly coveted, and somewhat hoarded stash of Parisville fabric that I finally cut into. I've taken a breather from the farmers wife blocks too, and this week I finally made 2 more.

Ben started kindergarten yesterday. He loved it. I, um... well. I didn't. Something about your kids going off to school for the first time and being more independent. It's a bittersweet experience.

Here's all my kids that morning headed out to catch the school bus. They were so excited. I'm glad to have kids who have a love of learning and can't wait for the school year to begin. My oldest is in 6th grade this year. Her last year in elementary school. Again, very bittersweet.

We also celebrated Ben's 6th birthday this week. He got a brand new, bright red bicycle. 

These are my farmer's wife blocks so far. I am behind, but will catch up soon (I hope). I made the two bottom right ones yesterday after a month or so of not making any at all.

Here is my prized stack of Parisville fat quarters. It hurt me to cut into them, but I am making something lovely which I can show you next Friday.

Now, I know it's fave 5 for just this week, and I've already posted 5 pictures. But I really feel compelled (because I love this boy so much and he's growing SO fast) to post some pictures I took from several months ago. I haven't found a reason to post them before, but with his first day of school and a birthday this week, I feel it's appropriate.

He will always be my baby, even when he's 50.

Be sure to visit Sharon's blog to see her Fave 5 for this week!