birthchart.

I came across this on Etsy this afternoon and I just think it's so cool.

I did some investigative work online to determine my own birthchart symbols...

Astrological Sign - Sagittarius
Birthstone - Blue Topaz
Life Path Number - 6
Chinese Zodiac - Rabbit
Birth Flower - Narcissus
Element - Fire with Earth
Native American Zodiac - Owl
Lucky Number - 8
Native American Plant - Mistletoe

Very fun!  I am thinking about doing something with this at some point.  Maybe a painting or mini scrapbook...or a quilt...?

savage mill.

Though yard work should have been priority, hubby and I decided to take a trip out to Savage Mill this afternoon.  Savage Mill is an old textile mill in Maryland that now houses an antique market and several specialty shops and restaurants.

We didn't get anything at the antique market, but we loved walking around and sifting through the treasures there. 

We also poked around in a cute little quilt shop called And Sew it Goes.  Mostly Moda there, and very traditional prints.  I didn't get any fabric, but I did pick up a new book:

They had the quilt from the cover there and it was just adorable - it sold me on the book right away!  There are a few patterns in there I'm excited to play around with.

Lunch at Ram's Head completed the afternoon - it was a great trip!

a purr-fect play mat.

My niece's first birthday is coming up and I know my sister really wants another quilt for her.  I have been wanting to try a string quilt, and this seemed like a great opportunity to try it out on a smaller project.

I used a paper piecing technique I read about here and it all came together very quickly.

And here's the back...simple, but pretty.

I hope she likes it - I am really happy with the way it turned out!

a to z book challenge update.

We are just about at the end of the school year, which means I'm completely strung out and don't have time for much.  I haven't read a lot over the past few weeks, but I did finish up the new Sookie book, Dead Reckoning, pretty much within 2 days of downloading it onto my Kindle.  I also finished The Constant Princess, which I enjoyed.

I started reading The Art of Racing in the Rain, and was crying by the end of the first chapter, so I put that one aside.  I will absolutely read it and have heard phenomenal things about it, but I need to wait a bit.  Too close to losing our fluffy ones.  Maybe sometime this summer.

I've moved on to Five Quarters of the Orange  and am liking that one so far.  Joanne Harris has a very nice writing style and I look forward to reading it each evening (even if it's only a chapter before I fall asleep...).  It's a relatively quick read, so I imagine I'll be able to finish it up soon.  

I have The Art of Racing in the Rain on standby in my Kindle for the summer, as well as hard copies of Baking Cakes in Kigali; Eat, Pray, Love; Running With Scissors; and The Shipping News.  I'll grab a few others from the library before we let out for the summer as well.  

A - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
B - Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
C - The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory
D - Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
E - Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
F - Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris <-- reading this now!
G - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
H -The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzch
I - I Love Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale
J - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
K - Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
L - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
M - The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
N - A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman
O - The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
P - The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman
Q - The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
R - Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
S - The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
T - The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
U - Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
V - The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
W - The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
X - XVI by Julia Karr
Y - Yarn Bombing by Mandy Moore
Z - The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

garden :: week 8 :: may 25

Check it out now...

Pretty awesome, huh?  I'm just so excited.

The green beans have flowers...

...and guess what I found this morning...

Yipee!!  Our first harvest!

Oh, yes...I recognize how pathetic this is!

(PS - It was yummy!)

heather ross is my hero.

Seriously.  She's my BFF.  I absolutely love her designs and can't get enough.

Unfortunately, most of our house is relatively traditional.  Darker colors, french antique decor.  So Heather doesn't really fit in very well. I have to save her for my personal craft room stuff or gifts for others.

Excited about my mug rug swap, because I'll get to play around with some of these awesome patterns!

And look what I found...

Munki Munki pajamas...designed by Heather Ross.  Flannel, poplin, thermal...oh my!  I've already sent the link to hubby for future gift-buying!  They are adorable!!

And if you peek around on Etsy, you'll find some stores selling pieces of fabric from the pajamas.  I just purchased a mini sample pack of six different designs from sewdeerlyloved.  They are small pieces, but perfect for mug rugs, patchwork, or any other smallish project.  I've been drooling over the Lightning Bugs Goldfish in Bags fabric for a while and haven't been able to find it.  There is a piece that is very similar!

(Funny story - I just searched Etsy for a picture of the goldfish in bags fabric to post here, and janeymacshop just posted a fat quarter!  I snatched that up so quick!  Yipee!!)

Can't wait for my packages to get here!!

nike +.

I ran again yesterday.  According to my ipod, the last run I did was July 17, 2010.


Wow.

I was worried that I would get shin splints.  Which I didn't. 

I was worried that I would look like a fool.  Which I may have, but I saw another woman in about the same shape as me running on the opposite side of the road.  We smiled and waved to one another.  That made me feel good.

I was worried that my lungs would explode.  Which of course they didn't.  I actually felt good.

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to keep my pace up at all.  I was rusty, but did much better than I would have expected.  I ran for three good bursts at a 9 minute mile.  Not bad for me!

 

Almost 3 miles...nearly 45 minutes.  Not bad at all.

I felt GREAT afterward.  I really wish I could bottle up that feeling and take a swig as I tie my sneakers to head out.  I would run every day.

For now, I will let my body rest and try again Saturday morning.

 

playing on flickr.

I joined a mug rug swap on flickr last week, and we had to put together an inspiration mosaic for our partner.  Just a collage of some projects we've come across on flickr that we love so they can get to know us.

There are so many talented people...

1. YIP 365.153 :: Twinkle mini pillow, 2. Dresden plate mini quilt, 3. YIP 365.345 :: Sample block for improv workshop, 4. mug rug ~ received, 5. Sunny mug rug 1, 6. Pillow, 7. quilted pincushion, 8. hexagon pillow 1, 9. Orange Placemat front, 10. Hoot Dresden by Poppyprint, 11. mug rugs for a swap, 12. another princessy mug rug, 13. Mug Rug Swap 4, 14. Mug Rug Quilting, 15. Nate pillow 2 , 16. tacha's hexed in pillow cover

garden :: week 5 :: may 1

So I'm only a week behind at this point...but I may not get pictures today because it's pretty yucky outside this weekend. :(

Last week the garden was really looking like it was starting to "fill out".

The rhubarb is getting big...

...as are the beans...

...and the zucchini...

...the tomatoes have flowers on them...

...and the potatoes are out of control!

The carrots are finally up as well!

Great progress!  I'm feeling so good about this garden!  It's going to be a GREAT summer!

sew what's up?

I'm working on my challenge for the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild...Robert Kaufman donated charm packs to MQGs all over the country.  We have to make some sort of quilt with them (our guild got the classic color palate) with our own "rules".  We decided on no patterns, must use a bit of each color in the charm pack, and must do some technique that is new to you.  You can see what other guilds have done with them here.

That last on is easy - since I'm so new, pretty much any technique is new to me. :)

I'm not done yet, but I am in the process of machine quilting (which is my new technique, lol).  Next, the binding, and then I'll take some pictures.  I think I'm happy with it.  I go back and forth.  The no patterns rule kind of threw me for a loop.  Harder than I thought it would be.

The good news is, the big kiddo (who usually doesn't want to have anything to do with  my sewing) is infatuated with the quilt, so it is going to him.  :)

I took a break in machine quilting the other day to roll out a mug rug...I really need a short-attention-span-project since it appears there is no end in sight with that quilt!

Loving this pattern!  This was my first attempt at a dresden plate.  I used this tutorial from Elizabeth Hartman and it was SO much easier than I thought it would be!  I'm in love!

The backs are simple, but I got to use one of my new Laineybug Designs tags. :)

The little kiddo thought it was awesome, too, and asked if we could make these for his teachers for end of the year gifts.  Sounds great to me!  I had him scope out their favorite colors and I'll start working on these soon.  I love mug rugs!

garden :: week 3 :: april 25

Oh my gosh!  Just when we were about to give up, guess what appeared the very next day?!

Yep - that's right!  Blue potatoes are growing!  Woo hoo!  I knew you guys could do it!

We got some tomato plants in the ground as well - six of them.  I'm growing the typical red beefsteak and bonnie grape, but also added in one Mr. Stripey and one Cherokee Purple heirloom plant just for fun.  Can't wait to see them!

Zucchini and watermelon seedlings went in the ground as well...

...and the rhubarb is looking very nice.  Very nice, indeed.

No pictures from week 4 (May 1), as it was pretty much more of the same...will be back with a week 5 update soon, which should bring us up to date, finally!

garden :: week 3 :: april 24

Peppers went into the ground this week!  Hooray!  Jake picked 3 different types - cubanelle, yellow bell, and red bell.  We were supposed to have green bell peppers in there too, but we accidentally grabbed two of the red plants.  Oops!

We also planted a few hot peppers - but those are in pots on the porch.  I've heard too many stories from gardeners that mistakenly plant them in their beds with the sweet peppers and inadvertently made them all hot!

The beans were looking very well-established this week...

...and we got the sugar pie pumpkins in the ground as well ...

We were getting pretty frustrated with the blue potatoes at this point.  Something kept coming and digging them up.  We had a few bad storms, so they could have been the culprit, too.  But nothing seemed to be growing and I had to keep covering the buggers up again.  Worst case scenario, we planned on scrapping that idea and putting some lettuce or cabbage there instead.  We decided to give them two or three more weeks before calling it quits.

garden :: week 2 :: april 17

Still getting caught up so the photos in this post are a few weeks old (wait 'til you see what the garden looks like now!).

The second week - the week of April 17, we planted broccoli plants...

...and the string beans we had started the week before (a bit early, but we were having some great weather so I took the chance...

...and also some kaleidoscope carrot seeds...really excited about those!

I started some more seeds inside, too...sugar pie pumpkins, zucchini, and watermelon.  The cukes were getting big at this point...

 
Feeling really confident about this project - still crossing fingers for a good harvest!

garden :: week 1 :: april 10

SO excited this year to have a fully-functioning garden.  My honey put in 3 raised beds, soaker hoses, and a critter fence for me! :)

We started off the week of April 10...

I got blue potatoes and rhubarb in from Burpee and those went in the ground first.  Jakie was completely freaked out and excited about the blue potatoes!

They are very cool, though.  I hope they grow!  We got those puppies in the ground and they're ready to go!

The rhubab is kinda cool, too.  I've never had rhubarb, but I have it in my head that I want to make strawberry rhubarb pie, so I planted two plants.  They can't be harvested this year, so we'll see what happens next spring!

We also started sunflowers, string beans, and cucumbers indoors.

hello, there.

Been crazy busy and have completely neglected the blog... :( 

So much has happened I need to spread it out over several posts!

Today I'll just simply update my A-Z book list.

I've completely abandoned Last Night in Twisted River.  It's just not my thing.  And honestly, I'm worried about the other John Irving books on my list, so I've decided to amend.  Changes are in red below.

I did finish up A Queen's Fool by Phillipa Gregory, which I LOVED.  I was very sad when that one was over.  So much so, in fact, that I went on to read The Constant Princess and am almost done with that one.  I'm adding that to my "C" below (it was originally Creepy Cute Crochet, which was definitely creepy and cute btw!).

I purchased and read through the crafty books on here...I Love Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale.  LOVE!! And Elizabeth Hartman's The Practical Guide to Patchwork which is another score.  I loved every inch of each of these books and will come back to them again and again.  Elizabeth is my hero.

A - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
B - Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin
C - The Constant Princess by Phillipa Gregory <-- Almost done!
D - Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris
E - Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
F - Five Quarters of the Orange by Joanne Harris
G - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson
H -The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzch
I - I Love Patchwork by Rashida Coleman-Hale
J - The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
K - Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult
L - Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
M - The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
N - A Natural History of Love by Diane Ackerman
O - The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
P - The Practical Guide to Patchwork by Elizabeth Hartman
Q - The Queen's Fool by Philippa Gregory
R - Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
S - The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
T - The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
U - Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
V - The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
W - The World Without Us by Alan Weisman
X - XVI by Julia Karr
Y - Yarn Bombing by Mandy Moore
Z - The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

I'm starting to work on my summer reading list.  We've been doing a lot of work in the yard, and I really hope to have a bit of our patio done for hanging out on those awesome summer evenings.  There's nothing I love more than sitting outside as the sun sets reading a book and drinking a bottle glass of wine.  Just a few more weeks!

Will be back soon with more updates...wait until you see my garden!!