Sooo...

I accidentally started working on my Farmer's Wife Quilt tonight.  I have been collecting bits and pieces (aka fat quarters and quarter yards) of this fabric all summer. I'm still searching for the hedgehogs and rabbits but tonight I decided to start cutting!

I also managed to get tons of stuff done for the party Saturday and picked up pumpkins for the carving party tomorrow.

Highlights:

1. I'm incredibly grateful for our friends that we have made here in Washington.
2. I love that my husband knows why we do not buy the Kraft Spongebob shapes. Why you might ask? There are too many legs and arms on the characters and they fall off to easily. Trust me. 
3. I am thankful for the ability to spend extra time with the best dog ever...although last night I had to share him with a small mini Dachshund. 

Tomorrow is the pumpkin carving party!

-L

A Few Quick Snippets

You guys!!

I'm so excited for this weekend. Friday we're going to a pumpkin carving party (yeah... we still need pumpkins!) and Saturday is our murder mystery dinner party! I can't wait to show you guys pictures of what I make for our dish for Friday and of course I'll show pictures and tons of bits of the mystery party.

A few highlights:

1. I am really enjoying working on the murder mystery party.
2. I had 2 awesome Goodwill trips to pick up mismatched china pieces...one trip was more than I'd wanted to spend but I couldn't pass them up!
3. We went to a wedding this past weekend and it was so cute hearing how much people thought we were perfect for each other. We also had a great time at one of our favorite places in Olympia after the wedding. 
4. I found 2 great jobs to apply for and cross my fingers that I get some good news.
5. I have the best husband ever.

Will be back soon!

L

Catch-Up

Hi all!

This past week has been interesting to say the least. I had to take a break from posting since I was becoming stressed about posts. I created this space to not be a place to stress about. I am putting several interventions into place for this week to try to alleviate the stress...

Over the past week I finished a ton of projects. I completed a set of burp clothes and bibs for a friend of ours' little kiddo. I am also finishing a car seat quilt for her, similar to this one. It's been so fun! I really experimented with my quilting patterns (which wasn't too bad considering it was a smaller scale project!) and had a blast!

My Printemps quilt top is pieced and simply waiting for an inner and outer border. I'm on my last step of a friends gift quilt piecing and am so anxious to see how it turns out...currently its a major mystery to me!

I've also done some research into different sewing machines. There are too many out there though and I feel I may need to do some more work to narrow down exactly what I want and need from a machine!

I finished up and sent out the invites for the dinner party and can't wait to see how it will all come together! We've decided on all family members Christmas gifts and I am going to get working on many of them next week. This week is solely devoted to house cleaning, party prep and CURRENT projects. I am finally finally starting to feel better from almost a month of being under the weather...I dislike what the change in seasons does to me.

This was a bit of a rambler but back to normal tomorrow...hopefully :)

-L

Hello Saturday!

Today was an amazing day! I love Saturdays with my love :)

Highlights:

-Olympia Farmers Market. I didn't find what I was looking for but had an awesome time walking around. 

-Two quilt shops visited with Mr. F. I'm SO lucky he'll come with me :)

-We found a cute place to eat in Olympia and had a great lunch...which for me was soup. 

Today had more than three highlights and I'll try to recap more tomorrow. Ahh, such a GREAT day!

L

I'm Behind

Oh boy. I owe you some highlights from yesterday AND today!

Thursday's highlights:

• I spent most of the day working on 2 different quilts and snuggled in blankets and baby dog. 
• Corwin and I had an impromptu date and met a couple of friends later in the evening...wonderful company :)
• I can't remember my third :(

Friday highlights:

• I was finally able to change my name at the bank finally!! I can now (ok, when I get the new card) sign receipts as Mrs. F.
• I subbed as a tutor for a friend and it was so nice to have something to do in the morning. In the end though, it really threw off my day! 
• While not something that made me happy, it is something that makes me feel thankful...I had some wheat/gluten this evening and CLEARLY remember why I decided to obey Dr.'s orders and stay away from it. My did it have a way of ruining the night :( No more for this gal!

Happy Friday! 

L

R & R

Today I spent most of the time on the couch, downed by infection and general uncomfortableness. I did manage to get the kitchen and all the laundry tackled. I tried to work on a quilt for a family member but again got so frustrated I quit.

Wednesday's Highlights:

• I was able to get almost all of the supplies needed for the table and serving for our dinner party. Seems little but having not had something to look forward to since our wedding, its nice to have something to plan!
• I did some work on my Printemps quilt. Initially, I sewed crazily and needed to undo all my seams and start over...which meant I get to spend more time with it :)
• One of the best feelings in the world, a shower before bed, shaved legs, and clean sheets. Its a recipe for an AMAZING night sleep!

L

What I Ate Wednesday

Good Morning!

I've decided to start participating in What I Ate Wednesday through one of the blogs I've been following for a while. It's great, check out Peas and Crayons! She posts some great veggie-lovin recipes :)

What I Ate Wednesdays will give me some time to reflect on what I've eaten in a day, week, month, or longer. It will also give you a glimpse of what we eat around here.


Breakfast: Blueberry Protein Smoothie

• (It always looks much better than it tastes, unfortunately!)

 Lunch: Turkey Taco Salad with Ruffles

• I took some of our leftover turkey taco meat, added some lettuce, cheese and sour cream and it was AMAZING! Plus, it did not include that pesky tortilla that has catatonic effects for me.

Dinner: Beef Pot Roast

• Yes, I forgot to take a photo of it when we ate it. Yes, this is from this morning. Yes, it came right from the fridge so it looks far less appetizing that it was at the time we enjoyed it.
• I'd love to say it was homemade but alas, after fixing the Jetta all evening yesterday, we pulled the Costco find from the fridge and stuck it into the microwave. 

Hopefully, I'll get better at food pictures soon and our meals will get prettier!

-L

Go check out some of the other bloggers who participate in What I Ate Wednesday!

She Lives!

My three things:

• I was able to make an appointment with my doctor (who I love!) to have my fever and other crappy symptoms checked out. Good thing I did, turns out I've been walking around with a significant infection. After picking up my antibiotics tomorrow morning, I should be back on the mend soon! I can't wait!!

• I spent the better part of the afternoon working on plans for our Murder Mystery Dinner Party later in the month. I create the invitation all on my own and I have the dinner menu planned! We have a guest coming who has food restrictions similar but more limited than mine and I was able to make the menu very accessible for her. This was a personal thrill for me!

                                                        

• The Jetta lives again!!! Mr. F and his boss (an excellent car repairer) got her up and running again. We each have our independence back :)  This is slightly bittersweet...I will miss our mornings together on the ride to his work and I will miss seeing him as soon as he is done with work. I am a lucky girl to have such a great husband to spend time with.

-L

Game On

Happy Monday!

Today I started to sift through some of our photos from the last several months and upload them. I was amazed by some of the shots! This was probably a good idea for today since I've continued to run a low-grade fever with its various accessories such as chills and fatigue. Not terribly fun...especially if it prevents us from camping this weekend.

My Monday Highlights:

1. Discovering the picture of how awesome my hair looked on my wedding day.  It turned out better than I'd ever expected!  
   
2. It has been amazing to go  through the photos I had others take with our camera before our wedding. So many moments were caught! In particular, our assigned photographer managed to catch several of our guests opening their gifts at the rehearsal dinner. These moments I missed and so had wished I'd been able to experience. Thank you for capturing them!
3. Its Seahawks game day! I've been finding myself more interested in football and am excited to watch the game this evening with my love and some good friends!  

-L

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Today was a much better day. It was nice to spend the day with Mr. F doing little things like a Costco trip and working on Halloween decor. We were able to spend time outside, took the pupster for a walk, worked on my Printemps quilt and began arrangements for our murder mystery dinner party we're hosting this month. Not too shabby!

Highlights:

1. Tying back to yesterday's # 1, Oscar's groomer called to follow-up and check in with us since she was not there when we picked him up.
2. Football, scary movies and cuddles with Mr. F and Oscar Meyer.
3. Working on Halloween decorations with Mr. F. I'd picked up several carvable pumpkins and plastic skulls from the dollar store to use as Halloween decorations. After some thought, I decided to go with a cleaner look and are sticking primarily with black & white this time around. The problem was that the pumpkins came bright orange and the skulls were a hideous yellowy-beige. This afternoon we spray painted to more appropriately match the decor:)

Before

After (with very poor lighting, unfortunately!)

-L

Three Little Things

Today was rough...for no apparent real concrete reason. It was simultaneously, exponentially harder to find happiness in things and at the same time, so simple.

1. I love that Mr. Meyer has such a great groomer. She seems excited to see him and is so tolerant of his "Terrierness". It was heartwarming to see him go shaking from my arms to hers and grip as tightly. We will miss her when we move.
2. We went out for a bite to eat and to see some live music tonight. As we sat waiting to be acknowledged by our server, the individual sitting at the table next to us gave us one of their menus to look at while we waited. So simple, but a very kind gesture.
3. The first song the band played tonight was Three Little Birds by Bob Marley and all was good in life...for now. 

-L

Challenge...Accepted!

For at least the past two years, I've seen people participating in posting something they are thankful/grateful for each day for the month of November on Facebook. Last year, I participated and it made me struggle to pick one item each day. Since then, however, I have been in a personal challenge/battle with Facebook. I will not go into that here and now, that's quite a story.

I want those close and important to me to know what is making me happy daily, what I am feeling particularly thankful for, and what is still a struggle. I'd like to use this as a place for that...with the occasional other post here or there. My goal: 3 things each day that made me thankful, grateful, happy OR how a previously unhappy/ungrateful situation turned around.

So, 3 things that made me happy or thankful today...

1. I saw this post on the Today Show's Facebook page about an elephant baby who fell over. Needless to say, at the end of it, I was in tears. I LOVE elephants and this was so heartwarming to see the care and compassion they can show.
2. I saw an email that I missed from my mother-in-law and responded immediately...and honestly. Her reply brought tears again. It was so warm and heartfelt and full of LOVE! I am the luckiest gal in the world to have such amazing family - either through blood, marriage, or the ones I hand-picked. They listen when you have a concern, when you are happy, but most importantly, they listen when you are at your wits end and perhaps overly honest.
3. I am grateful that I am able to take the time this summer and fall to rest and recuperate from my past and focus on my future and what is right for not only me, but my little family. 

Thanks for listening,

L