Wordless Wednesday: Crazy Family Edition

KCMO

Every year my husband's family makes the trip to Kansas City, Missouri, for the horse show portion of the American Royal. We were able to join them this year, and, as always, it was a nice weekend of shopping, sightseeing and horse shows.

I took Corey shopping, as I like to do, and I was inspired to have an impromptu mini-photo shoot on the street. The Country Club Plaza has some great architecture, and a lot of the decorative work looks as though it's Spanish-inspired.

I think he's quite handsome. He should totally be a model!


But not an ice-skate model. The boy could barely stand on those things in the beginning! I cannot believe that anyone who grew up in the upper midwest did not ice skate as a child, but his hometown didn't have a skating rink. This is only the second time we've been skating together, and those might be the only times Corey's ever been on skates. Absolutely absurd, I tell you! This year we live in a town with a rink, and I suspect there will be much ice skating in our future.

I hope you have a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

Finally, Some Downtime

Ugh.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

Last week was so busy. Since September I've been working in the costume department for the local theatre group, and last weekend was the fall production. They did Beauty and the Beast this year, which meant tons of costumes, which meant lots of late nights during tech week. In addition, I helped with the reception, ticket-taking and ushering, which meant late nights on Saturday and Sunday. In the midst of all of it, I made a quick trip to visit family.

Plus, I'm sick. What I hate most about being sick is that I constantly feel exhausted. Add all of the late nights and travel on top of my astounding lack of energy, and the only thing I was willing to make time for yesterday was this:

I slept until ten, watched a soap opera, did a little Christmas crafting, ate my yummy homemade(ish) tomato soup and grilled cheese, and stayed in my pajamas until about 4:30. So restful.

Today I'm feeling much better, and good thing, too. Today I have all kinds of errands to run and laundry to do (but not from last week--that's done! Corey has clean shirts again!), then tomorrow we clean up and put away the costumes that came from our costume house, and then Thursday we're off to Kansas City for the weekend.

Oh, the fun never stops!

Win a Quilt!

You must check out this quilt giveaway! You'll never forgive yourself if you don't. Honest.

Dana at Old Red Barn Co. is giving away these 3 gorgeous quilts.

Scoot on over there and enter to win!

(photo from Dana's blog, used with permission)

One For The Lap, One For The Feet

I finished my binding! It hasn't passed the wash test yet, but I think it turned out well. My stitches were a bit crazy at first, but I found that I quickly fell into a rhythm with the stitching, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd expected it to be.
This one's a Christmas present, so shhhhhhhhhh!


A couple of weeks ago I finished another quilt, this time for Corey. It was meant to be a lap quilt, but due to time constraints and an unfortunate incident involving my rotary cutter, it turned out a bit small.

He loves it anyway, and he uses it to warm his feet--he's a clever one, my husband.

Time Management

I have something to confess. I have no time management skills. I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire, and I have the most awful time motivating myself to get things done in a more timely manner.

About the only thing I finished from yesterday's to-do list was the post on Grand Marais. I didn't finish binding my quilt (though I did get a bit more done), I didn't get to the laundry (my poor husband--he may be regretting this marriage thing right about now) and I haven't decided on a pattern for the apron swap.

I spent most of my time yesterday morning at antique stores. I've been trying to finish gathering items for the Vintage Pink Christmas Swap, and I spent a couple of hours just wandering around, trying to find a few more things for my partner, which pretty much threw off my plan.

Any tips on time management? Self-motivation? Where to buy new shirts so I don't have to do laundry?

Grand Marais

Last weekend Corey and I got away to Grand Marais, Minnesota. It's on the north shore of Lake Superior, and it's one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited. I've always been a Lake Michigan girl--I grew up in a lakeside community, and I've always considered Michigan to be The Lake, no question about it.

Until now.

I may be a convert. I may just have to concede that Lake Superior is, well...superior. It hurts, but I can admit when I'm wrong (but don't tell my husband, because he totally believes that I'm always right).

Where the Lake Michigan shore is so developed (though still beautiful), the north shore of Lake Superior is relatively untouched. So much of the land up there is state or national park/forest land, and I think that has a lot to do with the small population.

Grand Marais is the exception. Though it's tiny, with a population of just over 1000 people, it's a tourist town. There are great restaurants, fun shops and gorgeous shoreline to lure people here, especially in the summer.










Because Corey had some time off of work, we were able to spend Thursday and Friday as well as the weekend on the north shore. It really felt like we had the whole place to ourselves! Though some places that we had wanted to visit (like World's Best Donuts and Angry Trout Cafe) were closed because the season is over, we still had such a wonderful time.

Today

I'm home alone today--all day to do anything I want! Actually, that's pretty much my life Monday through Friday. Even so, there's something so special about having a whole Saturday to myself. So here's what I want to do today, in no particular order:

1. Finish hand-sewing the binding on a quilt. I've never hand-sewn ANYTHING (except a button), so I'm hoping the binding doesn't come off when I wash it! I'm so nervous!

2. Watch Avonlea. Have you ever heard of it? Great show, sort of a spin-off of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. I'll watch while binding--it's OK to multitask, right?

3. Laundry. Apparently my husband has been out of white t-shirts, which he wears under his dress shirts, for several days. I don't know what he's been wearing, and I'm afraid to ask.

4. Write a post about the trip I took last week. Or maybe just post some pictures.

5. Decide on a pattern for the Winter apron swap. And maybe cut out the fabric.

I know there's more. This can't be the whole list. Tonight, before bed, I'll tell you what I really did today.

My guess is that it won't look like the list above.

Thankful Thursday

I am beyond thankful for the joy this little squirt has brought to my life. He is creative and silly and full of love--what more could an aunt ask for?

He's also not such a little squirt, actually. Check out his 5 year-old feet next to my 25 year-old feet:

I'm also thankful that we can share socks.

Wordless Wednesday

I Voted

How 'bout you?

I Heart Swaps

I just received my Fall Swap package in the mail, and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! Isn't that "Thanks" decoration so cute?

And check out the rest of my package. I think the card is handmade--I'm pretty sure Alicia (my partner) is a scrapbooker, but I'm not positive because I can't actually get to her blog.


Alicia, if you're reading this, is there any way I can check out your blog??

She also sent some yummmmmmy Burt's Bees lip balm and cuticle creme and a candle. The cuticle creme is lemon butter and smells exactly like the most wonderful lemon-mint body scrub Corey gave me for my birthday a few years ago--definitely one of my favorite scents. The lip balm has clove oil in it, and it smells like green spice drops (or, at least, some kind of spice drops), which I also love. I am constantly wanting to buy Burt's Bees stuff, but I don't because I figure I should spend my money on other things, so I'm SO excited to have some!!

Thank you so much, Alicia! You made my fall even better!

(Sigh)

I'm pretty much blissed out, as my husband would say. I just arrived home after an almost-four-day vacation with my most favoritest person, and it was just about the best vacation I've ever had.

Once I've gone through the 368 pictures I took and edit my favorites I'll post all about it!

I hope you had a fabulous weekend!