A two-year hiatus, but still alive and loving life

The time it takes to write blog posts simply hasn't been a priority for me over the past couple of years, however don't think that the business of life has taken a turn for the worse.
Quite on the contrary -- Life is FABULOUSLY busy with my three extremely active girls!  And I'm truly loving (just about) every crazy second of this hecticity!

The household now has a Senior, 7th grader and Freshman, ALL extremely active playing volleyball in the Fall, basketball in the Winter and Track in the Spring, additionally softball for Candace in the Summer.

As for most people, the realization that we have a graduating Senior this year is a bit surreal and downright crazy to fathom.  The ol' cliche "time flies" has never rang so true!!!!!!!

Cass has certainly committed herself and has been self-driven to achieve seasonly and yearly goals over the past year, both for herself and for the betterment of her teammates and the school.
Parents are usually defaulted into being proud of their children; with these three, it's so easy to follow that default :)

On the crafty side of things......
OH BOY!  Opening admitting that my quilting room NOR my crochet needles have seen much action of any sort for the past year.  A T-shirt quilt is slowly in the making for Cass's graduation, but other than that, there simply hasn't been much ambition to fire up the sewing machine.  There IS time in my schedule, however.... "ambition" is truly the key word.  Much of my evening time is devoted to editing athletic photos for the girls' teams and updating the school's athletic Facebook pages.
My sewing machine and needles will always be there and ready for whenever the mood strikes;  until then, I've gotten over the initial guilt of backing away from that part of my life.

RUNNING update --

This hobby, on the other hand, is (hopefully) going to be taking front and center stage again after having some downtime since 2013.  No crazy plans for another marathon, but reaching a healthy running stage is a goal I hope to achieve again.

For now, that's where I'm at......
Happy 2019 to all!

Forever in our hearts:  Shadow (June 2006, August 7, 2018)

2018 Family Trip - Badlands

Signs of Spring; definitely a LOVELY day!

With temps like today, pictures should be enough to say what a beautiful day it is!






Our garbage adventure





And when we returned back home, Caitlyn finally got her chicken.

Pictureless catch-up post

Good morning and Happy BEAUTIFUL Sunday morning to all of you.

It's been a bit quiet around the Amy's Passions blog the last few days; I've been intermixing some traveling with cleaning, but am now back home for a day before needing to travel out again.

Last Thursday, I needed to drive to my parent's house (135-ish miles away) so that I could "deliver" my girls. I have an AP-Statistics class scheduled this next week and will be staying at a hotel, so I needed to work out the summer-bargain with my mom and sister to watch the girls (just like they've done in summers passed.) The girls LOVE these weeks and I'm very thankful my mom and sister are willing and able to take them on for these workshop weeks I have scattered here-n-there. This summer, I ONLY have this one on the definite calendar; however, there is another that I may be guilted into come August. We'll see....

I digressed.

So, while waiting for the few loads of laundry on Thursday in order to pack the girls for their week outing, I found myself cleaning out/organizing my closet, Candace and Caitlyn's sock drawers, ...... By the time all the packing/cleaning/organizing was complete, my closet now has a visible floor, I can now see all of my sweatshirts and t-shirts (my staple summer shirt of choice) since they are neatly folded/stacked, the girls' sock drawers now only consist of socks and underpants that fit (and have no holes), and I had about 15 boxes/bags of donations stacked in the entry-way that Paul (thankfully) volunteered to deliver to the local "goodwill-like" store.

When Cassie came to peer into my closet and I showed her my stack of all of my race t-shirts, she said "wow, that's a lot." {{LOL}}. Yup. It was the biggest stack by far! And then, when Paul came to see the stack, he (of course) had to comment....."now, assume that each of those was a minimum of $10.00.......hmm......{{I don't like where you're going here Paul}}.....BUT, also, think of all the mileage racked up from that stack. {{That's a better thought!}}"

BUT, all packed up, we were on the road with a quick Library stop to renew some books and to check out a book-on-CD for me for the drive. Friday consisted of an all-day garage sale and shopping spree day. I stopped at Hancock fabrics and the local quilt shop to pick up some Browns and Blues for the QuiltvilleSwap (yahoo group) swap being planned to make Bonnie's Smith Mountain Morning quilt from her newest book. There's plenty of time in case you want to join! I have DEEPLY fallen in love with this quilt!!!! Just follow the link to join the group. We are swapping half-strips (5 browns/5 blues to a set) in sizes 4 1/4" (for those using Triangulations?), and 1 1/2". There is also another signup for the 2" (unfinished) blue/brown HSTs (2 to a set). Deadline is August (15th, I think?). Plenty of time since they are only strips!!!! No sewing to do for the swap, unless you're making the HSTs.

Again, I digressed.

I came away with four great men's shirts from one moving sale; each $0.50, and they match! LOL....my mom saw me placing the shirts next to each other as I made my way around the rack, and she commented...."quilt idea?" She's getting to know me better now :0) (HI MOM! She's been keeping up with my life by reading my blog lately) The colors were reds and whites. I plan to cut them up this week during my down-time in the hotel.

My visit to my parent's was short; After hugs-n-kissed to the girls {{and all the reminders of 'stranger-safety' (pushed by Paul after having a bad dream)}} I arrived back home yesterday afternoon and immediately (after unpacking) headed to the garden to do some weeding around the tomato plants. It's been SUCH a cold June; EVERYTHING is behind up here in Wisconsin; crops and gardens alike. BUT, the tomato plants are finally taking off; everything else we seed-planted is slowly coming out of the ground (beans, cucumbers, onions, peas, peppers, dill, basil, mint, pak choy, lettuce, potatoes, squash, watermelon, carrots, kolorabi (sp?), corn) and the purchased broccoli and cabbage plants are also doing real well!

Now that I've caught up on emails and blogs, I'm not sure exactly what I'll do today. I need to take time to organize a project or two to work on for the hotel-evening downtime; the garden needs more attention today, and then I also have to pack up for my week; verify driving directions and final alternate routes since I received an email that construction is heavy near the college right now.

Anyway....happy Sunday!

Another loose end and a Play-Date

Despite wanting to start something new, and already having cut into some fabrics for a new project, I'm ALSO still motivated to keep plugging away at little loose-ends and UFOs. My Serenity (55"x78") quilt was finished and already recorded for January (it was the NYE mystery), however, it still needed binding.

Another small project checked off to have a complete finish (minus a label). And the weather was BEAUTIFUL yesterday, albeit windy. I'm usually not one to take a "decorative" picture outside, but this quilt sure blends nicely with the Lilac bushes in front of our house.

On another quilty note; Last night, I decided to pin-baste the last of my MIL quilts. I actually thought I was finished, but I found this quilt all folded, waiting patiently, while I was tidying up the other day. Oooops! I'll be quilting this lil' thing on the Bernina; it's too small for me to putz with loading it on the quilting frame. This way, I can use my BSR again; it's been TOOOO long since I've used a regulator.

Did you know: Kids change! ??? Candace here is eating one of her favorites; Cocoa Puffs with marshmallows. She USED to only eat the marshmallows and suddenly be "too full" to eat the cocoa puffs that were left. NOW.....see how many cocoa puffs are left? She was fishing one out at a time with her spoon so that she would only be left with the marshmallows-----'best for last', afterall :0)

Before....

After
See, kids are changing all the time :0)
Candace had been begging and begging for a playdate, so I called up a friend and invited her over for the afternoon. She is a couple of weeks younger than Candace and is a PEANUT! I'm kicking myself that I didn't take the camera with me outside when they went to give the chickens and pigs some treats (end of bread loaves and apple cores). She was ADORABLE holding the rooster....LOL.....and the pigs were bigger than she was.

Quilted

Still crack-a-lackin' along! (the girls watched Madagascar the other day). My mid-morning break last all the way through lunch. At 12:30, I headed back downstairs for another 2.5 hours and was able to finish quilting Hostess with Heart. The pantograph used is what I call "elegant feathers." There is no specific name as it is a sample pattern in Cheryl Barnes' Dot-to-dot quilting book.

The backing also ended up being centered quite nicely. Whew! OH!!! And let me tell ya! Aurifil thread is AMAZING!!!! This is the first time I've used it; Deb (quilt shop owner) recommended the color for the quilting and I didn't even pay any attention to what brand it was. I just assumed it was Gutermann since that is what I've bought from her before. It allowed me to quilt FAST without worrying about breaking thread. (I suppose that might also have something to do with the fact that I just installed a new needle at the start of this project??). I was able to use only 6 bobbins for this quilt. Nice! Very little linting. Two thumbs up and all 5 stars!!!

All the while I was quilting after lunch, the girls decided to celebrate a little Christmas in June in the form of crafting some ginger bread houses. I spent some time just a bit ago helping Candace put some details to her house. Poor thing; sometimes her two older sisters leave her behind in the dust.
I can't believe they crafted for the WHOLE time without getting side-tracked. I'm so thankful they are starting to become more independent for a decent length of time.

I need to jump in the shower and make myself at least a LITTLE presentable to go to Cassie's softball game. I volunteered to work the concession stand tonight. So much for allowing my math skills to rest for the summer :0)

Tonight, I hope to put the binding on (by machine) and maybe even the finishing touch in the form of the label.

In need of design wall space; Rainbow challenge stalled

8:00 - 12:15 I was dutiful and worked diligently on my AP Statistics lessons; moving into the subject of Inference on means via t-Distributions........blah, blah, blah, right??? ;0)

From that point until 2:00 it was a combination of lunch and super-speed house cleaning with Christmas items being stashed away from another year and gifts finally finding homes in various locations.

Then, at 2:00----I said ENOUGH. Time to get downstairs....

My first goal: start sifting through THIS mess {{pointing up}} to find some blue fabs. This mess {{pointing up}} are boxes and boxes of donations from my mother; donations via garage sales and cleaning up the Church Volunteer quilt-group supplies (a group that never meets anymore) :0( Hm, too bad I wasn't closer to her; maybe I'd volunteer to get it running again.

I found a couple of nice blues. **chuckle** In fact, those bottom two fabrics were TOO nice, so rather than cut in to them, I pressed them and folded them neat and added them to my stash :0) **shaking head, giggling** So much for busting THOSE fabrics! BUT, the top darker blue plaid-style has been cut into 2.5" strips to be used for some more Star Struck Blue units AND to be used as binding for either that quilt and/or Blue Ridge Beauty. Through this process, I've decided to set a newly updated goal to help me tackle that mess of boxes:

Each month, I will VOW to use at least four fabrics for my Rainbow Challenge from the depths of these boxes. {{I'm actually hoping this will help me knock these stacks down to little or nothing and get it either in projects or pressed/folded nicely on my shelves. Who KNOWS what other gems lurk in there????

Anyway...THEN I wanted to see how many units I have for each of these UFOs (Blue Ridge Beauty and Star Struck Blues), BUT....

....this was still the state of my design wall. I had NO room!

No biggy....I just started piecing those blocks together. I couldn't BEAR just taking them down only to have to reset them some other day. Psht....that's just stupid, right? So....about an hour in and half is pieced, but sadly, family duties have taken me away from my room for now. (until maybe after the girls go to bed).

I ordered Bonnie's new book. Excited to have yet another signed copy of a Bonnie book in my sewing room come February!

LOL!
I just checked in on the girls because they were getting a bit loud and crazy....

Oh dear....


...tell me Candace, how does that make you feel??


Okay...off I go.

Oh, and YEAH PACKERS!!!! We made the playoff after beating the Bears!!! WOOOO!!!!

I remembered the camera THIS time ;0)

GLORIOUS DAY today. And THIS TIME....we remembered the camera.




Gosh---there's no fun going on here, right? ;0)




Eight hours on the water....does this pic really surprise you?

I love my girls! All of them!

My children "girls" were wonderful yesterday; able to take my mind off of things that were troubling me. I love them!

My volleyball "girls" had an absolute AMAZING practice this morning (yeah...mean coach here! Saturday AM practice!)...and confirmed that the choices that were made for team selections were correct. I love them!


And, DH and I are absolutely KICKING ourselves! We took the "big" boat out on the Lake yesterday and borrowed a friend's tube and rope setup----and we DID NOT TAKE THE CAMERA!. This was the girls' first time out on the tube and they had a BLAST! The boating time started with me, (of course), showing them "how it was done." It was also the opportunity for DH and I to work out the appropriate speed where it could be fun for the girls, but safe. None of them can swim (yet); and Candace and Caitlyn ARE only 4 & 6 respectively, afterall; we didn't want them to be scared :0)

BUT.....

once we found that "good speed"-------- **giggle**.............I had "FUN"! DH cranked the speed, and the girls had a good time watching me fly and bump and twist and turn over the giNORmous waves DH was making. OOOOOOdles of laughs!

I tandemed with Candace and Caitlyn separately before they tubed by themselves. Poor Caitlyn got a HUGE face wash when a wave crested a bit higher than planned....but she held on like a trooper, spittering and sputtering and laughing, giving us the thumb's up.

Oh---did I mention that MOM was more nervous and scared for the girls than they actually were themselves? ;0)

When we finally called it quits, we dealt with the pouts and whines....but they sky was losing light! What a FUN afternoon!

And yeah----practice this morning was fabulous! I really DO love coaching this sport and the girls!

This afternoon, I don't have a lot planned. Right now, I'm thinking of just relaxing with a good book while the girls enjoy their Wii time. Cassie has a friend over, so they're playing a "new" game....
I will consider making my way downstairs...but I'm okay if I don't, too :0)

Happy Saturday!

HOT HOT HOT and MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY

HEY!!! MY first chance to actually SIT DOWN at the computer since last Friday...sorry everyone, but life definitely took back over these past few days....

So....bare with me...

First, on Friday, I got my first complete July finish.
Dizzy's binding was sewn on. It still awaits a label, but I'm considering it DONE :0)

On Saturday, I was out in the woods with the boys helping...getting in the way....photographing their bonding time with each other and some manly tools. Together, we cut, split, stacked five loads of wood.

And of course the girls were super happy to see Mom and Dad after two weeks of being with Aunt Jenny and G'ma. We loaded them up on the 'pug' (a glorified 2-seater 'car' that pivots in the middle and has a dump bucket on the back) and headed back to the woods to pick some wild raspberries. We had enough to make a batch of jam {{jam that showed up on the table for Sunday morning breakfast---YUM!!!}}

On a crafty note---no quilting for me since Friday, BUT I found some new inspiration when loading things back into my new sewing room. I NEVER dreamed I would have learned to crochet, and I don't know why I was inspired like I was by this book {{it's not like it's the first time I've looked at it}}. Anyway, on the way up to the farm, we swung into Walmart so I could pick up a size J hook. Then, MIL and I attempted some crochet stitches according to the pictures in the book........needless to say the pics were hard to follow. I couldn't tell where the stitches were, blah, blah, blah. SO, after ripping out 3-strips worth of stitches more than 5 times, I finally said, ENOUGH!!!! Then I waited until getting back home and watched some Youtube 'how-to' videos----SUCCESS! So far, I have used 1 yard of fabric and have a "rug" about 12" in diameter. I don't know how big I'll make this, but it's a good way to use up that BLAH, QUESTIONABLE-QUALITY fabric.

I've been running my volleyball camp for the past two mornings with a decent turn-out. The gym has been HOT HOT HOT with the mugginess bearing down on us. Yesterday after camp, DH asked me to join him in staining a deck---HOT HOT HOT....

and, TODAY, the HOT HOT HOT and MUGGY MUGGY MUGGY didn't deter DH, myself, Nikki (pictured), her brother and dad from gathering together on the softball field to have an afternoon of hitting and chasing down balls! ;0) With sweat pooling in places hidden from view, we spent two hours practicing our batting. Nikki, who is also a recently former student of mine, and I play softball Monday nights. Last night was the first night of tournaments, where we proceeded to advance to the second level (next week) with a 10-1 victory. But we talked about getting together to practice some batting, so.....we made a day of it.

Once we got home, it wasn't time to rest (and THANKFULLLLLY we have AC on a day like today!!!) because I had a couple bucket fulls of cucumbers that needed to be dealt with. SO....a couple of hours and 9 pint jars filled with bread-n-butter pickles later, I am FINALLLLY putting up my feet.

So....there ya have it....
Hopefully tomorrow will be a "me" day after camp.