Last night I went to the last Holiday Party of 2013.  Yeah, it's 2014, but December is just too busy, so my very smart friend has her party in January.  It's such a blast to hang out with all the girls, eat, drink, chat..... We have a White Elephant gift exchange.  Well, last year, there were a couple of blankets and the hostess made a comment about them.  Of course, I can't remember what the comment was, but it was something about how nice blankets are, people like them...whatever.  So, a couple of the girls decided we should ALL bring BLANKETS and not tell the hostess!  Texts went around and we spread the word.  Most of us remembered, a couple of girls forgot, but there were about 8 - 10 blankets.  Finally, toward the end of the exchange, the hostess said "wow, you all must have been in sync with your thinking, all these blankets".  We started laughing and told her we had planned it.  It was very funny. :)  So, I decided that I didn't want to bring a regular old blanket (even tho there are some awesomely soft blankets out there), I wanted to take a quilt, but we only had a $20 limit.  PERFECT time for me to use scraps and get rid of some of the bulk in my room.  I found a picture of a quilt like this on a blog somewhere and decided to make it.

If you have a quilt or project from me, look closely, you might see some fabric for your quilt~ :)  It was a big hit and now we are planning a weekend of sewing....me teaching 10 chicks to make a quilt.  I have to decide what pattern we'll do.  Something easy, but nice.  I have a few ideas, now to plan! :)  BTW, the girl who ended up with the quilt said that it was very special to her because it's something her Grandma did when she was young and so she remembers having all those quilts in her life.  I'm sure it will be loved a lot.

The other quilt I've made recently was for my baby niece, Lilliana.  She is my brother and sister-in-law's baby girl.  Of course, she's gorgeous, but tiny so she needs a quilt to keep her warm and something to love and drag around as she gets older. :)  Her mommy said they would probably decorate her room with Lilys if the baby was a girl (they didn't find out gender until she was born).  I LOOKED for cute lily fabric but couldn't find anything I loved that would be cute, so I found these fabrics by Me and My Sister Designs. 

I'm so happy with it.  I love the colors and the pattern is called a Disappearing 9-Patch.  Super fun and looks like you did so much more work that you really did. :)

Now I'm anxious to start a new project.  I was out with my friend the other day and she showed me this line of fabrics by Michael Miller (who I LOVE) called Waterfront Park.  The particular fabric I was really interested in is called Bridgetown.  It's all the Portland Bridges.  Well, as I was looking through the remnants at Fabric Depot, I found a yard remnant of the fabric!  Total Score!

One of Portland's fun facts is that we have 12 bridges in the city.  10 over the Willamette River and 2 over the Columbia (so we can go from WA to OR and back again). :)  There are 8 that are quite beautiful along with being useful.  Here are 7 of them and then there's the St. John's Bridge.  I bought Travis a Portland Bridge poster a while back with all the bridges on them, and it's now in the living room.  I think I'm going to do a Portland quilt to go up on the wall also.  Now, to collect ideas and fabrics!

Well, as you can see, I'm actually making things AND adding posts to my blog.  I'm pretty impressed with myself. hahahahha not. :)  But, I hope to keep it up...both sewing and blogging.  Have yourself a warm, snuggly day!  qxoqxo :) <3>

Keeping my promise

Well, I'm going to try to keep up with my promise to keep you all updated on my SUPER DUPER exciting life.....

Ok, so now that you're back in your seat from falling out of your chair laughing, I will show you what I've been up to.

Every year the girls get new Christmas ornaments.  Sara's was easy this year.  A burger.  I found one at World Market and got it.  Anisa looked and looked, then decided she wanted something that nobody had - a jellyfish.  Oh, ok, thanks Anisa for giving me the impossible task of finding a jellyfish ornament days before Christmas.  Well, my search came up with nothing, so I figured I'd just make one.  I hit up Joann's for some sparkly chiffon type of fabric, a little bit of tulle and some ribbon.  Here's the result. She is thrilled with it (and so am I)> :)

 So, as you might be able to guess, Sara's into burgers.  Renee got her a Cheeseburger Pillow as a graduation gift. Sara loves her pillow, and named him Cheeseburgery.  We all give Cheeseburgery hugs and kisses and usually we talk to him more than we talk to Sara.  I wanted to make her a soft ornament.  Well, I didn't do it before I found her other ornament, but wanted to then just make Cheeseburgery a little friend.  Here is the Cheeseburger Trio.  The small, but tall one was my first attempt.  I wasn't sure how wide to make the patty and buns.  Well, that first try was not a good one, but it did allow me to figure out that I needed to cut my slices smaller. :)  We love Little Burgery and how he looks.

Another project I finished was a quilt for Travis for Christmas.  Yeah, I know.....like he needs another quilt.  Well, I never made one SPECIFICALLY for Travis.  He loves  Chickadees, he talks to them in their native language - Chickadese.  My husband is very talented.  Anyway, I was browsing the aisles at Heaven, I mean Fabric Depot, and saw the Chickadees and knew I had to make a quilt for Travis.

My sewing room is the computer room.  Not the ideal set-up, but until the kids move out or we move, this is the way it will be.  Travis usually has no interest in my projects, but for some reason, this was  harder to keep from him.  He saw the chickadees and had to ask what I was doing.  really?  REALLY TRAVIS? Go play with your ipod.  Anyway, I finished it and he loves it.  He's already used it a few times to snuggle with while watching TV.  I used the Attic Window pattern and I call it Chickadees In The Windows.  I even used some of the scrap triangles in the border!

There is another quilt on it's way to it's owner, and when that person gets it, I will post about it.

My next project is underway. It's another quilt, and another surprise, so it will have to wait to be posted JUST IN CASE anyone actually reads this.

So, now that you've had your daily dose of Cindy excitement, you can happily get on with your day.  Enjoy it and I hope everyone you come in contact with today is super nice! ;)  qxoqxo (quilty kisses and hugs)

Nothing like the present...

It's almost the end of 2013 and I have only entered 2 posts this entire year.  Bad me!  We have had so many adventures and I have only a few pictures to remember them.  I plan to use this more of a journal this year...for my  (and hopefully your) enjoyment. :)   Christmas is a couple of days away, so I have lots of errands to run today, but I plan to be more active here...keep watching!  And MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

Well, I guess I should start with Anisa.  She turned 22 on the 21st.  I really can't believe she's already 22.  Time sure has flown by.  We have so many awesome memories.  God sure has blessed us.

We had a surprise visit last night from Shelby...Anisa and Shelby have been friends since birth..well, Shelby's birth since she's 3 months younger. :)  Here are these gorgeous girls this weekend, and one from when they were close to a year old.

I started volunteering at Chinook Elementary school.  It's where the girls went to school, I was the lunch lady and a Special Ed One on One with some terrific little boys.  I always loved going into the school. The kids.  The staff.  It's just a really cool place.  I REALLY want to get a PAY job there, but for now, I can only volunteer.  That's ok with me, tho.  I've got a big job in the library already, and Friday I got to work with the Kindergarten reading groups. I was very warmly welcomed back by some of my old friends and it truly felt like I was back HOME.  I would appreciate prayers for a job to come open there for me.  It will be nice to have a job in place when Travis retires in less than 2 years (shocking).

So, in other news in my house, it's been cold here.  We have a woodstove in this house.  I didn't really think it was a big deal when I looked at the house.  Travis found out it was a really good one (after all his research) and was looking forward to using it this winter.  Well, he's a complete pyro now.  He builds the fire every night.  We got our second load of regular wood delivered last week.  He's been using a combination of just plain old cut wood and 2 different kinds of eco logs.  One of the brands is Idaho Energy Logs.  He's been super happy with the stove.

I've been sewing some bags.  A Coastie wife wants me to make her an Owl print purse.  We THINK we found the fabric, and now I'm trying out some patterns.  I bought a McCalls pattern that I thought was pretty cute, but after getting it out and reading the directions, I don't like it.  I also don't like how they have you sew the bag together, so I did it my way. :)  I made 2 of these Hawkeye bags for 2 friends' daughters who are going to University of Iowa.  I'm going to order an Amy Butler pattern that I found.  I really like how her directions are written and her patterns are fun.

We went to the Oregon Zoo for Anisa's Birthday!  We all slept in a little, then she opened her presents, then we all got ready to head out to the zoo to see Lily the baby Elephant.  She was cuter than we had imagined.  I literally could have sat and looked at her all day.  They have her and mommy in a room (I don't love the bars and the small space, but it's warm), and there is a long line to stand in for a quick picture and to admire her. Isn't she so precious??

So, I think that's about it for now.  It seems like the weather is changing a little bit and it might be on a warmer/wetter trend.  I don't mind.  I guess that means I really am a true PNW girl. :)  I hope you all are enjoying your day/week/month... :)  mwah!

I have completely neglected my poor little blog and all the people who log on here to read about my wonderful, so exciting life.  heehee   I can only blame Facebook a little.  I am just a procrastinator...plain and simple.  I will work on it!  And for now...ta da...an update!

Travis bought me a new sewing machine.  She is a Juki TL-2010Qj.  He did an amazing amount of research and figured this was the best machine for me.  At first I was kind of upset because I showed him the machine I WANTED and I'd never even heard of a Juki.  I told him I'd give it a chance, and so far, I like it.  Pushing quilts through this machine is very nice and smooth, so that's a huge thing!   I even decorated her.  I still have my little Rosey (Viking).  She comes out for the fancy stitching.  Now, all I need is a studio about an RV garage built in the backyard...

So, since I have a new machine, I've been busy sewing lately.  I've made a few bags, a quilt and am working on some more bags with a pattern that I'm not happy with.  It's McCall's M6045.  The pattern itself is ok, but the instructions aren't what I'm used to.  I need someone to just say, "Ok, cut this and this out of this and this.  Sew A to B, etc".  This has 2 fabrics, 3 interfacings, and 4 bag options.  The instructions are all over the place.  Cut this for A.  Cut this for B, Oh, but you need to cut one of these for A again.  I just don't like how they wrote them out.  But, because I've used the Fabulous Amy Butler patterns, I have some background on how to fix the issues with this pattern. :) 

Speaking of Amy Butler patterns, I've made another 2 Weekender bags in Cupcakes!  Sara's totally into cupcakes right now, and I found this fabric in Home Dec weight and bought a whole bunch.  I didn't have the pattern with me, and it turned out I bought enough for 2 bags. :)  I love how they turned out.

I made this Memory quilt for someone. I can't say who, since it's a surprise and I've PROCRASTINATED and haven't sent it yet.  It was a super fun quilt to make, tho, and I think whoever gets it will be happy.  I'm hoping it will make them move closer... :)

Speaking of Sara and cupcakes... We recently bought a new table and chairs for our kitchen nook (try to find a round, counter height table that's 45" across..impossible).  While we were at a furniture store, we happened to find a Cupcake Painting.  I took a picture and sent it to Sara.  She wanted it (she usually wants stuff). :)  The problem was that it was $200 for 4 pics and 2 of them were of cupcakes, but the other 2 were really large ice cream cones.  Cute, but not really anything we wanted, plus, $200? really?  I told her I'd get her a canvas and some paints and she could paint one.  Well, here's the result. We were actually surprised at how good it turned out.

Sara's still loving school.  She recently had Little Mermaid Red hair.  It was shocking at first, but then we grew to really like it.  The bonus was that she was very easy to find in a crowd.  She loved it but changed it back to brown because it was pretty high maintenance.  Here is a picture of the entire family that we had taken for our church directory.  You can see Sara's red hair.

Anisa is in limbo.  It's quite irritating, but I know I am to blame.  I'm making it too easy on her, but whatever....I try not to complain too super much.  She's a great girl, and we have fun shopping, doing lunch, etc, but she is going to 22 on Monday and hasn't figured out life.  Her boyfriend, Jason, lives in VA.  He doesn't know where or what he's going to do.  He has a good job there, but the problem is that it's so expensive to live there.  We have encouraged Anisa to find a job  here for now, then figure out what she wants to do in the spring, summer.  They wanted to go to Colorado Springs, but apparently jobs are pretty scarce there.   Maybe we need to make her live in her car! heehee  just kidding..but only a little bit.

Travis is doing pretty well.  He likes his job, but is worrying about the future. He will probably be forced to retire in less than 2 years since he'll have done 30 years in the Coast Guard.  That is crazy to me.  I got him when he was 17 years old and now I can just admire the man I got to marry.  

I've been looking for a job.  I've applied to a lot of places, but so far, nothing.  I suppose the right job will come at the right time.  My dream job is back at Chinook Elementary, so I filled out my Volunteer paperwork and will start volunteering a day or two a week.  I figure that will at least get me back "in" with the staff and such, and when a job opening is coming up, I'll be the first to hear about it. :)  The most convenient thing about that is that it's right across the street from my neighborhood, so I could walk to work!  Keep me in your prayers! :)

Sara went to Virginia for Christmas and New Years. She had a blast and didn't want to come home (who wants to come home from VACATION?).  While she was gone, we drove down to Eugene (a 2.5 hour drive, one way) to go to the Ninkasi Brewery.  Their Total Domination IPA has become our most favorite beer, but we like a few of their other brews too.  It was SO.WORTH the drive.  OMG... we had a really great time.  We got there and I told them we had driven all the way from Vancouver just to come there.  They gave us free beers!  We took the brewery tour and had some yummy hot dogs and homemade pretzels.  Then as we were leaving, they gave us 4 pint glasses and some stickers.  The crew there is small, and everyone was really nice.  I wish we lived closer so we could go there all the time..just to hang out with cool people - alright...and to drink beer too! :) 

Travis, Anisa and I also went to Peacock Lane to look at the lights for Christmas.  It was very crowded but very pretty.  We took the time to go downtown and take a picture of the Portland sign right over the Morrison Bridge.  I love being back HOME!

Travis and I have been kind of jogging/walking.  We go every once in a while, not as regularly as we should.  Travis is better about going than me.  He's even taken his running gear to work and run during the day.  My problem is that I run to the trail, then see birds or squirrels then I have to stop and look at them! hahaha Oh well, as long as we get OUT, I guess that's good.

Well, I think I've caught you up on what's been going on here.  I'm sure there is a lot more, but I can't remember things!  Travis calls me Dori (from Finding Nemo) since I forget things almost instantly.

And some New Pictures :)

This past weekend, we had company .  Travis' brother and family came to visit from Eastern WA.  We had a blast.  A Winterhawks hockey game on Friday night, then a trip to Ikea (they had never been), swedish meatballs and then off to Multnomah Falls to hike to the top.  Here are some pictures from our adventures...

We had blinds up in our master bathroom, but they were old and discolored, so I took them down and made curtains.  I like how they turned out, but my "theme" in the bathroom is kind of beachy, so I plan to collect some shells, rocks and driftwood next time I hit the beach, which should be soon since I haven't been there in a while. :)

The new normal

A NEW POST!  Well, I figured I'd decorate this place a bit with a new entry.  Most of you  know we've moved.  If you are my friend on FB you've seen the adventures of the move, the house and all that's been going on.  If not, then I'll catch you up. :)

We got orders back to Portland...HOME.  We were so happy but had a lot of work ahead of us, as with any cross country move.  We had to house hunt from all the way over the other coast.  Travis and I flew to OR for a week.  We met up with our realtor and looked at several houses all over the county (back in Vancouver).  We didn't find a house, but we decided exactly what area we wanted to be in...back where we lived before.  Ok, so now we had an area, but still no house.  3 weeks later, I loaded up my precious van and drove all the way to WA by myself.  It was great and I realized that I probably would be content being a long haul trucker.  But I would need a mechanic with me and my darling husband who I love SO MUCH would probably drive me crazy being stuck in a truck for weeks at a time...oh well.   Baby and I made it to WA in about 4.5 days.  I think I could have done it quicker..now that I've done the trip, if I ever do it again, I'll know what I can handle.  Anyway, I drug my friend, Evonne, along with me to look at houses.  I figured it was good to have 2 pairs of eyes and different opinions.  We looked at a whole bunch of houses.  Some awesome houses in not so awesome neighborhoods.  Some not so awesome houses in awesome neighborhoods.  Finally, Travis found a house online and told me to go look at it.  The Pool House.  We went and looked at it, I even drug my old neighbor, Brian, with us to see it.  It was a nice house, nice neighborhood.  Bonus..it had a pool and hot tub..the kids were pretty tickled about that.  It is a mile down the road from our old neighborhood so we know the area really well.  I didn't LOVE the house, but it was ok.  Travis and I talked and I made another appt to go see it again.  The second time we really looked at stuff.  Or so we thought. :)  I took pictures to send to Travis and we decided to make an offer.  It was accepted and I flew back to my family in VA (after being gone for over 2 weeks).  From there, we faxed, emailed, called back to our realtor because of some issues with the stupid mortgage company the the previous owners.  After a stressful month or so, we finally owned a house in WA. :) 

We packed up our junk in VA (well, the movers packed it up), loaded it into the truck and hauled it away.  We had to stay in VA for an extra week for Sara's high school graduation, which seems weird, since I don't think I'm old enough for my BABY to have graduated high school, but whatever.  After graduation, we said good-bye to the baby girl, loaded up the other 3 vehicles and headed out on a caravan expedition.  Travis in Chuck hauling Traily, Anisa, Jason and Batman (Nisa's fishie) in Foxy, and me in Cupcake.  We planned to take it kind of easy and make it over in 5ish days, but got a phone call from the moving truck saying he had to deliver 2 days early or put our stuff in storage.  We knew that a military delivery going into storage meant a possible VERY LONG wait for our stuff, so we pushed it and made it to Vancouver in 4 days.  Hauling the trailer made our driving slower, so we did a couple of 16 hour days to make it on time.  Based on my experience from that trip, if  we ever have to make a cross-country move, I will drive all the vehicles, one at a time, by myself.  It was too stressful with Travis trying to keep up or falling back.

Anyway, we arrived and the next day got our stuff delivered.  I didn't have any time to really clean or paint the way I wanted to, so that came later.  With a house full of boxes and furniture not where it belongs, we started to try to get settled.

The bad thing about moving is you don't see the problems with the new place til you actually live in it.  The previous owners had lived  here for almost 20 years so even tho they had done some upgrades, other things had been let go.  Besides that, I'm an OCD clean freak, and saw all the dirt and grime.  I got to work scrubbing cabinets and lining shelves.  Steam cleaning carpets AROUND the boxes and furniture.  Oh, and the pool.  Yeah, it was GREEN.  It hadn't been covered the there were 2 weeks between them moving out and us moving in, so it had leaves and cotton from the trees in the filter, and lots of algae.  The rain gutter system had crushed pipes so we had to have the front yard dug up to replace the pipes and because of water issues in back, we had the backyard dug up to install a french drain.  We quickly realized we had paid a lot for a fixer upper.  doh.  We got rid of lots of junk, realized we don't have enough storage here, but have found creative places to store things. I have painted most of the house and we're just now, after about 4 months, feeling a little settled.  There are still things that need to be done, we want a new, bigger shed, I have to finish painting which includes a 25 foot ladder.  The pool still has some algae, but we're converting to chlorine (right now it's kind of "organic chemicals") and we're hoping the chlorine kills all the plant life, and besides, it's too cold to swim right now. Next year, we're planning to put in an awning over the deck so we can spend more time outside.

Life is settling down to a new normal.  Travis is back to work in Portland doing what he enjoys..inspecting ships.  And he has several guys he knows that are there.  Anisa is currently in VA trying to figure out where she wants to settle for now.  Sara is attending Aveda Cosmetology Institute in Portland.  As of last night, she has bright red hair, but she LOVES LOVES LOVES school.  I'm just trying to stay busy and not get into trouble at Fabric Depot. :)  We've already spent countless hours and tons of money at Home DEPOT. :/  But, we're super happy to be back Home.   Anyway, that's what's been going on here.  I'm going to try to be better at updated the blog, but I'm not making any promises. :)

Back in VA

Well, our trip to the Great PNW wasn't a complete success or failure. We didn't find a house, but we realized we want to be back in the same exact area we left. In fact, we'd love to be on our same street, and our old neighbor is working hard to get us there...he actually talked to one of the neighbors and they want to move, but they don't have a yard big enough to put a trailer pad on. darn.

We drove the entire county while we were there, saw some nice and not so nice homes. There were a couple that I'd LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to live in, but not the areas. Buying a house stinks. And especially when you're not willing to budge on a few wants/needs.

We had some awesome beers (um, PORTLAND...most of the beer there is awesome), spent a gorgeous day at Cannon Beach (it was supposed to be a day of showers and we didn't get a drop of rain), on our way back to Vancouver, we went through a little snow storm. Overall, the trip was good. We didn't get to visit, except one night, we went to sushi with the Hisatomi family to celebrate the March birthdays (there are 4 our the 6 of us), and I ran into Evonne and one of my Chinook kids, Porter, at Fred Meyers (we were there at least once every day). :) Yep, it rained a little every day - a lot on a day or two, but we didn't mind. It felt great to be back HOME. The air smelled wonderful. The drivers were nice. The people in Portland are still as weird as ever. It was a great trip. :) I'll post some pics later...Travis needs to use this computer for now! :)