I have spent the morning hunched over the original manual, which I think alone is just charming, I’ve learned to thread the bobbin, then the machine, adjust tension, stitch backwards, adjust stitch length, & learned which way to thread the needle by hand (yes, I have been suuuper spoiled with both my previous machine’s needle threaders).  In one word, I am Smitten!  She sews like a dream.

When I finally recovered from my utter excitement two days ago, I took a good look a my new beauty and the cord looked a little sketchy, so after calling three different sewing repair stores I finally found the best gentlemen who was just as excited as I was and proclaimed that he has ALL the replacement parts in stock and that he couldn’t wait to see it!  SCORE!  My excitement got the best of me, as it often does, and I woke the kids from their nap (WHICH I NEVER DO) and off we went to see how much information I could glean as I held my breath about how much the cord repair would cost.

I learned SO dang much, and cord repair was only 24 bucks, not bad eh?  I also had him do a complete tune up– balance, timing, blah blah blah.  I don’t really know all of what he did, but he was suuuper impressed with the overall condition and apparently the hook was in excellent shape… which is a really good thing I hear, and the Centennial Plate is sorta a big deal, and he made me promise that I wouldn’t let anybody else use it.  Also to oil it every eight hours of use, don’t use any dual duty thread on it (just 100% cotton or 100% polyester), don’t’ let your daughter touch it, oil it every 8 hours of use… and did I mention not to let anybody else touch it?  He put it at the top of his priorities and had it back to me the next afternoon, I’m one lucky girl!  Happy early Birthday to ME!

I can’t wait to start doing some real piecing with her on the go, though I think I will be getting a quarter inch foot I’m not sure why such a thing didn’t come standard back then.  But if you want some ruffles, I’ve got you covered!

… you see, everything is juuuuuuust so.  Exactly how she wants it.  She collects things on top to keep away from her brother and rearranges and straightens it OFTEN.  I am now off limits from “organizing,” errr, touching it.

Don’t tell her, but I DO get in there every so often and tidy up the drawers so she can find things again, but I am stealth, I’m not sure she has figured it out yet.  But she keeps her cups incredibly organized, it is most impressive, really.  Have I mentioned that she is only 3?  And After every “art project” she puts everything back in place and likes a nice, clean, and clutter free table.  THREE, I tell you… I’m 27 and still can’t do that! (see mess on MY “art table” in following pictures!)

It’s her default, her happy place, the place she goes when nothing else is going right in her three year old word.  Originally I thought we would add another chair to sit opposite her when Mr. A was ready to get dirty, but there is no way I am asking her to share this corner of the world with anybody.  We all need our own “corner,” don’t we?  I am just amazed at how early she has figured this out and is able to soothe herself with it!

This is her most recent addition, not her framed art, but discovering that she could make it better by adding stickers on top and more art behind.  It was quiet the ahhh haaaa moment, and not quiet the look I was going for… but who am I to argue with The Boss of The Corner?

What you don’t see is that she has a cell phone stashed in that basket that she periodically answers ,and she chats with Ponyo (also sitting in basket) about what colors she is using.  She has learned to joyously talk to other things when she knows that I am no longer 100% engaged, doesn’t bother her a bit!  It’s awesome!

And here she is doing what she does best….

… and organizing, organizing, organizing…

… and getting everything juuuuuust right.

You are snickering at her get-up, I know you are, admit it!  Let me explain– this is pretty standard issue attire around here.  I’ll start from the top:

*  The headband – She loves them, that is all I can say, and when I am not an over bearing parent this is how she wears them.   I think it may be her make-believe crown… but I still am trying to figure the fascination out myself.

* The WINGS – OH, the glorious wings!  Lets just say I am SO GLAD I finally found the damn things!  Again, I am not quiet sure how she got it in her head, but out of the blue about a month ago she came to me very politely and asked to get “some wings at the store as soon as possible so she could fly.”  We had a good heart to heart to make sure that she was just talking about pretend flying, and I was stuck not knowing WHERE to get wings… seeing as it is not Halloween!  Lets just say we had a heck of a time finding them, lots of tears, gas tanks that wouldn’t open to get gas to go and GET the wings… lots of stuff even a very organized three year old had trouble understanding.  But ALAS, we found them on our most recent vacay to Mammoth, HALLELUJAH!  Needless to say they have not left her side!

* Undershirt – Ahhh, the undershirt, she owns clothes– honest… and she does understand that undershirts go under your shirt, but she insists that this is the closest thing she has to a leotard “like the ballet dancers” she watches on DVD.  And there I am left without words to tell her otherwise.

* Leggings – Let me just say that usually she is not so white, or monochromatic for that matter.  But I guess this day was all white day.  Here is another one of her compromises… I keep actual tight wearing around the house to a minimum because, a) good pairs of tights are difficult to find and I don’t want them getting holes before their time and b), tights she needs my assistance to get on, leggings she does not.  Need I say more?

* Over-sized Ballet Shoes – Ms. E wears ballet shoes all. day. long. when we are home.  Her smaller sized ones are THRASHED, so we scooted up to the next best thing we had.  She isn’t thrilled about it, but I hid the other ones so she is dealing.

All that being said, art is pretty much the coolest thing in my girls world, tomorrow I’ll show ya her giant easel she loves to talk us into dragging out.

This time I cut into my fat quarter stack of Joel Dewberry’s Modern meadow, and I went a bit more pink than I usually do becuase I knew that Ms. L’s mamma would like it best.  I also interfaced the outside just as the last bag, and I STILL love how it helps with the linen wrinkles!

And the inside… still no label… but I do like the pink magnetic clasp!

Aaaaaaand I just so happened to have a couple sweet pics of my kids with Leila when they were over last just after they all woke up from their naps drinking their milk in bed.  Leila didn’t quiet know what to think of her new bed buddies!

well, here are mine…

We were just given the polka dot fabric and told to do a log cabin block, or improv piecing and to keep the green dot block in cool colors, and the orange-red dots in warm colors.

There will be TWO quilt auctioned off!  And you can bet your lunch money that I will let ya know when it all goes down and how you can get in on the action!

Herbs!

Chamomile, parsley, apple mint, chives, stevia, thyme, & basil, to be exact!  There are also some peony seeds in the naked looking one too.  Rosemary Lorraine (a trailing rosemary) is above along with a butterfly wild flower mix in the other one that is already starting to sprout!

This is just the beginning!! This weekend Mr. K will also be building me some mega boxes on our back patio for a complete container vegetable garden!  I can hardly contain myself!  The thoughts of soil, compost, and worm castings have been keeping me up at night!

Technically these are not sitting on our balcony edge, they are hanging, but they are also covertly anchored so they won’t sway too much in the wind!  Our HOA is suuuuuper strict about ANYTHING sitting on the edge.  I am hoping we found enough of a loophole and will not be getting a nasty letter come next week!  I am really enjoying seeing these from my dining room table, and sewing table, PLUS I don’t have to worry about Mr. A eating dirt when I am not looking… yet.

Here is my little pouch I put together for the swap using oh Frannson’s! tutorial, sans the strap to make it a wristlet because I didn’t have the hardware when I went to put it together(this is actually a super good thing… more later.)  I especially like her method of putting fabric on either side of the zipper… does that make sense?  I didn’t take, a picture from that angle before gifting it away, but look at the pics of her tutorial pics in her shop, you get the idea.

So here is the thing, if you have known me for ANY length of time, you pretty much know that pink REALLY is not my thing, especially light pink… put that with red, and hearts… and sprinkle with some poodles… NOT SO MUCH!  BUT I got this fabric in a Japanese linen FQ stack last week @ Strawberry Patches.  While not crazy about this fabric myself, it didn’t mean OTHER people wouldn’t like it, and so I decided to use it for my upcoming swap… great idea, right, RIGHT??…. again… not so much…

Take a look at his expression… go on, do it! (Click the pic you can see it larger)  Now, take a look at the few ladies you CAN see in the picture…  multiply that by 10.5, and that pretty much sums it up.  A big fat FAIL is what that is!  DANG IT!  We, including me, got a great laugh out of it though.  While his less than hearty reaction was a bummer, Andrew did seek me out at the end to thank me and said he really did like it… but, honestly– come on! …. Pink-poodles-and-hearts aren’t really my thing either, so I understand Andrew.  I just hope you can find a good home for it.  And for the record, the fabric WAS a hit to some who came up afterwords to ask where I got it!  Honest, I am NOT crazy.

Here’s more of our fun!

Teresa & Alison

Jaime, Chris, & Jane

And some more Valentine’s Day Swap goodness! These and others are up over at the flickr LA MQG group, too!

When I started sewing a couple years ago I thought I was just going to be that crazy young-ish women who sews and quilts alone and has make-believe friends online.  I was ok with it actually, so I am just tickled to have found such an easy going, welcoming, corky, and excited group of women to get to know as friends!!

I was sorta too busy chatting and reveling in being away from kids and home WITH my sewing machine that I didn’t get too many pics of us all, I got my camera out a bit late. But here are a few (click to see them larger and to scroll through).  OH, and did I mention, I even went out to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner afterward?  I TOLD you, indulgent!  Thank you Chris, Pat & Wendy for a simply relaxing evening!

Here is what I worked on… I feel like I could have gotten more accomplished, but I did do a good amount of stippling.  Perhaps more sewing, less talking next time… maybe– maybe not!

I found these 8×8 Kraft sketchbooks at stubby pencil studio, she could color on them any way she wanted as many pages at a time as she wanted and it didn’t get all over my house!!!  SCORE!  They proved to be of super great quality too, I was please to find out that they worked great with water colors to boot…. well the good kind at least– I am not sure how cheap-o Crayola water colors that you have to saturate with tons of water would work.  Anyway, we had one that she colored in all the time, it had finally reached its capacity, and our resident artist needed a new one!  So this year I managed to decorate it for her so 2010′s would not be so brown and boring!

Here are a couple pieces that I took out of last year’s journal done with some water colors, similar to the ones listed here… but not quiet THAT nice. And I matted and framed them up with some inexpensive CLIP frames from IKEA above her new art center!

In the mean time I HAVE been flooding my flickr account with new pictures of the kiddos in preparation of this phantom site overhaul… only not so many of you know about it!  So here is what you need to do:

Walk your nimble little fingers over HERE, and join flickr if you don’t already have a login.  HINT: you probably already have one!  Use your yahoo e-mail and password to login, it is the same thing (or for you local types, use your sbcglobal.net or att.net username and password, that will work too!)  Then, up there on the top part of the screen click “add seventeen and em as a contact,” after which I will add you as a “family or friend” (if I know you that is, virtually or for real… THAT is the whole point of this, duh!) and voila, you will be able to see everything from here on out, AND be sent automatic e-mail updates that you set up whenever updates are made… you know, if that is your thing.  AND, grandma CLARE… ARE YOU READING THIS!!!???  You can now print out pictures directly by pressing the “order prints” button!  I know, you are thrilled beyond words, ENJOY!  ;)

Once you have done that be sure to check out:
Pictures by Month, & Asher’s first year.

and b/c no post in complete without a picture:

While the rest of the nation is reportedly freezing, this is us outside at 10am in all our no-coat-glory.  E still has on her pajamas with a few choice accessories, and A is just out to foil whatever well organized plans his sister has for the day.

Stay warm out there!

These are the quick wall hangings I did for Ella’s “baby room,” they coordinate with the, I guess you would call it window treatment, and the quilt that Lori so generously made for Ella when she was born. I had been meaning to do something with the remaining fabric from Ella’s window project but I was having trouble deciding on what. Ella’s walls stayed naked until I stumbled upon a great and simple idea from Anna Maria Horner which was then featured on The Martha Show. I already had the fabric and Modge Podge, acrylic paint is cheap, all I had to find were the square canvases. I eventually found them at a Joann’s, but not just any Joann’s, a super store of sorts, and then it was off to Micheal’s to pick up a couple great flat paintbrushes that I have wanted to own anyway! In an afternoon the project was completed and hung. Easy breezy. I decided to use the wren that Anna Maria featured because, well… I was uninspired to do anything else, and I really do like the realistic quality, not to mention my obvious obsession with silhouettes and birds lately.

They are hung above Ella’s changing table, which poses some problems when putting on pants now that she is one! They seem to be a bit irresistible to reach up and grab and knock off the wall, but I can’t blame her, they are tempting to touch.