A little update

Hey everyone!~

I just wanted to do a little update, because it has been a while.

Things with us are going great. We have had several snow days (woohoo!!) that we have enjoyed. Winter is coming to an end, and while I love love love snow days, I am very ready for spring. I want to go straight from a snow day to green leaves and flowers. I know this is unrealistic, so I will deal with the mud and rain to get to the good stuff......I just can't wait for our awesome tree to bloom again!!! I will have to post a picture to see if anyone knows what kind of tree it is....I think it is a magnolia...maybe???

Kole seems to be doing better in school. He was getting bored at home from all the snow days, so he is glad to be back! He is such a smart kid. I am constantly amazed at how much he has learned this year, not only with his academics but also in social and listening skills! He tries so hard to be kind, sweet, and thoughtful (and when he forgets we gently remind him=). Sometimes I am amazed with how much he means to me and the HUGE love I feel for my little boy. Before being a mommy, I didn't know that this kind of love even existed. Gives ya a whole new perspective on your own parents=).

I am taking an online class this semester, my first one for my master's degree. I decided to go with a masters in Online Learning, so I would be able to teach online courses. I have always enjoyed school and probably would have gone to college forever if it were free.....but man!, masters courses are ALOT more work. I only have one class yet every evening is taken up with assignments. And to think I almost took two classes at once!!! I think this summer I will try to take two. We shall see.

Because of my online course, my Etsy shop has gotten little attention. I still check it everyday, but I haven't made anything new for a while. I am not really doing it to make money, just to have fun and be creative with a purpose (and if I actually do sell something, Ill just spend the money on more fabric=). If you haven't seen my shop yet, check it out!! There is a link on the side of my blog you can click on or you can go here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/prettypickle

So far I have pretty random things on there. Just experimenting. In my free time I have been working on a rag quilt for my friend who is expecting this summer. I figured if I started it now, I might get it done by summer. Here is a picture of it not assembled yet.

Each square, except for the first row and the last row, will have a letter of the alphabet on it. The 1st row and last, will have three letters in the middle of the row. Each letter has been cut out, (that took forever!) and the "a" is the only letter I have sewn on yet. Rag quilts are so soft and sweet, perfect for a baby. They are pretty easy too. Good for beginners. I cut 8 inch squares in several prints of flannel. Flannel is recommended for rag quilts because they fray nicely and are really soft. Then you sew three squares together, top facing up, middle facing up, and back facing down using a one inch seam allowance. Once all of the squares are "sandwiched" you begin sewing them together using a one inch seam allowance. The seams are on the outside so you can cut them. then you wash the whole thing and it frays and looks so shabby chic. Even the letters are cut around the seams so they look raggy.
I know that was confusing, but I will post pictures once I get more done.



Zach got me a dress form for valentines day! He sure knows the way to my heart! I haven't been able to use it yet though because the company forgot to send the base with it.....bummer. But that part is on the way. I will post those pictures when it comes too!

I am dreaming about spring and the garden. I got a ton of seed catalogs in the mail, so I have been going through them, comparing prices, making lists, and dreaming of this years garden.
We are going to do all raised beds this year because the one we had last year was so great! It actually produced most of the stuff I canned. I am also going as organic as possible with seed and plant choices, and I want half of the plants to be heirloom, se we can harvest the seeds and use them for the next year. We are going to do alot of beans, tomatoes, and banana peppers, because we love them! We have been eating our garden stuff all winter because I canned stuff, but I used the last of the tomatoes the other day!=( We still have beans and peppers in the pantry though. I am definately getting stringless beans this year too, because even though I was SURE that I stringed all of them last summer, when I open up an can for dinner it never fails I get one or two rough strings in there. I also goofed up with my peppers. I left the seeds in with them thinking I like them hot.....and they are sooooooo hot!!! And they got mushy. The kidn you get at the store have a little crunch to them, but mine just fall apart. I need to figure out how to keep them crisp. Anyone know???

Ok so I told you I was dreaming big about the garden. I just can't wait! Its so fun to produce something good for your family.
I think that's it for now kids. This is the most I have actually written on this blog in a while=). Sorry there aren't very many pictures, but theres not really been time to take a bunch.
Check back later for some quilt updates=)

I made curtains!

Here is to another long weekend! I was having trouble putting these on facebook, so I am posting them here for those who wish to see=).

I made some curtains!

It takes pretty good measuring skills to get these perfect. I am proud of myself!

It is fun to take material and make something cool for your house.

I made four panels for the two windows in our bedroom. I used three different fabrics that I loved and got for a great deal at joann fabric. I loved the print, but I didn't want to overwhelm the windows and make them too busy, so I got this awesome, heavy greenish/yellow fabric for the top. The middle strip is a little smaller and it is the floral print, and the bottom is the smallest strip in a deep purple that I love!

Here are some close ups. I love this graphic floral. It is a good mix between modern and country, which I love. When the light comes through, the curtains look really cool, because the floral is a little lighter material than the other two so it lets moer lgiht through.

You can tell in the first picture why I now want to paint the walls! They totally don't 'GO'. But we have hated our wall color since we moved in so this is a good excuse to go ahead and paint!

Tomorrow, I am going to make some more stuff for etsy!

A snow day......

We got a snow day today! Long weekend for us=).


I just wanted to show the little project that I did today. Since it is FREEZING outside and roads are bad, I needed to entertain myself here, inside. Luckily, Zach has been playing with Kole, so that left me free to be creative. Here is how I spent my afternoon.

I made a pillow! Now, I know what you are saying. Pillows are easy! And I would say, yup they are.

But this was a fun project to fill a few hours on a lazy day when there was nothing else to do but clean. And who wants to clean on a snow day?!? Not me.

The cool flower is on both side of the pillow so there is no front and back. I cut random sized strips from the extra fabric that I had from the aprons. I sewed them together, the cut off the extra length from a few long strips. I cut out my petals, cut out the fusible interfacing, and ironed it all on and together. THEN, I topstitched along the edges of the petals to make sure they would never come off. That was time consuming but I think well worth it.

So, then I just folded the fabric in half, stitched along the edges (and the bottom), and flipped it, stuffed it, and slipstitched the opening.

I love it! And I get a little reminder of all those aprons. I just used the fabric that kinda matched, so I am going to do some more with the rest of the fabric I think.

So now, I have a new funky pillow for the house! I am totally making more=).

Now, I need to get some more stuffing from walmart, but we are snowed in!!

Oh well, another day. It is time for dinner anyways.

P.S. We are the P.J. family today! I just noticed that we all still have on our pj's and it is 5:15 pm. I LOVE snow days!!!!!!

You gotta check this out......

Quick blog:

Please check out http://www.peopleofwalmart.com/

I can't stop looking......and laughing!!!!

Here is a preview......

It is CRAZY ( and I mean crazy!) people shopping at walmart. And yes. The lady in the photo has a dinosaur tail. I guess she thought it looked cool???

December

Happy New Year!

It has been a great month, full of fun stuff. We have been able to spend alot of time with our families and the people we love the most.

Christmas was great. We celebrated for a week straight. Parties and families. Goodtimes.

I got a flip video camera from Zach! I am posting some videos at the end of this post.

We are also getting some new furniture today! A new kitchen table and a new couch. Here is what they look like.....

I am pleased with them.

They are modern with a little country. Or vice versa.

They will be delivered sometime this month.



A little while back, we got a lot of snow!!! This is our porch. And it still came down for a while after this photo was taken. We probably got 3 to 4 more inches after this.

Here are some Christmas cookie! They were Roasted almond cinnamon cookies, with white chocolate and cinnamon candies with sugar on top. Super good!

Nana with the grandchildren. She's the best.

I made aprons for all of the women in my life for my homemade christmas gift. Here are some pictures.
This was Kaitlyns. I took alot of time to pick out the right fabrics for each person. I knew Kait would love this funky fabric and the peace sign just tops it off.



Grandmomi's. This was the only one that was a different style than the rest. I did this one and decided that the other pattern was alot easier and faster!!!

This one is Joel's, my bro in law. He is a foodie and loves to bake. This is one side....

This is the other. I got both of these fabrics from IKEA. Love it.

This one is Cassandra's. The bird fabric is also from Ikea.

This is the other side. I cut out one bird from the ikea fabric and used the fusible fabric to make a centerpiece ....=)

This one is Mamaw's. It is a little hard to see the print, but it is several different birds in a realistic "farmy" setting. I know how much She and Papaw loved the birds at the farm, and I thought this fabric really captured that.

The other side.

This is the special tag that I found at our local fabric store!! My name was already on it. I just had to sew them on. This was the first one that I did, so it is not the best. But I thought they were super cute!!

So here are two videos for you to enjoy. I tried to post another, but it won't upload for some reason. It was of Kole's big christmas present, a netbook computer. He loves it! He does alot of stuff on the computer for school so it will be nice for his room.

The first video is of a bunch of us on Christmas acting silly and dancing to "At Christmas Time".

The second video is of TT's apron.

The only aprons I didn't get pictures of was Linda's, my mother in law and my moms. Lindas is a french country scene and stripes in a pretty blue and cream . Mom's is floral and brown, made of linen. Love them both!



Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

Kole's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SWEET KOLEY-O!!!

Today, Kole is six. Can you believe it? I certainly can not.

We had a big bash tonight, with lots of fun, presents, and friends (and just a little crying=)

I know that even if I am falling asleep right now, I have to post these pictures otherwise it will get put on the back burner.

Enjoy.

These are totally out of order so bare with me

Kole and a few friends, getting ready to eat some cake!

The table and decor, before party.

Koley taking a big bite of cake! He had such a blast.

A close up of the tablescape, as Joel called it. Now all I needed was a cocktail and I would be Sandra Lee....haha.

Our fun ocean cookies. Have a mentioned yet that the theme was ocean. In November. But thats what kole wanted=)

Blue Jello Ocean with Sharks

Octo-weenies. Everyone loved this idea. Thanks tiff!

My Happy birthday boy
Presents time!
He loves the human body......I am banking on him being a doctor.
Sweet K-belle. She is such a joy. Kole has been asking for a snuggie for months. "Ms. Linda" (Zach's mom) got him a kids snuggie for his birthday. He is posing here with it. And no, he isn't really reading 1776, although that would be pretty cool!

Zach and Cass made it for the party!! We were so excited about that!

And thats all she wrote (for tonight) folks. Time to veg on the couch!

Fall in "my home among the hills"

Well Folks, We are still here!

Just wanted to update everyone on recent happenings, and as always, share some pictures of fun things going on.

Earlier this month (Oct. 4th to be exact), Zach and I celebrated our one year anniversary. It has gone by so fast! We had a weekend getaway (thanks for sitting mom and dad!) to Brazenhead Inn in Mingo, WV. Here is a picture of the inn.

It was such a neat place. It is an irish inspired inn, with really neat and musically gifted owners, Will and Jill Fanning. They made us feel so at home. We will definately go back again. Here we are after a rousing game of scrabble=). Zach won.

I took this picture because Will's work was so cool. He carved bears out of huge tree stumps, with a chain saw!!!! Zach thinks he should try this.........I'm not so sure.......

Switching gears: Koley is doing pretty good this week at school. We have our good days and our bad days, but we are trying really hard to make them all GREAT days as kole would say. When he has a great day, he gets to play with his friend JT after school either at our house or his (he lived three houses down). Here is a picture of a great day afternoon!

We have also been carving pumpkins! I, of course, made roasted pumpkin seeds....yum.

We love the guts!!!

Kole got the camera for a while.

He actually pulled some guts out!!! I was impressed with my texture phobic little man!

Giving proper instruction on how to clean out a pumpkin....lol

Ghostly faces by the lighted pumpkins.....Koles was a spider.

Both of the pumpkins.

Mine pumpkin was super ambitious, but I did it! I even used a drill bit for pretty holes on the sides.

I just took this unfinished, because who knows when Zach will get to it=). Its Yoda.

Time to put up the hammock! Fall is my favorite time. I love the colors, the smells, the cooler air........

Do you see my little friend in this picture?

Look closer in this one....in the middle.

Yes, Deer. We have lots of them. There is a little family that is always puttering around.

Recently, Kole decided that he wanted to be a super hero. We had this kit and it came with all the things needed and complete instructions for being a super hero. He decided his name was "The flying grant writer"!!!

He was even able to control the power of flight!

the kit came complete with a business card....

And enabled him to be a super stealth.

So there you go. After all that, I need a break=)!