Happy Valentines!

How does one celebrate Valentines when husband is deployed? Well.. there is ofcourse a lot of candy involved.. a glass of whine, some sewing and music..
But best of all.. there is flowers sent by a loving husband! :) with chocolate aaand a Teddy bear!! ( Chocolate not pictured as it is already eaten ;)

The day was pretty uneventful, went on a playdate this morning and then decided to stay in my home..
Nothing worse than canoodeling couples when you are not one of them..
But I forgot to buy potatoes ( if you are Swedish this seems to be a life necessity therefore I had to leave my house!) Others than that all went smooth,, surprisingly the two boys fell asleep early..
I had this great idea of making a heart wallet.. well the pattern was no longer there.. so I improvised.
Not my best work, but I do like it. Sure can come in handy!

Besides it looks much better when Oscar ( the Teddy) is posing with it!
I hope all of you had a nice Valentines! I had my little Valentines boys which sure was nice!
James even drew me a picture with a rainbow :)

Jenny

:)

It's been busy over here. I like to keep busy and be out and about, it has always been my personality. So I am happy, but tired.
I am finally getting to some of the stuff that I have been procrastinating to do.. Tomorrow I head out to the stables to get the horses hooves trimmed. The very thought of 1600 lbs of goofy horse scares me. Although he likes me because I mostly pet him and give him carrots. Either way: it is getting done!
Also we have a house guest. She is brown and brindle colored and goes by the name of Gracie. It is my mother in laws dog. She is fairly easy compared to the man dog aka Cash.
Eli loves to lay on her which she doesn't seem to mind too much.
Also I got 100% on my math test.. yeap that is right! My math teacher is amazingly dedicated to math and learning which makes it a lot more fun.
Others than that I just keep "trucking" ( sometimes literally ;)

My question: is this border a good choice? it isn't sewn on yet just layed out.

 James going to pre-school. so cute in with his little backpack

These hearts have been soo difficult ( I know they may not look it but these are like a thousand pieces that needed puzzled together!!) But it is nice to be challanged, to see where I need to improve :)

spring in CA

It will be seven years this month. That is since I first met my husband. It was a blind date set up by friends and we met in the McDonald's parking lot. One of the first things I noticed, well actually the second thing (the first was that he was very polite and held the door for me) was that he had a big blue truck. It was shiny and clean and I sat way high so that I could see much better than from my old saturn. Later I came to name the truck Jake.
Yesterday I headed out in Jake, I did what my husband normally would do, lowered the windows and played some country music. It was a great day for cruising :).
Tomorrow I welcome feb! over halfway done with the deployment and well on our way into spring. The oranges on my tree are starting to get ripe now (which as well as a blessing is a big headache as there are literally a thousand oranges on that tree.)
The boys can be out in the yard which they sure enjoy, jumping on the trampoline and playing in the sandbox, doghouse or planters.

Others than welcoming spring I have been captivated by a book about Tasha Tudor, and ofcourse working on my heart quilt.. As you can see its a work in progress lol.

Sew or sleep?

 

Why is it, that it is so hard to finish something that is almost done? Is it because, in your mind you have already finished it? Or because it is nice to have a project that is familiar instead of a brand new one?  This is a question that I ponder as I am sitting in front of the computer with an almost done quilt for James on the floor. Well all I need is to finish the border and then it is off to the quilters so maybe I should get to it huh?



On the other hand this looks like a good option too! ( I will keep you guys updated on the choice lol)

The buttonhole

It all started with a buttonhole, or rather the lack of one. I had made a baking apron for James and was about to add some buttons for the strap that goes around his neck ( he has a very large head so he needs the buttons.). I sat in front of the sewing machine and started to look for a button with a tight zig zag, to my surprise nothing that I tried worked out! It was then that I realized that the one person that could help me, couldn't help me anymore. My grandmother, she used to be a seamstress, and was the one that made me think that buttonholes was something you whipped up in a minute. I had watched her many times. My grandmother has Alzheimers now and I live in the U.S so I can't run over to her place. I can't sit down in front of her old singer sewing machine and whip up a button hole.
It was then that it hit me. I had to learn as much as I could from my other grandmother before it was too late. So I made the most out of things this Christmas. We baked cookies and I started a stitching project.

This is my grandmothers button box! It holds many treasures that are now mine :)

And this is our newest group project in my quilting class! It is going to be a nice heart quilt for Valentines.
Sorry about the bad quality of pictures. But the blog won't let me load any pictures :( So I had to use my webcam

Hello (yes I'm still here)

 

 

I would like to start this blog post by saying Hello from a snowy Sweden.. But, the snow melted

So instead I will say Hello from Sweden!

It has been a whirlwind so far, Christmas, family,good food and snow.

I am sure that it will all find its way to this blog when I stop and collect my thoughts.

But for now I will leave you all with this picture

 

 

It's December!!

is my first thought, yikeeees is my second. Where does the time go I ask myself. Well needless to say I have been busy. Thanksgiving was great, I had a friend over and, yes there was turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and mac'n'cheese.

 James is adjusting to the new normal which hasn't been easy for him. He has had some trouble sleeping which has led to less evening time for me, which in turn has led to less crafting and blogging.. and less tv ( I suppose that isn't a bad thing right?) Well today I went to a counsellor, that deals with deployments. So hopefully she will help James deal with his daddy being gone. Then I took a math test. I think it went ok, but with math you can never really tell. Its not like a regular subject where you can be half right. Either the answer is 2 or it isn't. Either way the test wasn't really important to my overall grade. The important test is next wednesday, and let me tell you. It is really important! The grade on that test will determine whether I get an A or a B in the class! So study a lot it is.

On a happier note: I am leaving for Sweden in two weeks! We are going to be there for Christmas and New years. I can tell that James is getting excited as well. Sweden has lots of snow right now and I can't wait to teach him how to make snow angels and a snow man.

Here are the two quilts that I made for my grandmother. They just need a binding and then they are ready to go!

Ever tried to get a picture of two little boys looking into the camera? Well atleast they are both looking one direction (kinnda) and no one is crying.

 Eli decided that he was going to get my iron and start ironing this pretty floral fabric :) ( don't worry it isn't plugged in)

 Flowers from my husband!