Punkins and stress

I woke up feeling pretty punky this morning. I'd better not be coming down with something!!! So... as i sit here shivering in my jammies and a big sweater, i figured i could get a post written! :) In my spare time (LOL is there such a thing.. really??) I started hooking a few punkins. I hooked these while at the track meets. They hook up pretty darn fast, and was able to get one big one done in a couple hours, and two smaller ones done at one meet... I have a hard time just being idle! Anyway... yes.. they ARE wet. I had just steamed them when i took this snapshot. The other day i was on a roll!! I steamed 3 different rugs and these guys!! And then proceeded to bind two of those rugs!! woah! I was pretty proud of myself! :) Here's one of the punkin mats i finished at Wednesday's meet. I just stitched on a thicker (army blanket) wool on the back. Kind of a bear to stitch them on.. but they sure turn out cute!

I am spazzing and stressing this week. September tends to be one of our busier months. With 3 birthdays, school, sports and usually rug hooking camp!! And usually getting ready for the fall hookin to boot! Tomorrow our house will be flooded with a gaggle of 13 year old giggling girls. Why do they call it a 'SLUMBER PARTY' ??? They don't do much "slumbering" !!! Anyway... so running tons of errands, today... and finishing up cleaning the house, wrapping presents and making potato salad for tomorrow. Then at some point i need to start gathering wool for camp - as i leave sunday morning!

Here's what I decided on.

As I've shared before, good primitive florals stimy me - and this has become my own personal challenge for the last few years. And I have had my eye on the Pomegranates, Pineapples and Padulas for a couple years. So let's stop right there for a second, shall we? Do you know the size of that rug??? 39" x 82" . That's a large rug! So doing 'that thing i do' - I hardly ever do anything "half way" - i tend to jump in not just with two feet, but full steam ahead and whole body! LOL A 39" x 82" rug, that intimidates me is a perfect example!! LOL WHY do i do that to myself??? Now.. mind you... that size of rug isn't the intimidating factor - I LIKE large rugs! No.. it's the subject, and so much of it! So duhhh... why don't I tackle something smaller if i'm just learning and experimenting? Probably because, like i said, i tend to totally jump in and tackle things!

Well my girlfriend Jacque saved my hiney! She suggested that I hook something smaller and doable, but still in the floral realm. I was down to the last week, and didn't think i could find something in time! So.. she came to my rescue and said what about this one?

It's called Antique Symmetry by Monika Jones - Folkartlanding.com. Eh... didn't really light my fire... it's not really my style... but.. she was right... it was smaller (23" x 33") ... it has different flowers and would make a great learning piece! AND Jacque had it sitting there at her house!! LOL So I am going to hook on this at camp with Jule Marie -solely to give to Jacque for her birthday in Feburary! :D So this oughta be fun! I have no feelings about the rug at all.. going to give Jule free reign on colors and try to glean as much knowledge as I can in the process!! I'll let ya know how it goes!!

Oh.. and one last little tid bit... this cracks me up. I got busted "doing that thing i do" two days ago! Because of course, it's crunch time... i NEED to be creative! So.. i started a fun little project -it has to stay a secret right now, as the person it's for reads my blog! And just HAD to get it started NOW - even though i don't have to give it to her for another month!! (go figure!) And of course i have been doodling like a mad woman. What is it about time constraints that open the flood gates of creativity??????!!!!!! I have been on a dry spell for a little while now - and all it took was to have 20 things going on at once - and boom!! LOTS of ideas and motivation! LOL Yes.. i agree. I must be nuts!

Oh.. and Jojo - I'm so sorry i haven't posted pics of the laundry room yet!! :( It is done, (well, except caulking around the toilet ) and getting danny to put the chain in the drop down shelf! So I will get pictures taken and up as soon as I get back from camp! (and of course after i have a chance to clean it, since my kids are dirty little monkeys!) Deal? :)

Hope you all have a wonderful day! Say a little prayer for me that the Lord keeps me healthy!! I reallllllyyy don't want to go to camp sick!!

xo Bren :)

Prizes and Surprises

PRIZES

Dan and I went to an auction about 2 weeks ago. Loads of fun! I haven't been to an auction for ..oh... 8 or so years?!? In this case it was because he was was selling a bunch of stuff - so we had to stay for the whole day! That was a LONG day! LOL

But.... even though i went in there with only the intention to watch, and not buy, i did cave on 2 small items! One was a box of old textiles, linens, tea towels and a big chunk of paisley was in there!! How could I pass that up?? Now i don't know enough about paisley to know which kind is which, and what is worth what. I just know i like to hook with it, thanks to Cynthia Norwood! :) I spose i ought to ask her if this is "the right kind" ? (only paid $7 for that box of goodies)

And then this awful 60's velour broken stool. LOL

Yes people I bought this, and consider it a PRIZE!! LOL

No.. it has no antique value, to anyone else it looks like trash to be thrown away. haha and i have been scouring garage sales for almost 2 years trying to find one similar! At a garage sale i was prepared to pay.. mm.. $2 - maybe up to $5 ! LOL Yes, i'm cheap, especially when garage saling!

But NOT finding one for this long, and then seeing one at the auction - the value of it to me had gone up! haha... i cannot believe i paid $15 for this broken little thing!! But I am still glad i did, and don't regret it one bit. So there! :) I am going to hook a little rug to recover it with, and redo the base, and then it will be my hooking stool. Yeehaw! I desperately need one to prop my feet up on when hooking on my couch. I'm short. Couch sinks in. Feet swingin in the breeze. Not good for my back, this was a NEED people!!

SURPRISES!

My friend Kelley and i did a swap a while ago that benefitted both of us. I sent her wools, and she was going to send me the new Maggie Bonanomi book. :) So I was expecting that in the mail. So when a bigger box showed up, from Kelley I was confused at first. You don't need a big ole box for a book! LOL

So imagine my surprise when i opened it up, and saw something else wrapped in there! As I unwrapped it... oh heart be still!! This darling darling quilt emerged!! This is the sweetest little quilt! I fell in love immediately! Little 2" squares, all handsewn and quilted, in an array of homespuns and calicos, and best of all - lots of RED!! :)

I was soo touched! I have been smiling since it arrived! I think you can click on the pic to make it a little bigger. Isn't it gorgeous?!!?!

Right now I have it on my kitchen table, but I don't think it will stay there very long. The sun shines in and hits about a 5th of the length, and I don't want it to bleach out! But there are many different places in my house that this preceious little gem can reside as the colors are just perfect! I think next it will travel to my living room, over the back of a chair, and then maybe on the little antique table... the possibilities are endless!

Thank you again Kelley!! I love love love it!!! :)

Hope you all are enjoying the beginnings of fall!

Blessings, Bren :)

Dan's Birthday

Since I haven't been blogging... just too busy... there are many things to catch up on! Many of you read my blog because of rug hooking... and several family members read it to keep up on our activities, and family pics. I use it as sort of a journal and method of sharing :) So forgive me when I go totally family oriented, and no crafty stuff for weeks at a time! And vise versa! Dan's birthday was last week :) And somewhere along the line we kind of challenged ourselves to think outside the norm, and try to come up with fun things that we wouldn't do for ourselves! We don't need for anything. Why add to all the "stuff" we've already accumulated and don't really need? Know what i mean? So anyway.. this year i was really short on ideas!!! And wasn't able to pull it all together until the last minute! (yah.. 4 days before is really the last minute!!!) So i was a bit spaztic at that 4 day mark... wondering if i could make it happen! This is what i came up with :) Dan has ALWAYS wanted to go sky diving!! yes... jump out of an airplane... he doesn't believe anything would ever go wrong! Well... needless to say, i am farrr too in love with this man, and even the possibility of something going wrong and him leaving me because of something so stupid, just sends me over the edge! Call me a worry wart - or whatever you want - but c'mon!! I'm just being realistic!! Anyway... there is an alternative here in Colorado! And the first time i found out about it, i immediately wanted to do this for Danny!! But then... thought.. what if this just fuels the fire, and makes him want to do it even more, for real? Well i got over that part this year! LOL And I took him to the "Indoor Skydiving" place! (click on that to see more.) This place is SOOO COOL!!!!!! They have this humongous fan/air tunnel that the building is built around. You get a trainer who goes in with you and teaches you. As you advance you learn a bunch of the little tricks, motions, acrobatics, etc. It's pretty amazing! These pics are pretty horrible.. the glare off the air tunnel didn't really allow me to capture a good shot! He had a total of 4 minutes of "fly time". It was pretty darn cool!! And he loved it - and also realized that now that he's experienced this, he's glad he didn't just go straight to true sky diving! Said he would have totally "wasted" the jump, not knowing how such little movements can affect EVERYTHING !! But yes... i fear he might become a bit of an addict! LOL Talk about an adreniline rush!! Also... Dan's uncle Don introduced us to Geocaching. Oh man! Let me just preface the rest of this post with "yes... we be nerds!" LOL and as my youngest daughter has said to me ... "mommy... we ALL bees nerds sometimes!" haha! ok.. getting a little sidetracked... The easiest way to describe it, is like a modern day, ongoing. huge, scavenger hunt! Or easter egg hunt.. treasure hunt... whatever you want to call it! It's just the neatest thing! And Dan and i LOVE scavenger hunts!! There are over 650,000 hidden caches around the world. Little teeny tiny micro logs all the way up to boxes of "treasures". All hidden.. under our noses, just waiting to be found! There is a large community of people that do this regularly - and i'd never even heard of it!! People plan their vacations around their caching... add extra travel time in for going off on a hunt when travelling across the state, or where ever! Check it out at www.GeoCaching.com - put in your zip code and see how many are within 10 miles of your home! Bet you'll be surprised!! :) So Dan's really been wanting to actively do this... as a couple, as a family, and even off on his own when he's across the state on business. So I got him a GPS unit for his birthday. :)

To locate the caches, you are given the latitude and longitude of the cache. Once you get to that location... the hunt is on! It's actually harder than it sounds!! We are still such noob's to this.. and our ignorance is just cracking us up! To seasoned geocachers, they can view the area and determine pretty closely where they think it will be hidden. But then there are always the clever hiders... you never know where you might have to look! And the KEY is doing it without being obvious and giving away the secret to observers! These guys were looking for a cache in Australia... and their post about it was pretty funny!! Check it out!

Dan and I spent the whole day on our scooters... hunting caches within a mile of our house. There were 9 all within a mile! Had a ball!! Then went "skydiving", and home for a juicy steak dinner with the family. :) It was a pretty awesome day!

This last Sunday after church, we took the kids caching and turned them onto the thrill of the hunt! There were 3 or 4 in a park that we used to live by. Oh my! We spent 4 hours traipsing around and hunting! It was TONS of fun!! Just being outside on a beautiful day... being together as a family, and doing a scavenger hunt along a creek, with tunnels and lots of wild life... it was perfect! :)

That's it for today. I'll be posting about my auction finds from last week, tomorrow!

Hope you have a wonderful day! xo Bren :)

Ps... Tammy... I can't help but think of you and kenny with all those awesome trails and lakes you take the dogs to - how fun to treasure hunt at the same time in that area!! LOL.. or are you guys not as nerdy as us?? :D

And Michelle - with as much as you travel and run and bike?!? You would be marking them all over the world!!

Oops almost forgot! Got this pic from Gav the other day... a stormy day in St. Thomas.

Sneak peek! I'm almost done!! Woohoo!! Just have to fill in the corners and then steam :)

My Baby Has Flown...

Well my baby has flown away. :( My constant companion of 18 years... all the trials, endurance, patience, discipline, understanding, arguments, guidance, teaching, hope and love has "paid off". Yes... it's paid off, in that I KNOW he will do great, out in the big bad world. He has great morals, and a great head on his shoulders. He's extremely intelligent, and extremely funny. He knows respect, honesty, and God. And this is just the jumping off point for him. There are sooo many great things to come!!!! I am SO excited for him!!! So.... why am I so sad? I know in my heart this was the right thing for him to do. He made the right choices of those in front of him!! And I know there will be many more for him to make! Maybe.... maybe it's just because I know that under all that "man hair" (that he's sooo proud that he can now grow! lol) is still the little boy that is nervous, and scared, and unsure of himself. One that I still want to protect. He is my first born. My baby. And yup... i'm still adjusting! He left on the 9th. It's only been 6 days. I will adjust into it... right? It's just so different than them living across town.. or even a state or three away. I know that we would SEE each other occasionally. With him being in the Virgin Islands... that probably won't be happening much. And definitely not often. So... yah.. kinda sad still. :( I was trying to take a few snapshots of him the day before he left. We were sitting here in the office dorkin around, making jokes, being serious, and both just kind of in a state of anxiety about him leaving. Well - #1 he HATES having his picture taken. (gee... wonder where he gets that from??) #2 - he ALWAYS makes dorky faces at the camera instead of just being real.. or even a cheesy real smile! #3 -he normally finds a book or paper or furniture to hide behind when i have a camera in my hand! LOL But this day... i had him cornered.. literally. And when he would make a dorky face, and i would see a real smile in there, i'd snap the camera - that takes wayyy too bloody long to actually TAKE the darn photo!! lol So he would hear it click and then change his face! grrrr! So since he gave me such a hard time, i think it's only fair to share some of the many faces of Gavin with you! (and noo please let's not talk about the fu-man-chu beard.. k? He's not a total punk like it makes him look! LOL! But HE thinks it's THE BOMB!! sigh... he'll figure it out after he's rejected for 2 or 3 jobs.. hmm... mebbe 4 ?) The first picture on the pile is Gavin when he was 6 years old and sooo proud to be in school! And yes... I do still see him that way sometimes! :(

Hope you all have a wonderfully blessed day! And please continue to pray for those in Texas facing the devesation of hurrican Ike!!!

Pics of Bay at Track Meet

Yes.. i'm alive. :) Just been crazily keeping up with life... track meets, trombone lessons, gavin leaving, birthdays... I have tons to blog about, but just haven't had much time here at home! So will be trying to catch up! Wish i knew how to make a little mini slide show of all these pics, so i could just post the one unit and it would go thru each pic automatically, instead of taking up so much space! But unfortunately i don't know how!! Below are pics from the track meet... Bay is coming into his own!

400m relay.... Thirsty!! Tired!! :) This is one of the coolest pics to me! I am no photographer!! But capturing this moment in time, when big brother took little sister down to sit with his team and just hang out with them...how special is that to her??!!! 2nd top tooth poof gone!

Cracks me up the lithping problem when they have no teeth in front!! LOL

I'm kind of a weirdo... i LOVE back shots of kids. Walking away.. holding hands.. walking down hallways... whatever! I just think it makes a statement. I have a really special one of Gavin in middle school, and Calli, who had just learned how to walk... walking down his school hall together. It grabs my heart everytime i see it! Bye Bay! You're definitely #1 in my book!

Weds track meets

Been busy lately :) I forgot to bring my camera last wednesday to Bailey's first track meet. So again, I used my phone - not the best pics in the world - but at least i was able to capture a moment here and there! :) The sun was beating down on us from 3:30-6:30 - about 98* that day, and we were all sweltering!! I had brought bottled waters, thinking it was only going to be about an hour long. LOLOLOL yah... ok!! So we learned our lesson!! Also, the kids have youth group at 7 clear across town. Sooooo it was run run run and eating fast food (gag). So today, I packed a cooler with a bunch of gatorade, and made a bunch of submarine sandwhiches, some chips and a water cooler!! Yeehaw! We're in business! Hoping Danny will bring his (way better than mine) camera and get some good shots of Bay this afternoon! That's Bay chuggin along in a relay race - coming in second!

Calli was HOT and sweaty. LOL this pic makes her look like she's almost in pain!? Poor thing!

She lost her other front tooth last night! I will be posting a pic either later tonight or tomorrow. Now i have to RUN!!