New member of the family!!!

My new family member is not the baby...she is staying in for a few months yet.  I finally bought myself a DSLR!  I have been saving up for about 2 years and I have been waffling about which one to get. Well, Canon (I am a die hard Canon fan) came out with one that has video AND all the other non-professional bells and whistles and I had to get it.  
It is the Rebel T1i and I love it.  It did take some gentle prodding from my nice husband (have I thought of a nickname for him yet?) because I hate parting with large sums of money, especially on technology items. (It seems like as soon as I buy something, the next day it comes out faster and cheaper...)
It was time, so I did it, I went and bought my first camera.  (It seems so silly to me, but all of my other cameras have been presents from my in-laws or my husband, they are good to me.)
Our garden is growing beautifully.  Two years ago I received a "Scent garden" from Schreiner's Iris farm. (I didn't realize that bearded irises were scented, let alone had many different scents.)  At first I was thinking where am I going to put these....arghhh more work, blah, blah blah.  Eventually I put them right in our food garden, but close to our dining room window.  
This year I have fallen truly in love with them.  Each color has a different scent and they are the most beautiful colors. (This is a calla lily that I planted for my husband.)
(These are the only ones that I had from a different year.)
(Nope, this is just a shout out to all of the weeds that got pulled this weekend.  The ability of weeds to propagate never ceases to awe me.)
Here is one...
Here is one that I thought was going to be ugly, but it is so lovely.  I love the way the sun shines through the ruffles.  I can't decide what the scent is, but it smells nice.  The dark purple/almost black ones (above) smell like anise. (which I like the smell of but NOT the taste.)
I especially like the way this new camera does faces....I think my little (but getting SO BIG ) Blondie is so sweet.
I must get on to some sewing for my pattern making class.  I only have 2 sessions left this term.  It is so great, but I am so challenged in this area.  Really challenged.  I am also a bit sad that I will probably not be able to continue in the series of classes until next year, because I think with the baby coming I am going to be sorta busy.  We will see.

I have an exciting anniversary coming up, so stay tuned, there will be a give away.  (Who doesn't love a give away?!!)

Peace this week.

JMB

Healthy this week...little chicks growing bigger...

The sun has been out this week, and so have the chicks.  They are only 3.5 weeks old, but they are growing feathers and flapping around (we HAVE GOT to get a move on that coop.)  We did find our old dog kennel and it makes a nice little area in the backyard for the boys and chicks to commune.
The little guys are kind of looking vulture-ish as they get their feathers in.  It is only spooky when you walk in to the garage and the scary black one is perched on the water bottle and peeking at you with one eye.
The chicks are teaching us all about being gentle and moving slowly, you don't want a smooshed little bird.  The second afternoon we took them out the black ones stopped trying to run through the wire and they flapped around sometimes landing on Blondie's head.  He was enchanted.
Our dog is not the biggest fan, but just wait... in a few more weeks I am totally going to let him in with the chicks and they will let him know what is what.  Yep, that is our little dog, a lot of bluster and then a little dog.
Chicks, yes, they are MUCH fun!

JMB

Dark days are behind us, PLEASE!

Ah the innocence of the last post.... the frivolity, the carefree nature...

Little did I know that only one day later the dreaded gastroenteritis would darken our doors... leaving no grown-up unscathed. It has been a dark, dark time...Let us return to a happier time, when a kind mail person came right to the door and delivered all of these wonderful presents...a BEAUTIFUL quilt from the famous Quilt Dad (I have now been the lucky recipient of 2 of his fabulous quilts...  I knew that these memories would cheer me up).  He was my secret partner for Doll Quilt Swap #6.  (a great, fabulous group of quilters.)

And he totally spoiled me with a whole slew of presents...  It was a really nice way to start a Saturday.  One of my favorite things was a little notebook that says "Trust your crazy ideas" it is full of graph paper!!!  What a great idea for a quilter!  I am going to keep my eyes open for little notebooks like this in the future.  Thanks John!  I would happily be your partner anytime!!!
Here is my next stop as I walk down swap memory lane....  a lovely chocolate and pink log cabin/courthouse steps mini from Mari, one of my Flickr friends from this swap.  I really like the pink in it.  Thanks Mari!

I was going through my stash today to prepare for my month of Another Quilting Bee and I realized that I just don't have that much pink fabric.  I guess there are so many pinks that are too treacly and sweeeeeet (with kind of a screech at the end) and so I am just not drawn to them.  I was surprised at how much orange and green I have.  I never thought of myself as an orange and green type of person, but apparently I am attracted to those colors of fabric.  

One thing I was able to do the past few days besides lay around with the pukes was read "The Host" by Stephanie Meyer (of "Twilight" fame)  It was great sci-fi for me.  I couldn't stop reading it and that is always nice when you are to weak and sore to get out of bed.  I also just finished Maeve Binchy's latest "Heart and Soul" and it was classic Maeve.... the colorful Irish, some immigrants thrown in for good measure, old characters mixed with new ones, just a nice, easy, entertaining read.

So, today I am doing pretty good, I hope you are too.

JMB

Make it work!

I am finally getting the third disk of Project Runway Season 4 (?) (I think...) and I am SOOOO excited.  I already know who wins (the trials of netflix vs. TV) but I love seeing the outfits and how the designers strive to "Make it work!"  For those of you who do NOT watch the show (You should) but that is what Tim Gunn always sez to the hopeful designers, even when it looks as though their outfit is NOT going to work. (No, not for a million years.)

I thought of this yesterday as I made Pants Pattern Trial III.  I was bending over the too low kitchen table and my blasted sheet (the "muslin" if you will...) kept falling off the table.  I finally turned to my good friend "Canada Dry" for a third hand.  It worked nicely.  I wish I could say that Trial III was a slam dunk, but alas, it was not....

Wait, 

No, really wait

On the way to class, I had the most obvious epiphany (does that even make sense?) what am I doing trying to get a "fit" to a pair of pants during my second trimester???   HELLO?!!!!  OK, alert the obvious police...  not only is my waistline growing exponentially, but the hips and the hind quarters are not too far behind.  Ahhhh, the joys of pregnancy and motherhood.  I have been honing this pattern for 4 weeks now....I am sure that I have gained at least 7 pounds and 100 inches in that time.  When I shared my revelation with my classmates, sure they all chuckled, "You are so funny, Jessica."...but I really didn't feel like anyone understood the futility of well-fitted pants to a pregnant woman.... it is just not going to happen.  I am content with using my most current re-draft and some STRETCHY fabric and calling it a day.  That is what I am going to do and we are just going to be fine with that.  My dream is that some day I will actually make an article of clothing that will look and fit me well enough that I can show you all.

A girl can have a dream.

JMB

Edited to include:

I think I fixed my picture issue thanks to some rockin' blogger helpers in the layout and template forum.  I am so happy, so happy. (because it worked!)

JMB

so... sometimes you just get what you get...

I tried something different....don't try it yourself, especially after playing a million games of Wordtwist on facebook...

Just don't do it... don't.

Don't mess with your blog template, just because you are greedy and wanted bigger pictures.  Don't do it, and then don't forget to save your old business, NO NO NO NO...

I don't know what it going on here, I just don't like it.

I think that I will have some cheese and crackers and watch last weeks Gossip Girl.  It is trashy, I like trashy.  It helps me forget the bad, bad things that I have done....

Like mess up my blog...

boo

hoo

JMB

"Like a dog meowing..."

I don't know how my husband finds these things, but he keeps sending them to me and I have to share!

JMB

Midweek...and new visitors that are here to stay.

For 3+ years I have been talking and talking about my chickens...you know those ones I am "going to" get and have in the back yard?  I talk about the eggs and how great they are and how great it will be to have some slug eaters, and blah, blah, blah.  Well, I finally took the boys to the feed store and reserved some chicks.  I did it after school pick up one day.  I did it just so I couldn't back out again.... and here they are, come home to roost.
The little yellow ones are definitely the cutest, mostly because the black ones are always trying to poke their eyes out.  It must be the mother in me, I am very protective of them and I chide those mean black ones.  The yellow ones are Buff Orpingtons and so far their names are Chirp and Twitter (no, not the social networking site)
This one here is queen of the mean chicks.  I understand the need for a pecking order, but the eyes??  Can't you peck each other's feet??  Please?  The black ones are Barred Rock and their names haven't stuck yet.  My sister wants to name one Charlie, I don't know why.

When I told my husband that I FINALLY got the chicks...he kind of smiled in a strained way, I think that he probably thought that I was just a-talking about it again this year...  I totally understand where he is coming from...with two wild boys and another baby on the way plus a kitchen remodel...what are we going to do with these birds? 

Well, after a week, some thought, moving of chicks....he came to me today and said "Those chicks are really cute.  I held one today...even though I said that I wouldn't...they are really cute.  How about the boys and I clean out their box today?"  See, I knew that he would want to be a chicken farmer too...it just takes a little time!

JMB

Horseplay and DQS6, finished and sent!!!!

Here is my latest offering to the swap gods...  Man, I had such a hard time starting it, but once it got going, it was finished before I knew it.  I decided that I could share some of my vintage rickrack, because it was just the perfect color for that Moda repro fabric.  I love rickrack, my friend Emily recently posted a fancy way to zest up your flops.  I might do the same...love the rickrack!
Here is a tiny peek of another swap... I have to say that I felt like these two quilts were on the "sweeter" side of my quilting talents.  I don't venture over there very often, but I did like visiting for a while.

To be honest, I had picked my fabrics for these swaps and for weeks I got NO WHERE.  I just kept staring at the fat quarters and they were mocking me with their cute matchy-matchy-ness.  Finally, I just made some 9-patches, really a great block.  A wonderful block that has really stood the test of time....oh the 9-patch, I sing to the a song of thy greatness....

OK, lost myself for a moment.  But, if you are every having a quilting block (no pun intended!!) I think, MAKE a 9-patch---you will use it sometime!

Horseplay:

My mother-in-law has befriended the lovely Teddy (pictured here).  This is amazing only for the fact that she has been afraid of horses for the last... well, her whole life.  Well, she has been doing a bit of horse therapy and is loving it.  Teddy is an old dude, but very friendly and understanding of people who have been less than horse-crazy.  She goes out to the barn a few times a week and grooms him and enjoys the outdoors.  Last week we got to go out with her and the boys were just tickled to play with the horses.
They both did such a great job of quietly feeding Sparky. (a friend's horse)  We all liked him because he is a very delicate eater, he has very gentle lips and I was only a bit terrified that my blondie's tiny fingers would get munched off.
See, look at those lips...very delicate!
Here is my most recent horse crush.... Odin.  HE IS SO GORGEOUS!!!!  He is (I believe) half Friesian and half Mustang.  He is very young, but SO pretty.  (Small background... I always wished for a horse when I was a kid, I read every book and magazine I could get my hands on...I would even wake up in the morning and peek outside with the hope that my prayers had been answered and a horse was tired to our tree.  Long story short, when I was 11 (?) we moved to the country and bought a pregnant horse.  It was a dream to have a horse to ride AND a baby horse to train.  When my parents got divorced we had to sell them and it was pretty sad... I still miss them.  I love to go and visit barns and things like that for the great smell and getting to be around these beautiful animals.  Someday...someday again...)

It was fun to share my horsey love with the boys, but it also made me wonder how on earth my parents let my brother and I ride up in woods alone?  It was great, I loved it... but I don't know if I could let my kids do it.  It is probably all about baby steps... maybe after they learn to ride a bike.

JMB