Life with a Golden

Attention cat people: Skim through the dog portion of this post and you will be rewarded with a funny cat picture.

For those of you who don't know the joys of living with a Golden Retriever, they are friendly, cuddly, and eager to please. The downside? The double coat. Our old lady sheds her undercoat twice a year; once in the spring and once in the fall.

So twice a year we go through a ritual (besides the extra vacuuming): two days of combing followed by a bath. Here's our first day of combing:


If you didn't know Miss Samantha Belle LaRue you would think she is relaxed and calm. Actually she's shutting out the world around her. Brush time is no fun!

And all that brushing yields:


A Jaxon-sized pile of hair! Day two will yield a lot loss fur and then the dreaded bath!

But don't think Samantha gets all the attention around here! Artemis tried to relax in the box bottom while Jaxon was playing Chutes and Ladders. He's a little too big to be inconspicuous.


Once Jaxon discovered him relaxation time was over!

Despite the torment of our pets, we've had a good weekend. Friday evening we welcomed our new graduate student class with a picnic at a colleague's farm. Every year we take a hayride around the farm. This year when we stopped at the crest of a hill, another colleague's daughter decided to go for a run and Jaxon went after her.



They made it pretty far.


And Jaxon was wiped out on the ride back.


Saturday we went to a football game. This was Jaxon's first college football game and he made it until halftime. We stayed long enough to see the marching band, and as a band geek, and an alumnae of this particular marching band, that was fine by me.



Charlie worked all day today, so Jaxon and I spent the day cleaning and crafting. It's amazing how a four-year-old thinks he is the wisest person in the house. As we were straightening up his room he asked "Mommy, I can't find my goggles. I responded, "This room is such a mess, I can't say where they are." Jaxon looked me straight in the eye and as clearly as possible he said, "GOG-GLES."

Oh, that's how you say that.

Back to School

I had a big to-do list for today, in preparation for the start of school tomorrow. I *really wanted to get one of my long term WIP quilts off the list. I machine sewed the binding on the front this morning, but I did not get the hand sewing done. Pictures forthcoming.

I did get a couple of things ticked off the list:

Reupholster old rocking chair to donate to Jaxon's preschool:

Fabric from IKEA.

Make a Quilt Around the World block:

Paper piecing pattern here.

Bake some zucchini bread with the sixty tons of zucchini we have from the garden:

Okay, this is banana crunch bread. I bought a bunch of bananas forgetting we already had a bunch.

"Special" Wedding Gifts

How do I define a "special" wedding gift? One that is heartfelt, interesting, and easy on the wallet. As a college professor, I get invited to a lot of weddings of former students -- usually I only know one of the happy couple, and even then not too well. I could buy something from the registry (if I even know where they are registered), but it seems strangely impersonal and personal at the same time:

"Congratulations, Mr. And Mrs. Smith! Mr. Smith, you did very well on last month's final. Here's a set of towels, think of me when you are drying off."

So here is my recipe for a "special" wedding gift. Find an Etsy seller who specializes in prints that strike your fancy -- and our reasonably priced. My favorite is Jellybeans. You might recognize her prints from my Mother's day gift.

Then take your new print to Hobby Lobby (sorry international friends!). HL puts their frames on sale for 50% about every other week.

This set went to a former undergraduate student and his bride.

Notice how well our lime tree is doing? And how I need to sweep the deck? This set cost me $20 for the prints and $15 total for the frames.

And this one went to a graduate student. She and her husband have a son a little younger than Jaxon.



This was $15 for the print, $1 for the matte, and $10 for the frame.

Yay for heartfelt, stress-free gifts!

My laptop is in the shop getting a new USB port, so I have been emailing, surfing, and blog-commenting a lot less. But I have been spending a lot of time with my iPad, and now that my camera connector has come I'm about ready to write an iPad review from a blogger's perspective. Stay tuned.

And some housekeeping:

Could someone make me this sweater? I don't have $400 for a Mario Bros. sweater. Thanks.

I really want to make these cupcakes, but Charlie doesn't like mint chocolate so I would eat them all. Want to come over and share?

-- Post From My iPad

Summer projects and a winner!

I have just over a week until Fall Quarter begins and I am trying to check off a few projects from the to-do list. This week:

Canning. Check.

We had half a bushel of peaches from North Carolina minus as many as we could eat in a week. I thought I would try canning with the rest. I think they were a bit too ripe, everything is a bit runny. But still edible so I put this one in the WIN column.

On the left, runny peach butter; on the right, runny peach jam.

Baby Gifts. Check.

Two coworkers had babies in August, both boys. I made a couple of simple minkee-backed blankets for gifts. Super fast and heartfelt, so also a WIN.



On the left, trucks for Riley; on the right, snails for Chester.

And speaking of wins, I "drew" a name for the Rainy Days fabric.



Eleven corresponds to Mama Bear's comment. Congrats! I'll be emailing you for your address.

-- Post From My iPad

Sunny Days

I've finally finished my hexagon quilt. Most fabric is from Rainy Days and Mondays by melimba and beccabury for Riley Blake. I had a fortuitous problem -- not enough of the charcoal solid I was using in-between the hexies. I improvised some of the yellow print I had on hand to makes suns -- and that's my favorite part!

So I am calling this quilt Sunny Days. And it makes me happy like its namesake.




I used the leftover half hexagons to create a pieced back. Has me thinking of ideas for another quilt...




And I think the shape looks awesome on the back of the couch (see the cat scratcher in the lower left corner? My brother-in-law made it for us and it is worth its weight in gold! Charlie recently had to rewrap it so we could continue to have un-scratched furniture!).

I'm so excited, I want to share some of this adorable fabric line with you.




I've cut a few charms from my scraps, and there are two larger pieces of the green and umbrellas-on-yellow. Make a note in your comment if you're interested and I will draw a winner on Wednesday.

And in case you are on the fence regarding the cute-ness of this fabric, here's Jaxon modeling the scraps...




-- Post From My iPad

Krakatoa!

We returned from vacation with a big to do list. I was in a car accident before we left and the body shop couldn't fit me in until this week, so I had to take my car in and get a rental. Jaxon had his first eye exam and his 4-year-old well-child doctor visit. And of course, it never fails, a string of thunderstorms came through and knocked out power.

Isn't it funny how you forget all the ways you use electricity? I thought, okay, I can't use the internet but my laptop is charged, I can watch a movie. Only the movie I wanted to watch was on Netflix, so I couldn't connect. Our stove is gas, but the ignition is electric, so we ordered pizza. With the air conditioning off it quickly got hot, I thought to myself at bedtime, I'll open the windows and turn on the ceiling fan. Right.

The good thing about our lack of electrical is I had plenty of stitching time. I've finished my inspiration piece for round two of Hoop Up. I decided to go with the porthole theme. Apparently the ship I am on is passing a volcanic island....



I chose a linen blend (color is "lake") and made lots of French knot foliage....



And did something I usually avoid -- embellished with beads. I thought a volcano at night needed some bling!



Now I need to prepare my fabrics for my teammates and I'll be ready to go!

Still vacay-ing...

Only two more days to do this:

...and make these:





Found time to finish this book, SOOOOO GOOOD. Counting the minutes until the third in the trilogy comes out.

-- Post From My iPad

My Best Enemy

Jaxon gave me a big hug today and said in the sweetest voice, "AWWW, you're my best enemy." I have no idea...

We've spent the week at the pool. Jaxon had his first swim lessons, and although he started the week full of fear, by the end he was willing to go down that giant water slide (the one there in the background)...

...about ten times (with mommy of course). Just in time, as we leave for the beach tomorrow. Which means I had a big to do list for the week.

I got all my work stuff done, plus:

• Made two more blocks for Around the World. The one on the left was an experiment in free piecing (I'm not sure how successful) and the one on the right, friendship stars and snowballs.

• Completed my hexagon top.

• Began ideation for the next Hoop Up. Here's what I've come up with so far. None of them are singing to me. Ideas?

Hoop Up Round 2: Portholes?
Originally uploaded by modernjax

Hoop Up Round 2: Kawaii Halloween
Originally uploaded by modernjax

Hoop Up Round 2: Tikis
Originally uploaded by modernjax

Things still to do:

• Finish packing.

• Return phone calls (really, really bad at this).

*sigh*

"I don't understand what you are talking about."

Title: I am a satellite radio junkie. Half the time I don't realize I am singing along. Yesterday Jaxon asked why I was saying those silly words during an MC Hammer song. My response: Because you can't touch this. Jaxon could not comprehend why I wouldn't want him to touch me. This went on for a few minutes (like a bad comedy routine) at which point Jaxon decided he just doesn't understand what I am talking about. As matter of fact as that.

While looking for the above link to "U Can't Touch This" I totally got sucked in to watching old Hammer videos on YouTube. Stupid interwebs.

This week we celebrated a friend's third birthday. I went a bit wild with the theme, Little Red Riding Hood.

I made a tote bag from some super cute Japanese fabric...

...a little red riding hood cape (trimmed in said Japanese fabric because I was a bit short of red in my stash), with my first French seams...

...and a big bad wolf in grandma's bonnet that flips to...

...Red (with strangely long arms).

Happy Birthday, Evie!

"I use my body as a garbage can!"

Title: Uttered by Jaxon during dinner. Charlie made Japanese, and Jaxon was peeling the red outer layer off of his crab stick. He tasted it and decided it wasn't trash after all.

We have been having some crazy heat, and my flowers are really hating it -- but the vegetable garden loves it!

Every day we check the garden and find 2 or 3 more zucchini. I already have 10 cups shredded in the freezer, and I am the only one in the house who will eat unless it's hidden in something else.







This is the first year I've grown Thai chili peppers. I'm going to attempt to dry them. We'll see how that goes.







And after 5 years, our lime tree is finally yielding some fruit! I'm excited for these to mature. Key lime pie? Margaritas?







And now that we survived Jaxon's birthday, I've had a chance to make an iPad cover for our neighbor, Renee...







...and finish this Project Improv triptych. They hang in our foyer, so this is the view I get when I come in the front door. Which, by the way, is much easier to do now that our front steps are done. Photos to come!

-- Post From My iPad

Doot doo doo, doo doo doo doo

That was my rendition of the Super Mario Bros. theme song, which gets stuck in my head *all* the time.

And this doesn't help:

I finished this Saturday, just in time to take a shower and get to a wedding -- and this was the gift. I think the groom will love it -- the bride, not so much.

See those little tootsies at the bottom? Jaxon would not stay out of the picture.




I found the perfect polka dot for the back (so thrilling when I came across it), and I wrote the "label" in one of the white strips.




All boxed up and ready to go, I decided it needed something extra for the bride.




The first time Jaxon met the happy couple he kept running between them. Finally he stopped and exclaimed "You guys make a great bridge!" That's what the pillow says, along with a credit to I'm going to try to get a better photo today when I get to watch them open this!

The pattern for the Mario quilt is from Carolina Patchworks. It was really tedious to make, but worth it in the end.

Also, thanks for all your encouragement on the Heather Ross class. I couldn't find airfare cheaper than $600, and the total for the trip was going to be $1500, or $500 per day. So I am not going, but I have something just as exciting in the pipeline so I am trying not to dwell. And this rainbow popped up after I made the decision it wasn't going to happen, I like to think confirming my decision.




-- Post From My iPad

Progress, Angst, and Events

I mentioned a while ago that we are attempting to improve the curb appeal of our house. The next step is new steps (ha!). Last week the front of our house looked like this :

A 4 year old's fantasy come to life!

Now it looks like this:




Progress! It has regularly been in the 90s this week, so I've been providing our "working guys" (as Jaxon calls them) with lots of popsicles!




A few weeks ago, I visited Cincinnati to see a concert with a friend. On the way back home I stopped at the outlets and got a great deal on this lamp -- with no shade. I spent about a week waiting for the perfect funky-fabulous-but-not-overpriced lampshade to find me. It didn't happen. So I headed to town armed with a coupon for JoAnn and came home with an adhesive lampshade. I pulled a few fabrics from my stash and let Jaxon make the final decision. He chose the octupus print by Heather Ross.




I just happened to have orange ball trim in the closet. The lamp was the finishing touch to this little corner of my sewing room. The dresser is a craigslist find painted orange (the last few pulls are somewhere in the garage). I'm quite pleased...

...but not about THIS news, and apropos that Jaxon chose Ms. Ross's fabric...You may remember back in January when I babbled on about Heather Ross teaching a fabric design course. When I called about the class it had already filled. I got on the waiting list, but with only 18 spots in the class, and me being 9th on the list, I hadn't given it any more thought (or saved my pennies).

Fast forward to two weeks before the class starts, and I get an email telling me a spot has opened up. Oh, I can't tell you the emotional roller coaster I am on! The dreamer: Fabric design as a career is a dream, and to learn from the master, WOWZERS! The practicalist: Airfare and hotel two weeks before an event?!? MUCH too expensive. So I'm torn. Had I been anticipating the trip, and planned ahead for travel, I'd be packed and ready to go...but I have had a good distraction:



...this not-so-little guy turned 4 yesterday. It's hard to believe! Today was his party, and we are all recovering from sugar shock!

-- Post From My iPad

"Take Me To Your Meter!"

Title: what Jaxon believes aliens say.

Whenever I travel I get the urge to make something to take along. I decided I *needed* a bag that would fit my laptop, iPad, dSLR, etc. This one fit the bill...

...almost too well. I overfilled it and popped the cheapy grommets. Totally fixable. I had bought the fabric for a table runner, but it seemed too perfect for a trip to Louisiana. I think I will still have enough for a runner.

I have lots of projects going on right now. I've probably overdone it in the gift department for a wedding I'm attending in mid-July, and Jaxon's birthday party is this weekend. But I did find the time to make the next block in the Quilt Around the World Bee. This one is a little out of my comfort zone, but I thought an Ohio Star would be appropriate.




-- Post From My iPad