Updates

Dear Readership,

I forgot to tell you two important things!

One: I was baptized on the 15th of May! Finally, as I have been putting it off for years. Years! I should have just done it when I went to church in Ohio with all my friends, but I didn't because my mom couldn't be there. Then I was always busy the weekend that church had baptisms and was never brave enough to just go up there when it was open to all. So I was baptized and it was great and I cried and got lots of prayers from my friends there. Jayden was there and now she really, really wants to do it too. We think, mostly, because it's a giant hot tub.

Two: I auditioned for the Worship team at the Vinyard and they accepted me into the Ensemble choir. I went to my first rehearsal last week and was totally blown away. Our leader, Grace, was trained by her mother, a professionally trained vocalist in Korea. She is amazing and I learned so much in that two hour rehearsal. Singing is HARD and I am woefully ignorant. However, all those years of singing to the mirror were helpful in that I don't strain my neck when I'm trying to be loud!

This weekend is the first time I get to sing with the Ensemble at church. We have 4 (FOUR) services so think of me! It's going to be a demanding day. But I'm really excited (and nervous) to be a part of it.

That is all!

Shop Notes

So, I'm finally getting around to posting my latest scrap buster project: Checkbook covers!

Zebra print, because I know people go crazy for that kind of thing!

Innocent Crush

Parisville!

Another Parisville but a bit more subdued.

They can all be found in my shop!

Some Pictures of Flowers...

...That I did not grow.

I never much cared for white lilacs, the purple ones smells better. But I was making myself remember how to photograph white objects. ISO set to 200, f16 and my shutter speed was 160, I believe.

ISO- 200 f 8 and shutter speed at 120 (if I'm remembering correctly)

Jacob needed to touch it! I don't think he knows that roses smell good yet.

Technical Difficulties

I am not even going to explain how I just had to scramble for deleting cookies and figuring out where my Menu Bar went...this is what happens when you don't post to your blog daily and then get locked out when Blogger goes down...over a WEEK ago.

So when I last left you, I was going out to plant the garden. Which we did. And now, 10 days later, we have four rows of corn, one row of lettuce, and 3 wells of cucumbers growing. The carrots and onions are not quite out yet, maybe tomorrow? I also have two pepper plants since the packet of seeds contained exactly TWO seeds. Not 30. The tomatoes are doing well, I found one tiny green globe today, when I went to see if the hail storm ruined anything. A sneaky squirrel was trying to pop in, I hope I scared him off.

Perhaps it's time to make a scarecrow?

We are also in the process of putting in sod, but before we can lay that down, we have to put in a sprinkler system. So I've been "helping" in the loosest sense of the word. Jacob helps by falling down into the trenches and crying about it.

Do you know what muscles you use to dig out trenches with a weirdly shaped shovel? Muscles you didn't know you had, that's what.

Mother's Day

I am so terrible about this! I meant to tell you all about my Mother's Day, and now it's Friday. Bad me.

While Jacob and I were at church, Chris went out and got me a couple bags of organic compost, three tomato plants, and a bunch of seeds for a garden! I've been bemoaning the fact that I do not have one for a long time, so it's great to know he actually listens to me.

We went out to get the rototiller right away, but after Chris struggled with one tiny patch of dirt for over 30 minutes, we decided that we'd have to rent a better tilling machine. Luckily, we got to borrow one for the week and now I have a fourth of the backyard as a garden. Chris tilled up the land and got a truckload of manure that we spread out and it's now ready for planting. We're going to head out and do that as soon as I finish writing.

The 2nd gift I get is that the dogs no longer get the whole backyard to themselves to completely trash! We're going to block off most of it to keep for us. So we're going to be putting in a sprinkler system and sod before the end of this month. It will be so nice to have a place to go play in the mornings or eat out at night. Our front yard is fine, but really tiny. The backyard has just been over run with weeds, stickers and dog poop, so it will be a big change to have something nice out there. But it also means we will have to clean it on a regular basis. And that is not my favorite thing to do!

I hope your day was good as well!

Wanna Talk A Kitty?

I got a new phone last weekend and we have all been playing with it. Jacob is able to play quite few of the games and thus, we all have to share. And consequently, lose the games. Although he did help me win two rounds of Angry Birds.

May=Snow

Although it was snowing on Sunday, these were popping out on Monday morning.

I love tulips. Maybe because they are the first flower to pop up? These are rather late, as lilacs are already in bloom in our neighborhood.

Iris. Once a Kappa, always a Kappa.

Metro Living

Please excuse the photos. I finished this quilt about five minutes after I was supposed to be in the shower before church. But I wanted to have some proof that I made it before handing it off. Unlike the two bags I made with Parisville earlier this week!

My mom asked me to make a baby quilt for a granddaughter of a friend of hers. She is due to have a baby in a couple of weeks, and her baby shower was this weekend.

I only had a day to get this done, so I'm happy that baby quilts are very quick projects. I am totally in love the the Metro Living line by Michael Miller right now, so I picked out some coordinating fabrics with the help of Randi. I used a solid Kona cotton for the backing, but my quilt top was about 5 inches too big for the back so I had to add on some strips to lengthen it. It turned out to be my favorite part. Maybe because it's a rainbow them?

The binding was not planned. I forgot to get a fabric for the binding and I didn't have anything on hand that matched. Until I found the red/white polka dots! I am happy that it was pre-washed and ready to go! I didn't pre-wash the rest of the fabric, but I think that the red could have bled and I would be sad to hear if it was ruined!