The Blizzard of 2010

The mail man lived up to the postal service motto today!!

I think I have a van under all that snow somewhere!

Yes - those are normal-sized mail boxes -- the snow is that deep in places.

I finally let Timothy out for a little while.  He was going stir-crazy inside.  He was so glad to run in the snow.

Jonathan began the process of digging out late this evening.

Hannah's Holocaust Memorial Quilt

Hannah has been studying WWII in history class.  She was assigned to make a memorial for the Holocaust victims.  After many days of trying to decide what to do, she finally decided on a memorial quilt.  She planned it all out with each of the fabrics representing something very specific.

We went to JoAnns and found the fabrics, and then she came home and worked for 6 hours straight Sunday afternoon on this quilt wall hanging.   She finished it up last night (Monday night).  Here is the paragraph she included with the quilt that explains the significance of each part of the quilt.

"My Holocaust memorial project is about Krystallnacht- also known as The Night of Broken Glass. I have made a quilt to represent the significant destruction the Nazis caused on Krystallnacht. The flames on the quilt represent all the fire in the Jewish homes that the Nazis set to fire. The dark blue starry sky fabric represents the night of Krystallnacht. The sparkly white fabric represents the broken, shattered glass and busted windows. The fringed edges of the quilt represent the massive destruction that the Nazis caused that night. Also, in the bottom right-hand corner I have a Star of David to represent the many Jews that suffered on Krystallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass."

Camo Card

My friend, Anne's, husband was deployed to Iraq last week.  She asked some of her friends to send him cards of encouragement.  I knew just the card I wanted to make.  I had bought a couple of yards of this fabric quite a few years ago on the $1 a yard table at Walmart.  I always thought it might come in handy one day, and it finally did tonight.  I made this just like my other quilted cards.  The only difference is that it's only from one fabric and not 8 or 9 like I usually use.  I still think it has a pretty neat quilted affect.

Wearable Art

Kurt had a business meeting yesterday afternoon, so Patrick and Bridget spent the afternoon with us.  We had a shirt-painting party.  It was a lot of fun.  I had gotten shirts at A.C. Moore and pulled out the fabric paints.  We had shirts and paints spread all over the kitchen floor. 

I knew the girls would love it, but the boys loved it just as much.  It was fun to watch them each express their personalities through their designs.

Timothy immediately decided to make a sponge bob on his shirt and he did a great job.  Bridget's favorite video game is "My Sims Agent", so she wrote that on her shirt.  Hannah loves music, so her shirt was covered with multi-colored music notes. 

Patrick did the logo of his favorite video game, and I painted multi-colored hearts all over my shirt.

The Weinermobile!

After I dropped Jonathan off at indoor percussion practice this morning I decided to do the grocery shopping early.  I had just finished up my shopping, and as I was leaving the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile pulled into the parking lot.  I was so excited.  I've never seen it in person before.

I took a couple of picture with  my phone and then hurried home to get Hannah and Timothy and grab my real camera.  Timothy was already dressed and ready to go, but Hannah was still in her PJs.  She wanted to see the weinermobile, so she just put a coat on over her PJs and jumped in the van.

Hannah didn't want to get out and look at it close-up, but Timothy and I did.  We even got to look inside.  They gave Timothy a weinnie whistle and I asked for one for my daughter in her PJs in the car.  When I asked, the Oscar Mayer guy said "sure" and then look at Hannah in the van and waved.  Hannah was *so* embarrassed, but it was so funny!

After we got home, we decided to make hot dogs for breakfast -- Oscar Mayer hot dogs of course!

T-Shirt Fun

Kurt has a project management meeting for most of the day tomorrow, so Patrick and Bridget will be spending some time with us.  There's not a whole lot to do on a freezing Saturday afternoon in January, but I wanted to have something fun and special to do with them.

Then an idea came to me.  Jonathan found out that he needed a black t-shirt for part of his uniform for his indoor percussion competition on Saturday.  I told him that we would go to Walmart.  Then he said that he was told at band that A.C. Moore had black t-shirts for pretty cheap.

That's when the idea hit me.  We could decorate t-shirts.  They were on sale for $2.50 at A.C. Moore.  I got everyone a t-shirt in a different color.   Tomorrow, I'll pull out the fabric paints and t-shirts and we'll have a lot of fun.  You gotta admit that for $2.50 per child, that's pretty darn cheap entertainment!!  Not only that, but they'll have something to wear when it's all said and done.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.  It's going to be a lot of fun.

My Private Quilting Bee

I did something I don't usually do tonight.  I didn't bother with housework or any responsibilities.  I took Jonathan to indoor percussion practice, and as soon as I got home, I began enjoying my own private quilting bee.  I decided to use my "Quilting Diva" Moda Charm pack to make a quilted purse.  I had *sew* much fun making it. 

I started by arranging the squares to make 2 separate 9-square mini-quilts.   Then I proceeded to make 2 small quilts - one for the front, and one for the back.  It was really alot of fun because it was so quick and easy.

Then I made the rest of the purse just as I have made any purse in the past.  The only thing I did differently was to add a pocket on the inside of this purse.  I have never done that before.  I am

not sure why because it was really simple. 

For this particular purse, I just used one of the extra 5" charm squares.  I turned under the edges, pressed, and then sewed onto the lining.  It is just the perfect size for a cell phone or keys or anything else that I don't want to get lost into the bottomless pit.

This went a lot faster than I thought it was, and I am looking forward to making more of these.