some lovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hey friends! From the bloggy world chatter, I've learned that Google Reader will soon be gone. So people are turning to alternative readers-- enter Bloglovin.

If you happen to read my blog, or any other blog, through google reader, you should check out bloglovin, because it will basically move all of your blogs over so you can still keep up with them long after Google Reader says peace out.

Just CLICK ON THIS HERE LINK to get the party started.

And, thank you Sarah, for me getting me all squared away!

My friends call me Valerie

Hi friends! Friday's are usually very woo-hoo, but with my husband gone again, it's less of a woo and more of a boo. So happy boo-hoo Friday peeps. I am watching Battleship {I DON'T KNOW}, sucking on a cough drop, and playing Song Pop on my phone. Etsy might  be open in the background.

This week was an eventful one. I changed my name- ladies and gentleman, meet Princess Consuela Bananahammock, but I'm going to have my friends call me Valerie. Okay, not really- I merged my maiden name with my husband's last name, after 12 years of marriage. But-- and this is a fun but- I do have all of my techie things (laptop, ipad, phone) attached to the name Princess Consuela Bananahammock. Which was intended to be a little funny that would make me giggle. Little did I know that assigning it to my Apple ID would be a little embarrassing when heading to the Apple store, and they call out Princess Consuela??? Oh HI, here I am!

Back to my busy week. Changed my name, got a VA drivers license, got a tooth extracted- during which, I am pretty sure my dentist hit me in the face with a crow bar-- I had my eyes closed, so it could have been a mallet, or even a big hole puncher (I once used that when I couldn't find a hammer. My husband thought it was weird).... Tyler has the flu- again, I finished piecing the baby's quilt top, I organized all my fabric, my knee started acting jerky- again, I got a new job responsibility, I got Tyler's germs, and I said goodbye to my husband. He's only gone for a little bit this time, which I am sure I am supposed to be thankful for, but really I'm just bummed he had to leave again and I may have given the Navy the middle finger today. I said MAY.

Organized fabric makes me so happy.

I had high hopes of being productive with my sewing while Jeremiah's gone, but with the knee being craptastic again, I find myself wishing I had a sewing area set up in my bedroom. That's sexy, right?

I have all these ideas buzzing through my head and I want to start working on them before baby boy shows up. (Like he's just gonna ring the doorbell and have a tiny little suitcase and the necessary paperwork...) I at least had the foresight to write my ideas down as they have popped into my head. Is it totally weird that I am planning a quilt based on a cute cup I bought from Target? The voice in my head says yes, considering I have yet to actually COMPLETE a quilt. I have discovered that the piecing and sewing the top, I love.

Quilt Top #1

Quilt Top #2 (my favorite)

The rolling the thing out on the floor to baste and then actually quilt, I am freaking out about. The other night at 3am I was checking out sewing machines online because I am such an *avid quilter* now (I said avid to make me sound more legit) and emailed my husband this handsome Juki  I've had my eyes (both) on for a while. It's only about a grand.....and St. Patricks day IS coming up, sooooo. For St. Patty's day, I am getting my husband a baby, in case you were wondering. So it seems like a fair exchange. And my gift hurts more. Does anyone know if Amazon has layaway? And if you could lay-something-away, say, for 6 years?

I just had to stop typing to shout down to my children "All four of you are inside the house, right?". I thought I heard a door open, but I got four yeses in response. Moving on.

My birthday is coming up. In August. Today, I dreamily planned my perfect birthday party. I'd have all my lovely girlfriends, near and far, over to my house (but not this house, the great big farm house my husband is going to buy me for Earth Day) and we'd have a fun night in the yard filled with wine or sweet tea, Bunko and poker, and a playlist of MY making. Under a starry sky, paper lanterns, candles all around, yummy food to eat, chatting with my favorite people, 2Pac and Ace of Base crooning in the background, and a couple dozen babysitters to corral all the little people. Doesn't that sound wonderful? And then the next day we could go shopping at a craft store and hit up Target, and end the day with a bonfire on the beach.

Oh, Target. I'm in love with you.

Speaking of wonderful, I was also thinking how neat it would be to have a little sewing/crafty club, like a book club, where ladies get together over the phone, by texting, using IG, through blogs, or whatever, to tackle a sewing or crafty project. Say, for example, the first week of the month, the topic is emailed out (an apron, for instance), the middle weeks we share pictures and questions and tips back and forth via whatever forum works best, and then the final week of the month we post our pictures of the finished product. No rush, because we would have an entire month, and we get to benefit from learning from others and being inspired by the creativity of others. Also, we get to stay motivated because we are held accountable. Does something like that already exist? It wouldn't surprise me if I was the last to know. I just found out that Seal and Heidi Klum are no longer together?!?!

If it doesn't exist, is anyone interested? There are a bunch of wonderful FREE tutorials on the www and we could use items we have on hand to save money. If that sounds like fun, would you let me know?




This is not the back of my head. I don't know whose back of the head this is, I found it on pinterest. But I really love the back of this head. My hair is long enough now to make the back of my head look like this. 


Okay, time for me to round up the herd and get them all ready for bed.

xo
Valerie

blurting again.

Hi guys!



I couldn't sleep last week, so I took pictures of myself and then shared them on IG. Silly selfies are the best kind of selfies, in my opinion.

My husband came home early! Can I get a whoop whoop?



He has to leave again soon, but I am so happy we get him back for a bit. It was only 10 days, but that was 9 days too many for me. I really like it when he's home. Really, really. And also, he got home just in time to help me cope with the craziness that was this past week.

Want to hear something funny? I am able to laugh at the irony now, so I can share it. On another night of not sleeping, I created a little list of things I asked my IG peeps to answer, to get to know more about them.



I answered for myself, too. I shared that Blow Pops ranked up there as my favorite candy.



So it is sort of grossly comical that a few days later I bit into a blow pop and BROKE my dang tooth. My #5 in case you're dental-curious. The dang tooth broke to the gum line, leaving the nerve exposed and causing big giant pain and a little bit of WHY GOD WHY cries.
There will be no picture of the tooth situation. You'll just have to trust me that it's super hot. I'm brining hillbilly back. Them other smilers don't know how to act. I got a gaping hole and that's a fact.....

I had some pretty good, but irregular, contractions tonight. I was sorting and folding my fabric when the first one hit and made me sit down. Then another, and Jeremiah noted the time. Then another 8 minutes later, and he got me a jug of water and told me to drink it and sit. I had a minute of nervousness. I'm just 31 weeks. The OBs I see have told me that my leg drama could cause the baby to come early, but up until Evie, my baby's don't come early. They get evicted. But for a minute, while chugging my water, I panicked. I crossed my legs and willed this baby boy to stay put. And he listened. It was like magic. Or maybe I was just a little dehydrated, I'm not really sure.




It's almost 2am, and once again, I got woken up by some kicking. And I'm debating going downstairs to start another quilt. I have 2 quilt tops done, but they are both basic strip quilts, and I want to try my hand at something not strippy. I have pinned a lot of ideas, and have pages folded over in my favorite quilting books. I have even made a list of designs I want to make, and being that my 3 oldest have requested a quilt, I certainly don't have a shortage of people to quilt for. Also, I feel like eating gumming a clementine, and those are downstairs, too. So it's a two-birds, one-stone thing.

We live on base. I think I've mentioned that. When we first moved here, I loved that we wake up to the National Anthem and hear Colors playing at sunset. I still think it's neat, and a beautiful reminder of what it is my husband, and all the other men and women of the military past and present, are called to do. But the Colors song....I hear it all the time. Not just at sunset. It will be late at night and I think I hear it. Or early in the morning. This might be a warning sign of impending crazy. I'm just chalking it up to a phantom-kick like phenomenon.

My eyes are finally tired enough to close again. No middle-of-the-night sewing for me tonight. Night night lovelies!