What Can I Say?

November and December were a blur. An absolute blur! And January is kinda shaping up to be the same way!

I can't give this post and this blog any time right now -- my must-do list is TOO long, but I did want to give a short recap of what's been going on, and what's been keeping me from blogging, these last few months.

First up...um...well, we moved. To a new house. From California to Colorado. And, MAN, what a "state" we live in! It's a wreck! Beautiful new house, s.t.u.f.f. everywhere. Still! It's not as bad as it could be, but MAN, what a state.  That was November. All about the move.

Oh, and I, like a goober, decided to participate in the popular Flickr Scrappy Mug Rug Swap. Right in the middle of the move. My mug rug wasn't finished, yet, and the movers were loading my sewing machine onto the truck! Here's a picture of it before I chose the binding fabric.


And I was supposed to mail it a few days after they delivered our goods! And not too long after I took that picture, I decided I didn't like it, and changed my mind! (What mind, you ask? I don't have one, apparently!) Completely. Sewing machine packed in the midst of 200+ boxes on a truck? Sure, now's the PERFECT time to start a new project! Hah! But the design I picked was one I could do entirely by hand, and other than using my machine to attach the binding to the front, the project was done entirely by hand. Here's the finished mug rug:


I got a fantabulous mug rug in return from Sarah at Stash Resolution:   Can you believe that double dresden plate! I'm SO lucky! :o)

So, where was I? Oh, right. I was explaining why I haven't blogged in over two months! Here's a quick recap. I said goodbye to my LA MQG family, the movers came, they took all our stuff, the girls and I flew to Colorado while Dave drove the cat and the car, we closed on our house, the movers showed up the next day to deliver a zillion pounds worth of household goods, we had to go to a satellite launch party that night(*1), we spent the next few days unpacking and unpacking and unpacking, it was Thanksgiving, we unpacked some more, Dave officially started back to work, the unpacking came to a screeching halt, I started the Front Range Modern Quilt Guild, we had parties to go to, I sent a little gift to my friend, Melissa P, in LA since we didn't get to participate in the LAMQG Holiday Swap(*2), I FINALLY finished my LAMQG mini-quilt for Kelly's (June) birthday (*3), we flew to Michigan for Dave's grandmother's 100th birthday (*4) and Christmas, we went for a sled-dog ride (*5), we hung out with wonderful family, we came back to ARCTIC weather in Colorado, we exchanged our presents here (I got a new laptop, hazzah!), Dave went back to work, I'm failing at getting Sprout to eat solids, and, basically, nothing is getting done around here.

(*1)Dave works with undergraduate engineering students that design, build and launch satellites, and that night was the successful launch of another satellite. That, my friends, is a pretty big deal! Undergrads. Building satellites. Launching satellites. Successfully flying overhead. What were you doing at age 22?

(*2) Here is a picture of what I sent to Melissa:
and here's a shot of the back (by the way, I did give him some arms!) And I love the snowflake stitching on the back, too! I had to do something to cover up the fact that I still haven't found my thread and I didn't like one row of plain, white stitches, so I covered it up with snowflakes! :o) I'm gonna have to do more of that in the future.

and here's one other thing I sent to her: a hexie needle book (tutorial here)


(*3) Did I ever tell you about this project? Probably not. Well, the quick and the dirty is this: Kelly is a military wife, and the Air Force will be calling her husband to a new duty station soon, and I knew she was loving her time in the LA MQG, so I decided to make her a collaborative/commemorative mini-quilt. I asked the members to sign their names on strips of fabric, which I then embroidered over in contrasting colors. I then sewed them all together in a stacked-books design. I took inspiration from Jane's LAMQG logo to make the banner at the top of Kelly's quilt, and then stitched it all together. I was (for once!) bright enough to copy the signatures so I can (eventually!) make one for myself! I really really really RILLY big puffy heart love how this turned out.

Here's the top:

(*4) Yes, Grandma R turned 100 years old. I found my mind wandering to what it was like to have a newborn a century ago. Wow. She is one AMAZING woman. In every sense of the word. She is a blessing to everyone who knows her. :o)

Whenever she would hold Sprout, she would talk about "the beginning and the end", and "bookends."  I'm definitely glad to be a part of the legacy that this lady has created. :o)  

(*5) Dave's aunt and uncle live in Alaska and Michigan, and take their sled dogs with them wherever they are living. His uncle ran the Iditarod, even! Cool, eh? So, anyways, here's an action shot of Mookie and me on the sled:

There. Now you have it. Hopefully, I will be better about crafting AND blogging in 2011!! :o) I hope you have a great year!