Stress is stressful!

Life has been a bit nuts in these parts. Our vacation was wonderful! The Hubs wanted to go to the beach so bad. He bought a pair of rubber dish gloves, cut off one of the fingers and taped it over the bum pinkie. It looked crazy but no sand got in it. Necessity is the mother of invention.

Potty training has been put on hold. My son would pee everywhere and try to mop it up with couch cushions or hold it for hours until nap time. Once that diaper went on, Niagra Falls of pee. I know he could do it, but the little bugger just loves those diapers. Grrr..... In a few weeks we will go at it again and see if he is ok with this whole potty thing.

Another reason I fell off the face of the earth? House hunting. That is so stressful! We are in the beginning stages. We are trying to put an offer in on a house but we will see. I'm trying to not get my hopes up about it in case it falls through. Better to be excited than disappointed.

On to non stressful grown up woes, SWAP GOODIES!

This is going out to partner 1. I won't say who just yet because it is in the process of making it across the ocean. Hopefully she likes it.

This is for partner 2. One of my partners crapped out so I got a new one. I wasn't too surprised to hear since she signed up and then vanished. My new partner is awesome! Totally vocal and an absolute doll. I hope she likes this. She is an incredible crafter so I'm self conscious as all get out.

This came in the mail for me this week. Jennifer of Knotted Thread was my goodie maker. Thank God it wasn't breakable because that poor package had been through the ringer. What they were doing in the post office, I do not know. I love the little hexie card to go with it. SO cute!

This was what was inside! The mug rug is actually hanging above my sewing table. Too cute to use. The pin cushion hasn't been commandeered by Little Man yet. (He thinks cute pin cushions are baby pillows.) It's so pretty I feel kinda bad sticking pins in it. Is that weird?

I had thought about starting a swap. I was thinking fall/winter potholders. Since the holidays are coming up and all good holidays are full of food what better item than potholders! I'm kinda tiny in the blogoshpere, but if anyone would be interested I'll get the ball rolling. My main worry is that I would start this and only 5 people sign up. Kind of like throwing a big party and inviting a ton of people only to have your mom and the creepy neighbor show up.

Roller coaster week

This last week has been nuts! Texas finally got some rain! It is also supposed to rain this coming week. Not that it matters as much since The Hubs crushed up his pinky finger between the handle of a sledge hammer and a rim of an 18 wheeler. It's nasty and gross and had to get 16 stitches. The ER doctor seemed to put all the bone pieces back where they needed to be. (I think I could have stitched it prettier) So a forecast of rain and a jacked up finger are how we are starting this out. I'm staying positive though!

Another addition to my crazy week? The mail. I forgot I had ordered some little apples and was quite surprised when I opened the mail to find that. I just got one little charm pack. No idea what that will turn into. Maybe save it for a giveaway some day. Today when I went to get the mail a red light ticket was waiting for me. They caught me! I will admit I am horrible about gunning it and barely making the green. It's a left over habit from living in the big city so long. Now I get to send $75 to the city. Damn technology!

Upswing of the mail? I got this.

The wonderful Melissa of Child of the Wild Blue Yonder made me this gorgeous 17" pillow and tiny cathedral window pin cushion. This was her first time making cathedral windows! They look great! I am one lucky swapper.

This went out to Sarah of Moshie Creations. Click the photo for more details about what she received.

This is mug rug for partner 2. It's about 12"x12" square. The tree trunk is from some curtains I found at a resale shop. I knew I would eventually want to use them for an applique project. I got the idea from pinterest and tweaked it to meet my needs. I think for partner 1 I will make a wallet and partner 2 will get a pincushion. I've got the wallet put together 99%. Its from my own simple pattern. I think I may just turn it into a tutorial vs a pattern for sale. I get so much from others tutorials that it only seems right to share one. Once its finished I'll try to make up a quick tutorial. (This is all assuming its cool enough that someone would want to actually make one.)

I have yet to make any bow tie blocks for that swap. I think I will get to that after vacation. I have until October to do those.

I think I have become addicted to swaps! I want to sign up for another one. Anyone in the US know of any good ones still open or about to start?

Work in progess Friday doesn't sound as cool.

Some how Wednesday came and went with out me even posting. The Hubs is working crazy tons before we go on vacation. Partly for more money, partly because his job is so short staffed. His job is like mine in that you get paid per what you do, not hourly or salary. Blessing and a curse.

Here is one of my mug rugs for the Goodie Swap. I thought it was too small so I made 2. I finished them up and put the binding on today. (I haven't taken a picture just yet.) I haven't quite figured out what to make for the goodie. Maybe a pin cushion? I thought about trying out a wallet.

I got this fabric for wallets. I have an idea in my head of how I want it to look. The brain to hand road is a bit bumpy in these parts. I may look around at some tutorials and blend them together.

I sent off my Love of Solids swap package! I won't post the finished pictures until I know its been received.

I came back to the New Wave for my mom. It took stepping away for about a month for me to want to work on it again. I sewed the rows all together today and even basted it.

This is supposed to be iron basting. Last time I thought just the ironing would work it ended up a hot mess. This time I said eff it and pinned the damn thing. Since I'm doing simple echo quilting it wasn't a pain trying to find where they wouldn't get in the way. I hear so much good stuff about the spray basting, but I see that ending with a sticky, sticky house. My basting area is also my son's play area. I shudder to think of how gross that could end up.

Working out is justly named

Majority of my coworkers have decided to go to the gym. There's a nice new city rec center that is really affordable and doesn't require contracts. I don't live in the city. Which works out peachy since I'm a neurotic weirdo and am freaked out by exercising around other people. I know no one is staring, but I feel like everyone is gawking at my jiggly bum. Maybe not everyone. Just the perfect toned bodies of 20 year olds that haven't had kids. Tonight I kicked my own ass and did some YouTube work out videos. I found an awesome girl named Cassie that has a ton of neat Pilates workouts. Search for username blogilates. She's super upbeat and has some good background music. The Hubs is quite surprised that I resorted to YouTube. I kind of hate that site. Ok, I love the educational aspect of it. If I get horribly stumped on something sewing or cooking related I will watch a video. I don't like how a good majority of stuff in there is total crap, or how so many people use it to be mean. Plus every other person wants to be famous for something. I'll pass, thank you very much.

Before my sudden urge for fitness, I FINALLY finished my love of solids swap project! The original was pissing me off to the highest level of pisstivity so I made a new one. The dimensions are much smaller, but I think it will work well still. I'm thinking about sending along a lot of the left over solids, as a "sorry if you don't like this take some nice Kona solids so you don't think it a total bust" kind of way. Once it's sent out next week I'll share all the finished pictures.

I also went a little nutty at Joann's this morning. They FINALLY had some of the DS collection in. There was even some new fabrics I hadn't seen before. I got a crap ton of the blue and green dots. I also loaded up on Kona white since I know I'll use it up on the Bowtie Swap I signed up for. (Those are after the goodie swap.) The bow tie blocks will be a lot easier since you use whatever you want, mail em out and get the same number back. It's on flickr if anyone is interested.