March Sisters' Ten BOM blocks

Finished up the March blocks today! I'm really happy with the way these turned out, especially the black one! My piecing is definitely improving. I'm really enjoying this BOM and it has inspired me to break out some of my WIPs and get cracking! Check out GenXQuilters blog for the monthly block tutorials and more!

 Black Goldfish :)

 Dotty

March blocks

Mexico vacation - Chichen Itza

Hubs made it pretty clear that he wanted to be somewhere warm this summer. I was lucky enough to score the week of his birthday off, so he took the reins and planned a trip to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico. We went with our good friends and neighbors and had a blast! They were actually married at the resort 5 years ago April - which was the first time that we were there. We enjoyed 7 beautious nights at Moon Palace. While we spent the majority of the time at the resort, we ventured off the property for a tour of Chichen Itza, one of the new 7 wonders of the world (I have an small inkling to make visiting all of them on my travel bucket list, but we'll see...). 3 hours one way on a tour bus to visit the place was a bit much!

 The site was interesting - much more touristy than I was expecting. Locals were peddling crappy souvenirs all over the park, unlike Tulum (which we visited on our last trip), where the vendors were only at the park entrance, these peddlers were all over the place, very close to the ruins and very annoying...."Pretty lady, almost free" "Hey big spender! Cheaper than WalMart!" Yikes! The one thing that I did like was even though there were a ton of people there, we were able to get a bunch of photos of most of the large ruins without having to wait a long time for people to clear out! The tour guides seem to take the large groups ruin by ruin - once we got there, we politely slid away from our tour bus group and wandered around on our own.

More to come on the resort and beach/pool pictures....I need to download some pictures off my phone and my Droid isn't cooperating with my Mac, so I need to figure out how to get them!!! Switching to Mac has been an interesting experience, but not difficult. I think I'm making it too hard....but that's another post of its own :)

Sisters' Ten - February Blocks

After a whirlwind first half of the month, I was able to get my February blocks completed. These were nice and easy. I think it took longer to decide on which fabrics to put together than to complete the two blocks! Check out the Sisters' Ten BOM over at Gen X Quilters...it's never too late to join!

Here is the first one in purples and greens:

And the second in orange and blacks (my shout out to the Broad Street Bullies!! - on a sidenote - My Flyer, Simon Gagne, has returned!! Whoop whoop!!)

I'll get a post up about the beginning of February shortly. Just need to work on editing some pictures first. I was even able to whip up a quick tote bag during all of it! More to come

Sisters' Ten BOM QAL Update - January

I finished up this month's 2 blocks for the QAL. I'm quite happy with them.

First up is Block A:
Next Block B:
 And a little Side by side love:

 I'm very happy that I picked the silver for the background. The color palette is great and this will look great on our bed. Hubs even approves! Looking forward to next month's block!
 

Back in the saddle....

Yes, I'm still alive. 2012 was hectic with being both in school and working full time, 2 crazy dogs to take care of, and all the other things, something had to give and it was my blog (and my sewing time as well). But, here's to hoping that 2013 will run smoother and I'll be able to spend more time sewing and playing and be healthy and happy!

2012 crafty overview:

• 3 charity quilts (no pictures - whoops!)
• 1 quilt for me (Blocktangles by Freckled Whimsy)!!!

• 2 baby shower gift quilts

2012 Other overview:

• Backpacking trip to the Porcupine Mountains during a break week of school

•  Seattle for a work conference

• Long weekend trip to Kentucky to enjoy the Bourbon Trail

• Long weekend to PA to visit the fam (which ended with me being sick the last day and on the flight back - boo!)
• Lost 47# by switching my eating habits (this really should get its own post later on, but Paleo totally works for me and I don't miss the pastas as much as I thought I would!)
• Got Mr. Lazydog out to Greenfield Village for Holiday nights (a huge accomplishment, as he doesn't like "touristy things" or being cold! Yes, he rocked that awesome Grinch hat the entire time we were there!)

2013 crafty goals (I came nowhere near what I wanted to do last year, so I'm going to try to be more realistic in my goals this time around):

• Work through the Sisters Ten BOM at Gen X Quilters. Making only 2 blocks per month should be more reasonable for me to accomplish....now just to decide on fabrics. I splurged and bought myself the full FQ bundle of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic. I think that may work out great for this quilt, but need to make a decision soon.

• Finish 2 WIP quilts (P2 quilt along and Slacker Star Signature Swap from the Quilt with Us online group
• Knit a scarf for my sister
• Complete a quilt for our bed. I saved up a bunch of Fat Quarter Shop gift certificates and bought the quilt kit for Festive Flurries quilt. I just learned a few months ago that one of my (newly retired) co-workers has a longarm quilting business and I am going to have her quilt that for me (and any others larger than a lap quilt - my last finish just about did me in!)

2013 Other goals

• Start a Masters Degree program. I would really like to be a nursing professor and this is the next step of the journey. I'm researching programs now and would like to start in the fall, if not sooner.
• Lose more weight and firm up...I've been adding weight lifting into my routine and have been taking more stairs at work (the pediatric ICUs are on the 10th floor of the hospital, so I'm getting familiar with the stair wells)
• Consider running a 5K in the fall. I've never been a runner so we'll see if I can get near this one, but I think that Sutton would do well as a running partner (and Cooper would enjoy the time alone!)