A Rainbow Quilt for Livers

I've been working on a quilt for Livers on and off for a couple of weeks, and this afternoon I got the top finished. She enjoys rainbows like I do, so I decided to make something special for her (and get some quilting practice in to boot) using 4" x 4" squares from eBay that I had stocked up on a while back. My original intention was to use them in the quilt I'm making for myself later this year, but the fabric quality of the squares was less than that of the fat quarters I've been purchasing, and I didn't want to mix them.

With the whopping two quilts that I've worked on I've never used a pattern I've found but instead have come up with something that would work with the materials that I had. I would've preferred that her quilt had more color squares, but I didn't have enough of them available that I really liked, so this is what I came up with.

Overall I'm pleased with how it is looking. It definitely has its imperfections. I incorrectly measured the sashing between the block rows and had to trim off of the ends of the edge blocks, so all of the ones around the border are smaller than they need to be. I'd like to say it gives it character :) I'm cutting myself slack, because this is only my second quilt and I have to learn somewhere.

I worried that the blocks would be a little dull, but once I added the white sashing I became very pleased with how bright and cheery it looks. Livers definitely likes it. She has been going up to the different squares while I've been working and telling me that this one is her "favorite," though they change every time. It has been driving her mad not to touch it, either, because she's very tactile and must get into everything!

Since she is going to use this as a blanket in her crib I wanted to back it with something very comfortable, so I chose a light blue flannel. I pulled out the batting for it today, and it was so amazingly soft and thick. I can't wait for her to enjoy it! The binding for it is black with small white polka dots. I really enjoy the contrast of white and black with the bright colors.


I wanted to take her picture next to the quilt, but as soon as I asked her to stand she decided she must have her camera to take pictures of it, too. She uses my old beat up one that I had before my Panasonic. Almost everything she takes turns out blurry, but she absolutely loves to try and take pictures.

A New Skill Set

I don't have a DSLR. I wish I did. Hopefully one day.

A big reason why I would like one is because the macro lenses on those bad boys are awesome, and I love to be able to take really detailed close up shots. Unfortunately, point and shoots have their limitations. Last summer I bought a newer point and shoot, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5. I absolutely love the camera, and it takes great pictures, but I've been stumped on how to take awesome close-up shots.

Today, however, I think I had a breakthrough. I went with Livers and my parents to Highlands, NC, for a day trip, and I was in awe of the flowers they have planted everywhere. I was in photographers' heaven at the opportunities to partake in photographic goodness, but I just could NOT get a decent close up (and I mean within a few centimeters of closeness) picture. I kept zooming in and zooming in, but my camera never could focus correctly or it would focus on something behind the shot instead. I then tried unzooming and just getting my lens as close to the flowers as possible, and voila! I finally started taking amazing shots. I would love to find a place near here with beautiful gardens to make sure that today was not a fluke and to test out my new skill.

Here are some of the products of my handi(lens)work:

A Return, and a New Direction?

For the longest time I've really not had the desire...or the time...to do anything with my blog. I haven't felt that there was anything I truly wanted to say and I didn't want to force myself to come up with something that my heart wasn't into. Those few times that the writing bug tried to bite, things like watching all three seasons of Heroes in the span of a month, working on a quilt for Livers and a skirt for me, going to the beach, and general life happenings sprayed their bug spray all over my ideas and ambitions and sent them running.

I feel that the bug might be coming back if I can work on my time management skills. Last night I changed my blog layout to get the dust off of Somewhere Over the Rainbow and in hopes of producing some ideas. I somewhat feel like taking this blog in a new direction--perhaps more crafting and photography, two of my great loves--but I am not quite sure. At the very least I want to incorporate these two passions of mine more readily into my writing, especially since I have a lot of ideas floating around in my head. In any case, I'm not exactly sure where my blog is going, but hopefully into wonderful places and to possibly new, unchartered territory.

As of May 26, 2009...

Until conditions improve I think I might stick with bullet posts. My brain is working best this way these days. We shall see...

1. We have (semi-)reluctantly begun potty training Livers, and it's been going surprisingly well. I won't go into any details, because no one really wants to hear that. I will say, though, that by the time this is said and done, one of two things will have happened to me: I will have gained 15 pounds from the Reese Pieces rewards or I'll cringe at the sight of them.
2. We had a Black Widow Spider on our front porch this weekend, which J kindly squashed to a pulp. What is with the poisonous critters trying to invade our space??? It's far too close for my comfort.
3. We had a "date" night Saturday, by which I mean we got to go out with friends sans child. We got to see the new Terminator movie. Luckily I didn't have the bar set too high because it was going to be all action, but I was a little sad that they didn't flesh out the characters more. I am a huge fan of the franchise and have watched the first two movies about eighty billion times, and I wish they'd return to that. Unfortunately it seems most movie goers prefer to have mind-numbing action rather than mind-blowing acting, which I find sad.
4. J and I did something that I haven't done in YEARS on Friday: stayed up till 3 in the morning watching TV. I don't know when the last time was that I stayed up that late for anything not pertaining to baby (and that was a LOOONG time ago...thank you good sleeper). We were watching a billion episodes of Season 1 Heroes, and I must say, so good. I've heard it goes downhill, but I'll judge for myself.
5. I've been in fabric collecting mode for such a long time that I've really not made anything. I'm going to start remedying this starting this weekend by turning this stack of fabric into a small quilt for Livers. She likes rainbows, too, and I had originally planned to incorporate this into the large quilt I plan to make later this year. Unfortunately I started to realize that the fabric I'd been collecting was of a better quality than these squares, which makes them useless for my plans. I'm glad that they will put to use.
6. To that end, I hope to start planning my design for the rainbow quilt in July. I've just about exhausted my resources for fabric. I'll keep using Etsy a little while longer, and we'll be going to the beach around Charleston in the next few weeks, and I plan to see if they have any fabric stores down there to try. After that I probably will call it quits for collecting. At almost a 100 different fabrics I would hope that would be enough!
7. Speaking of beach, Livers is JACKED UP to go. She asks to go all the time, so much so that it's the first thing out of her mouth in the morning and one of the last to escape at night. I'm looking forward to going with her and seeing how much fun she is going to have!
8. I watched the train wreck that was Jon and Kate last night, and the whole thing left me so sad. I saw them at a church a year ago, and I don't think I could've seen it turn into what it is. Say what you will about them, but I'm sending my prayers to them, because no couple should have to experience the pain of a breaking marriage.
9. Memorial Day Weekend was sadly pretty dull on the whole. It was pretty dreary and rainy, so we couldn't go outdoors much, and J had to help a friend demolish the kitchen and dining room of his new house for renovations, so it was mostly just me and Livers (which gets a little old when it leaves you with no weekend). This weekend is supposed to be much prettier, so hopefully we'll be able to enjoy it.
10. Livers and I did a baby bird rescue a la "Are You My Mother?" while at the park yesterday. An ugly little starling baby had fallen from its nest way up in a picnic overhang, and I couldn't let him flop around and die. Luckly there was another kid who was able to hold the bird so I could hoist him up to put the bird back in its nest. I was worried the mama bird wouldn't go near it since it could smell us, but I think everything turned out OK. It made me feel really good to give this little thing a second chance.
    

I leave with some pictures from the past week and a half or so. I've been going through old videos of Livers, renaming them so they'll make sense when viewed years from now, and I am amazed at how grown up she has become! She's no longer a cooing, pudgy little bald baby with a giant head, but she's becoming a constantly talking, active, thinning out toddler with a mass full of curls. It truly amazes me!

Roughly 2 years ago (above)

Roughly 1 year ago (above)

* * * * *

The past week and a half (BELOW):

On the phone with her agent. Apparently she's been watching Zoolander...

We can't all be winners...


She was running around reading wearing a shirt, a Pull-up, one shoe on the wrong foot, and later my belt as well. I don't get it.

Quick Little List Post

Because I apparently just don't have the time to sit down and make a real fleshed out post...

1. As I was letting the dogs out this morning a cockroach nearly fell on my head. I hate cockroaches. Not a good way to start the day. (Here's to uphill from here!)
2. Mother's Day was great. Livers slept till 10:30, we had McDonalds and Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, went to the lake, took naps, relaxed. Just about perfect.
3. I got my first handmade Mother's Day present from Livers. A picture of what she says is "butterflies". I'm not seeing it, but I'm touched :)
4. We are almost done painting the foyer/hallway. And by we I mean people we got to do this. It is way too monstrous a task to complete on our own, hence why we've lived here four years and it's just now happening. Pics to come later.
5. I finally installed a child carrier on the back of my bike last night and took Livers for a spin last night. And we fell. Luckily we were stopped so I could take a breather, because pedaling a 28-pound child up a hill will in fact give you a heart attack. I felt the bike start to tip and once it starts there's no pulling it up. I managed to gently land it on the ground with no injuries. She was momentarily scared, but when I got the bike up she kept asking playfully, "What'd you do, Mama?"
6. I can't believe that LOST is over for a whole 7-8 months! I'm so heart-broken and awe-struck at the same time, because that finale rocked! I'm going to join the LOST nerds over at Doc Arzt's Lost Blog and try to rewatch the entire series 3-4 episodes a week at a time to keep the momentum up for the last season and to help give me my fix until then.
7. Luckily, thanks to Netflix on demand, we've been able to start trying out some new series. We just started watching Heroes, and I must say, the first season is spectacular. I've heard it gets worse, but hopefully I won't care.
8. I need more hours in the day. Between caring for Livers, taking care of the house, taking care of J, and resting from all of that I have hardly any time to read the books I have backlogged or read in John. Don't get me started on personal projects and crafting.

That's all my brain can muster right now. I'm off to take care of lots o' chores. Happy Friday!

(Semi-)Wordless Wednesday - Images of Mother's Day

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Mother's Day. A post with words will hopefully follow later today. Between Mother's Day, having our foyer and hallway painted, and becoming totally addicted to Heroes, I've just been too busy and haven't had the time to sit down and actually compose my thoughts. Hope that everyone's weekend (and Mother's Day) was wonderful!

(Love) and Marriage

I had a different post in mind tonight. I was going to talk about how I felt lost when I woke up this morning, because I didn't know what to do today and felt I needed direction. (I found it, by the way.) I was going to go off into an animated discussion of how I cleaned my buck nasty fridge today. (Be glad I didn't.) I was going to mention how I need to work on my patience, because living with a two-year-old who isn't a fan of listening is working my poor temper into a frenzy. (We'll get back to that sometime soon.)

But then I read a fellow blogger's post this afternoon and have been thinking about it since.

Her post about the state of her marriage has really gotten me thinking about mine and marriages in general. (No, family, we're fine. No, J, I'm not going to divulge any personal secrets. Y'all can breathe easy.) I've been thinking about how easy it is to let something good fall away. About how easy it is to let life--finances, rearing of kids, personal interests, friends--get in the way of a good thing that two people have going, and how pretty soon two people are left wondering what the &*@% happened to their relationship.

I know that the daily grind can be very boring, not to mention exhausting, and that I'm guilty of letting these two things keep me from building up my relationship with J. It doesn't make me happy in the least. I can remember how in the early years of the relationship it didn't matter how tired we were, we'd take the time to spend time with each other, even if it was after a long Mexican food-induced coma nap and it was now 1 in the morning. We got up from our nap, pulled up the Law and Order: SVU we had TiVoed, and vegged out on the couch till 3 in the morning, just to spend the time with each other. But after seven-and-a-half years, one kid, and demanding jobs it can be difficult to maintain that kind of "romance". Either or both of us are left after hectic days wanting a little personal time to decompress, whether it be blogging and crafting (me) or interneting and iPhone programming (him), or just a night out, letting Coors Light (him) or a movie (me) shake the crazy off for a little while. In my effort to take care of myself I realize that I run the risk of letting us flounder, and that is something that scares me and that I do NOT want to happen.

I will say right now that J and I don't have the perfect marriage. Just like ANY married couple we fight, we get annoyed with each other, we get pissed with each other, we nag each other over little things that bug the other (me--I nag him about messes he makes; him--he nags me for ALWAYS trying to talk to him when he's on the phone with someone). But I feel we do have a darn good one. I know that part of marriage is the ups and downs. They don't have the whole "for better or for worse" clause in wedding vows for nothing. But after reading the aforementioned blog post today, I am more convinced than ever that I want to make it a high priority to always fight with all my being to make sure that we make it to "till death do us part."

It doesn't take a monumental event like an affair to send a couple down the slippery slope to separation, estrangement, and divorce. It can be a series of someone finding their needs more important than the other, someone holding their feelings inside, or snide remarks that can escalate into something much larger than "so and so never takes out the garbage". Or it can be that both parties get so worn down dealing with life's little details that marriage gets put on the backburner.

I know that we're in a good place right now, but I know that we're human and that without nurturing our marriage it's not insane to think that it could be us. And that is what has had me thinking today. Her post has been a reminder to NEVER take J and our relationship for granted and to work to never be complacent being in just a "good place".