The big wedding day arrived

Here is my family, in the marine's last moments as a single man! He looks pretty calm, huh?


Our darling d-i-l was calm too. Nerves of steel, those two.


Then came the ceremony.

It is official!



After 10,000 pictures, it was time to eat cake.....


....and party like rock stars......



It was a fun, sweet, crazy day. However, I am glad it is a big happy memory now! Looking at pictures is fun....and no stress! Welcome to the family darling d-i-l!!

Goin' to the chapel....

The Marine is getting married Saturday.


Hubs and the marine looking dapper.

Can I just say I am thankful I have boys. This wedding stuff has worn me smooth out. And I was only worried with the responsibility of the rehearsal dinner. I. Can. Not. imagine being the mother of the bride.

The shower was this past weekend.
Cute daughter-in-law to-be and me at the shower. (D-i-l needs a blog name...hmmmm.)
Whoa, the shower was a serious loot fest. They got everything they registered for at 4 different stores, and then some. Very blessed.

(I need to have a 16th year of marriage shower. I'm just sayin')

It is down to the wire now. I have lists on top of lists.
The guest bedroom looks like Hobby Lobby vomited all over it.

Due to Uncle Sam owning the marine, the wedding that was going to be in May, was moved (in January) to March 12. So we had 3 quick months to prepare. Living in a small town has made the task a little more challenging...having to drive 90 miles for anything other than what could be bought at W-Mart!

It has been a frazzled 3 months. It hit me yesterday morning while I was ironing blonde rascal's clothes for the weekend....The Marine is getting married. It suddenly jumped from this event that was running me ragged to my son getting married. A huge life event. Then the tears started rolling all over my ironing board.

The marine is my stepson, but has lived solely with us since he was 9. When hubs and I married he (the marine, not hubs) was 7. He was the cutest little thing and he worshiped the ground I walked on. He became a teenager and I did not think he was so cute anymore....nor did he worship the ground I walked on any longer for that matter! But through it all we stayed tight and not once has he ever disrespected me with "you're not my mom" as can happen in so many blended families. For that, I love the kid even more. In my heart he is my son.

Now he is approaching a milestone and I fear I will be a snifflin' blubbering fool at the wedding. I think I need to add a flask, matching my dress of course, to my list. Surely taking a snort from a flask is acceptable at a small town wedding, right? Think charming, like Steel Magnolias.

I am gaining a darling daughter and I pray much happiness over their union.

Should I mention that my washing machine went out a month ago? How is that for timing?
How about the fact that it went out the week before we were going to Mexico in September. (Read: this is the second time in 4 months that it has petered out.) Did I mention it is only approaching its 2nd birthday. We bought it new when we bought this house.

In September it was the main computer board that went out. Same part again this time. The repair man came a month ago, determining that it is the same part. He ordered it and it took 3 weeks to get the part. When he came to install it, the part was bad. Re-ordered another one. Still waiting.

Should I mention how terribly inconvenient it is to go to the bloody laund-ro-mat while trying to plan a yippy skippy wedding?

Oh, and how there is family coming to stay with us this happy weekend? Hope they are understanding of the roll of paper towels I leave by the shower for them to dry off with.

I will also say that one of the machines I was using at the laund-ro-mat yesterday malfunctioned mid-cycle. Completely true story. It seemed like a really good time to "go postal", if you will.

It goes without saying that I now have a flask that matches both my washing machine AND machine #14 at the laund-ro-mat.

Which leads me to my final point, very soon my name will be Brooke G. Whirlpool. Someone at Whirlpool is mere days away from me opening a can of you know what all over them. Won't be pretty.

But don't worry about me, I'm not stressed.

Finished Quilts of 2011: #1

Quilting really is kinda funny, huh? Buy lots of fabric, cut it up and then sew it back together.


I finished the quilt for my daughter-in-law to be. The shower is this Saturday.
It is a Kaffe Fassett pattern called Quilt Romance.

She wanted red and turquoise so that is what she got, baby. It was an easy pattern.

Normally I quilt my quilts on my sewing machine. Which I am no good at, don't enjoy at all and downright dread. In fact it makes me want to cuss like a sailor. I got the name of an older couple in town that have a long arm quilter and they quilt for the public. I hired them. Best thing that ever happened to me. I took it on a Wednesday and got it back the next day. Glory be.

Is it too early to tell Santa I want a long arm quilter for Christmas this year?

Hello Beautiful!

This was my Christmas present from Hubs. Isn't she divine? Her name is Pinky Lee. She took her maiden voyage today. Chocolate chip cookies, a lovely way to break her in, yes?
Blonde Rascal was very happy to meet her.

I think she is stunning.
Pink. I would like for all of my appliances to be pink. Hubs, however, probably would not dig that.

A big week for birthdays!

Today is my adorable twin niece's first birthday! Woo hoo! Happy Birthday Hadley and Isabelle!!!Big sugar lumps of sweetness, those two are!!


Tomorrow is my wonderful Mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom!! The following is a picture of my me and Mom circa early 1971. How precious is that?

Truly visible depiction of the love of a mother. I have a picture of myself and blonde rascal in a very similar pose, when he is exactly the same age, circa 2000. That was in the stone age before digital, or at least before we had a digital camera. I was going to scan it and show it here....but said picture is in a frame and it is stuck! I will shred the picture if I try to remove it. Hmmmph. Anyway just trust me it is cute. And would have been super dooper cute to compare with the one of me and Mom. Hmmmph.


Finally today, in addition to my nieces, is another noteworthy family member's birthday...

Yep, it is true. Missy the wonder weenie dog turned 4 today.

Yes it is also true, we made a big deal and bought her gifts. Won't you please notice my dusty floor in the picture above?

She waddled around this morning trying to decide if she should tear up her new "baby" or chew on her new bone. She had no idea what she did to deserve the sudden bestowal of gifts. She is a brat, but we are ridiculously in love with her anyway.

There you have it, 2 days and 4 amazing women celebrating birthdays! Admittedly I use the terms "amazing" and "women" loosely when describing one of the birthday girls today...but would hate for her to feel left out. Brat.

2010 The year of the quilts: A Review

In 2010 I was determined to get a lot of quilting projects finished. Gee, I bet every quilter in America makes that statement every year.

In the first 3 months of 2010, I finished one quilt project that had been lingering for way too long, made 2 baby quilts and a wall hanging..... as shown in this
2010 The Year of the Quilts post.

Then I finished a quilt for our bedroom. When we bought this house, I decorated the master bedroom around my favorite Ralph Lauren sheets. I wanted the room to be calm and serene.


By then it was summer time and my quilting mojo slowed way down.

I did manage to re-vamp and clean up the quilty shack though. Here it was at the last quilty shack viewing

I pretty much decided there was NO room for needless decor. If I could not use it for storage or function, it was out.

One of the biggest "duh why didn't I do this sooner" moment was to butt up another table to my existing sewing table. Pretty sure if I could squeeze a little bed and a fridge in here, I might never leave!


November rolled around I finished this Christmas flannel quilt.
The backing was a panel with cute vintage looking Christmas pictures. I think the line is called Kiddie Christmas and it is a Moda fabric.

We all fought for this one over the holidays. It is warm, warm, warm!

Forward to like 20 days before Christmas and I am sewing like a crazy, nutty, crack head woman trying to finish 2 quilts.

One for my sweet mother-in-law. I forgot to take pictures of it, so I had to take these at her house.


(Good grief, those pictures were taken with my clearly inadequate camera phone. You were thinking I needed to repeat my photography classes, huh?)

It was a turning 20 pattern. Easy peasy.

And I also made hubs a quilt. It was made with the Marines and blonde rascal's old jeans and cami's that the Marine wore in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He thinks I am the coolest wife ever. Naturally. Frankly, I had an ulterior motive....he is always cold and I am hot. I hate the heater being on and breathing in warm air. Now I just mummy wrap him in his quilt and turn down the heater. Mwwhahaaaaaa....


In the middle of all that I decided to make blonde rascal's 3 teachers, mug rugs. Like I had nothing else to be doing? That was a bizarre thought, but thankfully since they were so tiny they went together really fast. And I got brownie points for the semester!



That has me closing out 2010 with 7 quilts completed, one wall hanging and 3 mug rugs. Hmmmm wonder what 2011 will hold?

So many quilts to make, so little time....

Aperture, metering and histograms...oh my!

Now that I am 40 (as I discussed in length, probably too much length, in my previous post), it surely won't be too long and my hair will start having a lovely blue cast to it, I'll start driving 25 mph under the posted limit, my pants will begin having a higher polyester content than natural fibers and my shoes will become more practical than attractive. I can accept that as my plight. However, I am not fond of the idea of my brain turning to mush. The brain is a muscle, yes? So it must be exercised!


We had a local photographer come to our house and take some family pictures before Thanksgiving. Very local in fact, she lives in the small town where blonde rascal goes to school, her twin daughters are in his class, etc.





I know, I know, family pictures...yawn. I'll stop now.

Thank goodness for cool options in photography now days, amen? We aren't stuck with getting our pictures taken in a cheesy J.C. Penney studio. Not to sound harsh JCP, but it is true. Your studio shots are severely goofy.

She was fun to work with and we were super pleased with the results. Carol McCowan photography, if you really wanna know.

It is a fact that I am deeply in love with my Canon Rebel. It is...my precious. It is smarter than I am, and I am not ashamed to admit that. It takes super pictures all by itself but I know that I am not using it to even half its full potential. The reason for that, is... well... even the Canon Rebel for Dummies book is over my head. It is some complicated stuff.

Much to my delight, my girl Carol teaches a digital photography class at our College on the Square. Which takes place...wait for it...on our little town square. Squeal!

One of my Canon camera loving friends and I signed up for Carol's class. We are now in week 3 of the 5 week course.

My aging brain has been thoroughly taxed. I mean, I thought a histogram was a medical procedure. Oh no...no it is a wacked out graph that tells you if your picture has lost detail in any of its light or dark areas. Or some such craziness as that.

I am so in awe of the capabilities of the camera, combined with the fact that with a little additional knowledge on my behalf could produce even better pictures. The technical information has become a little easier to process, in small bites. There is a lot of thought to be put into each shooting situation, but that will become a little more like second nature with time. Lots and lots...and lots of practice. And then, more practice. Thank goodness for digital. Learning photography with film would be SO inconvenient!

I tried to get my model to cooperate with my need to practice yesterday morning. Alas she was too tired. Her mornings are incredibly taxing. Her largest order of business each morning is building a nap nest in the couch.

Worthless wiener dog.

Photography class sums up my Thursday evenings. It fills my brain and gets the rusty neutrons firing again.


Then, every other Saturday morning, this morning in fact, I fill my heart.

With fabric and sewing and a room full of fits of laughter and wonderful women! We formed a little group at the local quilt shop, also on the square (squeal!), and we are each making a log cabin quilt. Mine is stripes and polka dots, in wacky colors. So fun.

My head is full and my heart is happy, I call that a good week.