A Speck of Christmas in October

Here's my finished Speck!

I've seen lots of great X's and O's out there and I can't wait to see them all in the parade on Sherri's blog, and on Sinta's too!

These Little Bites patterns by Carrie are so tiny and fun!

I chose to do the O option for Speck since I had two different Christmas Moda Candies to use, Blitzen and Countdown to Christmas. 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with just the plain white border on this one to keep it small and simple.

JoAnne mentioned awhile back that she had a little trouble pressing these like she should.  Even though she mentioned it, and I think I even commented that I'd be careful with the pressing, I still did the same thing! 

 Good grief!  You would have thought I'd pay more attention to the pressing after she brought it up, but I didn't!

The repressing was totally worth it to make this project fall right in place! Like JoAnne said, the seams just snap together when they are pressed the way Carrie suggests.

See you at the parade!

  

Closet clean-up isn't a day at the beach

Not much sewing to share right now.

  The new carpet that was put in last week is wonderful!!  Love it!  We went for a darker color than the "light builder beige" that we had and it was definitely the right choice for us.  It looks great and it just makes sense for a busy family with two boys and a dog!

There's still some random closet stuff that has not found it's was back to a permanent spot, but we are cleaning out and cleaning up as we go along.  When you are faced with the contents of all of your bedroom closets at once, it's a bit scary!  It is going a little slower than I'd like, but it will sure be worth it when we're done.  

My quilting supplies and fabric stash have been reorganized too!  WooHoo!

Well, I've never done a post without a picture and I'm not about to start now. 

 No one wants to see pictures of our random closet clutter strewn about.....you know that stuff that you don't know where to put. Stuff you probably shouldn't be keeping anyway....... so, I'm going to show you some beach pictures from our trip to Jekyll Island on Sunday.  

We had an away soccer game there and we took the opportunity to spend some time at the beaches on the island and have a nice dinner after the game.  After all the carpet chaos......and wow was it ever chaos.......and de-cluttering we felt like we deserved a day off!

This is Driftwood Beach on the north end of Jekyll Island.

The end of the island is slow being washed away leaving these trees behind. 

It was an amazing sight.  Much different than I had expected.

Glory Beach is right behind the soccer complex.

Can you see the butterflies flying around in the pictures?  They were everywhere you looked at this beach. 

The 1989 movie "Glory" was filmed here.  I've never seen the movie.   I believe the boardwalk leading to the beach was built specifically for the movie.  Maybe that's one for my Netflix list!

I'm glad you stopped by.  Happy Fall! 

Chaos

I was able to get started on my Speck for this month's AYOS.  I'm going with a mix of Christmas Moda Candy that I've collected. 

I think I'm going to throw in one random charm square. There were a few too many light squares in the packs of mini charms I chose for this particular pattern.

I just don't think a few of them would stand out against my light background fabric. 

Speck scraps!

Maybe I'll get that background cut out tonight. If I can dig it out of the chaos!  Things are piled up everywhere!

Do you like the lava lamp by my cutting area?  Notice the Gatorade too. I do like cool lava lamps, but this one doesn't belong to me.  

One of my boys must have put it here this weekend in an effort to get things out of his room because are getting new carpet this week!  WooHoo! That means nothing is where it should be right now! It's chaos over here......... and I'm happy about it!

Areas where we have wood floor or tile are piled high with everything from the bedrooms. Yikes! Were did all of this stuff come from?  Did you notice all the Gatorade on the counter?  Cutting doesn't make me that thirsty. It's just part of the random stuff everywhere right now. It's going to be a crazy week, but I'm looking forward to that fresh new carpet!

Painting the baseboards and a door or two, plus moving more stuff is what I'll be doing this week, not much sewing. You know how it goes, in thinking about new carpet, we realized that now would be a good time to spruce up the walls a bit to avoid dumping paint on the new carpet later. Oops!  That would be bad! 

 My machine seems to be buried under a pile of Lego creations moved out of a boy's room right now, so even if I had time, I don't think I'd be able to get any sewing done anyway.

I'll try to give you an update later in the week, if I can find my way through all of the piles of random stuff to the computer!  If all goes well, maybe I can get things back to normal in time for the Friday Night Sew-In!

Wish me luck!  

A bag, bikes, a ball, and some dirt

I'm thrilled that I finished my Gear Up Tote!

  The bag is a Sweetwater design I've had my eye on ever since Carol posted a picture of her's back in May.  It was one of those projects that I knew I had to make as soon as I saw it.  I shamelessly used the same fabrics Carol did, except I chose to do my bag in navy blue. 

We've spent lots of time riding bikes this summer and I've certainly turned into a fan of Sweetwater, so this canvas bike fabric from their Lucy's Crab Shack line seemed like a perfect fit! 

Thanks for the inspiration Carol!

This Gear Up Tote pattern is definitely one I will use again and again.

  I love the small size of the tote bag and the directions were pretty easy too.  The ruffled flower threw me for a loop at first, but it was later in the eventing and I don't think that helped anything. I wasn't seeing how to initially fold the fabric for the flower. Once the light bulb went on over my head, I couldn't figure out how I wasn't getting it in the first place!  It's a great bag!

I have a few Sweetwater charms to hang on the bag too, but that will have to wait for another day.  Right now my brain is a little fried after reading over plenty of college application essays for my oldest son.  Having a senior in high school certainly keeps you busy!  I had no idea!      

Along with school, soccer season has started again and that means back to the fields and back to piles of soccer laundry for me.

Do you see that white uniform? Who's idea was that?  I'm pretty sure a mom didn't pick out white as a sports uniform color! I think I need to invest my money in stain removing laundry products LOL! A thirteen year old boy can get plenty of soccer dirt on a white uniform!  I am a happier mom when he wears the navy blue one!  Less scrubbing involved!  

The same for my older son who has a white shirt for part of his golf team uniform.  Somehow they always get dirty.  I'm happy that my boys have the opportunity to be so active and involved in sports, and I really don't mind the extra laundry involved, but it certainly doesn't bother me when I hear someone asking for their dark colored uniform LOL!

Have a great week!